Infamously, polls in 2016 and 2020 systematically underestimated Mr Trump’s vote, especially in battleground states. After the 2016 election, the post mortem conducted by AAPOR, a professional organisation of pollsters, pointed to a late swing towards the Republican nominee and overrepresentation of graduates in poll samples. Most firms began to weight their samples to do a better job of reflecting the education profile of voters.

In 2020 the underestimation of Mr Trump was repeated for different reasons. This time AAPOR identified non-response bias—Republican voters were less likely to respond to pollsters. One theory is that they were less likely to be at home during the covid-19 pandemic (twiddling their thumbs and responding to surveys). Another is that Republican voters distrust pollsters, which discourages them from answering surveys.

Since 2020 pollsters have been at pains to reach a representative sample. They have experimented with recruitment that appeals to certain sections of society (postcards plastered with patriotic imagery, for example) and new modes, such as text messages. It is anyone’s guess whether this will be enough to account for the Democratic bias in response rates or whether supporters of Mr Trump are still reluctant to answer polls. If the errors seen in 2020 or 2016 are repeated even to a small degree that would be disastrous for Ms Harris—she could lose all seven swing states.

Read it all.

The last Campaign Calculus to print before the election [😱] is on polling errors—all seven swing states are well within a normal polling error of flipping! https://t.co/vhMC84TtFE pic.twitter.com/e2JFce3u16

— Owen Winter (@OwenWntr) October 29, 2024

Or you may download it there.

Ephesians 4:1-2

“I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,”

“With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;” pic.twitter.com/iBwxIOaJDy

— Mike C (Let me 🙏 for you) (@clanceman65) October 29, 2024

In On the Truth of Sacred Scripture, Wycliffe called for the Bible to be translated into English. According to Roman Catholic law, translating the Bible into a vulgar, common language was a heresy punishable by death. It is almost impossible to imagine why a church would want to keep God’s word from people, unless that church wanted to hold power over the people. Wycliffe was more convinced of the power of the word of God than the power wielded by the papal office. Consequently, he and a group of colleagues committed themselves to making the word of God available.

Not only did the Bible need to be translated; it also had to be copied and distributed. This was before the printing press (invented in 1440), so copies had to be made painstakingly by hand. Despite the challenges, hundreds of the Bibles were produced and distributed to Wycliffe’s troop of pastors, who preached across England as the word of God made its way to the people. Wycliffe’s followers came to be called Lollards. They were enclaves of reform not only in England, but across Europe.

These efforts in translating, copying, and proclaiming the Bible in English were driven by a singular motive, expressed by Wycliffe this way: “It helps Christian men to study the Gospel in that tongue which they know best.” In his final years, Wycliffe endured falling out of favor with the church and nobility in England. Of course, he had long ago fallen out of favor with the pope. Yet, Wycliffe declared, “I am ready to defend my convictions even unto death.” He remained convinced of the authority and centrality of Scripture and devoted to his life’s calling to help Christians study the Bible. Having suffered two strokes, John Wycliffe died on December 30, 1384.

Read it all.

14 May 1361: John Wyclif admitted to Balliol College's benefice of Fillingham Lincs #otd He held it till 1368. Later seen by many as a harbinger of #English reformation, John Bale viewed him as a ‘morning star’ (BM) pic.twitter.com/J2c5WBYZAw

— John McCafferty (@jdmccafferty) May 14, 2023

O God, whose justice continually challenges thy Church to live according to its calling: Grant us who now remember the work of John Wyclif contrition for the wounds which our sins inflict on thy Church, and such love for Christ that we may seek to heal the divisions which afflict his Body; through the same Jesus Christ, who livest and reignest with thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

17 May 1382: A council convenes at Blackfriars #London to condemn John Wyclif's teachings. It is known as the 'earthquake council' due to a tremor shook the city during its course (BM) pic.twitter.com/MuXKievdHP

— John McCafferty (@jdmccafferty) May 17, 2023

O Lord and Father, to whom alone the debtors in ten thousand talents can come with hope of mercy: Have mercy upon us, O Lord, who have aught to repay; forgive us all the debt, forgive us all our sins, and make us merciful to others; for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Morning everyone I hope you are well. On a misty autumnal day in the Lakes, there's nothing better than an early morning walk with a good friend. Have a great day. #LakeDistrict @keswickbootco pic.twitter.com/YDyI9qefVe

— Rod Hutchinson (@lakesrhino) October 30, 2024

And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; she was with child and she cried out in her pangs of birth, in anguish for delivery. And another portent appeared in heaven; behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems upon his heads. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, that he might devour her child when she brought it forth; she brought forth a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which to be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.

