VA honors Revolutionary War Veterans interred in national cemeteries in support of America’s 250th anniversary

Source: US Department of Veterans Affairs

WASHINGTON — The Department of Veterans Affairs this weekend will honor 49 Veterans of the Revolutionary War who are interred or memorialized in VA national cemeteries or VA-administered soldiers lots in private cemeteries, as part of the yearlong effort to commemorate America’s 250th anniversary.

While Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Continental Congress July 4, 1776, most delegates signed it on Aug. 2, 1776. To mark that event, ceremonies will commence at 10 a.m. local time, Aug. 2, 2026, at 16 sites across the country:

“Service, sacrifice and patriotism are qualities displayed by our Veterans going back to the very founding of our nation,” said VA Under Secretary for Memorial Affairs Sam Brown. “Two hundred and fifty years later, we remain inspired by those who first took up arms in defense of liberty, and who, like the signers of the Declaration of Independence, risked their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to establish the United States of America.”

View VA Under Secretary for Memorial Affairs Sam Brown’s invitation to join the events here.

The names of the soldiers and sailors to be honored can be found here: Revolutionary War Interred Veterans.

NCA provides burial and memorial benefits to eligible Veterans, their spouses, and their dependents — at no cost to the family. This includes a gravesite in any of VA’s national cemeteries with available space, opening and closing of the grave, perpetual care, a government headstone, marker updated this link or medallion, updated this link a burial flag and a Presidential Memorial Certificate. Some Veterans may also be eligible for burial allowances.

Learn more about VA’s burial and memorial benefits.

Reporters and media outlets with questions or comments should contact the Office of Media Relations at vapublicaffairs@va.gov

Veterans with questions about their health care and benefits (including GI Bill). Questions, updates and documents can be submitted online.

Veterans can also use our chatbot to get information about VA benefits and services. The chatbot won’t connect you with a person, but it can show you where to go on VA.gov to find answers to some common questions.

Learn about our chatbot and ask a question

July 28, 2026

An Interview with Ella Patterson, Public Services Division Intern

Source: US Global Legal Monitor

Today’s interview is with Ella Patterson, an intern working in the Public Services Division of the Law Library of Congress.

Describe your background.

I am from Cary, North Carolina. I grew up with my parents and two sisters. Cary is home to my favorite park, Downtown Cary Park, which is overlooked by a beautiful public library.

What is your academic/professional history?

I am a rising senior at Duke University, pursuing a double major in history and political science. Academically, I am interested in legal history, international human rights, and the frameworks surrounding humanitarian aid.

I have professional experience in the museum and history fields. I previously worked as a co-curator for the Museum of Durham History and as a research grant awardee for the Duke Human Rights Center. These experiences spurred my love for archival materials! Additionally, I have developed strong research and database skills through roles at the Duke Center for Firearms Law and Duke Law School, as well as a research fellowship with the Corioli Institute analyzing veteran re-integration policies in Ukraine.

How would you describe your job to other people?

I am currently working on a project to index the Law Library’s collection of DC Circuit Court records and briefs, with the goal of making these documents accessible to researchers. Day-to-day, I scan relevant pages from microfilm reels and compile their metadata and citations into a database.

Beyond the technical skills I have gained from the project, working here has sparked a genuine interest in law librarianship as a career path. I have had the opportunity to shadow the reference librarians, and I have been consistently impressed by the staff’s dedication to accessibility, whether responding to remote inquiries, assisting on-site researchers, or building out these digital indexes.

Why did you want to work at the Law Library of Congress?

As a history major, I do not know who else in my shoes would not want to work at the Library of Congress! I have always been in awe of the Library’s vast collections and its mission to preserve history. I saw this internship as an opportunity to learn more about how I might transfer my academic interests and research skills into a fulfilling career.

The Law Library specifically drew me in because of its focus on preserving legal history. One of my primary professional goals is expanding public access to history. The Public Service Division and the DC Circuit Court index project within it provide exactly the skills I need to engage with patrons and see firsthand how training and careers in history can be used to help others.

