Ukrainian President Zelensky responds to critics who say his country is persecuting Christians

 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky responded to critics who accuse his government of persecuting Christians, saying religious groups in Ukraine are free and that American commentator Tucker Carlson has probably never been to the country.

Zelensky made the remarks in an interview with host Tony Perkins on "This Week on Capitol Hill" on Saturday. Zelensky asked how Carlson could talk about religious life in Ukraine without having visited.

“We are very free,” Zelensky claimed, adding that Ukraine has the largest council of religious institutions in Europe and that its members meet every month at the presidential office.

The council talks through problems and the delivery of humanitarian aid, he said, and takes up cases of destroyed buildings and of church leaders tortured or jailed by Russia. Zelensky said Christians, Jews, Catholics and Muslims all sit in the same room.

He said Carlson, a former Fox News host, “doesn’t know what’s going on in Ukraine” and could come to see what Russia had destroyed and how Ukrainians treat different faiths and nationalities. Ukraine is home to many nationalities, Zelensky said, and can defend itself only if they stand together.

In 2023, the Orthodox Public Affairs Committee, a U.S.-based organization advocating for the global Orthodox church, condemned Carlson’s comments at the Family Leadership Summit in Des Moines, Iowa, about Christian persecution in Ukraine. Carlson asked former Vice President Mike Pence if he had asked Zelensky about the treatment of Christians in Ukraine during his meeting with the leader in June that year. Pence had voiced support for the U.S. giving Ukraine resources to thwart the Russian invasion.

The group accused Carlson of spreading “Russian propaganda.”

During Saturday’s interview, Perkins said he met the council and Zelensky during an August visit, prayed for the president on Independence Day and saw religious freedom there. Zelensky replied that thousands of people take part in that work and that they respect one another.

Earlier in the interview, Perkins raised accusations that Russian troops had detained and tortured Christian pastors and taken over churches in occupied parts of Ukraine. Zelensky said Russians had killed about 120 representatives of religious institutions and called the killings deliberate attacks on people and churches.

Zelensky responds to claims Ukraine is persecuting Christians | U.S.

The Midterms Offer a Choice Between Two Brands of Socialism

In the country with arguably the most successful market economy on Earth, it's not unreasonable to ask for just one major political party to favor a system of relatively unfettered voluntary exchange. 

And yet, the midterm elections offer Americans a "choice" between a party openly embracing socialism by name, and one that increasingly embraces state-directed economic activity in the cause of nationalism.

 Not every candidate running as a Democrat or Republican is on board with their parties' statist transformations, and there are certainly other issues separating the two dominant political tribes. But if you want reliable advocacy of economic freedom, you won't find it in the two major parties.

The midterms offer a choice between two brands of socialism

France’s multiculturalism experiment goes up in flames

 “French culture doesn’t exist in and of itself; there is no such thing as a single French culture. There is culture in France and it is diverse.”

That was French President Emmanuel Macron in 2017, putting his own spin on the insipid “diversity is our strength” mantra that’s been the thoughtless creed of Western elites for more than two decades.

Now France, like so many other Western countries, is reaping the whirlwind of that shallow, misguided ideal. Riots are breaking out all over the country.

But it isn’t a case of France being French.

In fact, just the opposite.

This instead feels like the beginning of the end of a foolish and civilizationally suicidal globalist, “multicultural” project facilitated by EU elites that can no longer accommodate its contradictions.

I’m going to back up a bit here for those who haven’t been paying close attention to what’s been happening across the pond. Last week, protests in France — absurdly billed by much of the media as student frustration with large class sizes and fiscal “austerity” — exploded into a torrent of violence that authorities have been unable, or perhaps unwilling, to contain.

Left-leaning media continue to spin a narrative about what’s happening, downplaying the violence in a way that will be quite familiar to those who remember the Black Lives Matter and defund the police “mostly peaceful” riots in 2020.

