Sydney Government-Funded “Unholy Playhouse,” The Left’s Temple

An LGBTQ venue called the Unholy Playhouse, later renamed the Divine Playhouse, opened in the site of a 158-year-old former Catholic church in Sydney with taxpayer funding. Christian groups protested because the shows directly mocked Christianity. In the end, the landlord, Revelop, issued a breach notice demanding that the venue “cease engaging in offensive trade” within two days or face lease termination.

However, the intense debate in support of the venue, particularly the rhetoric condemning Christians for opposing it, illustrates the shift toward a post-Christian world.

The building, St. John the Evangelist Church, was built in 1868, owned by the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney, and deconsecrated around 1932. It later housed the Genesian Theatre for roughly 80 years, and the property was sold to developers in 2017. The Divine Playhouse opened on July 8, 2026, operating on a one-year lease with an option to extend, at 422-424 Kent Street in Sydney’s CBD.

The venue was produced by Kat Dopper, known for Heaps Gay and Pleasures Playhouse, and operated by Heaps Gay Events. It was marketed as “a sanctuary for divine mischief.” Programming included live music, DJ sets, karaoke backed by a gospel choir, a cabaret series called Holy Flesh, a Harry Potter-themed party, and an event titled Possession, billed as Australia’s first live exorcism, scheduled for October. A weekend event was billed as Sunday Mess: An Unholy Brunch Party – The Resurrection.

Opening-night staff included performers dressed as nuns in blue habits. The project received a $100,000 grant from the New South Wales government arts agency, Create NSW, to support a four-month program. The opening event, titled “The First Rite,” featured men dressed as nuns in sexualized pig angel suits. The following night, the venue hosted a comedy show titled Two Queers Walk Into A Bar.

A spokesperson for the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney said the church “holds a strong Catholic history, and to see it used for direct mockery of our beliefs – events built around the resurrection and purgatory – is genuinely hurtful to our community,” and called on the NSW Government to “apply the same standard to all faiths.”

The venue drew immediate opposition. On opening night, roughly 70 people from Christian groups Fit for the Kingdom and The Prodigal Sons gathered outside the venue, chanting hymns and filming attendees. One protester, Lewis Anderson, filmed himself confronting patrons entering the venue and posted the video to Instagram. Catholic petitioner Chris Nave’s Change.org campaign calling on the NSW Government to withdraw support for the venue reached 5,200 signatures.

The two Christian groups gave specific reasons for their opposition. A Prodigal Sons spokesperson said the choice of a former church was deliberate rather than incidental. “There is no shortage of venues across Sydney where the LGBTQ community is free to express itself and its artistic creativity,” the spokesperson said. “The selection of a former church is a deliberate and conscious decision.”

The groups pointed to a specific opening-night performance, in which a performer dressed as a pig offered McDonald’s fries as a parody of Holy Communion, as an example of what they found offensive. A Fit for the Kingdom spokesperson said the group’s objection was to performances that “mocked Christian beliefs.”

Both groups said their goal was not to silence artists but, in the words of Prodigal Sons, to communicate “how deeply this material has wounded a community of faith.”

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/07/sydney-government-funded-unholy-playhouse-lefts-temple/

Whose your daddy!

I asked Senator Thom Tillis about his vote against the Save America act and whether it has anything to do with the money he’s receiving from industries who profit off of cheap illegal labor.

He was VERY mad about the question.

We deserve better than these America Last losers!

https://twitter.com/i/status/2077127437071024318

Iran warns ‘entire region will pay the price’ as US bombs bridges (PHOTOS, VIDEOS)

Tehran’s response will leave the Americans “stunned,” a senior intelligence source told RT

The US has launched yet another round of overnight strikes, reportedly hitting civilian infrastructure, including several bridges across Iran, as Tehran warned that any further escalation would have consequences for the entire region.

US Central Command announced its sixth consecutive night of strikes on Thursday evening in a brief statement without disclosing the targets, after President Donald Trump threatened earlier this week to expand the bombing campaign to Iranian power plants, energy infrastructure, and bridges.

Iranian media reported that at least three bridges were hit in southern Iran, killing at least two people and injuring four others. Press TV said two of the targeted bridges were in Bandar Khamir and published photos and videos of the aftermath.

