Prayers for success of peace summit fan out across Alaska; DNI emails expose fraud that sabotaged 2018 Trump-Putin summit; 275K illegals removed from social security; Newsom pushes pro-Democrat redistricting in California; Trump says he will do everything he can to save political prisoner Jimmy Lai; Trump wants journalists to have free access to Gaza; US singer Madonna urges Pope to visit Gaza; Ancient Marian feast of the Assumption celebrated worldwide today; and more —
Prayers for peace in Alaska ahead of Trump-Putin summit
Orthodox Christians across Alaska have begun three days of prayer for peace, ahead of Friday’s summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The high-level meeting in Alaska is set to focus on the ongoing war in Ukraine.
The spiritual initiative comes as Orthodoxy, the majority religion in both Russia and Ukraine, has become a significant source of contention.
The Russian church’s leadership has strongly supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has exacerbated a deep schism among Ukraine’s Orthodox faithful.
Read more at The Independent
What to Expect From the Trump-Putin Alaska Summit: ‘best-and worst-case outcomes’
The August 15 summit at a U.S. air base in Alaska between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump culminates months of diplomatic efforts by the White House to end Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War II. Trump entered office vowing to end the three-year war swiftly, and he initially focused much of the blame for his peacemaking challenges on Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
However, in recent months Trump has directed more criticism at Putin for relentless and increasingly destructive Russian attacks on Ukraine, setting an early August deadline for Russia to show genuine commitment to a ceasefire or face harsher sanctions. As the deadline approached, Russian and U.S. officials agreed to a bilateral summit to try to reach common ground. Their decision to exclude Zelenskyy from the meeting raised alarm in both Kyiv and European capitals about what sort of deal—and Ukrainian territorial concessions—Putin and Trump could agree to. …
Read more at Council on Foreign Relations
Bombshell DNI Emails Expose Fraud That Sabotaged 2018 Trump-Putin Summit
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has released two emails that are significant not only for their content but for their timing, coming just two days before the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska. The emails reveal that in late 2016, then-DNI James Clapper pushed the fraudulent narrative that Russia had hacked the Democratic National Committee (DNC), overriding pointed objections from then-National Security Agency chief Admiral Mike Rogers.
The timing matters because this very narrative — the claim that Russia had hacked the DNC to help President Trump — was used to sabotage the 2018 Trump-Putin summit in Helsinki. Just three days before that meeting, Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 12 Russian nationals on charges of hacking the DNC. The indictment was designed to create political chaos. Mueller knew that the 12 Russians were located in Russia and would never stand trial, meaning he would never need to prove the case. The result of the indictments was exactly what Mueller, his team, and any yet-to-be-identified co-conspirators intended: to sabotage the summit and effectively criminalize diplomacy with Russia.
Read more at The Federalist
Trump: 275K Illegals Removed From Social Security
About 275,000 illegal migrants have been excised from Social Security’s database, President Donald Trump said.
In addition, tens of thousands of more recipients of Social Security benefits who were over 160 years of age and receiving checks were removed from the system, according to Newsmax.
During the 90th anniversary of Social Security, the taxpayer funded safety net for seniors, Trump made the announcement at the Oval Office. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law the program in 1935.
“We’ve already kicked nearly 275,000 illegal aliens off of the Social Security system,” Trump said. “Many of them have already left the country, and yet we were sending them checks all the time.”
Read more at Catholics for Catholics
Trump backs Melania’s lawsuit threat: ‘Use my lawyers’
President Donald Trump said he encouraged first lady Melania Trump to “go forward” with her lawsuit against Hunter Biden, the son of former President Joe Biden.
The first lady has responded to allegations that the late Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex trafficker, introduced her to her husband in 1998 with demands to stop spreading the misinformation. As her husband, the president supported the move in an interview on Fox News Radio’s The Brian Kilmeade Show on Thursday.
Read more at the Washington Examiner
Newsom Promotes Pro-Democrat Redistricting in California
California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom fired up a Los Angeles crowd Thursday, promoting a November ballot measure to redraw the state’s congressional map in Democrats’ favor in response to Texas’ redistricting.
“[President] Donald Trump, you have poked the bear, and we will punch back,” Newsom said at the Japanese American Museum’s National Center for the Preservation of Democracy.
