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When Pope Leo XIV addressed the College of Cardinals two days after he was elected to the papacy, he explained why he took the name that he did. “Sensing myself called to continue in this same path, I chose to take the name Leo XIV,” he said. “There are different reasons for this, but mainly because Pope Leo XIII in his historic Encyclical Rerum Novarum addressed the social question in the context of the first great Industrial Revolution. In our own day, the Church offers to everyone the treasury of her social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defense of human dignity, justice, and labor.” Pope Leo XIII was born Joachim Vincent Pecci in 1810 in Carpineto, Italy, the second-youngest of seven children. “The inhabitants of Carpineto were generally poor, but they supported their poverty courageously,” wrote the Rev. James J. McGovern in a biography of Pope Leo XIII published in 1903, the year the pope died. The family of this future pope was not poor. His father was Count Louis Pecci; his mother, Countess Anna Pecci. “Leo XIII,” says the biography, “belonged to the eleventh generation of the Peccis of Carpineto.” “The Countess Anna brought to her husband a notable amount of property, which the family holds to this day,” said the biography. She also homeschooled her children. “The first lessons taught Vincent were in the homeschool, presided over by his mother,” McGovern wrote. “She was a finished scholar, capable in more ways than one to take charge of the instruction of her children.” Pope Leo XIII’s brother, Joseph, recalled that their father would occasionally assist in the homeschooling. “Being an accomplished Latin scholar,” said Joseph, “he took upon himself the task of teaching us the rudiments of the Latin language so thoroughly that when we entered the college at Viterbo, we were enabled to make most rapid progress in our studies.” “Sometimes,” Joseph said, “the good Bishop of Anagni would visit our home, remaining several days. It was his delight to spend hours in our classroom, closing his visit with religious and moral counsels. These simple talks took deep root in our hearts, proving to be of incalculable advantage to us years afterward.” Their mother also taught them charity—by example. “It was a treat to us when our mother, animated always with an inexhaustible fund of charity, permitted us to accompany her on her visits to the poor and sick in the neighborhood, carrying hampers of provisions and medicine,” said Joseph Pecci, according to the biography. When the future Pope Leo XIII was 8, his mother stopped homeschooling him and Joseph, and enrolled them in a Jesuit school. “When the Countess Pecci saw that she could no longer conduct the education of her sons, who she felt were divinely called to an ecclesiastical career, she took them to Viterbo, a city not far from Rome, and placed them in the College of the Jesuits, where they entered upon a course of study embracing Latin, Italian, and Greek.” Joachim Vincent Pecci went on to study at the Roman College (“sometimes known as the Gregorian University”) and “also availed himself of the lectures delivered by world-renowned professors in the University of Sapienza.” “At the completion of his term of study he distinguished himself by securing the highest honors of his class,” said the biography. His brother Joseph became a Jesuit. He was ordained a secular priest and “celebrated his first Mass, in the presence of his beloved father and family” on Jan. 1, 1838. Forty years later, in February 1878, he was elected pope—and took the name Leo XIII. Pope Leo XIII, as depicted circa 1878 (HUM Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) In May 1891, he issued Rerum Novarum, an encyclical letter “on capital and labor” that defended the rights of laborers and private property—and condemned socialism. “In any case, we clearly see, and on this there is general agreement, that some opportune remedy must be found quickly for the misery and wretchedness pressing so unjustly on the majority of the working class,” said Rerum Novarum. “It is surely undeniable,” said this encyclical, “that, when a man engages in remunerative labor, the impelling reason and motive of his work is to obtain property, and thereafter to hold it as his very own.” “Socialists, therefore, by endeavoring to transfer the possessions of individuals to the community at large, strike at the interests of every wage-earner, since they would deprive him of the liberty of disposing of his wages, and thereby of all hope and possibility of increasing his resources and of bettering his condition in life. “What is of far greater moment, however,” wrote Pope Leo XIII, “is the fact that the remedy they propose is manifestly against justice. For, every man has by nature the right to possess property as his own.” “Hence, it is clear,” wrote this pope, “that the main tenet of socialism, community of goods, must be utterly rejected, since it only injures those whom it would seem meant to benefit, is directly contrary to the natural rights of mankind, and would introduce confusion and disorder into the commonweal. “The first and most fundamental principle, therefore, if one would undertake to alleviate the condition of the masses,” wrote Pope Leo XIII, “must be the inviolability of private property.” COPYRIGHT 2025 CREATORS.COM We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Pope Leo XIII Rejected Socialism, Defended Private Property. Will Leo XIV Follow Suit? appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Gilmour Space Technologies has been performing final system checks before launching its homegrown Eris rocket. The vehicle was poised to become the first orbital launch from Australian soil by a sovereign-built vehicle when it made its debut this week, but the