–Revelation 12:1-6

My favourite tree is out in full colour at the moment! Just taken this on my little walk pic.twitter.com/obUkL7nF0C

— David Oxtaby (@Disc_light) October 30, 2024

The funding of hospices shows that “voluntary sector beginnings” are “still very much in evidence”, Lord Farmer said on Thursday as he introduced his debate on how the state funds palliative care.

“A review of funding would find a highly variable model for hospices: some are run by the NHS, with large annual charitable grants, and others are run by a charity that gets some funding from the NHS. A common hallmark is a holistic, bespoke, and patient-centred approach that values their relationships,” he said.

“We should not forget that all receiving hospice care are on the edge of eternity, and dying peacefully also requires spiritual palliative care.”

Read it all.

The funding of hospices shows that “voluntary sector beginnings” are “still very much in evidence”, Lord Farmer said on Thursday as he introduced his debate on how the state funds palliative care https://t.co/82wnOqIy6K

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) October 29, 2024

The reason climate change is so difficult to talk about is that bringing up any one issue is like pulling on a thread in a spiderweb: Every other thread in the web vibrates in response. We feel powerless to effect the changes we would like to see when simply meeting the needs of each day feels like an uphill battle. And so, the anxiety builds—until the anxiety itself feels like part of the avalanche threatening to tumble down on us. Is there any hope at all?

The short answer is yes. In fact, I think this is the time for radical hope. I first encountered this term in Jonathan Lear’s excellent book Radical Hope: Ethics in the Face of Cultural Devastation. Lear explores the history of the Crow tribe in the mid-1800s as they responded to the changes brought by western settlement of their territories in Montana.

The key figure in the book is the Crow chieftain Plenty Coups, who spent his life leading his people through those often-traumatic changes with one key insight: The old nomadic way of life chasing the buffalo was inescapably and irretrievably lost. How could his people hope when the very possibility of a meaningful Crow life was being destroyed? They had to learn to live a new way of life. Even their core values, like what it meant to be courageous, had to be re-formed in a culture where traditional warrior acts of courage were illegal.

Radical hope, then, is the hope that is formed when all our previous hopes are gone. Radical hope was the kind God provided the Israelite exiles….

Read it all.

Climate change is a “wickedly complex problem,” writes a lecturer in science and religion.

Radical hope in the face of it “means settling down in our own exile and waiting for God’s promise to be fulfilled beyond the scope of our own lifetimes.”https://t.co/JrkRSyYFlP

— Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) October 26, 2024

Data centers are the factories of AI, turning energy and data into intelligence. Industry leaders estimate that a few major U.S. technology companies alone are expected to invest more than $600 billion in AI infrastructure, particularly in data centers, between 2023 and 2026. The countries that work with companies to host data centers running AI workloads gain economic, political, and technological advantages and leverage. But data centers also present national security sensitivities, given that they often house high-end, export-controlled semiconductors and governments, businesses, and everyday users send some of their most sensitive information through them. And while the United States is ahead of China in many aspects of AI, especially in software and chip design, America faces significant bottlenecks with data centers.

Data centers are critical for the digital economy and AI. But the data center buildout is hitting a wall. The United States is home to the plurality of the world’s data centers, numbering in the thousands. Yet America’s aging energy grid, which powers those data centers, is under enormous strain from a complex set of factors, including rising electricity demand, delayed infrastructure upgrades, extreme weather events, and the complex transition to renewable energy. Meanwhile, surging data center demands driven by rapidly increasing AI workloads are exacerbating the grid’s vulnerabilities.

It’s not just a question of how those energy needs can be met, but where. When it comes to data centers, the shortage of powered land in the United States—or more specifically, the shortage of powered land with the connectivity required to support large-scale data centers—combined with supply chain challenges and lengthy permitting timelines for new infrastructure—presents a challenge to realizing both the public and private sectors’ AI ambitions.

Read it all.

