Pope Francis Critic Brian Burch Confirmed as Vatican Ambassador
Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content.
Brian Burch, president of CatholicVote, was confirmed by the Senate Saturday as the Ambassador to the Holy See.
He wone in a party line vote of 49-44, according to a post on X by the Senate Press Gallery.
Burch, who has been critical of decisions made by the late Pope Francis, was nominated by President Donald Trump for the position earlier this year.
"I am profoundly grateful to President Trump and the United States Senate for this opportunity to serve as the next U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See," Burch said in part in a post on X following the vote Saturday. "I have the honor and privilege of serving in this role following the historic selection of the first American pope."
Burch previously said the pope's 2023 decision allowing priests to bless individuals in same-sex unions created "confusion" within the church, Newsweek previously reported.
He also predicted that the pontiff would not be in office much longer and characterized Francis' leadership as having a "pattern of vindictiveness."
This is a breaking news story. Updates to come.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Politico
2 hours ago
- Politico
'You see your child dying before your eyes, and you can't do anything'
The footage of the Israeli hostages has stirred condemnation. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was 'very shocked' by the videos and 'this unacceptable violation of human dignity,' U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said. The videos were released as international experts say a 'worst-case scenario of famine' is unfolding in the coastal territory, where Israel's offensive has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and made it nearly impossible to safely deliver food and other humanitarian aid. Images of starving Palestinians have drawn international condemnation of Israel's conduct. Families of the hostages fear that the lack of food threatens the remaining hostages, too. Fewer than half of the 50 remaining hostages are believed to be alive, the rest either killed during the October 2023 attack or while in captivity. Netanyahu said he was shocked by the images of the two hostages and met with the Red Cross to ask that it bring hostages food and medicine — access that the organization says has never been granted by Hamas. 'When I see these, I understand exactly what Hamas wants,' Netanyahu said on Sunday. 'They do not want a deal. They want to break us using these videos of horror.' The International Committee of the Red Cross said it was 'appalled by the harrowing videos' and called for access to the hostages. Hamas said it is ready to respond 'positively' to Red Cross requests to deliver food to hostages, if humanitarian corridors for aid deliveries are opened in a 'regular and permanent manner' in Gaza. It denied starving the hostages, saying they suffer from the same hunger as ordinary Palestinians. Braslavski said that in the video of his son, the captors appear to be well-fed. 'This hunger is on purpose, you can see that,' he said. 'It's not because we're not letting aid go in.' Israel has requested an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on the hostages, which will take place on Tuesday. Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said he will travel to New York for the meeting. Israel did not allow any food, medicine or other goods to enter Gaza from early March until mid-May, when it eased its blockade on the territory of some 2 million Palestinians. The United Nations says nearly 1,400 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid since then, mostly by Israeli forces as crowds head toward aid sites run by an Israeli-backed American contractor. The Israeli military says it has only fired warning shots. Gaza's Health Ministry said Monday that five more Palestinian adults died of malnutrition-related causes in the past 24 hours. A total of 87 adults have died of malnutrition-related issues since the ministry started counting such deaths in late June, it said. Ninety-three children have died of malnutrition-related causes since the war in Gaza began, the ministry said. Israel's government has denied that people are starving to death in Gaza. About 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the Hamas attack on southern Israel that sparked the war, and another 251 were abducted. Israel's retaliatory military offensive has killed more than 60,900 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. The ministry, which doesn't distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count but says women and children make up over half the dead, is part of the Hamas government and staffed by medical professionals. The U.N. and other independent experts view its figures as the most reliable casualty count. Israel has disputed the figures but hasn't provided its own.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Alaska Sen. Murkowski toys with bid for governor, defends vote supporting Trump's tax breaks package
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, speaking with Alaska reporters Monday, toyed with the idea of running for governor and defended her recent high-profile decision to vote in support of President Donald Trump's tax breaks and spending cuts bill. Murkowski, speaking from Anchorage, said 'sure' when asked if she has considered or is considering a run for governor. She later said her response was 'a little bit flippant' because she gets asked that question so often. 'Would I love to come home? I have to tell you, of course I would love to come home,' she said. 'I am not making any decisions about anything, because my responsibility to Alaskans is my job in the Senate right now.' Several Republicans already have announced plans to run in next year's governor's race, including Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom. Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy is not eligible to seek a third consecutive term. Alaska has an open primary system and ranked choice voting in general elections. Murkowski is not up for reelection until 2028. A centrist, Murkowski has become a closely watched figure in a sharply divided Congress. She has at times been at odds with her party in her criticism of Trump and blasted by some GOP voters as a 'Republican in name only.' But her decision to support Trump's signature bill last month also frustrated others in a state where independents comprise the largest number of registered voters. She previously described her decision-making process around the bill as 'agonizing.' On Monday, she said it was clear to her the bill was not only a priority of Trump's but also that it was going to pass, so it became important to her to help make it as advantageous to the state as she could. 'So I did everything within my power — as one lawmaker from Alaska — to try to make sure that the most vulnerable in our state would not be negatively impacted,' she said. 'And I had a hard choice to make, and I think I made the right choice for Alaskans.'
