Politics

By Mary Rose, Zeale News – Federal officials announced sweeping new Medicaid fraud charges in Minnesota May 21, accusing 15 defendants of schemes involving more than $90 million in alleged losses tied to autism services, disability care, housing support, and child care programs. The announcement came just hours after Aimee Bock, the “mastermind” behind the massive Feeding Our Future case, received the longest sentence yet connected to that fraud investigation.

By Mary Rose, Zeale News -Emotional scenes unfolded across Miami on May 21 after U.S. officials announced the indictment of former Cuban leader Raúl Castro over the 1996 shootdown of civilian aircraft operated by the humanitarian group Brothers to the Rescue… Outside Miami’s historic Freedom Tower — long regarded as a symbol of refuge and hope for Cuban exiles — crowds waved Cuban and American flags, prayed, and chanted slogans celebrating an act of justice they had waited three decades for. …

By Auguste Meyrat, Crisis Magazine – President Trump recently signed an executive order to pull the United States out of the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD). Affiliated with the United Nations’ Global Compact for Migration, GFMD was one among countless organizations devoted to promoting “the right to migration.” In a written statement, Trump’s spokesman Tommy Pigott explained, “For too long, international organizations have fueled an endless flow of mass migration and have sought to compel Americans to accept the same destructive agenda.”

By S.A. McCarthy, LifeNews – President Donald Trump and his administration are restoring a religious liberty office dismantled under former President Joe Biden. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced on Monday that it is reorganizing its Office of Civil Rights (OCR) and establishing three divisions: the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division, the Civil Rights Division, and the Health Information Privacy, Data, and Cybersecurity Division ….

By Thomas Gallatin, Patriot Post – The United Nations’ climate panel has admitted its extreme climate modeling is “implausible” as it backs away from climate alarmism dogma… “GOOD RIDDANCE!” posted President Donald Trump after the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) ditched its use of extreme climate modeling scenarios known as the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5. Trump added, “After 15 years of Dumocrats promising that ‘Climate Change’ is going to destroy the Planet …..

By Nathan Pinkoski, American Greatness – The Italians have a venerable national tradition of commenting on papal controversies. This month, the Italian journal of geopolitics, Limes, has weighed in. They interviewed me on the recent exchanges between Pope Leo XIV and President Donald Trump… LIMES: Is Robert Francis Prevost an American pope or an American that happens to be the pope? In other words, is he a Roman pontiff or a patriot using his ministry to serve his own country? ….

By Daniel J. Mahoney, The American Mind – The great Christian apologist and literary critic C.S. Lewis provides a surprising amount of moral and political wisdom despite not being a political thinker in any formal sense of the term. For example, the three lectures that form The Abolition of Man remain a must-read for understanding the crisis of our time, as well as the path to recovering the wisdom that will allow us to overcome it.

By Mary Rose, Zeale News – Federal prosecutors on May 20 announced charges against 94-year-old former Cuban President Raúl Castro for the 1996 downing of two civilian planes operated by Miami-based exile group Brothers to the Rescue, reviving one of the most contentious episodes in the history of U.S.-Cuba relations… An indictment unsealed in federal court in Miami accuses Castro — who was Cuba’s defense minister at the time — and several other Cuban officials of conspiring to kill U.S. nationals, destroying aircraft, and murdering the four men who were aboard the two unarmed Cessna planes …

By Brian Lonergan, Chronicles – While a public debate rages over how aggressively the federal government should enforce deportations, the Department of Justice recently took a quiet but consequential step toward restoring integrity to America’s immigration system… On May 8, federal prosecutors filed denaturalization actions in courts across the country against 12 naturalized U.S. citizens. The grounds for the actions could not be more serious: concealing material support for terrorist groups, committing war crimes, espionage, sexually abusing a minor, and other fraud committed during the naturalization process. …

By Harrison Berger, The American Conservative – Israel has relaunched and rebranded Act.IL, an online campaign originally designed by Israeli intelligence officials at the Ministry of Strategic Affairs to harass and intimidate American critics of Israel… Rebranded as RiseApp, the program is operated by Israel’s Reichman University (IDC Herzliya) and, according to the project’s website, aims to mobilize Act.IL’s existing database of more than 40,000 pro-Israel online operatives to counter what it describes as “antisemitism” and “misinformation.” …

By Gavin Oxley, LifeNews – On behalf of more than 300 pregnancy centers across the nation, Seven Weeks Coffee and Americans United for Life (AUL) delivered a letter to Congress today, urging pro-life leadership to stand firmly for authentic women’s healthcare by defunding abortion providers like Planned Parenthood.