What is the most interesting fact you have learned about the Law Library of Congress?

The Law Library at the Library of Congress is the largest law library in the world! I am always blown away by the breadth of its holdings. Beyond the physical collections, it has a comprehensive research guide for almost any location you could think of. From North Carolina to Italy (where I studied for a semester) the Law Library’s guides are a great place to start your research online!

What’s something most of your co-workers do not know about you?

Most of my colleagues probably do not know that I participated in Duke’s tenting tradition. Every winter, students camp out in tents outside the basketball stadium for weeks at a time to earn tickets to the game against our rival, the University of North Carolina.

I shared a tent with 11 other people for six weeks. There were many cold nights and annoying 3:00 AM tent checks, but the memories I made and the experience of being part of that tradition made it completely worth it. It is one of my favorite Duke experiences. I wonder if any of my co-workers could pass the tenting test?

Subscribe to In Custodia Legis – it’s free! – to receive interesting posts drawn from the Law Library of Congress’s vast collections and our staff’s expertise in U.S., foreign, and international law.

July 27, 2026

Deputy Secretary Landau’s Travel to Peru

Source: United States Department of State (2)

Office of the Spokesperson

Deputy Secretary Landau’s Travel to Peru

Media Note

July 26, 2026

Deputy Secretary Christopher Landau will lead the U.S. delegation to the July 28 inauguration of President-elect Keiko Fujimori in Lima, Peru. During the visit, Deputy Secretary Landau will meet with President-elect Fujimori and other senior Peruvian officials to reaffirm our 200-year diplomatic partnership with Peru. The meetings will focus on expanding cooperation on security, investment, and disaster preparedness – advancing shared prosperity and strengthening regional stability.

Members of the Presidential Delegation include:

H. Christopher Landau, Deputy Secretary of State, U.S. Department of State
H. Bernie Navarro, Ambassador of the United States to the Republic of Peru
H. William Kimmitt, Under Secretary for International Trade, U.S. Department of Commerce
Erin Browne, Counselor to the Secretary of the Treasury
Viviana Bovo, Senior Advisor for Western Hemisphere Affairs, U.S. Department of State

July 26, 2026

Liberia National Day

Source: United States Department of State

Marco Rubio, Secretary of State

Liberia National Day

Press Statement

July 26, 2026

On behalf of the United States of America, I extend congratulations to the people of Liberia on your country’s 179th year of independence.

On this occasion, we proudly reaffirm our continued partnership and friendship with the Government and people of Liberia. I look forward to continuing our close collaboration on priorities that will strengthen our bilateral relationship and enhance the security and prosperity of both our nations.

July 26, 2026

Maldives Independence Day

Source: United States Department of State

Marco Rubio, Secretary of State

Maldives Independence Day

Press Statement

July 25, 2026

On behalf of the United States of America, I congratulate the people of the Maldives as they celebrate their Independence Day.

This year marks 60 years of diplomatic relations between the United States and the Maldives, and we look forward to growing our partnership on key issues related to maritime security and preserving a stable Indian Ocean region.

The United States sends our best wishes to the Maldivian people.

July 26, 2026

Venezuela Withdraws from the ICC

Source: United States Department of State (2)

Office of the Spokesperson

Venezuela Withdraws from the ICC

Media Note

July 25, 2026

The United States welcomes the decision by interim President Delcy Rodriguez and Venezuela to withdraw from the ICC and the new Venezuelan government’s partnership on American-led efforts to dismantle the corrupt and worthless ICC. The so-called court has been “investigating” Nicolas Maduro since 2018 with no result. The ICC has instead wasted its resources on investigating and charging persons from countries that have competent, independent judicial systems and which never submitted to the jurisdiction of the court. This is blatant overreach, political bias and selective enforcement. The ICC is neither credible, independent, nor legitimate. Thanks to President Trump’s leadership and the efforts of brave American service members, Maduro is now facing justice in a U.S. court for crimes he has committed. It is time to dismantle the ICC. The U.S. calls on all members of the ICC to withdraw from the Rome Statute.

