EXCLUSIVE: Fauci’s First Year Of ‘Retirement’ Was A Money Making Bonanza, Docs Show 4/18/25 1/3

Former White House Chief Medical Advisor AnthonyFauci earned $3.5 million in his first year of retirement from government and may have misled Congress about the date of his departure==, documents reveal.

Fauci received several six-figure deposits through 2023 totaling $1.15 millionaccording to a 141-page financial disclosure obtained by Open The Books, a government watchdog group.

The documentsdo not describe the source of the deposits.

Fauci leveraged his celebrity status as the top trusted messenger on COVID-19 to pad his earnings in 2023, just as newly empoweredCongressional investigators sharpened their focus on the ways Fauci betrayed the public’s trustat the pandemic’s height.

=Fauci sold his memoir to a subsidiary of Penguin Random House for a reported $5 million in March 2023.Thatnews coincidedwith a March 2023 congressional memo showing Fauci had privately “prompted” an influential paper dismissing the theory that COVID could have resulted from a lab accident.=On July 1, 2023, Fauci began an appointment at Georgetown University as distinguished university professorin both the School of Medicine and School of Public Policy. Roughly two weeks later, two of the coauthors of that paper testified to Congress about the extent of their collaboration with Fauci.

The White House on Friday updated the official covid.gov page to highlight this paper, “The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2,” and Fauci’s behind-the-scenes role in downplaying the “lab leak theory.”

Fauci also accepted speaking gigs with several special interest groups in 2023. Some of these organizations and trade associations —including the National Association of Chain Drug Stores and American Health Insurance Plans (AHIP)— have policy agendas that intersect with the federal government’s COVID-19 response or the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the NIH division that Fauci led for nearly four decades.

Fauci’s esteem in the scientific community was lucrative in 2023, despite nagging questions from Congress about his endorsement of gain-of-function research like the coronavirus experiments funded by NIAID in Wuhan, China.

Fauci accepted medals with monetary prizes from the highest echelons of academia including Columbia University’s Calderone Prize, worth $50,000, and the National Academy of Medicine’s Lienhard Prize, worth $40,000.

Fauci’s final government salary totaled an unprecedented $480,654, the highest salary earned by any of the roughly 2.4 million employees who work for the federal government, including the president, according to Open The Books. Fauci continues to accept a six-figure pension.

Fauci’s net worth roughly doubled from $7.6 million the year prior to the COVID-19 pandemicinJanuary 2019 to $15 million in 2023. Fauci also received taxpayer-funded transportation and security detail via the U.S. Marshals Service as a private citizen in 2023.

“Dr. Fauci’s assets soared during the worst of the draconian Covid lockdowns while families and small businesses struggled through school closures and lost income. Now it’s clear the cash kept coming during his first year of ‘retirement,’” said Open The Books CEO John Hart. “He was rubbing elbows with groups like AHIP flanked by taxpayer-funded security — even as his wife remained the top bioethicist at NIH.”

Amid concerns Fauci misled Congress under oath about the research in Wuhan,former President Joe Biden granted Fauci a pardon on Jan. 20.

Fauci did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

https://dailycallernewsfoundation.org/2025/04/18/exclusive-faucis-first-year-of-retirement-was-a-money-making-bonanza-docs-show/

>>22936879

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Delayed Retirement

Fauci announced in August 2022 that he would retire in December 2022. At the time, House Oversight Committee Chair JamesComer of Kentucky warned that “retirement can’t shield Dr. Fauci from congressional oversight.”

In November 2022, Congressional Republicans — who had been investigating connections between Fauci’s NIAID and the Wuhan Institute of Virology — won control of the House of Representatives and thus key committees.

Now, Open The Books has uncovered evidencethrough Fauci’s Application for Immediate Retirement that he delayed his retirement until Jan. 6, 2023— three days after the new Congress started — but misinformed Congress about the change.

Fauci sent a request to NIH Acting Director Larry Tabakto delay his retirement in order to retain personal protection, emails suggest.

An email from Tabak to Fauci indicates a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Marshals Service was still tied up in the Office of General Counsel.

“OGC is working to clear the MOU from the USMS,” Tabak said in a Dec. 27, 2022, email to Fauci confirming his delayed retirement date.

In both a transcribed interview with congressional investigators in January 2024 and in public congressional testimony under oath in June 2024, Fauci described his retirement from federal service as having occurred in December 2022.

Fauci’s extraordinary MOU with theU.S. Marshals Service cost taxpayers roughly $15 million,Open The Books and journalist Jordan Schachtel reported in November 2024.

The U.S. Marshals Service captures fugitives and protects judges and court witnesses.It’s not clear that any other former federal employee has been protectedunder such an agreement, according to Open The Books.

President Donald Trump terminated the arrangement on Jan. 23,along with the security details of former national security adviser John Bolton and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

“They all made a lot of money. They can hire their own security too,” Trump said.“Fauci made a lot of money.”

https://dailycallernewsfoundation.org/2025/04/18/exclusive-faucis-first-year-of-retirement-was-a-money-making-bonanza-docs-show/

>>22936881

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Bioethics?