By Elise Winland, Zeale News – The HHS announced May 18 that it is reviving a dedicated division focused on religious freedom and conscience protections as part of a broader reorganization of its Office for Civil Rights (OCR)… President Donald Trump created the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division in 2018 during his first administration, but the Biden administration dissolved it in 2023, folding conscience and civil rights work into a single policy division, according to an HHS press release.

By Scott McKay, The American Spectator – I’ve done a few national radio and podcast interviews since Saturday night, when Bill Cassidy’s career in electoral politics came to an abrupt end. A lot of the national folks are absolutely shocked at Cassidy’s dismal performance. I’m having to tell them that nobody in Louisiana — other than perhaps Cassidy and his wife — is at all surprised. Cassidy didn’t just lose Saturday night. He got clobbered. He finished third with only 25 percent of the vote behind Congresswoman Julia Letlow (45 percent) and State Treasurer John Fleming (28 percent).

By Joshua Arnold, The Washington Stand, (Patriot Post) – “GOOD RIDDANCE!” Trump proclaimed over the demise of the previous alarmist model. “The United Nations TOP Climate Committee just admitted that its own projections (RCP8.5) were WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!”… As he so often does, President Trump showed solid political instincts but a tenuous grasp of the details. Thus, he grasped the political implications of the change at once, “For far too long Climate Activism has been used by Dumocrats to scare Americans, push horrible Energy Polices, and fund BILLIONS into their bogus research programs. …

By Sumantra Maitra, Chronicles – In recent days, the Pentagon under President Trump has demonstrated its intention to reduce America’s presence in Europe. The Pentagon canceled the rotation of the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division in Poland, right after it decided to reduce troop presence in Germany and to close the Norfolk NATO training base, shifting them to France.

By Eddie Scarry, The Federalist – Republicans, take note: While it’s supposedly a major party foul to question the results of an election (at least when Republicans do it), it’s apparently just fine to undo the results when they don’t go your way. That should be really useful information going forward… A couple of prominent Democrats made those rules very clear in recent days, and, whaddayaknow, there wasn’t a peep out of our great democracy defenders in the dying news media. …

By Jarrett Stepman, Columnist, The Daily Signal – “Mainstream” Democrats are doing a good job right now of telegraphing to America what they plan to do with national power the second they get it back. They plan to make it permanently theirs, by any means necessary… You can be sure that they will be even more maniacally committed to this agenda following the Supreme Court’s 9-0 striking down of Virginia’s absurdly biased redistricting plan that would have effectively locked the GOP entirely out of power despite it being a divided state.

By Fr. Shenan J. Boquet, Human Life International – On the Solemnity of St. Joseph, March 19, Pope Leo XIV announced that he is convening the presidents of the world’s Episcopal Conferences in Rome this October. The occasion is the tenth anniversary of the post-synodal apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia. The purpose of the meeting, in his own words, is “to proceed, in mutual listening, to a synodal discernment on the steps to be taken in order to proclaim the Gospel to families today.”

By Lou Aguilar, The American Spectator – Along time ago, the 20th Century, Hollywood knew how to make movies that entertained and enlightened. Their writers weren’t young saps indoctrinated by academia-boosted French Theory with disdain for more than half the audience, or DEI hires filling a quota. They were artists who respected the world they lived in and the history they inherited, whether they liked it or not. Any criticism of either came through in their storytelling, rather than sermonizing to people who know better than they.

By Brianna Lyman, The Federalist – When President Donald Trump descended the escalator in June of 2015, he reminded Americans of something many of their leaders had forgotten: “Our country has tremendous potential. We have tremendous people.”

