Assuredly, the word of truth can be painful and uncomfortable. But it is the way to holiness, to peace, and to inner freedom. A pastoral approach which truly wants to help the people concerned must always be grounded in the truth. In the end, only the truth can be pastoral.
Distinction Matter - Subscribed Feeds
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Site: Zero HedgeStephen Miller Emerges As Frontrunner To Be Trump's Next National Security Adviser: ReportTyler Durden Fri, 05/02/2025 - 15:40
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller could land the position as President Donald Trump’s next National Security Adviser, according to Axios.
Miller, one of Trump’s longest and most trusted aides, emerged as a leading contender for national security adviser following Mike Waltz’s removal from the role. Waltz, who has taken considerable heat from the mainstream media for his role in so-called SignalGate, was nominated for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations just hours after reports of his removal. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is currently serving as the interim national security adviser.
Axios reports:
One White House source told Axios via text that Miller has made the Homeland Security Council run "like clockwork," and that it's "infinitely more effective than the NSC [National Security Council] with a tiny fraction" of the staff.
"Marco and Stephen have worked really closely on immigration and it might be a perfect match," said another White House source.
It remains uncertain whether Stephen Miller would pursue the national security adviser role, as it could divert him from immigration policy.
Politico also reports that Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy currently spearheading critical negotiations with Russia, Iran, and Hamas, is a contender for the national security adviser position.
Additionally, NSC senior director for counterterrorism Sebastian Gorka and Trump’s special envoy for special missions Richard Grenell are generating buzz as potential candidates for the role.
When Politico asked about the impending announcement, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said, “We will not comment on reports based on anonymous sources.”
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Site: LifeNews
Records obtained by Operation Rescue confirm that on March 21 Planned Parenthood sent another hemorrhaging woman to the emergency room. This time, from its killing center located in Orange, CA.
Planned Parenthood Orange commits abortions up to 24 weeks, well into the second trimester, and it has a history of rushing women to the emergency room after botched abortions. In the last five years, alone, it has injured 11 women – and never had to face any investigation or discipline for even one of those incidents in radically pro-abortion California.
In 2024, Operation Rescue also obtained 911 recordings that revealed Planned Parenthood staff at the Orange location actively refused to cooperate with 911 dispatchers on two different calls, further endangering two different women already in need of emergency care.
Please follow LifeNews on Rumble for the latest pro-life videos.
In the most recent 911 recording, though the Planned Parenthood staffer does not actively argue with the dispatcher, she still seems trained to withhold pertinent information. For example, she offers that a patient needs transfer for “a complication,” but does not specify what that complication is until the 911 dispatcher directly asks for the patient’s chief complaint. The answer being “vaginal bleeding” which, in the case of an abortion, can very often be caused by a perforated uterus.
“The majority of surgical abortions are blind procedures,” says Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue. “Our organization has decades of investigations into abortion injuries that indicate abortionists consistently puncture women’s organs, then callously pack them off to some local ER to let some other doctor deal with the carnage.”
The staffer calling 911 also did not seem prepared to answer crucial questions about the patient’s vital signs. When asked if the woman was awake, the staffer answered, “Umm…I believe so.”
“If a woman is bleeding so uncontrollably she needs emergency care, the fact of whether or not she has lost consciousness is crucial information,” adds Newman.
“We listen to countless recordings where abortion clinics leave life-saving 911 calls to staffers who clearly have no idea of the patient’s vital signs, age, or even how much blood has been lost. This information helps emergency responders know exactly what to do when arriving on scene to preserve a patient’s life – and every moment counts. Planned Parenthood doesn’t care about those precious moments. They only care about concealing the constant stream of women being loaded into ambulances at their fake health clinics.”
LifeNews Note: This article was originally published by Operation Rescue, a leading pro-life, Christian activist organization dedicated to exposing abortion abuses, demanding enforcement, saving innocent lives, and building an abortion-free America. The author, Sarah Neely, is Chief Operating Officer for Operation Rescue.
The post Planned Parenthood Botched Abortion So Badly, It Couldn’t Tell 911 if the Woman Was Conscious appeared first on LifeNews.com.
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Site: Zero HedgeLiberation Day 2.0: Trump Terminates Federal Funding For NPR And PBSTyler Durden Fri, 05/02/2025 - 15:20
Authored by Robert Spencer via PJMedia.com,
On Thursday, President Trump gave Americans another Liberation Day: He signed an executive order ending federal funding for two of the left’s principal propaganda organs, National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).
Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean that these two vicious taxpayer leeches and leftist disinformation entities will disappear, but at least patriots won’t be forced to shell out for programming that is designed to destroy everything they hold dear.
The left, predictably enough, is howling, led by NPR and PBS themselves. NPR issued a statement warning of imminent apocalypse:
“Eliminating funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting [CPB] would have a devastating impact on American communities across the nation that rely on public radio for trusted local and national news, culture, lifesaving emergency alerts and public safety information.”
The statement was yet another example of what a cruel joke NPR and PBS are on the American people. No one actually trusts NPR and PBS except the indoctrinated cadres of the left and those who are uninformed enough to continue to believe in these propaganda organs’ claims to be free from bias. The grim reality is that NPR and PBS are the left at its most cynical, opportunistic, and parasitical. American taxpayers, including those who are patriots, are forced to subsidize two of the left’s shrillest and most nakedly biased mouthpieces, all the while being gaslit about how it’s their patriotic duty to support a free press.
And so Trump wrote in his executive order that the joke was over:
“Government funding of news media in this environment is not only outdated and unnecessary but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence. The CPB Board shall cease direct funding to NPR and PBS, consistent with my Administration’s policy to ensure that Federal funding does not support biased and partisan news coverage. The CPB Board shall cancel existing direct funding to the maximum extent allowed by law and shall decline to provide future funding.”
That bit about “biased and partisan news coverage,” which is putting the reality of NPR and PBS extremely mildly, is eliciting reactions from the left on the order of the kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar insisting that he doesn’t even like cookies.
CNN laments that “America’s two biggest public broadcasters” have “faced a series of attacks from the White House and Republican lawmakers accusing them of biased reporting.”
The New York Times also pretended that Orange Man Bad and his henchmen were making up this whole bias thing, saying that they were “accusing the outlets of producing biased coverage and ‘left-wing propaganda.’” Note the scare quotes around “left-wing propaganda,” as if no reasonable person could believe that such a thing even exists, much less that NPR and PBS ladle it out to patriots as if they were cigarette-puffing meatballs doling out lunchtime glop to a sweaty chain gang.
Unfortunately, even if leftist judges don’t manage once again to arrogate to themselves the power of the executive branch and overrule Trump’s order, NPR and PBS will survive. The New York Post reports that “both have diverse revenue streams, including major foundation grants, advertising and voluntary viewer and listener donations, meaning that neither is likely to cease operations if they lose federal support.”
Still, if Trump succeeds, taxpayers will save a bit of money: “the CPB is set to receive $535 million in congressionally appropriated funds annually to distribute to public broadcasters in 2025 and 2026.”
Trump summed up what’s at stake in his executive order:
“At the very least, Americans have the right to expect that if their tax dollars fund public broadcasting at all, they fund only fair, accurate, unbiased, and nonpartisan news coverage. No media outlet has a constitutional right to taxpayer subsidies, and the Government is entitled to determine which categories of activities to subsidize. The CPB’s governing statute reflects principles of impartiality: the CPB may not ‘contribute to or otherwise support any political party.’”
This is simple common sense, and so Trump’s executive order is long overdue. Both NPR and PBS should have been cut off from federal funding the moment that their news coverage became 100% leftist propaganda, but too many leftist presidents benefited from that coverage to take a step of this kind until now. You can bet that if NPR and PBS reflected 100% patriotic perspectives, Barack Obama or Old Joe Biden or maybe even Bill Clinton would have cut them off long ago.
Better late than never.
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Site: LifeNews
I vividly recall the young woman, dropping to her knees in fervent prayer outside an Ohio abortion facility.
Her eyes were filled with tears as she made her entreaties to God. When she looked up, I walked toward her, thanking her for her prayers.
I learned that she had been badly emotionally scarred from her experience of having an abortion at that center. When she began to speak, the floodgates opened, and she shared with me the details of that terrible trauma.
I prayed for her to find healing, and she did—through a ministry program devoted to women who have suffered the loss of children to the abortion tragedy.
On this National Day of Prayer, I am reminded of that day, so long ago, when I was first exposed to the unbelievable pain of coerced abortion. The young woman’s mother had exerted tremendous pressure on her to abort, which severely damaged their relationship.
Abortion is ultimately a civil rights issue, representing the freedom of children to be born and the freedom of women to give birth to their babies in a loving, supportive environment. You can have no faith at all and be pro-life.
Yet many of us in the pro-life movement treasure a deep and abiding faith in an all-loving, all-merciful God who is the creator and sustainer of life. We see His providence at work, showering blessings on pregnant women, their babies, and their families.
Please follow LifeNews on Rumble for the latest pro-life videos.
I am reminded of a petite woman who was a giant in the pro-life movement—Mother Teresa. Despite experiencing an extended dark night of the soul, she continued to trust in God to provide for all her needs and the needs of those she served. Fueled by her faith, she made a bold proclamation, stating that she would take in any child who was threatened by abortion. She knew that her Lord would not turn away from the babies He created with a tender and loving heart.
My prayer this day is that all pregnant women will receive the support they need for themselves and for their offspring, and that we as a nation will rediscover the beauty and hope that human life holds. May you be richly blessed by the God who hears every prayer and consoles every heartache!
LifeNews.com Note: Maria Gallagher is the Legislative Director and Political Action Committee Director for the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation and she has written and reported for various broadcast and print media outlets, including National Public Radio, CBS Radio, and AP Radio.
The post Pray for Women Who Had Abortions and Need to Find Forgiveness in Jesus appeared first on LifeNews.com.
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Site: Zero HedgeS&P Erases All 'Liberation Day' Losses As Beijing Bends Knee, Mulls Fentanyl Offer To TrumpTyler Durden Fri, 05/02/2025 - 15:01
Update (1200ET): US equity markets extended gains this morning following a report from The Wall Street Journal that Beijing is considering ways to address the Trump administration’s gripes over China’s role in the fentanyl trade, potentially offering an off-ramp from hostilities to allow for trade talks to start.
So, despite all the legacy media's claims that 'no' talks were under way, WSJ reports that Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s security czar, Wang Xiaohong, in recent days has been inquiring about what the Trump team wants China to do when it comes to fentanyl.
In a visible shift in tone Friday, China’s Commerce Ministry said it was weighing starting talks with the U.S. to halt a trade war while expressing Beijing’s wish for the Trump administration to “show sincerity” to talk. Previously, the ministry had demanded that Washington slash its steep tariffs on China first as a condition for negotiations.
Stocks surged further on the report...
.
With the S&P 500 now having erased all losses post-Liberation Day...
* * *
China has quietly started to exempt some US goods from tariffs that likely cover around $40 billion worth of imports (or around 24% of Chinese imports from the US in 2024), in what looks like an effort to soften the blow of the trade war on its own economy.
“China is likely trying to mitigate damage to its economy by avoiding a collapse in key imports,” DiPippo said.
“The exemptions shouldn’t be interpreted as a signal to the US, as China has been quiet about its exemptions, working through business channels and avoiding public statements.”
While this move mirrors the shift by the Trump administration - exempting smartphones and other electronics from its own “reciprocal” tariffs, including the 145% levies on China (those US exemptions apply to about $102 billion, or roughly 22% of US imports from China last year) - we suspect there is more behind this decision.
As we highlighted just a week ago, China's already fragile economy faced a serious crisis from the tariff-driven cuts to supply of US ethane and the potential for that to force mass plastics factory closures.
"The situation is dire for China’s ethane crackers as they have no alternative to US supply,” said Manish Sejwal, an analyst at Rystad Energy AS, using an industry term for such facilities.
"Unless they are granted tariff exemptions, they may have to stop production or close shop."
Well guess what just happened... buried deep among the 131 items is, you guessed it - industrial chemicals (which likely includes US Ethane supplies).
Bloomberg reports that it’s unclear where the list came from and it hasn’t been officially confirmed, but at least half a dozen companies in China have been able to bring in goods from the list without paying tariffs, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information.
No matter the reason - forced by factory closure crisis or simply goodwill - there are tentative signs the US-China trade standoff could be shifting.
The Chinese Commerce Ministry said on Friday it’s assessing the possibility of trade talks with the US, giving a lift to equity markets.
“The US has recently sent messages to China through relevant parties, hoping to start talks with China,” the ministry said in a statement released during a mainland holiday.
“China is currently evaluating this.”
The timing of the tit-for-tat escalation and de-escalation is very similar to last time (though this time the pain was far greater to prompt the walkbacks on both sides)...
The list of exemptions is said to be dynamic and will be continuously adjusted depending on China’s needs, according to people familiar with the matter.
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Site: Zero HedgePeak Earnings Pulse: Consumer Pullback Theme Gains MomentumTyler Durden Fri, 05/02/2025 - 15:00
A series of disappointing earnings (with peak earnings season this week) from fast-food chains, beverage giants, and consumer companies underscores persistent financial strain on low- and middle-income consumers—pressured by lingering Biden-era inflation and increasing fears over tariffs and mounting economic uncertainty under the current administration.
On Thursday, McDonald's reported same-store sales that tumbled 3.6% in the US, the largest year-over-year decline since the second quarter of 2020. The decline was mainly because of sagging visits at stores nationwide.
McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski wrote in a statement that consumers "are grappling with uncertainty." He noted that McDonald's will be able to "navigate even the toughest of market conditions and gain market share."
Citi analyst Jon Tower told clients that McDonald's soft sales should "come as little surprise" to investors, with the fast-food chain "speaking to a muted outlook/challenged global consumer back in mid-February and category high-frequency data/other company 1Q updates all suggesting lower-income guests were pulling back."
On Friday morning, Wendy's slashed its sales outlook for the year, signaling consumers are dialing back their store visits and ticket spending.
Wendy's CEO Kirk Tanner stated that the US market faced a "challenging consumer environment." The fast-food chain warned that the pullback in spending was more acute with customers making below $75,000.
Last week, Chipotle missed first-quarter revenue estimates and reported that same-store sales had fallen for the first time since 2020.
Chipotle CEO Scott Boatwright warned investors that a "slowdown in consumer spending" materialized, forcing it to lower the top end of its full-year same-store sales growth outlook.
At the beginning of the week, Starbucks reported disappointing global comparable sales and profit, with sliding US demand.
Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol's turnaround strategy for the coffee chain appears to have stumbled after the company reported four straight quarters of declining sales.
"Our financial results don't yet reflect our progress, but we have real momentum with our 'Back to Starbucks' plan," Niccol told investors.
Yum Brands, the parent of KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell, also reported this week. Yum posted a mixed first quarter, with a sales slowdown that began to soften in January but improved through February and March.
In the consumer goods space, Procter & Gamble reported mixed quarterly results as demand for its products fell. Executives of the company, which owns Tide and Charmin, slashed their full-year outlook for earnings per share and revenue based on consumer slowdown and tariff uncertainty.
The broader pessimism from QSRs and consumer-facing companies mirrors the sharp downturn in the Conference Board's confidence index, which just sank to a 14-year low.
Labor market conditions also weakened.
In markets, Goldman analyst Nelson Armbrust said consumer discretionary stocks were "net sold for a fourth straight month, driven by short sales outpacing long buys ~5 to 1."
Goldman's take: "Sentiment remains very soft in Consumer, due to both sourcing and tariff concerns, while investors are also focused on the consumer slowdown theme."
More broadly, with peak earnings season now behind us, Goldman Chief Equity Strategist David Kostin told clients Friday that results have held up relatively well:
1Q 2025 year/year earnings growth is tracking at 12%, 6 pp higher relative to the start of the reporting season. Better than expected margins have driven the positive surprise so far with the average earnings surprise tracking at 5% vs. an average sales surprise of 1%.
Kostin also noted:
One lingering question heading into May is whether the slide in consumer spending and sentiment will worsen—or if it can be reversed by a series of positive trade headlines.
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Site: LifeNews
Arkansas has set aside $2 million in state funds to support pro-life pregnancy centers as several states and activists across the United States have begun to see providing money to such organizations as an essential part of the pro-life movement.
Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a Republican, signed House Bill 1202 into law last week, one of several pieces of legislation she approved. The bill passed with no opposition in both the Republican-controlled Arkansas House of Representatives and the Republican-controlled state Senate.
The legislation spans more than 40 pages and includes several appropriations for fiscal year 2025-26. Included in the bill is $2 million for “pregnancy help organization grants.”
Please follow LifeNews on Rumble for the latest pro-life videos.
The measure defines a “pregnancy help organization” as a nonprofit that “seeks to provide a range of services to individuals facing an unintended pregnancy with the intention of encouraging pregnant women to give birth to their unborn children.”
Examples of organizations eligible for the grants include crisis pregnancy centers, maternity homes, adoption agencies and social services agencies that provide prenatal care and other maternity healthcare and nutrition services.
The legislation defines a “pregnancy help organization” as one that doesn’t offer or refer women for surgical or chemical abortions.
According to Arkansas Family Council, this isn’t the first time the state has provided funding to pro-life pregnancy centers.
“Since 2022 Family Council has worked with the Arkansas Legislature and the governor to secure funding every year for pregnancy resource centers. These state-funded grants have helped support dozens of charities that assist women and children in Arkansas,” the advocacy group said in a statement provided to The Christian Post.
Arkansas isn’t the only state to fund crisis pregnancy centers. Earlier this month, Kansas lawmakers overrode Democratic Governor Laura Kelly’s veto of a measure providing state funding to crisis pregnancy centers. In 2023, the governor of West Virginia approved similar legislation.
Efforts to fund crisis pregnancy centers come after pro-life activist Lila Rose suggested in an interview with CP that following the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson decision determining that the U.S. Constitution does not contain a right to abortion, the pro-life movement “should be focused on both private and public financial support for families to help them raise their children.”
LifeNews Note: Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. This article originally appeared in The Christian Post.
The post Ark. Gov. Huckabee Sanders Sends $2 Million to Pro-Life Pregnancy Centers appeared first on LifeNews.com.
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Site: Zero HedgeOPEC Moves Up Meeting To Discuss Oil Production QuotasTyler Durden Fri, 05/02/2025 - 14:40
By Julianne Geiger of OilPrice.com
The OPEC+ members currently participating in voluntary production cuts will meet this Saturday, May 3, instead of Monday, May 5, according to Kpler’s Amena Bakr on X. The call is set for noon Vienna time, with the agenda focused on “consensus building around maintaining the sped-up increment of 411K for June.”
Brent crude had slipped nearly 1% by late Friday morning, trading at $61.56. It’s a price level not seen since early 2021—and one that puts most OPEC+ budgets underwater.
For producers already grappling with restricted output, prices below $65 are a growing fiscal headache.
The accelerated meeting follows mounting tensions within the group.
Reports suggest Saudi Arabia is signaling it can live with lower prices—a not-so-subtle message to chronic overproducers like Iraq and Kazakhstan.
The 411,000 bpd production increase originally floated as a wake-up call may now be cemented into policy, signaling a strategic shift in Riyadh’s approach.
OPEC+ has pledged to offset 4.57 million bpd of overproduction by mid-2026. But enforcement remains patchy.
Saturday’s call will test whether Riyadh and Moscow can still steer the ship—or whether quota politics are about to devolve into a full-blown battle for market share.
Meanwhile, a Bloomberg survey released Thursday showed that OPEC’s actual output fell by 200,000 bpd in April, down to 27.24 million - contradicting the group’s planned increase.
Goldman assigns a 70% subjective probability that the announced change in OPEC8+ supply for June will be 0.41mb/d, a 25% probability to a larger increase, and a 5% probability to a 0.14mb/d increase.
Market pessimism is already pricing in a production hike.
But April’s figures are a reminder: announced increases don’t always materialize. Whether Saudi Arabia will keep absorbing the blow while others cheat—or start using price as a weapon to enforce discipline—won’t be decided in a Vienna video call. It’ll be decided at the wellhead.
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Site: ChurchPOP
Do you know how to practice Our Lady of Fatima's Five First Saturdays Devotion?
In 1917, Our Lady of Fatima appeared six times to the three shepherd children–Lucia dos Santos, Francisco Marto, and Jacinta Marto.
Our Lady said during the July 1917 apparition:
“I shall come to ask… that on the First Saturday of every month, Communions of reparation be made in atonement for the sins of the world.”On Dec. 10, 1925, Our Lady returned to Sister Lucia dos Santos at the Dorothean Sisters' convent in Pontevedra, Spain.
She appeared with the Infant Jesus standing on a cloud, requesting acts of reparation for the blasphemies and ingratitude committed against her Immaculate Heart.
Jesus said:
"Have compassion on the Heart of your Most Holy Mother, covered with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce It at every moment, and there is no one to make an act of reparation to remove them."Then Our Lady said:
"Look, My daughter, at My Heart, surrounded with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce Me at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. You at least try to console Me and announce in My name that I promise to assist at the moment of death, with all the graces necessary for salvation, all those who, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months, shall confess, receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the Rosary, and keep Me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making reparation to Me."In 1939, Sister Lucia added:
“Whether the world has war or peace depends on the practice of this devotion, along with the consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This is why I desire its propagation so ardently, especially because this is also the will of our dear Mother in Heaven.”Jesus told Sister Lucia:
"The souls who make the five first Saturdays with fervor and to make reparation to the Heart of your Heavenly Mother, please Me..."The Requirements for the Five First Saturdays Devotion
Do the following on the first Saturday of the month for five consecutive months:
1) Go to Confession
2) Receive Holy Communion
3) Pray five decades of the Rosary
4) Meditate on the mysteries of the Rosary for 15 minutes
However, Our Lord adjusted these requirements for more flexibility:Confession may be received before or after the first Saturday, as long as the devotee intends to make reparation. One must also receive Holy Communion in the state of grace. Jesus adds that if the individual forgets to offer the Confession beforehand, one may offer the next confession as an act of reparation.
Why Five First Saturdays?
Our Lord revealed to Sister Lucia that the number five represents the five sins committed against her Immaculate Heart:
1) Blasphemies against her Immaculate Heart.
2) Blasphemies against her perpetual virginity.
3) Blasphemies against Her Divine Maternity, refusing at the same time to recognize Her as the Mother of men.
4) Publicly instilling indifference, contempt, and even hatred toward the Immaculate Mother in the hearts of children.
5) Insulting her directly in her sacred images.
Lord, please have mercy on us! Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!
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Site: LifeNews
In November 2024, UK Parliament overwhelmingly supported a bill that would legalize assisted suicide. A new poll suggests many have switched to opposing it, The Times reported May 1.
Care Not Killing, a pro-life group that strengthens palliative care and opposes euthanasia, commissioned pollster Whitestone Insight to do the poll. The survey included 103 members of Parliament (MPs).
The assisted suicide bill is currently approaching its third reading in the House of Commons after being amended in the committee stage. Ahead of another vote, 42% said they would vote against the bill, 36% said they would vote for it, 13% were undecided, 5% said they would abstain, and 8% did not say.
In November, the bill passed 330 to 275. Since then, however, many supporters of the bill have changed their minds thanks to a controversial amendment that made it easier to commit assisted suicide. The Times reported that the amendment no longer requires a High Court judge to approve each request for assisted suicide. CatholicVote previously reported that instead, applications for assisted suicide would be heard by a lawyer, a psychiatrist, and a social worker.
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The poll also asked MPs if they thought the amendment gave them more confidence in the bill. Forty-one percent said no and 30% said yes.
CatholicVote also reported that another amendment extended the bill’s implementation until 2029. The amendment could also cost the bill some votes, as 2029 is a general election year in which lawmakers might rethink supporting a controversial bill that could hurt their own chances of an election victory.
Gordon Macdonald, chief executive of Care Not Killing, said, “The more MPs hear about assisted suicide and what it entails, the less likely they are to support changing the law.”
He stated, according to The Times, “Clearly MPs recognise that removing the requirement for every application to be overseen by the High Court — part of a formal judicial process with the duty to consider all views and the power to summon witnesses — makes the bill much less safe, while the rejection of amendments aimed at protecting the most vulnerable people in our society is making many people think again.”
LifeNews Note: Hannah Hiester writes for CatholicVote, where this column originally appeared.
The post UK Lawmakers Now Turning Against Bill to Legalize Assisted Suicide appeared first on LifeNews.com.
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Site: Zero HedgeZelensky Relieved As Trump Quietly Drops A Key DemandTyler Durden Fri, 05/02/2025 - 14:20
A key Trump demand of the Zelensky government was quietly dropped as a condition of peace talks as well as the Ukraine minerals deal, which was finally signed this week.
Washington is no longer seeking to pressure or force President Volodymyr Zelensky to hold elections that could result in his being ousted office for the sake of peace, according to information in The Telegraph.
"The demand has been quietly dropped from the latest set of American proposals for a ceasefire," The Telegraph writes. "The American decision to stop demanding elections is designed to placate the Ukrainian officials who have argued against swathes of a seven-point peace plan tabled by Mr Trump."
The minerals deal still has to be formally approved by Ukraine's parliament, according to the nation's constitution. Below is said to be the current seven-point plan offered by Trump, aspects of which were previously rejected by Ukrainian officials...
As for dropping the demand for Zelensky and parliament to hold elections, the Kremlin itself seems to have somewhat quieted down on this in recent weeks.
Without doubt, Moscow still wants to see Zelensky go, but appears willing to not press the issue if he were willing to give up territory for the sake of ceasefire (which so far isn't happening - not even regarding Crimea).
Zelensky's term in office expired in May 2024, and Ukrainian parliament has recently reaffirmed the 'constitutionality' of Zelensky's mandate as leader of the country during wartime. Trump soon after taking the Oval called him a 'dictator' who canceled elections, and even long before that called him the "world's greatest salesman" as he received hundreds of billions from the US and Western allies.
Meanwhile, fresh statements from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio express continued optimism on the potential for peace. He says "they're closer" to peace - in reference to Moscow and Kiev.
Source: ANSA
"For a hundred days he has done efforts to bring about peace… Look, we’ve gotten closer. We – for the first time – we haven’t known this for three years – we kind of can see what it would take for Ukraine to stop. We can see what it would take for the Russians to stop," Rubio said.
He then noted, "They’re closer, but they’re still far apart. And it’s going to take a real breakthrough here very soon to make this possible… or I think the president is going to have to make a decision about how much more time we’re going to dedicate to this," he added.
It's been widely reported that during Zelensky's impromptu 15-meeting with President Trump on the sidelines of the pope's funeral last weekend he was able to ease the pressure on Kiev coming from Trump.
"Zelensky's advisers were divided about whether he should even risk the tête-à-tête after the disaster in the Oval Office," Axios reported days after the meeting. "But after it, Zelensky felt he'd managed to shift Trump's thinking about Putin for the first time, the sources say."
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Site: Zero HedgeRFK Jr: HHS Became A "Collaborator In Child Trafficking" Under BidenTyler Durden Fri, 05/02/2025 - 14:05
Authored by Debra Heine via American Greatness,
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. said Wednesday that HHS is no longer facilitating child trafficking in the United States and is instead “very aggressively” searching for the hundreds of thousands of migrant children lost by the Biden administration.
“We have ended HHS’s role as the principal vector in this country for child trafficking,” Kennedy said during a White House Cabinet meeting with President Trump and other top administration officials to mark the first 100 days of the president’s second term.
“During the Biden administration, HHS became a collaborator in child trafficking for sex and for slavery, and we have ended that,” RFK Jr. declared.
In November 0f 2022, an HHS volunteer came forward to accuse the Biden regime of knowingly participating in the sex-trafficking of minor children after observing how it processed unaccompanied migrant children at an HHS Emergency Intake Site in Pomona, California.
The whistleblower, Tara Lee Rodas, went to Project Veritas with her first hand account of how the Biden regime’s corrupt child sponsorship program exploited and endangered vulnerable unaccompanied minors by placing them with criminal, noncitizen sponsors.
In some cases, dozens of unaccompanied alien children (UAC) were sent to the same residence of an unvetted sponsor.
Thousands of these minors “ended up in punishing jobs across the country—working overnight in slaughterhouses, replacing roofs, operating machinery in factories—all in violation of child labor laws,” the New York Times reported in February of 2023.
In August of 2024, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Inspector General released a blistering report showing that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had lost track of up to 320,000 unaccompanied minors over the previous five years.
Approximately 291,000 of those were released into the U.S. and never given a date to appear in immigration court.
Another 32,000 children were released with hearing dates but failed to show up to their immigration hearings.
“We’re very aggressively going out and trying to find these 300,000 children that were lost by the Biden administration,” RFK Jr. said Wednesday.
Homeland Security agents in California recently rescued two teenage migrant sisters from Honduras who were being held in captivity at a hotel in West Covina, California, the New York Post reported.