July 25, 2026

Soccer stars find ‘a magical connection’ in the U.S.

Source: Share America Gov

Soccer stars find ‘a magical connection’ in the U.S.

During a match in Kansas City, Missouri, Algerian soccer fans show their appreciation for city of Lawrence, Kansas, where Algeria’s National Team practiced. (© Scott Winters/Icon Sportswire/Getty Images)

The 47 international soccer teams that visited the United States this summer found more than just competition. U.S. cities that served as training camps for visiting teams rolled out the red carpet for the world’s best players and their traveling fans.

Algeria’s National Team chose Lawrence, Kansas, for its base camp — the place it would live and train before and during the tournament — because of the college town’s outstanding facilities and proximity to Kansas City, where the team played two of its matches. As team members rolled into town, they heard their country’s national anthem thanks to Sharon Toulouse, director of athletic bands at the University of Kansas. She had recruited members of the university’s Marching Jayhawks band to rehearse the anthem and play it upon the Algerian team’s arrival.

University of Kansas band members show their support for Algeria’s National Team. (© Sharon L. Toulouse/KU School of Music)

Toulouse, who served in the U.S. military, tracked down a copy of the sheet music from the U.S. Army Band “Pershing’s Own.” Students wore Algerian scarves while playing the anthem for the Algerian players, and fans of the team who had come to watch practice sang along.

“Any time I hear our national anthem, it means so much. I know it meant so much to them,” Toulouse said. “Our town just accepted them as their own.”

Restaurants in Lawrence offered mint tea, an Algerian staple. And a local tourism bureau, eXplore Lawrence, hosted watch parties for Algeria’s matches. Ruth DeWitt, director of community relations at eXplore Lawrence, and her husband hosted a fan of the Algerian team who visited from Minnesota.

Meanwhile, Algeria’s fans showed their gratitude with a banner displayed at one of the team’s matches. “It was a magical connection,” DeWitt says, adding that Lawrence is now looking to form a sister city relationship with a town in Algeria to continue the connection. “The joy and love between these communities has been valuable beyond any price tag.”

Belgium National Team fans rally outside the stadium before a June 15 match in Seattle. (© Blake Dahlin/Imagn Images/Reuters)

Some of the outpouring of hospitality came from fans with connections to visiting teams. Ferdane Bekmezci, of Bellevue, Washington, was so “jazzed up” when she learned her native Belgium’s national team would train near her adopted Seattle-area hometown that she organized a watch party and march to the stadium on match day.

Fans of Team Belgium flocked together wearing matching face paint, jerseys and hats, she says, because soccer “is in the backbone of people” in Belgium. Bekmezci says she was also happy to see soccer gaining popularity in the United States, where she is now a citizen, and that before watching the two teams square off, she believed she would win either way.

Fans watch the Croatia National Team train at Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia, June 10. (© Igor Kralj/Pixsell/MB Media/Getty Images)

In anticipation of the Croatia National Team’s arrival, staff at Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia, spent months growing, mowing, rolling and perfecting its Bermuda grass field. Dan O’Neil, the school’s director of auxiliary programs, says grounds crew head Glenn Sweet took the lead in readying the field. “If there was daylight, he was on it.”

The school provided golf carts to shuttle players between the weight room and the pitch and opened its basketball gym for players to unwind after practice.

When hundreds of local kids came to watch practice, “the team seemed to have fun with it — signing autographs and kicking balls into the crowd,” O’Neil says. Croatian players also gifted the school a national team jersey that will go on display.

Soccer stars find ‘a magical connection’ in the U.S.

July 25, 2026

Sanctioning an Iranian Financial Evasion Network

Source: United States Department of State (2)

Thomas “Tommy” Pigott, Spokesperson

Sanctioning an Iranian Financial Evasion Network

Press Statement

July 24, 2026

The United States is holding Babak Zanjani and his sprawling network accountable for enabling the Iranian regime to evade sanctions and finance its destabilizing activities, including supporting the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. This action applies further pressure on the Iranian regime following its attacks on commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz and regional neighbors.

