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Britain’s Princess Catherine is set to make her first overseas trip since announcing her cancer was in remission

Activists claim use of laws to curtail internet freedoms part of well-documented history of cracking down on dissentWhen Gabon’s media regulator indefinitely suspended major social media platforms in February, citing security concerns during anti-government protests, it became the talk of town – literally.Within weeks of the announcement, use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to bypass the restrictions surged in the central African country. When gendarmerie began stopping young men at road checkpoints in the capital Libreville and other urban centres to confiscate mobile phones with VPNs installed or detain the owners, warnings spread by word of mouth. Activists and opposition members said their accounts were also suspended due to efforts of state officials. Continue reading...

Trump has already delivered China's ambitions with "self-inflicted" wounds, an ex-GOP strategist warned ahead of the president's visit with the country's leader, Xi Jinping."China's ambitions, whether they are military or economic, have been delivered up by Donald Trump," Rick Wilson said on a Tuesday episode of his podcast. Trump was set to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping from May 12-15 with business leaders like Elon Musk, and Wilson noted he's going in with "cataclysmically low poll ratings" and "tremendous political weakness" amid the war in Iran.However, while "we've lost the war in Iran," Trump started delivering "self-inflicted" wounds that benefit China's ambitions well before that, Wilson said."Trump starts a trade war. Almost every nation in South America is on the wrong side of Trump's trade war," Wilson explained. "What happens in South America? They cut deals with China. They're selling their products to China."Looking at Trump's government cutbacks, Wilson said that the DOGE decision to dismantle USAID is also helping China's global standing rise above that of the United States. "If you had gone into any African country two years ago, where there's a famine, where there's sickness, where there's poverty, where there's disease, where there's misery, you would have seen USAID workers," Wilson said. "You know what you'd see now? China. Because Elon and DOGE cut USAID and killed the program. So now those bags of food don't say, 'A gift from the people of the United States.' Now those bags of food say 'A gift from the people of the People's Republic of China.'"Wilson predicted that as people watch Trump's visit to China, they'll see him "with a sense of discomfort, with a sense of embarrassment," even though Trump will "bluster and yell and try to pretend that he's got the strong hand here. He does not. Xi Jinping has the strong hand."

During a Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday, Sen Patty Murray (D-WA) got under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s skin just moments after she took a potshot at Donald Trump.Murray’s line of questioning centered around the Pentagon seeking a $1.5 trillion in taxpayer money at a time when American families’ lives are being made worse by the unprovoked war on Iran that has sent gas prices skyrocketing and on a day when it was reported that US inflation jumped 3.8 percent.“Secretary Hegseth, the president has called Medicaid, Medicare, and child care ‘little scams ‘and said "we're fighting wars, we cannot take care of daycare." I'm trying to understand that,” she began. “Is it your position you're asking taxpayers for another half a trillion dollars for the war, that American families should be forced to give up child care and health coverage so that you can have $1.5 trillion for this budget?”The former Fox News personality airily replied, “Senator, that's not my department.”He then added, “I certainly support this, and I also support the president's efforts to find and remove fraud wherever possible in general. We do that in our department as well.”“I'm not talking about fraud. I actually asked whether an American family should lose their healthcare or their child care to pay for this budget. That is literally what the president suggested,” Murray reminded him.‘’The president has proposed a historic $1.5 trillion budget that will defend the nation and confront threats like Iran, which previous presidents allowed to happen, as Senator [Lindsey] Graham (R-SC) pointed out,” he stated. “Previous administrations said they wanted to take care of this problem, and they did not, and he's doing it.”“The question in front of the American people is what are they being asked to give up for this $1.5 trillion,” the Democrat from Washington pushed back. “That's where I was talking about. And last thing, Mr. Secretary, your budget request cuts through Trump's ramblings and really, to me, makes the truth clear, that you and the president don't value families as much as you value defense contractors. You want to increase the war budget, every penny —.”Holding up a cautioning finger, Hegseth interrupted the senator and claimed, “I meet every family at Dover [Air Force Base]. Don't tell me we don't care about families! We sure do, and we take care of them in every way we possibly can.”The nonplussed Murray replied, “I'm asking you about taxpayer dollars that everybody has. We've been to war before. We have asked people to do victory gardens. We've asked them to pay more — you are not doing that. You are taking, asking for $1.5 trillion, which means something else has to be given up. That is what this committee is looking at. You want to increase the war budget a trillion dollars. That is taxpayer money that could be used to feed families or build new affordable homes or wipe out some diseases completely or increase child investments 20 times over. But you are asking us to blow it all on war, and that's not even counting the money that you have spent bombing Iran, or you may still request in a separate supplemental.” - YouTube youtu.be

