As Keir Starmer’s premiership hangs by a thread, one name keeps surfacing as his most likely successor: Andy Burnham. The Greater Manchester mayor just won a parliamentary seat in a by-election explicitly engineered to bring him back to Westminster — the first time that’s happened in Britain since 1965. Here’s who he is, how he … Read more
The memorandum that Presidents Trump and Masoud Pezeshkian signed on June 17 is unambiguous on one point: the war is over “on all fronts, including in Lebanon.” Within 48 hours, Israel’s military announced four soldiers killed in a Hezbollah attack, Israeli forces were filmed crossing back into northern Israel from the south, and a sitting … Read more
On July 19, 2026, when the two finalists walk off the pitch at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey after 45 minutes of football, they will return to the locker room to find something no World Cup finalist has ever had to contend with: a full-scale pop concert playing out on the pitch behind them. Madonna, … Read more
Two groups of people call Shen Yun a cult — and they mean different things by it. Understanding who is saying it, why, and what they offer is the only way to think clearly about one of the most contested performing arts companies in the world. TodayWhy examines both sources of the “cult” label on … Read more
In the summer of 1999, the Chinese Communist Party launched what would become the longest sustained campaign of religious persecution in modern Chinese history — targeting a meditation group that, by the government’s own earlier assessment, had done nothing but improve the health and morality of tens of millions of citizens: Falun Gong China. Twenty-seven … Read more
If you search for Falun Gong online, you will quickly encounter two sharply different characterizations: a persecuted spiritual movement whose practitioners have been tortured, imprisoned, and killed for their beliefs — or a dangerous “evil cult” that China was right to suppress. The gap between these descriptions is not a matter of interpretation. It is … Read more
In August 2024, a 58-year-old man named Cheng Pei Ming stood before a press conference in Washington D.C. and pulled back his shirt to reveal a 35-centimeter scar running across his chest. He was, investigators said, the first known survivor of China’s forced organ harvesting program. The reason there are so few survivors, human rights … Read more
Every year, thousands of people see Shen Yun’s advertisements plastered across bus stops, newspapers, and social media. Many buy tickets expecting an evening of classical Chinese dance. Few realize they are watching a performance born from one of the most severe religious persecutions of the 21st century — and that the Chinese government is actively … Read more
On June 14, 2026, at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas, a Caribbean island of 156,000 people walked onto the same pitch as one of the most successful footballing nations in history. Germany have won four World Cups. Curaçao has never played in one before. That contrast — 83 million people against 156,000; four world titles … Read more
When Norway’s squad landed in Greensboro, North Carolina ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, they did not arrive like most football teams. Alongside the tactical dossiers, training kits, and medical equipment came something considerably more unusual: approximately 300 kilograms of fish, 116 kilograms of traditional Norwegian brown cheese, and 6,000 oranges — a combined … Read more