Some of the growth in the Fauci household’s net worth stems fromthe taxpayer-funded salary of Dr. Christine Grady, a bioethicist at the National Institutes of Health, whoearned $263,005 in 2024.

An NIH official told the DCNF earlier this monththat although Grady had a good reputation within the bioethics discipline,she had a conflict of interest that posed ethical questions of its own.

“One of the problems when the coverup was going on of the Wuhan lab leak, that whole fiasco, was that they were not listening to anyone giving ethics advice,” the official said. “If they had had someone at the table with knowledge of this, they would have said: ‘Hey do you want to play it this way, or be more transparent?’ Someone could have raised the question.”

“That’s something Christine Grady could have, or should have, done,” the official continued. “She wasn’t able to do it because she was Fauci’s wife.”

“Maybe they had discussions in private about what was going on,” the official said. “She was placed in a conflicted role because of that.”

Grady was among the employees at the Department of Health and Human Services affected by the department-wide restructuring and reduction in force prompted by the Department of Government Efficiency earlier this month.Grady was reportedly given a choice between relocating away from the couple’s tony Beltway neighborhood to an Indian Health Service post or leaving HHS.

https://dailycallernewsfoundation.org/2025/04/18/exclusive-faucis-first-year-of-retirement-was-a-money-making-bonanza-docs-show/

There’s no way that Fauci’s networth along with his wife is only $15 million dollars, he ran his Dept since 1989, guaranteed he has overseas hidden accounts and still received royalties on drugs developed like all other scientists. $15 million is only the public disclosure money they could find.

May He and his wife Get the Same Punishment or Worse the Beagles and Animals got at NIH

Charlie Kirk | Club RandomBill Maher

On this episode Bill welcomes Turning Point USA founder and conservative firebrand Charlie Kirk. The two sit down for a long‑form,surprisingly cordial debatethat roams from identity politics to faith, personal freedom, and the state of American institutions. They spar over marijuana, public safety, the limits of adult choice—topics that segue into bigger clashes over homelessness policy, whether safe‑injection sites help or hurt cities, and if Ivy League schools ought to be razed and rebuilt from scratch. A lot of ground is covered in this thoughtful back and forth, plenty of laughter and even a spit-take or two.

1:37:37

https://youtu.be/OblCcO7-Alg

21 Apr, 2025 04:26

Kiev failed to honor Easter truce – Moscow

Ukrainian troops have launched US-made HIMARS rockets at Russian targets, according to the Foreign Ministry in Moscow

Ukraine failed to uphold the 30-hour Easter ceasefire which expired at midnight on Monday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said.

==She made her remarks on Sunday evening after the US State Department said it would welcome an extension of the short truce “beyond Sunday.”=

“=Well, the Kiev regime failed to observe it during Easter,” Zakharova wrote on Telegram. “Moreover, the [Ukrainian government] has violated the truce using American HIMARS systems==,” she added.

“It is not a coincidence, but a pattern: during the moratorium on strikes on energy facilities, Zelensky – despite having agreed to it – was deliberately targeting civilian energy infrastructure,” Zakharova wrote.

Ukrainian leader VladimirZelensky said he would respect the temporary ceasefireannounced by Russian President Vladimir Putin if Moscow stayed true to its word.

The Russian Defense Ministry, however,recorded more than 1,300 artillery and drone attacks after the truce took effectat 6pm local time on Saturday. Zelensky, in turn, accused Russia of around 3,000 violations on Sunday.

According to the Russian MOD, Ukraine regularly targeted fuel depots and parts of the power grid during the 30-day energy truce brokered last month by the US.

One of the largest breaches occurred on March 21,when Ukrainestruck a gas metering station in Sudzha, which is part of a major pipeline used to deliver gas to the EU, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

https://www.rt.com/russia/616038-kiev-failed-easter-truce/

20 Apr, 2025 23:30

Ukrainian envoy asks for 30% of Germany’s military equipment

Berlin must send a “warning signal” to Russia, says Andrey Melnik

Germany should donate 30% of its available armored vehicles and military aircraft to Kiev, according toAndrey Melnik, Ukraine’s envoy to the UN.His appeal comes as the EU seeks to allay uncertainty over whether US President Donald Trump will continue to back Ukraine.

Melnik, who served as Kiev's ambassador to Berlin from 2015 to 2022, addressed his plea in an open letter to Chancellor-designate Friedrich Merz, published in Welt am Sonntag on Saturday. “It is in your hands, as peacemakers, to stop this damn war by the end of 2025,” he wrote.

The diplomat outlined a series of steps he believesMerz must take to “cut the Gordian knot and force [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to make peace.”

According to Melnik, Germany should donate 30% of its Bundeswehr stock of armored vehicles and aircraft to Kiev, including around 45 Eurofighter Typhoon and 30 Tornado fighter jets, 100 Leopard 2 main battle tanks, and 115 Puma and 130 Marder infantry fighting vehicles. He also called on Berlin to defy “the expected resistance” from the Social Democrats (SPD) and send 150 Taurus cruise missiles.

