<p>The House Judiciary Committee this week revealed that under the Biden administration, the FBI spied on a Catholic priest who refused to disclose private conversations with a parishioner who was arrested.</p>
<p>FBI employees at the Richmond field office discussed the priest’s ordination, recruitment efforts, location, and credit card information through email. They also communicated with their London office to monitor him during a trip to the United Kingdom, according to the <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/pdfs/judiciarycommitteereport.pdf">report</a>.</p>
<p>They launched a “formal investigative assessment” against the priest after he refused to answer whether a parishioner had expressed “desires and plans to commit violence.” The employee wrote in an email to the counterterrorism unit at FBI headquarters that the priest “became very uncomfortable and started incoherently stuttering.”</p>
<p>He said the priest “requested to speak with the church’s leadership and attorneys” and “refused to speak with us any further but has continued to speak with [the parishioner] while in prison, and even attempted to visit him.”</p>
<p>He also incorrectly stated in his email that the priest’s communications were “not considered privileged” since the parishioner “has not completed his catechism or been baptized in the Church.”</p>
<p>Virginia law <a href="https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title19.2/chapter16/section19.2-271.3/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">protects</a> confidential communications between ministers of religion and any “persons they counsel or advise.”</p>
<p>“The priest-penitent privilege rightly protects communications between a clergy member and an individual seeking spiritual guidance,” the House Judiciary Committee report notes. “It is not dependent on the individual achieving certain milestones in his or her spiritual life.”</p>
<p>The report determined that the Richmond office’s investigation was unlawful: “There appeared to be no legitimate law-enforcement purpose for investigating this priest.”</p>
<p>The report, which was compiled by the Committee and Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, was issued in response to a 2023 leaked <a href="https://judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/republicans-judiciary.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/fbi-anti-catholic-memo.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">memo</a> from the Richmond FBI field office that revealed the agency attempting to link “Radical-Traditionalist Catholic ideology” to violent racism and the “far-right white nationalist movement.”</p>
<p>It found that the Richmond office was gathering intelligence on “Radical-Traditionalist Catholics &#8220;(RTC), a group which, the committee notes, FBI staff couldn’t even define.</p>
<p>A presentation titled “Traditionalist Catholicism Overview” outlined their “core ideology and beliefs.”</p>
<p>“Core concepts” included the Traditional Latin Mass, “conservative family values/roles,” a “rejection of modernity,” and a “tendency toward isolationism.”</p>
<p>It alleged that radical Catholics’ main tenets include the “belief that mainline Catholicism is illegitimate” and were accused of holding “hardline positions on abortion, LGBTQ matters, and interreligious dialogue.”</p>
<p>It also claimed that RTC contains “apocalyptic overtones,” “rigid fundamentalism [and] integralism,” and an “undertone of antisemitism.”</p>
<p>In its information gathering, the FBI used “politically biased and anti-Catholic source material,” the report notes. Many of the articles they cited openly accuse Catholics of being white supremacists. One article titled “The Catholic Church has a Visible White Power Faction” from Sojourner, a progressive Christian publication, was <a href="https://sojo.net/magazine/august-2020/catholic-church-has-visible-white-power-faction" target="_blank" rel="noopener">taken down</a> at one point because of misleading statements that editors claimed “called into question the entire substance of the article.”</p>
<p>The FBI also relied heavily on the Southern Poverty Law Center, a “far-left, anti-religion group that focuses on labeling conservative leaning groups as &#8216;hate&#8217; groups.” The SPLC considers groups like Focus on the Family, a global evangelical ministry widely popular in Christian circles, to be hate groups for opposing LGBTQ and abortion.</p>
<p>“The FBI analysts who developed the Richmond memorandum relied on literature with an inherent prejudice against people of faith and those with widely-held, deeply personal views of the sanctity of life,” the Committee notes.</p>
<p>Though former FBI director Christopher Wray minimized the significance of the 2023 memo, saying that it was a single product of a single office, the committee found that the Richmond office was working with FBI headquarters and that its “religious liberty abuses were more widespread than the FBI initially admitted and led the public to believe.”</p>
<p>Employees worked with FBI headquarters to develop a “Strategic Perspective Executive Analytic Report” for external use. They pitched the project to headquarters in December 2022, a month after the memo was created. It was later abandoned after the memo was leaked to the public.</p>
<p>Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) said in a <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/265497/judiciary-committee-fbi-spied-on-catholic-priest-for-not-divulging-info-on-parishioner" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a> to the Catholic News Agency that lawmakers “knew the Biden-Wray FBI was targeting Catholics, but new documents obtained by the committee — thanks to the leadership of FBI Director [Kash] Patel — shows that it was worse than anyone thought.”</p>
<p>“Contrary to Director Wray’s statements, the targeting of Catholics went beyond the Richmond Field Office and extended not to just offices across the country but around the world.”</p>


Rosary Beads in Hands of Catholic Woman

Biden FBI Spied On Catholic Priest Who Refused To Disclose Private Conversations With Parishioner

