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A Prayer for the Feast Day of Saint Scholastica
Assist us, O God, to love one another as sisters and brothers, and to balance discipline with love and rules with compassion, according to the example shown by thy servant Scholastica; for the sake of thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be all honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen.
Today's the feast of St Scholastica, 6th Century foundress and sister of St Benedict. here she is on the early 16th Century roodscreen at Wiggenhall St Mary the Virgin, Norfolk, a church now in the care of @TheCCT. 1/2#MedievalWomen#MedievalMonday pic.twitter.com/nkogyvvDpl
— Simon Knott (@SimoninSuffolk) February 10, 2025
A Prayer to begin the day from the ACNA Prayerbook
O Lord, our heavenly Father, keep your household the Church continually in your
true religion, that we who trust in the hope of your heavenly grace may always be
defended by your mighty power; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and
reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, now and for ever. Amen.
'Look, up at the sky.
— Grace (@BeOrNotToBe_1) February 10, 2025
There is a light, a beauty up there, that no shadow can touch.'
J.R.R. Tolkien
. pic.twitter.com/k0CUvqjSS3
From the Morning Bible Readings
See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand. It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh that would compel you to be circumcised, and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. For even those who receive circumcision do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may glory in your flesh. But far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. Peace and mercy be upon all who walk by this rule, upon the Israel of God.
Henceforth let no man trouble me; for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brethren. Amen.
–Galatians 6:11-18
On a gloomy February day it has been great to see the signs of spring approaching in the last week 💛
— The Royal Parks (@theroyalparks) February 10, 2025
📍 Hyde Park pic.twitter.com/bl8BktleGB
A Prayer to begin the day from the Church of England
O God,
you know us to be set
in the midst of so many and great dangers,
that by reason of the frailty of our nature
we cannot always stand upright:
grant to us such strength and protection
as may support us in all dangers
and carry us through all temptations;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
Ich wünsche euch einen schönen Sonntag! pic.twitter.com/V2XFlzQNMe
— Die Bergziege (@brauchtfreiheit) February 9, 2025
From the Morning Bible Readings
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation which addresses you as sons?—
“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
nor lose courage when you are punished by him.
For the Lord disciplines him whom he loves,
and chastises every son whom he receives.”
–Hebrews 12:1-6
Steps well travelled. A beautiful start to Sunday here in Glastonbury this morning. Taken at sunrise from Glastonbury Tor. pic.twitter.com/Psya0S4i5Q
— Michelle Cowbourne (@Glastomichelle) February 9, 2025
A Prayer for the Feast Day of Josephine Margaret Bakhita
O God of Love, thou didst deliver servant Josephine Margaret Bakhita from the bondage of slavery to serve you in true freedom; by her example help us to see those enslaved among us, and work to release them from their chains. In your mercy, give to all survivors healing from their wounds and joy in their liberation; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
"Seeing the sun, the moon and the stars, I said to myself, 'Who could be the Master of these beautiful things?'" Saint Josephine Bakhita (1869 – 1947). More: https://t.co/WWzvuOO3sW pic.twitter.com/qVR9QNI4mA
— Bishop Earl Boyea (@BishopBoyea) February 8, 2025
A Prayer to begin the day from Kenya
Out of the depths, O Father, we wait for your wisdom. Out of the silence, O Jesus, we listen for your voice. Out of the heavens, O Holy Spirit, we wait for your gifts.
–from the Kikuyu people of Kenya (slightly edited; KSH).
Grand Rising#WeekendVibes #SaturdayMotivation #winter #weather #StormHour #sunrise #grandrising#GoodVibesOnly #jefinuist #Scotland #OuterHebrides pic.twitter.com/2VD9oD9gpa
— DaliMach (@frenchscotjeff) February 8, 2025
From the Morning Scripture Readings
For not from the east or from the west and not from the wilderness comes lifting up; but it is God who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another…
–Psalm 75:6-7
Cambridgeshire is not as well known for its spires as neighbouring Northants and Lincs, but there's a memorable group of them along the A14 between Huntingdon and Thrapston. Spaldwick is the biggest. The church against it, with aisles and a clerestory, is not a small one. 1/3… pic.twitter.com/1CJHgvf8GA
— Simon Knott (@SimoninSuffolk) February 8, 2025
(Church Times) Keep us in dioceses or risk a bureaucratic mess, safeguarding officers warn C of E General Synod
“Detaching the Church of England’s safeguarding staff from their current employers will almost inevitably create additional barriers to communication and cooperation, harming service delivery. Given that ‘service delivery’ in this context involves protecting children and vulnerable adults, any barriers whatsoever could have the most serious consequences,” the letter says.
