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In our own archdiocese, we learned in early January that Cardinal Wilton Gregory would be retiring after six years as our wonderful shepherd. And we learned that a new cardinal from San Diego was coming to take his place.

Just six weeks after Cardinal Robert W. McElroy was installed here in Washington, Pope Francis went home to God only hours after being out in his popemobile and greeting the faithful on Easter Sunday.

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Reviving a legacy: What excites me most about Pope Leo XIV - Catholic Standard

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Warning that a series of court decisions blocking President Donald Trump's tariffs "disrupt sensitive, ongoing negotiations with virtually every trading partner," the Trump administration on Monday asked a federal appeals court to block an order last week that found the sweeping tariffs were "unlawful."

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Trump administration appeals 2nd ruling blocking tariffs

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The Trump administration has asked a federal appeals court to block an order last week that found the president’s sweeping tariffs were “unlawful.”

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This is important because it was a huge deal in the start of trumps presidency, Deporting all illegal immigrants and sending them back to their home town, leaving them to abandon there homes, dailies, and children.

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Sign up for The Brief, The Texas Tribune's daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.

Texas would further cement its role in enforcing immigration laws under a bill the state Legislature sent to the governor Sunday that would require most sheriffs to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Gov. Greg Abbott has signaled support for such an idea, and President Donald Trump - whose administration could receive a big personnel boost for its mass deportation ambitions if Texas joins the effort - endorsed the proposed law Friday as state lawmakers worked on the latest compromise.

The version of Senate Bill 8 that lawmakers ultimately voted to send to the governor would require sheriffs who run or contract out operations of a jail to request and enter agreements with ICE under a federal law that lets ICE extend limited immigration authority to local law enforcement officers. The bill would cover approximately 234 of the state's 254 counties, according to a bill author.

Over the weekend, SB 8 received strong condemnation from some Democrats, high praise from immigration hardliners who had pushed all legislative session for a more sweeping bill, and ultimately a final green light from the GOP-dominated Legislature: The Senate approved the bill 20-11 and the House 89-52.

"It's not just about securing the border, it's about public safety," Rep. David Spiller, a Jacksboro Republican who carried the bill in the House, said Sunday after the House vote. "The focus previously before President Trump got back in office was mainly [to] secure the border. That's being done, but we still have to deal with what's happened over the past four years - and quite frankly the years before that - so the focus is still the same but it's slightly directed more toward just a public safety concern."

The federal government offers three kinds of partnerships, known as 287(g) agreements, that local authorities can enter with ICE. SB 8 previously required sheriffs only to enter into agreements involving serving administrative warrants in jails. The final version allows sheriffs to request any of the three agreements, including one that lets ICE authorize local officers to question people about their immigration status while doing their daily policing in the field. The Trump administration revived that program after it fell into disuse due to allegations that it led to racial profiling.

Seventy-three law enforcement agencies in the state already have 287(g) agreements with ICE - including the state National Guard and the Texas Attorney General's office, according to statistics published by ICE. Most of the agreements are for the two jail programs.

Before the votes in each chamber, Democrats raised concerns that SB 8 will erode immigrant communities' trust in law enforcement, result in racial profiling by law enforcement and place a financial burden on counties that have long complained that such agreements add new responsibilities for already-strapped law enforcement agencies.

Sen. Charles Schwertner, a Georgetown Republican who co-authored the bill with Houston Republican Sen. Joan Huffman, dismissed the worries during the upper chamber's Saturday debate, arguing in part that voters asked for it.

He also highlighted a grant program under SB 8, expanded under the final version, that would help to offset costs not covered by the federal government and said sheriffs would have discretion to select which program to participate in.

"The people of the United States and of Texas spoke very clearly last November regarding their concerns of illegal immigration and the concerns of criminal illegal aliens doing great harm to communities to Texas cities and counties," Schwertner told his colleagues. "That's why I filed this bill."

Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a San Antonio Democrat who is an immigration lawyer, brought up a racial profiling documentary about Texas police pulling over and harassing Black drivers, whose belongings - like cars and jewelry - they would confiscate through forfeiture cases that became a boon for a local government, he said.

"Are you not afraid of the potentiality for racial profiling by police if they see what presumably looks like Mexican or Hispanic people in a truck, that they will not be pulled over simply because of the color of their skin?" he asked Schwertner.

"Senator, our world is not racially blind, color blind," Schwertner responded. "There are obviously inherent biases of individuals. That said, there are ways to properly train ... there is training to address the concerns of racial profiling."

"Well, I'm glad that you agree with me that racism is still alive and well in this country," Gutierrez said.

