When it comes to Albany, every labored step out of the ethical muck is something to celebrate. For this reason, it was a relief on Thursday that a committee set up to determine lawmakers’ pay enacted reforms limiting outside income and eliminating most committee stipends, known as “lulus,” alongside a salary increase. The pay committee, […]

Theresa May has been stomping the length and breadth of the United Kingdom to make the case that her Brexit deal with the European Union is the only way to bring a divided country together. She hopes that the public will put pressure on members of parliament to eventually back the agreement even if they […]

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Private equity firm KKR & Co Inc (KKR.N) has led a $100 million investment in Cross River Bank, a community bank that powers some of the most well known financial technology startups in the United States, the companies said on Thursday. Chinese fintech conglomerate CreditEase, LionTree Partners and existing investors Andreessen […]

Planning your calendar for 2019? Here are a few events to look out for. JANUARY NEPAL, January: Nepal’s first professional midwives are born as part of the country’s effort to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality rates. Twenty-nine students are expected to graduate from bachelor of midwifery programs at the National Academy of Medical Science and […]

Hanukkah — the Jewish “Festival of Lights” — is often dismissed as a minor celebration, artificially magnified by its proximity in the calendar to Christmas. The Jewish holiday is indeed not mentioned in the Torah, as the event it celebrates took place long after biblical times. Minor, though, it is not. On a superficial level, […]

Forty-five years ago, members of the American Psychiatric Association decided, by a slim 58 percent majority, to remove “homosexuality” from the list of mental disorders in its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. In his old age, the great gay rights activist Frank Kameny recalled Dec. 15, 1973, as the day “when we were […]

If you really want to understand contemporary Mexico, skip “Narcos” and watch the series “Un Extraño Enemigo” instead. The drama about the horrifying crackdown on the student movement on the eve of the 1968 Mexico City Olympics captures the essence of one-party authoritarianism under the long-ruling PRI, the Institutional Revolutionary Party. Its characters are the commander of internal […]

Last year’s G20 is remembered for the moment when Donald Trump flew off in a huff, leaving differences on issues like climate change unresolved. This year, few Western leaders are likely to have any grand illusions when they arrive in Buenos Aires for this weekend’s 2018 summit. For many, it seems, the U.S. president is […]

At least four current and former big city mayors are thought to be considering a bid for the White House when voters go to the polls in 2020. These candidates range from representatives of the progressive left like Bill de Blasio to more business-oriented mayors like Michael Bloomberg, who preceded de Blasio as mayor of […]

We are what we consume. Such a materialistic view of the world will not be shared by most people, nor is it shared by this writer. But how people spend their money reveals many things. Thanks to the wonders of modern data, we know a lot not only about what the nation’s households spend their […]