company has stood down from this test campaign for the time being. The company reported that an unexpected issue triggered the rocket’s payload fairing during overnight checks. A replacement will be dispatched from the company’s Gold Coast facility following an investigation. The anomaly occurred before any fuel was loaded, and Gilmour Space reports that there is no damage to the rocket or the pad. The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) had approved the company’s maiden flight in late April, which Gilmour Space announced on May 4. A final sign-off from the Australian Space Agency was approved on May 13 and, following the identification of an issue in the ground support system during overnight checks, the launch attempt had been moved 24 hours to the right, opening no earlier than than 7:30 AM AEST on May 16 (21:30 UTC on May 15) prior to this anomaly. The Bowen Orbital Spaceport is Australia’s first licensed commercial orbital launch facility. (Credit: Gilmour Space) As with the SaxaVord site in the UK, regulatory approvals can be complicated and long-winded, especially for new launch sites. The Gold Coast-based company was granted a provisional launch permit last November and had previously intended to launch in mid-March. This was the first orbital launch permit issued by the space agency. While some regulatory paperwork remained outstanding, the preparations to launch were then delayed by Tropical Cyclone Alfred, which moved into the area. A small team of 25 staff had been sent in advance of this month’s launch to the company’s Bowen Orbital Spaceport at Abbot Point, north of the coastal town of Bowen. They had completed a launch readiness review for the debut mission, dubbed “TestFlight 1.” The picturesque site affords 20 to 65-degree, low to mid-inclination equatorial orbits. The spaceport was developed in agreement with the Juru traditional custodians of the land in late 2021 and officially opened last April. Proudly “Australian-made” and bearing the country’s flag on its upper stages, Eris is a three-stage rocket. Comparable to Rocket Lab’s Electron, it stands a little taller than Electron at 25 m in height. The vehicle also has a slightly larger 1.5 m fairing and boasts a payload mass of up to 215 kg to a 500 km Sun-synchronous orbit, or 305 kg to 500 km equatorial orbits. Sirius hybrid engine qualification testing. (Credit: Gilmour Space) The first stage is propelled by four Sirius engines — a proprietary hybrid engine that uses a 3D-printed solid fuel grain and a Hydrogen Peroxide liquid oxidizer. The additive manufacturing approach allows for complex geometries within the grain, designed to optimize the fuel’s burn characteristics and improve engine performance. Another single Sirius engine powers the second stage, while the third uses a Phoenix engine, which burns liquid propellants. A successful orbital launch would also be the first for a hybrid rocket design. Both the vehicles and their engines are manufactured in-house, with expanded use of 3D printing. Gilmour Space selected EOS as its additive manufacturing partner in late 2023 as it transitioned beyond the prototyping stage. TestFlight 1 will be the first orbital launch from Australian soil in over 50 years. Eris will fly on a northeasterly trajectory over the Coral Sea and hopes to reach low-Earth orbit (LEO) on its first attempt. Eris is transported horizontally at Bowen Orbital Spaceport. (Credit: Gilmour Space) To date, only two successful orbital launches have been conducted from Australia, the first of which took flight from the Woomera Test Range in South Australia in November 1967, when the nation’s first satellite was lofted atop a modified Redstone rocket. The launch of the Weapons Research Establishment Satellite (WRESAT) mission established Australia as the third country to launch a satellite into orbit from its own territory, following the Soviet Union and the United States. The United Kingdom’s Black Arrow then successfully launched the Prospero satellite into orbit from Woomera four years later in October 1971. See Also Eris TestFlight 1 Updates Commercial Spaceflight Section NSF Store Click Here to Join L2 Since then, Australia has launched hundreds of suborbital missions, including sounding rockets for NASA missions from the Arnhem Space Centre in the Northern Territory and many others from the Whalers Way Orbital Launch Complex and Koonibba Test Range. The latter supported the launch of German company HyImpulse’s SR75 last May — another vehicle that utilizes hybrid propulsion and proprietary fuel grains. Gilmour Space also builds its own satellites, and the company’s 100 kg modular ElaraSat bus is capable of delivering 72U of payload to orbit. The bus was selected by Perth-based LatConnect60 for a forthcoming demonstration mission that will use the short-wave infrared range to provide insights into methane and carbon emissions from space. This particular prototype satellite will be integrated in Gilmour Space’s Queensland facility, but then launched by Skyroot Aerospace in India. Gilmour Space’s first suborbital launch of the RASTA Mk2 occurred nine years ago in July 2016. The flight demonstrated the company’s hybrid engine technology for the first time and was notable for being among the first of its kind to use a 3D-printed fuel grain. The company is now offering its commercial and defense customers a suborbital test flight service, which will deliver payloads at hypersonic speeds in excess of Mach 5 — more than five times the speed of sound. This HyPeRsonic FLight Test (HPRFLT) service addresses the growing demand for the prototyping and testing of high-speed vehicles and materials, going beyond what ground-based tunnel testing and simulations can provide. Render of Eris in Block 1 configuration (Credit: Gilmour Space) A second Eris vehicle is