Christopher Ramirez was allegedly “pimping” the sisters, ages 16 and 18, sources told the Post.
The youngest victim was placed in the custody of Biden’s HHS, which placed her with her sponsor. The older teen was released after declining “services or placement.”
Cops with the West Covina Police Department initially found the girls and arrested Ramirez on local charges.
The feds are still looking for co-conspirators who helped move the migrant girls, who are from Honduras, from Texas to California and forced them into prostitution, sources said.
Ramirez is also facing federal charges.
The Trump administration has reunited approximately 5,000 unaccompanied migrant children with family members or “safe guardians” in its first 70 days, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Trici McLaughlin said in an X post.
“Unlike the previous administration, President Trump and Secretary [Kristi] Noem take the responsibility to protect children seriously and will continue to work with federal law enforcement to reunite children with their families,” said McLaughlin.
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Site: LifeNews
Sister Inah Canabarro, a Brazilian nun who was declared the oldest person in the world in January, passed away April 30.
AP News reports that Sister Inah’s religious congregation, the Company of Saint Teresa of Jesus in Porto Alegre, Brazil, said she died at home of natural causes. She would have turned 117 on May 27.
Now, the oldest person in the world is Ethel Caterham, a 115-year-old British woman.
Please subscribe to the LifeNews YouTube channel for the latest pro-life videos.
As CatholicVote previously reported, Sister Inah credited the Catholic faith for her longevity. As a child growing up in Brazil, she was so skinny that her relatives did not think she would survive childhood.
Pope Francis honored Sister Inah on her 110th birthday, and every year, on her birthday, Porto Alegre’s soccer team celebrated their oldest fan.
LifeNews Note: Grace Porto writes for CatholicVote, where this column originally appeared.
The post Catholic Nun Who Was the Oldest Woman in the World Passes Away Before Her 117th Birthday appeared first on LifeNews.com.
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Site: RT - News
The French president has met with cardinal electors to boost support for his favored candidate, Italian media claims
French President Emmanuel Macron is attempting to influence the upcoming papal conclave in favor of a French candidate to become the next Pope, several conservative Italian media outlets have claimed.
The reports emerged following meetings between the French leader and several cardinal electors, as well as a leader of an influential Catholic movement ahead of the conclave set to determine Francis’ successor.
Macron had lunch with four of the five cardinal electors of French descent, including Jean-Marc Aveline, the archbishop of Marseille, last Saturday on the sidelines of Pope Francis’ funeral. The pontiff passed away on April 21.
Last Friday, the French president also had dinner at a restaurant in Rome with Andrea Riccardi, the head of the Community of Sant’Egidio, a powerful Catholic association with more than 70,000 lay members in 74 countries, and which reportedly has clout over some members of the upcoming conclave.
According to the Italian daily Il Tempo, the French leader asked the cardinals about ways to build a consensus around Aveline. The outlet called the cardinal – who is considered a contender to become the next Pope – an “ultra-European, anti-sovereignist” and “one of the most liberal” members of the conclave.
Read more
‘I’d like to be pope’ – Trump
The daily also described the meetings as an example of “interventionism worthy of a new Sun King,” in an apparent reference to France’s 17th century King Louis XIV, who sought to influence the election of a Pope through French cardinals. Another Italian paper, La Verita, directly accused Macron of seeking to choose the next Pope.
The Elysee Palace did not officially comment on the agenda of the two meetings. The Community of Sant’Egidio denied the allegations, telling Le Monde on Thursday that Macron “seeks to understand the process, not influence it.”
Conservative Italian media linked the president’s actions to his desire to regain international influence and mend ties with the Holy See, which reportedly soured under Pope Francis. These claims caught the attention of French news outlets, including Le Monde, which said their Italian colleagues were spreading “rumors,” reflecting the mutual distrust between Paris and Rome.
A conclave involving 135 cardinals is set to convene at the Vatican on May 7 to elect the next Pope.
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Site: Zero Hedge125,000 New Yorkers Fled For Florida The Last 5 Years, Taking $14 Billion With ThemTyler Durden Fri, 05/02/2025 - 13:40
More than 125,000 New Yorkers relocated to Florida over a recent five-year span, draining the Empire State of nearly $14 billion in income, according to a new report from the Citizens Budget Commission (CBC), a nonpartisan fiscal watchdog, reported on by the New York Post.
Roughly a third of those fleeing New York City—some 41,251 residents—resettled in Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, and Broward counties between 2018 and 2022, resulting in a $10 billion loss in adjusted gross income (AGI) for the city. An additional $3.8 billion in income was lost to other Florida destinations.
“They are getting something more beneficial to them,” said CBC President Andrew Rein. “The key is with any place you need the benefits to outweigh the cost. The question right now for New York is what do we offer?”
The CBC attributes the exodus to a mix of affordability concerns, public safety, quality of life, and lingering pandemic effects. Only 30% of New Yorkers rated city life as “good or excellent” in 2023—down from 50% pre-pandemic.
The Post writes that high-income earners led the charge. Miami-Dade saw an influx of ex-New Yorkers with average incomes topping $266,000. Palm Beach newcomers earned around $189,000, while Fairfield County, Connecticut, drew residents with an average income of $141,000. Notably, New York’s top 1% of earners pay 40% of the state’s income taxes.
“One of the critical issues of our time is keeping our competitiveness for businesses and residents,” Rein said. “We need to focus on ensuring we don’t tax too much, that we are a safe place to live, and that people find quality of life to be high.”
Florida wasn’t the only winner. Nearby suburbs absorbed thousands of city dwellers:
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Long Island gained 138,000 NYC expats, costing the city $11.1 billion in AGI.
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Westchester County added nearly 60,000, for a $5 billion hit.
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Fairfield County took in 31,000, costing $4.9 billion.
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Bergen County, New Jersey, saw over 30,000 newcomers, with a $1.8 billion impact.
Altogether, relocations within the Northeast accounted for a $22.8 billion loss in AGI and a population decline of more than 230,000.
Despite a doubling of millionaires in New York from 2010 to 2022—from 36,000 to 70,000—the state’s share of U.S. millionaires dropped sharply, falling from 12.7% to 8.7%.
“Our competitiveness depends in part on quality of life and public safety,” said Rein. “Simply put, some people found the value proposition of other places to be higher than New York City.”
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Site: Fr. Z's BlogUp went the sun at 06:03. Down it’ll go at 20:12. The Ave Maria Bell, you ask? For the Curia 20:30. However, the real schedule is pegged to sunset. Today is a 1st Friday. It is the Feast of St. … Read More →
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Site: Mises InstituteIf a politician claims that he cares about the national debt, but then won't make big cuts to current federal spending, he's either a liar or a fool.
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Site: Zero HedgeThe Awards You Never Get When InvestingTyler Durden Fri, 05/02/2025 - 13:20
Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com,
In investing, success is often judged by numbers - returns on investment, percentage gains, and the ability to outperform benchmarks like the S&P 500.
However, some investors frequently pursue a peculiar set of “awards” without realizing the pitfalls they embody. These unspoken goals, while tempting, rarely lead to sustainable investment success. If there were awards for some of these common but ill-advised behaviors, they would likely cause more harm than good. Here are some of the “investing awards” you’ll never receive, because chasing them isn’t worth the cost.
I Never Sold At A Loss Medal
Market volatility is an inherent aspect of investing. Striving to avoid all losses, or drawdowns, is unrealistic. Trying to sidestep volatility often leads to lower returns and missed growth opportunities. Overly conservative investments may not keep pace with inflation, steadily eroding purchasing power. Managing risk effectively instead of avoiding it is essential for long-term portfolio success.
Many investors pride themselves on never realizing a loss, believing that holding every position until it turns profitable is a badge of honor. However, this mindset often leads to holding onto poor performers indefinitely, tying up capital that could be better deployed elsewhere. This behavior is a classic example of behavioral mistakes investors make, specifically the “disposition effect,” where investors hold losing assets too long while selling winners too early. Focusing solely on avoiding losses often damages overall portfolio returns.
Like everything in life, there is a “season” and a “cycle.” When it comes to the markets, “seasons” are dictated by the “technical and economic constructs,” and the “cycles” are dictated by “valuations.” The seasons are shown in the chart below.
As such, successful investing requires disciplined pruning to maintain a healthy garden. Recognizing when an investment no longer aligns with your strategy and cutting losses early frees up capital for better opportunities. There is no award for stubbornly holding a stock that continues to drag down your portfolio.
I Took On As Much Risk As I Could Award
During bull markets, taking on excessive risk seems attractive. High-risk assets like speculative tech stocks or cryptocurrencies often deliver eye-catching gains. Some investors view risk-taking as bravery. But the reality is that high risk doesn’t guarantee higher returns; it is frequently quite the opposite. As Howard Marks previously discussed, risk and volatility aren’t the same thing. For years, many investors (and academics) have been taught that volatility, the ups and downs of stock prices, equals risk. However, volatility is just one part of the picture, but risk is the probability of losing money. Just because prices bounce around doesn’t mean you’re at risk of a loss.
However, “High risk equals high reward” is not always true. Just because an investment has a higher degree of risk does not guarantee it will deliver superior returns. Given that risk is the probability of losing money, taking on excess risk does increase the potential for poor returns over time. In other words, increasing risk increases the potential for significant losses. As such, investors must be careful about chasing returns without fully understanding the risks. The goal should be to weigh the possible outcomes and ensure the potential reward is worth the risk taken.
A good example was in 2022, when retail investors chasing meme stocks, SPACs, and IPOs suffered significantly heavier losses than the index. At that time, the ARK Innovation Fund, managed by Cathy Wood, was an example of peak speculation in the market. However, since then, those investments failed to recover. In other words, speculative risk-taking did not lead to outsized returns.
Sustainable investing requires aligning investments with financial goals and risk tolerance to avoid exposing one’s future to unnecessary volatility. Diversification, not reckless risk-taking, remains the best tool for improving risk-adjusted returns. While speculative investments lack the excitement and thrill, prudent investors build strategies focused on taking calculated, strategic risks that contribute to long-term wealth.
“You don’t get rewarded for taking risk; you get rewarded for buying cheap assets. And if the assets you bought got pushed up in price simply because they were risky, then you are not going to be rewarded for taking a risk; you are going to be punished for it.” – Jeremy Grantham
Successful investors avoid “risk” at all costs, even if it means underperforming in the short term. The reason is that while the media and Wall Street have you focused on chasing market returns in the short term, ultimately, the excess “risk” built into your portfolio will lead to inferior long-term returns. Wile E. Coyote never received an award for chasing the Roadrunner over the cliff.
I’m a Long-Term Investor (Only When I’m Losing Money) Certificate
A common rationalization is to claim to be a long-term investor only when losses mount. When an investment underperforms, investors often tell themselves they are simply “staying the course,” using time to justify inaction. Research by Barberis and Thaler (2003) on behavioral biases shows that loss aversion—the tendency to prefer avoiding losses over acquiring gains—strongly influences this behavior.
True long-term investing demands more than patience; it requires a disciplined, objective framework. This means purchasing quality assets with strong fundamentals, establishing clear investment theses, and periodically reassessing those theses. Successful investors, like Warren Buffett, have emphasized that staying invested in a poorly performing asset without reevaluating it is not long-term investing—it is emotional decision-making disguised as strategy.
A good example is Intel (INTC) versus Texas Instruments. Over the last five years, Intel has lost 62% of its value as it lost its chip-making dominance to companies like AMD, Nvidia, Broadcom, and others. For investors holding Intel, many are hoping that something will occur and they can recover that loss. However, at any point over the last 5 years, they could have sold Intel and bought virtually any other chip maker and increased their wealth. While there are many examples, this exemplifies the point of opportunity cost. Holding a losing asset for long periods eats away at the wealth-building process and consumes our most precious commodity: time.
Building a resilient portfolio is not about loyalty to individual positions. It is about effective asset allocation, risk management, and ongoing evaluation. Markets evolve, industries change, and even once-promising companies can lose their competitive edge. Recognizing when an investment no longer fits your portfolio’s long-term goals—and having the discipline to move on—is a hallmark of professional investing, not a weakness.
I Never Used Stop-Losses Or Managed Risk Ribbon
Some investors view risk management strategies like stop-losses, portfolio rebalancing, and diversification as unnecessary restraints on potential gains. Instead, they trust intuition, believing they can “ride out” volatility. Behavioral research (Shefrin, 2000) shows that overconfidence is one of individual investors’ most common mistakes, often leading to catastrophic losses when market conditions change suddenly.
Managing risk effectively isn’t about fear or pessimism. It is about protecting your capital from irreparable damage so that you can continue participating in future market growth. Stop-losses are designed not to predict downturns but to limit exposure to individual positions that deteriorate beyond acceptable thresholds. Similarly, rebalancing prevents portfolios from drifting into unintended risk concentrations over time.
An example of risk management can be very simplistic. For example, using a 40-week moving average as a “risk off” indicator can help avoid more protracted market drawdowns.
We can apply a “risk management” strategy to that moving average to reduce risk during corrective periods. For this example, when the S&P 500 breaks below the 40-week moving average, stock exposure is reduced by 50%, and it reverses to 100% when the index crosses above that moving average. The results are shown below.
While there are times when investors were triggered to reduce and then increase exposures quickly, the 2000 and 2008 financial crises underscored the consequences of unmanaged portfolios. Many investors holding full exposures to equities without risk controls suffered permanent losses (Brunnermeier, 2009). Risk management is the bridge between surviving market turbulence and thriving in long-term wealth creation. No one ever received an award for riding markets substantially lower. Such is not a testament to resilience—it is an avoidable failure.
I Beat the S&P 500 Medallion
Outperforming the S&P 500 is often portrayed as the ultimate measure of investing success. However, data from the SPIVA U.S. Scorecard shows that approximately 85% of actively managed U.S. equity funds underperform their benchmarks over ten years. While not every manager underperforms yearly, and periods of outperformance exist, the persistent challenge highlights the difficulty of consistently beating the S&P 500.
Pursuing benchmark-beating returns can lead investors into dangerous territory. Studies in behavioral finance (Statman, 2000) show that investors chasing outperformance often engage in high-turnover strategies, excessive trading, and speculative bets. These behaviors introduce additional risks and higher transaction costs that erode potential gains. The result is that investors, while trying to “beat the index, ” consistently underperform over time. As noted in the 2024 Dalbar Research report:
As noted above, even the most simplistic of risk management strategies can improve returns over time while maintaining a focus on investment goals. Instead of fixating on beating the benchmark, focus on building a portfolio that aligns with your financial goals and personal risk tolerance. Ultimately, true investing success isn’t measured against a broad index. No one will ever give you an award for beating an index from one year to the next. However, they will measure your success by what matters most: whether you achieved your objectives, like securing a comfortable retirement or funding important goals.
