Lindsey Graham has said he hopes the activist, who is sailing to Gaza to protest the Israeli naval blockade, can swim

Joining the flotilla that aims to break Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip may end badly for Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, US Senator Lindsey Graham has warned in a post on X.

On Sunday, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FCC) announced that one of its yachts, crewed by 12 people, including Thunberg, had left Sicily for Gaza with a “symbolic” cargo of humanitarian aid.

"Hope Greta and her friends can swim!” wrote Graham, a staunch supporter of Israel and an ally of US President Donald Trump, apparently implying that Thunberg’s boat, the Madleen, could be sunk.

The previous Freedom Flotilla mission was aborted in early May after one of the boats, named Conscience, was hit by two drones in international waters near Malta. The FCC blamed Israel for the attack. Israel did not comment.

Thunberg said before her departure that “no matter how dangerous this mission is, it is nowhere near as dangerous as the silence of the entire world in the face of the lives being genocized [sic],” in the Gaza Strip.

Hope Greta and her friends can swim!https://t.co/Noab4QyJtV

Israel has denied accusations of perpetrating genocide, and has blamed the brutal suffering of the Palestinian population on the unwillingness of Hamas to lay down arms. West Jerusalem has justified the naval blockade of Gaza, in place since 2007, by the need to prevent arms deliveries to the Palestinian fighters.

According to the UN, one in five people in the Gaza Strip is now facing starvation, following a renewed Israeli offensive that began in March.

READ MORE: Man throws Molotov cocktails at pro-Israel activists in Colorado (VIDEOS)

Israel began its military operation in the enclave in response to a cross-border raid by Hamas on October 7, 2023, in which around 1,200 people died and 250 others were taken prisoner. Israel’s 18-month military response has killed more than 54,400 Palestinians, almost half of whom are women and children, and wounded over 124,000, according to the latest data from the enclave’s Health Ministry.

Dear OnePeterFive donors, supporters, and readers, Christ is risen! Happy Sacred Heart month everybody. This is a glorious month filled with the glory of Christ in His Church. Turns out if you Google “Restore June to the Sacred Heart” you get our articles on this subject: Thank you, Artificial Intelligence! This is the month where Catholics can show forth their love for…

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Latvia has reportedly cited national security concerns over some real estate holdings close to critical infrastructure

Latvia has prohibited entry for Russian citizens who own real estate near strategically important sites in the country, citing national security concerns, local broadcaster TV3 reported on Monday.

According to a statement from the Latvian State Security Service (VDD) cited in the report, a series of agency probes has identified risks emanating from Russian-owned properties near critical infrastructure.

As a result, “in several cases,” Russian property owners have been blacklisted and prohibited from entering Latvia.

Latvian authorities are trying to limit purported Russian influence within its borders. A former Soviet republic, like Baltic neighbors Estonia and Lithuania, it has adopted an increasingly hardline stance against Moscow since the Ukraine conflict escalated in February 2022.

Riga announced sweeping travel restrictions for Russian nationals, barred Russian-registered vehicles from entering the country, and introduced a mandatory Latvian language test for Russians, deporting thousands of those who refused to take it or failed.

Riga has also moved to ban Russians from owning property. A bill presently before parliament aims to prohibit citizens of Russia and Belarus, as well as companies linked to them, from acquiring real estate in Latvia, citing potential threats to national security and circumvention of Western sanctions.

Latvian Interior Minister Rihards Kozlovskis has cited “a hybrid war” with Russia, and urged EU members prohibit the issuance of Schengen tourist visas to Russian nationals, alleging risks of sabotage.

The three Baltic states, all NATO members bordering Russia, have also warned of potential invasion once the Ukraine conflict ends. Russia has repeatedly dismissed the warnings as “nonsense” meant to scare the European population and justify increases in military spending.

READ MORE: EU country reveals how to spot ‘Russian spies’

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova recently accused the Latvian authorities of “blatant discrimination against Russians,” saying many of their policies were openly Russophobic. She said Russophobia had “reached a new high” in the Baltics in recent years and warned that Latvia, in particular, would have to answer to the International Court of Justice if it continued with its discriminatory practices.

Portuguese political activist Afonso Goncalves has said a local bank closed his personal account without warning or explanation.  

Goncalves, 24, is the founder of Reconquista, a right-wing nationalist movement established in 2023, who describes his association as a “metapolitical” initiative aimed at reshaping Portugal’s cultural and political landscape.  

The activist said Novobanco, a major Portuguese bank, closed his account without explanation and did not respond to requests for answers.  

