Breaking News: Trump and Netanyahu Want Lebanon Civil War

The Israelis have, it seems, reluctantly agreed to a10-day ceasefire between them and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Just as Netanyahu and his ultra-religious radical Zionist terrorists believed that the regime in Iran would collapse within 3 days, they also believe that by maintaining an incessant bombing campaign against Hezbollah targets, either Hezbollah would surrender, or the Lebanese government's army would turn its own weapons against Hezbollah, or that the anti-Hezbollah Lebanese population (broadly Sunni Muslims and Maronite Christians) would take up arms and fight a civil war against the pro-Iranian Shiite terror organization.

For months, the Americans and the Zionists were giving the Lebanese army two options:

- fight Hezbollah to disarm it, in other words a civil war, or

- Israel would forcibly disarm Hezbollah

It now looks like Lebanon will have the double wammy of both an Israeli war and a civil war.

The thing that people must understand is that the Lebanese government and its army are incapable of fighting Hezbollah, and that for several reasons:

- The Lebanese army has been prevented from acquiring sufficient firepower to overcome Hezbollah in any fighting scenario. For years, the Americans refused to arm the Lebanese army because their Zionist whisperers were telling them that a strong Lebanese army would be a threat to Israel. The same old pretext to maintain instability and give Israel a free hand to intervene whenever it chooses. Peace in Lebanon is unacceptable to the Israelis because a strong and stable Lebanon would take the lead in trade relations with the Arab world and thus disadvantage the Israelis who seek a preferential position in such relations. And the dumb Americans obliged, sending the Lebanese army military scarp and forbidding it from acquiring weapons in non-American markets.

- In 1976, when it was the Sunni Muslims of Lebanon who mounted a sedition against the Lebanese government (using the Palestinian PLO as their militia and backed by a secretly pro-US, pro-Israel Syrian regime), the Sunni soldiers of the army deserted to join the Syrian-manufactured Arab Army of Lebanon led by Lieutenant Ahmed Khatib. It was this deserter who managed with Syrian help to separate the Lebanese south (of the Litani) from the central government, forcing the army contingents posted in the south to open the border with Israel to receive food, medical services, schools etc.) That cooperation between these isolated Lebanese army units and the Israelis eventually grew into an alliance when the Israelis invaded the south in 1978. The South Lebanese Army (allied with Israel) was created to stand up to the Arab Army of Lebanon (allied with Syria). The Sunni Muslim soldiers of the Lebanese army deserted and created their own units with loyalty only to Syria and not to their own government in Beirut. In other words, the Lebanese army fractured along sectarian lines into loyalist Maronite brigades and rebel Muslim brigades.

The fear today is that something similar could happen, but this time with the Shiite units of the Lebanese army. All it takes is for Hezbollah to call on all Shiite soldiers to desert their units, and the army breaks apart again. Even if those Shiite soldiers are individually against Hezbollah, they cannot refuse because their families would be in grave danger of retaliation by Hezbollah which essentially holds the Shiite community hostage.

- The Lebanese government has no control over Hezbollah. When it negotiates with the Americans and the Zionists, everyone knows that its words, pledges and assurances are void and null. This has been the case for decades. The government agrees to a UN resolution, but Hezbollah (and the PLO before it) refused to abide by the resolution. I do not understand why the Americans and the Israelis keep this masquerade going on. They know that whatever the Aoun government (now negotiating in Washington) does and says has no impact on, and is non-binding to the pro-Iranian Shiites of Lebanon.

The bottom line is what I have always argued: Hezbollah will NEVER depose its weapons willingly. It is not motivated by land or by assurances or by guarentees or by any real-world elements. Hezbollah is motivated by a radical Islamic fundamentalist ideology based in Tehran; its entire existence, funding and arming comes from Iran. Its 40+ years of existence has nothing to do with so-called Israeli-occupied land in the south. Liberation is just a pretext. Even if ISrael withdraws tomorrow from all areas under dispute in the south, Hezbollah will find another pretext to remain extant. Hezbollah and Iran are motivated by the real or perceived colonial rape of Palestine by anglo-saxon enemies, and is dedicated to avenging the rape.

Therefore all the choreography in Washington about "firsts", like direct negotiations between Lebanon and Israel or a possible peace deal, are propaganda destined to elevate Donald Dumb as a peacemaker when he is no more than an imbecile warmongering vassal of the Zionists. Lebanon and Israel went through the exact same scenario in the early 1980s. Like Hezbollah today, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was "liberating" stuff in the south. After years of cross-border skirmishes, the Israelis invaded in 1982, pushed the PLO out, and made a deal with the government of then-president Amin Gemayel - a deal known as the May 1983 Accord. Problem is this Accord was never implemented. There are many theories as to why it was never implemented. Some say Syria, which had a tacit agreement with the Americans over control of Lebanon in exchange of peace on the Golan, rejected it. Other say that Gemayel was a coward who refused to sign, fearing for his life after his brother Bashir was assassinated by the Syrians. Others claim that the Americans (who sponsored the negotiations) decided to walk out of the May 1983 Accord at the end because the Israelis convinced them that the Accord was globally more in favor of the Lebanese side. 

We are at a similar juncture, with Aoun replacing Gemayel, Hezbollah replacing the PLO, while radical terrorist Zionists remain in control of the Israeli government (Sharon in 1982 and Netanyahu in 2026), and a moronic Trump administration replacing the equally moronic Reagan administration. In 1983, the US MArines, French paratroopers, as well as Italian and British military contingents were in Beirut backing the Gemayel government. Israel was occupying half the country and the Syrian occupier did not fight the Israeli occupier because of the 1974 understanding that Henry Kissinger enacted with Syria's Assad: Keep quiet on the Golan and take Lebanon in exchange. The Lebanese population was mostly for the agreement, and a pro-US president was in charge. All the stars were aligned for a successful completion and implementation of the May 1983 Accord. Today, a rather similar scenario is in place. Everyone, except Hezbollah and Iran, want an agreement. But the Americans and the Zionists are setting a trap for the Aoun government whereby they will blame it for the failure they are planning. 

I do think that the Lebanese government is being bamboozled into negotiating an agreement that both the Israelis and the Americans plan on scuttling, while declaring that they exerted goodwill for peacemaking but that it was the Lebanese who failed to go through with it. Yes, the Lebanese government will NOT go through any deal they reach with the Zionists simply because it can't materially overcome Hezbollah, and it won't confront Hezbollah because history will blame the Aoun government for starting a civil war. 

How can the Lebanese government negotiate an agreement as a sovereign state while it has no sovereignty, thanks to the Iranian occupation (i.e. Hezbollah) and the Israeli occupation in the south.

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Sectarian fears increase as a Beirut area says no to displacement centre
Justin Salhani
Thu, April 16, 2026


A boy sits next to a fire outside his family's tent at a temporary encampment for displaced people in Beirut, Lebanon, April 1, 2026 [File: Adnan Abidi/Reuters]

Beirut, Lebanon – In late March, a government-planned centre in Beirut’s Karantina neighbourhood for people displaced by Israel’s war was cancelled after a public outcry.

A number of politicians and protesters were opposed to setting up the centre, citing a number of reasons, including increased traffic to the area near Beirut’s port and health concerns. But there were also sectarian motivations with some of Karantina’s Christian population leading objections to housing the displaced, who are predominantly Shia Muslims, citing demographic concerns and using sectarian slogans reminiscent of language used during the 1975-1990 Lebanese Civil War.

A major source of tension is that Israel has targeted displaced Lebanese, leading many to fear that hosting their compatriots may bring increased danger to their own homes and families. There is also extreme polarisation over the war inside Lebanon. Supporters of Hezbollah, the Shia armed group that has been fighting Israel, say it avoided war for 15 months while Israel repeatedly violated a November 2024 ceasefire while its critics accuse it of giving Israel an excuse to invade by launching attacks on Israel on March 2, leading to the forced displacement of 1.2 million people.

As Israel’s war on Lebanon exacerbates disputes within Lebanon, some people are afraid the violence may push Lebanese communities into a confrontation or even civil war – even as a 10-day ceasefire is set to begin.

Fear and discrimination

On March 2, Israel intensified its war on Lebanon for the second time in less than two years. After more than a year without responding to Israel’s continued attacks, Hezbollah fired rockets across the border after Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed on the first day of the US-Israeli war on Iran on February 28.

Israel moved fast, pouring troops across the border and demolishing entire towns. Areas across southern Lebanon and Beirut have been devastated by air strikes, drone strikes and attacks from Israeli warships.

And as the war continues, so too does the fear that Israel is trying to reopen old wounds. The cancellation of the planned displacement centre in Karantina in particular is significant because of the area’s history during Lebanon’s Civil War.

Before the Civil War, Karantina, which gets its name from the French word for Quarantine, was one of Beirut’s poorer districts. It was home to a mix of communities, including Christians and Sunni Muslims, but also Armenian, Kurdish, Syrian and Egyptian labourers, and many from southern Lebanon or the Bekaa Valley who had come to the capital seeking work.