By Margo White, Crisis Magazine – The emergence of MAHA in the Republican Party is blurring political lines and reshaping American politics for the better… Many of us are mothers—or hope to be mothers one day. Some of us work outside of the home and then come home to our more important roles of being mothers and wives… Regardless of our current situation, we care deeply about the health of our children and are increasingly skeptical of industrially-produced food and the harmful ingredients used in their production and to increase their shelf life.

By Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell, LifeNews – The acting commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration has promised to prioritize a safety review of the abortion pill after his predecessor was accused of delaying it, pro-life leaders say… Though the Trump administration is reportedly soon picking a permanent commissioner to lead the agency, Diamantas promised he will be the “most pro-life FDA commissioner that the FDA has ever had” …

By Stephan Kapustka, The American Spectator – Republicans have been on a roll in the redistricting wars as of late. However, some Republican state legislators in many states appear to be wary of fully pressing their new advantages. In doing so, they threaten to leave winnable congressional districts that could decide the majority on the table.

By Mary Rose, Zeale News – The White House released a sweeping new counterterrorism strategy that calls for “the rapid identification and neutralization” of violent extremist domestic political groups, especially those it describes as anti-American, anarchist, and radically pro-transgender.

By Shawn Fleetwood, The Federalist – Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito had some choice words for their Supreme Court colleagues on Thursday over their “remarkable” decision “undermin[ing]” the court’s historic Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade…. The stinging rebukes came in an order the high court handed down to temporarily pause an appellate court ruling that halted a Biden-era FDA rule allowing the mailing of mifepristone to women without an in-person doctor visit. …

By Nancy Flanders, Live Action – The U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision on May 14 stating that the abortion pill can continue to be dispensed through the mail as Louisiana’s lawsuit proceeds… Following the filing of a lawsuit by the State of Louisiana that sought to reverse the FDA’s 2023 changes to abortion pill regulations, the Fifth Circuit paused mail order dispensing… The abortion pill manufacturer Danco Laboratories filed an emergency application before the Supreme Court on May 2, requesting a stay be placed on the Fifth Circuit’s decision. …

By Josh Hammer, The American Spectator – Because of the breadth and depth of its impact and lasting influence, the Divine Revelation at Sinai was the logical starting point for what we now call Western civilization. Writing thousands of years later at another inflection point in human history, Alexander Hamilton wrote in The Federalist No. 31: “In disquisitions of every kind, there are certain primary truths, or first principles, upon which all subsequent reasonings must depend.” In the United States specifically, and in Western civilization more generally, it was long obvious what those “primary truths” and “first principles” actually meant: the Word of God Himself.

By Gregory Lyakhov, Patriot Post – The perception of neutrality can be far more influential because most Americans still fail to recognize the political slant that shapes coverage… For years, conservatives have operated under a fairly obvious assumption: mainstream media institutions are hostile to Donald Trump and, more broadly, hostile to right-leaning political movements… At this point, that observation is not particularly controversial. …

By Arthur Schaper, American Greatness – The Dignity Act is amnesty dressed up as enforcement, proving once again that too many in Congress still value cheap labor over America’s borders, laws, and sovereignty… The DIGNIDAD (Dignity) Act is all the indignant rage on Capitol Hill. It’s another immigration bill, putting out legal status for those in the country illegally, provided that they work and pay taxes.

By David Catron, The American Spectator – Probably the best description from a constitutional scholar on this failed Democrat gerrymandering scheme was offered by Jonathan Turley who wrote, “Gov. Abigail Spanberger and the Democratic establishment … tossed aside any pretense of principle in a raw political gambit. The resulting faceplant is nothing short of legendary: Spanberger’s Democrats have succeeded in alienating half of the state.”

By Roger D. McGrath, Chronicles – Chinese birth tourism and birth surrogacy to gain U.S. citizenship are the consequence of a misapplication of the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment, which was intended to do nothing more than prevent states from disenfranchising freed slaves by declaring them noncitizens. While brilliant legal minds endlessly manipulate the meaning of “subject to the jurisdiction thereof,” our country’s sovereignty is being trashed and our people replaced.

