For his part, while Hamilton favored a more active role for government in promoting commerce, his ultimate aim was almost the same as Jefferson’s: securing the rights proclaimed in the Declaration. But by enhancing commerce, Hamilton aspired to enable ordinary Americans to emulate his path of rising to prosperity through their own initiative and industry.  

Both men would surely have been horrified by the enormous and intrusive bureaucracy that the progressive movement bequeathed to us. As Rosen puts it, “in the name of Jefferson’s commitment to equal economic opportunity, Roosevelt had buried Jefferson’s commitment to limited government” (though Rosen surely errs in calling his program “Hamiltonian”). Rosen does cite Ronald Reagan’s “Jeffersonian criticisms” of the Great Society “antipoverty” program of FDR’s successor Lyndon Johnson for undermining welfare recipients’ incentive to work, while also noting how the articles of impeachment that Congress drew against Richard Nixon, drawing on Federalist no. 69, finally “refuted” Jefferson’s charge that Hamilton had been a monarchist

Finally, in the area of constitutional interpretation, Rosen quotes Justice Antonin Scalia’s embrace of “the interpretative approach of the Hamiltonian justice Joseph Story” according to which the Constitution’s words should be construed neither broadly nor strictly, but rather taking them “in their natural and obvious sense” (though that phrase obviously leaves considerable room for dispute in particular cases). But Rosen departs from Scalia by insisting that “the central dispute on the Supreme Court” since the Founding “has not been between originalism and non-originalism, but between liberal and strict construction of federal power”: how would that distinction apply to decisions applauded by “living constitutionalists” like Roe v. Wade, which have no grounding in the Constitution’s text at all?  

Whatever one’s judgment of these controversies, it is impossible to differ with Rosen’s concluding judgment that “the greatest threat to the American Idea” throughout our history has come not from those who inconsistently apply Hamilton’s or Jefferson’s principles, but “from those who have rejected the principles entirely,” from Calhoun and others who renounced the claim of natural human equality as “a self-evident lie” to “progressive and conservative ideologues today” who would replace the Constitution entirely with a “resort to violence.” Taken as a whole, Rosen’s book offers a learned and sober account of the relevance of Hamilton’s and Jefferson’s principles to America’s past, present, and possible future. 

Read it all.

National Constitution Center President & CEO Jeffrey Rosen discusses his book, "The Pursuit of Liberty: How Hamilton vs. Jefferson Ignited the Lasting Battle Over Power in America."

Watch here: https://t.co/pYS9vkWqTb pic.twitter.com/jj7ARdujMR

— Washington Journal (@cspanwj) December 25, 2025

In Vanishing Church, Burge contends that religion’s role in American public life was “recast” in the 1990s, when the religious right was at the height of its cultural prominence. Drawing on survey data such as the Cooperative Election Study and General Social Survey, he makes a case that until roughly the latter 20th century, religion was an incubator of social capital because it involved people from a broad cross-section of society working together to improve it. When the culture wars co-opted Christianity, it was to the detriment of not only Christianity but also American civil society, as young people began disaffiliating from Christianity (and religion as a whole).

“An increasing number of Americans began to see religion as primarily political,” Burge writes, instead of considering it as a body of theological beliefs, a means to approach existential questions, or a personal moral foundation. Opposing abortion, for example, became “a political stance with a religious justification, not a theological posture that expresses itself in how one votes on election day,” he writes.

One could argue that today’s online “trad” Catholicism is the current form of this recasting. This specific trend is mostly absent in Vanishing Church, but Burge has been vocal about it in interviews. As he recently framed it, this iteration has become “very desirable among highly intellectualized Republicans” as an entry point to “move up the ranks.” It is, in Burge’s words, “instrumental”—that is to say, another form of political sectarian identity. Burge also pours cold water on the notion that we’re living in the moment of a Catholic revival or ascendancy: It may appear so from “a vibes perspective,” but “not from a numbers perspective.” As college campuses and Manhattan parishes boast standing-room-only crowds and record numbers of converts, Burge observes that this is primarily an elite phenomenon that working-class parishes have not replicated. “It’s a bougie revival,” he recently told the National Catholic Register. “It’s very much an elite discourse revival.”

Read it all.

“There seems to be a rapidly spreading phenomenon of people who say they are religious … while they have essentially no connection to a local church.”

