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France and Britain said Friday they will lead a multinational mission to ensure freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, while emphasising the force would be entirely defensive and only deployed once lasting peace in the region was agreed. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed the force was being set up as they co-chaired international talks in Paris focused on ensuring free-flowing trade through the critical shipping corridor. The conference, held mainly by video link, brought together a total of 49 countries from Europe and Asia, which were represented at various levels including dozens...

Mike Steger@stegerMGWe’re watching the world reset in real time.This isn’t chaos.It’s strategy.Iran. China. India. The Middle East.All moving at once.Most people can’t see it yet. ransomnote: Below are a few of my notes and some images from the video.At the start of the video, Steger said that Trump's vision exceeds that of others and his strategies work because people can't even imagine what he intends so they can't fight its implementation. Trump thinks bigger than anyone else dares, he outflanks any effort to sabotage the deal. They can't sabotage a deal they can't even imagine exists.I found the entire video...

If the UK joined the US as the 51st state. We would be the poorest state in the entire union. Mississippi which is portrayed at swamp dwelling hillbillies in majority of international media is above us. I don’t think people grasp how far we’ve fallen in real terms when it comes to GDP per capita. We’ve seen no growth for almost an entire generations. We’ve seen our productivity decrease and our tax increases. The average person on the UK, on £50,000 is less well off than your average Mississippi swamp dweller. Polymarket Apr 15 JUST IN: New analysis reveals Brits...

Spain's Pedro Sanchez and Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will spearhead gatherings of the global left in Barcelona on Friday and Saturday, in a bid to defend multilateralism and mobilise left-wing movements against the far right. The meetings, organised by Spain and left-wing political networks, come as U.S. President Donald Trump's swift cuts to humanitarian aid, military interventions and threats to abandon NATO have shaken the status quo of international relations and prompted a rethink of global allegiances. Borne out of a wake-up call for European socialists after the far-right surge in EU elections in 2024, the aim of...

All ships can sail through the Strait of Hormuz but this needs to be coordinated ‌with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a senior Iranian official told Reuters, adding that unfreezing Iranian funds was part of the deal. Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi wrote on X that the strait was open after a ceasefire accord was agreed in Lebanon, while U.S. President Donald Trump said he believed a deal to end the Iran war would come "soon", although the timing remains unclear. The Iranian official said transits would be restricted to lanes that Iran deemed safe, ⁠adding that military vessels were...

The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts on Thursday gave preliminary approval to President Donald Trump's plan for a massive new triumphal arch monument in the nation's capital, according to the New York Times. The outlet reported that the body holds an advisory role regarding the project's design, but does not wield enforcement authority. The Associated Press reported that the commission approved the concept for several projects, including the arch. The federal agency next will review updated designs for all three projects at a future meeting before taking any final votes. The proposed monument features a giant arch topped with a...

I met with two guys from Paris last week. They suggested in the Loop across the street from the James R. Thompson Center. I hadn’t been in the Loop for a couple of years but followed @CWBChicago on X for the latest on shootings, street takeovers, and general mayhem. I emailed back that no one meets in the Loop anymore by choice. Let’s meet at the Firehouse Grill in Evanston. Due to previous commitments they couldn’t switch. Not wanting to screw around with parking I took an Uber. Twenty minutes early, with time to kill, oops, an unfortunate choice of...

Screens run new cars now. Whether we like it or not, every dashboard has a giant tablet in the middle and another screen where the gauges used to be. Some of them blend into the dash like they belong. Others stick out like someone glued an iPad to the top. Either way, they run almost everything in the cabin. It wasn’t always like this. But like most tech trends, the shift happened eventually, and for reasons no one really asked for. Suddenly your radio, your AC, and even simple stuff like the headlight switch lives somewhere inside a maze of...

The state of Florida has passed a new law that will require all non-U.S. citizens applying for or renewing their driver's licenses to have a special designation indicating their citizenship status starting on January 1, 2027. Why it matters The new law is part of a broader push by Florida to tighten immigration policies and crack down on undocumented residents. Critics argue the measure unfairly singles out non-citizens and could lead to increased discrimination, while supporters say it's a necessary step to verify legal status. The details Under the new law, any Florida driver's license or ID card issued to...

As a genre, Greek tragedy was highly valued in 1st-century society, with the plays of 5th and 4th century BC Athens being continuously performed in theatres and studied in Graeco-Roman education as an essential area of knowledge. Herod the Great made a particular effort to introduce Graeco-Roman theatre in Jerusalem... The Gospel of Mark, in particular, has a structure that closely resembles that of a Greek tragic play. According to Aristotle’s Poetics, the structure of the plot is vital when classifying a work as tragic drama, even more so than characterization. The structure of the plot in a Greek tragedy...

