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Trump says US and Canada have reached last-minute deal to delay 50% US tariffs on Canadian imports WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Tuesday he was delaying the 50% U.S. tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian imports after the two countries reached a last-minute deal less than two hours before the sanctions were to go into effect. https://apnews.com/article/tariffs-trump-canada-usmca-trade-aae597c22617bec7a99f670a2c787ef9?

US Rep Byron Donalds wins GOP nod for Florida governor against Ex-Rep David Jolly for the Democrats ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds won the Republican nomination for Florida governor and former Rep. David Jolly picked up the Democratic nod in Tuesday’s primaries, setting the stage for a fall campaign to replace outgoing Gov. Ron DeSantis and decide the state’s future political direction. https://apnews.com/article/florida-primaries-donald-trump-wasserman-schultz-917984c2f08603498180e824cd7304ad?

I know many antivaxers that has a close spiritual relationship to God. What is missing in therse discussions is God's position. God speaks to us through the Bible and the Holy Spirit. If we devote time to Him, he is sure to bless us and leed us in the right direction.

Beware of these 15 fake Trump Truth Social posts While Trump is known for making provocative statements on social media, many fabricated posts attributed to the president also spread online. https://www.snopes.com/collections/fake-trump-truth-social-posts/? 9 questionable Pope Leo XIV quotes we've inspected Social media users often falsely attribute quotes to Leo that he supposedly said about U.S. President Donald Trump. https://www.snopes.com/collections/pope-leo-questionable-quotes/?

When a neutral public-health or child-protection law imposes an incidental burden on a religious practice, the law must stand unless it crosses into overt discrimination. The post Faith, Mercy, and the Necessary Limits of Religious Exemptions appeared first on ReligiousLiberty.TV. View the full article