Is America’s “religious revival” more aesthetic than communal?@maggiemphillips's latest:https://t.co/adzIauhgsz

— Tablet Magazine (@tabletmag) May 27, 2026

The survey consisted of 2,365 Gen Z respondents and was conducted through AmeriSpeak and the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago between August 9 and September 26, 2024, with Rick Richardson as lead investigator. With weighting applied, the sample is representative of Gen Z as a whole. One of the first questions asked respondents to indicate their current religious affiliation, if any.

The results are striking. The generic “Christian” label was easily the most popular choice, selected by 27% of Gen Z respondents—about 10 points higher than those who identified as Catholic and 17 points higher than those who chose Protestant. This largely confirms what earlier data suggested: Young people are roughly three times more likely to call themselves generic Christians than Protestants.

Perhaps equally striking is what happens when we look at born-again or evangelical Gen Z respondents—a group that makes up about 24% of the total sample. Even among this theologically engaged cohort, a majority (54%) identify as generic Christians rather than Protestant. Only 22% chose Protestant, with Catholics at 12% and the remainder scattered across other categories.

Read it all.

Most of non Catholic USA Christianity is Protestant & Baptist but doesn’t know it or rejects the labels. https://t.co/S4AI8FdX1d

— @markdtooley (@markdtooley) June 11, 2026

The leaders of Israel, Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas and the United States have one thing in common: None of them want a commission of inquiry looking into their performance in the latest Middle East conflict. So I have decided to do it for them, and I can summarize my conclusions in two words that apply to them all: “You lost.” There — I’ve saved you all the time and money of an internal investigation. You’re welcome.

This truly is the Middle East war that everybody lost. Even though it’s not over, I can see that. In fact, one reason this war may linger is because most of the leaders of these countries and militias know that history has its eyes on them and the minute the guns fall silent there will be a moral, political and economic accounting that will be devastating for each one of these fools.

Let’s go around the table. Hamas started this latest Middle East conflict on Oct. 7, 2023, with an invasion of Israel from Gaza in which in one day it murdered more than 1,200 people — men, women and children — and abducted more than 250. What was Hamas’s war aim? As far as we can tell, its fantasy was that by invading Israel it would spark a regional uprising in which “resistance” forces — including Hezbollah, Iran and even some Arab nations — would help it to annihilate the Jewish state.

Hamas did not launch this war with any peaceful intent — that is, with a gun in one hand and a peace map in the other showing how two indigenous people, Jews and Palestinians, might coexist between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. No, the only maps Hamas fighters carried showed them where to find the most Jews to kill in the border communities they invaded, including at elementary schools and a youth center.

Read it all.

Thomas L. Friedman

Everybody Is a Loser in This Middle East War
None of the participants in the recent wars of the Middle East can claim victory. All are to blame.https://t.co/jep7NyprVv

— Stuart Falk (@stufalk) June 10, 2026

Social Security is expected to deplete the fund that helps pay out retirement benefits by late 2032, the program’s trustees said Tuesday.

That is earlier than their projection last year of 2033, partly because the fund expects to collect less revenue after President Trump’s new tax law. Passed last summer, the law gave senior citizens an extra deduction that reduced taxes on benefits for many Social Security recipients. . .

Unless Congress shores up the retirement program, the depletion of reserves would trigger a 22% reduction in benefits in late 2032. Because incoming payroll tax revenue doesn’t fully cover promised benefits, the program is forced to make up the difference by pulling money from its two Social Security trust funds—one for disability benefits and the other for the larger program for retirees…

Read it all.

"Social Security Will Start Running Out Earlier Than Expected" https://t.co/c9X74I9lvM pic.twitter.com/fvWj2vcW9O

— Scott Lincicome (@scottlincicome) June 9, 2026

“My Fellow Americans:

“Last night, when I spoke with you about the fall of Rome, I knew at that moment that troops of the United States and our Allies were crossing the Channel in another and greater operation. It has come to pass with success thus far.

“And so, in this poignant hour, I ask you to join with me in prayer:

“Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.

“Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.
“They will be sore tried, by night and by day, without rest — until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men’s souls will be shaken with the violences of war.

“For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and goodwill among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home.

“Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.

“And for us at home — fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas, whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them — help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice.

“Many people have urged that I call the nation into a single day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts.

“Give us strength, too — strength in our daily tasks, to redouble the contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our armed forces.

“And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be.

“And, O Lord, give us faith. Give us faith in Thee; faith in our sons; faith in each other; faith in our united crusade. Let not the keenness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment — let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose.

“With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogances. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace — a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil.

“Thy will be done, Almighty God.

“Amen.”

You can listen to the actual audio if you want here and today of all days is the day to do that. Also, there is more on background and another audio link there.–KSH.