Conclusion: Building a Smarter Path to Investing Success
To avoid the costly mistakes outlined above, investors must adopt a disciplined, process-driven approach to managing their portfolios. Sustainable investment success comes from understanding, not reacting to, market behavior. Here are the critical steps you should take:
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First, embrace losses as part of the investment journey. Prune weak investments when they no longer fit your strategy, reallocating capital to stronger opportunities rather than waiting for recoveries that may never come.
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Second, respect risk. Avoid equating bravery with excessive risk-taking. Build portfolios aligned with your personal financial goals and loss tolerance, focusing on diversification and asset valuation rather than speculative bets.
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Third, redefine long-term investing. Remaining loyal to a poor investment out of hope wastes time and wealth. Maintain objectivity by reassessing whether each holding still meets your original investment thesis.
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Fourth, implement active risk management. Use stop-loss strategies, periodic rebalancing, and technical indicators like the 40-week moving average to protect against significant drawdowns. Managing risk is about ensuring survival, not limiting success.
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Finally, stop chasing the S&P 500. Focus instead on achieving your financial objectives with consistent, risk-adjusted returns. Outperformance is meaningless if you fail to meet real-world needs, like securing retirement income or building generational wealth.
Successful investing is not about winning arbitrary “awards.” It is about managing risk, preserving capital, and steadily compounding returns toward your goals. Ignore the noise, stay disciplined, and remember: no one hands out awards for reckless investing—only consequences.
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Site: LifeNews
A new study has found that human populations may need a fertility rate of at least 2.7 children per woman — far higher than the long-accepted 2.1 — to reliably avoid long-term extinction.
The research, published April 30 in PLOS One and led by Takuya Okabe of Shizuoka University in Japan, challenges decades of demographic assumptions, Phys.org reported. Using mathematical models, the team examined how variations in fertility, mortality, and the likelihood that some adults never reproduce can significantly increase the risk of population decline — even when a society meets the traditional “replacement level” birth rate.
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“Considering stochasticity in fertility and mortality rates, and sex ratios,” co-author Diane Carmeliza N. Cuaresma said, “a fertility rate higher than the standard replacement level is necessary to ensure sustainability of our population.”
The study highlights how smaller populations are especially vulnerable to these random demographic shifts, which can gradually eliminate entire family lineages. A slight increase in female births appears to mitigate this risk, possibly explaining why more girls tend to be born during times of extreme conditions such as war, famine, or upheaval — a phenomenon long noted by evolutionary scientists.
While the researchers do not predict imminent collapse for large developed nations, they caution that most individual family lines, along with their cultural and linguistic heritage, are likely to fade over time unless fertility rates rise.
LifeNews Note: Rachel Quackenbush writes for CatholicVote, where this column originally appeared.
The post Researchers Say Human Population at Critically Low Levels, Need More Babies to Survive appeared first on LifeNews.com.
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Site: Mises InstituteTrump has even dubbed himself “a Tariff Man.” This is nothing new, however, his frequent claims regarding the US economy during the Gilded Age need scrutiny.
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Site: Zero HedgeNetanyahu Stirs Fresh Controversy: Victory In Gaza Is Top Priority, Not HostagesTyler Durden Fri, 05/02/2025 - 13:00
According to fresh reporting in Haaretz, Israel is preparing tens of thousands of orders calling more reserve soldiers to active duty, amid an expected expansion of ground operations in the Gaza Strip.
But more reservists are increasingly needed as Israel's military once again becomes more engaged in places like Syria, Lebanon, the Golan Heights, and security crackdowns in the West Bank.
Via Reuters
The Haaretz report suggests that a surge of additional soldiers will free up more forces to focus efforts on defeating Hamas in Gaza.
One of the areas of expected new operations is the town of Muwasi on the Gaza coast. Israel is claiming that it has become a safe haven for Hamas, and that militants are hiding in what has become a sprawling tent city of the internally displaced, and so has to be cleared of all Palestinians.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has meanwhile unleashed fresh controversy related to these expanded operations. He essentially admitted that the remaining hostages are not the country's top priority, but the ultimate defeat of Hamas is.
"We have many objectives, many goals in this war. We want to bring back all of our hostages," Netanyahu said. "That is a very important goal. In war, there is a supreme objective. And that supreme objective is victory over our enemies. And that is what we will achieve," he added. He had issued the words at an Independence Day event in Jerusalem on Thursday.
This was enough to outrage families of the victims, who have been begging Israeli leaders to restart negotiations with Hamas, in hopes of brokering the freedom of the remaining captives.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum issued a response to these words of Netanyahu. "Prime minister, the return of the hostages is not ‘less’ important – it is the supreme goal that should guide the government of Israel," a statement said. "The families of the hostages are concerned."
As for the remaining captives, Netanyahu addressed this is the same remarks, saying "We want to bring all our hostages home. We’ve so far brought back 147 alive, and 196 total," but that "There are another up to 24 alive, 59 total, and we want to return the living and the dead."
Netanyahu's description of goals in Gaza and what he prioritizes were echoed in prior remarks last week by hardline Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich in a CNN interview.
The war which has been on since the terror attacks of Oct.7, 2023 - has become deeply divisive among Israeli society:
Hundreds of Israelis walking in Tel Aviv tonight with photos of children killed in Gaza demanding to stop the attacks now. pic.twitter.com/XjDA9o6EIe
— Breaking the Silence (@BtSIsrael) April 26, 2025"We need to tell the truth — bringing back the hostages is not the most important goal. It is, of course, a very, very, very, very important goal," he began his comments. And there was a but...
"But anyone who wants to destroy Hamas and eliminate the possibility of another Oct. 7 must understand that in Gaza, there can’t be a situation where Hamas remains present and intact," he emphasized.
It's unknown how many hostages might still be alive. Family members worry that with each passing day and week, the chances of survival grow slim, also given the steady bombings and that it's an active war zone, also with little food and medicines.
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Site: RT - News
Around $3.4 billion will reportedly be redistributed to Western investors whose funds are stranded in the country
Belgium-based clearing house Euroclear is set redistribute around €3 billion ($3.4 billion) of frozen Russian funds, Reuters reported on Friday. The money will reportedly be used to compensate Western investors whose assets are stranded in Russia.
The Kremlin has repeatedly warned that doing so would amount to “theft,” contravening international law.
A number of Western states froze an estimated €264 billion worth of Russian sovereign and private funds following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022. Around €200 billion is currently held by Euroclear. The assets have already generated billions in interest, of which €1.55 billion was transferred to Ukraine in July 2024.
Euroclear will redistribute €3 billion from a pool of €10 billion in cash belonging to Russian entities and individuals blacklisted by the EU as part of Ukraine-related sanctions, according to two sources cited by the news agency.
“We received authorization from our competent authority to unfreeze the compensation amounts and make these available to our participants,” Reuters cites a briefing document dated April 1 as saying.
The agency noted that changes to the bloc’s sanctions regime, adopted late last year, allow for these disbursements to Western investors.
Read more
UK will return Russian money it is ‘so generously giving away’ – Moscow
According to two Reuters sources, Moscow has recently seized €3 billion held by Euroclear at a depository in Russia to compensate Russian investors affected by Western sanctions.
In November, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said that Moscow would use the income from the frozen assets of Western investors in response to similar actions by the West.
The issue of confiscating frozen Russian assets has been debated by EU lawmakers for more than three years, but member states have so far failed to arrive at a consensus. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has repeatedly called for the funds to be tapped and transferred to support Ukraine’s reconstruction. Last month, she acknowledged that some member states still oppose the move.
The Russian authorities have initiated around 100 court actions against Euroclear, one source told Reuters, without providing details on their status.
Moscow has condemned the asset freeze, arguing that it violates international law and undermines the global financial system. The Kremlin previously stated that it plans to launch legal action against those involved in the seizure of its assets.
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Site: AsiaNews.itBorn into a mixed family with a Catholic father and a Hindu mother, he experienced firsthand and from an early age the difficulties and marginalisation outcasts face. He was able to study thanks to men of the Church who strengthened his faith and allowed him to discover his vocation. Hyderabad is a cosmopolitan, multicultural place with different languages. Proclaiming the Gospel is a 'challenge'.
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Site: Henrymakow.com
Please send links and comments to hmakow@gmail.comThere is a new sheriff in town.RFK Jr. is ending the medical and food industries' exploitationof the American people.RFK Jr. Shatters The Measles Narrative With One Brilliant Point"We've had four measles deaths in this country in 20 years. We have 100,000 autism cases a year. We have 38% of our kids now are diabetic or pre-diabetic. That should be in the headlines," he said.The US now spends almost a trillion dollars a year on diabetes and metabolic disorder."By 2035, we're going to be spending a million dollars a year on autism. Autism in 1970 was 1 in 10,000 Americans. Today, it's 1 in 31. In California, it's 1 in every 20 kids--1 in every 12.5 boys," he said.-A "near extinction" event is planned consistent with my Illuminati 4: Genocide & War prediction.Catherine Austin Fitts: While the central bankers are building the control grid, they are also preparing for a near-extinction event to save themselvesFormer Bush administration official Catherine Austin Fitts joined Tucker Carlson to discuss how America's leaders gave up on the country in the 1990s, began stealing trillions and built a digital prison to control the American population. With digitising currencies, they are converting a currency system into a control system. The goal is to move the majority of people to a lower economic footprint.If the majority of the population becomes poorer, where is all the money going? One possible explanation, Austin Fitts says, is that it is being invested in underground bases and city infrastructure, potentially in preparation for a near-extinction event.---
Former Congressman Norm Coleman, a Jew, Declares "the Masters of the Universe Are Jews."He said, "A majority or Gen Z have an unfavorable impression of Israel. And, my friends, I think the reason for that is that we're losing the digital war. They're getting their information from TikTok, and... and we're losing that war.""...And when you think about it, the Masters of the Universe are Jews! We've got Altman at OpenAI, we've got [Facebook founder Mark] Zuckerberg, we've got [Google founder] Sergey Brin, we've got a group across the board. Jan Koum, y'know, founded WhatsApp. It's us."As numerous polls show young Americans are increasingly skeptical of Israel - with a recent survey showing 71% of Democrats and 50% of Republicans under age 49 now hold an unfavorable view of Israel-IDF Deliberately Killed israelis on Oct 7, 2023 to justify Gaza genocide--Israel will not stop war until Palestinians displaced from Gaza and Syria partitioned.Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich reiterates call for 'hundreds of thousands' of Palestinians to be forcibly displaced from Gaza----Someone pays attention...Satanic Possession and the New World Order - Dr. Henry MakowThese excerpts present a conspiratorial view of global events, asserting that a satanic cult known as the Illuminati, primarily composed of Cabalist Jewish central bankers, controls the world.-
Marty GOLD: Singh crashes NDP Party and takes his pension with him"Years of support for Trudeau's minority government until after he secured his Parliamentary pension soured voters on his sincerity.That sad result was replicated across the country for Singh, who finished third in his own riding and with many of his most radical far-left MPs, among them Matthew Green in Hamilton, Blake Desjarlais in Edmonton and Thompson's Niki Ashton in Churchill-Keewatinook Aski, will be hitting the unemployment line.Over the years, Singh milked the political process for everything he could, built his personal brand, condemned the Liberals while supporting their agenda, and voiced support for violent demonstrators and vile political movements taking over streets in our major cities. Singh delivered a tearful concession speech and resigned as party leader, but the cynics will say he's crying all the way to the bank."NDP and Liberals both belong to the international socialist - i.e. Communist-Transhumanism is a death cult; followers believe in salvation by digital technology instead of salvation by GodThe transhumanist dream is to live forever. Living forever in the digital cloud or the mainframe computer in the sky constitutes the transhumanists' religious doctrine. It is salvation by digital technology. Transhumanism is clearly a religion - indeed, a particular type of neo-Gnostic religion, Aaron Kheriaty says."It attracts adherents today - including educated, wealthy, powerful, culturally influential adherents - because it taps into unfulfilled, deeply religious aspirations and longings. Transhumanism is an ersatz substitute religion for a secular age," he said.--Lena Petrova - Chabad Jews Steal Ukraine's BirthrightZelensky is a US proxy charged with threatening Russia. Now the US is charging Ukraine for the cost of the war. Illuminati insist on making a profit while destroying you. Look at the COVID vaccines.-
Germany designates rising far-right AfD party as 'extremist' groupReader claims they are Zionists--"Right up until 2014 (end of the Godless Gog-Magog alliance), the globalists had a marvellous scam in operation: "democracy".Here was the question for the voters at the polling station: Do you want this globalist, or that one?Populism ruined it all. Populism: ZIONIST SCAM. They just say what conservatives want to hear..........just like the Lenin scam of 1917. There is no political Messiah."--State Department Instructs Employees to Report Anti-Christian Bias"It is the policy of the United States, and the purpose of this order, to protect the religious freedoms of Americans and end the anti-Christian weaponization of government," Trump wrote in the order, which alleged that during the Biden administration, government officials "engaged in an egregious pattern of targeting peaceful Christians, while ignoring violent, anti-Christian offenses," such as bringing charges against people who demonstrated outside facilities that perform abortions.-
When I was young, the word conscience was in common usage. "My conscience wouldn't let me do it."Is it my imagination, but we don't hear that word as much any more.--Michael Snyder---We Are Much Closer To A Major War With Iran, And Trump Warns That Anyone That Buys Iranian Oil "Will Not Be Allowed To Do Business With The United States Of America In Any Way, Shape, Or Form"This just happened, and it is absolutely huge. China is a major purchaser of Iranian oil. What will Trump do if the Chinese continue to buy oil from Iran?Will the Chinese "not be allowed to do business with the United States of America in any way, shape, or form"? If Trump really follows through on this, we are about to see some really dramatic changes. Just imagine what it would do to the global economy if we suddenly cut off all trade with China and all of the other nations that purchase oil from Iran.I believe that Trump is not bluffing, and that means that things are about to get very "interesting".--As wildfires rage across Israel for a second day, scorching over 5,000 acres near Jerusalem, public outrage is mounting over the government's failure to prepare for the disaster despite years of warnings.-Israeli drone targets aid ship bound for Gaza in international watersThe attack struck the ship's generator, igniting a fire and causing a hull breach that left it at risk of sinking-
"Today is my sister's 30th birthday, thanks to your help I was able to buy the ingredients for this delicious dessert, and made it for her with all my love, bringing joy to her heart and to all of our hearts despite the pain, thank you from the bottom of my heart."A Way to Help Gaza-Fraud Rings Operating, But In Order To Break Up A Fraud Ring, It's Kind Of Like The Mafia"Elon Musk sat in the Roosevelt Room of the West Wing with the Daily Caller and a handful of other print reporters on Wednesday evening to reflect back on what DOGE has been able to accomplish as the Trump administration celebrated its first 100 days in office. As of Wednesday, DOGE says it has saved the American taxpayer $160 billion, which is equivalent to about $1,000 per taxpayer.-Tense debate over 'separatism' consumes Saskatchewan legislatureWestern separatism is opposed by many Westerners-Spain & Portugal Blackout Was a Test Run. These 5 Documents Prove What's ComingThe recent blackout across Spain, Portugal, and parts of France was not a random event, it was a test.https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/1kcde9i/spain_portugal_blackout_was_a_test_run_these_5/A stress test on the power grid, communications, and public behavior. They blamed it on "atmospheric vibrations," but behind the scenes, this is the exact scenario rehearsed by global institutions like the WEF, IMF, and World Bank.They are preparing for a global cyberattack, a staged collapse of banking, energy, and infrastructure; in order to roll out centralized digital ID, CBDCs, and full-spectrum control over society.Below are 5 official documents that lay the entire plan out, in their own words:Cyber Polygon (World Economic Forum)Summary: Cyber Polygon was a global simulation hosted by the WEF and major financial institutions to prepare for a coming "cyber pandemic" -- a digital crisis that would take down banks, power grids, and communication networks. The drill ends by promoting centralized digital control systems as the solution.2. Digital Identity: A Framework for Financial Services-Wiz Acquisition Puts Israeli Intelligence In Charge of Your Google Data by Alan MacleodGoogle recently announced it would acquire Israeli-American cloud security firm Wiz for $32 billion. The price tag -- 65 times Wiz's annual revenue -- has raised eyebrows and further solidified the close relationship between Google and the Israeli military. -
Site: Zero Hedge'No Participation Trophies': Trump Revamps Performance Reviews For Top BureaucratsTyler Durden Fri, 05/02/2025 - 12:00
Authored by Philip Wegmann via RealClearPolitics,
Performance reviews are about to become much more difficult for the upper echelon of federal government employees.