By Scott Ventureyra, Crisis Magazine – Extending beyond Wilcock’s death, there have been the strange recurring reports of scientists, engineers, and officials connected to sensitive fields whose deaths or disappearances have raised further questions. Some reports have identified at least 10 to 12 scientists and researchers who have died or gone missing between 2022 and early 2026, many of whom were connected to nuclear or aerospace research, or other related fields. These would include figures such as Amy Eskridge (d. June 11, 2022), an anti-gravity researcher, and William Neil McCasland  ….

By Peter Van Buren, The American Conservative – The Iran War may prove to be little more than a blip on the world’s radar. Or its real significance may lie less in who wins militarily than in whether it accelerates global recognition that the United States is no longer willing or able to enforce the international order it created after 1945… There is a strong argument that, even as the missiles continue to fly, the war is not that significant. It appears today the most likely outcome will be a return to something like the status quo in the Middle East.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services – On Mother’s Day, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services launched Moms.gov, a groundbreaking website for new and expecting mothers. This first-of-its-kind resource offers guidance and information to support the health and well-being of mothers and their families… Moms.gov also supports expecting parents who are navigating difficult or unexpected pregnancies. It features information about pregnancy centers, Federally Qualified Health Centers, nutritional guidance, Trump Accounts, and other resources that allow maternal and infant health to thrive.

By Star Parker, Patriot Post – The abortion issue won’t go away, as so many politicians wish it would… It persists because the discussion and debate are about our very existence. What is life?… The Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in 2022 overturned Roe v. Wade, which has defined the abortion landscape in the United States since 1973. That landscape defined a right to abortion protected by the U.S. Constitution.

By Richard K. Vedder, The American Spectator – Not only has DEI lowered productivity and thereby the standard of living, but the Star Chamber-like behavior of some DEI administrators of campus and probably corporate dealings with managers, unquestionably, sometimes led to fear, intimidation, self-censorship, and a decline in true freedom of speech and expression. The recent attacks on the academy by governments, wealthy donors, and others are at least partly justified by what economists call the “negative externalities” associated with the growth of DEI practices that originated largely on college campuses before spreading to corporate America.

By Craig Bannister, MRC TV – On Wednesday, the Supreme Court denied a last-ditch effort to stop Louisiana from immediately complying with the High Court’s ruling requiring redistricting to erase the state’s race-based map, setting the stage for the redistricting effort to begin on Friday… “A Louisiana legislative committee that oversees redistricting will meet Friday to hear public comments on a new congressional district map after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last week to overturn the existing version,” Louisiana Illuminator reported Monday, citing State Senator Caleb Kleinpeter (R-Port Allen) …

By Justin Logan and Sumantra Maitra, The Federalist – President Trump is right to withdraw troops from Germany and from Europe. Neocon Republicans and Democrats are wrong. There is already a template for a rapid withdrawal from Europe: the one that took place after the end of the Cold War — incidentally, also the last era when the U.S. had a balanced budget. Our only criticism is that Trump’s current withdrawal numbers don’t go far enough. (In fairness, the president promised on Saturday that he is “going to cut way down. And we’re cutting a lot further than 5,000.”)

By Elise Winland, Zeale News – Secretary of State Marco Rubio met privately with Pope Leo XIV and other Vatican officials May 7 to discuss the Middle East, the Western Hemisphere, and the need to promote peace and human dignity, according to statements from the Vatican and U.S. officials… The discussions reaffirmed the “shared commitment to fostering good bilateral relations between the Holy See and the United States of America,” according to a translation of the Vatican statement. …

By Victor Davis Hanson, Senior Contributor, The Daily Signal – Gerrymandering, or the protocol where states allot congressional seats by population, is in the news recently, and some states do it transparently politically, depending on the makeup of their state legislatures. Others go through the operation, sometimes genuine, sometimes not so much, of having a nonpartisan body redistrict… Now we’re in a gerrymandering war where some of the states are trying to redistrict and improve either the Democratic or Republican turnout. …

By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture – What does the Pope think about the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran? We don’t know; he hasn’t said. Complain about that if you like. Pope Leo has made it clear that he opposes the US war against Iran, but he has not said what American action, if any, would be justified… Pope Leo has said—as has every other Roman Pontiff of the nuclear era—that he longs for a world in which no country, including the US, has nuclear weapons. It follows, therefore, that he does not want Iran to have a nuclear weapon. So Trump’s complaint is false.