“Here’s the good thing about California, folks,” he continued. “We’re the size of 21 state populations combined … We are not a small, isolated state. I know they say, ‘Don’t mess with Texas.’ Well, don’t mess with the great Golden State.”
Read more at The Daily Signal
Californians Overwhelmingly Back Redistricting Commission Newsom’s Trying To Bypass, Poll Shows
California voters overwhelmingly support an independent redistricting commission Gov. Gavin Newsom is attempting to bypass to further gerrymander the state in Democrats’ favor, new polling shows.
Released Thursday by Politico, the survey conducted by the outlet, Citrin Center, and Possibility Lab shows that, “By nearly a two-to-one margin, [Golden State] voters prefer keeping an independent line-drawing panel to determine the state’s House seats.”
Read more at The Federalist
You Won’t Believe How Much Gavin Newsom’s Gerrymandering Gambit Will Cost Taxpayers
Democrat California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s push to hold a special election for his state’s gerrymandering campaign in November is expected to cost taxpayers over $200 million, according to a memo from California’s Assembly Republicans.
Newsom announced at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles that Democrats would move forward with an effort to oust roughly six Republicans from the House of Representatives. Assembly Republicans estimate the statewide redistricting election could cost at least $235.5 million — which includes $31.1 million for the California Secretary of State (SOS) and $204.4 million for counties to administer the vote, according to a memo released Thursday.
Read more at the Daily Caller
Obama rallies Texas Democrats who left state to block GOP redistricting plan
Former President Barack Obama on Thursday joined a virtual meeting with Texas House Democrats who left the state to deny Republicans the ability to pass newly drawn GOP-favorable congressional maps, cheering on their efforts and stressing their work comes at a critical time in the fight against partisan gerrymandering.
Watch at ABC News on YouTube
Trump Hopes to ‘Save’ Hong Kong Media Mogul Jimmy Lai
President Donald Trump on Thursday said he would see what he could do to help “save” detained Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai, even though Chinese President Xi Jinping would not be “thrilled.”
“I’m going to do everything I can to save him,” Trump told Fox News Radio in an interview. “We’ll see what we can do. … We’re going to do everything we can.”
Lai, 77, has pleaded not guilty to charges under Hong Kong’s national security law of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces, as well as to a separate charge of conspiracy to publish seditious material. He has been held in solitary confinement for more than 1,500 days since December 2020.
Read more at Newsmax
DOJ fires sandwich thrower after he’s charged with assaulting officer in Washington, DC
The man facing a felony federal assault charge for allegedly chucking a Subway sandwich at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent in Washington, D.C., was an employee at the Department of Justice, Attorney General Pam Bondi said Thursday.
The man, identified in court documents as Sean Charles Dunn, has been fired, she said.
Dunn worked in the international affairs section of the criminal division of the DOJ. The department this week deployed hundreds of federal agents to D.C. as Trump federalized the city’s police force to address what he says is rampant crime in the capital.
Read more at CNBC
A man went to prison for assaulting me. DC Police crime stats show he was never arrested – personal essay
Five years ago, I was violently attacked and sexually assaulted in broad daylight in Washington, D.C., by a homeless man. He served time in federal prison for what he did to me. But if you look for evidence that the attack happened in the city’s crime statistics, you won’t find it.
The truth of what happened to me and the D.C. government’s role in it is as much a public scandal as it is a personal trauma. D.C. police covered up the unspeakable wrong that the stranger did to me. Even though a judge sentenced my attacker to hard time in prison, D.C. police leadership would rather deceive the public and appear less dangerous than list mine and countless other sexual assaults on their website.
Read more at the Washington Examiner
Trump Wants Journalists Allowed Into Gaza
President Donald Trump on Thursday told reporters at the White House he’d like to see more journalists in the Gaza Strip.
Israel has so far allowed journalists to enter the region only with an Israeli military security team alongside. That has been the case since Israel retaliated with military strikes in Gaza after it came under attack from Hamas terrorists based in Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023. …
“And it’s a very dangerous position to be in, as you know, if you’re a journalist, but I would like to see it,” Trump said.
Read more at Newsmax
Israel reportedly bombs Gaza warehouse housing 4,000+ cans of baby formula, killing two aid workers
The head of a US-based Catholic apostolate reported Aug. 14 that the Israeli military had bombed a warehouse in Gaza the day before where the organization had stored more than 4,000 cans of baby formula to be distributed later in the week.
