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In the news today: Pope Leo XIV celebrates his first Mass after his historic election; the Trump administration invokes state secrets privilege in El Salvador deportation case; and a newly created, US-backed group seeks to take over Gaza aid distribution. Also, how a mother’s kidney donation gave her daughter a ‘second chance at life’ as they graduate nursing school together. |
Pope Leo XIV on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Thursday. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
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Leo XIV elected as the first American pope |
Pope Leo XIV celebrates his first Mass on Friday after his historic election as the first North American pope, meeting with the cardinals who chose him to lead the Catholic Church and follow in Pope Francis’ footsteps. Read more. |
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The Chicago-born Augustinian missionary Robert Prevost surprised the world Thursday when he emerged on the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica, overcoming the traditional prohibition against a pope from the United States. There had long been a taboo on a U.S. pope, given America’s superpower status in the secular world, but Prevost prevailed, perhaps because he’s also a Peruvian citizen and had lived for years in Peru, first as a missionary and then as bishop.
Since arriving in Rome, Prevost had kept a low public profile but was well-known to the men who count. Francis tapped him to be head of the Vatican’s powerful Dicastery for Bishops, which vets bishop nominations around the world and, significantly, he presided over one of the most revolutionary reforms Francis made, when he added three women to the voting bloc that decides which bishop nominations to forward to the pope.
- Vatican watchers said Prevost’s decision to name himself Leo was particularly significant, suggesting continuity with some of Francis’ chief concerns: Brother Leo was the 13th century friar who was a great companion to St. Francis of Assisi, the late pope’s namesake. Leo has also cited one of Francis’ key priorities of making the Catholic Church more attentive to lay people and inclusive.
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Trump administration invokes state secrets privilege in Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s case
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The Trump administration is invoking the “state secrets privilege” in an apparent attempt to avoid answering a judge’s questions about its mistaken deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador. Read more.
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The Republican administration previously invoked the same legal authority to cut off a judge’s inquiry into whether it defied an order to turn around planes deporting Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador. The administration has balked at telling U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis what, if anything, it has done to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S.
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Abrego Garcia, 29, has been imprisoned in his native El Salvador for nearly two months. His mistaken deportation has become a flash point for President Donald Trump’s immigration policies and his increasing friction with the U.S. courts. Trump has said he could call El Salvador’s president and have Abrego Garcia, who was living in Maryland, returned to the United States. Instead, Trump has doubled down on his claims that Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang.
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A US-backed group seeks to take over Gaza aid distribution in a plan similar to Israel’s
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The AP has obtained a proposal from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a group of American security contractors, ex-military officers and humanitarian aid officials, that lays out plans to take over the distribution of food and supplies in Gaza, currently run by the U.N. and other international agencies. It is based on plans similar to those designed by Israel. Read more.
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The U.N. and aid groups have rejected Israel’s moves to control aid distribution. A U.N. official said that Israel’s plans would “weaponize aid” by placing restrictions on who is eligible to receive it. Aid workers say the plans could not possibly meet the needs of Gaza’s desperate population, and that it would forcibly displace Palestinians by driving them to move nearer to the aid.
Israel has blocked food, fuel, medicine and all other supplies from entering Gaza for 10 weeks, worsening a humanitarian crisis for 2.3 million Palestinians. It has said it won’t allow aid back in until a system is in place that gives it control over distribution.
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The Trump administration supports the new group’s proposal, said a person involved in it. The person spoke on condition of anonymity. Ahead of his trip to the Middle East this week, U.S. President Donald Trump said “a lot of talk” was going on about Gaza and that his administration will soon have more to say about a new proposal. This may include a new push for a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, the release of hostages and an influx of aid to Palestinians.
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