New information was revealed on Saturday about how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention planned to respond to the American passengers who have been stranded on a luxury cruise ship amid the hantavirus outbreak, according to reports.A CDC control crew was slated to meet with the 17 Americans who have been on board a cruise ship where the deadly rat-borne virus outbreak occurred, MS NOW reported. They were expected to be transported for observation to the National Quarantine Unit in Omaha, Nebraska. Michael Wadman, Director of the National Quarantine Unit, described how each person would have their own isolated space, similar to a hotel room, with access to WiFi, exercise equipment and food delivery. Health officials have said that no passengers on the ship currently have symptoms of the virus, MS NOW reported. Symptoms could come in days or weeks, so health officials have planned to monitor the passengers to see if they show signs of the virus. The MV Hondius has been stranded off Cape Verde throughout the week but is now back to sailing with the plan to disembark passengers in the Canary Islands starting on Monday. Three passengers have died aboard the ship, and eight confirmed cases have been connected to the cruise, prompting medical evacuations in South Africa, Switzerland, and the Netherlands.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has fueled speculation about whether he's planning to launch a 2028 presidential bid after he was seen DJing at a family wedding and entertaining reporters with rap lyrics, an analyst reported on Saturday. The Atlantic's Matt Viser described how Rubio's disposition and recent activities have raised questions over his future plans while Trump's cabinet manages a series of controversies and challenges, including President Donald Trump's ongoing Iran war, an affordability crisis and concerns over how the GOP will fare in the midterm elections. "It’s a low bar, perhaps, but no one in the Trump administration seems to be having more fun at the moment than Marco Rubio," Viser wrote. "Last weekend, he was acting as a DJ at a family wedding, headphones to his ear with head and hand pumping to the beat. Midweek, the secretary of state was at the podium in the White House briefing room, spitting rap lyrics and cracking jokes. (“Two more questions!” he said, before entertaining seven more.) And toward the end of the week, he was in Vatican City, being escorted through marble hallways by members of the Pontifical Swiss Guard for an audience with Pope Leo XIV, who has been criticized by the president and vice president."Despite the problems ahead for the Trump administration, Rubio "comes across as the happy warrior, not the angry one—the one offering lighthearted jokes more than brash confrontation," Viser explained."But Rubio—the guy who once became a meme because of the way he sat uncomfortably on an Oval Office couch, looking exhausted with his many jobs—suddenly looks joyful and light," Viser wrote. "He seemed to be everywhere all at once this week, followed by a hum and then a buzz of: Hmm, he sure looks like he’s running in 2028."Rubio has not yet confirmed his plans — or what his closed-door conversations with the president or pope were like. "Would there be a phone call between the pope and the president anytime soon? 'Um, I don’t know. Maybe? I don’t know. I mean, it could happen,'" Viser added. "By the end of the week, it was clear: The same could be said about a 2028 presidential run."

As the Trump administration tries to fall in the good graces of the first American Pope, an ex-GOP operative is shaking his head at the fact that he employs what he called one big 'anti-Catholic bigot' in particular. "Donald Trump is surrounded by anti-Catholic bigots," ex-GOP political strategist Steve Schmidt said on his podcast on Saturday. "First and foremost by Pete Hegseth." Schmidt and Canadian radio personality Dean Blundell were mocking Secretary of State Marco Rubio's botched visit with Pope Leo earlier in the week when Schmidt turned his ire to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. In particular, he called out how Hegseth had "the audacity, the extremism, the license that the guy feels that, 'I'm going to cancel the Catholic Good Friday service at the Pentagon at the chapel." Schmidt was referring to when Hegseth decided to hold Protestant-only services in early April. "Holy sh—!" Schmidt went on. "Donald Trump has started a fight here with an American who is more powerful than Trump because Trump is unable, through his moral blindness, to see what animates the Pope's power."Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized Pope Leo XIV, calling him "WEAK on crime" and "terrible for Foreign Policy," and accusing him of "endangering a lot of Catholics and a lot of people." Trump has also falsely claimed that the pope supports Iran having nuclear weapons, a characterization the Vatican has rejected as a misrepresentation of the Church's long-standing opposition to nuclear weapons and commitment to promoting peace.

First Baptist Church senior pastor Robert Jeffress, a strong ally of President Donald Trump, argued on Fox News Saturday that he believed Trump to have a better understanding of biblical teachings than Pope Leo XIV.Jeffress’ claim comes amid Trump’s ongoing feud with the head of the Catholic Church, prompted by Pope Leo’s generic criticism of war. Trump called Pope Leo “weak on crime” and accused him of “catering to the radical left” for what Trump considered to be a condemnation of his war against Iran.“The pope is a good man, he’s sincere in his faith, but he is sincerely wrong when it comes to Iran,” Jeffress told Fox News. “The pope ought to know – and I think he does know – God created both the church and government for two distinct purposes," he said. "The role of the church is to point people to faith in Jesus Christ, but the role of government is to protect citizens from evil-doers.”Jeffress said that he was “in the Oval Office” with Trump three days after the president launched the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran – dubbed Operation Epic Fury – and that it appeared to him as though Trump was better versed in the Bible than the pope himself.“The great irony is it looks like President Trump has a better understanding of what the Bible teaches about the role of government than the pope has!” Jeffress added. “And I’m glad the president hasn’t backed down at all.”Pastor Robert Jeffress: "It looks like President Trump has a better understanding of what the Bible teaches than the Pope" pic.twitter.com/TMSyTmdeTE— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 9, 2026