Biden Administration

Catholic Church

Christopher Wray

Virginia

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Former NPR CEO Vivian Schiller </span><a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/former-npr-ceo-admits-mixing-journalism-federal-funding-recipe-disaster"><span style="font-weight: 400;">said</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in an MSNBC interview Monday that “I have long believed that mixing journalism and federal funding is just a recipe for disaster.” </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This comes as the Senate </span><a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/house-rescissions-foreign-aid-public-media/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">passed</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> Trump’s $9 billion rescissions package on Sunday, which is awaiting the President’s signature to become law. The bill repeals over $1 billion in federal funding allocated to public media, including broadcast corporations like PBS and NPR. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“In many ways, I think this is an opportunity for a reset,” Schiller said. “I think the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which was a very bureaucratic organization that was, still is today, doling out that money, will go away. Let’s reset. Let’s come up with a new governance structure.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Opponents argued the cuts will largely affect local news stations and rural Americans. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">CPB president Patricia Harrison said that “many local public radio and television stations will be forced to shut down.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, </span><a href="https://thehill.com/business/budget/5409384-trump-public-media-foreign-aid-cuts/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">told</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> the Hill that rural communities are “frightened to death” that “they’re not going to have access to important information or alerts about weather situations, information that they need to know, education for their kids, because they’re not in communities where there are multiple sources of information.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Schiller disagreed on the necessity of local news being impaired by the cuts: &#8220;Those of us that care about local journalism are going to help them,&#8221; she said. “The fact is this is done. The money is gone. The rescission has happened. So my perspective now is let’s move on.&#8221;</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">She added, &#8220;I tend to look at the bright side of life and say let’s just find a better way forward, because there were problems with the former system.&#8221;</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The rescissions bill passed the House 51-48, largely along party lines. Republicans have long accused NPR and PBS of having a liberal </span><a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/npr-head-asks-critics-show-me-story-proves-liberal-bias-amid-defunding-threats"><span style="font-weight: 400;">bias</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">NPR reported that country music and birds are racist, told American people to stop eating beef, and promoted the Russia-gate conspiracy. No person with a brain above a single-celled organism would call these articles fair and balanced,” Senator John Kennedy said in a series of <a href="https://x.com/SenJohnKennedy/status/1945554069289853418">posts to X</a> on Wednesday in response to current NPR CEO Katherine Maher’s challenge to Republicans to find one clear example of bias. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">&#8220;NPR reported that there is no evidence that biological men have an unfair advantage over biological women in sports. NPR also called America’s interstate highways racist. I did not know our highways were racist. I thought they were concrete, but not according to NPR.”</span></p>


In this photo illustration, National Public Radio (NPR) logo

Ex-NPR CEO: Mixing Journalism And Federal Funding A ‘Recipe For Disaster’

Media Bias

National Public Radio (NPR)

Politics

<p>Malcolm-Jamal Warner, most known for his role as Theo Huxtable on The Cosby Show, died on Sunday at 54 during a family vacation in Costa Rica.</p>
<p>Warner was swimming at a beach in Cocles de Limón when a current pulled him into deeper waters, and he drowned, Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigation Department stated, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/malcolm-jamal-warner-dead-drowning-costa-rica/">per</a> CBS News.</p>
<p>&#8220;He was rescued by people on the beach,&#8221; according to an initial report, but first responders were unable to revive him.</p>
<p>The Costa Rican National Police reported asphyxia as the official cause of death, ABC News <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/malcolm-jamal-warner-former-cosby-show-star-dead/story?id=123932998">reported</a>.</p>
<p>Warner is most known for playing Theo on &#8220;The Cosby Show,&#8221; a sitcom that aired from 1984-1992 and centered around the Huxtables, an upper-middle-class black American family living in Brooklyn, New York. He was nominated for an Emmy in 1986 for his role as supporting actor in the series.</p>
<p>The show’s reputation was tainted after Bill Cosby, who played Cliff Huxtable, the father, and also co-produced the show, was charged with multiple counts of sexual assault.</p>
<p>Despite this, Warner told <a href="https://people.com/malcolm-jamal-warner-cosby-show-dead-54-11775980">People</a> in 2023 that he is still proud of his work: &#8220;Regardless of how some people may feel about the show now, I&#8217;m still proud of the legacy and having been a part of such an iconic show that had such a profound impact on — first and foremost, Black culture — but also American culture,&#8221; Warner said.</p>
<p>Speaking of his fellow cast members, he said that &#8220;We share a unique experience that keeps us lovingly bonded no matter how much time goes between seeing or hearing from each other.”</p>
<p>Warner paired up with comedian Eddie Griffin to produce his own sitcom &#8220;Malcolm and Eddie,&#8221; which lasted from 1996 to 2000. More recently, he starred as Chuck Cooper in &#8220;Major Crimes,&#8221; as Julius Rowe in &#8220;Suits,&#8221; and as AJ Austin in &#8220;The Resident.&#8221;</p>
<p>His latest venture was a podcast he launched in 2024 alongside cohosts Weusi Baraka and Candace Kelley titled Not All Hood, discussing cultural trends and issues relevant to Black Americans.</p>
<p>“It&#8217;s been an interesting experience for me, because it&#8217;s a place where I feel safe enough to be able to be as vulnerable as I allow myself to be,” he told PEOPLE.</p>
<p>Fans are paying tribute on social media. “That man gave us one of the greatest scenes in the history of television. I cannot even believe this. I am over here SOBBING! Rest in poetry, Malcolm Jamal Warner,” one X user <a href="https://x.com/PettyLupone/status/1947351205086204408?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">posted</a>.</p>
<p>“RIP to the great Malcolm Jamal Warner, my generation grew up on him,” another <a href="https://x.com/Finalbossjimmy/status/1947349396519018870">said</a>.</p>
<p>Warner is survived by his wife and daughter.</p>