The Trump administration is trying to shorten training for the program, according to Schwertner's testimony during a Senate panel hearing on the bill in March.

During debate on the House floor, some lawmakers pointed to evidence of racial profiling, most notably by the sheriff of Arizona's Maricopa County, Joe Arpaio, whose deputies regularly engaged in misconduct that violated the constitutional rights of Latinos stemming from the program, according to a federal probe.

"It is one of the most inhuman models," state Rep. Barbara Gervin-Hawkins, D-San Antonio, said.

SB 8 would become the latest move state lawmakers take to carve out the state's lane in immigration enforcement. Other states have followed suit by passing similar laws that together could recalibrate states' role in what was long held by courts to be the federal government's sole responsibility.

Texas is home to about 11% of immigrants in the United States and an estimated 1.6 million undocumented persons - the second-most in the country after California.

Two years ago the Legislature approved a bill to grant Texas police the authority to arrest people suspected of being in the country illegally. During the Biden administration, the U.S. Justice Department sued Texas to stop the measure from going into effect, as did civil rights and advocacy groups.

The incoming Trump administration swiftly dropped the lawsuit, and the state has argued for the dismissal of a related legal challenge, arguing that the Department of Homeland Security and Texas law enforcement are already cooperating to enforce federal immigration laws.

Before then, the state in 2017 prohibited local government policies that prevent a peace officer from asking about a person's immigration status, targeting municipalities that declared themselves "sanctuary cities" and directed local police not to cooperate with federal immigration officials during Trump's first term.

"SB 8 will not make our communities safer, but it will force sheriffs to do the work of ICE in support of the federal government's shameful mass deportation efforts," Sarah Cruz of the ACLU of Texas said in a statement Sunday. "The legislature should not strip local communities of their ability to make decisions about what keeps them safe."
First round of TribFest speakers announced! Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Maureen Dowd; U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio; Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker; U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-California; and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas are taking the stage Nov. 13-15 in Austin. Get your tickets today!

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Bill requiring that Texas sheriffs work with federal immigration authorities heads to governor's desk

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Senate Bill 8 would further expand the state's role in enforcing immigration laws, long the sole jurisdiction of the federal government.

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El Salvador’s Cecot mega-prison was notorious long before the Trump administration’s recent decision to deport hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members there.

The Center for Terrorism Confinement, to give it its full name, is considered the largest prison in the Americas – with a capacity of 40,000 inmates – and has been the biggest symbol in the Latin American country’s controversial crackdown on domestic crime.

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What we know about El Salvador's 'mega prison' where Trump is sending alleged Venezuelan gang members | CNN

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El Salvador's Cecot mega-prison was notorious long before the Trump administration's recent decision to deport hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members there.

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WASHINGTON — As the nation rings in 2025 on Wednesday, it is also closing out a presidential election year that brought seismic twists and turns to the political landscape.

From a single debate performance leading to the withdrawal of an incumbent president months before an election to multiple apparent assassination attempts against a former president and major candidate to the country’s highest court handing down monumental decisions, 2024’s most significant events are expected to reverberate throughout the new year ahead.

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How 2024’s consequential political events are shaping 2025

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In 2024, President Biden dropped out of the election, McConnell passed the torch, the GOP won a trifecta, people attempted Trump's life and more

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The year 2024 saw contrasting wildfire activity across the globe. North and South America were the most affected continents according to the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS*) data, going back to 2003. Bolivia recorded its highest wildfire carbon emissions in CAMS Global Fire Assimilation System

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The year 2024 saw contrasting wildfire activity across the globe. North and South America were the most affected continents according to the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS*) data, going back to 2003. Bolivia recorded its highest wildfire carbon emissions in CAMS Global Fire Assimilation System (GFAS) dataset by a huge margin, and Venezuela also saw the highest annual wildfire emissions CAMS GFAS 1 January to 31 December Global total estimated wildfire carbon emissions. Credit: CAMS . In North America, areas of the western United States and Canada were most affected with the first significant fires starting already in March. Europe had a relatively average season except for Portugal, some countries of Eastern Europe and the Balkans. The Arctic emissions of 2024 ranked in the Top 5 of the 22-year dataset. Globally, estimated emissions reached 1,940 megatonnes of carbon monoxide.
CAMS monitors wildfire emissions globally through GFAS, which estimates emissions of carbon compounds, particulate matter and other fire-related atmospheric pollutants based on near real time satellite observations of Fire Radiative Power (FRP) from the NASA MODIS instruments embedded on the Terra and Aqua satellites. The estimated emissions provide an indication of the relative scale of wildfires around the world and are used as input information to CAMS forecasts of global atmospheric composition and air quality. Droughts and heatwaves, which are becoming more frequent and intense as global temperatures rise, contribute to increased flammability of landscapes and likelihood of large-scale wildfires in some parts of the world. Overall, on the global scale, changes in the use of fire for agriculture, particularly in tropical Africa, along with increased prevention and wildfire management in some regions, result in a decreasing tendency over the past two decades, as shown in the chart above.

