In a recent visit to a section of a famous ancient Ethiopian monastery where “men only” are allowed, high ranking female officials who were travelling with the Taoiseach had to remain outside the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion monastery. When questioned, a spokesman for the Taoiseach said: “It is appropriate to respect the […]

Theresa May’s date with EU fate comes tomorrow and all the omens appear rather discouraging. She is most unlikely to get the necessary MPs’ approval for her unloved EU-UK divorce deal and is probably in line for a very heavy defeat, opening further weeks of uncertainty. On Tuesday, the UK House of Commons is at […]

Lindsey Jarratt’s son, Brayden, was a year old when the Child Protective Services of Dinwiddie, Va., took him to live with strangers. There are things about the months surrounding that moment that Ms. Jarratt can’t remember — heroin has a way of erasing time. But this much is still etched in her mind: how he […]

(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the sign-up.) Good morning. President Trump’s impending political war, China’s aggressive ambitions in Africa, and Nissan’s unexpected popularity in Britain. Here’s the latest: Perils mount for the Trump presidency. The shift of power in Congress and news reports are combining to confront President Trump with the prospect […]

Talk about a master class in “How They Do Things in Albany.” To keep a legislative pay increase but lose new restrictions on lawmakers’ outside income, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie is piggybacking onto a lawsuit by a conservative legal group that is seeking to overturn the raise. In case you haven’t been following at home: […]

I’d like to apologize to all the “banana republics” I’ve offended over the decades with snarky references to their dysfunction. This is karma: I now live in a nation where a petulant president has shut down much of the most powerful government in the world — so the White House isn’t even paying its water […]

Monday, Jan. 7 5:30 a.m. It’s the first full day I am furloughed, but I’m not sleeping in. My wife goes to a hot yoga class on Monday and she gets up at 5:30 a.m. to get there on time. I get up then, too, because she needs every light on. 6:43 a.m. The kids […]

Imagine having to pass protesters on your way into court, where a judge is ready to deal with your divorce application, because some people believe marriage ought to be “till death us do part”. Or how about having to make your way past a blockade to access a family planning clinic? What if you had […]

It is hard not to conclude that loyalty is for losers. And in no area is this more true than when it comes to general insurance. The business we give insurers for covering our cars and homes in the event of something untoward happening gets little reward. Instead, more often than not, we end up […]

The Democratic Republic of Congo, the former Zaire, is one of the richest countries of the world in natural resources. But it also has a long and dismal history of colonial exploitation, dictatorial rule and war that has left its citizens among the poorest people of the world. That is not a soil in which […]