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President Donald Trump Wednesday announced new sanctions against Russian oil companies as retaliation for President Putin's refusal to end the war with Ukraine or agree to a ceasefire.

Posted Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent: "Now is the time to stop the killing and for an immediate ceasefire. Given President Putin's refusal to end this senseless war, Treasury is sanctioning Russia's two largest oil companies that fund the Kremlin's war machine. Treasury is prepared to take further action if necessary to support President Trump's effort to end yet another war. We encourage our allies to join us in and adhere to these sanctions."

Trump has been increasingly frustrated with Russia's intransigence as he has tried to broker an end to the bloody war. After announcing last week that a meeting with Putin was being planned for Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday Trump said the meeting was off.

A press release from the Treasury Department noted the U.S. was imposing sanctions "as a result of Russia's lack of serious commitment to a peace process to end the war in Ukraine. …

"Treasury will continue to use its authority in support of a peace process."

In the Oval Office, President Trump made further remarks about the sanctions:

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In a Monday interview with Jon Stewart on "The Daily Show," Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., agreed that President Trump is implementing certain policies the senator has advocated for years but that the Democratic Party opposes.

Stewart confronted Sanders, a democratic socialist who caucuses with Senate Democrats, about Trump's policies, saying, "He is the most socialist president of my lifetime."

Continued Stewart: "Taking a percentage of companies to do business in the U.S. That's a Bernie Sanders idea!" He also mentioned the new government-based TrumpRx drug plan.

Sanders seemed to agree but then immediately brought up Trump actions with which he disagrees, like "throwing 15 million people off their health care."

President Trump posted part of the interview on his Truth Social account Tuesday.

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A radical group promoting abortion has lost its bid in court to overturn a parental consent law in the state of Missouri.

The American Center for Law and Justice reports it was a "decisive" victory for life, parental rights and the rule of law.

The court ruling, from the Circuit Court of Jackson County in Kansas City, dismissed the lawsuit filed by abortion promoters seeking to destroy "the state's commonsense parental consent law."

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Kamala Harris, the failed Democrat nominee in the 2024 presidential race whose support plunged even as she spent over a billion dollars campaigning for a few weeks, now insists that the vote was the "closest" and "tightest" result in years.

Further, she claims the decision by American voters, described by many as a landslide, did not give President Donald Trump a "mandate" for the country.

Harris recently has been making a series of appearances where she promotes her own book, which could, if successful, generate income for her.

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The Supreme Court on Tuesday is scheduled to hear the demands from leftists in the state of Colorado to censor the speech of Christian counselors.

Officials in the leftist state who multiple times have demanded the authority to censor Christians in the state have claimed that the counselors' speech is "behavior," which they say they can regulate.

But their agenda is clear in the details of their fight: They insist that no counselor can  encourage a patient to consider NOT being LGBT. But promotions of the LGBT lifestyle choices are fully encouraged.

Those same officials in Colorado repeatedly have tried to censor other Christians' speech, including that of Masterpiece Cakeshop baker Jack Phillips, who refused to violate his Christian faith by promoting deviant wedding arrangements.

The Supreme Court, in that case, scolded the state for its "hostility" to Christians. Then state officials doubled down, trying the same stunt with a web designer. And they lost again in court.

The case at issue involves licensed counselor Kaley Chiles, who is represented by the ADF.

"Chiles wants to help young people distressed about their gender achieve their chosen goal to grow comfortable with their bodies and avoid harmful drugs and procedures," the legal team said.

"But Colorado law forbids her from doing so."

Already, the U.S. government and 21 states, in addition to counseling groups, detransitioners, mental-health researchers, free speech advocates and others, are supporting Chiles' arguments.

"The government has no business censoring private conversations between clients and counselors,:" said lawyer Jim Campbell. "There is a growing consensus around the world that adolescents experiencing gender dysphoria need love and an opportunity to talk through their struggles and feelings. Colorado's law harms these young people by depriving them of caring and compassionate conversations with a counselor who helps them pursue the goals they desire."

The legal team charged, "Chiles argues that Colorado's law violates her freedom of speech by prohibiting licensed counselors like her from engaging in counseling conversations with clients under age 18 who want to change some expression, behavior, identity, or feeling associated with their 'sexual orientation or gender identity.'"

