The murder of the UnitedHealthcare C.E.O. and the reaction it provoked have revived some long-standing debates about health care in the U.S.

The dish is governed by a set of laws that are rooted in tradition, rich in common sense, and aching to be broken or bent.

In one border town, some Syrians were fleeing to Lebanon, as others celebrated Bashar al-Assad’s ouster, or returned from exile in search of the missing.

The American Ambassador to Syria at the start of the uprising believes that the U.S. could still help give the Syrians a fighting chance at stable self-governance.

The Islamic Republic is weaker—on multiple fronts—than it’s been in nearly half a century.

Any deal will likely be favorable to the Russians, though the clock on Putin’s ability to sustain a wartime economy may be running out.

What does parading nominees around Capitol Hill before their confirmation hearings actually accomplish?

Wid Lyman, who tries to document crossings on the southern border, is one of a growing number of citizen journalists who portray immigrants with a sense of menace.

Xiao Gongqin thought that, in moments of flux, a strongman could build a bridge to democracy. Now he’s not so sure.

The tech billionaire derailed a government-funding deal and made a shutdown more likely. His intervention signals the growing sway of wealth in politics, and its risks.

The rain it raineth every day, as Shakespeare noted, apparently even on Saturn. The cosmos, it seems, is no comfort at this moment.

The dawn of J. J. Redick’s coaching career and the dusk of Lebron James’s playing years converge in an erratic season, while the N.B.A.’s ratings are tanking.

English continues to expand into diverse regions around the world. The question is whether humanity will be homogenized as a result.

TV’s preëminent office guy has never worked a “regular nine-to-five,” but his years as a struggling actor taught him what it’s like to toil anonymously.

The celebrated writer’s partner sexually abused her daughter Andrea. The abuse transformed Munro’s fiction, but she left it to Andrea to confront the true story.

Investors’ enthusiasm for A.I. has converted some longtime Wall Street bears into optimists. Jeremy Grantham is still waiting for the bubble to pop.

Radical revisionism is a strong contender for the theme of this disruptive year, in which some unique property of political alchemy managed to transform a defeated and disgraced ex-President into a perfectly electable Republican candidate.

Los Alamos is growing at a pace not seen since J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project.

As President, he told us that we needed to shift to solar power. We should have listened to him then.

The late President’s priorities were remarkably prescient, and his personal qualities offered a dismaying contrast to so much of the present state of American politics.