2026-01-12 12:00:15
What happens when an American dramatically assumes absolute power over a country with intercontinental reach? Chicago-born Robert Francis Prevost, better known as Pope Leo XIV, has held autocratic sway over Vatican City since May 2025. His mild-mannered pastoral persona — front and center in the collegial gathering of cardinals to discuss theology and ministry in the Vatican last week — obscures the fact that papal governance mirrors the monarchies of Brunei, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Eswatini (for
2026-01-12 04:00:15
Indonesia’s first president, Sukarno, famously titled his 1964 independence day address Tahun vivere pericoloso — the year of living dangerously. The phrase, later immortalized in a book and film, captured a period of deep political and economic turmoil.
2026-01-12 03:00:15
The tariffs imposed by the US became the big economic story of 2025, as much for what they didn't do as for the disruption they engendered and outcry they caused. They might be shouldering too great a burden.
2026-01-11 21:00:17
Let’s resolve to have the courage to speak up more in 2026. I realize this is easy for me to say; I’m a columnist. But I live in Florida, where I have many friends who have been Trump supporters and who are privately queasy about what they see as brazen corruption coming from President Donald Trump and his administration. While there is widespread support for the ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, many wanted more transparency about the threat to our national interest. Yet, they don’
2026-01-11 21:00:17
After a drubbing in 2024 and a rocky start to 2025, Democrats are showing signs of life. The chaos coming out of the White House and the unaddressed cost-of-living crisis have set up an issue matrix that is favorable to their party as it seeks to win the House in the midterms. Almost every generic congressional ballot poll since July has Democrats ahead of Republicans; the party needs only a net gain of three seats to make Representative Hakeem Jeffries the first Black Speaker of the House. Stil
2026-01-11 21:00:15
A superpower is zapping drug boats, on shaky legal premises, and snatching foreign leaders in the dead of night. From Greenland to Ukraine to the Himalayas, strong countries are redrawing — or threatening to redraw — the borders of weaker neighbors. International law and arms control agreements are unraveling as strategic rivalry intensifies. The incidence of armed conflict is surging as curbs on aggression erode. Freedom of navigation has been challenged in crucial waterways, from the Red Sea t
