In proclaiming the faith and in administering the sacraments every priest speaks on behalf of Jesus Christ, for Jesus Christ.
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Site: AntiWar.comReprinted with permission from The Kucinich Report. Michelangelo’s Pieta, the larger-than-life sculpture of the crucified Christ held tenderly in Mother Mary’s lap, has attracted visitors to Rome since it was installed in the old St. Peter’s Basilica more than 500 years ago. Contemplation of the Pieta gifts one with the powerful presence of sacrifice and … Continue reading "The Cross and the Pieta: The Passion of Palestine"
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Site: Real Jew News
Eight Miles High
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Site: Euthanasia Prevention CoalitionThe following speech was written by Dr Ramona Coelho for the April 15 launch of the book: Unravelling MAiD in Canada.
EPC has copies of the book available for purchase.
Order the book from EPC for $40 (after tax) + shipping (Order Link).
By Ramona Coelho
Dr Ramona Coelho speaking on April 15.Thank you so much for being here. I’m deeply grateful to share this moment with all of you, and especially honoured to stand alongside Dr Harvey Schipper and my co-editors, Dr. Sonu Gaind and Professor Trudo Lemmens. The book we’re launching tonight is the result of years of lived experience, medical care, research, and a common concern — concern for Canadians, and for the future of medical care and societal culture in this country.We release this book at a critical time. As Trudo has mentioned, the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has recommended the repeal of Track 2 MAiD. Likewise, the Ontario Coroner’s MAiD Death Review Committee — of which both Trudo and I are members — has begun publishing reports that document serious public safety concerns in MAiD cases. What we see confirms what many of us in healthcare have long feared and have tried to bring to the attention of politicians: people are accessing MAiD through lax application of the law, often without a thorough or humane exploration of their suffering. In some cases, death is being offered more readily than medical care and supports.
As a family physician, I work every day with people who face enormous barriers: refugees, individuals living in poverty, those with disabilities, mental illness, or incarceration histories. Earlier in my career, I provided home care in Montreal for people with dementia, addiction, or severe physical disabilities. These patients — like all of us — need to know their lives are valued, but sadly often don’t. Canadians need support, not an easy exit when life becomes unbearable. They need care, not assisted death as a substitute for our societal collective failures.
MAiD was introduced to Canadians as an “exceptional measure for exceptional cases,” intended to relieve suffering at the end of life when nothing else could. It has rapidly shifted. Private MAiD provider forums leaked by AP journalists- like Maria Cheng – have revealed cases where people qualified because of loneliness, lack of housing, or feelings of being a burden. When death is given because systems failed to offer support — that is not autonomy. That is abandonment.
Our book aims to expose these troubling patterns with clarity, evidence, and compassion. We highlight not only the stories and legal pathways, but also the ethical crossroads we now face as a society.
This is not an abstract debate. These are real people — people whose deaths were approved despite untreated mental illness, poverty, social isolation, or perhaps even the pressure of caregiver burnout.
We must ask ourselves, as the human rights commissioner of Canada also asked last year: Are we building a society where everyone’s life is seen as equally worth living? Or are we creating a system that quietly accepts some lives as more expendable?
We hope this book serves as a resource for those asking these hard questions — and a call to action for those in healthcare, law, policy, and beyond. Because at the end of the day, our task is not just to offer choices — it is to ensure those choices are grounded in dignity, support, and the belief that every person deserves to live a life of meaning, regardless of their challenges.
Thank you.
Order the book from EPC for $40 (after tax) + shipping (Order Link).
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Site: Bonfire of the Vanities - Fr. Martin Fox
Mystical Supper Icon, All Saints Russian Orthodox Church, Las Vegas.
Tonight’s Mass marks something very special for our parish family.Look: you have never seen all these priests and deacons at one Mass.
I realize that this is a change: having Holy Thursday Mass together.
And it may take some getting used to.
But, if you and I are truly a family, then – like every family –
There are moments when we’re busy in different ways.
Yet on certain occasions, it is necessary that we come together as one.
Tonight is one of only two times in the whole year
when the Church insists a parish has just a single Mass together –
the other will be two nights from now, the Vigil of Easter.
Let’s peel back the layers of what we’re doing here.
The first reading describes the Passover,
celebrated by the Jewish People.
The lamb was one year old and “without blemish”;
it was obtained several days before and lived with the family.
Why is this important?
This points to Jesus, who became a member of the Jewish household,
a member of the human family.
Then, with the whole assembly present, the lamb was slaughtered.
When we come to church tomorrow, what do we recall?
Jesus is crucified with the whole assembly present.
The blood of the lamb is then spread over the doorposts.
This is protection from divine judgment.
By the way: when you and I are baptized,
that’s when the blood of the Lamb covers us!
When we fall back into mortal sin, confession renews it.
And then after the lamb is sacrificed, its flesh was eaten.
This was necessary to complete the sacrifice.
But only those who were members of the household could eat the lamb.
So, this is why only those baptized
and who have chosen to join themselves to the household –
that is, the Church – and who are also in a state of grace,
receive Holy Communion at Mass.
While the lamb is central to the Passover,
Notice the accounts of Jesus’ Last Supper never mention a lamb.
Why not? Because HE is the lamb!
Instead, he takes the bread, and says,
“this is my body, given up for you.”
And of course, there was a cup of wine.
But did you realize there were four cups of wine.
The first was called the “cup of sanctification,”
and the father began the meal with a prayer, over this cup,
and the food is brought to the table.
The second was the cup of “proclamation” –
it was prepared, but not drunk right away;
because while the food was on the table,
the father would tell the account of what God did
for his people who were slaves in Egypt.
By the way, when these events were “remembered,”
the understanding was that in remembering, you were present!
You were actually brought there spiritually, through the meal.
So, when Jesus tells the Apostles, “do this in memory of me,”
two things:
That reveals he made a plan for each of us to be part of his Passover.
Jesus planned for what we call Holy Mass,
and for priests to offer this sacrifice.
And second, our “remembering” here, 1,995 years later,
likewise makes you and me truly present:
in the Upper Room, at Calvary, at the empty tomb.
It happens not because we want it; but because he wants it!
Now, back to the Passover.
After everyone ate, the father would share the third cup,
called the “cup of blessing.”
And Saint Paul just told us that this was the cup Jesus took up,
and said, “This is my Blood.”
I said earlier there were four, where’s the last one?
Tomorrow, you and I will hear these words in the Gospel of John:
After this…Jesus said, “I thirst.”
There was a vessel filled with common wine….
They put a sponge soaked in wine…up to his mouth.
When Jesus had taken the wine, he said, “It is finished.”
And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit.
So, we don’t finish this Mass tonight. No final blessing.
We do go on a procession – to a special altar – recalling the Garden.
Let me share something very special
about how Father Manning arranged this church.
By the way, Father Jim wanted to be here
for this first gathering tonight as a family.
He was a huge part of the work that brought us together.
Now, notice: the window to your left shows Melchizedek and Abraham.
That meeting foreshadows the Holy Mass,
and it’s referenced in the Eucharistic Prayer.
Look over to your right: that shows the Apostles
gathered with Jesus on the night before his death. This night!
There’s still another detail I want to share with you.
In Jesus’ time, when the lamb was prepared for the meal,
in order to roast it, do you know how they did it?
They took two skewers, made of wood.
One was speared through the torso, from head to tail.
The other was speared through both shoulders. A cross.
Tomorrow we will worship the Cross on which our Savior,
our Lamb of God, was slain.
Tonight is our Passover. It begins tonight.
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Site: non veni pacem
“And when you fast, be not as the hypocrites, sad. For they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Amen I say to you, they have received their reward. But thou, when thou fastest anoint thy head, and wash thy face; That thou appear not to men to fast, but to thy Father who is in secret: and thy Father who seeth in secret, will repay thee.” – Matt 6:16-18
The Church requires so little of us nowadays fasting, and I suspect most can’t even be bothered. I would wager that, when all is revealed, lack of fasting will turn out to have been a major factor in the advance of evil. The current discipline is the equivalent of almost two full meals… dude, that is literally NOT FASTING. Can’t we try to do better? It really isn’t that hard.
Join me in the 40 hour fast. Nothing but water (and some salt) from sundown (8pm) Holy Thursday, through Noon Holy Saturday. STAY HYDRATED. I promise you won’t die, and you will be a spiritual dynamo during these forty hours. You should center your prayers on your hardest/impossible cases. Also be prepared for some dark night type moments, which is just Satan trying to mess with you during this most holy time.
Blessed Triduum, everyone.
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Site: Edward FeserChrist was not crucified alone. Of those who died with him, Luke’s Gospel tells us the following:
There were also two others, criminals, led with Him to be put to death. And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left… Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, “If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us.” But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, “Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:32-33, 39-43, NKJV)
The second man has come to be known as the “good thief” or the “penitent thief,” because his words indicate repentance. His reference to fear of God evinces a reverent attitude. His acknowledgement that, in being put to death, he is receiving his just deserts shows that he ultimately put righteousness above the goods of this life. His plea to Christ indicates faith that Jesus was who he claimed to be, and could secure for him an eternal reward.
The first man has come to be known as the “impenitent thief,” because his words indicate the opposite of repentance. He is not reverent, but mocking. He shows no concern about whether his punishment is deserved and ought to be accepted, but worries only about saving his life. He doubts and perhaps dismisses altogether the idea that Jesus really is the Christ, and evinces no hope for the hereafter.
The penitent thief was saved, and it stands to reason that the impenitent thief was damned. Indeed, in his treatment of the significance of the two thieves, Thomas Aquinas writes:
As Pope Leo observes (Serm. iv de Passione): “Two thieves were crucified, one on His right hand and one on His left, to set forth by the very appearance of the gibbet that separation of all men which shall be made in His hour of judgment.” And Augustine on John 7:36: “The very cross, if thou mark it well, was a judgment-seat: for the judge being set in the midst, the one who believed was delivered, the other who mocked Him was condemned. Already He has signified what He shall do to the quick and the dead; some He will set on His right, others on His left hand.” (Summa Theologiae III.46.11)
We are used to hearing, in the story of the good thief, reassurance that salvation is possible even for the worst of us, and even until the point of death. And it is indeed that. We are perhaps less used to thinking of the story of the two thieves as also a warning about damnation. But that is how saints Leo, Augustine, and Thomas understood it.
Now, Christ explicitly promises Paradise to the one thief, but we are not told whether he said anything to the other. Is it possible that the apparently impenitent thief may also have repented before death? Interestingly, Matthew 27:44 and Mark 15:32 speak of both thieves reviling Jesus, whereas Luke has one of them reviling him and the other rebuking the first. Commenting on this fact, St. Ambrose suggests that “perhaps this other at first reviled, but was suddenly converted” (as quoted in Aquinas’s Catena Aurea). But Ambrose does not suggest that the bad thief too may have repented, and if anything the scriptural evidence implies the opposite. Judging just from Matthew and Mark, you’d think neither of them repented. If Luke is essentially telling us that reviling Christ was not in fact the end of the story in the case of one of the thieves, it would be bizarre if he didn’t also mention that it was not the end of the story in the case of the other one.
In any event, Ambrose goes on to say that “mystically, the two thieves represent the two sinful people who were to be crucified by baptism with Christ (Rom. 6:3), whose disagreement likewise represents the difference of believers.” He appears to mean that the good and bad thieves represent, respectively, those among the baptized who persevere in righteousness until death, and those among the baptized who fall away.
If this is so, then the story of the two thieves gives us, as Aquinas says, a foreshadowing of the Last Judgment, and the eternal salvation or damnation of those judged. Each of us will share the fate of either the good thief or the bad thief, and as with them, which destiny we face will not be a settled matter until we draw our last breath. The story of the two thieves thus does indeed provide grounds for hope, but also a grave warning against presumption.
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Site: Public Discourse
Both Passover and the Triduum commemorate deliverance: from slavery in Egypt, from the Angel of Death, from death itself, and from the accusations of Satan. While humans are free, and these days emphasize our freedom, it is God who spares the firstborn son, God who parts the sea, God who plunges horse and rider beneath the waves, and God who undoes death and opens the way to heaven. However expansive, human agency is incapable of such actions. We celebrate the acts of God while beseeching him to continue to act.
