But on other measures, firms that were strict on office time scored worse than more relaxed ones (see chart). Firms with five-day mandates received lower marks from employees for supportiveness (whether employees feel like their bosses care about them), quality of leadership, toxicity (the extent to which disrespectful behaviour is tolerated in the workplace), candour and work-life balance. (On the three other measures tracked by CultureX, the companies did not score meaningfully better or worse.)

The analysis has its limitations. In particular, it could also be the case that companies which care less about supporting employees or rooting out toxic behaviour are less inclined to heed workers’ pleas for more flexibility. Even so, the results are suggestive. “Companies that really score highly on agility—NVIDIA, SpaceX, Tesla—tend to strike a deal with their employees,” says Don Sull (who is also a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management). Employees are offered generous pay, great career opportunities and other perks. “But the trade-off is the work-life balance tends to be really bad.”

More than five years after the pandemic, companies are still trying to find the right mix of in-person and remote work. As labour markets cool, shifting power from employees to employers, bosses may be tempted to demand more office time, claiming that it will help corporate culture. For firms that prize agility, this makes sense. But the data suggest it comes a cost.

Read it all.

Our analysis suggests it depends on what sort of culture bosses want https://t.co/N70yorNxsr

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) July 7, 2025

The use of AI at work is accelerating. In the past two years, the percentage of U.S. employees who say they have used AI in their role a few times a year or more has nearly doubled, from 21% to 40%. Frequent AI use (a few times a week or more) has also nearly doubled, from 11% to 19% since Gallup’s first measure in 2023. Daily use has doubled in the past 12 months alone, from 4% to 8%.

AI adoption has increased primarily for white-collar roles. Twenty-seven percent of white-collar employees report frequently using AI at work, an increase of 12 percentage points since 2024. The industries with the highest percentages of frequent AI users include technology (50%), professional services (34%) and finance (32%).

In comparison, reported frequent AI use by production and front-line workers has remained essentially flat for the past two years, shifting from 11% in 2023 to 9% in 2025.

Read it all.

#AI Use at #Work Has Nearly Doubled in Two Yearshttps://t.co/wuYDwCXtE4

— Dr. S. Steven Whitaker (@DrSWhitaker) July 6, 2025

By the article establishing the executive department it is made the duty of the President “to recommend to your consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.” The circumstances under which I now meet you will acquit me from entering into that subject further than to refer to the great constitutional charter under which you are assembled, and which, in defining your powers, designates the objects to which your attention is to be given. It will be more consistent with those circumstances, and far more congenial with the feelings which actuate me, to substitute, in place of a recommendation of particular measures, the tribute that is due to the talents, the rectitude, and the patriotism which adorn the characters selected to devise and adopt them. In these honorable qualifications I behold the surest pledges that as on one side no local prejudices or attachments, no separate views nor party animosities, will misdirect the comprehensive and equal eye which ought to watch over this great assemblage of communities and interests, so, on another, that the foundation of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality, and the preeminence of free government be exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections of its citizens and command the respect of the world. I dwell on this prospect with every satisfaction which an ardent love for my country can inspire, since there is no truth more thoroughly established than that there exists in the economy and course of nature an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness; between duty and advantage; between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity; since we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained; and since the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered, perhaps, as deeply, as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.

Read it all.

🇺🇸 This #IndependenceDay, we celebrate the birth of our nation and 250 years of the U.S. Navy defending its freedom.
Since 1775, your Navy has stood the watch—from seabed to space, delivering power for peace—always ready to fight and win alongside our Allies and partners. ⚓🗽… pic.twitter.com/6rNJMsDghg

— U.S. Navy (@USNavy) July 4, 2025

Beef prices are sizzling, just in time for that favorite national pastime on July 4: grilling, barbecuing, and picnicking to celebrate U.S. independence.

But economic uncertainty has shaken up consumers this summer season. This year, total spending for Fourth of July festivities dropped 5.3% from last year to $8.9 billion, according to survey data from the National Retail Federation. Of the people surveyed, 61% will participate in cookouts, picnics and barbecues, down 5% from last year.

Pricier hamburgers could be one factor discouraging some Americans from opening their doors for an annual cookout.

The average price of ground beef rose 11.5% to $6.25 a pound in May from a year earlier, according to consumer price index data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The average monthly price of ground beef has shot up 31% since 2020, based on 2025 data through May.

Read it all (subscription).

Your July 4th Burgers Will Be Pricey. Maybe Grill Pork Chops Instead. https://t.co/VYMyY9pQk6

— Barron's (@barronsonline) July 3, 2025

…the One Big Beautiful Bill act (BBB) that passed the Senate on July 1st and the House on July 3rd looks more like traditional tax-cutting, spending-slashing Republicanism worthy of Paul Ryan or Mitt Romney than it does a MAGA fantasy. Suddenly, business leaders are again willing to see Mr Trump as the populist from his first term: a man to be taken seriously but not literally.

