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By Peter Wolfgang – catholicherald.co.uk — Here Catholic pro-family activist Peter Wolfgang argues that, despite his failings, Donald Trump did much for the Church and for the causes she supports, and that we will miss him when Biden becomes president. In the companion article, theologian Holly Taylor Coolman argues that, whatever good he may have done, many of his actions were deeply opposed to Catholic teaching, and that alliance of many Catholics with him damaged the Church. Donald Trump’s presidency ended in disaster. He lost his bid for reelection. Democratic victory in the Georgia Senate runoffs will put the pro-life and religious liberty causes at an extreme disadvantage in Washington. Worst of all, the MAGA raid on the U.S. Capitol will be hung around the neck of these good causes for years to come. This is, by all the appearances, the hour of the Catholic Never-Trumper. But appearances can be deceiving. For all the ignominy of Trump’s bitter end, Catholics were right to vote for him. In fact, the Catholic Church will soon come to miss Donald Trump. Here are five reasons why.

by reuters — President Joe Biden signed 15 executive actions shortly after being sworn on Wednesday, undoing policies put in place by his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump, and making his first moves on the pandemic and climate change. Signing several actions in front of reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday afternoon, Biden said there was “no time to waste” in issuing the executive orders, memorandums and directives. “Some of the executive actions I’m going to be signing today are going to help change the course of the COVID crisis, we’re going to combat climate change in a way that we haven’t done so far and advance racial equity and support other underserved communities” said Biden. “These are just all starting points”

Aides said the actions the Democratic president signed included a mask mandate on federal property and for federal employees, an order to establish a new White House office coordinating the response to the coronavirus, and halting the process of withdrawing from the World Health Organization. Biden signed a document to begin the process of re-entering the Paris climate accord and issued a sweeping order tackling climate change, including revoking the presidential permit granted to the contentious Keystone XL oil pipeline. Among a raft of orders addressing immigration, Biden revoked Trump’s emergency declaration that helped fund the construction of a border wall and ended a travel ban on some hostile countries.

BEIJING (Reuters) – China said on Wednesday it wanted to cooperate with President Joe Biden’s new U.S. administration, while announcing sanctions against “lying and cheating” outgoing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Alex Azar and 26 other top officials under Donald Trump. The move was a sign of China’s anger, especially at an accusation Pompeo made on his final full day in office that China had committed genocide against its Uighur Muslims, an assessment that Biden’s choice to succeed Pompeo, Anthony Blinken, said he shared. In a striking repudiation of its relationship with Washington under Trump, the Chinese foreign ministry announced the sanctions in a statement that appeared on its website around the time that Biden was taking the presidential oath.

Pompeo and the others had “planned, promoted and executed a series of crazy moves, gravely interfered in China’s internal affairs, undermined China’s interests, offended the Chinese people, and seriously disrupted China-U.S. relations,” it said. The other outgoing and former Trump officials sanctioned included trade chief Peter Navarro, National Security Advisers Robert O’Brien and John Bolton, Health Secretary Alex Azar, U.N. ambassador Kelly Craft and former top Trump aide Steve Bannon. The 28 ex-officials and immediate family members would be banned from entering mainland China, Hong Kong or Macao, and companies and institutions associated with them restricted from doing business with China. Pompeo and others sanctioned did not respond to requests for comment. The U.S. State Department also did not respond.

By BY ANCHAL VOHRA — foreignpolicy.com —New information suggests that the thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate that exploded at the Port of Beirut on Aug. 4, killing more than 200 people and doing some $15 billion in property damage, may have been intended for the Syrian government. The Lebanese government’s official story until now has been that the cargo’s destination was Mozambique. But an investigation by a Lebanese filmmaker that was aired on the local network Al Jadeed has established a link between three Syrian businessmen who backed Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian war and what appears to be a shell company that bought the explosives. Attention now turns to whether Fadi Sawan, a former military judge charged with investigating the tragedy, can leverage these new facts to hold the perpetrators—both foreign and domestic—accountable. But Lebanon’s government elites are also ramping up their own attacks on his reputation and his work. Foreign Policy reported in August that the Rustavi Azot chemicals factory in Georgia that supplied the explosives had been paid for 2,750 tons of explosives, yet Fábrica de Explosivos Moçambique (FEM), the company that ostensibly had it shipped, never claimed it. Now, a copy of a document obtained by Foreign Policy shows that while Rustavi Azot was the seller, the buyer was not FEM directly but a firm registered in London called Savaro. The sale contract shows the date of the purchase as July 10, 2013, when the Syrian war was at its peak. MV Rhosus, the ship that carried the cargo, docked in Lebanon that November and was then impounded as unseaworthy.