“I asked them to send me a reason in writing. They simply said ‘no’,” Goncalves said a video posted to YouTube on Friday.   

The activist is known for his vocal support of financial transparency and freedom of speech. In his video, he appeared to link the closure to his political views, though he did not provide evidence for this claim. He stated, “This is what happens when you speak the truth. You get shut down.”  

Account closures by banks in Portugal are legally allowed under certain conditions, such as suspected fraud or compliance with anti-money laundering laws. However, financial institutions are typically required to provide a reason upon request. Goncalves did not say whether he intends to file a formal complaint.  

No court proceedings or legal actions related to the closure have been reported so far. Goncalves concluded his video by saying he would continue to “fight for financial freedom” and encouraged others to be aware of what he described as “systemic censorship.”  

Bank account closures have become increasingly common in the West. In Britain, right-wing Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage said in June 2023 that private bank Coutts closed his account. Parent company NatWest first cited financial grounds, but internal documents later reportedly showed his political views influenced the decision.   

In Canada, authorities froze the bank accounts of Freedom Convoy protesters in 2022 under emergency powers. Then-Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said the measure targeted those funding the anti-government protests.   

The most recent case took place in Germany last month when former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder faced payment blocks from Sparkasse Hannover over concerns about Russian ties. The bank reportedly blocked nearly €500,000 in annual transfers linked to Schroeder’s role on the board of Nord Stream 2, a pipeline project owned by Russian energy giant Gazprom, despite him not being under sanctions.

Étienne-Émile Baulieu, the French scientist who developed the abortion pill RU-486, also known as mifepristone, died Friday at his home in Paris at the age of 98. Pro-life advocates worldwide mourned the millions and millions of babies the abortion drug has killed.

Baulieu, born Étienne Blum on Dec. 12, 1926, in Strasbourg, developed RU-486 in 1982, a dangerous drug that blocks progesterone, a hormone essential for pregnancy, leading to the starvation of an unborn baby and his or her eventual death. The drug, which pro-life groups note has facilitated the loss of countless unborn children, not accounts for approximately 63% of abortions in the United States in 2023, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

Baulieu’s invention has been a tragedy for the unborn. Millions of babies have been denied life because of this pill, and its widespread use has desensitized society to the sanctity of human life from conception.

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Baulieu, an endocrinologist who earned doctorates in medicine in 1955 and science in 1963, founded a pioneering hormone research unit at INSERM, France’s health and medical research institute. His work on RU-486, which he described as a “non-invasive” alternative to surgical abortion, faced fierce opposition from pro-life groups, including threats and criticism labeling him a facilitator of mass killing. Despite this, Baulieu spent decades advocating for the drug’s global approval, arguing it somehow helped women despite killing millions of girl babies and killing and injuring many women who took the pill.

In 2023, when Wyoming became the first U.S. state to ban the abortion pill, Baulieu, then 96, called the decision “scandalous,” insisting he had dedicated his life to “increasing the freedom of women.” Pro-life advocates countered that such bans protect both unborn children and women from what they claim are significant health risks, citing a study reporting that 1 in 10 women experienced serious complications from mifepristone.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who awarded Baulieu the Grand Cross of the Legion d’Honneur in 2023, called him “a beacon of courage.”

Pro-life voices, however, see his death as an opportunity to reflect on the ethical questions surrounding his creation.

The post Man Who Created Abortion Pill That Has Killed Millions of Babies Dies at 98 appeared first on LifeNews.com.

With great pleasure I can inform you that the Illinois Legislature has adjourned early Sunday morning with no further action on SB 1950, a dangerous bill that would have legalized assisted suicide.

Over the last few days, I have kept you updated on the progress of SB 1950 and urged you to reach out to Illinois Senators. When assisted suicide legislation stalled in the Senate, proponents attached it instead as an amendment to an unrelated food safety bill. This procedural trick succeeded in the Illinois House as representatives narrowly voted to approve the bill as amended.

All eyes went to the Senate as advocates in Illinois and around the country called, emailed, and brought to action their friends and neighbors. This was the time to be counted and you made your voices heard!

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However, while SB 1950 was not called for a vote in the Senate, it has the possibility to return in a future session, so our work continues.

The tremendous work done by our Ilinois coalition prevented a vote from occurring to legalize assisted suicide. I am so impressed with their tireless efforts and am so grateful to all of you who answer the call to speak up and speak out.

Proponents will be heartened by the slim House passage and we know they will come back. So will we.