Unfortunately, the BBB, which Mr Trump plans to sign into law on July 4th, is likely to cast a shadow over this sunny picture. It illustrates the long-term damage Mr Trump is doing to the foundations of America’s economy.

The bill’s main effect is to extend the tax cuts from Mr Trump’s first term which were due to expire. Republicans paint this as an extension of the status quo. Yet they, like the Democrats before them, ignore the fact that the status quo is unsustainable. Over the past 12 months America’s budget deficit has been an astonishing 6.7% of GDP. If the bill passes, the deficit will remain around that level and the country’s debt-to-gdp ratio will in about two years exceed the 106% reached after the second world war. Revenue from tariffs will help, but not enough to stop the ratio rising—meaning that the drift towards crisis will continue.

To the extent the bill tightens the belt, it does so in the wrong places. As life expectancies rise and the population ages, America should trim handouts to the old, for example by raising the retirement age. Instead, pensioners are getting a tax break and Republicans are cutting Medicaid, health insurance for the hard-up. Some sensible measures include reducing the ability of states to game the system for more federal cash. Yet according to official projections, the overall effect will be to add nearly 12m to the number of Americans without health insurance. That is a scandalous number for the world’s richest big country. Many of those who lose coverage will fall foul of new requirements that recipients must work. Such rules have in the past created an obstacle course of paperwork for claimants while failing to boost employment.

Read it all.

The panic about tariffs has given way to cautious optimism. But Trumponomics 2.0 will erode the foundations of America’s prosperity https://t.co/d7Z1uq4Eca pic.twitter.com/raYf0JGOOv

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) July 3, 2025

A crowd of journalists, politicians, commentators, and activists gathered in central London on the hottest day of the year so far to attend a black-tie event organised by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).  Last night I had the pleasure of attending the UK premiere of Live Not By Lies, the documentary adaptation of Rod Dreher’s 2020 book of the same name. 

Before the screening, there was a speech by Triggernometry’s Konstantin Kisin. Kisin, having spent a large part of his childhood in the Soviet Union, was well-placed to bring together the themes of the film—totalitarianism, in its various forms, past and present. 

Live Not By Lies was released by Angel Studios in April this year on its streaming platform as a four-part miniseries, though at yesterday evening’s viewing, we watched it in one go. It describes itself as “a powerful warning from Soviet dissidents about the emerging totalitarianism in our society,” which it undoubtedly is. The film features interviews with various experts on the subject—notably, author Douglas Murray, associate professor of philosophy of religion at Cambridge University Dr. James Orr, and the ADF’s senior legal communications officer, Lois McLatchie Miller. McLatchie Miller herself has experience with being arrested for speech-related crimes. Just last month, she and Chris Elston (better known as Billboard Chris) were arrested in Brussels for holding signs decrying the gender transitioning of children. They were both released without charges after a few hours, but the whole ordeal was a frightening reminder that free speech now holds little sway in many Western countries. 

Read it all.

Live Not By Lies provides sustained deep delves into the plights of individuals whacked with the censorious stick. @_BellaEpoque https://t.co/Zsn6zjxSt8

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali (@Ayaan) July 2, 2025

What I want you to notice first of all, is that it’s not just the earth, it’s also the heavens. That is to say the heavens and the earth. We’re back to Genesis 1.

Look at verse 1, it says, your name in all the earth. And then it says at the end of verse 1, your glory above the heavens. He’s looking at the heavens, he’s looking at the earth, he’s considering all of the cosmos.

In the beginning, there was nothing and then there was something because the spirit came over that which is formless and void and God created, and it says the heavens and the earth. And he’s looking at it all. And the thing that’s so great about a psalm like this for us, and I’ve said this to you before, and I’ll make sure to say it again this morning is, what’s so wonderful about this is, this is one of the rare psalms where we actually have an advantage over the psalmist himself, and this means more to us than it did to him because of modern astronomy and cosmology.”

You may listen directly here:

Or you may download it there.

“What is man that You are mindful of him?” pic.twitter.com/TEfRpxFhuA

— Rudy Cerda (@RudyCerda) July 14, 2022

Without considering these wider questions, it is hard to see how the politics of abundance can work. Even if one accepts that liberals have been complicit in the undermining of government, it doesn’t make it any easier to undo the damage. Trust in politicians and officials is exceptionally low, and with good reason. Klein and Thompson argue that liberal politicians would benefit from taking more risks and being able to show results, and they cite the example of the Pennsylvania’s governor, Josh Shapiro, rushing through the rebuilding of the I-95 bridge in Philadelphia after a disastrous accident. As they acknowledge, however, his scrapping of procurement rules, and the autonomy given to project leads to bypass normal safety procedures, could have gone horribly wrong. If it had, voters would have been unlikely to give Shapiro the benefit of the doubt. In the UK, during Covid, the vaccine programme bypassed normal procurement rules to great acclaim, yet attempts to do the same for protective equipment led to widespread fraud and a big scandal. Much of the worst regulation is created reactively – in response to scandals, to assuage an angry public – and it is not hard to see how taking more risks could backfire in such an adversarial political system.

