For generations, Americans have been told to celebrate diversity, honor every culture, and preserve the stories that shaped the nation. Yet when it comes to Christianity–the single greatest influence on America’s founding and development–many of the same voices suddenly insist that history be edited, minimized, or investigated.

That contradiction was on full display this week.

Democratic Rep. Adelita Grijalva vowed that if Democrats regain control of the House, they will investigate the prominent inclusion of Christianity in America’s 250th birthday celebrations organized under President Donald Trump.

Think about that for a moment.

As America approaches one of the most significant anniversaries in its history, the concern is not crime, debt, border security, or international threats. It is whether Christianity might receive too much recognition in telling the story of America’s founding.

That says far more about modern politics than it does about American history.

The exchange began when MSNBC guest anchor Luke Russert suggested that the Freedom 250 celebrations reflected “Christian nationalism” and implied that Christianity was somehow “hijacking” America’s story. Grijalva agreed and said congressional investigations would likely follow if Democrats win back the House.

The irony is difficult to miss.

Those criticizing Christianity often appeal to history–until history becomes inconvenient.

No serious historian argues that the United States was founded as a theocracy. There was no American equivalent of the Church of England. The Constitution wisely prohibited establishing a national church, preventing government from controlling religious belief.

But acknowledging that truth is not the same as pretending Christianity played little or no role in shaping America.

The Declaration of Independence appeals four separate times to God or divine authority. It proclaims that human beings are “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.” That statement is not merely poetic language. It is the philosophical foundation of American liberty.

If rights come from government, government can remove them.

If rights come from God, government exists to protect them–not invent them.

That revolutionary concept separated the American experiment from much of the world’s political philosophy.

Many of the Founders held differing theological views. Some were deeply orthodox Christians. Others leaned toward deism. But virtually all recognized that biblical morality provided the ethical foundation necessary for a free republic.

John Adams famously wrote that America’s Constitution was made “only for a moral and religious people.” George Washington repeatedly spoke of Providence guiding the nation and warned that religion and morality were indispensable supports for political prosperity. Benjamin Franklin called for prayer during the Constitutional Convention.

These are not fringe quotations. They are central figures expressing ideas that shaped the nation’s founding culture.

America’s legal traditions likewise reflect biblical influence. The concepts of equality before the law, the dignity of every individual, objective moral standards, charity, forgiveness, covenant, justice, and personal responsibility all bear unmistakable marks of the Judeo-Christian worldview that dominated colonial America.

The first colleges in America–including Harvard University, Yale University, and Princeton University–were founded primarily to educate ministers and promote Christian learning. The Great Awakenings profoundly shaped American culture, encouraging literacy, civic responsibility, abolition movements, charitable institutions, and missionary efforts that transformed communities.

One cannot tell America’s story honestly while pretending Christianity was merely an incidental footnote.

Perhaps that is what makes this debate so revealing.

Notice what critics are not saying.

They are not arguing that historical facts are inaccurate.

Instead, they object to those facts receiving public attention.

There is an important difference.

Celebrating Christianity’s contribution is not the same as forcing anyone to become a Christian. Recognizing history is not establishing a state religion. Teaching that biblical ideas influenced America’s founders does not violate the First Amendment any more than acknowledging Greek philosophy influenced Western civilization.

History is history.

The First Amendment guarantees freedom of religion–not freedom from ever hearing about religion.

In fact, the very freedom that allows critics to denounce Christianity publicly exists because America’s founders rejected governments that controlled religious belief. Many early settlers crossed the Atlantic fleeing religious persecution. They did not come to erase faith from public life; they came so government could no longer dictate it.

That distinction has been increasingly blurred in modern political discourse.

Today, many activists appear comfortable celebrating virtually every religious and cultural tradition except Christianity. Public institutions enthusiastically recognize countless identities and belief systems, yet displays acknowledging Christianity often generate lawsuits, accusations of extremism, or now, apparently, promises of congressional investigations.

One must ask why.

Could it be that Christianity is treated differently because it remains the faith most closely associated with America’s historic identity?

If every historical reference to Christianity is labeled “Christian nationalism,” then honest discussions about America’s past become nearly impossible.

