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The Denver archbishop who led a prayer over President Donald Trump in the Oval Office is now scrambling to explain himself.Archbishop James Golka told the Denver Catholic, the archdiocese's own newspaper, on Friday that the White House's video of the Oct. 22 prayer was never meant as an endorsement, even as he defended being there and turned his fire on critics."I understand that many people saw the video, posted by the Administration twelve days before an election, as an endorsement," Golka said. "That was never my intention."The invitation came months ago, according to the archbishop, following a June session in which faith leaders pressed the administration on immigration, religious freedom and visas for religious workers. He said progress made by task forces after that meeting encouraged him to accept, even though he knew the meeting "could be shared and some might use it for political purposes."Golka said he learned only shortly before the visit that he would be the one praying over Trump. The bishops first spent three hours with the White House Faith Office discussing religious worker visas, protection of life, religious freedom and school choice."I've had a lot of people, really good friends, ask me, 'What were you doing?' 'Why did you do that?' I just answer, 'I was being a Catholic priest,'" he said.The archbishop then pointed outward. "I'm heartbroken that people are hurt, and that there are people intentionally using this moment to sow disunity. That's not a fruit of the Spirit," he said, urging Catholics to look past headlines he described as "often crafted to provoke."The fallout has reached Rome. Catholic commentator Christopher Hale reported in his Letters from Leo newsletter that a senior official at the Vatican's Dicastery for Bishops called it "a highly inappropriate meeting and insult to Pope Leo."Hale wrote that Golka's account stops short of an apology and never mentions Paula White-Cain, the televangelist and White House Faith Office adviser who stood behind Trump's chair as the bishops laid hands on him. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has said it neither organized the meeting nor has any affiliation with it.Golka closed with a pledge. "This work helps only if the Church carries the same message to leaders of both parties. We will," he said.

The Trump administration's insistence that it has no say over Elon Musk's satellite network just ran headlong into a damning new account.Reuters reported Friday that the Biden and Trump administrations both asked SpaceX several times over the years to switch its Starlink service on or off in various countries, long before this month's slowdown of Ukraine's military access. Six former senior U.S. officials described the requests to the outlet, which said they had never been reported before.The report lands two days after Secretary of State Marco Rubio insisted the decision over Ukraine's access belonged to Musk and SpaceX rather than the White House."We cannot direct a private company as to the decisions they make or not make," Rubio said Wednesday, according to Forbes.According to the former officials, Biden aides repeatedly handed SpaceX intelligence showing that the Houthis in Yemen and Hezbollah in Lebanon were using Starlink terminals that reached them through middlemen, then asked the company to find and disable them. At least some were shut down, two of the officials said. The Biden team also pressed SpaceX to widen Starlink use for Ukraine's military after Russia's 2022 invasion.Trump's own administration made similar overtures. A former senior Trump official and a second source told Reuters the administration discussed with Musk getting Starlink terminals into Iran and switched on after U.S.-Israeli strikes in June 2025 and again in February 2026.The revelations raise fresh questions about who throttled Ukraine's service. Reuters previously reported the order to throttle Starshield, the military version of Starlink, came from inside the White House, while The Wall Street Journal reported Musk made the call and Trump later phoned him to lift it.Musk himself pointed back at Washington earlier this week."Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government. Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately (by the president of the United States)," Musk wrote.Trump said Friday he had not spoken with Musk about the issue, adding, "if there is a problem, I'll get it straightened out."Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO) warned about Washington's dependence on SpaceX."Unelected billionaires and private corporations should not decide what is in the best interest of America's national security," Crow said.Satellite industry consultant Armand Musey told Reuters that Musk is "supposed to be a business executive, with government contracts, and he's essentially making huge foreign policy decisions."Ukraine's embassy in Washington said its priority is getting the service back to normal speed "as soon as possible, as the lives of our people depend on it."SpaceX did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's inner circle waged a behind-the-scenes fight with another Cabinet department over a marquee sporting event abroad, according to a new report.The Washington Post reported Friday that Hegseth's office tried to scrap all U.S. military involvement in the NFL's first-ever game in Paris, only to reverse course after State Department officials objected.Sunday's matchup between the Pittsburgh Steelers and New Orleans Saints at Stade de France, just outside the French capital, had been slated to include dozens of service members, according to officials who spoke to the Post anonymously about internal discussions. Hegseth's team moved to pull them all following a weekend of unrest in Paris that President Donald Trump has publicly criticized.State Department officials pushed back, arguing that putting American troops on display at such a visible event carried diplomatic weight. They also told Hegseth's staff their department had not concluded that Americans or U.S. personnel in Paris faced a high risk of danger, the officials said.Hegseth's office ultimately agreed to bring back part of the military's role, including a color guard. Those ceremonial units, which carry the American and service branch flags, typically involve fewer than 10 people.Pentagon spokespeople would not say who in Hegseth's office sought to cancel the military involvement or why plans shifted so abruptly. A senior Defense Department official instead sent the Post an unattributed statement that echoed the president."The Department is supporting the NFL game in Paris this weekend amid the ongoing riots and unrest. As President Trump has said, France is really in trouble," the statement read, adding that the call "was made by the Secretary's core leadership team, not one person alone."Trump himself suggested Friday that the league should have considered pushing the game back."I would have said the NFL could have probably postponed that match if you want to know the truth, because France is really in trouble," Trump told reporters. "That's what happens when you go left."The State Department and the NFL declined to comment to the Post.Protests over school funding and living costs have spread across Paris and other French cities, prompting the State Department to warn Americans attending the game to steer clear of demonstrations. Trump has blamed the turmoil on immigration and Islam, while French President Emmanuel Macron has dismissed his remarks as "stupid."The U.S. military has taken part in other NFL games abroad this season, including in London and Melbourne, with games in Madrid and Munich still to come.

