FIVE EYES

China downplayed nuclear-capable missile test: classified NZ govt papers


By AFP
June 17, 2025


This handout photograph taken on September 25 shows the launch of a Chinese intercontinental ballistic missile that carried a dummy warhead into the Pacific Ocean - Copyright Chinese People's Liberation Army News and Communication Center/AFP HANDOUT
Steven TRASK

China tried to mislead foreign governments in 2024 by playing down the importance of a nuclear-capable missile test over the Pacific Ocean, New Zealand diplomats privately warned in documents obtained by AFP.

Beijing sent shivers through the South Pacific in September 2024, when its elite Rocket Force fired a dummy warhead into the high seas near French Polynesia.

A tranche of classified government briefing notes obtained by AFP shows deep concern within the New Zealand government in the wake of the surprise launch, which China shrugged off as “routine”.

It was China’s first long-range missile launch over international waters in more than 40 years, the papers confirmed, serving as a blunt reminder of Beijing’s potent nuclear-strike capabilities.

“We are concerned that China is characterising this as a ‘routine test’,” senior diplomats wrote in a memo to New Zealand’s foreign affairs minister.

“It is not routine: China has not conducted this type of long-range missile test in over 40 years.

“We do not want to see this test repeated.”

China’s military played down the test as a “legitimate and routine arrangement for military training”.

Behind the scenes, New Zealand diplomats privately decried China’s “mischaracterisation”.

“As this is the first time that China has undertaken such an action in the Pacific in several decades, it is a significant and concerning development,” they wrote in one of the briefing documents.

AFP applied to access the heavily redacted documents — written between September and October last year — under New Zealand’s Official Information Act.

They were classified as “Restricted”, which protects government information with diplomatic or national security implications.



– Nuclear scars –



China has been seeking to cement its presence in the strategically important South Pacific, showering developing island nations with new hospitals, freshly paved roads, and gleaming sports stadiums.

But rarely has it so obviously flexed its military might in the region, where the United States, Australia and New Zealand have long been the security partners of choice.

“We have again asked China why it conducted the test at this time, and why it chose to terminate the missile test in the South Pacific,” New Zealand diplomats wrote.

China’s Rocket Force launched the intercontinental ballistic missile with little warning on September 25, 2024.

Photos released by China showed a projectile streaking into the sky from a secret location atop a billowing plume of smoke.

It appeared to be one of China’s advanced Dong Feng-31 missiles, analysts said, a weapon capable of delivering a thermonuclear warhead.

The long-range missile splashed into a patch of ocean long designated a nuclear-free zone under an international treaty.

Pacific island nations remain deeply scarred by the nuclear tests that shook the region in the decades following World War II.

“This is the first time that we are aware of a test of a nuclear-capable missile terminating within the zone since its establishment in 1986,” the New Zealand diplomats wrote.



– Forceful reminder –



China alerted the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Australia and New Zealand before the test.

But there was only a vague indication of what it would do, according to a separate batch of Australian government documents obtained by AFP.

“Beijing advised us of a planned activity the evening prior to the launch, but specific details were not forthcoming,” Australian defence officials wrote in November last year.

Pacific island nations, however, were not provided with advance notice of the launch, New Zealand diplomats noted.

Following the launch, Japan publicly voiced “serious concern”, Australia said the test risked “destabilising” the South Pacific, and Fiji urged “respect for our region”.

Pacific nation Kiribati, one of China’s warmest friends in the region, said the South Pacific Ocean should not be a proving ground for jostling big powers.

“The high seas in the Pacific are not isolated pockets of oceans… we appeal to all countries involved in weapon testing to stop these acts to maintain world peace and stability,” read a government statement at the time.

China foreign policy expert Nicholas Khoo said the intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test was particularly significant because it took place in the South Pacific.

“Since 1980, China’s ICBM tests have taken place within Chinese territory,” he told AFP.

“The test is a reminder to regional states that China is a ‘full spectrum’ power that has economic and military power. It is a peer with the US.”

Harvard University researcher Hui Zhang said it was a forceful reminder of China’s nuclear strength.

“The test shows that the Rocket Force has an operational and credible nuclear force that can help ensure China’s ability to maintain a strong nuclear deterrent,” he wrote last year for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

“The rare public ICBM test seems to have been specifically aimed at dissuading Washington from using nuclear weapons in a potential conflict across the Taiwan Strait.”

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the “facts are clear and no one has been misled”.

“The missile test is a routine part of annual military training, in compliance with international law and international norms,” it said in a statement.

Spain pushes back against mooted 5% NATO spending goal


By AFP
June 18, 2025


US soldiers install a floating element used to assemble a transportation barge across the Danube river on June 13, 2025 - Copyright AFP/File JUSTIN TALLIS

Spain is resisting US President Donald Trump’s demands to hike defence spending to five percent of national output, potentially threatening NATO unity at a crucial alliance summit this month.

The European country ended 2024 as the NATO member that dedicated the smallest proportion of its annual economic output to defence, falling short of the two percent target set in 2014.

Faced with Trump’s threats to withdraw US security guarantees from member states perceived as not pulling their weight, Spain has announced fresh spending to hit the two percent mark this year.

But Madrid is baulking at suggestions the target should rise to five percent as an aggressive Russia, whose invasion of Ukraine has stretched into a fourth year, menaces Europe.

With Germany and Poland already backing the new benchmark, Spain could find itself isolated among its allies at the June 24-25 NATO summit in The Hague.

“Many countries want five (percent), we respect that… but Spain will fulfil those objectives set for us,” Defence Minister Margarita Robles said on the sidelines of a meeting of NATO counterparts in Brussels this month.

“What is really important is that Spain will meet the capacities and objectives” assigned by NATO and “we cannot set ourselves a percentage”, she said.

For Felix Arteaga, a defence specialist at Madrid’s Elcano Royal Institute, “internal political reasons” are determining the stance of the minority left-wing coalition government.

Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez faces a balancing act of aligning with NATO allies and cajoling his far-left junior coalition partner Sumar, which is hostile to increasing military spending.

He has not submitted to parliament the plans for new defence spending of more than 10 billion euros, sparking criticism from his parliamentary allies whose support is crucial for the government’s viability.

The fragile coalition has wobbled in the past week after a corruption scandal implicating one of Sanchez’s inner circle sparked a crisis within his Socialist party.



– ‘Cultural’ barriers –



In Spain, “high political fragmentation makes it difficult to reach deals similar to those of other countries” such as Germany, said Santiago Calvo, an economics professor at the Universidad de las Hesperides.

Calvo also pointed to “delicate” public finances, with Spain’s debt one of the highest in the European Union at 103.5 percent of gross domestic product.

That figure has nonetheless receded in recent years, and continued strong economic performance should give the government “margin” to spend more, said Arteaga, who instead identified “cultural” hindrances.

The Iberian Peninsula’s greater distance from Russia than eastern European countries like Poland “reduces concern and urgency… we do not feel threatened, we do not want to enter armed conflicts”, Arteaga said.

“The government must explain to Spanish citizens the need to show solidarity” with countries in northern and eastern Europe, he said.

Ambiguity also surrounds the idea of investing five percent of GDP in defence.

NATO chief Mark Rutte has mentioned 3.5 percent of military spending in the traditional definition of the term by 2032, with the remaining 1.5 percent going to security in a broader sense, including border protection and cybersecurity.

At the NATO summit, “everything will come down to details” such as the flexibility of the definition of defence spending and the timeframe to achieve it, Arteaga predicted.

Robles said “Spain will not veto anything” at the summit, calling her country “a constructive ally”.

Macron, on Greenland visit, berates Trump for threats against the territory

Agence France-Presse
June 15, 2025 

Gabriel Attal (left) pictured with French President Emmanuel Macron on September 1, 2023. © Ludovic Marin, AFP

French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday criticised US President Donald Trump's threats to annex Greenland, as he made a visit to the Danish autonomous territory.

"That's not what allies do," Macron said as he arrived in Nuuk, Greenland's capital.

Macron is the first foreign head of state to visit the vast territory -- located at the crossroads of the Atlantic and the Arctic -- since Trump's annexation threats.

Trump, since returning to the White House in January, has repeatedly said America needs the strategically located, resource-rich island for security reasons, and has refused to rule out the use of force to secure it.

Denmark has also repeatedly stressed that Greenland "is not for sale."

Macron said his visit was aimed at conveying "France's and the European Union's solidarity" for "the sovereignty and territorial integrity" of Greenland.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen, and dozens of Greenlanders waving their territory's red-and-white flags, were on hand to greet the French president.

Macron kicked off his six-hour visit with talks on board a Danish frigate with Frederiksen and Nielsen.

He was to later visit a glacier to see firsthand the effects of global warming. A visit to a hydroelectric plant was initially scheduled but was cancelled at the last minute.

Macron's trip to Greenland was "a signal in itself, made at the request of Danish and Greenlandic authorities", his office said ahead of the trip.

- 'Not for sale' -

The Danish invitation to Macron contrasts sharply with the reception granted to US Vice President JD Vance, whose one-day trip to Greenland in March was seen as a provocation by both Nuuk and Copenhagen.

During his visit to the US Pituffik military base, Vance castigated Denmark for not having "done a good job by the people of Greenland", alleging they had neglected security.

The Pituffik base is an essential part of Washington's missile defence infrastructure, its location putting it on the shortest route for missiles fired from Russia at the United States.

Polls indicate that the vast majority of Greenland's 57,000 inhabitants want to become independent from Denmark -- but do not wish to become part of the United States.

Unlike Denmark, Greenland is not part of the European Union but is on the list of Overseas Territories associated with the bloc.

The Arctic has gained geostrategic importance as the race for rare earths heats up and as melting ice caused by global warming opens up new shipping routes.

Copenhagen in January announced a $2 billion plan to boost its military presence in the Arctic region.

NATO also plans to set up a Combined Air Operations Centre (CAOC) in Norway above the Arctic Circle, as Russia aims to bolster its military presence in the region.

During his visit, Macron plans to discuss Arctic security and how to include the territory in "European action" to contribute to its development, while "respecting its sovereignty", his office said.

- Mount Nunatarsuaq -

Macron scheduled glacier visit was to Mount Nunatarsuaq, about 30 kilometres (19 miles) from Nuuk, to see firsthand the effects of global warming on the frontlines in the Arctic.

The Arctic is warming four times faster than the rest of the planet, according to a 2022 study in scientific journal Nature, and Greenland's ice sheet melted 17 times faster than the historical average during a May 15-21 heatwave, a recent report showed.

France intends to "massively reinvest in the knowledge of these ecosystems," following in the footsteps of famed French explorer Paul-Emile Victor who carried out multiple expeditions to Greenland, Macron's office said.

Greenlandic authorities recently designated Victor's hut, built in 1950 in Quervain Bay in the north, as a historic structure.

Dr. Oz says Americans must ‘earn the right’ to be on Medicaid

David Badash,

 The New Civil Rights Movement
June 17, 2025

Dr. Mehmet Oz attends a Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission event, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 22, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, is promoting President Donald Trump’s sweeping and highly controversial budget legislation by claiming it will guarantee access to the social safety net for the “right” people. He argues that, under the GOP plan, individuals will need to “earn” the right to use Medicaid, suggesting that many current recipients are capable of working but choose not to.

Nearly half (47.9%) of Medicaid users under 65 are children aged 0 to 18, according to KFF, the well-known nonpartisan health policy organization. Six in ten families accessing Medicaid have at least one family member who works full time.

In a nationalistic plea, Dr. Oz, on Tuesday, standing with Senate Republicans, told people using the service to “demonstrate that you are trying your hardest to help this country be greater, by at least trying to fill some of the jobs that we have open.