The term itself has become so broadly applied that it increasingly functions as a political weapon rather than a meaningful description. Loving one’s country, appreciating its Christian heritage, or acknowledging biblical influence on the Founders does not automatically constitute some dangerous political ideology.

It constitutes historical literacy.

America’s 250th birthday should not become another battlefield in the culture war.

It should be an opportunity for Americans to rediscover the ideas that made this nation exceptional: that rights come from God, that every person possesses inherent dignity, that liberty requires virtue, and that government exists under higher moral authority rather than above it.

Those principles did not emerge in a philosophical vacuum.

They grew from a civilization profoundly shaped by Christianity.

That heritage does not diminish Americans of other faiths–or of no faith at all. It simply tells the truth about where the nation came from.

A mature nation does not investigate its history because it is uncomfortable.

It studies it.

It preserves it.

And on milestone anniversaries like America’s 250th birthday, it celebrates it.

Later, Stockton reaffirmed his loyalty to the United States before his death at age 50 in 1781. The Fighters

Like McKean, several signers went on to take part in the conflict.

These included Rodney, Oliver Wolcott of Connecticut, Thomas Nelson Jr. of Virginia, and William Floyd of New York.

Others who left Philadelphia to join the conflict were taken as prisoners of war during the Revolution.

One of these was George Walton, who was wounded and captured during the Battle of Savannah. Despite spending months in British custody, Walton survived and was eventually freed, going on to serve as a governor, chief justice, and U.S. senator for Georgia.

Three others—Thomas Heyward Jr., Arthur Middleton, and Edward Rutledge—were taken prisoner during the Battle of Charleston. All three survived months of captivity at St. Augustine, Florida, with Heyward becoming the last of the three to die at age 62 in 1809.

Homes Looted, Occupied, or Destroyed

Many other signers faced consequences related to their properties and estates. Some of the most prominent of these included Lee and Hancock.

In New York, meanwhile, signer Francis Lewis had his property destroyed by the British, who captured his wife during the attack. Held in captivity for months without a change of clothes or adequate food, Elizabeth Annesley Lewis was ultimately freed under a prisoner exchange negotiated by Washington, but died shortly thereafter from the stress of the ordeal.

Also in New York, signers William Floyd, Philip Livingston, and Lewis Morris had their vast estates occupied by the British during the war, with the properties being used as barracks or stables.

Signer John Hart of New Jersey was also forced to flee from his home—and his wife’s deathbed—when Hessian troops attacked his farm and mills.

The Longest-Lived Signer: Charles Carroll

In 1832, Charles Carroll of Maryland knew that he was dying.

The only Catholic signer of the Declaration, Carroll had by then been the sole remaining signatory of the document for around six years.

He gained the accolade on July 4, 1826, following the deaths of Adams and Jefferson, who were among the final three living signers. Franklin had passed more than 40 years earlier.

By 1832, Carroll was well-used to the questions he received from young people and reporters, who were set on preserving as much of the early Republic as possible during the twilight years of the 1820s.

Before his death, Carroll played a key role in welcoming the new era of American life, laying the first stone of the B&O railroad, one of the first steps toward the transcontinental railroad that would take decades yet to be completed.

Carroll’s passing was commemorated in the papers and on the streets of the blossoming American republic, whose citizens recognized that with Carroll’s passing, the first generation of the United States was truly over.

Commenting on his status near the end of his life, Carroll wrote, “Grateful to Almighty God for the blessings. … I do hereby recommend to the present and future generations the principles of that important document … and pray that the civil and religious liberties they have secured to my country may be perpetuated.”

The United States enters its 250th year in fantastic shape. Elsewhere, not so much.

Clarice Feldman | July 5, 2026

We are the oldest continuous democracy in the modern world. In large part, this is because our founders were the products of the Enlightenment, who fashioned a written Constitution, which provides both freedom to citizens and checks and balances to restrain those in power. Massive celebrations are called for, with big ships, flyovers, and the largest ever fireworks display in the cleaned-up National Mall. It’s extremely hot, but that doesn’t seem to have dampened enthusiasm, and crowds have been large at scheduled events.