By Victor Davis Hanson, American Greatness – Today’s Democratic Party has abandoned its traditional working-class, patriotic roots and embraced a radical Jacobin ideology built on division, coercion, and political extremism… For the past century, the agendas of the Dem. Party were predictable. They professed concern for working Americans and supported blue-collar unions…  Unemployment insurance, a 40-hour work week, disability insurance, and Social Security… Still, many Democrats were socially conservative.

By Breccan F. Thies, The Federalist – The American medical establishment has been working for over 100 years to fabricate a mental health crisis, but with contemporary perceptions of depression and sadness at all-time highs, coupled with prescription drug use run rampant, they may have created a real one… An enormous amount of Americans are diagnosed with some form of mental illness, invariably leading them to be prescribed intense regimens of drugs that manufacturers and doctors claim will resolve the issues.

By Elise Winland, Zeale News – The U.S. Supreme Court’s April 29 ruling on Louisiana v. Callais has sparked a wave of redistricting activity in Republican-led states, with Tennessee, South Carolina, Alabama, and Mississippi moving to reshape congressional maps… As Zeale News previously reported, the high court’s 6-3 ruling struck down Louisiana’s congressional map, which included a second majority-black district, as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. That decision narrowed when states may intentionally draw majority-minority districts under the Voting Rights Act.

By Craig Bannister, CNS News – The notification provided to Descano by Harmeet Dhillon, Assistant Attorney General Civil Rights Division, cites the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Safe Streets Act, “both of which prohibit recipients of Federal financial assistance from discriminating based upon race, color, or national origin”: “Our investigation will also determine whether your office is engaged in a pattern or practice of depriving persons of rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States, pursuant to 34 U.S.C. § 12601.

By Chelsea Jordan King, National Catholic Reporter, (Complicit Clergy) – Dubbed by some as the “climate pope,” Francis made care for creation central to Catholic social teaching in the 21st century… Leo has not retreated from that position. Rather, he is propelling it forward… From the earliest days of his papacy, (Leo) signaled continuity by calling for “urgent action” on climate change and emphasizing humanity’s responsibility to live in a “relationship of reciprocity” with the natural world.. he has insisted there is “no room for indifference or resignation” in responding to the climate crisis. …

By Scott McKay, The American Spectator – On Tuesday night, Indiana held primary races for some of its state Senate seats. That isn’t normally an occurrence meriting national attention, but this time it was… This year’s primaries were a test, one that the legacy corporate media completely failed to understand. And though the results were unmistakable, they’re still being fundamentally misinterpreted.

By Carole Novielli, Live Action – The National Abortion Federation is a sought-after resource for the media regarding abortion… NAF took the lead in introducing mifepristone in the U.S., and early donors to NAF included the abortion pill manufacturer Danco Laboratories, LLC… NAF operates the largest national, toll-free, multi-lingual hotline for abortion information and abortion financial assistance in the U.S. and Canada… In 2021, NAF sought to hire an “Intelligence Analyst” to create “dossiers” to track pro-life activities, individuals, and groups.

By Angeline Tan, Live Action – (New Mexico) Gov. Grisham signed the bill during the state’s 2026 legislative session. This move will significantly decrease transparency around abortion practices, eradicating New Mexico’s only legal framework for garnering abortion data… The former law mandated that abortionists file confidential statistical reports within five days of performing an abortion. While these reports obscured any identifying details about patients, they supplied vital public health information utilized to keep tabs on statewide trends. …

By Jordan Boyd, The Federalist – The company responsible for manufacturing the most popular abortion pill on the market are more concerned about its profits than the harm its drugs are inflicting on women and babies… The confession from mifepristone maker Danco Laboratories came in its defense against Louisiana’s landmark lawsuit targeting the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s “mail-order abortion scheme.” The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously granted Louisiana’s request for a stay, effectively pausing the FDA’s mail-order abortion drug permissions ….