America has a near-historically low unemployment rate of 4.2%.

“By doing that, you earn the right to be on Medicaid,” Oz added.

Dr. Oz also praised the Republicans’ legislation that would gut at least $800 billion from Medicaid, saying it is “the most ambitious health reform bill ever” and will “curb the growth of Medicaid.”

During his confirmation hearing, Dr. Oz said, “I think it is our patriotic duty to be healthy.”

Earlier this month, Dr. Oz faced widespread criticism for telling Medicaid users, “Go out there, do the entry-level jobs, get into the workforce. Prove that you matter, get agency into your own life.”

His statements suggest a possible lack of awareness of the statistics and circumstances affecting the very people he was nominated to serve.

On June 5, Dr. Oz told those who are not willing to go back to work, volunteer, or take care of a loved one, that “we are going to ask you to do something else. Go on the exchange, or get a job and get onto regular commercial insurance. But we are not going to continue to pay for Medicaid for those audiences.”

Nearly half of employers—about 46%—do not offer health insurance at all. Most exclude part-time workers from coverage. Gig workers typically receive no health benefits through their jobs. And many seasonal workers struggle to meet the monthly hour thresholds needed to remain eligible for Medicaid.

Under the current bill, an estimated 10.9 million more people will become uninsured, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

Once again, critics are blasting Dr. Oz.

“Just want to point out, Dr. Oz has a networth of $200+ million and he is telling a single person who makes a maximum of $21,597 they don’t deserve healthcare,” noted Monique Stanton, President and CEO of Michigan League for Public Policy.

Watch the video below or at this link.

'Intimidation!' Olympics regulator gets tongue-lashing at Senate hearing

Matthew Chapman
June 17, 2025 
RAW ST0RY


U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) pauses while reporters ask questions as he arrives for weekly party policy luncheons on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 17, 2025. REUTERS/Kent Nishimura

Democratic and Republican senators alike tore into the World Anti-Doping Agency at a Senate hearing on Tuesday over an ongoing scandal about how they have handled positive banned substances tests in Chinese Olympic athletes, The New York Times reported.

"At a hearing before a subcommittee of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, Democratic and Republican lawmakers also signaled their support for the decisions by the Biden and Trump administrations to withhold key funding from the [WADA] over its handling of the positive tests," said the report. Furthermore, "the senators said they supported new legislation that would give the president even more authority to withhold American funding for the regulator."

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) said of WADA, “All that they have provided are threats, stonewalling and intimidation,” and that U.S. legislators will “not be threatened or silenced for promoting fair play and advocating for clean sport.”

At issue was how WADA tried to squash a U.S. investigation into how the agency swept a Chinese doping scandal under the rug.

"The Times reported that in early 2021, nearly two dozen elite Chinese swimmers tested positive for low levels of a banned prescription heart medication that makes it easier for athletes to recover. At the time, Chinese authorities blamed a contaminated hotel kitchen where the athletes ate, even though they were never able to explain how or why the prescription heart medication made its way into the kitchen. The World Anti-Doping Agency, which is supposed to serve as a backstop when countries fail to properly discipline their athletes, did not sanction the swimmers."

However, after the FBI launched an investigation into this for possible misconduct or violations of U.S. law, key Olympic officials pressured U.S. officials into dropping the probes as a condition for Salt Lake City being awarded a bid to host the games.

“It is shocking that WADA, whom we rely upon to ensure fair competition, not only refuses to be transparent and accountable, but appears to have made unfair demands of a United States city to stymie legitimate federal investigations into its role in the swimmer doping scandal,” said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX).

While this particular outrage against the Olympics has been bipartisan, some Republicans have also recently pushed to demand Los Angeles be stripped of the 2028 games and replace it with a host city in a state that voted for President Donald Trump.

'We need workers!' Yogurt CEO begs Trump to reverse course on ICE crackdown

MINIMUM WAGED OR BELOW

Erik De La Garza
June 17, 2025

  RAW STORY

Twin Falls, ID, USA - June 23, 2024; Black text sign on white wall at Chobani manufacturing facility. (Photo credit: Ian Dewar Photography / Shutterstock)

Chobani CEO Hamdi Ulukaya is urging the Trump administration to reconsider its hardline approach toward immigration, as he warned Tuesday that the country’s food supply chain is being threatened by aggressive nationwide enforcement raids.

“We need to be very realistic,” Ulukaya said at the Wall Street Journal’s Global Food Forum in Chicago. “We need immigration, and we need workers for our food system to work.”

The yogurt maker’s stark warning comes amid escalating immigration raids that “have rattled food and agriculture companies in recent weeks,” the Journal reported Tuesday.

“Trump’s immigration crackdown is roiling America’s food system,” the publication added. “Produce farms, dairies and recently a meat processing plant in Nebraska have been ensnared in immigration raids, disrupting production and threatening to shrink an already tight labor pool."

Employers say workers are afraid to change jobs or even leave home, the Journal noted. Roughly two-thirds of U.S. crop farm workers are foreign-born, and nearly half are not legally authorized to work, according to Labor Department data. On Wisconsin dairy farms, about 70 percent of the workforce lacks legal status, a University of Wisconsin-Madison study found.

While the Department of Homeland Security indicated last week it would pause enforcement at farms, restaurants, and hotels, a spokesperson reversed internal guidance and confirmed that those locations are still on the table. But industry leaders fear a “labor squeeze” could ultimately lead to higher prices for consumers.

“I don’t know if it’s a year, three years, five years, 10 years, but certainly you’ll have an impact across all of those industries if we’re not able to get to a workable solution,” Hormel Foods CEO Jim Snee said, according to the Journal.

American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall echoed the food executives' warnings.