Just as they denigrated the effort to clean up the Tidal Basin and initially denied that it had been sabotaged, they sought to keep the celebration small. Mainstream media initially reported scarce crowds when they appeared with cameras hours before the events were scheduled. The latest effort to claim disinterest is the report that all these pyrotechnics will create dangerous air pollution. I’ve lived in Washington since 1969, in years when we had temperature inversions with leaded gasoline polluting the already dirty air, and yet the fireworks displays managed to go off without scores of people perishing from poisoned air. I expect this year will be no different. I don’t recall alarms in the press then, but Trump was not then in the White House.

As happy as we are to celebrate this national holiday, we have been mesmerized by events in Venezuela, which show the best and worst of humanity. Thousands of Caracas residents living in an earthquake zone were trapped in collapsed residences. Many apartments were in cheap government-built housing which lacked reinforcing steel and were finished in abysmal masonry — some plastic foam with thin layers on concrete disguising the flimsy underpinnings.

Ordinary Caracans, without even shovels, wheelbarrows, or any other useful equipment, used their bare hands to peel away the debris and rescue those trapped. In fact, countless videos on X taken by passersby show that officials were not helping; instead, they were preventing people from doing so. One shirtless man, “Topo de La Guaira,” rescued many with his bare hands. The government responded by arresting him because he openly decried its failures. The response was immediate — from around the world, people demanded his release, and the government relented by setting him free, after which he returned to the rubble to help rescue more people.

Although the government provided no equipment to the rescuers, the drug lord Minister of Interior, Justice and Peace, Diosdado Cabello, did provide motorized machinery and cranes to extract a mysterious vault in La Guaira, the hardest-hit part of Caracas. Some videos showed stacks and stacks of dollar bills pouring out of the collapsed buildings there, where reports say millions of dollars and drugs had been hidden.

It was wonderful to see the aid that poured in from around the world. The first on the scene was Bukele’s El Salvador, and while most, if not all, of the foreign aid missions have now departed, his corps — overseen personally by Bukele through video conferencing — is remaining to address the needs of the vulnerable population with food, necessities of life, and medical care. The New York Times listed the countries that sent aid, somehow leaving out Israel, which had quickly sent the most technologically advanced search team, even though Venezuela has not recognized it for almost two decades.

Interim President Delcy Rodríguez on Thursday became the first leader of the South American country since Hugo Chávez to publicly praise Israel, after an Israeli aid delegation arrived in Venezuela following the devastating earthquake disaster.

Although many countries sent aid missions, Rodríguez chose to single out Israel’s unique expertise. “I would like to report that yesterday we received a highly professional and skilled group from Israel, which arrived following contact made through the Jewish community in Venezuela,” Rodríguez said at a press conference Thursday night.

Here’s what makes the story so amazing: even on July 4, ten days after the earthquake, live survivors were being located and extricated from the scene. I cannot imagine how people survived and maintained hope for so long while being buried alive. The death toll was estimated to be in the tens of thousands. So far, it has risen to 2,645, with 12,666 having been reported as injured. How many are still buried is unknown.

American Thinker

Gone are the days of university freshmen reading classical philosophers like Plato or contemporary pedagogues like Ta-Nehisi Coates. These days, incoming college students are lucky if they can get through Judy Blume’s “Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing.”

According to a new “Survey of Adult Skills” conducted by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development — a forum for 38 high-income, predominantly Western countries — a not insignificant number of adult students enrolled in higher education are now reading and doing math at a level which, in a more functional society, would be alarming for a middle schooler.

The survey, first spotted by the Economist, tested around 160,000 people of all ages, across all 38 member states. It found that across all OECD member countries, a full 8 percent of college students are reading at the level of a ten-year-old, if not worse. While countries like Germany and France rang in at under 5 percent, countries like Poland, Israel, and the United States blew the curve at 21, 20, and 14 percent, respectively.

The numbers aren’t much better when it comes to math. Across OECD countries, 9 percent of college students do math at or below a ten-year-old level. In Italy, the US, and Slovakia, that figure jumps to over 15 percent — only outdone by Israel, where roughly 21 percent of college students were underachieving at the same low benchmark.

It seems there are numerous compounding explanations for these test results: pandemic-era learning gaps leading to lower levels of preparation, declining college enrollment forcing schools to lower admissions standards, and lower levels of public funding for education, to name a few.