These are the days we proclaim to the very earth itself, “Be glad, let earth be glad, as glory floods her,” but still our constant, daily prayer remains unchanged and necessary: “O God, make speed to save us; O God, make haste to help us.” During this Passover, hostages from October 7, 2023 remain in captivity. On this Easter, this Pascha, Ukraine is still besieged. Priests are killed in Nigeria, Christians persecuted in China, Sudan, and throughout the Middle East, and Jews are threatened in the United Kingdom. Things are not yet as they should be, as they will one day be, and we wait on God’s deliverance.
We recall great deeds of the past, but they present choices for every generation and place. As Leon Kass explains, the Book of Genesis presents God’s new way, given to Israel, against three major alternatives—Babylon, Canaan, and Egypt—each with “different ruling ideas, each looking up to different gods.” While those “ancient civilizations are long gone, their animating principles survive. Indeed, they find expression in cultural alternatives competing today for our attention and allegiance.” According to Kass, “biblical Egypt should be of special interest for modern Americans,” since it was the “peak of ancient civilization,” and yet, “in the end, [its] people’s preoccupation with survival and material well-being led to their enslavement” to Pharaoh.
We do not simply commemorate, we choose again; we accept the ancient covenants and their promises once more. We must do so, for the permanent possibility remains that we choose the other ways and depart from those given by the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and promised to the line of David.
War, oppression, and injustice persist, but, in the West at least, our people and nations, while wealthy, free, and at peace, are choosing the ways of biblical Egypt: we are preoccupied with survival and material well-being, and are beset by a “spiritual poverty.” The philosopher Byung-Chul Han suggests that many have “no concern for the good life—only for bare life.” He quotes Aristotle from the Politics: “some people believe that . . . they should maintain their store of money or increase it without limit. The reason they are so disposed, however, is that they are preoccupied with living, not with living well.” Such a life not only ignores but does away “with the teleology of the good life,” loses “all sense of direction,” of purpose, and “becomes obscene.”
Part of that obscenity, according to Han, is our self-enslavement. Ours is an “achievement society wholly dominated by the modal verb—can,” as opposed to a moral and lawful society “which issues prohibitions and deploys should.” When we are governed by what we should or should not do, there are limits to action, of course, but there is also a resting point—an end, and a completion to should. If one should celebrate Passover, and one has done so, the duty is accepted and accomplished; one has acted well. Moreover, since what we ought to or should do is meaningful if and only if we can do the action, the society governed by a moral and lawful sense assumes we are free and self-governed. The world governed by can has no limits and no resting place, no terminus. In principle, one can always do more, attain more, achieve more, and the world of having and doing knows no end except exhaustion and collapse. In Han’s words, “You can produces massive compulsion, on which the achievement-subject dashes him- or herself to pieces. . . . You can exercises even greater constraint than You should.” In the world of achievement, the governing idea is not “ought implies can”—since any obligation supposes freedom—but rather “can implies ought.” If you can do more, you ought to do more; if you can produce more, you ought to produce more, resulting in a frenzied world, appearing free but in reality self-enslaved. We were promised, by Freud, Marx, Nietzsche, Alfred Kinsey, and the architects of the sexual revolution, for instance, that once we dethroned thou shalt and thou shalt not we would be free; instead, we are free for “burnout, depression,” and “an unredeemable failure of ability,” resulting in a “psychic insolvency” that bears the indefinite debt of You can without hopes of atonement, deliverance, or paying off that debt.
The days of Passover and exodus, the days of crucifixion and resurrection, invite us—and, in a sense, command us—to “remember the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.” Each person deals with the drama of his own soul and redemption, but we are also caught up into the drama of our people, our history, our nation, our culture. As it turns out, our people are returning to paganism with its bare existence. In so doing they jettison their freedom in exchange for a tyranny preoccupied with longevity and wealth, and they are driven to despair by the trap of thinking about what could be done if unburdened by the limits of reality and what should be.
We people of the Bible, Jews and Christians alike, are a blessing for the world, even for those who do not believe as we do. Paganism is false, of course, but it is also degrading; it thinks too little of the human, too little of the world. In our own time, it degrades with its tendency to cause malaise—the so-called crisis of meaning—erasing our longing for immortality, for eternity, and handing us over to the dull routines of bare existence.
In these next days we celebrate our deliverance; in so doing we remind ourselves of our meaning, purpose, and dignity. But more: we offer hope for the “multitude” who would return to Egypt, return to slavery, simply because of its luxury and comfort, which seems to them better than the bread of life. So, we celebrate, with great joy—and not only for ourselves, but for all.
Image by Renáta Sedmáková and licensed via Adobe Stock.
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Site: RT - News
The Ukrainian leader has not “done the greatest job,” the US president has said
US President Donald Trump has said he is “not happy” with Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky and the way he is handling the conflict with Russia.
At a press conference with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at the White House on Thursday, a reporter suggested that Trump is holding Zelensky responsible for the conflict with Russia.
“I don’t hold Zelensky responsible, but I’m not exactly thrilled with the fact that that war started,” Trump replied. “So I’m not happy with him. And I’m not happy with anybody involved.”
Trump went on to say that Russia has a “bigger military force” than Ukraine. “If you’re smart, you don’t get involved in wars … I’m not blaming him, but what I am saying is that I wouldn’t say he’s done the greatest job, OK? I am not a big fan.”
Trump once again claimed that the conflict would not have started under his watch and blamed his predecessor, former President Joe Biden.
Read more
France helped Zelensky write apology letter to Trump – Politico
Although Trump has criticized Russia at times, he has repeatedly argued that Zelensky failed to conclude a peace deal with Moscow. “You don’t start a war against someone 20 times your size and then hope that people give you some missiles,” he said on Monday.
During a heated exchange at the White House in February, Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance accused the Ukrainian leader of being ungrateful for American aid and “gambling with World War III.”
The US president and his negotiators stated that they are aiming to broker a ceasefire as soon as possible and to sign a deal on extracting profits from Ukraine’s mineral wealth. Trump has declined to provide specific security guarantees to Kiev.
Vance said this week that Zelensky’s claims that the Trump administration is peddling Russian narratives are “absurd.”
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Site: Ron Paul Institute - Featured Articles
An important new public opinion survey taken by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) has revealed very little American support for the deportation of legal foreign guests in the United States for expressing support for Palestine in its current conflict with Israel.
Responding to FIRE’s quarterly National Speech Index survey conducted by the Dartmouth Polarization Research Lab this month, a mere one-quarter of the respondents supported the deportation of non-citizens legally in the US for expressing pro-Palestine views. A solid majority of 52 percent are strongly opposed or opposed to such measures.
The survey result comes as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has boasted of revoking “at least 300” student visas for the “crime” of expressing a position on middle east politics that the current US Administration disagrees with. Derided by Rubio as “lunatics” for opposing ongoing US government support for Israel as Gaza is flattened, many foreign students have been arrested by masked, armed federal agents – who refuse to even identify themselves – and sent to a federal detention facility in Louisiana.
In the case of Turkish PhD student Rumeysa Ozturk, the State Department had already produced a report concluding that she neither supported terrorism nor anti-Semitism before masked federal agents accosted her on the street and arrested her.
Her “crime” was co-authoring an op-ed in her university newspaper a year earlier criticizing Israel.
In many cases these arrests are carried out based on lists provided to the federal government by a militant, extremist group called Betar. The group is so radical that it has even been added to the pro-Israel ADL’s “extremism” list, yet somehow it has the ear of the Trump Administration.
Commenting on the findings, FIRE Chief Research Advisor Sean Stevens said, “deporting someone simply for disagreeing with the government’s foreign policy preferences strikes at the very freedoms the First Amendment was designed to protect. Americans are right to reject this kind of viewpoint-based punishment.”
Additionally, the shocking arrests and incarceration of legal residents or guests for committing no crime beyond expressing a particular point of view has begun to eat away at Americans’ confidence that the Trump Administration can be trusted to uphold the First Amendment. From Inauguration day until the FIRE poll this month, a majority of Americans have now lost confidence in the Trump Administration’s respect for our most sacred right of free expression:
Many Americans mistakenly believe government “grants” rights enshrined in the Bill of Rights, and that it grants them to American citizens only. Constitutional scholar Andrew Napolitano dismisses such claims, writing:
We know from the writings of James Madison — who authored the Bill of Rights — that the Founders regarded the freedom of speech as a personal individual natural right. It is also, of course, expressly protected from government interference and reprisal in the First Amendment. The courts have ruled that it protects all persons — no matter their immigration status — who may think as they wish, say what they think, publish what they say, worship or not and associate with whomever they choose.
While many supporters of the Trump Administration are currently applauding the arrest and deportation of legal foreign residents who express political views they do not support, they would do well to keep in mind that the vicissitudes of the American body politic may well soon turn against them and their views, and – particularly given President Trump’s stated intent to begin deporting American citizens as well – once the trap of a precedent is set they may not be able to wiggle out of it.
Indespensible pro-liberty intellectual Jim Bovard expressed it best in a recent article:
What legal perils will pro-freedom protestors face in the coming years if the Ozturk rule is canonized, entitling federal officials to crush any disfavored opinion? Big-spending Democrats may consecrate Modern Monetary Theory and demonize anyone who criticizes the Federal Reserve. I took this ‘Kill the Central Bank’ photo of Ron Paul supporters at a 2008 Capitol Hill event for his presidential campaign. If the same protestors had peacefully carried the same banner within a half mile of the Capitol on January 6, they likely would have been nailed on a bevy of federal charges. Many politicians have made stark their hatred of libertarians and freedom advocates.
As long as anyone is sitting in shackles in a federal detention center simply for writing an op-ed, freedom of speech is not safe for anyone in the United States.While a trip into the bowels of social media suggests a torch-bearing mob rallying to send those guilty of the “wrongthink” of the day to some El Salvadorian gulag, the good work of the freedom of expression organization FIRE reassures us that cooler heads continue to prevail. However, by no means does that suggest we can afford to let our guard down for a minute. This is not an issue of partisanship, but of principle. The mob – whether left or right – must not be allowed to take over.
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Site: RT - News
NATO’s target for members to spend 2% of GDP on defense is insufficient, the US president has said
Italy needs to spend more on defense because NATO’s target of 2% of GDP is no longer enough, US President Donald Trump has told Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
Trump has long insisted that European member states must boost their own defense. The debate over burden-sharing between the allies has further complicated the Trump administration’s strained relations with Europe.
At a joint press conference in Washington on Thursday, Meloni stated that “Italy is going to the next summit of NATO, announcing that it will raise [defense spending] to 2%, and that’s also progressed.”
“It will go up,” Trump interjected. Asked by a reporter if the 2% target is enough, the US president replied, “It’s never enough.”
Last year, Italy’s defense budget stood at 1.49% of GDP – one of the lowest in NATO. Meloni has been advocating for some time to reclassify expenditure on border patrols and coast guards as military spending.
Read more
Belgium eyes welfare cuts to meet NATO target – minister
In January, Trump accused European countries of taking advantage of the US and argued that NATO members should spend at least 5% of their GDP on defense. Last year, 23 of the 32 members hit the 2% target set by NATO in 2014, according to the bloc’s own estimates cited by the BBC. The US spends around 3.5% of GDP on defense and is NATO’s biggest overall contributor.
Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto told the newspaper La Stampa this week that it is “unthinkable” to assume that all European nations would slash social programs to fulfill Trump’s 5% demand. “European countries can’t touch welfare and social achievements,” he said.
Last week, Trump said he would not rule out withdrawing some or all of the 84,000 US troops currently stationed in Europe. “We pay for the military in Europe. We don’t get reimbursed by much,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
The New York Times reported on Monday that the US could slash “almost all funding” for international organizations, including the UN and NATO.
