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Pope Leo XIV receives White House invitation in meeting with JD Vance

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Pope Leo XIV receives White House invitation in meeting with JD Vance

Donald Trump has issued a White House invitation to Pope Leo XIV, the Chicago-born pontiff who as Cardinal Robert Prevost previously criticised Trump’s administration.

The invitation came via a letter from the US president and the first lady, Melania Trump, that was delivered to the new pope by the US vice-president, JD Vance, during a meeting at the Vatican on Monday morning.

A video of the start of the meeting shared by the Vatican also showed Vance and his wife giving the pontiff a Chicago Bears jersey with Leo’s name on it.

“As you can probably imagine, the US people are extremely excited about you,” said Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019.

In return, Leo gave Vance a bronze sculpture with words in Italian meaning “peace is a fragile flower”.

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The pope spoke to Vance privately before they were joined by the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio. The Vatican did not reveal what was discussed.

Before being elected pope earlier this month, Prevost criticised Trump’s administration in several posts on his X account, mainly targeting the government over its hardline policies on immigration.

In February he also shared on X an opinion article published in the National Catholic Reporter titled “JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others,” after comments that Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, made in an interview on Fox News.

After meeting Leo, Vance spoke with officials from the Vatican’s secretary of state. Those talks were “cordial”, the Vatican said, adding that there was “an exchange of views on some current international issues, calling for respect for humanitarian law and international law in areas of conflict and for a negotiated solution between the parties involved”.

The meetings at the Vatican took place hours before Trump was due to speak by phone with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in an effort to end the war in Ukraine.

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Pope Leo XIV calls for peace in Ukraine, Gaza and Myanmar at inaugural mass – video

Vance, Rubio and their wives were in Rome to attend a mass on Sunday marking the official start of Leo’s papacy.

The Vatican has not confirmed or denied whether the previous social media posts were authentic, although the X account has been deleted. Trump and Vance also clashed with the late Pope Francis over immigration.

Christopher White, the Vatican correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter and author of the forthcoming book Pope Leo XIV: Inside the Conclave and the Dawn of a New Papacy, said: “Vance certainly knows where the pope stands on the Trump administration’s position on migration, and so I think it was probably important for both sides to use the meeting today as a reset [in relations].

“But they’re obviously worlds apart on migration, and so today was really more about Ukraine and finding a solution. Before becoming pope, Leo was much more direct than Francis ever was because he characterised the war as an imperialistic aggression on the part of Russia.”

White said that while Trump would seek to capitalise on Leo’s papacy, it was unlikely the pontiff would make visiting the US a priority. “He will be quite shrewd,” White added. “I think it’s fair to say that we can expect him to visit Peru, his adopted country, before he visits his homeland.”

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Trump fires last members of election commission, inciting fears of midterm ‘chaos’

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Trump fires last members of election commission, inciting fears of midterm ‘chaos’

Donald Trump has terminated the remaining members of the independent, federal commission that assists election administration officials nationwide just a few months before the midterm elections, multiple outlets reported Thursday.

The remaining three commissioners of the four-member bipartisan commission ⁠were forced out on Thursday in different ways. The one Republican appointee resigned and the other ⁠two, Democratic appointees were notified of their terminations via email from ​the White House presidential personnel office.

“On ‌behalf of President ‌Donald J Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position ‌as Commissioner of the Election Assistance Commission is terminated, effective immediately. Thank you for your service,” the email, seen by Reuters, said.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Election Assistance Commission serves as a “national clearinghouse of information on election ‌administration”, accredits testing laboratories and certifies voting systems, and maintains the national mail-voter registration form developed by the National ​Voter Registration Act of 1993, according to the commission’s website. The terminations follow Trump and top administration officials’ advocacy to change vote-by-mail requirements and investigations into the 2020 election outcome, which Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

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“It is ⁠irresponsible and dangerous that this Administration remains dead set on ​causing chaos for ​our election officials across this ​country,” Arizona secretary of state Adrian Fontes said in a ​Thursday statement. “This ‌move undermines the integrity ​of nonpartisan ​election administration.”