At least two Iranian civilians killed, three bridges targeted tonight, a dangerous escalation.

https://twitter.com/i/status/2077868847382548876

“If the enemy, in the course of its war of attrition, seeks to strike Iran’s infrastructure or carry out further assassinations of officials, the entire region will pay the price,” a senior intelligence official in Tehran told RT on Thursday, as the US launched its latest strikes.

Iran will unleash an all-out regional war that will leave the US “stunned” and prove to Trump how “unrealistic” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s expectations and assessments were, the source added.

“Iran’s plan for escalating the war will be full of surprises. And unlike the political disarray in the White House, here in Tehran we have maximum consensus on implementing this plan,” the official said.

Washington resumed strikes last week and reimposed its naval blockade of Iranian ports, claiming the measures are aimed at protecting commercial shipping and freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz. Trump has claimed that America is now “in control” of the waterway and will act as its “guardian.”

In retaliation, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has launched drone and missile attacks against US military facilities in the region, including the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain, one of Washington’s main naval hubs in the Persian Gulf. Tehran has warned that regional oil and gas exports could be blocked completely and declared the strait closed until the US ends what it describes as its “illegal” military intervention in the region.

https://www.rt.com/news/643155-iran-bridges-region-price/

>>24834423

Islamabad blames Pakistani-born child rapist’s crimes on UK upbringing

Shabir Ahmed was convicted of 30 rape offenses against girls as young as 12 in Rochdale in 2012

Pakistan-born Shabir Ahmed, the rape gang ringleader recently released in the UK after serving a prison term for dozens of child sex offenses, committed his crimes because of his upbringing in England, Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Tahir Andrabi said on Thursday.

The 73-year-old, who first came to the UK as a teenager, was a leading figure in the Rochdale grooming gang, which sexually abused and trafficked British girls as young as 12 in the Greater Manchester borough during the 2000s.

Ahmed was released from prison under supervision in early June after serving 14 years. British authorities have been unable to deport him because of a provision protecting certain Commonwealth citizens who were resident in the UK before 1973, despite his British citizenship having been revoked following his 2012 convictions.

“The matter in question is entirely an internal matter of the United Kingdom,” Andrabi said at a press briefing.

Regardless of where [Ahmed] was born, the onus lies on where he grew up, was raised, groomed, and, unfortunately, was spoiled… His heinous crimes demand serious introspection rather than a quest to search for extraneous causes.

The spokesman stressed that Islamabad strongly condemns child sexual abuse, which should be “punished to the fullest extent of the law, irrespective of race, ethnicity, or religion,” but insisted that Pakistan “has no connection whatsoever with this matter” and “cannot be associated” with any related decisions.

On Monday, UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced plans to amend the Immigration Act to remove the legal barrier preventing Ahmed’s deportation.

The Rochdale rape gang was one of many grooming gangs, predominantly composed of men of Pakistani origin, that systematically raped and sexually trafficked vulnerable young British girls across the UK over decades.

The grooming gangs scandal returned to the spotlight of British politics last year, forcing the Labour government to announce a nationwide inquiry, which unearthed “blindness, ignorance, prejudice, defensiveness” and systematic failures by police and public bodies to protect victims and act on reports of abuse.

https://www.rt.com/news/643154-islamabad-grooming-gang-leader-uk/

>>24834488

6 The Lord said to me, “Proclaim all these words in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: ‘Listen to the terms of this covenant and follow them. 7 From the time I brought your ancestors up from Egypt until today, I warned them again and again, saying, “Obey me.” 8 But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubbornness of their evil hearts. So I brought on them all the curses of the covenant I had commanded them to follow but that they did not keep.’”

9 Then the Lord said to me, “There is a conspiracy among the people of Judah and those who live in Jerusalem. 10 They have returned to the sins of their ancestors, who refused to listen to my words. They have followed other gods to serve them. Both Israel and Judah have broken the covenant I made with their ancestors. 11 Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘I will bring on them a disaster they cannot escape. Although they cry out to me, I will not listen to them. 12 The towns of Judah and the people of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to whom they burn incense, but they will not help them at all when disaster strikes. 13 You, Judah, have as many gods as you have towns; and the altars you have set up to burn incense to that shameful god Baal are as many as the streets of Jerusalem.’

