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Mike Johnson ‘taken aback’ by pope’s comments about war

Apr 15, 2026Center

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said on Wednesday that he was “taken aback” by some of the comments Pope Leo XIV made about the conflict in Iran, amid President Trump’s criticism of the leader of the Catholic Church. “A pontiff or any religious leader can say anything they want, but obviously, if you wade into…

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Billionaire Trump ally melts down in spat with pope: ‘Working for Chinese communists”

Raw Story

9 hours ago

Billionaire Trump ally melts down in spat with pope: ‘Working for Chinese communists”

Right-wing tech billionaire Peter Thiel is accusing Pope Leo XIV of doing the work of the Chinese Communist Party with his criticisms of artificial intelligence.According to a Thursday report from CNN, Thiel told the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado on Tuesday that the pope was inadvertently serving as a “Chinese communist agent” when he released a 42,000-word encyclical that called for strict regulation of AI, a technology that the pontiff said heightens the “risk of dehumanization” throughout the world.Thiel argued that this sort of thinking was dangerous, CNN reported, because it could result in the US losing the “race” to build more advanced AI to China. Because of this, Thiel continued, the pope is essentially “working for the Chinese communists” by trying to tap the brakes on AI development.Thiel, a co-founder of PayPal and Palantir, has long decried AI critics in harsh terms. Over the last year, he has been delivering a series of lectures in which he has said that opponents of AI development are working as agents for the Antichrist.Journalist Christopher Hale, who writes the Letters From Leo newsletter, noted on Friday that Thiel in the past has even speculated that Pope Leo could be “a manifestation of the Antichrist.”Thiel has said that he instructed Vice President JD Vance, a longtime political ally who received major funding from the tech billionaire for his 2022 Senate campaign, to ignore the pope’s moral guidance despite influencing Vance to convert to Catholicism, Hale added.“Thiel seeded the vice president’s Catholic faith,” Hale wrote, “and he now tells wealthy festival audiences that the leader of that faith works for a communist government.”In addition to his attacks on the pope, Thiel also warned about “a democratic-socialist takeover of the Democratic Party,” pointing to recent victories in New York and Colorado of candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of America.Thiel said that this “takeover” would doom the US, arguing that “when the Democratic Party goes, this country is over,” according to CNN.The New York Times reported in May that Thiel has grown so concerned about the political situation in the US that he’s created a “foothold” for himself in Argentina, which is currently being governed by ideologically likeminded libertarian President Javier Milei.“Thiel, who has a history of collecting backup countries as he hedges his bets against the United States, is considering making Argentina another Plan B,” the Times reported. “Born in Germany and raised in the United States, he received citizenship in New Zealand in 2011, and applied for a passport in Malta in 2022.”

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“America-laster”: Texas Senate Candidate James Talarico Slammed in New Ad Ahead of the 250th Anniversary of American Independence for Comments Calling American Flag a “Complicated Symbol” (Video)

The Gateway Pundit

12 hours ago

“America-laster”: Texas Senate Candidate James Talarico Slammed in New Ad Ahead of the 250th Anniversary of American Independence for Comments Calling American Flag a “Complicated Symbol” (Video)

Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico proves, time and time again, that he is a radical with no place representing Texans in the Senate. The post “America-laster”: Texas Senate Candidate James Talarico Slammed in New Ad Ahead of the 250th Anniversary of American Independence for Comments Calling American Flag a “Complicated Symbol” (Video) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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Mike Vrabel and wife head to Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce wedding

New York Post

12 hours ago

Mike Vrabel and wife head to Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce wedding

The New York nuptials are set to take place in the heart of the city at Madison Square Garden, where the Knicks played in the NBA Finals only a few weeks ago.

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‘It’s crazy’: GOP rebel declares war on Republican leadership

Raw Story

13 hours ago

‘It’s crazy’: GOP rebel declares war on Republican leadership

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) committed to block House floor proceedings unless House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) inserts the SAVE Act into a must-pass piece of legislation, Punchbowl News reported on Friday.Luna has pressed for the SAVE America Act – a bill that mandates voter ID and citizenship checks while adding new restrictions on mail-in ballots – to be folded into the annual defense policy bill."We should be doing all of the above," Luna told Punchbowl News for its report published Friday. "Why not try? It's crazy."Luna has already disrupted leadership's plans once – she helped defeat a rule that would have inserted SAVE Act language directly into the defense bill, despite House GOP leaders having spent three years working to keep unrelated amendments out of it.Meanwhile, Senate Republicans have grown frustrated with inter-party disputes. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) told Punchbowl that Republicans "need to be very careful" about how they message the standoff, arguing that Democrats – not Republicans – are the ones blocking the SAVE Act's passage.“The message we need to convey to our supporters – it’s not Republicans that are preventing the SAVE America Act from being passed. It’s Democrats,” Johnson told Punchbowl News.

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Iran plans dayslong funeral for Supreme Leader Khamenei after war death

NPR Topics: News

13 hours ago

Iran plans dayslong funeral for Supreme Leader Khamenei after war death

The country's theocracy hopes to see millions flood the streets of the capital beginning Saturday in scenes reminiscent to the burial of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989.

Center

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Ted Cruz's comments against Zohran Mamdami backfire

Raw Story

Yesterday

Ted Cruz's comments against Zohran Mamdami backfire

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) criticized New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani for urging residents to conserve energy during a dangerous East Coast heat wave, calling the request absurd. Mamdani addressed the extreme temperatures on X, "New York: it's hot out there, and the power grid is working overtime to keep us cool." "Set your AC to 78 degrees, turn off lights/electronics you're not using, and unplug what you can. Our City is doing its part too: maintaining the 78 degrees rule in our buildings, dimming/turning off our lights during peak electricity demand, asking private partners to do the same, and powering down non-essential equipment."Cruz responded on X, "In a first-world country, you could turn on the A/C…."Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas power grid have issued identical recommendations during extreme weather phenomena in Cruz's own state, according to the Texas Tribune. Travis Akers, a social media user, pointed out Cruz's response during Texas' devastating 2026 winter storm that killed residents and left millions without power, "You are the absolute LAST person to weigh in, Captain Cancun."What the video below. Your browser does not support the video tag.

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Senate votes to halt Iran war, then flips

The Hill News

Yesterday

Senate votes to halt Iran war, then flips

The Senate voted for and against ending the war with Iran on two consecutive days, with President Trump lashing out at four GOP senators who had voted for a resolution barring any future U.S. military activities against Iran, and the administration arguing that the resolution is unconstitutional.

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Supreme Court Declares War on Woodrow Wilson

RealClearPolitics - Homepage

Yesterday

Supreme Court Declares War on Woodrow Wilson

This week's Supreme Court ruling giving President Donald Trump a free hand in firing government regulators is less about Trump than it is about President Woodrow Wilson.

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Mike Johnson ‘taken aback’ by pope’s comments about war

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Mike Johnson ‘taken aback’ by pope’s comments about war

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