In the early days of the war, the right-wing Phalange movement waged a campaign to rid the area of Muslim communities that eventually culminated in the 1976 Karantina massacre. Diala Lteif, a research fellow at the Margaret Anstee Centre for Global Studies who is writing a book on Karantina, told Al Jazeera that the exact number of victims is still unknown but thought to be 1,000 to 3,000. Many of the victims who weren’t killed were expelled to areas in what became known during the war as the predominantly-Muslim West Beirut.

Sources familiar with the planned displacement centre, including an aid worker with an international charity who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the controversy over it was part of a campaign that started on social media and was then picked up by Lebanese media and right-wing Christian political parties.

The rhetoric currently being directed towards displaced people in Karantina, Lteif said, is reminiscent of the civil war. “This foundational logic that areas need to be segregated is the logic that motivated the [Karantina] massacre,” she said. “It brings back this trauma from this time.”

The civil war pitted communities against one another, and each committed massacres and had massacres committed against them. Today, Karantina is home to mostly Lebanese citizens from Christian and Sunni Muslim faiths. But the trauma of the war is still present among the population.

A further factor complicating matters is that many in Lebanon associate displaced populations from southern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs with Hezbollah. While support for the group is not universal among Shia Muslims, the party draws the vast majority of its support from that religious community. Hezbollah and its ally Amal also often claim to be the sole legitimate representatives of Lebanon’s Shia Muslims.

“The political sectarian system in Lebanon lends itself to that association [between Shia Muslims and Hezbollah] and [so does] the sectarian rhetoric of basically every single political party, not just Hezbollah, but all of them in Lebanon,” Lara Deeb, an anthropologist at Scripps College in Claremont, California, told Al Jazeera. “The problem then is that a lot of people don’t see the line between the political party or a political perspective and the person and the people, and it all kind of becomes blurred into one.”

Some are welcoming

The Disaster Risk Management Unit, which reports to the Lebanese prime minister’s office, told local media that the site of the displacement centre was being prepared as a precaution but there were no plans for it to be put in use.

Not far away from that site is another displacement centre in the same Karantina district. It has taken in about 1,000 displaced people from southern Lebanon, Beirut’s southern suburbs and the Bekaa Valley.

On Wednesday, children played football while adults sat on plastic chairs around the property and chatted. This site, run by a Lebanese charity called Offre Joie, first opened in 2024 to receive a number of displaced people who were sleeping in tents in downtown Beirut.

When war returned in 2026, many of those people also returned. Marie Daou, a volunteer with the charity, told Al Jazeera that the centre has had no problems with the local community. Some of the displaced also work with the charity to help manage themselves. Daou said the charity knows the identities of all the displaced and security forces closely monitor the centre’s data to make sure they know who is on site.

Daou said the centre has ample hot water and its residents get decent meals, which is better than many other centres around Beirut and the country. In some of those other locations, displaced people have found conditions so difficult that they decided to return to their homes in areas under blanket evacuation orders from the Israeli military. But Daou said that in the Offre Joie centre, no one has left despite more than 40 days of displacement and war.

Outside Daou’s office, Nadine, 30, corralled a group of children. She was displaced on March 2 from her home in Burj al-Barajneh in Beirut’s southern suburbs and came to the centre in Karantina with her five siblings. She wants to return to her home, she said, but if the war is prolonged, she has little other choice.

“For now, we’re staying here. You can’t go back there [to her home] because there is danger, but now, of course, nowhere is safe,” she said. “But some places are better than others. We’ll be patient. We’ll endure.”

 

The Senile Demented Moron Doesn't Relent: Keeps the Universe from Collapsing

Roy Cohn taught him to not only never give up, keep lying and believe your lies as the truth, he also taught him to turn the truth upside down. The demented asshole, who is wrecking the world as we speak, claims that he is the only one keeping the world from collapsing. Donald Dumb has a method to his madness: The Roy Cohn method.

Steal and claim your opponents are stealing

Make wars and demand peace prizes

Run your entire life as a Mega Con Job, and say your opponent's claims are hoaxes

Say you're a Christian (and Jesus to boot), but lead of life of sin and crime

Viciously attack others, and claim to be their victim

Accuse your friend of being the enemy, and make friends with your enemy 

Rape and sexually assault young women, then accuse your opponents of running a pedophile ring

.... you can literally go through everything this man is about and discover the Roy Cohn method for yourselves.  

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Trump says the ‘world would be torn to pieces’ if he wasn’t president days after posting AI-picture of himself as Jesus
Brendan Rascius
Wed, April 15, 2026

President Donald Trump claimed he is the sole force preventing the world from falling apart — just days after he faced backlash for posting an image portraying himself as Jesus.

“If I weren’t president, the world would be torn to pieces,” the 79-year-old Republican leader told ABC News’ Jonathan Karl.

His remarks come as his administration is working to negotiate a peace deal with Iran during a two-week ceasefire, which Trump announced last week after threatening to obliterate “a whole civilization”.

Trump suggested that a breakthrough could be imminent, even after the first round of talks collapsed this weekend in Pakistan.

“I think you’re going to be watching an amazing two days ahead,” he told Karl on Tuesday. “I really do.”

’I think you’re going to be watching an amazing two days ahead,’ Donald Trump said (Getty Images)

When asked whether the war will end with a deal or simply preserve the status quo, Trump said “it could go either way”.

“But I think a deal is preferable because then they can rebuild,” he said. “They really do have a different regime now. No matter what, we took out the radicals. They’re gone, no longer with us.”

The war, launched jointly by the U.S. and Israel in late February, has engulfed large swaths of the Middle East in violence. More than 3,000 people have been killed in Iran, the country’s government said last week, and millions have been displaced across the broader region, according to the United Nations. Thirteen U.S. service members have died, and hundreds have been wounded, the Pentagon has said.

The deadly conflict has also triggered fears of global economic upheaval as Iran — and now the U.S. — enforce blockades on the Strait of Hormuz, a vital trade route through which 20 percent of the world’s oil passes. Oil prices surged to over $100 a barrel this weekend, and gas prices are over $4 a gallon in the U.S.

Multiple recent polls indicate that a majority of Americans are opposed to the conflict. Roughly 61 percent disapprove of Trump’s handling of the war, according to a Pew Research Center survey released late last month.

In an interview with Fox News aired on Wednesday, Trump claimed that the war is “close to over”, adding, “I don’t know how much longer they can survive.”

The Iran war is ‘close to over’, President Trump told Fox News (ISNA/AFP/Getty)

Trump’s comments on the conflict, and his suggestion that he alone is keeping the world from descending into chaos, came after he posted an image portraying himself as the Christian savior.

The AI-generated self-portrait, posted Sunday on Truth Social, depicts Trump wrapped in robes and healing a sick man, as beams of light emanate from his hands.

Outrage quickly followed, with a number of commentators across the political spectrum noting that the image clearly resembled Jesus. They denounced Trump’s behavior as beyond the pale and blasphemous.

“On Orthodox Easter, President Trump attacked the Pope because the Pope is rightly against Trump’s war in Iran and then he posted this picture of himself as if he is replacing Jesus,” former Georgia GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote on X. “completely denounce this and I’m praying against it!!!”

An image, shared on Truth Social By Trump, depicts himself in robes and healing a sick man, as beams of light emanate from his hands (@realDonaldTrump/Truth Social)

Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont Independent, described it as “deranged” and “egomaniacal behavior”.

By Monday morning, the post had been deleted from Trump’s Truth Social feed. Speaking to reporters outside the White House later in the day, Trump defended his decision.

“I viewed that as a picture of me being a doctor,” he said. “You know, as a little fun playing the doctor and making people better. So that’s what it was viewed as. That’s what most people thought.”

He said he took the image down because he “didn’t want to have anybody be confused” [His "anybody" refers to his dumb MAGA morons who are easily confused by bullshit]. But, he blamed the “fake news” for stirring controversy.

Now it's Georgia Meloni's Turn to Lose her Elections because of Trump

The backlash of democracy against the despicable right-wing regressive Fascist conservatives is under way. The disintegration of the populist xenophobic right-wingers of Europe has begun. The ugly autocract of Hungary Orban is out. Now Meloni has been contaminated by Trump and stands to lose the next Italian elections. France's Marine Le Pen's hopes, which she has been nurturing for decades by trying to erase her father's legacy of Fascism and xenophobia, will be smashed once and for all at the next elections in France.

The reaction to natural evolution and change in human societies by the neanderthal conservatives of the world would have been a brief blip in our contemporary history. The credulous imbeciles (e.g. MAGA) who voted them to power are now witnessing their barbarity and are reckoning with their lies. Moderate conservatives are disgusted by what demaguoges like Trump, Orban and others have done to their countries and to the international community. Change forward is natural and inevitable. Those who embrace it (progressives and liberals) are not afraid of change. Radical conservatives, who want to take us back to 7-day, 12-hour working days without holidays or social security, without social programs, and women cloistered in their homes, are being defeated by younger, more educated and tolerant generation. There is hope after all out of the nightmare that Trump, Putin and others represent.

After politically fornicating with Meloni, Trump now is  dumping her, like he does with all his blond bimbos. He hates strong women who are not subservient to him. Meloni stood for the Pope (she has to worry about her aspirations for the next elections, and Catholic Italy will not forgive her if she sides with Trump. She has decided to divorce Trump and marry the Pope...politically speaking.
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Trump slams Meloni in Italian newspaper interview: ‘I’m shocked by her’
Julia Manchester
Tue, April 14, 2026

President Trump lashed out at Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Tuesday, telling an Italian newspaper he was “shocked” by the leader’s criticism of his comments admonishing Pope Leo XIV.