By M.D. Kittle, The Federalist – Indiana conservatives just sent a message to RINOs everywhere: FAFO. These voters are mad as hell and they’re not going to vote for spineless Republicans anymore… Hopefully GOP senators performing in the failure theater production of “debating” the SAVE America Act heard Indiana’s message loud and clear… Most of the Republican Indiana state Senate candidates endorsed by President Donald Trump won primary races Tuesday against incumbents who voted with Democrats to stop a congressional redistricting bill. …

By Steve Cortes, The Daily Signal – Despite this litany of abuses and clear anti-Catholic bias in the ongoing War on Faith, bishops continually insist on inserting themselves into highly partisan U.S. politics to side very publicly with Democrats. From the bishop of Rome himself, Pope Leo XIV, to various American bishops, on certain issues, these prelates seemingly take every opportunity possible to attack the church’s political protectors and join in league with the oppressors of Catholics.

By Paul Gottfried, Chronicles – Recently, I forced myself to reread (despite the accompanying torture) Lillian Hellman’s 1976 memoir, Scoundrel Time. Since its publication, this memoir has offered readers a progressive view of the film industry in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Hellman was a politically outspoken Hollywood scriptwriter who produced scripts for such films as Watch on the Rhine and Little Foxes, and was the longtime lover of fiction writer Dashiell Hammett.

By Steven Ertelt , LifeNews – The Supreme Court has restored mail-order abortions while the lawsuit from Louisiana and multiple states continues. This means babies will continue dying and women will continue being injured by the dangerous abortion pill… Responding to requests from two makers of the dangerous abortion pill, the Supreme Court reversed the block on mail-order abortions the 5th Circuit Appeals Court put in place late Friday… The high court’s order temporarily allows the Biden mail-order abortion rule to continue.

By Victor Davis Hanson,. The Daily Signal – We’re in the eighth week of the Iran waropens in a new tab, and things are starting to heat up even though there’s not kinetic action. What do I mean by heating up? The Iranian government has ceased to exist. We don’t know, and the Iranians don’t know who holds power… There is the Islamic Revolutionary Guard. There is the theocracy, there is the elected people in Parliament, and there is a regular military. And those four groups operate in schizophrenic fashion.

By Elise Winland, Zeale News – Key leaders in the pro-life movement, once among President Donald Trump’s strongest backers, are openly criticizing the President and his administration for failing to restrict access to abortion drugs, despite Republican control of the White House and Congress… Even though the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, abortion remains widely available in the U.S., with mifepristone now accounting for roughly 3 in 5 abortions nationwide.

By Elise Winland, Zeale News – Dem. congressional candidate J.P. Cooney, running for Virginia’s 7th District on a platform that stresses bipartisan accountability and nonpartisan integrity, is facing scrutiny over reported 2021 text messages that appear to mock Catholic nuns who attended the Jan. 6 rally in Washington, D.C… The messages… date to February 2021. At the time, Cooney and his colleague Molly Gaston were serving as DOJ prosecutors and referenced a NY Times photograph showing religious sisters in traditional habits and veils attending the Jan. 6, 2021, rally while wearing Trump scarves ….

By Shawn Fleetwood, The Federalist – Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court opinions are often poorly argued and lack coherent legal reasoning. And in the high court’s latest release, Justice Samuel Alito made sure she knew it… The Alito-driven smackdown happened late Monday when the Supreme Court released an order related to its landmark Louisiana v. Callais decision, in which the majority (led by Alito) determined that Louisiana’s most recent congressional map is an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. …

By Ishmael Adibuah, EWTN News – On Monday, the Holy See Press Office confirmed that Pope Leo XIV will meet with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on May 7… The meeting follows a period of tension between the Holy See and U.S. President Donald Trump. In April, Trump publicly attacked the pontiff on social media, calling him “weak on crime and terrible for foreign policy” in response to the pontiffʼs appeals for peace amid the U.S.-Israel war on Iran… Leo XIV has called repeatedly for a peaceful resolution to the armed conflict in the Middle East. In April, he described Trumpʼs threats against Iranian civilization as “not acceptable.”

By  Fr. Jerry Pokorsky, Catholic Culture – Intelligent irony without faith may be amusing, but often cynical, even vicious. Some comedians challenge the existence of God and His benevolence due to the various difficulties they find, particularly in the Old Testament. The brilliant and appropriately censored quips of George Carlin are insightful and hilarious. But he hated the Catholic Church, and his comedic attacks are legendary. …

By Thomas P. Harmon, Catholic World Report – Catholic schools and universities speak frequently, and rightly, about the formation of the whole person. They speak about service, solidarity, human dignity, vocation, and the call to holiness. What they often speak about less confidently is citizenship. One can move through a good deal of Catholic education in America today hearing many worthy things about community and discipleship, while hearing much less about the formation required for life in a republic. That lack is a problem—and an opportunity.

