by Jaime Gurpegui | May 5, 2025

Rome. The Eternal City is buzzing with anticipation these days ahead of the conclave. The corridors, cafes, and restaurants near the Vatican are a hive of activity with cardinals, journalists, clerics, and opinion-makers of all stripes. We, too, have been strolling through the city, encountering quite a few familiar faces.

But if there’s one meeting we won’t forget, it was this afternoon. Walking around the outskirts of Borgo Pio, I met none other than the Jesuit James Martin and the British native Austin Ivereigh, two of the greatest enthusiasts of Francis’s pontificate and tireless defenders of the synodal line, inclusive and conciliatory… at least on paper.

Upon seeing them, my friend and companion on this trip wanted to greet them, and we introduced ourselves: “We’re from InfoVaticana.” The reaction was instantaneous and, frankly, revealing. James Martin, the author of “Building Bridges,” that book that boasts of building bridges between the Church and the peripheries, chose to turn away and turn his back on us without saying a word. No dialogue, no bridges, no greeting. A pure wall. How significant. We must not be their type.

The country has commended Moscow’s proposal, backing a diplomatic settlement to the Ukraine conflict

Vietnam welcomes the proposal made by Russian President Vladimir Putin to resume direct peace talks with Ukraine without any preconditions, the country’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Pham Thu Hang has said.

Vietnam has consistently backed the idea to settle the conflict between Russia and Ukraine through diplomacy, she said, and approves of the latest talks proposal made by the Russian president, the spokeswoman stated during a press conference on Monday.

“We welcome the recent proposal made on May 11 by Russian President Vladimir Putin to resume direct negotiations with Ukraine,” the spokeswoman stated.

Early on Sunday, the Russian president proposed that “the Kiev authorities resume the negotiations they interrupted in 2022” without any preconditions, on May 15 in Istanbul, Türkiye. Putin made the remarks while addressing the media at the conclusion of celebrations marking the 80th anniversary of Victory Day, during which Moscow hosted numerous foreign leaders and dignitaries.

Negotiations could ultimately lead to “some kind of new truce and a new ceasefire,” the president said. “We are set on serious negotiations with Ukraine. Their aim is to eliminate the root causes of the conflict and to achieve a long-term lasting peace for a historical perspective,” Putin stressed.

The proposal was met with a mixed reaction from Kiev and its Western backers, who insisted that any talks must be preceded by agreeing to a 30-day truce. The Russian proposal came shortly after leaders from France, Germany, Poland, the UK, and the EU reiterated their demand for a “full and unconditional” ceasefire and claimed that this would “create room for diplomacy.”

US President Donald Trump, however, demanded Kiev “immediately” accepts the Russian proposal, suggesting that the talks would at least show whether reaching a peace deal was possible or not. Kiev somewhat shifted its stance following Trump’s remarks, as Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky claimed he was actually ready to meet Putin in person in Istanbul. He however once again reiterated the demand for a ceasefire prior to the talks.

The British government “will take back control” of the borders, PM Keir Starmer has said

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has unveiled plans to reduce immigration as sentiment in the country turns against the influx of foreigners.

The new measures, detailed in a government white paper published on Monday, include extending the residency requirement for citizenship from five to ten years, raising English language proficiency standards, lifting the skilled worker threshold, and ending overseas recruitment for social care roles.

“My government will take back control of our borders,” Starmer wrote on X.

The issue ranks as one of the top concerns for the British public, alongside the state of the national healthcare system (NHS), an Ipsos poll found earlier this year.

Immigration has surged since 2004, when the UK, then part of the EU, opened its labor market to arrivals from the bloc’s Eastern European members such as Poland.

In 2016, widespread frustration over the government’s inability to control the influx of migrants from the EU played a big role in Britain’s vote to leave the bloc.

Brexit, however, failed to solve the issue as net migration almost quadrupled between 2019 and 2023.

Critics have pointed out that Starmer, previously a staunch anti-Brexit advocate, has now adopted the language of the pro-Brexit campaign.