82 years ago #OTD 6 June 1944, the D-Day Landings had just begun, and the Liberation of Europe was underway. Part of the memorial in English, French and German outside the D-Day Story, Portsmouth. When I visited I found myself unexpectedly very moved, especially by the walls of… pic.twitter.com/T9xRmE3Pqo

— Simon Knott (@SimoninSuffolk) June 6, 2026

A new style of architecture is rising in the sprawling suburbs of the Sonoran Desert: windowless data centers that hum 24 hours a day and guzzle as much electricity as a midsize city.

As Microsoft and other tech giants expand their footprints in one of the nation’s largest data-center markets, a high-stakes battle is unfolding over how to pay for the massive power-grid upgrades needed to drive the AI revolution. 

Arizona Public Service, the state’s largest utility, sits at the center of the firestorm. APS is proposing a 45% electricity-rate increase for “extra-large energy users,” primarily data centers, and a roughly 14.5% increase for residential customers.

Nearly everyone is unhappy.

Consumer advocates warn the plan would shift the financial risks of the AI build-out to households already struggling with high summer electricity bills and temperatures that often hit triple digits. If the AI boom fizzles or the energy consumption of data centers wanes, they worry residents could be left paying off the infrastructure upgrades years from now.

Read it all.

Phoenix Is a Data-Center Mecca—and Test Case for How to Pay for AI’s Power Needs
State’s largest utility is proposing a 45% electricity-rate increase for data centers and a 14.5% hike for households. No one is happy.https://t.co/m1xMQtoJsq

— Giovanni Staunovo🛢 (@staunovo) June 4, 2026

[Mr Funmi Ojetayo’s] professional experience includes senior legal positions with Florida A&M University, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, and the Florida Department of Management Services. As Deputy General Counsel for the Department of Management Services, he led the agency’s litigation function and provided counsel on significant legal matters. He currently serves as a Partner at Allen, Norton & Blue, P.A., in Tallahassee, Florida, where his practice focuses on labor and employment litigation and appellate advocacy.

In addition to his legal training, Mr. Ojetayo holds a Master of Divinity degree from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He completed his pastoral residency at Incarnation Anglican Church in Tallahassee in 2022 and currently serves as Discipleship Pastor at Four Oaks Church East.

While under consideration for the appointment, Mr. Ojetayo disclosed that he has a brother who serves as a rector within Bishop Julian Dobbs’ diocese. As Mr. Ojetayo has no personal involvement in the matters under review, and his appointment is based on his professional qualifications and experience, the province deemed this not to be a conflict of interest.  

Read it all.

https://t.co/NzE22DL2Qe

— Arlie Coles (@ArlieColes) June 3, 2026

ust 16% of U.S. adults and 12% Canadian adults are financially fulfilled, according to analysis of the inaugural Edward Jones and Gallup Money and Meaning: Understanding Financial Fulfillment study. Financial fulfillment is a state where people’s personal finances support the life they want to have.

In contrast, 32% of U.S. adults and 41% of Canadian adults experience consistent financial stress, characterized by straining to meet obligations, needing to make trade-offs between financial and life goals, and feeling they lack control over their financial situation. The largest share in each country, described as “financially conflicted,” experience some progress but still contend with ongoing financial strain.

These findings are based on web interviews conducted March 20-April 6, 2026, with 5,075 U.S. adults aged 21 and older who are members of the probability-based Gallup Panel and March 25-April 3 with 2,117 Canadian adults aged 21 and older from a nonprobability online panel. Both samples were weighted to represent the adult population in each country on key demographic characteristics.

The financial fulfillment measure is derived from a statistical analysis of 37 items that measure financial wellbeing, the emotional aspects of financial life, and how closely financial decisions align with people’s values.

Read it all.

Half of U.S. adults (51%) are financially conflicted — not in crisis, yet lacking financial security.

New research from Edward Jones and Gallup shows how finances affect people’s health, relationships and confidence in their future. Representing 133 million Americans, the… pic.twitter.com/3GEhhJK3zp

— Gallup (@Gallup) June 2, 2026

‘The Iranian regime, which ISW-CTP continues to assess is dominated by Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Commander Major General Ahmad Vahidi and his inner circle, suspended US-Iran negotiations on June 1. Vahidi and his inner circle likely calculate that the status quo, in which Iran has neither made concessions to the United States in a diplomatic agreement nor is engaged in a full-scale conflict with the United States, is a favorable situation that advances their objectives. IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency announced on June 1 that the regime has suspended negotiations, ostensibly in response to Israeli operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon…

The Iranian regime has likely focused on the Lebanon issue, as opposed to another key sticking point in negotiations, to try to curb Israeli operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon as part of the regime’s broader objective to preserve Hezbollah. The regime also likely seeks to drive a wedge between the United States and Israel by falsely blaming Israel and its operations in Lebanon for the collapse of the US-Iran talks. Vahidi and his inner circle also likely calculate that the status quo will help them advance several other objectives, such as solidifying Iranian control over the Strait of Hormuz and maintaining the Iranian nuclear program.’

