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Key Takeaways•In 2025, Nigeria is projected to have more births than all of Europe combined, reaching an estimated 7.6 million. India is expected to drive 17% of global births, with nearly 23.1 million babies born this year.•India is expected to drive 17% of global births, with nearly 23.1 million babies born this year.

Maine’s Democrat governor, Janet Mills, is demanding a meeting with President Trump by using the shooting by immigration agents in Minnesota to highlight her anti-ICE stance. Mills posted her “letter” to President Trump on her social media, in which she demanded the federal government stop enforcing federal immigration laws in her state. “In response to Federal agents killing another person in Minnesota, I have requested a meeting with the President of the United States and demanded that his Administration immediately withdraw ICE agents from Maine,” she wrote. She attached her letter to the president, in which decries the “weaponization of...

TORONTO (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Sunday his country has no intention of pursuing a free trade deal with China. He was responding to U.S. President Donald Trump's threat to impose a 100% tariff on goods imported from Canada if America's northern neighbor went ahead with a trade deal with Beijing. Carney said his recent agreement with China merely cuts tariffs on a few sectors that were recently hit with tariffs. Trump claims otherwise, posting that "China is successfully and completely taking over the once Great Country of Canada. So sad to see it happen. I only...

In a shocking video from the ongoing riots in Minneapolis, protesters are seen violently attacking and tackling a federal officer. The escalating violence follows a fatal shooting on Saturday, where federal agents shot and killed an armed man, 37-year-old Alex Jeffrey Pretti, as he agitated and intervened during an immigration enforcement action. Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in the hours after the shooting, and continued into the night and the following day. Video footage from the scene on Sunday shows masked protesters pummelling and kicking the officers. WATCH: The primary attacker appears to have been quickly apprehended by...

Governor Tim Walz has begged President Donald Trump to pull federal agents out of Minnesota after a second immigration protester was shot dead by officers this month. 'What is the plan, Donald? What do we need to do to get these federal agents out of our state?' Walz pleaded Sunday in wake of the death of 37-year-old Alex Pretti. Pretti was shot dead by a Border Patrol agent in broad daylight in Minneapolis on Saturday during a targeted immigration enforcement operation. He was killed just weeks after Renee Good, 37, was shot dead by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer...

As a retired federal agent and an attorney, this is my opinion based upon what is known right now. You don’t have to agree, and I will not debate, allow the full investigation to play out. I do know that the individual would still be alive today if he had exercised his right to protest from a distance and not interjected himself into the situation. The loss of life is always tragic. Understanding the Use of Force in the Minneapolis Federal Enforcement Incident Why the Law Matters More Than the Narrative Public debate around officer-involved shootings often turns on emotion,...

Americans don’t like criminals destroying American cities, preventing law enforcement from doing their jobs, or being paid to commit violence. Insurrectionists are again flooding the streets of Minneapolis. Fortunately, Americans see right through it and are calling for law and order. President Trump inherited a very difficult job after winning the 2024 election. The Biden regime had created a mess. The total destruction of America was near. The gang running the Biden regime had done everything wrong, and one of its most destructive actions was to open the border and allow criminals, gangs, and foreign soldiers to walk freely into...

Alex Pretti’s death could be a moment of reckoning for Democrats to call time on Trump waging war on his people Wearing helmets, gas masks and camouflage fatigues, the federal agents took aim and prepared to open fire. “It’s like Call of Duty,” one could be heard saying via a TV mic, referring to a first-person shooter military video game. “So cool, huh?”This was the scene on the streets of Minneapolis on Saturday after armed agents, wearing masks and tactical vests, wrestled 37-year-old Alex Pretti to the ground and shot him dead. The killing took place just over a mile...

[Catholic Caucus] Bishop Strickland confronts US bishops on their silence over trafficked childrenBishop Joseph Strickland exhorted not only the bishops but lay Catholics to confront their own complacency over the children being trafficked in the U.S.Bishop Joseph Strickland confronted U.S. bishops about their silence over children trafficked upon crossing the border illegally.During a Catholics for Catholics award ceremony for U.S. border czar Tom Homan in honor of his work saving over 62,000 children from human trafficking, Strickland highlighted the approximately 250,000 children still lost from border crossings under Joe Biden’s administration. The bishop stressed that if the unborn are not...