One now-deleted X post by CBS described what was happening in France as “scuffles” between “small groups of protesters” and police.

Does this look like a scuffle to you?

The situation got bad enough that Macron addressed the nation, but he hardly rose to the occasion. Instead, the French president seemed to minimize the violence, highlighted the importance of “listening and dialogue,” and blamed America.

France’s multiculturalism experiment goes up in flames

France Is a Warning to California's Tax-the-Rich Crowd

French economist Gabriel Zucman has come to California bearing a familiar French solution to a fiscal problem: another tax. Once based at the University of California, Berkeley, Zucman is back and campaigning for Proposition 40, which would impose an allegedly one-time 5 percent tax on the net worth of Californians worth more than $1 billion. 

Zucman, who coauthored the proposition, estimates that the tax could raise about $100 billion and claims that 90 percent of the proceeds would go to health care. The California Legislative Analyst's office is far more cautious, saying it would raise only "tens of billions" and could cause a long-term loss of income-tax revenue as wealthy people leave the state with the companies they created.

 I've written plenty about why wealth taxes are economically destructive, administratively nightmarish, and unlikely to achieve anything close to what their advocates promise. But Zucman's prescription is wrong for a more fundamental reason, as his (and my) native country shows: Raising taxes to fuel ever-larger demands for government spending is a recipe for disaster.

France is a warning to California's tax-the-rich crowd

93% of Protestant pastors don’t plan to endorse candidates from the pulpit: survey

 Ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, more than 90% of Protestant pastors do not plan to endorse political candidates, even if their churches would face no legal consequences, according to a new Lifeway Research study.

A Lifeway Research survey of over 1,000 Protestant pastors in the United States released Tuesday finds that 93% of respondents won't endorse any political candidates during worship services even after being told the Internal Revenue Service said last year that it wouldn't strip tax-exempt status of churches if their pastors or leaders make political endorsements.

By contrast, 5% of pastors surveyed said they do plan to endorse candidates during worship, while the rest said they were unsure whether they would do so.

“Since historically very few Protestant pastors had endorsed candidates from the pulpit, we were interested in whether the IRS ruling last year would change that,” Lifeway Research Executive Director Scott McConnell said a statement. “Were pastors simply obeying the tax law or was their neutrality in a worship setting their conviction?”

The survey of 1,003 Protestant pastors was conducted Sept. 2 to 24, 2025. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.3 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.

African American pastors (11%) and pastors of other ethnicities (9%) were twice as likely than white pastors (4%) to say they plan to endorse candidates. Pentecostal (13%), Baptist (9%) and non-denominational (7%) pastors were also more likely than Lutheran (1%) and Methodist (1%) pastors to say they plan to endorse a candidate.

The survey was conducted about two months after the IRS submitted a joint motion for entry of consent judgment last July to settle a lawsuit, saying the agency doesn't enforce Johnson Amendment restrictions "against houses of worship for speech concerning electoral politics in the context of worship services."

93% of pastors don’t plan to endorse candidates from pulpit | Church & Ministries

‘French Intifada’: Mayor Calls For Terror Investigation Into ‘Islamo-Leftist’ Riots, Ban on Antifa Groups

A leading French mayor has called for the government to open up terror investigations into the urban youth riots over the weekend, and to ban far-left militant groups like Antifa. Éric Ciotti, the Mayor of Nice, France’s fifth largest city, said that the unrest seen throughout the country over the weekend, which included widespread attacks on police, mass looting, and arson attacks on government buildings, should be treated by prosecutors as terrorism, while warning that “Islamo-Leftism” is seeking “to overthrow” the Republic. 

 “The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office needs to step in and track down these far-left groups—these coordinated, organized structures that seek to attack the institutions of the Republic. It’s clear that institutions were targeted—not just in other cities, but here in our own city as well. They attempted to attack the town hall, for instance, and they also targeted police stations,” the Nice Mayor told broadcaster BFMTV. 