The Trump administration will soon introduce rules to end what the Office of Personnel Management describes as an “everyone gets a trophy” culture permeating the federal workforce, RealClearPolitics is first to report.
The ranks of the Senior Executive Service, top bureaucrats serving throughout the government and across administrations, swelled to around 8,000 under President Biden. Most live in Washington, D.C. They typically earn an annual salary between $183,000 and $250,000. An overwhelming majority, 96%, according to an OPM memo, receive above-average performance ratings even as public trust in government continues to crater.
But standards will soon tighten. It is called “forced distribution.”
The new OPM rule limits the number of bureaucrats who can earn top ratings, a metric tied to promotions and end-of-the-year bonuses. It also eliminates Biden-era requirements that evaluated executives based on their promotion of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
The stated goal is instead an evaluation of job performance, not political ideology. Now only top performers, acting OPM director Chuck Ezell told RCP, will earn top performance rankings.
“The American people deserve a federal government led by executives who are held to the highest standards,” Ezell said. “This proposed rule restores accountability, rewards true excellence, and ensures senior leaders deliver real results. OPM is proud to take this important step to strengthen performance among the highest levels of the federal workforce.”
The elite of career civil servants, these senior employees are normally little noticed and non-controversial. Permanent bureaucracy has come under attack during the Trump administration, however, and the White House sees the top ranks of federal employees as the face of the so-called “deep state.”
“There are no participation trophies,” a White House official said of the new standards, telling RCP that from now on, trophies, in this case top-tier performance rankings, “are for winners.”
The new standards come as Trump continues his long march through the administrative state. His administration has already implemented rules to gut civil service protections for government employees perceived as undermining the White House agenda. Thousands of federal workers have been fired. Entire government agencies, in some cases, shuttered.
Critics accuse the White House of trying to politicize the federal workforce and of trying to remake the executive agencies in Trump’s image. The Senior Executives Association, a trade group for federal employees with an office in downtown D.C., previously balked at proposed reforms. The head of that organization, Marcus Hill, insisted that top bureaucrats had earned their jobs through merit “based on demonstrated competence, character and capability in their fields of expertise.”
But the administration argues that change is needed because a sclerotic establishment is undermining self-government. This is the mission of Elon Musk and his team at the Department of Government Efficiency.
“If the bureaucracy is in charge, then what meaning does democracy actually have?” Musk asked earlier this year while fielding questions from reporters in the Oval Office.
“If the people cannot vote and have their will be decided by their elected representatives,” he said while standing behind the Resolute Desk next to the seated president, “then we don’t live in a democracy.”
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Site: Zero HedgeEuropean Union Continues Sabotaging Trump's Ukraine Peace EffortsTyler Durden Fri, 05/02/2025 - 11:40
The European Union at this point seems much more open about its willingness to sabotage Trump efforts toward achieving peace in Ukraine.
The EU's top diplomat Kaja Kallas has told the Financial Times in a fresh interview this week that the bloc will not recognize Russia's annexation of Crimea under any circumstances. Really, this should be the most obvious and 'easiest' concession to make, but alas Brussels is saying no!
Kaja Kallas, via European Parliament
The White House is seeking to pressure the Zelensky government to get to the negotiating table fast, and the quickest and easiest concession would be expected to center on letting go of Crimea, which Moscow declared part of the Russian Federation after a 2014 popular referendum.
"I can’t see that we are accepting these kind of things. But we can’t speak for America, of course, and what they will do," Kallas said. "On the European side, we have said this over and over again... Crimea is Ukraine."
"There are tools in the Americans’ hands that they can use to put the pressure on Russia to really stop this war," Kallas continued. "President Trump has said that he wants the killing to stop. He should put the pressure on the one who is doing the killing."
This has basically been the Ukrainian government's position all along as well. For this reason, she said Brussels and other European capitals are still focused on "working with the Americans and trying to convince them why the outcome of this war is also in their interest, that Russia doesn’t really get everything that it wants." But again, Crimea should be the easiest issue.
On the question of the scenario where Washington successfully resets relations with Moscow and eventually withdraws arms and intelligence support for Kiev, she said:
"It is clear that these types of discussions are going on in certain member states and maybe hopes that we don’t really have to support [Ukraine] any more," said Kallas, the former Estonian prime minister. "But it’s also a false hope, because if you look at Russia, that is investing more than 9 per cent of its GDP on the military, they will want to use it again."
Currently the US is reportedly seeking to convince Kiev and Europe of a de jure recognition of Russia's control over Crimea and de facto recognition of Russian areas of control in eastern Ukraine, based on a 'freeze' of battle lines.
Trump presidential special envoy for Ukraine and Russia Keith Kellogg told Fox News this week that Ukraine is ready to make territorial concessions, but wouldn't consider any ceded territory as a permanent situation.
"Not de jure forever, but de facto, because the Russians actually occupy that and they've agreed to that. They know that if they have a ceasefire in place, which means you sit on the ground that you currently hold, that's what they're willing to go to," Kellog said. "You have your line set, and they're willing to go there," Kellogg emphasized.
But it's clear the Kremlin sees this as an issue of sovereignty and permanence, given President Putin has described the four annexed territories and Crimea as "ours forever".
Zelensky has lately reiterated to reporters on the question of giving up Crimea, "There is nothing to talk about. This violates our Constitution. This is our territory, the territory of the people of Ukraine."
This was after late last month Vice President JD Vance made clear, "We’ve issued a very explicit proposal to both the Russians and the Ukrainians, and it’s time for them to either say yes or for the United States to walk away from this process."
Kaja Kallas, the grossly inept "Diplomatic Chief" of the EU lies through her teeth in Munich
— Chay Bowes (@BowesChay) February 16, 2025
She suggests Russian civilians haven't died in Donbass, Crimea, Belgorod, and Kursk. Thousands have.
The fact that EU and NATO cash / weapons have done the killing demands she lies pic.twitter.com/apwFAkKvpC"The only way to really stop the killing is for the armies to both put down their weapons, to freeze this thing and to get on with the business of actually building a better Russia and a better Ukraine," he said in April while traveling overseas to Asia.
It goes without saying that freezing the war now would certainly give Russian forces a huge advantage, given the immense territory in the East they now hold - and this seem precisely what Kiev and Europe are unwilling to accept.
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Site: AsiaNews.itSingapore's unicameral legislature is set for renewal. A divided electorate could decree the end of the hegemony of the People's Action Party. Fears of instability are likely to affect the economy, while negotiations with the United States on tariffs are underway. In a country with an aging population, immigration remains an unresolved issue.
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Site: AsiaNews.itFrom Turkey and Iran to the Philippines and Japan, International Workers' Day saw thousands of people take to the streets for workers' rights, often faced with violent clampdowns. Key demands include higher wages, social equity, and peace as well as criticism of global economic policies, especially Trump's tariffs. In Istanbul, hundreds are arrested; in Iran, teachers are beaten, while in Hong Kong, labour protest is now a fading memory.
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Site: RT - News
The country’s most popular party has denounced the designation as “a severe blow” to democracy
Germany’s domestic intelligence agency has officially designated the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) as an “extremist” party. The designation comes despite the AfD leading national opinion polls.
In a statement on Friday, Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) said that the AfD exhibits numerous signs of a party acting against the free democratic basic order while accusing it of “disregarding human dignity.” The assessment was made based on an “intensive and comprehensive expert review” of the party’s activities, including its affiliations and statements by party members.
At the core of the decision is what the agency described as the party’s “understanding of people predominantly based on their ethnic descent.” According to the BfV, AfD leaders promote policies that exclude German citizens with migrant backgrounds – particularly Muslims – from full societal participation. The report also flagged the party’s use of terms such as “knife-wielding migrants” and its attribution of violent tendencies to non-European ethnic groups.
“The continuous incitement against refugees and migrants… promotes the spread and deepening of prejudices, resentment, and fears,” the BfV concluded.
Read more
AfD tops German opinion poll for first time
AfD co-leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla have condemned the decision. “Today’s classification is a severe blow to German democracy,” they said in a joint statement. “The AfD is the strongest party in current polls… Nevertheless, the AfD, as an opposition party, is now being publicly discredited and criminalized shortly before the change of government.”
Meanwhile, outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned against any hasty decisions regarding imposing any restrictions on the party. “I think this is something that cannot be rushed into,” Scholz said when asked about banning the AfD outright.
The BfV’s statement comes after a new Forsa poll released last month indicated that the AfD has 26% support, ahead of Germany’s Christian Democrats (25%) and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (15%). The AfD has continued to gain traction amid voter dissatisfaction with mainstream parties and rising concerns over immigration and the economy.
Despite the high level of support for the AfD indicated by polls, the federal election two months ago was won by the Christian Democrats, who signaled that they had no intention of cooperating with right-wing parties.
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Site: Zero HedgeNative-Born Workers Surge By Over 1 Million, Back To All-Time High, As Govt Employees TumbleTyler Durden Fri, 05/02/2025 - 11:25
For much of the past 4 years we dutifully reported, month after month, how the US labor market under the Biden administration "grew" almost entirely on the back of "foreign-born" workers, who - as we also first revealed and eventually was widely accepted - were primarily illegal aliens:
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Wall Street Admits The Biggest Economic Shocker: All Jobs In The Past Year Have Gone To Illegal Aliens: June, 2024
More importantly, as we predicted at the start of 2024...
How is this not the biggest political talking point right now: since October 2019, native-born US workers have lost 1.4 million jobs; over the same period foreign-born workers have gained 3 million jobs. pic.twitter.com/Z5HVWmQ24C
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) January 15, 2024... the composition of the labor market would become one of the biggest political talking points, one which was hammered constantly by Trump in his political rallies and during his debate with Biden.
We bring this up because deep inside today's jobs report we got the best news yet: after literally flatlining in late 2019, having plunged during covid and barely recovering to its pre-covid levels, the number of native born workers is now back to its all time high, 132.228 million.
That's because in April, the number of native-born workers surged by just over 1 million, from 131.186 million to 132.228 million. Meanwhile, the number of foreign-born workers - who as we explained previously were mostly undocumented, or illegal, aliens - dropped by 410K from a record 32.225 million.
Or, as so many people have already said, this is what a majority of Americans voted for.
Actually, they voted for something else too: after hitting a record high in December, the last month of Biden's admin, the number of Federal government employees has declined for 4 consecutive months to the lowest level in over a year. Thank you DOGE.
So while there has been pain, and there will be a lot more pain, America is finally returning to some semblance of a long-term viable trendline.
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Site: Zero HedgeTwo Americans Charged In Operating International Child Exploitation RingTyler Durden Fri, 05/02/2025 - 11:20
Authored by Rachel Acenas via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Two leaders of a child exploitation network known as 764 have been arrested, federal officials announced on Wednesday.
764 leader Prasan Nepal in a booking photo. Courtesy of Guilford County Sheriff's Office
Prasan Nepal, 20, of High Point, North Carolina, was arrested on April 22 in North Carolina. Leonidas Varagiannis, 21, was arrested on April 29 in Greece on an international warrant.
Both defendants face charges of operating an international child exploitation enterprise, marking a major takedown of an operation that targets innocent children, according to FBI Director Kash Patel.
“This is a significant case in our renewed mission to crack down on child sexual exploitation and abuse—heinous crimes that no child or parent should ever be faced with,” Patel said on Wednesday in a statement on social media platform X.
The defendants allegedly recruited others to exploit children and coordinated the operation through encrypted messaging apps.
Varagiannis has denied the allegations. He appeared in court on Wednesday before an appellate prosecutor and opposed extradition, according to Greek judicial authorities and his lawyer.
“Throughout the period during which the alleged offenses took place, he was residing in Greece. Therefore, Greek law and courts have jurisdiction over the case, and his extradition is explicitly prohibited,” his lawyer Xanthippi Moysidou said.
Nepal is currently in the Guilford County, North Carolina, jail on a federal hold and has a public defender.
Federal prosecutors allege the two men targeted children as young as 13 years old from late 2020 through early 2025 across multiple jurisdictions through the 764 criminal enterprise.
764 is a network of online groups that “methodically target and exploit minors and other vulnerable individuals,” according to a public service announcement posted by the FBI on March 6.
