May 042026
 


Giovanni Strazza The Veiled Virgin, Carrera marble 1850s
this is one piece of marble!


Iran on the Verge of Historic Economic Collapse. Will It Lead to Peace? (Moran)
Iran Submits New Peace Terms, Says ‘Ball In US Court’ (RT)
Trump On Hormuz Blockade: “We’re Like Pirates – And It’s Very Profitable” (ZH)
Trump Must Choose ‘Impossible’ War Or ‘Bad Deal’ With Iran: IRGC Message To US
US Debt Tops 100% of GDP, Deeply Troubling For Economy, National Security (JTN)
Visualizing Europe’s Birth-Rate Collapse (ZH)
60% of Voters: ‘A Replacement of the French Population by Non-Europeans’ (RMX)
UK School Books Say ‘There’s Plenty Of Room’ For Small Boat Migrants (MN)
DOJ Releases Report Alleging Anti-Christian Bias Under Biden (ET)
It’s Time for Erika Kirk to Step Down as CEO of Turning Point USA (Pinsker)
Where Washington and The Rest of The World Diverge (Lukyanov)
The US Wants To Ban Chinese Cars, But They’re Already At The Gate (ZH)
Jerry Seinfeld Drops a Truth Bomb About Electric Cars (Matt Margolis)
Tesla Made $573 Million Selling To Musk’s Other Companies Last Year (ZH)
Animal Farm Film A Hollywood Perversion Of Orwell’s Anti-Communist Classic (ZH)
Rudy Giuliani Hospitalized In Critical Condition (ZH)

 


 

https://twitter.com/warDaniel47/status/2050901895011512595?s=20 https://twitter.com/17QStorm/status/2050707200935358803?s=20

 


 


I said when they started this thing 2 months ago, that it all depends on language. Iran knows they can’t win. Trump et al need to find the words that let whoever speaks for “Iran” concede, but without losing face and/or their lives.

Iran on the Verge of Historic Economic Collapse. Will It Lead to Peace? (Moran)

Iran’s economy has passed the point of no return, and there is now no avoiding a historic economic collapse. The raw numbers tell some of the story. Food inflation is at 104% per month. Iranians have lost 90% of their purchasing power. The rial has hit a new all-time low of 1.84 million against the U.S. dollar in the open market in Tehran. That means that a 256GB iPhone 17 Pro Max, priced by Apple at $1,200 in the U.S., was being offered at close to 5 billion rials ($2,750) by some shops in the capital. Other shops are refusing to sell, knowing the price will probably dramatically increase in a few days.Al Jazeera reports,


“A Peugeot 206, a modest French passenger car that is also now produced and popular in Iran, costs an eye-watering 30 billion rials ($16,500).””The monthly minimum wage in Iran is currently less than 170 million rials ($92), and that is after the government raised it by about 60 percent for the current Persian calendar year that started on March 21,” reports the outlet. “The government is also offering subsidies towards food and essentials worth just less than $10 per month per person.” “You look at the prices and salaries, and you see the numbers don’t add up,” one unnamed Tehran resident told Al Jazeera.

Naturally, the currency collapse and inflation have led to huge job losses. The government is no longer announcing unemployment figures, so we have to guess how bad it is. In addition to the bombardment of Iran’s infrastructure, U.S. sanctions, and a naval blockade, the resulting economic crisis has magnified the already massive corruption in the economy. You can’t survive without cheating the system in some way, and even normally honest merchants have been forced into a life of crime.Iran is entering the 65th day of a total internet shutdown. In trying to keep Iranians off the streets in protest, the government is deliberately sabotaging the economy.

But is all of this pain enough to bring about the kind of peace Donald Trump will accept?Fox News: “The escalating pressure campaign marks one of the most aggressive U.S. efforts in years to economically isolate Iran. But the central question is whether this strategy can force meaningful concessions from a regime that has historically absorbed economic pain, or whether it risks triggering broader instability — from energy market shocks to regional escalation — before Iran is pushed to a breaking point.

A senior administration official told Fox News Digital that Treasury is aggressively expanding “Economic Fury” beyond traditional sanctions by targeting Iran’s ability to generate, move and repatriate funds across oil, banking, cryptocurrency and covert trade networks. The official said Treasury has disrupted billions in projected Iranian oil revenue in recent days alone, including freezing half a billion dollars in regime-linked cryptocurrency, while also escalating pressure on Chinese “teapot” refineries, foreign banks and sanctions-evasion networks facilitating Tehran’s trade.”

China is ignoring U.S. sanctions and is using these “teapot refineries” to buy up Iranian oil through third parties. The small, independentnt refineries have become a focal point in global energy politics. They have been instrumental in keeping the Chinese economy stable by importing sanctioned Iranian and Russian oil, often using China’s Cross-border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) to bypass Western financial networks. They are very difficult to get at, especially since China is telling them to ignore the U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has got to find a way to, if not shut them down, then clog up their financial and supply networks, which is easier said than done.

Alireza Nader, an Iranian independent analyst based in Washington, doesn’t think that economic pressure alone will force Iran to settle. “It looks like a game of chicken and I think the regime thinks that it can win this game of chicken with President Trump,” he told Fox News Digital. “I don’t see this economic blockade … leading to some sort of breaking point for the regime,” Nader added. He says that the Iranian leadership has shown in the past their willingness to allow the people to suffer in order to maintain their hold on power.

According to U.S. intelligence, Iran will run out of places to put the oil they are taking out of the ground in less than two weeks. They are now loading crude into derelict tankers, railroad cars, and any other receptacle that can hold oil. When they run out of places to store the oil, they will be forced to shut down wells. That will result in laying off large numbers of workers and losing revenue totaling hundreds of millions of dollars a day. Eventually, Iran will be forced to meet Trump’s terms or witness the government’s inability to feed its 90 million people.

Read more …

“President Donald Trump said Tehran’s proposal would likely be rejected..”

Iran’s leadership has been beheaded. Who speaks in the media? Some spokesperson for the IRGC. Tomorrow someone else?!

Khameini jr. may or may not even be alive. We have no idea what power he has.

So we can’t react to what he says. Trump will make his own conversation.

Iran Submits New Peace Terms, Says ‘Ball In US Court’ (RT)

Iran has submitted a new comprehensive peace plan, Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said on Saturday, adding that “the ball is in the US court.” Both countries have previously accused each other of putting forward unacceptable terms, as a ceasefire reached nearly a month ago has failed to produce an agreement. Negotiations have been further complicated by the twin Iranian and US blockades of the Strait of Hormuz and the resumption of Israel’s bombing campaign in Lebanon.


The Islamic Republic of Iran has submitted its plan to Pakistan as the mediator with the aim of permanently ending the imposed war, and now the ball is in the US court to choose between a diplomatic solution or a continuation of the confrontational approach,” Gharibabadi said, as quoted by Press TV. According to Iranian media, the 14-point plan is a counterproposal to a nine-point document presented earlier by the US. News agencies reported that Iran’s terms include security guarantees, the withdrawal of US troops from the region, the lifting of sanctions, and an end to the war “on all fronts,” including Lebanon. Iran is also reportedly seeking compensation from the US and a new framework for the Strait of Hormuz.

In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, US President Donald Trump said he would review the plan soon but added that he could not “imagine that it would be acceptable.” The president previously told journalists that he was “not satisfied” with Iran’s terms and threatened to “blast the hell out of them and finish them forever.” The US has demanded that Iran completely abandon its nuclear program and surrender its enriched uranium stockpiles, a condition Tehran has flatly rejected, insisting that its nuclear program is for civilian use only. While the prospects for a peace deal remain uncertain, oil prices surged past $120 per barrel this week for the first time since 2022.

Read more …

Oil=profit.

Trump On Hormuz Blockade: “We’re Like Pirates – And It’s Very Profitable” (ZH)

Rare agreement with Iranian officials? President Trump has newly said the US Navy is acting “like pirates” as he described an operation about seizing a ship amid the ongoing blockade of Iranian ports. “We … land on top of it and we took over the ship. We took over the cargo, took over the oil. It’s a very profitable business,” Trump told a large audience at a rally in Florida on Friday. “We’re like pirates,” he added as the crow cheered him on. “We’re sort of like pirates. But we’re not playing games.” Watch the US President also declare “it’s a very profitable business”:


The irony in this statement is that it precisely echoes Tehran’s own accusation that the Pentagon is indeed engaged in ‘piracy’ in Persian Gulf waters, and as the US seeks to interdict other Iranian vessels on the high seas globally, especially near Asia. This week Iran issued formal request to the UN Security Council that it stop the “continuing internationally wrongful acts of the United States through yet another piracy-style seizure and deliberate targeting of commercial vessels, namely the M/T Majestic and M/T Tifani.” Some of Iran’s embassies abroad have also directly responded to the fresh Trump piracy clip. Here’s what the Iranian Foreign Ministry had to say on X through one of its diplomatic outposts in south Asia:

“Sort of like pirates”? No, Donny—that’s textbook piracy. One upside to an incompetent opponent: moments like this. But the crowd cheering and clapping along? That’s the truly disturbing part. U.S. urgently needs a swift and serious regime change. Additionally, one show host with Russia’s RT had this to say by way of reaction: “The only good thing about Trump is that he openly admits the US is a rogue state that doesn’t care at all about international law, he doesn’t bother to cover up the US’ heinous actions with the bogus liberal PR language that previous Presidents used.”

It is also akin to when Trump became the first US leader to declare that American troops were in Syria to “secure the oil” – contradicting prior presidents and officials who insisted Washington was merely engaged in ‘counter-ISIS’ operations. Meanwhile, Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei has said on X this week Americans have an “undeniable right and the solemn duty” to demand accountability from the White House over the ongoing US-Israel “war of choice” against Iran. The war is “a clear, unprovoked act of aggression” – he stated, and called on Americans to rise up challenge their leaders for “waging this illegal war against the nation of Iran and for all the atrocities perpetrated.”

Read more …

” The intelligence unit of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has newly stated…”

Don’t listen to a word they say. Make them re-act, not act. It’s the only thing you can do.

Trump Must Choose ‘Impossible’ War Or ‘Bad Deal’ With Iran: IRGC Message To US

Iran is telling Washington that the ball is in its court as President Trump has affirmed over the weekend that he is reviewing the latest peace deal submitted via Pakistani mediators. Tehran is further saying the US is going from worse to worse as it must now choose between an “impossible” military operation or a “bad” deal. The intelligence unit of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has newly stated that “Trump must choose between an impossible military operation or a bad deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” according to Al Jazeera referencing the official statement. The provocative words framing the dilemma came soon on the heels of the following Saturday Truth Social post from Trump:


As for the IRGC statement about an “impossible” miliary operation, it further indicated that Tehran sent the US military a deadline to end its blockade of Iranian ports. It highlighted that Europe, China and Russia are are increasingly taking a more critical toward Washington’s war.”The room for US decision-making has narrowed,” the IRGC intelligence unit sad additionally, emphasizing “there is only one way to read this.” At the moment, the two-week ceasefire which was announced on April 8 through Pakistani mediation has been unilaterally extended by Trump, to now be indefinite. On Friday as the conflict reached 60-days, President Trump submitted a formal letter to Congress stressing Operation Epic Fury had already been ‘terminated’ due to the ceasefire.

The White House is arguing that this loophole – or the fact that there’s currently no exchanges of fire between the US and Iranian sides – means that required Congressional review and authorization of use of American troops is essentially voided. In the meantime gas prices at the pump for Americans are steadily rising. The below is the full IRGC statement to the US side:

https://twitter.com/PressTV/status/2050871274788847962

The current Iran-submitted plan now being reviewed at the White House reportedly contains 14 points. A Russian correspondent has said that “Iran is seeking a decisive and permanent end to the conflict with the US, rather than a previously proposed two-month ceasefire” and that it seems a one-month window to end all hostilities. “The plan includes a demand to resolve all issues and end the war within 30 days,” said RT correspondent Saman Kojouri, adding that “”he space for compromise between Tehran and Washington is narrowing.” Just by the close of last week Trump said he was ‘not satisfied’ with what he had seen so far.