 The leader of the Union of the Right for the Republic (UDR) party and ally of National Rally presidential candidate Marine Le Pen said that France is facing a “hybrid phenomenon” in which the far-left is coordinating and fuelling riots from a “mix of Islamists and drug traffickers, or ‘narco-Islamists’,” and lower level “armed robbers”. “We are facing a red fascism, a French Intifada, a form of insurrection where Islamists, Antifa members, rioters, and looters—remotely controlled by the far left with terrorist aims—converge,” he said referencing the Palestinian terror campaigns against Israel, adding that there are “more Palestinian flags than French flags” at the demonstrations.

French Mayor Calls For Terrorism Investigation Into 'Islamo-Leftist' Riots

Televangelist George Bloomer wins $62.2M in racial discrimination lawsuit against Word Network

 Televangelist George Bloomer was awarded $62.2 million by a federal jury, four years after suing Kevin Adell, the white owner of The Word Network, billed as the “largest African American religious network in the world,” for race discrimination, harassment, and retaliation.

A federal jury in Detroit made the award Wednesday following a five-day trial before U.S. District Judge Susan DeClercq, The Detroit News reported.

Bloomer, 63, who founded the Bethel Family Worship Center, a multicultural ministry in Durham, North Carolina, hosted the television programs “Rejoice in the Word” and “The First Word” on the network from approximately 2011 to September 2019. He left the network in 2019 following an uproar over a controversial meme showing the pimping of black pastors. Black pastors protested and called for a boycott of the network.

In the petition calling for the boycott, Bloomer alleged that in September 2019, Adell texted a photoshopped image of himself dressed as a pimp surrounded by well-known black clergy he called “hoes” to various staff members, many of whom are black. Bloomer was included in the text.

“When Bishop Bloomer stated: ‘This is not funny. This is not good. That pimp talk and hoe talk has racist connotations for Black people.’ Adell texted Bishop Bloomer a second time and said that ‘it’s funny and he should get over it,’” the petition said.

Televangelist George Bloomer wins $62.2M in discrimination suit | U.S.

Is the LGBT fad fading?

 On an especially prescient episode of “Seinfeld,” Kramer refused to “wear the ribbon” during a walk-a-thon to support AIDS research.

Last month, life imitated art at a school in Burlington, Massachusetts, when a group of middle schoolers refused to participate in Pride Day. Instead of rainbow colors, many wore black, or even red, white, and blue. Some announced their pronouns as “U, S, and A.” When teachers and community leaders denounced their sacrilege, parents came to their kids’ defense. As one mom said, “I wish these schools would pump the brakes on what they are shoving down our kids throats.” 

This may not be a random incident. After astonishing growth in the last few decades, the number of young people, identifying as LGBT is now in decline. “Trans identification,” according to Professor and author Eric Kaufmann, “is in freefall. (And) non-conforming sexual identity is also in sharp decline.” Last year, his report on the student body survey from the exclusive Phillips Academy Andover found “a drop from over 9% non-binary in 2023 to 3% in 2025.”  

Is the LGBT fad fading?

Confused About Pope Leo’s Death Penalty Comments? Here’s What You Need To Know | Ep 302

 

Texas AG Ken Paxton qualifies support for data centers: 'A yes with conditions'

 Texas Attorney General and Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ken Paxton outlined what he called a conditional “Texas first” approach to data center development in an attempt to quell opposition from residents concerned about losing their water, particularly in rural areas, and spikes in utility rates.  

Speaking to an audience of small business owners and community leaders at the “In Dialogue: Texas” event hosted by the United States Hispanic Business Council (USHBC) in Fort Worth on Saturday, Paxton said he sees data centers as essential rather than optional. “This is not an extreme yes-no. This is a yes with conditions,” he told USHBC President and CEO Javier Palomarez. 

