The attack happened inside a restaurant kitchen at Thunder Valley Casino, where authorities said none of the victims suffered life-threatening injuries. LINCOLN, Calif. — Five restaurant employees were stabbed inside a kitchen at Thunder Valley Casino on Wednesday night, and a coworker was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, authorities said. The Placer County Sheriff’s Office identified the suspect as Joseph Naugle. Deputies responded around 7 p.m. Aug. 19 to the Dos Coyotes restaurant inside ... Read more

Police said no immediate signs of foul play were found, and the medical examiner will determine Conor Anderson’s cause of death. NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Conor Anderson, a 31-year-old Colorado man who disappeared while visiting Nashville for a work conference, was found dead Thursday evening in a wooded area beside a parking lot at 14 James Robertson Parkway, Metro Nashville police said. Anderson had not been seen or heard from since early Sunday, when he spoke ... Read more

The IDF completed the relocation of combat helicopter Squadron 190 "Magic Touch" from Ramon Base to Ramat David Airbase, aiming to strengthen border defense by dispersing squadrons across the north and south. The post WATCH: IDF relocates Squadron 190 to boost northern defense appeared first on World Israel News.

The IDF completed the relocation of combat helicopter Squadron 190 "Magic Touch" from Ramon Base to Ramat David Airbase, aiming to strengthen border defense by dispersing squadrons across the north and south. The post WATCH: IDF relocates Squadron 190 to boost northern defense appeared first on World Israel News.

Investigators discovered audio recordings in both English and Arabic in which Bowie pledged allegiance to the Islamic State terror organization, commonly known as ISIS or Daesh. The post Woman arrested for alleged New York Capitol bomb plot appeared first on World Israel News.

Investigators discovered audio recordings in both English and Arabic in which Bowie pledged allegiance to the Islamic State terror organization, commonly known as ISIS or Daesh. The post Woman arrested for alleged New York Capitol bomb plot appeared first on World Israel News.

The United States also designated a group of 10 people on Thursday that it accused of smuggling cash for Hezbollah. The post US targets Hezbollah with fresh sanctions, emphasizes ties to Iranian government appeared first on World Israel News.

The United States also designated a group of 10 people on Thursday that it accused of smuggling cash for Hezbollah. The post US targets Hezbollah with fresh sanctions, emphasizes ties to Iranian government appeared first on World Israel News.

The former Green Party presidential nominee missed a required St. Louis court appearance in a misdemeanor case stemming from a 2024 campus protest. ST. LOUIS, Mo. — A St. Louis judge issued a failure-to-appear arrest warrant for former Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein after she missed a court hearing, then quashed the warrant hours later when her attorney appeared before the court. The Aug. 17 warrant was tied to an unresolved misdemeanor case stemming ... Read more

President Trump stated his actions against Iran were highly effective in thwarting nuclear and ballistic missile threats, declaring he would do it again a hundred times, underscoring his firm conviction. The post WATCH: I would’ve done it again 100 times,’ says Trump on attacking Iran appeared first on World Israel News.

President Trump stated his actions against Iran were highly effective in thwarting nuclear and ballistic missile threats, declaring he would do it again a hundred times, underscoring his firm conviction. The post WATCH: I would’ve done it again 100 times,’ says Trump on attacking Iran appeared first on World Israel News.

Chaos for Life or Death – Or for Awakening? Peter Koenig, August 17, 2026 Forest Fire as a Military Weapon Helena Glass, August 17, 2026 Video: China’s New Battery Invention Has Made Lithium Useless Mandarin Tech, August … The post This Week’s Most Popular Articles appeared first on Global Research.

In contemporary democracies, political conversations often seem impossible. A progressive and a conservative talk past each other. A libertarian and a liberal find themselves in fundamental disagreement about what matters most. Yet what if these apparent incompatibilities are not signs of unreasonableness or bad faith, but rather different languages speaking to the same world? This is the elegant insight offered by Arnold Kling’s 2013 book, The Three Languages of Politics: Talking Across the Political Divides. Kling argues that progressives, conservatives, and libertarians operate according to three distinct axes of moral reasoning. Progressives, Kling argues, generally hold to an oppressor versus oppressed moral paradigm while conservatives are largely along the moral axis of civilization versus barbarism. Finally, libertarian moral reasoning is largely focused upon a dichotomy of liberty versus coercion. Understanding these three languages, Kling suggests, can transform political discourse from mutual demonization into genuine cross-cultural dialogue. Yet Kling himself acknowledges a crucial limitation: his framework is designed specifically for “politically aware contemporary Americans” and is “not designed to apply to other time periods or other countries.” This essay asks what happens when we extend Kling’s framework beyond American borders, and specifically, what emerges when we examine how his three languages manifest in cultural contexts, where the pursuit of reputation and collective dignity operates according to entirely different rules than those of Kling’s American languages. If Kling’s three languages are indeed universal features of political reasoning, we argue they must take on different forms in different cultural paradigms. More specifically, we propose that non-American cultural frameworks, which emphasize reputation, family standing, and collective dignity rather than individual guilt or innocence, reshape not just how political issues are debated, but which political language becomes dominant in any given context. In these cultures, when issues directly threaten core cultural values, the civilization vs. barbarism language becomes the lens through which all political questions are filtered, while the oppression vs. innocence and liberty vs. coercion frameworks recede into the background. This essay demonstrates that Kling’s three languages are indeed present in every political culture, but underlying cultural framework determine which language achieves dominance when stakes are highest. To ground this argument, we must first examine the foundational framework of cultural worldviews. Early anthropological and psychological research categorized countries into major cultural paradigms (Nisbett and Cohen, 1996; Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner, 1997). These paradigms represent fundamentally different approaches to social control and moral reasoning: guilt-innocence cultures rely on internalized conscience and codified law; honor-shame cultures emphasize reputation, collective standing, and the maintenance of face; and fear-power cultures prioritize respect for authority and power structures (Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner, 1998). Contemporary political and anthropological research nuances these distinctions, arguing that culture is comprehensive but not static (Parekh, 2006; Jenkins, 2002). Nevertheless, while assuming broad cultural paradigms is reductive, societies are understood to operate under cultural frameworks that are distinctive from one another (Demetriou, 2014).  For example, consider immigration within different cultural paradigms. Kling discusses how there are robust discussions about immigration in the United States according to the three political languages. According to the libertarian voice, immigration is tolerated because restrictive borders permit a more coercive government. The conservative, on the other hand, tends to view immigration negatively because it threatens to allow the culture and civilization of the country to fall prey to outsiders with barbarian values. And a progressive may not support immigration because immigrants will take jobs from low-skilled workers in the United States, further oppressing those who are already vulnerable (Kling, 2013, pp. 73-74). What Kling demonstrates is that in a culture like the United States, immigration can be debated across all three political languages because the issue doesn’t fundamentally threaten the core cultural value of guilt and innocence under American law. Nevertheless, if the question of immigration were brought to South Korea, this robust conversation would all but disappear. Allowing vast numbers of immigrants to become Korean citizens would be seen as an unthinkable practice. This does not mean that there are no opportunities for immigrants to come to South Korea. But compared to the United States, South Korea does not have the kind of robust public debate around open-border policies and whether they should allow their country to become more multicultural. South Korea does maintain immigrant communities and foreign workers, yet the political discourse rarely centers on whether immigration should be expanded (Thränhardt, 1996). The difference in approaches to immigration between the United States and South Korea is striking and reveals something important about how cultural contexts shape political language expression. The United States and South Korea, in this case of immigration, differ significantly in cultural paradigms. The United States is a culture that prioritizes legality, and South Korea is a culture that prioritizes cultural preservation. For American citizens and the American government, the predominant question is: What constitutes guilt and what constitutes innocence in American society? For an American libertarian, immigrants should be innocent of overbearing government coercion and restrictions. For an American conservative, American citizens are innocent vis-à-vis guilty immigrants who will inevitably erode the integrity of the country. For an American progressive, low-skilled workers are innocent and do not deserve to lose their jobs. In the United States, while the question of immigration exists through the three political languages (Kling, 2013), it does not challenge a deeply held value for legality. However, South Korea is not thinking in the same terms as the United States. The issue of immigration disrupts Korean identity on a cultural level distinct from multinational country contexts (Draudt, 2016). What does immigration mean for South Korea? It could mean that the country is not strong enough to protect its borders. It could mean that its citizens are not skilled enough compared to foreigners. And perhaps even more worrying, it could mean that the country will once again be on the defensive against the barbarism of foreigners who weaken the Korean civilization. Suddenly, we see that the Korean framework speaks directly to the barbarism vs. civilization language (Kling, 2013). In the case of South Korea, the question of immigration directly challenges deeply held beliefs of cultural preservation (Draudt, 2016). Therefore, the other languages are silenced under the overpowering weight of barbarism vs. civilization.  Let us consider another issue, one that would not get airtime in the American context, but one that is hotly debated elsewhere: religious equality. In India, there is a fundamental question of whether India is a Hindu nation or whether India is a multireligious nation. This question of religious tolerance is hotly debated among all political languages in India. An Indian libertarian would say that all religious practices should be permitted without government intervention in their specific region, city, and village, as each religious group has the right to practice freely. Meanwhile, an Indian conservative would say that only one religion should dominate to protect the civilization of the state of India. In the modern context, this is most likely a Hindu nationalist who rejects the barbarism of Muslims, Christians, and Sikhs who threaten Hindu civilization (Hansen, 1999). Finally, an Indian progressive would see minority religions as historically oppressed and push for not only religious tolerance but religious equality. The traditions of all religions would be respected and given equal opportunity in business, education, and politics. In the end, religious freedom is a question that exists in all three political languages in India (Bhargava, 1998). However, for the United States, religious protection is a deeply held right (Rogers, 2004). No matter the political language, the norm and hierarchal ranking of religious liberty supersede other moral rational dimensions. Even if an American individual were conservative and thought their religion was more civilized than another, they would still believe that even barbarian religions are protected and have a right to exist. Within the American discourse, the moral reasoning of liberty versus coercion becomes paramount. There is no situation in which Americans would allow some religious groups to be unequivocally coercively restricted based on the traditional legitimacy or power of another religion (Rogers, 2004). In the context of religious freedom, the American cultural paradigm essentially neutralizes the civilization vs. barbarism language, making it unthinkable to deny religious freedom on the basis of cultural preservation. Let us look at one last issue: whether governments should give contracts to extraction companies on Indigenous lands, a hotly debated topic in contemporary Brazil. A Brazilian libertarian may or may not support these companies because they believe that companies should not be regulated by the government. Notably, the importance for the Brazilian libertarian is freedom against the power of the government, rather than protecting Indigenous rights. Meanwhile, a Brazilian conservative would likely support the extraction companies, considering these communities as vestiges of Brazil’s barbaric past. According to a Brazilian conservative, the government employs its powers to protect civilization, so what the government decides is the right action. A Brazilian progressive would stand against extraction companies for their destruction of Indigenous lands and the oppression of a marginalized people. To the Brazilian progressive, anyone without money and power is the oppressed, and so regardless of economic or political benefits to extraction projects, they must oppose oppression from both large companies and the government (Felipe and Costa, 2023). Meanwhile, in the United States, Indigenous lands occupy a distinctive legal category where they are independent of federal oversight. While much can be said of the inadequacies of Indigenous land rights to truly make reparations for the American government’s devastation of Indigenous peoples, the independence of Indigenous lands is a result of the oppressor vs. the oppressed language. Indigenous peoples have been oppressed by the American government and therefore have land independent of their oppressors. Unlike debates in Brazil, the American framework does not consider the economic or developmental benefits of extraction companies to outweigh the importance of protecting the oppressed. Therefore, regardless of American political orientation, the special status of Indigenous lands prevents the federal government from giving contracts to extraction companies. Through these three issues of immigration, religious equality, and Indigenous land rights, we can see that different cultural frameworks take on very different approaches. Within some cultural frameworks, the issue does not attack deeply rooted beliefs and so it is debated among all three political languages. However, some issues challenge the fundamental paradigms of a culture, and so all political languages are diminished to one leading language. Again, it must be stated that within a country, there can be individuals with diverse opinions, despite their cultural paradigm. Nevertheless, on a macro level, countries tend to orient themselves to a single political language that “takes over” in certain circumstances. And so, the final question is: what is the importance of mapping cultural paradigms onto Kling’s political languages? Kling writes that “One benefit of being able to understand all three languages of politics is that it becomes easier to recognize the reasonableness of the positions held by others” (2013, p. 73). In other words, understanding the other languages helps work against narrow-minded worldviews that lead to intolerance and polarization. By being able to learn the languages of others, people can have more constructive conversations on important issues. We argue that understanding the cultural frameworks is the next step in constructive conversations. We live in a globalized world where we are interacting with people all around the world. The decisions made in one country affect the livelihoods of residents in another country. Furthermore, immigrants, refugees, expatriates, and people of all nationalities now work and live together in proximity. If we want to understand one another, we must also understand how cultural frameworks intersect with political languages. The cultural frameworks not only help explain why different cultures debate different issues but also show that certain political languages are more dominant depending upon the cultural contextualization of the issue. Understanding both cultural frameworks and Kling’s political languages gives us a greater understanding of how people in different cultural contexts construct their world, and crucially, how to engage with them more productively. In a world of increasing cultural contact and conflict, this understanding is not merely academic; it is essential for building bridges across the seemingly unbridgeable divides that separate us.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul urged Mayor Zohran Mamdani to spend less time attacking Israel and more time governing New York City, as his rhetoric continues to alarm Jewish residents amid elevated levels of antisemitic hate crime. “Let’s focus on blocking and tackling of city government,” Hochul told The New York Times, pointing to housing The post Enough about Israel: Hochul urges Mamdani to focus on governing New York appeared first on World Israel News.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul urged Mayor Zohran Mamdani to spend less time attacking Israel and more time governing New York City, as his rhetoric continues to alarm Jewish residents amid elevated levels of antisemitic hate crime. “Let’s focus on blocking and tackling of city government,” Hochul told The New York Times, pointing to housing The post Enough about Israel: Hochul urges Mamdani to focus on governing New York appeared first on World Israel News.

