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Ilhan Omar’s Daughter Says She Is ‘Honored’ To Be in Cuba

PUBLISHED
MAR 22, 2026 AT 08:12 PM EDT

UPDATED
MAR 22, 2026 AT 08:13 PM EDT

By Adeola Adeosun

Weekend Night Editor

Isra Hirsi, the daughter of Democratic Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar, publicly defended her visit to Cuba on Sunday, saying on social media she was "honored to be here" and "honored to make history" on the island amid escalating tensions between Havana and Washington.

Omar later reposted her daughter's message on X.

Why It Matters

Hirsi's visit comes as U.S.-Cuba relations are at a particularly volatile point. President Donald Trump has publicly floated the idea of "taking Cuba in some form," while Havana has said its military is actively preparing for the "possibility of military aggression" from the United States. The trip — and Hirsi's public defense of it — is likely to draw sharp criticism from Republicans, who have long targeted her mother over her progressive politics and immigration background.

What To Know

Hirsi responded to a New York Post X post that characterized her trip and those of others as "tone-deaf," writing: "yes i am in cuba! people are here from across the globe to express solidarity with the Cuban people. people who are standing against the oppressive blockade exacerbated by the trump administration. i am honored to be here. i am honored to make history and Eid Mubarak to all."

Cuba is currently grappling with a severe energy crisis, driven in large part by a U.S. campaign to restrict oil shipments to the island. Trump signed an executive order threatening tariffs on any country that exports fuel to Cuba, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio has publicly signaled support for leadership change in Havana. The island has experienced repeated nationwide blackouts throughout March, and Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel has warned that any external aggressor would face "impregnable resistance."

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Trump says he will award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Ben Carson

President Donald Trump speaks during the American Cornerstone Institute’s Founder’s Dinner at George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate in Mount Vernon, Va., Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

BY MEG KINNARD

Updated 10:13 PM EDT, September 20, 2025

President Donald Trump said Saturday that he will award Ben Carson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, the third such award he’s announced this month.

“Congratulations, Ben. He didn’t know this,” Trump said in a speech during an event at Mount Vernon for American Cornerstone Institute, founded by Carson. “He didn’t know it. I hope he’s happy.”

A former neurosurgeon who ran against Trump for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, Carson, 74, went on to serve as Housing and Urban Development secretary during Trump’s first administration.

The one-time rivals developed a strong bond, and Carson — seen at one point as among the top contenders for Trump’s running mate in the 2024 campaign — served as Trump’s national faith chairman during last year’s race.

A staunch social conservative who has opposed abortion rights and same-sex marriage, Carson has become a popular conservative speaker and author.

The Medal of Freedom, established in 1963, is awarded to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, or cultural or other significant public endeavors.

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HONORING THE MEMORY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS

Presidential Actions

Proclamations

April 21, 2025

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

As a mark of respect for the memory of His Holiness Pope Francis, by the authority vested in me as President of the United States by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I hereby order that the flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff at the White House and upon all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its Territories and possessions until sunset, on the day of interment. I also direct that the flag shall be flown at half-staff for the same length of time at all United States embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-first day of April, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-five, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-ninth.



DONALD J. TRUMP

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Catholic Joe Biden Honors Abortion, Gay Marriage Activists With Presidential Medal

(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Jaryn Crouson

Contributor

January 03, 20254:24 PM ET

President Joe Biden awarded gay marriage and abortion activists with Presidential Citizens Medals Thursday.

Mary Bonauto, an attorney and gay marriage activist who argued before the Supreme Court in Obergefell v. Hodges, which created a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, and Evan Wolfson, a leading gay marriage activist, are among 20 recipients of the prestigious award presented at the White House Thursday. Eleanor Smeal, who led national pro-abortion campaigns and routinely criticized the Catholic Church’s position on abortion and sexuality, was also awarded.

“The Presidential Citizens Medal is awarded to citizens of the United States of America who have performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens,” the White House announcement stated. “President Biden believes these Americans are bonded by their common decency and commitment to serving others. The country is better because of their dedication and sacrifice.”

The medal is one of the highest awards a civilian can receive.

Biden Gives Medal of Freedom to Hillary Clinton, George Soros, and more

Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony Honoring Senator Bob Dole

P.S. 

Chaplain of the U.S. Senate Barry Black (SDA) closing prayer;

@ 1:09:15 mins.

open-
Eternal Lord God...
close-

We pray this in your great Name... Amen.

Chaplain Barry Black has forgotten how to pray to Our Heavenly Father, and doing it in JESUS' Name.

Americans awarded France’s highest honor after stopping European train attack

Europe



Men who disarmed gunman get France's highest honor


Play Video 1:48

French President François Hollande awarded France's highest honor, the Legion d'honneur, to three Americans and a British man who helped disarm a machine gun-toting suspected Islamist militant on a train bound for Paris. (Reuters)

By Michael Birnbaum August 24 at 6:15 AM

BRUSSELS — One of the Americans who prevented a bloodbath on a high-speed European train serves in the Air Force. Another is in the Oregon National Guard. On Monday, the enlisted men became knights — of the Legion of Honor — along with two others who took part in the rescue, as French President François Hollande awarded them France’s highest decoration.