There are a lot of known unknowns about AI, but “The Next AI Debate Is About Geopolitics.” In my latest @ForeignPolicy piece, I argue that data might be the “new oil,” but nations—not nature—will decide where to build data centers. Source: Foreign Policy https://t.co/CHLEzhY9I6

— Jared Cohen (@JaredCohen) October 28, 2024

The soldier squints through his binoculars. “They can see us,” he warns, pointing to a silhouette of two figures on a hill in the distance. The men in his line of sight are soldiers from Eritrea. But the hill is in Tigray, a semi-autonomous region in northern Ethiopia. Eritrean troops control a significant chunk of Ethiopian territory on the border, in places reaching as far as 10km inside it. At night they creep even further south, spying on military positions and kidnapping civilians. “Let them not start a war and we shall not go to war,” says Tsadkan Gebretensae, the interim vice-president of Tigray and a veteran military commander. “But we are very much aware that things could get out of control.”

The tense situation around the hill, near the town of Fatsi, is a hangover from a war that has technically been over for two years. In late 2020 Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopia’s prime minister, launched what he promised would be a swift, clean military operation to oust Tigray’s ruling party, the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). What followed instead was one of this century’s most horrific conflicts. To bring the recalcitrant region to heel, Mr Abiy enlisted tens of thousands of fighters from Amhara, a region next door. He also invited troops from Eritrea, which had been part of Ethiopia until seceding in 1993. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed, by bombs, bullets or government-induced famine and disease. Many of the dead were civilians. More than 100,000 women are thought to have been raped.

A peace agreement signed by Ethiopia’s government and the TPLF on November 2nd 2022, stopped the fighting in Tigray. But it did not settle the conflicts between Tigray and the war’s two other main parties, Eritrea and the militias from Amhara. Two years on, that omission helps explain why Mr Abiy faces fresh insurgencies at home and a potential war with Eritrea. These new pressures threaten to further destabilise the Horn of Africa, which is riven by tensions between several states or would-be states and is facing fallout from a catastrophic civil war in Sudan.

Read it all.

A peace deal made two years ago was supposed to ensure that Ethiopia’s warring parties could mend rifts through further negotiations rather than violence.

No such talks have materialised and now another African war looms https://t.co/CPkGQSzenr 👇

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) October 28, 2024

Precious in thy sight, O Lord, is the death of thy saints, whose faithful witness, by thy providence, hath its great reward: We give thee thanks for thy martyrs James Hannington and his companions, who purchased with their blood a road unto Uganda for the proclamation of the Gospel; and we pray that with them we also may obtain the crown of righteousness which is laid up for all who love the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Drawing: Seizure of Bishop James Hannington, by William Hatherell from The Story of Africa and its Explorers (1892) pic.twitter.com/nGjhDPOXEO

— kizitoSerumaga (@kizitoSerumaga) October 29, 2020

O Lord, who hast taught us that we can only be forgiven, as we ourselves forgive: Help us ever to bear in mind our continued shortcomings, our manifold transgressions; that as we remember the injuries which we have suffered and never merited, we may also remember the kindnesses which we have received and never earned, the punishments which we have deserved and never suffered; and therewith may render thanks to thee for thine unfailing mercies, and the mercies of our fellowmen; for thy name’s sake.

—Daily Prayer, Eric Milner-White and G. W. Briggs, eds. (London: Penguin Books 1959 edition of the 1941 original)

🌫️ Misty mornings

📍 Bushy Park

📸 @LesleyAM13 pic.twitter.com/E9XmIYQm5Q

— The Royal Parks (@theroyalparks) October 29, 2024

As he said this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that you sucked!” But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”

When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, “This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah became a sign to the men of Nin′eveh, so will the Son of man be to this generation. The queen of the South will arise at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them; for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nin′eveh will arise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

“No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a bushel, but on a stand, that those who enter may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye is sound, your whole body is full of light; but when it is not sound, your body is full of darkness. Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.”

–Luke 11:27-36

Happy Autumn 🍂 #ThickTrunkTuesday pic.twitter.com/1cmza6uoNh

— Hayley Twigs in Hair Figgis (@HayleyhHoward) October 29, 2024

Since February last year, his position has implicitly shifted. For he has remained in post, as Synod has introduced a new policy, that the Church may bless same-sex couples. The evangelicals see this as undermining the traditional teaching. No, Welby and most of the other bishops have said, there is no planned change to the doctrine of marriage. But the evangelicals are obviously right that the innovation implies the acceptability of gay relationships. The archbishop of York has said that sex is permissible in stable relationships, straight or gay. This is the reformist position, seemingly held by most of the senior bishops.