Paxton qualifies support for data centers: A yes with conditions | Politics

Christa Pike's botched execution sparks debate on death penalty: 'This has to stop now'

 Following the failed execution of death row inmate Christa Pike, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said an investigation is needed to determine what went wrong. The case has drawn reactions from pro-life advocates and from both opponents and supporters of the death penalty.

Pike’s execution on Wednesday did not go as planned. She remained alive after receiving two syringes of lethal injection chemicals. State officials later told the Tennessee Supreme Court that Pike was being taken to a hospital for medical care.

Christa Pike's botched execution sparks debate on death penalty | U.S.

Spanish King Felipe VI Admonishes Migrant Invasion of Ceuta as ‘Unacceptable’

The King referred to the Spanish exclave in remarks during a gala diner at the Royal Palace of Madrid on the occasion of French President Emmanuel Macron and First Lady Brigitte Macron’s official visit to Spain. King Felipe called on the European Union to be “more effective and show greater solidarity” in protecting the Union’s borders, referring to the mass migrant invasion of Ceuta. 

 “What happened in Ceuta this summer, the massive influx of tens of thousands of people crossing a Spanish border — which is also a European border — is unacceptable and poses a major challenge from the standpoint of security, public order, and humanitarian concerns,” King Felipe said. King Felipe insisted the situation of Ceuta “must lead to strengthened collaboration” among E.U. member states when it comes to resources and cooperation. The Spanish King noted European nations geographically located on the E.U.’s external borders face greater pressure and cannot “shoulder alone a responsibility that belongs to us all.”

Spanish King Felipe VI Admonishes Migrant Invasion of Ceuta as 'Unacceptable'

‘Second 9/11 prevented’: Israel suspects pilot tried to hijack flight to Tel Aviv in attempted terror attack

 After a plane traveling from Dubai to Tel Avivissued an emergency signal before landing in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, Israel is treating the incident as a suspected terror attack and working to bring the approximately 180 passengers home aboard an Israeli Air Force plane.

A senior Israeli official told Channel 12 that “the most severe disaster was prevented” and that authorities are investigating growing indications that the copilot tried to stab his colleague with a knife and take over the plane in order to crash it.

Initial reports suggest that passengers intervened to subdue the pilot, while a second flight crew on board helped to land the plane.

“Following concerns over an aviation incident, Prime Minister Netanyahu held consultations on the matter and is monitoring developments. The incident is under control, and all measures are currently being deployed in order to return the Israeli passengers safely to Israel,” the prime minister’s office stated.

On Wednesday morning, a flydubai flight sent out a “squawk code” of 7700, which is an international emergency signal, while turning around in the northern Saudi desert before disappearing from flight radars.

: Israel suspects pilot tried to hijack flight to Tel Aviv | World

Senators fire off bipartisan letter asking Trump to press Xi on religious persecution

 A bipartisan group of 10 U.S. senators sent a letter to President Donald Trump on Tuesday urging him to press Chinese President Xi Jinping on Beijing's persecution of Christian pastors and other religious minorities during their bilateral summit this week in Washington.

Led by Sens. Ted Budd, R-N.C., and Tim Kaine, D-Va., the letter expressed gratitude to Trump for the diplomatic pressure that led to the release of Beijing Zion Church founder Ezra Jin, who was released to the U.S. on July 3 as a goodwill gesture from Xi following Jin's 266 days of detainment.

Senators urge Trump to press Xi on religious persecution | Politics

This Is NOT God's Church!

 

'She did not consent': Family says Christian grandmother euthanized against her will

 “I don’t want the death shot.”

Those were reportedly the words of 83-year-old Brigitte Stegemann, a Christian grandmother in Ontario, Canada, who repeatedly resisted medically assisted dying before her death in July.

Now, her granddaughter is demanding answers, alleging that Stegemann was forced to undergo medical assistance in dying (MAiD) despite repeatedly declaring that she was refusing that option.  