Read more …

“Without major changes to federal fiscal policy, the U.S. government will default on its debt in about 20 years ..”

US Debt Tops 100% of GDP, Deeply Troubling For Economy, National Security (JTN)

The U.S. national debt is now larger than the entire American economy and is only set to keep growing, further exacerbating the affordability crisis and risking national security. Out of the $39 trillion total national debt, debt held by the public hit $31.27 trillion on March 31, surpassing the $31.22 trillion in Gross Domestic Product over the past 12 months. The fact that the national debt has reached 100% of GDP – the highest in history except for the years immediately following World War II – is “deeply troubling,” Romina Boccia, director of budget and entitlement policy at the Cato Institute, told The Center Square.


“Following World War II, we actually had a good reason for having such a high debt, and the government was on a path to reduce that debt after the war ended,” Boccia said. “In this case, we have debt as high as since World War II, except we are on a steep upward trajectory, and it’s not driven by a temporary war but by permanent entitlement obligations that are expanding – that’s Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.” Social Security and Medicare spending alone made up more than 30% of federal outlays in fiscal year 2025, and that spending is projected to continuously increase in the near future.

While some U.S. lawmakers have expressed concern over the unprecedented debt increase, there is little to no action on substantially reducing federal spending. Yet if Congress does not rein in deficits quickly, current and future generations of American taxpayers will feel the economic brunt of the rising interest costs that servicing the debt requires. “The reason we concern ourselves with debt to GDP is primarily because of the burden it poses for current and future generations, and that is primarily measured in the interest costs that servicing the debt requires from working Americans and taxpayers,” Boccia said.

“There’s strong research indicating that when debt grows to such high levels, above 80% of GDP, it tends to crowd out private sector investment, which reduces economic growth, and therefore economic opportunities, jobs, and higher wages.” In the immediate term, rising debt worsens affordability by spiking interest costs on Americans’ credit card debts, mortgages, car loans, student loans and more. “The federal government is using up so much credit in the market that it’s driving up interest costs, and it affects all of us,” Boccia said. “It has these downstream effects.” The U.S. currently spends more money on financing debt interest costs than it does on national defense – even as high debt ratios directly endanger national security.

“The reason we want governments to maintain low stable debt ratios, preferably below 60% of GDP, is so that they have room, so-called fiscal capacity, to borrow during times of crisis. And that can be a pandemic, a national security crisis, a financial crisis, or an economic recession like we saw in 2008,” Boccia said.“When governments have that room to borrow for that emergency response, it means that their recessions aren’t as severe and they can more easily return to normal economic growth after the crisis ends,” she added.

“But when a government enters a crisis already over-leveraged, holding too much debt, they’re not able to borrow as much as they otherwise would have in order to weather the crisis, and so the crisis will be more severe.” In a situation where America is at war, the results would be disastrous. “If you don’t have the fiscal capacity to respond to a military threat, then you are leaving yourself at risk of not being able to defend yourself,” Boccia said. The national debt is our greatest national security risk.” Without major changes to federal fiscal policy, the U.S. government will default on its debt in about 20 years, according to Penn Wharton Budget Model estimates.

Read more …

Make babies or wear a burka.

Visualizing Europe’s Birth-Rate Collapse (ZH)

Europe’s population is no longer replacing itself. Across the continent, fertility rates have fallen below the 2.1 births per woman needed to maintain stable population levels, with no country meeting that threshold as of 2024. The map below, via Visual Capitalist’s Gabriel Cohen, shows the number of live births per woman across Europe using the most recent data from Eurostat, FRED, and the UK’s Office for National Statistics.


From Ukraine (0.99) to Spain (1.1), some of Europe’s largest countries now rank among those with the lowest birth rates, highlighting how widespread the decline has become.

Fertility Crisis in South and Eastern Europe
Europe’s lowest birth rates are concentrated in the east and south, where economic strain and geopolitical instability have accelerated long-term declines. Ukraine has seen the sharpest drop. Its fertility rate, which last exceeded the replacement level in 1986, fell to 0.9 in 2022 before recovering slightly to 0.99 in 2024. Among countries at peace, Malta has one of the lowest fertility rates at 1.01, followed by Spain (1.1) and Poland (1.14). [..] Lower fertility in countries like Spain and Poland reflects a mix of economic pressures, including lower wages and the rising cost of raising children, alongside broader trends seen across developed economies. Aging populations are already reshaping national priorities. As Poland seeks to build a larger military, its shrinking population presents a strategic vulnerability.

Europe’s Fertility Woes
This trend extends across the continent. Europe’s largest economies, including Germany (1.36), the UK (1.41), France (1.61), and Italy (1.18), all remain well below replacement levels. Even countries with relatively higher fertility rates, such as Bulgaria (1.72) and Montenegro (1.75), are not producing enough births to stabilize their populations. One response has been increased immigration. In Germany, migration policy in the mid-2010s was shaped partly by the need to support the country’s labor system. However, this approach has also fueled political backlash and the rise of anti-immigration parties.

Family Incentives As A Solution?
Some countries are attempting to boost birth rates through financial incentives. France, Hungary, and Poland have introduced tax credits, subsidies, and other programs aimed at encouraging larger families.Hungary, for example, has spent over a decade expanding benefits for young couples, with the goal of reaching the 2.1 replacement rate by 2030. So far, the results have been limited. Hungary’s fertility rate of 1.41 is similar to countries like the UK and Portugal, suggesting that financial incentives alone may not reverse the broader trend.

Read more …

France is the most advanced in the Great Replacement,. UK a close second

60% of Voters: ‘A Replacement of the French Population by Non-Europeans’ (RMX)

A new poll from the presitigous ifop polling firm shows that a large majority of French citizens believe in a core tenent of the Great Replacement. Specifically, 60 percent of French people told ifop they believe we are witnessing “a replacement of the French population by non-European populations, mainly from the African continent.” The poll also found that 66 percent see it as a bad development, compared to 9 percent who see it as a good thing. Two weeks ago, Marion Maréchal, leader of Identité Libertés, posted to X: “60% of French people think that we are witnessing ‘a replacement of the French population by non-European populations mainly from Africa’ according to @IfopOpinion. To our greatest misfortune, our rulers are among the 40%.” Analyst Paul Cébille, from the Hexagone Observatory, posted the same line.


According to the data from IFOP, 7 percent are undecided. According to the French Directorate General for Foreigners (DGEF), valid French residence permits in 2025 hit an unprecedented level of 4.5 million, an increase of approximately 3 percent, driven primarily by multi-year permits and long-term resident cards, writes Le Journal du Dimanche.= For 2025, one in three permits was issued for family reasons (1.5 million), while one in five was an automatic renewal. New permits also increased to 384,000, a jump of 11 percent, which was partly driven by a 65 percent increase in admissions for humanitarian reasons.

Foreigners with legal status now represent 8.1 percent of France’s adult population, with a high concentration of nationalities from the Maghreb. At the same time, regularizations have declined (-10%, to 28,610), while deportations have increased sharply (+15.7%, to 24,985), reaching their highest level in a decade, notes JDD. Maréchal more recently posted a telling video of the number of illegals coming to the EU, blasting French leaders for their continuous stance of “above all, let’s do nothing!”

Maréchal has also been a vocal critic of Spain’s Socialist PM Pedro Sánchez for his “irresponsible regularization of 500,000 undocumented immigrants,” a figure that some say is likely to skyrocket to over 1.5 million. “Closing Schengen at the Spanish border is a vital act to deter and protect the French and Europeans,” she wrote. The National Rally’s Jordan Bardella has also sounded the alarm over what many consider an immediate threat to France. Bardella has made it clear that he feels the EU must alter current rules to disallow free movement within Schengen for those holding a resident permit.

Read more …

Lock down the UK.

UK School Books Say ‘There’s Plenty Of Room’ For Small Boat Migrants (MN)

British kids as young as five are now being read picture books that paint small boat crossings in glowing terms and urge them to open the door to unlimited migration. While record numbers of illegal arrivals strain housing, schools and public services, left-wing charities are using taxpayer-backed programmes to turn classrooms into recruitment centres for open borders ideology. More than 1,100 schools and nurseries across the UK have signed up to the Schools of Sanctuary programme, run by the City of Sanctuary network. The scheme requires schools to complete a “rigorous” award process to prove they are “working collaboratively to strengthen community approaches to welcoming refugee children and families.” Once awarded, they pay a minimum donation of £75 to £300.


As part of the programme, schools are given a suggested reading list packed with pro-migrant messaging. One book, Kind by Alison Green, illustrated by renowned children’s illustrators such as Quentin Blake and Axel Scheffler, tells children: “Sometimes people have lived through very hard times. They’ve had to leave their homes and their countries because of danger. They are brave and amazing and have extraordinary stories to tell.”

It continues: “Sometimes people say there’s no room for anyone more. But maybe you can say ‘There’s plenty of room! Come on in!’ After all, if you don’t let people in, you’ll never know what you’re missing.” Yeah, come on in! In fact, come on in and live in a hotel in a nice green village, all at taxpayer expense! The book features a cartoon lion in a crowded boat with other animals and encourages pupils to share toys, draw pictures together and even learn words from a foreign child’s language.

Another title, Everybody’s Welcome by Patricia Hegarty, states plainly: “Everybody’s welcome, no matter who they are, wherever they may come from, whether near or far.” No matter who they are. Never a truer word spoken. The classic Elmer and the Hippos is also recommended. In it, elephants initially resent hippos arriving at their river because “there isn’t enough room for them and us.” By the end, the two groups work together and become friends after clearing a blockage. Except of course, in this story none of the hippos go on a stabbing or raping spree. Something the UK is experiencing every single day now.

Schools are also encouraged to hold an annual “Day of Welcome” in June, complete with non-uniform days to raise funds for the scheme or local migrant-support groups. Secondary pupils can even meet real-life refugees promoted by the charity. What could possibly go wrong? Shadow Education Secretary Laura Trott has demanded the books be withdrawn “immediately.” She told the Daily Mail: “Classrooms should be places of learning not promoting political ideology, schools have a very clear duty to stay out of politics.”

Trott added: “Portraying the arrival of small boats as a positive thing in books for children as young as five is indoctrination, this is an illegal practice. This organisation has already made clear its aim is to turn pupils into ‘ethically informed change makers’ and that crosses a very clear line.” She concluded: “We must get a grip on these third party resources infiltrating our schools and peddling political agendas to young children.”

The City of Sanctuary UK defended the materials, saying it “works with schools to support a culture of welcome, inclusion and understanding for all members of the community.” It added: “Our suggested educational resources, including book recommendations, are designed to help children develop empathy, critical thinking, and awareness of the experiences of others.” This is not an isolated incident. It fits a clear pattern of using British schools to enforce mass-migration acceptance while cracking down on any pushback.

A Pattern of School Indoctrination
As we previously highlighted, the far left UK Green Party, which is about to become much more influential in Parliament with upcoming local elections, wants to teach children they have a “moral obligation” to accept unlimited immigration: The current government has also urged schools to snitch on “anti-Muslim hostility” in an Orwellian crackdown:Meanwhile, counter-terror police are running ads warning teenagers that sharing “funny content” online could amount to terrorism:And a government-funded video game explicitly warned kids they could be flagged as terrorists for questioning mass migration: Even primary school children are not exempt from the rampant indoctrination:

The message is relentless: British children must be conditioned to accept endless migration, share what little they have, and never question whether “there’s plenty of room.”After all, we’re reliably told to expect the arrival of another 7 MILLION migrants in the coming years: Parents and politicians are right to push back. Schools exist to educate, not to manufacture “ethically informed change makers” for the open-borders lobby. Until third-party political materials are banned from the curriculum and real scrutiny is applied to groups like City of Sanctuary, Britain’s classrooms will continue serving as recruitment tools for the very policies destroying community cohesion and national identity.

https://twitter.com/Telegraph/status/2049157270043291715 Read more …

Think Ilhan Omar and it’s not so surprising. But it’s very important that Europe and US remain Christian.

