Truth and Action Roundup 7.31.2026

View this email in your browser Welcome to the Truth and Action Roundup, your reliable weekly source for information, inspiration, and opportunities for action during the second Trump administration.  Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up here to continue receiving it. This week we’ve seen former Trump administration Department of Government Efficiency leader Elon Musk re-enter the public conversation with his recent interview with The Economist. In the interview, he continued to deny the impact of the cuts to USAID and the federal government. While he has attained the title of the world’s first trillionaire, his cuts have already led to the deaths of thousands of the world’s poorest. While he himself has denounced Christian empathy, we must remember our sacred call to recognize that we all share in the image of God.  While Elon Musk is the richest person associated with the administration, he is not the only billionaire. President Donald Trump himself has become more than $1billion richer since taking office. His annual financial disclosure form from 2025 shows he made $1.4 billion from bitcoin investors alone. This obscene accumulation of wealth, alongside unprecedented cuts in access to food and medicine, highlights the wisdom of Scripture’s warnings against greed. Too often we obscure the cost of greed by excluding the people who are denied basic resources from our view. As Christians, it is our duty to speak out for the poor and needy, as demanded in Proverbs 31:9. By including the entire picture, we can see the true cost of the continued accumulation of wealth, particularly when it is wedded to the power of the federal government. As we continue to search for the path forward from our current moment, we must address the rampant inequality throughout our world.  –Rev. Moya Harris and Chad Stanton, Sojourners P.S. We are continuing to build an intentional community of people looking to live out their faith in our Sojourners Faith and Practice Forum on Mighty Networks. Please consider joining us. In the News 1. In international affairs, there were flashpoints around the globe. • In Mali, a separatist movement and an al-Qaida affiliate have formed a battlefield partnership that is transforming the conflict and shifting the military balance. The Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) is a secular nationalist movement seeking independence for a region of northern Mali it calls Azawad, while Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) is an al-Qaida offshoot that seeks to overthrow the government of Mali, which it views as illegitimate, and establish its interpretation of Islamic law. The two groups have set aside their ideological differences to fight a common enemy: the Malian government. • Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel accused the United States of committing genocide against his people and seeking to seize the island nation. Washington’s crippling oil embargo has produced regular blackouts and economic hardship, causing employers to reduce workdays, halting industrial production and triggering water and medicine shortages, among other issues. • In West Asia, regional escalation once again ramped up as Iran targeted U.S. forces in Jordan, and U.S. and Saudi militaries struck Iran-backed militias in Iraq. Iran’s strike occurred shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with President Donald Trump in Washington. • A new report by the global HIV/AIDS nonprofit amfAR has found that more than 1,700 treatment sites around the world have been closed in the wake of cuts to the U.S.’ global anti-AIDS program PEPFAR and the broader dismantling of USAID by the Trump administration. Experts warn that, beyond the treatment site closures, the impact of what the Trump administration has done is tantamount to what one PBS correspondent called “taking our eyes...off this epidemic.” 2. In immigration news, the legal status allowing hundreds of thousands of people from Haiti and Syria to stay temporarily in the U.S. due to humanitarian crises in their home countries expired Monday. • The expiration comes after a Supreme Court ruling in May cleared the way for the Trump administration to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haiti and Syria. There are more than 300,000 Haitian nationals and 6,000 Syrian nationals on TPS in the U.S. 3. It was a busy week in the halls of Congress, and the impacts of its decisions were felt by everyday people around the country. • President Trump on Monday demanded that Senate Majority Leader John Thune cancel the chamber’s upcoming August break until senators pass the SAVE America Act, which voting experts say could disenfranchise as many as 20 million voters. Trump made his demand even though Republicans lack the votes to advance the bill. • On Wednesday, Republican senators grilled Anthony Fauci with more than 100 questions at a hearing focused on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and whether Fauci previously lied under oath to Congress. Fauci repeatedly asserted his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself and declined to answer the questions. He had been subpoenaed to appear by Sen. Rand Paul, who has spent years alleging that Fauci participated in a cover-up of the possible origins of the pandemic. • The war with Iran and President Trump’s global tariff agenda are pushing prices higher across the country and raising fears of renewed inflation. Fuel prices are rising again, as are mortgage rates. Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, told NBC News that the war is costing the average household more than $1,200. • Despite its rhetoric that wholesome eating is a central part of the Trump administration’s efforts to Make America Healthy Again, a landmark nutrition education program for recipients of federal food assistance will soon cease to exist after President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last summer. For decades, SNAP-Ed, as the program is known, has funded programs such as community cooking classes, farmers markets in low-income neighborhoods, school nutrition lessons and more in every U.S. state. Take Action • We’re continuing to demand that Congress intervene to end the blockade of Cuba as blackouts continue to affect the island. • The Maryknoll Office of Global Concerns is asking Congress to promote peace in Sudan. You can contact your members of Congress here. What We’re Reading “Why Your Church Should Start Visiting People In Prison” | In the era of mass incarceration, religious volunteers visit incarcerated people to bridge the gap between them and life outside. (By Tate Young) “Nolan’s ‘Odyssey’ Confronts Civilization’s Original Sin” | The Odyssey, not unlike today, takes place during a period of rapid societal change and decline within a powerful empire: the end of the Bronze Age. (By Georgia Coley) Deep Breaths Seeing Ourselves in Each Other Authoritarian movements depend on “othering.” They craft narratives that cast marginalized people as threats, using fear to divide, isolate and control. We have seen this pattern across history, and we are witnessing it again in our own time. Racism and anti-Blackness continue to shape policymaking, judicial decisions and executive actions, threatening the image of God by restricting access to health care, affordable housing, nutritious food and other basic human needs. Genesis reminds us that every person is created in God’s image. When systems deny people what they need to live, they are not only unjust but a direct assault on that sacred truth. The consequences are not abstract. They are painfully real. Communities are suffering in the wake of dismantled global aid. Preventable diseases are re-emerging as science is politicized and undermined. Families are being deported at alarming rates and detained in inhumane conditions under the banner of “America First.” People are struggling to survive. Scripture confronts this contradiction. In James, we are warned about the danger of blessing God while cursing those who are made in God’s likeness. That tension is personal, social and political. It shows up in policies, practices and public narratives that devalue whole communities. As people of faith, we are called to resist this fragmentation by practicing solidarity. Solidarity requires that we see ourselves in one another. It calls us to love our neighbors as ourselves and to take seriously the witness of 1 John, which reminds us that we cannot claim to love God while hating those we can see. Being in solidarity means slowing down enough to listen and learn from others and refusing to turn away from suffering. When one of us suffers, all of us suffer, and our shared humanity calls us to respond. We cannot afford indifference. To see ourselves in each other is to reject the lie that division is inevitable and to choose, again and again, the sacred work of showing up, telling the truth and refusing to let anyone be cast outside the bounds of care. ––Rev. Moya Harris, Senior Director of Programs, Sojourners The Truth and Action Roundup is compiled by Sojourners staff: President: Rev. Adam Russell Taylor Senior Research Associate: J.K. Granberg-Michaelson Digital Content and Community Specialist: Kassandra Tapia Chief Program and Impact Officer: Bryan Epps Political Director: Chad V. Stanton Senior Program Director: Rev. Moya Harris Digital Education and Outreach Specialist: Cortnie Brooks Policy and Action Assistant: Trinity Williams Donate Subscribe Copyright © 2026 Sojourners. All rights reserved. Email: sojourners@sojo.net | Tel.: 202.328.8842