One of the best chapters in Abundance looks at the way in which scientific funding in the US is granted ever more cautiously to academics who – and projects that – already have a track record, thus failing to support riskier ideas that could lead to paradigm-shifting breakthroughs. The authors also highlight the absurdly bureaucratic grant processes that lead to scientists spending a vast amount of time filling out forms and managing obsessive audits of their spending. The same is true in the UK. But there is a reason that this happens – this is public money, and it is easy to embarrass politicians by highlighting even small amounts of fraud or by “outing” a silly-sounding project in the media. The political environment is what decreases risk appetite.

Ultimately, “abundance” is a highly optimistic political philosophy – even utopian in Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson’s version – and we do not live in an optimistic age. It is hard to get people excited about nuclear fusion and driverless cars when even the most basic services don’t seem to work, and public spaces look ever shabbier. These authors are making an important point about the rigidities of regulation and the cost of procedural sludge. But to make progress, we need a much more coherent and broader framing that tackles the deeper defects of our economic and political systems. Assuming that the problem is primarily about over-regulation mistakes a symptom for the cause.

Read it all (subscription).

'California is home to 12 per cent of the US population and 50 per cent of the country’s unsheltered homeless people.'

Sam Freedman (@Samfr): The centre left has joined the populist right in despairing of good government
https://t.co/JdxdLEDE5n

— The TLS (@TheTLS) July 2, 2025

In the days leading up to the final vote, the CRFB assessed that the measure would add between $3trn and $4trn to the deficit. It includes a smorgasbord of tax cuts whose fiscal effects are only partially offset by other reforms. The tax cuts include Mr Trump’s campaign promises to remove tax on tips and overtime pay. In theory those are temporary and will elapse when Mr Trump leaves office. In practice, once taxes are cut they often stay cut (as Republicans’ new accounting method implies). The bill would also set up “Trump accounts” for newborns, including one-off payments to new parents for the next three years. It would give big boosts to spending by the Department of Defence and to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which the administration wants so that it can increase the number of people deported from America.

Modelling the effects of any legislation on economic growth is hard. But the tax cuts should provide a small boost in the short term. That might help to explain the current exuberance of the stockmarkets. Over a longer timeframe the picture is different (see chart 3). The House’s original bill would shrink America’s GDP by 2% by 2050, according to the Budget Lab at Yale, a research centre. That mainly reflects the impact of a bigger debt load leading to higher interest rates, which squeeze the private sector. Some other forecasters are more optimistic, thinking that the tax cuts will push more workers into the jobs market and incentivise investment, offsetting that impact.

America’s debt surged after the financial crisis of 2007–09 and the covid-19 pandemic. The ratio of debt to GDP is already close to the level reached after the second world war. By extending tax cuts that were set to lapse, without offsetting savings, the OBBB will drive it higher still. According to the CRFB, the Senate’s version as of June 30th would push debt to between 125% and 130% of GDP by 2034—well above the 117% forecast if the 2017 tax cuts were allowed to expire, and higher even than the 124% expected under the House bill….

Read it all.

America’s Senate has passed the most consequential legislation of Donald Trump’s second term. Here are ten charts to show what impact it could have on the country https://t.co/umZDPjYugs

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) July 1, 2025

The High Court rejected school board’s description of the books as merely “exposure to objectionable ideas” or as lessons in “mutual respect.”

The Court said the storybooks “unmistakably convey a particular viewpoint about same-sex marriage and gender.” The books are designed to present certain values and beliefs as things to be celebrated, and certain contrary values and beliefs as things to be rejected….

“I’m encouraged by the Court’s ruling today to protect the rights of parents to raise their children according to their deeply held convictions, even as they are educated in public schools,” said Brent Leatherwood, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC).

“As the primary teachers of their home, parents should have the right to opt their children out of curriculum that actively undermines their religious convictions regarding marriage, family, gender, and sexuality. Religious families should be accommodated so that parents do not have to worry that their children will be indoctrinated in an educational setting.”

Read it all.

“Supreme Court sides with religious parents seeking to opt out of LGBTQ storybooks.”

Yup.

The 6-3 decision could have big implications for schools nationwide.