Read it all.

Iran and the IRGC "likely calculate that the status quo, in which Iran has neither made concessions to the United States in a diplomatic agreement nor is engaged in a full-scale conflict with the United States, is a favorable situation that advances their objectives." https://t.co/OcS9bEjAIh

— Ashley 🇺🇸🇺🇦 (@NAFOteacher) June 2, 2026

So, now we are in the earliest stages of a third phase, whose precise shape is not yet clear, but it undoubtedly marks a significant shift in political discourse, social patterns, and both private and group allegiance. I would characterise it broadly not as a surge in institutional religion, or church attendance, but a more nuanced flourishing of religious sensibility and the accelerated rolling back of what Max Weber famously called “disenchantment”.

Everywhere one looks, the sacred, the numinous, and the mystical are reasserting themselves — not always in traditional form, of course: what Tara Isabella Burton aptly calls the “Remixed religions” of the young are customised, consumerist, and made-to-measure rather than doctrinally coherent….

That said, there is indisputably a discernible Christian edge to what is happening — and not only the “cultural Christianity” that Tom Holland’s wonderful book Dominion has nurtured in so many (Features, 27 September 2019). There have been specific, high-profile conversions, of which the most striking was the public announcement of the former New Atheist Ayaan Hirsi Ali, in 2023, that she was now a committed Christian.

Alongside this, one cannot begin to comprehend the contemporary tech world without understanding the grip of AI millenarianism and the growing fixation with the Revelation of St John among Silicon Valley oligarchs such as Peter Thiel, who has been lecturing around the world on the advent of the Antichrist. It is remarkable — and quite normal now — to hear “tech bros” talk with enthusiasm about the Christian theorist René Girard.

Read it all (subscription or registration).

"Everywhere one looks, the sacred, the numinous, and the mystical are reasserting themselves"@MatthewdAncona detects a huge shift in politics and culture https://t.co/uOFMcoLpZp

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) May 26, 2026

Between July 1, 2024, and July 1, 2025, South Carolina’s population grew at a rate of 1.5 percent, faster than any other state in the country, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.[1]

South Carolina has consistently recorded rapid population growth, ranking in the top six among all states in each of the last five years for percentage change. Within the last five years, South Carolina’s population growth peaked at a rate of 1.9 percent between July 2022 and July 2023, which was also the third fastest growth rate in the country.

There are three major components to state population growth: natural change, which is calculated by subtracting the number of deaths from the number of births; international migration, which is the number of people moving from outside the country; and domestic migration, which is the number of people moving from another state within the country.  

From July 2024 through July 2025, South Carolina’s population increased by nearly 80,000 people. Births in the state exceeded deaths for the first time in the last five years, by 564 people, therefore having a small effect on the natural growth of the population. 

Read it all.

Where Americans moved to and from in 2025.

Massachusetts experienced the most loss of any state, Kansas the most of any Republican state, and South Carolina grew the fastest of any state. In contrast, Delaware grew the fastest of any Democrat state.

Republican states dominated… pic.twitter.com/XiJnads08m

— AF Post (@AFpost) May 25, 2026

Central Africa has extensive experience dealing with Ebola. Both Uganda and the DRC have faced multiple localized outbreaks in the past decade and have successfully contained and ended them. Medical professionals on the ground are familiar with these situations and have real expertise in responding.

But politics play a role in infectious disease response, as was evident during the COVID-19 pandemic. The DRC is no different, and public confidence in governing authorities is particularly fragile right now, as President Félix Tshisekedi flirts with a third term in office; large swaths of eastern territory remain under the control of M23, a Rwandan-backed Congolese insurgent group; and murky security-for-minerals deals fuel uncertainty and suspicion.

On social media, conspiracy theories abound, suggesting the outbreak is a distraction, a hoax, a money-making scheme, or a pretext for some other nefarious agenda. The profound mistrust of authorities and of outsiders that permeates Congolese society after generations of exploitation creates a particularly difficult backdrop for this Ebola response.

