Category: Uncategorized

Pope Francis has signed an interfaith statement asserting that humanity faces a “global climate crisis” that demands phasing out fossil fuels.

The Abu Dhabi Interfaith Statement for COP28 manifests the signers’ “shared concern for the escalating climate impacts that imperil our cherished planet, as well as our common commitment to jointly address this global crisis.”

“Our faith instills in us a sacred duty to cherish not only our human family, but also the fragile ecosystem that cradles us,” the text states.

The pope signed the Abu Dhabi Interfaith Statement for COP28 — which “recognizes the intrinsic rights of ecosystems, encompassing water, oceans, and seas, to exist, thrive, and rejuvenate” — as fruit of the United Nations climate summit in Dubai.

Curiously, the interfaith text makes no mention of God, Jesus, the Creator, or divinity but instead makes repeated references to “Mother Earth,” calling her “a source of life that must be protected.”

As a call to action, signers of the document commit to urging business and policymakers “to adopt a rapid, just transition away from fossil fuels, embracing clean energy sources that nurture the Earth and safeguard its inhabitants unconditionally.”

Read more at: breitbart.com

A Texas judge has ruled a baby can be killed in an abortion just because the baby is disabled.

Katie Cox is suing Texas , saying she is seeking an emergency exception in the state’s law protecting babies from abortions for a pregnancy that is destined to end in the death of the baby.

The lawsuit claims the baby has Trisomy 18, which is not proven because prenatal tests often fail.

“It is not a matter of if I will have to say goodbye, but when,” she said in the lawsuit. “I do not want to continue the pain and suffering that has plagued this pregnancy.”

Cox’s baby is approximately 20 weeks old.

And today, a judge ruled she can legally get an abortion despite the fact that Texas law only allows abortions to save the life of the mother. Cox lawsuit claims that not having an abortion could make it so she can’t get pregnant again, even though the abortion could cause the same problem.

In an emergency hearing Thursday, a judge granted a temporary restraining order against the state that would allow Cox to immediately have an abortion.

“The idea that Mrs. Cox wants desperately to be a parent, and this law might actually cause her to lose that ability is shocking and would be a genuine miscarriage of justice,” Judge Maya Guerra Gamble said. “So I will be signing the order and it will be processed and sent out today.”

The ruling ignores the fact that abortion is linked to infertility and women have been unable to have children because of previous abortions.

A texas pro-life group talked about the case and said abortion is unnecessary.

Read more at: lifenews.com

A Christmas tree festival in Ashwaubenon, Wisconsin, is being criticized for two displays that have disturbed locals.

The National Railroad Museum’s Christmas tree festival features nearly 70 trees. However, two of the trees, from the Satanic Temple of Wisconsin and the Bay Area Council on Gender Diversity, brought quite a shock to the community, Fox News reported Wednesday.

The Satanic Temple’s tree is decorated with pentagrams while the Gender Diversity tree features trans flags and ornaments that reportedly say, “Protect Trans Kids.”

In a social media post November 12, The Satanic Temple – Wisconsin shared photos of its tree at the museum and urged people to go view it.

“Zoom in to see our awesome ornaments, many of which were hand made by our members!” the post reads:

“Why are we afraid to stand up and say no. This is absurd. The devil has no rights,” one social media user commented on the Fox report.

Local news reports said museum CEO Jacqueline Frank admitted several community members voiced their concern about the trees while others seemed pleased the event highlighted inclusivity.

Read more at: breitbart.com

A Barbadian theatrical dance group is taking legal action after being “excluded in the name of inclusivity” following their “unconstitutional” disqualification from a national competition due to their Christian beliefs on gender.

Praise Academy of Dance Barbados was banned from performing at the National Independence Festival of Creative Arts (NIFCA) in October for allegedly breaching the rules by exceeding “the bounds of good taste,” and making “defamatory claims,” the St. Vincent Times reported.

The infraction was found due to the group’s “Speak of Life” performance produced for the event, in which they “presented a Christian viewpoint of gender identity and sexual orientation and declared the Christian worldview that there are only two genders.”

A recording of the full performance includes a depiction of a teen girl who struggles with her gender identity in school, with a dialogue sharing biological and biblical explanations for the two sexes.

At one point, the performers announce, “It’s not a choice, you don’t get to pick. That’s the science, period!”

Banners with verses from the biblical book of Genesis hung on the stage, stating: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

Despite the dance troupe sharing their Christian faith for the last 20 years without disqualification, they say that Senator Gregory Nicholls, arbiter of the National Cultural Foundation (NCF), “unconstitutionally” canceled them without referring the matter to the Barbados Supreme Court.

“The case is believed to be the first time that a group has been canceled for the expression of traditional Christian beliefs in Barbados and brings into question whether the LGBTQ agenda is being brought in by the back door,” the Carribean outlet reported.

