In recent weeks, Apple’s Live Translation for the latest iPhone and AirPods models has been everywhere. The pitch is simple: Two people speaking different languages can understand each other instantly. In the same season, Congress moved to trim federal support for international and area studies under Title VI, and agencies have begun signaling...Read more

Airport security is a necessary evil to enjoy the privilege of air travel. Most of us would prefer just to pack our bags, go to the airport, and get on a plane. For nearly all travelers, the air system would remain just as secure as it is today. However, a few “bad actors” make it necessary for all of us to traverse through the airport ...Read more

Other than frustration at surging migration, Latin America has not merited the same level of attention in Washington as the Middle East, Europe or Asia in recent history. That indifference has ended with the second Trump administration, but the nature of our renewed attention is not exactly what many of our neighbors might have hoped for.

...Read more

Sarah stared at us — her knees shaking, hands trembling, eyes holding back tears — and asked: “Where do I go now?”

Sarah, whose real name I’ve withheld to protect her privacy, had just courageously left her abusive partner when she arrived at our center, the Nashville Office of Family Safety. But now, she found herself without a place...Read more

The Amazon Holiday Kids Gift Book, which just recently hit mailboxes months ahead of Christmas, has become the modern child’s wish book — a glossy stand-in for the toy store aisles their parents once roamed. It sparks the same giddy anticipation that used to come from pressing noses to store windows, something today’s kids see in old-timey...Read more

Back in 2007, President George W. Bush was being challenged on his opposition to the Children’s Health Insurance Program — which provides health coverage for children in families too poor to afford private insurance, yet too “wealthy” to qualify for Medicaid. His response was honest, if characteristically clumsy: “People have access to...Read more

This year’s Nobel Prize for economics is unusually pertinent. It honors three scholars who, in different ways, have tried to understand why innovation happens and how it promotes economic growth. These questions have never seemed more pressing.

Technological progress shows no sign of stalling. Quite the opposite: Artificial intelligence ...Read more

“Nobody signed up for this.” That’s the reaction I keep getting from military and National Guard veterans about President Donald Trump’s deployment of troops to U.S. cities over the objections of Democratic mayors and governors.

They worry that the very thing military members enlist to do — to serve and protect the country — is ...Read more

When I led U.S. European Command from 2009 to 2013, Israel and the Levant were part of my geographic area of responsibility. I often went to Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, the West Bank and, yes, the Gaza Strip. It was a daunting part of my remit, and I sought advice from a longtime mentor: Henry Kissinger, who knew a thing or two about the Middle East.

...Read more

It’s been a rough week or so for gubernatorial candidate (and former representative) Katie Porter — the kind of stretch that makes you wonder if her campaign bus runs on gas or spite.

First, Porter, 51, threatened to walk out of an interview with a local CBS affiliate after the interviewer had the unmitigated gall — gall! — to ask her ...Read more

Huzzah, hosanna and hallelujah: To U.S. President Donald Trump for brokering a ceasefire that could, possibly, mark the beginnings of peace between Israelis and Palestinians. To the hostages and their families, who are reunited at last. To the Gazans who can finally face their trauma without new bombs dropping on them. And yet, and yet.

It may ...Read more

President Donald Trump’s executive order designating antifa as a “domestic terrorist organization” was never really about antifa. It was about building a template for repression. Now, with his latest order on “Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence,” the blueprint is clear: free expression, political dissent ...Read more

Now that the Missouri GOP has jettisoned any quaint notions of fair and equal representation and moved to blatantly disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of Kansas City-area Democrats, what can responsible Missourians (of any political persuasion) do to stop them?

Plenty. Citizens can join the effort to put the issue to a statewide vote next ...Read more

A new study reveals that programs intended to reduce agriculture water use are the most effective means of stretching the Colorado River’s scarce resources. This should be self-evident but tends to get lost amid rhetoric about urban water consumption.

The analysis, by the Journal of the American Water Resources Association, examined more than...Read more

A mounting biosecurity crisis is unfolding in U.S. laboratories, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention knows it. Newly published data from the agency show that imported monkeys infected with tuberculosis —the world’s deadliest infectious disease — are slipping through federal quarantine and into American research facilities.

...Read more

Heather Reams, the president of Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions (CRES), stepped onto the stage at Breckenridge’s Mountain Towns 2030 summit — a room full of progressives accustomed to negotiating with Republicans on climate policy. She faced an audience from Idaho, Wyoming, Utah and Colorado — areas that often depend on ...Read more

President Donald Trump deserves credit for the current ceasefire in the bloody war in Gaza and freeing the remaining hostages.

But the military and human cost of the war was steep, and big questions remain.

Such as: How long will the ceasefire last? Will an Arab-Muslim peace force be sufficient to disarm Hamas and police the strip so Israel’...Read more

The most important optic of President Donald Trump’s Gaza summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, was who was absent from the roster of world leaders standing behind him as he declared peace had come to the Middle East.

Among the missing were the key players who will determine whether the president’s 20-point peace plan for Gaza ever gets beyond ...Read more

We’ve all heard the refrain that crime is down in Chicago — and, in general, that’s true. But while shootings and homicides overall have fallen, one category of violence has grown alarmingly worse: domestic violence.

Homicides in Chicago are down nearly 30% and fatal shootings have dropped by 32% year over year, according to city data.

...Read more

Finance ministers and central bankers, gathering in Washington for the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund, face a global trading system in disarray, uncertainty over the dollar’s standing and the likely course of interest rates, and financial markets that are (for now) unnervingly complacent.

Amid all these challenges, ...Read more