Irish Pm aTTeNds gay Pride eveNT
Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar attended a gay rights event on Saturday during his first official visit to Northern Ireland, upsetting some social conservatives in the only region of the United Kingdom where same-sex marriage is still illegal. Varadkar, who became Ireland’s first openly gay leader when he took office in June, joined activists preparing for Northern Ireland’s largest gay pride parade for a “Pride Breakfast” in a Belfast pub. He said he was unable to attend the actual parade due to a prior commitment in Dublin. His attendance was criticised by some members of Northern Ireland’s largest party, the socially conservative Democratic Unionist Party, whose 10 seats in the British parliament prop up the government of Prime Minister Theresa May. The DUP has repeatedly blocked attempts to allow same-sex marriage despite opinion polls that indicate it is supported by a significant majority in Northern Ireland. “I am not here to unsettle anyone, but I am here to show my support and the support of my government for equality before the law for all citizens About 2,000 Islamic State fighters are estimated to remain in the Syrian city of Raqqa, fighting for their survival in the face of an offensive by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, a senior US official said on Friday.
Brett McGurk, US special envoy for the coalition against Islamic State, said the SDF had cleared about 45% of Raqqa since launching an attack in early June to seize Islamic State’s stronghold in northern Syria.
“Today in Raqqa ISIS is fighting for every last block...and fighting for their own survival” McGurk told reporters.
Some 2,000 ISIS fighters are left in the city and “most likely will die in Raqqa,” he said.
The assault on Raqqa coincided with the final stages of a campaign to drive Islamic State from the Iraqi city of Mosul, where the Islamist militants were defeated last month.
McGurk said Islamic State has lost 27,000 square miles (70,000 sq km) of the territory it once held in the two countries - 78 percent of what they had seized in Iraq and 58 percent of what they held in Syria.
Before every military operation, coalition forces surround the area targeted to make sure Islamic State’s foreign fighters cannot escape and make their way out of Iraq and Syria, he said.
With the close cooperation of Turkish forces, the entire Syrian-Turkish border was sealed and Islamic State can no longer send militants trained in Syria for attacks in Europe and elsewhere, McGurk said.
The coalition has compiled a database of almost 19,000 names of Islamic State fighters gathered from cellphones, address books and other documents found on battlefields which it is sharing with the international police agency Interpol, he said.
Islamic State is also fighting the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is backed by Russian air power and Iranian-backed militias.
McGurk said “deconfliction” arrangements the US and Russian militaries have made to avoid accidents as they operate separately in Syria were working well despite deteriorating diplomatic relations between the two countries.
President Donald Trump said on Thursday the U.S.-Russian relationship was at “an all-time and very dangerous low,” and Russia said new sanctions imposed by Washington meant an end to hopes for better ties with the Trump administration.
“So far we have not seen an effect on our engagement with the Russians when it comes to Syria,” McGurk said.