“Without farmworkers, vegetables will be left in the fields, fruit will remain unpicked, and cows will go unmilked,” he said Tuesday. “The end result is a reduced food supply and higher grocery prices for all of America’s families.” The group is calling on Congress to develop a permanent immigration solution.

AMERIKA

5 Million People Attended “No Kings” Protests. How Can We Build on This?

The protests were inspired by the idea that 3.5% of a population must rise up to successfully reject authoritarianism.

By Mike Ludwig ,

Truthout

June 16, 2025

People protest the Trump administration during the "No Kings" national rally in downtown Los Angeles, California, on June 14, 2025, on the same day as President Trump's military parade in Washington, D.C.RINGO CHIU / AFP via Getty Images

Organizers say about 5 million people participated in “No Kings” protests against President Donald Trump and his administration’s abuses of power in hundreds of towns and cities across the United States on Saturday, June 14. Demonstrations large and small offered a sharp rebuke to Trump’s decision to deploy the military in response to protests against immigration raids in Los Angeles, and now activists from various movements are moving to harness the backlash into a sustained movement capable of toppling Trumpian authoritarianism.

The “No Kings” protests were inspired by the 3.5 percent principle, which posits that movements against authoritarianism that engage 3.5 percent of the population have never failed to bring about change. The demonstrations provided people with a venue to call out Trump for his implementation of cruel and extreme policies that are tearing apart families and spreading fear in communities nationwide. The mass turnout of protesters nationwide also drowned out Trump’s efforts to boost his strongman image by wasting up to $45 million in public funds to throw a gaudy military parade in Washington, D.C., on his birthday (June 14).

Participants in the mass protests condemned the cruelty of Trump’s mass deportation campaign, which is targeting law-abiding parents and schoolchildren. Protesters also decried the cuts proposed by Republicans in Congress to many of this country’s basic safety net programs — cuts proposed to pay for Trump’s signature tax cuts, which primarily benefit the wealthy. On top of these cruel policies are Trump’s own autocratic behavior, vile rhetoric, and decadent displays of rank nationalism — including the president’s decision to use the U.S. Army’s anniversary celebration as an excuse for made-for-TV propaganda starring himself.

The demonstrations marked one the largest single days of protest in U.S. history, according to Joe Dinkin, deputy national director of the Working Families Party.

“In America we don’t have kings, and Trump’s abuses of power are generating a counterreaction,” Dinkin said in an interview. “People are not liking what they are seeing from the administration. They don’t like the attacks on civil rights, the attacks on Medicaid, and the attacks on food assistance — that is what is generating enormous backlash.”

The proposed cuts to programs on which people depend stand in sharp contrast to the decadent parade Trump held on June 14. On Capitol Hill, 60 veterans and military family members were arrested for staging a sit-in to protest against the parade and Trump’s politicization of the Army.

“As veterans we were able to break into the mainstream narrative about Trump’s birthday parade and assert that Americans want ‘money for people not parades,’” wrote Brittany Ramos DeBarros, an organizing director with About Face: Veterans Against the War, in a newsletter on Monday. DeBarros added, “These kinds of ‘celebrations’ of military might while our military is being used to terrorize immigrants in LA and starve children in Palestine is beyond grotesque.”

People are also upset over Trump’s show of force in LA, where the administration responded to protests last weekend by deploying U.S. Marines and National Guard troops in defiance of state and local leaders. With his constituents angry and fearful, Sen. Alex Padilla (D-California) attempted to ask questions during a press conference inside a federal building held by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem but was quickly tackled by officers and handcuffed.

Instead of apologizing, Noem doubled down, claiming the sitting U.S. senator failed to identify himself — inside a federal building in his home state. After a week of sensational news coverage and partisan attacks, support for Trump’s approach to immigration began to slip in the polls. Americans were also uncomfortable with the president sending in the military to U.S. cities, with pluralities telling pollsters they oppose Trump’s moves in LA.

Dinkin said it is critical that people are showing up for protests at a time when the Trump administration has literally arrested Democratic politicians for questioning about the immigration crackdown, including Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and Rep. LaMonica McIver in New Jersey. In LA, police roughed up and arrested union leader David Huerta for protesting peacefully against immigration raids last week.

“We need people to be brave in the face of authoritarianism,” Dinkin said. “From here, we continue getting organized in our communities in order to throw them out of power in the midterms and remove [Trump] from office pretty soon after that. Elections are the best way we have to remove this authoritarian threat, and getting organized in our communities is the way that we do that.”

Dinkin said the work of organizing against authoritarianism will look different in different places. For example, people in red districts must continue to hold town halls and confront Republican members of Congress over proposed safety net cuts and their refusal to rein in Trump’s abuses of executive authority.

“In other jurisdictions it might mean stepping up to run for local office yourself, helping to get educated on your rights; it might mean joining economic boycotts out there, such as the Target boycott,” Dinkin said.

Dinkin said the Working Families Party is running 1,000 working-class candidates up and down the ballot in various states this year and next, and voting remains a major bulwark to authoritarianism. The challenge is rebuilding trusting relationships with each other despite the fractures in society created as Trump has sought to divide and conquer.

“It’s Trump and it’s also the media environment that increasingly has people captured in feuds that only tell them what they want to hear, that is growing at the same time as a decline in participation in civic organizations and decline in the strength of the unions,” Dinkin said. “These are the things that really connect us in trusting relationships, and that is what we mean by organizing relationships of trust.”

CHRISTIAN NATIONALIST TERRORISM

'Fits a profile': Suspect's Christian ties spur fears of more assassinations

Jordan Green, 

Investigative Reporter
June 18, 2025 

RAW ST0RY


Vance Boelter, 57, the suspected gunman in the Minnesota shootings. Photo: Hennepin County Sheriff's Office via REUTERS

Since the fatal shooting of a Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband in an act described by a federal prosecutor as a “political assassination,” scrutiny has turned to suspect Vance Boelter’s ties to independent charismatic Christianity, in particular a movement known as the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR).

