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Nearly a decade after the #MeToo movement drove congressional reforms, Capitol Hill is again reckoning with a wave of sexual misconduct allegations. Recent resignations and ethics probes show that the “open secret” culture of sex sins in America’s capital hasn’t gone away.

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• One House Republican told Axios, “You have all these guys sleeping with their employees, and nothing happens, and everybody knows what’s going on.”
• Isaiah 1:5 prophesied of modern America’s body politic: “[T]he whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.” This is sickness in the head of “Sin Nation.”

Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.) is under House Ethics Committee investigation for alleged inappropriate conduct toward young female staffers.

• Several sources say the married congressman gave jewelry and designer bags to two women in their 20s, took one on a Las Vegas trip, and handwrote a three-page letter telling a departing aide she had “written a complex chapter in my heart.” (Edwards insists the claims are politically motivated and denies wrongdoing.)

Last month, two congressmen resigned over imminent expulsion votes:

• Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Tex.) stepped down after acknowledging an affair with a staffer who later died by suicide.
• Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), who somehow survived a 2021–2023 investigation into his having dated an actual Chinese spy, has now quit amid allegations from four women. Three former staffers described unsolicited explicit messages, nude photos and unwanted touching; a fourth accused him of rape while she was heavily intoxicated. (Swalwell has denied all claims.)

The House Ethics Committee issued a public statement on April 20 that shows the scale of the problem: It has investigated 20 sexual misconduct matters involving members since 2017 and released a historical chart naming 15 lawmakers in publicly disclosed cases. A broader picture emerges from independent data:

• The National Women’s Defense League’s April report documented at least 30 members of Congress facing 53 public workplace sexual harassment accusations since 2006, 77 percent involving staffers.
• When including non-workplace or pre-Congress claims, the number rises to 49 members and 137 accusations.

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) released records showing more than $338,000 in taxpayer-funded settlements for sexual harassment claims involving eight former members over roughly a decade.

• This is how complaints have been dealt with. Not resignations. Taxpayer-funded payoffs. Did you know your tax money is shielding congressmen from paying for their sins?

Sin is destructive because God’s law is eternal and active. Adultery and other sins will always wreak consequences—and these are magnified when practiced and tolerated in our leadership. As I wrote after a congressional sex scandal in 2007:

The notion is, as long as it doesn’t hurt a man’s ability to govern, it’s fine. … But are we so sure the loose sex doesn’t hurt anyone? No harm in the lost time and emotional distraction in trying to seduce assistants and later dump them—no harm in having to navigate the perilous waters of cutthroat politics under the scrutiny of press and public while hiding blackmail-worthy secrets—no harm in saying one thing, doing another, publicly playing the selfless servant while privately noshing on selfish lusts? What about the effect of this lechery on staff morale? Or on hormonal, impressionable junior high schoolers who catch it on the evening news? No harm?

God says the character of a leader is of paramount importance. And as our publisher Gerald Flurry wrote in a booklet back in 1998, amid Bill Clinton’s sex scandals, American character is in crisis.

Iran War Update

• Saudi Arabia has “launched numerous, unpublicized attacks against Iran that are only now being revealed” in retaliation against Iranian attacks, Reuters reported yesterday. This follows similar reports that the United Arab Emirates had done the same.
• Kuwait yesterday accused Iran of attacking a Kuwaiti island. Kuwait claims Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps attempted to land at Bubiyan Island on May 1 and exchanged fire with Kuwaiti soldiers. Kuwait claims it arrested four irgc members.
• Pentagon’s Iran costs grow: United States Department of War Comptroller Jay Hurst told Congress yesterday the Iran war’s expenditure is now at about $29 billion, up from $25 billion when Secretary of War Pete Hegseth testified two weeks ago.
• Iran has restored operational capacity for 30 of its 33 missile sites bordering the Strait of Hormuz, the New York Times reported yesterday. The Times’s sources claimed Iran has also regained access to 90 percent of its underground missile storage and launch structures nationwide.