They argue that Labour’s tough new approach on immigration is an attempt to outflank the Reform UK party. Green Party co-chair Carla Denyer has accused Starmer of impersonating Reform leader Nigel Farage, adding this “won’t save him from wipeout at the hands” of the right-wing party.

Reform has surged in influence in recent years, capitalizing on anti-immigration sentiment and frustration over economic stagnation. It has also positioned itself as a challenger to the traditional two-party system.

In the 2024 general election, Reform secured five parliamentary seats and 14.3% of the national vote. In local elections earlier this month it won 677 council seats out of a total of 1,641, gained control of ten councils, and claimed two mayoralties.

READ MORE: Ukrainians fear losing homes and jobs in UK – survey

Reform’s rise comes amid a wider rise of anti-immigration and Euro-sceptic sentiment in Europe. Right-wing parties are now part of governing coalitions in several EU countries, including Italy, Finland, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, and the Czech Republic.

The EU’s annoyingly fake ‘unity’ is as brain-rotting as any illicit substance

A brief scandal erupted last weekend during a visit to Ukraine by French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, when a couple of ‘suspicious’ objects they were handling were speculated to be drugs and drug paraphernalia.

They almost certainly were not, so let’s cut Macron some slack. He did hop on the official Elysee Palace social media account to clarify that, non, he was not doing rails while riding the rails to Ukraine alongside Merz and Starmer. They weren’t on drugs – just on good old-fashioned EU unity. Which, to be fair, seems to induce an equally brain-cell-crushing delirium.

“When European unity becomes inconvenient, disinformation goes so far as to make a simple tissue look like drugs,” read the post. So, Macron suggests, it wasn’t a party starter on the table, just the world’s most suspiciously placed tissue – alongside what appeared to be an unfortunately shaped spoon. And anyone suggesting otherwise is just spreading fake news. The press walked in, the photo went up, and the internet did what it does.

But the real dodginess started after they disembarked and got to work in Ukraine – presumably with clearer sinuses. But not from any drugs. Perhaps just from the sinus-blasting “industrial amounts” of Dior Eau Sauvage cologne that Macron is known for wearing, as Le Parisien’s Olivier Beaumont recently described it. Or not.

If they aren’t actually high, they’re sure acting like it. Finally, with Russian President Vladimir Putin proposing direct talks between Moscow and Kiev in Türkiye starting this week, there’s finally a chance on the table to put an end to this conflict, something that the entire world has been demanding – EU leaders included.

As far back as May 2022, Macron and recently-former German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spent 80 minutes on the phone with Putin and insisted on “direct, serious negotiations” with Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky.

But now suddenly the EU is all like, “Well, no, sorry. That doesn’t work for us.” Hey guys, does your unity come in powdered form now?

Okay, so what changed? Well, nothing, really. Other than the fact that a bunch of European leaders just did a big powwow with Zelensky in Kiev – a photo shoot to show them all rallying around their boy. Maybe so he also didn’t get too triggered during Moscow’s big Victory Day parade against the World War 2 Nazis and start tossing toys out of the pram.

They emerged with a big demand: that Russia accept a 30-day ceasefire or else. Or else what? They’ll unleash epic sanctions. And no doubt even more epic grandstanding. Because that’s totally worked so far.

So it looks like they can’t have Ukraine doing direct peace talks now because that would mean that they wouldn’t get to stage their new little script that they just came up with. “There can be no negotiations while weapons are speaking. There can be no dialogue if, at the same time, civilians are being bombed. A ceasefire is needed now, so that talks can begin. For peace,” Macron said.

So Macron apparently sees himself as the director of this whole charade. If that’s the case, then he might want to start by making sure Zelensky doesn’t have his pants on backwards. It kind of looked like that was the case. Although perhaps he’s just starting a new line of pants with the fly in the back to go with the sweatshirts he wears when he visits world leaders to beg for money.