“There is no doubt that transferring staff from 85 current employers to one yet-to-be-created employer will be destabilising, expensive, and likely to take far longer than expected,” the letter argues. “No other equivalent organisation in the UK employs its safeguarding staff in a separate body.”
It continues: “The disruption to recruitment and retention of staff, to existing relationships, and to morale would be considerable. Moreover, new structures bring new problems: a large national organisation is at least as likely to multiply layers of management as it is to improve frontline service delivery.”
Safeguarding professionals across the Church of England have urged the General Synod’s members not to back a proposal to outsource their work to a new national body https://t.co/aXrKJSuLfH
— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) February 5, 2025
(CT) Evan Howard–Living Like a Monk in the Age of Fast Living
While it’s true that traditional monasticism is declining in many historic Christian traditions, new monasticism—the contemporary reappropriation of monastic wisdom—is still very much alive. More than that, the movement is gaining a new and growing following among the next generation and is meeting universal human needs that are felt more now than ever.
In our global digital age, many Christians are rediscovering the importance of community, the value of rhythms and routines amid chaotic circumstances, and the need for deeper commitment to spiritual formation. Over the past five years alone, the pandemic, incidents of racial injustice, and the church abuse crisis have led to a wake-up call. We are realizing that it may be worth sacrificing modern comforts and conveniences to live out our highest ideals and potential as God’s people and that we may need to look back in order to go forward.
Some believers have been sensitive to these needs for a long time—people who consider themselves “new monastics” (like me), who are fascinated by the desert elders’ courage to relocate to abandoned places. We are intrigued by the idea of living in a close community and making serious commitments to fundamental values. We wonder if establishing communal rules for life might tame the wild horse of late modern culture and help us better order our lives around the gospel.
Today, this reappropriation is taking the form of devotional apps like Lectio 365, introductory virtual classes on contemplative prayer, repurposed convents in Europe, and prayer spaces in alleyways and financial districts. It looks like Christian university campus houses establishing their own rules of life or communal discipleship programs, and small “colleges” of Christian students attending larger universities. It is happening through globally dispersed organizations like OMS, which takes prospective members through stages of preparation and vow-taking in a digital initiation process modeled after traditional religious orders.
(BBC) Ecuador chooses president against backdrop of gang violence
“The entire town feels like it is in a pandemic, locked up without being able to go out and enjoy our lives due to violence.”
That is how “Jorge” – not his real name – feels about his neighbourhood of Guayaquil, a city in southern Ecuador.
His father, Marcos Elías León Maruri, was kidnapped there by the Los Tiguerones gang.
A person is killed every two hours in Ecuador and seven are kidnapped daily, according to government figures.
That’s why security is the top issue for voters ahead of the first round of the presidential election on Sunday, in which incumbent Daniel Noboa is being challenged by 15 other candidates.
Whoever wins will be tasked with restoring security to the country, which has gone from being one of the safest to among the most dangerous in the region.
Read it all (Hat tip-BBC World News America).
Ecuador chooses president against backdrop of gang violence https://t.co/LGXIXTbUaa
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) February 7, 2025
(FT) Big Tech lines up over $300bn in AI spending for 2025
Big Tech’s massive spending on artificial intelligence is set to continue unchecked in 2025 after Amazon topped its rivals with a planned $100bn-plus investment in infrastructure this year.
Spending by the four leading US tech companies had already surged 63 per cent to historic levels last year. Now executives are vowing to accelerate their AI investments, dismissing concerns about the vast sums being bet on the nascent technology.
Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and Meta have reported combined capital expenditure of $246bn in 2024, up from $151bn in 2023. They forecast spending could exceed $320bn this year as they compete to build data centres and fill them with clusters of specialised chips to remain at the forefront of AI large language model research.
The scale of their spending ambitions — announced alongside their fourth-quarter earnings — has surprised the market and exacerbated a sell-off caused by the release of an innovative and cheap AI model from Chinese start-up DeepSeek in late January.
Big Tech is set to spend over $300 billion on AI this year. pic.twitter.com/7AL7J7i5mY
— Brew Markets (@brewmarkets) February 7, 2025
(Local paper) More substance use treatment and mental health care through Medicaid could lower deaths
They are often called “dual diagnosis patients:” those who are in need of both mental health services and substance abuse treatment. Getting them better treatment and offering more treatment through Medicaid could help to reduce South Carolina’s high rate of opioid overdoses, officials said.
Nationally, about 35 percent of mental health patients have a dual diagnosis for substance use but under South Carolina Medicaid, it is less than 1 percent of patients. Officials say it is clearly underdiagnosed and may be due to a problem drug treatment centers have in being able to bill Medicaid for some services. The state got a $7.2 million federal grant to implement a new model that makes integrated care easier and SC Medicaid is also pursuing more than $5 million in next year’s budget to increase reimbursements.
Interim Director Eunice Medina of the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees Medicaid in South Carolina, made the need clear in her budget presentation Jan. 22. Speaking to members of the House Ways and Means Healthcare Subcommittee, she pointed to some grim statistics: South Carolina had the 10th worst opioid overdose rate in 2022 and those deaths had risen six percent from the previous year.
More substance use treatment and mental health care through Medicaid could lower deaths https://t.co/hUD1lMpElt
— The Post and Courier (@postandcourier) February 3, 2025
A Prayer to begin the day from the Church of England
God of our salvation, by your Spirit help us to turn away from those habits which harm our bodies and poison our minds and to choose again your gift of life, revealed to us in Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen (slightly edited; KSH).
Happy Friday all! pic.twitter.com/H0lIoPLo56
— David Oxtaby (@Disc_light) February 7, 2025
From the Morning Bible Readings
And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves; and he was transfigured before them, and his garments became glistening, intensely white, as no fuller on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Eli′jah with Moses; and they were talking to Jesus. And Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is well that we are here; let us make three booths, one for you and one for Moses and one for Eli′jah.” For he did not know what to say, for they were exceedingly afraid. And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.” And suddenly looking around they no longer saw any one with them but Jesus only.
And as they were coming down the mountain, he charged them to tell no one what they had seen, until the Son of man should have risen from the dead. So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what the rising from the dead meant. And they asked him, “Why do the scribes say that first Eli′jah must come?” And he said to them, “Eli′jah does come first to restore all things; and how is it written of the Son of man, that he should suffer many things and be treated with contempt? But I tell you that Eli′jah has come, and they did to him whatever they pleased, as it is written of him.”
–Mark 9:2-13
A Fabulous February Friday… what more can I say!
— Cloudymamma (@cloudymamma) February 7, 2025
Dog walked and it is a beautiful morning in Inverness
Scottish Highlands 🏴☀️😎#ThePhotoHour @WoodlandTrust 🐿️👣🐾 #LoveUkWeather@metoffice #Mindfulness pic.twitter.com/Heje6vn4NQ
(New Statesman) Tim Wyatt–There is no solution to the Church of England permacrisis
Independent safeguarding was once unthinkable, but today few observers think the Synod can afford to vote down the proposals. Given the revelations of the past few months, it would be approaching institutional suicide for the Church to reject the opportunity to rebuild trust and demonstrate its determination to stop abusers and keep vulnerable people safe.
But in the desperate rush to be seen to be doing something to stop the relentlessly critical headlines, few have considered what independence will not fix. The same people who investigated Perumbalath and concluded there was no evidence he was a safeguarding risk will still constitute the safeguarding team; they will just work for a different employer. Safeguarding cases will still be based on the often-conflicting accounts of the only two people in the room at the time of the alleged incident. There will still be cases that cannot be resolved in the way survivors and their increasingly vocal advocates would like. Who will listen to and support dissatisfied and wounded survivors, if not the Church? And what happens when the independent safeguarding authority clears someone the CofE hierarchy believes to be guilty?
