The king’s speech to Congress may have given a jolt to US Republicans, but also to us soft republicans here in the UK (How King Charles’s speech was written – and how to read it, 29 April). So the British monarchy has some purpose after all, when it speaks as an observer of current political…
Vatican prosecutors on Thursday seemingly defied an appeals court order to turn over to the defense all the evidence gathered in the Vatican’s big financial trial, setting the stage for another clash in the long-running case. In a three-page letter, prosecutors said they would allow the appeals court judges to consult the material. But they…
One of this year’s biggest fights over the future of regulation of the artificial-intelligence industry is about to get even more expensive and contentious. Chris Larsen, a tech billionaire from California, said he planned to spend $3.5 million in the coming weeks to help a New York congressional candidate who is facing a barrage of…
The Brains Behind the Trump Era Vice President JD Vance recently criticized Pope Leo XIV online over his criticism of the war in Iran. It was a bold move for a Catholic convert, but perhaps not surprising, given the larger ideological commitments that have shaped Vance and his milieu. In a new book, Furious Minds:…
The 2010 Olympic downhill champion said she has “one more surgery left to take out the metal and to replace my [anterior cruciate ligament] ACL” and then a lengthy period of recuperation. “Once I get my ACL fixed, then that’s another six months, so I have at least a year and a half ahead of…
Pope Leo XIV’s recent in-flight answer to a question about blessing same-sex couples exhibited a preference for not exacerbating divisions within the church over pushing the limits on polarizing issues. His answer, however, did not occur in isolation, not on the plane and certainly not in the context of other pronouncements over the first year of…
Here’s a confession that may alarm faithful readers of this newsletter: I am an environment reporter who does not love nature. Before I get cancelled, yes, I do care about the fate of the natural world – scientists are clear that wrecking it hurts us – but the weird wonders of wildlife have always occupied…
Five students and a security guard were injured in a stabbing on Thursday afternoon at a high school in Tacoma, Wash., in what the authorities said arose from an “altercation.” The authorities responded just after 1:30 p.m. to a report of an “active assault” at Foss High School, the Tacoma Fire Department said in a…
(RNS) — More Muslim women across the United States are turning to the courts to challenge prison and police policies that force them to remove their hijabs for booking photos, arguing the practice violates their religious freedom and leaves them exposed to lasting harm. In the last two months, at least five such cases have…
(RNS) — Most people have seen President Donald Trump’s AI-generated image of himself as Jesus. What they may not know is that on Easter Sunday, Brooke Rollins, the secretary of agriculture, sent an email to each of her nearly 100,000 agency employees, characterizing our country as a Christian nation. The Easter-themed email declared “He is…