Introduction “Three dozen medical experts who believe President Donald Trump is “mentally unfit” have expounded “a letter outlining their concerns” which has been submitted to the congressional record: . . “STATEMENT FROM MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS” Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, … The post Medical Experts: Trump is “Mentally Unfit”, Urgent “Removal From Office”. White House Contemplating Nuclear War.” “Make Nuclear Weapons Great Again” appeared first on Global Research.

Abbas has sought Turkey’s assistance in an effort to persuade Washington to reverse the planned decision. The post US plans to bar Mahmoud Abbas from attending UN General Assembly for second year appeared first on World Israel News.

Abbas has sought Turkey’s assistance in an effort to persuade Washington to reverse the planned decision. The post US plans to bar Mahmoud Abbas from attending UN General Assembly for second year appeared first on World Israel News.

A North Carolina driver faces vehicular homicide and aggravated assault charges after the crash in northeastern Tennessee. HAMPTON, Tenn. — Two Milligan University sophomores were killed and seven other cyclists were injured when a car struck members of the school’s cycling team during a training ride in northeastern Tennessee, authorities said, leaving four students critically injured and prompting criminal charges against the driver. Haylan Engdahl, of Winthrop Harbor, Illinois, and Brayden Rogers, of Huntsville, Alabama, ... Read more

Fontes: https://arquivos.rtp.pt/ e https://www.brasildefato.com.br/ Se fosse vivo Miguel Urbano Rodrigues teria feito 100 anos no dia 2 de agosto de 2025. Miguel Urbano faleceu em 27 de maio de 2017. A seguir reproduzimos uma entrevista concedida por Miguel Urbano Rodrigues … The post 100 anos do nascimento de Miguel Urbano Rodrigues appeared first on Global Research.

The countries also called on Israel to end settlement expansion in Judea and Samaria. The post European powers condemn E1 plan, warn of sanctions against Israel appeared first on World Israel News.

The countries also called on Israel to end settlement expansion in Judea and Samaria. The post European powers condemn E1 plan, warn of sanctions against Israel appeared first on World Israel News.

Kevin Burns taught U.S. history and civics for more than 20 years and was remembered for his devotion to students and the ocean. JUPITER, Fla. — A longtime Florida middle school teacher died after he and a friend were caught in a strong current while snorkeling off the Jupiter coast, prompting an outpouring of grief from students, parents, colleagues and the school community he served for more than two decades. Kevin Burns, a U.S. history ... Read more

O livro mais recente do Coronel Jacques Baud, L’art de la guerre russe: Comment l’occident a conduit l’Ukraine à l’échec (2024, 256 p.), é um estudo pormenorizado deste conflito que dura há dois anos e no qual o Ocidente utilizou … The post A arte russa da guerra: como o Ocidente conduziu a Ucrânia à derrota appeared first on Global Research.

A disturbing New York magazine story on an Andrew Tate devotee’s alleged sex trafficking sheds light on Tate’s entrepreneurial core, red-pill ideology’s brutal gendered hierarchy, and how intrasexual status competition affects male domination.

A situação interna na Ucrânia parece cada vez mais instável, com uma grave crise de legitimidade afetando o governo de Vladimir Zelensky. Recentemente, o ex-ministro da Defesa Mikhail Fedorov desafiou publicamente Zelensky e instou as autoridades a convocarem eleições presidenciais … The post Ex-ministro da Defesa da Ucrânia torna-se figura da oposição appeared first on Global Research.

US Ambassador Mike Huckabee said Israel's thriving economy, booming construction, and unshakable national resolve prove the country grows stronger rather than weaker under years of sustained conflict. The post WATCH: Ambassador Huckabee praises the resilience of the Israeli people appeared first on World Israel News.

US Ambassador Mike Huckabee said Israel's thriving economy, booming construction, and unshakable national resolve prove the country grows stronger rather than weaker under years of sustained conflict. The post WATCH: Ambassador Huckabee praises the resilience of the Israeli people appeared first on World Israel News.

The collection of books on El-Sayed's bookshelf reflects his scholarly interest in Islam, including in the darker corners of Muslim theology. The post Abdul El-Sayed’s secret bookshelf features works from WTC bombing ‘unindicted co-conspirator’ and radical Islamic scholars appeared first on World Israel News.

The collection of books on El-Sayed's bookshelf reflects his scholarly interest in Islam, including in the darker corners of Muslim theology. The post Abdul El-Sayed’s secret bookshelf features works from WTC bombing ‘unindicted co-conspirator’ and radical Islamic scholars appeared first on World Israel News.

In 1985, roughly 350 IDF reservists, including medical, search and rescue, and engineering teams, were sent to Mexico City in the aftermath of a devastating tremor. The post IDF marks seven decades of global humanitarian relief efforts appeared first on World Israel News.

In 1985, roughly 350 IDF reservists, including medical, search and rescue, and engineering teams, were sent to Mexico City in the aftermath of a devastating tremor. The post IDF marks seven decades of global humanitarian relief efforts appeared first on World Israel News.

Tehran public cemetery director Mohammad-Javad Tajik stated that the regime dug 5,000 graves in the desert near Tehran, saying however U.S. troops arrive, by air or by land, they will surely die. The post WATCH: ‘We prepared 5,000 graves for US invaders,’ says Iranian cemetery official appeared first on World Israel News.

Tehran public cemetery director Mohammad-Javad Tajik stated that the regime dug 5,000 graves in the desert near Tehran, saying however U.S. troops arrive, by air or by land, they will surely die. The post WATCH: ‘We prepared 5,000 graves for US invaders,’ says Iranian cemetery official appeared first on World Israel News.

The Trump administration notified Congress last month that it would provide more than $206 million for the planned ISF in Gaza. The post No green light granted to entry of int’l force into Gaza, Israel says appeared first on World Israel News.

The Trump administration notified Congress last month that it would provide more than $206 million for the planned ISF in Gaza. The post No green light granted to entry of int’l force into Gaza, Israel says appeared first on World Israel News.

China’s university entrance exam is one of the most competitive in the world — a reflection of the cutthroat reality of the country’s labor market.

The site has relied in part on coalition agreement funds that were not formally incorporated into the state budget. The post Funding dispute may close down Hebron’s Tomb of the Patriarchs appeared first on World Israel News.

The site has relied in part on coalition agreement funds that were not formally incorporated into the state budget. The post Funding dispute may close down Hebron’s Tomb of the Patriarchs appeared first on World Israel News.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent revealed how the United States and its allies are going to crush the Iranian regime economically, warning anyone that helps Iran that they will be targeted too. The post WATCH: US Treasury Secretary lays out ‘greatest coordinated economic isolation in history’ appeared first on World Israel News.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent revealed how the United States and its allies are going to crush the Iranian regime economically, warning anyone that helps Iran that they will be targeted too. The post WATCH: US Treasury Secretary lays out ‘greatest coordinated economic isolation in history’ appeared first on World Israel News.

If legislative elections were held today, Fatah would receive 32% of the votes, and Hamas's 'Change and Reform' list would receive 29%. The post Palestinians’ preferred leaders: A convicted Fatah terrorist or Hamas appeared first on World Israel News.

If legislative elections were held today, Fatah would receive 32% of the votes, and Hamas's 'Change and Reform' list would receive 29%. The post Palestinians’ preferred leaders: A convicted Fatah terrorist or Hamas appeared first on World Israel News.

[This article, written in 2014, is as relevant today as it was 12 years ago.] Why are the masses so quick to believe the lies and deception touted by governments? And then equally quick to take refuge in cynicism when … The post The Power of Propaganda From Canada to the U.S. to Ukraine appeared first on Global Research.

More than 90% of U.S. children are injected with alpha-gal-bearing mammalian gelatin before school entry, raising the possibility of direct sensitization or immune priming before a later tick bite. * Alpha-Gal Syndrome (AGS) is a potentially dangerous meat allergy that … The post BREAKING: First-Ever Study Links Vaccines to the Explosion of Alpha-Gal Syndrome appeared first on Global Research.

Transportation Minister Miri Regev said she had instructed the IAA to seek a labor court order against the workers’ committee, describing the disruption as an 'illegal strike.' The post Ben-Gurion Airport resumes operations after work stoppage disrupts summer travel appeared first on World Israel News.

Transportation Minister Miri Regev said she had instructed the IAA to seek a labor court order against the workers’ committee, describing the disruption as an 'illegal strike.' The post Ben-Gurion Airport resumes operations after work stoppage disrupts summer travel appeared first on World Israel News.

India’s civil liberties groups are largely made up of “concerned citizens” rather than the most oppressed groups in society. Their role in defending basic constitutional rights is increasingly under attack from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

The Israeli government is building an execution facility to hang Palestinian prisoners, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir announced Tuesday in a statement from his office. In video released from the site—a prison in central Israel that his office did not … The post Israel Builds Execution Chamber for Palestinian Prisoners as Ben-Gvir Threatens Assassinations in Gaza appeared first on Global Research.