already being built, incorporating some design improvements that could be further refined based on the results of the maiden flight. Further along the roadmap, Gilmour Space is planning for a Block 2 version of the vehicle that will feature higher performance, making Eris more akin to Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha vehicle. This version will deliver up to 1,000 kg to LEO and will be used for the company’s Caravan-1 rideshare mission. A medium-lift Eris Heavy is also planned, capable of lofting up to 4,000 kg to LEO and potentially even crew capsules. Gilmour Space has several commercial agreements in place for future missions with operators of orbital transfer vehicles (OTV). The company signed its first European partnership agreement with rideshare specialist Exolaunch almost four years ago, which would give it access to low-inclination missions and unique orbits. The company also signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in February 2023 with Atomos Space. Through this MOU, Atomos will contract launch services aboard Eris. At the same time, the vehicle will also carry Atomos’ OTVs in the future, offering customers additional in-space transportation and orbit-raising services. View of the Eris rocket on the pad at the spaceport in Bowen, Australia. (Credit: Gilmour Space) Australia’s Department of Defence also contracted with Gilmour Space in 2022 to develop and launch a new G-class sovereign surveillance satellite — part of the government’s increased investment in space capabilities. A future all-Australian mission will additionally send two Mayla thermal infrared cameras to orbit. These were developed by Australian Astronomical Optics (AAO) at Macquarie University. Rather than develop space-grade cameras from scratch, the team has successfully modified an off-the-shelf camera for use in space. Potential applications of this space-based heat-detecting technology include the detection of bushfires. New Zealand-based Frond Space Systems is supplying a lightweight and compact MICRO dragsail for Gilmour Space’s forthcoming MMS-1 satellite mission. This dragsail will be attached to a 100 kg microsatellite and will activate at the end of its five-year operational lifespan, accelerating its deorbit as part of the company’s commitment to the sustainable utilization of space. Eris stands vertical against a scenic sky (Credit: Gilmour Space) As with many new launch vehicles, the path to Eris’s debut launch has been longer than initially projected. The inaugural Eris rocket was fully integrated and moved into its vertical launch position in April 2024, and had completed its dress rehearsals before the end of 2024. Eris had been resting horizontally inside the Bowen spaceport’s Vehicle Assembly Building since then. There are no plans to livestream the maiden launch, but the company promises that video will be shared following the launch attempt. For this launch, the company preferred to “limit non-essential network traffic to minimise operational risk”, according to its social media posts. As with SaxaVord’s spaceport, there are no immediate plans for on-site launch viewing. However, this will inevitably follow once the site has supported several launches, bringing an additional boost to the local economy. 𝗧𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗙𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝟭 – 𝗦𝗰𝗿𝘂𝗯𝗯𝗲𝗱 Last night, during final checks, an unexpected issue triggered the rocket’s payload fairing. No fuel was loaded, no one was hurt, and early inspections show no damage to the rocket or pad. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/dlqX7sMwsX — Gilmour Space (@GilmourSpace) May 15, 2025   (Lead image: Eris is moved to its vertical position at Bowen Orbital Spaceport. Credit: Gilmour Space) The post Gilmour Space scrubs Australia’s first homegrown orbital launch with Eris rocket appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com.

We have your first look at the Chilean thriller titled Dear Father ahead of the project's market debut during March du Film. Part of the previously announced launch of VDF Connection, Dear Father recently completed filming and is now in post-production. A teaser will be shared with buyers, distributors and other industry professionals this Friday.   Manuel, a lonely man caring for his senile mother, faces a painful past: he forced his first love to have an abortion. His life has been on hold ever since. Repressed memories of abuse at an orphanage resurface. As he seeks redemption, he uncovers a clerical cover-up that links his trauma to the Church’s darkest secrets.   Dear Father will the directorial debut of Eduardo Topelberg. From the announcement below... [Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]

It’s been quite a week for Israeli homecomings. On Monday, American-Israeli Edan Alexander was returned to Israel after 584 harrowing days of captivity in Hamas’ dungeons under Gaza. Alexander, now 21, was just 19 years old on Oct. 7, 2023, when the Hamas terror army invaded Israel and took him hostage alongside about 250 other Israelis and foreign nationals. He subsisted in unbearable conditions, often shackled, nearly starved, and locked underground without any natural light for over 19 months. Hamas, in addition to taking civilian hostages like Alexander, also slaughtered 1,200 people on Oct. 7—mostly civilians, including days-old babies and elderly Holocaust survivors—and started the war that has roiled the Middle East for the past year and a half. Though the Gaza-based terror organization continues to hold 58 hostages in violation of international law and the most basic norms of human decency, Alexander’s release is a welcome step toward justice and peace for a country and a region that need it desperately. It is a very good sign that