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Site: Henrymakow.com
Good Friday--According to the politically correct view now in vogue,the Pharisees of 33 A.D. were more sinned against than sinning.Christ's Crucifixion is key to understanding human history.Christ was crucified because he taught thatGod loves all people equally.Judaism believes Jews are Chosen by God.In fact, Judaism believes they ARE God.We know they killed Christ because they never stoppeddefaming Him and his Gospel of Universal Love.Now, it's our turn to be crucified. A fanatical minority, a satanic cult called Chabad has assumed control of all governments. Trump, Netanyahu and Putin belong. They are determined to kill everyone who doesn't accept Chabad as God. They are organizing another world war to cover for the genocide of all non-Satanists.Christianity believes that people are intended to express their Divinity. Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. (Matt 5:48)Chabad Jews believe non-Jews were created to serve them! They never denied killing Christ. They don't deny their intention to kill you."Nowhere does the Talmud or Moses Maimonides... blame the Romans, as do the modern popes, many Protestant "evangelists" and the corporate media. There are literally thousands of spineless academics and clerics on the Left as well as the Right who minimize the role of the Pharisees, the progenitors of the Talmud of Babylon, in the killing of the Son of God, putting the onus instead on the Romans and Pilate."Humanity has been subverted by Satanists and is at a tipping point. As we commemorate Christ's sacrifice, remember, the same people who crucified Christwant to crucify you. I'm talking about the central banking cartel. Freemasons and Masonic Jews (Communists & Zionists) are their pawns.by Michael Hoffman(abridged by henrymakow.com)According to the politically correct view now in vogue, the Pharisees of 33 A.D. were more sinned against than sinning.
Among falsifiers on the Right, are two luminaries in the ersatz "Conservative" firmament. Former Fox News talk show host Bill O'Reilly promotes the manifestly ridiculous Romans-are-to-blame-for-the-Crucifixion imposture in his book, The Last Days of Jesus.He's not alone. Andrew P. Napolitano, better known as "Judge Napolitano," a widely admired figure among "Conservatives," wrote a column on Holy Thursday in which he had the temerity to state:"On the first Good Friday, the Romans executed Jesus because they were persuaded that by claiming to be the Son of God, He might foment a revolution against them...they feared a revolution that would disrupt their worldly power, and so they condemned Him to death by crucifixion." (LewRockwell.com, April 17, 2014). Pharisees are not mentioned anywhere in Mr. Napolitano's column concerning who is culpable for the Crucifixion of Jesus.To assert that the Romans bear the lion's share of responsibility is an atrocious fabrication pleasing to the corporate media and the Cryptocracy.The fact that Jesus praised a Roman officer above everyone in Israel (Matthew 8:5-13), and the Roman administrator Pilate urgently sought to save Christ's life, calling him a just man, and being threatened by a mob as a result, is washed down the memory hole.
Historic Christianity, faithful to the Gospel narrative, had a very different view of Pontius Pilate. For example, Francis Turretin (1623-1687), was a distinguished professor of theology and the author of the magisterial, three volume Institutio Theologiae Elencticae, ("Institutes of Elenctic Theology" reprinted as recently as 1994), first published In 1679-85. In vol. II, p. 489-490, Dr. Turretin wrote:"...the kingdom of Christ...is conducted in a spiritual manner, recognizes no other honors and resources than righteousness, holiness, peace of conscience, salvation and eternal life; no other arms than the Word and the Spirit; no other fortifications than the protection of God. Pilate had this understanding of it. He clearly perceived that no prejudice could be created from it (the kingdom of Christ) against the empire of Caesar; otherwise he would not only have agreed with the accusation of the Jews charging Christ with rebellion against Caesar, but he would have been the first to think of taking Him out of the way."However, having dismissed this accusation of the Jews and (accepted) Christ's own confession concerning His kingly office, Pilate pronounces Him just and innocent, and desires Him to be cleared from condemnation (for he knew that for envy they had delivered Him, Matthew 27:18)..." (End quote from theologian Francis Turretin).The disinformation that renders the Romans the principal malefactors is also undercut by none other than the Babylonian Talmud itself, in Sanhedrin 43a, where it is stated that the Roman " authorities" were favorable toward Jesus and did not want to execute him:Babylonian Talmud: Sanhedrin 43a"Rather it must be that the case against Jesus was different, because he had close connections with the non-Jewish authorities, and those authorities were interested in his acquittal." -- The Steinsaltz Talmud, volume 17, p. 159 (Random House, 1998).What is there to debate? We have God's Word in 1 Thessalonians 2:14-15. This is an unambiguous statement. This Scripture was declared by St. Paul without qualifications of any kind. There is also the testimony of Acts 3-13-15.Even in our time, one of most authoritative rabbis in the western world is the medieval halakhist Moses Maimonides, "the Rambam." He is honored in Congress with a sculpture, and venerated in media and academia, though few of his enthusiasts have bothered to discover what he actually taught. We regret to report that Maimonides was an unabashed Jesus-despiser. In his magnum opus, the Mishneh Torah, he declared: "The Christians are idol worshippers" (Avodah Zara 9:4). "Idol worshippers" are subject to severe penalties according to the "Noahide Laws" promoted by every American President from Ronald Reagan forward, under the rubric of "Education Day USA."Furthermore, Maimonides taught that Jesus was killed "by the court," a reference to the Beth Din (rabbinic court): "Yeshu the Christian, who imagined himself the messiah and was killed by the court..." (Rabbi Moses Maimonides, Mishneh Torah: Laws of the King 11:4).
Nowhere does the Talmud or Moses Maimonides, the supreme halachic authority for western Talmudists, blame the Romans, as do the modern popes, many Protestant "evangelists" and the corporate media. There are literally thousands of spineless academics and clerics on the Left as well as the Right who minimize the role of the Pharisees, the progenitors of the Talmud of Babylon, in the killing of the Son of God, putting the onus instead on the Romans and Pilate.Talmudism is in higher repute in Christendom now than ever in history and it is to the Pharisaic theology founded upon it--and successive texts possessing halachic authority (such as the Mishneh Torah) --to which our apologetic and educational efforts are centered.Nothing we teach is a negative reflection on Judaic people in general. We unconditionally repudiate the disgusting "Christ-killers" imprecation unjustly leveled at all or most Jews. Due to our own dreadful sins, every one of us is guilty of putting Jesus on that Cross of Calvary and being responsible for His death.It was from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil that our first parents cursed all humanity, and it was from the "tree" of wood upon which Jesus was crucified, that through him the Gospel invites all of humanity to salvation.It is incumbent on us as Christians to lovingly correct errors, as did Jesus, John the Baptist and the apostles Peter and Paul. We pray for those who promote the falsehoods of Talmudism. We are not reluctant to proclaim the truth about the Jesus-denying snares and pits into which people fall as a result of the continuing influence of the Pharisaic nullification of Scripture, which was virulent in the first century and which has culminated in the 21st century distortion of the Good Friday narrative.Copyright 2024 by Independent History and ResearchMichael Hoffman is the author of the banned 2008 textbook Judaism Discovered (1,102 pages), and nine other volumes of history and literature, including Secret Societies and Psychological Warfare and its sequel, Twilight Language. Also: The Occult Renaissance Church of Rome, and Adolf Hitler: Enemy of the German People, as well as 122 issues of the periodical, Revisionist History®. -
Site: The Remnant Newspaper - Remnant ArticlesWhen Pontius Pilate, the Roman procurator of Judea, presented Jesus to the people, crowned with thorns and robed in mockery, he asked them with a tone of reluctance and foreboding: “Shall I crucify your king?” The response from the chief priests was immediate and chilling: “We have no king but Caesar” (John 19:15).
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Site: OnePeterFive
Above: The Isenheim Altarpiece (1512-16) by Matthias Grünewald An excerpt from The School of Jesus Crucified. 1. Her sufferings in the Crucifixion of her Son. Never has any mother or pure creature suffered a more painful martyrdom than that endured by Mary in beholding her most beloved Son barbarously crucified under her very eyes. Full of faith…
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Site: ChurchPOP
Many people have noted how fitting it seemed that Mother Angelica passed away on Easter Sunday (March 27, 2016), the day on which Christians celebrate Jesus Christ’s resurrection and triumph over death.
As details about her final days emerged, interesting convergences between her life and the liturgical calendar surfaced.
“It was on Good Friday that I heard from one of the caregivers who was helping Mother, as well as one of the sisters. They both said the same thing,” EWTN chaplain and chapel dean Father Joseph Wolfe, MFVA, explained of Mother Angelica’s final hours.
“Mother began to cry out early in the morning from the pain that she was having. She had a fracture in her bones because of the length of time she had been bedridden. They said you could hear it down the hallways–that she was crying out on Good Friday from what she was going through. These two people said to me, ‘She has excruciating pain.’”
Father Joseph saw a special meaning in her suffering on Good Friday, the day Christians remember Christ’s Passion and Death on the cross.
“Well, do you know where that word ‘excruciating’ comes from? Ex, from, cruce, from the cross. Excruciating pain.”But the pain didn’t last all day.
“After the 3 o’clock hour arrived on Good Friday, she was more calm; she was more peaceful.” (Jesus died on the cross at three o’clock, according to the Bible.)
Holy Saturday was more peaceful, but Father Joseph visited Mother Angelica again.
“On Holy Saturday, I also visited. I had this desire in my own heart to thank her for all that we have benefited by her witness and her teaching.”
But early on Easter Sunday, Mother Angelica started to struggle again, and Father Joseph was called by one of the sisters. When he arrived, he started Last Rites, which is a collection of prayers and sacraments given to those near death.
She was anointed, pardoned, and prayed over. Mass was offered in her room, and she received the Eucharist. Later that afternoon, as it became clear that she would die soon, those around her simply prayed.
“It was in the afternoon that Father Miguel and I went to her bed at the hour of mercy, at three o’clock,” Father Joseph explained. “We [and the sisters] had just finished praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet. We all continued to pray silently around her bed.”
“Then it was shortly before 5 p.m. that she went to the Father’s house. She breathed her last.”
Here’s the video of Father Joseph’s homily:
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Site: RT - News
Two people have been killed and several others injured after a gunman opened fire on the Florida State University campus
A shooting at Florida State University (FSU) has left two people dead and several injured, including the suspected gunman, who is now in custody, police have said.
According to FSU Police Chief Jason Trumbower, the two people who died were not students at the university, but the shooter is believed to be a student, AP reports.
Leon County Sheriff Walt McNeil identified the suspect as Phoenix Ikner, 20, the son of a local sheriff’s deputy. “Unfortunately, her son had access to one of her weapons,” McNeil said.
According to a law enforcement source cited by CNN, three firearms were recovered: One on the suspect, a shotgun inside the Student Union building on the Tallahassee campus, and another weapon in a nearby vehicle.
The incident reportedly unfolded around midday on Thursday near the Student Union building, prompting a swift lockdown and shelter-in-place orders for students and staff. More than 42,000 students are enrolled at Florida State’s main campus.
Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare has said in a statement that six individuals were hospitalized following the attack. One victim remains in critical condition, while the other five are listed as serious.
BREAKING: The suspect in the FSU shooting is the 20-year-old son of a current sheriff's deputy who had access to one of her weapons, according to Leon County Sheriff Walt McNeil.https://t.co/8qAT5g6qhH pic.twitter.com/PzrK5L9bII
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) April 17, 2025Speaking at the White House, US President Donald Trump said he had been fully briefed on the shooting.
“It’s a horrible thing. It’s horrible that things like this take place,” he said.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis also expressed his condolences.
“Our prayers are with our FSU family and state law enforcement is actively responding,” he wrote on X.
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Site: The Remnant Newspaper
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Site: RT - News
The top US and Russian diplomats have discussed efforts to settle the Ukraine conflict, the Foreign Ministry in Moscow has said
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio held a phone conversation on Thursday.
The two top diplomats focused on the Ukraine conflict and ongoing multilateral contacts on a potential settlement, the Russian Foreign Ministry has stated.
Rubio briefed Lavrov on the meetings between the American delegation and representatives of Ukraine, France, and other European nations held earlier in the day in Paris, the ministry said.
“Lavrov reiterated Moscow’s readiness to continue working together with American colleagues to reliably resolve the root causes of the Ukrainian crisis,” it added.
The US State Department said Rubio conveyed to Lavrov the “same message” he delivered to the Ukrainian and European delegations: That US President Donald Trump and Washington “want this war to end, and have now presented to all parties the outlines of a durable and lasting peace.”
Read more
‘A lot of’ nations seeking to derail US-Russia talks – Putin envoy
“The encouraging reception in Paris to the US framework shows that peace is possible if all parties commit to reaching an agreement,” the statement added, without providing further details.
The Paris meetings involved top dignitaries from all sides, with the US delegation led by Rubio and Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, a key official in the talks on resolving the Ukraine conflict. Kiev was represented by Vladimir Zelensky’s head of office, Andrey Yermak, as well as Defense Minister Rustem Umerov.
