The centuries-old Christian population in the holy city of Nazareth is slowly disappearing because of a mafia crime wave sweeping northern Israel. Mafia gang members reportedly harass Christian store owners in the northern Israeli city and demand the equivalent of thousands of pounds in protection money. (Swan, The Telegraph)
Read MoreThe meditative ritual might appear incongruent with the raucous epicenter of the nation’s conservative movement, but Mr. Trump’s political creed stands as one of the starkest examples of his effort to transform the Republican Party into a kind of Church of Trump. (Bender, The New York Times)
Read MoreWhere do we get the strange custom of playing pranks on April 1? The short answer is that nobody knows for sure. All we know is that the custom was known in Renaissance Europe, and probably has roots older than that. (Winick, Library of Congress Blogs)
Read MoreThe study, a joint project of Harvard and Baylor universities, Gallup and the Center for Open Science, aims to uncover what influences “human flourishing,” which is defined by measures of happiness, character and virtue and social relationships, among other values. According to the group’s research, attending a religious service regularly positively affects flourishing. (André, Religion News Service)
Read MoreThe dominance of streaming platforms and the short attention span of the modern public mean musicians and producers are trying to make ever-catchier music that stops listeners from skipping to the next song. (Pinkstone, The Telegraph)
Read MoreIn the four years since the pandemic closed schools, U.S. education has struggled to recover on a number of fronts, from learning loss, to enrollment, to student behavior. But perhaps no issue has been as stubborn and pervasive as a sharp increase in student absenteeism, a problem that cuts across demographics and has continued long after schools reopened. (Mervosh & Paris, The New York Times)
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