Trump orders new US census – without illegals counted; Bondi offers $50 million for information leading to the arrest of Nicolas Maduro; Trump increases federal law enforcement in DC; Texas Democrats plead for donations to extend walkout; Trump administration to address debanking issue; West Virginia bishop slams DHS immigration enforcement; Reports circulate Russia-Ukraine ‘peace deal seems to be close’; and more —
Trump Orders U.S. Census — Without Illegals Counted
President Donald Trump said Thursday he has instructed his administration to start work on a new census that excludes illegal migrants from the count.
In a social media post, Trump said those living in the U.S. without legal status should not be included.
“I have instructed our Department of Commerce to immediately begin work on a new and highly accurate CENSUS based on modern day facts and figures and, importantly, using the results and information gained from the Presidential Election of 2024. People who are in our Country illegally WILL NOT BE COUNTED IN THE CENSUS. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” Trump said on Truth Social.
Read more at Breitbart
Trump on a potential meeting with President Putin: “They would like to meet with me — and I’ll do whatever I can to stop the killing.”
Trump confirms that Putin wants to meet, and clarifies that Zelensky does not necessarily need to be in attendance. Trump says “I’ll do whatever I can to stop the killing.”
Watch @Rapid Response 47
Netanyahu says he plans to temporarily seize control of the Gaza Strip
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Aug. 7 that Israel intends to temporarily seize control of the Gaza Strip before handing governance over to Arab forces.
“We intend to,” Netanyahu said in a FOX News interview when asked whether Israel would take total control of the territory. “We don’t want to keep Gaza. We want to have a security perimeter. We don’t want to govern it. We want to hand Gaza over to Arab forces that will govern it properly.”
Read more at Catholic Vote
Bondi offers $50 million for information leading to Nicolas Maduro’s arrest
Attorney General Pam Bondi on Thursday offered $50 million for information leading to the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who is accused of violating narcotics laws by aiding drug cartels and street gangs.
The Department of Justice and the State Department announced in a joint statement that they would double the Biden administration’s previous $25 million offer. The prior administration first offered a $15 million reward in 2020, when Maduro was hit with multiple drug-trafficking charges in New York federal court.
Read more at the Washington Examiner
Cornyn: FBI director approved request to help locate runaway Texas Democrats
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) says FBI Director Kash Patel has approved his request to help state and local law enforcement locate Texas Democrats who have fled the Lone Star State in hopes of stalling a partisan redistricting effort.
“I am proud to announce that Director Kash Patel has approved my request for the FBI to assist state and local law enforcement in locating runaway Texas House Democrats,” Cornyn said in a statement Thursday morning.
Read more at The Hill
Texas Democrats plead for donations to extend their walkout and block Trump’s redistricting plan
After leaving Texas for Illinois to prevent a legislative vote on a Republican redistricting plan, state House Democratic leader Gene Wu needed a means to project his voice — and viewpoints — to a national audience. So he tapped his campaign account to buy a microphone for news conferences.
When it came to covering the hefty hotel bill for Wu and his roughly 50 colleagues, the lawmaker said he relied on money from his chamber’s Democratic Caucus.
Now Texas Democrats are pleading for donations to help finance what could be a walkout of weeks — if not months — in a high-stakes attempt to prevent the Republican majority from passing a plan sought by President Donald Trump. The president is urging Texas and other GOP-controlled states to redraw their congressional districts to help Republicans maintain control of the U.S. House in next year’s midterm elections.
Read more at the Associated Press
Upcoming SCOTUS Case Could Reshape Redistricting As We Know It
While the battle between Republican- and Democrat-led states to redistrict ahead of the 2026 midterm continues to heat up, a case with major implications for the issue is quietly flying under the radar at the U.S. Supreme Court.
Late last week, the justices issued an order in a case known as Louisiana v. Callais. Set to be decided in the court’s 2025-2026 term, the matter revolves around a dispute involving Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and the alleged prioritization of race when drafting Louisiana’s most recent congressional map.
Read more at The Federalist
Trump increasing federal law enforcement in DC
The Trump administration is increasing the federal law enforcement presence in Washington, DC, starting Thursday night, the White House said. It comes just days after a well-known former Department of Government Efficiency staffer was assaulted in DC.
