The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has now delivered truckloads of food to all 50 U.S. states as part of its effort to commemorate the United States’ 250th anniversary. The milestone was reached with a food delivery to Hilo, Hawaii, on June 13, 2026, and was highlighted at events in Hawaii and Boston, as well as volunteer efforts in Alaska.

This significant effort was further recognized in Boston, where on Wednesday, June 17, a semitruck carrying more than 37,000 pounds of food from the Church was delivered to the Catholic Charities Boston Yawkey Center. The food will be distributed on Saturday, June 20, in honor of Juneteenth. The effort is part of America250’s nationwide “America Gives” initiative, and is supported by JustServe. An event announcing the donation brought together local leaders, volunteers and faith organizations to distribute provisions to families in need.

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“Reaching all 50 states is an extraordinary milestone for America Gives and a powerful reminder that service connects us across geography, backgrounds and beliefs,” said Rosie Rios, Chair of America250 and former U.S. Treasurer. “From Alaska and Hawaii to Boston and beyond, Americans are showing that one of the best ways to celebrate our nation’s 250th birthday is by serving their neighbors and strengthening their communities.”

By year’s end, 250 truckloads of food will have been distributed nationwide, representing millions of meals. Half of those 250 truckloads have already been delivered.

“This wonderful donation from our friends of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints demonstrates that food insecurity knows no boundaries of faith, race, or socioeconomic level,” said Cristiano Barbosa, an Auxiliary Bishop with the Archdiocese of Boston. “As we approach the 250th anniversary of the United States on July 4, when our nation adopted the Declaration of Independence, we owe it to people struggling now and in the future to eliminate food insecurity in this country. Every child deserves an opportunity to be fed and grow up healthy. Every family should be able to have enough food on their table.”

Elder Allen D. Haynie, President of the Church’s United States Northeast Area, said these food deliveries are a reminder that “people in our own backyards are hungry.” He expressed gratitude to collaborators, including the Catholic Church and the Church of God in Christ, for their indispensable contributions to this project.

“May we continue to serve together in the months and years ahead, and in doing so, may we help make this country better and kinder,” Elder Haynie said.

Sister Tracy Y. Browning, who helps lead the Church’s global organization for children, said these food deliveries are critical for families.

“It’s clear to us that hunger is everywhere, in every community,” she said. “This effort as a Church reflects our desire to follow the teachings of our Savior, Jesus Christ, by lifting others and strengthening individuals, families and communities.”

Blaine Maxfield, the Church’s Welfare and Self-Reliance Services Managing Director, emphasized that there is still much work to do.

“As excited as we are that we’ve delivered to all 50 states, we have more to do,” he said. “We have 250 deliveries. And so we’ll be doing it throughout the year.”

Spanning the country, a similar gathering occurred in Hilo on June 13. Community and faith leaders gathered to express gratitude for the Church’s 45-foot container full of food and supplies and to distribute it to those in need on both the Hilo and Kona sides of the island.

“We know these cans did not simply appear on pallets,” said Ted Lesnett of the Hilo United Methodist Church’s Peanut Butter Ministry, which has provided regular meals for 55 years to individuals who may not otherwise have reliable access to food.

He expressed deep gratitude for the food from the Church, noting that behind the boxes and pallets “stand farms and your orchards, processing facilities, your canneries, your storehouses, your truck drivers, your organizers, your donors, and your volunteers — countless people whose names we will never know and whose faces we will never see.”

Much of the food is provided through the Church’s global welfare system, which includes farms, processing facilities and storehouses that produce and distribute staple goods.

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“The people who eventually receive these meals may never know where this food began its journey,” Lesnett added. “They may never know who grew it, who packed it, who shipped it, who unloaded it, who cooked it, or served it. They will simply know that when they were hungry, someone cared.”

The container was received by The Food Basket, a Hawaii Island food bank, and distributed to 10 nonprofit organizations, including food pantries, faith-based ministries, recovery homes and youth and family service organizations.

Food is an important resource on Hawaii Island. According to Food Basket Operations Manager Enola Kaneta, some 42% of residents experience food insecurity — the highest rate in the state.

“This is huge for our community,” Kaneta said. “It is such a blessing that the Church does what you do, especially in the welfare division within the Church, but also extending to our neighbors who live on our island as well. Mahalo, and may God bless each and every one of you today.”

Another June food delivery came to an even more remote part of the United States. On June 11, a shipment traveled thousands of miles by land and sea before arriving in Fairbanks, Alaska, where it was delivered to a community food bank and prepared for distribution. Some of that food will reach as far as Utqiagvik, the northernmost community in the United States.