America, Israel, and their partners across the globe were able to extract this release from Hamas without offering anything in return. Clearly, the terrorists have been bearing the brunt of the Israeli army’s unrelenting military pressure. Almost all the Hamas leaders who spearheaded the Oct. 7 assault are dead or living in exile, mostly harbored in Qatar. And Hamas has barely been able to muster rocket attacks on Israeli cities, which used to be a fixture of life in Israel’s south, even before the current war. But actually, Alexander is not the only captive Israeli who came home over the past few days. The other is Zvi Feldman. And in many ways, his story is even more vital for understanding both the exceptional challenges and the exceptional commitment of the Israeli state and the Israeli people. You see, Feldman was an Israeli tank commander who disappeared in 1982 during the Battle of Sultan Yacoub, a sub-theater of the First Lebanon War. He was presumed kidnapped and likely killed by enemy forces, but for years, Israel knew little about his whereabouts. However, the country’s intelligence apparatus never stopped hunting and recently came upon information that pointed toward a gravesite “in the heart of Syria.” Undeterred, the Israel Defense Forces and the Mossad, Israel’s military and intelligence organizations, undertook a five-month covert operation to return his remains. And this Sunday, the Israeli government announced that they had been recovered and finally laid to rest within Israel. To outsiders, this story is confusing and a little strange. Why risk the lives of dozens of elite commandos to repatriate the body of a soldier who died over four decades ago? Nevertheless, to those who understand, this is a textbook manifestation of Israel’s raison d’être—its reason for being and its rallying cry. In a world where antisemitism never quite seems to go away, the sole Jewish country recognizes that it is tasked with a divine mission: not only to be a refuge and homeland for Jewish people, but to be their defender even outside its borders. To go to unbelievable lengths to protect them and bring them home. Never, ever to give up on anyone. Feldman’s return, said a senior Israeli official, “proves that even 43 years after a soldier falls, Israel does not abandon the mission.” I can think of few other countries that would do the same. The twin homecomings of Edan Alexander and Zvi Feldman are reasons for celebration each by themselves. But together, they provide a special window into the outlook of the Jewish State. For Israel, defending its people is an obsession and a sacred duty. It will never sleep. And just when you think it may have forgotten, it will go to the ends of the earth to bring its children home. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post 2 Very Different Hostage Homecomings Show Israel’s Dedication to Its People appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The Unified Patent Court (UPC) has quickly become an important forum for pharmaceutical and biotech patent disputes in Europe. In 2024 and early 2025, a consistent theme has been the interplay between UPC proceedings and existing venues like European Patent Office (EPO) oppositions and national courts. Innovators and generic or biosimilar companies are now coordinating multi-front strategies engaging the UPC for pan-European relief while leveraging EPO opposition and selecting national litigations.

Chinese J-10C fighter jets at an airshow in Guangdong in 2022. Anadolu/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images China was likely watching the recent military clashes between Pakistan and India closely. China has provided Pakistan with weaponry, which it could see in action, military analysts said. This comes amid escalating tensions between China and India, two regional superpowers. China was likely watching the recent clashes between Pakistan and India with strong interest, hoping to gain valuable intelligence about the performance of its own weapons, according to military analysts. In clashes earlier this month, India reportedly deployed Israeli and Western-made weapons in strikes on militant groups and Pakistani air defenses, while Pakistan retaliated with Chinese-made jets and missiles. This provided a rare opportunity for China — which hasn't fought an open war for decades — to watch its military tech in action against Western hardware. "Pakistan now serves as a proxy platform for Chinese military tech," Sajjan M. Gohel, international security director at the Asia-Pacific Foundation in London, told BI. This enables Beijing to "test, refine, and demonstrate its systems without direct confrontation," he said. Chinese weapons in Pakistani hands The military clashes last week between nuclear-armed Pakistan and India, longtime regional adversaries, were the most serious in decades. And they played out against the backdrop of deepening rivalry between China and India, two of Asia's most powerful economies. Indian military officials at a press briefing on military strikes against Pakistan. Vipin Kumar/Hindustan Times via Getty Images "It is inevitable that China is watching and learning from the India-Pakistan clashes, just as it has been from the Ukraine-Russia conflict," Gohel said. In recent years, China has escalated its support for Pakistan, strengthening economic ties and providing Pakistan with around 80% of its weapons and military technology, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. According to reports and officials, Pakistan likely deployed Chinese-made P-15 missiles and HQ-series air defence systems against India, in addition to the Chengdu J-10C 'Vigorous Dragon' fighter jets. Pakistan claimed it used J-10C jets to shoot down several Indian aircraft last week, including French-made Rafale jets. The claims have not been verified, but