The 2002 law that established the commission, the Help America Vote Act, states the president can appoint replacements to the commission.

It is unclear how Trump will move ahead with the commission.

Reuters contributed reporting

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Former Olympian pleads not guilty in reflecting pool vandalism charges

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Former Olympian pleads not guilty in reflecting pool vandalism charges

Former U.S. Olympian David Hearn (left) walks with his attorney Norman Eisen to speak to reporters and protesters gathered after his arraignment at the Superior Court of the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C. on Thursday.

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Former U.S. Olympic canoeist David Hearn pleaded not guilty to damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in D.C. Superior Court Thursday morning.

Federal prosecutors charged Hearn with a single count of destruction of property causing more than $1,000 in damage to the pool.

Hearn has previously claimed, which his attorneys repeated during a short press conference outside the court, that he simply touched the water in the pool out of curiosity.

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The Trump administration had just completed a $14 million renovation of the pool.

But shortly after the work finished, peeling paint and algae gathered in the water. The remodel has been largely criticized as a massive failure and waste of taxpayer dollars.

Superior Court Judge Carmen McLean released Hearn on his own recognizance. His next hearing is scheduled for Aug. 5.

Norm Eisen, one of Hearn’s attorneys, spoke to reporters outside of court following the hearing. He said the administration is using Hearn as a “scapegoat … for their own failures.”

“It is not a crime to touch the reflecting pool, to touch water in the United States of America,” he said.

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Prosecutors say there is a host of evidence against Hearn.

This is a developing story.

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Three more people charged with damaging Reflecting Pool after Trump’s multimillion-dollar restoration | CNN Politics

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Three more people charged with damaging Reflecting Pool after Trump’s multimillion-dollar restoration | CNN Politics

Three more people have been criminally charged with destruction of property at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

Officers say they detained Cameron Thiers, Sophie Dennison-Gibby and Justin Carreno one Saturday afternoon in June and described in court documents witnessing them peeling and removing pieces of blue paint from the Reflecting Pool.

One officer “witnessed Carreno reach down into the reflecting pool and pull up a piece of the blue paint,” according to the court documents.

The officer who detained Dennison-Gibby “found 1 additional piece of the reflecting pool liner” in her purse, the documents said.

All three incidents were recorded on the officers’ body worn cameras, they said in the court documents.

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Several “partnering law enforcement agencies assigned to the Reflecting Pool” working with US Park Police were involved in detaining the two men and one woman — including officers from Texas, Oklahoma, Montana and California.

One of the officers said in court documents that Thiers “admitted to removing a piece of blue sealant from the Reflecting Pool and still had it in his hand when I made contact with him.”

The three defendants were arraigned in court Wednesday and pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor charges of destruction of property with a value less than $1,000. The judge ordered them to stay away from the Reflecting Pool.

Lawyers for Thiers and Dennison-Gibby declined to comment. CNN has reached out to Carreno’s attorney.

If found guilty of destruction of property, the defendants could be fined up to $1,000 and face a maximum of 180 days behind bars.

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The New York Times first reported that three additional people had been charged with damaging the Reflecting Pool.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that vandals caused major damage to the pool by gashing the lining after his administration spent more than $14 million on renovations, though he has not provided evidence to support that claim. The officers who charged Carreno, Thiers and Dennison-Gibby did not accuse them of gashing the lining.

Former Olympic canoeist David Hearn was indicted by a grand jury in Washington, DC, last week for allegedly damaging the Reflecting Pool. Hearn — unlike Carreno, Thiers and Dennison-Gibby – was charged with destruction of property with a value of more than $1,000 which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, if convicted. He is set to be arraigned in court Thursday.

Crews began draining the Reflecting Pool over the weekend to make repairs, according to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, for the second time in three months.

The move comes after weeks of problems – algae blooms, green-hued water, a chipping bottom and the administration’s allegations of vandalism – that have plagued the iconic landmark, making its woes the subject of national interest.

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