Los Angeles Times
2 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
California cannabis firm raided by ICE unveils big labor changes to avoid a repeat
One of California's largest legal cannabis companies announced Monday that it would radically revamp its labor practices in the wake of a massive immigration raid at two company facilities last month. The raid led to the death of one worker and the detention of more than 360 people, including, according to government officials, 14 minors. Glass House Brands announced it had 'terminated its relationship' with the two farm labor contractors who had provided workers to the cannabis green house operations in Camarillo and Carpinteria. It also announced that it has 'made significant changes to labor practices that are above and beyond legal requirements.' Those include hiring experts to scrutinize workers' documents as well as hiring the consulting firm Guidepost Services to advise the company on best practices for determining employment eligibility. The firm is led by Julie Myers Wood, a former ICE director under President George W. Bush. The company also said it has signed a new 'labor peace' agreement with the International Brotherhood of the Teamsters. Glass House officials declined to comment publicly beyond what was in a press release, but a source close to the company said that officials wanted to 'make sure we never have a situation that we had on July 10. We can't have this ever happen again.' On that day, federal agents in masks and riot gear stormed across Glass House operations in Ventura and Santa Barbara county in the state's largest ICE workplace raid in recent memory. Agents chased panicked workers through vast green houses and deployed tear gas and less-than-lethal projectiles at protesters and employees. One worker, Jaime Alanis Garcia, died after he fell three stories from the roof of a greenhouse trying to evade capture. Others were bloodied from shards of glass broken or hid for hours on the roofs or beneath the leaves and plastic shrouding. More than 360 people — a mixture of workers, family members of workers, protesters and passerby—were ultimately detained, including at least two American citizens including a U.S. Army veteran. In the wake of the raid, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said that Glass House had been targeted because 'we knew, specifically from casework we had built for weeks and weeks and weeks, that there was children there that could be trafficked, being exploited, that there was individuals there involved in criminal activity.' To date, neither Homeland Security nor the U.S. Department of Justice have announced any legal action regardlng the alleged trafficking and exploitation of juveniles. In its press release, Glass House said that just nine of its direct employees were detained; all others picked up were either employees of its labor contractors or were 'unassociated with the company.' With regards to the government's contention that it had found children working in cannabis, the company said: 'while the identities of the alleged minors have not been disclosed, the company has been able to determine that, if those reports are true, none of them were Glass House employees.' California labor law allows children as young as 12 to work in agriculture, but workers must be 21 to work in cannabis. The raid devastated Glass House and its workforce. Numerous workers were detained or disappeared, terrified to return. Those that remained were so distraught the company called in grief counselors. Across the wider world of legal cannabis, people were also shaken. Glass House, which is backed by wealthy investors and presents a sleek corporate image in the wild world of cannabis in California, has long been known as the 'Walmart of Weed.' Many in California's cannabis industry feared the raid on Glass House was a signal that the federal government's ceasefire against cannabis —which is legal in California but still not federally—had come to an end. In the wake of the raid, the United Farm Workers and other organizations warned farm laborers who were not citizens — even those with legal status — to avoid working in cannabis because 'cannabis remains criminalized under federal law.' In its statement, Glass House said the search warrant served on the company the day of the raid was seeking 'evidence of possible immigration violations.' A source close to the company said officials have had no further contact with the federal government since the raid. Some farm labor advocates were unimpressed by the company's announcement of revamped labor practices, saying it was farm workers who would pay the price. Lucas Zucker, co-executive director of Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy, or CAUSE, said Glass House was using farm labor contractors to avoid responsibility 'while their workers are torn away from their families in handcuffs.' 'This shows the double standards of our legal system, where corporations can profit from the immigrant workers their businesses depend on, yet wipe their hands clean when it becomes inconvenient,' he said. He added that 'many farmworkers are still struggling to navigate this mess of labor contractors and have not been paid for the work they did at Glass House.' A source close to Glass House said company officials want to make sure everyone who was at work on the day of the raid receives all the wages they are owed. Company officials authorized all workers to be paid through 11:30 pm on the day of the raid, because workers who had finished their shifts couldn't get out because immigration agents were blocking the doors. The source said the farm labor contractors had been paid and should have released wages to all the workers. 'We don't want anyone to be shorted,' the source said.
