‘No More Mr. Nice Guy’: US strikes, seizes Iranian cargo ship trying to break blockade; Reports: IRGC, not Iranian officials, control negotiations; Trump on ‘What happens when the ceasefire ends?’; Pope Leo XIV urges unity and hope in Angola, clarifies response to Trump; JD responds to Pope’s clarification; Artemis II astronaut shares video of ‘Earthset’ taken with his iPhone; Clarence Thomas blasts progressivism as threat to America; China pressures underground Catholics to join state Church, says religious rights group; Pope Francis’ turbulent pontificate under a microscope; Weeklong ‘America Reads the Bible’ event commences in DC; IDF soldier smashes statue of Jesus during ground operations in Lebanon; Priest’s reminder: 14 Holy Intercessors helping the faithful for centuries during dangerous times; and more —
“No More Mr. Nice Guy”: US Strikes, Seizes Iranian Cargo Ship Trying To Break Blockade
US Struck and Seized Iranian-flagged Cargo Ship on Gulf Of Oman
With markets still closed for now, President Trump just posted on his Truth Social platform that the US military just struck and seized an Iranian-flagged cargo ship in the Gulf of Oman[:]
Today, an Iranian-flagged cargo ship named TOUSKA, nearly 900 feet long and weighing almost as much as an aircraft carrier, tried to get past our Naval Blockade, and it did not go well for them.
The U.S. Navy Guided Missile Destroyer USS SPRUANCE intercepted the TOUSKA in the Gulf of Oman, and gave them fair warning to stop.
The Iranian crew refused to listen, so our Navy ship stopped them right in their tracks by blowing a hole in the engineroom.
Right now, U.S. Marines have custody of the vessel.
The TOUSKA is under U.S. Treasury Sanctions because of their prior history of illegal activity.
We have full custody of the ship, and are seeing what’s on board!
According to CENTCOM, American forces issued multiple warnings and informed the Iranian-flagged vessel it was in violation of the U.S. blockade.
Read more at ZeroHedge
Reports: IRGC, not Iranian officials, control negotiations
Watch @EricLDaugh
Trump on “What happens when the ceasefire ends?’
Watch @JustThe News
Political pundit gives his take on IRGC’s power
Read @Knesix
Pope Leo XIV urges unity and hope in Angola, clarifies response to Trump
Pope Leo XIV continued his apostolic journey across Africa this weekend with a stop in Angola, where he met with the country’s president, civil servants, and diplomatic corps and visited a Marian pilgrimage site, renewing his calls for peace and hope at both events. …
Speaking en route to Angola from Cameroon, Pope Leo told journalists that President Donald Trump’s comments on social media last week — which criticized the Pontiff as being “weak” and “terrible for foreign policy” — have lent a “certain narrative that has not been accurate in all of its aspects” to his apostolic journey. He said that though remarks he has made throughout the trip might appear otherwise, he is not “trying to debate” Trump.
“Just one little example: the talk that I gave at the prayer meeting for peace a couple of days ago was prepared two weeks ago, well before the President ever commented on myself and on the message of peace that I am promoting,” he said. “And yet, as it happens, it was looked at as if I was trying to debate again the President, which is not in my interest at all.”
Read more at Zeale
JD Vance grateful Pope clarified statements, says ‘Pope Leo will be in our prayers, and I hope that we’ll be in his’
See/watch @JDVance
Astronaut Reid Wiseman shares video of ‘Earthset’ taken with his iPhone
Watch @astro_reid
President Trump SIGNS executive order to expedite FDA review of psychedelic treatments for major problems like suic*de, addiction and depression among veterans
See @PressSec; see more @JustTheNews
The Media’s Pulp Fiction Hegseth Hoax Is As Dumb As It Gets by Shawn Fleetwood
Hegseth’s full remarks leading up to the ‘fake Bible verse’ show he was never under the impression that it was an actual Bible verse.
First it was anonymous attacks on his personal life. Then it was a manufactured “controversy” about his Christian tattoos. And now, the desperate corporate media are using the movie Pulp Fiction to go after War Secretary Pete Hegseth.
The ridiculous hit job kicked into high gear on Thursday after numerous outlets and their Democrat allies began regurgitating the same narrative. That is, while speaking at a Pentagon prayer service, Hegseth quoted a “fake Bible verse” made famous by Samuel L. Jackson’s character in the 1990’s hit movie. …
On the surface, the secretary’s remarks are certainly similar to the Pulp Fiction quote. But upon watching his full remarks leading up to the quoted prayer, however, viewers discover that Hegseth was never under the impression that it was an actual prayer from the Bible.
Addressing attendees during Wednesday’s service, Hegseth said that he was handed the prayer days prior from a “lead mission planner of Sandy-1,” an Air Force combat search-and-rescue (CSAR) unit that helped rescue a downed pilot in Iran earlier this month. The secretary noted that the prayer “was recited by Sandy-1, which is one of the Sandies, to all Sandies, all those A-10 crews prior to all CSAR missions, but especially this CSAR mission that happened in real time.”
It’s the next part of Hegseth’s remarks that leftists have conveniently chosen to ignore.
“They call it CSAR 25:17,” Hegseth said with a laugh, “which I think is meant to reflect Ezekiel 25:17” (emphasis added).
Read more at The Federalist
Supreme Court Justices Alito, Thomas not expected to retire this year: Sources
Alito intends to continue serving into at least 2027, sources said.
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, the subject of intensifying speculation about a potential retirement before the midterm elections, is not expected to leave the bench this year, sources close to the justice have told ABC News.