DOJ Releases Report Alleging Anti-Christian Bias Under Biden (ET)

The Department of Justice (DOJ) on April 30 released a 500-page report detailing alleged anti-Christian bias on the part of the Biden administration. According to the report by the DOJ’s Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias, the former administration’s prosecutions, policies, and practices constituted bias throughout multiple agencies, in accordance with the administration’s priorities. The task force is chaired by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. “No American should live in fear that the federal government will punish them for their faith,” Blanche said. “As our report lays out, the Biden Administration’s actions devastated the lives of many Christian Americans.”


Around 200 pages of the report are dedicated to the actions of more than 17 federal agencies that uncovered alleged religious discrimination. The investigation included a review of internal discussions and case files, as well as prosecutorial decisions. There were details of a since-retracted 2023 FBI memo on “radical traditionalist” Catholics, which cited the Southern Poverty Law Center. The review also listed Biden-era regulations on abortion, contraception, gender, and human sexuality, among other issues that pitted the government against religious groups.

The report also makes note of the Biden administration’s reading of the 2019 Supreme Court ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, which led to decisions that were based on what the Trump administration report called “sex-based discrimination in federally funded schools and sports.” According to the DOJ report, the previous administration used the FBI, IRS, Department of Education, Department of Health and Human Services, and other agencies to monitor, investigate, and apply pressure to various Christian groups at a federal level. The current DOJ’s task force was formed in accordance with President Donald Trump’s Feb. 6, 2025, executive order titled Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias. The president ordered multiple agencies to investigate what he called an “egregious pattern of targeting peaceful Christians, while ignoring violent, anti-Christian offenses.”

Conflicting Response
This is a “very different Department of Justice … than the previous administration,” said Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor and president of West Coast Trial Lawyers. “The conclusion in the report, at least from an enforcement perspective, was that … federal law was disproportionately used to prosecute pro-life and other Christians under the Biden administration,” he told The Epoch Times. However, Rahmani, who worked at the DOJ from 2009 to 2012, said that while policies change, he has not seen a “systematic bias for or against” any one religious group.“I don’t necessarily see … [that] Christian activists in this country are receiving more prison time for violent acts, as opposed to, you know, Muslim or other religious groups.”

According to Andrea Picciotti-Bayer, director of the Conscience Project, the report “calls out the brazen assault against religious freedom by the former administration for what it was: a failure of constitutional and statutory duty.” Picciotti-Bayer said in an emailed statement that the Biden administration disregarded “fundamental guarantees” in the First Amendment and federal civil rights law, and treated “sincere religious objections as obstacles to overcome, prosecuting peaceful prayer, trampling on parental rights and steamrolling conscience rights.”

The Interfaith Alliance, however, which states its mission is to “challenge Christian nationalism and religious extremism,” responded to the DOJ report, saying their group has “consistently opposed the work of this ‘task force.’” It accused the DOJ of trying to “undermine Americans’ religious freedom and First Amendment rights.” The alliance called the task force’s report a “political stunt designed to promote the lie that American Christians are a persecuted group, while providing justification to target anyone deemed out of step with their Christian nationalist agenda.”

Previous Report
This report comes just weeks after an 800-page report from the department, detailing the “weaponization” of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which called out alleged prosecutorial problems, surveillance activities undertaken by pro-abortion groups, and failures to comply with federal law. Biden’s DOJ did not enforce the law evenly, according to the April 14 report. The task force under the Biden administration treated pro-life groups differently from pro-abortion groups, outlining disproportionate coordination with pro-abortion groups that, according to the report, indicated bias and prosecutorial overreach. In her statement, Picciotti-Bayer said, “Religious freedom isn’t a courtesy the government extends—it’s a legal check on what government can do. It’s refreshing to see that recognized today.”

Read more …

Why do you want to tell her what to do? Does it make you feel good about you?

It’s Time for Erika Kirk to Step Down as CEO of Turning Point USA (Pinsker)

It’s not about right and wrong, because if it were, Erika Kirk would continue as chairwoman and CEO of Turning Point USA for many years to come, fulfilling her dream of advancing her late husband’s legacy — and all those gruesome, ghastly parasites gorging at the trough of a widow’s grief would gag on their own obscenities. But sadly, it’s not about right and wrong. Our world runs on cause and effect. This is a vexing topic to measure on its merits because the emotions strike like a tsunami. Hey, I’m biased, too: Personally, I hope Erika Kirk takes a breather — not out of malice, but because I suspect she’s suffering more than we realize.


Not “suffered.” Not past tense: Her suffering is constant and continuous, without any end in sight. She’s paying a price that’s absurdly unfair, and now she’s being tortured for clicks, clout, and lolz. It’s a dreadful commentary on our conservative community: Charlie Kirk isn’t around to protect his wife anymore, and the silence of his “friends” is deafening. The same people who waved his bloody shirt won’t lift a finger to protect his widow. Didn’t have to be this way, of course. Charlie’s “friends” could’ve circled the wagons around her. If they had despised Erika Kirk’s exploiters, parasites, and liars as much as they despised, say, AIPAC and Israel, the entire PR trajectory would’ve been different.

But they didn’t. And those actions — or lack thereof — have consequences. One of them, unfortunately, is that Erika Kirk has become a distraction from Turning Point USA’s core mission, because the focus is going to be on her. She didn’t ask for the spotlight, but now it’s inevitable. If she’s at a TPUSA event, everything she says and does — even the way she smiles/frowns, interacts with speakers, and the clothes she wears — will be scrutinized. She’s become the lead story. And when she’s NOT at an event, the focus will be on that, too. It’s a no-win situation.

The smartest PR solution is “promotion by demotion”: Announce that Mrs. Kirk will assume the title of Chairman Emeritus (or something equivalent) and will spearhead a new passion project — something directly tied to Charlie Kirk’s legacy. At the same time, announce the appointment of a hot new CEO — someone with credibility and gravitas for TPUSA’s young-leaning audience. (Twenty-four-year-old Nick Shirley could be a very compelling candidate.) The higher the new CEO’s profile, the better. It’ll pull the media spotlight away from Mrs. Kirk: Can the new guy succeed? What will be different? Will TPUSA grow or shrink? How will his first event go? What happens next?

In the meantime, Erika Kirk can catch her breath and mend her (many) wounds. Then, in two or three years, if the new guy is knocking it out of the park — elevating TPUSA to dazzling new heights — everyone wins. Charlie’s legacy grows even larger. Plus, there’s always the option of the new guy stepping down at a pre-agreed time, and reappointing Erika Kirk to CEO. The media climate won’t be the same in another few years: Mrs. Kirk could assume the role when she’s ready — and without this carnivorous feeding frenzy.

I thinkit’s a wiser PR option than continuing with the status quo. But there’s a caveat: I’m placing pragmatism ahead of morality. And I told you so from the very beginning: In my mind, this isn’t about right and wrong; it’s about cause and effect. But what if TPUSA thinks otherwise? I don’t own TPUSA. It’s not my company. These are my values, not theirs.

If the people in charge of TPUSA — those who knew Charlie Kirk the best — decide it’s better to be moral than pragmatic, that’s absolutely their right. And if they conclude that Charlie Kirk would NEVER cave to those loathsome liars, so neither will they, then God bless and hooray for TPUSA. Perhaps stepping down as CEO would be immoral. If so, I hope and pray Erika Kirk, CEO and chairwoman, succeeds. But I also hope and pray that if her suffering is overwhelming, she’s given an offramp. Her children need her more than we do. She’s an amazingly brave woman, but like all of us, she’s flesh and blood. We’re all fragile, flawed, and breakable. Eventually, enough is enough.

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Trying to look ahead more than a few days is hard.

Where Washington and The Rest of The World Diverge (Lukyanov)

There will be much talk this May about the so-called “strategic triangle” of Russia, China and the United States. US President Donald Trump is expected in Beijing first, followed by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. Whenever the leaders of the three most influential powers meet, speculation inevitably follows. What if they strike some grand bargain? What if the world suddenly becomes more orderly? Such expectations are misplaced. The restructuring of the global system is already under way, and it isn’t a process that can be halted or reversed by summit diplomacy.


Even so, turning points in history can unfold in different ways; carefully managed, or recklessly accelerated. That’s what makes the coming meetings significant. Both Russia and the United States are now deeply involved in large-scale military confrontations. The importance of these conflicts lies not only in their scope, but in their broader consequences for the international system. China, by contrast, has historically kept its distance from such entanglements. Yet it is becoming increasingly clear in Beijing that it can’t remain insulated from their effects. Discussions at the recent Valdai Club conference in Shanghai suggested that China is reassessing its position.

At the center of this reassessment is a simple question: what, if anything, is still possible in relations with Washington? For decades, China’s rise was closely tied to its economic relationship with the United States. The arrangement sometimes described as “Chimerica,” American capital and technology combined with Chinese labor and manufacturing, formed the backbone of globalization. It wasn’t an equal partnership, but it was mutually beneficial. For a long time, it seemed that basic economic self-interest would prevent either side from undermining it.That assumption has now collapsed.

By the late 2000s, dissatisfaction in Washington was already evident. The United States increasingly viewed the arrangement not as a source of shared gains, but as a structural imbalance. Over time, the accumulation of tensions, economic and strategic, reached a point where incremental adjustments were no longer sufficient. What followed was a qualitative shift in the system itself. For several decades, the global order operated largely in the interests of the United States as the leader of the Western bloc. Its gradual erosion now threatens those advantages. Washington’s response has been to use the current period of transition to secure as much of a head start as possible for the future.

Donald Trump has become the most visible embodiment of this approach. His rhetoric, openly transactional and even boastful, may appear unconventional, but the underlying logic predates him. The objective is clear: maximize immediate gains and build up national capacity as quickly as possible. Then use that accumulated strength to dominate the next phase of global competition. This represents a sharp departure from the earlier American strategy, which prioritized long-term investments in the international system. Those investments didn’t always produce immediate returns, but they reinforced a framework that ultimately benefited the United States more than anyone else. Today, the emphasis has shifted toward short-term advantage, even at the risk of longer-term instability.

Whether this strategy will succeed remains uncertain. The initial phase has already produced setbacks. But the broader direction is unlikely to change. Future administrations may adopt a different tone, but they will operate within the same constraints. The liberal international order won’t return, not because of Trump’s personality, but because the conditions that sustained it no longer exist.

For other major powers, including China, this has profound implications. The idea of a comprehensive “big deal” with the United States, one that stabilizes the global system for years to come, has effectively become unrealistic. Trump’s frequent use of the word “deal” is revealing. In his vocabulary, it’s more than a mere strategic concept but a commercial one. A deal is “big” not because it is durable or all-encompassing, but because of the scale of immediate gain it delivers. And like any commercial transaction, it can be abandoned if a more desirable opportunity presents itself.

Under such conditions, long-term agreements on the structure of world order are impossible. Washington is unlikely to commit to any arrangement that limits its flexibility before it has secured what it considers a sufficient advantage. This is not necessarily a product of malice or arrogance. It is, in its own way, a rational response to a period of extreme uncertainty. The United States is seeking to preserve the foundations of its future dominance by acting decisively in the present. But rationality on one side forces adaptation on the other. If key players conclude that stable agreements with Washington are unattainable, their behavior changes.