“Do Italians like the fact that your prime minister isn’t giving us any help to get oil?” Trump said in a phone interview with Corriere della Sera. “Do people like her? I can’t imagine. I’m shocked by her. I thought she was brave, but I was wrong.”

Trump’s criticism comes after Meloni hit the president on Monday over his recent attacks on the pope, calling the president’s comments “unacceptable.”

“I find President Trump’s words toward the Holy Father unacceptable,” Meloni, who leads the right-wing Brothers of Italy party, said in a statement. Meloni has been considered to be one European leader that stood with Trump but like others around Europe, her country has not heeded Trump’s calls to help with opening the Strait of Hormuz.

“The Pope is the head of the Catholic Church, and it is right and normal that he calls for peace and condemns every form of war,” she said.

Trump said on Tuesday “it’s her who’s unacceptable,” referring to Meloni.

“Because she doesn’t care if Iran has a nuclear weapon and would blow up Italy in two minutes if she had the chance,” he said.

When asked if he’s spoken with Meloni, he said the two have not spoken “in a long time.”

Meloni has visited the White House at least twice last year during Trump’s second term, once solo for a bilateral in the Oval Office and again last August as part of a contingent of European leaders meeting about Ukraine.

Trump also used the interview with the Italian outlet to launch a fresh attack on the pope, saying he does not understand the situation in the Middle East.

“He doesn’t understand and shouldn’t be talking about war, because he has no idea what’s going on. He doesn’t understand that 42,000 protesters were killed in Iran last month,” Trump said.

Italy is a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which has been the subject of Trump’s wrath over its member country’s reluctance to assist the U.S. in securing Iran’s Strait of Hormuz during the war in Iran.

When asked if he wanted the Italians and Europeans to use minesweepers, which is a small warship used to detonate and remove naval mines, Trump said he asked them to send “whatever they want.”

“But they don’t want to because NATO is a paper tiger,” the president said.

Does Viktor Orban Blame Defeat on "Rigged Elections"? Trump did and Will Again!

Photo Illustration by Eric Faison/The Daily Beast/Getty Images

Viktor Orban is Trump's closest ally in the EU. Conservative, autocrat, pro-Russia's Putin...but still civilized. He, his ideas, and his party were crushed in the latest legislative elections in Hungary. But he is walking away. 

Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro was Trump's closest ally (and fellow Evangelical moron) in Latin America. When he lost elections after a first term, he tried to pull a "Trump-inspired Jan.6-like insurrection", but Brazil still goes by the rules unlike the US. Bolsonaro is now in jail. He was prosecuted and sentenced to a 27-year prison sentence for attempting a coup following his 2022 election loss. Unlike their counterparts in Brazil, the American GOP barbarian cowards let Trump get away with his sedition and promoted him to get elected a second time. He has wrecked America and is now wrecking the world.

From the opinion below, "...Trump is not going to go down without a fight. He’s no Orban, who did all the things authoritarians are supposed to do—but when it didn’t work anymore, he recognized that when people rise up, they can win out. The same thing can happen here, but Trump has many cards to play. Some of them are trump cards. The rest of us are only now beginning to understand how stacked the deck is in his favor, and how limited our time is to react."

The madman anti-Christ Trump is the devil, parading himself as a gentle and meek Jesus and has said he is not bound by any social or political or religious norm: His only moral reference is himself. On elections, he has said many times, "If I lose, the elections must have been rigged. If I win, the elections were fair".
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Opinion

The Dark Prediction Trump Will Make After His MAGA Ally’s Big Loss in Europe
Eleanor Clift
Tue, April 14, 2026


Photo Illustration by Eric Faison/The Daily Beast/Getty Images

His best trans-Atlantic buddy just lost bigly. Hungary’s MAGA-friendly leader Viktor Orban got the boot from voters after 16 years in power, despite Trump’s endorsement and a campaign visit from JD Vance. Contrary to expectations, he also delivered a gracious concession—at least for now.

What message does Trump take from this defeat? Not the one you would hope. There’s no way he will allow himself a similar fate should his party lose power in the upcoming midterms. (And let’s be clear, it certainly looks like that will be the case.) In addition to putting in place various nefarious schemes and roadblocks to influence the outcome—like, say, having ICE agents at polling places and limiting mail-in ballots by executive order—Trump could take his pique to another level and declare an emergency that threatens the continuity of government itself and requires the suspension of the election.

How so? Through the use of PEADs. These Presidential Emergency Action Documents were created during the Eisenhower administration, and they grant virtually unlimited powers to the executive in the wake of a major disruptive attack (terrorist or nuclear) on the homeland. They are intact and ready to go, require no congressional action or judicial review, and until Trump became president, no one worried they could be abused.

“No one thought we would have to deal with someone like Trump,” said Joel McCleary, co-founder of the advocacy group Keep Our Republic and a former Carter administration official with a long career focused on national security.

PEADs have been implemented before—after 9/11 to speed the Bush administration’s response to the terrorist attacks. They are not necessarily a sinister tool in and of themselves: “At a time of a true national emergency, such as responding to a nuclear strike by a foreign adversary or a major terrorist attack, PEADs can be used to bring key parts of the federal government under direct operational control at high speed,” Keep Our Republic’s documentation explains. But, “in the hands of a President who has already weakened restraints and expanded enforcement capacity, they provide a way to direct the machinery of government against domestic adversaries—the people and institutions he regards as threats.”

“We missed a coup by a sliver,” McCleary continued, citing the January 6, 2021 insurrection. “If Trump had gone to Congress and stepped into the chamber, it would have changed the whole dynamic. The president has the power with the stroke of a pen to secure these emergency powers. He is someone who not only practices ‘madman theory,’ but is unstable… this is a threat.”

[Coward] Mike Pence listens as Donald Trump speaks during a press briefing at the White House in Washington, DC, on March 26, 2020. / JIM WATSON / jim w

On January 6, our Republic was saved when Vice President Pence refused to do Trump’s bidding, and by Attorney General Bill Barr’s resignation several days earlier. Without Barr, Trump didn’t have anyone to carry out his orders, McCleary told the Daily Beast; it’s unclear that Trump, at the time, even knew the full extent of the powers at his disposal as president. That has changed. Trump now boasts that he has “very strong emergency powers” and “the right to do a lot of things that people don’t even know about.” He has stated that presidential authority is “total,” and that under Article 11 of the Constitution, he has “the right to do whatever I want as president.”

In other words, Trump is restrained only by his “own morality,” as McCleary put it—make of that what you will—and when it comes to the continuity of government in circumstances that he can declare an emergency, he is chillingly more correct than most of us would like to believe.

Stephen Miller is the White House counsel overseeing the process by which PEADs could come back into play. That alone should be sufficient warning of what’s possible.

While the full specifics of what PEADs authorize are secret and classified, historically they have included measures to allow a president to suspend habeas corpus, bypass the courts and permit indefinite detention, authorize the apprehension of “potentially dangerous” individuals, censor news reporting, restrict international travel, and shut down or control telecommunications, which today could include the internet. Trump’s boasting about his powers prompted 10 senators, including one Republican, to inquire about the documents, but if anything came of it, it wasn’t made public.

To repeat, there is no role for Congress and no judicial review. In a letter penned by two Democratic stalwarts, Dick Gephardt, former House minority leader, and Tim Wirth, a former senator from Colorado, they write: “The issue is not whether emergency powers exist. It is that they now sit in the hands of a President who has both the means and the motive to use them, in a system that no longer provides the same resistance it once did.”

Gephardt and Wirth are also co-founders of Keep Our Republic and have been ringing the alarm bells about PEADs since 2020. “Everybody thought we were crazy. We were playing Paul Revere,” says Wirth. “But now this isn’t theoretical, this is happening before our eyes.”

The letter points out that Trump faces clear risks with investigations and possibly impeachment to follow should Republicans lose control of Congress. “Those pressures give him a reason to act before those constraints reassert themselves,” Gephardt and Wirth warn.

“Governors, attorneys general, members of Congress, military leadership, and the judiciary must decide now how they will respond if these authorities are invoked,” it continues. “They must define in advance what actions they will treat as lawful and what they will reject.”

Trump is not going to go down without a fight. He’s no Orban, who did all the things authoritarians are supposed to do—but when it didn’t work anymore, he recognized that when people rise up, they can win out. The same thing can happen here, but Trump has many cards to play. Some of them are trump cards. The rest of us are only now beginning to understand how stacked the deck is in his favor, and how limited our time is to react. 

Bye Bye Electoral College? Trump's Victory with Corrupt Electors Prompts Reform

The Electoral College system is the most corrupt institution in the US. It allows corrupt State Electors to choose a candidate who has lost the popular vote. Many states are taking actions to reform this barbaric and outdated system. The election of Donald Trump, and that of George W Bush before him, to the presidency was possible even though both had lost the people's vote, thanks to a corrupt Electoral College system that grants minority states more power over their own people's will.
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US edges closer to popular vote deciding winner of presidential elections
George Chidi
Tue, April 14, 2026


Abigail Spanberger, Virginia’s governor, brought the number of electoral votes under the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact to 222. The goal is 270.Photograph: Mike Kropf/Reuters(Photograph: Mike Kropf/Reuters)

A national majority vote for president is one step closer to reality after the Virginia governor, Abigail Spanberger, signed the national popular vote bill into law, joining an interstate compact with 17 other states and the District of Columbia.