Alito, 76, has been hiring clerks for next term and intends to continue serving into at least 2027, the sources who have spoken to Alito told ABC.
Fox News first reported the justice’s intentions.
Alito has remained an active and engaged participant in the court’s work, even after he was briefly hospitalized earlier this year for a health scare of undisclosed origin.
Read more at ABC News
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas blasts progressivism as threat to America
He said values in the Declaration of Independence have “fallen out of favor.”
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on Wednesday delivered a televised broadside against progressivism, a political philosophy he described as an existential threat to America and the principles that founded it 250 years ago.
“Progressivism seeks to replace the basic premises of the Declaration of Independence and hence our form of government,” Thomas said in a speech at the University of Texas Austin Law School pegged to the nation’s upcoming milestone birthday.
A spirit of “cynicism, rejection, hostility and animus” toward America — by Americans — has taken hold, Thomas said in remarks carried live on CSPAN.
Read more at ABC News
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas full speech
Watch at @FoxNews
China Pressures Underground Catholics to Join State Church, Rights Group Says
‘A decade into Xi Jinping’s Sinicization campaign and nearly eight years since the 2018 Holy See-China agreement, Catholics in China face escalating repression’ researcher Yalkun Uluyol said.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is increasing its pressure campaign on underground Catholics, according to a report from Human Rights Watch.
“A decade into Xi Jinping’s Sinicization campaign and nearly eight years since the 2018 Holy See-China agreement, Catholics in China face escalating repression that violates their religious freedoms,” Yalkun Uluyol, a China researcher at Human Rights Watch, said in an April 15 report. “Pope Leo XIV should urgently review the agreement and press Beijing to end the persecution and intimidation of underground churches, clergy, and worshippers.”
Human Rights Watch said it conducted interviews with “nine people outside the country who had firsthand knowledge of Catholicism in China” for its report, who said the 2018 Vatican-China agreement has “provided an overarching structure for the authorities to pressure underground Catholics.”
Read more at National Catholic Register
Pope Francis’ Turbulent Pontificate Under the Microscope
Peter Kwasniewski discusses Dominic Grigio’s forensic and exhaustive new study of the tumultuous and profoundly problematic reign of the late pontiff who died a year ago on April 21st.
The pontificate of Pope Francis was traumatic, highly controversial and for many practicing faithful who took an interest in Rome matters, deeply disturbing.
One Catholic layman remarked recently that he felt “waterboarded” for 12 years and is only now, with trepidation, coming up for air.
Scarcely did a week go by without an attack on orthodoxy, apostolic tradition, and the body of the Church, and while the pontificate was praised for highlighting the mercy of God and inadvertently exposing much hidden corruption and ingrained heterodoxy, it is regarded by many theologians and others to have been, in the words of Cardinal George Pell’s 2022 Demos memorandum, “a catastrophe.”
Read more at Edward Pentin’s Substack
Canonization process stopped for Shenandoah [PA]-native Father Ciszek
After several decades of work, the canonization process for a Shenandoah native has stopped.
Father Walter Ciszek had been under consideration for canonization for decades. In 2012, the Vatican gave formal approval for the canonization process to begin after well over a decade of work at the Diocesean level.
That included gathering testimony of 45 witnesses, Ciszek’s published and unpublished works, and over 4,000 documents from Jesuit archives, Russian archives, and more. It wasn’t enough.
In a letter shared with the Walter Ciszek Prayer League, Monsignor Ronald Bocian of Shenandoah’s Divine Mercy Parish said “the formal canonization process has been stopped.”
“The Diocese has been informed that the documentation relating to his Cause does not support advancing his Cause for Beatification or Sainthood,” Bocian wrote. “The development comes after years of careful study and discernment at the level of the Holy See, which bears the responsibility of evaluating each Cause with thoroughness, integrity, and fidelity to the Church’s norms.”
Read more at The Shenandoah Sentinel
‘This Is More Than Symbolism’: Weeklong ‘America Reads the Bible’ Event Commences in D.C.
A weeklong event to read the entire Bible aloud kicked off in Washington, DC, on Saturday evening, and President Donald Trump is scheduled to participate by reading scripture on Tuesday.
The “America Reads the Bible” event hosted its opening ceremony at the Museum of the Bible, Fox News reported.
Daily readings from Genesis to Revelation will be held from 9:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m. from [Sunday] until Friday. The museum said over 475 national leaders and 115 ministries will participate in the 84-hour, seven-day event, calling it the largest Bible reading in American history, which will also celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday.
Read more at Breitbart; see event schedule here
More on ‘America Reads the Bible’
See @CBNNews
Catholic bishop’s heads-up: Consecration of US to Sacred Heart of Jesus on June 11
Watch @USCCB
IDF soldier smashing statue of Jesus during ground operations in Lebanon
Read more @gatewaypundit
Marine Le Pen on desecration of Christian graves
The desecration of the graves of the deceased is an outrage to human conscience as much as to our values of civilization. These intolerable acts serve as a reminder of the ongoing rise in anti-Christian acts in our country, with nearly 850 recorded in 2025. How many more degradations will it take for the indignation and responsiveness of the public authorities to match the scale of this unacceptable reality? Silence and inertia are no longer options. Let the government act.
See @MLP_officiel
Pope arrives in northeastern city of Saurimo on Monday morning
Watch @KenyaNewsCenter
Pope Leo offers Holy Mass in Saurimo, Angola
Watch at Shalom World
The 14 Holy Helpers – Powerful intercessors in dangerous times
Read @father_rmv