Military capability becomes more important as a safeguard against pressure. At the same time, interest grows in alternative forms of cooperation. That is, frameworks that operate independently of the United States and are insulated from its influence. This logic isn’t new, but it’s gaining urgency. Russia has been advocating for such arrangements for several years. China, by contrast, has approached the idea with caution, hoping instead to preserve some form of mutually beneficial relationship with the United States. That hope now appears to be fading. The upcoming visits to Beijing will provide a useful indication of how far this shift has progressed.

The meeting between Trump and Xi will likely define the limits of a temporary accommodation between two powers that remain economically intertwined, yet increasingly distrustful of one another. The question is no longer whether a comprehensive agreement is possible, but what narrow, short-term arrangements can be reached, and how long they will last. Putin’s subsequent talks with Xi will address a different issue: the extent to which Russia and China are prepared to develop mechanisms of cooperation that bypass the United States altogether. Moscow has been moving in this direction for some time. Beijing now appears to be considering whether it must follow. May will not produce a grand bargain. But it may show, more clearly than before, how the world is adjusting to the absence of one.

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BYD has a factory the size of the city of San Francisco?

Thing is, with the Cybercabs and Cybertrucks coming, you won’t be allowed to drive Chinese cars on American roads.

Or any other cars.

The US Wants To Ban Chinese Cars, But They’re Already At The Gate (ZH)

Efforts in Washington to block Chinese-made cars often sound like a future problem – but in practice, those vehicles are already within reach of American consumers, according to the Wall Street Journal. Just south of the U.S. border, Chinese automakers have been rapidly expanding in Mexico, setting up dealerships and offering vehicles at prices far below what most new cars cost in the U.S. Brands like BYD, Geely, and Great Wall Motor are selling electric and gas-powered models packed with features – often for the price of a used car in the U.S. That proximity matters: American consumers living near the border can easily see, test, and in some cases drive these vehicles, even if large-scale imports remain restricted.


Meanwhile, U.S. policymakers are moving in the opposite direction. Proposed tariffs, import restrictions, and national security reviews are all aimed at limiting Chinese auto penetration, especially in the electric vehicle market. The concerns go beyond economics—lawmakers have raised questions about data security, supply chains, and the long-term competitiveness of domestic automakers. The Journal writes that the situation is more complicated than a simple “ban.” Chinese-built vehicles are already entering the U.S. market indirectly. Some come through global partnerships, shared manufacturing platforms, or brands that don’t obviously appear Chinese to consumers.

Others arrive in small numbers through personal imports or cross-border use. In other words, the presence is already here—it’s just not always visible at scale. At the same time, Chinese automakers are becoming major global players. Companies like BYD, for example, have surged in electric vehicle production and are expanding across Latin America, Europe, and beyond. Their strategy often focuses on affordability and speed to market—areas where traditional U.S. automakers have struggled, especially as new car prices continue to climb.

That pricing gap is a key pressure point. Many American buyers are increasingly priced out of new vehicles, creating demand for cheaper alternatives. If Chinese automakers were allowed to compete freely in the U.S., they could significantly undercut domestic offerings—something that worries both policymakers and legacy car companies. So while the political conversation centers on keeping Chinese cars out, the reality is that the market is already shifting around that goal. The vehicles are being sold nearby, seen by U.S. consumers, and in some cases already used on American roads.

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Using Seinfeld to brag about having an EV. Well, at least it’s not someone relevant today.

Jerry Seinfeld Drops a Truth Bomb About Electric Cars (Matt Margolis)

What’s the deal with electric cars? Am I right? Jerry Seinfeld has a lot of opinions about cars. If you know much about him, you know he loves classic cars, particularly Porsches. So, it’s hardly surprising that when it comes to electric cars, he’s not so enthusiastic.”I’m not interested in electric cars at all,” Seinfeld said in a recent interview with AirMail. “Anybody else wants to do it, that’s fine. I think it’s a big, stupid virtue signal. ‘Look at me. I’m saving the planet, yeah.’ What about the lithium? It’s all BS.”Here’s the thing: on the environmental question, he’s not wrong to be skeptical.


The lithium argument isn’t just a talking point. Mining one ton of lithium emits roughly 15 tons of CO2, and producing a large EV battery can generate over 70% more carbon dioxide than manufacturing a conventional car. Of course, EV advocates are quick to note that those upfront emissions are offset over time and that, over the life of the car, EVs might be better, but I’m not convinced the difference is significant. Maybe it is. But, as an EV owner myself, that wasn’t even a factor in my decision to get one.

I bought my 2026 Model Y (Juniper) a year ago, Saturday. And saving the planet was not on my list of reasons to do it. I’ve never bought the idea that EVs represent a clear-cut environmental win. They trade one set of problems for another. It’s a different impact, not no impact. If anything, the last thing I wanted people to think when I bought the Tesla was that I was some hippie environmentalist. It probably helped that the left started despising Elon Musk. So, my Model Y was, if anything, a minor act of defiance. Works for me.Still, what kept me sold wasn’t ideology — it was the car itself. The minimalist interior is genuinely elegant in a way that most modern vehicles are not.

The technology is impressive, and charging at home has eliminated something I never realized I quietly resented: the gas station. I don’t miss it.The savings are quite real, too. Yes, I’ve paid a lot of money to get a home charger and have it installed. But during the six-month period from October through March, my home EV charging costs totaled $330.77. Think that’s good? Well, off-peak charging discounts reduced the cost to $186.17—about $31 per month.But the feature that has genuinely changed how I drive is Full Self-Driving. I pay extra for it, and it’s worth every penny. Right now, roughly 95% of my miles are driven with FSD (Supervised) engaged — grocery runs, highway cruising, a road trip to Boston. I hand the car the wheel and let it work.

Seinfeld, for his part, had a joke ready about self-driving technology, too. He predicted future generations will be stunned that people once steered themselves around at any speed and “just crash and kill themselves constantly.” He’s not wrong about that either. For someone who claims not to care about the technology, he nailed the pitch. And yes, I do feel safer with FSD activated. So here’s where we land: Seinfeld is right that the green halo around EVs is overblown and that lithium mining is an inconvenient truth. He’s right that a lot of EV buyers are performing environmentalism rather than practicing it. But the car itself — stripped of the politics and the posturing — is genuinely good. Mine has been. Buy it or don’t. Just don’t buy it because you think you’re saving the planet.

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Who else are they going to buy a battery pack from, or vahicles?

Tesla Made $573 Million Selling To Musk’s Other Companies Last Year (ZH)

Elon Musk’s business empire is becoming increasingly intertwined — and if SpaceX eventually goes public, Wall Street will likely take a much harder look at how money moves across his companies. A newly disclosed filing shows Tesla booked more than $570 million last year from transactions with Musk-controlled companies, according to Insider. That included roughly $430 million from selling Megapack battery systems to xAI and another $143 million — primarily vehicle sales — to SpaceX. Some of those purchases included Cybertrucks, which have reportedly become a significant part of SpaceX’s vehicle fleet.


The relationship goes both ways. Insider writes that Tesla also disclosed that it put $2 billion into SpaceX and xAI last year and paid the companies a combined $15 million+ for various commercial and consulting services. Taken together, the filings offer a clearer picture of how frequently Musk’s companies now rely on one another. xAI has been absorbed into SpaceX, engineers from Tesla have previously worked on projects at X, Grok is being built into Tesla products, and Musk has publicly discussed future collaboration between Tesla and SpaceX on the Roadster.

Tesla also disclosed last week that Elon Musk’s total 2025 compensation was valued at roughly $158 billion, based on the maximum fair value of stock options tied to his newly approved pay package. The figure immediately caught Wall Street’s attention because of its sheer scale…it’s nearly 40 times Tesla’s annual net income and roughly 1.5 times the company’s total revenue for the year.

For investors already uneasy about the growing overlap between Musk’s companies, the compensation number adds another layer of concern around governance and capital allocation. Between massive cross-company transactions, shared talent across SpaceX, xAI, and X, and now an unprecedented pay package, analysts are likely to keep a much closer watch on how Musk’s empire operates — especially if SpaceX eventually becomes a public company too.

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“Some critics have argued that the character looks strikingly similar to Elon Musk’s mother, May Musk, and she even drives a vehicle that looks like a pink Cybertruck. “

Animal Farm Film A Hollywood Perversion Of Orwell’s Anti-Communist Classic (ZH)

George Orwell’s prognostications about the future of authoritarianism have proven consistently accurate. They have only been limited by his inability to foresee the creation of certain technologies which make the future look even more bleak. The reason his books, like 1984 and Animal Farm, are considered classics of literature is because they are timeless. Their warnings and messages still apply today and will probably apply centuries from now.


Animal Farm, first published in 1945, is a tale specifically written as an allegory for the Bolshevik Revolution and the rise of Soviet Communism. Despite the characters being talking animals, the themes are dark and disturbing. It is a story about the naivety of the “underclass”, the exploitation of the “have-nots” by communists seeking to use gullible people as weapons against their “imperialist” and capitalist enemies. It is a grotesque tragedy composed like a children’s novel, which makes it all the more effective. It destroys the notion of “equity” and exposes the truth: There is no such thing as a socialist Utopia, there can only ever be socialist dystopia. And to get it, leftists are happy to sacrifice you and everything you love. Not only that, but they expect you to applaud them for it.

The message is made iconic in the book’s famous phrase: “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others…” This is the epitome of woke ideology and how progressives behave today. It’s no surprise that Hollywood is incapable of telling this story properly. In order to do that, they would have to put their own warped beliefs under a microscope, and that’s simply not going to happen. The new animated adaptation of Animal Farm is being billed as a kid-friendly foray into concepts of “authoritarianism”; but it perverts Orwell’s message about communism and demonizes capitalism instead.

Audiences across the board are not happy. The movie is distributed by Angel Studios, which bills itself as a Christian and conservative leaning company. However, the makers of the film (director Andy Serkis and The Imaginarium Studios) are entirely left wing. Given the people involved, Angel Studios should have know what kind of disaster they would have on their hands.Andy Serkis is a former member of the Socialist Workers Party, a Troskyist Group in England in the 1990s. Though he is no longer involved, he still considers himself left wing, and his exit from political provocation was largely because of conflicts with his acting career. Enlisting a hardcore socialist to direct Animal Farm feels like a deliberate middle finger to conservatives who see the story as a cautionary battle cry against leftist movements.

The film was even released on May Day (International Workers Day), which is a communist holiday. In developing the film as far back as 2013, Serkis (still riding the high of his successful role as “Gollum” in the Lord Of The Rings movies) admitted that he had no intention of sticking to the critique of communism. Rather, he believed that if Orwell wrote Animal Farm today, he would obviously compose a takedown of capitalism. “First and foremost, we are not making a film about Communism and Stalinism because if Orwell was writing the story today, he would be talking about other relevant topics like globalisation and corporate greed…” In other words, Andy Serkis, like most communists, wants to rewrite history in favor of his ideology.

This is exactly what he did in the new Angel Studios film. Many of the characters from the book are the same, and some of the plot points remain. The animals revolt against the farmers and seek to build their Utopia of fairness. But, the pigs (who represent the communist manipulators in the book) are not evil in the film. Rather, they are corrupted into doing bad things by a new character – Ruthless billionaire Frieda Pilkington and her corporation. Frieda is the typical evil rich white person common in leftist mythology. Some critics have argued that the character looks strikingly similar to Elon Musk’s mother, May Musk, and she even drives a vehicle that looks like a pink Cybertruck.

Rather than the pigs being conniving and malicious from the beginning, Frieda corrupts them into evil with the promise of riches. Her plan is to use the pigs as a means to get control of the farm. In the end, the animals realize their mistake and their solution is yet another communist revolution. The message being, communism only goes wrong when evil capitalists influence the outcome. Collectivist ideology is inherently good. Leftists are not psychotic ideologues thirsting for power and control. They are just led astray sometimes.