Under the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, states would assign their presidential electors to the winner of the popular vote, regardless of the results within the state. The compact takes effect when states representing a majority of electoral votes – 270 of 538 – pass the legislation and thus would determine the winner of the presidential contest. With Virginia, the compact now has 222 electors.

Every state that has so far enacted the compact has Democratic electoral majorities, including California, New York and Illinois. But legislation has been introduced in enough states to reach the 270-elector threshold, including swing states like Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

The legislation relies on two provisions of the US constitution, which would face intense legal scrutiny if and when the compact comes into force. Article II, section 1 of the constitution authorizes each state to appoint electors “in such manner as the legislature thereof may direct”. The constitution does not require states to even have a vote for president, never mind delegating those electors as a state’s voters choose.

The second provision, article I, section 10, clause 3 of the US constitution, governs interstate compacts. The text authorizes states to form legally binding agreements governing their relationships to one another. The text requires states to gain the assent of Congress to enact a compact. But longstanding US supreme court precedent holds that states only require congressional approval for a compact if the agreement infringes on federal power. Supporters of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact argue that the delegation of electors is a state power, not a federal power.

A Pew Research Center poll from 2024 showed that 63% of Americans would replace the electoral college with a national popular vote for president, with 35% opposing change.

“We’ll continue our state-by-state work until the candidate who wins the most popular votes is elected president and every voter is treated equally in every presidential election,” said John Koza, chairman of National Popular Vote, an organization spearheading the legislation.

Stand Up America, which also advocates for a national popular vote, noted two out of the four US presidents of the 21st century – George W Bush in 2000 and Donald Trump in 2016 – lost the popular vote and won the White House nonetheless through the electoral college. Of the 60 presidential elections in US history, 10 others were near misses in which a small number of votes in a few states could have tipped the electoral college toward the candidate who lost the popular vote.

“The presidency should be won by the candidate who receives the most votes nationwide – not just the right combination of battleground states,” said Christina Harvey, Stand Up America’s executive director. “This brings us one step closer to a system where Americans’ votes for president and vice-president count equally, no matter where they live.”

Trump's Arab Gulf Girls Worried Sick about their Future

 

Donald Trump lecturing chainsaw-master Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia non how best to prostitute his Islamic fundamentalist country to the American Evangelical missionaries and their Zionist militia: Send us your lubricants and we'll protect you and your oldest profession like never before in the entire history of humankind.

Evangelical Pimp-in-Chief Donald Trump is the protector of his Sunni Muslim Arab Gulf "allied" girls. The Pimp's thuggish behavior is worrisome to his Penguin-robed Arab girls because their international johns are deserting the shimmering high-rise mirages built in the sand and taking their investments with them. The girls are so terrified that they nag and wail, instead of using the trillion-dollars worth of brand new weaponry they purchased from the Pimp-in-Chief. At some point, when the costs of the war become unbearable for the demented ape, he might scold his girls into military action of their own against Persia. But the Arabian Gulf girls of pimp Trump know deep in their hearts never to trust the US.

===================================================



Saudi Arabia asks US to end Hormuz blockade amid worries of possible Houthi retaliation
JERUSALEM POST STAFF AND DANIELLE GREYMAN-KENNARD
Updated Tue, April 14, 2026

Saudi Arabia is pressing the United States to end its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and return to negotiations with Iran, fearing a broader regional escalation.

Saudi officials appear to be weighing not only the direct risks in the Gulf, but also the possibility that Iran could respond through allied forces elsewhere in the region.

Saudi Arabia is pressing the United States to end its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and return to negotiations with Iran, Arab officials told the Wall Street Journal, according to a report published on Monday.

Riyadh fears the situation could trigger a broader regional escalation, such as threats to Red Sea shipping routes and Saudi oil exports, the report noted.

The kingdom is especially concerned that the Islamic Republic could use the Houthis in Yemen to threaten the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, a critical Red Sea route. Such a move would put additional pressure on Saudi export routes and deepen disruptions already affecting global energy markets.

Arash Azizi, an Iranian-American historian who has authored multiple books on Iran, told The Jerusalem Post that the Houthis were likely planning to close the Bab al-Mandeb Strait in “the next round” of conflict, should escalation continue.

However, Azizi stressed, “There’s a strong desire on the part of Iran to avoid that and to, in fact, de-escalate and seek a deal. So that’s not something they’re actively planning for. They see it as contingency planning, but their general direction is toward a deal, not escalation.”

Gulf states have already faced Iranian missile and drone attacks on energy infrastructure, airports, and urban centers during the current confrontation, sharpening fears that any escalation around Hormuz could quickly spread.

Bahraini analyst Ahmed Alkhuzaie explained to the Post that “the Gulf states view the Strait of Hormuz as a supply lifeline, and any disruption casts a negative shadow on their core economic existence.

“They also believe that the Iran situation must reach a solid and lasting conclusion soon, as prolonged uncertainty undermines regional stability and global energy security. For Saudi Arabia and its neighbors, the Strait is not just a geographic chokepoint – it is the artery through which their economies breathe, carrying nearly a quarter of the world’s seaborne oil trade.

“A US blockade would paradoxically harm its allies more than Iran, destabilizing markets and eroding the Gulf’s credibility as reliable suppliers.”

Trump announced on Sunday that the United States would begin blockading vessels entering or leaving the Strait of Hormuz, framing the move as a response to Iran’s conduct and its refusal to make sufficient concessions in talks.

He also said the US Navy had been instructed to interdict vessels in international waters that had paid tolls to Iran.

Sanctioned Chinese tanker exits Gulf amid blockade

The effects on shipping were visible by Tuesday, when a sanctioned Chinese tanker became the first vessel to exit the Gulf through Hormuz since the blockade began, according to shipping data cited in recent coverage. Separate reporting also highlighted warnings that traffic through the Strait may not fully return to previous levels if the crisis persists.

For Riyadh, the issue is not only oil prices, but strategic exposure. Saudi Arabia has maintained some export resilience through Red Sea routes, but renewed insecurity around Bab al-Mandeb would threaten one of its main alternatives to Hormuz.

“Their preferred response to Iran is not escalation through closure but deterrence and stability. Iran has repeatedly threatened to obstruct the Strait in retaliation against sanctions or military pressure, and Gulf states want Washington to counter these threats without triggering a wider conflict,” Alkhuzaie outlined.

“The desired approach is a mix of diplomatic pressure, international legitimacy through bodies like the UN, and, if necessary, limited military measures to guarantee safe passage. This ensures that Iran’s coercive tactics are contained, while the Strait remains open to global trade.”

Both Washington and Tehran may still be open to renewed diplomacy despite the confrontation. For Saudi Arabia, that possibility appears preferable to a prolonged crisis in which pressure on Hormuz simply shifts the threat to another maritime chokepoint, while the Strait remains central to global energy flows.

“Ultimately, Gulf states want the US to act as a guarantor of maritime security rather than as a disruptor. The balance they seek is clear: strong enough to deter Iran’s provocations, yet restrained enough to avoid punishing Gulf exporters themselves. In essence, Saudi Arabia and its allies want Washington to secure freedom of navigation, preserve stability in energy markets, and prevent Iran from using the Strait of Hormuz as a geopolitical weapon,” Alkhuzaie concluded.

[Updated] Nutcase Trump's "Fitness for Office" to Be Investigated per 25th Amendment

The dumb white-trash American Messiah is like an orangutan on the loose. Will be assessed by Jungian neuropsychologists and returned to his cage before he uses a nuclear bomb on Iran.
======================================================



House Democrats File Bill to Form 25th Amendment Commission to Assess Trump’s Mental Fitness
Sarah Rumpf
Tue, April 14, 2026

Rep. Jamie Raskin and 50 House Democrats have sponsored a bill to form a commission to assess President Trump's mental fitness for office, citing concerns about his recent behavior.

Fifty House Democrats led by Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) have sponsored a bill that would form a commission to assess President Donald Trump’s mental fitness for office, pursuant to the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Earlier this month, Raskin sent a letter formally requesting Capt. Sean P. Barbabella, physician to the president, to “conduct a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment” of Trump and send the results to Congress. In the letter, Raskin mentioned multiple examples of recent “incoherent, volatile, profane, deranged, and threatening” comments by Trump that he argued exhibited what experts said were “signs consistent with dementia and cognitive decline.”

Among the incidents Raskin cited were recent Truth Social posts that made alarming threats about Iran and the White House Easter Egg Roll, during which he talked about the war in front of the children.

Axios Congress reporter Andrew Solender reported on Raskin’s bill Tuesday, pointing out the obvious fact that it was a “long shot” because Republicans still have the majority control of both the House and Senate “and Trump could simply veto it.”

NEW: Raskin, w/ 50 House Dem co-sponsors, formally introduces a bill which would create a commission to assess Trump's fitness for office under the 25th Amendment.

