National Review,
by
David Zimmerman
Original Article
Posted by
Dreadnought
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4/26/2025 2:48:22 PM
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President Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, joined other world leaders on Saturday in paying respects to Pope Francis, who passed away on Easter Monday at age 88 after a series of health complications hospitalized him for weeks.
The pope’s funeral mass was held in Rome’s St. Peter’s Square, followed by a private burial at the St. Mary Major Basilica. Over 250,000 mourners gathered to view Pope Francis’s body over the course of three days in St. Peter’s Basilica before Saturday’s funeral, the Vatican said. His coffin was sealed on Friday.
The Vatican confirmed 164 delegations, including 54 heads of state and twelve monarchs, were in attendance.
Hot Air,
by
David Strom
Original Article
Posted by
Dreadnought
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4/26/2025 2:01:03 AM
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Ashley Rindsberg, from whose stories I have riffed on before, has a great piece in Spectator Magazine about the COVID cover-up that adds a new twist.
Anthony Fauci, through a Harvard University intermediary, helped funnel money from the Chinese property company Evergrande to Harvard in February 2020. And that contribution was, quite surprisingly, part of a backdoor effort on the part of the Chinese to communicate with and influence Fauci and America's COVID response. On the morning of Sunday February 2, 2020, Anthony Fauci, then in the middle of putting together America’s pandemic response, received an unusual email with a highly unusual request.
National Review,
by
Editorial
Original Article
Posted by
Dreadnought
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4/26/2025 1:26:44 AM
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President Trump continues to assail the once-unassailable status quo on civil rights. The behemoth of federal civil rights laws may originate with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but far too much of it has been invented by administrative agencies and courts. That should end — and it is a fight worth having.
The shift of a significant number of non-white voters into Trump’s coalition in 2024 can be read in many ways, but clearly one driver was the exhaustion of long-standing Democratic appeals to race-conscious remedies, premised as so many of them are on group identity and the notion that every disparity among groups in society reflects a deep conspiracy
Times of Israel,
by
Nava Freiberg
Original Article
Posted by
Dreadnought
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4/25/2025 12:37:01 PM
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New Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa said that Damascus seeks to normalize ties with Israel, US Congressman Cory Mills told Bloomberg on Thursday after a meeting with him last week in Syria.
Mills said he held talks with Sharaa about the conditions for removing US-imposed economic sanctions, as well as the possibility of peace with Israel, according to the report.
Sharaa told Mills during their meeting that Syria is interested “under the right conditions” in joining the Abraham Accords — the series of normalization agreements that US President Donald Trump’s previous administration negotiated between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco.
Hot Air,
by
John Sexton
Original Article
Posted by
Dreadnought
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4/25/2025 2:06:54 AM
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Yesterday, President Trump signed an executive order titled "Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy." The basic point of this is to undermine what is known as disparate-impact theory. Here's how the executive order describes it.
A bedrock principle of the United States is that all citizens are treated equally under the law. This principle guarantees equality of opportunity, not equal outcomes. It promises that people are treated as individuals, not components of a particular race or group. It encourages meritocracy and a colorblind society, not race- or sex-based favoritism. Adherence to this principle is essential to creating opportunity, encouraging achievement, and sustaining the American Dream.
Politico,
by
Paul McLeary
&
Jack Detsch
Original Article
Posted by
Dreadnought
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4/24/2025 7:06:24 PM
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The circle of top advisers in Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s orbit has shrunk in recent days to little more than his wife, lawyer, and two lower-level officials — leaving the Pentagon’s lead office without longtime expertise or clear direction.
Hegseth’s decision to fire three senior aides last week and reassign his chief of staff has blown a hole in his leadership team, severing essential lines of communication across the department and leading to fears about dangerous slip-ups such as weapons program delays.
The wholesale turnover just 100 days into Hegseth’s tenure has been remarkable for its speed. And it has left the first-time government official without trusted staff who understand Washington
Associated Press,
by
Tara Copp
Original Article
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Dreadnought
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4/24/2025 6:42:50 PM
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had an internet connection that bypassed the Pentagon’s security protocols set up in his office to use the Signal messaging app on a personal computer, two people familiar with the line told The Associated Press.
The existence of the unsecured internet connection is the latest revelation about Hegseth’s use of the unclassified app and raises the possibility that sensitive defense information could have been put at risk of potential hacking or surveillance.
Known as a “dirty” internet line by the IT industry, it connects directly to the public internet where the user’s information and the websites
Politico,
by
Daniel Lippman
&
Jack Detsch
Original Article
Posted by
Dreadnought
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4/24/2025 6:37:34 PM
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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s controversial chief of staff, who played a central role in a power struggle that gripped the Pentagon, will exit the agency today.
Joe Kasper was originally expected to transition to another role within the Defense Department, but is now planning to go back to government relations and consulting, he said in an interview.
He will continue to support and advise the Pentagon, he said, but as a special government employee. This will limit him to performing temporary jobs for just 130 days a year.
A former longtime chief of staff to indicted Rep. Duncan Hunter, Kasper was a leading figure in the firings
Mediaite,
by
Michael Luciano
Original Article
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Dreadnought
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4/24/2025 6:34:38 PM
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Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth went off on the acting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff amid a search for a leaker at the Pentagon, according to a report published Thursday in The Wall Street Journal.
The paper said Hegseth was “rattled” after word got out last month that the Pentagon was set to brief Elon Musk on China, where the Tesla CEO has three factories. President Donald Trump denied the report the next day. However, Axios later reported that Trump had canceled the briefing while asking, “What the * is Elon doing here?”
During his search for the leaker, Hegseth erupted at Admiral Christopher Grady
New York Post,
by
Charles Gasparino
Original Article
Posted by
Dreadnought
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4/24/2025 6:07:06 PM
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Team Trump is looking for a face-saving off-ramp in its global trade war, and they’re ready to announce a deal-in-kind with at least one trading partner, On The Money has learned.
How that manifests itself is unclear, but my sources are led to believe that actual deals — i.e. signed agreements even with the most friendly of trading partners caught up in the Trump maelstrom – are probably not happening anytime soon.
What is more likely is a series of public announcements coming from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and possibly the president himself, indicating broad outlines of trade pacts that both sides can live with.
National Review,
by
James Lynch
Original Article
Posted by
Dreadnought
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4/24/2025 5:07:22 PM
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The Biden era’s infamous “disinformation” czar is urging the European Union to resist the Trump administration’s agenda on online censorship and other key issues.Jankowicz testified before the European Parliament earlier this week at a hearing about Russian hybrid threats and painted a gloomy picture of the Trump administration’s opposition to online speech suppression and advocacy for U.S. tech companies.“The United States has now become the largest lobbyist for these multibillion dollar [tech] corporations and is harassing any nation or body that aims to conduct oversight or require transparency of them. Neither Washington nor the social media platforms it has captured are interested in preserving democracy.
Associated Press,
by
Holly Ramer
Original Article
Posted by
Dreadnought
—
4/24/2025 1:17:39 PM
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CONCORD, N.H. — A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s guidance forbidding diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in K-12 public schools.
The ruling came in a lawsuit brought by the National Education Association and the American Civil Liberties Union, which accused the Republican administration of violating teachers’ due process and First Amendment rights.
In February, the U.S. Education Department told schools and colleges they needed to end any practice that differentiates people based on their race or they would risk losing their federal funding. Earlier this month, the department ordered states to gather signatures from local school systems certifying compliance with civil rights laws