In a solemn ceremony held in France’s glittering Elysée Palace, the seat of the presidency, Hollande said the four men had averted a catastrophe when they tackled and trussed a heavily armed man who had opened fire on the train.

The men have resisted being labeled as heroes, saying that they gave little thought to their actions until after the heat of the moment. At the ceremony, the trio of Americans, friends since childhood, dressed modestly in polo shirts and khakis. But Hollande said their coolness under fire was a lesson to all of France — and the world.

“You have shown that in the face of terror, you can resist,” Hollande said before he pinned the ribbons on the men’s chests. “So you have given us a lesson of courage, of determination and therefore of hope.”

“There were over 500 passengers on that train. Ayoub el-Khazzani possessed over 300 bullets. And we realize now how close we were to a tragedy and a massacre,” Hollande said, formally identifying the suspect in the shooting for the first time, a Moroccan man just short of his 26th birthday.


Gunman taken down by Americans aboard a French train 



A gunman opened fire on a high-speed train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris on Friday, wounding two people before being subdued by three American passengers.


The men who were awarded the medals were Airman 1st Class Spencer Stone, of California; Specialist Alek Skarlatos, just returned from a deployment to Afghanistan; their childhood friend Anthony Sadler, and British businessman Chris Norman. Hollande said he also intended to award the honor to Mark Moogalian, a dual French-American citizen who also took part in the rescue and was severely wounded, and a French citizen who was the first to try to disarm the shooter and has asked to remain anonymous.

Hollande pinned the red ribbons and five-pointed medal on each man’s chest, then kissed each on one cheek, then the other. The two servicemen plan to proceed with their families to Germany for further medical treatment, while Sadler plans to return home to California to start his senior year of college, they said Sunday.


Read more

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Resolution honoring Pope Francis stalls in US Congress, with little Republican support

Catholic World News - July 30, 2014



A Congressional resolution honoring Pope Francis for his “inspirational statements and actions” has stalled on Capitol Hill, with Republican Party leaders reluctant to move it forward.

The resolution, welcoming the election of the first Pope from the Americas and praising his spiritual leadership, was introduced by two lawmakers, a Democrat (Rep. John Larson of Connecticut) and a Republican (Peter King of New York). The resolution now has 221 co-sponsors.

But only 19 of the lawmakers backing the bill are Republicans. The Hill cites a Republican backer of the measure as saying that some conservative legislators have withheld their support because of papal statements that have been interpreted as critical of free-market economic policies, or supportive of President Obama.

As Congress approaches recess, the resolution has not been moved out of the foreign affairs committee in the House of Representatives. Rep. Larson, the co-author of the measure, has asked the Speaker of the House, John Boehner, to schedule a vote. In his letter making that plea, Larson reminded the Speaker that he (Boehner) had issued an invitation for Pope Francis to address a joint session of Congress.

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Memphis may finally name city street after King

Photo (Courtesy) http://blog.chron.com/40yearsafter/2008/04/kings-last-march-part-3-the-assassination/

By Adrian Sainz

Associated Press / January 12, 2012

MEMPHIS, Tenn.—In the more than four decades since the Rev. Martin Luther King was assassinated on the balcony of Memphis' Lorraine Motel, about 900 U.S. cities have named local streets for him. Memphis is not one of them, though there is a stretch of interstate bearing his name.

Now Memphis officials will consider a naming a key downtown street for the civil rights icon after years of inaction that some say reflects a sense of shame and denial in the city where he was cut down.

The proposal to rename nine blocks of Linden Avenue to Dr. Martin Luther King Avenue is expected to pass Thursday when it comes before the Memphis and Shelby County Land Use Control Board. As of Tuesday, the board hadn't received any comments opposing the honor for King, who was killed by assassin James Earl Ray on April 4, 1968.

Berlin Boyd, a former city councilman, came up with the proposal earlier this year while still in office and it easily passed. He predicts it will pass the land use board, with a naming ceremony expected to take place on April 4. The board has final say unless an appeal is filed within 10 days.

The street re-naming is being seen by many Memphians as a symbol that the city is taking steps to heal the wound caused by the assassination.

""It was something that had a place in my heart for some time," Boyd told The Associated Press. "Here is a city where Martin Luther King's blood cries from the streets, and we don't have anything to pay tribute to him."

King came to Memphis to support a sanitation workers strike in 1968 in what became his final act as a civil rights leader. The National Civil Rights Museum is built at the site of the former Lorraine Motel, where King stayed while supporting the sanitation workers. A wreath marks the spot on the balcony where King was shot.

The Rev. James Netters, who marched with King and the sanitation workers as a city councilman, said he proposed naming a street for King in the early 1970s, but the City Council voted to dedicate a stretch of Interstate 240 to him instead.

Supporters say renaming Linden Avenue for King is more significant than the dedication of the interstate because the avenue is in the heart of the city's downtown and residents will have to use the avenue's name to give directions. They also say that new businesses along it -- including two hotels set for construction -- will use the King address, giving the street more importance and visibility.