2nd Annual Living Legends Gala

Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Star on ‘The Cosby Show,’ Dies at 54

Malcolm Jamal Warner, Star on The Cosby Show, Dies at 54

Bill Cosby

Celebrities

Television

<p>Elon Musk announced on Monday that he would not cooperate with French authorities in their “politically motivated criminal investigations&#8221; against his social media platform, X.</p>
<p>The Paris public prosecutor’s office opened a <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/france-opens-probe-into-musks-x-over-algorithm/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">probe</a> against X in June in response to allegations by politician Eric Bothorel that the platform was performing “fraudulent data extraction” for “foreign interference purposes.”</p>
<p>A separate complaint said that X &#8220;now offers an enormous amount of hateful, racist, anti-LGBT+ and homophobic political content, which aims to skew the democratic debate in France.&#8221;</p>
<p>Musk has <a href="https://x.com/GlobalAffairs/status/1947213316331282504" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dismissed</a> the allegations as “completely false” and says the probe “egregiously undermines X’s fundamental right to due process and threatens our users’ rights to privacy and free speech.”</p>
<p>“For these reasons, X has not acceded to the French authorities’ demands, as we have a legal right to do.”</p>
<p>“French authorities have requested access to X’s recommendation algorithm and real-time data about all user posts on the platform in order for several ‘experts’ to analyze the data and purportedly &#8216;uncover the truth&#8217; about the operation of the X platform,” Musk wrote.</p>
<p>He claimed that two of the proposed experts are openly hostile towards X. One, David Chalaverias, leads a campaign called <a href="https://www.escape-x.org/Why-quit-X-Launch-of-Escape-X-campaign.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">EscapeX</a>, which calls for a mass exodus from the platform, citing a biased algorithm and “Elon Musk&#8217;s influence in European democracies.”</p>
<p>“The involvement of these individuals raises serious concerns about the impartiality, fairness, and political motivations of the investigation, to put it charitably,” Musk wrote.</p>
<p>He also noted that while X is “in the dark” about the exact nature of the allegations, French authorities have labeled the company as an “organized gang.” This designation, which is usually reserved for drug cartels or mafia groups, gives police greater investigative power, including the authorization to conduct searches, wiretaps, and surveillance against Musk and his employees. Noncompliance could result in an <a href="https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/paris-prosecutor-contacts-police-probe-into-social-media-platform-x-advances-2025-07-11/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">arrest</a> warrant.</p>
<p>“Based on what we know so far, X believes that this investigation is distorting French law in order to serve a political agenda and, ultimately, restrict free speech,” he concluded.</p>
<p>This comes amidst a broader European <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-meta-apple-x-fines-digital-antitrust-rules-digital-services-act-elon-musk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">movement</a> to crack down on tech companies in the wake of the European Union’s 2022 Digital Services Act, and increasing <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/does-europe-have-free-speech-problem-2034349" target="_blank" rel="noopener">disagreement</a> between the United States and Europe on the limits of free speech.</p>
<p>The European Commission has already fined Apple and Meta millions of euros. It is in the middle of a drawn-out investigation into X, and has already found that X violated the Digital Services Act on three accounts, including “the transparency of its advertising; data access for researchers; and the use of blue check marks that connote trust but can be bought — which could constitute deceptive design.”</p>
<p>Musk <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1811783320839008381?lang=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> the EU tried to pressure X into censoring its users: “The European Commission offered X an illegal secret deal: if we quietly censored speech without telling anyone, they would not fine us.”</p>
<p>“The other platforms accepted that deal. X did not.”</p>


Elon Musk

Elon Won’t Cooperate With France’s ‘Politically Motivated’ Investigations Into X

Crime

France

Investigation

Twitter

<p>WASHINGTON—The Republican Study Committee marked the anniversary of the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump by warning of the dangers of violent political rhetoric.</p>
<p>Study Committee Chairman August Pfluger (R-TX) and Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA) on Monday introduced a <a href="https://kelly.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-kelly-rsc-chairman-pfluger-introduce-resolution-marking-one-year" target="_blank" rel="noopener">resolution</a> condemning the attempts on Trump’s life as well as “those who incite violence against political officials.” The resolution specifically mentioned the recent fatal shooting of a Minnesota state representative, and an arson attack at Pennsylvania Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro’s home.</p>
<p>Pfluger and Kelly discussed the resolution in a Monday <a href="https://www.news9.com/story/68757532494364ff6a727e77/watch-republican-study-committee-press-conference-on-first-anniversary-of-trump-assassination-attempt" target="_blank" rel="noopener">press conference</a>, saying that it was up to lawmakers to combat violent rhetoric, lest it lead people to violence.</p>
<p>“We can pass resolution after resolution. We can go to church on Sunday and abhor what’s taking place and we leave that church and we go out and we practice what we just condemned in our churches,” Kelly said. “The illness has far deeper roots than we know.”</p>
<p>Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) said the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/13/politics/trump-butler-assassination-maga-change" target="_blank" rel="noopener">would-be assassin</a> who shot Trump last year in Butler, Pennsylvania, was inspired by the Left’s violent rhetoric.</p>
<p>“Leftists on the other side of the aisle were slandering that same then presidential candidate, saying that he is a threat to democracy, that he’s a wannabe dictator, that he is literally Hitler, in their words,” he said. “And some people on their side of the aisle take those words at face value. And they tried to assassinate him.”</p>
<p>Several Study Committee members noted that they had received death threats. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) said she received a syringe in the mail; Rep. Max Miller (R-OH) said he was run off the road, and Rep. Roger Williams (R-TX) said his daughters were both sent envelopes containing “urine, blood, and feces” that read “This will be on your father’s tombstone.”</p>
<p>Rep. Mark Harris (R-NC) told The Daily Wire that his district offices examined their own security after the June 14 assassination of Minnesota State Representative <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/14/us/melissa-hortman-minnesota-assassination" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Melissa Hortman</a>.</p>
<p>But, Harris said he’s “not sure there&#8217;s enough money in the world to actually solve the problem because the problem comes from individuals, and there are plenty of individuals that are on the edge.”</p>
<p>Harris said the resolution was “simply calling out everybody to dial back the rhetoric and recognizing how we’ve got to somehow in this nation get back to having civil discourse.”</p>
<p>“One of the things that is so clear to me is we&#8217;ve allowed our politics to become far more focused on personalities and persons than we have focused on policy,” Harris added. “Unfortunately, when you don&#8217;t really have anything to say that people will buy into for policy, then you choose to just go after a person. That’s where you get into trouble.”</p>
<p>And while Harris noted that “you can&#8217;t legislate” violent rhetoric away, he said that political leaders nevertheless “have a responsibility to talk about the issue.”</p>
<p>Still, he said, the only way for things to really change is for “the American people say enough is enough” and “start punishing the politicians that are attacking personalities.”</p>


