Traditions can have extraordinary power, making us think we can almost reach out and touch our great-great-grandmother. It can be reassuring to feel we are a link in the family necklace, with no beginning and no end. It’s also no bad thing to let go of some forced traditions that don’t fit our lives anymore. […]

To the Editor: Re “Put Down the Clubs, Visit the Troops” (editorial, Dec. 17): Forget about visiting the troops; President Trump should just withdraw them. We’ve been in Afghanistan since 2001 and in Iraq since 2003. And Americans are still dying in both countries. Enough is enough. Ira D. CohenNorth Bergen, N.J. Source: Read Full […]

WATCH: This is a three-part film series. Scroll down and click to play any episode. Russia’s meddling in the United States’ elections is not a hoax. It’s the culmination of Moscow’s decades-long campaign to tear the West apart. “Operation InfeKtion” reveals the ways in which one of the Soviets’ central tactics — the promulgation of […]

To the Editor: Re “Health Care Act Is Struck Down by Federal Judge” (front page, Dec. 15): If the Supreme Court majority from several years ago holds, the district court decision holding the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional will be overruled. And, if the midterms are any indication, the judge may have given Democrats a winning […]

Julián Castro really wants to be president. That much was clear on Thursday when I sat down with him and his identical twin brother, Joaquín, for an interview over dinner in a Midtown Manhattan steakhouse. Julián, a self-described progressive, is the former secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the former mayor […]

It was once a thriving village by the sea, where a good income from fish and prawn farming meant residents could enjoy attractive homes with spacious yards. Now, Pantai Bahagia, which means “happy beach” in Bahasa Indonesia, is anything but that. One-third of the settlement in Bekasi district, just outside Jakarta, has been swallowed by […]

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Malaysia’s largest asset management firm Permodalan Nasional Bhd and state pension fund Employees Provident Fund (EPF) have agreed to jointly acquire the commercial assets at London’s Battersea Power Station for 1.58 billion pounds ($2 billion), both funds said on Monday. The assets were acquired from a consortium made of Malaysian property […]

Young or old? Female or male? White, black or Latino? The first stage of the 2020 presidential campaign — the jockeying stage — is underway, and Democrats are trying to figure out who the ideal candidate is. They’re asking the wrong questions, though. Demographic identity matters much less than people often imagine. Think about it: […]

Theresa May is back in the cauldron of the British parliament today as she delivers a report on her ill-starred trip to the EU summit last Thursday and Friday. And tomorrow she faces another gruelling meeting with her cabinet. The past week’s events further drained her already diminished authority and she is in the final […]

To the Editor: Re “When a Foster Child Runs Away, the City’s Solution Is Often Arrest” (news article, Dec. 7): Aside from the fact that leaving a foster home is not a crime, the use of warrants and arrests actively undermines the work of foster care providers. When youths leave their foster homes, they are […]