Pope Francis in Lisbon

DURING his highly awaited visit to Lisbon, Portugal, for the World Youth Day, Pope Francis inspired both young individuals and adults to advance without apprehension and embrace their essential roles within the Church and the global community.

The Holy Pontiff conveyed impactful messages during his various speeches to audiences such as young people, political leaders, bishops, and the sick.

In his inaugural official event, he urged the Western world to rediscover its fundamental principles.

In the Final Mass of Transfiguration on August 6, Pope Francis delivered a stirring homily about the Gospel of the Transfiguration, which we shall reproduce here in part.

After these exciting days, surely, we feel like repeating the words of the Apostle Peter on the mount of the Transfiguration: “Lord, it is good for us to be here!” (Mt 17:4). xxx in the wake of these gracefilled days, we can also ask an important question: What will we take back with us as we come down from the mountain to resume our daily lives?

Drawing from the Gospel, the Holy Father answered his question with three verbs: to shine, to listen, and to be unafraid.

To shine. Jesus is transfigured and -- as the Gospel tells us -- “his face shone like the sun” (Mt 17:2). His face shines like the sun and his clothes become dazzling white.

Through this brilliant burst of light, Jesus prepares the disciples for the dark night they will have to endure; this overwhelming experience of light would help them to endure the dark hours of Gethsemane and Calvary.

Dear friends, we too need a burst of light if we are to face the darkness of the night, the challenges of life, the fears that plague us, and the gloom that often overtakes us.

That light, the Gospel tells us, has a name.

It is unsettling that in a Senate hearing last week, Public Works Secretary Manuel Bonoan said his department was not involved in the approval of the reclamation projects, indicating a possible overreach by the Local Government Units.

“Is it proper for LGUs to award the contracts for the reclamation projects?

From what I know, all bodies of water, including Manila Bay, are patrimonial assets owned by the state,” he said in a radio interview.

“That’s why I don’t understand what happened here and why the LGUs were authorized to grant the contracts,” he said. “It’s one of the contentious issues here.”

Then here comes Senator JV Ejercito who has urged the Senate blue ribbon committee to look into the “midnight gold rush” approval of 22 reclamation projects round Manila Bay.

Ejercito lso questioned the authority of local government units to enter into contracts with private companies, many of which are owned by the Chinese government, to dredge and dump sand off the shores of Manila Bay.

“If we want to get to the bottom of these reclamation projects, all stakeholders and agencies concerned have to be summoned [to a Senate investigation],” Ejercito said, but stopped short of raising a time frame. We hope something really bold and positive would be done – and fast – to correct the disquieting scenario.

US allies, said Jeffrey Schott, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

A sticking point was a consumer tax credit of up to $7,500 for the purchase of electric vehicles assembled in North America.

To qualify for the full credit, vehicle batteries should also have a percentage of critical minerals sourced from America or countries with which it has free-trade pacts, leaving the European Union and, initially, Japan in the cold. This drew ire from those countries, and US officials eventually expanded access to the clean vehicle subsidies, noting in March that the free trade agreement requirement could also include newly negotiated critical minerals deals. This includes one that Japan had inked with the United States just shortly earlier -- opening doors to benefits from some subsidies.

“Part of the initial friction was because... the last revisions of the IRA were done in haste and in secret,” said Schott.

There appeared to be a “lack of understanding that US allies were not all US free-trade partners,” he added, leading to some “creative accounting” by the Treasury Department in defining how the

But the incentives, which boost American manufacturing after years of offshoring, have triggered fears that they could draw businesses out of other countries law would be implemented. Meltzer said that the United States “quite quickly tried to respond to these concerns by negotiating these kind of bilateral deals,” referring to Japan’s pact and the EU’s efforts toward a similar accord. This alleviated many concerns, he said.

Yes, the light that has come to illumine the world is Jesus himself (cf. Jn 1:9). He is the sun that never sets but continues to shine even amid the darkness of the night. able to break down certain walls and prejudices, and to bring the light of Christ’s saving love to the world.

May you always radiate that love! May you always radiate Jesus, “the light of the world” (Jn 8:12)! x x x

The Holy Pontiff conveyed impactful messages during his various speeches to audiences such as young people, political leaders, bishops, and the sick

The second verb is to listen.

On the mount of the Transfiguration, a bright cloud overshadows the disciples and the Father’s voice proclaims that Jesus is his beloved Son.

The command that the Father gives is simple and direct: “Listen to him” (Mt 17:5).

Those words say it all.

The entire Christian life is contained in these, the last words spoken by the Father in Matthew’s Gospel: Listen to him. We are to listen to Jesus, talk to him, read his words and put them into practice, and follow his footsteps. Jesus has words of eternal life for us because he reveals that God is both Father and love, and because, in the Holy Spirit, we too become his beloved children.

That is what we need in this life, then: not fame, success or money, but the realization that we are not alone, that we always have Christ at our side, that we can start and end each day certain of the Lord’s embrace. We need to listen to Jesus in order to trust that we are loved, embraced by a love that never fails x x x.

To shine, to listen and, finally, to be unafraid.