The results also coincide with the explosion of large language models like ChatGPT, which by many accounts have carved out a new floor for academic failure in both K-12 and college-level education.

While there’s no denying how complicated the issue is, there is evidence that removing technology from classrooms altogether could offer an immediate boost.

In one classroom in Minneapolis, for example, a literature and English teacher banned phones and laptops, requiring all coursework to be done on pencil and paper. As the school-year started in September, just 46 percent of the students involved said they felt confident about their reading skills. A few months later in February, that number stood at 95 percent.

Though it’s just one classroom, something is clearly off the rails in the education systems of the richest countries of the world — and the longer it goes unaddressed, the more students will be pushed into the world with the reading skills of 4th graders.

Joe Wilkins, Futurism

From Dr. Jordan B. Peterson

To the Americans:

I’ve travelled all over the world. I’ve familiarized myself with many places, and met many people. And I’m a Canadian, although I’m privileged to reside once again in the States.

And here’s something I’ve noticed, and it’s a key element of America’s continuing greatness:

You bloody Americans value success, and you believe in its existence.

This is something that doesn’t really happen anywhere else in the world. Even in other free democracies—the United Kingdom; Finland, Sweden, and Norway; Australia, New Zealand and Canada; Germany, France, and the Netherlands (great countries all)—a counterproductive cynicism too often reigns.

Success is equated with exploitation.
Ambition is looked upon with contempt.

This happens sometimes in the United States too—particularly among the miserable progressives, who confuse their resentment, ingratitude and unearned skepticism with wisdom.

But in your great country, by and large, striving is admired and success celebrated.

This means that more people strive and succeed in the US than anywhere else. And it’s increasingly obvious. You remain stunningly more innovative and productive than any people anywhere else on the planet.

And so I say, as all should who are fortunate enough to live in the western world, let alone America:

Thank God for the United States.
Thank God for the wisdom of its founders.
Thank God for its faith in the free market and in the natural rights of man.

Happy birthday, you damn Yankees and Southerners.

Long may your admirable country dominate the world.

Long may your freedom and hope provide an example to those suffering everywhere at the hands of their malevolent states.

May your two and a half centuries of unparalleled success be just the beginning.

Your country is the light of the world, and the city on the hill.

Thank God for the USA.

Happy 250th.

Dr. Jordan B. Peterson

To the Founders: It hasn’t been easy. We’ve made mistakes in the past two and a half centuries. But a lot of us still regard with precious sentiment that you pledged your lives, your fortunes, and your sacred honor.

I have tried to uphold the duties imparted unto me as a citizen of this land. In reflecting upon the occasion, I am impressed with the conviction that my efforts have been found lacking. Very, very few of us, it must be said, have dedicated ourselves to uphold the responsibilities that come with the qualities that you announced for all time were of full rights to be bestowed upon every man and woman.

So it is that on this occasion, the two hundredth and fiftieth anniversary of the founding of our nation, that I resolve to devote however many years are within my lifetime to serving my native land with all the strength, and wisdom, and temerity that are mine to command.

I challenge every citizen of these United States to do likewise.

We are not yet the perfect Union. But we have come to be a more perfect Union. This is a process, lumps and all. And for all of the sins of the Founders that have become fashionable to condemn, it must be stated with all due confidence that those men, the greatest of their generation, gave us the means to draw closer to the ideals of freedom. America is and always has been a work in progress. We lift up what works and we take down what doesn’t. It’s gotten us this far, despite our faults and foibles. Maybe it can get us a little further.

I think a lot of harm has been done to our republic over the years. Especially in the past century. Too many of us have come to see this country as something to exploit and take from without having to contribute to it. Many people have done things that in a sane world would be deemed outright treasonous. Those will be dealt with in due time. Nobody ever got away with it forever, and so it will be with our republic.

But for all of that, America is still that shining city upon the hill. It is a sacred trust for her citizens, and an inspiration for those in distant lands who may not yet fully know freedom. It is still something that we can be thankful that we are a part of.

So I’m committing to be a better citizen of this great land. It’s what an Eagle Scout, no matter his age, should do. And I call upon ever other American who is reading these words to do that also.

