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FEAST OF SAINT BARTHOLOMEW, APOSTLE JOHN 1:45–51 Friends, in a conversation with Jesus in today’s Gospel,Nathaniel (usually identified with the Apostle Bartholomew) makes the earliest New Testament profession of faith in Christ’s divinity: “Rabbi, you are the Son of God.” Faith is the virtue upon which Christianity rests and is the capacity to see beyond the senses to a deeper or higher reality. There is an anticipation of faith in Plato’s parable of the cave, in which a man escapes from a cavern where he had been forced to see only flickering shadows on the wall. When he emerges from...

Food pantries across the U.S. say they're struggling to meet demand as the rising cost of groceries is forcing more Americans to opt for donated meals. A recent survey from Feeding America, a nonprofit network of 200 food banks, found that 155 food pantries reported a jump in families coming to their door. "People coming through and they're not just getting for their family, but they might have a sister or a brother they're getting a little bit extra for," Tehma Smith Wilson, who runs a food pantry in Baltimore, told CBS News. The increase in people seeking help from...

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DETROIT (AP) — U.S. securities regulators are questioning Twitter about how it calculates the number of fake accounts on its platform. The law firm Wilson Sonsini of Palo Alto, California, replied in a June 22 letter saying the company believes it adequately disclosed the methodology in its annual report filed for 2021. The letter says that Twitter makes its estimates of false accounts with an internal review of sample accounts. The number of fake accounts “represent the average false or spam accounts in the samples during each monthly analysis period during a quarter,” the letter said. It added that fewer...

Nevada Republican U.S. Senate candidate Adam Laxalt released his first general election advertisement Monday, focused on how his upbringing impacted his life. The ad, titled “Good Man,” features former Nevada Attorney General Laxalt and his wife Jaime, and will run on cable and broadcast across the Silver State. “I was raised by a single mom with no college education. And as a kid, I didn’t know who my father was,” Laxalt said, later adding that his mother taught him “to face challenges head on and to work hard.” “Adam’s early life wasn’t easy,” Jaime Laxalt added. “Adam dedicated his life...

The Trump administration pressured the Food and Drug Administration, including former FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn, to authorize unproven treatments for Covid-19 and the first Covid-19 vaccines on an accelerated timeline, according to a report released Wednesday by Democrats on the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis.

Representative Jackie Speier (D-CA) said Wednesday on CNN’s “Newsroom” that former President Donald Trump committed a “form of grand theft” by having government documents at his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, FL. Anchor Poppy Harlow said, “This newly released letter from the National Archives from back in May illustrates this month’s long back and forth with the Trump team and them about these documents, and it also shows the delays from former President Trump’s team on returning them. ”

Membership in ERIC will strengthen NJ voter file accuracy TRENTON, NJ New Jersey Secretary of State Tahesha Way announced that she and the New Jersey Division of Elections have taken steps to ensure the integrity of the state voter files by joining the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC). ERIC is a nonpartisan non-profit organization with the sole mission of assisting states in increasing access to voter registration for all eligible citizens and improving the accuracy of America’s voting rolls. ERIC is governed and managed by its member states. Participation in ERIC as a member state will help New Jersey election...

The idea of munching on mealworms may sound like a challenge from the latest series of 'I'm a Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here.' But it could soon become a reality, as scientists claim to have transformed the insects into a 'meat-like flavouring'. Researchers from Wonkwang University have cooked up mealworms with sugar, and claim they taste just like real meat.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested on Wednesday that people who believe President Joe Biden can forgive student debt on his own are misinformed. “The president can’t do it,” Pelosi said, at a press briefing. “That’s not even a discussion.” Pelosi said any student debt forgiveness would have to be carried out by Congress. ... Biden has asked the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Education to review his legal authority to forgive student debt. Decisions from those agencies are not yet public. “They are likely to reach the same conclusion as the one reached by Speaker Pelosi,”...

Scottish mountain biker Rab Wardell has died in his sleep just two days after taking victory at the national championships. Wardell, 37, won the men’s elite race at the Scottish MTB XC Championships at Kirroughtree Forest in Dumfries and Galloway at the weekend.