Full Steam Ahead? (Mark Gail / The The Washington Post / Getty)   View in browser Over the past nine years, Donald Trump has returned again and again to the concept of steam power. He loves the way that steam propels fighter jets off the decks of aircraft carriers, and he laments that the Navy has pivoted to electromagnetic launchers in its new ships. “That beautiful scene,” he rhapsodized at a rally in 2023: “That steam goes off, and that plane gets thrown the hell off; the power, beautiful. And it’s cheap!” By The Guardian’s accounting, Trump has spoken publicly about these steam catapults every year since 2017, when he claimed to have told the crew of the USS Gerald Ford that they’d be “going to goddamned steam.” The Gerald Ford is the only one of the Navy’s 11 operational aircraft carriers that’s not currently equipped with steam catapults. Instead, it uses the more modern Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS), which runs on electricity from the vessel’s two nuclear reactors. Trump’s wish for the Gerald Ford to return to steam was never fulfilled; the ship was already the water. Until last week, future ships were set to use electromagnetic propulsion too. But on Thursday, Trump ordered one of the Navy’s planned carriers, the USS Doris Miller, to be outfitted with steam catapults instead. It’s a potential logistical nightmare. Although the ship isn’t expected to be assembled until later this year, its parts are already under construction. Experts have said that returning to steam power at this stage in the ship’s development could dramatically increase the cost to taxpayers and delay the building process. The Doris Miller won’t be completed until the mid-2030s, and a future administration may backpedal. But the fact that the president remains so dedicated to the idea says something about his commitment to aesthetics over strategy—and to remaking the military according to his personal preferences. Trump’s order gives officials 60 days to figure out the details, but plans for the Doris Miller are already under way. General Atomics, the contractor responsible for the ship’s EMALS system, released a statement explaining that “nearly 50 percent of production” is complete and warning that “changing course now would introduce significant cost, schedule and integration risks.” Electrical infrastructure can’t be easily swapped for steam once a ship’s layout has been mapped. Areas on the Doris Miller that might have housed pipes have been designated for other things. Bryan Clark, a naval analyst at the Hudson Institute, told me that such an extreme redesign of the ship’s interior could cost the Navy billions of dollars. EMALS isn’t perfect. Its development was lengthy, even by the Navy’s standards; the Gerald Ford, on which it debuted, cost the U.S. billions of dollars more than expected. But the investment has now been made. EMALS has been successfully launching planes for years. Part of Trump’s somewhat-opaque argument against the new system is that it’s a fancy, unnecessarily complex replacement for the old-fashioned way of doing things. “Digital,” he said in 2017, is “very complicated. You have to be Albert Einstein to figure it out.” Last month, he claimed to have been told that only “geniuses” from MIT could work on it. Trump is right to suggest that when it comes to military technology, flashier doesn’t always mean better. After all, Iran’s cheap drones have consistently challenged the far richer and better-equipped United States. But steam isn’t as efficient as he thinks. Today, Clark told me, electromagnetism is a more reliable way to get a plane into the air, requiring fewer repairs in the aggregate. This is one reason that, despite the cost of developing EMALS, Trump’s claim that steam is a “cheap” alternative doesn’t necessarily hold up; a ship that requires fewer repairs may require fewer taxpayer dollars in the long run. The president hasn’t explained why he chose to make such a cumbersome change at this particular moment. Other, more pressing issues could likely use his attention: A shortage of certain kinds of munition, for example, has put the U.S. at a disadvantage in the war with Iran. And the Navy has lately been facing criticism over the conditions aboard another carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, which has been deployed in the Middle East for almost nine months. Sailors have reported food shortages, degraded living conditions, and mental-health struggles. The president dismissed CNN’s report about conditions on the ship as “fake news,” but Admiral Brad Cooper, who’s overseeing the war in Iran, acknowledged the mental-health concerns on Sunday. The USS George Washington is now set to relieve the carrier. Trump’s recurring fascination with steam reflects his broad interest in how things should look rather than how things should work. He’s reportedly considering asking the Navy to make another design change: shifting the command center on new aircraft carriers farther forward so that the ships can look more like World War II–era vessels. The current placement of the command center at the back of the ships “was done for efficiency and safety,” three current and former U.S. officials told The Washington Post. In December, Trump announced the development of a new class of battleship, to be built according to his own preferences. He wants it bigger and more attractive, and has even given it his own name—the “Trump class.” (Earlier this month, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the new ships could cost Americans about $275 billion in all.) “I am a very aesthetic person,” Trump said at the time. That’s one way to put it. Since returning to office, he’s demolished the White House’s East Wing to build a gilded ballroom, paved over the Rose Garden, and planned to put an imperial arch near the Lincoln Memorial. The president is apparently on a mission to align American institutions with his own taste—and to bulldoze what’s already been built to do so. The “beautiful scene” of a steam catapult may please Trump in much the same way that these other forays into design and architecture do. But the U.S. is at war. It’s probably not the best time to delegate the Navy’s resources to a vanity project. Related: Tom Nichols: The Trump-class ships are about branding, not strategy. David A. Graham: The United States of Donald Trump

The CDC has zombie programs. Congress funds them, but few people are left to do the work The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still has an Alzheimer’s disease program. Congress appropriated $41 million to it this year. There’s just no one staffing it. Read More.

Judge rules paint tests on Eisenhower Building can proceed, advancing Trump's makeover plans for now A federal district judge said Tuesday that paint tests on a 19th-century historic landmark building next to the White House can go ahead, advancing President Donald Trump's plans to add a new coat of white paint to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, for now. Read More. Appeals court says Trump-appointed US attorney in Nevada can’t legally serve in the role An appeals court has ruled that Sigal Chattah, the Trump administration’s initial pick for U.S. attorney in Nevada, was unlawfully appointed to lead federal prosecutions in the state. Read More.

Turkey's Erdogan signs law offering conditional pardon for thousands of PKK militants Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has signed into law a measure that would introduce a conditional pardon for thousands of Kurdish militants as part of a government peace effort with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. Read More.

✈️ Google buying Spirit data to feed AI Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Stock: Getty Images Google is paying $10 million for Spirit Airlines' business data to feed into its AI models, Axios' Nathan Bomey reports. The trove includes emails, calendar info, chats, documents, spreadsheets and more. 🤑 Google won a bankruptcy auction for the data from Spirit, which stopped flying earlier this year after failing to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The data doesn't include any personally identifiable information, passenger profiles or frequent flyer info. 🤖 A Google statement says: "We acquired part of an enterprise dataset from Spirit Airlines, which can be helpful in improving our products and AI models." What's next: A federal judge still needs to approve the deal. Go deeper.

