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The Pentagon rolled out a pulse-pounding new ad for Memorial Day weekend, narrated by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and President Trump, that touted efforts to root out wokeness in the military. Declaring that America’s fighting men and women are “laser-focused on our mission,” the spot shows service members taking part in intense training drills and battlefield combat while dramatic music swells and excerpts from speeches delivered by Trump and Hegseth play in the background. “No more distraction, no more electric tanks, no more gender confusion, no more climate change worship. We are laser-focused on our mission of warfighting,” the defense...

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Hamas is calling on Gaza residents not to accept food from the new Israeli aid mechanism that began operating today. Hamas’s Interior Ministry warns Gaza residents against cooperating with the new Israeli food distribution mechanism, claiming its purpose is “the occupation’s takeover of aid distribution in the Strip.” The Hamas ministry adds: Israel is funding the mechanism through the “Gaza” aid fund and is violating international law by operating it. Gazans have the right to receive aid at their place of residence under international law. Cooperating with the occupation’s mechanism threatens the work of international organizations. If the mechanism fails,...

To mark the 80th anniversary of the eventual Liberation of the islands, ‘Britain Under the Nazis: the Forgotten Occupation’ (w/t) tells the story of one the most controversial periods in WW2 British history, utilising eye-witness accounts from those who lived through it. In June 1940 Britain abandoned the Channel Islands to the Nazis. 69,000 islanders were left to live with the enemy, facing an impossible dilemma: to collaborate, resist, or tread a difficult line in between. Their words, drawn from little known diaries, memoirs and letters from both the occupiers and occupied, are brought to life by actors for the...

The FBI on Monday announced it reopened the investigation into cocaine found at the White House. “Shortly after swearing in, the Director and I evaluated a number of cases of potential public corruption that, understandably, have garnered public interest. We made the decision to either re-open, or push additional resources and investigative attention, to these cases. These cases are the DC pipe bombing investigation, the cocaine discovery at the prior administration’s White House, and the leak of the Supreme Court Dobbs case. I receive requested briefings on these cases weekly and we are making progress. If you have any investigative...

Payment card giants Visa and Mastercard have announced plans to integrate with AI “agents,” enabling them to make purchases on users’ behalf by accessing their credit card information. According to Visa, the agents would verify purchases with users at first, but would gain more autonomy over time. AI agents, or “personal assistants,” are advanced versions of popular chatbot large language models (LLMs). They are designed to simplify users’ lives by taking over critical functions across work and day-to-day life. So far, progress on these AI agents has been slow, with little to show for it. However, the payment card companies...

Federal judges are considering hiring armed private security forces amid fears that US Marshals will not protect them because they work for Donald Trump. The judiciary has been dealing with rising number of threats against magistrates who have ruled against the Trump administration's agenda. .... Snip.... Some judges are concerned the security provided by the Marshals Service will not be enough to protect them, or that the White House will revoke their services as retaliation for their rulings. The idea for private security came up in a series of closed-door meetings in March, when a group of roughly 50 judges...

Trans folks went topless outside Downing Street during a protest calling out the oppression of the community across the UK. The protest action – which took place on Sunday (25 May) in London – was organised by activism group STRIVE (Standing for Trans Rights, Inclusion and Visibility Everywhere) as a means of “bringing our voices to the very place where too many harmful policies and decisions have been made” about the “safety, dignity, and rights of trans people across the UK”. Trans people and their allies came out in force for the demonstration and marched from Marble Arch to Downing...

“Is the Blue Party really only the customer service desk for the administrative state?” —Jeff Childers It’s pretty universally acknowledged that America’s recent wars — say, starting with Vietnam — have been stupid, pointless, and fake in instigation. And yet the soldiers we sent into these fiascos acted bravely and honorably for the most part. So, it has felt a little weird to celebrate their sacrifices minus any sense of political justice, victory, or meaning in the endeavors they sacrificed for. Ergo, the holiday is lately reduced to a celebration of grilled meat. This Memorial Day, for a change, the...

President Donald Trump is visiting Arlington National Cemetery for Memorial Day on Monday hours after blasting his political opponents and perceived enemies as “scum” in a social media post marking the solemn occasion honoring America’s war dead. In the early morning Truth Social post, Trump criticized members of the federal judiciary as “USA hating” as well as “monsters,” and his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, as “incompetent.” The all-caps message, posted just before 7 a.m. ET, sees the president wishing a “Happy Memorial Day to all, including the scum that spent the last four years trying to destroy our country...