Butler Anniversary Presser

House Republicans Call For An End To Violent Rhetoric On The Anniversary Of Butler Shooting

Butler

Donald Trump

House Republicans

Political Violence

<p>Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said during her book tour last weekend that she views Supreme Court opinions as a way to voice her personal convictions.</p>
<p>&#8220;I just feel that I have a wonderful opportunity to tell people in my opinions how I feel about the issues, and that&#8217;s what I try to do,&#8221; Jackson said.</p>
<p>She made the <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/justice-jackson-i-get-tell-people-how-i-feel-court-opinions" target="_blank" rel="noopener">comments</a> during a discussion of her new memoir, “Lovely One,” in front of 4,000 attendees at the Essence Festival of Culture in New Orleans.</p>
<p>Jackson’s conception of her role appears to differ from that of most Supreme Court justices.</p>
<p>The justice &#8220;apparently has a fundamental disagreement with the rest of the court about what the role of a Supreme Court justice is,&#8221; Scott Jennings, former director of political affairs for George W. Bush, <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/ketanji-brown-jackson-gets-put-her-place-justices-scott-jennings-2097017" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a CNN interview on Wednesday.</p>
<p>&#8220;People from the ideological right and the ideological left on the court have had to put her in her place a couple of times here in this term. I would guess internally it&#8217;s causing issues at the Supreme Court,&#8221; he added.</p>
<p>This tension has become evident in recent rulings. In June, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 against <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/supreme-court-sides-with-trump-limits-nationwide-injunctions-in-birthright-citizenship-fight" target="_blank" rel="noopener">universal injunctions</a>, which federal courts were using to block President Donald Trump’s executive orders. Justice Jackson filed her own dissent.</p>
<p>&#8220;I write separately to emphasize a key conceptual point: The Court’s decision to permit the Executive to violate the Constitution with respect to anyone who has not yet sued is an existential threat to the rule of law,&#8221; she stated.</p>
<p>Justice Amy Coney Barrett slammed Jackson in the majority opinion, saying that “She offers a vision of the judicial role that would make even the most ardent defender of judicial supremacy blush.”</p>
<p>“​​We will not dwell on Justice Jackson’s argument, which is at odds with more than two centuries’ worth of precedent, not to mention the Constitution itself,” Barrett concluded. “We observe only this: Justice Jackson decries an imperial Executive while embracing an imperial Judiciary.”</p>
<p>Jackson was notably the only dissenter in a ruling on Tuesday enabling the Trump administration to continue mass government layoffs per a February executive order. Though the court order took up less than two pages, her dissent ran 15 pages long.</p>
<p>The Heritage Foundation’s Hans von Spakovsky <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/even-ketanji-brown-jacksons-liberal-scotus-colleagues-tire-of-her-weak-arguments?author=Tim+Pearce&amp;category=undefined&amp;elementPosition=1&amp;row=3&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+News&amp;rowType=Vertical+Carousel&amp;title=Even+Ketanji+Brown+Jackson%E2%80%99s+Liberal+SCOTUS+Colleagues+Tire+Of+Her+Weak+Arguments" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told The Daily Wire</a> this week that “Jackson is really at the far end of the spectrum,” and that her colleagues — including the other liberal justices — “are getting tired of her.”</p>
<p>Reminiscing about her childhood during another book promotion at the Kennedy Center, Jackson said her mother “wanted me to get out there and use my voice,” and that she’d enrolled Jackson in public speaking classes starting in elementary school.</p>
<p>Despite being the youngest and newest justice, having been nominated by President Joe Biden in 2022, Jackson speaks <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/07/05/supreme-court-justice-ketanji-brown-jackson-dissent-liberal/84461418007/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">more</a> than any of her colleagues. Since October, she has spoken 50% more words than the next most vocal justice, Sonia Sotomayor, according to a report by Empirical SCOTUS.</p>
<p>She was also in the majority the least often this term, and wrote more — including opinions, dissents, and concurrences — than any of the other justices except for Clarence Thomas.</p>
<p>“There are some times when, even after the principal dissent is written, I have a slightly different perspective or a different take on something or this is an issue of particular importance to me,” she <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/10/us/ketanji-brown-jackson-democracy.html#:~:text=Often%2C%20justices%20who%20share%20a,my%20voice%2C%E2%80%9D%20she%20added." target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>.</p>
<p>“I will say, &#8216;Forgive me, Justice Sotomayor, but I need to write on this case,&#8217; and it&#8217;s because I feel like I might have something to offer and something to add, and I&#8217;m not afraid to use my voice.”</p>


Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson

Ketanji Brown Jackson Says She Uses Supreme Court Opinions To Express Her Feelings

<p>On Thursday, the Washington Post published an op-ed titled “Donald Trump is not a clown. I should know.” In the piece, Tim Cunningham — a professional clown and board president of Clowns Without Borders — castigates Trump critics who refer to the president as a “clown” or his administration as a “clown show.”</p>
<p>He cites several examples, including the “<a href="https://action.womensmarch.com/calendars/kick-out-the-clowns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kick Out the Clowns</a>” organized last June by critics of Trump’s parade celebrating the army’s 250th, who saw it as “tacky” and “inspired by dictators.”</p>
<p>“Clown demands years, if not a lifetime, of study,” Cunningham wrote, inexplicably using his title as some kind of proper noun. Cunningham even considers clowning sacred, noting that “several ancient Indigenous cultures revere a sacred clown figure.”</p>
<p>“For example, the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Sioux) people celebrate the heyoka, an honorable community member who uses humor to shed light on societal problems.”</p>
<p>“Real clowns,” he claims, unite people in “laughter, levity, and creativity.”</p>
<p>Nothing on the president’s record “qualifies Trump for such a title,” Cunningham writes, noting that “all Clown shares the common values of healing, empathy and reflection.”</p>
<p>In February, Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/wapo-opinion-editor-quits-after-jeff-bezos-announces-significant-shift-in-opinion-section" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> an overhaul of the paper’s opinion section. The Amazon CEO wrote that going forward, the Post was “going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets.” This “significant shift,” as Bezos called it, led editorial page editor David Shipley to quit.</p>
<p>It’s unclear how Cunningham’s op-ed relates to the “pillars” Bezos claimed to build the Post’s editorial section around. The paper — which infamously changed its motto to “Democracy Dies In Darkness” in response to President Donald Trump’s first election — has recently offered employees <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/05/27/media/washington-post-announces-another-buyout-program-targeting-veteran-staffers-other-departments/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">buyouts</a> as it downsizes and restructures its newsroom.</p>
<p>Cunningham — who works for a “humanitarian clowning” nonprofit called Clowns Without Borders — did not limit his criticisms to Trump critics.</p>
<p>“Every election season, the word ‘clown’ resurfaces to compare tumultuous Washington politics to a circus,” he wrote. “Political commentators and social media users are not the only ones who wrongfully sling this jibe. ‘Clown’ is used by almost everyone to belittle those seen as foolish or incompetent.”</p>
<p>Ultimately, though, his piece is yet another criticism of Trump. He ends by urging readers to “find a better metaphor to despise and depose fascism.”</p>
<p>As an alternative, Cunningham suggests the word “buffoon,” which Merriam-Webster <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/buffoon" target="_blank" rel="noopener">defines</a> as “clown.”</p>