Zelensky launched a new personal attack on Witkoff, accusing him of spreading “Russian narratives” and effectively siding with Moscow. Speaking at a televised press conference on Thursday, the Ukrainian leader invoked Witkoff’s recent remarks that a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine revolves around “five territories,” the formerly Ukrainian Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions, and Crimea.
“I believe that Mr. Witkoff has adopted the Russian side’s strategy for himself... He is consciously or unconsciously spreading Russian narratives... I do not see him having a mandate to discuss Ukrainian territories,” Zelensky stated.
READ MORE: Zelensky lashes out at Trump envoy
Last week, Witkoff met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg in their third round of direct talks since February. The recognition of the “five territories” is a key to any peace deal, Witkoff told Fox News in an interview earlier this week.
Crimea voted to rejoin Russia in 2014, shortly after it broke away from Ukraine in the aftermath of the Maidan coup. The four other regions became part of Russia in autumn 2022 following referendums.
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Site: Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
Kelsi Sheren
Kelsi Sheren has published excellent articles on euthanasia. Her current article is excellent but long. I am republishing key points from her current article.Kelsi begins her article by pointing out how the euthanasia lobby has challenged her:
Recently, a Substack article "attempted" to frame me as callous and indifferent towards individuals suffering from mental illness, selectively quoting me to serve their narrative from my episode on Triggernometry with Konstantin Kisin and Francis Foster. I was bored with some time, so I figured take some time months after the pro death cult made a run at my character for the millionth time. Which I guess I should be thanking them for the views. More people now have had their minds changed and eyes opened to what MAiD really is. Eugenics.Sheren comments on the misrepresentation of her statement: "OK, go kill yourself. If that’s what you want."
This quote, taken from a much longer conversation, was an expression of frustration toward a system that encourages DEATH AND SUICIDE rather than PREVENTS suicide. You've always had the right to go take your life, but my issue is more around the fact that there are people promoting death and telling us that dying is somehow healthcare. I've never uttered any endorsement or encouragement of suicide itself. The purpose of my advocacy has never been to diminish or disregard genuine suffering—it's specifically targeted against government-sanctioned pathways that normalize suicide instead of prioritizing robust and comprehensive mental health support. What I find so fascinating, is that pro death, pro killing organizations have the audacity to say I'm promoting suicide... have they looked in the mirror lately?Sheren explains why she is standing against the death movement:
My entire platform is built upon genuine compassion, empathy, and the imperative to protect the most vulnerable among us from a system that increasingly promotes death as an easy solution and frankly the only solution to the world's stressors since expanding to Track 2 in 2021. I have been working to stop suicide in my community since 2015 when I started Brass & Unity.
As a 100% disabled combat veteran diagnosed with PTSD and traumatic brain injury (TBI), my intimate understanding of REAL pain, suffering, trauma, and suicidal ideation is profoundly personal, so much so that my career was ended from what I had seen and done in war. Taking a life is nothing small and yet we are turning our healthcare providers into serial killers.Sheren continues:
To suggest I would intentionally dismiss anyone's suffering or pain is fundamentally dishonest and deeply disrespectful to my lived experiences and struggles, but this is not a shock to see, knowing where it's coming from. The depth of my personal experience underscores my very serious commitment to advocating for life-affirming care that addresses the root causes of despair rather than treating individuals as expendable or as inconveniences to society. Personally all I see as of late is "healthcare practitioners" pushing death in numbers that deserve attention, question and scrutiny.Sheren is committed to suicide prevention not assisted death:
My advocacy in suicide prevention has always been and will always prioritize compassionate, effective treatment and healing over expedient and cold bureaucratic approaches, especially because there are so many solutions that the pro death cult's refuse to acknowledge that exist. Death to them is always the answer, and that's just not true. But I will also be dead honest about the real feelings and depths. I will never sugarcoat any of what MAiD is to make other people feel better, Canadian's need a reality check.Sheren then deals with the assertion that she is not willing to debate the issue:
None of this is compassion, none of this is acceptable and if you want to have the option to die, you can do that but in no way should it EVER be a form of "healthcare" the way its being slow dripped by the Canadian Government. Contrary to claims made by same critics that I avoid scrutiny or challenging discussions, my public record clearly demonstrates my consistent engagement with a wide range of perspectives and challenging forums, so to suggest I am unwilling to discuss the subject against people who don't agree is just not true, I just won't give any of the pro death cults a platform to convince more people they should die.
A few good examples of this is my detailed discussions with thought leaders like Jordan Peterson and appearances on a ton of other public platforms that pretty clearly show a willingness to confront and thoughtfully debate issues head-on. I enthusiastically welcome rigorous, good-faith debates that encourage constructive dialogue. However, I refuse to participate in orchestrated attempts to smear my character or discredit my legitimate concerns simply to silence meaningful dissent or avoid facing uncomfortable truths about MAiD policies. I've stood in front of real malevolence and I know what darkness looks like, I have no issue facing hard conversations or truths.Sheren then explains how the euthanasia lobby acts in a predatory manner as they "target the vulnerable and then do everything they can to convince people that death is the solution for all of their problems." She then states how her involvement is leading to change.
These groups portrayal intentionally misrepresents my position entirely and of course they will continue to. We have made too much noise, we have caused people to change their minds and we have saved people from ending their lives prematurely. People are not a burden, people in all their forms are humans who deserve compassion and SUPPORT!Sheren commits to being an even louder voice.
My advocacy remains the same and will only continue to get bigger and LOUDER. People are waking up to what these groups of humans do, manipulate and coerce others into death. We choose life, and light. We choose supporting genuinely vulnerable Canadians requires prioritizing compassionate, effective mental health care and genuine treatment options over bureaucratic expediency and the disturbing normalization of death as a solution. My mission is unequivocally focused on ensuring REAL dignity, safety, and compassion through affirming life—not facilitating death.
My dedication to exposing these people is just the beginning and I will take this on until we show everyone what this is really about. Despite any attempts to distort or undermine my message.Sheren expects the death lobby to continue attacking her. She then writes:
It's just showing people who you (they) really are.Some previous articles by Kelsi Sheren:- Offered assisted death instead of surgery (Link)
- Dying with Deception. Exposing Dying With Dignity Canada's Dangerous Lies and teh United Nations call for Truth (Link).
- Debunking the ethical argument for assisted dying for minors (Link).
- Franchising Death (Link).
- Let's call MAiD what it is (Homicide) (Link)
- The Death Cult of the Euthanasia Lobby (Link).
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Site: Saint Louis Catholic
From Bossuet’s Meditation on the Eucharist:
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Let us read the words of the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper in St. Matthew’s Gospel (26:26-28), adding the words of the other sacred authors on the same subject:
Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and when he had given thanks (1 Cor. 11:24), broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19). And he took a cup after supper (Luke 22:20), and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you; for this is my blood of the new covenant (Luke 22:20), which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me” (1 Cor. 11:25).
Here is all that we have about the institution, other than that in place of St. Luke’s “given for you,” St. Paul has him say “broken for you” (1 Cor. 11:24 in certain ancient texts). The sense of each is the same. He was handed over to death, struck by blows, pierced with wounds, violently hung from a cross: he was broken. This is the body that Jesus gives to us, the same body that was about to suffer those things and that has now suffered them.
Just one more word on the text. Where the Vulgate translates “my blood, which shall be shed for you” (Luke 22:20, Douay-Rheims), the original reads “which is poured out,” that is, in the present tense. It is the same when he speaks of the means by which he will be captured and put to death: “Woe to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed!” (Matt. 26:24). In that case, he speaks in the present tense because his death has already been resolved upon and planned for the following day. In the other, it is so that at the same time that we receive his body and blood, we might regard his death as present.
Christian: you have seen all of the words that bear upon the establishment of this mystery. What simplicity! What precision in these words! He leaves nothing to be interpreted or commented upon. If there is any commentary to be made upon them at all, it is only to remark that according to the force of the original Greek, we ought to render it thus: “This is my body, my very body; the same body that is given for you. This is my blood, my very blood, the blood of the new covenant; the blood poured out for you in remission of your sins.” The Greek liturgy puts it this way: “What we are given, what is made of this bread and wine, is the very body of Jesus and his very blood.”
There is the commentary we require. What simplicity, what precision, what force do these words have!
If Jesus had wanted to give us a sign, a mere resemblance, he would have known how to tell us. He knew quite well that God had said, when instituting circumcision, “You shall be circumcised in the flesh . . . and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you” (Gen. 17:11). When he proposed metaphors, he knew quite well how to adapt his language so as to be understood without doubt: “I am the door; if any one enters by me, he will be saved” (John 10:9). “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit” (John 15:5). When he made these comparisons and spoke in metaphors, the evangelists said so: “Another parable he put before them” (Matt. 13:24); “he taught them many things in parables” (Mark 4:2). Here, without any introduction, without any qualification, without any explanation, neither before nor after, we are simply told: “Jesus said, ‘Take, eat; this is my body; this is my blood’ ” (Matt. 26:26, 28).
This is what I give to you, and you, what will you do in receiving it? Remember eternally the gift that I gave you that night. Remember that it is I who left it for you and who made this testament, that I left you this Passover, and that I ate it with you before I suffered. If I give you my body as about to be and as having been handed over for you, and my blood as poured out for your sins, in a word, if I give myself to you as a victim, eat it as a victim and remember that this is a promise that it has been sacrificed for you. O my Savior: what simplicity, yet what authority and power there are in your words! “Woman, you are freed from your infirmity” (Luke 13:12); she was healed that instant. “This is my body”; it is his Body. “This is my blood”; it is his Blood. Who can speak in such a manner except the one who holds everything in his hand? Who can make himself be believed except the one to whom to do and to say is the same thing?
My soul, stop here and go no further. Believe as simply, as forcibly as your Savior has spoken, with a submission that corresponds to his authority and power. Once again, he wants to see in your faith the same simplicity with which he has spoken these words. In the ancient rite of Communion, the priest said, “The body of Jesus Christ,” and the faithful responded, “Amen,” or “so it is,” and “The blood of Jesus Christ,” and the faithful responded, “Amen,” “so it is.” All has been accomplished. All has been said. All has been explained. I am silent. I believe. I adore.
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Site: RT - News
Maine is facing a loss of federal school funding for allowing biological males to compete in women’s sports
The US government has sued the state of Maine over its refusal to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order from February banning biological male transgender athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s sports.
The order directs federal agencies to cut funding to institutions that do not comply.
The lawsuit, filed by the Justice Department and announced on Wednesday by Attorney General Pam Bondi, accuses Maine of violating Title IX, the federal civil rights law that bars sex-based discrimination in educational institutions receiving federal funds.
“The state of Maine is discriminating against women by failing to protect women in women’s sports,” Bondi told reporters.
The suit cites two cases in which biological male transgender athletes won girls’ competitions – including a pole vaulter who won the state indoor track and field state championships in February, according to the outlet.
Bondi also pointed out that it is not just a sports issue but public safety issue. According to her, male athletes are allowed in women’s bathrooms and dressing rooms. She also noted that women athletes have been injured by transgender athletes in competition.
“Some of these young women have endured vicious injuries too, as a result of boys playing in their sports,” she said.
Read more
Trump bars trans athletes from female sports
Asked whether it was worth using department’s resources to sue Maine over just two athletes, Bondi said, “I don’t care if it’s one. I don’t care if it’s two. I don’t care if it’s 100.” She added the department is also examining similar cases in other states, such as Minnesota and California.
The legal action marks the latest escalation in a public feud between the Trump administration and Maine’s Democratic governor, Janet Mills.
In February, Trump confronted Mills during televised remarks at a gathering of governors at the White House. He asked whether she intended to comply with his order and warned she could lose all federal funding. Mills replied, “See you in court.”
Responding to the lawsuit on Wednesday, Mills called it “an expected salvo in an unprecedented campaign to pressure the State of Maine.” She said the decision to cut federal school funding last week was “unlawful” and vowed to “vigorously defend” the state.
Since taking office on January 20, Trump has issued numerous executive orders, including a ban on biological men participating in women’s sports, a reinstatement of the prohibition of trans individuals from military service, and a rollback of the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs in federal agencies introduced by his predecessor, Joe Biden.