The United Kingdom’s Companies House registrar reveals that Savaro’s addresses are shared by properties previously owned or operated by the Syrian businessman George Haswani and brothers Mudalal and Imad Khuri, all three of whom are dual Syrian-Russian nationals. The man believed to own the ship, Igor Grechushkin, is Russian, too. Haswani received a doctorate in 1979 in the then-Soviet Union and is among the more seasoned intermediaries between Russia and the Syrian regime. Widely known as Moscow’s man in Damascus, he has a history of brokering deals with jihadi outfits as well as regime-backed shabiha, or militias. A Syrian businessman from Yabroud, Haswani’s birthplace, spoke to FP on the condition of anonymity and said: “Haswani is known to resolve disputes between locals and shabiha. But he also knew ISIS and [the Nusra Front].” Haswani is known to have negotiated the release in 2014 of a group of Greek Orthodox nuns who had been seized by the Nusra Front, an al Qaeda affiliate that has since been folded into the active Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. In 2015, Haswani was sanctioned by the United States for allegedly buying oil for the regime from the Islamic State, which controlled oil-rich parts of Syria at the time. Haswani also co-owned the now liquidated Hesco Engineering and Construction Co., which was listed under the same address as Savaro. That address matches the one written on the sale contract seen by Foreign Policy.

by arabnews.com — DUBAI: Former US President Donald Trump’s daughter, Tiffany, has announced her engagement to her Lebanese partner Michael Boulos this week. The engagement pictures were taken on Tuesday at the White House, a few hours before her father left the office. Tiffany took to social media to express her excitement. “It has been […]

by BY KEN STICKNEY — theadvocate.com — Thirty-seven years after terrorists exploded a truck bomb in a Marine barracks in Lebanon, killing 241 U.S. military personnel, Iran has started to pay. Among the victims that day: Lex Trahan, 19, a Comeaux high graduate and the lone child of Percy “Blackie” Trahan and his wife, Shirley, of Lafayette. Attorney Warren Perrin, who represents the Trahan family, said he was notified Sunday that the first payment — $300,000 — of an almost $50 million settlement had arrived. Settlement of the suit will be made as assets of the Iranian regime are secured. They will generally be reaped from seizure of illegal goods; in this case, the payment to the Trahans and others was made by capturing an Iranian ship that was trying to illegally evade an embargo last year. Payments will vary according to how much illegal goods are seized. Perrin said Trahan’s father, “Blackie,” the sole remaining member of the family, was “really moved” that the initial payment of the settlement had arrived. His wife died in 2019.

Lafayette family awarded nearly $50 million for son’s death in Marine Barracks terrorism case Lex Trahan joined the Marines in 1982 and planned to attend college when his service was complete. His intention was to work in the energy industry. But first Trahan, a combat engineer, was assigned to duty in Beirut, Lebanon, as part of a multinational peacekeeping effort. His room was on the third floor of a four-story dormitory when a terrorist driving a truck loaded with some 2,500 pounds of explosives broke through steel fences and sandbags at 6:20 a.m. Oct. 23, 1983, creating an explosion that left a crater 30 feet deep and 40 feet wide. The death toll included 220 Marines, 18 Navy sailors, three Army soldiers and some 60 French peacekeepers.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Swiss authorities have opened an investigation into money transfers by Lebanon’s Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh, a Lebanese government official told Reuters on Tuesday. Salameh denied any wrongdoing. “Both the prime minister and the president are in the loop” on the inquiry which is also looking into Salameh’s brother and assistant, said the official who asked to remain anonymous. The Swiss attorney general’s office said it had requested legal assistance from Lebanon in the context of a probe into “aggravated money laundering” and possible embezzlement tied to the Lebanese central bank.

But in responding to questions from Reuters, it did not say whether Salameh was a suspect and declined further comment. A source familiar with the case said the Swiss asked Lebanese authorities via the embassy to ask Salameh, his brother and assistant “specific questions” about transfers abroad made in recent years that amount to nearly $350 million. Lebanon’s crippled banking system is at the heart of a financial crisis that erupted in late 2019. Banks have since blocked most transfers abroad and cut access to deposits as dollars grew scarce. The meltdown has crashed the currency, prompted a sovereign default and doomed at least half the population to poverty.