Most in the GOP are silent or backing the Trump administration, but a conspicuous few are speaking out. A small but growing number of Republicans are raising public concerns about the killing Saturday of a 37-year-old Minnesota man by federal agents.Hours after the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti on a Minneapolis street, one House GOP chair called for the top ICE leader and other Trump administration officials to publicly answer lawmakers’ questions. GOP Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Thom Tillis of North Carolina called for independent probes into the shooting, with Cassidy arguing the integrity...

Gold is now officially above $5000. High thus far is $5028.40. Silver continues above $100. High thus far is $106.58

I am good at this sort of thing.

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[Catholic Caucus] TLM Sunday 2026: "Introibo ad altare Dei"The author preparing to offer private Mass during the snow and ice storm of January 25, 2026.The priest when he is alone, with angels and saints surrounding and united with him, to pray the Mass will naturally choose that worship which he holds most dear in this age commonly described as one of options, if nothing else. And the option of the Tradition, as Pope Benedict made so clear in Summorum Pontificum, remains as sacred today for all of us it was for the Catholics of the two millennia that preceded our...

Andy Burnham has said he is "disappointed" after being blocked from standing as a candidate for the upcoming parliamentary by-election in Gorton and Denton by Labour's ruling body. As a directly elected mayor, Burnham had to get approval from Labour's national executive committee (NEC), after he applied to be a candidate on Saturday. But Labour said the party had decided to deny him permission to stand to "avoid an unnecessary mayoral election, which would use substantial amounts of taxpayers' money and resources". Burnham, a former minister, is widely seen as a potential leadership challenger to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer...

“Barack Obama has made a rare political statement to condemn Donald Trump's administration over the fatal shootings of two US citizens by immigration officers in Minnesota. 'The killing of Alex Pretti is a heartbreaking tragedy,' the former president wrote on X in the wake of the most recent horror on Sunday. 'It should also be a wake-up call to every American, regardless of party, that many of our core values as a nation are increasingly under assault.'”

Why do we suffer? It's complicated. It amounts to some issues about the nature of generosity and gratitude. A first principle is that you should never do for others what they can do for themselves, because they will be ungrateful and, moreover, despise the gifts given to them. Then the ingrates will criticize you and, ultimately, turn on you, and maybe even attack you. Why do we never get an answer, when we're knocking at the door, With a thousand million questions, about hate and death and war?, 'Cause when we stop and look around us, there is nothing that...

Beet juice is being used across West Virginia, including Cabell County, to pretreat roads ahead of icy weather conditions. It’s a fairly new practice, and the state Division of Highways, which is under the Department of Transportation, started using the substance on an experimental basis last winter. While salt brine is effective at melting ice at temperatures in the 15- to 20-degree range, salt brine blended with beet juice can be effective at near-zero temperatures, according to state Highway Engineer Jacob Bumgarner. “It’s not a magic pill,” Bumgarner said. “But it’s another tool in our toolbox.” District garages across the...

Over the past 5,000 years, East Africa has dried out. Now, new research finds that this change may be making the continent pull apart faster. Faults in the East African Rift Zone have sped up since the levels of large lakes have dropped, according to research published in November in the journal Scientific Reports. The findings highlight the two-way relationship between the climate and plate tectonics, said study senior author Christopher Scholz, a geologist, physicist and professor emeritus at Columbia University.

The Pentagon on Friday night released a long-awaited strategy that prioritizes the U.S. homeland and Western Hemisphere — a stunning reversal from previous administrations that aligns with President Donald Trump’s military strikes in Venezuela and efforts to acquire Greenland. The National Defense Strategy — a dramatic shift from even the first Trump administration — no longer focuses primarily on countering China. Instead, it blames past administrations for ignoring American interests and jeopardizing the U.S. military’s access to the Panama Canal and Greenland. The strategy calls for attention to the “practical interests” of the U.S. public and an abandonment of “grandiose...