Fresh inflation warning Data: Bureau of Labor Statistics via FRED. Chart: Emily Peck/Axios Prices for one of the world's least glamorous products — bare printed circuit boards — are skyrocketing to record levels, Axios' Emily Peck reports. That's a blazing-loud warning for more inflation to come. 🟩 The big picture: Bare printed circuit boards are the green rectangles that house silicon chips. They're in everything from smartphones and cars to medical and military equipment. 🤖 Data centers and AI labs are fueling huge price increases for computer chips — but also the simple boards that they get placed on. The Producer Price Index for the boards rose 45% in July from the same time last year. That reflects prices charged by domestic manufacturers. The U.S. produces only about 4% of the global supply, but the data still illustrates the pricing squeeze. 📈 Between the lines: The Iran war has pushed up prices for the boards' basic components: primarily resin and copper. A major manufacturer of resin in Saudi Arabia was knocked offline in April after an Iranian attack. That one plant makes 70% of the world's high-purity polyphenylene ether resin. 👀 What we're watching: Price hikes tied to higher circuit board costs will take a while to hit your wallet. Jason Miller, a professor of supply chain management at Michigan State University's business school, tells Axios: "It takes at least six months, if not a year, for these price increases fairly far upstream in the supply chain to start to make their way to end users." Go deeper.

Minnesota attorney general sues Texas governor to compel extradition of ICE agent for trial ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota’s attorney general sued the governor of Texas on Tuesday, seeking to compel the extradition of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent charged with wounding a man and then lying to justify the shooting during the agency’s crackdown in Minneapolis. https://apnews.com/article/minnesota-texas-ice-shooting-christian-castro-461acb1a459bc0ecb41fef5f728df502?

Trump Goon Hatches Wild Scheme to Give Criminals Guns The DOJ is streamlining a process to get guns back in the hands of convicted felons. Newly sworn-in Attorney General Todd Blanche has launched a new initiative to give convicted felons back their right to own guns. The Department of Justice announced Monday that people whose felony convictions automatically barred them from owning weapons can now apply to have their right to bear arms reinstated. The DOJ predicted that 330,000 felons will apply. In a statement, Blanche said, “the Second Amendment is not a second-class right, and the federal government should not permanently deprive Americans of a constitutional right without regard to whether they pose a danger to public safety.” The DOJ said the new initiative to put guns back in the hands of criminals will not extend to undocumented immigrants, registered sex offenders, or those convicted of violent crimes. Those with criminal records have typically been able to reclaim their right to own a gun if they obtained a pardon, but the pardon division within the DOJ has seen chaos in the Trump administration. The Justice Department fired its previous pardon attorney, Elizabeth Oyer, last year, after she objected to restoring gun rights to Trumpy actor Mel Gibson, who lost his gun rights as a result of a 2011 domestic violence misdemeanor conviction. “This is dangerous. This isn’t political—this is a safety issue,” she told The New York Times at the time, adding, “Giving guns back to domestic abusers is a serious matter that, in my view, is not something that I could recommend lightly, because there are real consequences that flow from people who have a history of domestic violence being in possession of firearms.” She was replaced with right-wing prosecutor Edward Martin, who defended the Jan. 6 rioters. Martin refers to himself as “Eagle Ed.” At the start of the second Trump administration, he was essentially ousted from his appointment to lead the U.S. Attorney’s Office in D.C. as it became clear he would not have the votes in the Senate to be confirmed. He was prominently involved in Trump’s crazed “Stop the Steal” movement, in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election, and he served on the board of the Patriot Freedom Project, which raised money to support defendants from the Jan. 6 insurrection attempt and their families. Martin hailed the new push to restore gun rights to felons, saying in a statement that he is “proud to serve and defend our great Second Amendment.” “President Trump keeps making history—this time by his unprecedented restoration of firearms rights to millions of Americans,” his statement continued. https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-goon-todd-blanche-hatches-wild-scheme-to-give-criminals-guns/? ps:What a pathetic administration!!!!!