“These networks use threats, blackmail, and manipulation to coerce or extort victims into producing, sharing, or live-streaming acts of self-harm, animal cruelty, sexually explicit acts, and/or suicide,” the FBI said.
The material is used as leverage to force victims to perform acts of violence and even self-harm. The network also engages in swatting and harassment to silence its victims.
A criminal complaint unsealed on Wednesday in the District of Columbia shows examples of online manuals used by the defendants to instruct others on how to groom and extort minors. The guides taught others specifically how to target vulnerable children online, according to the affidavit, and ultimately coerced and threatened them into creating degrading content.
‘The allegations in this case are not only disturbing, they are also every parent’s nightmare,’ U.S. Attorney Edward R. Martin Jr. said in a Department of Justice statement on April 29.
The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. The DOJ launched the initiative in May 2006.
The initiative utilizes federal, state, and local resources to locate, arrest, and prosecute those who exploit children through the internet. It also aims to identify and rescue victims.
Attorney General Pam Bondi on Wednesday called for swift justice in the case.
“These defendants are accused of orchestrating one of the most heinous online child exploitation enterprises we have ever encountered—a network built on terror, abuse, and the deliberate targeting of children,” Bondi said in a statement. “We will find those who exploit and abuse children, prosecute them, and dismantle every part of their operation.”
Varagiannis will remain in custody until a court of appeals rules on the U.S. extradition request.
If convicted, both defendants face a maximum penalty of life in prison.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
From NTD News
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Site: LifeNews
President Donald Trump on May 1 established the Religious Liberty Commission through an executive order, in an effort to guarantee the religious rights of Americans. The announcement coincided with the annual National Day of Prayer.
“The Commission is tasked with producing a comprehensive report on the foundations of religious liberty in America, strategies to increase awareness of and celebrate America’s peaceful religious pluralism, current threats to religious liberty, and strategies to preserve and enhance protections for future generations,” a White House fact sheet states.
The commission will focus on parental rights, school choice, conscience protections, attacks on houses of worship, free speech for religious entities, and institutional autonomy, the White House adds.
SUPPORT LIFENEWS! If you want to help fight abortion, please donate to LifeNews.com!
The commission will also be responsible for advising the White House Faith Office and the Domestic Policy Council on policies regarding religious freedom by recommending legislative and executive measures to protect First Amendment rights.
Trump appointed Bishop Robert Barron of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester to serve on the commission.
Bishop Barron thanked Trump in an X post, writing, “Freedom of religion in our country has been a central concern of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops for decades, and I see my task as bringing the perspective of Catholic social teaching to bear as the Commission endeavors to shape public policy in this matter.”
The Daily Wire reports that Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick will serve as the committee chair and Dr. Ben Carson will serve as vice chair. Besides Bishop Barron, other commission members include Ethics and Public Policy Center President Ryan Anderson, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Pastor Franklin Graham, Pastor Paula White, Gibson Dunn partner Allyson Ho, and Rabbi Meier Soloveichik.
LifeNews Note: Grace Porto writes for CatholicVote, where this column originally appeared.
The post Trump Establishes Religious Liberty Commission, Puts Pro-Life Advocates in Charge appeared first on LifeNews.com.
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Site: LifeNews
President Trump has announced his first judicial nominee of his second term and she fought in court to defend an abortion ban that saves babies.
Trump announced late Thursday night that he would nominate Whitney Hermandorfer to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit. She is his first federal judicial nomination since returning to the White House in January.
Hermandorfer heads up a litigation unit for the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office. In that role, she has led major cases involving constitutional law – including defending the state’s abortion ban in court from a challenge from the Planned Parenthood abortion business.
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As LifeNews reported last April, Hermandorfer countere arguments from the abortion giant, which said that it shouldn’t face any limits on abortions or oversight from the state when it comes to killing babies. Hermandorfer said that’s not how that works.
The Tennessee Attorney General’s office argued in front of a three judge panel and asked the judges to dismiss a lawsuit filed against the ban by abortion activists seeking to weaken it.
“Plaintiffs very much, and this is a shared policy view by many in the medical profession, do not want any sort of governmental scrutiny on their use, on their medical decision-making,” Hermandorfer explained. “And that’s not been how things have worked in the abortion context.”
Those behind the lawsuit wanted to be able to kill babies in abortions just because they’re disabled.
Trump praised his judicial nominee, saying she would uphold the rule of law.
“Whitney has been serving the Great People of Tennessee, in the Attorney General’s Office, where she has strongly litigated in Court to protect Citizens from Federal Government Overreach,” Trump wrote on Truth Social,” praising her accolades and prior clerkships with prominent originalist justices.
Trump noted Hermandorfer previously clerked for Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and Amy Coney Barrett, as well as then-Judge Brett Kavanaugh on the D.C. Circuit and U.S. District Judge Richard Leon.
“She has a long history of working for Judges and Justices who respect the RULE OF LAW, and protect our Constitution,” said the president.
The post Trump’s First Judicial Nominee of 2nd Term Defended Abortion Ban in Court appeared first on LifeNews.com.
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Site: LES FEMMES - THE TRUTH
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Site: RT - News
Separate provisions outline Kiev’s “indefinite obligations” and bypass parliamentary ratification, Irina Gerashchenko has claimed
The US-Ukraine minerals agreement announced this week “hides” details of Kiev’s “indefinite obligations” to Washington, a Ukrainian lawmaker has claimed.
In a Facebook post on Friday, Irina Gerashchenko, a member of European Solidarity party said the deal includes two “secret,” supplementary documents that will not be subject to parliamentary ratification.
The minerals deal reportedly grants the US preferential access to Ukrainian mining projects in exchange for assistance with an investment fund to support the country’s reconstruction. Initially portrayed by Washington as repayment forbears of military support – estimated at $350 billion by President Donald Trump – the final text, published on Thursday by the Ukrainian government, states that only future aid will count toward US contributions to the fund.
Gerashchenko claimed however that instead of one agreement, the US and Ukraine signed three.
Read more
Trump has forced Ukraine to sell itself for aid – Medvedev
“The Zelensky government has not provided deputies and society with all the agreements signed in the US, which, as it turned out, are three, not one,” she wrote. “Meanwhile, they want to ratify only one framework document in the Verkhovna Rada. Others are labeled ‘implementation documents,’ despite the fact that it is in these two secret agreements that all the technical details of indefinite Ukrainian obligations are hidden.”
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmigal “avoided” commenting on the two documents and the lack of security guarantees in the published agreement – reportedly a key point of contention during negotiations – Gerashchenko told the country’s parliament on Friday.
The claim has raised questions among Ukrainian lawmakers and the public on the actual scope of the agreement. MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak claimed on Telegram that, when pressed, Shmigal acknowledged the two additional documents but downplayed them as “technical” and exempt from ratification. The texts “must be signed after the ratification” of the main agreement, Shmigal claimed, noting that lawmakers would see them when the Ukrainian negotiating team returns from the US next week.
READ MORE: US-Ukraine deal ‘important step to end war’ – Rubio
Western media reports have also noted the existence of additional documents and claimed that a last-minute dispute arose when Washington demanded Kiev sign all three. Ukrainian officials reportedly argued they could not sign the annexes until the main agreement was ratified in Parliament. Later reports suggested all three documents were ultimately signed.
Further details about the contents of the supplementary documents have not been publicly released, and the Ukrainian government has not issued an official statement addressing their existence or content.
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Site: Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
The following opinion article was published by Kelsi Sheren on her substack on May 1, 2025.
Kelsi Sheren
By Kelsi SherenYour paying to kill your neighbours.
I've had some time since the election to really sit with what just happened and honestly, I'm still dumbfounded by the collective decision made by those who voted Liberal. But instead of just stewing in disbelief, I wanted to dig deeper and confront what we're truly seeing here.
Canada feels like it's trapped in a bizarre, decade-long abusive relationship with its own government, a toxic cycle reminiscent of Stockholm syndrome. Since Canadians once again chose to re-elect a Liberal government, it’s important that we tell everyone know what they just co-signed.
Most of you reading my work already know my mission: exposing uncomfortable truths and confronting the issues plaguing Canada and the world. Right now and for the foreseeable future my focus is the disturbing expansion of the pro death movement and MAiD (Medical Assistance in Dying). This issue hit’s close to home for many reasons, and I thought you’d all like to know where a decent amount of your hard earned money is going. Even if you're someone who believes in MAiD, you owe it to yourself to understand what's really happening isn’t some beautiful thing, this isn't compassion.
It’s commodification.Do you honestly think the government would let something like a recession interfere with one of its most profitable industries? Death is recession proof. Death is profitable and in Canada, death is generously funded with YOUR tax dollars. We’ve been conditioned to look away, convinced this is about dignity, compassion, and personal choice. Canada is the “free people society” where we can have anything! but peel back the layers, and you’ll find something so dark, so sinister and anything but compassion. A slick government-funded death industry propped up by grants, lobbyists, and carefully sanitized bureaucratic language.
It’s singular purpose?
Normalizing and expanding state-sanctioned death.
Yes, killing.
As a form of healthcare.
KILLING.
Let’s look at the MAiD industrial complex and where your money really goes and who is actually profiting from it.
Dying With Dignity Canada (DWDC)
Far from grassroots, this influential pro-euthanasia, pro death, pro giving up group received $204,655 in 2021 and $222,077 in 2020 directly from the government, your tax money. Nearly half a million dollars funnelled into lobbying and advocacy aimed at expanding death.
Not for mental health
Not for supportive housing
Not for palliative care
Just straight propaganda convincing Canadians they should die.
Canadian Association of MAiD Assessors & Providers (CAMAP)
The Liberal government handed CAMAP $3.3 million to develop MAiD training programs. Sit on this one for a second. MILLIONS spent to build a pipeline of “providers” incentivized to say "yes" to killing. Healthcare has become an industry not unlike the military industrial complex but designed as “healthcare” Geared to maximize profit by scaling up the practice of killing. More killers, more deaths, more efficiency—and yes, horrifyingly, more profit.
MAiDHouse …..yes a whole building. 2 actually. 1 in Victoria BC and 1 in Toronto. Yes, this exists. A supposed "charity," explicitly established in 2019 to facilitate KILLING. No hospice care, no healing programs just a carefully crafted, boutique environment dedicated entirely to death, financed by your money.
Imagine for a minute if even a fraction of these millions went toward genuine solutions, mental health resources, veteran support, trauma recovery, or housing initiatives.
Think about how many lives could have been transformed or saved. But there’s no profit in healing, is there? Here’s what Canadians who just don’t understand, your taxes actively fund organizations dedicated to facilitating death over life for vulnerable populations. Are you aware that while you or loved ones struggle to access timely mental health care, taxpayer-funded organizations actively present death as the quicker alternative?
Do you know they’re expanding MAiD for mental illness only in 2027 and lobbying to include eligibility to “mature” minors … these are your children.
This isn’t conspiracy, it’s our reality. It’s Canada’s quietly expanding euthanasia empire, thriving because of YOUR taxes. If I were you. I’d start asking why is accessing euthanasia easier than getting trauma therapy?
Why are we fast-tracking death while mental health care remains underfunded and inaccessible? Why are millions spent training killers instead of investing in supportive housing, poverty reduction, or hospice care? WHY!!! do we call it “dying with dignity” when people often choose death out of poverty, neglect, and untreated emotional pain?
Here’s the real answer.
HEALING IS COSTLY.
Allowing or encouraging them to die is cheap.
This isn’t about “personal dignity” or compassion. It's calculated hopelessness. It's about quietly removing individuals deemed too expensive or burdensome, all disguised as mercy and compassion.
It’s state-approved despair, neatly packaged for public acceptance. You're being sold a narrative carefully crafted to feel compassionate, supported by so-called charities, and bankrolled by you, the good, nice taxpayer.
WAKE UP.
You're funding a death cult, maybe not by choice, but definitely by default. Here’s the thing, in my coaching practice I learned quickly that once you become aware of a behaviour you now have the chance to change something.
I’ve now made you, the readers aware of what your funding
What are you going to do about it?
Demand that your tax dollars fund life, not death. Start asking the hard questions. Demand accountability. Demand transparency. Follow your money.
Because if we remain silent, the next expansion might target someone you love.
Or worse, it will be you. -
Site: LifeNews
Today marks the one-year anniversary of the enforcement of Florida’s Heartbeat Act. This piece of legislation signed by Governor Ron DeSantis in April 2023 protects preborn children in Florida after six weeks’ gestation. Supporters of legal abortion were quick to oppose the law, placing Amendment 4 on the November 2024 ballot.
The amendment would have placed legal abortion in Florida’s state constitution. However, strong vocal leadership by DeSantis and pro-life leaders around the Sunshine State played a key role in the defeat of Amendment 4 this past November.
Even though Florida’s Heartbeat Act is only one year old, very solid data from the state show that is has already saved thousands of lives. Even though the Heartbeat Act was in effect for only part of 2024, the number of abortions performed in Florida fell by over 12,000 that year. Furthermore, recent birth data provide additional evidence that the Heartbeat Act has saved lives. The number of babies born in Florida from December 2024 to March 2025 has increased by 1,700 since the equivalent period a year ago. This means that the Florida Heartbeat Act is saving over 400 babies every month.
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Overall, this adds to the body of research that shows that heartbeat acts reduce the incidence of abortion and save lives. Data from Texas show that after a heartbeat act there took effect in September 2021, the number of abortions performed in the Lone Star State immediately fell by over 60 percent. Furthermore, three separate studies analyzing Texas birth data have shown that the Texas Heartbeat Act has resulted in over 1,000 more children being born every month. Overall, Governor DeSantis, Florida Republicans, and Sunshine State pro-life leaders deserve credit for their efforts in both enacting and defending Florida’s Heartbeat Act.
LifeNews Note: Michael J. New is an assistant professor at the Busch School of Business at The Catholic University of America and is an associate scholar at the Charlotte Lozier Institute. Follow him on Twitter @Michael_J_New
The post Florida Heartbeat Law Saves 12,000 Babies From Abortions During Its First Year appeared first on LifeNews.com.
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Site: Ron Paul Institute - Featured Articles
(Photo: journalist Fatima Hassouna, murdered by Israel)
As I sat in church last Sunday, before the service started, I thought maybe I read too much.
I wish I had not read about Mohammed Hegazy, a seven-year-old Palestinian boy who was blinded by an Israeli grenade that blew up in his face as he played outside his home which is now rubble.
His father said he used to smile all the time. “Now we rarely see him smiling. He is having difficulty interacting with people due to his blindness and the psychological trauma he suffers,”
The father added: “He is constantly clinging to me and afraid to be separated from me, even more than a moment.”