LifeNews Note: Barbara Lyons is the Special Projects Coordinator for the Patients’ Rights Action Fund.

The post Illinois Bill to Legalize Assisted Suicide Fails in State Legislature appeared first on LifeNews.com.

 God bless the pastor of St. Anne Church in Charlotte for his excellent homily under duress and his advice on how to deal with the arrogance of the spirit of Vatican II shoved down the throats of so many in the most pre-Vatican II ways. A great, pastoral homily. Read The Pillar’s article by pressing the title below.

London says its militarization plan is a “message” to Moscow

Britain is moving towards a war footing with the launch of a major rearmament campaign, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a keynote address on Monday.

Starmer unveiled his cabinet’s Strategic Defense Review, which includes an expansive armaments program mirroring similar efforts across NATO. Last week, UK Defense Secretary John Healey said London was sending “a message to Moscow” by allocating billions of pounds for new munitions plants, long-range missile systems, and other capabilities. Russia has accused Western nations of using alarmist rhetoric to justify shifting public funds toward military spending.

”We are moving to war-fighting readiness,” Starmer said at a shipyard in Govan, Glasgow, adding that “our defense policy will always be NATO first.” He vowed to transform the UK into “a battle-ready, armor-clad nation with the strongest alliances and the most advanced capabilities equipped for the decades to come.”

According to Starmer, the overhaul will enable Britain to make its “biggest contribution to NATO since its creation.” He also pledged that the country would become “the fastest innovator in NATO,” with defense research operating at a “wartime pace.” The reforms are expected to make the British military “ten times more lethal by 2035,” he claimed.

The prime minister reaffirmed his government’s goal to increase defense spending to 3% of GDP. He framed the effort as replacing the post-Cold War “peace dividend” with a “defense dividend” through the creation of thousands of new jobs in weapons manufacturing, including production of nuclear arms.

Starmer blamed Moscow for what he called a series of provocations, accusing Russia of “menacing” the UK, demonstrating “aggression” in British waters, and “driving up the cost of living here at home,” harming British workers.

Russian lawmaker Aleksey Pushkov has accused the UK of planning an “ice war” with Russia, noting that “there is no difference between the Labour Party and the Conservative Party” in their attitude.

READ MORE: Russia has ‘fair concern’ about NATO expansion – Trump envoy

Commenting on Starmer’s pledge to build additional nuclear submarines, Pushkov asserted that no British investments could bring the country to an equal footing with Russia, the US, and China. However, “Starmer needs them [those boats] to report his achievements” to domestic and international players who stand to benefit financially from the project, Pushkov claimed.

Given Marco Rubio’s long history of subservience to the State of Israel — which has earned him a mountain of campaign cash from the country’s US-based collaborators — many Americans were understandably wary that his ascension from senator to secretary of State portended disturbing moves to advance Israel’s interests. However, few foresaw Rubio orchestrating the abduction, imprisonment and deportation of foreign students for using their universal human right of free speech to criticize the Israeli government and advocate for Palestinians.

With President Trump’s blessing, Rubio has targeted many foreign students in this fashion — students who’ve been charged with no crimes. However, no case better illustrates the campaign’s casual cruelty than that of 30-year-old Tufts University PhD candidate Rumeysa Ozturk. Ozturk, who’s been studying child development, was arrested in March and whisked away to a far-off prison merely because — an entire year earlier — she co-authored a Tufts Daily op-ed urging the university to formally characterize Israel’s conduct in Gaza as genocide, and to sell the school’s Israel-associated investments.

Rubio would like you to assume her essay must have been an unhinged, antisemitic, violence-inciting screed. To the contrary, harkening back to Tufts’ 1989 decision to divest from apartheid South Africa, its tone is decidedly calm and measured. Read this excerpt of the essay’s most pointed language about Israel and judge for yourself:

These [student senate] resolutions were the product of meaningful debate…and represent a sincere effort to hold Israel accountable for clear violations of international law. Credible accusations against Israel include accounts of deliberate starvation and indiscriminate slaughter of Palestinian civilians and plausible genocide.

…the student body is calling for … the University to end its complicity with Israel insofar as it is oppressing the Palestinian people and denying their right to self-determination — a right that is guaranteed by international law. These strong lobbying tools are all the more urgent now given the order by the International Court of Justice confirming that the Palestinian people of Gaza’s rights under the Genocide Convention are under a “plausible” risk of being breached.

