Mercy 4 Life Initiative and Massachusetts Takes Custody of Girl

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This presentation has been previously broadcast. The issues that matter most, right here.

The Drew Mariani Show.

Teresa Collett (0:08)

On relevant radio.

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For the third time, the House has voted to block President Trump from taking more military action against Iran. The vote gained more Republican support than the last time, with seven Republicans breaking with the President. Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, there's a growing push to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the Iran War. This comes as a new report reveals the total cost of the war to be at least $38 billion as of August.

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It's The Drew Mariani Show on relevant radio.

Drew Mariani (0:39)

Yeah, hey, good afternoon and welcome. Great to be with you today. That was CBS on the House voting to limit Trump's Iran War powers. For not once, not twice, but a third time. Good to be with you today. Thanks for being here. Let me hang out with you and give you a look at life. You're not going to find anywhere else. At least I hope that's the case for you. I was trying to give you a moral perspective on a lot of the issues of the day. And we've got a lot to get into today. I'll tell you what's happening in Massachusetts about Islam, Sidney Sweeney. And making headlines again. I'll fill you in on that. I had a call during the Chaplet yesterday too about kratom in a drink called Feel Free. I want to talk about kratom. You see it being sold to gas stations, right? Kratomine, these energy drinks, even the embracement of psychedelics. We're going to get into a whole lot of different things. It's always a mixed bag here for you. But first, you know, let me bring you up to speed on something else that's happening here. And Congressman Chris Smith, he's from New Jersey. He's been a friend of the show. I appreciate him. New Jersey is lucky to have him. He's a good man. He chaired a hearing yesterday about imprisonment of Jimmy Lai by the Chinese. Jimmy's son, Sebastian, was there to test up on behalf of his dad.

If you know the story, he was kept in solitary confinement ever since he was convicted six years ago. I mean, think about that.

Solitary confinement for six years. To me, that is a form of torture. Of course, that was under Hong Kong's national security law that was passed in 2020 And Jimmy has started his own newspaper, Apple Daily, and it was highly critical to the Chinese government and its takeover, which had once been under British rule. I was in Hong Kong before it reverted back to China, and it was a fun place.

But now it's under Chinese rule, and he was found guilty to conclude with foreign forces and conspiracy to publish seditious material. Seditious material is what I should be saying. And the man's 82, no, he's 72 years old. He's sentenced to 20 years in prison. So they gave him a death sentence for it. So the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, is set to meet with the president. He's coming next Wednesday. And in the background of that visit is this issue of Jimmy Lai. Again, he's a Catholic media mogul, a good Catholic man. His daughter was on the show with me not too long ago. And again, this guy's wrongly in prison, just to lay it out there for you, but Lai's son said, if he is not freed, I will soon die. Listen.

Sebastian Lai (3:23)

By the end of this year, my father will have spent six years in a maximum security prison in Solider. At 78, he is the oldest political prisoner in Hong Kong, with his 20 year sentence looming over him. If he's not freed soon, he will most likely die in prison.

Drew Mariani (3:36)

All right, so he's 78 He was off by a couple years with his age. That's a death sentence.

You know, that sound you just heard, he just played from Sebastian, his son. He thanked the president, he thanked members of Congress who had been speaking up in defense of his father. And the hearing, I think the hearing was notable since he comes just a week before Xi visits. So say a prayer. You think, well, what can I do? This guy's in a Hong Kong solitary, he's in prison.

There's not a whole lot we can do, unless you have a pool with the Xi Jinping, but we can pray. That's why I bring you these stories. I think about the Christians in Nigeria who are being slaughtered. I see reports of this every single week, and I've stopped bringing them to you. I should probably do more of it, but you get the big picture, right? And I think of people who suffer for the faith. You and I, we have a tremendous, tremendous freedom here in this country to worship, to profess our faith, to disagree. That's not the case for a lot of people. You know, Claire is his daughter. She was on the program with me in the past. She was recently diagnosed with cancer. Now has to start treatments, and she wrote in the National Catholic Register that her father learned that, you know, in his maximum security prison, where he's no access to fresh air or even natural light, you know, he's never complained.