Safeguarding independence will not be an end the Church’s state of permacrisis. In fact, the Synod vote will probably create as many new problems as it solves old ones. The weary vicars wondering when they can stop bracing for the next scandal cannot relax yet.
"If the Church of England was not in crisis before, it certainly is now."
— The New Statesman (@NewStatesman) February 6, 2025
Tim Wyatt: There is no solution to the Church of England permacrisis https://t.co/T7bXLQP72Y
(Economist Leader) The vast, sophisticated and fast-growing global enterprise that is Scam Inc
Edgar met Rita on LinkedIn. He worked for a Canadian software company, she was from Singapore and was with a large consultancy. They were just friends, but they chatted online all the time. One day Rita offered to teach him how to trade crypto. With her help, he made good money. So he raised his stake. However, after Edgar tried to cash out, it became clear that the crypto-trading site was a fake and that he had lost $78,000. Rita, it turned out, was a trafficked Filipina held prisoner in a compound in Myanmar.
In their different ways, Edgar and Rita were both victims of “pig-butchering”, the most lucrative scam in a global industry that steals over $500bn a year from victims all around the world. In “Scam Inc”, our eight-part podcast, The Economist investigates the crime, the criminals and the untold suffering they cause. “Scam Inc” is about the most significant change in transnational organised crime in decades.
Pig-butchering, or sha zhu pan, is Chinese criminal slang. First the scammers build a sty, with fake social-media profiles. Then they pick the pig, by identifying a target; raise the pig, by spending weeks or months building trust; cut the pig, by tempting them to invest; and butcher the pig by squeezing “every last drop of juice” from them, their family and friends.
The industry is growing fast….
Online scamming is a vast, sophisticated and fast-growing global enterprise that compares in size and scope to the illegal drug industry. Except that in many ways it is worse. As our investigation finds, nobody is safe from Scam Inc https://t.co/MMKm0TeOIW pic.twitter.com/QIUMvOCjDW
— The Economist (@TheEconomist) February 6, 2025
[(London)Times] Social media for children ‘like cancer risk of smoking’
‘[UK head of counterterrorism Matt Jukes] suggested that social media should be restricted for children in a similar way to smoking.The senior policing figure said the UK could not afford to take the same amount of time to tackle the impact of social media as that of smoking.Jukes said: “If I give you a parallel with the harm caused by smoking, by 1950, it was clear that smoking was causing lung cancer and killing people’
Read it all (subscription).
The harm created by social media is similar to the “cancer” caused by smoking, Britain’s head of counterterrorism has claimed, as he called for a ban on its use by children ⬇️https://t.co/CUf5cfmmh6
— The Times and The Sunday Times (@thetimes) February 6, 2025
(EF) Ten killed in gun attack on school for adults: “Worst in Swedish history”
Rudenstrand, who is deputy general secretary of the Evangelical Alliance, explained that “Örebro is a church-dense city”, and that it is encouraging to see that “many churches have opened for counseling and prayer. This is our task as the Body of Christ: to weep with, mourn with, and comfort those who suffer”.
“My prayer is that both those who were wounded and those who have lost loved ones will find comfort and strength during this difficult time”, he added. “That Jesus will make his presence felt to those who are grieving, especially those who have lost family members”.
Asked what the attacker’s motives might be, Jacob Rudenstrand remarked that police have found no evidence of an ideological motivation for the attack so far. But “even if an investigation may provide some answers, many questions will not be satisfied”, he said.
In a time in which Sweden has “experienced a sharp increase in bombings in recent years, mainly related to conflicts between warring criminal gangs, this will leave a mark for a long time. Now is a time for mourning”.