Astonishingly, Welby has now said the same thing.

Read it all.

Justin Welby has made a huge shift on homosexuality https://t.co/N3wr9IBaba

— Simon Sarmiento (@simonsarmiento) October 28, 2024

For the first time in 15 years, the Liberal Democratic Party and its ruling coalition partner, Komeito, have lost their Lower House majority, following a clear rout in Sunday’s general election — a shift that opens up a potential path for the opposition to steer the lower chamber’s agenda if they can act cohesively.

The loss of its majority was likely to prompt Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba to seek a third party to join the coalition in order to remain in power — a move that would necessitate negotiations, or even concessions.

Negotiating with a third party for its backing in parliament for every bill would exacerbate political instability and drastically reduce the LDP’s authority over the coalition, making Ishiba’s administration even shakier. The policymaking process would inevitably become more fragmented and laborious, requiring a great deal of political capital from the government.

Within the LDP, calls are now growing for accountability among the party leadership in the wake of the electoral drubbing.

Read it all.

🇯🇵 Elections: the LDP (in power almost without interruption since the 1950s) loses several dozen seats and the majority, even with its Buddhist ally Komeito. In addition to recurring scandals, Moon and and undeclared funding, it lost its image of economic efficiency. pic.twitter.com/yvDBAOkZ24

— Valerie Niquet (@VNiquet) October 28, 2024

Lisa slides a Hellcat pistol into her backpack, slinging it over her shoulder. She jumps out of the driver’s seat of her massive Ford F-250 as we head into a barbecue joint for lunch. Steel brass knuckles glint in the console beside a pencil-shaped, pronged object. She sees me looking at it. 

“That’s my stabby-stick,” Lisa says before I even ask. “In case I can’t bring my gun somewhere. These guys are dangerous.”

“These guys” are sex traffickers, and dangerous doesn’t begin to describe them. 

Many traffickers are members of Mexican or Salvadorian gangs, part of Cuban rings or the vicious Venezuelan group Tren de Aragua. Their modus operandi is luring migrant women and girls across the southern border, promising them good jobs once they get to America, and then forcing them into prostitution once they’re here, ostensibly to pay off the debt they incurred to get into the U.S. Hunting down sex traffickers is not for the faint of heart, and Lisa is not about to take any chances. 

An athletic, no-nonsense blonde in her 50s, Lisa runs a small nonprofit foundation called Shepherd’s Watch, dedicated to bringing down sex-trafficking rings. Prior to starting Shepherd’s Watch in 2016, Lisa had been a telecom engineer and an expert at analyzing cell phone data used in court cases. In that job, she says, she saw a “disturbing” amount of child exploitation. “I couldn’t ignore it anymore.”

Read it all.

NEW Migrant crime story: I shadowed a private investigator in Dallas and saw firsthand how easy it is to “order” a migrant girl off one of dozens of sex solicitation websites. @ShepherdsWatchF is doing great work trying to stop this kind of crime. https://t.co/RJ29TzMKtv

— Maddie Rowley (@Maddie_Rowley_) October 14, 2024

O God, we thank thee for the glorious company of the apostles, and especially on this day for Simon and Jude; and we pray thee that, as they were faithful and zealous in their mission, so we may with ardent devotion make known the love and mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

As an anointed assembly, we remember in benediction those chosen first, to bear witness unto Christ, the Risen Lord. That small band of brothers echoed with their lives one Word. In lifting up Simon and Jude, we long to remain in that light spoken, and to reflect Him truthfully. pic.twitter.com/yAEx3CfFWW

— Bishop David P. Talley (@BishopDavidT) October 28, 2024

Almighty and everlasting God, you govern all things both in heaven and on earth: Mercifully hear the supplications of your people, and in our time grant us your peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

Good Monday morning!Positive vibes only.

Coast Guard beach #capecod #sunrise pic.twitter.com/pFJVD8wJTV

— Darius Aniunas (@dariusaniunas) October 28, 2024

Blessed is he who considers the poor!
The Lord delivers him in the day of trouble;
the Lord protects him and keeps him alive;
he is called blessed in the land;
thou dost not give him up to the will of his enemies.
The Lord sustains him on his sickbed;
in his illness thou healest all his infirmities.