By Brianna Lyman, The Federalist – The SAVE America Act would amend the 1993 National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) to require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote and voter ID to cast a ballot in federal elections. The current “safeguard” preventing noncitizens from registering to vote and voting is a tiny square box on the federal registration form asking applicants to attest they are telling the truth about their citizenship status. In other words, the honor system.

By Jed Babbin, The American Spectator – Unable to exit the alliance, the administration turns to troop movements to redefine US strategy…. President Trump has made no secret of his disdain for our NATO allies. In the past month or so, he has called them “cowards” and NATO a “paper tiger.” But, as I have written elsewhere, his notion that we should just get out of NATO is blocked by both the NATO Treaty and by a specific U.S. law that requires either a resolution passed by both houses of Congress or a two-thirds vote of the Senate. Neither is going to happen.

By Paul Kengor and Grace Reilly, The American Spectator – The Texas Congressman confronted a pro-abortion professor with the undeniable barbaric reality of the practice… It is easy for abortion activists to avoid the gruesome reality of abortion and just focus on the light-hearted talking points  of “ choice” and “women’s rights.” That is exactly what American University Professor Jessica Waters hoped to do when she testified before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government this past week. Rep. Brandon Gill made that impossible, questioning her in detail about barbaric abortion procedures in a tense exchange that has since gone viral.

By Tyler Arnold, EWTN News, Catholic World Report – In New York, the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, who provide care to terminally ill people, faced a warning from the state Department of Health for “refusing to assign a room to a resident other than in accordance with the resident’s gender identity.” They are also fighting the rules in court… On April 30, Trump’s DOJ published a report on “anti-Christian bias” it alleges plagued the federal government under Biden’s presidency. It documents rules and regulations that damaged religious liberty related to abortion, contraception, and gender policies. It alleges weaponization of the government against Christians, including pro-life protesters.

By Daniel J. Flynn, Chronicles – A Laffer Curve exists for everything, and the Age of Trump’s overlap with the most brazenly biased media illustrates this truth.
How else to explain the coexistence of two forces pulling so hard in opposing directions? The more that activist journalists try, the less they influence public opinion. The less they influence public opinion, the more they try. Instead of demonizing Trump in the mind of the citizenry, they more successfully immunize the mind of the citizenry from their demonization attempts.

By Thomas Gallatin, Patriot Post – The DOJ’s Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias recently published its report for “Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias within the Federal Government.” This follows a report released in the middle of last month, which highlighted how the Biden Justice Department targeted pro-life activists for prosecution using the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act… This latest report digs even more deeply into the Biden administration’s anti-Christian bias, exposing how this bias influenced governmental policy and the application of law across the whole of the federal government. …

By Al Perrotta, The Daily Signal – “But I think very often, they don’t talk about what really matters. And what really matters are the institutions that we’re talking about today. And I think that the Bible fully and completely underscores the importance in a strong, confident nation of strong families, strong marriages, strong parents, kids who were raised well. A faith- and religion-based community that is nourishing to those communities.”… America’s seen the breakdown of these institutions since the 1960s, with a decimation of marriage and birth rates, the collapse of community, a decrease in church attendance, and an increase in loneliness. ….

By Stephen Soukup, American Greatness – In the week-plus since the latest attempt on President Trump’s life, many on the Right and in the political Center are, at long last, waking up to the possibility that the political opposition today is not entirely normal. It’s not unprecedented either, but it’s far from what we have come to expect in the so-called “civilized” world. As the polymath and public intellectual Eric Weinstein put it on Twitter/X, “These aren’t deranged liberals. They are normalized revolutionaries.”