shares of Rafale manufacturer Dassault plunged as a result. Pakistan received its first batch of J-10C jets from China in 2022. The single-engine, multi-role aircraft is Beijing's answer to Western fighters such as the American F-16 and Sweden's Saab Gripen. It's an upgrade on the J-10, which debuted in the 2000s, and can carry a mix of precision-guided bombs, anti-ship missiles, and medium-range air-to-air weapons. The Pakistan-India conflict is one of the first times the Chinese jet has been used in live combat. Watching others fight The involvement of Chinese weaponry in the recent clashes is likely of concern to the West. Intelligence gleaned from the attacks could be used to tweak and adjust systems to make them more effective against their Western counterparts. China "is likely to watch the conflict closely," said Daniel Byman, director of the Warfare, Irregular Threats, and Terrorism Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "It will see how its systems perform in real-world situations against an array of Indian systems," he said. "It will learn which countermeasures and tactics are more effective and ways to improve its systems." Analysts told Reuters last week that China was likely using its large network of spy satellites, spy boats, and regional military bases to monitor the conflict. In some areas, China's weapons seem to have outclassed those deployed by India. Pakistan claims to have shot down more than two dozen Indian drones, including Israeli-made HAROP long-range drones. India, meanwhile, claims to have taken down several Chinese-made P-15 guided missiles fired by Pakistan, suggesting some lessons that China could learn. A French Air Force Dassault Rafale C jet fighter at an air show in Dubai. AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili Global arms sales Gohel said that China's strategy of brokering closer regional and global alliances through arms sales hinges on their performance in battlefield confrontations. "China will want to establish several issues," Gohel said. "Can its sensors and targeting systems match or counter Western stealth and jamming? Are its missile systems achieving desired range and accuracy? How do command, control, and data-link integration fare under pressure?" China has also long viewed Pakistan as a valuable buffer against India, with which it has clashed in recent years over their shared Himalayan border. And as US ties with India grow, China has stepped up its support for Pakistan. "The military relationship between China and Pakistan is not transactional. It is embedded in a strategic vision," said Gohel. Cease-fire, but nothing solved Over the weekend, the Trump administration announced that it had brokered a cease-fire between India and Pakistan, though reports say that sporadic clashes have occurred since then. Even so, the strategic lessons learned from the conflict could have a longer-term impact on regional security, as China and India jostle for influence, and China competes with the West in terms of military strength and hardware. "What China learns in this conflict between India and Pakistan could feed directly into PLA training and modernization," said Gohel, referring to the Chinese People's Liberation Army, "especially with regard to India, which it views as a long-term strategic competitor." Read the original article on Business Insider

When a president is this unpredictable, you can see the appeal of just gifting him a 747.

The Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a UN specialized agency, found that Russia failed in its obligation to uphold international air law in relation to the the shoot-down of Malaysian Airways flight MH17 in 2014, in a historic vote on Monday. The aircraft was traveling from Amsterdam to Malaysia when it was shot down, contrary to international law, by a Buk surface-to-air missile while flying in eastern Ukraine airspace. Eastern Ukraine was embroiled in conflict between armed pro-Russian rebels and Ukrainian military forces at the time of the incident. All 298 passengers and crew were killed. The vote is particularly important as it marks the first time in the ICAO’s history that a determination was made “on the merits of a dispute” between member states under the ICAO’s dispute settlement mechanism. Following the downing of the plane, a joint investigation was launched by the Netherlands, Australia, Malaysia, Belgium and Ukraine. The states concluded that the Russian Federation had breached Article 3bis of the Convention on International Civil Aviation, which protects civil aircraft from the use of weapons. The ICAO was of the view that the investigation and the subsequent claims brought by Australia and the Netherlands were “well founded in fact and in law”. The UK issued welcomed the decision, commending the ICAO Council for upholding respect for international aviation laws. It said: Through this decision, the ICAO Council upholds respect for the Convention on International Civil Aviation and sets out important expectations in relation to the obligations on States to create safer skies and, moreover, that those who violate the rules set out under this Convention will be held to account. Netherlands Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp noted that the decision will help bring justice to families of the victims of the crash, adding that it also “also sends a clear message to the international community: states cannot violate international law with impunity.” The Netherlands outlined further steps stating that the ICAO will consider appropriate reparations in the near future, and requested that the Council facilitate negotiations between the Russia, Netherlands and Australia. The post UN body finds Russia responsible for downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 appeared first on JURIST - News.