Kommenterar attacken på min gamla gymnasieskola i @Evan_Focus:
— Jacob Rudenstrand (@JRudenstrand) February 5, 2025
”My prayer is that both those who were wounded and those who have lost loved ones will find comfort and strength during this difficult time.” https://t.co/f2zXwDOYY8
A Prayer for the Feast Day of the Martyrs of Japan
O God our Father, who art the source of strength to all thy saints, and who didst bring the holy martyrs of Japan through the suffering of the cross to the joys of life eternal: Grant that we, being encouraged by their example, may hold fast the faith that we profess, even unto death; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Martyrdom of 23 Franciscan friars in Nagasaki #otd 5 February 1597, this image probably made for their beatification in 1627. (British Museum) pic.twitter.com/WmqmO3UReq
— John McCafferty (@jdmccafferty) February 5, 2025
A Prayer to begin the day from the Leonine Sacramentary
Grant, we beseech thee, O Lord our God, that in whatever dangers we are placed we may call upon thy name, and that when deliverance is given us from on high we may never cease from thy praise; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Good morning! 😀
— Gary Holpin | Photography (@GaryHolpin) February 6, 2025
Finally on 'Sunrise & sunset' week is a beautiful foggy sunrise over the rolling Dorset landscape near Bridport…
It's my fave photo of the week for the beautiful light – if you agree, please share the love with a repost! #dailyphotos #stormhour #Thursday pic.twitter.com/9Hb81G1k3K
From the Morning Bible Readings
“Seek the Lord while he may be found,
call upon him while he is near;
let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
and return not thither but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
–Isaiah 55:6-11
This beautiful wisteria-covered house in Sirmione, Italy. pic.twitter.com/O5NuYcj5kJ
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) February 6, 2025
(C of E) Response to South African Church’s report on John Smyth
“The Makin Review already made clear that information about Smyth’s abuse was reported to the police (on a number of occasions) and to ACSA. ACSA’s own review confirms today that they did receive this information from the Diocese of Ely in 2013. While they state that they have not found any evidence of abuse by Smyth within their churches, they do admit that the Diocese of Cape Town’s communication of the danger which Smyth posed between when they were informed of that danger (2013) and when he died (2018) fell short of what the circumstances demanded.
“This is sobering to read. I am glad both that ACSA rapidly commissioned their own review in response to the Makin Review, and that they are now transparent about its findings. We join them in penitence for the failings of our Churches and in redoubling our efforts to care for and listen to victims and survivors, and to take all necessary and possible steps to respond well to all allegations of abuse.”
The Panel of Inquiry into the Anglican Church of Southern Africa's handling of serial abuser John Smyth’s presence in South Africa has noted a disturbing delay in fully implementing measures evolved over decades to grapple with abuse within the church
— Cape Times (@CapeTimesSA) February 4, 2025
🔗https://t.co/mHIeJRMche
Ashley Null elected as New Bishop for North Africa
The Episcopal/Anglican Diocese of North Africa is delighted to announce that The Revd Canon Dr Ashley Null has been elected as the next bishop of North Africa. The Electoral Synod met on 4 February in N’Djamena, Chad, in the context of a Diocesan Synod that will continue until 6 February.
If the Synod of the Province of Alexandria confirms this election Dr Null will become the second, and first elected, bishop of the Diocese of North Africa, covering five countries (Algeria, Chad, Libya, Mauritania and Tunisia) and including the territory of the see of St Augustine of Hippo.
Ashley Null elected Anglican Bishop of North Africa https://t.co/K997BYdPlG via @Anglican Ink © 2025
— Duane Alexander Miller (@DrDuaneMiller) February 6, 2025
(RMC) Bishops ‘deeply shaken’ at events around Bishop of Liverpool’s departure
Bishop Philip North said: “I’m just devastated, really, that this mess that we’re seeing unfolding since the publication of the Makin review undermines good work.
“Tremendous, heroic work was going on at ground level with parish safeguarding officers and clergy going to tremendous lengths and taking safeguarding seriously.
“I can totally get why trust in bishops is at such a low ebb. It really is at a low ebb. And there are reasons for that. We’ve seen poor judgment. We’ve seen, quite possibly, poor behaviour. We felt trapped, I think quite often, by systems and structures.
“I can’t deny there’s huge reputational damage done to the church at a national level, to the standing of bishops and to the perception of the church and the Church of England, and we feel still to be very much on the back foot, very much on the defensive”.
