IRGC: Decision-making space for US is limited

 Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said that the decision-making space for the United States is "limited," Iranian Tasnim News Agency stated on Sunday, citing an official statement by the IRGC.

The IRGC was said to claim that US President Donald Trump must now choose between "an impossible operation or a bad deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran." Furthermore, the military organization added that "Iran's deadline against the blockade to the Pentagon, the change in tone of China, Russia, and Europe against Washington, Trump's passive letter to Congress, and the acceptance of Iran's negotiating terms" were the factors which contributed to the current developments.

https://breakingthenews.net/Article/IRGC:-Decision-making-space-for-US-is-limited/66204924

Medi-Cal fraud loophole Gavin Newsom doesn’t want you to know about

 Vice President JD Vance needs to prioritize one policy change above all others as he leads the Trump administration’s crackdown on fraud in California and elsehwere: closing a loophole that is allowing thousands of illegal aliens to receive Medicaid.

Here’s the loophole:

Federal law requires states to verify the citizenship or immigration status of people who apply for Medicaid (which is Medi-Cal in California), but gives them a “reasonable opportunity period” to provide documentation.

The minimum grace period is 90 days, under federal regulations. a long grace period. But bureaucrats have stretched it into permanent enrollment, funneling our tax dollars to illegal aliens who shouldn’t even be in the country.

Nathan Posner/Shutterstock

States add to the problem by granting new “reasonable opportunity periods” to the same people over and over again, keeping illegal aliens on Medicaid indefinitely.

For example, one Utah Medicaid applicant has been enrolled for 5,820 days without proving their immigration status. That is 16 years of welfare without proof of eligibility.

Think back to where you were 16 years ago. The iPad didn’t exist, Blockbuster Video still had thousands of stores, and three in four Americans still had a landline.

That enrollee has been drawing Medicaid benefits every single day since, while state officials wait for proof of citizenship that has never come.

But Utah is not even an outlier. Seven in 10 “temporary” Medicaid cases now exceed 90 days, and the federal government allows it.

What’s more, Governor Gavin Newsom’s California may be the worst offender of all, but his administration doesn’t want you to know it.

When my organization filed a public records request to find out how many people are exploiting these extensions, the California Department of Health Care Services strung us along for four months, with delay after delay, before it demanded $182,000 to produce the data.

Apparently, the Newsom administration needs its own “reasonable opportunity period” when it comes to transparency.

In total, an estimated 700,000 people receive these “reasonable opportunity periods” each year, a population larger than Washington, D.C., costing taxpayers millions of dollars.

The Medicaid program is on track to lose $2 trillion to waste, fraud, and abuse over the next decade. More than one in five dollars spent on the program is improper, and eligibility errors drive more than 80 percent of that.

Taxpayers are spending billions of dollars every year on people who were never eligible in the first place, or who stayed enrolled long after their circumstances changed.

During the Biden border crisis, the number of applicants who couldn’t prove their immigration status exploded nearly five-fold, as more illegal aliens came flooding in and states kept extending benefits to people with no legal right to them.

The Biden administration even formalized this blatant abuse, requiring states to keep granting grace periods to the same applicants.

Although President Trump has solved the border crisis, the problem of illegal aliens receiving welfare is far from solved. In fact, now these outrageous welfare abuses could even get worse.

Left-wing groups are lobbying states to adopt “One Door” eligibility systems, which some states already use to enroll applicants in every welfare program at once if they apply for any of them.

These systems are designed to maximize enrollment, even if it means more fraud and abuse by those who aren’t even eligible for benefits. 

After a certain point, reasonable opportunity periods aren’t so reasonable.  The Trump administration should limit a reasonable opportunity period to 30 days, which is more than enough time for law-abiding people to track down missing paperwork. 

Additionally, states should limit each applicant to one reasonable opportunity period instead of opening new ones over and over again for the same people.

States also need to hold illegal aliens accountable if they try to get tax dollars for which they are not eligible. If an applicant’s verification fails, states should share this information be with immigration enforcement, as Louisiana and Indiana already do. Not only are these applicants here illegally, but they are also attempting to steal from taxpayers.

Ultimately, Congress should change the law and require pre-enrollment verification. It should end the reasonable opportunity period loophole entirely. Congress should also require states to follow Louisiana and Indiana’s lead in referring illegal aliens to immigration authorities when they try to steal welfare.