There are numerous hatchet job films denigrating capitalism out of Hollywood. There are few if any that explore the nightmares of communism and left-wing collectivism. Orwell’s Animal Farm is one of the few stories that captures the insidious nature of “equity” and suicidal empathy that permeate communist societies. It is about the tools that communists use to lead the population astray, not about capitalism leading communists astray. Even worse is the marketing strategy of Angel Studios, which has tapped into the pockets of conservative and libertarian influencers (including Tucker Carlson) to sell the movie.

It is likely that most of these influencers never watched the film before they promoted it, and if they did, it might be time to question their motives. Critics and audiences alike have given Animal Farm a thunderous thumbs down. Angel Studios is the same company that put Sound Of Freedom in theaters; a movie which was relentlessly (and suspiciously) attacked by the political left for putting a spotlight on child trafficking and pedophile rings. It is unfortunate that they made placed this project in the hands of the same left wing community that tried to tear them down only a couple years ago.

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Not everyone can say that they saved a city of 8 million people. Godspeed.

Rudy Giuliani Hospitalized In Critical Condition (ZH)

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has been hospitalized and is in critical condition, according to The New York Times, citing his spokesman, Ted Goodman. “Mayor Giuliani is a fighter who has faced every challenge in his life with unwavering strength, and he’s fighting with that same level of strength as we speak,” Goodman said, before asking “that you join us in prayer” for the former NYC mayor.


Goodman did not disclose what medical emergency sent Giuliani to a Florida hospital Sunday afternoon. President Trump also released a statement on Giuliani’s medical emergency, telling those on Truth Social, “Our fabulous Rudy Giuliani, a True Warrior, and the Best Mayor in the History of New York City, BY FAR, has been hospitalized, and is in critical condition.” “What a tragedy that he was treated so badly by the Radical Left Lunatics, Democrats ALL — AND HE WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING! They cheated in the Elections, fabricated hundreds of stories, did everything possible to destroy our Nation, and now, look at Rudy. So sad!” the president said.

Giuliani is a former federal prosecutor, NYC mayor, and longtime Trump supporter. He first rose to national prominence as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York in the 1980s, where he prosecuted organized crime, Wall Street corruption, drug trafficking, and public corruption. One of his most defining legal wins was helping break the power grip of NY’s Mafia families through RICO prosecutions. From the mid-1990s through 2001, Giuliani served as mayor of NYC, where his administration became known for its tough-on-crime posture. He later ran unsuccessfully for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination before re-emerging as a major political figure and Donald Trump’s personal attorney, particularly during the Russia hoax investigation and the post-2020 election fight. *This is a developing story.

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Apr 282025
 


Odilon Redon Peyrelebade landscape 1880

 

Rubio: ‘No Leader Is Working Harder to Prevent Wars or End Them’ (PJM)
Trump’s Diplomacy Gains Traction, Silences Sceptics (Bhadrakumar)
Moscow Ready To Seek ‘Balance Of Interests’ With Ukraine and US – Lavrov (RT)
‘Calmer’ Zelensky Requested ‘More Weapons’ In Vatican – Trump (RT)
Zelensky Admits Ukraine Can’t Reclaim Crimea By Force (RT)
New Sanctions On Russia Would Mean Two More Years Of War – Rubio (RT)
Trump Failing to Resolve US Budget Deficit But Slightly Slows Debt Growth (Sp.)
Are Americans Still Americans? (Paul Craig Roberts)
AG Pam Bondi Leads Task Force To ‘Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias’ (JTN)
White House To Evaluate Officials’ Loyalty To Trump – WSJ (RT)
Trump Floats Plan To Slash Income Taxes For Millions Using Tariff Cash (ZH)
Trump Wants US Ships to Travel Through Panama, Suez Canals for Free (ET)
Fish Rots From Its Head: Senior EU Officials Call For Ursula’s Resignation (Sp.)
Moderna Faces UK Suspension Over Covid Jab Breaches (Tel.)
International Institutions Must Abandon “Wokeism” (Lacalle)

 

 

 

 

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Many people will question this.

Rubio: ‘No Leader Is Working Harder to Prevent Wars or End Them’ (PJM)

“Of all the leaders in the world today, no leader is working harder to prevent wars or end them than President Trump is right now. That’s why we’re talking to Iran. That’s why we’re engaged with Ukraine and Russia. It’s the desire to prevent these wars from breaking out and to end the ones that exist already… I just think it’s tremendous for our country to be led by a president, uh, who desires to bring peace and establish peace and protect peace.” That’s what Secretary of State Marco Rubio said earlier this week to a group of reporters inside the Oval Office, and it’s a message he’s delivered continuously in recent days. On Sunday morning, Rubio appeared on “Meet the Press” and doubled down on the idea. When host Kristen Welker asked him about the potential for a peace deal for the Russia-Ukraine War, Rubio said:

“Well, I think they’re closer in general than they’ve been any time in the last three years, but it’s still not there. And as I said and he has said and others have said, he’s done an extraordinary job at the highest levels of our government. The President has put out everybody you can imagine – Ambassador Witkoff, myself, the National Security Advisor, the Vice President – been involved and engaged in this effort to bring the two sides closer so we can have a path to peace. By the way, that’s something that should be celebrated. He’s trying to end a three-year war that has no military solution, where every day people are dying, especially on the Ukrainian side, in many cases civilians and children, as we’ve seen the images over the last few weeks. He’s trying to bring this war to an end. And we’ve made real progress.

But those last couple steps of this journey were always going to be the hardest ones, and it needs to happen soon. We cannot continue, as I said, to dedicate time and resources to this effort if it’s not going to come to fruition.So the last week has really been about figuring out how close are these sides really, and are they close enough that this merits a continued investment of our time as a mediator in this regard.” Rubio also took to X today and said, “We’re trying to achieve peace. Instead of rooting against @POTUS, everyone should be hopeful that President Trump can bring the Russia-Ukraine war to an end.”

He’s right. I grew up in the Bill Clinton/George W. Bush era, and I was constantly confronted with the idea that Democrats were the party of peace, and Republicans only wanted war, even though I, as a Republican, was not a big pro-war person. I almost feel like my young mind was brainwashed with the idea. Thankfully, I’ve matured and realized two things.

First, Democrats aren’t the party of peace. Democrats don’t have enough principles to be the party of anything. If you asked me what today’s Democrat Party stood for, I’d have a hard time finding an answer. I see Bernie Sanders out shouting about oligarchies and I see old liberal white ladies and they/thems protesting Donald Trump and Elon Musk by singing silly songs and blowing up car dealerships. I see Democrat members of Congress focusing everything they have on one sketchy citizen of El Salvador when their constituents can’t even read and write because their school systems are teaching first graders about gender-neutral genitalia.

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Indian ex-diplomat Bhadrakumar has his own unique view. Of course the fresh tensions with Pakistan come up too. Two nuke nations fighting, lovely.

Trump’s Diplomacy Gains Traction, Silences Sceptics (Bhadrakumar)

The US President Donald Trump is a lone ranger in international arena and a self-confessed practitioner of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s absolute maxim that ours is not an era of wars no matter the ‘casus belli’. He sets a high benchmark for himself and makes himself open to attack by hawkish opinion makers at home, although a staunch nationalist who puts American interests first regardless of their legitimacy. Trump’s cabinet ministers do not necessarily subscribe to his bottom line, as the vitriolic, intrusive remark by the US’ Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, regarding the cascading tensions in India-Pakistan relations would suggest. The stunning thing about Trump’s mindset is that he is also a man of convictions.

Not many would know or choose to recall that this extraordinary person, decades before he actually waded into American politics and threw his hat on the presidential ring as an outlier, paid to New York Times a princely sum of $98,000 out of his (businessman’s) pocket to feature a one-page supplement at the dawn of the Ronald Reagan presidency espousing the hidden charms of a détente with the Soviet Union and offered his services as special envoy dedicated to that task. The run-of-the-mill politicians may pontificate noble thoughts but do not practice them when the crunch time comes. On the contrary, strong convictions have a multiplier effect on Trump’s actions, which is what distinguishes his diplomacy so far. The image of his one-on-one with Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky at the Vatican on Saturday will remain etched in memory for a very long time to come.

In the chaotic international situation today as the world order is transitioning from one epochal era — nearly five centuries of western dominance — to another that is inchoate still, the temptation is always there for the US, as by far the single biggest military power on the planet, to leverage its prowess and coercive means to have its way. In fact, globalism and the neocon ideology of interventionism are still very much the principal current in the stream of consciousness of American elites, civilian and military, and is a bipartisan consensus too.

Tulsi Gabbard is not an exception; today’s papers have reported that another neocon well-known in South Asia as a long-time specialist on the South Asian region, Christine Fair, has echoed the very same “free hand to India” chorus — and, unlike Gabbard, she has actually done extensive work on the region and is credited with insights into Pakistan’s use of terrorists as state policy. “That’s the right message to send even if by accident. Why should the US bail out Pakistan by trying to restrain India? Pakistan has to be taught a lesson… by India,” Fair posted on X. Suffice to say, on all three major vectors of the present international situation, Trump is reining in the US’ natural instincts for use of force — the Ukraine crisis, the situation around Iran and the Indo-Pacific devolving upon US-China relations. And that is already having a calming effect on international security.

Credit goes entirely to Trump for the backtracking by Russian President Vladimir Putin from the high horse he mounted on June 14 last year in his landmark speech at the foreign ministry in Moscow where he set forth conditions for commencing dialogue with Ukraine, which included, amazingly enough, a summary withdrawal by Ukrainian forces from the territories they still held in Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts in the southeastern regions of their country! Of course, Putin is a pragmatist but if he felt emboldened to make concessions it is at the astonishing sight of the smart power that Trump deployed to whittle down Zelensky’s obdurate stance by holding in front of the latter to sip from a chalice of poison accepting that Crimea is an integral part of Russia!

On the other hand, Trump has scattered the hare-brained scheme of the UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron for the creation of a ‘coalition of the willing’ for deployment in Ukraine as a bulwark against Russia. In political terms, Trump crushed at one stroke the resistance from Europe to his peace plans for Ukraine and asserted the US’ leadership. Most important, Trump forced Zelensky (and his European backers) to see the writing on the wall that the choice is between travelling on the pathway that he is opening through peace talks or inviting his country’s annexation by Russia. And in this entire enterprise, not a volley of shots was fired by the Pentagon.

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Full CBS interview is here.

Moscow Ready To Seek ‘Balance Of Interests’ With Ukraine and US – Lavrov (RT)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has rebuked CBS host in an interview on Sunday repeating that Moscow is ready to seek a “balance of interests” both with Ukraine and with the US. The network’s journalist Margaret Brennan has said that she haven’t heard from the top diplomat that Moscow “is willing to make any concession on anything to date.” “No, my brief answer is you are wrong,” Lavrov told Brennan. “I have been emphasizing repeatedly, in relation to Ukraine, in relation to strategic relations with the United States, I have been emphasizing our readiness to seek balance of interests. If- if this is not what your station considers readiness for negotiations, then I don’t know how to be even less eloquent in trying to be brief in my answers,” he added. Lavrov confirmed that Russia is continuing contacts with Washington regarding Ukraine and welcomed US President Donald Trump’s efforts to mediate.