Several youth JustServe volunteers came together in Fairbanks to sort, pack and move the food for distribution, carrying boxes to trucks and preparing shipments for communities across the region.

“We never know who the boxes are going to, but it doesn’t matter who they’re going to,” said volunteer Taylor Eddington. “We just know it’s going to help them.”

As with Boston, other deliveries have reached some of the larger U.S. metropolitan areas. These include donations previously reported on in Los Angeles (January) and Dallas (May 14), and another contribution in Detroit (May 21).

The 40,000-pound delivery of shelf-stable food to the Motor City is helping 25 congregations connected to the Council of Baptist Pastors of Detroit and Vicinity via a collaboration with Forgotten Harvest food bank.

According to Forgotten Harvest, food demand has increased between 15% to 30%.

“This is more than a distribution. This is a lifeline,” said the Rev. Yvette Griffin of Pilgrim Baptist Church in Detroit.

Across the country, these efforts are often carried out through collaborations among faith groups, nonprofits and community leaders. These donations help anyone in need and reflect the importance of unity, service, generosity and a shared commitment to following Jesus Christ.

As Council of Baptist Pastors of Detroit and Vicinity President Orville K. Littlejohn said, “It is time to move beyond denominations and dogma and respond to the call of Jesus Christ that we all honor and serve the community. We recognize we have more in common than different.”

China’s ambassador to the EU is pressing a cooperation message as Brussels sharpens its de-risking agenda

Chinese Ambassador Cai Run has made trade dialogue the centrepiece of his recent Brussels diplomacy, meeting European business representatives and publishing a detailed defence of EU-China economic ties at a moment when the European Union is becoming more assertive about industrial dependence, electric vehicles and market access.

In Brussels, ambassadorial work is often measured less by public ceremony than by the quieter struggle to shape the terms of policy debate. For Cai Run, China’s ambassador to the European Union, that debate is increasingly economic: how to keep the EU-China relationship open enough for trade and investment, while responding to European fears about overcapacity, strategic dependence and uneven access to markets.

The Chinese Mission to the EU said Cai held a European enterprises roundtable on 19 May, briefing representatives from 14 European business associations and companies on China-EU relations and prospects for economic cooperation. The event followed earlier exchanges with European Parliament interlocutors and business groups, placing Cai among the foreign envoys in Brussels working to influence not only diplomats, but also firms directly affected by policy shifts.

A message aimed at business confidence

Cai’s public line is that China and Europe should treat differences as manageable disputes rather than evidence of structural rivalry. In a late May opinion piece republished by China’s foreign ministry, he acknowledged EU concerns over the trade imbalance but argued that both sides should address frictions through consultation, market opening and institutional arrangements.

That argument is aimed at an anxious audience. European manufacturers are under pressure from cheap imports, energy costs, subsidy competition and uncertainty over supply chains. Some European companies also remain heavily exposed to the Chinese market, making the politics of de-risking more complex than slogans suggest.

The EU, however, has been moving from general concern to regulatory action. In January, the European Commission issued guidance for Chinese electric vehicle exporters on possible price undertaking offers, following anti-subsidy duties on battery electric vehicles from China. The document underlined that any offer would be judged under EU legal criteria and WTO rules.

Brussels wants dialogue, but not passivity

The ambassador’s activities come as Brussels tries to preserve channels with Beijing while showing that openness is not unconditional. The phrase “de-risking, not decoupling” remains the EU’s preferred formula, but the policy behind it is becoming harder-edged in areas such as clean technology, batteries, raw materials, procurement and investment screening.

This creates a narrow diplomatic lane for Cai. A confrontational tone would reinforce European scepticism. A purely reassuring tone risks sounding detached from the concerns now shaping EU policy. His recent outreach therefore appears designed to keep business actors engaged, present China as a partner in growth, and discourage the EU from treating economic security as a reason for broad restrictions.

For Europe, the question is not only whether China will buy more European goods or allow more market access. It is whether European industries can remain competitive without becoming vulnerable to political pressure, supply disruption or subsidy-driven competition. That is why the debate now extends beyond trade officials into parliaments, boardrooms and national capitals.

An ambassador at the centre of a strategic argument

Cai’s role matters because ambassadors in Brussels operate in a dense diplomatic environment, where EU institutions, member states, trade associations, civil society and journalists all shape the policy climate. China’s mission cannot decide EU law, but it can try to influence how risks are described and how far countermeasures go.