See the evolution of global wildfires during 2024 in this animation showing global Fire Radiative Power through the year.

The first large wildfires of 2024 started very early in the Amazon anticipating a very difficult season across the region. With most of the Continent under severe drought conditions, and particularly the Amazon region since mid-2023, conditions were favorable for increased wildfire activity. Brazil and Venezuela recorded the highest wildfire carbon emissions on the GFAS dataset for February, after nearly 1700 fire spots were detected only in the Brazilian Roraima state, that counted for half the emissions of Brazil during that month.

Wildfire activity continued being higher than average, expanding throughout norther South America during the first half of the year, with Bolivia, Guyana and Suriname experiencing the most intense wildfires since at least 2003 by a large margin as of mid-May.

Venezuela ends up 2024 with the highest carbon emissions on record in close tie with the year 2020. Conversely, however, Colombia experienced below average wildfire activity.

During the end of May and June the Pantanal region, the world's largest tropical wetland area, saw unprecedented wildfire activity with catastrophic consequences for this fragile ecosystem. Up to 5 June, satellite data from Brazil's Institute for Space Research (INPE) detected a staggering 980% year on year increase in the number of wildfire detections.

CAMS wildfire carbon emissions data reflected this unprecedented increase in wildfire activity for the state of Mato Grosso do Sul for May-June, with 3.3 megatonnes of carbon already before the typical start of the fire season in August and September.
CAMS GFAS data for the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul. Left: total Fire Radiative Power, showing largely above average values (red) during June. Right: annual estimated wildfire carbon emissions. Credit: CAMS
The emissions for the region over the year are estimated at 18.8 megatonnes of carbon, the highest in the dataset. In the Legal Amazon, the other severely-hit region of Brazil during 2024, emissions counted 176.6 megatonnes of carbon, the highest since 2010.Intense wildfires affected also the Pantanal region of the neighbouring Bolivia and Paraguay during that period. The Copernicus Climate Change Service C3S data showed the exceptionally high surface air temperatures and low soil moisture anomalies that favoured the breakout of fires in the region during June.
Left: Surface air temperature anomalies for South America in June 2024, showing the areas affected by the Pantanal fires at an average of 5ºC to 6ºC above average. Right: soil moisture anomalies for South America in June 2024. Credit: C3S
The catastrophic Pantanal wildfires would end up ravaging nearly 1.5 million hectares of its nearly 20 million hectares total extent.

Local scientists have been warning about the degradation of the Pantanal region in the last years with a stark reduction of the flooded area due to land degradation, changes in climate and land use, as well as increasing wildfire episodes, although the extent of the wildfires of 2024 is one of the worst in the last two decades.

The situation persisted, particularly in Bolivia that kept recording unprecedented wildfire intensity and emissions, and Brazil, nearing the historical maximum, as the Amazonas state experienced an unusually intense wildfire season from July, largely above average and with unprecedented levels of wildfire emissions, continuing the trend of recent years.
Cumulative total wildfire carbon emissions (top) and Annual total estimated wildfire carbon emissions (bottom) for Brazil and Bolivia, up to 30 November 2024. Credit: CAMS
As a result of the intense fire activity, CAMS analysis of the number of days above the threshold of 35 micrograms per cubic meter/m ³ of fine particle matter PM 2.5 exceeded 150 days during 2024 in some areas of Bolivia and Brazil, with several days of these potentially dangerous for health PM 2.5 concentrations in most of central South America. This is represented in the map below. The visualisation also shows the dust transport activity in the Atlantic and the Caribbean which can increase PM levels in those regions.
Number of days of daily mean concentrations of PM2.5 above 35 µg/m3 during 2024 (up to December 2024). Credit: CAMS
México and Central América also experienced a higher-than-average wildfire intensity period during April and early May, after a start of the season (typically between March through end of May) in the average or slightly below, with Nicaragua recording the highest wildfire carbon emissions between March and June.

In the wake of the record wildfires that slammed Canada during the 2023 fire season, the fire season 2024 started with large blazes declared in British Columbia, forcing the evacuation of thousands of people during May.

Many of the wildfires in the region are believed to have persisted through the winter months reigniting with the higher temperatures and drier conditions, the so-called zombie or holdover fires.