“There are several signs that we are moving in the right direction,” Lavrov said. He emphasized that Russia demands guarantees that any ceasefire “would not be used again to beef up Ukrainian military” and that arms supplies to Ukraine should stop. Russian President Vladimir Putin held lengthy talks on Friday with US special envoy Steve Witkoff at the Kremlin. Presidential adviser Yury Ushakov described the meeting as “constructive and very useful,” adding that the discussion touched on the idea of resuming direct negotiations between Moscow and Kiev. Trump, commenting on the state of the negotiations, said Ukraine and Russia “should now meet, at very high levels, to ‘finish it off.’ Most of the major points are agreed to.” In the interview, Lavrov reiterated Russia’s position on Crimea, stating, “Russia does not negotiate [over] its own territory,” and praised President Trump for acknowledging the peninsula’s status.

Crimea “will stay with Russia” in any peace deal, Trump told Time Magazine in an article published on Friday. He said that even Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky understands this. “It’s been with them [Russia] for a long time,” the US president stated, noting that Russia had its submarines there “long before any period that we’re talking about” and that the majority of Crimeans speak Russian. Russian officials have repeatedly said that Moscow is open to a negotiated solution, but have emphasized that any agreement must reflect the territorial realities on the ground and address the root causes of the conflict. Zelensky insisted on Wednesday that Kiev would never officially recognize Crimea as Russian. Trump sharply rebuked that statement as “very harmful to the Peace Negotiations with Russia in that Crimea was lost years ago.”

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Of course. Guns are discussed in cathedrals. Where else?

‘Calmer’ Zelensky Requested ‘More Weapons’ In Vatican – Trump (RT)

US President Donald Trump has said Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky was “calmer” during their meeting in the Vatican at the weekend and seemed more open to making a deal with Moscow than during their infamous encounter in the Oval Office. Speaking to reporters before boarding Air Force One on Sunday, Trump said the tone of his latest discussion with Zelensky was markedly different from their “little dispute” in February, which saw the Ukrainian delegation kicked out of the White House. “I see him as calmer. I think he understands the picture. And I think he wants to make a deal. I don’t know if he wanted to make a deal [before]. I think he wants to make a deal,” Trump said.

Earlier this week, Trump told Time magazine that “Crimea will stay with Russia” under any peace agreement, noting that even Zelensky “understands” the reality, despite public declarations to the contrary. Asked whether he believed Zelensky was now prepared to “give up” the peninsula, Trump responded: “Oh, I think so, yeah.” Zelensky has repeatedly and publicly insisted that Kiev would never formally recognize Crimea as Russian territory – a position Trump has previously criticized as “very harmful to the peace negotiations.” Despite portraying Zelensky as someone who wants to do “something good for the country,” Trump revealed that the Ukrainian leader again asked Washington for more military support.

“He told me that he needs more weapons, but he has been saying that for three years,” Trump stated. The US president noted that Kiev was in a “very tough situation,” fighting “a much bigger force” — and emphasized that “it helped them when we gave them $350 billion worth of weapons or cash.” “He needs more weapons, and we are gonna see what happens with respect to Russia,” Trump added, noting that he was “disappointed” with Moscow’s renewed strikes in Ukraine. Following a brief lull in fighting during the Easter ceasefire announced by President Vladimir Putin last weekend, the Russian military carried out multiple long-range strikes against Ukrainian military and industrial targets over the past week. Moscow has maintained that it targets only military installations and facilities used by Kiev’s forces, rejecting accusations of deliberately striking civilian sites.

Moscow has also reiterated its readiness for discussions with Kiev without preconditions. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that the issue was raised during a meeting between President Putin and Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, on Friday. Russian officials have emphasized that any viable long-term settlement must reflect the territorial realities on the ground and address the root causes of the conflict. According to multiple reports, Washington’s proposal seeks to freeze the conflict along the current front lines and recognize Crimea as part of Russia. However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that – unlike Zelensky – Moscow does not intend to discuss confidential details of talks with the US until the process is completed.

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“may be willing to endure effective Russian control of Crimea,” as long as Kiev is not required to legally recognize it as such…”

No, really, you lost.

Zelensky Admits Ukraine Can’t Reclaim Crimea By Force (RT)

Ukraine does not possess the military might necessary to retake Crimea by force, Vladimir Zelensky has conceded. The peninsula joined Russia in 2014 following a referendum. The vote was held in the wake of a Western-backed coup in Kiev earlier that year and amid fears of forced Ukrainization of the predominantly Russian-speaking region. Ukraine has continued to claim sovereignty over Crimea, repeatedly vowing to take it back. On Friday, Interfax-Ukraine quoted Zelensky as saying that “it’s true what President Trump says… that Ukraine does not have enough weapons to regain control of the Crimean Peninsula by force.” The Ukrainian leader expressed hope however that further sanctions and diplomatic pressure on Russia would be conducive to future discussions over “territorial issues,” but only after Kiev and Moscow have sealed a ceasefire.

In an interview with Time Magazine published on Friday, US President Donald Trump stated that “Crimea will stay with Russia” under any peace deal, adding that Zelensky also understands this. Trump went on to claim that the peninsula was “given” to Russia by former US President Barack Obama, and has “been with them for a long time.” He also noted that the majority of Crimeans speak Russian. In a post on his Truth Social platform later that day, Trump claimed that Ukraine and Russia “are very close to a deal, and the two sides should now meet, at very high levels, to ‘finish it off’.” According to media reports, the agreement proposed by Washington includes US recognition of Russian sovereignty over Crimea, a “freezing” of the conflict along the current front line, and acknowledgment of Moscow’s control over large parts of the four former Ukrainian regions that voted to join Russia.

Zelensky, by contrast, reiterated on Friday that Kiev’s “position is unchanged: only the Ukrainian people have the right to decide which territories are Ukrainian.” That same day, the Washington Post, citing anonymous sources, reported that European leaders were pressing Ukraine to accept the likelihood that it would be forced to cede certain territories to Russia as part of a peace accord during a high-level meeting in London on Wednesday. According to the newspaper, Western negotiators have a sense that Ukraine “may be willing to endure effective Russian control of Crimea,” as long as Kiev is not required to legally recognize it as such.

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“Kiev has demanded an unconditional ceasefire before any direct talks can happen.”

A loser’s demands.

New Sanctions On Russia Would Mean Two More Years Of War – Rubio (RT)

The US administration has abstained from imposing new sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine conflict, believing such a move would jeopardize negotiations and prolong hostilities, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said. Speaking to NBC News’ Meet the Press on Sunday, Rubio questioned the usefulness of placing new restrictions on Moscow, stating Washington was “hoping to see” whether the diplomacy would work first. “The minute you start doing that kind of stuff, you’re walking away from it, you’ve now doomed yourself to another two years of war and we don’t want to see it happen,” the top diplomat said. Rubio claimed that the US is the only country or institution speaking to both Kiev and Moscow, and only US President Donald Trump has the potential to bring the warring sides to the negotiating table.

The upcoming week is expected to be “very critical” for the White House with regard to the talks, as the administration is trying to make a “determination about whether this is an endeavor that we want to continue to be involved in.” While Washington does not want to walk away, it does not want to “spend time on something that’s not going to get us there” either, the secretary explained. “There are reasons to be optimistic, but there are reasons to be realistic. We’re close, but we’re not close enough,” he said. The remarks from the US secretary of state come a day after Trump threatened Moscow with new sanctions over the conflict, accusing Russia’s leadership of trying to drag out hostilities and of “shooting missiles” into Ukraine for “no reason” over the past few days. Moscow maintains it only targets facilities and infrastructure used by Kiev’s military, and has repeatedly denied accusations of staging indiscriminate strikes on civilian areas.

Trump’s threats came as Moscow once again reiterated its readiness for discussions with Kiev without preconditions. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed the topic was brought up by Russian President Vladimir Putin during a meeting with Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff in Moscow on Friday. Ukraine’s leader, Vladimir Zelensky, explicitly banned negotiations with Russia for as long as Putin is in charge back in October 2022. Since then, he has seemingly softened his position, claiming the negotiating ban concerned everyone in the country but himself. Most recently, Kiev has demanded an unconditional ceasefire before any direct talks can happen.

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Can’t do everything in 100 days.

Trump Failing to Resolve US Budget Deficit But Slightly Slows Debt Growth (Sp.)

US President Donald Trump has not yet managed to tackle the federal budget deficit during his time in office but has slightly curbed the growth of the national debt, Sputnik has calculated based on US Treasury data.
The US budget remained in deficit for the fifth consecutive month in March, closing with a shortfall of $160.5 billion, nearly half of February’s $307 billion deficit but roughly in line with the average under Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden ($159 billion). At the same time Trump has managed to slow down the rise in US national debt. In November 2024, it reached $36.2 trillion and has since fluctuated near that level.

Meanwhile, at the end of February, the share of foreign holders of US debt in its total volume increased by 0.8 percentage points, reaching 24.3%. Among the five largest “investors” only Japan increased its positions – by 0.11 percentage points compared with January, up to 12.8%. The Cayman Islands fixed their investments at 4.7%. The other members of the top five have slightly weakened their interest in the US government debt over the month: the share of China in total investments decreased by 0.02 percentage points to 8.9%, the UK by 0.17 percentage points to 8.51%, and Luxembourg by 0.13 percentage points to 4.68%.

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“Despite the digital revolution, the Internet, social media, email, and texting, the acquisition of truthful information has become ever more difficult. The reason is that for almost all parties concerned, it is the agenda that is important, not the facts.”

Are Americans Still Americans? (Paul Craig Roberts)

This question came to mind from reading Edward Curtin’s essays, “At the Lost and Found,” (Clarity Press, 2025), in which he shares with readers his intellectual encounters with the rising criminality of the governments of the United States since the 1960s. Edward Curtin is a decent person with a sense of justice and a moral conscience, traits more common in his time than today. I found his moral responses reassuring, and wonder if recent generations would respond in the same way. Curtin, I suspect, was a member of the old moderate left, which was concerned with fairness and pushing a reform here and there. Today this left remains only in its elderly remnants. The modern left is not reformist. It is revolutionary, committed to using law, government, and media to overthrow traditional society and replace it with a Sodom & Gomorrah Tower of Babel in which merit is regarded as a white racist tool.

Today the left, as epitomized by the Biden regime, pushes DEI over merit, sexual perversity over love between a man and a woman, sexualization of young children, demonization of white people as racists, and ideology over truth. Today for the left the truth resides in the ideological agenda, not in facts. Despite the digital revolution, the Internet, social media, email, and texting, the acquisition of truthful information has become ever more difficult. The reason is that for almost all parties concerned, it is the agenda that is important, not the facts. A consequence is that, unlike in the past, today we live in narratives orchestrated to serve agendas. As Curtin puts it, “we are living in a pretend society” in which truth is not present. Curtin’s essays, like my own, vary in quality, but every decent person will enjoy escape from social media into thought about what is happening to us. I am not going to attempt to organize Curtin’s essays around a theme. I am going to limit my comments to two of his essays.

The first is about what has become of Christmas. As my readers know, for several decades it has been my habit to republish my Christmas essay, “The Greatest Gift of All,” to remind people that Christianity gave us freedom and meaning in our lives. In the Massachusetts town in which Curtin and his wife live, Christmas fireworks are a feature. As he and his wife inside their home sit holding and trying to calm the family dogs, “sentient animals with deep feelings,” who are quaking uncontrollably, Curtin thinks of “children in Gaza quivering in fear as the Israelis bomb them night and day in savage attacks” and thinks of “the visceral sense of what those Palestinians must be feeling as they hold their trembling children” who are declared by Israel’s leader to be “useless objects.”

It is America’s shame that the entire government of the United States, including President Trump, the media, and the brainwashed and indoctrinated hapless American population accept the destruction of a people, even enable it with weapons and money and deportation of persons with sufficient moral conscience to protest the genocide of a nation. Curtin has every right to raise the question, what kind of people have Americans become? The second essay is about Curtin’s “Known Knowns,” which consists of the massive lies that the US government has based its rule upon, regardless of whether Republican or Democrat, since the 1960s. In a mere 8 pages Curtin presents the history of the US government’s degeneration into evil kept in power by lies.