The escalating tensions between Brasília and Washington are raising growing concern.  According to an analysis by Brazilian journalist João Paulo Charleaux, picked up by major outlets such as UOL, Donald Trump is “preparing the ground” for the … The post Risk of U.S. “Capturing” Brazil’s President Lula Now Being Discussed. Is Trump “Preparing the Ground”? appeared first on Global Research.

NATO war planners rarely discuss their “nightmare scenarios” in public and appear even less prepared for real-life confrontations on that scale. This is particularly true when it comes to simultaneous or near-simultaneous wars in which   NATO has to fight in… The post “Nightmare Scenario”: NATO Cannot Fight Simultaneous Wars against Russia, China and Iran appeared first on Global Research.

A New Food Crisis From the Strait of Hormuz to the Black Sea, From the Danube to the Rhine By Ret Admiral Cem Gürdeniz, August 20, 2026 The fundamental issue is no longer simply whether the world can produce … The post Global Research Daily: The News Behind the News appeared first on Global Research.

Soon after 9/11, world-systems theorist Immanuel Wallerstein warned that US imperial decline was inevitable. But US leaders didn’t want to hear that their glory days were in the past, and they’ve managed that decline in the worst possible way.

“Settlers shoot, attack, and expel Palestinians from their land, and the state provides the weapons, the legal cover, and the budget to do it.” * Intensifying violence by government-backed Israeli settlers in the illegally occupied West Bank is fueling the … The post Netanyahu Government ‘Actively Enabling’ Deadly Settler Rampages in West Bank: Report appeared first on Global Research.

Police say surveillance video showed a former Newtown Discovery Preschool employee roughly handling a crying toddler during a July incident. NEWTOWN TOWNSHIP, Pa. — A former Pennsylvania preschool worker has been charged with endangering the welfare of a child and simple assault after police said surveillance video showed her roughly handling a crying 2-year-old boy at a Bucks County preschool. Erin Burke, 27, was charged Aug. 6 after an investigation into a July 24 incident ... Read more

Executive Summary: Chinese politics has lapsed into the dull continuum of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s idealized “long rule and perennial stability” (长治久安) (People’s Daily, August 5, 2022). Observers of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) are consequently shifting their gaze to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) 21st National Congress—which is scheduled for some time in October The post Purges, Aging Set Stage for 21st Party Congress Turnover appeared first on Jamestown.

Karl Marx mocked utopians for writing recipes for the cookshops of the future. But at their best, utopians emphasize hope without guarantees — a position that carves a middle path between blind optimism and the resigned inertia of “realism.”

The fundamental issue is no longer simply whether the world can produce enough food, but whether food, fertilizer, and energy can be delivered to the regions where they are needed. * Global food security entered a new and extremely fragile … The post A New Food Crisis From the Strait of Hormuz to the Black Sea, From the Danube to the Rhine appeared first on Global Research.

A mother in Dnipro hears shouting outside and runs into the street. Her adult son is being forced into a vehicle by a mobilization group. His father is already there, neighbours begin to gather, someone throws stones at the … The post Ukraine Forced Mobilization by Neo-Nazi Regime: When They Come for Your Son. When a Father Disappears, Why People are Afraid… appeared first on Global Research.

Imagine buying Moderna MRNA 42.73%↑ after it’s gone up 160%, not knowing that: 1. The first person in the world who took Moderna’s mRNA-4157 Cancer vaccine outside of Clinical Trials died recently with no improvement – he was a jabbed … The post Moderna Stock Goes Up 160% on “Fluff Nonsense” About an mRNA Cancer Vaccine appeared first on Global Research.

A family of Iranian legal permanent residents was abducted and confined to an ICE prison after US government-backed regime change activist Masih Alinejad campaigned for their deportation. The family committed no crime, and was only targeted by Alinejad for their … The post A Family of Iranian Permanent Residents Abducted by ICE. Targeted by an Iranian-American Lobbyist appeared first on Global Research.

In their heyday of radicalism in the 1980s, Germany’s Greens were a pacifist, ecological voice. Now the party backs higher military spending not just as a defense strategy but as the linchpin of Germany’s economic revival.

… The post The Chinese Ambassador to Russia Issued an Ominous Warning to Japan appeared first on Global Research.

Very few writers in the history of American literature have shaped not just the world of literature but the very direction of a society’s thinking through their pen. Toni Morrison is one of those rare names. Throughout her life, she … The post Toni Morrison: The Voice That Gave the Marginalised a Universal Voice appeared first on Global Research.

Logistical issues with the US Navy fleet overseas appear to extend far beyond the Persian Gulf. According to recent media reports, a US ship in the South China Sea is facing problems similar to those of aircraft carriers deployed for … The post Washington’s Military Crisis: US Navy Facing Serious Logistical Problems “Far Beyond the Persian Gulf” appeared first on Global Research.

The lesson scrawled and etched across the neglected covers of history books (few read them these days) suggests one mighty, consistent rule: Never invade Afghanistan. The history of the country is one of admirably stout resistance to invasions and intrusions … The post Imperial Nostalgia: Afghanistan After Five Years of Taliban Rule appeared first on Global Research.

During August of 2021, just seven months into the tenure of then President Joe Biden, the United States was rushing to withdraw its last military troops and aids out of the Central Asian state of Afghanistan. On August 26 … The post Afghanistan Marks Five Years of Liberation from US-NATO Occupation appeared first on Global Research.

Since 7 October, 2023, the Israeli government has experienced a sense of relief. It believed it no longer needed to pretend to care about Palestinians as human beings and could pursue their annihilation and dispossession openly. These have depended on … The post With Crocodile Moats for Palestinians, Zionism Drops Its Mask appeared first on Global Research.

This is what comes of giving a lawless agency unlimited funds to build detention centers, terrorize communities, and act as a secret police force. Anything goes. Masked raids. Unmarked vehicles. Warrantless arrests. Racial profiling. Sweeping surveillance. Detention camps. Excessive force. … The post The Gloves Are Off: ICE, Electric Shock Weapons and Secret Police appeared first on Global Research.

The Origins of Czechoslovakia (1918−1920) Czechoslovakia gained its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918. Even though the Austro-Hungarian Empire was a single political entity, the Austrian and Hungarian parts existed under a Dual Monarchy. Each half of the Empire … The post A Short History of Czechoslovakia appeared first on Global Research.

In the late second century AD, a trend swept the Roman Empire: the performance of playful rhetorical displays purely for entertainment. Some of these pieces took the form of the encomium—a praise essay for one topic or another, sometimes delivered tongue-in-cheek—like the “Encomium on Hair” and corresponding “Encomium on Baldness.” The point of these pieces was less to convey information—although many were superbly researched and dotted with obscure details. Rather, the primary emphasis was on beauty, delight, and playfulness conveyed in words.  Audiences turned out to readings of such pieces for the sheer entertainment value, expecting to hear rhetorical virtuosos, whose day job often was teaching rhetoric to aristocratic children. One of the masters of the genre was Apuleius, a philosophical writer best known today for his Metamorphoses or The Golden Ass, the only novel in Latin to survive from the Roman Empire in its entirety. And in his novel, just as in his shorter rhetorical performance writings, collected in the book Florida (“flowery things”), Apuleius showed that good writing doesn’t always have to be serious. It can be quite fun—as seen in his elaborate and whimsically detailed essay on how to train a parrot.  The age of mass literacy and journalism has led to the proliferation of op-eds and serious, analytical essays. There is, of course, value to such writing. But, just as we cannot be all business all the time, so it is important to remember that there can be good, true, and beautiful writing whose primary purpose is not the conveyance of information, news, and policy, but simple delight and soul-uplifting play—accomplished through words, ideas, and dreams. To read such writing is to be entertained and reminded that the realm of art includes art made with words.  David Bentley Hart, the philosopher, theologian, and translator, is master of such writing. He specializes in such doorstopper-sized books as All Things Are Full of Gods, a philosophical dialogue about reality and worlds visible and not. While Hart is widely known as a serious essayist, he also writes short pieces merely for the sake of joy and whimsy—he has been doing so regularly on his Substack, Leaves in the Wind. University of Notre Dame Press has now gathered a collection of these short pieces in one volume, aptly titled A Gathering of Leaves. There is no explicit argument here—just a collection of essays, each of them a standalone. But the collection overall is, put simply, delightful.  It takes a remarkable writer to produce texts at once so insightful and eclectic. Most Substacks—my own included—do not merit being turned into books. But Hart’s playful reflections on topics as varied as baseball, music, ghosts in Japanese culture, commentary on Mr. Toad (from The Wind in the Willows), Cormac McCarthy’s literary merits (or lack thereof), and Australia evince an artful wordsmith, able to write on any topic with joy and honesty, yet without taking himself too seriously. It’s almost enough to forgive him his admitted dislike of The Wind in the Willows. Indeed, he acknowledges the aims in the introduction: “On the whole, the purpose of this volume is reading for reading’s sake; if it contains any great wisdom or notable profundity anywhere in its pages, be assured that this is entirely accidental, if sometimes inevitable, and I ask the reader’s indulgence in all such cases.” A thesis of sorts—or, more like an anti-thesis. It is fitting that some of the essays touch on the writing process. I particularly enjoyed “On Writing English Prose,” where Hart recommends his personal favorites, reading whom in his view is the best writing instruction one can receive. The list includes Robert Louis Stevenson, Sylvia Townsend Warner, J. A. Baker, Patrick Leigh Fermor, and Vladimir Nabokov. Indeed, for writers amateur and professional, this essay may be the most valuable in the book. I particularly appreciated Hart’s reflection on vocabulary: “When the occasion presents itself for using an outlandishly obscure but absolutely precise and appropriate word, use it.”  It is no secret that Hart reads widely—and, therefore, engages with a broad range of literary and philosophical traditions. His longstanding interest in the literature and philosophy of the East is on display in essays on the poetry of Li Bai (an 8th-century Chinese poet) and on The Monkey, a Chinese picaresque novel about the mischievous Monkey who attempts to attain Buddhist enlightenment. The book’s concluding essay brings together Nabokov and others to consider the notion of a personal doppelgänger, allegedly stalking Hart across time and space.  And yet, while the learning on display in Hart’s volume is astonishing, the breadth of his knowledge is clearly not the point. Instead, his joy in studying and reflecting on these topics comes through clearly: the intellectual life really is great fun, wild rabbit trails included. Hart’s mission in this volume is to be lauded. There should be more playful writing in our literary culture, especially from those whose playfulness is rooted in deep learning made accessible. Some of the decline in reading, after all, is connected to a narrow view of reading books as something instrumental, required only for the receiving of information.  If one reads only for gathering essential facts, then using AI or other tools to summarize books makes perfect sense—indeed, CliffNotes summaries have been available for decades. But if at least some reading is oriented toward experiences of delight and beauty, then it becomes clearer why such shortcuts miss the entire point of reading which values the process much more than the end goal. And if writing can be for no purpose other than enjoyment, then the idea of outsourcing it to machines would be as inconceivable as having a computer eat your dessert or spend a glorious day outside for you. “See? Isn’t this beautiful?” some moments in life require us to ask. In response, we should joyfully pull up a chair or spread a picnic blanket, and partake of the gift extended to us. 