Boelter is alleged to have posed as a police officer as he gunned down Democratic Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, in the early hours of June 14. In a separate shooting, he wounded state Sen. John A. Hoffman, also a Democrat, and his wife, Yvette Hoffman. Investigators say Boelter visited two other lawmakers and had a list of 70 targets, including Democrats, civic leaders and abortion providers.

Boelter was described in a court filing supporting federal charges as embarking "on a planned campaign of stalking and violence, designed to inflict fear, injure, and kill members of the Minnesota state legislature and their families."

Researchers who study the Christian right have homed in on Boelter’s attendance at a Bible college in Dallas in the late 1980s and missionary work in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where he delivered sermons critical of abortion and LGBTQ+ people.

Christ For the Nations Institute (CFNI) confirmed that Boelter attended the college from 1988 to 1990, graduating with a “diploma in practical theology in leadership and pastoral.”

Christ For the Nations Institute has been a “merging space” for trends in independent charismatic Christianity, Matthew D. Taylor, a senior scholar at the Institute for Islamic Christian Jewish Studies, told the “Straight White American Jesus” podcast.

Those trends include dominionism — the idea of Christians taking control over the world — and NAR, which emerged in the mid-1990s.

Frederick Clarkson, a senior research analyst at Political Research Associates, described NAR to Raw Story as a movement whose adherents believe God speaks directly to modern-day apostles and prophets, and which seeks to “restore their vision of what they think 1st-century Christianity was.”

Both Taylor and Clarkson note that Apostle Dutch Sheets, one of the major proponents of New Apostolic Reformation, attended CFNI in the 1970s and taught at the college in the following decade, potentially overlapping with Boelter.

Sheets reportedly met Trump officials at the White House one week before the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Staff at Dutch Sheets Ministries declined Raw Story’s request for an interview.

In the early 2010s, Sheets was executive director at CFNI, where a sign in the lobby displays a quote attributed to founder Gordon Lindsay: “Every Christian ought to pray at least one violent prayer a day.”

Following the Minnesota shootings, the institute said its leadership was “absolutely aghast and horrified that a CFNI alumnus is the suspect,” and that it “unequivocally rejects, denounces, and condemns any and all forms of violence and extremism, be it politically, racially, religiously or otherwise motivated.”

The statement rejected any notion the college’s teachings were “a contributing factor” to Boelter’s “evil behavior.”

The statement also claimed Lindsay’s comment about “violent prayer” has been misrepresented.

“By ‘violent prayer’ he meant that a Christian’s prayer life should be intense, fervent, and passionate, not passive and lukewarm,” the statement said, “considering that spiritual forces of darkness are focused on attacking life, identity in God, purpose, peace, love, joy, truth, health, and other good things.”

‘Five soccer balls’

Researchers who track the Christian right have taken note of a sermon Boelter preached in Congo in 2023.

“They don’t know abortion is wrong, many churches,” Boelter said, in comments first reported by Wired. “They don’t have the gifts flowing. God gives the body gifts. To keep balance. Because when the body starts moving in the wrong direction, when they’re one, and accepting the gifts, God will raise an apostle or prophet to correct their course.”

Clarkson told Raw Story Boelter’s rhetoric had a familiar ring.

“Nobody but someone influenced by the New Apostolic Reformation movement would say something like that,” Clarkson said.

But Taylor saw a broader strain of charismatic Christianity in Boelter’s sermonizing, connected to the Latter Rain movement, a precursor to NAR that emerged after World War II.

“Many people today would say those are NAR ideas, but they were Latter Rain ideas before they were NAR ideas,” Taylor said. “I don’t know where he picked up these ideas. He’s very clearly charismatic in his theology and in his preaching as well.”

In a sermon in Congo in 2022, Boelter used an odd metaphor involving soccer balls to suggest he was burdened with regrets.

“Do you understand what God has given us?” Boelter asked. “He’s given us eternity — with Him. And what does he ask? He says, ‘Life didn’t go the way I wanted it for you. But it wasn’t my fault. Vance, you sidetracked. You messed up your life. You took your five soccer balls, and you wrecked ’em.’

“But He says he loves us so much he came and he died to pay for it all. And he says, ‘Vance, do you want to trade your five wrecked soccer balls for all of these? Do you want to live forever with me? Then get on your face, Vance, and repent of your sins.”

Clarkson told Raw Story he thinks both personal troubles and exposure to ideas in the realm of charismatic Christianity could have factored into Boelter’s turn to political violence.

“If he’s in NAR all the way, and his marriage and his finances are falling apart, he may lean into his faith to find purpose,” Clarkson said. “If he thinks his life as he knows it is over, he may be thinking about trying to go out in a meaningful way.”

Boelter reportedly texted his family after the shootings: “Dad went to war last night.”

“He’s been planning these things for a long time; he was armed for it,” Clarkson said. “It was literally war. He did seem to assume he would be killed … When people commit violence out of religious motive, that’s profound.”

‘Priming the pump for violence’

Clarkson said that if it turns out Boelter is an NAR adherent, “this would be the first major example of the violent vision and rhetoric of the New Apostolic Reformation movement manifesting.”

On the other hand, Clarkson said, “if it turns out that he’s not NAR, it’s still the case that there are all these NAR leaders that have been teaching people that they are in an end-times war. They’re priming the pump for violence in their lifetime.”



Officers gather in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Park, after the shootings of two lawmakers and their spouses. REUTERS/Ellen Schmidt

Taylor suggested a different way of looking at Boelter’s attack.

Political discourse in the U.S. is “at a high boil,” Taylor said. While Boelter might have been influenced by hostility towards abortion and LGBTQ+ rights in right-wing media, Taylor noted that political violence is manifesting against an array of targets, with a firebombing attack against Jewish demonstrators calling for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza in Colorado this month only one example.