The administration’s approach to transgender athletes has drawn criticism from civil rights groups and LGBTQ advocates. Supporters of the policy, meanwhile, argue it protects fairness in women’s sports.
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Site: AsiaNews.itAt the La Sapienza University in Rome, the Gaza activist talked about his struggle against Hamas. A member of the Bidna Naish movement, which emerged to demand greater economic fairness and fresh elections, he was arrested twice, in 2019 and 2023. Now in voluntary exile in Europe, he speaks out against the repression by the Islamist movement and calls on the international community to support moderate Palestinian voices, far from Iranian-style extremism.
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Site: ChurchPOP
Little Joaquim, who is battling a liver tumor, moved social media users after receiving a visit from a relic of the future saint Carlo Acutis at the hospital.
The boy's interaction with the priest and his sincere prayer stirred the hearts of those present and thousands of internet users.
The initiative came from Father Josirlei A Silva, Chaplain of the Clinical Hospital of the Faculty of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto, who mobilized the faithful so that it would be possible to take Father Fábio Vieira and the relics of Carlo Acutis to Ribeirão Preto.
Between April 8 and 10, Carlo's relics visited dozens of hospitalized patients and left a trail of faith and hope.
One of those who received a visit from the future millennial saint was Joaquim Galoni, diagnosed with Fibrolamellar Hepatocellular Carcinoma, a liver cancer considered rare in children.
Joaquim's mother, Lilian Zanandrea Galoni, posted an Instagram video of the meeting. She said the boy was “very happy” with the visit.
“Joaquim, do you know Carlo? He will be a saint in a few days, and today he came to visit you,” said Father Fabio, explaining that it was a fragment of the body of the Italian saint who was there to bless him.
As the priest spoke, Joaquim smiled and stared at the relic. Father Fábio then prayed for the health of Joaquim's body and soul and that of his family, and the boy was visibly moved.
“Let’s ask Carlo to pray for you, so that God’s will will always be above all else. You’re a boy of faith, aren’t you?” the priest asks, to which Joaquim nods positively.“You are meeting a great friend now, who is Carlo. He and Our Lady, our dear Mother.”
“It was a surreal experience! Every time we leave the hospital, we are devastated, and today we leave there feeling lighter than when we arrived. God’s actions are tremendous!” commented Alan Galoni, the boy’s father.
Watch the video below:
Father Josirlei also published the video from another angle:
Future Saint Carlo Acutis, please pray for Joaquim and all those who are sick!
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Site: Novus Motus LiturgicusThou, o Lord, didst command us to be partakers of Thy Son, sharers of Thy kingdom, dwellers in Paradise, companions of the Angels; ever provided we keep the sacraments of the heavenly host with pure and undefiled faith. And what may we not hope of Thy mercy, we who received so great a gift, that we might merit to offer Thee such a Victim, namely, the Body and Blood of Our Lord, Jesus Christ? Who Gregory DiPippohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13295638279418781125noreply@blogger.com0
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Site: Mises InstituteCollege football has finally experienced an athlete‘s holdout in order to leverage a hoped-for payday. In the case of Nico Iamaleava, he tried to leverage more money from the University of Tennessee but failed spectacularly. There are economic lessons to be learned here.
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Site: PeakProsperityWhat a time to be alive. If we're right, the dollar regime is now on its last legs, which makes pre-positioning your portfolio for this shift is a must-do activity. Further, we're going to have to be both nimble and humble, because much of what will happen next cannot be predicted. It will emerge.
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Site: Mundabor's blogWe believe in a Triune God, in the Most Holy Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Whatever else, whatever other “entity”, whatever other assumed being is imagined by people lured by Satan’s lures, that is not God. It’s not that this assumed being is an incomplete one. It’s not that his followers get it, […]
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Site: RT - News
Moscow has undertaken diplomatic efforts to secure the release of people being held captive in Gaza
Russian President Vladimir Putin has thanked the political wing of Hamas for the release of Russian-Israeli citizen Aleksandr Trufanov, during a meeting with the freed hostage in Moscow on Wednesday.
The Palestinian group freed Trufanov in February as part of a Gaza ceasefire agreement with Israel and following diplomatic efforts by Moscow. Two other hostages were also released at the time.
“Here we have to offer a word of gratitude to the leadership and to the political wing of Hamas for having met us halfway and carried out this humanitarian act,” Putin said as he welcomed Trufanov and the surviving members of his family at the Kremlin.
Trufanov was taken hostage on October 7, 2023 along with his grandmother Irena Tati, mother Elena, and fiancée Sapir Cohen. His father Vitaly Trufanov was killed in the attack. The women were released as part of the Hamas-Israel truce in November 2023. Aleksandr spent 498 days in captivity.
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Putin and Qatari emir discuss crises in Gaza and Syria
“The fact that you are now free is a result of Russia’s many years of stable relations with the Palestinian people, with the representatives of different organizations,” Putin said, adding that Russia will do whatever is necessary to ensure those still in captivity are freed.
A Hamas delegation visited Moscow in early February, less than two weeks before Trufanov’s release. The group, led by senior official Mousa Abu Marzouk, met with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov to discuss the ongoing ceasefire in Gaza and related humanitarian issues.
This visit was part of Russia’s ongoing engagement with various parties involved in the Middle East conflict.
The October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel left approximately 1,200 people dead, with around 250 taken hostage. In the past 18 months, over 51,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed amid Israel’s military operation, according to the enclave’s health authorities.
READ MORE: Israeli Army to remain indefinitely in Gaza – defense minister
On Wednesday, Israel proposed a 45-day truce in Gaza to allow hostage releases and potentially begin indirect talks to end the war. Hamas has said it is studying the plan.
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Site: Mises InstituteThe last excuse that diehard defenders of President Trump’s tariff policies have advanced now lies in ruins.
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Site: RT - News
Beijing has reportedly slashed purchases of American crude by 90% amid the tariff war
China has been importing record amounts of crude oil from Canada and drastically reducing supplies from the US in light of the trade war with Washington, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.
Washington and Beijing have implemented a series of reciprocal tariff hikes over the past two months in light of which the latter has slashed purchases of US oil by roughly 90%, according to the outlet. China previously indicated that it would not implement more tariff hikes against US goods but would rather employ alternative ways to retaliate.
Chinese crude imports from a port near Vancouver on Canada’s Pacific coast soared to a record 7.3 million barrels in March and may exceed the figure this month, Bloomberg reported, citing data from London-based global oil and gas cargo tracking firm Vortexa Ltd. Chinese imports of US oil, meanwhile, have fallen to 3 million barrels per month from a peak of 29 million last June, it added.
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‘Stop blackmailing’ – China to US
China’s direct imports of Canadian crude oil had historically been minimal, primarily due to infrastructure constraints. Chinese refineries have mainly sourced crude from the Middle East and Russia.
Roughly 1.7% of China’s total crude imports came from the US last year, according to Chinese customs data, down from 2.5% in 2023.
Nearly all of Canada’s oil is shipped to the US to be processed there or re-exported to Asia. However, the completion last May of the Trans Mountain Expansion pipeline, which takes crude to Canada’s Pacific coast, provided the country with an alternative route to export more volumes directly, primarily to Asia, thus reducing its reliance on the US.
READ MORE: Here’s why Trump really wants to get his hands on Greenland and Canada
“Given the trade war, it’s unlikely for China to import more US oil,” Bloomberg quoted Wenran Jiang, president of the Canada-China Energy & Environment Forum, as saying. “They are not going to bank on Russian alone or Middle Eastern alone. Anything from Canada will be welcome news.”
China accounted for roughly 5% of US crude oil exports last year, according to ship-tracking data from Kpler.
Russia remains China’s largest supplier of crude oil. Russian shipments to China reached the highest level on record in 2024. The increase in recent years is largely attributable to the discounts being offered on Russian crude. China’s imports of oil from Saudi Arabia, its second-largest supplier, declined by 9% year-on-year in 2024.
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Site: AsiaNews.itIn the predominantly tribal district of Sukma, families were forced out of their homes and dumped in a forest. Only the intervention of the police allowed them to return, but locals first prevented access. Archbishop Thakur laments ongoing persecution, stressing that the Church continues to serve without discrimination despite unfair accusations.
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Site: Henrymakow.com
As Dave Chapelle said, Americans want to wear Nikes. They don't want to make them.Please send links and comments to hmakow@gmail.comThere is a cultural dimension in the US-China trade war that everyone is missing.On the one hand, you have a Satanist Jewish gangster who uses intimidation and threats.On the other hand, Xi Jinping, who is also a Freemason Satanist, demands "respect."This trade war is all about preparing the US for World War by repatriating the supply chain.Otherwise it makes no sense. Americans were getting cheap Chinese goods and paying for them with worthless US dollars.Chinese launch racist humiliation campaign mocking Trump's tariffs"A new AI-generated video believed to have been created by a Chinese TikToker depicts a depressing America under Donald Trump's tariffs.The video shows morbidly obese Americans in sweatshops and factories performing low-skilled labor work with somber Chinese music playing in the background.Each 'American' in the video looks depressed and exhausted by the amount of labor - feeding into many stereotypes about the nation's work ethic."---Interesting documentary about George Blake, a traitor and spy for the USSR. Half-Jewish, he did more damage than anyone but no one has heard of him.--Remembering The Plandemic - Never Forget! Never forgive!---
This is to counter the rumor that Trump is Satanyahu's bumboyREPORT: President Trump Stopped Israel From Bombing Iranian Nuclear SitesPresident Daniel Noboa appears to have stolen Ecuador's election. He's now poised to consolidate control of a system that has benefitted cartels and multinational corporations - including his family business - at the expense of average Ecuadorians. And Washington likes what it sees.-James Perloff weighs in on the tariff controversy."Why Trump's Tariff Measures Likely Spell Disaster for America."
Why do they kill women and children?Because it's a genocide. They know women will have more children and childrenwill grow up and seek justice.'Like melted skeletons'....Children's charred remains found in aftermath of Israeli strike on 'safe zone'Israeli strikes targeting displaced Palestinians in the so-called 'humanitarian zone' of al-Mawasi in south Gaza's Khan Younis overnight on Wednesday killed more than 15 people, mostly women and children.In harrowing scenes, family members gathered around the charred remains of their relatives, including children as young as one year old, who were burnt beyond recognition.French journalists stage die-in to protest Israel's killing of reporters in GazaHundreds of journalists rallied in Paris and Marseille to honour nearly 200 colleagues killed in Gaza and demand press access to the strip-UK 'epidemic' as almost 19,000 children/year identified as sexual exploitation victims in England.-The ONE day Harold Lutnuck was late for work was 9/11Got the Jew CallHoward Lutnick of Cantor Fitzgerald...all hands lost.
(Masonic handshake. They are all Freemasons. World conflict is a charade to kill good people.)Qatari Emir tells Putin Israel 'failed to honor Gaza truce deal'Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani expressed frustration over Israel's refusal to uphold the Gaza ceasefire agreed to in January with Qatari mediation--Canada PPC Candidate Meghan Murphy Says Her Bank Account Was Frozen After Election Bid AnnouncementA federal candidacy turns surreal as Meghan Murphy's access to her own money allegedly vanishes without explanation.On Monday, Murphy wrote on her Substack that her bank account got frozen by the Canadian government the day her candidacy was confirmed - a move she suspects is politically motivated, both because of the timing, and the fact she is a vocal critic of that government.-
(left. Esau)Reader explains the Esau and Jacob story."The lost, apostate, broken-off branches of Judaism running the show today in Israel ARE EDOM! They HAVE NO CLUE because they have been TAUGHT ALL WRONG!The children of Esau warred against the children of Jacob, because Jacob supposedly stole the birthright, the lineage of Abraham in which the Messiah would be born, from Esau, but God was the one who made that choice and that distinction.He says in His word, "Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated."Jacob had respect for the birthright and Esau did not! Esau sold the birthright for a bowl of soup when he was hungry one day! This surely could not have pleased God, who in His great foreknowledge, passed that birthright to the younger twin. Jacob further incensed Esau by stealing the patriarchal blessing, by great deception, when he pretended to be Esau, who his father preferred, and lied to him, and in that manner secured the patriarchal blessing along with the birthright. Once pronounced, it could not be taken from him.History matters, Henry! The Bible is the greatest book of history ever written. It tells the beginning and the end of human history and a lot that occurs within that time frame.The evil King Herod was an Edomite who sought to kill Jesus of Nazareth, The King of the Jews, when He was born!It appears that Pure Judaism and Pure Christianity are one and the same continuum, throughout history. What we must guard against are all the perversions and digressions from that PURITY, which can only be found and substantiated in the great and glorious continuum of God's Word, which explains all these things to us!Today we have a lot of false Christianity in Roman Catholicism--which denies and embellishes God's word, and a host of Christian cults. We have a lot of false Judaism in Talmudism, the Jewish cults, and Zionism. There is therefore a great need for teachers to show these distinctions and set people free from all the errors, superstition, and downright lies that have accrued to True Religion down throughout the ages." -
Site: Mises InstituteZillow, which is famously bullish on housing prices, is now projecting that U.S. home prices will fall 1.7% between March 2025 and March 2026.
