In France’s lower house of Parliament, a top opposition lawmaker held up a small vial for all her colleagues to see. Its contents, she warned in a fiery speech this week, were “spreading despair” around the country. “Must we wait for your office to be infested before you finally react?” the lawmaker, Mathilde Panot, told […]
Read MoreTag: Politics and Government
Pope Francis Implores the World to Save a Planet Near ‘the Breaking Point’
Pope Francis on Wednesday implored the world to protect the “suffering” planet, lamenting that scant progress had been made in the eight years since he refocused the Roman Catholic Church more fully on environmental issues in a landmark and widely praised treatise. “With the passage of time, I have realized that our responses have not […]
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U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak Cancels Key Part of HS2 Rail Project
As Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of Britain took to a stage in Manchester on Wednesday to give his first Conservative conference speech as party leader, he seemed determined to cast himself as a man of action who would rebuild his economically depleted country. But undercutting his claim to be a builder, Mr. Sunak’s most important […]
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How Gerontocracy Explains the Matt Gaetz Clown Show
You can analyze the circus in the House of Representatives in terms of personalities (the bland ambition of Kevin McCarthy colliding with the antic, made-for-television career of Matt Gaetz) or in terms of the nature of the Republican coalition (united only by anti-liberalism and rabble-rousing, and therefore held hostage to the most shameless rabble-rouser). But […]
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An 8-Year-Old Is at the Heart of a Fight Over Tibetan Buddhism
The boy had seemed destined for a life of affluence and earthly pursuits. Born into the family behind a major mining conglomerate in Mongolia, he might have been picked to someday lead the company from its steel-and-glass headquarters in the country’s capital. Instead, the 8-year-old is now at the heart of a struggle between the […]
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Iran’s Captive Minds
In June 2014, Dina Esfandiary and Ariane Tabatabai wrote an article in The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, making the case that Iran had “genuine and reasonable concerns” about its nuclear fuel supplies and that it would need many more centrifuges to become energy independent. There had to be “a mechanism to guarantee Iranian supply,” […]
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Americans Deserve Better From the House of Representatives
The U.S. Capitol may be perched on a hill, but it is understandable why so many Americans look down on it. One of the main reasons is that their Congress, which ought to be a global beacon of liberal values, continues to succumb to self-inflicted paralysis. How else can it be that fewer than a […]
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Greenland Indigenous Women Demand Compensation for Involuntary IUDs
Dozens of Indigenous women and girls from Greenland have said that they had intrauterine devices inserted without their consent in the 1960s and 1970s and have filed a complaint with the Danish government, demanding compensation. The women said they were among thousands affected by a Danish government campaign to control the growth of Greenland’s Indigenous […]
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Here’s How Many Votes Kevin McCarthy Needs to Survive
Kevin McCarthy’s fate could be determined by just a handful of votes. Precisely how many he needs to survive — or how many his opponents need to oust him — depends on how many House members show up to vote. Before the House votes on the resolution to remove Mr. McCarthy, they will first consider […]
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As Trump’s Legal Woes Have Escalated, So Have His Violent Remarks
Former President Donald J. Trump had a lot to say on the first day of the fraud trial against him and his company. Speaking to reporters at a Manhattan courthouse on Monday, he dismissed the judge as a “rogue” justice and said he did not “think the people of this country are going to stand […]
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Sunak’s UK Conservative Party Conference Haunted by Truss and Other Rivals
Perhaps it’s inevitable for a political party that has held power in Britain for nearly 14 years, but the Conservative Party’s annual conference is rattling with the restless ghosts of its past and future. On Monday, Liz Truss, the prime minister ousted a year ago after her proposed tax cuts upended financial markets, stole the […]
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Telling the Truth About Mexico, and Dying for It
Unable to protect journalists where they work, Mexico resorted to hiding them in safe houses across the country. After years of increasing entanglement with criminal groups, the Mexican government is in some sense in a battle with itself, with case after case in which the government is, or at least appears to be, as involved […]
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Town’s Revolt Reveals Larger German Concerns About Arming Ukraine
When government leaders in Saxony learned that Rheinmetall, Germany’s most prominent arms manufacturer, was considering building a new munitions factory in the former East German state, they saw visions of economic boom. It was a chance, they thought, to capitalize on the city’s storied airfield — home to the Red Baron in World War I, […]
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China Is Suffering a Brain Drain. The U.S. Isn’t Exploiting It.