Protesters dressed as Donald Trump clowns take part during

The Washington Post’s Latest Anti-Trump Commentator Is A Literal Clown

<p>Three men were being paid by the Russian state to carry out arson and kidnappings to undermine European support for Ukraine and punish opponents of the regime.</p>
<p>The men were found guilty on Tuesday of torching a London warehouse containing Starlink satellite technology bound for Ukraine, and acting out the directives of the Wagner Group, &#8220;a private military organisation that acts on behalf of the Russian state,&#8221; <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2k37x91vlo">according</a> to the BBC.</p>
<p>Jakeem Rose, 23, Ugnius Asmena, 20, and Nii Mensah, 23, were convicted of aggravated arson with intent to endanger life.</p>
<p>The getaway driver, 61-year-old Paul English, was acquitted due to lack of knowledge. Another man was convicted for knowing about terrorist acts but failing to disclose the information, and yet another was acquitted on the same charge.</p>
<p>The whole operation was caught on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYjhq3sJcuU" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CCTV</a>. The perpetrators also livestreamed the arson along to the song &#8220;Spit of Gym&#8221; by Lowlemon, in typical Gen Z fashion.</p>
<p>The arson caused more than $1.36 million worth of damage.</p>
<p>The two ringleaders, Dylan Earl, 21, and Jake Reeves, 23, had already pleaded guilty to aggravated arson and violating the National Security Act. Both men have a history of dealing drugs.</p>
<p>Earl was the first person to be convicted under the United Kingdom’s National Security Act. After being arrested, he admitted to his role in a plot to kidnap Russian billionaire and expat Yevgeny Chichvarkin and burn his Michelin Star restaurant to the ground. Chichvarkin has been a vocal opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin.</p>
<p>The men seem to have been motivated primarily by money. Though their handler refused to pay them for the Starlink incident, claiming that they “rushed into burning these warehouses without my approval,” he <span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">promised <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czjkke22gv9o" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$6,800</a></span> for other warehouses in East London.</p>
<p>Earl had also expressed allegiance to the Russian cause, prompting his handler to call him “our dagger in Europe.”</p>
<p>“We will be sharpening you carefully,” they added.</p>
<p>Earl exchanged hundreds of messages with his Wagner contact, named “Privet Bot,” over Telegram. The contact encouraged him to recruit “soccer hooligans, Irish republican militants and high-profile criminal groups,” <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/three-men-guilty-over-uk-arson-attack-ukraine-linked-businesses-ordered-by-2025-07-08/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reuters</a> reported.</p>
<p>The Wagner Group began as a state-funded “private military company” but “has been under the control of Russian state agencies and intelligence services since a failed 2023 coup,” according to British authorities speaking to The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/08/world/europe/hide-wagner-plot-kidnap-uk.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New York Times</a>.</p>
<p>The Russian Embassy in London <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/three-men-guilty-of-arson-attack-ordered-by-wagner-group-on-ukraine-linked-warehouse-in-london-13393489" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stated</a> after the attack that &#8220;Russia has never engaged in sabotage activities against the United Kingdom and has no intention of doing so.”</p>
<p>They dismissed the claims of ties to the Wagner Group as a “malevolent campaign of anti-Russian scaremongering.”</p>
<p>The British government has cracked down on Russian foreign intelligence since the poisoning and attempted assassination of Sergei Skripal, a Russian double agent working for the United Kingdom, and his daughter in 2018.</p>
<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve made the UK a hostile operating environment for those governments but, as a result, they&#8217;ve diversified and are now contacting relatively young people to act on their behalf as proxies in doing their activity,&#8221; Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the London police&#8217;s Counter Terrorism Command, stated.</p>
<p>Just last month in the United Kingdom, six Bulgarians were convicted of spying for Russia. The Associated Press has noted an <a href="https://www.ap.org/news-highlights/best-of-the-week/second-winner/2025/ap-team-creates-interactive-map-tracking-suspected-russian-sabotage-across-europe/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">increase</a> in Russian attacks across European countries since the start of the Ukraine war.</p>
<p>Murphy said it was &#8220;only by good fortune nobody was seriously injured or worse.”</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.cps.gov.uk/cps/news/how-cps-used-new-national-security-act-legislation-prosecute-plot-sabotage-ukrainian-aid" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Crown Prosecution Service</a> said that the convictions will &#8220;send a very clear message that this type of offending will not be tolerated on UK soil.”</p>


Vladimir Putin

Gen Z ‘Gig Workers’ For Russian-Backed Group Convicted of Arson

Arson

Gen Z

Russia

United Kingdom

<p>Americans may be shocked by Zohran Mamdani’s radical politics. But the communist upstart’s views wouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone familiar with his father.</p>
<p>Mahmood Mamdani, a professor at Columbia University, claimed on a panel at the Jaipur Literature Festival in New York in 2022 that Hitler was inspired by Abraham Lincoln, that the antisemitic Nuremberg laws were patterned after American laws, and that “the Nazi political project was shared by the allies.”</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFATiIOE0bM" target="_blank" rel="noopener">discussion</a> centered around the release of his book, “Neither Settler Nor Native: The Making And Unmaking Of Permanent Minorities,” which “explores the nature of the nation-state, and the path to a reimagined, decolonized future.”</p>
<p>Mahmood Mamdani began by saying that “America is the genesis of what we call settler-colonialism” around the world. He goes on to say that Adolf Hitler got the idea of the Holocaust from President Abraham Lincoln:</p>
<p>“With the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln generalized the solution of reservations, they herded American Indians into separate territories. For the Nazis, this was the inspiration — Hitler realized two things: one, that genocide is doable. It is possible to do genocide, that’s what Hitler realized. Second thing Hitler realized is that you don’t have to have a common citizenship.”</p>
<p>Mahmood Mamdani also said that Nazi Germany’s racist and antisemitic <a href="https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/nuremberg-laws" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nuremberg Laws</a> were “patterned after American laws.”</p>
<p>Moreover, “The Nazi political project was shared by the Allies, and that political project was to turn Germany into a ‘pure’ nation.”</p>
<p>“When the Allies defeated the Nazis and went into Eastern Europe, they began to create ‘pure’ nations. To ethnically cleanse Eastern Europe of Germans — move them back into Germany. One crime doesn’t wipe out another.”</p>
<p>Mahmood Mamdani’s book reveals a blatantly Marxist philosophy: “There are two kinds of identities, there is the identity of the oppressor and the identity of the oppressed,” he said.</p>
<p>He argues that “The nation state is what prevents us from living together.” This is because “The majority precedes democracy.” The tension between citizen and subject, or majority and minority, is an inherent consequence of colonialism:</p>
<p>“I argue that nationalism and colonialism are not two different things. We normally think of two kinds of nationalism, good nationalism and bad nationalism. Good nationalism brought us together and bad nationalism targeted other minorities. The important thing to realize is that these two things happen at the same time, they are two sides of the same coin,” he stated.</p>
<p>In order to eliminate oppression, Mamdani argues that we need to <a href="https://novaramedia.com/2025/07/03/if-you-like-zohran-mamdani-youre-going-to-love-his-dad/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dismantle</a> “colonialist architecture,” stating that “the tribes must take charge and the tribes must be sovereign.”</p>
<p>In an interview with the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/26/nyregion/zohran-mamdani-parents-mira-nair.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New York Times</a>, the elder Mamdani stressed that Zohran is “his own person.”</p>
<p>“Now, of course what we do as his parents is part of the environment in which he grew up, and he couldn’t help but engage with it. That doesn’t mean anything is reflected back on us.”</p>
<p>Zohran’s mother, the director Amrit Nair, disagreed: “Of course the world we live in, and what we write and film and think about, is the world that Zohran has very much absorbed.”</p>
<p>Zohran Mamdani self-identifies as a democratic socialist and has espoused numerous radical socialist policies, including <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/02/realestate/mamdani-rent-freeze-real-estate.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">freezing the rent</a> on a million apartments, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/28/nyregion/mamdani-policies-economy-housing-buses-childcare.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">raising the minimum wage</a> to 30$ by 2030, making child care and the bus system free, replacing police with teams of <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1a7ejjSZWWIAcxfcWnkYaqvnjihTb0LAOQkj8g10-npg/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.2gazcsgmxkub" target="_blank" rel="noopener">mental health professionals</a>, and establishing city-run grocery stores.</p>
<p>PolitiFact recently rebuffed President Donald Trump’s claim that Zohran Mamdani was a communist. But, as The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/politifact-says-mamdani-is-not-a-communist-the-expert-they-cite-is-a-socialist?author=Mairead+Elordi&amp;category=undefined&amp;elementPosition=20&amp;row=3&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+News&amp;rowType=Vertical+Carousel&amp;title=PolitiFact+Says+Mamdani+Is+Not+A+Communist.+The+Expert+They+Cite+Is+A+Socialist." target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>, the expert they cited was himself a longtime socialist.</p>


