Coast guard swimmer rescues 165 Texas flood victims; Florida bishop deplores ‘Alligator Alcatraz’; Eric Adams tells Andrew Cuomo to ‘get out of the race’; Netanyahu nominates Trump for Nobel Peace Prize; 10 charged with attempted murder for shooting outside Texas migrant detention center; UK Priest urges MPs who voted for euthanasia, abortion to repent before receiving Communion; Massachusetts implements LGBT agenda in all nursing homes; and more —
Catholic leaders, government officials offer condolences and support to Texas flood victims
Catholic leaders and government officials on Monday continued to issue statements of solidarity and support to victims of the catastrophic flash flooding in the Texas Hill Country over the weekend.
The death toll rose to 94 Monday afternoon, according to county officials, with Camp Mystic, the girls’ Christian camp devastated on July 4, confirming that 27 girls have perished, while 10 girls and a counselor from the camp are still unaccounted for.
Read more at the Catholic News Agency
New Jersey native on first rescue mission with Coast Guard helps save 165 Texas flood victims: ‘American hero’
A Coast Guard rescue swimmer is already being hailed as an “American hero” after his very first mission — helping to save the lives of 165 Texas flash flood victims.
“This is what it’s all about, right? Like, this is why we do the job,” said Scott Ruskan, 26, a New Jersey native and former KPMG accountant, to The Post after his work in central Texas.
“This is why we take those risks all time. This is why like Coast Guard men and women are risking their lives every day,” said Petty Officer Ruskan.
Read more at the New York Post
Obama Judge Blocks Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill Provision Barring Funding for Planned Parenthood
A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked a provision in President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill that barred Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood.
US District Judge Indira Talwani, an Obama appointee, issued a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) and set a preliminary injunction hearing for July 21.
“This Temporary Restraining Order shall remain in effect for fourteen days, unless vacated, modified or extended by the court,” the judge wrote.
Read more at The Gateway Pundit
What Happens When Pro-Choice Men Watch an Abortion?
In this three-minute video, Live Action [a human rights movement dedicated to ending abortion] traveled across the country to show men what an abortion procedure looks like — and the men’s reactions say it all. …
[T]heir perspectives shift in real time — leading to raw, unfiltered conversations about life, choice, and the reality.
Watch more at The Stream
DHS Showcases Violent Illegal Aliens Arrested in Florida ICE Raids: Homicides, Sexual Assault of a Child
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has highlighted several criminal illegal aliens who have been arrested in Florida as Alligator Alcatraz opens in Florida, and it includes those with criminal histories of homicide, sexual assault of a child, and more. …
DHS Secretary Kristi Noam said in a statement that “Alligator Alcatraz, and other facilities like it, will give us the capability to lock up some of the worst scumbags who entered our country under the previous administration.”
Read more at Breitbart
Florida bishop: Alligator Alcatraz ‘not a solution; it’s an evil’
In an interview with The Pillar, Bp. Frank Dewane of Venice reported that two Catholic dioceses in the state are struggling to establish pastoral ministry for inmates at the country’s newest immigration detention center …
“Well, I think we have to be concerned for the wellbeing of each and every human being. When we have to use terms like ‘Alligator Alcatraz,’ and advertise the fact that there are pythons and alligators out there guarding it, this kind of language creates a hype that I think no human being really deserves,” he says. …
Read more at The Pillar
Eric Adams to Andrew Cuomo: ‘Get Out of the Race’
New York City mayor Eric Adams said there is only one thing left for former New York governor Andrew Cuomo to do after losing the Democratic primary for mayor: “Get out of the race.”
“That’s the right thing to do for the city of New York,” Adams said in an exclusive interview with Coleman Hughes, host of The Free Press’s Conversations with Coleman podcast. Again and again, Adams made it clear that he still sees Cuomo as his chief rival in the general election campaign, despite the emergence of Zohran Mamdani as the front-runner.
Read more at The Free Press (subscription required); Listen to the full interview here
‘You Are A Weak Man’: Chicago Residents Fed Up With Mayor Brandon Johnson
Chicago residents are fed up with the city’s left-wing Mayor Brandon Johnson, increasingly lashing out at the 49-year-old outspoken progressive. Johnson, elected just two years ago, currently faces a federal investigation for racist hiring practices, criticism for his resistance to enforcing immigration law, and scrutiny for pursuing socialist policies.
Johnson’s tenure seemed to be off to a promising start after he secured a surprise victory in 2023, defeating incumbent Democrat Mayor Lori Lightfoot in the primary and moderate Paul Vallas in the general election. Lightfoot became the first incumbent mayor in 40 years to lose re-election in the Windy City.
Read more at Amac
Can Our Cities Be Saved From The Left’s Death Grip?
All the attention being thrown at New York’s mayoral primary race, won by socialist Zohran Mamdani, raises broader questions that deserve answers. Why do voters keep electing Democrats responsible for so much urban decline and decay? What will break the left’s stranglehold on our once great cities? Is the situation simply hopeless?
Of the nation’s largest 20 cities, only two have Republican mayors – Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas. Republicans hold the mayorships of just 25 of the 100 largest cities. And that number is down from 30 in 2020.
Read more at Issues & Insights
10 held in Texas immigration detention center shooting that was ‘planned ambush,’ US attorney says
Ten people have been arrested on attempted murder charges in connection with a shooting outside of a Texas immigration detention center that wounded a police officer, where people in black military-style clothing fired at authorities in a “planned ambush,” a U.S. attorney said.
The officer was shot in the neck on Friday, the night of the Fourth of July, after reporting to the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado. He was treated at a hospital and released, the Johnson County Sheriff’s office said.