The SPD has opposed the missile deliveries, citing concerns about further escalation with Russia. The Social Democrats and Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) are currently engaged in coalition talks.

Melnik urged Germany to commit 0.5% of its GDP, or €21.5 billion ($24.5 billion) annually, toward military aid to Ukraine through 2029.“These funds should be invested in the production of state-of-the-art weapons in both Germany and Ukraine,” he wrote. He also called for the 0.5% benchmark to be adopted across the EU as a “huge warning signal” to Russia.

Merz recently expressed an openness to delivering Taurus missiles, prompting criticism from SPD leader Matthias Miersch and Defense Minister Boris Pistorius. Meanwhile, Russian Ambassador to Germany Sergey Nechayev warned that such shipments would “bring no changes to the battlefield” but would further implicate Germany in the conflict.

(Ukraine has no intention of engaging in a ceasefire, short or long term. Trump and Rubio knows this, therefore Rubio’s statement “if there is no progress in ceasefire talks, the U.S. will withdraw”. This might be the last straw. The U.S. should withdraw completely and let the rogue CIA leading the country can try on their own without the equipment and security info.)

https://www.rt.com/news/616035-ukraine-asks-germany-weapons/

20 Apr, 2025 21:14

German state media shows Nazi insignia in Ukrainian boot camp for kids

A broadcast from a “military camp for children” featured a child wearing an imperial eagle

German state broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW)spotted a Nazi insignia while reporting from what it claimed to be a “secret military camp” for children in Ukraine.

A report about Ukrainian children “being trained for war in military-style boot camps” on Thursday featuredchildren as young as ten learning to shoot military-grade weapons, provide first aid, and train in hand-to-hand combat.

“Ukrainians realize the war may continue for many years - and they want to be prepared. Today’s children may just be tomorrow’s soldiers,” DW reported.

One of the teenagers appears to be wearing a patch with a stylized Nazi German imperial eagle, which is briefly seen in the video on his shoulder. Unlike the original Reichsadler, who carried the swastika in its claws,the eagle in the patch appears to be clutching the trident from the Ukrainian coat of arms.

The original Reichsadler with theNazi swastika is considered a symbol of an “unconstitutional organization” in Germany, and its display outside the contexts of “art or science, research or teaching” is illegal.

Versions of the symbol has been extremely popular among Ukrainian servicemen, and have repeatedly been spotted in official propaganda materials - only to be quietly removed after critics spot them.

Other controversial symbols, ranging from patches of various SS units, assorted neo-Pagan and neo-Nazi symbols to swastikas, have been repeatedly spotted on uniforms of Ukrainian servicemen as well.

The need to “denazify” Ukraine was among the goals proclaimed by Moscow at the very beginning of its special military operation against Kiev in February 2022.

Kiev has long denied the presence of any neo-Nazi elements in the country’s military, as well as any broader issues with the ideology in the country, dismissing any assertions on the matter as “Russian propaganda.”

https://www.rt.com/news/616034-ukraine-kids-nazi-eagle/

Raising a generation to be Nazi’s of hate for Russia or other countries is sick and disgusting!

20 Apr, 2025 20:21

China detonates non-nuclear hydrogen bomb – media

The South China Morning Post has cited researchers as saying the 2kg magnesium hydride device generated a 1,000 degrees Celsius fireball

Chinese researchers have successfully tested a non-nuclear hydrogen bomb that created a sustained fireball, far outperforming traditional explosives, the South China Morning Post has reported.

In an article on Sunday, the newspaper cited the researchers’ study published last month in the Chinese-language Journal of Projectiles, Rockets, Missiles and Guidance. According to the report, a team from theChina State Shipbuilding Corporation’s (CSSC) 705 Research Institute — a key player in underwater weapon systems— developed a 2kg (4.4lbs) bomb primarily composed of magnesium hydride, with conventional explosives serving as the catalyst.

In a field test, the device reportedly generated a fireball with temperatures exceeding 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,832 degrees Fahrenheit) that lasted for more than two seconds, which is "15 times longer" than what an "equivalent TNT blast" is capable of producing.

In the reaction, magnesium hydride, a compound originally developed as an efficient fuel, rapidly releases stored hydrogen gas, resulting in a sustained inferno.

The novel explosive device’s destructive power thus is said to lie not in its blast pressure, but rather in the ability to generate extreme heat.

The South China Morning Post quoted CSSC research scientist Wang Xuefeng as explaining that its properties also allow for “precise control over blast intensity, easily achieving uniform destruction of targets across vast areas.”

If fully developed, the method could presumably yield a weaponsimilar to a thermobaric device – ideal for annihilating defensive structures and armored vehicles.

While the production of magnesium hydride used to be mostly small-scale and rather complicated, China has recently developed a cheaper and safer production method and built a plant capable of producing 150 tons of the compound per year.

https://www.rt.com/news/616033-media-china-tests-non-nuclear-hydrogen-bomb/

China sending threat warnings.