Netters, 84, said he does not know why another proposal did not appear before now, a sentiment echoed by many others.

"Memphis can't do enough," Netters said. "Any honor that we dedicate to him is very, very critical."

Kenneth Whalum, a school board member and Memphis native who was 12 years old when King was killed, said no street has been named after King because Memphis has been in a state of denial and depression over the assassination.

"Just as when you lose any loved one, you get depressed," Whalum said. "For the last 43 years we've hoped that the incident didn't happen. We wished it would disappear and go away."

Boyd chose Linden Avenue because he saw a sign with the street's name in a photo taken of a rally led by King. The avenue runs in front of the Clayborn Temple -- where King rallied with members of the civil rights movement -- and the FedExForum, the arena where the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies play their home games.

It runs parallel to Beale Street, the famous Memphis tourist drag, and is near the offices of the local chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the union that King came to Memphis to defend.

One of the advantages of choosing Linden Avenue is that no businesses will have to change their address with the name change, according to the land use board's report on the street re-naming.

The report, which recommends approval, notes that Linden Avenue is not named after a real person, so no one will be offended that their family name is being stripped from the downtown avenue. The name honors Under the Linden Trees Boulevard, over which the Brandenburg Gate was built in Berlin, Germany.

Should the proposal pass, Memphis would be added to the long list of cities, both big and small, that honor King with a street name. About 75 percent of the roughly 900 cities are found in 10 Southern states, with Georgia leading the way, said Derek Alderman, an East Carolina University geography professor who penned a 2006 study, "Naming Streets for Martin Luther King Jr.: No Easy Road."

Next in line are Texas, Mississippi, Florida, Louisiana and Alabama.

Alderman says cities have endured heated debates over naming streets after King: A common dispute centers on whether to select a street that is in a predominantly black neighborhood, or one that cuts across racial boundaries and "embodies the message that King was preaching when he was alive."

Alderman also notes that naming a street after King is an appropriate way to honor him because African-Americans looked to movement and transportation as ways of challenging and changing the racial status quo and creating racial equality. The Underground Railroad, the Freedom Riders and King's protest marches and leadership of the Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott are good examples, he said in his study.

"Street naming can be a pretty powerful way of honoring somebody when you consider the way streets connect people," Alderman said. "A significant amount of the actual mechanics of protest and the mechanics of carrying out the civil rights movement was actually carried out in street level protests and marches."

Renaming Linden Avenue for King may change the way residents give directions, but it also may help Memphis live down any shame and embarrassment that comes with being the city where King was assassinated.

Boyd said acknowledging King with his own street may be a symbol that Memphis is making strides in eliminating racial tensions and is finally dealing with King's death.

"We have to start embracing the heritage of our city," Boyd said. "Until we understand who we are as a city, we will always be left behind."

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The Lord is Merciful

Micah 7

1Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grapegleanings of the vintage: there is no cluster to eat: my soul desired the firstripe fruit.

2The good man is perished out of the earth: and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net.

3That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward; and the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire: so they wrap it up.

4The best of them is as a brier: the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge: the day of thy watchmen and thy visitation cometh; now shall be their perplexity.

5Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide: keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom.

6For the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter in law against her mother in law; a man's enemies are the men of his own house.

7Therefore I will look unto the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me.

8Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light unto me.

9I will bear the indignation of the LORD, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness.

10Then she that is mine enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her which said unto me, Where is the LORD thy God? mine eyes shall behold her: now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets.

11In the day that thy walls are to be built, in that day shall the decree be far removed.

12In that day also he shall come even to thee from Assyria, and from the fortified cities, and from the fortress even to the river, and from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain.

13Notwithstanding the land shall be desolate because of them that dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings.

14Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thine heritage, which dwell solitarily in the wood, in the midst of Carmel: let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.

15According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I shew unto him marvellous things.

16The nations shall see and be confounded at all their might: they shall lay their hand upon their mouth, their ears shall be deaf.

17They shall lick the dust like a serpent, they shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth: they shall be afraid of the LORD our God, and shall fear because of thee.

18Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.

19He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.

20Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.

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Fairest Lord Jesus

1.Fairest Lord Jesus, ruler of all nature,
O thou of God and man the Son,
Thee will I cherish, Thee will I honor,
thou, my soul's glory, joy, and crown.

2. Fair are the meadows, fairer still the woodlands,
robed in the blooming garb of spring:
Jesus is fairer, Jesus is purer
who makes the woeful heart to sing.

3. Fair is the sunshine, fairer still the moonlight,
and all the twinkling starry host:
Jesus shines brighter, Jesus shines purer
than all the angels heaven can boast.

4. Beautiful Savior! Lord of all the nations!
Son of God and Son of Man!
Glory and honor, praise, adoration,
now and forevermore be thine.

Text: Munster Gesangbuch;

trans. by Joseph August Seiss

Music: Schlesische Volkslieder; arr. by Richard Storrs Willis

Tune: ST. ELIZABETH, Meter: 568.558

Text file
Plain MIDI Piano Organ Bells
Piano score (pdf file)