Mayoral Candidate For New York Zohran Mamdani Holds Primary Election Night Party

Zohran Mamdani’s Father Said Abraham Lincoln Inspired The Holocaust

Adolf Hitler

antisemitism

Holocaust

New York City

Zohran Mamdani

<p>An impostor is using an artificial intelligence voice changer to impersonate Secretary of State Marco Rubio and contact foreign and domestic officials, according to a July 3 State Department cable obtained by the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/07/08/marco-rubio-ai-imposter-signal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Washington Post</a>.</p>
<p>Authorities have not identified the individual behind the attempts, but claim that he was probably trying to gain access to information or accounts.</p>
<p>So far he has contacted at least five officials, “including three foreign ministers, a U.S. governor, and a U.S. member of Congress.” It is unknown if they responded to the AI generated messages.</p>
<p>The impersonator first used a fake email address to create a Signal account. Signal is a secure encrypted messaging app that is <a href="https://apnews.com/article/encryption-apps-government-transparency-sunshine-week-ad26ecdee91c8f99f15228bbe7989ede" target="_blank" rel="noopener">widely used</a> by government officials. Then, he used the phone numbers associated with the officials’ accounts to contact them.</p>
<p>“The actor left voicemails on Signal for at least two targeted individuals and in one instance, sent a text message inviting the individual to communicate on Signal,” according to the cable. He also impersonated other State Department personnel using email.</p>
<p>The FBI had <a href="https://www.ic3.gov/PSA/2025/PSA250515" target="_blank" rel="noopener">warned</a> government officials in May about an “ongoing malicious text and voice messaging campaign” targeting them and their contacts with voice generated messages in an attempt to gain funds or information.</p>
<p>“If you receive a message claiming to be from a senior U.S. official, do not assume it is authentic,” they said.</p>
<p>That month, someone breached the phone of White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and impersonated her in numerous calls to high ranking officials.</p>
<p>The State Department says they will “carry out a thorough investigation and continue to implement safeguards to prevent this from happening in the future.”</p>
<p>Hany Farid, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley who specializes in analyzing deepfakes, told the Washington Post that phishing schemes targeting government officials do not require sophisticated knowledge and are often successful because officials can be careless about data security.</p>
<p>The rise of AI has made classic phishing schemes much easier. Using an AI voice generator, all you need is 15-20 seconds of audio to “clone” someone’s voice and record them saying whatever text you specify.</p>
<p>New AI-assisted cybersecurity schemes are popping up all over. In June <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/scammers-now-impersonating-senior-government-officials-and-ceos-to-swindle-canadians/ar-AA1HrYCS" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Canadian</a> agencies warned citizens of similar AI phishing schemes targeting government officials and CEOs. Ukraine also issued a warning that Russian intelligence agents were impersonating its Security Service to recruit civilians for sabotage missions.</p>
<p>Over 50% of phishing emails are now generated by AI, according to a recent <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/daveywinder/2025/06/20/ai-is-behind-50-of-spam---and-now-its-hacking-your-accounts/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a> by Barracuda and researchers from Columbia University and the University of Chicago.</p>