“President Trump has directed an increased presence of federal law enforcement to protect innocent citizens. Starting tonight, there will be no safe harbor for violent criminals in D.C. President Trump is committed to making our Nation’s capital safer for its residents, lawmakers, and visitors from all around the world,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
Read more at CNN
Obama-Appointed Judge Shuts Down ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Construction Over ‘Environmental Concerns’
An Obama-appointed federal judge has put a stop to all new construction at the Florida prison, known as Alligator Alcatraz, that is currently being used to house illegal immigrants.
U.S. District Judge Kathleen Mary Williams granted a temporary restraining order — requested by Environmental groups and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida — which will halt all new construction for 14 days pending additional hearings on the potential environmental impact of the project. According to the court filings, the request was made because the construction had begun without first conducting the federally required environmental impact studies.
Read more at the Daily Wire
Christian, conservative groups optimistic Trump may rein in ‘debanking’
Some Christian and conservative organizations are expressing optimism that President Donald Trump may rein in “debanking” — a practice in which financial institutions have allegedly cut ties with people or groups for their religious or political beliefs.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Aug. 5 that the White House drafted an executive order that would instruct regulators to investigate financial institutions accused of ending relationships with customers for political reasons.
Read more at the Catholic News Agency
Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller Allegedly Living In Memory Care Facility
Robert Mueller, the former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director and special counsel, is allegedly residing in a memory care facility, sources told a Real Clear Investigations reporter.
The report emerged as House Oversight Chairman James Comer announced Monday that subpoenas were sent to prominent political figures and officials — including Mueller — requiring them to testify about the FBI’s investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.
Read more at the Daily Caller
Bishop Mark Brennan gives blistering critique of indiscriminate immigration enforcement
As officials carry out mass deportations across the United States, Bishop Mark Brennan of Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia, is criticizing the Trump administration’s policy of deporting “as many immigrants as possible” without “distinguishing between true criminals and law-abiding persons.”
In a recent statement addressing Catholics in his diocese, Brennan said “some of you have told me that you were happy to support a presidential candidate who would install order at the southern border and keep out drug traffickers, terrorists, and violent criminals but that you didn’t expect this wholesale assault on the majority of immigrants, who work hard, are raising their families, and live peacefully in our communities.”
The bishop urged the government to prioritize deporting violent criminals rather than upstanding people, highlighting that entering the U.S. “without official government permission is a misdemeanor, a crime but a lesser one, on the level with loitering, public intoxication, and shoplifting.”
Read more at the Catholic News Agency
USCCB and other Catholic Leaders petition government for “robust funding” of federal housing
From the petition: “Our respective organizations work with Congress every year on a range of our priorities, including protecting migrants and refugees, supporting the poor and vulnerable, and protecting the preborn. As you consider the Fiscal Year 2026 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies appropriations bill, we urge you to provide the highest level of funding possible for housing and community development programs serving families and individuals who are poor and vulnerable. These programs help people build better lives, and cuts to funding and programmatic changes, such as time limits, work requirements, consolidations, and shifts to block grants, would be detrimental to the stability of families and individuals.”
Read the entire letter here
Cincinnati archbishop defends work at program that later closed amid misconduct claims
Not long after he became Cincinnati’s new archbishop in February, Robert Casey’s name started popping up in conversations online and among local Catholics about a now-closed program in Chicago called Casa Jesus.
Casey served as director of the program, which recruited Hispanic men for the priesthood, more than two decades ago. Neither Casey, who was then a young priest, nor Casa Jesus, a small project in the Archdiocese of Chicago, got much attention at the time.
But they are getting attention now.
That’s because Casey’s new job in Cincinnati makes him one of the most prominent Catholics in the United States, and because Casa Jesus remains mired in controversy over sexual misconduct allegations years after church officials shut it down.
Read more at Bishop Accountability
Louisiana Governor Celebrates Planned Parenthood Shutting Down
In another major pro-life victory, Planned Parenthood said it will shut down its clinics in Louisiana Sept. 30 after losing access to federal funding under President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.”
While Planned Parenthood is barred from performing abortions in Louisiana, the organization has been a key player in directing patients to receive out-of-state abortions, The Hill reported.
Pro-life advocates praised the shutdown as a decisive blow to the abortion industry’s influence in the state.
