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[Catholic Caucus] A new look at the Synod on SynodalityMarshall McLuhan was a Canadian communication guru of the last century who was probably best known for saying, "The medium is the message." As the second and last session of the Synod on Synodality draws near, it occurs to me that something along those lines is apparently what Pope Francis has in mind for the synod, but in a variant form: "The process is the product."Although an ever-growing body of synodal reports, summaries, and syntheses already exists, the concluding session, Oct. 2 to Oct. 27, will add many more. A few...

Two weeks after organizers scrubbed Taylor Swift's concerts in Vienna amid a foiled terror plot, the singer issued her first statement on the cancellations. “Having our Vienna shows cancelled was devastating,” she wrote in a statement posted to Instagram on Wednesday. “The reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear, and a tremendous amount of guilt because so many people had planned on coming to those shows.” She thanked authorities — “thanks to them, we were grieving concerts and not lives,” she wrote — and said she waited to speak until the European leg of her...

COCHISE COUNTY, Az. (TND) — A man accused of threatening to kill the Republican presidential nominee and former president was taken into custody.Cochise County Sheriff's Office confirmed over the phone that Ronald Lee Syvrud was taken into custody without incident.This comes after authorities posted Thursday morning that they were looking for Syvrud due to "suspicious activity."The National Desk learned that. authorities were looking for Syvrud because they believed he made threats against Donald Trump.Cochise County Sheriff's Office confirmed that they identified a threat that stated a presidential candidate would be killed.Syvrud, who has several outstanding warrants, was sought by authorities...

A Post Falls resident may begin collecting a $1.1 million judgment against the blogger who defamed him, a judge ruled Wednesday. In May, a Kootenai County jury unanimously found that Summer Bushnell defamed Eric Posey when she falsely accused him of exposing himself during Pride in the Park 2022. Bushnell asked the court earlier this month to stay enforcement of the judgment while she appeals the case. First District Judge Ross Pittman denied Bushnell’s request Wednesday. “It’s on you, Ms. Bushnell, to show good cause, and you have not done so here today,” Pittman said. Bushnell, who is now representing...

Victor Davis Hanson, a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Distinguished Fellow at Hillsdale College, Pepperdine professor, syndicated columnist, bestselling author, and fifth-generation California farmer, argues in his July 29, 2024 article that American society is treating its citizens like lab rats, resulting in harmful outcomes. Read the article here: https://victorhanson.com/americas-lab... Transcript link below the video.

The Ukrainian cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region has yielded spectacular PR results for the Kiev regime, creating an image of success that was completely lacking in last year’s failed summer counteroffensive.But it is also true that, from a strictly military strategy standpoint, the adventure will not generate any game-changing momentum on the ground that would reverse Moscow’s upper hand in the ‘special military operation’.In fact, much to the contrary, diverting that much manpower and equipment to this operation has further weakened the already depleted Donetsk defenses to a point where Russian Federation forces can now see the ‘final’ goal...

Montana officials on Tuesday approved a proposed amendment for the November ballot which would enshrine the right to abortion throughout pregnancy into the state constitution. “Supporters ended up with more than 81,000 signatures, about 10.5 percent of registered voters. The campaign needed just over 60,000 signatures and to qualify 40 or more of the 100 state House districts by gathering the signatures of at least 10 percent of the number of people who voted for governor in 2020 in that district. The initiative qualified in 59 districts,” the Associated Press reported.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio’s elections chief on Wednesday referred for possible prosecution 597 apparent noncitizens who either registered to vote or cast a ballot in a recent election — a higher number than he normally finds but still a tiny fraction of the state’s electorate. Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose said that of those cases, 138 were found to have cast ballots and 459 registered but did not vote. They were identified as part of a routine review and referred to Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost. The total compares to 148 noncitizen cases referred in 2022, 117 in...

WASHINGTON, DC – Arizona can continue requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote while legal challenges continue in court, but once registered, people can still vote in presidential elections or vote by mail without such proof, a fractured Supreme Court ruled on Thursday. Election law in Arizona has required proof of citizenship since 2004. A divided Supreme Court held in 2013 that a federal law allowing people to register to vote with a federal form that does not require citizenship proof overrides state law, including Arizona’s. Since then, registrants using a standard registration form must present proof, but applicants...

Lyin' Tim Walz Wants To Be Your Neighbor CHICAGO—After listening to Wednesday night's keynote speaker, vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, an MSNBC reporter observed that the Minnesota governor and his family were "so remarkably normal after what we've been through the last four years." It wasn't entirely clear if the comment was intended as a dig at the dysfunctional Biden family, or if Democrats have spent so much time this week vowing to "turn the page" and embrace the future that their supporters have simply forgotten they still control the White House. (RIP, Sleepy Joe.)