Oil prices have plummeted after Iran said the Strait of Hormuz would be "completely open" to commercial ships for the remainder of the ceasefire. The cost of a barrel of Brent crude fell to $88 dollars a barrel, having been above $98 earlier on Friday. The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow strip of water linking the Gulf to the Arabian sea, through which a fifth of the world's oil and liquified natural gas is typically transported. US President Donald Trump welcomed Iran's statement, but maritime groups are still verifying the Iranian announcement. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said: "The...

Under Pope Leo XIV, for the first time, the Vatican set up a dedicated Muslim prayer room at heart of Pope’s 500-year-old library. Suicidal madness. The Vatican should have set up a room, a shrine, to the hundreds of millions of Christians slaughtered by Muslims since its creation 1,400 years ago. ROME HAS FALLEN For the first time ever, the Vatican has built a Muslim prayer room inside its Apostolic Library. While Christians are banned from Mecca, while no church stands in Saudi Arabia, and while Europe’s cathedrals are being turned into mosques, Pope Leo XIV rolls… https://t.co/qnz7jjBhSI pic.twitter.com/qNhu1vjrgb —...

The annual festival of Songkran usually signifies a dazzling week-long celebration — but this year’s death toll paints a picture that’s anything but. While the Thai holiday is globally famous for being the “world’s largest water fight,” the reality on the ground is a horrific cycle of road accidents, drunk driving and reckless behavior. In the first three days of Songkran this year, more than 191 deaths have been recorded with 951 accidents and 911 injuries. According to the Road Accident Victims Protection Company, an average of 38 road deaths per day occur throughout the calendar year, indicating a large...

A Department of Homeland Security employee was shot and stabbed to death while walking her dog in Atlanta on Monday, part of a series of attacks that killed another woman and critically wounded a homeless man. The 26-year-old suspect, a British-born man naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 2022, has a prior criminal record and faces murder charges for attacks across the Atlanta area. Lauren Bullis was remembered by Homeland Security colleagues as warm, kind and compassionate, with a fellow auditor recalling: “You couldn’t meet her and not be her friend.”

A UK bride was covered in black paint just moments before she walked down the aisle in a shocking “revenge” attack by her spiteful new sister-in-law. Gemma Monk, a 35-year-old mom of two, was walking with her father to her big day in Maidstone, England, when she heard someone call her name — then saw them throw black paint at her, she told Kent Online. She grabbed her attacker’s hair, realizing it was her groom’s sister, Antonia Eastwood, 49, who’d been banned from the nuptials over a simmering feud stemming from the sister-in-law’s own wedding a year earlier. Remarkably, Monk...

Last month, we received a report from a whistleblower who claimed that illegal aliens were staying in San Francisco’s homeless shelters. Following up on the tip, we visited numerous publicly funded shelters in San Francisco, and spoke to employees and residents about their policies, sometimes through a translator. We discovered not only that the shelters were housing illegal immigrants but also that they were apparently housing a population of male-to-female “transgender” illegal aliens, who had hoped to obtain “gender-affirming care.” And, to our shock, state and local governments apparently are providing it.

It is so refreshing to see that this week Justice Clarence Thomas called out the "new" ideology of Progressivism. Here is some what he said: At the beginning of the 20th century, a new set of first principles of government was introduced into the American mainstream. The proponents of this new set of first principles, most prominently, the 28th president of our country, Woodrow Wilson called it progressivism. Since Wilson's presidency, progressivism has made many inroads into our system of government and our way of life. It has coexisted uneasily with the principles of the declaration because it is opposed...

Two images of the rationed meals served to crews deployed to the Middle East have gone viral online, sparking concern about the conditions aboard U.S. warships and reports of dwindling food supplies.In the images, taken anonymously and provided by families to USA Today on Thursday, one tray contains little more than shredded meat and a single tortilla, and another depicts what relatives described as an unidentifiable “grey” processed slab alongside vegetables.

The Presbyterian Church (USA) recently reviewed a report examining the reasons why some members have quit giving to the liberal mainline denomination. PC(USA), A Corporation, an entity that oversees the business of the denomination, heard a presentation last week from Research Services representative Sean Payne on the issue of why Presbyterians were halting their giving. According to the report, a copy of which was emailed to The Christian Post by a PC(USA) spokesperson on Tuesday, researchers contacted over 17,000 donors who had last given to the denomination between Jan. 1, 2019, and September 2024. The survey asked people two questions:...

A highly respected figure from Hungary’s Catholic education sector is set to become the education minister in Péter Magyar’s incoming Tisza-led government, according to multiple independent sources. Telex reports that the party has asked the director-general of the Cistercian School Authority to take on the post, and that she has already accepted the role, although she declined to comment publicly before the new government is formally established. The reported appointment would be one of the clearest personnel signals yet about how seriously Tisza intends to pursue its promised overhaul of Hungary’s troubled public education system.