20 Apr, 2025 20:21

China detonates non-nuclear hydrogen bomb – media

The South China Morning Post has cited researchers as saying the 2kg magnesium hydride device generated a 1,000 degrees Celsius fireball

Chinese researchers have successfully tested a non-nuclear hydrogen bomb that created a sustained fireball, far outperforming traditional explosives, the South China Morning Post has reported.

In an article on Sunday, the newspaper cited the researchers’ study published last month in the Chinese-language Journal of Projectiles, Rockets, Missiles and Guidance. According to the report, a team from theChina State Shipbuilding Corporation’s (CSSC) 705 Research Institute — a key player in underwater weapon systems— developed a 2kg (4.4lbs) bomb primarily composed of magnesium hydride, with conventional explosives serving as the catalyst.

In a field test, the device reportedly generated a fireball with temperatures exceeding 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,832 degrees Fahrenheit) that lasted for more than two seconds, which is "15 times longer" than what an "equivalent TNT blast" is capable of producing.

In the reaction, magnesium hydride, a compound originally developed as an efficient fuel, rapidly releases stored hydrogen gas, resulting in a sustained inferno.

The novel explosive device’s destructive power thus is said to lie not in its blast pressure, but rather in the ability to generate extreme heat.

The South China Morning Post quoted CSSC research scientist Wang Xuefeng as explaining that its properties also allow for “precise control over blast intensity, easily achieving uniform destruction of targets across vast areas.”

If fully developed, the method could presumably yield a weaponsimilar to a thermobaric device – ideal for annihilating defensive structures and armored vehicles.

While the production of magnesium hydride used to be mostly small-scale and rather complicated, China has recently developed a cheaper and safer production method and built a plant capable of producing 150 tons of the compound per year.

https://www.rt.com/news/616033-media-china-tests-non-nuclear-hydrogen-bomb/

China sending threat warnings.

20 Apr, 2025 20:21

China detonates non-nuclear hydrogen bomb – media

The South China Morning Post has cited researchers as saying the 2kg magnesium hydride device generated a 1,000 degrees Celsius fireball

Chinese researchers have successfully tested a non-nuclear hydrogen bomb that created a sustained fireball, far outperforming traditional explosives, the South China Morning Post has reported.

In an article on Sunday, the newspaper cited the researchers’ study published last month in the Chinese-language Journal of Projectiles, Rockets, Missiles and Guidance. According to the report, a team from theChina State Shipbuilding Corporation’s (CSSC) 705 Research Institute — a key player in underwater weapon systems— developed a 2kg (4.4lbs) bomb primarily composed of magnesium hydride, with conventional explosives serving as the catalyst.

In a field test, the device reportedly generated a fireball with temperatures exceeding 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,832 degrees Fahrenheit) that lasted for more than two seconds, which is "15 times longer" than what an "equivalent TNT blast" is capable of producing.

In the reaction, magnesium hydride, a compound originally developed as an efficient fuel, rapidly releases stored hydrogen gas, resulting in a sustained inferno.

The novel explosive device’s destructive power thus is said to lie not in its blast pressure, but rather in the ability to generate extreme heat.

The South China Morning Post quoted CSSC research scientist Wang Xuefeng as explaining that its properties also allow for “precise control over blast intensity, easily achieving uniform destruction of targets across vast areas.”

If fully developed, the method could presumably yield a weaponsimilar to a thermobaric device – ideal for annihilating defensive structures and armored vehicles.

While the production of magnesium hydride used to be mostly small-scale and rather complicated, China has recently developed a cheaper and safer production method and built a plant capable of producing 150 tons of the compound per year.

https://www.rt.com/news/616033-media-china-tests-non-nuclear-hydrogen-bomb/

China sending threat warnings.

21 Apr, 2025 11:11

Pentagon slams ‘Trump-hating’ NYT over Hegseth chat claim

The outlet is trying to reignite “Signalgate” and smear the US defense secretary, a spokesman has said

The Pentagon has rejected a New York Times (NYT) report that US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared detailed information about American strikes on Houthi fighters in Yemen with his wife and brother via a secret chat on the Signal messaging app.

Hegseth was among the key figures in the so-called ‘Signalgate’ scandal, which erupted in late March after the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine, Jeffrey Goldberg, accessed a group chat on Signal in which senior members of the administration of US President Donald Trump discussed the strikes in Yemen.

The NYT reported on Sunday that the defense secretary had a second private chat group on the app, which included his wife, Jennifer Rauchet Hegseth, his brother, his lawyer, and a dozen other people from his inner circle. According to the paper's sources, Hegseth posted flight schedules for the F/A-18 Hornets targeting the Houthis in both groups on March 18.

In a post on X on Monday, chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell accused the NYT of trying to bring the ‘Signalgate’ story “back from the dead.”

“The Trump-hating media continues to be obsessed with destroying anyone committed to President Trump’s agenda,” he said.