WASHINGTON — California on Thursday is expected to put into effect its sweeping plan to prohibit the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035, a groundbreaking move that could have major effects on the effort to fight climate change and accelerate a global transition toward electric vehicles. “This is huge,” said Margo Oge, an electric vehicles expert who headed the Environmental Protection Agency’s transportation emissions program under Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama. “California will now be the only government in the world that mandates zero-emission vehicles. It is unique.” The rule, issued by the California Air...

All throughout last week, some five or six Coptic churches in Egypt have “caught fire”— ... the Church of Abu Seifein (named after Saint Mercurius of Caesarea, who is revered by the Copts). At least 41 Christians — 18 of whom were children — were either burned alive, killed by asphyxiation, or ... Considering that Muslims have torched or bombed hundreds of Coptic churches over the decades in Egypt — and often when churches are packed — it is, of course, difficult to resist that explanation. Moreover, this last week was the “anniversary” of when Muslim Brotherhood sympathizers torched 62...

Theres something beautiful about a billboard with a message thats a sarcastic jab at liberal insanity. I think I like this one the most: "Protect Pregnant Men from Climate Discrimination"

BERLIN (AP) – German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Cabinet approved legislation Wednesday that ensures basic protective measures against the coronavirus pandemic are continued during the fall and winter when more virus cases are expected. The presentation of the rules – which also include the new obligation to wear N95-type face masks during all long-distance travel by train and bus as well as on planes – coincided with the publication of photos showing the chancellor and German Economy Minister Robert Habeck flying to Canada earlier this week without wearing masks.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced his long-awaited plan to deliver on a campaign promise to provide $10,000 in student debt cancellation for millions of Americans — and up to $10,000 more for those with the greatest financial need — along with new measures to lower the burden of repayment for their remaining federal student debt. If his plan survives legal challenges that are almost certain to come, it could offer a windfall to a swath of the nation in the run-up to this fall’s midterm elections. Proponents say cancellation will narrow the racial wealth gap —...

Is Joe Biden one of the most successful presidents in American history? White House chief of staff Ron Klain suggested as much while touting the so-called Inflation Reduction Act (Fact check: It won't reduce inflation) in an interview with Politico last week. "The president has delivered the largest economic recovery plan since Roosevelt, the largest infrastructure plan since Eisenhower, the most judges confirmed since Kennedy, the second largest health care bill since Johnson, and the largest climate change bill in history," Klain boasted. FDR, the general who led the D-Day invasion, JFK, LBJ, and … Sleepy Joe? Klain is hardly...

On July 21, members of the Ukrainian parliament decided to increase their salaries by 70 percent raise. After the bill for this decision had only been submitted on July 18, the parliamentarians were able to carry out the vote unusually quickly, reported the Overton magazine. According to the magazine, this decision, which was unanimously approved by all the remaining parties, would have been possible so quickly in the absence of a lack of opposition. Instead of 28,800 hryvnia as before, the “servants of the people”, as Vladimir Zelensky’s party is called, now earn 49,600 hryvnia per month. Since July 15,...

The northern section of a previously damaged set of grain silos in Beirut collapsed Tuesday after a fire slowly burned in the block for weeks when grains trapped inside ignited. The silos were first damaged in August 2020 when a nearby port warehouse storing ammonium nitrate fertilizer exploded in a blast that killed over 200 people, wounded 7,000 and destroyed 77,000 apartments. The Tuesday collapse created a cloud of dust over the port city and took down eight other damaged silos in the site’s northern block. The silo’s norther section had been slowly tipping over since the first explosion two...

President Biden announced Wednesday that he will cancel $10,000 of federal student loan debt for certain borrowers making less than $125,000 per year, and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients, while extending the pause on federal student loan payments through the end of the year. "In keeping with my campaign promise, my Administration is announcing a plan to give working and middle class families breathing room as they prepare to resume federal student loan payments in January 2023," Biden tweeted. Biden is expected to give remarks on the plan Wednesday afternoon.