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Site: Euthanasia Prevention CoalitionAlex Schadenberg
Executive Director,
Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
Sonia SodhaSonia Sodha is an Observer columnist who wrote a challenging article that was published by the Guardian on April 13, 2025. Sodha asks if the rush to legalize assisted suicide has made the vulnerable expendable?
Sodha, explains how dangerous the proposed UK assisted suicide bill, that is sponsored by Kim Leadbeater (MP) is. The article begins by telling two stories of people who died by assisted suicide at a clinic in Switzerland:
Last month, ITV News reported on the case of 51-year-old Anne, who travelled to a Swiss assisted suicide clinic to end her own life after her only son died. The first her family knew of it was when they received the goodbye letters Anne had posted them from Switzerland. It follows another case from 2023, when 47-year-old Alastair Hamilton went to the same Swiss clinic after telling his mother he was going on holiday. He had been suffering from stomach problems but had no diagnosed illness.Sodha explains that similar stories have been reported in Canada. She then comments on the reality of what a six month terminal diagnosis means:
...That’s more subjective than it might sound: in Oregon, for example, doctors have interpreted terminal illness to include malnutrition from eating disorders, and the assisted dying bill’s sponsor, Kim Leadbeater, rejected amendments backed by eating disorder charities to prevent this happening here. Having learning difficulties or a mental illness, feeling depressed or suicidal, or alcohol misuse that might impair judgment would not preclude someone from seeking a medically assisted death. There would be no obligation on assisted suicide providers to notify families their relative is about to die, and no route for relatives to raise concerns about coercion.Sodha explains what the Leadbeater bill will permit:
Do we really want to live in a society in which a depressed 19-year-old diagnosed with terminal cancer can kill himself with medical assistance, and his parents only find out afterwards? Or in which an older woman who is terminally ill can get an assisted death to avoid being a burden on her adult children, with no opportunity for them to tell her that caring for her would be an act of love rather than obligation? These circumstances would be entirely permissible under Leadbeater’s bill. They are the logical extension of treating medical assistance to kill oneself as healthcare, and as facilitating an adult’s right to make autonomous and private choices.Sodha is concerned with the speed in which the assisted suicide bill is being pushed. Leadbeater did delay the next debate on the bill by three weeks. Sodha outlines some of the dangerous flaws with the bill:
The judicial safeguard has been eliminated. Instead of judges signing off assisted deaths, this will fall to panels with no investigatory powers, no ability to summon witnesses or to hear evidence under oath, and no obligation to make inquiries beyond hearing from one doctor. External oversight of the system by the chief medical officer has been removed. The NHS can outsource assisted dying to for-profit companies. There is no proper regulatory regime nor any protection for hospices from being financially penalised for not providing assisted dying on their premises. Doctors can proactively suggest assisted dying to under-18s, who can qualify for it from their 18th birthday. These are just some of the problems with the bill. Little wonder that six Labour MPs have written to colleagues calling it “flawed and dangerous”.Sodha asks how did the UK get here? She points out that some supporters of assisted suicide acknowledge that wrongful deaths will occur. She writes:
There are some intellectually honest proponents of assisted dying who acknowledge that people would suffer wrongful deaths if it were legalised. The brain surgeon Henry Marsh even said in 2017 “if a few grannies get bullied into it, isn’t that a price worth paying for all the people who could die with dignity?”. Grim, though upfront.Sodha then points out that most of the assisted suicide supporters ignore the real concerns:
But I have watched open-mouthed as some MPs arguing for assisted dying have chosen to ignore what we know about safeguarding to pretend it’s possible to eliminate the risk of people being coerced into killing themselves, through something as cursory as a bit of training for doctors signing it off. Have they not read the same safeguarding reviews that I have, which make clear that even experienced social workers routinely miss cases of domestic abuse? Have they not digested the implications of NHS scandals, such as mid-Staffs, the maternity scandals, and the Tavistock’s clinic for gender-questioning children? Is it arrogance or ineptitude that makes them think they know better than the country’s leading experts on domestic abuse?Sodha explains that assisted suicide supporters are not only ignoring concerns with the bill but they accuse opponents of the bill as "acting in bad faith". She writes:
They are perceived as bad folk using words like “risk” and “safeguarding” as a foil for some other irrational opposition to something that’s innately good.Sodha suggests that many of the supporters of assisted suicide do so with a quasi-religious fervour.
Sodha challenges the British Labour government by stating:
It is an unserious, irresponsible way to make law that could lead to vulnerable or suicidal people being prescribed lethal drugs by the state. Labour seems yet to twig what a serious political problem this could be. Does it really want to be known as the party that failed to fix the NHS so that a parent with probably-terminal cancer could access decent end-of-life care, but instead made it possible for them to kill themselves with medical assistance when they were feeling suicidal?Sodha completes her article by stating the fundamental point:
I don’t want to live in a society that sees people with complications and vulnerabilities as expendable in reducing the suffering of others. It really is as simple as that. And it distresses me immeasurably that there are MPs who cannot see this is precisely what this bill would achieve.Previous articles about the UK assisted suicide bill:
- British MP who supported assisted suicide is opposing the assisted suicide bill (Link).
- The UK assisted dying bill gets more dangerous by the day (Link).
- UK assisted suicide bill is losing support and can be defeated (Link).
- Follow the money. Members of Scottish parliament accept money from? (Link).
- Scotland's assisted suicide bill is dangerous (Link).
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Site: Fr. Z's BlogWere there any really GOOD points you heard in sermon for Holy Thursday, at either the Chrism Mass (whenever it was) or the Mass of the Last Supper?? Please share them with us. Sometimes there are real gems and people don’t … Read More →
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Site: Fr. Z's BlogA plenary indulgence, under the usual conditions, is granted to the faithful who: Visit the Blessed Sacrament for adoration lasting at least half an hour; OR Piously recite the verses of the Tantum ergo after the Mass of the Lord’s … Read More →
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Site: AsiaNews.itThe funeral of the PIME missionary, a pioneer of dialogue with the Church in China after Mao's persecution, was held today. In his last book, he told the story of one of his first trips to the Chinese capital where he met with some elderly people forced to quit the religious life. They understood that he was a priest, and asked him to bless some sacred images. He was moved when he bid them goodbye.
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Site: RT - News
The country’s top court has removed the group from the terrorist list
Russia’s Supreme Court on Thursday lifted the Taliban’s designation as a “terrorist organization,” effectively legalizing the group’s activities in the country.
The Islamist movement, which took power in Afghanistan four years ago, had been listed as a terrorist entity since 2003, making any contact with its members a criminal offense under Russian law.
The decision follows calls from Russian officials to engage with the Taliban to help stabilize Afghanistan. The group returned to power in August 2021 following the withdrawal of US and NATO forces after their two-decade presence in the Central Asian country.
Since that time, Moscow has resumed diplomatic contacts with Taliban officials. Last year, President Vladimir Putin said it was “necessary to build relations with the current government somehow,” as they are now in control of Afghanistan.
In May 2024, the Russian Foreign Ministry and Ministry of Justice formally proposed lifting the ban. Earlier this month, the Prosecutor General’s Office submitted the motion to the Supreme Court, leading to Thursday’s ruling.
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Taliban welcomes Moscow’s steps to remove it from terrorist list – envoy
Previously, Russian law had no mechanism for removing organizations from the terrorist list. However, amendments passed in 2023 to the federal law on countering terrorism now allow the courts to suspend the designation if the group in question has ceased activities involving propaganda, justification, or support of terrorism, and no longer violates the Criminal Code.
Although the Taliban government is not officially recognized by the international community, several Central Asian countries have recently renewed ties with Kabul. Kazakhstan removed the group from its terrorist list in June 2024, followed by Kyrgyzstan in September. Turkmenistan has resumed cooperation through the TAPI gas pipeline project, and Uzbekistan signed several joint agreements with Kabul in August 2024.
Mohammad Suhail Shaheen, the Taliban’s envoy to Qatar and its de facto international spokesman, told RT earlier this month that Kabul welcomed Russia’s move, saying the ban had stood “in the way of cooperation” between the two countries.
Experts say Thursday’s ruling does not constitute formal recognition of the Taliban government, but will facilitate diplomatic engagement.
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Site: Mises InstituteDonald Trump says he plans for a big 12% jump in military spending, he has threatened war with Iran, and has escalated the war with the Houthis. None of this has anything to do with defending the United States.
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Site: RT - News
The president of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, has dismissed the bloc’s fears of Russia as irrational
The EU should stop vilifying Russia and its leader, Vladimir Putin, the president of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, has said. The Serb leader of the autonomous region within Bosnia and Herzegovina also dismissed claims that Moscow harbors aggressive plans against EU countries.
In an interview with Switzerland’s Die Weltwoche magazine on Wednesday, Dodik said the “Russian point of view is that the war in Ukraine had been imposed [on] Russia by the Western, global elite.” He went on to cite Boris Johnson’s alleged role in the derailment of peace negotiations between Moscow and Kiev in Istanbul, Türkiye in 2022. Russian officials have since claimed that the then-UK prime minister persuaded Ukraine not to sign a deal and “just continue fighting.”
In November 2023, David Arakhamia, an MP allied with Zelensky who led the Ukrainian delegation, confirmed that this was the case. Johnson has denied the allegation.
According to Dodik, “the Russians have learned that they cannot trust the West because the West lies all the time.” He referenced the admissions by former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former French President Francois Hollande that the 2014-15 Minsk agreements had been a mere ploy to help Kiev build up its military capabilities.
Read more
‘Unnatural for Ukraine to be anti-Russian’ – Bosnian Serb leader
Commenting on concerns among some EU member states that Russia may be planning an attack on the bloc’s eastern members, Dodik said, “I think that this is not a rational explanation or expectation, and that Putin has no aspirations whatsoever toward those states.”
Asked for his recommendations to Brussels on dealing with Russia, he argued that “they should, first of all, stop demonizing Putin and demonizing Russia, and trying to invent a narrative that would back that up.”
According to Dodik, the Russian president appears to want to engage with US President Donald Trump, while having no wish to “talk with Europe.”
He suggested that in his talks with Moscow, Trump “should take into consideration and respect the Russian requirements, the Russian requests,” and aim for a “comprehensive agreement,” as opposed to one narrowly focusing only on Ukraine.
Speaking to Serbian media this week, Dodik defied top EU diplomat Kaja Kallas’ warning to EU candidate nations, demanding that they not “take part in the May 9 [WWII Victory Day] events in Moscow.”
“I want to be there and I will go,” the Bosnian Serb leader said, adding that he does not fear any potential repercussions from Brussels.
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Site: RT - News
American troops have been deployed in the Middle Eastern country since 2014
US President Donald Trump’s administration is considering a significant reduction of American troops in Syria, the Washington Post reported on Thursday, citing officials familiar with military planning.
American forces have been illegally stationed in Syria since 2014. Washington insisted they were deployed to counter ISIS, though they have remained in the years since Syria’s war ended.
A US official focused on the region told the WaPo there’s an expectation that troop numbers would be cut “to a bare minimum,” adding “I think we’re going to go down to one very small place in the northeast.”
A defense official confirmed ongoing plans to “reduce” and “consolidate” Washington’s troop presence but insisted a full withdrawal is not currently under discussion.
“Stuff is already moving, although they likely won’t announce anything before the Iran talks,” referring to US-Iran nuclear negotiations that began last week, with a second round set for this weekend in Rome.
Any withdrawal plans could be derailed by Islamic State’s increased attacks in eastern Syria, according to the WaPo.