President Donald Trump’s White House credited first lady Melania Trump with diplomacy to secure a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, but critics say Pope Leo XIV got there first.The White House statement came earlier in the day, saying the ceasefire is localized to the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky and would begin Oct. 29 to allow humanitarian aid in and prepare for civilian evacuations.“The situation in Oleshky is dire. Oleshky is a front-line war city on the brink of disaster. Oleshky’s remaining population is comprised primarily of elderly residents who urgently need medical attention, medicine, food, and clean water,” the first lady said. “The people of Oleshky have limited electricity, live amid mined roads, and endure regular military attacks. It was abundantly clear that without my intervention, the possibility to bring humanitarian aid into the city and to evacuate the elderly would be impossible.”Some observers, however, noted that the pope had publicly pushed for the same thing a week earlier.The Vatican said Leo “phoned Putin and asked him to arrange a ceasefire to let aid and food into the town” on Oct. 16, Reuters reported. The Vatican’s secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said the call was the pope’s initiative. The Kremlin said Putin agreed to “cooperate on this matter,” but its statement did not mention a ceasefire. The pope also spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Oct. 19.The progressive MeidasTouch network noted on X that the White House announcement came “just one week after Pope Leo personally called Vladimir Putin to push for the SAME THING,” and asked why the White House was “taking credit for an initiative Pope Leo was publicly pursuing a week ago.”“Pope Leo personally called Putin and Zelenskyy, pushing for a ceasefire in Ukraine. Now the Trump White House is trying to give MELANIA TRUMP the credit, completely ignoring the Pope’s efforts!” wrote former Biden aide Chris Jackson.

Observers were shocked Thursday after a new book excerpt detailed how foreign spies spent months peering into the phone of President Donald Trump's son-in-law.In an excerpt published by Vanity Fair from his upcoming book "Princes and Thieves," investigative reporter Matthew Cole lays out how Dutch military intelligence flipped a Russian GRU hacker in 2017 and used him to reach a Russian server holding screenshots from Jared Kushner's iPhone. By early 2018, according to Cole, the Dutch had cracked the device themselves and could watch Kushner's screen in real time.What they saw, Cole reports, was Kushner logging into a UAE bank account stocked with hundreds of millions of dollars routed through a bank in Azerbaijan. Cole's reporting alleges that the Saudi and Emirati royals ultimately put at least $2 billion into accounts tied to Kushner, including roughly $750 million at First Abu Dhabi Bank, where Kushner was allegedly a signatory on an account owned by an Emirati charity, and about $1 billion in Israel's Central Bank.A former Mueller prosecutor told Cole that Kushner may have run afoul of federal bribery and foreign agents laws if he promised anything in return. Kushner's lawyer denied any wrongdoing and insisted "there are no accounts and never were."Reaction online was swift."Every word of this is f------ insane," investigative journalist Scott Stedman fumed on X. "Kushner cannot be in charge of negotiations."Stedman followed up by arguing that, if the reporting holds, Cole "may have uncovered the biggest case of foreign bribery (MBZ and MBS of Kushner) in U.S. history."Drop Site News co-founder Ryan Grim marveled at the backstory. "Aside from the shocking substance of this story, what's amazing is how it was unearthed by Cole," he wrote.Former Rolling Stone editor-in-chief Noah Shachtman summed up the chain of events, noting that Dutch cyberspies reverse-engineered a Russian hack to gain "unprecedented access to his world." He called it a "bananas story."National security journalist Zach Dorfman hailed it as "astounding reporting," while reporter Erin Banco kept it short. "This is wild," she posted.

