Some prophetic verses comfort us by promising that a better future will come.

Others tell us that bringing about that future requires something from us.

This week's Haftorah (Isaiah 54:1-10) does both.

Jerusalem has endured exile and loss, but Isaiah tells her not to look only at what has been destroyed. She must look ahead to what will be rebuilt.

"Enlarge the place of your tent and let the curtains of your dwellings stretch forth; do not hold back. Lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes. For you shall spread out to the right and to the left; your descendants shall inherit nations, and they shall settle desolate cities" (Isaiah 54:2-3).

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Fifty years ago today, Ronald Reagan gave one of the most important speeches of his life. While speaking to the 1976 Republican National Convention in Kansas City, Missouri, Reagan asked a powerful question: What would people of the future think if they opened a time capsule in 100 years? Would they believe Americans had met the challenges of the moment?

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In 1240, Mongol warriors led by Genghis Khan's grandson Batu besieged and destroyed Kyiv. They came for plunder.

Almost eight centuries later, another dynastic dictator is sending soldiers to fight over the same ground. He has come for something more valuable: tuition and technology.

On Sunday, President Trump posted on Truth Social that, based on his "very good relationship with Kim Jong Un," he had instructed Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to substantially reduce joint military exercises with South Korea. North Korea, the president wrote, has been "unthreatening and respectful."

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The geopolitics of the Middle East are shifting, and Saudi Arabia is the prize up for grabs. There are two possible paths forward. One involves the Saudis moving closer to the United States and Israel. The other would align them with Pakistan and Turkey. It's fair to say the future of the region may depend on which path the Saudis choose.

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Great Britain's revolving door of prime ministers accelerated in June with the resignation of Keir Starmer, its 6th leader 10 years. As Andy Burnham, the popular former mayor of Manchester, hovered in the wings, and Starmer's approval ratings plunged to an all-time low, the former prime minister was living on borrowed time.

Weak and indecisive and with his domestic policies in shambles, the media had nicknamed him Keir Stumbler.

And then there was his embarrassing feud with President Donald J. Trump over defense and foreign policy.

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This has been a terrible year for the higher education industrial complex. Among the many crises are a year and a half of assaults by the Trump administration against research grants and foreign money, discriminatory hiring and admissions policies and reliance on foreign students.

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Pope Leo XIV began an official visit to Spain (June 6–12) by urging Spaniards to embrace multicultural coexistence with Islam and stop "fanning the flames of polarization" over mass migration from the Muslim world. He said that Christians and Muslims can live together as friends and proceeded to present medieval Spain—which was occupied by Islamic invaders for nearly 800 years—as an interfaith utopia that led to advancements in astronomy, medicine, and science.

The Pope declared:

"Your own history suggests that a culture of encounter, not confrontation, is what fosters stability and prosperity....

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A century ago, the first African American to earn a doctorate from Harvard and one of the founders of the NAACP, W.E.B. DuBois published The Gift of Black Folk, a book that was commissioned by the Catholic organization the Knights of Columbus, as part of a series intended to help Americans appreciate the contributions of minority groups.

DuBois was highly educated and an avid reader of great texts from Plato to Frederick Douglass. The irony of the present moment is that if DuBois were currently a student in a core philosophy class at Texas A&M University, he would be assigned only a redacted version of Plato's great work, The Republic.

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Imagine your physician walks into the exam room, recommends a prescription medication, and casually mentions she's being paid by the company that makes the drug to say so. You'd probably have questions.

You might even find a new doctor.

Now imagine that same scenario playing out on Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube — except the advice is coming from a celebrity "influencer" who's very familiar to you, who has an emotional backstory, and a financial arrangement buried somewhere in a sea of hashtags. Millions of people encounter exactly this situation every day, and most of them have no idea it's happening.

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ANYONE WHO spends time with me knows me knows how much I despise litter. For as long as I can remember, I have fumed at the sight of trash on sidewalks, beer cans in the gutter, or garbage flung from passing cars. I often pick up litter when I'm walking, and when my kids were young I made them pick it up, too.

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