The spokesman insisted that “the New York Times – and all other Fake News that repeat their garbage – are enthusiastically taking the grievances of disgruntled former employees as the sole sources for their article.”

“They relied only on the words of people who were fired this week and appear to have a motive to sabotage the Secretary and the President’s agenda,” Parnell added.

He stressed that “there was no classified information in any Signal chat, no matter how many ways they try to write the story.”

Senior Democratic Party members demanded Hegseth’s resignation following the NYT report. Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer wrote on X that “we keep learning how Pete Hegseth put lives at risk. Trump is still too weak to fire him. Pete Hegseth must be fired.”

Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois asked: “How many times does Pete Hegseth need to leak classified intelligence before Donald Trump and Republicans understand that he is not only a f***ing liar, he is a threat to our national security?”

The Democrats made similar calls when the ‘Signalgate’ scandal first broke, although Trump refused to dismiss Hegseth or National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, who had mistakenly added Goldberg to the Signal group chat.“I do not fire people because of fake news and because of witch hunts,” Trump stated.

https://www.rt.com/news/616051-hegseth-signal-yemen-pentagon/

Dems and NYTs regurgitating bullshit because they know they have failed at propaganda. Pathetic As usual

21 Apr, 2025 09:19

Trump wants piece of Russia claimed by Kiev – WSJ

Washington reportedly seeks US control over Europe’s largest nuclear power plant

The US intends to assert control over the Russian territory surrounding Europe’s largest nuclear power plant as part of a mediated agreement between Kiev and Moscow, according to the Wall Street Journal. The proposal is part of a reported package of options that the US expects Ukraine to respond to by the end of this week.

Last Thursday, senior members of US President Donald Trump’s administration met with Ukrainian and European officials in Paris.One of their ideas aimed at facilitating a peace agreement between Kiev and Moscow involves designating the land around the Zaporozhyenuclear power plant (NPP) as neutral territory under US control, the newspaper reported Sunday, citing anonymous sources.

The former Ukrainian region hosting the facility voted to join Russia in 2022, though Kiev has dismissed the referendum as a sham. In March, Trump claimed that Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky had proposed that the US take ownership of his country’s nuclear power plants. Zelensky, however, refuted this assertion, stating that he and Trump only discussed potential US investments in the Zaporozhye NPP.

Additionally, Washington has suggested recognizing Russian sovereignty over Crimea, not opposing Russian control over four other former Ukrainian regions, including Zaporozhye, and rejecting Ukraine's bid for NATO membership, according to the WSJ.

However, the list of proposals does not include any cap on the strength of the Ukrainian army or ban on troop deployments by European NATO members in Ukraine, the newspaper noted.If the US, its European allies, and Ukraine achieve a “convergence” this week, the package will be presented to Moscow, the WSJ reported. (That’s where you know this is lies. Russia knows everything that is being discussed. But they are trying to create a divide between Russia and US.)

Moscow has firmly rejected any proposed NATO presence in Ukraine and has asserted that the Istanbul agreement — a truce proposal negotiated in 2022 that includes limitations on the Ukrainian military — should serve as the foundation for a future peace accord. This plan was rejected by Kiev following intervention from then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Russia has accused the EU and the UK of attempting to undermine Trump’s mediation efforts in order to prolong the conflict in Ukraine. The US president has cautioned that his administration would “just take a pass” if the diplomatic effort becomes too challenging.

(Trump Team trying to prevent Ukraine from blowing up the whole country and world, since Kiev is losing, and WSJ helping with propaganda. Desperation!)

(Lhttps://www.rt.com/news/616044-trump-zaporozhye-plant-wsj/

Live Updates: Pope Francis Dies at 88 His groundbreaking pontificate worked to make the Catholic Church more inclusive.

Cardinals will now decide whether to continue his approach or restore more doctrinaire leadership.

Some of those in the foreground are holding rosary beads. Vatican CitySeveral thousand took part in a rosary prayer for Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square on Monday.

April 21, 2025, 5:44 a.m. ET8 minutes ago Jason HorowitzReporting from Rome Here’s the latest.Pope Francis has died, the Vatican announced on Monday, ending a groundbreaking pontificate that sought, however haltingly, to reshape the Roman Catholic Church into a more inclusive institution. Standing somberly behind a microphone at the Vatican, Cardinal Kevin Farrell announced the pope’s death.

“At 7:35 this morning, the Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the house of the Father,” he said.

An American of Irish origin, Cardinal Farrell becomes the Vatican’s de facto administrator after the death of a pope.

Mourners, some in tears, quickly went to St. Peter’s Square in Rome, as tributes poured in from global leaders offering condolences to the world’s Catholics and praising the pontiff’s commitment to the poor and marginalized.

The death of Francis sets off deliberations and machinations to choose a successor. The absence of Francis, a humble champion of the poor, creates a vacuum in the leadership of more than one billion Catholics.

It also leaves the church’s cardinals with a critical decision: whether to choose a new pope who will follow his welcoming, global approach or to restore the more doctrinaire path of his predecessors.

After early missteps, Francis made considerable strides in addressing the church’s sexual abuse crisis and tackled its murky financial culture.