With Macron directing, it also looks like Germany is doing the filming and the musical score, and posted a cringey video of their bromance show to Merz’s social media account.

So, Director Macron says, first there needs to be the ceasefire – which Moscow said Ukraine couldn’t even respect for the three days that one was in place over the Victory Day holiday, let alone for a whole month. Then after that come the talks, Macron insists. The French foreign minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, also said on French radio that the EU representatives want to be present for any direct peace talks in Istanbul. Because apparently Zelensky is like a college kid who can’t go on a job interview or a date without his helicopter parents hovering around.

Merz was also saying, yes, yes, first the weapons “must be silenced.” Then, he says, they can “create space for talks.” Then maybe comes the “just and lasting peace.” Is Germany doing the choreography for this charade, too? You sure you don’t want an intermission or two in there, as well? Maybe some champagne and snack breaks out in the lobby?

As for Zelensky, he’s now just parroting the Europeans about the offer to negotiate being a “positive sign that the Russians have finally begun to consider ending the war.” But he also said that he needed to know by Monday whether they’re going to do the 30-day ceasefire. Because they have to get their show on the road, I guess – so they can begin the official countdown to more sanctions and grandstanding.

But get this. For once, it seems like the US and Venezuela actually agree on something. That’s huge unto itself – the geopolitical equivalent of pigs flying… first class. And the thing on which they both agree just happens to be the need for these direct peace talks. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has said that “we must embark on a peaceful path… Russia has the right to peace.” Trump said on Truth Social that Putin’s proposal represented a “potentially great day for Russia and Ukraine! Think of the hundreds and thousands of lives that will be saved as this never ending ‘bloodbath’ hopefully comes to an end.” Trump also underscored that Putin “doesn’t want to have a ceasefire agreement with Ukraine, but rather wants to meet on Thursday, in Turkey” and that “Ukraine should agree to this immediately.” 

So it looks like peace is finally on the table in a major way, with this new development. But apparently the EU needs some time for its own center-stage sermon and limelight-hogging monologue first. Probably to send as their official entry to the Nobel Peace Prize committee for when peace manages to break out despite their best efforts. Priorities, priorities.

The story of a woman who drove over 700 miles to Albuquerque, New Mexico, intending to obtain an abortion but ultimately choosing life for her unborn child is a powerful testament to the sanctity of life and the impact of compassionate pro-life outreach.

The woman, whose identity remains private, embarked on this long journey from another state, likely from Texas and driven the easy accessibility of abortion in New Mexico, where abortions are legal up to birth. This story highlights the importance of offering support and alternatives to abortion.

Upon arriving in Albuquerque, the woman encountered a group of peaceful, faith-based pro-life advocates outside the abortion facility. These sidewalk counselors, committed to protecting unborn lives, engaged with her in a non-confrontational manner, offering prayers, information about fetal development, and resources for pregnancy support.

Their presence and gentle approach provided a critical moment of reflection for the woman, allowing her to reconsider her initial decision. This interaction exemplifies the pro-life movement’s emphasis on love and dialogue, aiming to inform rather than condemn, and demonstrates how personal connections can influence life-affirming choices.

Click here to sign up for pro-life news alerts from LifeNews.com

Here’s more:

According to a statement from the Cherub Initiative, a local pro-life organization, the woman, identified as “Mama M,” arrived at SWO with her aunt after renting a car to make the long journey from Texas. The woman, who was six weeks pregnant, had initially intended to terminate her pregnancy at the facility, one of the few clinics in the nation that performs the latest-term abortions.

“Praise the Lord! Mama M chose life for both herself and her unborn baby because of both teams—the LIFE Runners Albuquerque Chapter and the Cherub Initiative Sidewalk Guardians For Life team!” the organization announced in an email celebrating the news.

Members of the pro-life groups gathered outside SWO for their monthly huddle and prayer outreach. “We began by putting on the full armor of God, being in prayer, public witness, peaceful, law-abiding presence, and doing outreach,” the email explained. When Mama M and her aunt arrived, the teams immediately began reaching out with words of encouragement and offered a “Mommy Hope Bag” filled with gifts and resources to support women choosing life.