The Vice President’s anti-fraud task force has a tall task ahead of it, but there are few easier steps to take than this one. Sixteen years of waste, fraud, and abuse of our tax dollars is enough.

It is time to close this loophole once and for all.

Jonathan Ingram is vice president of policy and research at the Foundation for Government Accountability.

https://nypost.com/2026/05/02/opinion/the-medi-cal-fraud-loophole-gavin-newsom-doesnt-want-you-to-know-about/

Mob of teens storms Times Square Scientology church amid viral ‘speed running’ trend

 A mob of rowdy teens stormed a Big Apple Scientology church Saturday afternoon, trashing the property and injuring a security guard amid a nationwide rash of similar viral social media stunts, police and sources said.

About 50 unruly youths barreled through a locked side door of the Church of Scientology of New York — which sits just off Times Square on West 46th Street — at around 4:24 p.m., damaging the premises while worshipers and visitors were attending a seminar, according to cops, police sources and the church.

They also kicked a 30-year-old man, believed to be a security guard, who was walloped in the leg and sustained minor injuries.

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About 50 unruly teens barreled through the side door of the Church of Scientology of New York at 227 West 46th Street Saturday afternoon.Kevin C. Downs for NY Post

The rampaging teens — whose act resembled the “speed running” trend that has seen similar invasions at Scientology locations in Los Angeles — also hurled a racial slur at another staffer, the church said.

“I saw about possibly about 50 kids with masks and hoodies. All races, black, whites, Asians, running,” said George Shannon, 58, a guard at the near-by Lunt-Fontanne Theater.

“They were running and laughing. They were breaking up the chairs and tables and throwing books on the ground, vandalizing the church.”

While police did not address a motive for the attack, The Church of Scientology International, based in Los Angeles, said that they believe it is part of the recent viral trend

“Some online have referred to these incidents as ‘speed running.’ In reality, they involve organized trespasses into religious and public information facilities for social media attention,” the church said.

“A group of individuals forced their way into the Church of Scientology New York, broke a locked door to gain entry, and rushed into the building,” the church added.

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The rowdy mob damaged the premises and kicked a 30-year-old man believed to be a security guard.o1ivierr, /TikTok

“The disruption endangered staff, parishioners and visitors, including individuals attending a seminar at the time. This was not a peaceful visit or lawful protested. It was a coordinated act involving forced entry, property damage, and physical aggression inside a house of worship.”

The rabble-rousers later fled the building in all directions, police said.

No arrests have been made as the investigation continues.

The Midtown incident mirrors the bizarre new TikTok trend dubbed “Scientology speed running” — which uses a video game term to describe groups of thrill-seeking influencers and troublemakers filming themselves charging into properties owned or tied to the Church of Scientology since early April.

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The Midtown incident comes amid a bizarre new TikTok trend — dubbed “Scientology speed running.”o1ivierr, /TikTok

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The reckless social media craze has seen thrill-seeking influencers and troublemakers filming themselves charging into properties owned or tied to the Church of Scientology since early April — as seen here in California.@versacericka/TikTok

The reckless social media craze, erupting across Los Angeles, has sparked security fears for the church, which teaches followers that humans are immortal spiritual beings called “thetans” with limitless power.

The religion, founded in the 1950s by science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard, is built on a system of beliefs, teachings, and rituals focused on spiritual betterment, with his book “Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health” serving as its foundational text.

Hollywood has long fueled the church’s visibility, largely due to high-profile members like actors Tom Cruise and John Travolta, who have served as its most recognizable public supporters.

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Hollywood has long fueled the church’s visibility, largely due to high-profile members like actors Tom Cruise and John Travolta.AP

Other well-known members of the church have included actresses Elisabeth Moss, Catherine Bell, Jenna Elfman, and Nancy Cartwright, best known as the voice of Bart Simpson on “The Simpsons.”

The church said it is cooperating with the NYPD as its investigation in Saturday’s incident continues.

“Church facilities are peaceful spaces designed to welcome parishioners, visitors and members of the public,” the statement said.

“Turning them into targets for viral stunts is not journalism, protest or civic activity. It is trespass, harassment, and disruption of religious spaces. The Church welcomes lawful visitors. It does not welcome individuals forcing entry, damaging property … or targeting religious facilities for online attention.”

Shannon said he was disgusted by the scene of lawlessness.

