In Case You Missed It – Friday, May 30, 2025

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Trump’s Tariffs Are Back in Effect After Appeals Court Ruling

An appeals court on Thursday stayed the ruling of the U.S. Court of International Trade that blocked President Donald Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs, meaning the tariffs are back in effect.

The U.S. Court of International Trade issued an injunction on Wednesday night, ruling that President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs are illegal. The White House filed a motion to stay the ruling, and the tariffs were reinstated Thursday afternoon, as CNBC noted, shortly after the White House slammed the ruling.

Read more at Breitbart

Illegal immigrant threatened to kill Trump for ‘messing with us Mexicans’

The Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday that it had arrested an illegal immigrant who delivered a racially tinged threat to kill President Trump over his aggressive border and deportation crackdowns.

Ramon Morales-Reyes, 54, wrote a letter promising to leave the country after he had assassinated the president.

“We are tired of this president messing with us Mexicans,” he wrote in neat handwritten script in the letter, which was released by Homeland Security. “We have done more for this country than you white people — you have been deporting my family and I think it is time Donald J. Trump get what he has coming to him.”

Read more at Washington Times

Hispanic Moderates’ Big Swing Right

The release of the new data and report from Catalist has underscored the extent of Hispanic defection from the Democrats over the last two presidential cycles. We’ve seen massive drops in Democratic support from pretty much every subgroup of Hispanics, albeit with some variation: working-class Hispanics more than the college-educated, women (interestingly) more than men, younger Hispanics more than older ones, and urban residents more than those in the suburbs.

But all the defections have been substantial—at least 22 margin points and usually much more between 2016 and 2024.

Read more at The Liberal Patriot

Supreme Court Issues 7-2 Ruling Allowing President Trump to Revoke Legal Status of Hundreds of Thousands of Migrants from Four Countries

The Supreme Court has granted President Trump a legal victory in his war against unfettered immigration and activist judges.

On Friday, the Court ruled that the Trump Administration could end ‘temporary’ worker protections and work authorizations for more than 500,000 migrants from these four countries: Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. This decision reversed a ruling by an Obama judge just two days ago. 

Read more at the Gateway Pundit

VP Vance: The Elon Era Isn't Over, He'll Remain An Advisor

“I think there, there's also an effort by the media to sort of say the Elon era is over, and I think that's actually totally wrong. Now, he has obviously a day job and he's gotta go back to his day job to run his companies. But the Doge effort will continue. Elon will continue to be an important advisor.”

Watch @RapidResponse47

Trump admin creates training course to teach government workers about the Constitution

The Trump administration has developed a new training course on the Constitution for those government employees who want to join the Senior Executive Service (SES), the staff members at the top levels of government.

The Office of Personnel and Management (OPM) has crafted the 80-hour course, according to a report from Real Clear Politics' Philip Wegmann, who was able to obtain a copy of a memo addressing the issue at OPM.

Read more at the Post Millennial

Dozens killed in new wave of attacks on communities in Nigeria’s Middle Belt 

A priest coming back from a memorial service for two slain clergymen shot and injured. A farmer gunned down on his own farm. Three members of a family killed, and the mother left seriously injured.

They are just three examples of the “horror” people are enduring in the Middle Belt of Nigeria, according to a local priest.

This past weekend, a series of brutal attacks on communities left at least 36 people dead, with several others injured or abducted, according to reports received by the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) from the Diocese of Makurdi. 

Read more at Church in Need

German cathedral offers ‘sincere regret’ for chicken dance

The chapter of Paderborn [Catholic] Cathedral expressed “sincere regret” that the [May 15] performance by the dance ensemble Bodytalk “offended religious feelings” ...

During the performance, two shirtless men and a woman wearing a form-fitting, sleeveless white top lifted ready-to-cook chickens out of a metal bowl in front of the cathedral’s altar. ...

One performer sang an a capella version of “Live Is Life” ... while cradling a chicken like a baby. ... Meanwhile, the two other performers dandled the chickens on their heads, knees, and chests.

Read more at The Pillar

Pope Leo XIV signals focus on AI with nod to Leo XIII’s social teaching legacy

When the newly elected pontiff stepped onto the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica to address the Catholic faithful on May 8, his first decision as pope — to take the papal name Leo — signaled the direction he intends to take his papacy in handling certain social questions that need moral guidance, including artificial intelligence (AI).

In his first meeting with the College of Cardinals on May 10, the pope confirmed he took the name to honor Pope Leo XIII, who he said “addressed the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution” with the encyclical Rerum Novarum at the tail end of the 1800s.

