The parachute of the Enhancing Parachutes by Instrumenting the Canopy test experiment deploys following an air launch from an Alta X drone on June 4, 2025, at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California.
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BRISTOL, CT — ESPN hosts reminded the nation Friday that watching women’s basketball games is a mandatory activity strictly enforced by the governing authorities.
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The Maryland home of former National Security Advisor John Bolton was raided by government agents today, leaving the public wondering what the FBI was looking for — and what they found.
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A close-in image of a protoplanetary disc HH 30 around a newly formed star produced by NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. It is surrounded by jets and a disc wind, and is located in the dark cloud LDN 1551 in the Taurus Molecular Cloud. Herbig-Haro objects are small nebulae found in star formation regions, marking the locations where gas outflowing from young stars is heated into luminescence by shockwaves. HH 30 is an example of where this outflowing gas takes the form of a narrow jet. The source star is located on one end of the jet, hidden behind an edge-on protoplanetary disc that the star is illuminating.
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Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate former Rep. Abigail Spanberger speaks during an Everytown for Gun Safety rally on April 10, 2025, in Alexandria, Virginia. / Credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images
CNA Staff, Aug 22, 2025 / 14:08 pm (CNA).
Years-old video that surfaced this week showed Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger endorsing assisted suicide and appearing to suggest that even religious hospitals should be required to perform the procedure.
The footage, which shows then-U.S. House candidate Spanberger at a 2018 campaign event, depicts the Democrat being asked about her position on “legislation that would legalize medical aid in dying,” a common euphemism for assisted suicide.
Yikes. In one video, Spanberger endorses assisted suicide and violating the religious beliefs of Catholic hospitals. Clearest, non-word salad answer I’ve ever heard her give. Must be important to her. https://t.co/CmiV3Kvh0I
— Glen Sturtevant (@GlenSturtevant) August 13, 2025
“I support and I would support legislation that legalizes the right to die with dignity of a person’s choosing,” Spanberger responded. “That would include allowing for medical providers to provide prescriptions for life-ending prescriptions.”
Spanberger at the same time was asked to speak on “permitting religious health care institutions to dictate what their physicians are allowed to discuss with their patients.”
“I oppose the ability of religious institutions to put their religious-based ideas on individuals and their health care choices and options,” she responded in the video.
“I believe that we should trust people to have relationships with their health care providers that lead them to make strong decisions based on their medical practices, and I do not believe that people should have the option to allow their own personal beliefs to dictate the type of medical care that they are providing their patients,” she said.
The Democrat is running against current state Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears.
Spanberger’s campaign did not respond to multiple requests for comment on Friday morning asking if she still supports assisted suicide or forcing individuals and hospitals to perform it.
The resurfaced video generated backlash online this week. Republican State Del. Geary Higgins wrote that Spanberger’s remarks were “absolutely unbelievable.”
“Not only will religious organizations that do not believe in assisted suicide have to talk about it, they will have to make it available,” he said.
The National Right to Life Committee, meanwhile, described the Democrat’s position as “a window into how far some are willing to go to prioritize ideological consistency over constitutional rights.”
“Voters and lawmakers should take her at her word and reject the premise that the state may dictate the moral framework of faith-based institutions,” group outreach director Raimundo Rojas said.
State lawmakers in Virginia last year voted down an effort to legalize assisted suicide there. Nearly a dozen states and the District of Columbia presently allow the practice.
Ahead of the Virginia bill’s defeat in the state Legislature last year, Virginia’s Catholic bishops warned that the proposal would “[make] the most vulnerable even more vulnerable” and put them at risk of “deadly harm.”
Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington and Bishop Barry Knestout of Richmond called the bill a “lethal measure” and reminded voters that human life “is sacred and must never be abandoned or discarded.”
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Sebastien Lai, son of imprisoned free speech advocate Jimmy Lai, speaks on EWTN’s “The World Over with Raymond Arroyo” on Aug. 21, 2025. / Credit: “The World Over with Raymond Arroyo” screenshot
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 22, 2025 / 13:38 pm (CNA).
Sebastien Lai, son of imprisoned Hong Kong democracy advocate Jimmy Lai, said this week his father is “still fighting” and “holding on” as closing arguments continue in his lengthy national security trial.
Jimmy Lai, the Catholic billionaire, human rights activist, and founder of pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, has been on trial since 2023 in Hong Kong for allegations of colluding with foreign forces under a national security law put in effect by the communist-controlled Chinese government. He faces a life sentence if found guilty.
“It’s a textbook example of a show trial, of the weaponization of the legal system,” Sebastien told EWTN’s “The World Over with Raymond Arroyo” on Thursday.
“He’s not going to see a fair trial … It’s an absolute kangoo trial.”
Sebastien said the evidence brought against his father “all turned out to be completely untrue,” adding: “My father is in prison because of his journalism and because of his courage. Because he stayed to defend his people, because he dared to campaign for democracy and for human rights in Hong Kong. And that didn’t sit well with the Hong Kong government.”
While closing arguments began on Aug. 18, they continue to be postponed. Sebastien said the issue is that “the national security law is so broad,” explaining that the “rule of law” in Hong Kong, which was once fairly enforced, “no longer holds.”