Good decision. I’m always struck by just HOW oppressive heavy-handed “inclusion” proved to be. https://t.co/dH83SutF2C

— Frederick M. Hess (@rickhess99) June 27, 2025

The Institute for Science and International Security assessed that US and Israeli strikes on Iran have “effectively destroyed” Iran’s enrichment program. The Institute said it will take a “long time” for Iran to restore its enrichment capabilities to pre-strike levels. This assessment is based on the destruction Iran suffered at Natanz nuclear facility, Fordow nuclear facility, Esfahan Nuclear Technology Center and the elimination of many nuclear scientists

The six entry point craters for the US bunker-buster bombs at Fordow were above two weak points, and the bombs would have detonated within the facility. The Institute for Science and International Security assesses that the bomb blast would have been channeled by the centrifuge cascade hall’s side walls, which would have destroyed all of the installed centrifuges there. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) battle damage assessments indicate that Israeli strikes also likely damaged or destroyed several thousand centrifuges at Natanz.[20]

Israel and the United States conducted airstrikes targeting the Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant above ground and Fuel Enrichment Plant underground at Natanz, respectively. The IAEA added that it was possible that uranium isotopes may have been dispersed within the facility (though not outside), which would make it difficult to access. This means it may be some time before even the Iranians can determine the true extent of the damage.

Read it all.

NEW Release: Post-Attack Assessment of the First 12 Days of Israeli Strikes on Iranian Nuclear Facilities

By @DAVIDHALBRIGHT1 and @SFnuclear

This report covers our damage assessment of several nuclear sites, including Natanz, Fordow, and Esfahan, that have been struck since…

— Inst for Science (@TheGoodISIS) June 24, 2025

For the first time in decades, the rich world is embarking on mass rearmament. Wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, the threat of conflict over Taiwan and President Donald Trump’s impulsive approach to alliances have all made bolstering national defence an urgent priority. On June 25th members of NATO agreed to raise their target for military spending to 3.5% of gdp, and allocated an extra 1.5% to security-related items (Spain insisted on a loophole). If they achieve that target in 2035, they will be spending $800bn more every year, in real terms, than they did before Russia invaded Ukraine. The boom goes wider than NATO. By one estimate, embattled Israel splurged more than 8% of its gdp on defence last year. Even doveish Japan plans to stump up.

Such vast sums could reshape the global economy, by squeezing public finances and shifting activity within countries. As politicians sell the benefits of rearmament to voters, many will claim that military spending will bring economic gains as well as security. Sir Keir Starmer, Britain’s prime minister, promises defence will offer “the next generation of good, secure, well-paid jobs”. The European Commission says it will bring “benefits for all countries”. However tempting politically, such arguments are wrong. Using defence spending for economic objectives would be a costly mistake.

The most obvious economic consequence of bigger defence budgets will be to strain public finances. Debts are already high and the financial pressures on governments, caused by ageing populations and higher interest rates, are mounting. The average nato member, excluding America, will need to raise annual defence spending by 1.5% of gdp.

Read it all.

How the defence bonanza will reshape the global economy

As they spend big, politicians must resist using one pot of money to achieve many goalshttps://t.co/p7w5mjGcho

— Juhani Huopainen (@Huopainen) June 26, 2025

At China Mall , a vast supermarket in Kampala, Uganda’s capital, Rose Ahurra picks up a small turquoise squirrel. The toy flashes as she puts it in a trolley laden with towels, clothes, containers and an air fryer. The purchases indicate her place in the Ugandan middle class, which has flocked to China Mall since it opened earlier this year. “The prices are fair and I no longer have to go to lots of individual shops,” she explains.

But the floors of mostly Chinese goods also hint at an imbalance that worries African policymakers. Total trade between China and Africa was worth $296bn in 2024. Yet the value of what China exported west ($179bn) was much higher than what Africa sent east ($117bn). This year, partly as a result of the state support China is giving to its factories to boost the domestic economy, Chinese exports to the continent are on track to be 12% higher. African countries have long asked Beijing to make it easier to trade the other way, too. Many will have welcomed China’s announcement on June 12th that it will grant duty-free access to products from every African country except Eswatini, a tiny kingdom that recognises Taiwan.

The immediate impact may be minimal. But the policy could integrate African economies more deeply into Chinese-centred supply chains as the global economy is fragmenting. Geopolitically, China’s move is as subtle as a flashing turquoise squirrel. After 25 years America is set to end its own duty-free deal with Africa when the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) expires on September 30th. It is imposing tariffs willy-nilly, slashing aid and banning African migrants. For its biggest competitor, that is an opportunity.

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China is presenting itself to Africa as a benevolent trading partner, different from Donald Trump’s America. This is ironic, in a topsy-turvy way https://t.co/u5yd9rYewF

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) June 24, 2025

This period of 20 years is by no means the first time in U.S. history that military force, economic pressure, and diplomacy have been seen as alternatives to one another, as opposed to tools that must be applied simultaneously, to varying but carefully calibrated degrees, if a recalcitrant adversary is to be effectively constrained. The Trump administration must not repeat the mistake by now attaching too much significance to Saturday night’s stunning demonstration of American air supremacy.