New York Times Publishes Blood Libel

Israel is guilty of the same crimes Hamas carried out on Oct. 7, 2023, according to an opinion piece published by the New York Times on Sunday. Israeli soldiers are accused of inflicting sexual violence on Palestinian prisoners, and even of “dogs being coached to rape prisoners.”

These accusations are as ridiculous as the conspiracy theories that are regularly spread in Muslim countries. Jews have been accused of training sharks to attack Muslims on beaches, training eagles to act as spies, and operating “Israeli-made robot dolphins.”

• Yet unlike some of these accusations, this claim is appearing not in Iranian state-run newspapers or regional Middle Eastern outlets but in the supposed American paper of record.
• Media monitoring charity Honest Reporting accused the New York Times of “journalistic malpractice.” “[O]ur American tax dollars subsidize the Israeli security establishment, so this is sexual violence in which the United States is complicit,” wrote Nicholas Kristof.
• Sami al-Sai, a major source for the piece, is presented as a “freelance journalist” who was jailed because he “prided himself on his journalistic professionalism” and would not disclose his sources to the Israelis.
• The truth, as can easily be seen on Sai’s social media, is that he does PR for terrorist groups: He receives access to their leaders and posts glowing profiles of them. On Oct. 8, 2023, he celebrated Hamas’s massacre of Israelis.
• Furthermore, Sai’s testimony has changed over time, with key details of his supposed sexual assault changing between him talking to B’Tselem in early 2025 and what he told the Times.

Going down the list of the Times’s sources turns up similar concerns:

• Issa Amro, another “activist” Kristof interviewed, changed significant details of his account between this article and a 2024 interview with the Washington Post.
• Euro‑Med Human Rights Monitor is another major source, presented as a neutral observer and watchdog. In truth, it is a propaganda front for Hamas, with easily provable links to Hamas and a history of publishing false stories smearing Israel.
• Shaiel Ben-Ephraim is credited as an authority on Israeli sexual violence. This man was forced out of ucla due to allegations of sexual harassment toward minors.

The real agenda: The Times report was published just before the first release of details from the Civil Commission’s report on sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas on October 7. It makes for difficult reading, showing how Hamas intentionally humiliated and sexually mutilated their victims as much as possible.

• Israel’s foreign minister states that the New York Times was approached with details of the report ahead of time. The Times staff declined the story, and now we see that they instead lined up this propaganda piece to be published at the same time.
• As Honest Reporting wrote, the intent of the Times story appears to be to “redirect attention, shape perception, and ensure that even as new evidence emerges about Hamas’ crimes, Israel remains the primary focus of condemnation.”

The U.S. Department of Justice reports that 200,000 people are sexually assaulted in American prisons each year. Bad people exist. Some become prison guards, and they have opportunities to get away with evil behavior.

• In the U.S. and in Israel, this is illegal and is punished when discovered. But there’s no evidence that Israel has anything like a systemic program of sexual violence, and it is nothing compared to what Hamas literally documented itself perpetrating.

A history of biased reporting: Last year, the New York Times was caught deceitfully using photos to blacken Israel, showing pictures of an ill child and telling its readers he was starving due to Israel.

• Soliman Hijjy, whom the Times used for freelance videography, regularly posts about his love for Adolf Hitler. When Refaat Alareer, another Times writer, learned that Hamas had burned a baby alive in an oven, he posted on X, “With or without baking powder?”

Honest Reporting published evidence that photojournalists working for AP, cnn and the New York Times knew about the October 7 atrocity in advance, traveling with the terrorists to document it.

Nicholas Kristof’s article is a powerful symptom of the sickness of America’s news media. Even a double Pulitzer Prize winner will join in a blatant attack on the Jews. The irrational hatred of the Jews is being stirred up once again by one of America’s most influential news organizations.

The rise of anti-Semitism is a dangerous warning of the sicknesses in America’s society.

