TLDR Headlines According to Bridget

May 17, 2024

ONE weekly roundup of news that you need to know, that values your time and peace!

Joe Abdel Sater, a swimming instructor in the seaside town of Bouar, built the world’s largest rosary on the ocean on May 11 — with the help of family and friends — on the feast of Our Lady of the Seas.
Stretching 100 meters (about 330 feet) across the water, the finished rosary is comprised of white plastic gallon jugs representing the Hail Mary beads and larger blue ones for the Our Father prayers. The cross is made of wood. The builder dove down and tied the beads with rope to the rocks below.
Read more here.

At least a dozen states have moved on Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) in 2023—a type of government funding program that allows parents to use tax dollars to pay for private (and sometimes public) education expenses. Some states have established versions of these accounts, and some have blocked them.
Critics are concerned that the government will now be able to further regulate homeschooling in order to receive this money. HSLDA has a more detailed take at the link below.
Read more here.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Independent presidential campaign announced on Thursday, May 16, that it had successfully secured the necessary funding to achieve ballot access across all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Shanahan said: “This isn’t just about funding our own campaign. We want to liberate presidential elections from the grip of the existing two-party duopoly, and revitalize American democracy.”
In a post I didn’t see coming, she wrote this on X: “Gearing up to make some big donations to members of Congress who are protecting our Constitutional freedoms. Who are your favorite[s]? [Rep. Thomas Massie] is at the top [of] my list.” Talk about an unlikely duo!
Read more here.

Daily Signal columnist Star Parker wrote a really interesting analysis of Social Security, following their report that the system will not be able to meet its obligations to retirees by 2035.
He makes the argument that American’s should be able to choose where to invest the 6% currently taken out of their paycheck and put into a failing system. This, of course, makes sense to have skin in the game and personal responsibility.
Read more here.

Belarus, a nation of more than 9 million people bordered by Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Russia, and Ukraine, has been led by the authoritarian Alexander Lukashenko, a self proclaimed “Orthodox Atheist” since 1994.
On May 8, amid an ongoing crackdown on civil society, Fr. Andrzej Juchniewicz, O.M.I. and Fr. Pavel Lemekh, O.M.I. were arrested “for alleged subversive activities against the Belarusian state.”
Catholics, who are a minority in the predominantly Eastern Orthodox country, have experienced repeated difficulties with the authorities in the past three years. But it is hard to determine the extent of the problem as press freedom is restricted in Belarus.
Read more here.