Let us leave aside for a moment Micheal Martin’s statement that Fianna Fail’s continued support of the Fine Gael-led minority Government was a decision taken in the “national interest” at a time of Brexit, other than to state at the outset that the decision is clearly in the national interest. And let us look instead […]

(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the sign-up.) Good morning, We start today with a new criminal inquiry involving President Trump, the Senate’s rebuke of Saudi Arabia, and the eastward migration of big technology companies. Prosecutors turn to groups tied to President Trump Federal prosecutors are examining whether foreigners illegally funneled donations to […]

When I walk into services on Sunday morning, I’m usually about 30 minutes late. Our 6-month-old wakes up from his morning nap at 10, right when the first chords of a hymn begin to be played in our San Francisco church. My husband and I rush to get the baby dressed, fed and in the […]

As a psychiatrist, I’ve long wondered why some people get ill in the face of stress and adversity — either mentally or physically — while others rarely succumb. We know, for example, that not everyone gets PTSD after exposure to extreme trauma, while some people get disabling depression with minimal or no stress. Likewise, we […]

For German car makers and Italian Prosecco producers, it’s still a case of mum’s the word. And the silence from Spanish wine sellers and the Dutch cheese sector has been equally deafening. And therein lies the ultimate tale of Brexit. Members of the EU fraternity – despite all sorts of speculation to the contrary – […]

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — It’s awkward to find yourself in a police state interviewing people about their leader’s penchant for starving children, torturing women or dismembering critics. The result is nervous smiles. And long pauses in the conversation. It’s sad because on this visit, I found Saudi Arabia truly is changing under Crown Prince Mohammed […]

As our December days fuse into an endless, unbroken night, we have one small solace: holiday lights. So beautiful, aren’t they? Glowing white lights adding a cheerful twinkle to the season. When it comes to lighting up the world, who wouldn’t appreciate a frenetically blinking “Happy Holidays” message on a rural water tower? Who doesn’t […]

A recession might be just around the corner, but for experts in the field of “authoritarian studies,” these are boom times. Jonathan Weiler, a political scientist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has spent much of his career studying the appeal of authoritarian figures: politicians who preach xenophobia, beat up on the […]

“The race is not to the swift,” we learn from Ecclesiastes, “nor the battle to the strong.” But as Damon Runyan once wrote, that’s the way to bet. One of my students at the University of Washington, where I taught animal behavior and evolutionary biology, once asked me if the Bible was inconsistent with evolution […]

LONDON — I’ve recently been struck by how much following British politics reminds me of watching “Lost,” the long-running TV series from the early 2000s. The show was about a group of plane-crash survivors and was built on a bewildering structure of flashbacks, flash-forwards and, by Season 6, flash-sidewayses. It featured mysterious number sequences, a […]