Earlier this month, hundreds of aggrieved parents gathered outside the government office in Jinhu County, in the eastern province of Jiangsu, demanding an explanation for why 145 infants had been administered expired doses of the polio vaccine. It was China’s fifth vaccine scandal in less than seven years, and yet another blow to the country’s […]

When I was growing up, parents could often be overheard mourning the plight of teenagers who had “fallen in with a bad crowd”. You don’t hear that expression anymore, because in terms of peer groups that encourage dangerous, immoral and criminal behaviour, there’s only really one “bad crowd” to worry about: social media. This virtual […]

The rise of President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil has put the environment and human rights in peril. His promises to open the Amazon for business could result in huge deforestation and the release of vast greenhouse-gas emissions. His threats to slash fundamental environmental and indigenous rights standards that help keep the Amazon standing are a […]

Bret Stephens: Hi, Gail. I know you must be girding for the crushing defeat the Patriots will sustain this weekend. Gail Collins: My husband is from Boston and we have learned, from being a Patriots household in New York, what it means to be truly ostracized. There are probably more Republicans in our Upper West […]

MILAN — Politics is a show, and every country has its favorite. The United States is bringing on yet another Hollywood classic (the aging action hero, the desert, the border, the money). France is offering its periodic re-enactment of its Revolution, with gilets jaunes replacing sans-culottes. Germany’s national orchestra is saying goodbye to an exhausted […]

Unlike Donald Trump, the former Starbucks chief executive Howard Schultz is a genuinely successful businessman who built a company that’s become part of the daily lives of people across America. For this, those of us who are horrified by Trump’s relentless grifting should be grateful. It gives us something concrete to boycott should Schultz decide […]

Kelsey Ferrill knows firsthand what it’s like not looking like most people. The 28-year-old has spent her life making sure people didn’t notice her and always hoped they wouldn’t stare. “A lot of people don’t understand what it’s like to be different,” she said. “There are some things that happen daily you can’t forget and it […]

(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the sign-up.) Good evening. Here’s the latest. 1. $11 billion. That’s how much the five-week government shutdown cost the U.S. economy, with nearly a quarter of that total permanently lost, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. The number was released as hundreds of thousands of federal […]

An old but still potent critique has re-emerged in American politics, one that holds concentrated wealth, and perhaps American capitalism itself, as inimical to the democratic society we want to build. The basic idea holds capitalism as at best an uneasy partner with our democratic values. At worst, it erodes them completely, undermining the social […]

YORK HAVEN — A Pennsylvania man says his emotional support alligator helps him deal with his depression. Joie Henney, 65, said his registered emotional support animal named Wally likes to snuggle and give hugs, despite being a five-foot-long alligator. The York Haven man said he received approval from his doctor to use Wally as his […]