The other night, after a long family dinner, my 13-year-old niece disappeared into our downstairs closet and soon reemerged with a box of toys I’d saved from my daughter Chloe’s childhood. Chloe, who is now 31, was surprisingly happy.

This is how far the GOP has fallen: House Republicans on Wednesday unanimously elected as speaker a man who actively tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election results and would like to lock up people who get an abortion or provide gender-affirming care to minors. It’s not an overstatement to say that Americans, regardless of political affiliation, should be concerned about the future of our democracy.

A few days after releasing two American hostages, Hamas freed two elderly female Israeli captives on Sunday. But 230 more innocent civilians — including 10 Americans — remain in the terrorist group’s hands.

Roy Cohn, the evil, crooked, disbarred New York lawyer, who mentored a young Donald Trump and taught him many of the nasty ways to bully, cheat and lie, was loyal to his client, but he still would absolutely sell out Trump to save himself from prison.

In a letter to Secretary of State Tony Blinken and a Senate resolution, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is calling to cancel the visas of, and deport, any noncitizens who in his estimation have shown support for Hamas terrorism.

If my editors emailed a sign-up sheet soliciting volunteers to go overseas to cover the war in Israel, I wouldn’t even click the link.

Ask any parent about the time their kids spend on mobile devices, and you’ll likely hear the same refrain: It’s too much. Excessive use of smartphones and social media is linked to rising rates of teenage depression and self-harm, while also damaging students’ academic performance and exacerbating achievement gaps. At this point, the question isn’t whether phones should be banned from classrooms, but why more schools haven’t done so already.

Like most Americans, we were introduced to lawyer Sidney Powell on Nov. 19, 2020, almost two weeks after it was clear that Joe Biden had decisively beaten President Donald Trump in the 2020 election. Powell showed up at a Trump campaign press conference at RNC headquarters in Washington along with Rudy Giuliani and another lawyer, Jenna Ellis.

President Joe Biden has been traveling the U.S. touting a manufacturing revival that he no doubt hopes will help his chances for re-election. Unfortunately, there is much less substance to this “Biden Boom” than the White House would have Americans believe. Even under the rosiest of projections, the administration’s signature programs will do little to increase manufacturing employment — and even less to uplift the overall economy.

When a ship deploys from Hampton Roads, a part of the region goes with it. It carries our hopes for the mission’s success and our fervent desire to see all our brave men and women in uniform return home safely.

The Oct. 7 attack on Israelis by Hamas militants was an unspeakable act of terrorism and Israel has every right to use military force to prevent future such atrocities. But in doing so it must stay true to its values by doing everything possible to minimize the suffering of innocent Palestinian residents of Gaza.

The trickle-down strategies of the last several decades — defined by tax cuts for the wealthy — didn’t work and, in fact, led to stagnating incomes for everyone else. However, the Biden administration’s vision for growth is clear: The Inflation Reduction Act, Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and CHIPS and Science Act chart a new path based on the philosophy that the economy is strongest when it grows from the “middle out and bottom up.”

“Very fine people.”

The fight against climate change commands the support of governments across much of the world. Targets for carbon abatement have gotten more ambitious and policies to address the challenge are proliferating. Yet one measure of progress shows how badly these efforts still fall short. Last year, global fossil-fuel subsidies expanded to a new record — $7 trillion, roughly 7% of global gross domestic output.