These days, it is easy to be pessimistic about palpable issues facing the world such as ocean plastic pollution. However, artist Solveig Egeland, distressed by the plastics frequently washing up along the shores of her hometown Fredrikstad, was determined to make a local difference. She began partnering with local children to build small cottages out of the waste. Eventually, her initiative culminated in the larger Håpets Katedral (Hope Cathedral), a unique art project meant to lead the way for much larger sustainability goals.

Although built in the style of a traditional Norwegian stave church and supported by the Church of Norway, Hope Cathedral is meant to be an inter-faith space for weddings and self-contemplation. Starting from a wooden frame, Its ceiling was filled in with rainbow-colored fishing crates found on local beaches. Although usually anchored in Fredrikstad, its location on a barge means that it is occasionally tugged to other ports as well.

Rare good news for the labor movement. In spite of Trump’s attacks on unions, or perhaps because of them, for the first time in years, labor union membership ticked up last year.

The share of American workers in unions edged up in 2025, the first rise in years despite the Trump administration’s attacks on federal government unions and the agency that enforces collective bargaining rights.

Union membership increased by a tenth of a percentage point to 10 percent last year, because of successes in union organizing and slower labor market growth.

About 14.7 million workers were union members in 2025, an increase of 410,000, according to data released by the Labor Department on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the number of workers represented by unions rose to the highest level since 2009. That figure, which represents workers covered by union contracts generally, is higher than union membership numbers, because some workers opt out of membership in unionized workplaces, even though they receive the benefits of a union contract.

Last year’s union gains coincided with numerous actions by the Trump administration aimed at weakening organized labor’s power. President Donald Trump stripped millions of federal workers of their collective bargaining rights and canceled federal union contracts. He also fired a member of the National Labor Relations Board without cause, for the first time in the agency’s 90-year history. For most of the year, the board lacked a quorum necessary to consider cases alleging violations of the National Labor Relations Act.

Despite the attacks on federal government unions, union membership in the public sector grew in 2025 and continued to be about five times higher than the private sector, at 32.9 percent. That boost came, in part, from a rise in union membership in the federal government, as tens of thousands of civil servants joined unions amid attacks on their jobs from the Trump administration.

Two quick points. First, of course the workforce is a lot bigger today than in 2009, but it’s still good news to set total worker representation highs like this. Second, we’ve seen workers respond to anti-union attacks before by flocking to their unions. My own union for example, which was pretty sclerotic when I arrived here in 2011, only had actual membership in the 50s before the Janus case put public sector unions at risk. The idea for the anti-union people in Janus is that a national right-to-work (which really means right to leech off actual members) policy for all public sector unions would mean people would leave those unions since the union would still have to represent them, member or not, thus weakening the union. But what actually happened is that unions responded by actually organizing their members internally. My own union’s membership rate is now in the high 70s. Trump’s attacks on higher education in the last year raised that from the low 70s. Sometimes, people finally do get it through their skulls why unions matter. And it helps if the unions themselves actually do the work of organizing.

So good news, let’s keep it going.

The post Union Membership Ticks Up in 2025 appeared first on Lawyers, Guns & Money.

The recent smear campaign spearheaded by Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) against His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew reinforces how the Kremlin and Moscow Patriarchate march in lockstep, weaponizing religion for geopolitical purposes while slandering the first among equals of the Orthodox Church.

By attempting to label the Ecumenical Patriarch as an “Antichrist in a cassock,” the actions of Russian authorities serve to highlight the extent to which the Moscow Patriarchate is used as an arm of state power and disinformation.

For example, European security services and political analysts have documented this unholy alliance: in parts of Northern and Eastern Europe, ecclesiastical buildings and related religious organizations have been strategically positioned near critical infrastructure and transport routes serving as cover for Russian intelligence.

On the outskirts of the strategically important city of Västerås in Sweden, the Russians have constructed a church structure that has raised significant concerns among local authorities about its true purpose and intelligence gathering capabilities.

The irony of Russian intelligence accusing the Church of Constantinople of being influenced by Western powers or a tool of foreign actors is limitless, especially considering the fusion of state and religious structures in that country.

