President Trump meets with Pope Francis at Vatican - USATODAY

Pope Francis and President Donald Trump met at the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City on Wednesday. Trump's audience with the pontiff comes midway through his 9-day international trip. (May 24) AP

President Trump meets with Pope Francis at Vatican

Eric J. Lyman, Special for USA TODAYPublished 3:03 a.m. ET May 24, 2017 

(Photo: ALESSANDRA TARANTINO / POOL, EPA)

 1312CONNECTTWEETLINKEDIN 11COMMENTEMAILMORE

ROME — President Trump met with Pope Francis for the first time at the Vatican on Wednesday, as he continued his tour of homelands of followers of Islam, Judaism and Christianity.

Following the meeting, which was behind closed doors, the pontiff gifted Trump a medal by a Roman artist depicting an olive — a symbol of peace — as well as a signed message of peace and copies of his three main teaching documents.

Trump told the pope that he “won’t forget what you said" following the meeting. “We can use peace," he said, adding that he would read the documents.

Trump gave the pope a first-edition set of writings from Martin Luther King Jr., including five books. He also gifted the pontiff a piece of granite from the Martin Luther King. Jr. Memorial in Washington.

The White House said that Francis spoke about King and his civil rights legacy during his address to Congress in 2015. It said the gift of writings "honors Dr. King’s hope, vision, and inspiration for generations to come," while a bronze sculpture Trump gifted named Rising Above “represents hope for a peaceful tomorrow."

Trump traveled to the Vatican with the first lady Melania Trump, his daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner.

Trump, on his first foreign trip as president, called on Muslims to confront "the crisis of Islamic extremism” in a speech to leaders from 50 Islamic nations in Saudi Arabia on Sunday and visited Jewish and Christian holy sites in Israel.

Pope Francis meets with President Donald Trump and First lady Melania Trump on the occasion of their private audience, at the Vatican, Wednesday, May 24, 2017. (Photo: Alessandra Tarantino, AP)

Both outspoken leaders have taken verbal jabs at each other. Francis, in reference to then-candidate Trump’s plan to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, said: “A person who only thinks about building walls, wherever they may be, and not about building bridges, is not a Christian.” Trump replied that a religious leader capable of voicing such sentiments was “disgraceful.”

“For all their differences, both men say what they feel and speak clearly and freely, without holding back,” said Lucetta Scaraffia, a modern history professor at Rome’s La Sapienza University and the author of several books about the Vatican. “In their own ways, each is very undiplomatic.”

Francis and Trump are unlikely to criticize each other so bluntly when they meet — at least in public, said Andrea Tornielli, a veteran Vatican watcher with Italy’s La Stampa newspaper.

“This is not going to be a boxing match,” Tornielli said. “It’s their first meeting, and I think they will both try hard to find some common ground.”

Later Wednesday, Trump will meet with Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni and President Sergio Mattarella. Trump and Gentiloni met a month ago, during the prime minister’s state visit to Washington. This time, the U.S. and Italian leaders will likely discuss migration issues, international security and possible economic cooperation between the two countries that are longtime allies.

At least a half-dozen protests against Trump were scheduled to take place in Rome on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Contributing: Jane Onyanga-Omara in London, The Associated Press

Does USAToday Finally 'Get It' About the Trump Prophecies? - BOB ESCHLIMAN CHARISMA NEWS

USAToday reported Friday about how the prophetic movement "accurately predicted" President-Elect Donald Trump's general election victory. (Reuters photo)

Does USAToday Finally 'Get It' About the Trump Prophecies?

11/14/2016 BOB ESCHLIMAN  CHARISMA NEWS

When it comes to the liberal mainstream media, the prophetic movement almost always gets the short end of the stick—usually as the butt of a joke meant to demean Christianity in general.

But a recent report in USAToday suggests at least one news outlet might have actually figured it out—even if it got buried way inside its Friday edition. Written by Josh Hafner, who marginally reported on President-Elect Donald Trump's campaign in the final days before last Tuesday's general election, it makes one very bold point in its headline: There were prophets who got it right.

Hafner wrote:

Tuesday morning, as every major election model predicted a defeat for Donald Trump, a South Carolina minister named Rick Joyner wrote on Facebook that he foresaw a different outcome.

"This is the poll that counts," Joyner wrote of the election, "and all of the signs point to a strong Trump victory tonight."

He continued: "If you don't think the polls reveal that, you're right."

