Penkoski used social media to express his moral and religious concerns about a church that endorses same-sex marriage and a public drag queen performance in front of children. In one of Penkoski’s posts, he shared the church’s public photo of a same-sex wedding involving leaders of an LGBTQ organization and quoted Bible verses describing God’s judgment of sin. In a second post, Penkoski criticized the church’s publicly shared photos of children celebrating Pride Month. In a third post, Penkoski weighed in on a regional effort to ban adult-oriented entertainment in public spaces.

Needless to say, this did not go over well with the LGBTQ activists, who believe they have the right to do as they please without being criticized. They petitioned a Washington County, Oklahoma, court for a restraining order against Penkoski — and succeeded.

“Although there was no evidence that Penkoski ever contacted, spoke to, tagged, or met the public figures leading the LGBTQ group, the trial court — based upon claims that the LGBTQ leaders felt terrorized and harassed by Penkoski’s three social media posts on religious and political issues — imposed a five-year protective order against him,” wrote the Rutherford Institute.

That order requires Penkoski to refrain from any conduct that might cause the LGBTQ leaders to fear for their safety, which presumably includes citing Bible verses they don’t like. Failure to comply could result in Penkoski’s arrest and jailing for up to one year.

First-look images of Jinkx, who shot to fame after winning RuPaul's Drag Race in 2013, in Doctor Who show the villain dressed in black and white with piano keys decorating the collar and a long black cape. In the show Jinkx's hair is bright orange and styled to point out in two different directions.

It was a historic moment for the LGBTQ+ community, as Jinx was the first drag queen to play the role of Mama Morton, breaking box office records in an extended 8-week run. Jinkx also won RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars in 2022 and was the first person to win two seasons of the show across its iterations.

Natalia Soares Quinete, a chemist at Florida International University who studies water contamination, said, “Even without flooding, the canals can already have high coliform (bacteria) levels.” When told of the recent Fort Lauderdale measurements, she said, “That’s a lot… Those levels are a good indication of the probable overflow of septic tanks. You have a lot of septic tanks in South Florida, and some of them are failing, but even the good ones, with this water, they might overflow.”

Distinguishing between the Iranian public and its militantly anti-Israel government, Pahlavi further said that Iranians are “absolutely, there is no question” ready for normalization with Israel. “As far as the Iranian people are concerned, they are ecstatic, they are enthusiastic, they are happy that finally they are represented in a different light,” Pahlavi added, stressing that this is “something they’ve been dying to tell the world: We are not terrorists. The regime is. We are friends of any nation that respects our sovereignty and our right to freedom and democracy.”

After friendly relations under Pahlavi’s father, Iran and Israel have had no diplomatic ties since the 1979 revolution that brought the Islamic Republic to power. The regime relentlessly advocates the elimination of Israel and is a state sponsor of terror against the Jewish state, through terrorist organization proxies Hamas and Hezbollah. Israel has conducted several covert operations against Iran’s nuclear program, which it considers to be an existential threat.

Meanwhile, Illinois state Senator Robert Peters (Democrat) had knowingly taken to Twitter to goad on those opposed to the unchecked violence in the Windy City and wrote, “Since I’m a glutton for punishment and I’m sure I’m gonna get the most unhinged, crime weirdo replies but: I would look at the behavior of young people as a political act and statement. It’s a mass protest against poverty and segregation. Rest in peace to my mentions.”

The state senator wasn’t alone in defending the radical behavior of Chicago teens as Mayor-Elect Brandon Johnson (Democrat) released his own statement decrying the backlash against them, arguing, “It is not constructive to demonize youth who have otherwise been starved of opportunities in their own communities.”

Making matters worse, Ashley claimed the police had driven by as she was getting up from being attacked and had nearly collided with the mob in the street, but did not stop to come to her or DJ’s aid. However, they were assisted by a woman named Lenora and her husband “She gave us shoes, took us home, took us to the hospital. Thank you so much. I don’t know where we would have been without her.”

As a twister barreled down on Shawnee, Oklahoma, which is located about 40 miles northeast of Cole, the strong winds blew over a tractor-trailer. “Truck started rocking… next thing I know, I am upside down,” Jim Johnson, the truck driver, told AccuWeather National Reporter Bill Wadell. “Highway patrol stopped. They broke my windshield down for me so that I could get out.”

With three fatalities, Wednesday was the deadliest tornado day in Oklahoma since May 20, 2013, nearly 10 years ago, when 24 people were killed by the tornado that leveled the city of Moore. That twister was also the most recent EF5 tornado to occur in the United States, according to SPC data.

What they won’t tell you: The DC and coastal elites won’t tell you that the cars will indirectly run on oil, gas, and coal. The energy source will still be fossil fuels. No amount of pixie dust magic energy production will change that reality anytime soon. Another one million Chinese windmills are not going to make a dent in the fossil fuel reality.

A reliable grid is a foundation of our quality of life. Our lives depend on ultra-reliable electricity for the refrigerators that preserve our food, the water treatment plants that keep our water drinkable, the air conditioning that keeps us cool, the factories that produce our goods, etc.

The root cause of our grid’s reliability problems is simple: America is shutting down too many reliable power plants — plants that can be controlled to produce electricity when needed in the exact quantity needed. And it is attempting to replace them with unreliable solar and wind. Thanks to government mandates and subsidies, solar and wind — “unreliables” — provide about 13% of American electricity. This 13% has already caused big electricity price increases and huge reliability problems. Instead of admitting this failure, Biden is doubling down.

