The Washington Times stories: Politics

Pope Leo urges peace in first Easter Mass as Christians celebrate in Jerusalem, Gaza and Tehran

Apr 5, 2026Center Right

Pope Leo XIV celebrated his first Easter Mass as pontiff with a call Sunday to lay down arms and seek peace to global conflicts through dialogue, but he departed from a tradition of listing the world's woes by name in the Urbi et Orbi blessing from the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica.

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Bryce James drools over girlfriend Sadie’s photo in first post since LeBron James’ Lakers exit

New York Post

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Bryce James drools over girlfriend Sadie’s photo in first post since LeBron James’ Lakers exit

By now, basketball fans know that LeBron James has informed the Los Angeles Lakers that he will not be re-signing with them in free agency this offseason, and will instead find a new team to end his legendary NBA career with.

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WATCH live: 250th celebration event at Mount Rushmore

WorldNetDaily

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WATCH live: 250th celebration event at Mount Rushmore

President Trump schedule to speak at famous monument

Far Right

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Most dangerous CA cities to celebrate July 4th revealed — including ritzy celebrity hideaway

New York Post

5 hours ago

Most dangerous CA cities to celebrate July 4th revealed — including ritzy celebrity hideaway

The Golden State's most dangerous places to the celebrate the Fourth of July have been revealed.

Right

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Americans Cheer as B-2 Stealth Bomber, Fighter Aircraft Fly Over Great American State Fair in DC Amid 250 Celebrations (VIDEO)

The Gateway Pundit

5 hours ago

Americans Cheer as B-2 Stealth Bomber, Fighter Aircraft Fly Over Great American State Fair in DC Amid 250 Celebrations (VIDEO)

B-2 Bombers and other fighter aircraft flew over the Great American State Fair in DC on Friday. The post Americans Cheer as B-2 Stealth Bomber, Fighter Aircraft Fly Over Great American State Fair in DC Amid 250 Celebrations (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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Look past partisanship, and celebrate 250 years of freedom

New York Post

5 hours ago

Look past partisanship, and celebrate 250 years of freedom

America remains the preeminent country on earth and still functions as a very contentious democracy.

Right

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Inside the security operations for July Fourth celebrations in D.C.

Politics - CBSNews.com

6 hours ago

Inside the security operations for July Fourth celebrations in D.C.

The Fourth of July celebrations in Washington, D.C., are deemed a "national special security event," which is the highest possible designation.

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Dem-run city urges residents to snitch on those who break out sparklers on the 4th

BizPac Review

6 hours ago

Dem-run city urges residents to snitch on those who break out sparklers on the 4th

Not only is the city of Alexandria, Virginia, apparently not celebrating America’s 250th anniversary on the Fourth of July, but the DC suburb is also encouraging residents […]

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

Raw Story

8 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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Pope Leo urges peace in first Easter Mass as Christians celebrate in Jerusalem, Gaza and Tehran

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Pope Leo urges peace in first Easter Mass as Christians celebrate in Jerusalem, Gaza and Tehran

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