Many evangelicals view Joyner, the founder of MorningStar Ministries in Fort Mills, as a prophetic voice who describes hearing and seeing divine revelations from God, often on current events. More than 200,000 follow Joyner's Facebook page, where he frequently posts about U.S. politics. And in the months leading up to Nov. 8, Joyner's feed offered a window into world of charismatic evangelicals whose election predictions flew in the face of data-driven pollsters.

And they ended up being right.

3 Reasons Why you should read Life in the Spirit. 1) Get to know the Holy Spirit. 2) Learn to enter God's presence 3) Hear God's voice clearly! Go deeper!

Has God called you to be a leader? Ministry Today magazine is the source that Christian leaders who want to serve with passion and purpose turn to. Subscribe now and receive a free leadership book.

Trump is right about abortion - Clarke D. Forsythe USATODAY

Trump is right about abortion

Clarke D. Forsythe  USATODAY October 27, 2016

It is always legal, by federal law, to have an abortion through all nine months of pregnancy.

(Photo: Alex Wong, Getty Images)

Donald Trump, in the third presidential debate, stated that a woman can get an abortion in the U.S. through all nine months of pregnancy. Since then, numerous abortion advocates denied that reality with rebuttals that ignore the law. This current dust-up reveals a political fact; most people don’t know what happened to the law when the Supreme Court legalized abortion in Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Boltonin 1973 for any reason, at any time of pregnancy, in all 50 states, throwing out all abortion laws on the books with the stroke of a pen.

The court said abortion could be limited by the states after viability unless “health” is at issue, defining “health” as emotional well-being, an exception that swallows the ability of the states to limit abortion after fetal viability (the point at which an unborn baby can live outside the womb), a fact documented by numerous legal scholars and in multiple court decisions.

As Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe wrote in 1973: “In Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton (the court) impos(ed) limits on permissible abortion legislation so severe that no abortion law in the United States remained valid.” Legal historian Lawrence Friedman wrote, “In one bold, cataclysmic move the court undid about a century of legislative action. It swept away every abortion law in the country.”   Because of Roeand Doe, the U.S. is one of only four nations (along with North Korea, China and Canada) that allow abortion for any reason after viability.

STORY FROM BANK OF AMERICA

Money 101: What young Americans wish they'd learned

For example, in 1996, a federal appeals court struck down Ohio’s law that limited abortion after fetal viability, and the Supreme Court justices refused to hear Ohio’s appeal. In 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit struck down the limit on abortions at five months of pregnancy passed by Arizona, and the justices refused to hear Arizona’s appeal in January 2014.

USA TODAY

Church pastor: The truth about my late-term abortion

In 2013, in Indiana, a woman got drugs over the Internet and did a late-term abortion on herself, delivering a baby alive at six to seven months of pregnancy. Although the Indiana Court of Appeals this year threw out most of the charges against her, there was no question that her self-abortion at that time could not be legally questioned. More examples could be cited.

What Trump said is literally true: Late-term abortions are legally available.

The latest figures show that about 1.3% of 1 million annual abortions, or about 13,000 a year, were done in the 21st week of pregnancy of later. And while abortion advocates claim that generally these are done when an infant has some kind of health issue, a former Planned Parenthood director reports that no such requirement existed.

A study published for the Guttmacher Institute in Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health noted that financial issues and concerns about life interference were the reasons cited by most who got an abortion. Writing for Perspectives, authors Diana Greene Foster and Katrina Kimport found “data suggest that most women seeking later terminations are not doing so for reasons of fetal anomaly or life endangerment.”

Yet abortion advocates obfuscate the legal reality of abortion’s late-term availability with five unresponsive rebuttals.

First, they argue that most abortions are actually done in the first trimester, which does not rebut the legality of the procedure in later months.

Second, they contend that abortion providers in some states have voluntarily adopted abortion limits late in pregnancy, which does not rebut the legality of the procedure under Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton in other locations.

Third, they complain that Trump did not properly describe a partial-birth abortion, which again ignores the legality of late-term abortion, however it is accomplished.

USA TODAY

One judge away from losing religious liberty: Hobby Lobby CEO

POLICING THE USA: A look at race, justice, media

Fourth, they say some states have abortion limits after about five months of pregnancy, which ignores the fact that many states have no such limits. In fact, courts have repeatedly blocked such limits, as seen when the 9th Circuit struck down Arizona’s 20-week limit as unconstitutional (as well as Idaho’s). The 20-week limits in other states have not been challenged in court and could face the same judicial fate.