The post Woman Drove 700 Miles to Abortion Clinic, Changed Her Mind When She Saw Pro-Life People Outside appeared first on LifeNews.com.

But fresh air through open windows is blowing like a gentle breeze, this breeze is reaching all the clergy and laity of the world, especially we young Catholics!

From Silere non Possum:

Vatican City - Without clamor, without triumphant announcements or leaked communiqués to journalists, this morning Pope Leo XIV held his first private audience as the new Bishop of Rome. The recipient of the meeting was not a head of state or a high diplomatic representative, but Cardinal Baldassare Reina, Vicar General of His Holiness for the Diocese of Rome.

Leo XIV chose to begin his ministry as Pontiff in this way, marking in practice and not in words, his connection with the Urbe. No public emphasis on the meaning of the meeting, but a clear message: the Pope intends to be, first of all, the Bishop of Rome, for his priests and take care of them.

Behind the sobriety of gestures there is a deep awareness. Leo XIV knows well what happens inside the Vicariate and in the Diocese of Rome: the power games, the intrigues, the questionable choices that, over the years, have favored some to the detriment of others. A reality documented and denounced for a long time by rumors like Silere non possum. Yet, more than struggling with the shadows of the past, the new Pontiff seems to want to look forward, with lucidity, mildness, listening and a decisive step. His first concern is clear: the priests and the people of God of his diocese. It is to them that he wants to turn his energy and his care. And for this reason, on his first official day of meetings he chose to meet his vicar to whom he has already expressed the desire to meet the priests.

A symbolic and concrete gesture together marks the beginning of the journey that Leo XIV wishes to undertake as a pastor, close to his priests and his people. The attention that Pope Leone has immediately reserved for priestly vocations will also mean that the Pontiff will return to visit his seminary and dialogue with the trainers and future priests of his diocese. On May 31, 2025, Pope Prevost has already decided to preside over the presbytery ordinations in St. Peter's Basilica.

Thus begins, without clamor, a pontificate that announces itself sober, attentive to the real life of the Church and oriented to rediscover the authentic roots of Peter's ministry. Rome, once again, is in the center: unlike what has happened in recent times, the Pope does not exalt the title of Bishop of Rome to belittle that of Supreme Pontiff. On the contrary, he takes care with awareness and depth of his being Bishop of this Church, from which derives - by grace and by mission - also his universal responsibility as Pontiff of the Catholic Church.

The US President is set to accept a $400 million Boeing aircraft as a gift from the Gulf state’s royal family

US President Donald Trump has lashed out at Democratic lawmakers who condemned his plans to accept a luxury Boeing jet from Qatar.  

In a post on his Truth Social platform Trump stated on Monday that the Defense Department was receiving a 747 aircraft “as a GIFT, FREE OF CHARGE” to temporarily replace the aging Air Force One, calling it a “very public and transparent transaction.”

He claimed that the arrangement upset what he described as “Crooked Democrats,” who, according to the president, insisted the government pay “TOP DOLLAR” for the plane instead. Trump dismissed the deal’s complexity, saying: “Anybody can do that! The Dems are World Class Losers!!!”   

The US president is set to receive a super-luxury Boeing 747-8 from the Qatari royal family. ABC News first reported the pending aircraft deal ahead of his upcoming Middle East trip. The gift is expected to be officially announced this week, sources told the outlet. Valued at around $400 million, the plane, popularly known as the “flying palace,” could become the most expensive gift ever given to the US by a foreign government. Trump previously toured a Qatari-owned aircraft of the same model in February at Palm Beach International Airport.  

Trump is set to visit Qatar during a trip to the Middle East this week. Qatari officials told The Hill the plane would not be handed over during the upcoming trip.   