For air power alone cannot suffice. One does not need to accept the cynical critique of Saturday night’s strikes by the former Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev. There are valid reasons to doubt that Iran’s nuclear program has been crippled, as Professor Jeffrey Lewis of the Middlebury Institute has argued. It is not clear what has become of Iran’s roughly 400 kilograms of percent-enriched uranium-235 which, if further enriched, would be enough for up to 10 nuclear weapons. Iranian trucks were on the move around Fordow before the U.S. strikes. So Iran may still have the ability to manufacture centrifuges and to resume enrichment.

It would be pleasing to imagine the amputation of Fordow setting back Iran’s nuclear program so far that it effectively restores the half-century-old non-proliferation regime. And it would not be entirely fantastical. After all, the use of force ultimately consigned the nuclear ambitions of the Iraqi and Libyan dictators to the trash can of history. With the benefit of hindsight, we can speculate that military action might also have thwarted the North Korean nuclear arms program.

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"As Kissinger often said, every success in foreign policy is just an admission ticket to the next crisis," writes Niall Ferguson. https://t.co/FhWGMLTnot

— The Free Press (@TheFP) June 23, 2025

In a moment of political decisiveness and courage, Trump deployed those bombs, despite strenuous objections from the “restrainers” in his administration and parts of the MAGA coalition.

“There’s no military that could’ve done what we did,” Trump said during a brief speech to the nation Saturday night. He is correct. As Niall Ferguson and former Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant recently noted in these pages, Fordow was essentially impervious to assault. There was one bomb that could cut through its defenses: America’s GBU 57A/B Massive Ordinance Penetrator (MOP). And there was only one plane built to deliver that bomb: the American B-2 Spirit.

“With a single exertion of its unmatched military strength,” Ferguson and Gallant wrote, “the United States can shorten the war, prevent wider escalation, and end the principal threat to Middle Eastern stability. It can also send a signal to those other authoritarian powers who have been Iran’s enablers that American deterrence is back.”

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"Trump Keeps His Promise on Iran. The World Is Safer for It." https://t.co/W4cJn812oU

— LuigiC (@Curini) June 23, 2025

There are three broad paths forward in the wake of the U.S. decision to join Israel’s war on Iran.

First, Iran could admit defeat, explicitly or implicitly. The relative geopolitical calm would ease pressure on oil prices and allow stocks to continue on their bullish path.

Second, Iran could escalate the conflict by retaliating against sensitive targets, including direct attacks on oil exports. The ensuing economic harm could range from modest to severe, depending on how the conflict spreads.

Third, Iran could go through some version of regime change, through a coup, a domestic uprising or some other unforeseen circumstances. How that plays out is difficult to forecast.

Read it all (subscription).

Where the Iran War Goes From Here. 3 Scenarios for Oil and Stocks. https://t.co/NzzGDtGIbg

— Barron's (@barronsonline) June 22, 2025

Parliament voted for the law to change on assisted dying “in the face of mounting evidence that it is unworkable and unsafe and poses a risk to the most vulnerable people in our society”, the Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Sarah Mullally, said on Friday.

Responding to the decision by the House of Commons on Friday afternoon to progress the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (News, 20 June), Bishop Mullally, who is the lead bishop on health and social care, warned that, “if enacted, this legislation would come into force amid serious shortfalls in adult social care, a postcode lottery in palliative care and well documented pressures on the NHS, multiplying the potential risks to the most vulnerable.

“It does not prevent terminally ill people who perceive themselves to be a burden to their families and friends from choosing ‘assisted dying’. And it would mean that we became a society where the state fully funds a service for terminally ill people to end their own lives but, shockingly, only funds around one third of palliative care.”

Read it all.

“Every person is of immeasurable and irreducible value, and should be able to access the care and support that they need.”

Read the Bishop of London's statement following the third reading of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill.

📜 https://t.co/74PloAghZ2.

— The Church of England (@churchofengland) June 20, 2025

In an historic vote, MPs have approved a bill which would pave the way for huge social change by giving terminally ill adults in England and Wales the right to end their own lives.

The Terminally Ill Adults Bill, which was backed by 314 votes to 291, will now go to the House of Lords for further scrutiny.

The bill was approved with a majority of 23 MPs, representing a drop from the first time it was debated in November, when it passed by a margin of 55.

The vote came after an emotionally-charged debate which saw MPs recount personal stories of seeing friends and relatives die.

Read it all.

MPs back legalising assisted dying in historic Commons vote

Full story @fayebrownSky ⬇️https://t.co/1ABPztFnPF

— Sky News (@SkyNews) June 20, 2025

At a market in Tougbo, a small town in northern Ivory Coast, the smell of dried fish and fried dough filled the air. Children ran around the bustling stalls where women sold the corn and cassava they had carried on their heads for miles in the countryside. Muslim elders watched the crowds on the sandy main street, while Christian worshipers poured out of church after Sunday mass.