Trump Busted as Brazen Mail-In Voting Hypocrite The president called mail-in voting “inherently corrupt” just last month. Mail-in voting critic Donald Trump has voted in Florida’s Republican primary—with a mail-in ballot. Local voting records obtained by Politico show that Trump, 80, returned his Republican ballot to Palm Beach County, Florida, on August 13, ahead of Tuesday’s primary. Among the contests is the race for governor, where polls have shown Rep. Byron Donalds, a recipient of the president’s endorsement, as the frontrunner. The White House maintains there’s nothing odd about Trump, who called mail-in voting “inherently corrupt” during a speech last month, utilizing the practice. “As President Trump has said, the SAVE America Act has commonsense exceptions for Americans to use mail-in ballots for illness, disability, military, or travel — but universal mail-in voting should not be allowed because it’s highly susceptible to fraud,” White House spokesperson Olivia Wales told the Daily Beast in a statement. “As everyone knows, the President is a resident of Palm Beach and participates in Florida elections, but he obviously primarily lives at the White House in Washington, D.C. This is a non-story.” In March, Trump voted by mail in a special election in the state legislature. In that race, he could have voted in person, since he had spent the previous two weekends at Mar-a-Lago, and early in-person voting was available through the latter Sunday. Trump trashed mail-in voting the same week he cast his ballot. “Mail-in voting means mail-in cheating,” he complained at a roundtable event. “I call it ‘mail-in cheating,’ and we’ve got to do something about it.” The SAVE America Act, which he has been trying to pass for months, would ban most voting by mail and require voters to present proof of citizenship in person when registering to vote. Trump urged passage of the legislation once again later Monday night in a Truth Social post. “Earlier this month, India’s Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, asked our Administration — How can you have Elections in the U.S. without a valid Photo ID?” he wrote. “India’s last Election had 646,000,000 Voters! Less than 1% voted by mail, and every single Voter had to have a VALID Photo Identity Document. We need to pass THE SAVE AMERICA ACT, now!” After the Supreme Court rejected his attempt to restrict the amount of mail-in ballots that can be counted, Trump has openly toyed with the idea of calling a national emergency to assert greater control over the election process. https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-busted-as-brazen-mail-in-voting-hypocrite/? ps:What apathetic hypocrite!!!!!!!!!!

In response to those who have stated that they do not know of any person who had died from a herbal medicine. Death can be complicated and the result of several factors. Kratom is a herbal item, very available in many parts of the world. It is highly addictive, and dangerous. Medical intervention may be required to cease use. It was a major factor in the 2024 death of my second son, David.

ABC sues FCC over challenge to its broadcast licenses, saying actions present ‘existential threat’ Further escalating its battle with the Trump administration, ABC on Tuesday took the rare step of suing the Federal Communications Commission on First Amendment grounds, saying the agency’s demand for early review of its broadcast licenses posed an “existential threat” to the network. https://apnews.com/article/abc-fcc-kimmel-disney-lawsuit-8c379d4d4dc90e97a8ef57371f203bfa?