They went to the best universities in China and in the West. They lived middle-class lives in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen and worked for technology companies at the center of China’s tech rivalry with the United States. Now they are living and working in North America, Europe, Japan, Australia — and just about any developed […]
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UN Approves Kenya’s Mission to Stabilize Haiti
The United Nations Security Council on Monday authorized a yearlong multinational security mission for Haiti, led by Kenya, aimed at cracking down on rampant gang violence that has unraveled life for many on the Caribbean nation. The 15-member United Nations Security Council voted to authorize a security mission that would guard critical infrastructure such as […]
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Ethnic Serbs in Northern Kosovo Feel ‘Trapped’ by Politics
After ethnic Serbian gunmen stormed the small village of Banjska in Kosovo last week and fought a deadly battle with Kosovar forces, Serbia deployed thousands of military forces along Kosovo’s border, and the White House denounced the move as “destabilizing.” The violence raised fears that this troubled Balkan region could be plunged into a wider […]
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Kenya’s Plan to Help Stabilize Haiti Goes to U.N. Security Council Vote
In one attack, gang members opened fire on people called to a protest by a church leader. In another, they set seven people on fire. And after months of escalating violence in Haiti, hundreds if not thousands have been killed — spurring a desperate vigilante movement against the gangs and a mass flight from Haiti’s […]
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China Evergrande’s Founder: The Rise and Fall of Hui Ka Yan
Hui Ka Yan founded the real estate behemoth China Evergrande. His promise to transform rural villages to metropolises with middle-class comforts made him one of China’s wealthiest people. He rubbed shoulders with officials in the highest levels of government, celebrating the Communist Party’s 100th anniversary in 2021 at Tiananmen Square. Now, he is being investigated […]
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Vatican Synod Puts Catholic Church’s Most Sensitive Issues on the Table
Throughout his decade as leader of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis has allowed debates on previously taboo topics and set in motion subtle shifts toward liberalizing changes that have enraged conservatives for going too far and frustrated progressives for not going far enough. This month, starting on Wednesday, Francis’ desire for the church to […]
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What Is a Synod in the Catholic Church? And Why Does This One Matter?
Even for a Roman Catholic Church rife with esoteric terminology that often defies comprehension by the uninitiated, this month’s Synod on Synodality at the Vatican — essentially a major workshop for church leaders and lay people on how to work together for the good of the church — has proved mystifyingly meta for many of […]
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Slovakia Appears Set to Join the Putin Sympathizers After Election
The victory of Robert Fico, a former prime minister who took a pro-Russian campaign stance, in Slovakia’s parliamentary elections is a further sign of eroding support for Ukraine in the West as the war drags on and the front line remains largely static. Slovakia is a small country with historical Russian sympathies, and the nature […]
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In Poland, Supporters of Opposition March in Warsaw Ahead of Key Election
Huge crowds marched through Poland’s capital, Warsaw, on Sunday, converging around a giant flag commemorating a 1945 uprising against Nazi Germany, as opponents of the governing party sought to rally voters for a critical general election that they see as the last chance to save the country’s hard-won democratic freedoms. The Warsaw city government, which […]
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Shutdown Avoided
A government shutdown seemed all but certain. Millions of federal workers and members of the military braced for late paychecks. National parks planned to close. Then came a stunning reversal. Last night, Congress approved a stopgap plan to keep the federal government open until mid-November, avoiding a shutdown just hours before the midnight deadline. A […]
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Trailing in Polls, U.K.’s Conservatives Look to Unleash the ‘Real Rishi’ Sunak
When Rishi Sunak arrives at the Conservative Party’s annual conference on Sunday, it will be his first as Britain’s prime minister. The question looming for many attendees in the cavernous venue in Manchester is whether it could also be his last. Facing a general election within 16 months, Mr. Sunak has restored some stability after […]
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Dianne Feinstein’s Lasting Impact on Women in Office
“I was so inspired that I drove six hours to L.A. in a falling-apart Toyota and slept on somebody’s floor,” Ms. Schaaf, now 57, recalled. Decades later, after a career as a lawyer and a political aide, Ms. Schaaf won a seat on the Oakland City Council and, in 2015, became the second woman to […]
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Why Can’t We Stop Unauthorized Immigration? Because It Works.
Periodically, American presidents have tried to release pressure from these systems by granting amnesty or temporary protection from deportation to large groups of migrants, as Biden recently did for Venezuelans. But these are short-term Band-Aids that do little to affect the ongoing causes of illegal immigration and still leave millions of workers vulnerable to abuse. […]
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The Hottest New Accessory in Niger? A Russian Flag.
Young people in West African capitals wave the flags at protests or as they race through cities on motorcycles. Tailors sew dozens of them a day in the narrow alleys of buzzing markets. Taxi drivers put them on their dashboards. Among the sea of flags flying high in a burst of patriotic fervor in Burkina […]
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Tight Finish in Slovak Vote Makes Government’s Shape Hard to Predict
Two exit polls released early Sunday after Slovakia’s parliamentary election showed a tight finish between a liberal party that wants to maintain robust support for Ukraine in its war with Russia and a Russia-friendly populist party, in a vote that many in Europe saw as a bellwether of support for the war. But neither of […]
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Running San Francisco Made Dianne Feinstein
When I was interviewing Senator Dianne Feinstein in 2011 for a book about San Francisco’s tumultuous history from the 1960s to the ’80s, she suddenly began to tear off her microphone and terminate the exchange. My offense? I asked about her decision as mayor of the city to veto a 1982 ordinance that would have […]
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San Francisco Mourns Its Homegrown Senator and the End of the Feinstein Era
Even as a senator, Dianne Feinstein didn’t hesitate to share her gripes about San Francisco’s uneven sidewalks and dirty streets with the mayors who succeeded her. She was traveling in a car several years ago past the Sutter-Stockton Garage, a downtown parking structure, and was frustrated to see a ratty mattress propped up against a […]
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Republicans’ Promises to Combat Fentanyl Fall Flat With Some Voters
The official toxicology report states that Andrea Cahill’s son died at 19 years old from an accidental fentanyl overdose. But more than three years after Tyler Cahill’s death in his childhood bedroom, she doesn’t believe that. It was a poisoning, she says, and there is no question about whom to blame: “the cartels.” Ms. Cahill […]
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