His remarkable global stature early in his pontificate — when liberal leaders around the world likewise emphasized climate change, migrants’ rights and income equality — gave way to a populist period when he sometimes seemed a solitary voice.

But he never changed his approach. Francis believed that the church’s future depended on going to the margins to embrace the faithful in the modern world rather than offering a cloister away from it.

The coming days will determine how deep his support truly runs. Here’s what else to know: Health struggles: Just a day before his death, Pope Francis blessed the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square for Easter Mass — one of several public appearances over the past week.

But his weak, raspy voice was reminder of his frailty less than a month after being discharged from a lengthy hospital stay for life-threatening pneumonia.

Papal legacy: Francis created thousands of bishops and appointed more than half of the College of Cardinals, often choosing prelates who shared his priorities of being close to the poor, welcoming the marginalized and moving issues like climate change to the forefront.

Now the cardinals who will choose his successor face a critical decision: Will they follow his path toward a more inclusive church or restore the more doctrinaire, traditional approach of his predecessors?

A persistent crisis: Despite Francis’ work to address the sexual abuse crisis in the church it haunted his papacy, just as it plagued the papacies of his predecessors.

Choosing a new pope: The death of a pope sets in motion a chain of rituals and procedures, many of which have remained unchanged for centuries and were drafted — and refined — to ensure secrecy and an orderly transition.

Immediately after the pope’s death was announced, bereft Catholics headed to St Peter’s Square. “We feel abandoned, alone,” said Marina Magnini, 66, as her eyes filled with tears. Mourners held on to the fences in front of St Peter’s Basilica, where the courtyard was littered with flowers from Sunday’s Easter service.

“

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy, right, praised Pope Francis for his legacy. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy led tributes to Pope Francis from political leaders around the world on Monday, praising him as “a great man and a great pastor.”

Most paid homage to the pope’s commitment to speaking out on behalf of the poor. “I had the privilege of enjoying his friendship, his advice and his teachings, which never failed even in moments of trial and suffering,” said Ms. Meloni, who visited Francis while he was hospitalized in February.

She

Francis had been out in public several times over the past week. On Sunday, he blessed the faithful who had gathered in St. Peter’s Square,shortly after meeting with Vice President JD Vance to exchange Easter greetings. ..

https://archive.is/hblog

The federal ‘5 things’ emails have fallen apart, as Elon Musk readies exit

After the DOGE leader demanded federal workers list accomplishments, agencies applied an inconsistent patchwork of policies.

April 21, 2025 at 6:30 a.m. EDT16 minutes ago 9 min1/3

By Hannah Natanson, Faiz Siddiqui and Emily Davies When Elon Musk and President Donald Trump commanded all federal workers to submit weekly emails listing five accomplishments, they warned of harsh consequences: Failure to comply would count as a resignation. Musk called the emails an accountability measure needed to ensure staff even had a “pulse.”

But records obtained by The Washington Post, as well as interviews with three dozen managers and employees across government, reveal that officials refused to comply with core aspects of the directive from the beginning. In a briefing for top human resources officers across government held just two days after Musk’s directive went out to all federal employees on Feb. 22, the Office of Personnel Management said the initiative was voluntary and noncompliance would not be considered a resignation, according to an email obtained by The Post.

Further undermining Musk’s effort, OPM leaders said in the briefing that the agency did not intend to do anything with the messages that employees did submit, the email stated.

As the billionaire prepares to exit government later this year and his influence appears to wane, the conflicting messages and confusion have had a predictable result. As of this month, agencies maintain an inconsistent patchwork of policies on the email responses, according to the Post analysis and the employees, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

Some federal agencies have stopped requiring the messages. A shrinking number of departments mandate strict compliance, while others say they’re requiring the emails but are not checking for compliance or tracking responses in any way that is detectable to some employees.

Many federal workers who still answer the message are either churning out lightly modified versions of the same boilerplate each week — or treating the whole thing as a joke, such as by submitting replies in a foreign language. A White House spokesperson declined to comment on how many agencies are still requiring the emails. Musk did not respond to a request for comment.

End of carousel Musk announced the email requirement on a Saturday afternoon in February, just a few weeks into his U.S. DOGE Service’s campaign to downsize the government and slash spending. The billionaire said at the time that he was obeying Trump’s instructions to be more “AGGRESSIVE” toward the federal workforce. The email, which bore the subject line “What did you do last week?” and asked for five bullet points of accomplishments, sparked consternation among government employees.

Many worried both over potential privacy issues and whether they would lose their jobs if they didn’t reply. Some of Trump’s top advisers and Cabinet nominees didn’t like Musk’s email idea, either — and, after pushback, the White House clarified that Cabinet secretaries could decide whether their employees had to write up weekly accomplishments.

In recent weeks, more are opting out. The Environmental Protection Agency told employees in late March that the task would be considered “encouraged, but optional,” according to an email obtained by The Post.