“Honestly, I feel this is the responsibility of the city council and the Mayor,” he said. “The lack of rules and regulations. So people in New York City feel and do whatever they want to do. 
That’s why these kids wasn’t even scared.”

https://nypost.com/2026/05/02/us-news/mob-of-rowdy-teens-storm-nyc-scientology-church-amid-viral-speed-running-trend/

Alliance Fracture Is Now Global

 by Gregory Copley via The Epoch Times,

Western focus was, in 2026, on whether U.S. President Donald Trump would fulfill his threat to withdraw the United States from NATO. Eastern and Southern focus was on whether the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the BRICS alliance were even functioning.

In the U.S.–NATO standoff, it may take more complex political maneuvering for Trump to achieve a breakup of the alliance. Certainly, he could withdraw the U.S. military from European basing, but Congress in 2023 approved legislation that would prevent any president from withdrawing the United States from NATO without approval from the Senate or an act of Congress. The measure, spearheaded by Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and, ironically, Marco Rubio (R-Fla.)—now Trump’s secretary of state—was included in the annual National Defense Authorization Act signed by President Joe Biden.

It may be more feasible for Trump to have the United States leave aspects of the military component of the North Atlantic Alliance, as French President Charles de Gaulle did in withdrawing from the NATO integrated military command structure—but not the North Atlantic Alliance—in 1967. Other members of NATO may themselves go beyond that to abandon NATO in order to form a new alliance, but that is a separate issue.

Of real, but as yet unexplored, interest is that other alliances have been forced to the sidelines because Trump initiatives, and time, have rendered them ineffective.

Among the most important of these are the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and BRICS. Secondarily, the informal Quad alliance against China—of India, the United States, Japan, and Australia—is quietly becoming less tight.

The SCO, which emerged in 2001 from the 1996 Shanghai Five security arrangement, now has 10 member states, most of which harbor suspicions about other members of the SCO. It was meant to contain a mutual security clause to require members to support other members under attack from outside. SCO membership includes Iran, and that clause has proven to be unenforceable as the wars against Iran continue. So the SCO is now effectively inoperable, except as a showcase with an expensive bureaucracy.

Similarly, BRICS—which began as a working group of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—was designed to circumvent U.S. domination of global trade systems by finding alternatives to trading using the U.S. dollar. The BRICS membership had expanded by 2026 to 10 states, adding Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. But it failed to shake the United States’ ability to control and sustain a global sanctions regime against political leaders who used the U.S. dollar in ways deemed inimical to U.S. interests.

BRICS achieved some new trading modalities that avoided the use of the U.S. dollar, but this did little to weaken the U.S. currency, or strengthen the currencies of BRICS members. But that was to be expected. This journal, as early as 2008, was discussing the end of the globalist, multinational framework of financing the international logistics chain based on the U.S. dollar. It discussed a return to bilateralism of trading methodologies, including barter and countertrade, which had, even in the 1970s, been a normal practice.

The past year-plus has seen the promoters of BRICS—as a defensive mechanism against the United States—becoming incapable of creating a new trade finance system. A proposed BRICS currency has come to naught; the currency of China has weakened to the point that it is hardly tradeable. And so on.

At what point is the Trump administration prepared to push for the complete breakdown of “opposing currencies,” not just of the BRICS states’ proposed new currency, but even of the euro and sterling?

Has all of this saved and bolstered the U.S. dollar? By default, yes; there is still no viable alternative to the use of the U.S. currency for major world trade.

But is Trump yet through with his plans to diminish, and perhaps totally dispense with, the United Nations? He has certainly hit key aspects of the U.N. that were heavily dependent on U.S. taxpayer contributions. The U.N. itself has been making itself less relevant and less forceful; it has taken an extremely polarizing, leftist position on many international issues and, at the same time, has been disregarded by the United States and other powers.

This, in turn, has made it less useful to Beijing, which entered the U.N. on Oct. 25, 1971, displacing the original founding member, the Republic of China, also known as Taiwan. China then began a sustained campaign to use U.N. agencies for political influence. So some of Trump’s anti-U.N. activities were clearly designed as moves against China.

What is the impact of the diminishing role of the U.N.? It has become less trusted as an instrument to impartially mediate interstate conflicts, and this makes its International Criminal Court (ICC)—to which the United States is not a signatory—also less trusted. The attempt to use the ICC as a key body to create “international law” out of thin air has now become discredited, or less of an influence. The World Trade Organization is also increasingly disregarded, as are regional bodies, such as ECOWAS in West Africa, and the Organization of American States.