Yet the bustle belied an insidious threat.

About half of terrorism deaths worldwide in 2023 were recorded in the Sahel, the arid region in West Africa known for its seminomadic tribes and ancient trade routes. Emboldened by their success in the landlocked nations of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, insurgents affiliated with Al Qaeda and the Islamic State are moving south toward the Atlantic and into coastal nations such as Ivory Coast.

Read it all (the headline posted here is from the print edition).

New story out this week based on a 500 mile trip last fall along the border between Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso to document how the Al Qaeda-affiliated JNIM is moving south from the Sahel towards coastal countries. pic.twitter.com/bfskZC5ewO

— Elian Peltier (@ElianPeltier) June 17, 2025

At least 200 displaced people believed to be Christians were killed in Nigeria’s troubled Middle Belt last week. The premeditated attack on Friday night was described by a senior Anglican cleric as the work of “a well-trained, well-equipped and well-funded” Fulani Islamist militia group.

The Ven. Dr Hassan John, Director of Research for the Church of Nigeria, said that attackers approached three villages in Benue state, including Yelwata, which they surrounded before opening fire. “Those that tried to flee were either shot or cut down with machetes,” he said. He explained that the initial death toll of more than 100 rose as more bodies were discovered and others, who had been gravely injured, died later.

Dr John told the Church Times that the violence in central states such as Benue should not be understood as a “fight for scarce grazing land” by Fulani Muslim herders driven south by climate change, as it is sometimes termed by some foreign media and governments. “The perpetrators and their sponsors are known and their agenda, under the guise of fighting over grazing land, has been to strategically wipe out villages, particularly Christian villages, leaving out Muslims in the villages, even if they reside side by side with Christians,” he said.

Read it all.

At least 200 displaced people believed to be Christians were killed in Nigeria’s troubled Middle Belt last week https://t.co/FoqcsReaho

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) June 19, 2025

For decades, Iran’s leaders built up a network of allied militias in the Middle East that shared a hatred of Israel and America to gain regional influence and protect the regime. But as the theocracy is now fighting for its own survival, its allies are missing in action.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah, once seen as the most powerful in Iran’s Axis of Resistance, hasn’t fired a single missile since Israel attacked Iran. Its military capabilities and leadership have been decimated by Israeli forces over the past year. Hamas, the Palestinian militant group, is a shadow of itself after 20 months of war with Israel that has seen its leaders killed and Gaza destroyed.

In Iraq, Iranian-backed Shiite militias haven’t targeted U.S. military bases, as they have in the past. And Yemen’s Houthi militia fired several missiles at Israel on Sunday, but have remained silent since.

The bruising wars have left Iran’s allies wary of taking on Israel, which has demonstrated vastly superior military and intelligence capabilities. 

Read it all.

Why Iran’s ‘Axis of Resistance’ Is Missing in Action

Militia groups allied with Tehran have mostly stayed out of its war with Israel for varying and complex reasons, we learned.

Our latest w/@SalehAlBatati1 @summer_said https://t.co/v8oiFFqcHv

— Sudarsan Raghavan (@raghavanreports) June 19, 2025

Douglass further argued that paper orders “carry with them a certain moral force which makes them in a large measure self-executing.” The president had pledged to “recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons” and not to repress them “in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.” Douglass believed the proclamation from America’s commander in chief “would act on the rebel masters, and even more powerfully upon their slaves. It would lead the slaves to run away.” Those who escaped bondage and once feared the claws of the Fugitive Slave Act would have the law on their side.

Although Douglass disagreed with Lincoln about the timing and rationale of emancipation, he predicted that Lincoln’s proclamation would stand as “the greatest event of our nation’s history, if not the greatest event of the century,” placing “the North on the side of justice and civilization, and the rebels on the side of robbery and barbarism.” Douglass and Lincoln alike clearly took inspiration from the Declaration of Independence—America’s first Emancipation Proclamation. Both were committed to realizing the promises of 1776, nearly a century later.

Juneteenth and Independence Day honor the struggle of an imperfect people on an imperfect path to freedom and equality. American history—“a heap of Juneteenths,” in the words of Ralph Ellison—can be read as one journey, full of setbacks and triumphs, toward realizing the truths of the Declaration of Independence. That “ink and paper proclamation,” nearly 250 years old, established a way of life that remains, in Lincoln’s words, “the last best hope of earth.”

