Church Leaders Visit Palestine as Death and Famine Grow
"The Church, the entire Christian community, will never abandon them." - Pizzaballa
GetSmart Preview: Mozart meets Benjamin Franklin
Newsbites
Chart of the week: It’s only been ~10 years since the majority of U.S. adults have owned smartphones (Pew Research).
Japan trade deal: The U.S. agreed to a trade deal with Japan this week, which will set tariffs at 15% on imports from Japan, down from the threatened 25% level. It is the most significant agreement reached since Trump’s “Liberation Day” announcement, as Japan is the 4th biggest economy in the world and the 5th largest trading partner of the U.S. As part of the deal, Japan also said it would invest $550B into Japanese businesses operating in the United States.
Brigitte Macron, the wife of French President Emmanuel Macron, is suing the popular conservative YouTuber Candace Owens for defamation. Owens, whose investigative series, “Becoming Brigitte,” has received tens of millions of views, claims that Brigitte is actually a man who transitioned to being a woman and groomed Emmanuel from a young age. The 200 page suit says, “We gave her every opportunity to back away from these claims, but she refused." Owens doubled down in a video posted after the fact. She has previously said her conclusion that Brigitte is a man is something she is willing to “stake my entire professional reputation on.” Meanwhile, the Macrons said, “We’ll put forward our damage claim at trial, but if she continues to double down between now and the time of trial, it will be a substantial award.”
More: Here you can find the text of the official lawsuit filed in the State of Delaware.
Russia documents were part of “treasonous conspiracy”: Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence, declassified a House intelligence report from 2017 this week. She says the documents prove the Obama Administration “manufactured intelligence” that Trump was colluding with Russia in the 2016 presidential election and used it to damage his presidency. Gabbard told reporters the collaboration led by former President Obama amounted to a “treasonous conspiracy” to undermine the election integrity and will of the American voter. Obama’s spokespeople released a rare statement denouncing the accusations as "bizarre” and said Russia interfering in the election was already “affirmed in a 2020 report by the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee, led by then-Chairman Marco Rubio.” (video of Gabbard’s press conference)
More: Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the DOJ will be launching a “strike force” to assess the declassified information and pursue legal charges if criminal evidence is found.
President Trump toured the construction zone of the historic Federal Reserve building on Thursday alongside Fed chair Jerome Powell. Trump, who has been publicly pressuring Powell to lower interest rates, stood next to Powell wearing a construction cap criticizing the project and its ballooning budget, which increased from $1.9B to $3.1B. He also tapped Powell’s back saying, “I would love it if he lowered interest rates” (video). Some reports have said that Trump has privately discussed firing Powell over disagreements around managing interest rates and the mishandling of the renovation project, which has gone over budget. No president has ever fired the chair of the Fed.
DOJ meets with Ghislaine Maxwell: Senior DOJ official Todd Blanch met with Jeffrey Epstein's longtime girlfriend and co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell on Thursday. The meeting occurred in the U.S. Attorney’s office in downtown Tallahassee, Florida, and lasted six hours. Maxwell’s attorney said she "answered all the questions and answered them honestly." The two are expected to meet again on Friday, July 25. “If Ghislaine Maxwell has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ will hear what she has to say," Blanch said in a statement before the meeting.
More: Maxwell was convicted in 2021 for helping Epstein sexually abuse underage girls through a years-long trafficking scheme. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2022.
AI Action Plan: The Trump Administration released a 28-page AI Action Plan on Wednesday, aimed at making the U.S. globally dominant in AI innovation. "We believe we're in an AI race, and we want the United States to win that race," Trump’s crypto czar David Sachs told reporters. The plan includes three core pillars: accelerating AI innovation, building out AI infrastructure across the country, and leading in AI diplomacy and international security (view the interactive website here).
More: Three executive orders were also signed on Wednesday. One targeted “woke AI” in the federal government, the second aimed to fast track the permit processes for AI data infrastructure, and the third launched an AI technology export program aimed to compete with China selling chips, models and application software.