So to what extent was the “rules-based world order” a creature of this utopianist U.N. thinking, or was it merely a reflection of a pax Americana?

If Trump wished to move heavily against the U.N., his best timing might be before the U.S. midterm congressional elections in November. But could he make it stick?

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/alliance-fracture-now-global

DOJ Releases Report Alleging Anti-Christian Bias Under Biden

 by Savannah Halsey Pointer via The Epoch Times,

The Department of Justice (DOJ) on April 30 released a 500-page report detailing alleged anti-Christian bias on the part of the Biden administration.

According to the report by the DOJ’s Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias, the former administration’s prosecutions, policies, and practices constituted bias throughout multiple agencies, in accordance with the administration’s priorities.

The task force is chaired by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.

“No American should live in fear that the federal government will punish them for their faith,” Blanche said. “As our report lays out, the Biden Administration’s actions devastated the lives of many Christian Americans.”

Around 200 pages of the report are dedicated to the actions of more than 17 federal agencies that uncovered alleged religious discrimination. The investigation included a review of internal discussions and case files, as well as prosecutorial decisions.

There were details of a since-retracted 2023 FBI memo on “radical traditionalist” Catholics, which cited the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The review also listed Biden-era regulations on abortion, contraception, gender, and human sexuality, among other issues that pitted the government against religious groups.

The report also makes note of the Biden administration’s reading of the 2019 Supreme Court ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, which led to decisions that were based on what the Trump administration report called “sex-based discrimination in federally funded schools and sports.”

According to the DOJ report, the previous administration used the FBI, IRS, Department of Education, Department of Health and Human Services, and other agencies to monitor, investigate, and apply pressure to various Christian groups at a federal level.

The current DOJ’s task force was formed in accordance with President Donald Trump’s Feb. 6, 2025, executive order titled Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias.

The president ordered multiple agencies to investigate what he called an “egregious pattern of targeting peaceful Christians, while ignoring violent, anti-Christian offenses.”

Conflicting Response

This is a “very different Department of Justice ... than the previous administration,” said Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor and president of West Coast Trial Lawyers.

“The conclusion in the report, at least from an enforcement perspective, was that ... federal law was disproportionately used to prosecute pro-life and other Christians under the Biden administration,” he told The Epoch Times.

However, Rahmani, who worked at the DOJ from 2009 to 2012, said that while policies change, he has not seen a “systematic bias for or against” any one religious group.

“I don’t necessarily see ... [that] Christian activists in this country are receiving more prison time for violent acts, as opposed to, you know, Muslim or other religious groups.”

According to Andrea Picciotti-Bayer, director of the Conscience Project, the report “calls out the brazen assault against religious freedom by the former administration for what it was: a failure of constitutional and statutory duty.”

Picciotti-Bayer said in an emailed statement that the Biden administration disregarded “fundamental guarantees” in the First Amendment and federal civil rights law, and treated “sincere religious objections as obstacles to overcome, prosecuting peaceful prayer, trampling on parental rights and steamrolling conscience rights.”

The Interfaith Alliance, however, which states its mission is to “challenge Christian nationalism and religious extremism,” responded to the DOJ report, saying their group has “consistently opposed the work of this ‘task force.’” It accused the DOJ of trying to “undermine Americans’ religious freedom and First Amendment rights.”

The alliance called the task force’s report a “political stunt designed to promote the lie that American Christians are a persecuted group, while providing justification to target anyone deemed out of step with their Christian nationalist agenda.”

Previous Report

This report comes just weeks after an 800-page report from the department, detailing the “weaponization” of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which called out alleged prosecutorial problems, surveillance activities undertaken by pro-abortion groups, and failures to comply with federal law.

Biden’s DOJ did not enforce the law evenly, according to the April 14 report.

The task force under the Biden administration treated pro-life groups differently from pro-abortion groups, outlining disproportionate coordination with pro-abortion groups that, according to the report, indicated bias and prosecutorial overreach.

In her statement, Picciotti-Bayer said, “Religious freedom isn’t a courtesy the government extends—it’s a legal check on what government can do. It’s refreshing to see that recognized today.”

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/doj-releases-report-alleging-anti-christian-bias-under-biden