Efforts to combat human trafficking have languished in the first year of the second Trump administration and their revival requires bipartisan support, according to five former diplomats who served as ambassadors-at-large to combat human trafficking.

Nationwide, 26 states have mandated complete bans on smartphones in K-12 public schools, while others allow usage with on-campus restrictions. According to Education Week, “31 states either already limit or ban students from using their personal devices in school or plan to do so for the 2025-26 or 2026-27 school years.”

The calming space is designed to help children relax, refocus, and build coping skills so they can return to class ready to learn.

Tens of thousands of pro-life advocates descended on the March for Life demonstrating their strong motivation to give witness to the importance of protecting the right to life for the unborn.

The theme of the 53rd annual March for Life was “Life Is a Gift” and both the crowd and the speakers at the rally embraced their personal experience of the gift of life.

Amid the 2026 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity Jan. 18-25, OSV News spoke with Bishop Joseph C. Bambera of Scranton, Pa., who serves as chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs and the Catholic co-chair of the Holy See’s International Catholic-Pentecostal Dialogue committee, part of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity.

The Archdiocese of Paris is launching a major churchwide council in response to a surge in adult and youth conversions across France.

Amid launching a dramatic appeal to help Ukrainians “freezing in genocidal attacks by Russia,” and after coordinating years of humanitarian efforts for the country, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the papal almoner said he is “unable to accept the medal announced by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy,” the prefect of the Dicastery for the Service of Charity told OSV News Jan. 23.

Vice President JD Vance said he visited with business leaders, federal immigration enforcement officers and local law enforcement in Minneapolis Jan. 22 to better understand how an increase in immigration enforcement was unfolding and to “tone down the temperature a little bit, reduce the chaos, but still allow us as a federal government to enforce the American people’s immigration laws.”

The morning rally and Mass, which took place hours before the 53rd annual March for Life, drew thousands of pro-life Catholics that made up a largely youthful crowd.