Church Leaders Visit Palestine as Death and Famine Grow
What’s going on?
The humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to grow more dire as the war approaches the two-year mark. The UN’s human rights office published a statement this week claiming 1,054 people have been killed by the Israeli military while trying to access aid distribution sites since May 27. The majority have reportedly been killed near Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) sites, with others killed around UN and other aid convoys.
Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is an American aid contractor whose logistics and security are handled by Israel’s military. Since May 26, shortly after the 11-week total aid blockade was lifted, GHF took over the majority of aid delivery in the strip, although some UN groups continue to operate as well.
GHF was created to deliver aid directly to the people while bypassing Hamas, which Israel accuses of siphoning supplies and using it as leverage over the Gazan people. The UN has decided not to participate in GHF’s aid distribution, saying it was not right that Israel would have military control over who gets aid and who doesn’t. For its own convoys, the UN at times works with Hamas to facilitate aid.
GHF has denied that hundreds of people have died near their aid sites, claiming the UN’s reports are “false and exaggerated statistics.” The U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, released a statement in June about media inaccuracies regarding deaths at distribution sites, saying many reports from Gaza come from Hamas-run organizations and can’t be trusted.
Israel and the UN have traded blame in recent days for who is responsible for the lack of aid flowing into Gaza.
As food supplies have been more limited and perilous to secure, malnutrition and deaths from starvation have increased. The prices for food in Gaza have skyrocketed during the war, with a 25lb bag of flour costing hundreds of dollars. This has forced most people to depend on food convoys.
Ceasefire discussions have not advanced in recent weeks. On Thursday (July 24), U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, said the U.S. was bringing home its negotiators early from meetings in Qatar, claiming Hamas had exhibited a “lack of desire to reach a ceasefire in Gaza.”
Church patriarchs visit Gaza
Two prominent Christian leaders visited Gaza on July 18: Latin Patriarch Cardinal Pizzaballa and Greek Orthodox Patriarch, Theophilos III. The visit, which was at the initiative of Pizzaballa, came shortly after the only Catholic Church in Gaza was hit by an Israeli airstrike last week.
In his letter following the visit, Pizzaballa wrote,
We entered a place of devastation, but also of wonderful humanity. We walked through the dust of ruins, past collapsed buildings and tents everywhere…We stood among families who have lost count of the days of exile because they see no horizon for a return. Children talked and played without batting an eyelid —they were already used to the noise of the bombing.
And yet, in the midst of all this, we encountered something deeper than the destruction: the dignity of the human spirit that refuses to be extinguished. We met mothers preparing food for others, nurses treating wounds with gentleness, and people of all faiths still praying to the God who sees and never forgets.
Pizzaballa called on all sides to seek peace and to allow humanitarian aid to flow freely:
Humanitarian aid is not only necessary — it is a matter of life and death. Refusing it is not a delay, but a sentence. Every hour without food, water, medicine and shelter causes deep harm…It is morally unacceptable and unjustifiable.
Patriarch Theophilos III wrote,
The Church’s mission in times of devastation is rooted in the ministry of presence, of standing with those who mourn, of defending the sacredness of life, and of witnessing to the light that no darkness can extinguish. This is none other than the presence of Christ Himself.
To the international community, we say: silence in the face of suffering is a betrayal of conscience. To the whole people of Gaza, we the Church and her leaders stand in solidarity with you.
GetSmart: Mozart Composed a Piece of Music for Benjamin Franklin’s Instrument
Wolfgang A. Mozart wrote Adagio and Rondo in C minor, K. 617 for the Glass Armonica, a musical instrument invented by Benjamin Franklin in 1761. The instrument consists of glass bowls that produce sound when rotated and touched by a moistened finger. The popularity of the instrument faded rather quickly. Listen to the instrument in action (video).
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