👋 Good morning! Exciting news: GeoSports is back in Yahoo Sports AM, and I'll be writing the questions every Tuesday. In today's edition: The new face of sports ownership, the AL's hilarious wild card race, Buckeyes top preseason poll, the NBA's national attractions, "Confessions of a Jumbotron Addict," and more. Yahoo Sports AM is written by Kendall Baker and Jeff Tracy. Let's sports...   🚨 ICYMI HEADLINES ⚾️ NL MVP duel heats up: Shohei Ohtani and Pete Crow-Armstrong are now in dead heat for the NL MVP (-110) after both went nuclear with nearly identical games on Monday (4-5, 2 HR, 3 RBI). PCA's second blast was a walk-off to reach 30 HR and 30 SB on the year. ⛳️ LIV cancels finale: LIV Golf has officially canceled its team championship in Michigan, the latest in a series of setbacks. This week's event in Indianapolis will now be the season finale as the reeling tour tries to reimagine itself "as a fundamentally new league" moving forward. 🎾 Williams sisters lose in reunion: Venus and Serena Williams played their first official doubles match together since 2022 on Monday at the Cincinnati Open, where they fell in three sets to Peyton Stearns and Marta Kostyuk in the first round. 🏈 Colts add Allen: The Colts have struck a one-year, $8.32 million deal with Keenan Allen, whose 1,055 career receptions rank second among active players (behind Travis Kelce's 1,080) and 13th all-time. That's music to Daniel Jones' ears. 📉 Nike hits 12-year low: Nike stock dropped 4% on Monday for its lowest close ($39.09) since September 2014. The stock has now plummeted nearly 80% from its all-time high in 2021 amid sales declines and persistent turnaround skepticism.   📈 FAMILY BUSINESS THE NEW FACE OF SPORTS OWNERSHIP (Grant Thomas/Yahoo Sports) How rich do you need to be to buy a professional sports team? As valuations soar, being a regular old billionaire isn't enough anymore. Jeff Eisenberg, Yahoo Sports: In spring of 1979, Jerry Buss received the phone call he had been waiting for. Jack Kent Cooke was ready to sell off his Southern California sports empire. Cooke had just gone through an acrimonious split with his wife of 40-plus years. He needed an influx of quick cash to help pay for a divorce settlement that would ultimately cost a staggering $41 million. Buss began cozying up to Cooke as soon as he learned the media and real estate tycoon might be amenable to making a deal. For more than a year, Buss periodically visited Cooke in Las Vegas to talk basketball, build rapport and discuss the framework of a potential sale. By late May, a Monopoly-like deal came together that The New York Times labeled "the largest single financial transaction in the history of professional sports" — and also the most "confusing" and "complicated." Cooke demanded that Buss acquire New York's iconic Chrysler Building for him, as well as properties in several other states. In return, Cooke sold Buss the Forum for $33.5 million, the Los Angeles Lakers for $16 million, the Los Angeles Kings for $8 million and his sprawling 13,000-acre ranch in the Sierras for $10 million. "When it was all done, there were enough escrow papers to fill a library and enough lawyers to fill the Forum," Jeanie Buss recalled in her 2010 memoir, "Laker Girl." Jerry and Jeanie Buss, pictured in 2006. (M. Phillips/WireImage) Flash forward: What seemed like an exorbitant price at the time looks like a bargain decades later as valuations skyrocket. The team Buss paid $16 million for a half-century ago just sold for $12.5 billion — and the Lakers are far from the only sought-after franchise in pro sports. Sportico last week valued the Cowboys at $15.5 billion and eight other NFL franchises at more than $10 billion. The Warriors are worth more than $11 billion, according to both Forbes and Sportico. Same with the Knicks, per JP Morgan. Even a forlorn franchise like MLB's Athletics has soared in value despite currently playing home games in a Triple-A stadium and having an owner notorious for investing as little as possible in the on-field product. A franchise that sold for $180 million in 2005 is now worth $2 billion, according to Forbes. (Grant Thomas/Yahoo Sports) The end of the family business? Jerry Buss envisioned the Lakers as something his family could own for generations. But the same explosion in value that made his children extraordinarily wealthy has made that model increasingly difficult to sustain. When teams are worth $10+ billion, the pool of individuals who can buy them shrinks — while the incentive for heirs to cash out grows as institutional capital rushes in. Which brings us to Monday: The Buss family released a statement announcing their intention to sell their remaining 17.8% stake in the Lakers to the new majority ownership group. Hours later, Jeanie Buss — Jerry's eldest daughter and the current governor of the team — said that she will contest any attempt to sell, setting the stage for a potential legal fight over the final remnants of the family business.   ⚾️ WILD CARD RACE WHO WANTS THE FINAL PLAYOFF SPOT? (MLB) They're calling it the best worst playoff race in MLB history. Up for grabs: The race for the American League's final wild card spot is hilarious. Just a bunch of mediocre-to-bad teams duking it out for a spot in the postseason… where one of them will inevitably get hot and make the World Series. Baseball, baby!   🏈 TOP 25 THE PRESEASON POLL IS HERE (Yahoo Sports) The Big Ten has the top two teams in the preseason AP Top 25, with Ohio State (40 first-place votes) coming in at No. 1 and Oregon (14 first-place votes) coming in at No. 2. Rounding out the top five: Georgia, Notre Dame (6 first-place votes) and Texas. Wire-to-wire? The Buckeyes will try to become the first preseason No. 1 since 2017 (Alabama) to finish the season on top of the rankings. Last year's preseason No. 1 team, Texas, finished ranked No. 12. Notably absent: For the first time since 2011, Clemson finds itself unranked in the preseason poll. The Tigers received just 112 votes, making them technically the "No. 26" team in the country. Who takes a tumble? In 22 of the past 23 seasons, at least one AP preseason Top 10 team finished the year unranked. Three did last year: No. 2 Penn State, No. 4 Clemson and No. 9 LSU. Which Top 10 team(s) will crash out in 2026?   📺 SCHEDULE RELEASE THE NBA'S NATIONAL ATTRACTIONS (Grant Thomas/Yahoo Sports) The NBA released its national TV schedule last week, including games airing on NBC, Peacock, ESPN, ABC and Prime Video. The allocation of games tells us much about who the league and its broadcast partners view as the biggest draws and most marketable teams. Maxed out: Teams can play a maximum of 34 nationally televised games. Just four teams received that maximum allotment: the 76ers, Spurs, Lakers and Knicks. Represented are LeBron James' new team, Victor Wembanyama, the most expensive franchise in sports history and the reigning champs. Risers and fallers: Offseason roster movement can produce significant shifts in television visibility, with some teams gaining exposure and others losing it. Giannis Antetokounmpo's move to Miami produced a 36-game swing between his new and old teams. Risers: 76ers (+20 games), Heat (+20) Fallers: Bucks (-16), Clippers (-13) Out in the cold: Five teams are tied for the fewest nationally televised games in the league. The Nets, Grizzlies, Bucks, Pelicans and Kings share that unwanted distinction, ensuring that they'll be nearly invisible outside of their local markets in the year ahead. Condolences to all the Zach Edey and Domantas Sabonis superfans out there, as well as those still holding Zion Williamson stock.   📺 VIEWING GUIDE WATCHLIST: TUESDAY, AUG. 18 PCA is doused by his teammates after Monday's walk-off blast. (Michael Reaves/Getty Images) ⚾️ White Sox at Cubs The Crosstown Series continues tonight at Wrigley Field (8:05pm ET, TBS), where the second-place Cubs (73-53) host the first-place White Sox (65-59) following Monday's series-opener — a 7-5 Cubs win on Pete Crow-Armstrong's walk-off homer in the 10th. Party like it's 1906? If the standings hold, this will be the first time since 2008 that both Chicago teams make the playoffs (not including the COVID-shortened 2020 season). And though it's a long shot, that leaves open the possibility for the first Windy City World Series since 1906. More to watch: 🏀 WNBA: Fever at Tempo (7pm, ESPN); Dream at Aces (9pm, ESPN) … Indiana (23-12) goes for its fifth straight win in Toronto (10-23); Vegas (24-12) vs. Atlanta (21-13) is a potential first-round playoff matchup. 🎾 Cincinnati Open: Round of 32 (11am, Tennis) … Taylor Fritz, Daniil Medvedev, Aryna Sabalenka, Coco Gauff and more take the court.   🌍 LET'S PLAY GEOSPORTS Exciting news! GeoSports is back in Yahoo Sports AM, and I'll be writing the questions every Tuesday. Starting next week, we'll also be adding standings and prizes. How to play: You'll be asked five trivia questions that combine sports with geography (like the question pictured above). Tap where it happened! The closer you are, the more points you get.   🍿 SPORTS SHORTS WATCH: "CONFESSIONS OF A JUMBOTRON ADDICT" Yahoo Media Group and The Nonfiction Hotlist invited filmmakers worldwide to submit documentary shorts for recognition and distribution. Nearly 1,000 filmmakers answered the call — and now, the results are in! Five films were selected in the Sports category, and we'll be sharing one each day this week ahead of our inaugural Film Festival this weekend. Title: Confessions of a Jumbotron Addict Director: Mickey Duzyj Runtime: 9 minutes About the film: For one Brooklyn Nets superfan, getting on the Jumbotron is more than a game, it's a mission. Armed with outrageous dance moves and boundless enthusiasm, he turns a personal obsession into an unforgettable quest for connection, celebration, and a place in the spotlight.