Ozturk’s persecution represents a major escalation of an aggravating dynamic in which people in the United States are vilified as dangerous, volatile antisemites for saying things about Israel that are frequently said by respected people and institutions in Israel. For example, in an op-ed of his own, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert this week wrote, “What we are doing in Gaza now is a war of devastation: indiscriminate, limitless, cruel and criminal killing of civilians … Yes, Israel is committing war crimes.”

In March of this year, the State Department revoked Ozturk’s student visa without notifying her — she had no idea that her presence in the country was now illegal. Four days later, in an incident captured on video, she was grabbed off a Somerville, Massachusetts street by masked, plain-clothed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, taken to New Hampshire and then Vermont, before being shackled in chains and airlifted 1,400 miles to a federal detention center in Louisiana.

For the next month and a half, she was stuffed with 23 others in a cell meant for 14. Ozturk says constant exposure to dust and inadequate ventilation sparked more than a dozen asthma attacks — after having previously had only about 13 in her entire life. Sleep was hard to come by, as motion-detecting fluorescent lights repeatedly triggered throughout the night.

Trying to justify the unjustifiable, the Trump administration has gone to slanderous extremes to vilify Ozturk. In a since-deleted social media post following her arrest, Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said “DHS + ICE investigations found Ozturk engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans.” (As an aside, note that, while some 43 Americans — including dual nationals — died in the Oct 7 attacks, there’s no history of Hamas ever setting out to target Americans.)

When protests of Israel’s tactics in Gaza erupted in 2022, Israel supporters across government, major media and social media branded all pro-Palestine protesters as Hamas supporters and antisemites. With the ascendency of the second Trump administration, that tactic has evolved from a malicious PR smear to a government-weaponized allegation that’s putting nonviolent foreign students in prisons and derailing their lives — all in service to a foreign country.

In a partial reversal of her appalling treatment, Ozturk was released from confinement on May 9 on the orders of a federal judge, who also denied the government’s wish to make her wear an ankle monitor. However, her troubles are far from over: In addition to the enduring harm of a six-week interruption of her academic pursuits, she is still targeted for deportation.

When DHS initially leveled the “activities in support of Hamas” accusation against Ozturk, many people assumed the government must have something on her other than an essay in a student newspaper. However, as the weeks ground on, the government never pointed to anything else, something US District Judge William Sessions noted when he ordered her to be released from her cage in Louisiana :

I suggested to the government that they produce any additional information which would suggest that she posed a substantial risk. And that was three weeks ago, and there has been no evidence introduced by the government other than the op-ed. That literally is the case. There is no evidence here...The court finds that Ms. Öztürk has raised a substantial claim of a constitutional violation.

Judge Sessions called Ozturk’s seizure “a traumatic incident” and said “her continued detention potentially chills the speech of the millions and millions of individuals in this country who are not citizens.” That is most certainly the Trump administration’s goal.

Falling for Rubio’s dishonest portrayal of his prey and failing to scrutinize the facts, many so-called “conservatives” have enthused over his drive to deport anti-Israel activists and rushed to defend it. In their flimsiest argument, you’ll find them claiming Ozturk and others have no right of free speech because they’re not US citizens. That hollow attack rests on a fundamental misunderstanding of rights — one that wrongly views rights as government-granted privileges, rather than something that springs from one’s humanity. As I’ve explained elsewhere at Stark Realities, the Constitution’s Bill of Rights isn’t a granting of rights, it’s a prohibition against government interference with pre-existing rights shared by everyone on Earth.

Employing a quintessential straw man argument, Rubio and others also say “nobody has a right to a visa.” The controversy has never been about any mythical entitlement to visas — it’s about the morality and constitutionality of using visa revocations as a means of punishing and suppressing expression of certain political beliefs.

To mete out that punishment, Rubio and the Trump administration are exploiting the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which recklessly empowers the secretary of State — a single individual — to deport foreigners the secretary deems “adversarial to the foreign policy and national security interests” of the United States. The law provides no elaboration on that standard, much less any provision for its application with any semblance of due process for the affected individual.

Invoking that provision, the administration told a court that DHS and ICE determined Ozturk “had been involved in associations that ‘may undermine U.S foreign policy by creating a hostile environment for Jewish students and indicating support for a designated terrorist organization’ including co-authoring an op-ed that found common cause with an organization that was later temporarily banned from campus.”

First, note how tangential and tenuous the opening and concluding allegations are. The government says Ozturk is being targeted for unspecified “associations,” and because her stance on Israel merely overlaps with the stance of a campus group that was only temporarily banned.

