Over the past decade, Cuba’s private sector has experienced slow-but-steady growth thanks to a mix of entrepreneurial grit and incremental policy changes. Although the Communist government continues to waffle on the scope and duration of various restrictions, the number of self-employed Cubans has risen from 150,000 to 600,000 since 2010 – that is, until the outbreak of the global health pandemic. COVID-19 has brought new challenges to the Cuban economy. Declines in travel and tourism have meant merce and less...

The attorney general of New York state, Letitia James, fired a shot across the bow of the National Rifle Association last week, filing a lawsuit to “dissolve” the nation’s largest gun rights organization “in its entirety.” This punitive legal action is aimed like a Gatling gun at our civic foundations. James charged four NRA officials with defrauding the New York-based nonprofit of $64 million over three years to finance a lavish lifestyle for themselves, their families, and friends. The specific...

Propelled by an expansion in economic opportunity and the resounding cultural call to “follow your passion,” we increasingly imagine our work through lenses of calling, vocation, and “meaning-making.” From there, peting philosophies of life abound. For the Christian, such a development inspires us to orient our hearts beyond merely materialistic transactions, redefining our work not as a means of self-fulfillment, but rather as service to our neighbors and thus to God. When directed toward the call of Christ, our economic...

On Monday, the Lebanese government resigned. Public pressure on the government had been relentless in the wake of two devastating explosions on the afternoon of August 4 at the port in the nation’s capital city, Beirut. The explosions caused at least 220 deaths, 7,000 injuries, billions in property damage, and have left hundreds of thousands homeless. These explosions were caused by the ignition of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate stored in an unsecured warehouse at Beirut’s cargo port. The ammonium...

The conservative movement in America has always been evolving. From the old right of the progressive era to the conservative intellectual movement identified with William F. Buckley Jr. and National Review to the Reagan revolution to today, the political right in America has changed with the challenges it has faced and with the context of the times in which it has existed. The current iteration of the conservative movement is today more nationalist, more populist and more skeptical, if not...

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Why would a movement dedicated to black advancement want to dismantle the family, when fatherlessness is associated with every social malady from poverty and crime to delinquency and low self-esteem? Is the racially tinged socialism promoted by Black Lives patible with the U.S. Constitution? And why does BLM demand that America pay reparations to nations where terrorists have attacked U.S. soldiers or civilians? I had the privilege of discussing these issues and more on Tuesday, August 11, on “The Lars...

Jimmy Lai, the Hong Kong-based entrepreneur and dissident, says he would gladly be arrested again, because advocating for human freedom is part of his character. And until China respects the freedom embedded in human nature, peace will not return to his formerly free province – or the world. More than 200 police officers stormed the offices of Lai’s newspaper, Apple Daily on August 10 under the terms of the nation’s draconian new “national security law.” They handcuffed the 71-year-old Christian,...