In 2010, Mohamed Bouazizi, besieged by corrupt Tunisian officials who harassed and humiliated him as he tried to sell fruit from a street stand, set himself on fire in protest. His death shocked the conscience of not just Tunisia, but much of the broader Mideast, spurring the Arab Spring protest movements.

Donald Trump’s upset victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016 inspired a surge in political activism among Democratic women. Six years later, that energy remains mostly intact — and has spread to the Republican Party as well.

The 2022 midterms are less than two months away and democracy itself is on the line. It may be our last chance to save democracy from the rise of right-wing authoritarianism.

The U.S. House of Representatives last week passed a bill to reform how Congress certifies electors after a presidential election. That bill (or a similar but slightly weaker Senate one) needs to pass the Senate now.

Perhaps the starkest example of how dramatically Donald Trump’s fortunes have changed in just a matter of days is contained in the opening paragraph of New York Attorney General Leticia James’ financial fraud civil lawsuit against Trump and his family.

For all the legitimate concerns about privacy loss, the spread of misinformation and the like, one thing mass global access to the internet has done is made it ever harder for oppressive regimes to keep things under wraps.

A 27-year-old migrant named Pablo unwittingly shipped to Martha’s Vineyard last week marveled at the speed with which Massachusetts authorities helped him and others who arrived unexpectedly.

Why is the greatest threat to the planet of so little concern to most Americans?

The U.S. record on protecting our children is abysmal. We try them as adults. Child marriage is still happening. So is corporal punishment and child labor.

Under its new head Chris Licht, the original cable news network is making strides toward reasserting itself as a neutral news source.

Progressives like to point out that Americans pay more for health care yet have poorer outcomes than people in countries of similar wealth.

There was a time in the not-so-distant past when the United States and its European allies were seemingly a stone’s throw away from clinching a nuclear agreement with Iran after 16 months of arduous talks.

Despite widespread outcry, the governors of Florida and Texas say they will continue to bus or fly more migrants to unexpected locations across the nation to raise awareness about the crisis at the border. Using vulnerable humans as pawns in a political game is morally wrong and further destabilizes an already dysfunctional immigration system.

As if school supplies, book rental and new clothes weren’t painful enough to the pocketbook, millions of families may have to pay more for breakfast and lunch as students return to class this fall. In certain districts, the lunch price may be close to $5 a day—almost double what it was in 2017, according to Time magazine. And in a recent study, the School Nutrition Association found that 97% of lunch programs cited difficulty with rising expenses.

By almost any measure, the U.S. remains in the grip of a gun-violence epidemic. Since the beginning of 2022, more than 30,000 Americans have died from firearms and another 27,000 have been wounded. There have been numerous mass shootings, including the May 24 massacre in Uvalde, Texas, in which 19 children and two educators were killed. Among developed economies, the U.S. suffers more gun-related deaths per capita than the next eight countries combined.

For residents of Massachusetts and New York communities who suddenly find themselves hosting migrants from Florida and Texas, the border crisis just got personal.