Next, we see the Trump administration dishonestly saying Ozturk “indicat[ed] support for Hamas” by writing an op-ed calling for Tufts to say Israel is committing war crimes, and to divest from the country. The op-ed never mentions Hamas or Oct. 7 or even implicitly endorses the group or its tactics, and there’s been no allegation of any other form of her supposed “support for Hamas.”

The administration also employs the Israeli-propagandist idea that criticism of the State of Israel — a political entity — creates a “hostile environment” for Jewish students. That notion is itself a form of bigotry — as it presumes all Jews endorse Israel’s actions. Of course, that presumption is belied by the significant presence of Jewish students in many protests of Israel’s conduct in Gaza. Meanwhile, the notion that pro-Israel Jews should be protected from hearing contrary views is wildly hypocritical from an administration that — in regard to other topics — has rightly targeted censorship meant to prevent so-called “snowflakes” from having their feelings hurt.

Defenders of the administration’s conduct are compelled to do more than point to its supposed legality under a 1952 law. From FDR putting Japanese-Americans in concentration camps to Woodrow Wilson jailing opponents of the draft, there’s a difference between legality and morality and bona fide constitutionality. Meanwhile, Ozturk’s ongoing challenge of her arrest and pending deportation may well reset the bounds of what’s legal under the Immigration and Nationality Act, with the courts potentially ruling it’s unconstitutional to revoke a visa over the expression of an opinion.

Finally, even the most ardent backers of the Israeli government should recognize that the use of the Immigration Act to round up and deport people whose views are inconsistent with the current administration’s foreign policy threatens to set a dangerous precedent — one that could see a future, Israel-hostile White House seizing, jailing and deporting foreign students who advocate US aid to Israel.

Over his political career, Rubio’s unwavering dedication to the agenda of the State of Israel has earned him a wealth of campaign contributions: Between 2019 and 2024, his largest and third-largest donors were the Pro-Israel PAC and the Republican Jewish Coalition. Those donors are again cashing in as their mercenary carries out a ruthless and deceitful drive to suppress anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian speech.

Consistent with the broader campaign of mass character-assassination that Israel’s advocates have long directed against critics of Israel, Rubio has repeatedly smeared Ozturk by insinuating that she is guilty of behavior that neither the federal government nor anyone else has accused her of, and even implying she is insane. For example, here’s what Rubio said at a March press conference:

We revoked her visa…and here’s why…If you apply for a visa to enter the United States and be a student and you tell us that the reason why you’re coming to the United States is not just because you want to write op-eds, but because you want to participate in movements that are involved in doing things like vandalizing universities, harassing students, taking over buildings, creating a ruckus, we’re not going to give you a visa….Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visa. We’re looking every day for these lunatics that are tearing things up.

Challenged last week in a House Foreign Affairs hearing, Rubio said he “proudly” revoked Ozturk’s visa, defiantly adding “we’re going to do more of them.” Refusing to answer pointed questions about the constitutionality of deporting Ozturk for writing an op-ed, Rubio again reflexively resorted to maliciously dishonest hyperbole, saying “We’re revoking the visas of any lunatics we can identify.”

Ozturk is one of an unknown number of foreign, Palestinian-sympathizing students targeted for deportation by the Trump administration, which is providing very little transparency about the individuals concerned or specific rationales for the revocation of their visas.

The censorship blitz is disturbing enough on its face, but there’s another dimension that makes it even more sinister: In selecting Ozturk and other foreign students for persecution, the Trump administration is apparently heeding the suggestions of two shadowy and menacing pro-Israel organizations that use intimidation tactics on Israel’s behalf: Canary Mission and Betar.

According to its website, Canary Mission “documents individuals and organizations that promote hatred of the USA, Israel and Jews on North American college campuses and beyond.” (Including “the USA” in its mission statement is dishonest pandering; listing it first is a joke.) In practice, Canary Mission works to silence Israel’s critics by using false allegations of antisemitism, doxxing, and the threat of career and reputational harm that could come from landing on its internet blacklist.

In one of the most unsettling incidents attributed to the group, two men in canary costumes stood silently in a George Washington University lobby in 2018 as the student government was set to vote on an Israel divestment resolution. In the days before the vote, Canary Mission flyers posted on campus warned “THERE ARE NO SECRETS. WE WILL KNOW YOUR VOTE AND WILL ACT ACCORDINGLY.”

