Pope Francis Says NATO Started War in Ukraine by ‘Barking at Putin’s Door’

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Since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Pope Francis has floated the idea that he wants to take a trip to Kyiv to try to broker a ceasefire. But now he says he would prefer to go to Moscow to try to talk some sense into Vladimir Putin, who he has not outwardly condemned in the now nearly three-month-old war and only did so lightly in a lengthy interview with an Italian newspaper.

“I feel that before going to Kyiv, I must go to Moscow,” he told Corriere Della Sera in an interview that ran Tuesday. But the meeting would not exactly be to condemn Putin, based on what he told the paper. He said that the real “scandal” of Putin’s war is “NATO barking at Russia’s door,” which he said caused the Kremlin to “react badly and unleash the conflict.” . . .

“I don’t know how to answer—I’m too far away—the question of whether it is right to supply the Ukrainians,” he told the paper. “The clear thing is that weapons are being tested there. The Russians now know that tanks are of little use and are thinking of other things. This is why wars are waged: to test the weapons we have produced. Few people are fighting this trade, but more should be done.” . . .

Francis veered toward conspiracy theory as he blamed the international community for instigating the war. “You cannot think that a free state can make war on another free state,” he said. “In Ukraine, it seems that it was others who created the conflict. I am pessimistic but we must do everything possible to stop the war.” The pope then said that in a state visit to Rome by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, he was told “the Russians have a plan, that everything will end on May 9” without giving any further explanation. May 9 is the day Russia celebrates its liberation and the end of World War II. (Read more from “Pope Francis Says NATO Started War in Ukraine by ‘Barking at Putin’s Door’” HERE)

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Biden Admin Silent on Major Natural Gas Pipeline as Energy Prices Soar

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The Biden administration has yet to take a public position on a major natural gas pipeline as the project faces an uphill federal permitting battle.

Equitrans Midstream, the energy company that proposed the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) in 2014, delayed the project’s expected completion to late 2023 and said it would pursue new federal permits for a second time, in an earnings report published Tuesday. The project — a 303-mile pipeline that would transport natural gas from West Virginia to Virginia — faced another setback earlier this year after a federal appeals court struck down its Trump-era permits, ruling in favor of environmental groups.

Federal agencies involved in the MVP permitting process didn’t respond to requests for comment or declined to comment altogether, and the White House has yet to intervene in the matter despite soaring energy prices and pleas from a Democratic senator.

“After engaging with the federal agencies and evaluating all options, we believe the best path forward for MVP’s completion is to pursue new permits,” Thomas Karam, the chairman and CEO of Equitrans, said in a statement Tuesday. “To reflect the time required for permit re-issuance and to ensure safe, responsible project construction, we have revised our MVP in-service target to the second half of 2023.”

The total project cost of the pipeline has increased to $6.6 billion, the company added in its earnings report. The MVP pipeline was originally projected to begin operations in 2018 and the total cost has doubled since the project was unveiled, Bloomberg reported. (Read more from “Biden Admin Silent on Major Natural Gas Pipeline as Energy Prices Soar” HERE)

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CDC ‘Tracked Millions of Cell Phones’ to See if You Obeyed Lockdowns

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The Centers for Disease Control bought location data for tens of millions of Americans’ cell phones to analyze “compliance” with COVID recommendations, targeting people visiting schools and churches, according to a new report.

And then it moved quickly to buy more data, for “general CDC purposes,” explained the report assembled from information obtained by Motherboard and published at Vice.

Writer Joseph Cox explained, “Newly released documents showed the CDC planned to use phone location data to monitor schools and churches, and wanted to use the data for many non-COVID-19 purposes too.”

Said the report, “Location data is information on a device’s location sourced from the phone, which can then show where a person lives, works, and where they went. The sort of data the CDC bought was aggregated—meaning it was designed to follow trends that emerge from the movements of groups of people—but researchers have repeatedly raised concerns with how location data can be deanonymized and used to track specific people.”

