News and Views - 14th April 2026 

Fuel Protests

• The under-reported Irish revolt against rocketing fuel prices. The Irish republic was brought close to a halt by working people last weekend, as truckers, farmers and others whose lives depend on access to fuel hit the roads to protest against soaring petrol and diesel prices – significantly higher than in the UK – and with over a third of Ireland’s fuel stations reported to be empty. Thousands of working-class people – neither farmers, nor truckers – also flooded Dublin’s streets to offer solidarity to their compatriots. The truckers organised themselves, not through trade unions, but via online forums and WhatsApp groups.
• The Establishment’s crackdown on the workers. The reaction of the Irish establishment was strong and determined, similar to that displayed by Canada when it invoked the wartime Emergencies Act against truckers who agitated against Covid-19 vaccine mandates some years ago. In Ireland, riot police were sent to break up the blockades in Galway and Cork, while the army was put on standby, displaying a visceral contempt for the protesters. Yet the government was forced to make concessions, announcing a €505 million package to support those ‘most impacted’ by fuel-price rises - also promising to postpone an increase in carbon tax and to unveil a fuel-subsidy scheme for farmers. Mainstream media, disturbingly, has given little coverage to these significant events. Meanwhile, UK Farmers are also threatening to block Britain’s roads unless Rachel Reeves brings down fuel costs.

Donald Trump

• Evangelicals blast Trump’s ‘blasphemous’ post. A growing number of Republican Christians in America are denouncing their former hero Donald Trump after he posted an AI-generated image of himself seemingly as Jesus Christ, laying his healing hand on a hospitalised patient (since deleted). Trump, as ever, failed to apologise for the portrayal, claiming, implausibly, that he was portraying himself as a doctor working with the Red Cross. But many evangelicals are calling the act ‘blasphemous’ – and not for the first time. After attending the funeral of Pope Francis last year, a picture of Trump in white papal regalia appeared on his Truth Social account, though he later insisted he had ‘nothing to do with it’. And during one of his fraud trials in 2023, Trump reposted a fake court drawing of himself sitting in the dock next to our Lord and Saviour.
• Trump the opposite of Christ-like. Trump’s spiritual advisor, Paula White-Cain has continued the Trump-elevation in stating; ‘Mr President, you were betrayed and arrested and falsely accused,’ in further obvious comparisons to Christ. Erratic rants such as the President’s Easter Sunday ‘Open the f****n’ Strait, you crazy ba**ards, or you’ll be living in Hell … Praise be to Allah’ haven’t helped – nor his blasé warning two days later that ‘a whole civilisation will die tonight, never to be brought back.’ While many say it shows Trump is simply human and therefore fallible, others are claiming it proves Trump has always been a narcissist, while some are going as far as saying that he has become the opposite of Christ-like – that he’s virtually become an anti-Christian force. Meanwhile, the President’s recent criticisms of the Pope – himself an American - have caused great offence to many Catholics, not least the 53 million living in the United States, many of them heretofore Trump supporters. “Not even Hitler or Mussolini attacked the pope so directly and publicly,” said one Italian historian and expert on the Vatican.

Israel

• Israeli settlers vowing to take over Gaza. A once-small movement of ‘religious settler Zionists’ is said to be sweeping Israeli society, dedicated to the creation of a greater Israel, which will encompass not just Gaza and the West Bank, but the Golan Heights and parts of southern Lebanon too. Fuelled by a political system that has given the finance minister and the national security minister untold power and influence, an incredible 20% of the Jewish population of Israel is said to identify with the movement and support its settlement ambitions. “As handy with guns as they are with the Torah”, their men are now said to dominate large parts of the Israeli army.  “We have to teach the Gazans that they have lost. How do you do that? You must take this land from them,” said one local leader of the movement.  “We just want to make Gaza Jewish again” said another. Gazans “do not deserve Hamas but nor can we live together.” Read also.

New World Order

• Billionaire prophet who says the Antichrist is among us. Peter Thiel, a co-founder of PayPal and a major former Republican donor, has an estimated net worth of $30 billion. Raised an evangelical, he attends a conservative Protestant church and describes his faith as "pretty fairly orthodox" Christian. Since 2023, Thiel has been touring the globe delivering a four-lecture series to highly selective audiences, warning of the looming threat of the Antichrist, which he insists will take the form of an oppressive world government – perhaps brought about through societal fears about other forms of Armageddon, such as environmental collapse, nuclear war or AI-related catastrophe.
• Thiel brings Antichrist lectures to Vatican's doorstep. Thiel denounces environmental activists, international agencies, Bill Gates and anyone working to impede the progress of technology. In one talk he described the Antichrist as an “evil king or tyrant or anti-messiah who appears in the end times”. Thiel, in turn, is roundly scorned and ridiculed by the liberal media. His recent series of sell-out talks in Rome were roundly condemned by the Vatican, a prominent advisor to the Pope publishing an essay entitled: ‘American heresy: should Peter Thiel be burned at the stake?’ It is unclear what Thiel’s long-term plan for the lectures is; whether he will ever publish them or make them publicly available, or if he will continue to tour them in semi-secrecy.

Freedom of Speech

• Fired for sharing Christian views after being asked. A storm has arisen in Kentucky, USA about faith, free speech, and what is acceptable in the workplace. Paige Rogers, a student working at a coffee shop, claims she was fired for answering questions about her Christian beliefs. Co-workers began asking her about her views on marriage, sexuality and faith. She responded honestly and respectfully, but only after being prompted. Less than two weeks later, she was fired by a text message, for expressing religious beliefs that co-workers found offensive. Some claim that the facts are far more nuanced, that Rogers shared her Christian testimony without being asked, and that she was sacked for multiple reasons. Nevertheless, a legal complaint has been filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, arguing that she was wrongfully terminated for her faith.