CAMS analysis revealed unprecedented emission levels for British Columbia and higher-than average activity for Canada overall during May.

By the end of the fire season, Canada had recorded the second highest wildfire carbon emissions on the GFAS dataset, largely above average and only below the unprecedented values of 2023.

CAMS GFAS total fire emissions for Canada. The red line shows the year 2024 and doted red line, the year 2023. The black line represents the 2003 - 2023 average value and the dotted grey lines the values on previous years. Credit: CAMS

The second half of the year was complicated in parts of western United States with some remarkable events like Park Fire in California, considered as one of the Top 15 largest on the state. The state of California recorded the highest carbon emissions for July, and Oregon the second highest by a small margin. Despite these intense wildfires, carbon emissions for the USA are slightly below the 2003-2023 average.

Air quality in large areas or North America was highly impacted by the smoke from the wildfires in Canada and western US. CAMS aerosol data showed the smoke plumes transport towards the Atlantic, reaching Europe.
CAMS analysis organic matter aerosol optical depth Aerosol Optical Depth during 15-31 July 2024. Credit: CAMS

Europe saw nearly average wildfire activity according to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) both in wildfire emissions and burned area and in good agreement with CAMS/GFAS monitoring. One exception was the major wildfires outbreak in northern Portugal mid-September that caused several victims and created a huge spike in the carbon emissions in Portugal for September, unprecedented in the 22 years of GFAS records. The fire sent thick columns of smoke across northern Spain and southwestern France, monitored by CAMS.
Daily total fire radiative power (left) and total estimated wildfire carbon (right) for Portugal in September. The amounts of emissions are unprecedented in the GFAS dataset for the period. Credit: CAMS
During August, large wildfires hit Greece and other areas of Eastern Europe and the Balkans, fueled by several months of extreme temperatures.

Greece ended up recording one of the highest annual carbon emissions in the GFAS, with a relatively high number of fires, according to the EFFIS, but a relatively low burned area, suggesting a high intensity of the fires declared.

In July, wildfires in Russia's far East resulted in a spike of emissions within the Arctic Circle with large wildfires in the Sakha Republic, Amur Oblast, that saw its highest wildfire emissions for the period, and Zabaykalsky Krai. Overall carbon emissions for the Arctic were the 4 th highest of the 22-year average data record after 2020, 2019 and 2004.

Once more, the areas impacted coincided with the most affected by temperature and dry anomalies according to C3S data.
Surface air temperature and soil moisture anomalies for 15 June - 13 July 2024 in the Northern Hemisphere. Credit: C3S

In the upper ASEAN region, the traditionally high wildfire emissions have kept a reducing trend in the last two decades for most countries. Emissions were generally below average for the 2024 season (January - March) with some exceptions by the end of the season, especially in Myanmar and Laos.
Daily total fire radiative power (left) and total estimated wildfire carbon (right) for Upper ASEAN countries (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam) in September, reflecting a decreasing trend since 2003.Credit: CAMS
Nepal saw the number of wildfires double up compared to the previous year, according to Government data, reflected in the estimated emissions from GFAS.

The traditional fires after the harvest in India, together with atmospheric conditions created an extreme episode of air pollution in India in November.

CAMS data also reflected an intensification of the bushfire season across northern Australia during October and November, slightly above average for the period in terms of fire radiative power in November, but with the overall emissions relatively within the average of the GFAS dataset.

CAMS data is made available freely and for commercial or non-commercial purposes through the Atmosphere Data Store. The main atmospheric composition and air quality forecasts for Europe and the globe are also available on the CAMS charts page.

CAMS data contributed to the first State of the Wildfires report published in the journal Earth System Science Data (ESSD), as well as the World Meteorological Organization's Air Quality and Climate Bulletin and the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society's State of the Climate, among some of the major contributions.

The service has also recently developed an aerosol alerts application allowing to track smoke, dust, sea salt, organic aerosols, sulfate and black carbon.

CAMS provides regular up-to-date information on the location, intensity and estimated emissions of wildfires around the world, as well as tracking smoke transport and composition. To learn more about CAMS monitoring of wildfires and smoke, visit our page on Global fire monitoring.

*CAMS is implemented by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) on behalf of the European Commission

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CAMS Global wildfires review 2024: a harsh year for the Americas

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The year 2024 saw contrasting wildfire activity across the globe. North and South America were the most affected continents according to the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) data, going back to 2003.

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Trump is testing the limits of presidential power at every turn, and the courts are just about the only thing standing in his way.

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The great undoing: Trump’s presidency reeled in by courts

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Trump is testing the limits of presidential power at every turn, and the courts are just about the only thing standing in his way.