By: Agnes Helou — defensenews.com — BEIRUT — A shipment of 100 armored patrol vehicles sailed from the U.K. on Tuesday as a donation from the British government to the Lebanese Armed Forces to secure the northern and eastern borders. The Land Rover RWMIK — or Revised Weapons Mounted Installation Kit — vehicle package is worth £1.5 million (U.S. $2 million) and “will further reinforce the stability on the Lebanese border with Syria and help the LAF to counter efforts by terrorists and smugglers to cross into the country,” according to the news release issued by the U.K. Embassy in Lebanon. The U.K. previously supported Lebanon’s military by deploying four land border regiments, constructing more than 75 border towers, providing 350 Land Rovers, and training more than 11,000 LAF personnel to counter extremists and smugglers seeking to infiltrating Lebanon from Syria, which has been a problem for years. “I am delighted that the U.K. has been able to help with this donation. These vehicles will make a real difference to the work of the land border regiments, whose efforts make life safer for all communities in Lebanon,” said Martin Longden, Britain’s special envoy to Syria. “It’s a great practical example of the friendship and collaboration between the armed forces of our two countries, and the U.K.’s genuine commitment to a strong and stable Lebanon.”

Lebanese expert and retired security forces brigadier Naji Mlaeb stressed the necessity of such vehicles to support the country’s border security mission. “These vehicles will facilitate the transportation of armed forces in the rugged terrain of the borders, whether northern or eastern ones, where most roads between the towers are not even paved but are dirt roads opened by the Lebanese Army to move between towers,” Mlaeb told Defense News. “As the borders with Syria are very long, there is an impossibility to monitor them through personnel or even mines to prevent sneaking or smuggling. That’s why the Land Rover RWMIK will facilitate the four regiments’ mission in border security.”

by thearabweekly.com — BEIRUT – Lebanon’s top Christian cleric has urged President Michel Aoun to set up a reconciliation meeting with Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri to form a cabinet and end the country’s political deadlock. “The tragic state of the country and the people does not justify any delay in the forming of (new) government,” Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rai said at his Sunday sermon at his seat in Bkirki. “The door leading to the road of a solution is the formation of a salvation Cabinet made up of Lebanese elite, personalities who succeeded in Lebanon and the world,” he added. The country’s fractious politicians have been unable to agree on a new administration since the last one quit in the aftermath of the August 4 Beirut port explosion, leaving Lebanon rudderless as it sinks deeper into economic crisis.

Tensions between Aoun and Hariri, who publicly traded blame in December after failing to agree to a cabinet, came to a head last week when a leaked video showed Aoun apparently calling Hariri a liar. Rai said at his Sunday sermon that the situation in Lebanon was now “tragic” and there was no excuse to further delay forming a government. “We wish that his Excellency the president takes the initiative and invites the prime minister-designate to a meeting,” he said. Veteran Sunni politician Hariri was named premier for a fourth time in October, promising to form a cabinet of specialists to enact reforms necessary to unlock foreign aid, but political wrangling has delayed the process. The leaked video that circulated on social media last week showed Aoun talking to caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab about Hariri. “There is no government formation, he (Hariri) is saying he gave me a paper, he is lying,” Aoun is heard saying. Sources in the president’s office said the dialogue had been taken out of context and was not complete. After the video circulated, Hariri tweeted Biblical verses referring to wisdom not residing in bodies that were amenable to sin.

by arabnews.com — NAJIA HOUSSARI — BEIRUT: Lebanon’s health minister in the caretaker government, Hamad Hassan, who is in hospital fighting a coronavirus infection, has signed the first payment of financial dues for government and private hospitals from the country’s World Bank loan. The decision came after hospitals protested against delays in the paying of bills for coronavirus treatments. About 15,000 beds have been allocated in Lebanese hospitals for use by COVID-19 patients, with 13,000 in private hospitals and 2,000 in government hospitals. But every bed in Lebanon’s hospitals is occupied, together with emergency departments, where hundreds of patients wait for beds to become available. Lebanon’s nationwide lockdown is scheduled to remain in effect until Monday. It will be reviewed after the country’s infection rate is examined in the coming days. Salma Assi, head of the Medical Equipment and Devices Importers Syndicate, said: “Companies received their requests for oxygen equipment today. Some companies expect to receive their requests during this week and others at the end of the week.”

Lebanon is facing a lack of oxygen machines following a huge surge in demand as the coronavirus pandemic wreaks havoc on the country, with some citizens stockpiling them for private use. Assi said: “A mechanism has been put in place to prevent the monopoly of these machines so that the device is delivered based on a doctor’s order, only if a patient can prove a positive PCR test. “There are a lot of machines on the market. We do not know how they were brought or how effective they are. They were sold on the black market.” Lebanon’s lockdown measures have also been compromised in parts of the country. Health violations were recorded in popular areas after shop owners and craftsmen pretended to close their businesses, but continued to trade behind closed doors.