The Biden administration has begun allowing tens of thousands of asylum seekers who were forced to wait in Mexico for a chance to obtain protection in the United States under a Trump-era program to cross the border. Some 28,000 asylum seekers — primarily Cubans, Hondurans, and Guatemalans — have active cases in former President Donald … Continue reading "Biden is allowing asylum seekers caught by Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” program to cross the border"

President Joe Biden has been presented with three broad options for how to prolong or end America’s involvement in the 20-year Afghanistan War — and all three have significant drawbacks for the administration and the Afghan people. Here’s what Biden’s military and intelligence advisers offered up in recent days, as reported by the New York … Continue reading "Leave now, extension, or indefinite stay: Biden’s 3 bad Afghanistan options"

The Arctic is now open for business year-round after a large commercial ship sailed the Northern Sea Route from Jiangsu, China, to a Russian gas plant on the Arctic coast, for the first time ever during the month of February, when winter temperatures normally make the icy waterway impassable. The tanker, owned by Russian maritime … Continue reading "The latest consequence of climate change: The Arctic is now open for business year-round"

Hong Kong transformed in a year. Starting in June 2019, the city convulsed with protests over a controversial extradition bill. That expanded into a pro-democracy movement that sought to push back against China’s efforts to further erode the city-state’s already tenuous autonomy, and the freedoms that went with it. By June 2020, the power of … Continue reading "A pro-democracy activist on Hong Kong’s year of turmoil: “The city itself is dying”"

Twelve of the richest European soccer teams came up with an ingenious scheme to make even more money: Instead of taking part in a longstanding tournament with poorer and mostly weaker teams, they would create their own exclusive “Super League” to attract global interest, prestige, and cash. There was just one problem: Fans hated the … Continue reading "Soccer fans destroyed the Super League"

This story is one in our six-part series The Pandemic Playbook. Explore all the stories here. Last summer in Berlin, Christine Wagner could safely do something Covid-19 prevented much of the world’s population from doing: go to a movie theater. The possibility of strangers sitting together, indoors, for hours, taking off masks to eat popcorn … Continue reading "Germany contained Covid-19. Politics brought it back."

The protests erupted Sunday in San Antonio de los Baños, a town outside Cuba’s capital city, Havana. They spread from there, with demonstrations bursting out across the country, from the streets of Havana to the countryside. They became the largest anti-government protests to happen in the country in decades — a remarkable show of resistance … Continue reading "Biden’s Cuba policy is suddenly in the spotlight"

President Joe Biden’s pick to be the third-highest civilian leader at the Pentagon is already facing a tough confirmation challenge a week before his hearing — and it’s mostly because he staunchly supports the Iran nuclear deal. A spokesperson for Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK), the ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, told me … Continue reading "GOP opposition to the Iran deal is threatening to sink a Biden Pentagon nominee"

President Joe Biden on Thursday launched military airstrikes against two Iranian-backed militias in Syria in retaliation for a recent spate of aggressions, including a rocket attack in Iraq last week that injured US troops and killed a Filipino contractor. In the strike, Biden’s first known military action since taking office, the US hit seven targets … Continue reading "Biden launched airstrikes against Iran-backed militias in Syria to “send a message”"

Ghana just received its first Covid-19 vaccine doses from Covax, the global initiative created to help ensure all countries have vaccine access. A total of 600,000 doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine arrived in Ghana’s capital Accra on Wednesday. It is the official start of a long worldwide immunization campaign. Ghana is the first country to … Continue reading "Ghana is the first country to receive vaccines from the global Covax initiative"