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US sends largest convoy into Syria since fall of Assad – media
In December 2024, shortly after Syrian President Bashar Assad was ousted, the Pentagon acknowledged having 2,000 troops in Syria – more than double the previously reported 900. Later that month, several media outlets reported that US military convoys carrying weapons and equipment had crossed into Syria from Iraq.
Both the former Assad government and Russia have repeatedly condemned the US presence as an illegal occupation, arguing that Washington was never granted permission to station troops in Syria. Damascus has also accused Washington of stealing Syrian natural resources, given that the US bases are located in the country’s oil-rich northeastern regions.
During his first term, Trump had ordered a partial withdrawal from Syria, though it was never completed. Since returning to office, he has largely avoided the topic, stating only that Syria is a “mess” and doesn’t need American involvement.
Last month, Washington handed Damascus a list of conditions for partial relief from Assad-era sanctions. The list, a copy of which was seen by the WaPo, included demands to allow US counter-terror operations on Syrian soil and a formal declaration of support for Operation Inherent Resolve – a US-led campaign against terrorism in Syria and Iraq.
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Site: RT - News
The White House is reportedly concerned with China’s AI success and is looking to slow its progress in the industry
US officials are taking steps to crack down on China’s DeepSeek AI and its support from chip-making giant Nvidia, the New York Times has reported, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter.
DeepSeek’s January release shook the foundations of the artificial intelligence industry and rattled the US stock market, heating up the AI race between China and the US. Unlike its main rival – OpenAI’s ChatGPT – DeepSeek’s open-source deep reasoning model was made freely available, quickly making it the most downloaded app on Apple’s and Google’s stores. The model’s development also reportedly cost a fraction of what US companies have been spending on such technologies.
On Wednesday, the NYT reported that US President Donald Trump and his administration have been weighing penalties that would block DeepSeek from buying American technologies and are debating banning US users from accessing the Chinese AI.
Earlier this week, Nvidia announced that the US government had blocked the sale of some of its AI chips to China without a license and would demand such licenses for future sales.
US congressional leaders have been looking to further crack down on Nvidia’s chip deliveries to China and on Wednesday opened an investigation into the company’s sale of chips across Asia.
The main focus of the probe is said to be to determine if Nvidia knowingly provided DeepSeek with critical technology to develop AI, which would be a violation of American rules established under former US President Joe Biden.
Read more
Chinese AI rival spending 2% of ChatGPT’s budget – industry pioneer
A spokesman for Nvidia, John Rizzo, has since stated that the company has followed the US government’s directions on what products it can sell and where it can sell them “to the letter,” and that it is committed to protecting and enhancing US national security.
Following DeepSeek’s launch, several countries, including the US, South Korea, Italy, and Australia, have imposed bans and restrictions on the chatbot, citing national security and data privacy concerns.
In February, US lawmakers proposed legislation that would ban the app from being installed on any government-owned devices after cybersecurity experts claimed that the program contained hidden code capable of transmitting sensitive user data to China. Washington has previously accused Beijing of using its apps to attempt to access sensitive data in other countries.
China has dismissed the accusation as politically motivated “ideological discrimination,” asserting that the government does not require enterprises or individuals to collect or store data illegally.
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Site: RT - News
Moscow is now being accused of orchestrating Islamist terrorism, among a litany of other ridiculous claims
Like people almost everywhere in NATO-EU Europe, Germans are currently being subjected to a relentless barrage of shameless, often astonishingly crude propaganda. That’s because their political elites and mainstream media are desperately trying to prepare them for war against Russia. And this time, not by proxy, that is, by way of a devastated Ukraine and dead Ukrainians, but directly.
As a former, very evil but in his prime all-too-popular German master of mass manipulation – who also happened to love war with Russia more than was good for him (or Germany) – explained a century ago, effective propaganda keeps the world very, very simple. Or, to add a little detail, propaganda’s sometimes literally stunning success is built on two primitive yet powerful – and very old – tricks: the broken-record principle and the litany effect.
Their meaning, too, is elementary: In essence, if your image of reality is delusional, you don’t have sound arguments, and your case is absurd, do not despair. Instead, ceaselessly drum in a few very basic and bogus ideas until the audience is dizzy with repetition (the broken-record principle), while also eliciting frequent consent from it (the litany effect). In short: Keep shouting the same nonsense at them and make them bleat back “yes” regularly. You know, like a ritual, really.
In the case of the manufacturing of the current iteration of traditional German the-Russians-are-coming hysteria as well, it is easy to identify its handful of specious, daft, and childishly simplistic key motifs: Russia and Russia alone is to blame for the war in Ukraine; Russia intends to attack Europe (if not the world) – and soon; and Russia is incredibly devious and scheming, so you cannot find a reasonable compromise with it.
Yet what about the nuts and bolts of this propaganda campaign? Even a simple story needs detail, and, if told and retold almost without letup, that detail at least needs to vary: Same old story but different flavor. That’s where things get tricky.
For one thing, if you pick the wrong flavor, your propaganda may start looking as silly as it actually is. A current example in Germany – as well as the EU parliament – would be the recent hysteria over the global hit Sigma Boy from Russia. Its brilliantly catchy tune is a piece of art, like it or not. But its lyrics are about as profound as a margarine commercial.
Read more
The Sumy missile strike: War, propaganda, and hypocrisy
Yet that won’t stop Germany’s radical-Centrist elite from exploring the song’s ominous depths as a weapon of nefarious Russian cultural warfare. Because Sigma Boy, one EU parliamentarian from Hamburg has noticed – with a little help from Ukraine – is really “a viral Russian trope used on social media that communicates patriarchal and pro-Russian worldviews” as well as “only one example of Russian infiltration of popular discourse through social media.” Also, you see, Sigma Boy is really just code for – scary sound effect – PUTIN!
Silly? So ridiculous it gives you that cringey feeling you get when someone else is making a total fool of themselves and all you want to do is tell them to shut up already and save whatever maybe left of their credibility? Yes, obviously.
Indeed, in the case of the Great Sigma Boy Panic Attack, even Spiegel – a usually reliably Russophobic and NATO-militarist publication now – has mildly demurred. Dedicating a whole podcast to the phenomenon, it had an editor and journalist deliberate on the Sigma Boy case in all earnestness and with proverbial German thoroughness and faces serious enough for Kant and Hegel hashing out the nature of TikTok. The result: Maybe, just maybe, it’s really simply a pop song.
Now you could say “Great. At least someone is not completely falling for the mass hysteria.” But that would be too optimistic. In reality, the real question is how could things get so absurd in the first place? What is the Zeitgeist environment in which an EU parliamentarian is not ashamed to display so much provincial paranoia and Germany’s major news magazine needs intensive research and a long discussion to find out that, perhaps, she does not have a point?
In that regard, another recent propaganda fiasco is instructive. Its essence is simple: Some may know the ZDF, one of Germany’s most popular and influential public – that is, de facto state – TV channels most of all as a rock-solid mouthpiece of Israeli propaganda, especially during the ongoing Gaza genocide.
But the ZDF also has a substantial line in Russophobia. And for once, it went a little too far in its never-slackening eagerness to stick it to the big bad Russians: In its main news show and a long, sensationalist pseudo-documentary in its Terra X History program – under the title “Spying, Sabotage, Fake News. Putin’s war against us” – the broadcaster claimed, in effect if with some cheap pro forma hedging, that Russia was behind, among other nefarious schemes, an Islamist terror attack in the city of Mannheim in May 2024.
This was, obviously, an extremely serious allegation, in principle as well as in detail: the attack, carried out by a man from Afghanistan who had lived in Germany for ten years, left five victims injured and one, a policeman, dead. Moreover, in the consciousness of the German public, this particular terror attack is only part of a whole series of unrelated yet similar violent assaults that have taken place over the last year, including another one in Magdeburg as well as in the cities of Solingen and Aschaffenburg.
Read more
Paranoia rebranded: The EU is desperate to sell its people more Ukraine war
Hence, pointing a finger at Russia over one of these traumatizing onslaughts inevitably implied that Moscow may have had a hand in the others as well. Et voila! A new and particularly horrifying accusation against Russia had been manufactured: Moscow, so the essence of this wildest of many wild tales, was using migrants to instigate bloody Islamist terror in Germany.
And this big fat lie started working quickly: Various major mainstream media in Germany and abroad began to uncritically repeat the story, such as Britain’s Telegraph and The Sun, the German Merkur, and the French Sud-Ouest.
Yet the “research” on which ZDF had based this specific propaganda strike against Moscow was so breathtakingly sloppy that, this time, even Germany’s BND foreign intelligence service had to object.
Shortly after the ZDF had made its splash, the BND publicly contradicted it, pointing out that the method – basically a childish misreading of Google Trend data – used to produce these allegations against Russia is, in essence, ridiculously unreliable. Indeed, it turned out that several German intelligence agencies had warned the ZDF already before the Terra X pseudo-documentary was broadcast. Even Germany’s highly conservative Welt newspaper called the ZDF’s handiwork – with massive understatement – “negligent.”
So far, so bad. Just another case of propaganda becoming self-defeating by going too far. Let’s move on. And that is, of course, what is happening now. While the very worst lie about Russia has been discredited, there are virtually no consequences.
Yet, in reality, this is where the whole daft affair is only beginning to get interesting. For one thing, the Terra X feature, almost 45 minutes long, was packed with other, equally unfounded accusations against Russia. Indeed, it consisted of a long sequence of one hearsay after another speculation, all based on profound evidence of the “Western-intelligence-services-believe” type.
At Terra X, have they ever heard of those Iraqi weapons of mass destruction? The babies torn from incubators in Kuwait? Or Gaddafi handing out Viagra to his troops to promote rape? All of them, of course, lies; all, in their time, spread by those famously reliable Western intelligence agencies and mass media functioning as their servile propaganda arms. And all of these lies, these actual cases of “hybrid warfare” – by Western elites on their own populations – have always had the same purpose: prepare and justify Western military aggression.
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Team Macron’s new pitch: Jihadists are just Russians in disguise
Yet, in the Terra X case as well, the fact that the single most egregious anti-Russian allegation of many has been, for once, exposed quickly as at best reckless nonsense if not a deliberate lie, makes no dent in the story as a whole.
On the contrary, all that happens is that one scapegoat is singled out and sacrificed: Steven Broschart, the discredited “data profiler” and self-appointed “digital behavioral analytic.” It was all him, is the message now. But that is clearly untrue. Long stretches of the Terra X tale consisted of various, often much more prominent talking-heads lending their authority to a long list of equally unsubstantiated allegations of Russian crimes and, in general, helping beat the war drums against Moscow.
There was, for instance, an official of Germany’s domestic intelligence service – the Verfassungsschutz – who first conveniently confirmed that the internet is a “treasure chest” of information revealing sabotage and attack plans and then informed viewers that they are already at war with Russia, even if they haven’t noticed yet. No biggie in Germany now: at war, not yet at war with Russia… Who cares once we all know where we are supposed to be going anyhow, and so soon, too.
To be fair, the man from the Verfassungsschutz had his entertaining side: You don’t need tanks to bring down a country, he enlightened us, because you can also strike at its vital infrastructure. Really? You don’t say! You mean the way that Germany’s “allies” in Washington and its spongers in Kiev struck at the Nord Stream pipelines? No, just kidding. Of course, he did not mean that. Because that would be reality, and his job clearly is the opposite, propaganda.
Quintessential German professor Martin Schulze Wessel added platitudes about Putin, who, we learn, thinks in categories of East and West and antagonism. Wow! Aren’t we lucky that no one does so in Garden Value Europe and a Germany that has decided to quite literally define itself, again, via antagonism toward Russia.
In addition, the professor confirmed that Russia is a “direct” threat to Germany – clearly unlike, again, Ukraine and the US, obviously, even if they have actually committed the largest act of infrastructure sabotage in German peacetime history. And the German public must be made aware of that non-fact, the professor lectured. Thank you for summarizing the essence of propaganda so selflessly: making the people aware of what isn’t there. And, if we may add, the opposite is also important: that that same public is made unaware of what does, actually, exist, for instance that Nord Stream attack that must go forever unmentioned.
My only caveat regarding Schulze Wessel’s amusing contribution is that, as a matter of transparency, he could have let viewers know that he is heavily networked with Ukraine and in particular the rather nationalist city of Lviv. Again, no biggie: On the big crusade against bad Russia, minor sins are forgivable.