“Instead of the rule of law, it’s the rule of men,” he said. “My father got more than a year in maximum security prison in solitary confinement on one of the sentences, which was for lighting a candle and saying a prayer at a Tiananmen Square massacre vigil.”
People can see it is “not just ridiculous, but how horrible it is to give someone a jail sentence over commemorating people who died, [but] who died for freedom and democracy in China.”
While “it’s an open trial” and people in Hong Kong can follow what is happening, “there’s no free press,” Sebastien said. “People are going to jail for liking social media posts or even writing on bathroom toilets … But foreign journalists can still go and local journalists can still cover parts of it. There’s at least that element of it.”
“My father said it best … when he was giving testimony: ‘My job as a journalist, as a publisher, is to hold a torch to the truth.’”
Call for international support
As leaders around the world rally to support Jimmy, Sebastien said his family is “incredibly grateful” for the help but that he thinks “it’s time to put action” behind words.
President Donald Trump recently vowed to do everything he can to bring about Jimmy’s release.
“The fact that [Trump] is still keeping my father’s case close to heart is something that I’m incredibly grateful for,” he said.
“The U.S. government is much more effective and much stronger in terms of liberating people around the world. Now that both [the U.K. and U.S.] governments are so supportive, it gives us a lot of hope as a family, but … I think the U.K. government can do more to free my father,” he said.
“But I think we are in a situation now where my father dying in jail is not beneficial for any party. It’s not beneficial for Hong Kong. It’s not beneficial for China. It’s obviously not beneficial for anybody who enjoys freedom.” Jimmy would “essentially act as a martyr if he died in prison,” Sebastien said.
Jimmy’s health concerns
“His health is not good,” Sebastien continued. “From my understanding, my father is much skinnier and much weaker, but still strong in spirit and still strong in mind.”
The Chinese government is “always trying to essentially break his spirit with all these multiple show trials. The government tells him that nobody cares about him and that he’s going to die for nothing.”
In solitary confinement, where Jimmy is most of the time, he is “in a little concrete cell, and there’s no air conditioning, so he bakes under the sun … never mind his diabetes,” the younger Lai said. Recently, Jimmy’s lawyers also shared that he is suffering from heart palpitations in prison.
As the trial continues, Sebastien said a statement his father made is what gives him hope: “‘The truth will come out in the kingdom of God, and that is good enough for me.’”
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Marta Petrosillo, editor-in-chief of the Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) Religious Freedom Report. / Credit: Gael Kerbaol/Secours Catholique
CNA Staff, Aug 22, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).
Aug. 22 marks the International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief, an annual day of awareness to draw attention to human rights related to freedom of religion.
To mark the day, Marta Petrosillo, editor-in-chief of the Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) Religious Freedom Report highlighted the current challenges Christians around the world face.
While the idea of facing persecution for one’s beliefs may seem impossible to some, Petrosillo emphasized in a press release that “it is a reality for hundreds of millions of people all over the world.” She said having days that put a spotlight on people who have experienced violence because of their religion or beliefs is important because “there’s sometimes a tendency to overlook this phenomenon.”
Petrosillo explained that there are three different kinds of religious persecution: persecution perpetuated by the state, persecution caused by religious extremism — such as jihadist groups — and persecution caused by ethno-religious nationalism.
Currently, the continent Petrosillo sees as a main concern is Africa, where in recent years religious persecution has skyrocketed.
“We see many jihadist groups perpetrating more attacks, including in countries where interfaith relations were not a problem,” she said. “Take the Democratic Republic of Congo, for instance. Historically, there have not been problems between faith communities, and it is majority Christian, but we just witnessed a major attack on Christian faithful.”
She added: “This is definitely something that is spreading in many parts of Africa, and it tends to spread from one country to another.”
Petrosillo also pointed out the situation in Burkina Faso: Where 10 years ago it was not among the countries of concern, “nowadays, it is unfortunately one of the places in the world where more jihadist attacks happen.”
Other areas with worsening situations include Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America. Petrosillo also sees concerns with religious freedoms being violated in the West.
“During the past years we saw an increase of attacks against some faith groups, vandalism against churches, and an increase of antisemitic and anti-Islamic episodes because of the war in Gaza,” she said.
“Then there is an effort to exclude religion from the public square, including what Pope Francis called ‘polite persecution.’ We are also concerned about disrespect for conscientious objections of people working in the health sector.”
Every two years ACN releases its Religious Freedom Report (RFR), which first began in 1999 with the aim of raising awareness and to report on violations of religious freedom.
“What makes it special is that the RFR is the only report produced by an NGO [nongovernmental organization] that covers the situation in all the countries in the world and for all faith groups, because if religious freedom is denied for one group, sooner or later, it will also be denied to others,” Petrosillo explained. “And for ACN, it is important that religious freedom is granted equally to all.”
This year’s report, according to Petrosillo, continues to show the worsening trend of religious freedom violations in countries around the world. However, she said she remains hopeful, as she sees “improvements in the increasing awareness, both from civil society and some governments, of what is happening.”
“This can be the game changer in order to act against the violation of religious freedom,” she said.
ACN’s most recent Religious Freedom Report, issued in June 2023, can be found here. The new report will be out Oct. 21.
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