–Psalm 41:1-3

Morning everyone I hope you are well. I do love wandering along one of my local rivers, the River Brathay and continuing to find these beautiful locations. Have a great day.#LakeDistrict @keswickbootco pic.twitter.com/iaNUlSAxIz

— Rod Hutchinson (@lakesrhino) October 28, 2024

Blessed Lord,
who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning:
help us so to hear them,
to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them
that, through patience, and the comfort of your holy word,
we may embrace and for ever hold fast
the hope of everlasting life,
which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

O God, thou art my God, I seek thee,
my soul thirsts for thee;
my flesh faints for thee,
as in a dry and weary land where no water is.
So I have looked upon thee in the sanctuary,
beholding thy power and glory.
Because thy steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise thee.
So I will bless thee as long as I live;
I will lift up my hands and call on thy name.

–Psalm 63:1-4

O Sovereign Lord, who didst bring thy servant Alfred to a troubled throne that he might establish peace in a ravaged land and revive learning and the arts among the people: Awake in us also, we beseech thee, a keen desire to increase our understanding while we are in this world, and an eager longing to reach that endless life where all will be made clear; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Alfred the Great died on 26 October 899. This famous text presents his thoughts on wisdom, the benefits of education, and his programme to 'translate certain books – those which are most necessary for all to know – into the language we can all understand': https://t.co/R2KijN0DFF pic.twitter.com/6lsqZwRNz5

— Eleanor Parker (@ClerkofOxford) October 26, 2024

Grant, Almighty God, that, since the dullness and harshness of our flesh is so great that it is needful for us in various ways to be afflicted, we may patiently bear Thy chastisement, and under a deep feeling of sorrow flee to Thy mercy displayed to us in Christ; and that not depending upon the earthly blessings of this perishable life, but relying only upon Thy Word, we may go forward in the course of our calling; until at length we be gathered to that blessed rest which is laid up for us in heaven; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

And all the lives we ever lived
and all the lives to be,
are full of #trees
and changing #leaves.

~ Virginia Woolf

Happy weekend everyone! 🍁🍂😊 pic.twitter.com/Mr0StyH9OG

— Margaret O'Connell🌻 (@MargaretOC6) October 26, 2024

Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness;

To the end that [my] glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever.

–Psalm 30:11-12 (KJV)

"Stately Sycamores with a Maple in the Mix"#FallColors #AlmostHeaven #WestVirginia #Highlands #ThePhotoHour pic.twitter.com/xNf9AvNMO3

— Thomas R Fletcher (@ThomasRFletcher) October 26, 2024

Lambeth Palace said the Archbishop’s views are his own, and are not the official stance of the Church of England. A statement said: “He (Archbishop Justin) has been honest that his thinking has evolved over the years through much prayer and theological reflection – particularly through the Living in Love and Faith process – and he now holds this view sincerely.

The Church of England Evangelical Council said Welby’s statement indicated his view that: “Sexual intimacy is no longer limited to marriage”, “sexual intimacy in gay relationships is ok”, and that “the church should bless sexual relations outside of marriage”.

It called the statement “devastating”, saying it marked “a clear departure from the doctrine of the Church of England, the Anglican Communion, and every other major Christian denomination across the world believe”.

(The) Revd Dr Andrew Goddard, a member of the Council, said that “such significantly erroneous statements as these from no less than the Archbishop of Canterbury, unless swiftly followed by an apology and correction, can only add further to the widespread erosion of trust and growing sense of disbelief, betrayal, deception, anger and despair now felt across much of the Church of England”.

And (the) Revd Matthew Roberts, former Moderator of Synod of the International Presbyterian Church and co-author of the Greater Love declaration, commented: “The Archbishop of Canterbury, having stated that he denies the doctrine of the Church of England, has a duty to resign.”

Read it all.

The Church of England Evangelical Council said it marked “a clear departure from the doctrine of the Church of England, the Anglican Communion, and every other major Christian denomination across the world believe”. https://t.co/u5HqzdbwzY

— The Christian Institute (@christianorguk) October 25, 2024

The Death Spiral is one of the main Pentagon Pathologies. The American people devote ever greater resources to their defense while receiving less and less in return. The Air Force had 10,387 aircraft in 1975 when the Military Reformers began their work in earnest. Today the Air Force has 5,288. The Navy had 559 active ships in 1975. Today the fleet has only 296. The Pentagon’s base budget is more than 60% higher today than it was in 1975, when adjusted for inflation. The American people simply spend more and receive much less in return for their defense dollars.