26 May 2025Saint Philip Neri, Priest on Monday of the 6th week of EastertideSt. Philip Neri Church - Lafayette Hill, PennsylvaniaReadings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: C(I).Readings for the feriaReadings for the memorialThese are the readings for the feriaFirst readingActs 16:11-15The Lord opened Lydia's heart to accept what Paul was sayingSailing from Troas we made a straight run for Samothrace; the next day for Neapolis, and from there for Philippi, a Roman colony and the principal city of that particular district of Macedonia. After a few days in this city we went along the river outside the gates as it...

A Russian military expert stunned Kremlin hawks when he revealed that Ukraine's army currently enjoys a significant advantage over Putin's army. There is growing confidence among Russia's pro-war faction that Vladimir Putin can achieve all his military goals in Ukraine. Western analysts believe that Putin's aims have not changed since he launched his full-scale invasion of the neighbouring country, and that he is more than ever determined to seize all of Ukraine. With Donald Trump seemingly unwilling to get tough with Russia, many Kremlin supporters are starting to smell victory. However, Andrey Klintsevich warned that Ukraine's army was still a...

Security researcher Jeremiah Fowler stumbled upon a large database of login information and passwords containing over 184 million records recently. He mentioned the discovery in an article on Website Planet. The data was not encrypted in any form and stored publicly, which meant that anyone with knowledge of its existence could download the data. The sheer size of the database, more than 47 gigabytes of data, makes it one of the largest leaks in recent history. In early 2024, a 70 million records password dump was discovered. A preliminary sampling of the data unveiled emails, usernames, passwords, and also links...

(AFP) — Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Monday that Germany along with Ukraine’s other key Western backers had lifted range restrictions on weapons they send to Kyiv to fight against Russia. Merz, who took office early this month, also vowed that “we will do everything in our power to continue supporting Ukraine, including militarily”, in close coordination with other supporters. “There are no longer any range restrictions on weapons delivered to Ukraine — neither by the British nor by the French nor by us nor by the Americans,” he said. “This means that Ukraine can now defend itself, for example, by...

Lots of pictures.

Sales of electric vehicles are on the rise in the United States, but the road ahead for charging infrastructure looks a whole lot bumpier. Despite growing interest in EVs, the pace of building high-speed chargers isn’t just lagging, it’s actively falling behind. Add in looming policy shifts under the Trump administration, and the gap between supply and demand could widen even further. It’s understood that the number of high-speed EV chargers being installed across the US dropped more than 21% through the first quarter compared to last year. With this in mind, BloombergNEF has cut its expectations for EV installations...

At least 11 people were injured Saturday night when gunfire erupted during a Memorial Day weekend gathering on a docked charter boat in Little River, South Carolina, police said. Horry County Police said in an online statement Monday morning that 10 of the people hurt in the shooting were hospitalized with gunshot wounds, including one who was in critical but stable condition. An eleventh victim suffered a non-gunfire-related injury, police said. A motive for the shooting remains under investigation, and detectives are working to identify those responsible for the shooting. "Thus far, the investigation indicates that the shooting was an...

Russia does not see the Vatican as a serious venue for peace talks with Ukraine because the Holy See is the seat of Catholicism and is surrounded by Italy, a NATO and EU member, three senior Russian sources told Reuters. They also point out that many Russian officials cannot even fly there due to Western restrictions. The Vatican has so far been silent in public on the idea raised by U.S. President Donald Trump after a call with President Vladimir Putin that Pope Leo XIV could host talks aimed at ending Europe's deadliest conflict since World War Two. Italian Prime...

Gunfire erupted in a Jackson, Tennessee, park Saturday night leaving seven people, including juveniles, injured and police seeking the perpetrators of the shooting, authorities said. The shooting occurred at the Kate Campbell Park northeast of downtown Jackson, according to the Jackson Police Department. One of the gunshot victim was hospitalized in critical condition, two were in stable condition and four others were treated and released, police said in an updated statement Sunday morning. Police officers responded to the park after receiving reports at around 8:41 p.m. of a shooting incident involving juveniles, authorities said in an earlier statement.