“There’s so much of this bile in the far-right and right-wing and independent media spaces about abortion, and about LGBTQ+ rights,” Taylor said. “And that’s something that Boelter touches on in his sermons as well — about trans people, about Muslims, about immigrants.

“I worry that this is the harbinger of what’s to come. And we could see more attacks like this in the coming time, because he fits a very common profile.”

Jordan Green is a North Carolina-based investigative reporter at Raw Story, covering domestic extremism, efforts to undermine U.S. elections and democracy, hate crimes and terrorism. Prior to joining the staff of Raw Story in March 2021, Green spent 16 years covering housing, policing, nonprofits and music as a reporter and editor at Triad City Beat in North Carolina and Yes Weekly. He can be reached at jordan@rawstory.com. More about Jordan Green.

'Dramatic spiritual warfare': Inside the alleged Minnesota killer's 'apocalyptic' ideology

Vance Luther Boelter, 57, the suspected gunman in the shooting deaths of a Minnesota Democratic state lawmaker and her husband, appears in this June 16, 2025 mugshot provided by Hennepin County Sheriff's Office via REUTERS

Adam Lynch

June 17, 2025 | 

New York Magazine writer Sarah Jones says she’s familiar with the faction of modern Christianity that creates a hazy, hidden word of invisible demons and evil spirits.

Alleged political assassin Vance Boelter, for example, shares a religious “lineage” with Eric Rudolph, who bombed Centennial Olympic Park, a gay nightclub, and two abortion clinics before temporarily evading law enforcement.

“Adherents do have some core beliefs: namely that the people of God are caught up in dramatic spiritual warfare with the forces of Satan,” Jones writes. It is a world of hard-to-prove mystical forces that use people like tools.

“I don’t think spiritual warfare is an innocuous belief,” writes Jones. “It is apocalyptic in character and profoundly conspiratorial because it adds a demonic dimension to worldly tensions.”

Jones points out that long before QAnon and Pizzagate, Christian author Frank Peretti published a popular novel called This Present Darkness, with angels and demons battling over a small college town through “human proxies.”

“A liberal professor is working for Satan, and there’s a redheaded angel with a Scottish accent,” Jones recounts. “In a more serious turn, demons force women and children to make false accusations of sexual abuse.”

Jones points out that scholar Julie Ingersoll argued “we all inevitably play a part in the looming and raging cosmic battle.” That view extends further than the mind of the author, Ingersoll claims. Decades after This Present Darkness, Ingersoll warned of a rise in “violent rhetoric” and of “an increasing number of Americans willing to engage in violence against fellow citizens in the name of an apocalyptic ‘alternate reality.’”

A gun, said Jones, is more tangible than an angel, so “for authoritarians, spiritual warfare is a useful notion.”

“Their political opponents aren’t simply misguided; they’re agents of the devil, and their humanity is questionable. Boelter’s Christianity did not force him to kill, but it did give him permission to act,” Jones said. She then cited a CNN report of Boelter texting his family after his shooting spree. “Dad went to war last night,” he’d said.

For most adherents, the work stops at prayer, but sometimes Jones warns there’s a man like Boelter, “who decides that prayer is insufficient and that voting is no good as long as liberals can still do it.”

Read the full Intelligencer report at this link.

'Going to be rewarded': How religion played a part in the Minnesota political assassination

Vance Boelter, 57, was captured by law enforcement Sunday, June 15, 2025 in Sibley County. (Photo courtesy of Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

Madison McVan

 Minnesota Reformer

June 16, 2025 |

Law enforcement officers on Sunday night arrested Vance Boelter, who is accused of assassinating Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband at their home in Brooklyn Park as part of a larger plot to kill Democratic elected officials and other advocates of abortion rights.

Boelter is also accused of shooting Democratic-Farmer-Labor state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, at their home in Champlin. Both Hoffmans survived the shooting, but received surgeries for their injuries and remain hospitalized.

The arrest comes after a 43-hour manhunt — the largest in state history, according to Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mark Bruley. Law enforcement officers had been searching all day after locating Boelter’s abandoned vehicle near Green Isle, where Boelter has a home.

At the time of his arrest, Boelter was armed, but ultimately surrendered. Officers did not use any force, said Lt. Col. Jeremy Geiger of the Minnesota State Patrol.

In the state’s new Emergency Operations Center in Blaine — which was paid for by legislation passed by Hortman’s DFL-controlled House in 2020 — Gov. Tim Walz thanked law enforcement and decried political violence and hateful rhetoric.

“This cannot be the norm. It cannot be the way that we deal with our political differences,” Walz said. “Now is the time for us to recommit to the core values of this country, and each and every one of us can do it. Talk to a neighbor rather than argue, debate an issue, shake hands, find common ground.”

Boelter is a Christian who voted for President Donald Trump and opposes abortion and LGBTQ rights, according to interviews with his childhood friend and videos of his sermons posted online. A list of potential targets — including Hoffman and Hortman — included abortion providers and other Democratic elected officials from Minnesota and Wisconsin.

The attack, which has shocked Minnesotans and the nation, comes amid rising political violence since the emergence of President Donald Trump, who has made repeated threats of violence against his political enemies and praised his supporters who, for instance, attacked officers while storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. He later pardoned all of them. He survived two assassination attempts in 2024.

Authorities say Boelter attacked the Hoffmans at their home in Champlin at approximately 2 a.m. on Saturday morning. An unsealed criminal complaint indicates that the Hoffmans’ daughter called the police to report the shooting of her parents, the Associated Press reports.

At around 3:30 a.m., Brooklyn Park police headed to the Hortmans’ home to proactively check on them following the attack on the Hoffmans, said Drew Evans, superintendent at the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension at a press conference Saturday morning.

When they arrived, the officers saw the attacker in a fake law enforcement uniform shoot Mark Hortman through the open front door, according to the complaint. Out front, emergency vehicle lights flashed from a Ford Explorer outfitted to look like a cop car. When the officers confronted the shooter, a gunfight ensued, and the killer escaped, abandoning the vehicle.