Today’s action targets four individuals and nine entities tied to Zanjani’s operations. Zanjani’s re-emergence as a regime-linked financier—despite previously receiving a death sentence in Iran for embezzlement—demonstrates the lengths to which Iranian state-affiliated elites will go to preserve access to the international financial system so that they can enrich themselves, even as they mismanage the Iranian economy. The United States calls on governments and financial institutions worldwide not to engage with entities connected to Zanjani or the broader networks that prop up Iran’s security apparatus. The Iranian regime is the world’s leading state sponsor of terror, and for more than 40 years has used the IRGC to foment instability in the region and beyond. We will continue to expose and disrupt networks that provide the regime and its proxies with the resources they use to undermine U.S. national security interests.

Today’s action is being taken pursuant to Executive Order 13902, which targets Iran’s financial, petroleum, and petrochemical sectors to restrict revenue that could fund Iran’s nuclear, missile and terrorist activities. For more information on today’s action, please see the Department of the Treasury’s press release.

July 25, 2026

An Interview with Joanna Colclough, Leadership Development Program Participant at the Law Library of Congress

Source: US Global Legal Monitor

Today’s blog interview is with Joanna Colclough who participated in the Leadership Development Program (LDP) at the Library of Congress. Her detail assignment during the program was at the Law Library of Congress.

Describe your background.

I live in Maryland, but grew up moving around a lot as an Army brat. Most of my extended family lives in Michigan, so the Midwest is a big part of my background and my favorite region. I took many summer trips to Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford Museum.

What is your academic/professional history?

I have wanted to be a librarian my whole life, so I knew a Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) degree would be required at some point. Until then, I studied where my interests drew me – classics, English, history, and theatre. I went to Belmont Abbey College in Belmont, North Carolina, for undergrad and completed graduate work at the University of Maryland, College Park. While in school and during the summers off, I always tried to intern and volunteer at local archives or special collections repositories. I was a contractor at the Government Publishing Office in Washington D.C., where I worked on digitizing the Congressional Record for govinfo.gov. Then I spent four years as a high school librarian, which I loved. Those two experiences prepped me for working in the Serial and Government Publications Division at the Library of Congress, where I have been a reference librarian in the Newspaper and Current Periodical Reading Room since 2021. I have spent these summer months on detail in the Law Library’s Public Services Division, which operates the reading room.

How would you describe your job to other people?

My job as a reference librarian is to help people find things within the Library’s vast collections, and I would say this is the heart of the job in any reading room at the Library of Congress. My specialty is in newspapers and periodicals, but this summer, I got to spend time in the Law Library Reading Room. I have not done a lot of reference work during my time in the Law Library because the learning curve for legal research definitely requires more than four months! But I have learned a lot about the different types of law documents, and both the practical and unique collections held in the Law Library.

Why did you want to work at the Law Library of Congress?

I have zero law experience, and so I came to the Law Library to be fully immersed in the new language and culture of the legal world! This type of detail, where staff can change jobs for a time, allows for greater sharing of information within the Library of Congress and the development of personal and professional connections. I got to spend time learning about the law collections and the legal reference staff who work with them, how the reading room operates, the classes they teach in the Legal Research Institute, and the projects the Public Services Division is responsible for. The Supreme Court records and briefs and the federal bills and resolutions are two ongoing projects where the Law Library processes incoming documents from the current Congress and Supreme Court session – all intended to provide long-term access as soon as possible. There are so many moving parts to the projects! It is really impressive, and we had some great project management discussions on current challenges and possible improvements.

What is the most interesting fact you have learned about the Law Library of Congress?

I have definitely learned a lot of interesting facts. One is that the legal reference librarians are some of the coolest people, and each of them genuinely enjoys helping people research. They are brilliant. My favorite fun fact is that the on-site Law Library collections are equivalent to almost two football fields. Talk about high-density storage!

I also enjoyed learning more about the Constitution Annotated (CONAN). It is a bit like Chronicling America – a free online resource with a wealth of information!