The Daily Mail reported details surrounding the circumstances of the death of Stegemann, an 83-year-old Christian woman who lived in Canifton. Brigitte Kranendonk, Stegemann’s granddaughter who shares the same name as her late grandmother, discussed how Stegemann had been diagnosed with stomach cancer in February and had seen her overall health decline. 

Kranendonk insisted to the publication that her grandmother had previously asserted “I don’t want that” when she brought up the option of medically assisted dying. The Daily Mail noted that Kranendonk attributed her grandmother’s opposition to MAiD to her “religiosity” and the “notion of displeasing God.” 

Canadian woman says MAiD euthanized grandmother against her will | World

Feds probing Massachusetts' removal of trans-identified girl from Catholic parents

 The U.S. Department of Education is investigating a Massachusetts school district over reports that officials worked to socially transition a trans-identified teenager without her Catholic parents’ consent and took steps to remove the girl from their custody after they objected.

The Education Department’s Student Privacy Policy Office is investigating the Northborough-Southborough Regional School District to determine whether the district violated the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA) and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) by working to socially transition a female student without informing her parents.

“According to the student’s parents, school personnel at Algonquin Regional High School helped facilitate their daughter’s so-called ‘social transition’ to a boy without informing them,” the department said in an announcement. “The parents claim that their daughter participated in counseling sessions after school to support the transition while they were under the impression she was receiving academic assistance for her math class.”

The department contends that FERPA requires schools to allow parents to access their children’s education records and make changes to those records. Schools are also required to "provide a hearing if the school rejects the changes."

"PPRA requires schools to receive written consent from parents if they plan to conduct any evaluation, survey, or analysis on students regarding their or their family’s mental health, sex behaviors and attitudes, religious beliefs or any other invasive sensitive subjects outlined in the statute," the Education Department statement reads. 

Feds probing removal of trans-identified teen from parents | Politics

Fundraiser for Lindsay Clancy trial holdout juror tops $370K

 A fundraiser for the holdout juror in the Lindsay Clancy case has raised over $370,000 as the fallout from the high-profile murder trial continues. 

More than two weeks after a mistrial was declared in the trial for Lindsay Clancy, a mother who killed all three of her children as she experienced postpartum psychosis, additional information is coming out about the one juror who disagreed with the rest of the jury that she was not guilty by reason of insanity.

While many jury members have publicly come forward, the holdout juror has not given a public interview yet, but has been identified as Michael Desronvil and has released statements through his attorney. 

A fundraiser was launched on the crowdfunding platform GiveSendGo titled “Stand with the Juror." The page features pictures of Desronvil and his infant child as well as a statement provided by the juror’s counsel elaborating on why he believed Clancy was guilty.

The fundraiser has raised over $374,000 as of Monday afternoon, and aims to “cover security, lawyers, and lost work,” citing certainty that the public will “come for him.”

Fundraiser for Lindsay Clancy trial holdout juror tops $370K | U.S.

Michael Youssef sounds alarm over Islamists in Texas ahead of AWAKE Houston

 Michael Youssef is warning that Christians must “wake up” to a growing Islamist influence in the United States, particularly in Texas, while contending that the ultimate answer is found in repentance, revival and a renewed commitment to proclaiming the Gospel.

Michael Youssef warns of Islamist influence in Texas | Church & Ministries

Jonathan Cahn says events leading up to 'duct tape man' incident mirror latest book

 Author and Messianic rabbi Jonathan Cahn says a violent encounter with a fellow passenger sitting in first class on an American Airlines flight earlier this month bore an uncanny resemblance to events in his latest book, prompting him to reflect on what he believes was a spiritual battle.

In an interview with The Christian Post, Cahn recounted an intense encounter he had with a fellow passenger on a recent flight from Dallas, Texas, to Newark, New Jersey. He had previously released a video message attributing the exchange to the “forces of darkness” seeking to prevent him from sharing his latest book, The Altar of Pergamon: The Mystery of the Dark Angel and the Future of the World. 

Jonathan Cahn says 'duct tape man' incident mirror latest book | Podcast