Ukraine’s Parliament has created the legal tools for a governmental ban on any religious group that it deems to be too closely tied to Russia by voting for a bill that explicitly bans the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine. However, the ban also directly affects the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), which the Ukrainian government says is too closely tied to Moscow because of its historic ties to the Russian Orthodox Church. After more than a year and a half of legal wrangling over the language of the bill, Ukrainian lawmakers are set to ban the sole canonical body of Orthodox...

Democrats taking the stage of their national convention this week have labeled former President Donald Trump “dangerous,” a “clear and present danger” and a “direct threat to democracy.” On a giant screen, they have flashed images of Mr. Trump with convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein. Former first lady Michelle Obama said Mr. Trump spewed “racist lies.” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul called him “a fraud, a philanderer and a felon.” Sen. Raphael G. Warnock of Georgia called him “a plague on the American conscience.” It’s a far cry from the prevailing sentiment a month ago after a would-be assassin came...

What Is Really Going on at Federal Agencies?Years ago as an intern in D.C., and long before the agencies all locked their doors to visitors, I had the occasion to putter around the Department of Transportation and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. These were obviously not normal workplaces. To my amazement, they were mostly dark, empty, and quiet, and the employees did not seem in the slightest bit busy doing anything at all. It was all kind of spooky. It then occurred to me that these many hundreds of agencies and millions of employees are not really...

The Pentagon on Thursday blasted Houthi rebels for striking an oil tanker and creating an “environmental disaster” in the Red Sea after the merchant vessel was lit ablaze with a million barrels of crude oil on board. Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters the Houthis striking the Greek-owned merchant vessel Sounion on Wednesday was threatening a “catastrophe” in Yemen’s backyard. “That is an environmental disaster that they are going to have to deal with,” she said, also slamming the group’s motives in the attack. “What exactly does this accomplish? They said they were launching these attacks to help...

Talk about irony: The FBI, which was willing to use deadly force over Donald Trump allegedly mishandling classified documents, has been systematically mishandling similar information for years, according to bombshell findings released Thursday by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz. The DOJ-IG said it discovered the FBI’s mishandling of classified information while auditing a contract related to how the bureau destroys electronics containing “sensitive-but-unclassified” information, as well as classified national security information. According to Horowitz’s audit, the FBI labels computers that handle such information when it sends them to a facility to be destroyed. However, it does not label internal...

Ukrainian forces sank a Russian ferry carrying fuel tanks in a missile strike on a port in Russia's southern Krasnodar region on August 22, Russian officials said. "As a result of the damage, the ferry sank in the waters of the Kavkaz port," the Krasnodar region's operational headquarters said on Telegram. The headquarters reported earlier that "a railroad ferry with fuel tanks in the Kavkaz port was attacked" and that emergency services had been dispatched. Images circulating on social media showed a plume of dark smoke rising in the area of the ferry crossing. The port sits in the Kerch...

Douglas Murray joins the Spectator's Freddy Gray to discuss free speech in Britain following the sentences handed down after the riots, how the use of the term 'far-right' had become a tool to attack the working class in Britain and how Douglas himself became a victim of online hate. Transcript link below video.

REPORTER: "Kamala's campaign attacked you for being in this town because it's associated with white supremacy." PRESIDENT TRUMP: "Who was here in 2021? REPORTER: "Joe Biden" PRESIDENT TRUMP: "Thank you."

A ferry loaded with fuel tanks sank in the Russian port of Kavkaz in southern Krasnodar region on Thursday after a Ukrainian attack, local authorities said. The ferry carrying 30 fuel tanks, as confirmed by Fyodor Babenkov, district head of the town of Temryuk which includes the port, sustained significant damage as a result of the attack, which caused a fire. Seventeen crew members were rescued from the ferry, the Krasnodar region governor said on his Telegram channel. The rescue operation is ongoing, and the whereabouts of two additional crew members was unknown, he said. Ukraine has not immediately commented...

WASHINGTON (TND) — The parent company of Jack Daniel’s on Wednesday announced it is ending its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) goals. Executives of the Brown-Forman Corporation wrote to employees in an email shared on social media Wednesday that the company is changing its diversity and inclusion strategy to account for a shift in the U.S.’ “legal and external landscape.” “With these new dynamics at play, we must adjust our work to ensure it continues to drive business results while appropriately recognizing the current environment in which we find ourselves,” Brown-Forman's Executive Leadership team said. The company noted it will...