Inside, Hortman and her husband, Mark, were dead from gunshot wounds.

In the SUV, police found a document with a list of lawmakers and other officials on it. Hortman and Hoffman were on the list.

Evans said Sunday that the document is not a “traditional manifesto that’s a treatise on all kinds of ideology and writings.” Instead, it contains a list of names and “other thoughts” throughout.

On Saturday afternoon, police raided a home in north Minneapolis where Boelter lived part time. In an interview with the Star Tribune and other media outlets, Boelter’s roommate and childhood friend David Carlson shared a text message Boelter sent him at 6:03 a.m. saying that he would be “gone for a while” and “may be dead shortly.”

Federal and state warrants were out for Boelter’s arrest, and the FBI was offering a $50,000 award for information that led to Boelter’s capture.

On Sunday morning, law enforcement officers detained and questioned Boelter’s wife as she was driving through Mille Lacs County with other family members. Evans said Sunday none of Boelter’s family members are in custody.

Sunday afternoon, law enforcement officers located a car linked to Boelter in Sibley County within a few miles of his home address in Green Isle. From there, teams from dozens of law enforcement agencies fanned out in search of Boelter.

Boelter was spotted in the area, and officers converged around him, Evans said. He declined to provide some details of the tactics used by law enforcement to capture Boelter.

Law enforcement officials continue to investigate Boelter’s motives, Evans said, and urged the public not to jump to conclusions.

“We often want easy answers for complex problems, and this is a complex situation…those answers will come as we complete the full picture of our investigation,” he said.

Fragments of Boelter’s life available online, and interviews with those who know him, shed light on his religious and political beliefs.

Boelter’s LinkedIn page indicates that he spent many years working in food production before becoming the general manager of a 7-Eleven. More recently, he worked at funeral homes, the New York Times reported.

Boelter was facing financial stress after quitting his job to embark on business ventures in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to Carlson, the Star Tribune reported.

The website for a private security firm lists Boelter as the “director of security patrols,” and his wife as the CEO. He purchased some cars and uniforms but “it was never a real company,” Carlson told the Strib.

Carlson said Boelter is a Christian who strongly opposes abortion, the New York Times reported.

In recordings of sermons Boelter delivered in Matadi, a city in the Democratic Republic of Congo, he railed against abortion and LGBTQ people.

The reporting on Boelter’s religious life suggests that his beliefs were rooted in fundamentalism, though he doesn’t appear to have been ordained in any particular denomination, said Rev. Angela Denker, a Minnesota-based Lutheran minister, journalist and author of books on Christianity, right-wing politics and masculinity.

“What this kind of theology says is that if you commit violence in the name of whatever movement you’re a part of, then you’re going to be rewarded,” Denker said.

The gunman shot John Hoffman nine times, and Yvette Hoffman eight times, according to a statement from Yvette.

The Hoffmans’ nephew, Mat Ollig, wrote on Facebook that Yvette used her body to shield her daughter. John Hoffman is “enduring many surgeries right now and is closer every hour to being out of the woods,” Yvette Hoffman said in a statement.

On Sunday night as leaders spoke to the press, Boelter was being questioned by law enforcement, but officials declined to say where he was detained and which agency was questioning him.

On the steps of the State Capitol Sunday, mourners created an extemporaneous memorial for Hortman, who will be known as one of the most consequential progressive leaders in recent state history.

Minnesota Reformer is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Minnesota Reformer maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor J. Patrick Coolican for questions: info@minnesotareformer.com.

'Monsters': Democrats lash out as TX legislature bans school clubs that support gay teens

Photo by Andra C Taylor Jr on Unsplash

Sofia Sorochinskaia 

The Texas Tribune

June 01, 2025 | 

Democrats took to the floor of the Texas House on Saturday to label a ban on clubs that support gay teens the work of “monsters” and to say the ban endangers children and strips them of their dignity.

The Democratic representatives grew emotional in opposition to a bill that would ban K-12 student clubs focused on sexuality and gender identity.

Senate Bill 12, authored by Sen. Brandon Creighton, won final legislative passage Saturday after lawmakers in both chambers adopted the conference committee reports that specifically clarified that schools will be banned from authorizing or sponsoring student clubs based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

Backers proclaimed that the bill enshrines a parent’s rights and puts the parent not just at the table, but at the head of the table where the child’s best interests are decided. They also targeted diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies, claiming that they project ideologies on students and put too much focus on race, sexuality and gender identity instead of the quality of education.

Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston, emphasized that these clubs exist because of a long history of oppression against the LGBTQ+ community. He warned against demonizing students and teachers for discussing gender and sexuality.

“The real monsters are not kids trying to figure out who they are,” Wu said during the House discussion. “The monsters are not the teachers who love them and encourage them and support them. They are not the books that provide them with some amount of comfort and information. The real monsters are here.”

Lawmakers shared personal stories about LGBTQ+ youth. Rep. Rafael Anchía said his daughter was a vice president of a pride club at her school. He stressed that these clubs “are no more about sex than 4-H or ROTC or the basketball team.”

“It wasn't a sex club,” Anchía said. “They'd get together and they'd watch movies. They'd color. They'd go to musicals. It was about a kid who felt weird who found her people and everything about it was good. I don't know why grown-ups in this body are so triggered with my daughter getting together with her classmates in a school-sponsored activity.”

Anchía also told the Texas Tribune he “didn’t sign up for five anti-LGBT bills this session.”

Rep. Jolanda Jones, D-Houston, shared her experience as a Black woman and a lesbian, saying she didn’t come out until the age of 50 because she knew “the world wasn't safe.” She warned that banning LGBTQ+ clubs could worsen bullying.

“And we have the nerve to say that we care about mental health,” Jones said. “We've passed bill after bill about access to care, about youth suicide, about prevention and treatment. But this bill makes kids sicker, sadder, more alone. This bill doesn't protect children. It endangers them. It doesn't give parents more rights. It strips children of their dignity.”