Jared Kushner allegedly accessed a secret Gulf-funded bank account while Dutch spies watched his phone, and moved money to a warlord, a mercenary and a one-time hit man, according to an explosive new book.In an excerpt published Thursday by Vanity Fair, investigative journalist Matthew Cole wrote that Dutch military intelligence found screenshots of Kushner’s iPhone on a Russian military intelligence server, then exploited a flaw in the phone to watch his screen themselves starting in early 2018.They saw Kushner, then a senior adviser to his father-in-law, President Donald Trump, log into a UAE bank account that had received hundreds of millions of dollars routed through Azerbaijan, according to “Princes and Thieves.” A source told Cole that Kushner appeared to transfer significant sums from the account to other individuals, including the warlord, mercenary and former hit man.Cole alleges the rulers of Saudi Arabia and the UAE put at least $2 billion into at least two accounts for Kushner during Trump’s first term.“Jared promised MBZ that he’d push their agenda with Trump if they participated in a fund,” one source told Cole, referring to UAE ruler Mohamed bin Zayed.Kushner’s ties to Gulf money have drawn scrutiny before. After leaving the White House, his private equity firm, Affinity Partners, received a $2 billion investment from a Saudi sovereign wealth fund led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a deal that has drawn scrutiny from ethics watchdogs.The book cites mostly unnamed sources. Kushner’s lawyer told Cole that Kushner broke no laws and had no connection to any UAE account, adding that there “are no accounts and never were.”Kushner himself blasted the book on X.“The allegations made by this author are completely insane, categorically false, and never happened,” he wrote.

The White House’s rapid-response account pushed back on a former New York Post correspondent who criticized envoy Steve Witkoff’s praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to the Daily Beast.Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s special envoy, told Putin during a Wednesday meeting, “You are a humanitarian also, sir, and I salute that, I commend you, and I thank you again.”The same day, Trump said Putin had freed Stephen Hubbard, a 74-year-old retired American teacher held in Russia since 2022, after a personal plea and without asking for anything in return.Reporter Caitlin Doornbos responded on X, according to the Daily Beast. “I’m used to diplomatic pandering by now, but this? ????” she wrote. She followed up: “For my Republican strategist friends — where the headlines could have been, ‘President Trump brings home American wrongly imprisoned in Russia’ - Witkoff calling Putin a ‘humanitarian’ will be the only thing anyone talks about.”The White House’s Rapid Response 47 account fired back, the Daily Beast reported. “Should the Special Envoy have insulted the man, imperiled the release of an American citizen, and torched any possibility of finally resolving a war that has gone on for far too long?” the account asked. “These things are complicated. This is why you’re not a negotiator.”The Daily Beast’s Leigh Kimmins wrote, “Someone in the Trump administration nerve center is rattled.”Doornbos later responded, "The White House tried to put me in my place. I was already in a bomb shelter in Kyiv."MS NOW host Joe Scarborough also weighed in after Witkoff shared a post about Hubbard’s release. “Stephen was kidnapped and abused for FOUR YEARS by the dictator you just called a humanitarian,” Scarborough wrote. “Putin kidnaps Americans, assassinates political rivals, kills journalists, murders toddlers, and kidnaps thousands of children. And you call him a humanitarian. There are no words.”The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board, writing about the release, said there is “no cause to be grateful” to Putin. The board called Witkoff’s praise a “rhetorical smooch.”The White House tried to put me in my place. I was already in a bomb shelter in Kyiv.Here’s what happened when I questioned Trump’s envoy calling Putin a “humanitarian” — and the response I got from the president’s own team. #ukraine https://t.co/n1veXqIOpy— Caitlin Doornbos (@CaitlinDoornbos) October 22, 2026

Kim Aris says ‘hearing her voice again means more than words can express’ amid loosening of detention restrictionsThe son of Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi has been allowed to speak to the detained former democratic leader for the first time in more than five years.“Today, I was finally able to speak with my mother, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, after more than five years. Hearing her voice again means more than words can express,” Kim Aris said in a post on Facebook on Thursday. Continue reading...