The UK government announced on Monday new reform policies to tighten immigration rules, in a White Paper titled “Restoring Control over the Immigration System,” which was presented to parliament. The new rules focus on reducing international recruitment, visa and asylum rules, and citizenship. The new rules have raised the requirements for skilled worker visas, citing that “overseas recruitment” and a “shift toward lower-skilled migration” can be attributed to steep increases in UK migration. It linked this to a “significant” increase in “visas for dependents” between both skilled workers and international students. In its press release, the government addressed “over complex family and private life immigration arrangements,” and noted its intention to establish a new family policy that will, among other things, ensure that only “genuine subsisting relationships” qualify for family migration and protective measures against domestic abuse and forced marriages are included. The government also aims to create legislation to clarify the parliament’s decision-making role in cases where Article 8 of the ECHR — the right to family life — is raised to prevent deportation. The government also announced stricter policies around asylum. It says that “tighter visa controls, restrictions, requirements or scrutiny will be applied” to prevent abuse of the asylum system. Notably, new rules will apply where the situation in an applicant’s home country has remained materially unchanged, “particularly where they have claimed asylum after arrival.” One of the more notable changes is the change to settlement and citizenship rules. Prior to the new measures, migrants could apply to “settle” in the UK after five years. However, this has now been doubled to 10 years. The government also announced further plans to “expand the points-based system to both” “settlement and citizenship rules” so that an individual’s “contribution to the UK” is considered. These policy changes come as part of the UK government’s plans to reform immigration and address the asylum backlog. Immigration has been a contentious topic for some time, highlighted in the UK’s exit from the EU. Prime Minister Keir Starmer says in the White Paper foreword: “[i]nward migration exploded to over a million people a year- four times the level compared with 2019. […] The damage this has done to our country is incalculable. Public services and housing access have been placed under too much pressure.” This supplements the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, which is due for its first reading at the House of Lords on 13 May 2025.   The post UK announces new reforms to immigration with focus on reducing abuse appeared first on JURIST - News.

And then it all made sense. “You don’t have to kill the guy, just make him look bad,” said comedian Kurt Metzger on Joe Rogan’s podcast last month, discussing how elites try to destroy political threats they can’t defeat at the ballot box. That one line explains it all: the hysteria, the lies, the Hollywood hate, the media’s scorched-earth campaign. Since 2016, the Left has launched a nonstop war to delegitimize President Donald Trump—not because he failed, but because he succeeded where they couldn’t. “You don’t have to kill the guy, just make him look bad.” From this obsession, “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” also known as TDS, was born. It has metastasized from elite cocktail parties into a global virus more harmful to America’s image than any foreign propaganda campaign. TDS has not only damaged domestic trust—it’s become America’s most costly export. A Nation at War With Its Own President Ask yourself: If Trump were truly the monster his critics claim, what does it say about the country that elected him? If he’s so unfit, how could he beat the entire political class, Hollywood, Wall Street, academia, and the media—twice? But this isn’t just about Democrats vs. Trump. This is about a disturbing fact: One half of America has spent nearly a decade feeding anti-American narratives to the world just to make one man look bad. If you’re an enemy of the U.S., this is the golden age of free propaganda—funded by American taxpayers and delivered by American institutions. Since 2016, the legacy media has pummelled Trump with unrelenting negativity. Global audiences have been force-fed images of riots, Russiagate hysteria, impeachment dramas, and social chaos. It’s no wonder the U.S. is now seen not as a beacon of stability but as a battleground of cultural collapse. Social media only makes it worse. Platforms like X, Facebook, and Instagram amplify every half-truth and out-of-context clip into a five-alarm fire. In this environment, every policy disagreement becomes a constitutional crisis; every Trump speech, a supposed fascist rally; every MAGA voter, a target for ridicule. The result? The world sees a country that cannot govern itself, a population at war with itself, and a media more interested in defeating Trump than defending national unity. Bulgaria: A Case Study in American Self-Sabotage I write this as someone watching from abroad. In Bulgaria, I’ve seen firsthand how TDS has infected not only U.S. discourse but the very perception of America itself. Let me be blunt: America’s global enemies love Trump Derangement Syndrome. The traditional anti-American voices in Bulgaria—often funded through murky channels by Moscow or Beijing—have seized on U.S. media narratives to argue that American democracy is a fraud and the U.S. president is a threat to world peace. They’ve been gifted an endless reel of footage, headlines, and talking points courtesy of CNN, MSNBC, and The New York Times. But more disturbing is the second group: the self-described “civil society activists.” These are people backed by U.S. grant money—via George Soros’ Open Society Foundations, the U.S. Agency for International Development, Radio Free Europe, and