While the White House declined to confirm details, the president stated that the Defense Department would receive the gifted aircraft, which is expected to be refurbished into the new Air Force One. White House and DOJ lawyers reportedly determined that the gift is legal and does not violate bribery laws or the Constitution’s foreign gift ban.   

However, reports of the gifted plane drew sharp criticism from Democratic lawmakers, who accused Trump of using the presidency for personal gain.  

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, labeled the deal “a grift.”  

“Trump must seek Congress’ consent to take this $300 million gift from Qatar. The Constitution is perfectly clear: no present ‘of any kind whatever’ from a foreign state without Congressional permission. A gift you use for four years and then deposit in your library is still a gift (and a grift),” Raskin wrote in a post on X.  

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt declined to confirm details of the deal but said: “Any gift given by a foreign government is always accepted in full compliance with all applicable laws,” according to Reuters.   

The White House’s current Boeing 747-200 jets, in service since the early 1990s, have faced ongoing technical issues, prompting a longstanding effort to replace them.  

A Boeing contract for two new Air Force One planes based on the 747-8 has been plagued by delays and rising costs, pushing delivery from the original 2024 target to as late as 2027 or 2028.

Can the Annual Theft of $521,000,000,000 from the Federal Budget Be Stopped?

Paul Craig Roberts

Democrat politicians led a break-in at a New Jersey ICE facility.  In Worcester, Massachusetts, Democrat city council member Etel Haxhiaj led an assault on local police and federal officers in an effort to prevent apprehension by ICE of a violent immigrant-invader that the Biden scum permitted to illegally enter America in August, 2022.  Local police demand action agains Etel Haxhiaj for assaulting police officers, but of course the Democrats support Etel Haxhiaj’s violence against the police, and nothing will happen to her unless the feds step in.  https://nypost.com/2025/05/10/us-news/chaotic-video-shows-massachusetts-ice-arrest-being-disrupted-by-unruly-crowd-leading-to-2-arrests/ 

The fact that the Democrats and their judges are so determined to keep  immigrant-invaders from being deported should tell us something.  We should also learn something from all the foreign names of Democrat politicians and judges.  The Camp of the Saints has deeply advanced into America.  The Democrats have made it clear that they intend to rule us in behalf of the millions of immigrant-invaders the Democrats have intentionally brought into our country.

Democrat presstitutes such as Politico are attempting to generate fear of Trump by alleging that ICE will soon be picking up and deporting American citizens.  And Trump is going to take away Social Security and destroy education, and so on.  The fantasies multiply as the presstitutes stoke the flames of fear of Trump’s efforts to protect America.  They don’t want America.  They want a Tower of Babel.  

And people fall for the fear-mongering. ICE doesn’t help by picking up foreign students for deportation because they protested Israel’s destruction of Palestine, or by staging daylight raids in an immigrant-invader’s neighborhood. There’s no way we are going to rid ourselves of millions of illegals one by one.  Once a country is overrun, as America has been, it is for keeps.  Is America any longer America, or has America transitioned into a Tower of Babel?   The Democrat judges and the whore media are enforcing on us America as a Tower of Babel devoid of unity.

I think we are going to find out also that the organizations benefitting from what the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office concludes is $521,000,000,000 worth of larceny annually in the federal budget have squatters’ rights in the larceny.  The theft has gone on for so long and is so institutionalized that the beneficiaries of the fraud regard it as a property right.  In effect, those who have been defrauding us now have squatters’ rights in the fraud.

Two articles in the current issue of the City Journal address this serious matter. Steven Malanga brings to our attention that the federal budget funds anti-poverty, community building, social welfare, anti-crime and other such programs that never produce any results but continue to run for decades.  Congress funds these programs without even requiring that criteria be established for assessing their success. It seems the money mainly goes for building political machines and the wealth of local politicians primarily for the Democrats who control the inner cities.

Heather Mac Donald exposes the facts of the National Institutes of Health’s funding of medical research.  The NIH has been paying the universities where the research is conducted a cover charge equal to 69% of the grant to reimburse the universities for the cost of their infrastructure that supports the research. Universities are each receiving hundreds of million of dollars in “indirect funding” to pay for the university’s infrastructure used in the research.