Bill text here: https://t.co/UMZqObNaPc

Story TK pic.twitter.com/PUwnFSVNDA

— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) April 14, 2026

The text of the 10-page bill spells out how a commission, as authorized by the 25th Amendment, would be created from a bipartisan group of appointees. As Solender reported:

The details: The body would have two members each appointed by the Senate Majority and Minority Leaders, the House Speaker and the House Minority Leader.

It would include four former “high-ranking executive branch officials” — specifically vice presidents, secretaries of state, defense and treasury, attorneys general and surgeons general — appointed by Democrats and another four appointed by Republicans.

Those 16 commissioners would then vote to appoint another person — either another high-ranking former official or a physician — to serve as chair.

This commission would “carry out a medical examination of the President to determine whether the President is mentally or physically unable to discharge the powers and duties of the office,” the text of the bill says.

Raskin issued a statement highlighting the constitutional authority behind the bill.

“The Constitution explicitly vests Congress with the authority to create a body that will guarantee the successful continuity of government by responding to presidential incapacity to discharge the powers and duties of office,” he said. “We have a solemn duty to play our defined role under the 25th Amendment by setting up this body to act alongside the Vice President and the Cabinet.”

“Public trust in Donald Trump’s ability to meet the duties of his office has dropped to unprecedented lows as he threatens to destroy entire civilizations,” Raskin added.

The White House fired back with a similar retort as it had for Raskin’s original letter to the White House physician.

“Lightweight Jamie Raskin is a stupid person’s idea of a smart person,” said White House spokesperson Davis Ingle. “President Trump’s sharpness, unmatched energy, and historic accessibility stand in stark contrast to what we saw during the past four years when Democrats like Raskin intentionally covered up Joe Biden’s serious mental and physical decline from the American people.”

Solender’s report concluded by emphasizing the “[r]eality check” that “[e]ven in the unlikely event the bill passed, removing Trump would still be a long shot,” because “Vice President [JD] Vance — a Trump loyalist — would have to sign off on the commission’s findings and remove the president temporarily.”

If that did happen, Congress would then be able to vote after 21 days had passed to make Trump’s temporary removal a permanent one if at least two-thirds majorities in both the House and Senate voted in support.

The post House Democrats File Bill to Form 25th Amendment Commission to Assess Trump’s Mental Fitness first appeared on Mediaite.

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Ex-Trump Official Says President 'Should Be Removed Immediately'
David Moye
Tue, April 14, 2026


Ex-Trump Official Says President 'Should Be Removed Immediately'

A former Trump official reacted to the president’s strange excuse for posting a meme that depicted him as Jesus by calling for his immediate removal from office.

On Sunday, Donald Trump posted the AI-generated image showing him as a Christ-like figure, and, after lots of criticism, including some people who suggested he just might be the Antichrist, dubiously claimed he thought the image “was me as a doctor.”

Many people were skeptical of Trump’s frankly lame excuse for posting the meme, including former White House press secretary Anthony Scaramucci, who suggested on Monday it was time to kick Trump out of office for good.

“This guy should be removed immediately before his lack of impulse control causes an irreversible tragedy,” Scaramucci said on X. “He doesn’t believe what he just said, if he does it’s a cognitive crisis that responsible people would act on immediately.”

DR JC from Nazareth. This guy should be removed immediately before his lack of impulse control causes an irreversible tragedy. He doesn’t believe what he just said, if he does it’s a cognitive crisis that responsible people would act on immediately. https://t.co/1Nq8a8sesU

— Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) April 13, 2026

During the first Trump administration, Scaramucci, who mainly worked as a financier, served as White House press secretary for a whopping 10 days.

He has since spent a lot more time than that criticizing his former boss.

Last month, he put a spin on the definition of “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” a so-called condition that the MAGA crowd claims affects the millions of people who don’t support the president.

He told Don Lemon the real people suffering from “TDS” are the folks “that are with him still.

“Those are the people that are deranged,” he said. “Those are the people that have lost touch with reality in terms of how much damage he and his cronies are causing the country and the world.”

In November, Scaramucci told “The Daily Beast Podcast” the truth about Trump’s popularity with donors, aides and GOP officials: He’s not.

“Anybody who thinks the party likes him doesn’t understand the party,” Scaramucci explained. “And that could be the donors who hold their nose and give him money, or that could be the political class that lives with them in Washington.”

He added that “if you’re inside Trump’s inner orbit, you hate the guy’s guts,” but said “there’s a dance because you’re afraid of him, because he’s intimidating you, because of his political prowess and his media presence.”

“He’s sort of the big furry, he’s sasquatch of social media. And you don’t want him bigfooting your ***, right? So you’re afraid of him, but you hate his guts,” Scaramucci said.

====================================================

Is Trump OK? Experts warn ‘narcissism’ and ‘insecurity’ are overcoming president after vulgar Iran threats and Pope attack
Rhian Lubin
Updated Tue, April 14, 2026



President Donald Trump's recent social media outbursts have reignited concerns about his mental health, with calls to invoke the 25th Amendment growing louder.

On Easter morning, President Donald Trump fired off a Truth Social post critics said was so “unhinged” that it reignited the debate around his mental health.

“Open the F***in’ Strait, you crazy b*****ds, or you’ll be living in Hell,” he raged at the Iranians on his Truth Social platform amid the deeply unpopular war in the Middle East.

Less than 48 hours later, there were calls to invoke the 25th Amendment — an extreme measure allowing for the vice president and a majority of the cabinet to declare the president unfit for office — after Trump threatened to wipe out 93 million people.

“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” Trump, who will turn 80 years old in June, posted on April 7 ahead of a deadline for Iran to make a deal with the U.S. “I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.”

While critics have long claimed that Trump is mentally unfit for office, the concern over his recent social media outbursts, which appear to have gone beyond his usual bluster, has reached new heights amid the war with Iran.

“One of the things that we need to consider is that he is drifting more into a natural state, being fed by the sycophants that are around him, and developing almost like this delusional level of narcissism,” Dr. Geoff Grammer, a Maryland-based psychiatrist and retired Army colonel, told The Independent.

Grammer, who describes himself as “anti-MAGA,” is one of a growing number of mental health professionals sounding the alarm about Trump’s erratic behavior.

In recent days, Trump has attacked Pope Leo after the U.S.-born pontiff said that a “delusion of omnipotence” triggered the Iran war. A day later, Trump was forced to delete an AI-generated image that appeared to depict him as Jesus. The president stretched credulity when he tried to explain Monday that he thought the image was depicting him as a “doctor” — he took it down after about 12 hours, facing backlash from far-right Christian figures.

While critics have long claimed that Trump is mentally unfit for office, the concern over his recent social media outbursts has reached new heights (Getty)

While experts cannot diagnose someone they have never assessed, they have mused that Trump’s recent behavior is perhaps rooted in a deeper insecurity.

“The reality is, there’s a large differential of things that it could be, including him feeling trapped and developing narcissistic rage,” Grammer said. “It could be that he’s becoming disinhibited, but it could also be that he is just drifting to who he naturally is.”

Trump’s foul-mouthed Truth Social last week wasn’t the first f-bomb he has dropped publicly in his second term. Last June, Trump vented to reporters about a failed ceasefire between Iran and Israel. “We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the f*** they’re doing,” he said, appearing exasperated.

In October, when a reporter quizzed Trump about tensions with Venezuela, Trump said of its now-ousted leader, Nicolas Maduro: “He offered everything. You know why? Because he doesn’t want to f*** around with the United States.

Shari Botwin, a Philadelphia-based trauma therapist and author, said the president’s use of profanities and threats suggest “some possible narcissistic traits.”

“It could suggest that he is having a heightened emotional reactivity, which could indicate that he is experiencing anxiety, fear, or his own frustration,” Botwin said. “His threats to wipe out a civilization demonstrate his own projection to maintain strength and control.”

Ultimately, Botwin said the language could reflect a “need for validation and recognition.”

Trump was forced to delete an AI-generated image that appeared to depict him as Jesus, which critics said suggest ‘some possible narcissitic traits’ ( @realDonaldTrump/Truth Social)

“The lack of empathy that comes through in his posts can be alarming and indicate that he has no regard for the suffering of other human beings,” Botwin said. “In many cases, when someone is using aggressive rhetoric, it often serves as a defense mechanism to mask one’s own vulnerability or insecurity.”

“The provocative language that he is using also suggests some possible narcissistic traits,” she added, “where he is drawing attention to himself and overriding the possible consequences of his messaging.”

Prominent Democrats issued fresh calls last week to invoke the 25th Amendment.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on a key congressional oversight committee, urged White House Physician Captain Sean Barbabella to immediately perform a comprehensive cognitive assessment on the president after the congressman called warning signs that the president “has been exhibiting signs consistent with dementia and cognitive decline.”

And in a letter to Vice President JD Vance last week, Rep. Jasmine Crockett claimed the president is “deranged, likely suffering from dementia, and has now brought the United States to the precipice of committing one of the largest war crimes in modern history.”

White House spokesperson Davis Ingle took aim at Raskin and Trump’s predecessor in a statement to The Independent.

“Lightweight Jamie Raskin is a stupid person’s idea of a smart person,” Ingle said. “President Trump’s sharpness, unmatched energy, and historic accessibility stand in stark contrast to what we saw during the past four years when Democrats like Raskin intentionally covered up Joe Biden’s serious mental and physical decline from the American people.”

