Over the past few Sunday mornings, I was part of a soul-care cohort at our church. Repeatedly, the pastor leading the class would ask, "How is your soul?" At the start, he gave us a self-assessment to take that left many of us feeling frantic, frazzled by our own answers and our sense of urgency around improvement. Pastor Steve, sensing the frenetic energy in the room, gently called us back to the present, reminding us to slow down, pay attention, and ask God what he wants us to see and how we can invite him here.

Homan to Catholic Leaders: Illegal Immigration Isn't Victimless Read more about Homan to Catholic Leaders: Illegal Immigration Isn't Victimless

In a campaign-style rally in Pennsylvania on Dec. 9, President Donald Trump honed a message of "lower prices, bigger paychecks" ahead of next year's midterm elections. Some of his talking points on the economy missed the mark. The president falsely claimed he had "inherited the worst inflation" in U.S. history and that it "stopped" since he returned to the White House. The worst inflation period occurred after World War I, and inflation was up 3% for the 12-month period ending in September. Trump was right to say that oil prices had declined, but the data are mixed for "energy prices," a phrase he also used. The national average for a regular gallon of gasoline is $2.94. Trump claimed it was at $1.99 in three or four states, but no state average is that low. Some individual gas stations advertised such prices in four states.

Striking an uncharacteristically bipartisan tone, the US president, Donald Trump, said that Republicans and Democrats could work together on healthcare, as insurance premiums look likely to soar in January. Speaking at last night's Congressional ball, Trump said: "I really believe we can work on healthcare together and come up with something that's going to be much better, much less expensive for the people, less expensive for our nation. But really, most importantly, better and less expensive for the people." Earlier on Thursday, the Senate rejected competing proposals by Republicans and Democrats to address a looming healthcare crisis, which could leave 24 million Americans vulnerable to significantly higher costs from 1 January, when insurance premiums through the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, are on course to more than double.

In the months since the assassination of Charlie Kirk, Candace Owens has dedicated her podcast to promoting conspiracy theories about his murder on almost a daily basis without offering any credible evidence to back up her wild claims. This week, Erika Kirk broke her silence with an emotional plea to Owens to stop smearing the staff of the Turning Point USA organization that her late husband founded. Her anger is justified. It's hard to think of a more straightforward murder case than the one against accused assassin Tyler Robinson. If he's been framed, it would have entailed, among many other things, faking forensic evidence that found his DNA on the trigger of the rifle that he owned and disposed of near the site of the shooting; fabricating text messages to his lover in which he confessed to the murder; and manufacturing video surveillance footage. It would also have necessitated the collusion of FBI Director Kash Patel and his deputy, Dan Bongino, as well as Robinson's own paren…

Republicans are feeling spooked by recent special elections losses and underperformances in party strongholds, as the White House ramps up President Trump's presence on the campaign trail ahead of next year's midterm elections. On Tuesday, Democrats flipped Miami's mayoral office for the first time in nearly 30 years and won a conservative-leaning state House district in Georgia that Trump carried by 12 points last year. Those victories came after Republicans gave up ground to Democrats in a special election for Tennessee's 7th Congressional District last week and lost by wide margins in Virginia and New Jersey's gubernatorial races last month. Republicans note that while the off-year gubernatorial losses were not necessarily a surprise, upsets in GOP strongholds like Miami and the Georgia state House district have them on edge. "Republicans losing in Republican areas? That's a different story. I think that's got people freaking out," said one former Trump White House st…

In its rivalry with the United States, China has racked up a series of wins in recent weeks. The Trump administration has softened its criticism of China's Communist Party in a strategy document. It has reopened a channel for high-end chip sales that Washington once treated as untouchable. And President Trump has held his tongue as a key U.S. ally in Asia faces Chinese intimidation for backing Taiwan. For Beijing, the shifts in Washington's approach suggest that Mr. Trump has less of an appetite for confronting China over ideology, technology and diplomacy. Some commentators in China have hailed these developments as irrefutable signs of American decline and Chinese ascendancy.

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Don't Go Wobbly on China