Publix recalled all lots of four frozen berry products as officials investigate 12 E. coli cases in Florida and Georgia. LAKELAND, Fla. — The Food and Drug Administration has classified a recall involving GreenWise organic frozen blueberries and mixed berries at its highest risk level as federal and state health officials continue investigating an E. coli outbreak linked to the products. The Class I classification is the FDA’s most serious recall category. It is used ... Read more

Police say 10-month-old Scottie Crowell remained in a vehicle outside a Madisonville medical clinic from about 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. MADISONVILLE, Ky. — Ten-month-old Scottie Crowell died Aug. 13 after police said her grandmother forgot to take her to daycare and went to work, leaving the infant inside a vehicle in the parking lot of an Owensboro Health medical clinic for nearly eight hours. Madisonville police are investigating the circumstances surrounding Scottie’s death with ... Read more

This weekend, the Sunday Times reported that Ukraine has used drones made by two UK companies as part of its campaign of strikes on industrial targets in the Russian Federation. A UK defence source said, “Russia has been very effective … The post Russia and Ukraine Bleed as NATO’s War Threatens to Engulf Europe appeared first on Global Research.

Football confederations revolted against Gianni Infantino’s plan to sell off stakes in the World Cup. But the failure of his scheme won’t affect the bigger picture as private-equity firms gobble up football clubs in pursuit of short-term gains.

Virginia State Police are investigating the death of K-9 Blue, a Charlottesville tracking dog who joined the department as a puppy. CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Virginia State Police are investigating after Charlottesville Police Department K-9 Blue was found unresponsive inside a department vehicle at his handler’s residence in Greene County and was later pronounced dead, authorities said. Charlottesville police announced Blue’s death Aug. 17, one day after he was discovered in the vehicle on the evening ... Read more

The newest book by Oxford don and Anglican priest Lord Nigel Biggar is entitled The New Dark Age: Why Liberals Must Win the Culture Wars. But its subtitle might as well be Why Christians Must Win the Culture Wars. Getting involved in the culture wars is a prospect that makes many Christians uneasy, and for good reason. The Gospel should transcend partisan divisions, yet becoming mired in the culture wars entails that we take sides in political disputes. And, whether Christians align themselves with conservative factions or progressive ones, “winners” or “losers”, it may jeopardize the already precarious social acceptance of open Christian belief, or, worse, become a stumbling block for unbelievers. But Biggar insists that the culture wars are “neither artificial nor trivial. They are real and important, and much is at stake in them.” The “culture wars” he has in mind pertain to the free exchange of ideas. Taking his cue from John Stuart Mill, Biggar’s starting assumption is that “a free marketplace of ideas is the best way of testing and correcting prevailing orthodoxies.” For if ambition cannot meet counter-ambition in the context of debate, accountable to the rules of tolerance and the measure of reason, the only other option is coercion. This is why the call for Christians to take up the culture wars is not a call to brandish a sword. It is a call for peace, or at least peacemaking (Matt. 5:9). Biggar writes from firsthand experience. In 2017, when he launched his “Ethics and Empire” project, Dr. Priyamvada Gopal, a lecturer in postcolonial studies at Cambridge University, posted, “OMG… We need to SHUT THIS DOWN.” She was one voice in a chorus of condemnation—190 academics worldwide, and 58 from Oxford, signed a petition denouncing the project. The scandal? “Ethics and Empire” did not proceed from the assumption that empire has always and everywhere been an illegitimate form of government. Similar denunciations followed on the heels of the publication of his Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning in 2023, which made the what-should-be-uncontroversial case that British imperial history is an admixture of good (e.g., the abolition of slavery in 1834) and bad (e.g., the Amritsar Massacre of 1919). History had become a proxy in a culture war over who should be denounced and who should not, who should be labeled “perpetrator” and who should be labeled “victim.” Indeed, such a “Manichaean” (Biggar’s term) divide sets the agenda for the culture war in its other theaters, not least race and gender. But what alternative does a Christian approach to the culture wars offer? One answer lies in how Christians approach the study of history. To borrow a distinction from Wheaton College history professor Tracy McKenzie, a Christian view of history opts for moral reflection rather than judgment. In contrast to moral judgment, moral reflection invites us to sympathize with and appreciate our forebears within the constraints of their time and place. Then, it prompts us to ask in what ways our own age might similarly impair our moral vision. Biggar writes: “unless we meet the past in its difference, we will never appreciate the contingency of our own present and be provoked to critical reflection upon it.” This is another way of saying that Christians have an obligation to extend charity, even to the dead. For, as Biggar’s experience shows, our approach to the past is inextricably tied up with how we reason in the present. Such a posture of humility stands in contrast to the pseudo-humility of Biggar’s more aggressive detractors. That so much of this animus toward imperial Britain—particularly the notion that the empire’s evils do not necessarily outweigh its beneficence—comes from Brits themselves speaks to a pervasive self-loathing. Among Brits who can trace their roots back to the imperial era, “perpetrator” stock is thought to taint them with a kind of original sin. Biggar also understands the tendency of this self-loathing to turn into “a perverse bid for self-righteousness, which exaggerates one’s sins and broadcasts the display of repentance: holier-than-thou because more-sinful-than-thou.” No doubt Christians themselves are vulnerable to the same vice (for which one name is “puritanical”). But we should not invent sins for ourselves any more than we should advertise our piety. Christians declining to take part in the culture wars does not mean they will not be fought. Rather, the culture wars will rage on, but absent the theological anthropology needed to hold together the dual truths that all human history is tainted by sin, yet not beyond the pale of redemption. Bearing this in mind, the result of a properly Christian engagement with the culture wars is twofold. First, it should make us more accurate critics of true injustice—and this, as Biggar writes, is “the prerequisite for effective relief.” Second, it will be attended by a cooling of tempers. For, while it does not ask that Christians become spineless interlocutors, it does ask that we discipline our convictions with “humility, charity, and docility.” These virtues make Mill’s “free marketplace of ideas” possible in the first place and ensure that it remains an attractive option. The New Dark Age reminds us that our crusade is a gentle one.

Berkeley County investigators allege the 27-year-old allowed men access to her young daughters in exchange for money and illegal drugs. BONNEAU, S.C. — A South Carolina mother has been arrested on trafficking and child-neglect charges after investigators alleged she allowed multiple men to sexually abuse her two young daughters in exchange for money and illegal drugs, according to arrest documents cited by local news reports. Helena Nichole Hoyle, 27, was arrested Aug. 14 by the ... Read more

Keiko Fujimori has become Peru’s president after another narrow election runoff. While in past contests she tiptoed around her father’s authoritarian record, this time she capitalized on his strongman image.

Executive Summary: In July, the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council convened the 11th Conference for Friendship of Overseas Chinese Associations (第十一届世界华侨华人社团联谊大会). The conference communicated political and organizational goals to leaders of overseas Chinese associations (China Brief, August 7). Wang Huning (王沪宁), chairman of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), and Li Ganjie The post United Front Worker Recommits to Rejuvenation appeared first on Jamestown.

Since the 19th century, the choice between independence and incorporation into the US has been a central issue for Puerto Rican politics. Support for the left-wing Puerto Rico Independence Party is now surging among the country’s youth.

The new sci-fi film The End of Oak Street is about a 1982 suburban cul-de-sac taken over by dinosaurs. It’s Steven Spielberg nostalgia recycled into something barely alive.

Executive Summary: The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Southern Theater Command’s 10th Minesweeping Squadron conducted an exercise along the coast near Jiangmen, Guangdong, in late June. The exercise involved at least one Type 081A minesweeper, the Taishan, and one Type 082II, the Kaiping, conducting various minesweeping drills under complex electromagnetic conditions both during the day and The post Minesweeping Exercise Highlights Intelligent Warfare Efforts appeared first on Jamestown.

The Trump administration is attempting to criminalize union members for organizing against its immigration crackdown in Minnesota earlier this year. That’s because it correctly sees labor as a threat to its authoritarian designs.

The current crisis in the world order isn’t just about Donald Trump ignoring multilateral institutions. The US has long broken the rules — the real change is that Washington is losing its ability to lay down the law to other states.

This summer’s water crisis in Puerto Rico is the latest example of the slow violence of the Puerto Rican debt crisis, exacerbated by patterns of remilitarization in the archipelago.

On August 29, Mohan Bhagwat, chief of India’s Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), will stand on a stage at Madison Square Garden and speak to thousands of Indian Americans about unity, civic responsibility, and global harmony. I have spent much of the last decade documenting what that language obscures. I served as a Trump-appointed commissioner and chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) and now co-chair of the International Religious Freedom (IRF) Roundtable. Before Bhagwat’s audience applauds, he should be asked a direct question: will he sit down with the bipartisan federal body Congress created specifically to assess religious freedom conditions around the world? I am a Christian, and I have spent my career defending the right of every person, of any faith or none, to practice their beliefs without fear. That mandate is why USCIRF has recommended, for seven consecutive years, that the State Department designate India a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) for engaging in or tolerating particularly severe violations of religious freedom, the same category reserved for the world’s most severe religious freedom violators. It is not a category India’s government enjoys sharing with Iran, North Korea, and Eritrea, and Delhi’s Ministry of External Affairs has repeatedly dismissed USCIRF’s findings as biased. But USCIRF’s record, built year after year, doesn’t rest on the claims of activists with an agenda. It draws on hearings, research, and firsthand testimony from Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Dalits, and others who described the same deterioration from different corners of the same country. What USCIRF reports actually found USCIRF’s research on South Asia’s anti-conversion laws found that these statutes, ostensibly neutral, have been disproportionately enforced against religious minorities seeking to leave India’s majority faith, and we called for their repeal. USCIRF’s review of the Citizenship Amendment Act found that, combined with a nationwide National Register of Citizens, it risks rendering millions of Indian Muslims stateless. And in its 2026 annual report, USCIRF went further than in any previous year: it named the RSS itself as an organization whose officials should face targeted sanctions for their role in severe violations of religious freedom. That last finding deserves more attention than it has received. The organization Bhagwat leads is not simply the subject of criticism from press coverage or advocacy groups. It is, in the judgment of a commission created by an act of Congress and staffed by appointees of both political parties, an organization whose conduct rises to the level of sanctionable religious persecution. That should matter when its leader comes to Madison Square Garden to speak about global harmony. A pattern, not an incident None of this is new to Bhagwat. I have watched conditions for India’s religious minorities worsen year after year: churches burned and pastors beaten in BJP-governed states while mosques and madrasas have been demolished as “encroachments.” Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself was denied a US visa for nearly a decade after the 2002 Gujarat violence against Muslims that took place on his watch as chief minister.  Modi is a product of the same organization now presenting itself to American audiences as a voice for pluralism. The RSS is the ideological parent of the BJP.  It cannot claim the achievements of Indian democracy while disclaiming responsibility for what has happened to religious minorities under governments built from its own cadre. The challenge So I have a direct challenge for Mohan Bhagwat: meet with USCIRF while you are in the United States. Sit with commissioners, hear directly what they have documented, and respond to it in the same room rather than from a stage surrounded by well-wishers. If the RSS’s centenary-year outreach is a genuine attempt to address what it calls “misconceptions,” there is no better place to start than with the body Congress created to independently assess violations of religious freedom. I would also ask Bhagwat to sit with India’s own religious minorities in America: the Indian American Muslim Council, which has tracked the human cost of Hindutva politics for over two decades; the Federation of Indian-American Christian Organizations in North America, which documented more than 1,500 attacks on Christians in India in a single year; Sikh American organizations, whose faith the RSS has long tried to fold into a single Hindu identity that Sikhs themselves have repeatedly rejected; and Dalit civil rights advocates who have fought Hindutva-aligned lobbying against basic caste-discrimination protections in American states. A unity tour that only faces friendly crowds is not unity. It is avoidance. Religious freedom is not a partisan issue, and I did not treat it as one when a Republican president appointed me to defend it. I am not asking Mohan Bhagwat to agree with USCIRF’s findings. I am asking him to hear them, in person, and answer for them.  If Bhagwat wants Americans to believe the RSS stands for unity and global harmony, he should be willing to face those who have documented a very different record. That is the minimum any leader claiming to represent unity owes the people his organization’s record has affected.