More than 17,000 of those killed in Gaza during the past year and a half have been children under 14 years of age. Some four to five times that number have been wounded, many very seriously.
There is something wrong with anyone who does not think all this killing, maiming and blinding of little children is not horrific. And most of it has been done by Israeli soldiers using billions of dollars worth of American bombs, shells and weaponry paid for by American taxpayers.
I wish I had not read about Hossan Shabat,23, a young journalist who was killed by the Israeli military in late March. He had a premonition and wrote shortly before his death the following: “When all this began, I was only 21 years old—a college student with dreams like everyone else.”
He added: “I documented the horrors in northern Gaza minute by minute, determined to show the world the truth they tried to bury. I slept on pavements…anywhere I could. Each day was a battle for survival. I endured hunger for months, yet I never left my peoples’ side.”
At least 208 unarmed journalists have been killed in this one-sided slaughter. Shabat ended with this plea: “I ask you now: Do not let the world look away. Keep fighting. Keep telling our stories—until Palestine is free.”
I wish I had not read about Fatima Hassouna, 24, who also had a premonition and was killed by an Israeli airstrike a few days before she was to be married.
She was a photojournalist who was killed in mid-April along with nine members of her family the day after it was announced that a documentary she made about her life in Gaza at the Cannes Film Festival this month.
She had written on social media that she wanted “a death the world would hear.”
On April 19, 36 members of the Board of Deputies of British Jews criticized what‘ they called this “most extreme of Israeli governments.”
Their letter said: “Silence is seen as support for policies and actions that run contrary to our Jewish values. Led by the families of the hostages, hundreds of thousands of Israelis are demonstrating on the streets against the return to war. We stand with them. We stand against the war. We acknowledge and mourn the loss of Palestinian life.”
Before he became President, Mr. Trump criticized the war in Iraq. Last year, he criticized the Biden Administration for bombing Yemen. He said as President he would end the war in Ukraine. He said recently that he wanted to cut the U.S. defense budget in half.
A few days ago, his Defense Department proudly announced it had carried out 750 bombing raids against Yemen on behalf of Israel. The Israeli military has expanded its wars to the West Bank, Lebanon and Syria, killing thousands more. These wars are creating many more enemies for the U.S.
President Trump received approximately $100 million for his campaign and another $100 million for his Inauguration, according to press reports, from Miriam Adelson, widow of a Jewish multi-billlionaire, apparently for a promise of total support for the Netanyahu government in Israel.
George D. O’Neill, Jr. writing in The American Conservative Magazine for April 16, summed things up best: “When did Jesus say it was acceptable to starve the poor, slaughter women and children, while turning a blind eye to the suffering of the weak? The answer, of course, is never. Yet for years, a vocal strain of American Christian Zionist leaders have supported policies that do precisely that—enabling the starvation and slaughter of Palestinians while underwriting broader wars that have decimated ancient Christian communities across the Middle East. How did we arrive at a place where those who claim to follow the Prince of Peace justify such unchristian horrors.”
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Site: RT - News
The US has reportedly shared data with the UK and other group members, citing alleged off-planet Chinese and Russian threats
The US has begun sharing its “most sensitive” military intelligence on China’s and Russia’s space operations with the UK and other members of The Five Eyes (FVEY) global intelligence group, The Times has reported, citing a senior commander within the US Space Force.
Until this month, the work of Space Delta 9, a unit focused on America’s orbital warfare, was largely meant only for US officials with top-secret security clearance.
However, in a move that a Space Delta 9 spokesman described to The Times as “momentous,” British military chiefs have been allowed to observe operations at the unit's base in Colorado.
The other Five Eyes members, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, have also been allowed access to the highest levels of US space intelligence, the British daily reported on Wednesday.
Read more
US can manipulate time and space – White House
The Times attributed the development to Beijing and Moscow allegedly developing “new space capabilities,” such as dual use satellites, and orbiters designed for both civilian and military applications.
”We have to be ready for that fight that nobody wants to have,” Colonel Ramsey Horn, commander of Space Delta 9, told the paper. He went on to claim that the unit is “more ready” than ever to engage in combat in space.
The US Defense Department has accused China of stockpiling anti-satellite weapons, raising concerns over what it describes as Beijing’s increasing emphasis on space warfare. Chinese officials have rejected the claims and argued that militarization of space by the US poses the real threat to global stability.
Washington has made similar allegations against Russia, suggesting that Moscow may possess covert anti-satellite systems, potentially with nuclear capabilities. The Kremlin has dismissed the claims as baseless attempts to deflect attention from America’s own military ambitions in space.
READ MORE: US greatest threat to space security – China
Both Russia and China have consistently stated their opposition to the weaponization of space and have advocated for keeping space a domain reserved for peaceful use.
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Site: southern orders
PREPARING FOR HOLY SMOKE AND AN ORTHODOX POPE!
Silere non possum reports the following (with my excellent commentary in red):Vatican City - This morning, in the New Chamber of the Synod, the eighth preparatory General Congregation of the College of Cardinals took place, in view of the next conclave.
- Ecclesial communication was also discussed, highlighting the need to make the transmission of the Gospel effective and coherent at all levels: from parish ministry to the Roman Curia. Other important topics addressed during the morning include:
- The duty of testimony and unity, in the light of the words of the Gospel: "With this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love each other". (Of course Pope Francis papacy caused quite a bit of disunity, also called, division, schismatic countries, like Germany, and overall anger and rage in many laity. God willing the next pope will bring inner unity and thus healing to the Church after Pope Francis’ papacy).
- The centrality of the liturgy in the life of the Church. (Hopefully, the good cardinals discussed how Pope Benedict XVI strived to do this, especially with Summorum Pontificum and the influence of Traditional and Modern Forms of Mass on each other).
- The importance of canon law as a guarantee of justice and ecclesial order. (This certainly implies that Pope Francis did not respect canon law and justice and ecclesial order was based upon his whim. He called those who follow Canon Law, like Cardinal Burke) doctors of the law which is a mocking and derogatory comment about canon law lawyers and those who want clarity in doctrine, morals and Canon Law).
- The relationship between synodality and collegiality, and their implications for the mission and presence of the laity in the Church. (Pope Francis has diminished the role of local bishop and the college of bishops as collaborators with the Pope in the three fold mission of the Magisterium (pope and bishops together) to teach, govern and sanctify the Church. Incorporating laity into the mix-mash of inane synodality as practiced and promoted by Pope Francis has corrupted the teaching authority of the college of bishops).
-A hermeneutic of the continuity between the pontificates of John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis. (And I hope they are reading Pope Benedict’s Christmas elocution to the Roman Curia about the proper interpretation of Vatican II in continuity with what preceded the Council. The hermeneutic of continuity, completely neglected or destroyed by Pope Francis, especially canceling the papacies of John Paul II and Benedict XVI, must, I repeat, must be recovered by the next pope).
- The role of the Eucharist as the source and culmination of the missionary action of the Church. (Not sure what this means, and would like to see a recovery of Pope Benedict XVI Eucharistic theology, style and ethos).
This morning, moreover, the firefighters of the Vatican City State installed the chimney on the roof of the Sistine. Inside the Chapel, the preparatory work continues for May 7, the day on which the purples will enter the Conclave.
Silere non possum
AND, YES, PLEASE MAKE THE CARDINALS REREAD AND STUDY POPE BENEDICT’S CHRISTMAS GREETINGS ON THE PROPER INTERPRETATION OF VATICAN II AT ITS 40TH ANNIVERSARY AT THE TIME WHICH YOU CAN READ
HERE!
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Site: Zero HedgePre-Tariff Surge In Aircraft Orders Sends US Durable Goods Orders To Record High In MarchTyler Durden Fri, 05/02/2025 - 10:10
While Apple's Tim Cook was adamant on the call last night that he had seen no 'pull forward' of demand due to the tariffs, it seems every other firm in the US did as Durable Goods Orders soared in March (final print this morning at +9.2% MoM)...
Source: Bloomberg
However, Core Durable Goods (ex Transports) was unchanged MoM - suggesting considerable front-running of tariffs for planes and autos...
Source: Bloomberg
US Factory Orders rose 4.3% MoM (slightly less than the +4.5% expected) - a big jump
Source: Bloomberg
And like with Durable Goods, Core Factory orders (ex Transports) actually fell 0.2% MoM...
Source: Bloomberg
The surge in orders was largely driven by a 139% MoM spike in non-defense aircraft and parts...
Source: Bloomberg
Which pushed total orders to a new all-time record-high...
Source: Bloomberg
The question is - what happens in April - post Liberation Day?
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Site: Mises InstituteA past article, presenting a “libertarian” viewpoint of nuclear weapons, has two choices, but pointedly leaves out a third choice: nuclear disarmament. According to Murray Rothbard, disarmament is the only true moral choice and also the most practical.
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Site: Mises InstituteA past article, presenting a “libertarian” viewpoint of nuclear weapons, has two choices, but pointedly leaves out a third choice: nuclear disarmament. According to Murray Rothbard, disarmament is the only true moral choice and also the most practical.
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Site: Mises InstituteAs egg prices rise, the Usual Progressive Suspects claim it is due to monopoly power by egg producers, calling for government intervention. However, the real reason
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Site: Steyn OnlineProgramming note: Join me tonight for the launch of The Mark Steyn Club's eighth-birthday audio adventure in Tales for Our Time - and then tomorrow, Saturday, for the latest episode of our Serenade Radio weekend music show, On the Town. The latter
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Site: Steyn OnlineWelcome to the seventieth audio entertainment in our series Tales for Our Time. That's right: our seventieth. Never thought these capers would prove that popular, but it seems they do, and month by month we've built a spectacular archive that runs the
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Site: Ron Paul Institute - Featured ArticlesBritain’s Coalition of the Willing Decides, Upon Reflection, That it’s unwilling to fight in Ukraine
The UK mainstream media has puffed up British military might and fortitude since the war in Ukraine began. Now it turns out that Britain would struggle to send 5000 troops to Ukraine in a so called “deterrence force.” Policy thinkers in Whitehall desperately need to engage their brains and reach for peace.
In a remarkable turn of events, the Times Newspaper of London published an article of 29 April in which it said Europe would struggle to put 25,000 troops on the ground in Ukraine. This from the same newspaper that offered a bizarre eulogy just eighteen days ago about Britain’s “crucial role” in directing Ukraine’s failed counter-offensive in 2023.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has actively sought a role for himself, bringing divergent US and European policies closer on the conduct of the war and on plans for peace. To much fanfare, at the March 2 Lancaster House Summit, he announced a “coalition of the willing.”
The idea emerged that such a coalition might deploy a peacekeeping force to Ukraine after a future ceasefire. Among other things, this force – comprising European and not American troops – would “defend a deal in Ukraine” and “guarantee peace afterwards.” Many meetings were held since that time, in Paris and in London, to explore the details.
The coalition had four objectives. To keep military aid flowing into Ukraine and apply further pressure on Russia through sanctions, to maintain Ukraine’s sovereignty and participation in peace talks (an obvious point), to boost Ukraine’s defensive capabilities after a peace deal and to deploy the so called ‘coalition of the willing’ to maintain the peace.
No one, including Starmer, has articulated a clear strategy to guide these objectives. On the contrary, they seem to underpin a continuance of the war, not its cessation.
If we look at them in turn, keeping military aid flowing into Ukraine and applying more sanctions on Russia will most likely prolong the war, not end it. No one has articulated what the incentive would be for Russia to sue for peace on the basis on the further militarisation of Ukraine, and in the face of additional sanctions. This objective has clearly been driven by the Ukrainian side. Economically, barely a day goes by without Zelensky, Yermak or someone else in the Ukrainian power vertical calling for more sanctions on Russia, at a time when the US press for an end to the conflict. Indeed, Ukraine was calling for more sanctions on Russia in the days before the war’s commencement. On many occasions, I have presented analysis showing how Russia has constantly found ways to adapt to sanctions and illustrated how more sanctions would have no significant economic impact. Like giving Ukraine more weapons, sanctions would only disincentive efforts at peace, by emboldening Russia to continue fighting.
Even a casual observer might note that the plan to boost Ukraine’s defensive capabilities after a peace plan would amount to wholescale rearmament, running counter to any longer-term peace process. In any case, no one has explained why this rearmament would be needed. Surely, if peace is the way forward, then both sides would gradually and in small steps stand down their forces and reduce their alert state. I wouldn’t suggest that Ukraine dissolves its army on day one. However, with 800,000 personnel, Ukraine already has a bigger army than any other European NATO ally except for Turkey.
Further, Ukraine has received over one hundred and twenty billion dollars of military aid in the three years since the war started, that’s not far short of Britain’s annual defence budget for two years. What additional defensive capabilities would they need? And, more importantly, who would pay for it? The USA categorically isn’t going to pay for this for at least the next four years under President Trump.
The European Union will almost certainly fail in its bid to boost its own defence spending by $800bn under von der Leyen’s Rearm plan. That would impose such massive spending increases on countries like France and Italy that it would be political suicide domestically for their governments to do so. Ukraine already cannot afford to keep its military at its currently bloated size after war ends, without massive injections of European money that simply isn’t available. Where will the money come from to rearm Ukraine? Answer, nowhere.
Which brings us back to the peacekeeping, or deterrence force idea, and the shocking revelation that European nations including Britain don’t even have enough available troops to deliver upon that commitment at any scale. In March, in the afterglow of the Lancaster House Summit, even Conservative politicians hailed Starmer as a modern-day Winston Churchill, standing up against tyranny in Europe. A quick reminder here that Winston Churchill oversaw the mobilisation of almost six million British troops to fight in World War II. Starmer is struggling to muster five thousand for Ukraine.
The idea of a European peacekeeping force in Ukraine has always, in any case, been a non-starter given Russia’s long-standing and expressed rejection of the notion of NATO forces on the line of control. When Russia pointed this out, and following pressure from the US government on Britain, the peacekeeping proposal was watered down to a “deterrence force.” The idea here was that, rather than being close to the line of control, coalition of the willing troops might deploy to far away spots in the west of Ukraine, just in case they were needed, to deter a theoretical Russian breach of any peace deal. Today, if any European troops can be spared, then they would only deploy to deliver training to Ukraine’s army.
