Northern America

BY QUINTON MAYNE For many Americans, cities have become a beacon of hope. The can-do, eye-level politics of our city halls is increasingly viewed as an antidote to what seems like a culture of top-down, self-serving, and polarizing party politics inside the Beltway. An important question then is whether city leaders will live up to […]

BY LINA HIDALGO In Harris County, Texas, the third largest county in the nation and home to Houston, the “education gap” is something that tens of thousands of families struggle with daily. One-in-five children in Texas is born in Harris County, and nearly 35 percent of them live below the federal poverty line. Low-income students […]

BY ALISON COLLINS AND BAR PELED The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) has done very little over the years to prioritize women—not at its founding, not during its transition to a professional and international institution, and certainly not today. The administration’s failure to address the gender imbalance among the faculty and in the curriculum, as well […]

As I sat in the sold-out theater waiting to see Black Panther, Black families filled the room with a tingling excitement that didn’t abate until the closing credits. The boy sitting beside me squirmed in his seat, knocking popcorn into my lap with each wiggle. I couldn’t blame him one bit. Black pride in Black […]

To begin this week’s podcast, Mariam Ghanem updates us on the unsurprising results of the elections in Egypt. Then, Blaire Byg discusses Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s tour of the US, which has included visits with celebrities like Oprah in addition to the more predictable cast of politicians and journalists. It seems that MBS is […]

As Israeli control over Jerusalem crystallizes, the likelihood that the city can act as the capital of future Israeli and Palestinian states recedes rapidly. Increasingly, peacemakers and politicians are being forced to consider more creative solutions—and many are looking to the past for inspiration.

BY MATT MCDOLE In the wake of another mass shooting, America is talking about gun control again. It’s been uplifting to see the determined young Parkland students speaking out. They have organized nationwide walkouts, bussed their classmates 450 miles to Tallahassee to petition the state legislature, and confronted lawmakers at a nationally televised town hall. […]

Walt Disney himself made a research trip to Latin America, named the Goodwill Tour.  At the behest of the Roosevelt Administration in 1941, Disney and a team of artists and animators traveled to several Latin American countries to draw inspiration for filmmaking. The culmination of their efforts produced several WWII-era films, including Los Tres Caballeros. […]

BY MATTHEW CROSS The days after an election bring feelings of happiness or sadness with the illusion that the victory or defeat is permanent. Since November 2016, the Democrats I speak to still wonder if their party will ever be competitive again. I too have experienced this, but from a different viewpoint. As an idealistic […]

For as long as I can remember, January 26 has been one of my favorite days of the year: Australia Day. Typically, I, and many other Aussies, spend the day with family and friends overloading BBQs with meat, carefully extracting beer and wine from ice-filled eskys, playing backyard cricket, and listening to Triple J’s Hottest […]

President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem undoubtedly complicates the picture; is the Holy City a red-line issue which the Saudis will feel compelled to publicly object to? As guardians of the two holiest sites in Islam, there has historically been an expectation that the Saudis would repudiate such a move. But, in these new times, will the royals bite their tongues, calculating that the Kingdom’s deepening links with the Jewish state are more important than demanding that East Jerusalem be reserved as the future capital of a Palestinian state?

Despite over two and a half years of war, the average American seems oblivious to the United States’ role in fueling the conflict in Yemen. The US government (beginning with the Obama administration and continuing with Trump) has continued to fully support the Saudi-led coalition through the sale of weapons, mid-air refueling, targeting intelligence, and other logistical support.