Read more at Life News
Virginia high school girls say school officials helped procure, pay for abortions without notifying parents
A Virginia public school system has launched an investigation into allegations that high school officials arranged and paid for two minors to obtain abortions without notifying the girls’ parents, violating Virginia law.
Fairfax County Public Schools’ (FCPS) investigation comes after a bombshell Aug. 5 Substack report by Walter Curt that states that a social worker at Centreville High School, Carolina Díaz, was involved in procuring abortions for two students.
Read more at Catholic Vote
Presbyterian Pastor Defends Killing Two Babies in Abortions: “I Felt God’s Presence With Me”
In a recent sermon, a Presbyterian pastor says she felt God’s presence with her as she killed two of her own babies in abortions.
Rev. Rebecca Todd Peters is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), an Elon University professor and an abortion activist. She has given speeches and written books and columns for years about why she believes it is moral and ethical to kill unborn babies in abortions.
In a sermon delivered July 9 at The Community Church of Chapel Hill Unitarian Universalist in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, she defended having her unborn babies killed as an act of birth control. Wearing a pink stole emblazoned with the Planned Parenthood logo, she also claimed the Lord was with her when she ended their lives and that her actions were not sinful.
Read more at Life News
Judge Hands ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ Card for Vicious Assault on Elderly Pro-Lifers
Baltimore, MD – Tom Brejcha, President and Chief Counsel of Thomas More Society, issued a blistering statement today condemning the disgraceful sentencing of Patrick Brice, who was handed a sentence of zero jail time and a mere year of home detention after his conviction on two counts of second-degree assault for brutally assaulting two elderly pro-life men as they peacefully prayed and counseled outside a Planned Parenthood in Baltimore.
“This was not a minor altercation between two parties with differing views on abortion. It was a vicious, targeted assault on two senior citizens whose only ‘offense’ was praying for expectant mothers and offering life-affirming alternatives to abortion,” reacted Brejcha. “One of the victims was knocked unconscious. The other suffered broken facial bones and a lifelong eye impairment. This was an act of cowardice and cruelty, and sheer mayhem. This crime deserves far more serious consequences than a ‘get out of jail free’ card and a one-year home detention that amounts to nothing more than a slap on the wrist.”
Read more at the Thomas More Society; see also @Rod Dreher on X
Pro-Life Catholic Jailed for Praying Outside Abortion Clinic [in Southfield, MI] Appeals to Supreme Court
A noted pro-life Catholic activist who was sentenced to jail for praying near an abortion site in Michigan is asking the Supreme Court to intervene in his case.
Matthew Connolly, 42, who used to belong to the Brothers of Peace but did not take his final vows, was convicted for violating an ambiguous ordinance in the city of Southfield that criminalizes conducts causing “annoyance” or “disquiet” in public spaces, according to attorneys with religious liberty firm Advocates for Faith & Freedom.
The Christian Post reported that according to a petition filed July 28, Connolly never went into the abortion clinic, he did not raise his voice or disturbed any activity. Law enforcement officials described him as “peaceful.”
Read more at Catholics for Catholics
So, why is Pope Leo taking his time?
When a priest takes on a new parish, he is always advised to make changes slowly. There is a good reason for this. Some people do not like change, any change, and having a new priest is change enough for the time being. Secondly, making immediate changes can be interpreted as a criticism of your predecessor, who may well have his residual fan club.
As with a parish priest, so with a Pope. …
The main changes that Pope Leo has to make are to do with personnel; and everyone has their favourite candidate for demotion; moreover, everyone has their favourite template for demotion, recalling the famous case of Archbishop Annibale Bugnini. Bugnini, once high in favour in the aftermath of Vatican Two, who could have expected himself to be made a Cardinal, instead found himself bundled off to the equivalent of Siberia, being posted as papal nuncio to Teheran. …
Read more at The Chemist of Catania
Dominicans to host 3rd-annual Rosary Pilgrimage
The Dominican Friars of the Province of St. Joseph will once again be hosting the Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage in Washington, D.C., this fall. The 2025 event will happen on Saturday, September 27, at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
This marks the third year in a row the friars have hosted the pilgrimage. Catholics from across the United States are invited to attend.
“The Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage is a powerful reminder that the Rosary is not merely a private devotion, but a public proclamation of our faith and love for Christ through His Blessed Mother,” said Fr. Joseph-Anthony Kress, O.P. in a press release announcing the event.
Read more at Aleteia