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Juneteenth is a day for us to remember with gratitude and admiration all who labored and sacrificed in the righteous–but at the time unpopular–cause of abolishing slavery. It is easy today to be opposed to slavery; it was not easy back then.https://t.co/HPkMsPyDBF

— Robert P. George (@McCormickProf) June 19, 2025

When Israel launched its war on Iran on June 13th it did so on the basis of intelligence that it claimed showed Iran had reached a “point of no return” in its quest for a nuclear weapon. That evidence galvanised Israel’s own security establishment to support an attack now. It has been shown to America and other Western partners, presumably playing an important role in their ongoing decision-making over whether to support or even join the war. The Economist has not seen the material directly, but has gained exclusive insights from an authoritative source, giving a view of Israel’s dossiers, as shared with its allies, and the claims they make over enriched uranium and the speeding-up of Iran’s programme. Some of the details are already known; some are new. These claims are proving contentious, with the intelligence services of some Western countries cautious about the imminence of the Iranian threat, and signs of divisions within President Donald Trump’s administration. Our report provides context on these disputes….

Israel’s intelligence assessments repeat some of this information. They allege that a cohort of Iranian scientists have been working on overt and covert weapons-related research for years. This effort was originally part of Iran’s formal nuclear-weapons research programme, known as AMAD, that it shut down in 2003, probably because it feared an American attack. The scientists’ ongoing work is thought to be carried out under Iran’s Organisation of Defensive Innovation and Research (also known by its Farsi acronym, SPND), under the cover of activity in fields like covid-19 vaccines and laser technology. One of a small number of non-scientists who were aware of the work was Major-General Mohammad Bagheri, who as chief of staff of Iran’s military had oversight of both the regular armed forces and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

But the Israeli intelligence dossiers also contain information that, if correct, is genuinely new. They suggest that roughly six years ago the scientists formed a secret “Special Progress Group”, under the auspices of the former AMAD director, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. This group’s aim was to prepare the way for a much quicker weaponisation process, if and when a decision was made by Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, to rush for a bomb. Mr Fakhrizadeh was assassinated by Israel in November 2020. On June 13th in the first hours of the war, the Israeli government published slides describing this backstory. But we have been told that it also shared further assessments with allies that suggest the Special Progress Group stepped up its research at the end of last year. Iran had a new incentive to advance to a bomb. It was reeling from the limited impact of its missile attacks on Israel, and the depletion of its air defences by Israeli strikes in October 2024. And it was facing the collapse of its proxies, Hamas and Hizbullah, in Gaza and Lebanon.

Lastly, Israel’s intelligence states that a meeting had been scheduled between the scientists and commanders of the IRGC’s air force, who are in charge of ballistic missiles.

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Israel launched its attack on Iran on the basis of intelligence that it claimed showed Iran had reached a “point of no return” in its quest for a nuclear weapon. The Economist has gained exclusive insights on that information https://t.co/OMoqNvGZvg

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) June 19, 2025

In the first major case on transgender issues, the Supreme Court decided that a Tennessee law prohibiting certain medical transition treatments for minors can stay in place. 

On Wednesday, the court ruled 6–3 in favor of the ban, emphasizing that it did not violate equal protection for the sexes under the 14th Amendment. 

“This case carries with it the weight of fierce scientific and policy debates about the safety, efficacy, and propriety of medical treatments in an evolving field,” wrote Chief Justice John Roberts in the court’s opinion. “The voices in these debates raise sincere concerns; the implications for all are profound.”

“Our role is not ‘to judge the wisdom, fairness, or logic’ of the law before us,” the court added, “but only to ensure that it does not violate the equal protection guarantee of the Fourteenth Amendment. Having concluded it does not, we leave questions regarding its policy to the people, their elected representatives, and the democratic process.”

Kristen Waggoner, president of the Christian legal advocacy organization Alliance Defending Freedom, said rejecting Tennessee’s ban “would have forced states to base their laws on ideology, not evidence—to the immense harm of countless children.” She called Wednesday’s ruling “a monumental victory for children, science, and common sense.”

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In the first major case on transgender issues, the Supreme Court decided that a Tennessee law prohibiting certain medical transition treatments for minors can stay in place. https://t.co/hs0tZiZfaT

— Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) June 18, 2025

Mr Khamanei’s recent sermons have been chilling. “We will show them no mercy,” he said of Israel on June 13th, referring to the “evil, despicable, terrorist Zionist identity”. But he also has hinted that whoever or whatever might replace him could make things worse. His successors might abandon his fatwa against nuclear weapons that has prevented Iran from breakout, warn his advisers. A different leader, a military commander or a monarch, might rush to a bomb and wave the nationalist card. After all, it was the Shah who pushed forward Iran’s nuclear programme in the 1970s. Mr Khamanei suggests that his exit could spark violent struggles between the regime’s competing clusters of clerics, democratic reformists and the armed forces. Separatists might resurface in Kurdish and Azeri provinces, as after the fall of the Shah. A civil war is possible, as in Syria and Iraq, a prospect that terrifies many Iranians.

