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International

Lawmakers investigate Soros ‘shortcut’ to buying radio stations before election

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From The Center Square

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The U.S. House Oversight Committee is investigating why the Federal Communications Commission fast-tracked a deal that allowed a billionaire Democratic donor to buy a wide swath of American radio stations just weeks before the presidential election.

The major radio company Audacy Inc. fell into financial straits, but through a complex business deal Democratic mega donor and billionaire George Soros has gained control of the stations. Deals of this size require FCC approval, but in this case the FCC expedited the approval process.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr raised concerns about the deal at a Congressional hearing, telling lawmakers that “… the FCC is not following its normal process for reviewing a transaction.”

“We have established over a number of years one way in which you can get approval from the FCC when you have an excess of 25 percent foreign ownership, which this transaction does,” Carr said. ““It seems to me that the FCC is poised to create, for the first time, an entirely new shortcut.”

House Oversight Chair Rep. James Comer, R-Ky. and Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-N.Y., sent a letter to FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel Friday raising concerns about the deal.

“Despite the unprecedented nature of this action, the FCC majority has apparently decided to approve licenses on an accelerated timeframe for a company in which George Soros has a major ownership stake, and with stations in 40 media markets reaching ‘more than 165 million Americans,’” the letter said. “By all appearances, the FCC majority isn’t just expediting, but is bypassing an established process to do a favor for George Soros and facilitate his influence over hundreds of radio stations before the November election.”

Critics of the deal say it gives too much power to a heavily political, and liberal, billionaire just before the election.

“I have no idea why Soros would do this unless it was to manipulate the thinking of Americans and the information they listen to,” author and former member of the George W. Bush administration Mike Gonzalez told The Center Square.

“Conservative talk radio is huge, and there is no left wing talk radio because it’s just not interesting,” said Gonzalez, who is now at the Heritage Foundation. “Conservative talk radio is one of the few communications that conservatives have not a monopoly on but have a strong handle on, and he has bought stations that have Mark Levin and Sean Hannity and Dana Loesch and Glenn Beck.”

Critics also point out that Soros’ business partners in the deal include significant funding from sources overseas.

“The Audacy, Inc. deal, which will lead to Audacy, Inc. being partially ‘directly or indirectly controlled’ by foreign individuals or entities holding ‘more than one-fourth of the capital stock’ will require FCC approval to determine whether ‘the public interest will be served by the refusal or revocation of such license,’” the letter said. “In carrying out this statutory mandate under the Communications Act, FCC has years-long established processes and procedures for adjudicating broadcast licenses in such situations, most recently updated in 2016.”

Other wealthy media owners have faced scrutiny for potential abuse of their ownership power, such as billionaire Jeff Bezos when he purchased the Washington Post. However, Soros’ influence over so many radio stations may have even more influence over the country than one of the major papers, which Americans usually see as having a certain political leaning.

Soros is one of the most strategic and prolific funders of liberal organizations in the U.S.

“I don’t know why else he would plunk a pile of money this size unless it was to try to have influence over the thinking of Americans,” Gonzalez continued, adding that “this guy is committed to left-wing causes.”

Business

‘Great Reset’ champion Klaus Schwab resigns from WEF

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From LifeSiteNews

By Jonathon Van Maren

Schwab’s World Economic Forum became a globalist hub for population control, radical climate agenda, and transhuman ideology under his decades-long leadership.

Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum and the face of the NGO’s elitist annual get-together in Davos, Switzerland, has resigned as chair of WEF. 

Over the decades, but especially over the past several years, the WEF’s Davos annual symposium has become a lightning rod for conservative criticism due to the agendas being pushed there by the elites. As the Associated Press noted: 

Widely regarded as a cheerleader for globalization, the WEF’s Davos gathering has in recent years drawn criticism from opponents on both left and right as an elitist talking shop detached from lives of ordinary people. 

While WEF itself had no formal power, the annual Davos meeting brought together many of the world’s wealthiest and most influential figures, contributing to Schwab’s personal worth and influence.

Schwab’s resignation on April 20 was announced by the Geneva-based WEF on April 21, but did not indicate why the 88-year-old was resigning. “Following my recent announcement, and as I enter my 88th year, I have decided to step down from the position of Chair and as a member of the Board of Trustees, with immediate effect,” Schwab said in a brief statement. He gave no indication of what he plans to do next. 

Schwab founded the World Economic Forum – originally the European Management Forum – in 1971, and its initial mission was to assist European business leaders in competing with American business and to learn from U.S. models and innovation. However, the mission soon expanded to the development of a global economic agenda.  

