A frantic search for any signs of life amid a broken building flattened by an airstrike. Stacks of bodies in bags. Rescuers crouched in the rubble, faces dust-caked and dazed.　It sounds like Aleppo, the Syrian city half-obliterated by airstrikes from Russian and Syrian fighter jets. Bombs rained down day after day -- legions of innocent men, women and children were killed or maimed. But this venue is different. It’s Mosul, the northern Iraqi city still clung to by Islamic State group. The dead a

Russians demonstrated Sunday in Moscow and 98 other cities and towns across the country, against corruption in the government of President Vladimir Putin. There is a risk of Washington taking the protests less seriously than it should.　At the moment, when Americans hear the word “Russia,” they are more likely to think of the threat to the practice of our democracy represented by whatever interference in the 2016 elections Putin’s government may have undertaken. He is on something of a roll in in

The Soviet Union had amazing mathematicians, scientists and engineers. Names like Andrey Kolmogorov and Lev Landau are still spoken of with reverence in technical circles. The Russians beat the US into space twice, and for a time had the best missiles and fighter jets in the world. And yet in the 1980s, Russians were standing in lines for bread.　The moral of this story is that without good institutions, an economy can’t translate technology into wealth. Economists love to say that in the long ru

Japan announced its decision to abstain from talks on a convention banning nuclear weapons on the opening day of the talks at UN headquarters.　While emphasizing Japan’s fundamental position of pursuing nuclear disarmament, disarmament ambassador Nobushige Takamizawa said Japan had to say that it would be difficult to participate in the talks in a constructive manner and in good faith.　If the treaty is formulated through talks from which nuclear powers -- the United States, Britain, France, China

Here’s a radical idea for reframing the health care debate on the ruins of the GOP’s half-baked plan: Let’s listen to doctors, rather than politicians. And let’s begin with a simple formula offered last week by the National Academy of Medicine: “Better health at lower cost.” 　Better and cheaper. It’s hard to argue with that prescription. Because the real health care crisis in America is about delivery of care, more than the insurance schemes that pay the bills. Costs are continuing to rise, even

When President Trump signed a new executive order seeking to curb the enforcement of regulations on climate change, he said it was in an effort to save American jobs in the coal industry.　In reality, an executive order is not nearly enough to curb the losses coal has faced. For coal jobs to truly make a comeback, the corporate interests that are automating miners out of their jobs would have to stop doing so. The abundant natural gas that resulted from more domestic exploration under the Obama a

“Despotism may govern without faith, but liberty cannot,” said Alexis de Tocqueville, the great political philosopher and observer of our young democracy.　Impressed by religion in early American life as lived both in public and private, he observed religion “takes no direct part in the government of society,” even though it remained “foremost of the political institutions of that country.” So combined were the “notions of Christianity” and liberty in American democracy, he thought it impossible

There are still many questions pending — including the one of why the United States is involved — in the long, drawn-out campaign by various forces to take Raqqa, considered the Islamic State group capital, in the interior of Syria.　Hundreds of US Special Forces are engaged in the campaign, training Kurdish forces in Syria. But at least part of the time, they are keeping Turkish and Turkish-backed forces from attacking the Kurds.　The Trump administration is either letting the Obama policy in Syr

With March Madness nearing its end, the nation will soon be able to switch its focus to scores of a different type — those resulting from various state-level and national high school achievement tests. 　But instead of seeing a champion crowned, we’ll be besieged by a wild array of test score interpretations, encouragements and warnings, particularly in regards to the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. 　Effective STEM education is seen as crucial to maintaining Ameri

It is a sad indictment on the decline of discourse in this country when a rally in support of the president of the United States devolves into a brawl. But that is what happened in Huntington Beach, California, over the weekend when folks rallying in support of President Trump clashed with anti-Trump protesters. It seems doubtful this is what President Trump had in mind when he promised to be a “president for all Americans” on election night.　“We were expecting it to be more peaceful,” Jordan Ho