Read more at the Catholic News Agency 

More than 80,000 manuscripts from the Vatican Library to be restored and digitized

More than 80,000 ancient manuscripts from the Vatican Library will be restored and digitized thanks to an agreement with the Colnaghi Foundation. The initiative seeks to preserve unique documents and facilitate worldwide access to this treasure of the Church.

The shelves of the Vatican Library house a large part of humanity’s literary legacy. They include more than 82,000 manuscripts and 1.6 million printed books (more than 8,000 of them “incunabula,” which means those printed before 1501).

Read more at Catholic News Agency 

Consulting firm says it paid hackers ransom to delete data of clergy abuse survivors

A California consulting firm that handles data of some clergy abuse cases says it paid hackers a ransom to delete data involving abuse survivors after a security breach earlier this year. 

The Emeryville, California-based Berkeley Research Group (BRG) offers corporate finance and economic consulting, including to Catholic dioceses in bankruptcy proceedings. In March the company suffered an incursion that exposed data of Catholic clergy abuse survivors in nearly a dozen bankruptcy lawsuits. 

Read more at Catholic News Agency

At Prevost meeting, Charlotte’s Martin urged to slow down on cathedral project

In a meeting last month with the future Pope Leo XIV, the Vatican urged Bishop Michael Martin to slow his pace on proposed major changes in the Diocese of Charlotte.

Martin was advised especially to slow down on a plan to relocate the diocesan cathedral, after less than one year leading the North Carolina diocese.

Read more at The Pillar 

Hawaiʻi Makes History As First State To Charge Tourists To Save Environment

Hawaiʻi has officially become the first U.S. state to enact a so-called “green fee” — a charge added onto hotel room stays and other short-term visits to help protect the local environment and address the growing impacts of climate change.

Gov. Josh Green signed the fee into law Tuesday after years of unsuccessfully urging the Legislature to pass it. Set to take effect next year, the fee could raise around $100 million annually, state officials estimate, a portion of which will go toward Hawaiʻi’s response to future disasters similar to the 2023 Lahaina wildfire.

Read more at the Honolulu Civil Beat

ACLU Sues City to Block Statues of Saints on Public Safety Building

Local residents backed by the American Civil Liberties Union are asking a judge to stop a Massachusetts mayor from erecting statues of two Catholic saints on a city’s new public safety building, claiming that doing so would violate the separation of church and state. 

The 10-foot-high bronze statues of St. Michael the Archangel (the patron saint of police officers) and St. Florian (the patron saint of firefighters), which the complaint says are being made in Italy, would cost an estimated $850,000. They are supposed to be erected on the façade of the $175-million, 120,000-square-foot, multistory building, which is scheduled to open in October 2025. 

Read more at National Catholic Register 

Egypt is closing St. Catherine’s Monastery, confiscating its property, and evicting its monks.

According to orthodoxia.info, the oldest functioning Christian monastery in the world, St. Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai, along with all its properties in Egypt, is being transferred to the Egyptian state.

Nearly fifteen centuries after its founding by Byzantine Emperor Justinian, and having survived remarkable historical challenges, the world-renowned and respected St. Catherine’s Monastery is on the verge of being converted into a museum.

Despite promises made by Egyptian President Sisi to Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis, Egypt is confiscating the monastery’s property ...

Read more at Greek City Times

The head of the Greek Orthodox Church in America makes appeal for the preservation of the Holy Monastery of St. Catherine at Mt. Sinai

Archbishop Elpidophoros: "It is with profound concern and deep sorrow that I address the grave situation facing the Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine at the God-trodden Mount Sinai, following the recent judicial decision by Egyptian authorities ... to seize the monastery’s property and disrupt its sacred mission.

The Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine, nestled at the foot of Mount Sinai ... is situated at the very place where God appeared to Moses in the Burning Bush and beneath the Mount of the Decalogue where the Law was given. …"

Read more at Orthodox Observer

Fire destroys St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Maria Stein, Ohio

A fire destroyed a church in Maria Stein Thursday afternoon. The call came in just before 3 p.m. to St. John the Baptist Catholic Church on State Route 119. The flames quickly spread through the roof, triggering a second alarm.

Several fire departments from Mercer and surrounding counties rushed in to help, along with additional manpower. Drones were also brought in to get a sky-high view for the worst spots to target for firefighters. 

Read more at Hometown Stations

See also video @Eric Sammons on X

June Rosary Challenge: 30 Days of the Sacred Heart

June holds a special place in the Catholic liturgical calendar as the Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus—a time devoted to contemplating the deep, merciful love that flows from the heart of Christ. For those seeking to draw closer to Jesus through prayer and devotion, this month presents a powerful opportunity.

Read more at PaisleyHoney

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Stephen Wynne

Editor-in-Chief, Souls and Liberty