Schwab detailed his own agenda in several books, including The Fourth Industrial Revolution (2016), in which he described the rise of a new industrial era in which technologies such artificial intelligence, gene editing, and advanced robotics would blur the lines between the digital, physical, and biological worlds. Schwab wrote: 

We stand on the brink of a technological revolution that will fundamentally alter the way we live, work, and relate to one another. In its scale, scope, and complexity, the transformation will be unlike anything humankind has experienced before. We do not yet know just how it will unfold, but one thing is clear: the response to it must be integrated and comprehensive, involving all stakeholders of the global polity, from the public and private sectors to academia and civil society …

The Fourth Industrial Revolution, finally, will change not only what we do but also who we are. It will affect our identity and all the issues associated with it: our sense of privacy, our notions of ownership, our consumption patterns, the time we devote to work and leisure, and how we develop our careers, cultivate our skills, meet people, and nurture relationships. It is already changing our health and leading to a “quantified” self, and sooner than we think it may lead to human augmentation.

How? Microchips implanted into humans, for one. Schwab was a tech optimist who appeared to heartily welcome transhumanism; in a 2016 interview with France 24 discussing his book, he stated:  

And then you have the microchip, which will be implanted, probably within the next ten years, first to open your car, your home, or to do your passport, your payments, and then it will be in your body to monitor your health.

In 2020, mere months into the pandemic, Schwab published COVID-19: The Great Reset, in which he detailed his view of the opportunity presented by the growing global crisis. According to Schwab, the crisis was an opportunity for a global reset that included “stakeholder capitalism,” in which corporations could integrate social and environmental goals into their operations, especially working toward “net-zero emissions” and a massive transition to green energy, and “harnessing” the Fourth Industrial Revolution, including artificial intelligence and automation. 

Much of Schwab’s personal wealth came from running the World Economic Forum; as chairman, he earned an annual salary of 1 million Swiss francs (approximately $1 million USD), and the WEF was supported financially through membership fees from over 1,000 companies worldwide as well as significant contributions from organizations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Vice Chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe is now serving as interim chairman until his replacement has been selected. 

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Jonathon’s writings have been translated into more than six languages and in addition to LifeSiteNews, has been published in the National PostNational ReviewFirst Things, The Federalist, The American Conservative, The Stream, the Jewish Independent, the Hamilton SpectatorReformed Perspective Magazine, and LifeNews, among others. He is a contributing editor to The European Conservative.

His insights have been featured on CTV, Global News, and the CBC, as well as over twenty radio stations. He regularly speaks on a variety of social issues at universities, high schools, churches, and other functions in Canada, the United States, and Europe.

He is the author of The Culture WarSeeing is Believing: Why Our Culture Must Face the Victims of AbortionPatriots: The Untold Story of Ireland’s Pro-Life MovementPrairie Lion: The Life and Times of Ted Byfield, and co-author of A Guide to Discussing Assisted Suicide with Blaise Alleyne.

Jonathon serves as the communications director for the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform.

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International

Pope Francis’ funeral to take place Saturday

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From LifeSiteNews

By Michael Haynes, Snr. Vatican Correspondent

The rounds of voting to elect a new pope, the Church’s law stipulates that this must begin between 15 and 20 days after the pope dies.

Pope Francis’ funeral will take place on Saturday, April 26, the Vatican has announced, following the public veneration of his body in the days prior.

In an announcement issued Tuesday morning, the office of papal liturgical ceremonies gave details about Pope Francis’ funeral and the public paying respect to his remains.

On Saturday morning at 10 a.m. Rome time, the funeral for the deceased pontiff will take place in St. Peter’s Square. It will be presided over by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re who is Dean of the College of Cardinals. Following this, the pope’s remains will be transferred inside the basilica, and from there will be taken to the Basilica of St Mary Major’s, where he is to be buried in accord with his wishes.

 

Prior to that, the pope’s remains will be on public display in St. Peter’s Basilica, for members of the faithful to pay their respects. He will be taken from the Casa Santa Martha guesthouse to the Vatican Basilica on Wednesday morning, and there displayed in front of the high altar for all to see.

Many thousands of pilgrims were due to be in Rome this weekend for the canonization of Blessed Carlo Acutis. However, following the pope’s death on Monday morning, the ceremony has been postponed, with no replacement date yet being given. For many, though, their journey to Rome will still take place but with the sombre rites of a simplified papal funeral instead of the joyous ceremony of a canonization.

The announcement of the pope’s funeral arrangements came during the course of the first of the General Congregations for the College of Cardinals, which began at 9 a.m. on Tuesday morning. [To read LifeSiteNews’ full explainer on the process following a pope’s death, see here]

Cardinals not already in Rome will have to hastily travel to the city, in order to take part in the congregations as well as the funeral.

The second of the General Congregations will take place tomorrow afternoon, after the cardinals join in the solemn rite of translation of the pope’s body into the Vatican. As part of the Holy See’s formal mourning period of nine days, the Novendiali, a Mass will be offered every afternoon at 5 p.m. The first day of the Novendiali is April 26, the date given for Francis’ funeral.

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