The European Parliament has also kept China high on its agenda. In March, its delegation for relations with China held an exchange of views with Cai and Jorge Toledo, the EU ambassador to China, in a closed meeting on EU-China relations. That format points to the dual nature of the relationship: formal dialogue continues, but much of the most sensitive discussion happens away from public microphones.

The wider context is a more defensive global trade mood. The EU has already faced turbulence in its trade relationship with Washington, as The European Times reported in its coverage of transatlantic tariff uncertainty. With both the United States and China testing Europe’s economic resilience in different ways, Brussels is trying to avoid dependence on any single power while keeping markets open enough to support growth.

That balancing act will define the next phase of Cai Run’s work in Brussels. His recent activities show an ambassador trying to keep dialogue alive. The harder question is whether dialogue can still carry enough trust when both sides increasingly see trade as a matter not only of prosperity, but of security and political autonomy.

Parliament’s eastern-flank vote turns airspace violations into a wider question of civilian protection and European readiness

European lawmakers are moving to sharpen the EU’s response to drone incursions and security threats on the bloc’s eastern frontier, after incidents affecting Romania, the Baltic states and Finland raised fresh concern that Russia’s war against Ukraine is spilling into the daily security of EU citizens.

The European Parliament was due on Thursday to vote on a resolution on EU sovereignty and security, following a debate on how to strengthen air defence and protect the bloc’s eastern border. The issue has gained urgency after repeated drone incidents attributed to Russia, including a crash in Romania that brought the war’s risks directly into an EU and NATO member state.

The vote comes as EU leaders gather in Brussels for a European Council summit dominated by Ukraine, defence readiness, migration, the Middle East and the next long-term EU budget. It also shows how European security debates are moving beyond military spending alone and into questions of civil protection, emergency response, border-area resilience and public trust.

From airspace violations to public safety

Parliament’s agenda frames the issue as a response to “a growing number of threats and drone incursions” affecting several EU countries. MEPs were joined earlier this week by representatives of the Commission and the Cypriot Presidency to discuss how Europe should enhance its air defences, with the European Parliament briefing explicitly naming Romania, the Baltic states and Finland.

The most serious recent case cited by EU officials was the 29 May incident in Galați, Romania, where a Russian drone carrying explosives crashed into a residential building during an overnight attack against Ukraine. The EU described the crash as a grave violation of European airspace and expressed solidarity with Romania and those affected in an official statement on the Romanian incident.

For border communities, the danger is not abstract. Drone fragments, air alerts and emergency evacuations can disrupt schools, homes, hospitals and local economies even when incidents do not cause mass casualties. The political question for Brussels is therefore not only how to deter hostile acts, but how to reassure citizens that the EU can protect civilian life at its edges.

A defence debate with human consequences

The eastern-flank discussion sits at the intersection of defence policy and human security. Air-defence systems, radar networks and anti-drone capabilities are technical and expensive, but their purpose is intensely practical: giving people more warning, keeping debris away from homes, and reducing the chance that Russia’s attacks on Ukraine trigger wider harm inside EU territory.

That is why the issue is likely to remain tied to Ukraine policy. European governments have already argued that stronger Ukrainian air defence also protects neighbouring countries by reducing the number of drones and missiles that reach border regions. Recent Russian strikes on Ukraine, including attacks that damaged civilian areas and cultural heritage, have reinforced the point that air defence is also a civilian-protection tool, as covered in The European Times’ report on the Kyiv Lavra strike and the G7 agenda.

Still, Europe faces difficult choices. Better protection of the eastern flank will require coordination between EU institutions, NATO structures and national governments. It will also require money at a time when leaders are already negotiating the next EU budget and facing pressure over competitiveness, social spending and migration management.

Solidarity will need systems

Thursday’s Parliament vote is not, by itself, a defence plan. It is a political signal. But such signals matter when they help define what the EU considers unacceptable and what kind of readiness it expects from member states.

The challenge now is to turn solidarity into systems: faster information-sharing, clear warning procedures for civilians, more credible anti-drone capacity, support for frontline member states and continued backing for Ukraine’s air defences. Without that practical follow-through, resolutions risk sounding firm while border communities remain exposed.

Russia’s war has repeatedly forced Europe to redraw the boundary between foreign policy and domestic security. Drone incursions over Romania, Finland and the Baltic region make that boundary even thinner. For the EU, defending the eastern border increasingly means defending the ordinary civic space behind it: apartment blocks, roads, schools, emergency services and the confidence that peace inside the Union is actively protected.