The lawyers pointed out that the Democrat-led state, commanded at this time by Democrat homosexual Gov. Jared Polis, schemed to set up in the law a prohibition on counseling conversations "in one direction."

"For example, it allows counseling conversations that push young people toward a gender identity different than their sex but prohibits conversations that help them grow comfortable with their sex when they desire to do that. The law also threatens severe penalties, including suspension and even revocation of the counselor's license. This one-sided censorship comes amidst a growing national mental-health crisis and prevents many Colorado children from obtaining the counseling that they desire—and that is likely to help them."

The ADF said, "Many of Chiles' clients come to her because they share her Christian worldview and faith-based values. These clients believe their lives will be more fulfilling if they are aligned with the teachings of their faith. Yet Colorado law censors Chiles from speaking words her clients want to hear because the government does not like the view she expresses."

Detractors have called such counseling "conversion therapy" but the misnomer isn't accurate since the counseling actually involves helping patients come to grips with their own reality.

Judges in Colorado, who have moved so far into the leftist agenda the all-Democrat state Supreme Court actually tried to prevent President Donald Trump from being on the ballot in 2024, before being rebuked by the Supreme Court, have advocated for the state's censorship position.

There already is a split among federal appeals courts on the dispute, a key factor that the Supreme Court considers in accepting cases.

The 3rd and 11th circuit courts have found such bans suppress protected speech.

The state censorship plan is based on viewpoint restrictions, which the Supreme Court has opposed in previous cases.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

A school district has done a quick 180 – literally within hours – after being confronted about its censorship targeting faith.

The fight erupted at Arkansas Connections Academy, an online public school, and involved student Zion Ramos.

It was handled by First Liberty Institute, which explained, "Every day, students have a 'social time' Zoom meeting where they are free to speak about whatever they want provided their comments are not violent, vulgar, or obscene. On September 23, 2025, inspired by the memorial service for Charlie Kirk, Zion decided to share his faith in a two-minute statement."

Ramos said, "Hello, my name is Zion. I won't be long, but I have something very important to say. You may not want to hear it, but it's the most important thing you will ever hear. We don't know how long we have. One day, it'll all be over. It may not be today, tomorrow, a month, or even years from now, but when our time is up, all we will have is eternity. And we only have two places to go: heaven or hell. And we need to decide where we want to spend it."

Suddenly, the teacher monitoring the call put the student on mute, censoring his speech. Then she quickly removed him from the Zoom meeting completely.

"School officials cannot silence students who are sharing their faith with other students during social gatherings," said Kayla Toney, institute lawyer. "Public schools are not religion-free zones, but by censoring faith on campus, officials unjustly marginalize students like Zion who simply want to share the Gospel with peers."

The legal team dispatched a demand letter, explaining, "As the Supreme Court's holding in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District made clear, the First Amendment protects students' expressions of their faith in public schools. The Court in Kennedy explained that the clauses of the First Amendment 'work in tandem. Where the Free Exercise Clause protects religious exercises, whether communicative or not, the Free Speech Clause provides overlapping protection for expressive religious activities.' 597 U.S. at 524. The result is that the First Amendment 'doubly protects religious speech.' Id."

Within hours, the school responded by inviting Ramos back to the meetings and assuring that he would be allowed three minutes to share his faith.

"We are grateful that school officials acknowledge how concerning this situation was for Zion and his family, and that federal and state law protect students' religious expression during social gatherings," explained Toney.

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders had expressed concern about the issue, instructing the state Department of Education to investigate.

ARCA's response, which came literally within hours, said, "ARCA's administration is dedicated to ensuring that every student has the opportunity to express their viewpoint in a respectful environment."

They agreed to all three of First Liberty's requests, allowing Zion to share his faith during a future social time, promising that "[s]chool officials will support the free speech and free exercise rights of students, including Mr. Ramos, in the future," and agreeing to complete religious liberty training through the RESPECT Project, First Liberty confirmed.

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The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has condemned the Bible verses it doesn't like. According to a new video, apparently its members believe God made some mistakes along the way.