Executive Summary: Lithuania’s security environment has fundamentally changed over the past decade. Public and institutional thinking, however, has not fully adapted. Lithuania is no longer operating in peacetime. Alongside sustained Russian rhetoric about a future conventional invasion, Lithuania is already facing an ongoing hostile campaign below the threshold of open conflict, eroding the distinction between The post Lessons Learned From Russia’s War Against Ukraine: The Case of Lithuania  appeared first on Jamestown.

The director of American Doctor talks to Jacobin about her documentary on three US volunteer physicians who worked in a besieged Gaza hospital — and the wall of disbelief that met them when they came home and told others what they saw.

Five million people have lost food assistance since Donald Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Meanwhile, ICE has received $113 billion from the GOP’s reconciliation bills — and spent just 12% of it.

Twilight of the Dons, historian Colin Kidd’s dazzling study of Britain’s elite universities, opens a window into a lost world in which, for a brief period, mass democracy combined with the idea of scholarship as a vocation open to anyone.

The working-class voters who delivered Donald Trump’s 2024 victory have steadily slipped away in 2026 according to new polling. But few of them are switching to the Democrats.

Earlier this year in Minnesota, Trump’s Department of Homeland Security infiltrated and surveilled meetings of nonprofit groups and two of the US’s biggest labor unions, the Communications Workers of America and the Service Employees International Union.

Everybody loves summertime. But from climate change to budget cuts on public spaces like parks and pools to a lack of vacation time, capitalism is increasingly robbing us of our summer fun.

Kate Bronfenbrenner, who retired this year from Cornell University, has studied how workers win unions, how employers stop them, and how organizers can learn from one another for four decades. Her findings have changed how unions think about organizing.

By 1862, the Union navy’s blockade of Confederate ports had effectively cut off the export of raw cotton. One unintended harm was that hundreds of thousands of British textile workers in England’s northwest cotton manufacturing district in and around Lancashire were thrown out of work or onto starvation wages. By the time of the U.S. Civil War, the mill towns surrounding Lancashire—spurred by its revolutionary mechanized spinning and weaving technology, damp climate (good for handling cotton thread without its snapping), its efficient network of canals and railways, cheap coal, and with the port of Liverpool as an import hub–had become the center of the world’s cotton textile industry. However, the American South supplied nearly 80% of the raw cotton entering Lancashire and alternative sources from Egypt, India, or Brazil, both smaller in supply and more expensive, couldn’t scale up fast enough to make up for the losses incurred by the blockade. The region collapsed in what became known as the Cotton Famine. Many mill owners, whose fortunes depended on the free flow of cotton, pressed the British government to intervene against the blockade or to recognize the Confederacy. They demanded their workers stand behind them. Much of the liberal press sided with the owners, as did influential local political and community leaders, and many mill workers themselves, all of which added greater pressure on those mill workers who had not joined the owners in common cause. On top of it all, there were other more devasting pressures as well. With the region’s economic failure, the mill workers were cast into severe poverty. Many faced starvation, lack of heating, the humiliation of the Poor Laws, health crises, eviction, and sometimes even violence from those siding with the owners. Despite these threats and deprivations, in an extraordinary act of moral courage, most cotton workers not only refused to join the owners but publicly broke with them. At a mass meeting in Manchester’s Free Trade Hall on New Years Eve, 1862, a “Committee of Workingmen” resolved to send Abraham Lincoln a letter of support, explicitly endorsing emancipation and the Union cause—not just despite, but also because of their own privation. The workers, through their reduction to dependency, through having their labor and livelihood controlled by forces outside their say, and through their general helplessness, discovered in their own experience something like the standing to address an American president on behalf of a people in bondage. The Lancashire workers didn’t claim equivalency with the slave—they understood wage unemployment isn’t the same as the chattel system—but the degradation of powerlessness had become less abstract. They urged Lincoln “not to faint in [his] providential mission” but to push for “immediate and total emancipation” to ensure “the erasure” of slavery—which they called a “foul blot upon civilization and Christianity.” They encouraged the president, “we are truly one people, though locally separate…our interests are identified with yours.” In response, Lincoln offered heart-felt gratitude to the mill workers for what he called an act of “sublime Christian heroism,” praising their willingness to endure hardship rather than demand a policy that would have relieved their own suffering while leaving untouched the suffering of others. While the similarities between that time and now are not entirely comprehensive, something like the spirit of the Lancashire mill workers was brought to mind last Friday by President Trump during his brief comments about the Iran war in his speech at the Nassau County Policy Academy on Long Island, in which he called on the American people to accept hardship as the cost of doing something both necessary and good. “We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon,” he stressed, reasserting, again, the primary aim of his war against the mullahs in Tehran. In doing so, he did two things at once. First, he seemed to directly contradict a statement made the day before by the vice president, who appeared to shift the administration’s messaging by declaring that reducing the cost of fuel for the American people was now “goal number one,” while preventing a nuclear-armed Iran had dropped to “goal number two.” More importantly, though tied together, the president’s rhetoric suggests he is unwilling to allow domestic economic stressors to dilute his focus on victory and finishing the job. Rather than trying to manage voter anger—and while cognizant of the financial impact on those voters—he framed any temporary economic hardship as comparatively minor when placed alongside the potential threat. We might have to pay a “little bit more” at the pump, he acknowledged, but we’re “doing it so that a very evil country” cannot have a nuclear weapon. Preventing that calamity, he encouraged Americans, is a “great service for the world.” While not exactly unique in the history of American presidential rhetoric, it is at least unusual in a modern political era too-often characterized by near-constant campaign messaging to request of the American public something so practically unpopular. American presidents frequently call for general resilience during crises, but it’s relatively rare for a president to explicitly ask the public to accept economic pain. Following the September 11 attacks, President George W. Bush called Americans to patience, increased vigilance, and the acceptance of increased security measures. Admittedly, asking us to endure the TSA was a pretty big ask, but, famously, instead of also asking us to accept economic hardship he urged us to go shopping. After Putin invaded Ukraine, President Biden warned Americans that defending global democracy carried costs. After acknowledging that sanctions would yield higher domestic gas prices, he framed it as unavoidable and something he was actively trying to fix. He was rather apologetic about it. I don’t mean to draw cavernous distinctions here, but there is something refreshing in President Trump acknowledging pain-at-the-pump while insisting he was not going to apologize for higher prices because what he is doing is right to do. If Jimmy Carter was the last president to boldly call American’s to “accept a little suffering” for the long-term good of the nation, it was also Carter’s calls for that sacrifice that at least contributed to his political defeat. The question of the novelty of Trump’s bluntly stated willingness to allow us to hurt a little aside, he is right to be willing for us to hurt a little. It should be beyond argument that the present regime in Tehran must never acquire nuclear weapons. Their own history provides the best evidence for this assertion. From their very beginning in 1979 and going forward, the Mullah’s have attempted to make good on their pledge to destroy America, the Great Satan, through a continuous campaign utilizing direct military action, cyber warfare, state-sponsored terror networks, and assassination plots. Add to this the ongoing Iranian threats against U.S. partners and friends in the region, including, most obviously, against Israel, which Tehran has pledged to drive into the sea. At the very beginning of this war, against this ritualistically unrelenting, systematic threat, President Trump outlined a clear set of aims: destroy the Iranian nuclear program once and forever; destroy the Iranian ballistic missile threat that was quickly becoming not just a conventional threat against regional partners but a genuine deterrent against anyone interfering with the regime’s nuclear ambitions, destroy the Iranian Navy so that it could not threaten shipping and international commerce, and destroy Iran’s ability to fund and support proxy terror networks. It’s clear that while enormous gains have been made, significant challenges remain. Most notably, Iran’s ballistic missile program has proved resilient, and they have been able to continue to blockade the Strait of Hormuz. Supporting this, their mobile weapons—like the Shahed munitions—are exceptionally easy to hide and to quickly deploy against shipping, the rugged coastline allows the regime to effectively camouflage drones and mobile batteries with direct line-of-sight to passing tankers, and fast, small, armed speedboats continue to carry out intermittent harassment operations. In short, Iranian threats have been significantly suppressed but not eradicated. Trump needs time. And time takes time. All indicators strongly suggest the Iranian regime is currently facing an economic catastrophe. The American blockade has choked off oil revenues, leading to hyperinflation, worthless currency, and a record misery index. Mass unemployment, industrial damage, and assets seizure has left the regime cash-strapped and unable to levy taxes effectively—mostly because it’s always hard to get blood from a rock. While the impact of Lancashire’s support of President Lincoln on his ability to prosecute the Union’s war or to continue the blockade is contested, it seems clear that it had at least a measurable effect on helping to prevent then Prime Minister Palmerston from declaring war on the United States or effectively supporting the Confederacy. Suggesting that the mill worker’s courage kept Britain out of the war is probably too simplistic, but it contributed to the failure of the Confederacy’s efforts to secure Britain’s support. That harms Southern morale even as it emboldens Northern. That’s not nothing. More intangibly, but no less significantly, it also seems clear that the mill workers’ letter put some steel in the spine of the U.S. president. Deepened resolve is also not nothing. If the American public demonstrated widespread willingness to accept economic hardship—primarily by enduring high energy costs and the consequent rise in food and other costs—it might fundamentally reshape or stiffen the administration’s strategic calculus, giving President Trump the runway he needs to sustain the war of attrition against the Iranian regime. With Iran’s chief weapon being their ability to inflict economic pain by choking off the Strait of Hormuz, if Americans collectively signaled their willingness to absorb this pain, then the mullah’s primary leverage is neutralized. Backed by a willing American public, Trump could ignore artificial diplomatic deadlines and simply refuse to make dangerous concessions, allowing the U.S. blockade to slowly exhaust the regime. Because a prolonged war requires sustained enforcement of secondary sanctions, which often harms American allies and raises the prices of consumer goods, public tolerance for these harms will allow the administration to do what it needs to do to keep its foot on the throat of the mullahs. Because this conflict has created a severe logistical bottleneck, a supporting public gives Trump and congressional leaders more confidence that they can divert tax dollars into rapid defense production—giving the Pentagon the runway it needs to responsibly escalate military pressure. Finally, regimes like Iran always rely on the belief that democracies are soft and lack the stomach for long-term, painful grinds. A reasonably unified American public might shatter the regime’s hopes of winning a war of nerves. Their loss of morale would be a beautiful thing to behold. Another lesson that rose out of Lancashire’s morally courageous act is really a reminder of what should be both obvious and common sense: a public’s morally courageous willingness to suffer economic hardship—even in the cause of justice—will always affect the poor worst of all. Much of Britain rallied around those struck by the cotton famine. Soup kitchens, job programs, and other acts of rescue and relief multiplied. In America, those who can ought to do what they can to improve the ability of those harder off to endure economic pain. State and local governments should continue to expand utility bill subsidies, public transit funding, and fuel funds to support those most in need; private corporations and employers should continue apace the rolling back of return-to-work policies to support hybrid and remote work options and offer, when they can, fuel stipends to allow employees to save at the pump. Churches and non-profit organizations should also offer emergency fuel and utility funds when able, expand food pantries, and seek other remedies. All of these measures—if responsibly and efficiently pursued—can signal to Tehran that Americans support their defeat. Charity can become a force multiplication measure. Neighbor love can be a combat multiplier. To be sure, it will be hard for many to see an easy parallel between the magnanimity of the cotton workers’ willingness to suffer economic hardship to have some hand in ending chattel slavery and the willingness of Americans—including financially strapped Americans—to support this Administration’s war in Iran. For the reasons above, I think I’ve made clear that supporting the war—particularly with the president’s relatively modest aims—is easy to make. Certainly, it would be easier still if, at the end of all this, we had cause to hope that we could welcome the Iranian people back to the free world. While regime collapse has never been a direct goal of this administration, there is much that the president has done, can do, and can continue to do to encourage it. The decapitation strike at the beginning of the war was not without real hope that Khamenei’s killing would galvanize the regime’s opposition into rioting. Following this, the targeted strikes against other regime leaders were aimed not just at punishing culpable individuals but to further try to inspire protesters. While these actions appear to have had little direct impact, similar calculated strikes ought to continue. The Administration and its allies must find other ways to encourage the opposition’s—and change the regime’s—cost-benefit analysis on crackdowns. Presumably, as U.S. officials continue to intensify economic pressure, disrupt Iran’s oil exports, and degrade its military capabilities, America and its allies are also continuing to cultivate contacts inside the regime, to encourage opposition groups—including by helping them to maintain access to internet and other communications and by revisiting considerations of support for armed opposition factions. One hopes we are trying to create fractures between the National Army and the IRGC, including by credibly signaling a willingness to grant amnesty and safe passage out of Iran for political or military leaders—and their families—who either walk away or help with a popular uprising. The Trump administration’s path toward victory against Tehran, including its regime-collapse strategy—has oscillated with changing fortunes on the ground between U.S. and partner military force, military-inspired uprisings, back-channel and direct negotiations, and economic strangulation. Trump’s call for Americans to suffer a bit at the pump to do something worth doing—and good not just for America but the free world and the people of Iran—ought to result in a show of unified, public, American support for the defeat of Tehran. Doing so might remove one variable from the president’s calculations. He should know that Americans are willing to give him and our military leaders the space and time to do what needs to be done. Doing so might also signal to the Iranian people that their interests are our interests. Doing so might give the president the room he needs to focus on a strategy to get the job done and bring this thing to a responsible end. Were he able to do so, history just might repeat itself, a great good worth doing might have been done, and we’d all be walking in high cotton.