The documents show a strategy by the CDC to obtain location details from SafeGraph, and paying the company $420,000 for access to a year’s worth of data on, among others, Peter Thiel. (Read more from “CDC ‘Tracked Millions of Cell Phones’ to See if You Obeyed Lockdowns” HERE)

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Transgender HHS Assistant Secretary Says Doctors Agree on Providing ‘Gender-Affirming’ Care for Minors

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United States Assistant Secretary for Health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service (HHS), Rachel Levine, who is a biological male living as a woman, brushed off critics of new federal guidance promoting “gender-affirming” health care for minors.

The New York Post reported that Levine criticized states like Texas and Florida for pushing guidance against gender-affirming health care for children. Levine said that medical professionals support children obtaining this type of treatment, which includes puberty blockers, hormone therapy treatment, and sex reassignment surgery.

“There is no argument among medical professionals – pediatricians, pediatric endocrinologists, adolescent medicine physicians, adolescent psychiatrists, psychologists, etc. – about the value and the importance of gender-affirming care,” Levine told NPR.

(Read more from “Transgender HHS Assistant Secretary Says Doctors Agree on Providing ‘Gender-Affirming’ Care for Minors” HERE)

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The Demonic Left Will Stop at Nothing — Including Destroying the Supreme Court — To Kill Babies

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In an egregious and unprecedented move, Politico published a full draft of a leaked Supreme Court opinion indicating that the high court is about to strike down the left’s favorite ruling that fabricated a so-called “right” to abortion: Roe v. Wade.

It’s the left’s worst nightmare. They’re about to lose their grip on the bogus legal precedent from 1973 that undergirds the foundation of their platform and aims. It’s the decision that, to this day, enables them to carry out their values of convenience, population control, and pandering by dehumanizing unborn children before dismembering them and calling it “empowerment.” . . .

Sure, we don’t yet know all the facts of the current situation, so we don’t know who surrendered the document — showing at least a 5-4 majority for conservatives on Dobbs — to the press. But it doesn’t take Einstein to piece this one together.

First, the left is desperate. They’re severely underwater headed into the midterms and need something to draw out the Democrat vote, and it’s not going to be the economy or foreign policy or Covid. A threat to their beloved abortion access could be the golden ticket.

Second, with a conservative SCOTUS majority and clear public opinion against the evils of abortion, the left has always faced an uphill battle with Dobbs, but bullying the court could be a hail Mary. It’s common knowledge that Chief Justice John Roberts’ fidelity is to his own public image over the Constitution, and what about fresh faces such as Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett? The public now knows for the first time the trio’s written intent to strike Roe as bad law — but before it’s published. It’s a recipe for harassment, threats, and intimidation to swing their opinions before they’re codified. (Read more from “The Demonic Left Will Stop at Nothing — Including Destroying the Supreme Court — To Kill Babies” HERE)

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‘Egregious’ Leak: Justice Roberts Orders Probe Into Unprecedented Leak of Abortion Draft

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Chief Justice John Roberts on Tuesday ordered an investigation into the unprecedented leak of a draft opinion suggesting the Supreme Court is poised to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade case that legalized abortion nationwide.

Roberts slammed the leak as an “egregious breach of trust” in the high court’s first public comment since the draft opinion was published by Politico late Monday.

“Although the document described in yesterday’s reports is authentic, it does not represent a decision by the Court or the final position of any member on the issues in the case,” Roberts said in a statement.

“To the extent this betrayal of the confidences of the Court was intended to undermine the integrity of our operations, it will not succeed. The work of the Court will not be affected in any way.”

He added: “I have directed the Marshal of the Court to launch an investigation into the source of the leak.” (Read more from “‘Egregious’ Leak: Justice Roberts Orders Probe Into Unprecedented Leak of Abortion Draft” HERE)

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Republicans Announce Bill to Shut Down DHS ‘Disinformation’ Unit

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Republicans announced legislation Tuesday to defund the Homeland Security Department’s new disinformation board, calling it an “un-American” attempt to police what people are allowed to say.