By Daniel Payne, EWTN News – The Archdiocese of New York has agreed to a nearly $1 billion settlement for victims of clergy abuse, one of the largest abuse settlements in U.S. Church history that comes after more than half a decade of litigation… The New York-based law firm Jeff Anderson & Associates said in a press release on May 1 that the archdiocese had agreed with an abuse victims’ committee to recommend a settlement of $800 million, which would be paid “into a trust for approximately 1,300 survivors who have brought sexual abuse claims” …

By David Catron, The American Spectator – If the title of this column seems to exaggerate the potential impact of last week’s Supreme Court ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, it’s probably because most political pundits have focused on its effect below the Mason-Dixon Line. But the majority-minority congressional districts that will need to be altered pursuant to the Court’s ruling are far more pervasive than most realize. Ballotpedia, using data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2024 American Community Survey, estimates that these racially gerrymandered districts account for 148 seats in the House of Representatives.

By Steven Ertelt, LifeNews – A federal court issued a ruling today that temporarily blocked mail-order abortions and, if ultimately upheld, could save tens of thousands of babies from abortions… The federal appeals court temporarily blocked a Biden administration rule allowing the abortion drug mifepristone to be dispensed through the mail, a victory for pro-life advocates working to protect women and unborn children from unregulated chemical abortions that bypass state laws protecting babies from abortions.

By David B. McGarry, The American Spectator – But with every batch of innovation and economic progress comes a fit of techno-skepticism and panic; the Luddite impulse will never be quelled entirely. Most recently, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) introduced “legislation that would enact a reasonable pause to the development of AI to ensure the safety of humanity.” The linguistic gamesmanship of “reasonable” and “safety of humanity” obscures …

By S.A. McCarthy, LifeNews – The presidency of Joe Biden was a dark, though relatively brief, chapter in American history, replete with widespread prosecution and persecution of American Christians. President Donald Trump repeatedly pledged on the campaign trail to establish a federal task force to investigate and eradicate the anti-Christian bias evinced and enacted by the Biden administration, and has delivered on that promise. On Thursday morning, the U.S. DOJ published a 209-page report entitled, “Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias within the Federal Government” ….

By Jordan Sekulow, LifeNews – The Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias – established by President Trump’s Executive Order 14202 and led by the DOJ – has released its landmark 2026 report. It is a comprehensive, government-confirmed account of what the ACLJ has been fighting against for decades. The findings are sweeping, sobering, and, for those of us who have been on the front lines of these cases, entirely unsurprising… This report is a factual accounting – agency by agency, case by case, policy by policy – of how the Biden Administration weaponized the power of the federal government against people of faith. And the ACLJ’s own cases and advocacy are woven throughout its pages.

By Austin Ruse, Crisis Magazine – Journalist Josh Hammer is steamed at Tucker Carlson  for many reasons, but most recently he is upset because Tucker said, “Muslims love Jesus.”… Hammer is plenty annoyed that Tucker says anything that is complimentary of majority Muslim countries. You cannot say, according to Hammer, that cities in the Gulf states tend to be cleaner and safer than, say, New York, Chicago, St. Louis, or really almost any major American city. ….

By Victor Davis Hanson, Daily Signal Senior Contributor – We’re approaching 60 days of the so-called Iran war, and we’re still getting these loud voices that Donald Trump has failed, that the war’s not going well… It’s completely nonempirical. It’s antithetical to the evidence… Here we are at 60 days, and Iran is losing about $500 million in input per day. It’s running out of storage space in a week or two for its daily output of oil, at which point they either have to stop pumping or they’re going to have—if they don’t stop pumping—their wells will collapse.

By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture – In Rome, a new book by Italian journalist Massimo Franco is drawing new attention to the claim that at the papal conclave of 2025, the electors saw Cardinal Prevost as a strong candidate because they were anxious to recover the confidence of American Catholic donors. Delia Buckley Gallagher, a capable reporter herself, treats that hypothesis as she introduces the book. But I’m not convinced.

By Josh Hammer, The American Spectator – One might be inclined to ask who started this latest bout of mass, iterative gerrymandering. … The reality is that both parties have gerrymandered their respective controlled states for a very long time. That is a tedious and uninteresting observation. The more interesting and pressing question, as this rare mid-decade redistricting war nears its end, is this: Looking at the aggregate nationwide redistricting efforts, which party will come out on top in advance of the midterm elections this November?