All of this is unfolding in the context of profound insecurity. Eastern Congo has been plagued by conflict for decades, and scores of armed groups operate in the region, as do foreign military forces from Burundi, Rwanda, and Uganda. Nearly one million people in Ituri, where the outbreak is worst, are displaced. Transportation and communications infrastructure is poor. It is not an environment in which it is easy to quickly establish new facilities, distribute health-care supplies, or even obtain accurate, timely information about what is happening in different communities.

Read it all.

Until last year, the USAID was part of a time-tested system for dealing with Ebola.

In its absence, a dozen former federal employees tell NBC News that the U.S. response to the growing outbreak has been slow and disjointed. https://t.co/IYVqQSknjE

— NBC News (@NBCNews) May 20, 2026

The three American Muslims killed during a shooting Monday (May 18) at a San Diego mosque are being remembered by their imam and faith community as “men of courage, sacrifice and faith” who put themselves on the line to protect others. 

The Islamic Center of San Diego identified the victims as Amin Abdullah, a gentle security guard; Nadir Awad, a dedicated neighbor; and Mansour Kaziha, a longtime shopkeeper and caretaker of the mosque.

Abdullah died protecting more than 200 children and community members, the mosque’s Imam Taha Hassane said in an interview with RNS. The “beloved” security guard was killed first, Hassane said, but before he died, he used his radio to warn teachers in the center’s school to lock their classroom doors. He “undoubtedly he saved lives today” by delaying the shooters in a gunbattle in front of the mosque, said San Diego Police Department Chief Scott Wahl during a press conference Monday. 

Read it all.

Victims of the deadly Islamic Center of San Diego shooting have been identified. https://t.co/PTM3tr430T

— WACH FOX (@wachfox) May 19, 2026

Ahead of what the White House is calling a “large-scale revival” meeting on the National Mall devoted to “rededicating our country as One Nation under God,” a new Pew Research Center survey shows that a growing minority of U.S. adults say religion is gaining influence in American life. And more than half say religion plays a positive role in society.

At the same time, most people want churches and other houses of worship to stay out of day-to-day politics and not endorse candidates.

The new survey also finds growing familiarity with the term “Christian nationalism.” Most Americans surveyed now say they have heard at least a little about it.

Support for ideas that are sometimes associated with Christian nationalism is mostly unchanged in recent years. For example, there has been no growth in the shares of Americans who want the government to stop enforcing separation of church and state or who believe that God favors the United States over all countries.

There has, however, been a small uptick in the share of U.S. adults who say the federal government should declare Christianity the nation’s official religion: 17% now say this, up from 13% in 2024.

Read it all.

Find more of Americans views on Religion’s influence in government and public life: https://t.co/I6PWa7ge6b

— Pew Research Center (@pewresearch) May 15, 2026

Is the American Revolution over? As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States this year, public commentators will answer this question differently. For some, the Revolution was an event that happened in the distant past. They will celebrate the 250th with three-cornered hats, battle reenactments, and visits to historic sites. Others may try to “reclaim” the Revolution, as if the beliefs of the founding fathers froze in the 18th century and just need thawing and application in the 21st, as if little has changed since 1776.

Still others see the Revolution as ongoing. This latter view, Nathan Perl-Rosenthal argues in The Long Revolution, is the way most Americans living before the Civil War understood the Revolution.

Read it all.

Historian @JohnFea1 reviews three history books that explore the stories we tell about America and the immigrants who call it home.https://t.co/63SOf6JWZG

— Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) May 18, 2026

Loving God, we bless thy Name for Frances Perkins, who in faithfulness to her baptism envisioned a society in which all may live in health and decency: Help us, following her example and in union with her prayers, to contend tirelessly for justice and for the protection of all, that we may be faithful followers of Jesus Christ; who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

10 April 1880: Labor Secretary Frances #Perkins is born in #Boston, Massachusetts. She was the first #female cabinet member and is the longest service #Labor Secretary, having served from March 4, 1933 until June 30, 1945. #history #OTD #HappyBirthday #ad https://t.co/ShRi75iIoJ pic.twitter.com/jyzWRhB7Tv