The National Institutes of Health this month told staff that the mandate had ended, according to an email signed “NIH Executive Secretariat” and obtained by The Post. The emails were unnecessary, the message stated, because “NIH manages its own performance review processes and will notify employees directly if any information related to work duties or performance is needed.”

At the opposite extreme, a small number of agencies have institutionalized the practice or created automated forms to collect responses. The Securities and Exchange Commission, for example, has often reminded staff about the five bullet points emails in its daily internal newsletter.

“Zero idea how it’s used,” one SEC employee told The Post. It is unclear precisely when Musk will leave the government; his status as a special government employee is expected to expire at the end of May.

https://archive.is/vkJj6

>>22937100

2/3

The billionaire is ready to exit because he is tired of fielding what he views as a slew of nasty and unethical attacks from the political left, according to the person familiar with his thinking.

He believes his departure will not diminish the power or work of DOGE, his brainchild, the person said, noting that DOGE team members are already established across scores of federal agencies.

The administration holds up DOGE as an exemplar of how to rapidly reshape ponderous bureaucracies. “No one can say DOGE has not achieved a historic amount of success. The results speak for themselves,” said a senior White House official, speaking anonymously to discuss internal deliberations.

The weekly update emails are a persistent feature of Musk-run companies, where they are used to drive a high-intensity work culture — but also to support personnel decisions.

A key individual involved in reviewing those weekly emails, software engineer Christopher Stanley, followed Musk to the federal government.

At Twitter, now X, according toa person familiar with the situation, Stanley was the key person who received and reviewed the weekly update emails; leadership consulted the memos when making personnel decisions.

“If they were planning to do more layoffs, they would go back and look at those emails for potential layoffs and see what they’re working on,” the person said, noting that the emails could be used as a pretext for letting a staffer go, for example.

“That’s just another data point for why you should lay someone off.” Within the federal workforce, it is unclear what the email responses are being used for, if anything.

There was never a central strategy for how to handle the replies, an email obtained by The Post shows. In late February, human resources leaders known as chief human capital officers from across the government gathered for a meeting, according to the email, which detailed summary notes from the session.

The meeting was led by OPM, which acts as the human resources arm for the entire government. The first topic of discussion was Musk’s “weekend email,” which he had announced on X two days prior, the notes show.

In addition to declaring the emails voluntary and saying noncompliance would not count as resignation, OPM officials said their agency would not provide any further guidance to other departments about the email, although some divisions were contemplating making it a weekly requirement, according to the emailed summary.

Next, the notes show, an attendee asked, “What will be done with the information that staff have provided?” “OPM’s response — No plans,” the notes state.

It is not clear who from OPM led that meeting, although other such discussions have been led by top political appointees at the agency. At least one agency collecting the emails has announced vague plans for their fate.

The acting director of OPM, Chuck Ezell, sent an email last month requiring employees to complete a weekly form with five spaces to detail accomplishments, according to OPM staffers and records obtained by The Post.

https://archive.is/vkJj6

>>22937101

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Staffers’ replies will be “aggregated and shared with Associate Directors and Office Heads,” Ezell wrote in his message. “This information will inform reporting to OPM leadership and will be used to track progress, make course corrections, and celebrate accomplishments.”

Someone is evidently paying attention to what gets sent in, said an OPM staffer, because at least one employee was disciplined for replying with profanities. Within the Defense Department, the initial request for one email has mushroomed into a weekly saga of several messages, said an employee there.

Every Thursday or Friday, staffers receive a reminder telling them to send in their bullet points no later than the following Tuesday, with their supervisor cc’d. After employees send in responses on Mondays, in at least some parts of the department, a team lead gathers and summarizes colleagues’ replies in one message to a supervisor.

The supervisor then condenses responses again and sends a summary message to another, higher-up official — and so on, the Defense Department employee said.

“Then we do it all again next week,” said the employee, who added that most people he knows in the department are submitting a slightly altered version of the same copied-and-pasted piece of text each week.

“I don’t know anyone who’s manually creating a new response each week.” At the Agriculture Department, staff initially received instructions not to reply to the email, said a USDA employee. Then area leadership told them maybe they should consider responding after all, the employee said, and gave some suggestions for ideal messages.

The week after that, state-level leaders told staff to definitely send a response and forward it to their direct managers — but balked at calling the messages absolutely mandatory, according to the employee.

Since then, many confused staffers have chosen not to reply, the employee said. Some have begun responding in Russian, just to confuse whoever — or whatever AI program, as some staff like to joke — is reviewing the messages. “I have not sent one in at all,” the USDA employee said.

“I don’t think I should have to justify my job to some unknown entity, especially when I’m handling private customer information.” The employee said they have so far faced no consequences.

In a Florida Veterans Affairs office, by contrast, one employee said her bosses warned that failing to respond would be counted against her. So she sends in replies religiously, crafting a brand-new message each time and hoping it will help her keep her job.

A Food and Drug Administration employee sends in the same vague but accurate five bullets each week. His agency is requiring responses, but he is determined not to reveal confidential information related to drug approval applications.