Biden administration officials have rejected those characterizations as overheated. They said the board is an in-house working group to coordinate Homeland Security’s online monitoring.

Those assurances have failed to quell the furor among Republicans, who see more nefarious intentions of the administration, and they are taking their case to the public.

“This is communism,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Georgia Republican, told voters, drawing nods of approval as she campaigned in her district this week. “They don’t want you to have it because they don’t want you to be able to say what you think and feel or sort out the truth yourself.”

The Disinformation Governance Board was revealed by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in congressional testimony last week, though it apparently has been operating for several months. (Read more from “Republicans Announce Bill to Shut Down DHS ‘Disinformation’ Unit” HERE)

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Democrats Admit It’s Women Who Get Abortions After All

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Democrats made an admission about what type of people can actually get abortions in the wake of a leaked Supreme Court draft opinion showing justices could potentially overturn Roe v. Wade.

After many liberals pushed for gender-neutral terms surrounding pregnancy and abortion such as “birthing people” instead of “women,” prominent Democrats made statements appearing to suggest only women can get pregnant and have abortions.

President Joe Biden characterized abortion as a women’s rights issue in a Tuesday statement that emphasized women’s reproductive freedom.

“I believe that a woman’s right to choose is fundamental,” he said. “[I]f the Court does overturn Roe, it will fall on our nation’s elected officials at all levels of government to protect a woman’s right to choose.”

Hillary Clinton also painted abortion as a women’s issue.

(Read more from “Democrats Admit It’s Women Who Get Abortions After All” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

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Pentagon Officials Haven’t Contacted Russian Counterparts in ‘Several Weeks’

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Top U.S. military leaders have not attempted to reach their Russian counterparts in “several weeks” after their previous efforts were rebuffed.

The United States had repeatedly tried to arrange conversations between Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and his Russian counterpart, Chief of Russian General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov, as well as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his counterpart, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, but they have not spoken since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February.

Milley’s spokesperson confirmed to the Washington Examiner on Tuesday that the Joint Chiefs haven’t reached out to set up a call between Milley and Gerasimov in “several weeks.”

“It’s been quite some time — certainly, many weeks — since we’ve attempted another communication with Minister Shoigu,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters Monday. “And there has not been much interest shown by the Russians in having that conversation.”

Milley’s last conversation with Gerasimov took place Feb. 11, and Joint Staff spokesman Col. Dave Butler said at the time, “The military leaders discussed several security-related issues of concern. In accordance with past practice, both have agreed to keep the specific details of their conversation private.” (Read more from “Pentagon Officials Haven’t Contacted Russian Counterparts in ‘Several Weeks'” HERE)

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Massive Chinese Fleet Seen Barreling Toward U.S. Naval Base

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The largest Chinese aircraft carrier group reportedly ever assembled is conducting combat training near a U.S. naval base in Japan, according to multiple Chinese media sources on Tuesday.

China’s aircraft carrier “Liaoning,” as well as seven other vessels, are reportedly performing a naval expedition in close proximity to Nagasaki, Japan, and the U.S. Navy base at Sasebo, according to a Tuesday report from China’s Observer News translated by the Daily Caller News Foundation. The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier is also in the vicinity, according to the report.

The U.S. Naval Institute fleet tracker placed both the USS Abraham Lincoln, as well as the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier in the waters near Sasebo on May 2.

China’s naval expedition comes a week after its military reportedly shadowed a U.S. Navy destroyer conducting a freedom of navigation exercise in the Taiwan Strait last Tuesday.

China’s military news outlet confirmed its nation’s aircraft carrier group was operating in the western Pacific Ocean in a Tuesday bulletin translated by the DCNF, but stated the “routine training operation” was “not directed against any party.” (Read more from “Massive Chinese Fleet Seen Barreling Toward U.S. Naval Base” HERE)

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