Christopher Knight

Story by Kasra Aarabi, Saeid Golkar

Jul 03 • 4 min read • Updated 1d ago

The Iranian regime’s oligarchic clans are at war with each other – and this conflict may soon spiral beyond control.

This fight is not over ideology or the future direction of the Islamic Republic: all the oligarchic clans are Islamist; some wear turbans, others wear military uniforms, and some wear suits.

In other words, they all subscribe to the core tenets of Shia Islamism in Iran: the forceful imposition of Sharia law domestically, support for the so-called Axis of Resistance militia network, anti-Americanism, and the goal of eradicating the Israel (driven by innate anti-Semitism).

But they are competing to protect and advance their power and economic interests amid the vacuum that emerged after the elimination of Ali Khamenei, the former supreme leader, who had operated as the godfather of these clans.

The latest manifestation of this infighting has erupted in the most unlikely of places: the Assembly of Experts – a body of 88 clerics who, in theory, appoint and oversee the authority of the supreme leader.

Last week, 73 members of the normally silent assembly made an unusual public intervention in the form of a statement on the ongoing negotiations with the United States and the recently-signed Memorandum of Understanding

The statement de facto criticised Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) over its conduct of the negotiations with Washington, suggesting the officials had moved beyond the “red lines” of the supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei.

It said in Farsi: “All officials should respect that, in the system of Velayat-e Faqih (Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist), the opinion and directives of the Supreme Leader are decisive. Once informed of the Leader’s definitive view, no official may act contrary to it.”

After its publication, Ayatollah Hashem Hosseini Busheri, chairman of the Assembly of Experts’ secretariat and spokesperson, immediately stated that he was completely unaware of the statement and that, while he did not oppose its content, its signatories had broken convention and published it without coordination with him.

Remarkably, however, senior members of the secretariat – including Ayatollah Movahedi Kermani, Ayatollah Arafi, Ayatollah Araki and Ayatollah Rajavi – were amongst the signatories of the statement. In fact, only three members of the secretariat had not signed the statement, including Hosseini Busheri.

The very fact that such elite infighting is now unfolding openly within the regime’s most important clerical body is particularly telling.

The Assembly of Experts is effectively representative of the regime’s clerical class. First and foremost, it shields and advances the interests of the clergy, which have long been guaranteed by the supremacy of the position of the supreme leader.

When Ali Khamenei was alive, this power was beyond dispute. But the same cannot be said of Mojtaba, his son and successor, in charge.

Not only is it clear that the new supreme leader no longer holds the same authority as his father, but Mojtaba’s complete public absence has only deepened the power vacuum that has emerged after his predecessor’s death.

This has heightened the anxiety of the Assembly of Experts, which fears its political and economic interests would be at risk should the supreme leader’s position be undermined.

Their statement therefore reveals not only in-fighting between the different oligarch clans of the Islamist regime, but also that the clerical class is scrambling to preserve its political and economic privileges in the face of an increasingly uncertain succession.

For now, these divisions over power and money have been managed and contained in the name of Mojtaba.

His name still serves as a form of political glue. Even in his absence, different factions can invoke his authority to discipline rivals, justify decisions, and avoid a more open confrontation over the regime’s leadership.

But this arrangement is fragile because authority that is not visibly embodied cannot hold for long, particularly in a regime where the leader’s personal presence has historically been central to elite management.

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If Mojtaba fails to appear at his father’s funeral, it will dramatically intensify speculation about his physical condition and could accelerate factional efforts to prepare for a second succession crisis.

Such a moment would not merely raise questions about one man’s fate.

It could expose the deeper structural crisis facing the Islamic Republic: that a regime built around the absolute authority of one man may no longer have a leader capable of imposing order on the very factions that depend on his authority for their own survival.

The Assembly of Experts’ intervention is therefore more than an isolated episode; it is a sign that the Islamic Republic’s internal balance of power is shifting.

The clerical class, the IRGC-linked networks, the security bureaucracy, and political-economic factions are all manoeuvring to protect their interests in a system whose central source of authority has been weakened.

While these rivalries may remain contained in the short term, the post-Ali Khamenei order is increasingly vulnerable to open elite conflict.