Experts in conflict resolution, meanwhile, said that the president has backed himself into a corner with Iran.

Experts in conflict resolution said that the president has backed himself into a corner with Iran, and his ‘extreme’ language could be interpreted as a sign of ‘frustration’ (Reuters)

His “extreme” language could be interpreted as a sign of “frustration” that the conflict has not been as seamless as January’s military operation in Venezuela, said Paul Fritch, a former U.S. diplomat and senior NATO official.

“I think we can understand the President’s increasingly extreme language as a sign of frustration, as he finds himself embroiled in a crisis he does not have the unilateral ability to end,” Fritch told The Independent. “He’s also spent much of the past year dismantling the very diplomatic tools that would be most useful in finding an exit strategy,” Fritch said, adding that cuts to the federal workforce had played a part in this.

“The professional Foreign Service has been cut by more than 20 percent, and offices dedicated to engaging with Iranian civil society and countering Tehran’s disinformation were eliminated,” he explained. “The abolition of USAID led to the end of a program to provide internet access and VPNs to Iranian dissidents. The nuclear negotiations that attempted to forestall the conflict, as well as last weekend’s talks in Pakistan that attempted to end it, did not include regional experts from State or nuclear experts from Energy,” Fritch added.

“This leaves him overly reliant on military threats and coercion, which are ill-suited to achieving the main strategic objectives of reopening the Strait of Hormuz and containing Iran’s nuclear ambitions,” concluded Fritch, a current senior fellow at the Middle East Institute Switzerland and the Geneva Centre for Security Policy.

There are those who argue that Trump is playing to his base and employing the “madman theory” in negotiations with Iran.

But Trump said himself that he was ready to act on the threat to wipe out Iran’s civilization.

“I think that we have a phenomenal military that I rebuilt during my first term and I used in my second term, and I was willing to use it,” he told The New York Post.

“I was willing to do it.”

Bible-Study Notwithstanding, White Trash American Chad Was a Criminal

And Trump's herd tell us that Bible Study and being personally saved by rabbi Jesus can heal people with problems like alcoholism, homosexuality, and other addictions... Well, Trump is deeply religious and, of late, is developing a new con career as the Messiah who peddles $90 a pop bibles. Yet he's a criminal with many facets ranging from financial crimes to sex crimes to corruption to war crimes... Pastors and reverends across the dumbass "bible-belt" southern states are caught daily committing crimes, mostly sexual. Conclusion: Bible study is not only a waste of time, it (and being religious in general) often serve as cover for criminal conduct. It's called BIGOTRY, and MAGA reeks of bigotry.

=============================================== 

  

A Woman Met Her Husband in a Bible Group. Six Kids Later, She Found Out He Was Keeping a Couple Captive in a Basement 

 

Chad Schipper's shocking arrest is examined in a new episode of 'Betrayal: Secrets & Lies'
 

Alexandra Schonfeld
Tue, April 14, 2026


Donielle Showvay and Chad Schipper.
Credit: Randin Letendre

NEED TO KNOW

After meeting in a bible study group, Donielle Showvay and Chad Schipper settled into a life that felt "too good to be true" [in the great state of Illinois].

Nearly two decades into their marriage, Schipper was arrested for a shocking crime that turned their family of eight upside down.

Now their story is being examined in a new episode of Hulu's Betrayal: Secrets & Lies titled "The Bible Study Kidnapper"

When Donielle Showvay first met Chad Schipper at a bible study meeting at her sister Randin’s college, she never could have predicted how their lives would end up.

Showvay looks back at the start of their relationship in episode 3 of the eight-part docuseries Betrayal: Secrets & Lies titled "The Bible Study Kidnapper," which premiered April 12 on ABC. She remembers with a laugh that on their first date, the two watched movies — including So I Married An Axe Murderer — with her sister and the boy her sister was interested in at the time.

“He had a reputation of being very smart, very kind,” Barbie Dangond, a college friend of Showvay and Schipper, recalls in the episode.

Showvay and Schipper went on to tie the knot and settle into a life that Showvay remembers thinking was “too good to be true.” Not long after, Schipper came to his wife with a jarring confession: He'd had a sexual “encounter in a public bathroom with a man.”

Donielle Showvay and Chad Schipper on their wedding day.
Credit: Tim Mohs

Though a marriage counselor advised Showvay to leave Schipper, she was determined to make the relationship work, and a couple months later, she found out they were expecting their first child, a daughter named Grace.

The couple, who would welcome six children together during 17 years of marriage, moved to a larger house in Erie, Ill., as Schipper’s financial advising business continued to grow. In the new house, Schipper had an office on the first floor that he spent many hours in — often working into the night and sleeping downstairs, much to Showvay's disappointment.

At one point, he tried to forge a business relationship with a couple from their church who had just come into a large sum of money. After several meetings, Larry and Connie Van Oosten declined to work with Schipper, believing he was still too early in his financial career. At this point, Schipper decided to start buying properties to renovate and rent out for additional income.

Schipper was spending more time away from home — always explaining his absences as having to do with one of the rentals. One night in 2017, things took a turn when one of the couple’s children saw a car approaching their home that he didn’t recognize. Around the same time, Schipper had texted their daughter Grace to wrap the handle of a sledge hammer in black electrical tape. While the teen thought it was a weird request, she obliged and was told she’d receive a “special treat for a job well done,” she recalls in the episode.
Donielle Showvay and Chad Schipper.
Credit: Randin Letendre

A few nights later, Showvay awoke to the sound of a loud bang as the house was swarmed with police officers looking for her husband — and asking questions about the Van Oostens.

It turned out that Schipper — using the sledgehammer his daughter prepared — broke into the Van Oosten’s house in the middle of the night and kidnapped the elderly couple using a taser, duct tape to cover their mouths and eyes, and handcuffs. To communicate with them, Schipper used a voice distorter and at one point asked them: “Where is your God now?"

Schipper then drove the couple to a bank and forced Connie to go inside and get a check for $350,000. According to the episode, he told her that if she didn’t, he would kill Larry. While inside the bank, Connie wrote a note on a church flier in her purse and slipped it to the teller. The note, which said she was in trouble, set off a police hunt for the Van Oostens' whereabouts.

Donielle Showvay in 'Betrayal: Secrets & Lies'
Credit: ABC News

“We’ve dealt with a lot of violent crime, but this one was bizarre. It was almost like an episode of Criminal Minds,” Chris Endress, retired captain of the Illinois State Police, says.

Because the check was made out to an LLC linked to Schipper, the police zeroed in on him. Following a car crash, Schipper was transported to a hospital where he quickly confessed to the kidnapping.

While searching one of his homes, police discovered a room with a television screen broadcasting security footage and could see the elderly couple in a concrete room shackled to a wall, blindfolded. They then found a steel door in one of the house’s closets that led to the soundproof underground cellar.

In a police interview included in the episode, Schipper tells police that he “felt desperate” and was “trying to buy time” due to his failing business. It was also revealed that Schipper had allegedly been embezzling funds from his clients, stolen money from various family members and forged documents in order to borrow money against his parents’ house. According to police, the money he tried to obtain from the Van Oostens was how he planned to pay off his debts.

Schipper was ultimately sentenced to 60 years in prison, a result that Showvay’s father Tim Mohs calls “glorious.”

While going through with a divorce conflicted with Showvay’s faith, she knew it was “the only safe option” for her and her children. Schipper tried to contact her through letters from prison, even pretending to be a Southern woman to try and convince her to forgive him — all to no avail. Showvay has not spoken to him since his arrest.

Donielle Showvay and Chad Schipper.
Credit: Donielle Showvay

“I had a really hard time figuring out what reality was as opposed to what I thought reality was,” Showvay says. Through navigating her new life, she reconnected with her “first love” Billy, whom she dated as a teenager, and married him.

“Our mom has grown so much, she’s a stronger person, she’s more confident,” Grace says. “She laughs more now, especially now that Billy is in our house. I see so much happiness in her that I never saw before. I love her laugh so much.”

New episodes of Betrayal: Secrets & Lies air weekly on Sunday at 10 p.m. on ABC and stream the next day on Disney+ and Hulu

Read the original article on People

Christian Saved-by-Jesus Pete Hegseth is Begging Muslim Indonesia for Help

The very Christian fornicator, drunkard and womanizer, Pete Hegseth, currently the US Secretary of Whore, once yelled in a bar, as he was drunk like a skunk: KILL ALL MUSLIMS.

Yet, now he is begging one of the largest Muslim nations, Indonesia, to allow him to fly his toy planes over that country and kill tens of thousands more Muslims. 

Will Indonesia agree?

=====================================================



US, Indonesia discussing proposal allowing US military overflight in Indonesian airspace, defence ministry says
Reuters
Mon, April 13, 2026 


U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth holds a press briefing in the Pentagon Press briefing room, following the announcement of a two-week ceasefire in the Iran war, at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 8, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

JAKARTA, April 13 (Reuters) - ‌Indonesia and the United States are discussing ‌a proposal to give U.S. military aircraft access over ​Indonesian airspace, Indonesia's defence ministry said on Monday, adding that no deal has yet been reached.