— Today In History (@URDailyHistory) April 10, 2022

There ain’t no grave can hold my body down There ain’t no grave can hold my body down When I hear that trumpet sound I’m gonna rise right out of the ground Ain’t no grave can hold my body down Well, look way down the river What do you think I see? I see a band of angels, and they’re coming after me Ain’t no grave can hold my body down There ain’t no grave can hold my body down Well, look down yonder, Gabriel Put your feet on the land and sea But Gabriel, don’t you blow your trumpet ’til you hear it from me There ain’t no grave can hold my body down Ain’t no grave can hold my body down Well, meet me, Jesus, meet me Meet me in the middle of the air And if these wings don’t fail me I will meet you anywhere Ain’t no grave can hold my body down There ain’t no grave can hold my body down Well, meet me, mother and father Meet me down the river road And momma you know that I’ll be there When I check in my load Ain’t no grave can hold my body down There aint no grave can hold my body down There ain’t no grave can hold my body down

‘Tom Llamas sits down with Savannah Bananas founder Jesse Cole, who is changing the face of America’s favorite pastime. From players pitching on stilts, to backflip catches, even breaking out into song and dance right in the batter’s box. It’s all part of his mission to make baseball more fun, family-friendly and affordable – and its popularity spans generations.’

The U.S. remains the most desired destination for people who would like to leave their own countries permanently, but Gallup’s latest data show it is less attractive than it once was.

In 2025, 15% of adults worldwide who say they would like to move permanently to another country name the U.S. as their preferred destination, the lowest level recorded in nearly two decades of Gallup research. From 2007 to 2009, 24% of would-be migrants named the U.S. as their top choice, and that figure remained near 20% through 2016. Since 2017, it has been at or below 18%.

The rank order of the countries attracting the most interest from potential migrants has seen little change since Gallup’s first measure. Canada ranks second, as it has for several years, with 9% of potential migrants mentioning the U.S. neighbor. The appeal of these desired destinations did not change in 2025, even as the U.S. became less desirable.

Read it all.

In 2025, 15% of adults worldwide who say they would like to move permanently to another country name the U.S. as their preferred destination, the lowest level recorded in nearly two decades of Gallup research. 

The U.S. became less attractive to adults in several regions in… pic.twitter.com/6oLEshPQYE

— Gallup (@Gallup) April 23, 2026

Driven by a recent increase, young men in the U.S. have now surpassed young women in saying religion is “very important” in their lives. Gallup’s latest data, from 2024-2025, show 42% of young men saying religion is very important to them, up sharply from 28% in 2022-2023. By contrast, during this period, young women’s attachment to religion has held steady at about 30%.

Although young men had previously tied young women on this key marker of religiosity, young men now lead by a statistically significant margin. The recent increase among young men also contrasts with minimal changes since 2022-2023 among older men and women.

With the recent surge in their attachment to religion, young men have returned to the high point of their expressed religiosity of the past 25 years, roughly tying the 43% found in 2000-2001. By contrast, women of all age groups and older men are at or near their historical lows.

These findings are based on biennial aggregates of Gallup’s religion data from 2000-2001 through 2024-2025, allowing for stable estimates across age and gender groups.

Read it all.

Skeptics claimed that the supposed religious revival among young men wasn’t showing up in the polling. Gallup says otherwise. A shift is here, and it’s massive. https://t.co/ItPM1mWc7h

— Walter Russell Mead (@wrmead) April 16, 2026

President Trump sought to reassure skeptical Americans that the war in Iran is in the national interest, arguing that the operation was necessary to decimate a regime threatening the U.S. and insisting that economic pain would be short-lived.

In a 20-minute address from the White House, his most direct sales pitch to the nation since the war began a month ago, Trump said the U.S. had succeeded on the battlefield and declared that U.S. military objectives would be completed “very shortly.”

Trump said he still aims for a diplomatic agreement to end the war. But in the meantime, he vowed to hit Iran “extremely hard” in the coming weeks and pummel the country “back to the Stone Ages, where they belong.”

Read it all.

President Trump sought to reassure skeptical Americans that the war in Iran is in the national interest, arguing that the operation was necessary to decimate a regime threatening the U.S. https://t.co/k1db0hosas

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) April 2, 2026

President Trump told aides he’s willing to end the U.S. military campaign against Iran even if the Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed, administration officials said, likely extending Tehran’s firm grip on the waterway and leaving a complex operation to reopen it for a later date.

In recent days, Trump and his aides assessed that a mission to pry open the chokepoint would push the conflict beyond his timeline of four to six weeks. He decided that the U.S. should achieve its main goals of hobbling Iran’s navy and its missile stocks and wind down current hostilities while pressuring Tehran diplomatically to resume the free flow of trade. If that fails, Washington would press allies in Europe and the Gulf to take the lead on reopening the strait, the officials said.

