Tunisia, the North African nation that ignited the 2011 Arab Spring, keeps sparking new lessons for Arab and Muslim countries in the basics of democracy. Last Sunday’s election of a new president was no exception. The surprise victor, law professor Kais Saied, won in large part because

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Global poverty has been cut by more than half in the past couple of decades and one reason may be a new type of poverty-buster. A new branch of economics has radically changed views about poor people and what they are capable of. On Monday, three leaders in the field were honored with the 2019

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India’s growth Thank you for the Sept. 9 Monitor Weekly cover story, “The superpower in waiting,” by Howard LaFranchi. It gave me insight into how the people of India are moving ahead into the modern century.  However, swift progress in the United States has sometimes come at the cost of

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Poland’s parliamentary elections on Sunday could prove the most defining for the nation since the collapse of communism in 1989. Liberal critics accuse the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) government of amassing dictatorial powers by introducing reforms that undermine democracy and the rule of law.

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It was hearing from a friend that first made me think about traveling. She was walking the Camino de Santiago, an ancient Christian pilgrimage in northern Spain and now a mainstream superhike. Across mountain and plain, through hot and cold, over hundreds of miles, she schlepped a giant

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Bill Cobau, a retired college professor, has spent 30 years watching the tides rise higher and higher in Charleston, South Carolina. One flood last year ruined his floor. Yet coastal development, not retreat from rising sea levels, is still ascendant here and in other communities along

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When the Museum of Modern Art in New York reopens on Oct. 21 after four months of construction, its galleries are expected to look very different. The presentation of MoMA’s permanent collection and temporary exhibitions will include more art by women and artists of color. The shift is part of

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Ankara, Turkey Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has long threatened to send troops into northeastern Syria to clear the border region of Syrian Kurdish fighters whom Turkey considers a serious security threat. A Turkish invasion looked more likely after President Donald Trump’s

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Loibor Siret, Tanzania Saitoti Petro scans a dirt road in northern Tanzania for recent signs of the top predator on the African savannah. “If you see a lion,” he warns, “stop and look it straight in the eyes – you must never run.” Mr. Petro points to a fresh track in the

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Beijing It’s up to Washington to alter its approach if it wants more talks with North Korea, Pyongyang’s chief nuclear negotiator said Monday, after weekend discussions between the sides broke down amid acrimony. Kim Myong Gil made the remarks at Beijing’s airport on his way

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Language and science We will once again return to the glorious Norway fjords and isersarneq will be on my tongue, thanks to the Aug. 19 & 26 “From the Editor” column. That issue’s cover story, “The Noah’s Ark of languages,” reminds me that schools in the Washington, D.C., area have

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Farmer Mohammed Jamee hoped Tunisia’s revolution in 2010 would open up opportunities for his five children. Instead, times only got tougher. In late 2012, he moved to Tunis to find work, part of a growing urban migration from the struggling outer provinces. Today he earns $8 a day as a laborer

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From the cult classic “Slapshot” to the old Blackhawks arena, fighting is sewn into the fabric of hockey. It remains the only major professional sport where coming to blows doesn’t bring an automatic ejection. Crowds inevitably still give a Roman Colosseum roar of approval. But in the new NHL

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Ayesha Harruna Attah, a Ghanaian writer, uses her fiction to discuss the complicated role that Africans played in the transatlantic slave trade. “The Hundred Wells of Salaga” centers on the lives of two women – one princess, one slave – whose lives tangle against the backdrop of a struggle for

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In Tunisia, whether you are people-watching at a dreamy blue-and-white cliffside town, in a farming village, or in the southern deserts, there is always a cafe with an espresso machine at the ready. The cafes are for all people, of all ages, at nearly all times of day: young and old, singles

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Istanbul Iranians in Turkey are finding ways to sidestep laws in their home country to buy properties and get Turkish passports, hoping to protect their savings even as the United States ramps up sanctions on Iran. As they find ways around Iran’s money-transfer restrictions, the spike in

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In the recent do-over election in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District, Robeson County proved pivotal. It’s home to the Lumbee people, a tribe with polyglot roots that blend Native American, escaped slave, and European colonist traditions. And, though nearly all of them are registered

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