Four ranges of high-density shelving in the Law Library collections. Photo by Joanna Colclough.

What’s something most of your co-workers do not know about you?

For a time, I also wanted to be a paper conservator and work with beautiful old illuminated manuscripts, but I hated chemistry in school and so ultimately decided not to go into the career that required a lot of biological and chemical science. I still have a master’s in science (which cracks me up), but the science of information is a bit different!

Photo of the Library of Congress from the East St. Louis Daily Journal. March 9, 1919. Library of Congress, Chronicling America. https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn92053739/1919-03-09/ed-1/?sp=16&r=-0.325,-0.001,1.779,0.81,0

July 25, 2026

An Interview with Joanna Colclough, Librarian-in-Residence at the Law Library of Congress

Source: US Global Legal Monitor

Today’s blog interview is with Librarian-in-Residence at the Law Library of Congress, Joanna Colclough.

Describe your background.

I live in Maryland, but grew up moving around a lot as an Army brat. Most of my extended family lives in Michigan, so the Midwest is a big part of my background and my favorite region. I took many summer trips to Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford Museum.

What is your academic/professional history?

I have wanted to be a librarian my whole life, so I knew a Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) degree would be required at some point. Until then, I studied where my interests drew me – classics, English, history, and theatre. I went to Belmont Abbey College in Belmont, North Carolina, for undergrad and completed graduate work at the University of Maryland, College Park. While in school and during the summers off, I always tried to intern and volunteer at local archives or special collections repositories. I was a contractor at the Government Publishing Office in Washington D.C., where I worked on digitizing the Congressional Record for govinfo.gov. Then I spent four years as a high school librarian, which I loved. Those two experiences prepped me for working in the Serial and Government Publications Division at the Library of Congress, where I have been a reference librarian in the Newspaper and Current Periodical Reading Room since 2021. I have spent these summer months on detail in the Law Library’s Public Services Division, which operates the reading room.

How would you describe your job to other people?

My job as a reference librarian is to help people find things within the Library’s vast collections, and I would say this is the heart of the job in any reading room at the Library of Congress. My specialty is in newspapers and periodicals, but this summer, I got to spend time in the Law Library Reading Room. I have not done a lot of reference work during my time in the Law Library because the learning curve for legal research definitely requires more than four months! But I have learned a lot about the different types of law documents, and both the practical and unique collections held in the Law Library.

Why did you want to work at the Law Library of Congress?

I have zero law experience, and so I came to the Law Library to be fully immersed in the new language and culture of the legal world! This type of detail, where staff can change jobs for a time, allows for greater sharing of information within the Library of Congress and the development of personal and professional connections. I got to spend time learning about the law collections and the legal reference staff who work with them, how the reading room operates, the classes they teach in the Legal Research Institute, and the projects the Public Services Division is responsible for. The Supreme Court records and briefs and the federal bills and resolutions are two ongoing projects where the Law Library processes incoming documents from the current Congress and Supreme Court session – all intended to provide long-term access as soon as possible. There are so many moving parts to the projects! It is really impressive, and we had some great project management discussions on current challenges and possible improvements.

What is the most interesting fact you have learned about the Law Library of Congress?

I have definitely learned a lot of interesting facts. One is that the legal reference librarians are some of the coolest people, and each of them genuinely enjoys helping people research. They are brilliant. My favorite fun fact is that the on-site Law Library collections are equivalent to almost two football fields. Talk about high-density storage!

I also enjoyed learning more about the Constitution Annotated (CONAN). It is a bit like Chronicling America – a free online resource with a wealth of information!

Four ranges of high-density shelving in the Law Library collections. Photo by Joanna Colclough.

What’s something most of your co-workers do not know about you?

For a time, I also wanted to be a paper conservator and work with beautiful old illuminated manuscripts, but I hated chemistry in school and so ultimately decided not to go into the career that required a lot of biological and chemical science. I still have a master’s in science (which cracks me up), but the science of information is a bit different!