August 18, 2026 The Spiritual Senses “O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.” (Psalm 34:8) Frequently, Scripture uses our five physical senses in a figurative way to help us comprehend our interaction with God’s spiritual presence and power. We can “see,” for example, with spiritual eyes. Paul prayed thus for the believer: “The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints” (Ephesians 1:18). Similarly, we are privileged to hear the voice of the Lord with spiritual ears. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27). “A stranger will they not follow . . . for they know not the voice of strangers” (John 10:5). The sense of touch is the sense of feeling, and God can both touch and be touched. We read, for example, of “a band of men, whose hearts God had touched” (1 Samuel 10:26). Of Jesus Christ, it is said that He is not a remote deity “which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities” (Hebrews 4:15). Even people who never knew Him can perhaps “feel after him, and find him” if they truly desire His great salvation (Acts 17:27). We can even become “unto God a sweet savour of Christ” (2 Corinthians 2:15). To the world, the faithful Christian life and testimony can either be “the savour of death unto death” to those who refuse it or “the savour of life unto life” (v. 16). Finally, we are exhorted actually to taste the Lord and see that He is good! His Word will be, according to our needs, either “sincere milk” (1 Peter 2:2), “strong meat” (Hebrews 5:14), or “sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb” (Psalm 19:10). HMM