These were the last words spoken by Jesus on the mount of the Transfiguration, to encourage his fearful disciples: “Get up and do not be afraid!” (Mt 17:7).

After having a foretaste of Easter glory, after being bathed in light divine and hearing the Father’s voice, the disciples can come down from the mountain and face the challenges that await them on the plain below.

It is the same for us: if we cherish the light of Jesus and his words within us, we can live each day with hearts free of fear x x x.

He then exhorts the youth: “As young people, you have great dreams, but often you may fear that they cannot come true.

Sometimes you can think that you are not up to the challenge, and you may be tempted to lose heart, to think you fall short, or to disguise your pain with a smile.

As young people, you want to change the world and work for justice and peace. You devote all your energy and creativity to this, yet it still seems insufficient.

Yet the Church and the world need you, the young, as much as the earth needs rain.

Jesus now speaks to you, dear young people, who are the present and the future of our world. To all of you he says: “Do not be afraid!”

Francis exhorts: “And do not be afraid, for the Lord loves you and walks at your side. With Jesus, life is born anew, always.”

affected trade ties?

Partnerships and relocations

Canada, which warned about the risks of a subsidy war, has since responded by matching certain IRA incentives with those of its own.

In April, it announced up to 13.2 billion Canadian dollars ($9.8 billion) in subsidies over 10 years for Volkswagen’s first overseas battery plant in Ontario.

Elsewhere, South Korea’s largest automaker Hyundai is hoping to produce US-assembled electric cars eligible for subsidies at a site under construction in Georgia.

Other South Korean companies have forged partnerships with US ones to build assembly lines meeting IRA requirements, such as battery maker Samsung SDI’s joint venture with General Motors to build an EV battery plant in the US.

“The IRA would benefit the US through additional output and lower strategic dependence vis-a-vis China,” said an analysis by three European Central Bank economists in July.

“The US would gain from positive relocation effects, increasing production by six percent to 30 percent in electrical and optical equipment,” the economists said in a column on the Center for Economic Policy Research’s policy portal.

This comes mainly at China’s expense, and to a smaller degree the EU’s, the economists said. While the relocation involves a relatively small share of total output, losses in specific sectors can be more substantial.

Since the climate law was signed, at least $75 billion in new manufacturing investments has been announced, according to policy analyst Jack Conness of think tank Energy Innovation: Policy and Technology.

IRA green subsidies may be “of similar size” to those available in the EU, but the US cleantech subsidies are “simpler and less fragmented,” said European think tank Bruegel in a report this year. Such factors could make the US subsidies more attractive to businesses, at a time when Europe also faces rising energy costs following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“If you’re in an energy-intensive sector such as chemicals... the US looks increasingly attractive,” Meltzer said.

“It’s a broader set of factors, I think, that are creating competitive challenges in Europe,” he said. “The IRA is a part of that... but it’s not everything.” AFP

KAHULUI, Hawaii – The death toll in Hawaii from the deadliest US wildfire in more than a century ticked towards 100 Sunday (Monday in Manila), fueling criticism that government inaction contributed to the heavy loss of life.

Officials say 93 people are known to have died, but warned the figure was likely to rise as recovery crews with cadaver dogs work their way through hundreds of homes and burned out vehicles in Lahaina.

The historic coastal town on the island of Maui was almost completely destroyed by the fast-moving inferno early Wednesday morning, with survivors saying there had been no warnings.

When asked Sunday why none of the island’s sirens had been activated,

Kim calls for Nokor to boost its missile production—KCNA

Hawaii Senator Mazie Hirono said she would wait for the results of an investigation announced by the state’s attorney general.

“I’m not going to make any excuses for this tragedy,” Hirono, a Democrat, told CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“We are really focused, as far as I’m concerned, on the need for rescue, and, sadly, the location of more bodies.”

More than 2,200 buildings were damaged or destroyed as the fire tore through Lahaina, according to official estimates, wreaking $5.5 billion in damage and leaving thousands homeless.

“The remains we’re finding are from a fire that melted metal,” said Maui Police Chief John Pelletier. “When we pick up the remains... they fall apart.”

That was making identification difficult, he added, appealing for those with missing relatives to give DNA samples that might speed up the process.

Pelletier said cadaver dogs still had a vast area to search in the hunt for what could still be hundreds of people who are unaccounted for.

“We’re going as fast as we can. But just so you know, three percent -- that’s what’s been searched with the dogs,” he said. Questions over alert system

The wildfire is the deadliest in the United States since 1918, when 453 people died in Minnesota and Wisconsin, according to nonprofit research group the National Fire Protection Association.

The death toll surpassed 2018’s Camp Fire in California, which virtually wiped the small town of Paradise off the map and killed 86 people.

Questions are being asked over how prepared authorities were for the catastrophe, despite the islands’ exposure to natural hazards like tsunamis, earthquakes and violent storms.

In its emergency management plan last year, the State of Hawaii described the risk wildfires posed to people as being “low.”

Yet the layers of warning that are intended to buffer a citizenry if disaster strikes appear not to have operated.

Maui suffered numerous power outages during the crisis, preventing many residents from receiving emergency alerts on their cell phones.