But what does the cover charge really pay for?  It seems it pays for the extraordinary expansion of the size and scope of the administrative bureaucracy. There seem to be endless vice presidents, assistant and vice provosts, and associate deans whose jobs are to police language, thought, speech, political correctness and provide emotional comfort to those in need. 

For example, the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania has an an associate vice provost for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging, a vice dean for Inclusion and Diversity and an Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion (the same function three times), offices for Inclusion Initiatives and Social Justice Education, Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Center, Black Cultural Center, Penn Women’s Center, a vice dean for Transgender Patient Advocate Program and the LGBT Student-Trainee-Faculty Mentorship Program.  

And these listings are just the tip of the iceberg.

The effort of the Trump administration to cut back on the grant overhead charges that fund six figure administration salaries and administrators that apparently in some universities outnumber the faculties is being presented by the universities as “the death of science from lack of funding.”  Of course the whore media beats the drums loudly. The totally corrupt Democrat judges will jump in as they have in deportation and all other issues and rule that all of these claims on the taxpayers’ money are valid.

The position of the universities as I read it is that the Trump administration is attempting to take away their entitlement.  They are asserting squatters’ rights to their theft from the American people, and the Democrat judges will rule in their favor.

Indeed, so might the Republican ones as the judiciary sees in the situation the opportunity to seize power from the executive.

Americans need to understand that if Trump fails, tyranny is their future.

We often hear U.S. and NATO spokesmen claim that they believe in a rules-based international order. They don’t.

The United States and its NATO allies have stressed repeatedly that Russia’s use of force to seize portions of Ukraine is reprehensible. They were emphatic on that point in 2014 when the Kremlin responded to the West’s role in overthrowing Ukraine’s democratically elected, pro-Russian president, Victor Yanukovych, by taking control of the Crimean Peninsula and then annexing it after a rigged referendum.  The furious NATO powers imposed a variety of economic sanctions against Russia.  Secretary of State John Kerry and other Western officials stated explicitly that such behavior was utterly unacceptable in a “rules-based” international system.

U.S. and European leaders took an even more hardline stance in February 2022 when Russia escalated the confrontation with Kyiv by launching a full-scale invasion and occupying major portions of Ukraine’s Donbass region. Washington and its allies promptly imposed a new array of even harsher economic sanctions on Russia.  They also deepened their involvement in the dispute by providing weapons sales and other military aid to Kyiv, transforming the fight between Ukraine and Russia into a de facto NATO proxy war against Russia.

NATO’s hypocrisy on the issue of one country seizing another country’s territory by force is breathtaking.  NATO as an entity committed the same offense when it bombed Serbia to compel Belgrade to relinquish control of its province of Kosovo in 1999.  Moreover, a NATO member, Turkey, has committed blatant acts of aggression against three neighbors, Cyprus, Iraq, and Syria, to secure illicit territorial gains.  NATO as an alliance, and the United States as NATO’s leading power, have tolerated Ankara’s rogue behavior, even as they express utter indignation at Moscow’s similar conduct.

Turkish troops moved into Cyprus in the summer of 1974, ostensibly to protect Turkish Cypriots, who made up a little less than 20 percent of the island’s population and were repeatedly involved in violent confrontations with the larger Greek Cypriot community. On this occasion, after the initial intervention, Turkish forces expanded outward from the predominantly Turkish areas in the north and promptly occupied ethnic Greek portions of the island, creating thousands of refugees.

Turkey’s aggression against Cyprus was more brazen and extensive than Russia’s absorption of Crimea or even the takeover of oblasts in the Donbass following the Kremlin’s larger 2022 incursion.  Moscow now controls approximately 20 percent of Ukraine.  By the time Turkish forces in Cyprus finished their offensive, they occupied nearly 40 percent of the country.