He begins with the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, and goes on to Allan Dulles who engineered slaughter of one million Indonesians, the orchestrated Vietnam War, the Watergate scandal orchestrated by the CIA to drive Nixon from power, the neoconservatives’ Iran-Contra scandal, the orchestrated Persian Gulf War, the Clinton regime’s bombing of four countries in four months –Afghanistan, Sudan, Iraq, and Yugoslavia, the 9/11 false flag attacks on the World Trade Center, the George W. Bush regime’s fake “war on terror,” used to strip Americans of civil liberties and to attack Afghanistan and Iraq, President Obama who institutionalized the warfare state and bombed seven countries, Trump who allowed the deadly Covid vaccine to be imposed on us and subjects the conscience of America to the support of Israel’s genocide of Palestine, and Biden who engineered the anti-Russian coup in Ukraine, renewed war with Russia, and imprisoned American citizens for exercising their constitutional rights.

From the standpoint of the American Establishment, the problem with Curtin’s indictment is that it is true. In today’s America, to tell the truth is becoming an indication of treason for which whistleblowers, allegedly protected by federal law, are being imprisoned. This is not changing under Trump. Instead, it is expanding. If you criticize Israel, you are deported. Thus, under the Trump regime, if you speak the truth about Israel, you are considered an enemy of the state. Americans really do need to think about how they arrived at this position. Curtin’s essays will help you.

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Might be a good idea. It’s what the nation was built on.

AG Pam Bondi Leads Task Force To ‘Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias’ (JTN)

Attorney General Pam Bondi and other members of President Donald Trump’s cabinet have launched a task force to address anti-Christian bias in federal agencies that they argue escalated under the Biden administration. The goal of the task force is to identify any unlawful, anti-Christian policies, practices or conduct across the government. The task force will in that effort seek input from the faith-based organizations and state governments to end such bias and fix deficiencies in existing and regulatory practices that might be contributing factors. “The Biden administration engaged in an egregious pattern of targeting peaceful Christians while ignoring violent anti-Christian offenses,” Bondi said at the task force’s first meeting. “Pro-life Christians were arrested and imprisoned for peacefully praying outside abortion clinics. The FBI spied on traditional Catholics in their parishes. … Vandalism against churches was eight times higher in 2023 than it was in 2018.”

Bondi continued: “No longer. We ended those abuses at the Department of Justice on Day One. We dropped three ongoing cases against pro-lifers. … Just a few weeks ago, we convicted a man in Arizona for a plot to bomb Christian churches. The Department of Justice will protect religious liberty for Christians and for all Americans.” The task force was launched in response to an executive order issued by Trump and in response to pledges Bondi and others made during their Senate confirmation hearings. In response to hearing questions raised by Missouri GOP Sen. Josh Hawley, Bondi vowed to investigate the DOJ’s so-called “weaponization” of people of faith, The Center Square reported. In mid-2022, attacks by pro-abortion activists increased against a range of anti-abortion targets and U.S. Supreme Court justices ahead of the Supreme Court overturning the landmark abortion case, Roe v Wade.

At the time, protesters were targeting justices’ homes, and 25 attorneys general and U.S. senators called on the DOJ to enforce a federal law prohibiting anyone from targeting judges’ homes, The Center Square reported. The agency ignored their request. More than 100 pregnancy care centers and 300 churches were attacked, vandalized and firebombed, but the DOJ prosecuted only two cases, Hawley said. The Biden administration DOJ wouldn’t “lift a finger to defend [prolife] Americans but at the same time they used … the Face Act to prosecute at least 53 different pro-life demonstrators,” he also said. Prior to being confirmed as FBI director, Kash Patel also told Hawley he would investigate who wrote a Jan. 23, 2023, FBI Richmond, Virginia, field office memo “making a list of Catholic churches and parishes that they regard as potentially suspect and directing the potential recruitment of informants and other spies” into them, The Center Square reported.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio raised concerns about some Christian Foreign Service Officers being threatened for homeschooling their children, including being referred to the IRS, threatened with prosecution, and investigated by the Inspector General’s Office. He also cited examples of State Department employees being harassed because they refused to take a COVID-19 vaccine, citing religious reasons. He also discussed allegations that religious freedom policy offices and programs were sidelined unless they promoted diversity, equity and inclusion policies. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the Biden administration threatened the St. Francis Health System, in Oklahoma, by telling the facility to put out a sanctuary candle or risk losing Medicare, Medicaid or Children’s Health Insurance Program funding and agency rules dissuaded Christians from becoming foster parents.

Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said Oregon educators were fired for helping others teach without violating their conscience in response to so-called gender identity education policies and how public schools were transitioning minors without parental consent or knowledge. Deputy Treasury Secretary Michael Faulkender said the Biden administration implemented “financial surveillance” and removed certain IRS tax classifications of Christian and pro-life organizations through a “debanking” process and FinCEN’s identified certain pro-Christian groups as “hate groups.”

The Biden administration brought federal criminal charges and obtained multi-year prison sentences against nearly two dozen anti-abortion Christians who prayed and demonstrated outside abortion facilities. Those convicted included a Catholic priest, a 75-year-old grandmother, an 87-year-old woman, and a father of 11 children who was “arrested 18 months after praying and singing hymns outside an abortion facility in Tennessee as a part of a politically motivated prosecution campaign by the Biden Administration,” Trump said in his order. On his third day in office, Trump “rectified this injustice … by issuing pardons in these cases.” Trump said his administration “will not tolerate anti-Christian weaponization of government or unlawful conduct targeting Christians” and that Americans will be protected to practice their faith in peace, and those targeting them will be brought to justice.

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Will be presented as some dictators’ craze, but entire departments are populated by TDS, so he may not have a choice if he wants to get aything done.

White House To Evaluate Officials’ Loyalty To Trump – WSJ (RT)

A US government agency will begin assessing federal workers based on their loyalty to President Donald Trump, the Wall Street Journal has reported. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which is the US federal government’s human-resources arm, has been tasked with leading the evaluation program, the outlet said in an article on Saturday. According to memos from OPM Acting Director Chuck Ezell, which were seen by the WSJ, high-ranking civil servants will be judged based on their “faithful administration of the law and the president’s policies.” The documents described advancing Trump’s agenda as the “most critical element” in measuring the performance of the officials, the report read. The new performance plan is expected to be adopted by the US government agencies by the beginning of fiscal year 2026, it added.

The WSJ stressed that civil servants had also been graded previously, but it was done based on factors such as business acumen, leadership skills, ability to build coalitions and results of their work. During the previous Democratic administration of President Joe Biden, staffing policy focused heavily on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices. Critics, however, argued that DEI initiatives often prioritized identity over merit, leading to claims of lowered standards and divisiveness. Many companies, including, Walt Disney, JPMorgan Chase, Amazon, and Google, facing similar criticisms and legal challenges, have since scaled back or entirely abandoned their DEI programs. Shortly after assuming office in January, Trump signed several executive orders aimed at eliminating DEI initiatives, describing them as “radical,” within the federal government, its contractors, and grantees.

The WSJ said that OPM had already begun approving positions that other federal agencies are looking to add in what it described as an attempt by the Trump administration “to consolidate control over the hiring and firing of federal workers.” The Office of Personnel Management will also continue some of the government downsizing efforts initiated by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, according to the report. Musk announced earlier this week that he will scale back his involvement as the head of the US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and refocus on his business activities. The world’s richest man explained his decision by saying that “major work” to establish DOGE has now been completed. However, Musk clarified that he has no intention of stepping away from his work at the agency altogether, adding that he would still spend “a day or two per week on government matters.”

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How much does he need in tariffs?

Trump Floats Plan To Slash Income Taxes For Millions Using Tariff Cash (ZH)

President Donald Trump doubled down Sunday on his plan to use tariff revenue to slash – and possibly eliminate – income taxes for millions of Americans. [The former president] took to Truth Social to tout his vision, claiming that his sweeping tariffs could lead to big tax breaks for workers making under $200,000 a year. “When Tariffs cut in, many people’s Income Taxes will be substantially reduced, maybe even completely eliminated. Focus will be on people making less than $200,000 a year,” Trump wrote. The bold pledge comes as public anxiety grows over the economic fallout from Trump’s aggressive trade policies, which have rattled global markets and fueled fears of higher prices at home. In the weeks since Trump slapped so-called reciprocal tariffs on dozens of countries – including a staggering 145% levy on Chinese goods, economists have sounded the alarm that the tariffs could backfire, hurting American consumers more than foreign rivals.

That said – not everyone’s excited after Trump told TIME Magazine in the April 25 edition that he “love[s] the concept” of raising taxes on millionaires as a means of paying for an extension of the 2017 tax cuts. “I certainly don’t mind having a tax increase,” Trump told TIME. “I would be honored to pay more, but I don’t want to be in a position where we lose an election because I was generous, but me, as a rich person, would not mind paying and you know, we’re talking about very little.” He said it would involve raising taxes on the wealthy to “take care of [the] middle class.” “But I don’t want it to be used against me politically, because I’ve seen people lose elections for less, especially with the fake news.” Former White House strategist Steve Bannon told News Nation’s “CUOMO” on Friday that he supported the idea.

“This is being fought behind closed doors right now, and I’m telling you, with the massive tax cut, in addition, he’s going to give the working class and the middle class, the math only works out if you actually increase taxes on the wealthy,” Bannon said. The former White House strategist said it could help Trump politically if he decided to run again in 2028, despite the Constitution preventing a third term in the Oval Office. However, on April 23, the day after he sat down with TIME, Trump told reporters at the White House that raising taxes on the wealthy could be “very disruptive” and could lead to a loss of money for the United States. House Speaker Mike Johnson dismissed the idea in an interview with Fox News. “I’m not in favor of raising the tax rates because our party is the party that stands against that,” Johnson said on April 23.

He acknowledged that the proposal had been discussed as one of many possible ways to permanently implement personal income tax cuts in the Republicans’ final funding package. “There were lots of ideas thrown out on the table along this process over the last year, but I would just say for everybody, just wait and see,” Johnson said. A CBS News poll released Sunday found 69% of Americans believe the Trump administration isn’t focused enough on lowering prices. Approval of Trump’s handling of the economy dropped to 42%, down from 51% in early March, Bloomberg reports. Still, Trump’s team insists their strategy will pay off – eventually. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, appearing on ABC’s “This Week,” defended the president’s approach, saying consumers are still spending and talks are underway with 17 key trading partners to hammer out bilateral deals.

“We have a process in place, over the next 90 days, to negotiate with them,” Bessent said. “Some of those are moving along very well, especially with the Asian countries.” Bessent also insisted China would have no choice but to return to the negotiating table under pressure from Trump’s new tariff wall. “Their business model is predicated on selling cheap, subsidized goods to the US,” Bessent said. “And if there’s a sudden stop in that, they will have a sudden stop in the economy, so they will negotiate.” Bessent also explained America’s “barbell” economy – in which there is a “financial system and tech sector that is the envy of the world” on one hand, and “a natural resource-economy led by energy” on the other end. Trump has claimed that talks with China are ongoing – a claim Beijing has flatly denied. Bessent admitted he didn’t know if Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping had spoken directly, noting that Chinese officials he saw during a global finance summit last week stuck to safer topics like “financial stability” and “early warnings.”