Executive Summary: On July 10, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) cleared the mainland filing required for Shein’s Hong Kong listing, approving the issuance of up to around 340 million shares (CSRC, July 10). Beijing granted this clearance while the European Commission was investigating the platform for selling childlike sex dolls and other illegal products, The post Beijing Ships Harmful Products It Restricts at Home appeared first on Jamestown.

Executive Summary: On July 16, the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) artificial intelligence (AI) startup Moonshot AI (月之暗面) released its latest model, Kimi K3. In blind developer testing it beat every rival on a leaderboard for frontend coding (The Decoder, July 16; Tom’s Hardware, July 17). Dean Ball, a former senior policy advisor for AI The post Beijing Signals Tiered Governance of Open-Weight Models appeared first on Jamestown.

Executive Summary: The 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC; 世界人工智能大会), held in Shanghai in July, was the first time that Chinese leader Xi Jinping attended and delivered remarks at the annual event. The conference has tracked the steadfast development of the country’s approach to artificial intelligence (AI) since its inaugural summit in 2018, which took The post Xi Bids for Global Leadership at 2026 World AI Conference appeared first on Jamestown.

Executive Summary: Strategic cooperation between Russia and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is reaching new levels, as a variety of recent activities attest. Most prominent is a meeting between Foreign Minister Wang Yi (王毅) and his counterpart Sergey Lavrov on July 24, at which Wang said that both sides should “plan for the next The post Geopolitical Socialism: Xi and Putin Build Bloc Power appeared first on Jamestown.

Executive Summary: In late July, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization convened in Kyrgyzstan for its annual Foreign Ministers’ Council Meeting. A report by the Xinhua Research Institute published following the summit stated that the multilateral institution “will continue to expand the scope of security cooperation by placing greater emphasis on cooperation in such nontraditional security fields The post Beijing Internationalizes Its Cultural Security appeared first on Jamestown.

After the atomic bombing of Hiroshima 81 years ago on August 6, 1945, Einstein reflected “The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem.  It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one.”  Though not a Christian, Einstein recognized that, while the spectacular destructive capacity of nuclear weapons was an entirely new phenomenon in 1945, man’s innate drives towards sinfulness and evil long predated WWII.  And yet, even as humanity has not changed, the arrival of such powerful technology necessitates a corresponding effort by Christians to restrain the potential destruction.  Hopefully, voices that are both Christian and realist can, working harmoniously with other faiths and worldviews, seek to guide the world safely through the current nuclear age. Principle 1:  The nuclear threat is here to stay and it must be managed.  The existence of nuclear weapons makes nuclear war a possibility, but also safeguards against that possibility through mutually-assured destruction.  Pacifist logic seeks global disarmament, even as the pre-nuclear world was far from peaceful.  It was the very threat of a potential Nazi atomic bomb which prompted Einstein and other physicists to petition President Roosevelt to pre-empt that threat.  From this historical example we can learn that even ardent pacifists like Einstein had to make pragmatic exceptions.  Nukes cannot and should not be used, but the limited possession of them is a safeguard against rogue states.  This may also discourage great powers from going to war directly with each other. Principle 2:  The highest public conscience is necessary.  Pacifistic spirit is not irrelevant or misguided per se, but must be forced to reckon with certain facts.  In our hearts, we all want peace.  At least in the West, we instinctively recognize the innate desire of each man to sit under his own vine and fig tree and be unafraid.  Yet there is also evil within each one of us, something which cautions that the abandonment of all weaponry would invite the unjust to embrace tyranny.  Self-proclaimed realists are often in actuality pacifists at heart who regrettably recognize the unpleasant facts and corresponding duties.  Bearing in mind that Christian love means working through reality rather than just wishing for a better world, it behooves us to be prudential rather than idealistic.  In this act, it is hoped that a Christian voice can sing in unity with a chorus of all religions and philosophies wishing the same.  The vital importance of this is captured with a single image:  what moral conscience do you want governing the finger closest to the nuclear trigger? Principle 3:  Nuclear non-proliferation.  The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which entered into force in 1970, was a positive development, but not all nation-states are party to it.  If there are fewer countries with nuclear weapons, this may reduce our risk.  Four powers have gained nuclear weapons since the signing of the NPT:  India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea.  The current war with Iran is, of course, motivated in part by fear that a fifth member may join that group.  Yet even among those who have signed the treaty, trust is far too low.  The temptation to violate this principle and join the ring of nuclear-armed powers is as rational as the argument for self-defense.  Only the extreme pacifist might argue against that.  Yet the very act of acquiring nuclear weapons also paints a target on one’s back.  Any country with a nuke will be in the crosshairs of a rival country with a nuke, while all other countries without them will jockey for the position of protection under the nuclear umbrella of their allies.  Nuclear weapons have not ended war, but they have limited aggression between the major military powers. Principle 4:  Responsible democratic government.  This must be in part a product of the second principle above.  If a government is neither democratic nor responsible, it is likely a tyranny under unwholesome moral leadership.  Reinhold Niebuhr’s famous observation fits here: “Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible; but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.”   Without a democratic government answerable to its people, who alone give true voice to the public conscience, we hazard a much higher risk of nuclear war.  Indeed, reflecting on the madness and war of our past, the most responsible and democratic order is a prerequisite for a safe and tranquil future. Principle 5:  A greater harmony, a “Global Ethic.”  Trust is low between the United States, Russia, and China, representing some of the major signatories of the non-proliferation treaty.  Religious and ideological divisions still abound in the world:  Christian vs. Muslim, Communist vs. Capitalist, Ukrainian vs. Russian, Chinese vs. American, Israeli vs. Palestinian, Sunni vs. Shia, democracy vs. autocracy.  This list goes on as the schisms of insecurity abound.  There is a need for some global sense of ethics and responsibility binding us together—a spirit of common cause and justice that transcends the United Nations.  That we should beat our swords into plowshares has long been an unattainable goal for humanity. Can a global nuclear ethic ever be realized?  Not likely in totality.  Yet this does not absolve each and every nation from finding common cause in minimizing the risks of nuclear war.  The foundations of nation-states—shared language, culture, religion, and history—have never been scalable to all mankind.  Yet internationally, with division and perils abounding, we must surmount these differences insofar as possible.  Principle 6:  Strategic limits and reductions.  The total number of nuclear warheads in existence is of course a concern.  With just enough warheads to deter a nuclear attack, it seems pointless to stockpile weapons that only serve to increase budgets.  In this sense, it is necessary to reinvigorate an international discussion about how many warheads are needed for minimal deterrence.  What kinds of arsenals are the safest to manage?  We must eliminate all warheads that do not come under a responsible chain of command and limit the numbers of those deemed to be in safe hands. Principle 7:  Responsible upgrades and management.  Technologies advance and improve, making older nuclear weapons less strategically viable or even obsolete.  Nuclear weapons are, after all, just another kind of machine: they age and wear out, so it is responsible to repair and upgrade them.  But by upgrading and maintaining of nuclear arsenals, new threats and new hazards are introduced, the kind which only peaceable actions and treaties might help guard against. None of us is glad for the existence of nuclear weapons.  But technology is a pandora’s box.  All of its gifts inevitably constitute both a blessing and a curse.  While horrifyingly destructive on one hand, we would be remiss not to acknowledge that the world has seen far less violent conflict in the 80 years since Hiroshima than the 80 years preceding it.  Yet one thing humans must never forget is our responsibility to leave a better, more secure world for our children.

Executive Summary: After more than four and a half years of war, a decisive Russian victory in Ukraine appears more unlikely than ever. Desperate to achieve a major success and in fulfillment of an imperialist vision he has championed for years, Russian President Vladimir Putin may well turn next to Estonia, a former Soviet republic The post Lessons Learned From Russia’s War Against Ukraine: The Case of Estonia appeared first on Jamestown.