The U.S. is seeking "blanket overnight access" for American ‌military aircraft through ⁠Indonesian airspace, several media outlets reported on Sunday, adding that Indonesian President ⁠Prabowo Subianto had approved the proposal.

Responding to the reports, the defence ministry said in a ​statement ​that the two countries ​are still discussing ‌the "Letter of Intent", and that there is only a preliminary draft that is being discussed internally. The draft is neither final nor binding, the ministry added.

Control over Indonesian airspace belongs ‌to Indonesia, the ministry said, ​adding that deals with ​other countries will ​protect Indonesia's sovereignty and adhere ‌to Indonesian law.

U.S. Defense Secretary ​Pete Hegseth ​is set to meet with his Indonesian counterpart Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin later on Monday, according ​to an ‌advisory released by the U.S. government.

(Reporting by ​Ananda Teresia; Writing by Stanley Widianto; ​Editing by David Stanway)

 

What the Trump-as-Jesus Post Tells us About American Evangelical Christians

 

American Christians have evolved so far away from original Christianity. Many of these evangelical imbeciles take the bible literally- just like their fellow fundamentalist Muslims take the Quran literally - when the rest of the Christian world has long accepted the symbolism of the scriptures as a moral guide rather than a User's Manual for day-to-day practices, like Islam and Judaism are.

Indeed, the symbolism of the Christian religion, which I qualify as an aspirational religion (i.e. full of unimplementable ideas like loving one's enemy, not caring for the morrow, eschewing wealth and the pursuit of happiness in this world because happiness can only be found in the afterlife...) is so fluid that just about any dumb idiot can find in it whatever it is they are looking for. In the case of the moron capitalists of the American Evangelical movement, Jesus has become an advocate for crude capitalism and criminal wealth so elegantly manifested in the notorious self-made megachurch billionaire preachers of the American south.

Moreover, and the moronic Mormons are the best representative of that, American Evangelical Christians think that Christianity was born in the US, that Jesus is a blond blue-eyed American from Nazareth, Pennsylvania or somewhere in the sticks of Alabama, and that Jesus can be marketed like any commodity in the barbaric capitalism of the US. The moron Mormons have indeed written their own appended "book" to the bible, which is known as the Book of Mormons, in which they cloned the Hebrew experience of wandering in the desert (of Utah) and having prophets (Joseph Smith) who heard God talking to them and leading them to the Promised Land (of Utah, again). Those 19th century Anglo-Saxons were absolutely stupid, and their American descendants have faithfully cultivated that stupidity well into the present time.

So Trump's AI-generated image of himself as Jesus performing miracles while commandos of the 101st Airbone Division flutter overhead like angels, MAGA morons kneeling and praying to Trump, with the American flag behind... is not surprising. This is exactly what the full-of-themselves-American white-trash dumpster Christians think of themselves. Trump's AI image is not an outlier: it is deeply engrained in the imagery and fantasies of American protestants in general. When Pete Hegseth, who is going on a bullet train straight to hell when he dies because of his sexual obsessions, his racism, his chronic alcoholism, his lust for killing and warmongering, says he was personally saved by Jesus. He literally believes (or pretends to) that the cosmic ghost of Jesus hovering at the speed of light across the universe with its billions and billions of galaxies and planets and stars.... specifically beamed himself down to earth in the boonies of Minnesota and personally saved jackass Pete from himself. Which is probably a huge lie destined to assuage the prudish and stupid MAGA herd.

All three monotheistic cults, including the Christian religion, were born within a very limited geographical area in the Near East inside a geographic circle of some 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) in diameter. This alone should tell you that there is nothing universal to these religions. They are born out of a narrow and utterly barbaric nomadic desert mindest of Semitic goat- and camel-herders who spent too much time in the sun, rarely bathed, raiding each other's encampments, stealing and raping, engaging in unfettered sex between men and women, men and men, women and women and all of them with animals. No wonder the "prophets" punished their people for such a pervasive culture of promiscuity and profligacy, while promising them more sex and progeny if they atoned. No wonder nomads like that had hallucinations of frog rains, ocean splitting, beaming devils into pigs, mysterious impregnations (Sarah and Maryam) human sacrifice (Abraham and Isaac, and Jesus himself) rising from the dead and such other fantasies from the Stone and Bronze ages of humanity. 

The evolution from Judaism to Christianity did not improve things much other than challenge the existing status quo, and for one reason only: Because of the Roman occupation (with Rome as the center of the world) the christian religion moved from the Near East where it was born to Western Rome where it acquired a Western character. Had Christianity stayed in the Near East, it would have become a replica of Judaism, with lots of religious practices and not many mysteries. Indeed Islam was itself a rebellion against the westernization of Hebraic monotheism, and was motivated by a desire to reject the perceived polytheism of Christianity, and restore the Hebraic customs and traditions of the Arabian peninsula. Mohammed could easily have been a Jewish member of the many Jewish tribes around Mecca, and if not outwardly Jewish he in all likelihood grew up in a Hebraic society in which Jews and non-Jews shared the same practices. You can literally do a side-by-side comparison of Judaism and Islam and find a near pefect match between the two: Circumcision, prohibition of pork, no miracles, dual texts (Torah-Talmud vs. Quran-Hadith), women as filthy but necessary property, bobbing-head memorization of holy texts in religious schools (yeshivas vs. madrassas), strict monotheism, corporal punishment for sinners like stoning and flogging, prohibition of representation of divinity in statues and images...

The Hebrew prophets were Jewish. Jesus and his gang were all Jewish. In fact the membership of the early christian religion's first 300 years consisted exclusively of Jews who saw Jesus as a rebel against their own Jewish establishment whom they accused of collaboration with the Roman occupier. 

The goyim of that period, including the dominant Romans, saw Christians as a filthy Jewish terrorist organization against which they waged a long war in a way very similar to the war between the monarchical establishments and the Communists of the 19th and 20th centuries of our time. The history, written by the victors, of christian saints being crucified and burned by the Romans doesn't tell us that these early Jewish rebels were fighting a brutal war of attrition against the Roman state. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that these early Christian Jews were attacking Roman convoys, killing soldiers, hoarding weapons, etc. and otherwise destabilizing the state. The accusation against Nero of burning Rome may simply be a distortion of the truth; it may well be that the Christian rebels did indeed burn Rome in a giant act of terrorism against the dominant power. The basic tenets of early Christianity were essentially communistic in nature: Share everything, do not strive for wealth, solidarity, willing to die as a martyr for the cause, revolution, etc... In other words, Jesus was, in the context of his time, the equivalent of a modern-day Communist rebel fighting with violent means the rabid colonial and imperial Romans on behalf of the poor, the sick, the indigent, the slaves and the peasants.

In conclusion, there are many different "Christian" religions (denominations, sects, confessions, orders, factions, faiths, etc.). American Evangelical and other protestant divagations off the original Christian movement are the latest mutations that seems to have regressed backwards from the high point of the rational European protestant reformation of the high Middle Ages. One can apply to American Evangelicals the saying about America at large: It went straight from barbarity to decadence without going through a civilization.

...and now my friends, after my sermon above, let us all kneel and pray to Messiah2.0, the sublime Donald who, though not born of a virgin, seemed to have liked young virgins, thank him and express gratitude for his cleansing of humanity of all its undesirable subhumans (i.e. anyone who is not a white-trash American). He is saving white America, and will, thanks to his disciples like Mike Huckabee, save the world before the advent of the Apocalypse, the End of Times and Armageddon. Repent now and join the MAGA movement, Turning Stomach USA, and the Zionist movement so you can be saved when Jesus returns and sits to the right side of Donald Dumb in his hallowed ballroomed White Outhouse.

Message to the Likes of Autocrat Viktor Orban: Democracy Always Wins

 

[Updated] The Special Relationship is not that Special After all

 

Donald Trump Branded ‘Dangerous and Corrupt Gangster’ by British Political Leader
Jade Biggs
Tue, April 14, 2026

The leader of Britain’s Liberal Democrats party accused US President Donald Trump of being a “dangerous and corrupt gangster” and urged Prime Minister Keir Starmer to advise King Charles to cancel his upcoming visit to the United States.

Donald Trump has been branded a “dangerous and corrupt gangster” by a politician in the UK.

Speaking at the House of Commons, the leader of Britain’s Liberal Democrats party accused the US President of being “immoral.” He also urged Prime Minister Keir Starmer to advise King Charles to cancel his upcoming visit to the United States. The monarch is due to travel to America later this year to mark the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
Liberal Democrats leader Ed Davey made the comments on the record

?JUST IN: The leader of Britain’s Liberal Democrats just said it on the record.

“Donald Trump is no leader of the free world. He’s a dangerous and corrupt gangster.”

He’s also calling on Keir Starmer to cancel the King’s state visit to Washington before it’s too late. pic.twitter.com/3h9m6TSVv3

— Brian Allen (@allenanalysis) April 13, 2026

Referencing Trump’s recent Truth Social post about Iran, in which he threatened that “a whole civilisation will die,” Ed Davy said these were words he “never thought” would come from an American president.

“These words are a stark reminder of how reckless, immoral, and completely outside the bounds of international law this president is,” he went on. To that end, the politician argued that Trump is “no friend” of the UK. He also suggested that he is “no leader of the free world” either.