What appears today as a dispute over negotiations may soon become a broader struggle over who truly rules the Islamic Republic.

Kasra Aarabi is director of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) research at United Against Nuclear Iran

Saeid Golkar is senior adviser at United Against Nuclear Iran and UC Foundation Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

There’s nothing like a heatwave to shine a light on the medieval lunacy of eco-alarmism. The minute the thermometer spikes, all the bourgeois doomsayers are on their soapboxes haranguing humankind. This is ‘hell on Earth’, they cry. It’s ‘global boiling’, they wail. A ‘hound from hell’ is dragging the heat of the ‘Underworld’ into our world, say media scribes, like absolute nutters, blissfully unaware of what faux-priestly, pre-modern fools they sound to the rest of us.

And of course – you already know this – it’s all our fault. We brought this hell upon ourselves by flying and driving and existing. We are reaping the scorched harvest of our own sinful endeavours. As the UN’s climate chief says, it’s our ‘addiction to burning coal, oil and gas’ that is making the crimson sun blare so brightly and causing ‘climate change [to] run rampant’. Your modern living is ‘boiling the planet’ and ‘wrecking our world’, nagged a Guardian writer this week. Repent! Sweat!

Is anyone else tiring of this? Has anyone else had a gutful of the fact that we can’t even enjoy a hot day without being accused of planetary genocide by posh twats in haircloths? Is anyone else sick of those weather maps where the hot countries are Merlot coloured to drive home the crank idea that Cerberus himself has risen from the abyss to put his fiery ass-crack on our planet? I’m not even a fan of heatwaves – being Irish – yet I cannot abide this weaponisation of weather to bully the public.

It’s going to get worse – the heat and the hectoring. Another heatwave is coming. London might even reach 29C, cries the BBC, alongside a blood-red map of our scorched capital. Am I allowed to say that Londoners frequently fly overseas to lounge around in weather hotter than that, or will I be accused of ‘heat-stress denial’? That’s the latest species of ‘denialism’, according to mad old George Monbiot, who says the ‘billionaire press’ has ‘hit rock bottom’ with its denial of the ‘impacts of the heatwave’. We could strap them to the stake for their blasphemous speech, but apparently we’re all on the stake now – we’ve ‘[set] fire to the planet’, says Monbiot. Witches burn themselves these days.

No one is ‘denying’ the impact of the heatwave, of course. Certainly not me. I had to flee a London bus last week. It was a sweatbox on wheels, a rolling tomb of flushed bodies. If only we had air conditioning. But green hysterics, including Monbiot’s own paper, have been wringing their untoiled hands over AC for years. ‘It’s destroying the planet’, said the Guardian during last year’s heatwave. It’s ‘philosophically problematic’, apparently. Nothing – and I mean nothing – better captures the supercilious indifference of our eco-overlords than this vision of a well-fed Guardianista telling the sun-baked masses that it’s ‘philosophically problematic’ to cool your home in a heatwave.

It’s the cruelty of the heatwave hysterics that most startles. For years the climate-change cult has warned us that Earth will shortly be consumed by a hellfire of Man’s own making. Yet anyone who said ‘Let’s get air-con, then’ was damned as a devilish contributor to these End Times fires. The Wall St Journal asked an apt question this week: ‘Europe is hot as hell – why doesn’t it want air-conditioning?’ It reported on the hospitals of our Old World where the ill and elderly are ‘forced to endure… heatwaves’ because their well-fanned rulers have decreed that air-con is an ‘energy-hungry technology’ that undermines ‘the fight against climate change’. The fantasy cause of ‘saving the planet’ takes precedence over the earthly cause of saving the sick from heat.

Air-con is ‘not the solution’, says Time. I don’t know, it’s the solution to my sweating. More importantly, it’s the solution to the sweltering discomfort of elderly folk forced to live in heat-trapping homes and poorly people crammed on to roasting wards because society now fears a fictional apocalypse more than disease. There will be excess deaths this summer, and that’s awful. But it’s far more the fault of the eco-preaching classes than it is of the polluting masses. A hill I’ll die on: the climate-change ideology is a worse killer than climate change itself. I mean, it isn’t Mother Nature going into people’s homes and ripping out the air-con.

