The Catholic Church is experiencing a mini revival in Britain, driven by a new generation of converts.

While the average Briton is more likely than ever to be a non-believer, new research shows that among Generation Z and younger millennials, Catholics now outnumber Anglicans by more than two to one.

'The Quiet Revival'
According to a Bible Society-commissioned YouGov survey of more than 13,000 people, 41% of churchgoers aged 18 to 35 in England and Wales identify as Catholic, while 20% belong to the Church of England and 18% identify as Pentecostal. Across all ages, Catholics now make up 31% of churchgoers, compared to 23% when a similar survey was last carried out, in 2018.

The report, entitled "The Quiet Revival", found that the number of people aged 18-24 attending church has quadrupled, from 4% in 2018 to 16% in 2024. Co-author Dr Rhiannon McAleer said the numbers "completely reverse the widely held assumption that the Church in England and Wales is in terminal decline".

And young adults are showing "renewed interest not only in being part of a church but also in prayer, reading the Bible and social activism based on faith", said The Tablet. 

'Clarity and certainty'
Immigration likely accounts for at least some of the growth, said The Tablet. "Many migrants from countries such as Poland, Ukraine and South America are Catholic."

"But something else is happening too," said The Telegraph: "conversions". Young people are looking for "clarity and certainty", Archbishop Mark O’Toole of Cardiff told the newspaper. "They are not extremist or fundamentalist, but they have been looking for something and the words they use a lot about the Catholic Church is coherence and consistency."

For Gen Z, "the dawn of social media has heralded a new age of Christian influencers who preach to and convert their followers through the white light of a phone screen" instead of through "ornate cathedrals, Latin Mass and rigid orthodoxy", said Premier Christianity. "Just as their own parents raged against the machine", for some Gen-Zers, "traditional Catholicism has become a beacon of cultural defiance".

The island of Taiwan has long trusted in US support in the face of aggression from China. But, in this "new, unpredictable era" of Donald Trump upending global relationships, said NikkeiAsia, Taiwan finds itself seeking new security allies while "trying to keep Trump happy".

Why is Taiwan worried about US support?
Taiwan's decades-old "security relationship" with the US has been "less than assured" since Trump returned to the White House, said The Guardian. His "dramatic abandonment of Ukraine", in particular, "left many on the island wondering if its most important partner might not be so reliable anymore". 

The US president has also publicly accused Taiwan of "stealing" America's semiconductor-chip industry, and his "Liberation Day" tariffs would place a 32% levy on imports from Taiwan. Although those plans have been paused, "the confusing signals" have left "Taipei wondering where it stands", said The Washington Post.

What is Taiwan's approach to the US?
President William Lai Ching-te has committed to raising Taiwan's defence spending to more than 3% of its GDP – a move designed to reassure Trump, who had accused Taipei of not "spending enough on its own defence", said NPR.

Taiwan's giant semiconductor company TSMC has also committed to investing $100 billion in US-based factories. Increasing economic dependence on the US in this way "could placate" Trump, said The Spectator, but it may also "become a way for Trump to exert more pressure in the future".

Where else could Taiwan look for security?
"Relying entirely" on the US is "no longer a viable path forward", wrote Taiwan's former culture minister Yingtai Lung in The New York Times. One solution could be to "reconcile with China". But any such rapprochement can only come through "mutual respect, equal footing and the guarantee of freedom" from Beijing, said John Cheng in the Taipei Times – and right now, "that is not on the table".

Taiwan could also look to Europe, which would welcome greater "technology cooperation" with Taiwan, said the European Council on Foreign Relations. In return, Europe could provide "low-key support to enhance" Taiwan's experience in "information warfare" and in "countering hybrid threats" such as undersea cable sabotage and cyberattacks.

"The hottest chocolate in town is from Dubai," said The Telegraph. The "doorstep-sized slab", packed with "an oozing mixture" of green pistachios, tahini and shredded filo pastry, is the "star of countless TikTok clips".

Sarah Hamouda, a British-Egyptian engineer living in Dubai, came up with the idea for the original "Dubai chocolate" back in 2021, when she was pregnant and craving the flavours of her mother's knafeh (a traditional Middle Eastern dessert made with shredded filo, soft cheese and syrup).

In December 2023, a TikTok video of food influencer Maria Vehera tasting Hamouda's "Can't Get Knefah Of It" bar went viral. Hamouda told The New York Times her company received 30,000 orders within days of the video appearing online.

Her bar is "made for social media", said the BBC. Online fans have delighted in its crisp "crunch" and "exclusivity" – the original Fix Dessert bar costs around £15 and is only available in Dubai or Abu Dhabi. It can only be bought during "specific hours" of the day and sells out "within minutes".

Countless imitation bars have now appeared in UK supermarkets and corner shops. Nicknamed "Dubai chocolate", these bars have become so popular that Waitrose had to implement a two-bars-per-customer limit after launching Lindt's version in March. Priced at £10 a bar, the "melt-in-your-mouth" Swiss chocolate is filled with the "finest pistachio paste", said London's The Standard. Delicious.

Scunthorpe steelworks debacle must be a wake-up call for Labour and an end to Miliband's eco-madness
The Sun's editorial board
The government's "last-minute intervention may have saved" Scunthorpe's steelworks "for now", says The Sun, but what about the plant's "massive daily losses of £700,000"? Taxpayers face "coughing up hundreds of millions" to keep it going, but British Steel cannot "compete globally" if the government "wilfully" sticks with "Net Zero madness" and saddles the UK with high energy costs. Keir Starmer says he's a "pragmatist"; let this "debacle" be "a wake-up call".

Trump isn't ending the war in Ukraine, he's prolonging it
Lisa Haseldine in The Telegraph
Donald Trump boasted that he would end the war in Ukraine in "24 hours", writes Lisa Haseldine, but, "nearly three months into his second term", the US president is "no closer" to "forcing" Moscow to the "negotiating table". The "carrots" that his team are dangling in front of Vladimir Putin are "unlikely to work": "showing your best negotiating cards" before discussions have begun won't "win you any concessions from your opponent".

I'm not the only British tourist with a passport horror story
Charlotte Cripps in The Independent
For those of us with a UK passport, "nothing is certain" anymore, writes Charlotte Cripps. It's like having a "VIP pass that's been deactivated". Brits are "being turned away" from flights or "deported on arrival", as we get "caught out by changes to EU passport rules after Brexit". Holidaymakers are having to "cancel holidays" because of "incorrect advice" about passport expiry dates. "Travelling while British" has become "such a palaver".