14 “Do not pray for this people or offer any plea or petition for them, because I will not listen when they call to me in the time of their distress.

15 “What is my beloved doing in my temple

as she, with many others, works out her evil schemes?

Can consecrated meat avert your punishment?

When you engage in your wickedness,

then you rejoice.[a]”

>>24834541

Nothing burger about election fraud no actual action

'Strategic entrapment': Dennis Kucinich on disastrous US-Israeli military merger

Former US Rep. Dennis Kucinich joins The Grayzone's Max Blumenthal to discuss Section 219, a measure insidiously inserted into the NDAA bill which will effectively merge the US and Israeli militaries across areas including AI, cyberwarfare, biotech, missile defense, and defense industrial production.

Kucinch explains why the bill will shatter what's left of American sovereignty and congressional oversight, contaminating the US military with Israeli spy technology, encouraging new levels of domestic repression while essentially forbidding any disentanglement from the strategically calamitous special relationship with Israel.

https://youtu.be/v6_-BMoe2gk

Iran Sent Message to JD Vance Warning that Kushner and Witkoff Were “Abusing” Their Inside Access to Negotiations

A senior Iranian official said Tehran privately told Vance the pair were exploiting the negotiations for financial gain. The Trump administration says it never happened.

During the U.S.-Iran talks in Lake Lucerne, Switzerland in late June, Iranian negotiators sent a private message to Vice President JD Vance through an intermediary. The Iranians warned Vance that the continued presence of President Donald Trump’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner would undermine the chance of turning the June 17 framework into an enduring deal, a senior Iranian official told Drop Site.

The Iranian official spoke to Drop Site on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak publicly. In the message, according to the official, Iran conveyed to Vance that the pair were more interested in exploiting insider knowledge of the negotiations to profit in financial markets than they were in reaching a deal. Iranian negotiators also expressed concern about repeated leaks from Kushner to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (A U.S. official told Axios that since the negotiations began, Witkoff and Kushner “talk almost every day to Netanyahu” and the head of Mossad.)

In the weeks leading up to the signing of the memorandum of understanding, the official said, Iran presented written documentation to mediators of what it characterized as evidence that “individuals close to President Trump” were abusing the Iran war and diplomatic developments to manipulate financial markets. “Even before the Islamabad talks kicked off [in April], we had already sent multiple messages to Trump through the Pakistanis, warning them about [Witkoff’s] overall destructive role in the previous negotiation,” the Iranian official said.

The outreach to Vance came after these previous efforts to raise Tehran’s concerns about Witkoff and Kushner with the White House, the official said—given that messages passed to mediators are delivered broadly to the full U.S. team including Kushner, who is a private citizen with no official government role.

“We transmitted data and assessments through an exclusive channel to Mr. Vance,” said the senior Iranian official, who has direct knowledge of the effort. Iranian negotiators, he said, communicated to Vance that they believed Witkoff and Kushner were “abusing” the diplomatic process, “effectively disrupting the overall negotiating atmosphere.”

Drop Site was not able to independently confirm the intermediary actually delivered the message, though the Iranian official said Tehran was confident Vance had received it. The official declined to offer specifics. In response to a request for comment sent to the vice president’s office, a U.S. official denied Iran’s claims. “A message of this nature was never conveyed to the Vice President or his team,” the official told Drop Site. “Additionally, any insinuation that the other members of the president’s trusted negotiating team are operating under motives other than serving the president and delivering on his mission is false.”

Kushner and Witkoff did not respond to requests for comment, but a White House spokesperson denied Iran’s claims and denounced Drop Site. “No such message was ever transmitted to the United States. It’s sad that Drop Site News ‘reporters’ are so filled with hate for America and devoid of respect for themselves that they have become full-throated propagandists for the Iranian regime,” said White House spokesperson Anna Kelly.

A source close to Vance told Drop Site the Iranians had made no secret of their objections to the presence of Witkoff and Kushner in the negotiations.

https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/iran-jd-vance-kushner-witkoff-exploiting-negotiations