SB 12 is often referred to as the “Parental Bill of Rights” because it claims to give parents more control over their children’s schools. But Rep. Erin Zwiener, D-Driftwood, addressed those who are “afraid that your kids or your grandkids might grow up queer,” warning that the bill could harm family relationships.

“Getting silence in schools from the LGBTQ community, which is what this bill is designed to do, will not stop your kids from being gay,” Zwiener said. “It will just make them afraid to come out. It will make them afraid to live their lives as their full selves. It will make them afraid to tell you when they figure out that they're LGBTQ and it might damage your relationship with them forever.”

Rep. Nicole Collier, D-Fort Worth, argued that allowing religious organizations in schools but banning “clubs that allow students to be who they are, is a double standard that flies in the face of the principles you say you support.”

“An LGBTQ person can't change who they are any more than the fact that I can't change that I'm Black,” Collier said. “What you're saying to students today is that you will be accepted as long as you are who we say you should be.”

If signed by the governor, the bill will become law on Sept. 1.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/31/texas-house-tempers-flare-gay-club-ban/.

The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org

Pride Organizers Are Doubling Down on Teaching Radical Histories of Resistance


In the fight for dignity and democracy, trans people have much to teach.

By Aaron Scott , Liz Theoharis , Moses Hernandez McGavin ,

TomDispatch

June 3, 2025

A transgender rights activist holds a flag during the Trans Day of Visibility rally on the National Mall on March 31, 2025, in Washington, D.C.Kayla Bartkowski / Getty Images

This year, Pride Month arrives at an especially dire moment for the LGBTQ+ community. Under the second Trump administration, homophobic vitriol and violence are on the rise. On Elon Musk’s X platform, a “deepfake” video of Donald Trump canceling Pride Month has gone viral. And even as Pride celebrations continue as planned (in many places without as many corporate contributions), the attacks against LGBTQ+ people, especially transgender people, seem to be on steroids. After all, since taking office a second time, Trump has issued executive orders that ban transgender women in sports and transgender troops in the military, while limiting federal recognition to two genders. And his executive actions are only the spear tip of a significantly larger legislative attempt to target and scapegoat transgender people, who make up just over one percent of the U.S. population.

Believe it or not, so far this year, 701 anti-trans bills have been introduced in American legislative bodies at both the state and federal levels. More than $215 million was spent on anti-trans television advertisements during the 2024 election season alone. Now, Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” barely passed by the House and at present in the Senate — which would gut Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and other lifesaving safety-net programs — takes explicit aim at gender-affirming care for Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) patients. If the Senate passes it, the result will be devastating for trans people, who are already twice as likely as the general population to be unemployed and unhoused and four times as likely to live in extreme poverty. It should be no surprise, then, that almost half of transgender adults in this country have already relocated or are considering relocating to more trans-affirming places.

While executive orders, budget cuts, and other attacks threaten all trans and nonbinary people, the most vulnerable are, of course, at greatest risk, including the poor, people of color, the young, the disabled, and the incarcerated. 

In a recent report, the ACLU offers a horrific insight into this reality:

'I don't appreciate the smirk': Senator scorches 'unserious' Hegseth in combative hearing

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 18, 2025. REUTERS/Annabelle Gordon

David Badash

THE NEW CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

June 18, 2025

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth faced sharp and stern criticism during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing over his highly controversial decision to fire Air Force General Timothy D. Haugh, head of the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command. Reports suggested a far-right social media influencer was behind the move to terminate the NSA Director in what some have called a “loyalty purge.”

Calling General Haugh’s dismissal “sudden and inexplicable” and “deeply concerning,” U.S. Senator Jackie Rosen (D-NV) told Secretary Hegseth it “raises significant questions about the decision-making process,” and “its potential consequences.”

“Public reports indicate that the removal of General Haugh, who has served his country proudly, has been influenced by social media influencer, an influencer— a personality on social media, Laura Loomer—spreads conspiracy theories. She’s been denounced even by Republicans,” Senator Rosen charged. “And the idea that any leaders within our agency responsible for out nation’s security—somebody would be dismissed based on the advice of a social media influencer is alarming to say the least. It’s surely not how we should be running our military.”

Senator Rosen demanded to know if Hegseth was “consulted” regarding the dismissal of General Haugh.

“Well, Senator, I would not advise believing everything you read in the media,” was Secretary Hegseth’s response.

After a heated back-and-forth, Hegseth declared, “I’m the decision-maker for the department. And we all serve at the pleasure of the President, and we have the prerogative to make those decisions.”

Refusing to state specifically that he personally relieved general Haugh, Hegseth served up a more generic response.

“Anyone at that level who was relieved would be relieved by the Secretary of Defense,” he stated.

Hegseth also refused to respond when asked if there was a specific justification for General Haugh’s dismissal.

“Uh, Ma’am, we all serve at the pleasure of the President and the President deserves the type of Commanders and advisers that he thinks will best equip…to accomplish the mission.”

Hegseth also refused to say if he discussed dismissing Haugh with Laura Loomer.

“I don’t discuss who I talk about anything with, but ultimately, this is my decision, and he serves at the pleasure of the president, and that’s why he’s no longer there,” was the Secretary’s reply.

After another question, Hegseth told Senator Rosen, “Uh, I believe your time is up, Senator.”

“Oh,” Rosen vehemently responded, “it is not up to you to tell me when my time is up.”

“Well, the time—” Hegseth continued.

“I am going to say, Mr. Secretary, you’re either feckless or complicit. You’re not in control of your department. You are unserious. It is shocking. You’re not combating antisemitism within your ranks. It’s a dangerous and pivotal time in our nation’s history,” Senator Ro9sen warned.

“And I don’t appreciate the smirk, sir. You are the Secretary of Defense.”

Watch below or at this link.