Praise Academy has raised an official complaint, arguing that the decision of the NCF and NIFCA judging panel was illegal and unconstitutional.

Read more at: breitbart.com

The border is “open,” according to Detective Shawn Wilson. Despite working 80 miles from the border of Mexico in the Tucson Sector of Arizona, Wilson, a member of the Pinal County Anti-Smuggling Unit, regularly encounters illegal aliens and smugglers passing through the county.

Wilson says the smugglers’ strategy has changed in recent years.

Over the last few years, “human smuggling has increased dramatically,” Wilson told The Daily Signal during a recent ride-along. “Before, you’d see … a little bit [of] human smuggling and mainly marijuana. But now there’s hardly any marijuana or drugs, and it’s mainly human smuggling.”

At least two incentives are driving the change, according to Wilson: money and police penalties.

“People want to come and the cartels, and people down in Mexico who are making the money, they see the opportunity to increase their annual income,” he said. There are also less severe prison terms or penalties for smuggling people “than if you were smuggling methamphetamine or fentanyl,” the detective explained, “so there’s a lot less risk to it and a lot more money.”

The cartels “contract” drivers to pick illegal aliens up at the border and drive them into the interior of the U.S., Deputy Sheriff Mark Terry, who also serves on the Pinal County Anti-Smuggling Unit, told The Daily Signal.

The cartels “go on social media and they’ll basically put a job offering a certain amount of money to just take people from point A to point B,” Terry said. “That money can go for between $500 per person to $1,000 per person.”

When Terry and Wilson pull over vehicles in Pinal County they suspect might be involved in human smuggling, they often encounter illegal aliens from all over the world.

Nationals from Pakistan, Iraq, and India represent a sampling of the aliens officers have encountered being smuggled through their county. When the officers stop vehicles smuggling illegal aliens, they contact Border Patrol to come detain them because local law enforcement does not have the authority to arrest illegal aliens.

Yet Border Patrol agents who used to be patrolling in the field have now been moved to the border to process illegal aliens, Terry and Wilson lamented.

“The numbers that are coming through the border right now are so high that they need everybody there to help with that,” Terry said. “So, if we pull someone over on the freeway here … sometimes they can’t come because they’re all busy at the border.”

When Border Patrol cannot respond in a timely manner, “we just have to let them go,” Wilson said.

Read more at: dailysignal.com

Anglican bishops have expressed their grief at the Church of England’s decision to trial “special standalone services” for blessing those in same-sex partnerships.

Under previous proposals, the services would have been authorised under a two-year long process, which would have required a two-thirds majority in each of the General Synod’s three Houses. Instead, Synod backed a proposal to fast-track trial services. The amendment required a simple majority to pass and succeeded in the House of Laity by just one vote.

In a statement, bishops of the Anglican Network in Europe spoke of their “deep sadness” at the Synod’s continuing rejection of Scripture, and promised to stand with faithful Christians within the Church.

Arrogance

The bishops lamented that “a majority at General Synod voted to continue to travel along a road that arrogantly rejects the authority of scripture, the historic teaching of the church from earliest times and the vast majority of Anglicans worldwide.

“They have walked away from the life transforming grace and truth of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

On behalf of the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches, Archbishop of South Sudan Justin Badi said: “We wholeheartedly support the faithful bishops, clergy and laity within the Church of England and assure them of our continuing prayers and pastoral commitment as a global body.”

Quoting the book of Revelation, he added: “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.” (Revelation 2:10)

Read more at: christian.org.uk

The typical American household must spend an additional $11,434 annually just to maintain the same standard of living they enjoyed in January of 2021, right before inflation soared to 40-year highs, according to a recent analysis of government data.

Such figures underscore the financial squeeze many families continue to face even as the the rate of U.S. inflation recedes and the economy by many measures remains strong, with the jobless rate at a two-decade low. The analysis, from Republican members of the U.S. Senate Joint Economic Committee, taps government data such as the Consumer Price Index and Consumer Expenditure Survey to examine the impact of inflation state by state.

Even so, many Americans say they aren’t feeling those gains, and this fall more people reported struggling financially than they did prior to the pandemic, according to CBS News polling. Inflation is the main reason Americans express pessimism about economy despite its bright points, which also include stronger wage gains in recent years.

The Biden administration called the analysis “flawed.” Citing federal labor data, a White House spokesman noted that per capita disposable income has risen 16% since December 2020, just prior to President Joe Biden’s inauguration.

“14 million more Americans have jobs today than when President Biden took office and household disposable income is up by almost $21,000 since December 2020,” the spokesman said in a statement to CBS MoneyWatch. “And what Congressional Republicans pushing this one-sided study won’t admit is that their proposals would raise costs on the middle class and cut Social Security and Medicare so they can give rich special interests more tax giveaways.”