This is the story of our times: the elite panic about modernity is far deadlier than modernity. The truth, as Bjorn Lomborg says, is that deaths from climate-related disasters have plummeted in the era of industry. In the 1920s, half-a-million souls perished each year in storms, floods, droughts and heatwaves. In 2020, it was just 14,000. Global annual deaths from climate madness fell by 96 per cent. It is those who libel modernity as a uniquely murderous phenomenon who are signing the death warrant of humankind, for they seek to roll back the very developments that have insulated us from the violent whims of nature. Which includes air-con. To agitate against AC even in a heatwave is to exhibit a staggering misanthropic disregard for one’s fellow humans, especially the vulnerable ones.

And yet still they come, the heatwave hysterics, demonising the very tech that defends us from the heat and wind and water of amoral Nature. ‘[It] seems like End Times – and it’s our own damned fault’, said a green-leaning writer of recent heatwaves. The 2023 heatwave was christened Cerberus, after the hound from hell who rips sinners apart. How fitting. ‘Cerberus’s inferno’, newspapers cried. Even Greta Thunberg, the most celebrated hysteric of our age, has taken a break from berating the Jewish State to say, basically, ‘Fuck, it’s hot’. I guess that’s one upside of the hot weather – it will drag the attention of the idle pricks of the activist class away from the Jews and back to the ‘climate emergency’. Breathe easy, Israel – they’re wanging on about weather, again.

I’m sick of all this luxury apocalypticism. Its medieval strain is undeniable now. Just like our forebears, these fruitcakes see all weather – rain, storm, heat, hail – as a punishment from God / Gaia for our wicked ways. Though at least our ancestors had the excuse of being uneducated. Nature isn’t punishing us. We’re punishing ourselves. The greatest threat to humanity is not the weather but an elite that feverishly seeks to appease the gods of weather by winding back modernity. They’re the reason you’re baking. Rage against them, not the eye of heaven.

Brendan O’Neill

President Donald Trump’s plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz appears to be working, as transits show the strongest signs yet of returning to normal operations.

Commercial shipping is steadily increasing under the 60-day U.S.-Iran ceasefire, easing fears of prolonged global oil supply disruptions and driving crude prices lower.

New maritime data shows vessel traffic through the strategic waterway has more than quadrupled over the past week as shipping companies cautiously resume voyages through the Persian Gulf.

According to maritime intelligence platform Signal, the number of traceable daily voyages entering and leaving the Gulf increased from just one or two ships during most of the conflict to eight vessels by July 1, based on a seven-day moving average.

But the number of ships moving through with their transponders off is believed to be considerably higher. One study estimated that as many as 40 ships a day transited the strait over the past week.

While still well below prewar traffic levels, the rebound marks a significant improvement in confidence among commercial operators.

Before the conflict erupted, approximately 135 vessels transited the Strait of Hormuz each day, carrying roughly one-fifth of the world’s traded oil and liquefied natural gas.

The increase in shipping is already having a measurable impact on global energy markets.

Brent crude oil has fallen back to roughly its prewar levels for the first time since fighting began, as traders increasingly believe the worst-case supply disruptions may have been avoided.

The decline reflects growing confidence that Gulf producers — including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, and Kuwait — will once again be able to move oil to international markets with fewer interruptions.

Several major shipping companies confirmed the improvement.

German container giant Hapag-Lloyd said four vessels previously stranded inside the Gulf have now exited safely, while Danish shipping leader Maersk reported two of its ships successfully transited the Strait during the past week.

Much of the recent traffic has consisted of oil tankers.

According to Lloyd’s List Intelligence, total vessel movements — including so-called “dark voyages,” in which ships disable GPS tracking to reduce the risk of being targeted — rose to 258 transits during the week ending June 28.

That compares with just 41 voyages during the opening week of the crisis in March.

Many outbound tankers are carrying crude that had been loaded before the war and stored offshore while operators waited for safer conditions.

Iran has also accelerated exports.

Iranian chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Tehran has exported approximately 40 million barrels of oil since the U.S. lifted its naval blockade, claiming the country has been able to sell its crude at prices roughly 20% above prewar levels.