All this means that the mockery of the regime that followed Israel’s opening salvo is turning to fear for the country. Iranians share anonymous maps online of Tehran’s neighbourhoods slated for evacuation ahead of an Israeli attack. “It feels like we’re the only ones left,” says a carer after Israel struck the state broadcasting station close to her home. The authorities have begun rationing petrol. With no clear alternative leadership and ever more fearful, Iranians increasingly wonder if they are better off sticking with what they have. Yet an entrenched regime with nothing to lose could pose an even greater threat to its foes, neighbours and citizens.

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Israel’s shock-and-awe campaign has humiliated the Iranian regime and revealed the failure of its military strategy. Some hope it may trigger an uprising or a coup d'état, in turn creating chaos or national renewal https://t.co/PxTO843ImH

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) June 16, 2025

The long-standing debate over whether there was a military solution to the threat of Iran’s nuclear program will soon be academic. We will learn in the coming days, weeks, and months whether Iran’s centrifuges and missile factories can survive the wrath of Israel’s air force and Mossad.

It’s too soon to assess the success of the first of what Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said would be a multiphase operation to destroy Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs. But for now Operation Rising Lion, what Israel is calling this operation, looks ambitious and lethal.

Let’s start with the fact that Israel is going after the regime’s leadership. Already, Iranian state television is reporting the chief of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Hossein Salami, has perished.

State media is also reporting that the command of Iran’s military, General Mohammad Bagheri, along with his deputy, Gholamali Rashid, have perished in the Israeli attack.

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The strike may be a catalyst for the collapse of the Islamic Republic altogether. https://t.co/Cwu7R9bFAD

— The Free Press (@TheFP) June 13, 2025

Decades of Israeli warnings against Iran’s nuclear program and preparations for military action to thwart it culminated early Friday morning with the Jewish state launching a major offensive against the Islamic Republic, striking nuclear sites, military facilities, missile bases and senior leadership.

Jerusalem said it had engaged in a “precise, preemptive strike” against Iran, declaring an imminent threat from its nuclear program and announcing a domestic state of emergency as citizens braced for retaliation. Top officials warned of a potential prolonged conflict, noting that Tehran had the power to inflict significant pain upon Israel.

Multiple waves of Israeli strikes were reported throughout Iran for several hours, starting at around 3 a.m. and into the morning. Over 200 Israeli Air Force aircraft were involved in the opening strikes, and fighter jets dropped over 330 munitions on some 100 targets, the IDF said.

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Israeli military officials said that “at the end of the operation, there will be no nuclear threat” from Iran

After years of preparation, Israel launches major offensive against Iran and its nuclear programhttps://t.co/bjWHWsdqPG

— Oren Kessler (@OrenKessler) June 13, 2025

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the
Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”
James 1:17

Brothers and Sisters,

On April 20, 2021 the Supreme Court of South Carolina released a verdict which set us on a course of great change and uncertainty. Two years later, after filing an unsuccessful request for rehearing we were forced to vacate our home on MilesDrive. Since then we have been a tabernacling people.

Following God’s lead towards a new land that we believed he would show us, we have been blessed to
find a temporary dwelling place on the campus of Northbridge Baptist. Shortly after we lost our property, a kind and wonderful soul approached me with a simple offer. This friend of Good Shepherd told me, “we must find a new home for Good Shepherd, and I’m willing to help make it happen.”

In the two years that have past, this individual and a few others have made pledges and sizable contributions towards the acquisition of a new home. These contributions made it possible for your vestry to pursue several potential locations, most of which have not panned out. But the tide seems to be turning. I am ecstatic to report to you that as of Wednesday, May 21 we are under contract to purchase 2.7 acres of land in the heart of West Ashley. Just a stones throw from where we have made our home in West Ashley since leaving the peninsula of Charleston in 1974, this property is located at 1231 Fuseler Drive. It is embedded in what we have long considered our core area of ministry, and walking or biking distance to the homes of a good number of Good Shepherd faithful, including your rector.

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The Church of the Good Shepherd, #CharlestonSC, announces they entered a contract to purchase new land–'It is embedded in what we have long considered our core area of ministry, and walking or biking distance to the homes of a good number of Good Shepherd faithful, including… pic.twitter.com/PVZrAI44mn

— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) June 11, 2025

“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.

DAWN BREAKS ON D-DAY: 6 JUNE 1944. pic.twitter.com/9IBzsZ28UG

— Frank McDonough (@FXMC1957) June 6, 2025

Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Forces:

You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.

Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely.

Read it all (audio link also available).

6 June 1944, #DDay, when Western Allies begin Operation Overlord in Normandy, 156,000 troops landed by sea & air on five beachheads. In honour of over 4,000 Allied dead, let us pledge ourselves to serve God & one another in the cause of peace & relief of want & suffering. #WW2 pic.twitter.com/gQxCuA2hSH

— Revd Nicholas Pye (@RevdPye) June 6, 2025