Secretary of State Marco Rubio testifies on the 2026 Budget In House Hearing

Marco Rubio Impostor Uses AI To Deceive High-Ranking Officials

Artificial Intelligence

Marco Rubio

State Department

Washington Post

<p>House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is back in the news this week — but he probably wishes he wasn&#8217;t.</p>
<p>The New York Democrat on Sunday posted a photo of himself leaning against a park bench in Brooklyn, with the caption: “Home Sweet Home.&#8221;</p>
<p>The problem: the photo was obviously edited, as evidenced by the fact that the area around Jeffries&#8217;s legs was warped, as was the bench behind him.</p>
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<p>His followers quickly commented on how bad the photoshopping job was, speculating on whether he was trying to make himself look slimmer, or taller.</p>
<p>Soon, less friendly <a href="https://x.com/hollandcourtney/status/1942267253178917068" target="_blank" rel="noopener">X users</a> began wondering the same thing.</p>
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<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Yes, this is real.</p>
<p>Congressman Hakeem Jeffries Photoshopped himself so hard he bent the bench. <a href="https://t.co/WBifTUhp8y" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pic.twitter.com/WBifTUhp8y</a></p>
<p>— Courtney Holland 🇺🇸 (@hollandcourtney) <a href="https://twitter.com/hollandcourtney/status/1942267253178917068?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">July 7, 2025</a></p></blockquote>
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<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Hakeem Jeffries slimming himself in Photoshop is the most transparency we’ve seen from Democrats in years <a href="https://t.co/OFOiOm65OC" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pic.twitter.com/OFOiOm65OC</a></p>
<p>— Erin Maguire (@ErinMMaguire) <a href="https://twitter.com/ErinMMaguire/status/1942258860493766753?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">July 7, 2025</a></p></blockquote>
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<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Hakeem Jeffries is such a charisma black hole that it’s warping the fabric of spacetime <a href="https://t.co/X8se04ZiC8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pic.twitter.com/X8se04ZiC8</a></p>
<p>— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) <a href="https://twitter.com/kenklippenstein/status/1942256344414683624?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">July 7, 2025</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script></p>
<p>Jeffries posted the picture upon his return home from his <a href="https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/07/03/congress/hakeem-jeffries-longest-house-speech-00438933" target="_blank" rel="noopener">record-breaking</a> 8-hour and 45-minute speech in the House on Thursday, in which he attempted to delay the vote on the Big Beautiful Bill. The House passed the bill shortly after Jeffries finished speaking, and President Donald Trump signed the bill into law on July 4th.</p>
<p>Jeffries’ social media team seems to be defective when it comes to photoshoots. On Thursday, he posted a photo of him in his office with the caption “Protecting your healthcare is as American as baseball, motherhood, and apple pie.” In the photo, Jeffries is unsmiling, and stiffly holding a baseball bat.</p>
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<p>The top comment on the post: &#8220;who thought this photo was a good idea?”</p>


House Democratic Caucus Speaks To The Media

Hakeem Jeffries Roasted For Obviously Photoshopped Instagram Post

Hakeem Jeffries

House Democrats

Instagram

Photoshop

<p>While the nation mourns the devastating floods that wreaked havoc in Texas, some are taking to TikTok to use the disaster as a jumping off point for shocking racial commentary.</p>
<p>Sade Perkins, a former member of the Houston Food Insecurity Board, posted a video on TikTok pointing out the “double standard” between attitudes towards the girls at Camp Mystic and children of families being deported.</p>
<p>&#8220;Camp Mystic is a Whites-only girls Christian camp. They don&#8217;t even have a token Asian, they don&#8217;t have a Token Black person, it is an all White, White-only conservative Christian camp,&#8221; Perkins claimed.</p>
<p>&#8220;They want you to have sympathy for these people. Meanwhile, they are deporting your family members. And I need you all to keep that in mind before you all get out there and put on your rain boots and go find these little girls.&#8221;</p>
<p>Houston Mayor John Whitmire&#8217;s office <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/former-houston-appointee-claims-flood-ravaged-camp-mystic-whites-only-viral-video" target="_blank" rel="noopener">condemned</a> Perkins’ comments: &#8220;The comments shared on social media are deeply inappropriate and have no place in a decent society, especially as families grieve the confirmed deaths and the ongoing search for the missing,&#8221; the statement from the mayor&#8217;s office read.</p>
<p>The mayor’s office told FOX News they would not reappoint Perkins and would be “taking immediate steps to remove her permanently from the board.”</p>
<p>She’s not the only one trying to politicize the flood, which has claimed the lives of at least 82 people.</p>
<p>Another TikToker, who goes by the username <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@bossysptenstarsimon" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bossysptenstarsimon</a>, implied that some higher power sent the floods to target white people in particular in a video under the caption “I hope this is a lesson 2 ppl in the floods.”</p>
<p>“I find it ironic that it was the deep southern [sic] of Texas that it happened to,” the user, who is black, says. “Are we not paying attention to the certain” — at this point, she stops speaking and brushes her face, to suggest skin tone —&#8221;that’s on the videos?”</p>
<p>“Hopefully this is opening up some eyes and showing people that he watches,” she adds.</p>
<p>A number of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/libs-dragged-for-blaming-texas-flood-disaster-on-trump?author=Amanda+Harding&amp;category=undefined&amp;elementPosition=1&amp;row=3&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+News&amp;rowType=Vertical+Carousel&amp;title=Libs+Dragged+For+Blaming+Texas+Flood+Disaster+On+Trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">leftwing celebrities</a> and political figures have also politicized the flooding, with many implying that Texas — a largely Republican state — brought the disaster upon itself by voting for President Donald Trump, who they say cut disaster response funding. But meteorologists agree that the devastation in Texas was in no way caused or made worse by the administration&#8217;s cuts, as The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/theres-no-evidence-to-suggest-doge-cuts-caused-texas-flood-devastation-meteorologists-say?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Sam+Korkus+and+Isabel+Garcia&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=3&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=There%E2%80%99s+No+Evidence+To+Suggest+DOGE+Cuts+Caused+Texas+Flood+Devastation%2C+Meteorologists+Say" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.</p>


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Isabel Garcia