There are also military options the president could decide on, but they are not his immediate priority, they said.

Read it all.

My war, your Hormuz problem:

“..: President Trump told aides he’s willing to end the U.S. military campaign against Iran even if the Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed, administration officials said…” — @WSJ https://t.co/PkwPlwgPGy

— Javier Blas (@JavierBlas) March 31, 2026

The Israeli military is increasingly sceptical that regime change in Iran will be possible in the coming weeks, casting doubt on one of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s core war aims as the Islamic republic shows its ability to endure intense bombardment.

Two people familiar with the matter said the prevailing view within military intelligence was that the war had not created the conditions for ousting the Islamic regime in the near future. One of them, who is familiar with briefings from the Israel Defense Forces’ intelligence directorate Aman, said it appeared that the aerial campaign had yet to measurably erode the Iranian regime’s hold on power since the US and Israel launched the war on February 28.

Both people spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the evolving thinking within the IDF, rather than an official assessment.

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Israeli military doubts war will topple Iranian regime https://t.co/hphrOjqqGv

— Financial Times (@FT) March 26, 2026

Loving God, who hast made us all thy children by adoption in Jesus Christ: May we, following the example of thy servant Richard Allen, proclaim liberty to all who are enslaved and captive in this world; through Jesus Christ, Savior of all, who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

#OTD February 14, 1760
Richard Allen, the first black man ordained in the Methodist Episcopal Church (1799), and founder of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in 1816, was born in slavery in Philadelphia. pic.twitter.com/NdyqrDiWNT

— ☧ Today in Christian History (@HistoricalRook) February 14, 2023

If a local airfield wasn’t available, a makeshift one would need to be set up to fly equipment in and the material out. And ground forces and aircraft would need to be prepared to head off Iranian drone and missile attacks. A quick response force would need to be on hand in case more troops had to rush to the scene, former military officials said.

Richard Nephew, a former Iran director at the National Security Council, said any operation would be “very large and very complicated.” He said you would need upward of 1,000 personnel to perform the operation at one site.

“I’m worried about the drone strikes, IED and similar traps, contamination risks, and the long time we’d need to have people on-site,” Nephew said. 

Nephew said if time was short, the U.S. could also seek to dilute the material on-site by mixing it with natural uranium or destroy it, although that could cause chemical contaminations in the area.

Eyal Hulata, a former head of Israel’s National Security Council who is a senior international fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said if the war ends without the U.S. taking care of the fissile-material stockpile or an underground tunnel network where Iran could start enriching again, known as Pickaxe, “it’s a serious problem.”

“But the U.S. and Israel will need to figure out a path to deal with them one way or the other.”

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President Trump has said preventing Iran from ever developing nuclear weapons is a central aim of the war he is waging. In the absence of regime change that could mean seizing the country’s fissile material.

Here's what it would take: https://t.co/KJlSfnjqYP

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) March 16, 2026

In my lifetime, American society has been transformed by widespread accommodation of vice. Marijuana has been legalized in many jurisdictions, as has addictive online gambling. Not surprisingly, pot use and regular gambling have increased. In 2025, 17 percent of adults report smoking pot daily, up from 8 percent in 2020. Less than a decade ago, nobody had a sports betting app on his smartphone; today, half of American men between eighteen and forty-nine have opened accounts. And pornography is readily available on the internet, protected as free speech by the Supreme Court.

Social norms have likewise shifted. Open use of ­illegal drugs is widely tolerated. Silicon Valley titans use ketamine and other substances, making a mockery of the restriction of these drugs to medical use only. The New Yorker publishes essays cheering “throuples” and other sexual arrangements. Activists campaign to remove the stigma from “sex work,” which few local governments make efforts to prevent. 

Writing in National Affairs (“The Case for Prohibiting Vice”), Charles Fain Lehman observes that social conservatives have been routed in recent decades. Large-scale social trends run against us. But Lehman thinks we share some of the blame. Too often, those who wish to sustain moral codes accept the dominant terms of public debate, which rest on the notion that people should be free to do as they wish in their private lives, as long as nobody else is harmed….

Lehman advises social conservatives to stop trying to shoehorn their moral judgments into liberal arguments that rest on proofs of harm. We need to talk more frankly about what it means to have a good society, one that promotes human flourishing. And we should not shy away from the obvious truth that a good society discourages vice because it is vicious.