even government programs like America for Bulgaria. Instead of using that support to strengthen pro-American sentiment, they wage war on the very country funding them. They slander Trump daily. They denounce the U.S. as racist, imperialist, and “fascist.” They push deeply unpopular campaigns promoting mass migration, extreme gender ideology, and anti-family narratives that alienate ordinary Bulgarians. The Real Victims of TDS: Ordinary People Here’s the truth: This isn’t about defending Trump. It’s about defending the image and credibility of the United States. The real problem isn’t the radical nongovernmental organizations or the activist journalists—they’re just doing what they’re paid to do. The problem is the regular people, the 9-to-5 workers, who don’t have time to trace the funding pipelines or fact-check the flood of disinformation. They see a divided, unstable America and wonder: is this the model we’re supposed to follow? Trump said it best: “They’re not coming for me. They’re coming for you. I’m just in the way.” But TDS isn’t just a psychological condition—it’s a deliberate campaign to weaken America from within and broadcast that weakness abroad. Restoring the American Image Trump Derangement Syndrome has done more damage to America’s global standing than any policy disagreement ever could. It’s eroded U.S. soft power, undermined confidence in our institutions, and emboldened enemies from Tehran to Beijing. It’s time for those who claim to care about democracy and diplomacy to recognize the cost of their obsession. The world is watching. And when the American Left tries to destroy its own president, it sends a message to every country—ally or enemy—that the United States is fractured, fragile, and unfit to lead. Enough. America doesn’t need to be perfect. But it does need to be proud. That starts by ending the witch hunts, silencing the hysteria, and remembering who the real enemy is. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’: America’s Most Costly Export appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The United States expedited refugee processes for 59 white South African refugees, despite Donald Trump having suspended the US Refugee Admissions Program in January. Read the original article on Business Insider

Deadline had the exclusive this morning, but we can now share with you that our friends at Black Fawn Distribution are launching their own sales arm at Marche du Film this week.    The first two films on their docket will be Gabriel Carrer's upcoming revenge horror, Death Cycle, a film that we have mentioned once or twice here. The other is a debut feature film called The Undertone, from director Ian Tuason.    As first revealed by Deadline, Nina Kiri (The Handmaid’s Tale, Fingernails) stars as a the host of an ‘all-things-creepy’ podcast, living in her dying mother’s house as her primary caregiver, whose haunted by a series of audio recordings with paranormal noises, which comes to realize mirror her own experiences.   We... [Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]

With Cannes about to begin, one of the films we're most excited about at ScreenAnarchy, is Julia Ducournau's Alpha. The filmmaker behind two titles that took the genre film world — well, the whole film world — by storm (Raw and the Palme d'or winner Titane), makes films that are violent, brutal, and very human. With Neon already set to release the film, they've dropped the first poster, as well as a brief synopsis of the story. Alpha, 13, is a troubled teenager who lives alone with her mother. Their world comes crashing down the day she comes home from school with a tattoo on her arm. For the lucky people at Cannes, the film screens next week. The rest of us will have to... [Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]

President Donald Trump wants to make a deal with Iran to give that country a brighter future without terrorism and extremism, he said Tuesday at the U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. “If I can make a deal with Iran, I’ll be very happy if we’re going to make your region and the world a safer place,” he said. “But if Iran’s leadership rejects this olive branch and continues to attack their neighbors, then we will have no choice but to inflict massive maximum pressure drive to Iranian oil exports to zero like I did before.” Many Middle Eastern leaders want to define the region by commerce rather than chaos, but Iran continues to cause “unthinkable suffering in Syria, Lebanon, and Gaza, Iraq, Yemen, and beyond,” Trump said. “While the Arab states are focused on becoming pillars of regional stability and world commerce,” he said, “Iran’s leaders have focused on stealing their people’s wealth to fund terror and bloodshed abroad.” But Trump said he didn’t come to the Middle East merely to condemn the past choices of Iran’s leaders, “but to offer them a new and a better path toward a much more hopeful future.” Iran has limited time to make a deal with the U.S., the president added, saying that his offer will not last forever. “We really want them to be a successful country,” the president said of Iran. “We want them to be a wonderful, safe, great country, but they cannot have a nuclear weapon.” Countries that threaten America will face “overwhelming strength and devastating force” from the American military. He said America has the best weapons in the world, but doesn’t want to use them unless absolutely necessary. Trump’s greatest hope is to be a peacemaker and a unifier, he said, adding that he doesn’t like war. “After so many decades of conflict, finally it is within our grasp to reach the future that generations before us could only dream about—a land of peace, safety, harmony, opportunity, innovation, and achievement right here in the Middle East,” Trump said. The post Trump Gives Iran Deadline to Accept Terms for a Better Future appeared first on The Daily Signal.