“Satan can stir up vicious hatred,” Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry writes in The Key of David. “He loves to use out-of-control emotions. A religion taken to the extreme—such as radical Islam—gives him a great field to work in. Nazi Germany exhibited fanatical hatred for the Jews. The Nazis also used emotion to stir up a repugnant hatred. The coming beast power [a political-religious empire prophesied to arise in the end time] will exhibit the same hatred for the Jews as well.

“Most people who hate the Jews don’t even know why they do. Can we see Satan behind such lies and hatred?”

Read more: “Truth and Lies About Anti-Semitism.”

Germany and Ukraine Sign ‘Brave Germany’ Program

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius and Ukrainian counterpart Mykhailo Federov signed a program in Kyiv on Monday to enhance the development of defense technologies.

• “Brave Germany” will be implemented through Ukraine’s Brave1 platform, which funds and shares information between defense companies, the military and other government agencies.

Germany, which has been an unreliable ally to Ukraine, is positioning itself to incorporate battle-proven Ukrainian technologies and insights into its own military buildup.

• Federov posted to social media that the program will supply joint grants for developing AI, drones, communications “and other critically important defense tech areas,” and that the two would conduct “joint hackathons” for finding ways to attack the computer networks of other nations.
• Pistorius said, “[T]he main focus is the joint development of cutting-edge unmanned systems across all ranges, particularly in the area of deep strike.” Developing Ukraine-German long-range strike capabilities is a priority, since Germany currently relies on its nato ally, the United States, and its Tomahawk cruise missiles for this type of deterrence and combat capability.

Surprisingly for those who know how the Germans have helped Russia during its invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian defense minister posted to social media yesterday that the “number one country in the world in terms of security assistance to Ukraine” is Germany.

• Germany is using Ukraine to get what it wants: long-range strike capability and other advanced and battle-tested military technologies.

In 2024, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote regarding the Ukraine war: “[U]ltimately, this is not about Ukraine winning against Russia. Ukraine has become a ‘lab’ to prepare for much larger wars!”

IN OTHER NEWS

Will the Knesset soon dissolve? Rabbi Dov Lando, spiritual leader of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox Degel Hatorah party, said yesterday that “steps must be taken to dissolve the Knesset as soon as possible” because Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been unable to pass a law exempting ultra-Orthodox Israelis from conscription. Degel Hatorah left Netanyahu’s six-party coalition in July, splitting the legislature into 60 seats for the government and 60 seats for the opposition. It can technically dissolve the government by gaining a single vote from the other side and is reportedly planning to push for new elections. While Israel struggles with life-and-death threats from Hamas and Iran, it is also struggling with internal issues that threaten to take down Netanyahu, Israel’s last strong leader.

France reaches out to Africa: France concluded its first summit of African leaders in Kenya yesterday. France normally focuses on about half a dozen African nations where it had previous influence, but Kenya is not one of them, nor is it close to the Mediterranean Sea and Europe. Choosing Kenya to host this event could signal that, following recent setbacks in its former colonies, France is looking to expand its African alliances. Kenya is arguably emerging as a focal point for Europe’s push for African alliances. German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul visited Kenya and Ethiopia during his first visit to Africa in January, saying Kenya is Germany’s “closest partner in the region and a true pillar of stability.” The Bible prophesies Europe will focus more and more on building relations with Africa.

President Donald Trump arrived in China today for a two-day state visit with Secretary General Xi Jinping and other Chinese officials. Accompanying him are major U.S. executives, including Apple ceo Tim Cook, BlackRock ceo Larry Fink and SpaceX and Tesla ceo Elon Musk. The two sides will aim to ease trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies and stabilize their relations after a period of intense tariffs. The trip was originally planned for early April but was delayed due to the Iran war, which will likely complicate the negotiations, given China’s close ties to Iran and significant military support during the war. “It is remarkable that President Trump is prepared to go to China under these circumstances,” said Asia Group Chairman Kurt Campbell. “But may I also say that it’s also deeply unusual that China is prepared to host him.” The visit may yield some beneficial short-term trade deals for America, but the circumstances surrounding it underscore a critical problem: U.S. leaders appear unwilling to “Wake Up to the Threat From China.”