Next, the Liberal Democrat accused Trump of being a “dangerous and corrupt gangster.”

“And that is how we must treat him,” he went on, before calling on the British PM to take action.

“So, will the Prime Minister advise the King to call off his state visit to Washington before it’s too late?” Ed asked. “Because I really fear for what Trump might say or do while our King is forced to stand by his side. We cannot put His Majesty in that position.”

The politician’s comments come at a difficult time for Trump. The president is currently facing a sharp decline in his popularity. This stemmed from the war in Iran, but has been further fueled by an image he recently posted on social media and an ongoing feud with the Pope.
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The pathetic bully in the courtyard is running around trying to find a single friend. Alas, they're tired of him and his bullying. Even his Arab Gulf girls are sick of their pimp. 

F - - - You Donald on the Hormuz debacle you created. We won't join you in your ill-conceived war in which the conservative Zionist radical right-wingers dragged you like a poodle. That is the message that the "special" friends of the US are telling Donald Dumb.

The British don't have much empathy for the Americans whom they see as dumb and ugly. But they never say so in public. The US is their child, a congenitally defective child. So they keep their thoughts for themselves. In Trump's deranged mind, the fact that the Americans saved Europeans from their own Fascism gives him a license to humiliate them and remind them of American largesse. But the US has benefited immensly from its invasion of Europe: By now all of Europe is swamped with American "culture" and Europeans continue to imitate junk Americanism like monkeys. And right now, it is Trump's America that is resuscitating Fascism in Europe and around the world.

Tony Blair followed George W Bush like a poodle in their deceptive war on Iraq. There were no WMDs. They both lied to the world. Just as Netanyahu and Trump are doing with Iran. For the past 30 years, Netanyahu has been telling US presidents (from Clinton all the way to Obama) that Iran is almost done building a nuclear bomb and that we, Zionists and Americans, must attack Iran. No one listened to the lies, except the dumbass Trump. Where's the nuclear beef in Iran? I mean 30 years is a long time. If it is true that Iran is building a bomb, they should have been done long time ago. Where is that bomb? Iran did sign a hard-negotiated agreement in 2015. Imagine if Trump hadn't walked out on the JCPOA, where would we be today? It's hard not to understand the Iranians' skepticism. What agreement can they now trust that will be upheld by those they are negotiating with? 

Then let no one forget that it was the US and the UK that toppled the democratically elected and secular Iranian government of Mohamed Mossadegh in 1956 in order to steal the country's oil with their Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC). In Saudi Arabia, the equivalent of APOC was the Arab American oil Company (ARAMCO) which, in the late 1960s, was duly handed over to the Saudi government without a coup against the Wahhabi monarchy. Why was Iran treated differently? In 1950s Egypt, Gamal Abdel-Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal to take it away from the colonial British and French crooks: They, with Israel, waged a brief war against Egypt to deny Egypt its rights to the Canal, but the US sided with Nasser against the UK-France-Israel coalition and Nasser won.  

I despise all religious institutions, especially those that masquerade as governments. Iran tops the list of religion-run countries, but so is Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Modi's Hindu crap, and Putin's Orthodox bullshit. So is Trump's Evangelical Christian bullshit. So please, I am not defending Iran and Hezbollah. But warmongers who are after money, resources and lands, regardless of their "faith", should not be encouraged. I will not stand with the criminal Messiah Trump simply because he has chosen a despicable religious fundamentalist government as his enemy. I dispense equal opportunity contempt for both.  

Virtually all Republican administrations in the US fail domestically. The bias for the wealthy and the corporations against the average American citizen inevitably leads to a collpase of the economy. How do Republicans try to rescue their political hides from their domestic mismanagement of the economy under their stewardship? They wage wars overseas. It's easy to lie to a largely dumb American people who fall for the fake patriotism and the flag waving and send their children die and get maimed overseas simply to save the political future of such imbeciles as Reagan, Bush Sr., Bush Jr., and now Trump.  

When will European leaders stand up, not cower in fear, to Trump and his ilk? When will they have the backbone to call a spade a spade, to challenge American imperialism with actions, not just words? At least the Pope had some testosterone in him to call out warmongering asshole Trump. I suppose they are biding their time and counting on the American electorate to throw out the criminal Moron. Perhaps they do not want to fall into the populist tendency by keeping quiet and issuing timid statements. But that is the danger of democratic dogma. Evil sometimes should be fought with evil, not with morality.

But now, finally, the special friends of the US in the United Kingdom are not following the example of Tony Blair. They are refusing the lies.

==============================================



Trump Humiliated as Key U.S. Ally Bails on His New War Plan
Wiktoria Gucia
Sun, April 12, 2026

President Donald Trump is not receiving the support from “other countries” that he prematurely said he would.

The United Kingdom, a key U.S. ally, has said it will not take part in the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz that Trump, 79, announced on Sunday in a series of threatening posts on Truth Social.

“We continue to support freedom of navigation and the opening of the Strait of Hormuz, which is urgently needed to support the global economy and the cost of living back home,” a UK government spokesperson said, as reported by the BBC.

The United Kingdom is refusing to help Trump in his blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. / Carl Court - Pool/Getty Images

“The Strait of Hormuz must not be subject to tolling,” the spokesperson added, directly contradicting Trump’s claim that he instructed the U.S. Navy to “seek and interdict every vessel in International Waters that has paid a toll to Iran,” following failed peace talks between the two countries on Saturday.

The statement comes as Trump has reportedly been growing increasingly frustrated with NATO allies for not supporting the United States after it launched a surprise war on Iran in coordination with Israel on Feb. 28.

During an appearance on Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo, Trump launched into a tirade against countries—including the UK and Germany—for “not being there” for the U.S. while also claiming that he thinks “numerous countries are going to be helping us” with the newly announced blockade.

Since the start of the conflict, the president has demanded that NATO allies help reopen the Strait, which was effectively closed after Iran placed mines throughout much of the waterway, bringing a critical passage for roughly one-fifth of global oil shipments to a standstill.

Yet, some top NATO allies have rejected the president’s calls for help in the region.

In an interview for ITV’s Talking Politics podcast, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he was “fed up with the fact that families across the country see their bills go up and down... because of the actions of Putin or Trump.”

In March, UK Energy Secretary Ed Miliband told the BBC that the country was exploring “any options” to help reopen the Strait, but government officials were reportedly wary that sending ships or aerial minesweepers to clear the waterway could escalate the crisis, according to The Guardian.

The president threatens Iran after negotiations fail. / @realDonaldTrump/ TruthSocial

“We are urgently working with France and other partners to put together a wide coalition to protect freedom of navigation,” the UK spokesperson said on Sunday, as the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week that the White House is considering measures against allies that do not back its war with Iran, including the possible withdrawal of American troops from NATO states.

On Saturday, the president claimed that the US was “clearing out” the Strait “as a favor to Countries all over the World,” with U.S. Central Command later confirming the mission.

“Incredibly, they don’t have the Courage or Will to do this work themselves,” the president posted on Truth Social.

The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.

===================================================

Basically, Trump has ruined the "special relationship" between US and UK, and is being shown repeated middle fingers by the British. The "message" below is simply a huge diplomatic middle finger. Starmer seems to be telling Donald Dumb "Go f-ck yourself".

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Donald Trump Receives a Message From British PM After His Warning
Evolve Editors
Thu, April 16, 2026


Photo Credit: YOAN VALAT/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has given a firm and unequivocal response to Donald Trump‘s recent warning, telling the House of Commons that Britain will not be drawn into military action against Iran. This is the latest low point in transatlantic tensions as the U.S. president continues to express frustration over the U.K.’s refusal to join offensive operations in the Middle East.

Keir Starmer is ‘not going to yield’ to Donald Trump’s warning

Speaking during Prime Minister’s Questions, Sir Keir Starmer stated, “I’m not going to change my mind, I’m not going to yield, it is not in our national interest to join this war and we will not do so.” His remarks came directly after Donald Trump used an interview to claim that when America sought British assistance, “they were not there.”

The prime minister acknowledged sustained pressure from Washington since the U.S.-Israel war on Iran began in late February. “My position on Iran has been clear from the start, we’re not going to get dragged into this war,” Starmer said. He added, “That pressure included what happened last night,” referencing Trump’s pointed media comments (via BBC).

Meanwhile, Trump had suggested economic consequences could follow Britain’s military non-participation. Referring to the tariff agreement struck last May, the POTUS warned on Sky News, it “can always be changed.” When questioned about the relationship, Trump responded dismissively, “With who?” The president elaborated that relations had “been better, but it’s sad.”

Despite Trump’s remarks, Downing Street maintains that the bilateral partnership remains robust. A spokesperson for Starmer emphasized that the relationship “exists on multiple levels” spanning “trade, diplomacy, national security, culture, and beyond.”

Furthermore, Chancellor Rachel Reeves has voiced her own frustrations regarding the war. She described it to The Mirror as a “mistake” and expressed anger that the U.S. “went into this war without a clear exit plan.” The International Monetary Fund has already downgraded U.K. growth forecasts to 0.8%, citing Britain’s vulnerability as a net energy importer amid instability around the Strait of Hormuz.

Originally reported by Devanshi Basu on Mandatory.

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