In China, faith in Christ as the only way to heaven is considered “cultist” theology by the government. In Russia, Christians must seek state approval to proselytize and are often refused. In Iran, the state has leveraged its upgraded domestic digital surveillance network to crack down on its Christians. And in North Korea, merely possessing a Bible can land up to three generations of a Christian’s family in a labor camp. These patterns of oppression may seem unrelated, but in reality they are connected by a technological and ideological alliance against Christianity. In their new book, Axis of Aggressors: Countering the Cooperation of China, Russia, Iran & North Korea, my colleagues Bradley Bowman, Elaine Dezenski, and Mark Montgomery document how China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea are increasingly “cooperating across economic, cyber, technology, and military domains in ways that threaten U.S. security and raise the odds of simultaneous major wars.” Yet as Axis of Aggressors further explains, cooperation among these four authoritarian countries also serves to reinforce their domestic repression. Though each regime has a different axe to grind, there is at least one group that none can tolerate: Christians. And just as the new Axis cooperates militarily, it is also coordinating the persecution of Christians. The Ideological Framework of Axis Persecution The Axis of Aggressors is, among other things, an axis of religious control. It supplies the technology, legal frameworks, and ideological concepts necessary for each state to control, repress, and persecute Christians. The commonality within their persecution, regardless of other characteristics, is that these Axis countries insist their people must not hold any force, even God, above the state.  During the 2017 Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, China and Russia—with Iran, which attended as an observer—expanded the definition of “extremism” to include the legally ambiguous categories of “ideology and practice.” This was in contrast to the 2001 Shanghai Convention on Combating Terrorism, Separatism and Extremism, which had principally defined extremism in objective terms involving violence. This shift gave member governments greater legal latitude to suppress religion even without any violent or criminal activity to prosecute. While vague, this new terminology closely mirrors Russia’s principal anti-extremism law, which Moscow adopted in 2002 and which includes behavior that incites “religious discord.”  A year before the 2017 summit, Moscow had pioneered this concept by passing a package of anti-terrorism legislation called the “Yarovaya Laws.” These statutes sharply restricted missionary activity, limited where and by whom evangelism could be conducted, and penalized unauthorized religious outreach. A few months after the summit in 2017, Beijing—clearly inspired by Moscow—announced its “Five-Year Plan to Sinicize Christianity,” through which it seeks to imbue Christianity with China’s “core socialist values.” Under this program, China uses what it calls xie jiao law, which roughly translates to “cult,” to persecute Christians. The CCP used xie jiao laws in May to send a 77-year-old pastor to three years in prison for such “cult” behavior as believing that faith in Christ leads Christians to heaven. Similarly, Pyongyang views Christian worship as an “anti-state crime.” Though North Korea is arguably the worst persecutor of Christians in the world, it seeks to maintain a weak façade of religious tolerance. Russia has been instrumental in this regard, aiding North Korea in constructing its only Russian Orthodox church, which is purely for show. It has no permanent congregation and exists only as an international propaganda tool.  Pyongyang’s fake Russian Orthodox (ROC) church was blessed by the official Russian Orthodox Church, when then-Metropolitan Kirill, who now leads the ROC as Patriarch, traveled to Pyongyang in 2006 and consecrated it. Kirill also ordained North Korea’s first state-approved Orthodox priests. The ROC serves as a propaganda arm of the Kremlin and has built arguably the most effective state-church façade in the world.  Meanwhile, Tehran has cooperated with Moscow in developing an ideological alternative to universal religious freedom. The ROC and the Iranian religious establishment have maintained a formal Orthodoxy-Islam dialogue since 1995. Iran often calls Christian groups, particularly converts, “extremists,” and has used this language to justify its crackdowns on believers. At the sixth Russian-Iranian Commission meeting in Tehran in 2010, participants declared that “human rights and freedom cannot be set against religious tradition.” They agreed that the ROC and Iran’s Shiite establishment should develop a concept of “traditional values” and seek its recognition in international law. Patriarch Kirill explained the relationship at the commission’s 12th meeting in 2023 by saying that Orthodox Christians and Muslims shared fundamental values and should work together against Western interference and “extremism.” Although explicitly framed as religious, “traditional values” is a broad and politically adaptable category whose content is defined by state-aligned Russian and Iranian religious institutions. This formulation is analogous to China’s efforts to Sinicize Christianity, which requires it be subordinated to Beijing’s “core socialist values.” Chinese Technology Fuels the Axis China represents the cornerstone of the axis, providing the majority of technology and intelligence to the other members. North Korea in particular has had its persecution of Christians greatly enhanced by China. Pyongyang views all Christian worship as “anti-state crime” and thus seeks the most comprehensive apparatus of oppression. Chinese authorities have created digital maps to identify support networks for North Korean escapees and track their contact with Christian groups. Beijing often repatriates fleeing North Koreans to Pyongyang, where they then face especially harsh punishment, including torture, forced labor, and possible execution. Even though UN investigators warned China in 2014 that this information-sharing could constitute aiding and abetting crimes against humanity, Beijing continues this insidious practice to this day. Similarly, Tehran’s ability to minimize public Christian worship might have faltered had it not been for China. Iran seeks what Bowman, Dezenski, and Montgomery call “sovereign internet,” that is, “the ability and right of the state to control citizens’ access to the internet.”  In 2021, Chinese surveillance camera manufacturer Tiandy supplied networked video recorders and other surveillance products to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, police, and regular military through an Iranian distributor.   This technology’s purpose became clear during the 2022 “Woman, Life, Freedom” uprising, when Iranian forces, with the aid of Tiandy cameras, killed at least 551 protesters and bystanders and detained more than 18,000 people. While Tehran targets all perceived domestic enemies, these Chinese-supplied capabilities strengthen the same security institutions that monitor house churches, track Christian converts, and suppress unauthorized worship. The U.S. Must Prioritize Christian Persecution by the Axis Fortunately, the Trump administration has made addressing Christian persecution a significant feature of its foreign policy. Axis of Aggressors includes important insights and practical recommendations that can help protect Christians from authoritarian regimes. Washington should expand Global Magnitsky sanctions against manufacturers, distributors, security agencies, and financial intermediaries that help authoritarian governments identify converts, monitor house churches, censor religious material, or repatriate Christian escapees. Congress should also heed the book’s proposed “qui tam” mechanism, allowing whistleblowers with credible evidence of sanctions evasion or illicit surveillance transfers to bring cases against these institutions in America’s federal courts on behalf of the U.S. government and receive part of recovered penalties. Likewise, Washington should utilize its offensive information capabilities to expose the imprisonment of pastors, sham churches, coercive “extremism” and “cult” laws, and the technology that enables religious repression. Finally, it should expand secure internet access, satellite connectivity, and encrypted communications for Iranian Christians, North Korean escapee networks, and underground churches threatened by state surveillance. For the sake of Christians living under the Axis of Aggressors—and for Christians in countries that might seek to join the Axis in the future—the United States must prioritize religious freedom when confronting these regimes.

Embarrassingly, it took me until my fifties to read Pilgrim’s Progress—an omission I cannot pretend was due to obscurity or inaccessibility.  A book in continuous print since 1678 and arguably more influential in the English-speaking world than any other text besides the Bible itself, John Bunyan’s masterwork remains a touchstone of Western religious and secular culture alike.  At home, our three copies include my grandparents’, parents’, and our own, in different stages of physical wear and language modernization.  Yet despite my early grounding in the faith and knowledge of the text’s religious, historical, and cultural significance, it took me decades to finally read it for myself.  And if it took me that long as a classics-minded Christian to read Bunyan, how much more unlikely would it be for those of limited or no faith background, unconvinced of the importance of this foundational text of the Protestant worldview and Western canon?      As an allegory of the Christian experience, Pilgrim’s Progress continues to offer deep wisdom and insight into the universal triumphs, trials, tribulations, and ultimate victory that await every believer who chooses the narrow path.  Told as a dream, the story follows its protagonist—Christian—from new birth to death, with scenes along the way exposing both the challenges and the joys of growing in faith.  It’s also a fun story and the delightful source of concepts and verbiage that remain au courant almost 350 years later: Vanity Fair, Slough of Despond, Worldly Wise, just to name several.  The wider culture remains in Bunyan’s debt. I thought of Pilgrim’s Progress recently while reading a piece in the Washington Post by Princeton politics professor Gregory Conti entitled “Ivy League students are suffering from religious illiteracy.”  Speaking as a non-believer, Conti urges universities rethinking curricula in the wake of popular backlash against the academy to incorporate basic instruction in the Bible and Christianity as a means to be more conversant with the wealth of moral insight Western civilization has passed down.  His is a powerful argument, lamenting that religiously illiterate students cannot fully appreciate the majesty or magnificence of Shakespeare, Rembrandt, or Mozart (I would have substituted Bach, but whatever), much less the rich history of political philosophy borne out of Christian precepts. Can students understand the underpinnings of a society built on the rule of law if they are unaware there are Ten Commandments, much less what they command?  Can they appreciate the genesis of human rights, including for the unborn, infirm, and the condemned without an appreciation for the doctrine of the Imago dei?  Or the imperatives of just war theory for international relations?  Or the history of anti-slavery, improved race relations, and women’s rights without any explicit knowledge of Jesus’ teachings and the resulting work of Christians to put words into practice?  Or the importance of conservation and animal rights apart from knowing the order of Creation and God’s plan in the Garden of Eden?   Yes, millions of people maintain strong beliefs on these issues apart from religion, but the questions remain: what role did religion play in the development of the modern world and what does that indicate about the bigger questions of governance, democracy, equality under law, rights as well as duties, human nature, and Western civilization itself? These are some of the questions that universities are, in fact, established to explore.  (Indeed, Princeton was founded in 1746 as the College of New Jersey to train Presbyterian clergy.)  Yet a student body ignorant of the religious foundations of the Western social and democratic experiment, both due to their own learning trajectory as well as general academic neglect, can quickly become unmoored.   On cue, Princeton religion professor Judith Weisenfeld published a letter to the Post editor on May 12, 2026 building on Conti and lamenting that colleges are cutting religion classes and suggesting that students therefore lack the resources for the sort of education Conti seeks.  She’s not wrong to suggest that cutbacks are hurting such departments, but I would submit that the solution is not necessarily for students to take a semester-long comparative religions class to become religiously literate.  By then, religion is but one of many competing voices, one more thing to “study,” one more topic to critique, rather than a life-affirming foundation of belief that infuses a broader understanding of all other disciplines.  By the time students get to college, spiritual formation will ideally already be well underway, and can be applied to a chosen discipline, rather than being a revelation when they first pass through the campus gates.   Yet the reality is that students generally come to college woefully unprepared on spiritual matters.  And that deprivation cannot be laid solely at the foot of the academy.  Parents are responsible for their children’s upbringing, including early and consistent exposure to their own beliefs which may be agnostic or opposed to Christianity and its values.  But without appreciation of the building blocks of politics and culture, the broader edifice of Western civilization is undermined.  That’s where the university must lean in.    This is no utopian impulse.  Even non-believers such as Conti understand the depth of loss when the foundations of the culture are ignored.  Next door in the comparative politics or history or sociology or anthropology departments the argument can be made that, for instance, you cannot fully understand Chinese culture without Confucianism, Japanese culture without Shintoism, India without Hinduism, the Middle East apart from Islam, or Latin America without Catholicism.  How, then, can students be expected to understand and appreciate their own cultural and political inheritance in North America and Europe apart from the principles and beliefs arising from religion, whether or not they personally profess such beliefs?  And what does that then say about the strength and ultimate sustainability of democratic governance based on individual freedoms and obligations if the structure on which they have been built is allowed to decay or is actively dismantled? There’s more at stake here than simply the knowledge of a book by John Bunyan written almost 350 years ago.  Though Pilgrim’s Progress is just one title, it stands atop a grand edifice of Western culture that has been neglected for far too long.  And from that perspective, it becomes imperative that institutions once again include key religious reference points in the course of broader instruction necessary to consider oneself “educated.”  It may not be a new argument, but when secular professors at elite universities are making the same point, it has, frankly, become too urgent to ignore.