More than 60 of the recent tanker voyages have reportedly involved Iranian oil exports, taking advantage of temporary sanctions relief granted under the ceasefire agreement.

Exports from neighboring Gulf producers are also recovering.

Several Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC) tankers successfully transited the Strait this week using a southern shipping corridor that hugs Oman’s coastline under air-defense protection reportedly provided by U.S. and Omani forces.

Despite the improving outlook, significant dangers remain.

The International Maritime Organization estimates Iran laid approximately 80 naval mines in the Strait during the conflict. Those mines have yet to be cleared, preventing the two principal international shipping lanes from fully reopening.

Instead, commercial vessels are relying on alternative routes.

Some ships are using a route designated by Iran that requires approval from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, while others are sailing closer to Oman’s territorial waters under enhanced security.

Industry officials caution that today’s increased traffic reflects not only improving security but also economic necessity.

“It’s really difficult to say whether it’s growing confidence or whether it’s risk takers,” Jakob Larsen, chief safety and security officer at the global shipowners’ association BIMCO, told the Financial Times. “At some point shipowners are willing to take that extra risk to get their ship out.”

The improving security picture is also reducing transportation costs.

Spot charter rates for very large crude carriers on the Hormuz route, which surged to nearly $500,000 per day on June 23 amid peak uncertainty, have since fallen to approximately $294,000 per day as more vessels become available and operators regain confidence.

Marine insurance costs have also declined dramatically.

According to insurance broker WTW, war-risk premiums have fallen to roughly 2% of a vessel’s value, down from about 7% immediately after the ceasefire took effect, significantly lowering the cost of transporting oil through the Gulf.

For energy markets, the reopening of the Strait represents a major psychological shift.

Just weeks ago, investors feared a prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz could choke off nearly 20% of global oil supplies, potentially sending crude prices well above $100 per barrel and reigniting inflation worldwide.

Instead, increasing tanker traffic, recovering Gulf exports, declining shipping costs, and lower insurance premiums are restoring confidence that one of the world’s most important energy corridors is gradually returning to business.

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Coming to [Christ] as to a living stone” (1 Pet. 2:4).

Jesus is the only source of eternal life and the foundation upon which the church is built.

Peter’s description of Christ as “a living stone” is paradoxical because stones aren’t alive. In fact, we sometimes speak of something being “stone dead.” Yet Peter’s symbolism is profound because it beautifully incorporates three realities about Christ.

First, Jesus is the long-awaited Jewish Messiah. The Old Testament referred to the Messiah as a stone, and Peter incorporated those texts into His description of Jesus in 1 Peter 2:6-8: “Behold I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious corner stone, and he who believes in Him shall not be disappointed” (Isa. 28:16); “The stone which the builders rejected, this became the very cornerstone” (Ps. 118:22); and “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense” (Isa. 8:14). The parallel is obvious and would be especially meaningful to Peter’s Jewish readers. The expectations of pious Jews throughout history were realized in Christ. God had kept His promise to send the Messiah!

Second, Jesus is a stone in that He is the focal point of His spiritual house, the church. The Greek word translated “stone” in verse 4 sometimes referred to the stones used in building projects. They were cut and chiseled to fit perfectly into a specific location, and were practically immovable. Not only is Jesus a stone; He is the cornerstone, which is the most important stone in the entire building. From Him the church draws its spiritual symmetry.

Finally, Jesus is living. That’s an appropriate description because everything Peter said in this epistle is based on the fact that Jesus is alive. That’s the believer’s hope and the basis for every spiritual privilege you have. You “have been born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Pet. 1:3, emphasis added).

Interestingly, the literal rendering of 1 Peter 2:4 is, “Coming to Him as to living stone.” Christ is a unique stone—the stone that possesses life. All who come to Him receive eternal life (cf. 1 John 5:11).

Suggestions for Prayer

-Praise the Lord for His unchangeable character and irrevocable promises.

For Further Study

-Read Acts 2:22-47.

-What was the central point in Peter’s sermon?

-How did the people respond to his preaching?

-How many people were baptized?

-What were some of the activities of the early church?

John MacArthur, Grace Lutheran Church