An argument can be made that modern military equipment is more expensive because of the capabilities they provide the troops. That is extremely debatable because many of the high-profile acquisition programs over the past 25 years have been underwhelming at best, and often complete failures. It is difficult to find anyone who will honestly say the Littoral Combat Ship was worth the effort.

Left unchecked, the acquisition Death Spiral’s inevitable destination is unilateral disarmament. Norman Augustine, a former DoD official and Lockheed Martin CEO predicted in 1983, with only a hint of satire, that by 2054, “the entire defense budget will purchase just one aircraft. This aircraft will have to be shared by the Air Force and Navy 3-1/2 days each per week except for leap year, when it will be made available to the Marines for the extra day.”

Read it all.

At the current spending rate, in another generation we will have a lot of rich contractors and no aircraft or Naval fleets to speak of https://t.co/k4XV5gsk7Z

— Responsible Statecraft (@RStatecraft) October 24, 2024

The action is now moving beyond America. With over two-fifths of the world overweight or obese, demand for glp-1 drugs is voracious. Pharma companies are racing to make them work as pills, which would be cheaper to produce than jabs, and to reduce their side-effects. Generic versions for older GLP-1 agonists are entering the market. Semaglutide is to come off patent in Brazil, China and India in 2026; eight such drugs are in the works in China. That is just as well. As incomes in the developing world have risen and life has become more sedentary, people’s waistlines are catching up with those in the West.

Curbing obesity would be consequential. Yet glp-1 drugs promise to do much more. Overweight patients on semaglutide have been found to suffer fewer heart attacks and strokes; the benefits, astonishingly, seem to be largely independent of how much weight is lost. Tirzepatide improves sleep apnoea. Trials show that glp-1 agonists reduce chronic kidney disease in diabetics; and there are signs they may lessen brain shrinkage and cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s. Studies of health records suggest that they may help with addictions, too; people already on glp-1 drugs in America were less likely to overdose on opioids or abuse cannabis or alcohol. Researchers are even talking, in hushed tones, of their anti-ageing effects.

How can one class of drug do so much? As our briefing explains this week, not only do the drugs act in the gut, but they also bind to receptors all over the body and in the brain. 

Read it all.

I’ve been saying this for quite some time: GLP-1 agonists are miracle “everything drugs”! it’s likely there’ll be more of these types of drugs soon

“It’s not just obesity. Drugs like Ozempic will change the world
As they become cheaper, they promise to improve billions of lives” pic.twitter.com/61tc17dKRE

— Derya Unutmaz, MD (@DeryaTR_) October 24, 2024

It’s widely rumored that organized religion is going down the drain. While the secularization thesis has been debated for decades, its main components are hardly controversial. Religion has reduced social power: its chief officers have less influence on political ideas and social norms, its language and habits no longer permeate the discourse of public life, and fewer people make collective worship and fellowship the rhythm of their week. Death no longer has a compelling hold on the public imagination: people still die, but usually not in the home or in their youth, and few people are terrified of the prospect of eternal hell. Meanwhile, with the possible exception of minority faiths among recent immigrants, it’s become increasingly difficult to socialize young people into a religion. It’s not that religion adheres to egregious ideas so much as that the whole notion of being habituated into a committed community of ritual and tradition seems incongruous.

There’s little that’s specifically Christian about all this. Real as the church’s failures are, most of its challenges it shares with other institutions associated with the pretechnological era. But in any case, in most congregations in the US mainline and the UK equivalent, a disproportionate number of the people are over age 65. The prospects for self-replication in 30 years’ time aren’t promising.

What are we to do about this? I see three main options…

Read it all.

“We have no idea what lies around the corner. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, but the way the Holy Spirit makes Christ present to us seems to be ever changing.”

– Samuel Wellshttps://t.co/Vh9j7Gfe1E

— theChristianCentury (@ChristianCent) October 18, 2024

Most Holy God, whose servant Tabitha thou didst raise from the dead to display thy power and confirm thy message that thy Son is Lord; grant unto us thy grace, that aided by her prayers and example, we may be given a new life in thy Spirit to do works pleasing in thy sight; Through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord; who livest and reignest with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Tabitha (AKA Dorcas) is commemorated on October 25th in Orthodox and some Lutheran Churches.
I think Tabitha's importance to the church at Joppa has been vastly underrated. (Archives)https://t.co/8Z5atScfMY

— Marg Mowczko (@MargMowczko) October 25, 2024