The Case for Quitting: The Surprising Benefits of Opting Out by Lindsay Crouse. “When perseverance turns against us, quitting isn’t just a way out. Often, it’s the first step to something better. A pivot. A break. A chance to go further — or be free.”
Is our democracy dying?
Democracy requires much more than voting every few years. It requires people to have the time, security and mental capacity to understand political choices, consider competing arguments and participate meaningfully in society. In this video, I argue that too many people are losing that capacity.
Work, caring responsibilities, insecure housing and financial pressures consume enormous amounts of people's time and attention. Meanwhile, constant media distraction increasingly reduces complicated political questions to slogans, reactions and instant opinions.
Rise in Young Catholic Converts Points to Spiritual Longing in U.S. and Europe
Washington Post, Rise in Young Catholic Converts Points to Spiritual Longing in U.S. and Europe:
As Pope Leo XIV visits France, the number of converts is growing in secular Western countries, and some in Gen Z are rediscovering the faith of their grandparents.
When Léa Guiragossian, a 22-year-old medical student from Bordeaux, arrived in Paris [last] weekend to catch a glimpse of Pope Leo XIV, she did so as one of the great hopes of Catholicism in the West — a legion of new converts.
While the Catholic Church is growing rapidly in Africa and some other parts of the developing world, it is facing mounting challenges in Europe, the United States and Latin America from secularism, abuse scandals and competition from Evangelical faiths.
But it is also witnessing at least one upward trend. As Leo, the first U.S.-born pope, visits France — the heart of secularized Europe — church data shows an increase in the number of converts in several Western countries, including the U.S., France, Spain, Belgium and Germany. …
The convert growth is not nearly enough to offset the number of people leaving the faith, along with decades of sharp declines in infant baptism rates. Overall, converts are a tiny fraction of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.
Still, church officials are hailing the surge in conversions, with some of the most striking data coming from France and the U.S.. …
In Russia, the components ended up with companies supplying the country's defence industry. MOT found that Emelianov's firm has stocked Russia with more than 20 million euros' worth of electronics that can be used extensively in Russian missiles, circumventing EU sanctions.
American authorities monitoring dual-use technology took notice. In the autumn of 2023, they blacklisted his Hong Kong-based company.
Since Russia cannot manufacture enough of these components domestically, it has built a procurement network spanning dozens of countries. The two Finns investigated by MOT have been part of this wider system.
Emelianov's Hong Kong company and another Finnish businessman's Serbian company have traded with Russia both independently and in cooperation with one another.
Two Finns supplying Russia with missile tech worth tens of millions