Ben Sasse, a former U.S. Senator from Nebraska and onetime President of the University of Florida (UF), has been diagnosed with metastasized, stage 4 pancreatic cancer.

He announced the diagnosis in a statement posted to X, saying that the disease is terminal and he is now “on the clock.”

“This is a tough note to write, but since a bunch of you have started to suspect something, I’ll cut to the chase: Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die,” Sasse said.

He described advanced pancreatic cancer as “a death sentence,” while also reflecting that mortality is a universal condition.

“I already had a death sentence before last week too — we all do,” he said.

Sasse, 53, has long been a distinctive figure in American public life, blending conservative politics with academic training and an emphasis on institutions, civic culture and constitutional norms.

Raised in Plainview, Nebraska, he earned degrees from Harvard and Yale, completing a doctorate in history with a focus on American political development. He served in former President George W. Bush’s administration as Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services for Planning and Evaluation, focusing on long-term entitlement and demographic issues. He later became President of Midland University in Nebraska.

Sasse entered the U.S. Senate in 2015 after winning Nebraska’s 2014 race as an outsider candidate critical of Washington dysfunction. He became nationally prominent for his willingness to publicly challenge President Donald Trump, despite voting conservatively on most policy matters.

Notably, he was among a small group of Republican Senators who voted to convict Trump during impeachment proceedings, a stance that made him a polarizing figure within his party.

In 2022, Sasse resigned from the Senate to become UF President, returning to academia amid intense debate over politics and public higher education. He stepped down from the role in 2023, citing health-related reasons involving his family, and largely withdrew from public life.

After his departure, it was revealed that while President, Sasse tripled his office’s spending, with most of it covering lucrative consulting contracts and high-paying positions for GOP allies.

Sasse wrote Tuesday that his time away from politics allowed his family to establish “new rhythms.”

Much of his cancer announcement focused on his wife, Melissa, and their three children. He described milestones including his daughter Corrie’s commissioning into the U.S. Air Force and flight training, his daughter Alex’s early college graduation while teaching advanced science courses, and his 14-year-old son Breck learning to drive.

“This is hard for someone wired to work and build,” Sasse said, “but harder still as a husband and a dad.” He praised his siblings and close friends, quoting one who told him, “Sure, you’re on the clock, but we’re all on the clock.”

He called death “a wicked thief,” but emphasized gratitude for the time he has.

The statement was deeply rooted in Sasse’s Christian faith. While acknowledging the severity of his diagnosis, Sasse said he plans to pursue treatment and is not surrendering quietly, citing advances in immunotherapy and adding, “I’m not going down without a fight.”

The U.S. economy expanded at a surprisingly strong 4.3% annual rate in the third quarter as consumer spending, exports and government spending all grew.

U.S. gross domestic product from July through September — the economy’s total output of goods and services — rose from its 3.8% growth rate in the April-June quarter, the Commerce Department said Tuesday in a report delayed by the government shutdown. Analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet forecast growth of 3% in the period.

However, inflation remains higher than the Federal Reserve would like. The Fed’s favored inflation gauge — called the personal consumption expenditures index, or PCE — climbed to a 2.8% annual pace last quarter, up from 2.1% in the second quarter.

Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called core PCE inflation was 2.9%, up from 2.6% in the April-June quarter.

Consumer spending, which accounts for about 70% of U.S. economic activity, rose to a 3.5% annual pace last quarter, up from 2.5% in the April-June period.

Within the GDP data, a category that measures the economy’s underlying strength grew at a 3% annual rate from July through September, up slightly from 2.9% in the second quarter. This category includes consumer spending and private investment, but excludes volatile items like exports, inventories and government spending.

Exports grew at an 8.8% rate, while imports, which subtract from GDP, fell another 4.7%.

Tuesday’s report is the first of three estimates the government will make of GDP growth for the third quarter of the year.

Outside of the first quarter, when the economy shrank for the first time in three years as companies rushed to import goods ahead of President Donald Trump’s tariff rollout, the U.S. economy has continued to expand at a healthy rate. That’s despite much higher borrowing rates the Fed imposed in 2022 and 2023 in its drive to curb the inflation that surged as the United States bounced back with unexpected strength from the brief but devastating COVID-19 recession of 2020.

Though inflation remains above the Fed’s 2% target, the central bank cut its benchmark lending rate three times in a row to close out 2025, mostly out of concern for a job market that has steadily lost momentum since Spring.

Last week, the government reported that the U.S. economy gained a decent 64,000 jobs in November but lost 105,000 in October. Notably, the unemployment rate rose to 4.6% last month, the highest since 2021.

The country’s labor market has been stuck in a “low hire, low fire” state, economists say, as businesses stand pat due to uncertainty over Trump’s tariffs and the lingering effects of elevated interest rates. Since March, job creation has fallen to an average 35,000 a month, compared to 71,000 in the year ended in March. Fed Chair Jerome Powell has said that he suspects those numbers will be revised even lower.

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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.

Florida’s Catholic bishops appealed to President Donald Trump on Monday to pause immigration enforcement activities during the Christmas holidays. The White House, in response, said it would be business as usual.

The appeal was issued by Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski, and signed by seven other members of the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“The border has been secured. The initial work of identifying and removing dangerous criminals has been accomplished to a great degree,” Wenski wrote. “At this point, the maximum enforcement approach of treating irregular immigrants en masse means that now many of these arrest operations inevitably sweep up numbers of people who are not criminals but just here to work.”

“A climate of fear and anxiety is infecting not only the irregular migrant but also family members and neighbors who are legally in the country,” Wenski added.

“Since these effects are part of enforcement operations, we request that the government pause apprehension and round-up activities during the Christmas season. Such a pause would show a decent regard for the humanity of these families.”

Responding via email, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson did not mention the holiday season in her two-sentence reply.

“President Trump was elected based on his promise to the American people to deport criminal illegal aliens. And he’s keeping that promise,” Jackson wrote.

Wenski has established a reputation as an outspoken advocate of humane treatment for migrants. In September, for example, he joined other Catholic leaders on a panel at Georgetown University decrying the Trump administration’s hardline policies for tearing apart families, inciting fear and upending church life.

Wenski highlighted the contributions of immigrants to the country’s economy.

“If you ask people in agriculture, you ask in the service industry, you ask people in health care, you ask the people in the construction field, and they’ll tell you that some of their best workers are immigrants,” said Wenski. “Enforcement is always going to be part of any immigration policy, but we have to rationalize it and humanize it.”

Wenski joined the “Knights on Bikes” ministry, an initiative led by the Knights of Columbus that draws attention to the spiritual needs of people held at immigration detention centers, including the one in the Florida Everglades dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.” He recalled praying a rosary with the bikers in the scorching heat outside its walls. Days later, he got permission to celebrate Mass inside the facility.

“The fact that we invite these detainees to pray, even in this very dehumanizing situation, is a way of emphasizing and invoking their dignity,” he said.

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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.