This state of affairs is beyond embarrassing. We have fallen all too frequently in Britain into the habit of serving up policy soundbites for a willing pro-war media establishment, before getting our policy thinking in order. We do this before discussing our plans with the Americans, who are in the driving seat in the west on plans for peace in Ukraine. At no time, do we appear to assess the risks associated with our ideas, or consider the likely and, in almost every case, entirely predictable Russian response. Nor, perhaps, even engage in dialogue with Russia to negotiate the art of the possible, exploring scope from both sides to reach compromise. A proposal that President Macron should act as Europe’s point person with President Putin has come to nothing. Instead, we stumble, with great self-importance, from one idiotic idea to another, announcing them at every stage as huge breakthroughs in our collective resolve to defeat Russia. Until the moment, finally, when, with not even an ounce of self-awareness, we admit that, upon reflection, it won’t work.
Surely, now, we must find someone in Whitehall to engage their brain, pull on their grown up trousers, engage with both sides to the conflict, and finally reach for peace?
Reprinted with permission from Strategic Culture Foundation.
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Site: RT - News
The national governing body has said the ban is the result of a UK Supreme Court ruling
Transgender athletes will no longer be allowed to compete in women’s football in England, according to the country’s Football Association (FA). The policy change was prompted by a UK Supreme Court ruling.
The participation of transgender athletes in women’s sports has been a hot topic in recent years. Some argue that this undermines fair competition, while others believe trans athletes should be included based on gender identity rather than their ‘assigned sex’ at birth.
“Transgender women will no longer be able to play in women’s football in England, and this policy will be implemented from 1 June 2025,” the FA said in a statement released on Thursday, citing last month’s court ruling.
On April 15, the UK Supreme Court ruled that the term ‘woman’ refers to biological sex, not gender identity, meaning that transgender individuals who were born male are not legally considered women for the purposes of single-sex protections. The ruling comes after the ‘For Women Scotland’ campaign group challenged a Scottish law aimed at increasing the number of women on public boards, which included transgender women with legal recognition as female.
Fewer than 30 transgender women are registered among millions of amateur players, with none currently playing in the professional game across the Home Nations, the BBC reported on Thursday, citing the FA.
The ban comes a month after the association ruled that transgender women could continue to play in the women’s game as long as they keep their testosterone levels below 5 n/mol for at least 12 months.
Read more
Female boxer’s Olympic beatdown sparks transgender outcry
The Scottish Football Association has announced the same policy, saying it is banning transgender women from women’s football.
At the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, Algerian boxer Imane Khelif and Chinese Taipei’s Lin Yu-ting found themselves at the center of controversy regarding gender verification in sports. The International Olympic Committee defended their participation, and both athletes won gold medals despite public outcry.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni spoke out, expressing support for Italian boxer Angela Carini, who was defeated by Khelif in a 46-second bout.
Commenting on Khelif’s victory, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that allowing biological male athletes to compete against females could lead to unintended consequences. In November last year, then-US President-elect Donald Trump also voiced his opposition to the committee’s decision to allow Khelif to compete against women.
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Site: Ron Paul Institute - Featured Articles
“One of the most essential branches of English liberty is the freedom of one’s house. A man’s house is his castle.”
—James Otis, Revolutionary War activist, on the Writs of Assistance, 1761What the Founders rebelled against—armed government agents invading homes without cause—we are now being told to accept in the so-called name of law and order.
Imagine it: it’s the middle of the night. Your neighborhood is asleep. Suddenly, your front door is splintered by battering rams. Shadowy figures flood your home, screaming orders, pointing guns, threatening violence. You and your children are dragged out into the night—barefoot, in your underwear, in the rain.
Your home is torn apart. Your valuables seized. Your sense of safety, demolished.
But this isn’t a robbery by lawless criminals.
This is what terror policing looks like in Trump’s America: raids by night, flashbangs at dawn, mistaken identities, and shattered lives.
On April 24, 2025, in Oklahoma City, 20 heavily armed federal agents from ICE, the FBI, and DHS kicked in the door of a home where a woman and her three daughters—all American citizens—were sleeping. They were forced out of bed at gunpoint and made to wait in the rain while agents ransacked the house, confiscating their belongings.
It was the wrong house. The wrong family.
There were no apologies. No compensation. No accountability.
This is the new face of American policing, and it’s about to get so much worse thanks to the President Trump’s latest executive order, which aims to eliminate federal oversight and empower local law enforcement to act with impunity.
Titled “Strengthening and Unleashing America’s Law Enforcement to Pursue Criminals and Protect Innocent Citizens,” the executive order announced on April 28, 2025, removes restraints on police power, offers enhanced federal protections for officers accused of misconduct, expands access to military-grade equipment, and nullifies key oversight provisions from prior reform efforts.
Trump’s supporters have long praised his efforts to deregulate business and government under the slogan of “no handcuffs.” But when that logic is applied to law enforcement, the result isn’t freedom—it’s unchecked power.
What it really means is no restraints on police power—while the rest of us are left with fewer rights, less recourse, and a Constitution increasingly ignored behind the barrel of a gun.
This isn’t just a political shift. It’s a constitutional unraveling.
These aren’t abstract freedoms—they’re the bedrock of the Bill of Rights: the Fourth Amendment’s shield against warrantless searches, the Fifth Amendment’s promise of due process, and the First Amendment’s guarantee that we may speak, protest, and petition without fear of state retaliation.
Yet the build-up of the police state didn’t begin with Trump. What he has done is seize upon decades of bipartisan failure—and strip away the last remaining restraints.
For years, under both Republican and Democratic administrations, policing in America has grown more militarized, aggressive, and unaccountable. At times, there were modest attempts to rein in the worst excesses—like curbing the flow of military surplus equipment to local police—but these efforts were short-lived, inconsistent, and easily undone.
Trump’s executive order doesn’t just abandon those reforms. It bulldozes the guardrails. It hands law enforcement a blank check: more weapons, more power, and fewer consequences.
The result is not safety. It’s state-sanctioned violence.
It’s a future in which no home is safe, no knock is required, and no officer is ever held accountable.
That future is already here.
Just a few days before Trump signed the order, that reality played out in Oklahoma City when ICE, FBI, and DHS agents stormed the wrong home and terrorized a mother and her daughters.
Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident.
In the 30 years since the first federal Crime Bill helped militarize local police forces, the use of SWAT teams has exploded. What was once a rare tactic for hostage situations is now used tens of thousands of times a year, often for nonviolent offenses or mere suspicion. These raids leave behind broken doors, traumatized children, and, too often, dead bodies. And yet, when families seek justice, they’re met with a legal wall called qualified immunity.
Under this doctrine, courts excuse even blatant misconduct by law enforcement unless an almost identical case has already been ruled unconstitutional. It’s legal sleight of hand—a get-out-of-jail-free card for government agents who trample on the Constitution.
We’ve entered an era in which federal agents can destroy your home, traumatize your family, and violate the Fourth Amendment with impunity. And the courts have said: that’s just how it works.
More than 80,000 SWAT raids now occur annually in the United States, most of them for nonviolent offenses like drug possession or administrative code violations.
Many are botched. Few are ever investigated.
In Martin v. United States, now before the Supreme Court, a heavily armed FBI SWAT team mistakenly stormed a Georgia home—armed with rifles, clad in tactical gear, and deploying a flashbang grenade—causing the family inside, with a 7-year-old son, to fear they were being burglarized.
The agents were supposed to raid a gang suspect’s house. Instead, they relied on faulty GPS and ended up at the wrong address, a block away from the intended target.
Only after detaining the family—forcing one family member onto the bedroom floor at gunpoint, and then pointing a gun in the mother’s face—did the officers realize their mistake.
The Rutherford Institute, alongside the National Police Accountability Project, filed an amicus brief urging the Court to deny qualified immunity for the agents. But if history is any guide, justice may prove elusive.
Just last year, the Court refused to hold a SWAT team leader accountable for raiding the wrong house, wrecking the wrong home, and terrorizing an innocent family.
In Jimerson v. Lewis, the SWAT team ignored clear differences between the actual target house and the Jimerson residence—missing house numbers, architectural mismatches, a wheelchair ramp where none should have been—and still received qualified immunity.
These rulings aren’t exceptions—they reflect a growing doctrine of unaccountability enshrined by the courts and now supercharged by the Trump administration.
Trump wants to give police even more immunity.
Brace yourselves for a new era of lawless policing.
President Trump’s call for a new crime bill that would further insulate police from liability, accountability and charges of official misconduct could usher in a new era of police brutality, lawlessness and the reckless deployment of lethal force on unarmed civilians.
This is how the rights of ordinary Americans get trampled under the boots of unchecked power.
Even when SWAT commanders disregard warrants, ignore addresses, and terrorize innocent families, the courts shield them from consequences.
These SWAT raids have become a thinly veiled, court-sanctioned excuse to let heavily armed police crash through doors in the dead of night. Too often, they’re marked by incompetence, devastation, and death—leaving a trail of broken homes and broken lives, while law enforcement escapes accountability.
There was a time in America when a person’s home was a sanctuary, protected by the Fourth Amendment from unlawful searches and seizures.
That promise is dead.
We have returned to the era of the King’s Writ—blanket search powers once used by British soldiers to invade colonial homes without cause. As James Otis warned in 1761, such writs “annihilate the privilege” of privacy and due process, allowing agents of the state to enter homes “when they please.”
Trump’s new executive order revives this tyranny in modern form: armored vehicles, night raids, no-knock warrants, federal immunity. It empowers police to act without restraint, and it rewards those who brutalize with impunity.
Even more alarming, the order sets the stage for future legislation that could effectively codify qualified immunity into federal law, making it nearly impossible for victims of police violence to sue.
This is how constitutional protections are dismantled—not in one dramatic blow, but in a thousand raids, a thousand broken doors, a thousand courts that look the other way.
Let’s not pretend we’re safe. Who will protect us from the police when the police have become the law unto themselves?
The war on the American people is no longer metaphorical.
Government agents can now kick in your door without warning, shoot your dog, point a gun at your children, and suffer no legal consequences—so long as they claim it was a “reasonable” mistake. They are judge, jury, and executioner.
With Trump’s new order, the architecture of a police state is no longer theoretical. It is being built in real time. It is being normalized.
It’s not just the poor, the marginalized, or the criminalized who should be afraid. It’s every homeowner, every parent, every citizen who still believes in the Bill of Rights.
Nowhere is this threat more visible than in the unholy alliance between ICE and militarized police forces.
This is where the danger deepens: when ICE and SWAT join forces, no one is safe.
This is more than just a problem of policing—it’s the convergence of two of the most dangerous arms of the modern security state: the merging of federal immigration enforcement with militarized domestic operations, creating a volatile blend of ICE lawlessness and militarized SWAT-style brute force.
Together, they’ve created a government apparatus that acts first and justifies itself later, if at all.
What used to be separate spheres—immigration enforcement and local policing—have now, under the pretense of national security, merged into a seamless operation of nighttime raids, heavy weaponry, blacked-out uniforms, and unmarked vehicles.
Armed federal agents, often operating in plainclothes and without clearly presented warrants, storm homes in the dead of night.
The distinction between a SWAT raid and an ICE operation has disappeared.
ICE agents—often masked, plainclothes, and operating without judicial oversight—are executing aggressive home invasions indistinguishable from SWAT team raids. These officers operate in secret, detaining individuals without clear warrants, sometimes without charges, and often without informing families of where their loved ones have been taken.
This alliance of ICE and SWAT has turned the American home into a battlefield, especially for those deemed politically inconvenient or “suspect” by the state.
These raids aren’t limited to those suspected of crimes.
Legal residents, asylum seekers, and even U.S. citizens have found themselves disappeared under vague claims of national security or immigration violations.
It is policing by fear and disappearance. And it runs counter to everything the Bill of Rights was designed to prevent: punishment without trial, surveillance without suspicion, and power without accountability.
When ICE agents armed with military-grade equipment conduct predawn raids alongside SWAT teams, with little to no accountability, the result is not public safety. It is state terror. And it’s exactly the kind of unchecked power the Constitution was written to prevent.
The Constitution is supposed to be a shield—especially the Fourth Amendment, which guards against unreasonable searches and seizures. But in this new reality, the government has nullified that shield.
All of America is fast becoming a Constitution-free zone.
What started as an exception—the so-called Constitution-free zone at the border—is fast becoming the norm across America, where due process is optional, and law enforcement acts more like a domestic army than a public servant.
The government no longer needs to prove its authority in court before violating your rights. It only needs to assert it on your doorstep—with flashbangs and rifles at the ready.
The only castle left may be the one you’re willing to defend.
The Founders knew the dangers of unchecked power. That’s why they gave us the Fourth Amendment. But rights are only as strong as the public’s willingness to defend them.
If we allow the government to turn our homes into war zones—if we continue to reward police for lawless raids, ignore the courts for rubber-stamping abuse, and cheer political leaders who promise “no more handcuffs”—we will lose the last refuge of freedom: the right to be left alone.
As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, the Constitution cannot protect you if the government no longer follows it—and if the courts no longer enforce it.
The knock may never come again. Just the crash of a door. The sound of boots. And the silence that follows.
Reprinted with permission from the Rutherford Institute.
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Site: Zero HedgeA Taxing Showdown: Trump Says Harvard Will Lose Tax-Exempt StatusTyler Durden Fri, 05/02/2025 - 09:45
The woke liberal elites, perched high in their Harvard University ivory towers in Cambridge, Massachusetts, have been plotted at extreme levels on the "F*ck Around and Find Out" (FAFO) chart, which illustrates their relationship between taking risks ("f*ck around") and facing consequences ("find out") in response to President Trump's simple request to dismantle the toxic framework of diversity, equity, and inclusion on campus.
The standoff between President Trump and woke elites deepened on Friday morning after the president wrote on Truth Social: "We are going to be taking away Harvard's Tax Exempt Status. It's what they deserve!"
On Wednesday, President Trump suggested to U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon that the federal government may stop giving the far-left university grants: "And it looks like we are not going to be giving them any more grants, right Linda?"
The president has launched a formal review into the $9 billion in federal funding for the university. He demanded the university end DEI and crack down on anti-Semitic protests fueled by pro-Palestinian groups.
F*ck Around:
Find Out:
Last week, the president asked the Internal Revenue Service to revoke Harvard University's tax-exempt status. The Ivy League school's failure to wind down woke and toxic liberal agendas that undermine the nation has left it at the end phase of FAFO.
On Thursday night, Trump told students in his commencement address at the University of Alabama: "The next chapter of the American story will not be written by the Harvard Crimson. It will be written by you, the Crimson Tide."
Source: ANSA
Via Reuters
Kaja Kallas, via European Parliament 
764 leader Prasan Nepal in a booking photo. Courtesy of Guilford County Sheriff's Office
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