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The EU’s worst enemies are its own Russophobic leaders
The cast of Terra X was rich and not everyone can be mentioned here. But we would be amiss to omit Anton Shekhovtsov. Ironically now based at some “Center for Democratic Integrity,” he is the commentator who publicly celebrated the Odessa Trade Union House fire, while comparing its victims to vermin, literally. Dehumanizing? A little on the fascist side psychologically, perhaps? Oh, come on! Once again, on the grand campaign against Moscow, a little excess of eagerness is more than welcome.
On Terra X his function was unspoken yet clumsily clear: He served as the “expert” explaining that everything alleged in the show is “hard to prove.” But, of course, not as in not likely to be true, but as in: absolutely true even without any evidence. Thank you, too, Anton, for demonstrating a basic yet always popular trick of gutter propaganda: “You can’t see them,” as it were, “but that’s only because they are so well hidden. Which proves again how dangerous they are.”
The single worst irony about this piece of weaponized “journalism” from one of Germany’s biggest broadcasters is its flatfooted hypocrisy. For, in the context of the Ukraine War, provoked and fought via proxy by the West, there are real sabotage and terrorism, namely by Ukraine and the West: The attack on the Crocus City venue in Moscow, the assassination of General Igor Kirillov, the heinous murder of Darya Dugina, the Ukrainian attacks on the Kerch Bridge and on Nord Stream, of course – and this list could be prolonged – are all clear examples of Ukraine using terrorism. And we have known for years now, from Western mainstream media, that behind these activities, there has been hands-on and proud support from Western intelligence services.
Is it possible that, in a conflict where the West and Ukraine have liberally deployed “hybrid war” tactics, Russia is sometimes paying them back in the same coin? Yes, in principle. You could even make a plausible argument that it has to do so to remain credible.
Accusations of promoting Islamist terrorism, from which Russia has suffered greatly, in any case, should be off-limits to anyone with half a brain and some elementary decency. And the West would do very well to mind the beam in its own eye.
For Western media that would mean that, even apart from the straightforward lying, against this background, it is not just dishonest but ridiculous to produce “journalism” that focuses on Russia alone. The very least a serious investigation would have to do is look at all sides and treat information from all sides critically.
But then, that would be a piece of practical enlightenment, intellectually and politically empowering viewers and citizens, and it would not be effective war-in-sight propaganda anymore. It might even end up – oh horror! – promoting compromise and peace.
As it is now, in Germany and elsewhere in Western Europe, journalists, security service officers, experts, and academics – all are perfectly fine with lending their name to propaganda of the basest form. What a shame.
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Site: RT - News
Both leaders have called for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and pledged support for Syria following last year’s coup
Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in Moscow on Thursday to discuss regional security issues in the Middle East, focusing on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the situation in Syria.
The visit marked Al Thani’s first official trip to Russia since 2018.
Both leaders expressed concern over the ongoing civilian suffering in Gaza. Al Thani said Israel had failed to uphold the internationally brokered ceasefire deal agreed with Palestinian authorities in January, in which Qatar played a key mediating role.
“As you know, we reached an agreement months ago, but unfortunately, Israel did not abide by this agreement,” Al Thani stated, adding that Doha continues its efforts to broker a lasting ceasefire in the region.
Putin and Al Thani both reiterated their support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“Civilians continue to die in Palestine, which is an absolute tragedy,” Putin said. “We believe – and our positions here are the same – that a long-term settlement can be achieved only and exclusively on the basis of the United Nations decision on the creation of the Palestinian state.”
Read more
Israeli Army to remain indefinitely in Gaza – defense minister
The leaders also discussed the situation in Syria following the ouster of longtime President Bashar Assad by a broad coalition of armed groups led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) late last year. Assad, a close ally to Moscow, was replaced by HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.
“We would like to do everything to ensure that Syria remains a sovereign, independent and geographically integrated state,” Putin said. He added that Moscow was ready to work with Doha to address the humanitarian crisis and stabilize Syria, citing ongoing challenges in politics, security and the economy.
READ MORE: Gulf benefactor may settle some of Syria’s foreign debt – Reuters
Al Thani said he recently met with Syria’s new leader, who conveyed an interest in maintaining strong relations with Russia.
“We discussed with [al-Sharaa] the historical ties between Syria and Russia, which were and are of a strategic nature. He is determined to continue cooperation [with Russia], to secure ties based on mutual respect and the interests of the two peoples,” Al Thani said. Syria is “going through a very difficult period” and needs international support to preserve its territorial integrity and sovereignty, he added.
Both leaders also praised the state of Russia-Qatar relations and reaffirmed their commitment to expanding cooperation in trade, investment, and regional diplomacy.
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Site: non veni pacem
Holy Thursday marks the institution of the priesthood and the Eucharist. What an incredible gift, and yet how very much it is ignored, or worse. Get to Confession, folks. Sorrowful Mysteries these three days. Blessed Triduum, all. -nvp
“Holy Thursday celebrates especially the institution of the Mass at the Last Supper as the Sacrifice and Sacrament of Christian unity. On this day also, Jesus first shared His priesthood with men by ordaining the Apostles. Then He uttered the command that is the reason for every Mass: “Do this in remembrance of Me.” This is a day to think of the great love Jesus showed in instituting the Eucharist and to return that love by receiving Him in Holy Communion. Through Holy Communion we are united to Christ and to one another.”
THE STRIPPING OF THE ALTARS
During the Stripping of the Altars, the celebrant recites the following antiphon and begins Psalm 21.They have divided my garments among them, and for my vesture they have cast lots.
Psalm 21: O God my God, look upon me: why hast thou forsaken me? Far from my salvation are the words of my sins. O my God, I shall cry by day, and thou wilt not hear: and by night, and it shall not be reputed as folly in me. But thou dwellest in the holy place, the praise of Israel. In thee have our fathers hoped: they have hoped, and thou hast delivered them. They cried to thee, and they were saved: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded…
They have divided my garments among them, and for my vesture they have cast lots.
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Site: Mises InstituteWe are bombarded with claims that capitalism causes inequality, yet what does it really mean? In truth, in a free market economy, differences in income, even large differences, don‘t mean much since most people have a high standard of living.
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Site: Mises InstituteThe economic sage saw that the attempts of central bankers to control the markets is based on a “pretense of knowledge.”
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Site: OnePeterFive
Above: 17th century Paris. Source. Four centuries ago, on April 17, 1625, history witnessed a landmark event: the founding of the Congregation of the Mission of Saint Vincent de Paul († 1660), commonly known as the Lazarists, named after their motherhouse, Saint-Lazare in Paris. This anniversary provides an invaluable opportunity to reflect on the enduring legacy of this extraordinary…
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Site: Steyn OnlineAn update on Mann vs Steyn...
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Site: Ron Paul Institute - Featured Articles
“If it is known that authorities have power to coerce, few people will wait for actual coercion,” economist Friedrich Hayek wrote in the 1956 foreword to his 1944 classic, The Road to Serfdom. Hayek’s insight could be the Rosetta Stone for understanding the Trump administration’s censorship zealotry.
On March 25, six masked federal agents seized a Turkish graduate student on the streets of Somerville, Massachusetts. Rumeysa Ozturk—who was wearing a hijab—was a Fulbright scholar working on a doctorate at Tufts University. Ozturk was snatched up because she co-authored a student newspaper op-ed a year earlier that criticized Israel, as I discussed here on March 31 (“First They Came for the Op-Ed Writers”).
Secretary of State Marco Rubio denounced Ozturk as a “lunatic” and implied she was guilty of participating “in movements that vandalize universities, harass students, take over buildings, and cause chaos.” Ozturk was shuffled between detention facilities before being taken to Louisiana. A federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to deport her without any judicial proceedings.
Ozturk’s student visa was secretly revoked several days before she was taken into custody. Did the Trump administration want a high-profile incident in order to deter any other students from writing op-eds or from protesting Middle East policies?
On Sunday night, the Washington Post detonated the Trump case against Ozturk by publishing extracts from a confidential State Department memo. Prior to Ozturk being seized outside of Boston, senior DHS official Andre Watson sent a memo to the State Department stating that, “OZTURK engaged in anti-Israel activism… Specifically, [Ozturk] co-authored an op-ed article” that “called for Tufts to ‘disclose its investments and divest from companies with direct or indirect ties to Israel.’” But the State Department found that no federal agency had turned up any evidence that Ozturk “engaged in antisemitic activity or made public statements indicating support for a terrorist organization.” Despite Rubio’s vilification of Ozturk, the feds didn’t have squat on her.
DHS wanted Ozturk expelled from the US under a provision in the Immigration and Nationality Act that entitles the Secretary of State to deport any foreigner if there are reasonable grounds to believe their presence has “adverse policy consequence for the United States.” But there was no such evidence for Ozturk, so the Trump administration instead used a legal authority under which the Secretary of State can deport anyone on his own decree—no evidence required.
Because of her op-ed criticizing Israel, Ozturk vanished into the federal detention system, moved from state to state so the Trump administration could avoid a habeas petition in federal court challenging her detention. She was forced to wear leg shackles and a chain around her waist. She has asthma and had several attacks so far in lockup. At the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Basile, she sleeps with 23 other people in a cell meant for 14. “None of us are able to sleep through the night. They come into the cell often and walk around triggering the fluorescent lights. They shout in the cell to wake up those who work in the kitchen around 3:30 am each day,” she said. Ozturk stated that a federal officer told her: “We are not monsters. We do what the government tells us.” So, of course, federal officials are blameless for any rights that they violate.
Ozturk is one of the most high-profile seizures that Trump’s DHS has made of students who criticized Israeli policies in Gaza. Hundreds of student visas have been revoked and the Trump administration has floated proposals to prohibit all foreign students from attending American universities that fail to fully suppress criticism or protests against Israeli policies.
It would be the height of folly for Americans to presume they face no peril from entitling the feds to seize boundless power to punish students’ speech. Ozturk’s name was provided to the Trump administration by Betar—an organization that the Washington Post characterized as a “militant Zionist group.” US citizens are at risk as well. A spokesman for Betar declared: “We provided hundreds of names to the Trump administration of visa holders and naturalized Middle Easterners and foreigners” who have criticized Israeli policies. The Anti-Defamation League condemned Betar as an extremist organization in February.
Any precedent for blanket censorship will propagate like a covid virus. Many conservatives and libertarians may shrug off Ozturk’s degradation because they have no interest in criticizing the policies of foreign governments. But the Ozturk case hinges on collective guilt—on assuming that anyone who advocates a position is culpable for any crimes committed by any other advocate with the same view.
This was the tacit doctrine that the Biden administration used to legally scourge peaceful January 6 protestors who merely “paraded without a permit” through or near the US Capitol that day. Because a minority of January 6 protestors became violent, the FBI presumed that “trespassing plus thought crimes equal terrorism,” justifying harsh sentences for anyone at the scene (except for the undercover federal agents and informants).
What legal perils will pro-freedom protestors face in the coming years if the Ozturk rule is canonized, entitling federal officials to crush any disfavored opinion? Big-spending Democrats may consecrate Modern Monetary Theory and demonize anyone who criticizes the Federal Reserve. I took this “Kill the Central Bank” photo of Ron Paul supporters at a 2008 Capitol Hill event for his presidential campaign. If the same protestors had peacefully carried the same banner within a half mile of the Capitol on January 6, they likely would have been nailed on a bevy of federal charges. Many politicians have made stark their hatred of libertarians and freedom advocates. A federally-funded Fusion Center tagged Ron Paul supporters as potential terrorist suspects, and another federally-funded center sounded the alarm on anyone “reverent of individual liberty.”
As long as anyone is sitting in shackles in a federal detention center simply for writing an op-ed, freedom of speech is not safe for anyone in the United States. Will Ozturk’s persecution finally wake up people too confident that “it can never happen here”?
Reprinted with permission from Mises.org.
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Site: AsiaNews.itCard Domenico Calcagno read the text of the homily of the Chrism Mass in St Peter's Basilica. In the afternoon, the convalescent pontiff is expected to make a brief visit to the inmates in Rome's Regina Coeli prison. Francis made a financial contribution to the people of Myanmar affected by a recent earthquake.
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