The shift in Philippine policy parallels that in South Korea, where President Yoon Suk-yeol has endorsed joint South Korea-US exercises on the ground, in the air and at sea for the first time since Donald Trump foolishly canceled them after his summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un in Singapore in 2018.

In the event of a war for Taiwan, South Korea would be reluctant to join in the fray. The Koreans don’t want to upset China in a conflict for the island. South Korea, like most other countries, including its American ally, recognizes Taiwan only as a province of China, which is by far the South’s biggest trading partner.

The proximity of those Philippine bases to Taiwan is just as important as their relationship to the South China Sea. American warships periodically enter the Taiwan Strait, as they do the South China Sea. It’s as though the battle lines are being drawn for a showdown, though a real war remains a distant cloud on the horizon.

Delivering his remarks as armored vehicles rolled by and fighter jets flew overhead, Raisi marked Iran’s annual Army Day by proclaiming that “the smallest hostile move” from the “Zionist regime” in Israel will “lead to the destruction of Haifa and Tel Aviv,” according to Iran’s Tasnim news agency.

Iranian leaders often use Army Day to make bombastic threats against Israel and the US. Last year, Raisi issued a similar warning, saying that Iran’s armed forces would target “the center of the Zionist regime” if Israel made “the tiniest move against the nation of Iran.”

While Saudi Arabia is often a target of Tehran’s rhetoric, Raisi’s speech made no mention of Riyadh. The president did, however, say that Iran’s armed forces “warmly shake the hand of regional nations” willing to cooperate on issues of mutual security, likely a reference to the recent Chinese-brokered detente between the two countries.

Li arrived in the Russian capital on Sunday for a three-day trip and has already held talks with President Vladimir Putin. On Tuesday, the Chinese minister met with his Russian counterpart Sergey Shoigu at the Russian Defense Ministry’s headquarters in Moscow.

“After my appointment as the defense minister, my first visit is made to Russia in order to demonstrate to the outside world the high level of Chinese-Russian relations,” Li said before the beginning of talks. The trip is also intended to stress Beijing’s “firm determination to strengthen strategic cooperation between the militaries of China and Russia,” he added.

Speaking to London’s Daily Telegraph, a French official said: “Mr Macron said publicly during his trip that he wanted to get China to commit to playing a constructive role. Naturally, diplomatic discussions took place and there is a follow-up.”

The reports come as Macron cause outrage in Berlin, London, and Washington over his comments following his China trip, in which he said that Europe shouldn’t “follow” America into a conflict with Beijing if the communist nation invades Taiwan and that Europe should develop its own “strategic autonomy” to stop being the “vassal” of the United States.

The existing regulations would only allow the nation to get through the next winter “if temperatures are warm,” the INES report said, adding that “if temperatures are medium to cold, the gas storage facilities will be heavily or completely emptied.”

In the worst-case scenario, the storage facilities will be “already completely emptied in January 2024 during cold temperatures,” the forecast said, adding that it is unlikely Berlin would be able to compensate for the missing volumes and would face a severe shortage through the rest of the winter.

Inflation is now at the same level as it started the year, having been in double-digits since September and reaching an eye-watering 41-year high of 11.1 per cent in October. After figures yesterday showed wages still rising rapidly, traders chalked up a 97 per cent chance of an interest rate rise from 4.25 per cent to 4.5 per cent at the next meeting on May 11.

Markets are also anticipating a probability that the level will peak around 5 per cent. Until recently there was considered to be a significant chance that the base rate had reached the top.

This decision was taken while, during his visits in China and the United Arab Emirates, Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, was exploring ways to bring about a peaceful settlement between Moscow and Kiev. The USA needs to stop encouraging the war and start to talk about peace,” Lula demanded, and called also on the EU to engage in peace talks. The dispute between the West and the Global South over how to handle the Ukraine war is taking on a principled character, with governments such as the Brazilian pushing for an end to Western hegemony.

The Brazilian government is not only refusing to join the sanctions against Russia or to deliver weapons to Ukraine. Recently it also allowed – under hefty protest from the United States – two warships from Iran to anchor in Rio de Janeiro.

During his visit to China, Lula announced that he constantly asks himself “why all countries have to base their trade on the dollar.” Brasília will raise the level of the strategic partnership with the People’s Republic and, together with China, “balance world geopolitics” – an implicit commitment to strive for the transition from the era of Western global hegemony to a multipolar world. Lula is pursuing, as Foreign Minister Vieira recently explained, “a universalistic foreign policy.”

Behind closed doors, 15 bilateral agreements and memoranda of understanding were signed, including investment deals, research and development plans, food standards, state news agencies, technology transfers, and cooperation on building the seventh China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite (CBERS). The meeting built upon years of strategic partnership. China displaced the US as Brazil’s largest trade partner in 2009, and the event was about deepening that process.

However, the most interesting facet of the visit was the tone of the public statements by both leaders, as it went beyond diplomatic niceties and showed a clear commitment from both countries in taking on a leadership role that will challenge the years of Washington’s unipolar dominance. The success of Lula’s China trip will clearly put an extra spring in the step of the Latin American governments that will be receiving Russia’s official delegation this week. The win-win cooperation possible with China and Russia stands in clear contrast to the arrogant finger-wagging and interventionism on offer from the US.