They have to do with women, verses a spokeswoman in a video protests have to do with "power, privilege, prejudice" "within a patriarchy." The video was at the 2025 ELCA churchwide assembly.

She condemns the contemporary "Christian church" for being "complicit in the sins of sexism and patriarchy," and she lists Genesis 3:16, Judges 19, 1st Corinthians 11:3-16 as among those that God must not have really meant to be included in the Bible.

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The United States now is in a "new and chilling stage" of what constitutional expert Jonathan Turley has described as the "age of rage."

In fact, his book, "The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage," specifically addresses the issues that were involved in the assassination this week of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was shot and killed while holding a rally for students at a Utah university.

The killer remains at large at this point.

Turley, who not only has testified before Congress as an expert on the Constitution but also has represented members in court in constitutional fights, is a popular commentator and analyst on all things legal and constitutional, as well as the forces shaping America now.

He warned that the leftist agenda across the nation that now includes the assassination of Kirk, a popular speaker and speech rights advocate who founded Turning Point USA, could "succeed in forcing the thousands of conservative and libertarian students back into the shadows of our campuses and classrooms."

He said, "We cannot allow that to happen. Charlie Kirk challenged not just the left to debate but the right to be heard in higher education."

He explained the possible benefit for the nation.

"Yes, this is an age of rage. However, amidst the rage and the violence, there are a special few who have defied the threats and the attacks. The writer George Bernard Shaw once said that unreasonable people expect the world to conform to them. He then added that that was why all history is made by unreasonable people. Kirk was one of those wonderfully unreasonable people who refused to yield; refused to be silenced. Despite unrelenting attacks by the media and the establishment, he remained undeterred and unbowed. Students need to remember not how Kirk died, but why he died. His loss is Charlie's final challenge to all those today wringing their hands and muttering the usual expressions of shocked regret. Kirk would likely say, 'prove it.' Speak. Defy those who spend their time silencing others rather than speaking themselves. If you want to honor Charlie Kirk, speak out, speak boldly on both the right and the left. Prove them wrong."

Turley cited the two assassination attempts against President Donald Trump as among the "growing attacks on free speech around the world."

He explained, "Kirk came up with the brilliant idea of challenging liberals to simply debate issues from abortion to immigration. His group would go to campuses and invite debate with signs reading 'prove me wrong' and encourage liberals to engage in dialogue rather than violence."

That provided a reason, he said, for "the left" to hate Kirk.

"Campuses have long been the bastions of the left, reinforced by faculties which now have few, if any, conservatives or Republicans. Higher education has long been an incubator for intolerance; shaping a generation of speech phobics who shout down or attack those with opposing views," he said.

And Kirk hit the very heart of "that power base" by showing students "they could be open and bold about their views. He told them that they did not have to yield to orthodoxy and the groupthink."

The assassination, however bad, was not surprising.

"The response to TPUSA was all too often rage and violence. Liberals and anti-free speech groups like Antifa would trash their tables and threaten the students. Recently, at UC Davis, police simply watched as a TPUSA tent was torn apart and the tent carried off," he cited.

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Six candidates for political office in Germany, all members of a relatively conservative party, the AfD, have dropped dead within a two-week time frame, just as elections are about to be held.

It is the New York Post that has reported the candidates all were part of Alternative for Deutschland, which is considered more right-wing than other parties in the country.

The BBC said officials were claiming no foul play was involved in the deaths of four candidates and two reserves: Ralph Lange, 66, Wolfgang Klinger, 71, Stefan Berendes, 59, and Wolfgang Seitz, 59, and the two reserves.

They all were to appear on ballots in North Rhine-Westphalia in a matter of just days, on September 14.

Authorities have not commented on the causes for the deaths, except to say two appeared to be from natural causes.

The BBC noted an economist pointed out the number of candidate deaths in such a timespan was "statistically impossible."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

A federal judge who previously tried to foil President Donald Trump's fight for national border security and integrity and against riots promoting illegal aliens in the country, and was reversed by an appeals court, is trying again.

It is Charles Breyer who is the judge who, when Trump ordered National Guard troops to deter anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement rioting in California, ordered Trump to stop giving orders and let leftist Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom do it.

He was overturned by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which ordered that constitutional precedents call for courts to be "highly deferential" to the president on some issues.