Read more at WJHL TV; watch also @RapidResponse47 on X and @MrAndyNGO on X
Stephen Miller: There is an ‘insurrectionist movement in the Democratic Party’
Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller explains the Dems’ intention for mass illegal migration: “The Democrat Party’s objective is to flood the West with millions upon millions of illegals from the developing world … believing that they will collapse the West … and in so doing, they think in the rubble of that, they can RULE. …
“Every issue that affects our quality of life – public safety, drugs, crime, education, healthcare, waiting in the emergency room are all exacerbated, worsened and undermined by mass illegal immigration.”
Watch more at Jesse Watters Primetime on Fox
Trump announces steep tariffs on 14 countries starting Aug. 1
Trump announces tariff hikes on 14 countries including Indonesia and South Africa
President Donald Trump revealed new tariff rates on 14 countries — and extended until August 1 a pause on higher rates that was due to expire July 9.
In separate July 7 letters to each targeted country, Trump said he will impose 25% tariffs on goods from Malaysia, Tunisia and Kazakhstan, 30% tariff rates on imports from South Africa and 40% tariffs on Laos and Myanmar.
Read more at USA Today
Trump: ‘I’ll be watching the WITCH HUNT of Jair Bolsonaro’
President Trump rallied in defense of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who is on trial in Brazil’s Supreme Court on charges that he plotted a coup in 2022 after losing the election to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
“I’ll be watching the WITCH HUNT of Jair Bolsonaro, his family, and thousands of his supporters, very closely. The only Trial that should be happening is a Trial by the Voters of Brazil — It’s called an Election. LEAVE BOLSONARO ALONE!” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform.
Read more at The Hill
DOJ, FBI Close the Book on Jeffrey Epstein, Claiming No Client List Exists
A memo by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department of Justice reported findings that high-profile sex offender Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide and that there is no existing list of his clientele.
The memo states the finding of “images and videos of victims who are either minors or appear to be minors, and over ten thousand downloaded images and videos of illegal child sex abuse material and other pornography.” According to the departments, “Through this review, we found no basis to revisit the disclosure of those materials.”
Read more at The American Spectator
Netanyahu Nominates Trump for Nobel Peace Prize
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has nominated President Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, handing Trump a nomination letter during a meeting at the White House.
At the outset of their meeting, Netanyahu told reporters that Israel was collaborating with the United States to identify countries that could help provide Palestinians with a better future.
Read more at NTD News
EWTN launches new series on Catholic homesteading
With a title like “On Good Soil,” you might expect EWTN’s new series on homesteading to feature a lot of talk about living off the land and learning to farm. What you probably wouldn’t expect is a deep dive into how people in our modern society connect — or don’t connect — and how the teachings of the Catholic Church, including those of St. Thomas Aquinas, can help all of us rethink how we live, even in a big city.
The five-part series airs at 5:30 p.m. ET on Monday, July 7, through Friday, July 11, with an encore at 2:30 a.m. ET the following morning.
Read more at the Catholic News Agency
They Want to Indoctrinate Grandma: New Massachusetts law mandates LGBTQ brainwashing and trans bathrooms in nursing homes
Having relatives in a nursing home (or being in one yourself) can be stressful enough. But now the Massachusetts Legislature has mandated that the full LGBT agenda be integrated in every long-term care and assisted-living facility in the state. And all staff members must receive regular LGBT-inclusive “training.” Non-compliance will trigger civil and criminal punishment.
The non-discrimination laws for “sexual orientation and gender identity” were just the beginning. Cloaked as protecting “rights,” they’re simply leverage for the LGBT movement and their allies in power to force “normalization” of those sexual and psychological dysfunctions on everyone. Shockingly, even the Republicans are going along with it.
Read more at The Stream
Priest urges MPs who voted for euthanasia, abortion to repent before receiving Communion
A London priest has implored Members of Parliament (MP) who voted to decriminalize abortion up until birth and to legalize euthanasia to refrain from receiving Holy Communion.
According to a source close to The Catholic Herald, Father Julian Large, provost of the Brompton Oratory in London, “pleaded” that any Catholic MPs who voted in favor of the “Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life)” bill or the recent decriminalization of abortion repent of these sins in the Sacrament of Confession before presenting themselves to receive Holy Communion.
Read more at LifeSite
The uncomfortable question about the Latin Mass sends Vatican Press director into a tailspin
With documents in hand, Diane Montagna reveals that the majority of bishops did not ask for restrictions on the ancient rite, as Pope Francis wrote. Matteo Bruni neither confirms nor denies this, but falters. And he does not allow the secretary of Divine Worship to respond. …
Read more at the Daily Compass
Vatican’s Synod Office Postpones Reports on Controversial Issues
The Vatican’s synod office has said that final reports from Synod on Synodality study groups — including opinions on women deacons and controversial doctrinal issues such as LGBT inclusion — have been postponed until the end of the year.
The study groups, formed by Pope Francis to examine topics he took off the table for discussion at the second session of the Synod on Synodality, held in October 2024, will have until Dec. 31 to submit their final results — a six-month extension of the original mandate of June 30, according to the Secretariat of the Synod.
Read more at the National Catholic Register
Pope Leo will have much to ponder during his vacation in Castel Gandolfo
As Pope Leo XIV arrives in Castel Gandolfo for his summer break, it is unlikely to be a real vacation for the new pontiff.
When Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost was elected on May 8, it was the post-Easter period in Rome. This, now, is the slow-down time in Rome, since the Vatican almost shuts down after the June 29 celebration of the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul.
Read more at Crux