While not all states have someone willing to end the life of a child that could live outside the womb, late-term abortionists operate in a number of states, such as Maryland and Colorado. Guttmacher reports that “16% of all abortion providers perform the procedure at 24 weeks.”

The reality is that it is legal to have an abortion through all nine months of pregnancy, even though not all abortion clinics do such gruesome procedures. Nitpicking over the fine print of the third presidential debate misses the big picture. Legal scholars know that the Supreme Court legalized abortion for any reason, at any time of pregnancy, and the federal courts actively enforce that policy on the states. It’s time Americans understood that, too.

Attorney Clarke D. Forsythe is acting president of Americans United for Life Action and author of Abuse of Discretion: The Inside Story of Roe v. Wade.

You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @USATOpinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To submit a letter, comment or column, check our submission guidelines.

World Marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day - Kim Hjelmgaard USA TODAY

(Photo: AP)

World Marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day


Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY January 26, 2016


BERLIN — Wednesday is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the date the United Nations has chosen to commemorate victims of the Holocaust during World War II. Six million Jews were murdered by Germany's Nazi regime, along with 5 million non-Jews were killed.

The anniversary, marked each year since 2005, falls on the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in Poland by the Russian army in 1945. One million people died there.

Here is how countries around the world are marking the 71st anniversary:

AUSTRIA

The Friends of Yad Vashem and the city of Linz will hold a remembrance ceremony at Linz City Hall. Yad Vashem is Israel's official memorial to Holocaust victims in Jerusalem. Yad Vashem works to preserve the memories and names of murdered Jews.

BELGIUM

A university (Autonome Hochschule) in Eupen will screen a documentary about Helmut Clahsen, who hid with his younger brother in dozens of locations in Germany and Belgium after his mother was persecuted by the Nazis in 1941. He died in Aachen, Germany, last October.

CANADA

The Montreal Holocaust Memorial Center is offering visitors free admission to the museum, which focuses on Jewish communities before, during and after the Holocaust. A special emphasis is on the life stories of Montreal survivors.

FRANCE

Prime Minster Manuel Valls will give an address at a commemoration event in Paris that is organized by UNESCO, the U.N. agency that promotes education, science and culture. UNESCO is hosting a number of public events and exhibitions in the French capital related to the theme of antisemitic propaganda and the Holocaust.

GERMANY

Members of the German government will join dignitaries at the German Parliament (Bundestag) in Berlin for a remembrance event that will focus on the topic of forced labor. Numerous cities and organizations across Germany will hold separate ceremonies. A state-funded cultural center in Bremen was forced to cancel an event that was critical of the Jewish state, the Jerusalem Post reported. The event was to be held Monday.

ISRAEL

Holocaust Remembrance Day, or Yom HaShoah — which takes place on May 4 — is the day Israel formally memorializes Jews who perished in the Holocaust. Yad Vashem historians, researchers and educators will nevertheless take part in ceremonies Wednesday in countries around the world, including Belgium, Ghana, Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda, South Africa, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Brazil, Slovakia, Malta and Russia.

POLAND

The Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and State Museum will host an event that will be streamed live on YouTube. It will be available in Polish and English. More than 1.7 million people visited the memorial in 2015, a record.

UNITED STATES

President Obama plans to attend an event at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, where two Americans and two Poles, all non-Jews, will be honored for their work trying to save Jews. The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington is holding two separate events, both of which will be streamed live on the Museum's web site.

CEO survey finds worries about global economy, political instability - Kim Hjelmgaard USATODAY

USA TODAY speaks with Dennis Nally, chairman of PwC, about CEO confidence in the United States. 

CEO survey finds worries about global economy, political instability

Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY  Jan. 19, 2016 

Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY  

(Photo: EPA)

DAVOS, Switzerland — Two out of three corporate CEOs around the world see a risky business environment and worry about growth prospects of their own companies, a survey released here Tuesday shows.

"Without question chief executive confidence levels are down in a very significant way year-to-year," said Dennis Nally, chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers, the tax consulting group that did the study. It was released on the eve of the World Economic Forum here.

"Whether due to the economic environment or geopolitical factors, there's clearly more threats faced by CEOs today then we have seen over the last several years," Nally told USA TODAY.

The company's 19th annual survey of top issues and concerns canvassed more than 1,400 CEOs in 83 countries.

Only 35% said they are confident their own companies will see growth in the coming year, down four  percentage points from last year's survey.