Washington’s reaction to Ankara’s aggression was tepid at best.  Indeed, critics contend that Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was quietly supportive of Turkey’s actions.  Members of Washington’s military elite definitely did not wish to antagonize their Turkish counterparts.  Widespread anger in Congress about a NATO member committing such a blatant act of aggression led to the imposition of some sanctions against Turkey, but Ankara’s supporters in the executive branch and the defense industry worked to dilute those sanctions from the outset.  Within a few years, the punitive measures faded away, and military cooperation between Washington and Ankara returned to normal. Congress lifted the embargo on sales of arms to Turkey in 1978.

U.S. policymakers soon were content to see the Cyprus situation become a frozen conflict.  Year after year, Washington’s supposed mediation efforts to produce political reunification of Cyprus led to little progress.  More than a half century after Turkey’s invasion and occupation of its neighbor, Ankara effectively controls northern Cyprus through a puppet client state that it created.  Over 100,000 settlers from mainland Turkey were brought in, from 1974 to 2005, to replace Greek Cypriot residents who were expelled during the 1974 war.

Cyprus has been the most prominent victim of Ankara’s use of military force to gain control of additional territory, but it is not the only one.  After the 2003 overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi regime and the establishment of the self-governing Kurdish region in northern Iraq, Turkish military forces conducted dozens of incursions.  During Donald Trump’s first administration, Ankara took even more extensive action against Kurdish-controlled regions in northern Syria.  Turkey’s government has not made a formal claim to land in either country, but Ankara effectively controls a significant swath of territory beyond its border with both neighbors.

Washington’s alleged commitment to a rules-based international order is phony.  That is especially the case with respect to the use of force for territorial conquest.  U.S. leaders stood by with scarcely a murmur of protest as Israel seized and ultimately annexed Syria’s Golan Heights following the 1967 war.  Nor did U.S. policymakers say much when Israeli governments moved settlers into the West Bank, forcibly displacing Palestinian residents.  More recently, Washington has actively collaborated with Israel’s efforts to dominate Gaza and expel its Palestinian inhabitants.

Such Israeli actions are at least finally getting extensive attention and growing condemnation around the world.  The territorial depredations of another rogue U.S. ally, Turkey, have gone largely unnoticed for decades.  That attitude needs to change.  U.S. leaders should hold a fellow NATO member to an even higher standard than they do other countries with respect to military aggression and the illicit seizure of territory.  The contrast between Washington’s vehement condemnation of Russia’s actions in Ukraine and its tolerance of Turkey’s even more egregious actions in Syria, Iraq, and especially Cyprus is both striking and sickening.

Reprinted with permission from Antiwar.com.

Cops enforce laws. On first impression that may seem a good thing as one considers long in place laws, such as against assault, murder, and theft, that can help protect individuals’ ability to live in peace. But, laws have proliferated over time in America so that cops are spending a significant portion of their effort enforcing laws against things like drugs and even speech — acting to restrain instead of protect the exercise of individual rights.

Coming with the expansion of laws has been the conversion, continuing during the Donald Trump administration, of police departments largely into effectively military forces with military-style practices and weapons more suited for fighting against an opposing military force than for serving and protecting the people in a community.

A demonstration of the extent of this conversion of police forces came up in recent oral argument at the United States Supreme Court for the case of Martin v. United States. There a lawyer for the US government argued, in the case concerning a wrong house being hit by a brutal Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) no-knock SWAT raid, that it is acceptable for police not to even check the house number out front before detonating an explosive in a house, knocking down a door, and rushing in guns drawn. Crazy but true. Read here a Friday Reason article by Billy Binion that includes an excerpt from the oral argument and some background details.

 Please note that Pope Leo’s cassock maintains that short sleeves  that goes over the long sleeves of the cassock. Francis abandoned that look, which Benedict had recovered. His Holiness takes possession of the Apostolic Palace and apartment showing its wonderful papal chapel so unlike the Vatican Motel VI’s chapel.

The second video is the audience Pope Leo had with journalists.