Since Paul the apostle first encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus, Syria has been one of the cradles of Christianity. Today, Syria is closer to a graveyard for Christians, as violence and oppression-fueled emigration threaten the virtual extinction of Christianity in Syria. Before the Syrian Civil War, Christians made up roughly 10% of the population, between 1.5 and 2 million people. Only an estimated 300,000 remain today. While their dwindling number is due in large part to the instability in the region, the new government, led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa, has escalated the oppression of Christians. The current state of religious minorities in Syria, along with the posture and structure of the Syrian Constitution and Parliament, effectively restricts positive change.   After al-Sharaa led Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s (HTS) sudden overthrow of the Assad regime, thousands of Syrians rejoiced in the streets with the possibility of freedom. While members of the international community wanted to trust in al-Sharaa’s promises to expand freedoms and political participation, the government’s religious extremist roots necessarily inhibits improvement for religious minorities. Following years of fighting for al-Qaeda and capture by American forces, al-Sharaa formed an al-Qaeda branch in Syria to fight President al-Assad, eventually breaking off al-Qaeda to form to form Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). HTS has long been a U.S.-designated Entity of Particular Concern (EPC) for its egregious violations of religious freedom during the civil war.   While al-Sharaa promised to make a nation for all Syrians, religious and ethnic minorities in the region do not trust him owing to continued terrorism carried out by his fighters and related groups. The Open Doors’ World Watch List reported the largest single-year jump in Christian persecution in 2025, moving from 18th to 6th. In March of 2026, violence against Syria’s oldest Christian towns by Islamist militants forced the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox patriarchs to issue a joint statement saying that Easter celebrations would be “limited exclusively to prayers within the churches.” Since 2024, Islamic extremists have destroyed Christian crosses, cars, churches, homes, and businesses, kidnapped and tortured religious minorities, and brainwashed Syrian children with Jihadist messages. Similar attacks, including massacres, have been perpetrated against other religious and ethnic minorities, like the Druze, Alawites, and Kurds. Many suspect that Christians have faced less open hostility than these other communities due to the greater sensitivity in Western countries to the persecution of Christians, but their treatment of other religious and ethnic minorities reveals the dangers that threaten all who do not share the religious extremism of HTS.  Since al-Sharaa’s government took power in late 2024, the Druze minority has faced systematic violence. In July of 2025, armed tribal groups committed large-scale attacks on villages and blockaded  the main roads leading into Swaida, a city in southern Syria with many Druze. As government forces “intervened to restore order,” they and allied tribal fighters began violent raids on Druze-majority villages. The conflict resulted in 1,700 deaths, over 155,000 displaced civilians, and the destruction or burning of 36 villages. According to the UN Commission, some members of the Transitional Authority’s forces removed their military uniforms and dressed as tribal fighters before continuing their attacks against civilians and intentionally humiliated members of the Druze community. As a result of constant targeting and oppression, many in Swaida argue that this long train of abuse by the government gives them the right to self-determination.  A few months earlier, in March of 2025, a reported attack on Syrian Ministry of Defense personnel by heavily armed fighters loyal to the ousted Bashar al-Assad resulted in a massacre against the Alawite community, the ethnic minority to which the Assad family belonged. Thousands of militia men joined al-Sharaa’s government forces to attack thousands of Alawite civilians in Syria’s coastal region, killing an estimated 1,500 people. Many Muslim leaders supported this attack online and in their mosques, saying that they were “waging jihad” on the non-Sunni group. According to U.S. intelligence, the attackers “probably operated outside the direct control of the authorities.” While al-Sharaa openly condemned the attack and formed an investigation, many doubt the credibility of the investigation, and even more conclude that al-Sharaa does not have complete control over his own men. Sectarian kidnapping and murders also have increased in frequency since the new government took power. The March 2026 UN General Assembly report found that in 2025, dozens of Alawite women were kidnapped, often in broad daylight, and sexually abused. The security officials tasked with responding often failed to properly investigate or actively discouraged and threatened families to deter them from investigating or publicizing the case. In two cases they documented, Syrian officials arrested the victims themselves after securing their release and investigated them for morality-related causes.   The largest ethnic minority, the Kurds, make up roughly 10% of the total Syrian population and established a semi-autonomous region called Rojava in northeast Syria. In the past, the United States has supported their autonomy and relied upon their military, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), as its local partner in the mission to permanently defeat ISIS, providing between $2.5 and $3 billion in aid between 2017 and 2026. Since January of 2026, the SDF has lost 80% of its previously autonomous territory and was forced to sign a 14-point capitulation agreement with the Syrian government as the U.S. completely withdrew its troops in April 2026. In this agreement, the autonomous administration (DAANES) is being dismantled, control of borders, dams, and oil fields is transferred to the central government, and the SDF fighters must integrate into the national Syrian army as individuals. The peril of this situation and that facing other religious minorities was deepened by the establishment of the new Syrian Constitution the year before. Since the March 2025 negotiations with the new government, Rojava has called for a constitution that represents all Syrians and spells out their rights clearly. On March 10 of 2025, President al-Sharaa signed an agreement with the Kurdish community recognizing the Kurds as an indigenous community in the Syrian state, allowing them citizenship and all constitutional rights in Syria. Three days later, al-Sharaa issued a new constitution.   Although President al-Sharaa has promised to make Syria a more inclusive country for all Syrians, the new Constitution bases the structure of the Syrian polis squarely within the Islamic tradition. The new government is titled “The Syrian Arab Republic,” a label which alienates Syria’s large non-Arab population, like the Kurds, Turkmens, Syriacs (including Assyrians and Chaldeans), Armenians, and Circassians. Furthermore, in Article 3 of Chapter 1, Syria’s president and law are directly tied to Islamic theocracy. By embedding Islam into the presidency and jurisprudence, Syria becomes another theocratic nation rather than a non-sectarian state equally respectful of Syria’s diverse population. In the Constitution of the Assad regime, Islamic law was only a source of law. In the new regime, it has become the only source of Syrian jurisprudence. For religious minorities, constitutional language matters because it defines whether citizenship is based primarily on equal civic status or religious identity.  In addition to the Constitution, many minorities are concerned about the new Syrian parliament. Before Syria held elections in October 2025, al-Sharaa issued a decree dissolving all political parties, including the Ba’ath Arab Socialist Party and historic leftist and nationalist parties, a similar move to President Assad when he took power and dismantled opposing parties. One-third of Syria’s population, living in the areas around Sweida (National Guard-controlled), Hassakah (SDF-controlled), and Raqqa (SDF-controlled), was excluded from forming local electoral committees at the outset. The ones who had a “say” did not have get to choose their own representatives, but were given options “representative” of their minority communities by the government. To make matters worse, there was no direct voting by Syria’s 23 million citizens, an unprecedented move in the region, even following the Assad regime. An 11-member Supreme Committee formed subcommittees in Syria’s 14 governorates, which in turn selected 30- to 50-member electoral bodies who voted for registered candidates. Only 7,000 people got to vote at all, and most of them were approved community leaders, academics, and technocrats.  These electoral bodies appointed 140 seats of the lawmakers, while al-Sharaa appointed 70, one-third of parliament, with the new parliament having 50 fewer members than the Assad-era parliament. The resulting parliament is overwhelmingly male and Sunni Muslim. After al-Sharaa’s appointments, there were only 21 female and 10 religious minority seats out of 210 legislators. When asked why Americans should care about Syria, James Jeffrey, a top diplomat in the region from 2004 to 2020, responded that “it’s not that Syria, per se, is important. It’s that what happens in Syria impacts all of the Middle East.” This thought drives much of U.S. engagement with Syria. After a meeting with al-Sharaa twelve days after Assad fled, diplomats from the Biden administration walked away impressed by al-Sharaa’s calm authority and charisma, along with his understanding of warfare, economic policy, and plans for Syria’s future. In 2026, many diplomats and members of Congress remained hesitantly supportive of him, arguing that further U.S. support must come in tandem with accountability. In order to protect religious minorities and pull Syria from its downward spiral, America and the international community must pressure the Syrian state to amend its Constitution by changing the structure of Parliament. While many members of Congress want bring Syria back into the international community, such as by ending its status as a state sponsor of terrorism (SST), their desire for Syrian growth must not come at the expense of continued political and religious repression. When President Trump agreed to waived certain sections of the Caesar Sanctions Act, it was with the understanding that the White House would follow up to ensure Syria would not backslide. To date, a review of Syria’s failure to uphold their end has not been formally reported, which has stalled U.S. pressure on Syria to improve. By formally calling out and condemning violence, Americans can use their current leverage to help protect all citizens in Syria, and help in the recovery of the Christian cradle in this spiritually-significant part of the world.  

“The only thing the Kremlin is interested in exporting these days is chaos.” – UK Prime Minister Jonathan Lancaster in Daniel Silva’s Ransom Perhaps the most anticipated book of the summer season is the latest adventure of master spy and artist Gabriel Allon.  Now in its twenty-sixth iteration, Daniel Silva’s series has taken Allon from a secret operative defending his native Israel against Islamist terrorists to international protector of prime ministers and popes.  In Ransom Allon once again operates in the gray zone, facing a network of Russian spies bent on destabilizing Western Europe. This is not a formal book review, so there need be no disclaimer of a spoiler alert.  Ransom is not about a traditional international conflict, so it begs the question: does just war thinking apply in unconventional conflict, in the world of spies and espionage, “in the shadows?” As Ransom unfolds, the reader is presented with today’s world of Russian drones buzzing international airports, Russian assassination of political opponents by exposure to nerve agents, Russian cyber-attacks and disinformation campaigns, and Russia’s relentless war on Ukraine.  Gabriel Allon asserts that this is nothing new:  “Our Russian friends are doing the same things they have been doing for the past 20 years: subversion, sabotage, election interference, and sophisticated information operations, all to sow discord and undermine the will of the West.”  Allon goes on to say, “the KGB used to call it ‘active measures’” but today we call it “hybrid warfare.”   Does just war thinking apply in these instances?  We typically apply just war thinking to cases where we anticipate or observe a formal declaration of war: legitimate authorities declaring the justice of their cause and the rightness of their intentions when the use of force is clearly a reasonable last resort.  Hybrid warfare, or gray zone operations, do not seem to fit this framework. Does the just war tradition falter because of the informality and unconventionality of hybrid warfare?  The answer, of course, is no.  Indeed, the just war framework stands up very well by providing legitimate authorities in democratic societies a diagnosis of the situation and a starting point for making decisions. First, hybrid warfare is warfare because it is the use of force or violence under, or directed by, government authority.  It is an act of war any time a government, including rogue governments such as Havana, Pyongyang, or Tehran, instigates, incites, supports, coordinates, or cooperates in the use of force or violence, whether directly, through proxies, or by clandestine methods. When such rogue governments initiate acts of harm, it is the moral and lawful duty of governments and the international community to defend the lives, livelihoods, and way of life of their citizenry. National security officials, and especially academicians safely far from the battlefield, must avoid the trap of throwing their hands up in the air and avoiding responsibility with limp excuses such as, “There is nothing we can do … the UN Security Council has not decided …”  or, “There hasn’t been a formal declaration of war, so any action on our part will be illegal …”  These are moral and strategic cop-outs. It is the ethical responsibility of legitimate governing authorities to protect their publics and the international common good by making every good-faith attempt to deter, thwart, and appropriately respond to such ‘active measures.’  Moreover, the shadowy element of hybrid warfare should result in even closer collaboration among partners in terms of information sharing and collective action.  Unfortunately, in the case of Russia’s constant undermining of Western societies and international order, the Western alliance does not seem to fully in sync. Dan Silva’s Ransom is a fast-paced novel with a cast of return characters that his vast audience will enjoy.  It is set in our own dangerous world of enemy governments, such as Russia, North Korea, and China, that actively seek to sow discord and undermine the will of the West.  The reason that the reader knows that “all’s fair in [love and] war” is an evil lie is because our Western moral order is rooted in justice—just statecraft.  May the good guys win in the real world and not just in our fiction.

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