Asked whether the bishops’ moral authority had gone after the scandals, he said most people had a knowledge of the Church of England through the parish church. Nationally, reputation needed to be restored.
College of Bishops ‘very, very deeply shaken’ by recent events in the diocese of Liverpool, media briefing hears https://t.co/g8xWYE4UZP
— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) February 5, 2025
(Economist) The data-centre investment spree shows no signs of stopping
If investment in data centres is about to slow, nobody told Mark Zuckerberg. On January 29th, during an earnings call, Meta’s boss boasted that the social-media giant had plans to build an artificial-intelligence (AI) data centre “so big that it’ll cover a significant part of Manhattan if it were placed there”.
His timing was conspicuous. Only two days earlier the share prices of firms from Nvidia, a chipmaker, to Dell, a manufacturer of servers used in data centres, had nosedived in response to the release of a new AI model created by DeepSeek, a Chinese firm. Its training costs were a fraction of those for similarly powerful Western models, raising questions over how much computing power—and investment—is needed to develop ai systems.
Although many of those share prices have since recovered, the episode has brought increased scrutiny to the huge sums of money that are being spent on data centres. Meta and America’s three big cloud-service providers—Alphabet, Amazon and Microsoft—forked out a combined $180bn on data-centre infrastructure last year. Add in spending by smaller tech firms, telecoms providers, big enterprises and data-centre operators such as Digital Realty and Equinix, and the figure rises to around $465bn. Land, buildings and peripheral gear such as electrical equipment make up about 30% of that, with chips, server racks, networking kit and the like accounting for the rest. Cashed-up private-equity firms such as Blackstone have been lured in by the spending boom, undertaking a record $70bn-worth of data-centre deals last year.
The data-centre investment spree shows no signs of stopping https://t.co/SckehPpeGp
— Marc Baronnet (@baronnet) February 5, 2025
(WSJ) Trump’s Next Fight With Mexico: Designating Drug Cartels as Terrorists
Cartels are deeply entwined with the Mexican economy. Many of the tomatoes, bell peppers and cucumbers consumed in the U.S. are grown in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, where many farmers pay the cartel for water for their fields. Businesses such as mining companies and avocado growers are widely believed to pay extortion money to cartels.
“For better or for worse, this will likely force Mexican businesses and the Mexican government to confront pervasive cartel influence,” said Andrew Kaufman, an international lawyer who is counseling Mexican and multinational firms on the expected FTO designations.
Trump’s executive order took note of the cartels’ vast reach. The order gives the secretary of state—in consultation with other cabinet members—14 days to determine which Mexican cartels should be designated as FTOs. Then, key members of Congress have seven days to comment before the designation takes legal effect.
The order accuses the Mexican cartels of infiltrating governments and destabilizing countries across the Americas.
President Trump wants to deploy a blunt new tool to fight Mexican cartels that flood the U.S. with drugs, by adding them to a list of terrorist groups that includes the likes of al Qaeda and Hamas https://t.co/pZ2amUzOxO
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) February 5, 2025
A Prayer for the Feast Day of Agatha of Sicily
Almighty and everlasting God, who didst strengthen thy martyr Agatha with constancy and courage: Grant us for the love of thee to make no peace with oppression, to fear no adversity, and to have no tolerance for those who wouldst use their power to abuse or exploit; Through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be all honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen.
Today is the feast of St Agatha, 3rd Century Sicilian martyr. Here she is on a 15th Century rood screen panel from St John Maddermarket, Norwich, now in the @V_and_A Museum, London. 1/3 pic.twitter.com/oNykmiulUr
— Simon Knott (@SimoninSuffolk) February 5, 2025
A Prayer to begin the day from the Church of England
Almighty God,
by whose grace alone we are accepted and called to your service:
strengthen us by your Holy Spirit
and make us worthy of our calling;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
#RozeWolkjes om het #Veerhuis. Fijne woensdag😀 #zonsondergang pic.twitter.com/oCEZMHfxO6
— Tjark Dieterman (@DietermanTjark) February 5, 2025