Despite the rocky start, Bessent said he’s optimistic that a path forward could emerge, starting with a “de-escalation” and leading to an “agreement in principle” – even if a full trade deal takes longer. Meanwhile, Trump is eyeing sweeping tax changes at home. His 2017 tax cuts are set to expire at the end of 2025, and he has vowed to not only extend them but expand them, exempting workers’ tips, slashing the corporate tax rate to 15%, and possibly wiping out income taxes for working-class Americans. The House GOP’s early-April framework allows for up to $5.3 trillion in tax cuts over the next decade. Trade adviser Peter Navarro has suggested tariff revenue could more than cover that – a claim most economists dismiss as wildly optimistic. Reports already show that Trump’s tariffs are expected to hit lower-income Americans harder than the wealthy, potentially complicating the president’s pitch to working families. But Trump, undeterred, appears ready to bet that tariff-fueled tax cuts will give him a powerful message heading into the 2026 midterms, even if voters are feeling the pinch now.

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Control trumps money.

Trump Wants US Ships to Travel Through Panama, Suez Canals for Free (ET)

President Donald Trump said on April 26 that U.S. military and commercial ships should be allowed to pass through the Panama and Suez canals “free of charge.”“Those Canals would not exist without the United States of America,” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social. “I’ve asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio to immediately take care of, and memorialize, this situation!” Stretching across the isthmus that connects North America and South America, the Panama Canal allows ships to quickly traverse between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and it carries roughly 40 percent of U.S. container traffic yearly. American and British leaders and businessmen discussed plans for building the canal throughout the 1800s as a way to quickly and cheaply transport goods without having to travel around the southern tip of South America to get between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. The United States built the canal between 1903 and 1914.

President Jimmy Carter negotiated the Torrijos-Carter Treaties, ratified by the Senate in 1978, that set in motion the relinquishing of control of the canal to Panama. That finally came to fruition in 1999. Trump has previously said that he wants to “take back” the canal and bring it under U.S. control, suggesting that he would not rule out using economic or military force to regain the shipping passageway. Earlier this month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the United States was partnering with Panama to secure the Panama Canal while countering China’s “malign influence.” “The Panama Canal is key terrain that must be secured by Panama, with America and not China,” Hegseth said at a joint press conference with Panamanian Public Security Minister Frank Abrego. The two nations signed a memorandum of understanding on bilateral security matters in the region that will see an expansion of joint training exercises between the United States and Panama while improving interoperability between their militaries, the secretary said.

The Suez Canal, which connects the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, was constructed in the late 1800s. However, recent military conflicts and terrorist attacks in the area have disrupted shipping traffic moving through the Suez Canal, forcing some ships to reroute around Africa’s southern Cape of Good Hope instead of using the corridor. The Houthi terrorist group, backed by Iran, has caused repeated shipping disruptions in the area, according to the Atlantic Council, which estimates that the canal generated roughly $9.4 billion in revenue for Egypt in 2022–2023. The Trump administration has approved multiple targeted strikes on the Houthis this year. Trump said the strikes would continue until the group no longer disrupts shipping between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.

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“Diplomats view European Commission President von der Leyen as “toxic,” asserting that her resignation could help “unblock many issues”..”

Fish Rots From Its Head: Senior EU Officials Call For Ursula’s Resignation (Sp.)

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s track record as a politician is marred by a number of scandals. During the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, she made a deal with US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla to buy 1.8 billion doses of then-untested COVID vaccines worth about $37.6 billion. Diplomats view European Commission President von der Leyen as “toxic,” asserting that her resignation could help “unblock many issues”, according to Switzerland’s Die Weltwoche weekly. The EU is currently embroiled in a crisis marked by internal divisions, a trade dispute with the United States, and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, among other things, the publication notes. Von der Leyen’s resignation could foster greater diversity within the EU and promote openness toward the East and the West, the Swiss weekly maintains.

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“..offering children £1,500 and teddy bears to take part in Covid vaccine trials..”

Moderna Faces UK Suspension Over Covid Jab Breaches (Tel.)

Moderna could face suspension from Britain’s pharmaceutical trade body following a string of breaches of the regulatory code. The Covid vaccine maker is due to be audited by the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA) over “unacceptable” practices that brought discredit upon the industry. If found to be lacking adequate compliance systems, Moderna could ultimately be suspended or expelled from the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (APBI). It follows several code breaches, including representatives of the company offering children £1,500 and teddy bears to take part in Covid vaccine trials. In a fresh ruling, which is expected to be published in the coming days, the company was also found to have misled regulators about when it first became aware of the financial incentives to children.

Moderna claimed it had taken action as soon as it was notified about the cash offer by the Health Research Agency in January 2024, but it has now emerged that senior executives were informed in August 2023 by the campaign group UsForThem, yet failed to take action. Under the Medicines for Human Use (Clinical Trials) regulations, it is prohibited for incentives or financial inducements to be given to children or their parents. The PMCPA ruled the company had shown a lack of transparency that was “completely unacceptable” and brought discredit upon the industry. A senior employee was also found to have co-authored three articles, including one with Nadhim Zahawi, the former vaccines minister, which promoted Moderna’s Covid vaccine without disclosing he worked for the company. He also sent promotional tweets from a personal account without revealing his role.

The PMCPA said the article and tweets amounted to advertising the vaccine, and viewed the failure to inform readers of links to Moderna as unacceptable. Molly Kingsley, the founder of UsForThem, said: “Many of the previous judgments against Moderna have revealed how readily it put profit ahead of the health and safety of children. “Now it has also laid bare just how little regard it has had for the regulatory system that was supposed to keep it honest. “Never before has a company so new to the pharmaceutical industry been rebuked in this way.” In two new rulings, Moderna was found to have made ten new breaches of the code. UsforThem said it was particularly worrying as they related to three senior executives at the company. The PMCPA said that an audit was now necessary to look at whether Moderna’s culture, governance and framework were operating effectively, and said the Appeal Board would then consider whether further sanctions were needed after auditors had reported back.

The Appeal Board can report a company to the APBI board, which can suspend or expel them from the APBI. Suspension or expulsion would be a blow for Moderna, which only joined in 2023. The APBI has taken the measure just nine times in the past 40 years. The last company to be suspended was Novo Nordisk in 2023. The company manufactures the high-profile weight loss drugs Saxenda and Wegovy, and type 2 diabetes drug Ozempic. Its membership was restored in March. In the past year, Moderna has been ordered to pay thousands for breaches of the regulations, including for using off-label data to promote its Spikevax vaccine at the European congress of clinical microbiology and infectious diseases in April 2022. But critics argue the company’s revenue is nearly £7 billion in 2023, so with such small sums it has no incentive to stick to the rules, while being suspended from the APBI only brings reputational damage.

Esther McVey MP, a former member of the all-party parliamentary group on Covid vaccine damage, said: “There have now been six cases over the last few months where the UK Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA) have ruled against Moderna regarding multiple breaches of the industry’s Code of Practice. “The news that the PMCPA is taking the highly unusual step of ordering an audit of Moderna’s culture, governance and compliance framework is reputationally damaging, but it is incredible that the regulator has no real power to impose appropriate fines or other meaningful penalties which might make pharmaceutical companies think twice before breaking the rules. “They know they can get away with it, and so they do; time and time again. It’s hardly surprising that public trust in the pharmaceutical industry and its regulators is through the floor.”

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Economist Lacalle asserts that if the iMF and World Bank would have done their job instead of going woke, the tariff war would never have happened,

International Institutions Must Abandon “Wokeism” (Lacalle)

The scandal over the alleged corruption of the founder of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos would be just an anecdote were it not another example of what has happened recently with many international institutions. The Financial Times reveals that the WEF founder faces accusations of manipulating the organization’s analysis to gain favour with governments. For years, many of us have watched with sadness as an important forum like Davos shifted from being a centre for debate and confrontation of ideas in defence of free enterprise to becoming a loudspeaker for the most interventionist ideas, the most damaging statism, and a whitewasher of authoritarian governments, spreading the destructive ideas of inflationism, socialism, and wokeism— which, in reality, are all the same.

Davos went from being a forum for debate to a congregation for repeating interventionist dogmas and whitewashing a single, extractive mindset; those who defended economic freedom, attractive taxes, and control over public spending were gradually ostracised. We have heard enthusiastic applause for those demanding more taxes and greater assaults on job creators, and one-sided debates in which all participants repeated clichés and words like “resilience” and “sustainability” as Trojan horses for predatory statism, where the idea of creating value and wealth was repudiated. Do you remember the aberration of “you will own nothing and be happy”, abandoning profit generation as a goal, or the suggestion that coffee cultivation should be banned because it contributes to climate change? With phrases like “equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to basic services, ownership and control over land and other forms of property, inheritance, and natural resources”, the most absurd and obsolete collectivism was being sold.

It hasn’t just happened in Davos. This week, Scott Bessent, the U.S. Treasury Secretary, confronted the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, exposing their complicity in selling the flawed products of socialist interventionism. “The IMF and the World Bank have enduring value, but their mission has drifted off course.” It was very frustrating to see how these institutions whitewashed the constant increase in the weight of governments in the economy, confiscatory taxes, and inflationism through fiscal and monetary excess. They have forgotten their role as guarantors of economic logic, defenders of wealth creators, enforcers of fiscal responsibility, and enforcers of tax prudence. Instead, they became increasingly permissive with authoritarian, exploitative, and wasteful governments.

Bessent stated: “The IMF has suffered from mission creep. The IMF was once unwavering in its mission of promoting global monetary cooperation and financial stability. Now it devotes disproportionate time and resources to work on climate change, gender, and social issues.” Just like other institutions, such as the European Central Bank, which also set climate change as a goal while abandoning its true aim of price stability, they focus on cosmetic and ideological issues unrelated to monetary policy, financial stability, and fiscal responsibility, as these are matters for government social policy. Moreover, many of these supposed social concerns only serve to hide the whitewashing of a constant increase in government excesses, uncontrolled spending, debt, and rising taxes.

Bessent added: “The International Monetary Fund should be a brutal revealer of the truth. Instead, it is ‘whistling past the graveyard.’” This statement from Bessent mirrors the perception of any freedom defender in many of the IMF’s reports: it acquiesces as governments push their countries, companies, and self-employed workers towards financial ruin. Do you remember the IMF’s 2020 call to “do whatever it takes and keep the receipts”? Governments happily rushed to spend without control, printing money recklessly, leaving poverty, inflation, runaway debt, and suffocating taxes in their wake. However, in 2024, when over seventy countries were spending uncontrollably due to elections and the public debt was rapidly increasing, the IMF declared a strategy of “safe but slow growth: resilience with divergence”. Incredible.

Regarding the World Bank, Bessent stated: “The bank should no longer expect blank cheques for vapid, buzzword-centric marketing accompanied by half-hearted commitments to reform.” If the institutions that should guarantee financial stability, economic logic, fiscal responsibility, and business growth focus on disguising fiscal and monetary imbalances or ignoring attacks on private property, financial and monetary stability, or free enterprise in countries with totalitarian regimes and interventionist governments, they cease to fulfil their functions and become the orchestra on the Titanic. It is time to abandon propaganda, excuses, and cosmetics. It is time to stop whitewashing interventionism and recover the essential role these institutions play in preserving and strengthening growth. It is time to stop justifying wasteful governments and return to defending businesses and wealth creators.

We cannot forget the importance of the IMF, World Bank, ECB, or WEF as guarantors of economic and financial stability and monetary soundness. Their work is essential. Do not forget it. They must return to defending what creates wealth, reduces poverty, and improves the lives of citizens: business growth, the free market, economic freedom, and fiscal and monetary prudence. Their association with predatory authoritarian governments has led to a significant loss of their former prestige. If Davos, the IMF and mainstream economists had been half as blunt about China and other nations’ tariffs and trade barriers in the past decade as they are today about US trade policy, we would not need forced negotiations to level the playing field.

Dear institutions: It is time to remind the world that progress comes from saving, economic freedom, and prudent investment, not from political spending, debt, and monetary inflationism. The great institutions have much to contribute, but they must know they face two alternatives: recover their mission as defenders of fiscal and monetary responsibility and economic freedom or disappear.

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