And in the Department of Housing and Urban Development, one employee has chosen resistance. The employee uses ChatGPT to generate 10 to 20 pages of word salad each week, then hits send.

(WaPo gleefully announcing the recalcitrance in the Federal Government to apply the President’s request, reveals how bad our Federal Government is and won’t follow orders, unless it’s a democrat President.)

https://archive.is/vkJj6

No Fair Day: Damning New Report Reveals the Biden Administration’s Unlawful Treatment of Children in Immigration Courts

No Fair Day: Damning New Report Reveals the Biden Administration’s Unlawful Treatment of Children in Immigration Courts

DECEMBER 13, 2023

Data show that tens of thousands of children have been ordered deported, most without legal representation or a fair day in court

CONTACT

Hayley Burgess, UCLA Center for Immigration Law and Policy, burgess@law.ucla.edu

Los Angeles, CA – A damning new report released today by the Center for Immigration Law and Policy (CILP) at the UCLA School of Law finds that the Biden administration has failed children in immigration court under its watch. Despite taking important steps in its early days, the report details how the administration's policies have led to grave injustices for children facing immigration court proceedings in the United States, and resulted in tens of thousands of children ordered deported, most without legal representation or a fair day in court.

Children make up a significant number of those facing removal proceedings. In the first five months of Fiscal Year 2022, almost one third of all new cases in immigration court involved children, including tens of thousands of children under the age of five. Some of these children are “unaccompanied” because they arrived alone. Others are in proceedings with their families, including on a much-criticized fast-track “Dedicated Docket” for families seeking asylum.

“While the administration should be lauded for its efforts to provide children and families access to the court system, its failure to ensure legal representation has produced a massive due process crisis,” said Talia Inlender, Deputy Director of the Center for Immigration Law and Policy (CILP) at the UCLA School of Law. “It should be obvious that immigration court proceedings are far too complex for children to navigate without legal representation, especially when the consequences are so dire. The Biden administration must take swift action to ensure legal representation for all children in immigration court.”

Under the Biden administration (as in past administrations), children are ordered to appear in immigration court against trained government prosecutors, even if they have no lawyer to represent them. This is true despite the fact that the legal avenues most often available for children to remain safely in the United States - asylum and Special Immigrant Juvenile (SIJ) status - are among the most complex in the immigration system. And, if children fail to appear, they are ordered removed in absentia, even if they have no control over whether they are able to come to court.

“There is no other legal context in which children are held legally responsible for circumstances over which they have no control,” said Ahilan Arulanantham, Faculty Co-Director for the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at UCLA School of Law. “Yet the Biden administration has punished tens of thousands of children who fail to appear in immigration court by entering deportation orders that will follow them for the rest of their lives. This practice is unlawful, and it must end.”

The report’s key findings include:

In a five-month period in FY 2022 alone, almost one third of immigration court cases initiated by the Biden administration–more than 80,000 in all–were against children, over 30,000 of whom were under the age of 5, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC).

Studies show that unrepresented unaccompanied children are at least five times more likely to be ordered removed than children with access to counsel.

By the government’s own account, 44% of unaccompanied children and 51% of families on the Dedicated Docket lack legal representation.

The vast majority of removal orders entered against children are for failure to appear: Approximately 72% of removal orders against families on the Los Angeles and Boston Dedicated Dockets were issued in absentia, with over 48% against children, many under the age of six. Worse yet, 86% of removal orders issued against unaccompanied children were for failure to appear.

Immigration courts under the Biden administration ordered more than 13,000 unaccompanied children removed in absentia between Fiscal Years 2022 and 2023.

The report details how the Biden administration’s treatment of children in immigration court is unlawful, and calls on the Biden administration to: prohibit in absentia removal orders against unrepresented children; terminate the Dedicated Docket; and ensure legal representation for all unrepresented children in removal proceedings.

https://law.ucla.edu/news/no-fair-day-damning-new-report-reveals-biden-administrations-unlawful-treatment-children-immigration-courts

Inside Pope Francis’ ‘frank exchange’ with JD Vance before passing

Fox News contributor Jonathan Morris discusses what's to come after Pope Francis' passing, his meeting with VP Vance and the legacy he leaves afterbeing the first Latin American and first Jesuit to lead the Catholic Church

(I’m kinda irritated by all the praise of the Pope that denied scripture, and made a woke Catholic popular)

7:53

https://youtu.be/RGfEUXF2Rfk

Julie Kelly: “They’ve All Admitted The Alien Enemies Act Is Not Subject To Judicial Review.”

4:58

https://rumble.com/embed/v6q41tp/?pub=4

KASSAM: Democrat Party Is More In Favor Of Terrorists Than They Are Of The US And Its Constitution

4.46

https://rumble.com/embed/v6q41j7/?pub=4

>>22937140

“There Isn’t A Settled Narrative On How It Went Down.” Kassam On How First Shot Of Revolution Marked Unraveling Of British Politics(this makes me wonder how the UK is our closest ally)

9:28

https://rumble.com/embed/v6q3ziv/?pub=4