“Two of my aid workers were killed in the bombing yesterday,” said Jason Jones, founder and president of the Vulnerable People Project (VPP). “We mourn them, and we will not forget their courage.”
The stated mission of VPP is to “defend the vulnerable from violence by promoting human dignity and inspiring solidarity,” an agenda Jones describes as an application of Catholic social teaching.
Read more at Catholic Vote
Madonna has called on Pope Leo XIV to visit Gaza in order to “bring your light to the children before it’s too late”
The US pop star, considered one of the most successful female solo acts of all time and who was born and raised as a Catholic, shared her plea on Instagram.
“Most Holy Father, please go to Gaza and bring your light to the children before it’s too late. As a mother, I cannot bear to watch their suffering. The children of the world belong to everyone.”
She added: “You are the only one of us who cannot be denied entry. We need the humanitarian gates to be fully opened to save these innocent children.
“There is no more time. Please say you will go. Love, Madonna.”
Read more at The Catholic Herald
Religious collapse in Spain: Vocations on the brink of extinction and the church in free fall.
A recent report from the CEU-CEFAS Demographic Observatory, a center linked to the San Pablo CEU University of Madrid, reveals an unprecedented crisis in the Spanish Catholic Church, marked by the collapse of vocations, the drastic decline of the sacraments, and the massive abandonment of religious practice.
While Catholicism is growing strongly in Africa and Latin America, Spain is witnessing the collapse of its historic religious identity. The authors of the study point to the loss of Catholic Tradition and an ideological shift toward progressive positions incompatible with doctrine as the main causes.
Read more at the GatewayHispanic; see more @Bree A Dail on X
Kuwait: Our Lady of Arabia elevated to minor basilica
Speaking by phone with Vatican News, Bishop Aldo Berardi, O.SS.T., Apostolic Vicar of Northern Arabia, shares his joy over the elevation of the Church of Our Lady of Arabia, located in Ahmadi, Kuwait, to the rank of Minor Basilica by a decree promulgated on June 28 by the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.
The honour recognizes the historical, religious, and pastoral importance that is now officially acknowledged for the first church in the country situated on the shores of the Gulf.
“It is an old parish, now under the jurisdiction of the Apostolic Vicariate,” said Bishop Berardi, “but it arose through the initiative of the Carmelites in 1948 and was then built (by the Kuwait Oil Company) for those who came to work in the oil industry: two years ago we celebrated its 75th anniversary.”
Read more at Vatican News
Tokyo cardinal: Latin Mass helps ‘disconnect from Church’s social teaching’
Tokyo’s new cardinal has attested that the traditional liturgy of the Catholic Church is a way for people to “disconnect from the Church’s political or social teachings.”
In an increasingly secular world, what relationship does the liturgy have with the Catholic Church’s moral teachings? Further, can the liturgy be so divorced from the Church’s moral teachings as to be a way to escape those teachings?
If such were indeed the case, then the answer would surely be that either the teachings or the liturgy in question were not actually Catholic, since the beliefs, practice and worship of the Catholic Church are intimately and intrinsically bound together.
Read more at Per Mariam
Leo’s Vatican picks? Who will the pontiff choose to lead his Vatican offices?
As the Roman summer nears its end and the pope takes a final summer weekend at Castel Gandolfo, speculation is mounting about possible changes in the Vatican curia.
Curial heads serve on five-year terms, with the exception of the secretary of state.
Still, Pope Leo could replace Vatican department heads at any time — or, as Pope Francis did with most curial heads after his 2013 election, let them serve until their terms expire or they reach retirement age.
For Leo, there is likely some expectation to make appointments soon: several prefects are past retirement age, and one senior curial position – the Dicastery of Bishops, which used to be led by Pope Leo himself – is vacant.
Read more at The Pillar
Hymns and harvest time: Ancient and modern practices to commemorate the Solemnity of the Assumption
The Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, known as the Feast of the Dormition in the Byzantine Rite and among Orthodox Christians, is a holy day of obligation celebrating that God brought Mary’s uncorrupted body into heaven upon her death. According to Vatican Media, the Church has celebrated the feast on Aug. 15 since at least the fifth century.
Although the Scriptures do not record the event, apostolic tradition has preserved that she was brought body and soul into heaven, as stated in Catechism of the Catholic Church 966: “Finally the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death.”
Read more at Catholic Vote