A body discovered in Syria is not the remains of kidnapped American journalist Austin Tice, his family confirms. Tice, a freelance reporter who received accolades for his early coverage of the Syrian civil war, has been missing since Aug. 14, 2012. According to a family spokesman, “[A]n initial and erroneous report that Austin Tice was identified among the remains was quickly and completely contradicted.” “We appreciate whatever mission is ongoing to help families of ISIS victims find closure,” the spokesman said.  Debra Tice, the mother of Austin Tice, speaks during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, “Roundtable: Americans Detained Abroad,” on April 30, 2024. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images) Tice, who now would be 43, was first confirmed alive when video footage was posted on YouTube on Sept. 26, 2012. In the video, he is shown reciting Arabic and saying in English, “Oh, Jesus.” Tice is a former Marine Corps captain who was reporting on the Syrian civil war during the summer between his second and third years of law school. While in Syria, Tice wrote for The Washington Post, McClatchy newspapers, and CBS. A Houston native, he grew up dreaming of covering news overseas for National Public Radio. The eldest of seven children and an Eagle Scout, he graduated from Georgetown’s Walsh School of Foreign Service in 2002. He subsequently served tours of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq. Tice disappeared near the Darayya suburb of the Syrian capital of Damascus, leading many to conclude that he had been taken captive by the Syrian government. A report in January said that Tice had managed to briefly escape his initial captivity after more than five months in a Damascus prison. Tice was seen walking around the Mazzeh neighborhood, a rich part of the Syrian capital, and took refuge at the house of a prominent Syrian family before being recaptured. This was the most credible public evidence to date that Tice was indeed being held captive by the Syrian government.  Last May, then-President Joe Biden released a statement saying that the freelance journalist was “still being held hostage in Syria after nearly 12 years,” appearing to confirm that the American remained alive up until that time. He is also thought to have survived the fall of longtime strongman Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria on Dec. 8. It is not publicly known who is holding Tice hostage—if he indeed remains alive. Austin’s mother, Debra Tice, visited with Syria’s new leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa, in January and spoke publicly about renewed hope for finding her son alive. “I have great hope that the Trump administration will sincerely engage in diligent work to bring Austin home,” Tice said. “His [President Donald Trump’s] people have already reached out to me. I haven’t experienced that for the last four years,” she explained. A reward of up to $1 million is still being offered by the U.S. government for information leading directly to the safe location, recovery, and return of Tice.  The post Family of US Journalist Long Missing in Syria Still Holds Out Hope appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Amnesty International (AI) published a statement Monday condemning TikTok’s failure to address the previously identified risks to youth’s mental health. AI reported TikTok’s responses to previous inquiries into implemented changes since a 2023 report. The responses denied the creation of user profiles from collected data and listed steps that were taken to protect youth on the app. AI noted that, in their responses, TikTok failed to address the “rabbit hole” problem, pointed out measures that were already in place when the 2023 research was being compiled, and placed the responsibility of protecting the youth from negative outcomes of the app onto the youth themselves and their guardians. In November of 2023, AI published a report on TikTok’s “for you” feed encouragement of self-harm and suicidal ideation. The report also focused on the addictiveness of the app, connecting it to worsening mental health, sleep and attention disturbance, and “changes in brain structure similar to those observed in people experiencing drug addiction.” In the conclusion, AI addressed inadequate responses towards identified problems and urged TikTok to undertake due diligence when it comes to the safety of the youth using the app. AI’s concerns are amplified by the global legal and legislative responses to TikTok. For example, in 2023, the Irish Data Protection Commission fined TikTok €345 million over inadequate handling of personal data, noting a substantial risk to children. The increase in legislative actions against the app can be seen in Somalia, Nepal, and the US state of Montana, which banned TikTok in 2023, citing either users’ data handling concerns, influence on youth with deadly outcomes, or negative effects on social harmony. There has also been a wave of legal actions against TikTok. Both the US state of Texas and the US Justice Department sued the app for violating children’s privacy laws. In 2024, 14 US state attorneys general filed a lawsuit against TikTok, citing the harm to the mental health of children; they noted an increase in depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and suicidal ideation in US youth. A month later, families in France filed a lawsuit against the app for exposing children to the promotion of suicide, self-harm, and eating disorders after two 15-year-old girls took their own lives. The post Rights group calls out TikTok for failing to protect children appeared first on JURIST - News.

On the same day that the U.S. Copyright Office (USCO) officially released part three of its study into the effects of artificial intelligence (AI) on copyright law, the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) announced its own 436-page report on AI and copyright. The EUIPO report was compiled by a research team of the University of Turin Law School and the Nexa Center for Internet & Society from the Polytechnic of Turin. It was based on “desk research as well as interviews from key stakeholder groups including, copyright holders, AI companies, technology solution providers as well as public organisations,” according to the EUIPO.

Our friends at the Frontières Co-Production Market have announced the first wave of titles for this year's market during the Fantasia International Film Festival.    The totally lucky 13th edition of the market will feature projects from here at home including two Quebecois filmmakers, one of which is Anouk Whissell (Turbo Kid, Wake Up) and their first solo feature film, Holi Womb.   Projects will also come from Latin America, New Zealand and a couple from Europe as well. All the projects, complete with their loglines follow in the official announcement.    FIRST WAVE ANNOUNCEMENT   After the upcoming Frontières Platform in Cannes on Saturday May 17 and Sunday May 18, Frontières will return to the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal for the 13th... [Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]