How much land do wildfires burn in the US? US wildfires burned 5.1 million acres in 2025, down 43% from 2024. Since 1983, fires have burned more than 230 million acres—over 2x California's size. https://usafacts.org/articles/how-much-damage-do-wildfires-do-in-the-us/? What share of Medicaid costs do states pay? The state share of Medicaid ranged from 21.9% in New Mexico to 43.8% in Massachusetts in fiscal year (FY) 2024. On average, states paid 35.2% of the overall spending on the health insurance program, with the rest coming from the federal government. https://usafacts.org/answers/what-share-of-medicaid-costs-do-states-pay/country/united-states/? One last fact The middle class had $13.6 trillion in household wealth in the first quarter of 2026, 8% of the nation’s total. That’s an average of $503,300 per middle-class household. Over half of middle-class wealth was in real estate (35.9%) and retirement accounts (19.8%).

A coalition of parents from diverse faith traditions is asking the justices to overturn a contentious ruling that declared a decades-old church-state precedent defunct. The post ACLU Appeals Texas Ten Commandments Law to Supreme Court appeared first on ReligiousLiberty.TV. View the full article

1 death linked to Tropical Storm Lala as more than 100,000 remain without power in Hawaii HONOLULU (AP) — Thousands were without power Monday after Tropical Storm Lala uprooted trees from downtown Honolulu to the Big Island, where intense flash-flooding and strong winds isolated already-remote communities. https://apnews.com/article/hawaii-lala-hurricane-tropical-storm-damage-446cc73e6f3f72636cd593aa61f100cc?

Judge blocks the Trump administration from moving FBI headquarters to DC office building The decision found that the administration illegally tossed out a previously approved plan to build a new facility nearby in Maryland, picked during former President Joe Biden’s administration. Trump’s appointees sought to repurpose the Ronald Reagan Building instead. Read more. Why this matters: The ruling is the latest development in a yearslong battle over the FBI’s main office. The suit was brought by the state of Maryland and Prince George’s County. “This is not the first time courts have tried to undermine the administration in its goal to make government more cost-effective for American taxpayers,” the FBI said in a statement. “The court has chosen to impermissibly intervene for political reasons.” RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Justice Department watchdog to review DEA tactic that permitted deadly fentanyl to hit streets DOJ creates a new pathway to restore gun rights for some convicted of felonies Supreme Court again rebuffs Trump’s push to toss out $5 million verdict in E. Jean Carroll case SCOTUS asked to review Texas law requiring the Ten Commandments in public schools

Trump threatens Oman as it works with Iran on a Strait of Hormuz deal Iran said it has reached an agreement with Oman over a plan for ships to transit the Strait of Hormuz. President Donald Trump told Fox News that the U.S. would bomb Oman if it “gets in the way.” Fully reopening the waterway has been a key U.S. demand. Read more. Why this matters: This is not the first time that Trump has threatened Oman. In May, he told reporters during a Cabinet meeting that “Oman will behave just like everybody else, or we will have to blow them up.” Meanwhile, the 60-day negotiating period to find a peace deal between the United States and Iran was expiring, with no word of an extension and both sides seemingly as far apart as they were at the start. RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Where things stand as deadline for an Iran peace deal passes The ripple effects of the Iran war could threaten education for millions of kids around the world Marathon US-Israel meeting produces no firm commitment to American plan for Gaza Trump’s slight of South Korea in favor of the North raises broader US security concerns