To be sure, economists point to a number of pandemic-related issues as the cause of high inflation, rather than decisions from any one political party. For instance, spending bills were signed by both Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden that put stimulus money into the hands of millions of Americans, while global supply-chain snarls and labor shortages drove up the cost of goods and services.

But even as inflation is now cooling rapidly, many consumers say they aren’t feeling it, with a new Bankrate survey finding 60% of working Americans say their income has lagged inflation has over the past 12 months.

“On the edge”

Average hourly pay for workers has increased robust 13.6% since January 2021, although that lags the 17% increase in inflation during the same period, according to government data. The main categories requiring heavier spending for consumers simply to tread water: food, transportation, housing and energy, which together account for almost 80 cents of every $1 in additional spending, according to the Republican analysis.

“Middle- and low-income Americans aren’t doing well enough — they are living fragilely on the edge,” said Gene Ludwig, chairman of the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity (LISEP), a think thank whose own analysis found that the income needed to cover the basics fell short by almost $14,000, on average, in 2022.

Read more at: cbsnews.com

A petition denouncing the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade for advancing “the liberal LGBTQ agenda” had garnered nearly 35,000 with almost a full week to go before the holiday.

The petition was started by One Million Moms, a division of the American Family Association that was established “to stop the exploitation of our children, especially by the entertainment media,” according to its website.

Interested readers can view and sign the petition here.

Numerous media outlets, including The Western Journal, had reported on the “transgender agenda … taking center stage” at this year’s parade, which apparently prompted the group to launch the petition.

The the U.K.’s Daily Mail first reported on petition Monday, it had about 17,000 electronic signatures. That number has doubled in the four days since.

“Unless they are forewarned about it, this year’s holiday parade will potentially expose tens of millions of viewers at home to the liberal LGBTQ agenda,” the petition reads.

“It is clear that Macy’s does not have our children’s best interests in mind,” the group added. “Macy’s needs to know that trust must be earned, and once trust is lost, it is difficult to get back.”

According to The Associated Press, Cher, the woman who recently made headlines by declaring she would leave the United States if former President Donald Trump is re-elected, is supposed to entertain a country after regularly insulting the half that supports Trump.

At least some of that half seems likely not to tune in to the coverage of the parade on Thanksgiving, a number that this petition apparently seeks to increase.

Breitbart reported last week that “non-binary” actors from two Broadway shows — “& Juliet” and “Shucked” — were expected to be part of the parade festivities.

The show “& Juliet” is inspired by Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” but explores what Juliet’s life might have been like had she not committed suicide at the end of the story. The part of the non-binary “May” is played by Justin David Sullivan, according to Breitbart.

Read more at: westernjournal.com

High school students, particularly males, with a history of concussion in the last year, showed a higher tendency for suicidal thoughts, planning, or attempts compared to those without a concussion history, according to a study by a research team that includes a researcher at the University of Michigan.

Boys who experienced two or more concussions in the past year were twice as likely to report a suicide attempt compared to those with a single concussion. For girls, the likelihood of suicidal behaviors was comparably higher irrespective of the number of concussions.

“This type of research is never easy to discuss, but it is vitally important to understand who is at risk and why,” said study co-author Steve Broglio, professor of kinesiology and director of the University of Michigan Concussion Center. “Anyone who has concern for any student-athlete should not be afraid to reach out and help find the appropriate resources.”

This is believed to be the first known study to examine the relationship between suicidal behaviors and concussion frequency in a nationally representative sample of U.S. high school students.

“From broader literature, we know that brain injuries, like concussion, can precipitate or exacerbate mental health challenges,” said lead author Jacob Kay, a rehabilitation scientist at Prisma Health Children’s Hospital and the University of South Carolina. “Our study further highlights the importance of evaluating mental health among both male and female youth that have sustained a concussion. This is particularly true for those who have sustained multiple concussions in a short time.”

Other study highlights include:

• 15% of students reported one or more concussions and 6% reported two or more concussions in the past year
• 17% of males and 13% of females reported one or more concussions in the past year
• 44% of females vs. 24% of males reported feeling sad or hopeless
• 24% of females vs. 13% of males reported having suicidal thoughts
• 19% of females vs. 10% of males reported planning suicide
• 10% of females vs. 5% of males reported attempting suicide
• 3% of females and 1% of males reported an injury from an attempted suicide
• Medical professionals should closely evaluate and monitor mental health in youth, especially those with a recent history of repetitive concussions

Read more at: scitechdaily.com

Although inflation is cooling, households are still feeling squeezed.

As of October, 60% of adults said they are living paycheck to paycheck, according to a new LendingClub report. The figure is unchanged from last year.

Overall, 4 in 10 consumers consider themselves worse off relative to 2022, the report found.

Shoppers expect to overspend during the holidays