The outburst by Russian officials is not a new phenomenon but the continuation—and escalation—of an unrelenting effort to undermine the Ecumenical Patriarchate; it is also further confirmation that for the Kremlin, Orthodoxy is yet another battlefield of information warfare. Many years ago, I detailed this trend, exposing “How Russia’s Information Warfare Targets the Church of Constantinople.”

In recent years, such nefarious tactics replete with “imaginative scenarios, fake news, insults and fabricated information…” as aptly described in the Phanar’s response to the SVR statement, have become increasingly sophisticated, targeting new converts and seekers exploring the Orthodox faith through online platforms.

Russia‑aligned voices attempt to correlate Constantinople as being manipulated by Western forces, while simultaneously elevating the Moscow Patriarchate as the only guardian of true Orthodoxy.

Notwithstanding the attacks and continued disinformation campaign, the on-the-ground reality paints a different picture. In many European countries, governments, clergy, and faithful are pushing back and slowly disentangling themselves from the Moscow Patriarchate.

For example, the government of Lithuania has formally recognized a new Exarchate under Constantinople following a 2023 visit by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to Vilnius and subsequent high-ranking engagements.

In Bulgaria and the Czech Republic, security services in those countries have launched investigations into whether the Moscow Patriarchate’s operations threaten democratic order, with Bulgaria expelling Russian-linked clergy who were working to shape political processes in favor of Kremlin interests.

Similarly, in 2024, the government of Estonia refused a residency permit extension for the local metropolitan under Moscow, citing threats to national security.

In many Russian dioceses, clergymen who refuse to endorse Moscow’s military aggression—or worse, speak out against it—are removed from their posts and often punished, with some seeking canonical refuge under the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

These examples show that it is not only Ukraine that is moving to curb or eliminate Moscow’s influence, but a broader coalition of nations who recognize the risks of a Kremlin-Moscow Patriarchate alliance infiltrating their societies.

Against this backdrop, the Ecumenical Patriarchate is not acting as a geopolitical rival, but exercising its responsibilities in line with its canonical prerogatives as conferred upon it by the Ecumenical Councils.

Moscow, by contrast, has repeatedly rejected conciliar and canonical mechanisms when they do not align with its interests, unilaterally breaking communion, boycotting pan-Orthodox gatherings—such as the 2016 Holy and Great Council in Crete—and insisting on a model of primacy rooted in political weight rather than in canonical order.

Orthodoxy finds itself at a crossroads between two contrasting visions. On one side stands Constantinople that, despite ongoing slander, seeks to serve as a unifying and pastoral center, open to dialogue and committed to the freedom of local churches within the canonical tradition. On the other stands a church‑state complex increasingly described—including by a leading Russian hierarch in Moldova—as suffering from “institutional bankruptcy.”

The more Russia’s intelligence services attempt to paint Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew as “mired in mortal sin,” the clearer this contrast becomes. The recent attacks are prompting many believers, clergy, and governments to ask which vision is faithful to Orthodoxy and free from state control.

In that sense, the campaign against the Ecumenical Patriarchate and His All-Holiness is a backhanded acknowledgment—and reminder—of their enduring moral leadership and spiritual authority. While Moscow deploys the language of intelligence services and propaganda slogans, the Phanar continues its quiet work, responding with the silence of prayer and the word of truth, confident that spiritual freedom, not secret service intrigue, is the true foundation of the Church and an authentic ecclesial life.

The post Faith Under Surveillance appeared first on Public Orthodoxy.

Team USA figure skating has had a shockingly rough Olympic run. Our “Quad God” psyched himself out, our ice dancers were robbed (don’t argue with me), and our pairs didn’t even make it to the podium. Which means, as always, it’s up to the women.

Tuesday was the women’s short program, and despite the powerhouse trio that is Alysa Liu, Amber Glenn, and Isabeau Levito—aka, the Blade Angels—only Liu (really) remains in the running to win a medal. Levito had a lovely Olympic debut, but is 8th going into Friday’s free skate, and Glenn—a gold-medal favorite, the reigning three-time U.S. champion, and the only U.S. woman landing a triple axel—made a crucial error and finished 12th. She walked off the ice in tears, and microphones picked up her saying, “I had it.” It was more heartbreaking than watching Ilia Malinin blow his entire program because she really did have it, but popped her triple loop into a double, losing a devastating seven points. 