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“For most of American history, a libertarianism in private life, restrained only by the harm principle, did not hold sway. American constitutional law accords ‘police power’ to the states, allowing them to pass laws to protect and promote the health, safety, and morals of their… https://t.co/jvv02FoYXU

— First Things (@firstthingsmag) March 10, 2026

Young men are entering adulthood later, redefining what it means to be a man and facing mounting economic and social challenges that shape how they see their future, according to a new survey released on Monday.

The report, conducted by Institute for Family Studies, paints a complex picture: Many young men in the United States feel uncertain or discouraged about their progress in life — yet remain hopeful about work, family and personal growth.

Traditional milestones like marriage and parenthood no longer dominate young men’s ideas about becoming adults, the report found. Instead, they increasingly emphasize psychological traits like responsibility, independence and personal decision-making.

In 2002, about 65% of young men said completing education was extremely important to becoming an adult. By 2025, that number had dropped to 31%. Only 9% today say marriage is an essential milestone — down slightly from 13% in 2002.

Instead, the 74-page report said, many define adulthood in more internal terms: More than half say accepting responsibility and making independent decisions are key signs of maturity.

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In our new YouGov survey of young men, ages 18-29, we find that young men view college with a great deal of ambivalence, especially young men who are not attending college but also young men who are currently attending college or have a degree.

Read more: https://t.co/vjXfWJNMAc pic.twitter.com/2LGpKPBmzr

— The Institute for Family Studies (@FamStudies) March 16, 2026

I am not, by temperament, a gambling man. As a suburban dad with four kids, a mortgage, and a minivan, I’m more likely to be found wrestling a toddler into a car seat than scouring moneylines or consulting betting touts. And as a practicing Mormon, I am prohibited from indulging in games of chance. Besides, I had always thought of gambling as a waste of time. This makes me an outlier among my generational peers: Since 2018, Americans have wagered more than half a trillion dollars on sports, and roughly half of men ages 18 to 49 have an active account with an online sportsbook.

When I set out to report on the sports-betting industry—its explosive growth, its sudden cultural ubiquity, and what it’s doing to America—my editors thought I should experience the phenomenon firsthand. Mindful of my religious constraints, they proposed a work-around: The Atlantic would stake me $10,000 to gamble with over the course of the upcoming NFL season. The magazine would cover any losses, and—to ensure my ongoing emotional investment—split any winnings with me, 50–50. Surely God would approve of such an arrangement, my editors reasoned, because I wouldn’t be risking my own hard-earned money.

This spiritual loophole intrigued me. But for the sake of my soul, I decided I’d better consult a higher ecclesiastical authority than The Atlantic’s masthead.

A few days later, I sat across from my bishop, explaining the experiment and watching a look of pastoral concern come over his face. After some consideration, he said (a bit tentatively, if I’m being honest), “I don’t think you’re doing anything wrong.” He grasped the difference between gambling with my own money and using my employer’s for research purposes. But he had also seen too many lives wrecked by vice to let me leave without a warning. He told me stories he’d heard about upstanding family men who had let an initially modest gambling habit ruin them, and a cautionary tale about a churchgoing lawyer who developed an unhealthy curiosity about sex work after handling a prostitution case and wound up devastating his family.

I promised the bishop that I would steer clear of slippery slopes. “This will really just be a journalistic exercise,” I assured him.

Read it all.

The Atlantic: Sucker – My year as a degenerate gambler – A fantastic longform article on gambling https://t.co/9ShN6LGFwD

— Aaron M. Renn 🇺🇸 (@aaron_renn) March 13, 2026

Although private in his own religious convictions and skeptical of fanaticism, in his Farewell Address (1796), Washington’s clarion, prescient warning to contemporary and future Americans — on national and international affairs — definitively emphasized that “[o]f all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.” Moreover, to “subvert” such “great pillars of human happiness” — like the freedom of religious expression — would be considered unpatriotic.  

Indeed, Washington believed religiosity served as a bedrock for national stability and individual virtue, and a lack thereof would cripple cohesion, writing: 

“And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.” 

He was not the only Founding Father to stress religion’s intrinsic importance to the new republic. John Adams once reflected, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” Benjamin Franklin, likewise, considered religious practice important for developing virtue, and believed “[God] ought to be worshipped” and “the most acceptable service we render to him is doing good to his other children.” 

Even Thomas Jefferson, the most notable deist among the Founding Fathers, warned about the consequences of abandoning religious conviction entirely. 

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George Washington’s Warning About Religion Still Matters https://t.co/Wlhmss8SoB #history #religion #usa #worldviews #faith #ethics #presidency #culturewatch

— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) March 10, 2026