Disestablishment has a long intellectual history, dating back at least to the early 19th century; Jeremy Bentham put forward a coruscating manifesto in 1817. But it has never come to pass, partly because of the Church’s by-its-fingernails resilience and partly because of the removal of legal disabilities (restrictions in laymen’s terms) on dissenters.

If the Prince of Wales were to desacralise his coronation, do away with the coronation oath by which he would swear to “Maintaine the Laws of God the true Profession of the Gospell and the Protestant Reformed Religion Established by Law” and seek to set aside the title of “Supreme Governor”, he would achieve more than any radical has for two centuries.

The Church of England, like many established sects, is waning. Its own statistics reveal that in 2022 the “worshipping community” was less than one million, with weekly attendance at 654,000.

Although it has an endowment of £8.7bn, its liabilities are vast. Its established status, the very wellspring of its existence in the 16th century, is central to its identity and stature. Absent that, its future would surely look bleaker still.

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Snippets from @hardmanr’s new book suggest the Prince of Wales wants to dilute his ties to the @churchofengland as king. In @theipaper, I warn that it could lead to disestablishment: pro or anti, it shouldn’t result from carelessness. #PrinceWilliamhttps://t.co/16EOTSzHfK

— Eliot Wilson (@EliotWilson2) January 18, 2024

Tumors constantly shed DNA from dying cells, which briefly circulates in the patient’s bloodstream before it is quickly broken down. Many companies have created blood tests that can pick out this tumor DNA, potentially helping doctors diagnose or monitor cancer or choose a treatment.

The amount of tumor DNA circulating at any given time, however, is extremely small, so it has been challenging to develop tests sensitive enough to pick up that tiny signal. A team of researchers from MIT and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard has now come up with a way to significantly boost that signal, by temporarily slowing the clearance of tumor DNA circulating in the bloodstream.

The researchers developed two different types of injectable molecules that they call “priming agents,” which can transiently interfere with the body’s ability to remove circulating tumor DNA from the bloodstream. In a study of mice, they showed that these agents could boost DNA levels enough that the percentage of detectable early-stage lung metastases leapt from less than 10 percent to above 75 percent.

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Researchers improve blood tests’ ability to detect and monitor cancer: The advance makes it easier to detect circulating tumor DNA in blood samples, which could enable earlier cancer diagnosis and help guide treatment. https://t.co/cPA3MJVQ08 pic.twitter.com/CRRIFAFWbQ

— Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (@MIT) January 19, 2024

In the year ahead, the use of biometrics — an individual’s unique physical identifiers, such as fingerprints and faces — will be expanded at airports in the United States and abroad, a shift to enhance security, replace physical identification such as passports and driver’s licenses, and reduce the amount of time required by travelers to pass through airports. Biometric technology will be seen everywhere from bag drops at the check-in counters to domestic security screening.

In the United States, the Transportation Security Administration is expanding its program allowing passengers to opt in for a security screening relying on a facial recognition match with their physical identification — a photo taken in real time is compared against a scan of a license or passport and assists the T.S.A. officer in verifying a traveler’s identity. This program is currently available at 30 airports nationwide, including Salt Lake City International Airport and Denver International Airport; the T.S.A. said it will expand to more than 400 airports in the coming years.

T.S.A. PreCheck travelers who are flying on Delta Air Lines may not even need to show their identification at all during bag drop and security, if they opt in to Delta’s digital ID program.

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Will Passports Be Replaced by Biometrics? https://t.co/4uBMQ6D0JE pic.twitter.com/2nvuvuv7Z1

— Stephanie Maurice Zapata (@StephanieZapa12) January 19, 2024

It is now possible to generate fake but realistic content with little more than the click of a mouse. This can be fun: a TikTok account on which—among other things—an artificial Tom Cruise wearing a purple robe sings “Tiny Dancer” to (the real) Paris Hilton holding a toy dog has attracted 5.1m followers. It is also a profound change in societies that have long regarded images, video and audio as close to ironclad proof that something is real. Phone scammers now need just ten seconds of audio to mimic the voices of loved ones in distress; rogue ai-generated Tom Hankses and Taylor Swifts endorse dodgy products online, and fake videos of politicians are proliferating.

The fundamental problem is an old one. From the printing press to the internet, new technologies have often made it easier to spread untruths or impersonate the trustworthy. Typically, humans have used shortcuts to sniff out foul play: one too many spelling mistakes suggests an email might be a phishing attack, for example. Most recently, ai-generated images of people have often been betrayed by their strangely rendered hands; fake video and audio can sometimes be out of sync. Implausible content now immediately raises suspicion among those who know what ai is capable of doing.

The trouble is that the fakes are rapidly getting harder to spot.

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Phone scams, fake videos of politicians and AI-generated Tom Hankses and Taylor Swifts are proliferating. As fakes rapidly get harder to spot, dystopian possibilities abound—yet societies will also adapt to the fakers. Here’s how: https://t.co/yLgDa37oSd 👇

— The Economist US (@EconUS) January 19, 2024

Almighty God, whose only-begotten Son hath led captivity captive and given gifts to thy people: Multiply among us faithful pastors, who, like thy holy bishop Wulfstan, will give courage to those who are oppressed and held in bondage; and bring us all, we pray, into the true freedom of thy kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Today the Church of England celebrates Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester, 1095 https://t.co/Kh8xnO2EIM

Image: Detail from window in Worcester Cathedral depicting Wulfstan, who was made Bishop of Worcester in 1062. Photo by Jules & Jenny from Lincoln, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia pic.twitter.com/q8tyFturbj

— The Anglican Church in St Petersburg (@anglicanspb) January 19, 2024

Almighty God, who hast set in thy Church some with gifts to teach and help and administer, in diversity of operation but of the same Spirit: Grant to all such, we beseech thee, grace to wait on the ministry which they have received in the body of Christ with simplicity, diligence, and cheerfulness; that none may think of himself more highly than he ought to think, and none may seek another man’s calling, but rather to be found faithful in his own work; to the glory of thy name in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Bore da i chi o gât clôs ni…mwy o eira dros nôs a wedi rhewi’n gorn…cymerwch ofal bawb❄️❄️❄️

Bore da to you and a gorgeous wintery scene from our farmyard gateway…more snow over night and frozen solid…take care out there❄️❄️❄️@StormHour @ThePhotoHour @Ruth_ITV @S4Ctywydd pic.twitter.com/usu7TOOXxo

— Aled Hall 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 (@AledHall) January 19, 2024

Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse; and by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves.” So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. And Abram took Sar’ai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions which they had gathered, and the persons that they had gotten in Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. When they had come to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the LORD appeared to Abram, and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him. Thence he removed to the mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD.

–Genesis 12:1-8

Good morning 🌍💙🫶❄️ Happy Friday all you amazing people , enjoy what ever you doing today ..💙🫶❤️🫶 #Glasgow #GoodMorning #photooftheday @StormHour @ThePhotoHour pic.twitter.com/Qsurc3Q0Ic

— Dr.P_78Glasgow (@AbhaPaulina) January 19, 2024