"It's a little surprising when you think about how many years post the 2008 financial crisis that we've dealt with," Nally said. "One would have hoped that the trend lines were improving, but they are going in the exact opposite way. This is true all around the world. There's very few bright spots to talk through."

USA TODAY

Voices: As Davos convenes, gloomy forecast for world economy

Twenty-seven percent said global economic growth will get better over the next 12 months, compared with 37% last year. Only 16% of North American CEOs were optimistic, less than half of CEOs in the most optimistic regions — Western Europe(33%) and the Middle East (34%).

Pessimism about the global economy rose to 23%, from just 7% in 2014.

A third of China’s CEOs (33%) said global economic growth will slow down in 2016, the survey found.

Nally said CEOs are getting more concerned about an increasingly wider range of risks, including:

• Over-regulation (79%)
   
• Geopolitical uncertainty (74%)
   
• Exchange rate volatility (73%)
   
• Availability of key skills (72%)
   
• Government response to fiscal deficit and debt burden (71%)
   
• Increasing tax burden (69%)
   
• Social instability (65%)
   
• Cyber threats (61%)
   
• Shift in consumer spending and behaviors (60%)
   
• Lack of trust in business (55%)
   
• Climate change and environmental damage (50%)
   

Nally noted that geopolitical concerns rose to one of the top concerns for the first time.

"Given the dynamics of the world, its complexities, CEOs have to be much more adaptive when trying to deal with many of the uncertainties we're talking about," he said.

"How do you pivot in a way to deal with issues that were not even on your (radar) six months ago? For example, look at the price of oil today. Who would of thought that we would be talking about oil below $30 per barrel as it is today," Nally said.

USA TODAY

Leaders to ponder 4th industrial revolution at Davos 2016

He said that he expects the 1,500 business leaders attending the forum to focus more on long-term issues.

"CEOs are starting to think not just about the short-term demands of profitability and revenue growth but also ... what's going on with technology today and the impact it's having — in terms of how services and products are delivered, digitization — that's turning businesses upside down," he said..

USA TODAY asks PwC Chairman Dennis Nally whether Davos is all work or whether there is room for play as well. Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY

The International Monetary Fund said Tuesday that it expects global economic activity to remain modest through 2017. The IMF's update to its October global outlook said global GDP would expand by 3.4% in 2016 and 3.6% in 2017.

It also said China's growth rate would hit 6.3% this year. Beijing announced Tuesday that the world's second-largest economy's growth rate slowed to 6.9%, its lowest level in 25 years.

The IMF characterized U.S. growth as robust. The U.S. economy grew 2% last year.

 23CONNECTTWEET 2LINKEDIN 2COMMENTEMAILMORE

Alex, first January hurricane since 1938, forms in Atlantic - USATODAY

Alex, first January hurricane since 1938, forms in Atlantic

 Doyle Rice, USA TODAY2:24 p.m. EST January 14, 2016

The rare storm making its way toward the Azores is now a hurricane in the eastern Atlantic Ocean.

(Photo: NOAA)

Alex became the first hurricane to form in the Atlantic Ocean in January in nearly 80 years Thursday morning, the National Hurricane Centersaid.

A hurricane warning was in effect for the Azores as the storm headed north-northeast at 20 mph toward the island chain with winds of 85 mph. The storm is forecast to bring hurricane conditions to the central Azores by early Friday.

Alex is only the third hurricane ever recorded in January in the Atlantic Ocean, according to Colorado State University meteorologist Phil Klotzbach.

It is the first hurricane to form in January since an unnamed storm in 1938. The last storm to occur in January was Alice in 1955. That storm formed in December 1954. Hurricane records began in 1851.

The Atlantic hurricane season typically runs from June to Nov. 30. During that time period, 97% of all tropical storms and hurricanes form. The season's first hurricane usually arrives in early August.

The hurricane center warned heavy rain — as much as 7 inches — could spur life-threatening flash floods and mudslides in the Azores, an island chain 850 miles west of Portugal that's home to about 250,000 people.

A dangerous storm surge is also expected to bring significant coastal flooding to the islands.

Hurricanes often strengthen over warm water, and Alex's development was spurred on by water that is record warm for this time of year, about 72 to 77 degrees, said Weather Underground meteorologist Jeff Masters.

"The unusually warm waters for Alex were due, in part, to the high levels of global warming that brought Earth its warmest year on record in 2015," he said. "Global warming made Alex's formation much more likely to occur."

Alex's formation officially kicks off a new year of storm names picked by the hurricane center. The next storms will be named Bonnie, Colin and Danielle.