Shortly after Ozturk’s arrest, Canary Mission posted a triumphant social media thread, saying “sources point to her Canary Mission profile as the primary cause.” That profile is thin. Linking to her Tufts op-ed, Canary Mission only claims she “engaged in anti-Israel activism in March 2024” (the month the op-ed was published) and is “a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.”

Betar brags that it is directly providing a list of targets to the administration. Maliciously referring to Ozturk and other peaceful activists as “jihadis,” the group took credit for her arrest: “She was on our list. Many more jihadis are. We will be making a new submission Monday with approximately 1800 more jihadis.”

Betar is a Zionist youth group founded in 1923 by Ze’ev Jabotinsky, who promoted an expansive vision of Israel that would see it take over not only the West Bank and Gaza, but part of Jordan too. The group’s ideology, rhetoric and embrace of vandalism, theft and vigilantism prompted even the staunchly Zionist Anti-Defamation League to list it among extremist and hateful groups.

An appalling incident in February illuminates the enormity of Betar’s Jewish-supremacist fanaticism. When a journalist posted a long list of names of Palestinian infants killed in Israel’s war on Gaza, Betar’s official account replied, “Not enough. We demand blood in Gaza!”

The group has also endorsed the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza. The irony is sickening: The Trump administration arrested Ozturk for saying Israel is committing genocide in Gaza — and the recommendation to revoke her visa came from a group that calls for genocide in Gaza.

While Betar and Canary Mission seem to be playing a key role in identifying targets, the broader scheme of weaponizing the Immigration and Nationality Act by smearing Israel’s critics as pro-Hamas antisemites who undermine US foreign policy was the brainchild of the Heritage Foundation. According to New York Times, the group in 2023 launched Project Esther, “an ambitious plan to fight antisemitism by branding a broad range of critics of Israel as ‘effectively a terrorist support network,’ so that they could be deported, defunded, sued, fired, expelled, ostracized and otherwise excluded from what it considered ‘open society’.”

Achieving new heights of hypocrisy, Rubio this week declared that “free speech…legally enshrined in our constitution, has set us apart as a beacon of freedom around the world.” His soaring rhetoric came as he announced a new policy that will deny visas to “foreign officials and persons who are complicit in censoring Americans.”

While Ozturk’s story has received significant media attention, the same mainstream media that relentlessly promoted the 2020 Russia-collusion hoax is now failing to cast the Trump administration’s campaign against pro-Palestinian campus activism for what it is: The unconstitutional suppression of the human right of free expression in appalling subservience to a foreign government and its domestic, America-Second accomplices.

In case you’re inclined to shrug off Rubio’s campaign because its victims are foreigners, make no mistake — there are people inside and outside the US government who would love to see American citizens similarly seized and shackled for criticizing the State of Israel. Over the past several years, those forces have been aggressively pushing various means of using government power to suppress Israel’s critics:

• The proposed Antisemitism Awareness Act, which would use an expansive definition of antisemitism to inflict penalties on schools that allow various forms of criticism of Israel to be expressed on their campuses — even by American citizens
• The successful enactment of state laws requiring contractors to certify that they will not participate in boycotts of Israel — alongside repeated attempts to pass a similar federal law
• Lawfare in the form of bogus lawsuits filed against universities, accusing them of failing to prevent “antisemitic incidents” that are simply expressions of opinions about Israel that Zionists revile
• The Trump administration’s withdrawal of federal education funding from schools that tolerate “antisemitism” — with that term purposefully misdefined to encompass criticism of the Israeli government

Amid Americans’ steadily-shrinking support for Israel — even 50% of Republicans under 50 years old now view the country unfavorably — those forces are only going to grow more desperate and brazen in their assault on free expression in the United States. It’s the patriotic duty of every American — including Israel’s backers and critics alike — to resist them every step of the way.

Reprinted with permission from Stark Realities with Brian McGlinchey.
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Papal conclaves are a big deal. The one that elected Pope Leo XIV was only my third, as it was for everyone just shy of 50 years old. And, barring tragedy for either Pope Leo or myself, I only have maybe two or three more. A papal conclave is the kind of major event a person only experiences a handful of times in their life. Such experiences take on a special significance in part because of the…

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From the Roman office. ℣. Grant, Lord, a blessing. Benediction. May God the Father Omnipotent, be to us merciful and clement. ℟. Amen. Reading 4 From the Sermons of St. John Chrysostom, Patriarch of Constantinople. On the Ascension, tom 3 Then Christ went up into heaven, He offered unto the Father the First-fruits of our nature, and the Father marvelled at the offering…

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