But Liu finished third, behind Japan’s Ami Nakami and Kaori Sakamoto, which means she’s Team USA’s likely last chance to break its women’s figure skating 20-year Olympic medal drought. It’s a ton of pressure, and we’ve already watched pressure break plenty of U.S. figure skaters this Milan Cortina Olympics. But not feeling pressure is Liu’s whole thing now. And watching her skate–especially on Tuesday—you can see her sparkling mental health radiate off her. 

Alysa Liu is pure magic. 🪄

📺 @peacock & @nbc pic.twitter.com/MJSqFRr6eV

— Team USA (@TeamUSA) February 17, 2026

“I don’t know exactly what it is, but I really don’t feel, like, nervous or, like, I don’t feel the pressure,” Liu told NBC Olympics after the short program. “There’s nothing like holding me down, holding me back. I invite it all in. So no matter what happens, like, it’s a story. It’s a story.”

Liu’s story is that, in 2019, she became the youngest-ever U.S. national champion at 13—younger than Tara Lipinski. She was crowned a prodigy and basically became a minor celebrity, even going on Jimmy Fallon. But after finishing sixth in the 2022 Beijing Winter Games and winning bronze at the 2022 World Figure Skating Championship, she retired at 16 and went on to live what she called a “normal, teenage-girl, older-sister life,” like going to UCLA and hiking to Mount Everest base camp. So norm.

“Heyyyyy so I’m here to announce that I am retiring from skating,” Liu wrote in a since-deleted Instagram post. “I started skating when I was 5 so that’s about 11 years on the ice and it’s been an insane 11 years. A lot of good and a lot of bad but (you know) that’s just how it is. I’ve made so many friends, and so so sooo many good memories that I’ll have for the rest of my life.” Girlfriend was burned the fuck out. 

But legend has it that she went on a ski trip with friends and realized how deeply she missed competition, so she casually returned in March 2024 and then won the 2025 World Championships at 19. 

“I had no art to show before. People were making me skate to this [music], putting me in that dress, I had no control,” Liu told ESPN in the fall. “I didn’t even know who was making the decisions and I didn’t want to be there anyways. … The vibes are so different now. The way I was being treated before is a lot different than I am now.” Now she has halo-striped hair, a frenulum piercing, and, at least for the short program, ditched the typically bedazzled costumes for an ethereal gem-less dress. Even as a [REDACTED]-year-old who considers herself relatively well-adjusted, I’ll admit I’m completely inspired by her clarity and how fully she’s inhabited herself. 

She skates her short program to “Promise” by Laufey, a haunting and fitting piano ballad about struggling to let go of a long-term love. And while she’s always been lauded as a graceful and artistic skater, watching her skate on Tuesday was an otherworldly experience, in which we briefly entered a parallel universe where our relationships are healthy, our skin clear, and our anxieties a far and distant memory.

I can go on. It was like watching a rock skip endlessly across a glittering lake or a pair of scissors glide effortlessly across a sheet of gold wrapping paper—a visual ASMR feast. My brain? At ease. My soul? Cleansed.

“I connected with my program (today) on another level compared to the rest of the season,” she said, and scored an all-time personal best with 76.59. She got a small penalty on her triple loop, but attacked her triple Lutz-triple loop combination—the most difficult combination of any of the competitors—and landed it like it was the only thing she was put on Earth to do. 

NBC commentators (and former Olympians) Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski were also both spellbound by her performance, with Weir saying, “it’s like she skates on a cloud,” and Lipinski saying how she skates with “such freedom and lightness.” 

I want to say that I hope that lightness will float her right to the top of the Olympic podium on Thursday, but I know she doesn’t care either way, soooooo, I guess she’s already won. 

On this spot on a chilly winter's night in 1845, while returning from an evening drinking in a local pub, William Thomson, who would later go on to become Lord Kelvin, one of the greatest scientists ever to study at Glasgow University, tripped and fell into the river below. In doing so, he instantly became the coldest thing in the entire universe, and thus the concept of Absolute Zero was born.

As he pulled himself out of the water, Thomson realised he needed to create an entirely new way of measuring temperature to describe just how cold he felt after his unfortunate immersion. He named this the Kelvin Scale in honour of the river which had inspired what turned out to be the most important discovery of his illustrious career. 

This plaque was erected in 2025 by the Lord Kelvin Appreciation Society to mark the 180th anniversary of this fortuitous event.