The classic 1951 science fiction film “The Day the Earth Stood Still” features an indestructible robot (Gort) whose threatening actions are tamed only when an earthling is told – by a sympathetic alien – to command it, “Klaatu barada nikto.” What doe

From California to Connecticut, Americans have welcomed thousands of recent arrivals seeking refuge over the past two years. Building on sponsorship models for Afghans, Ukrainians, and Venezuelans, the Biden administration last month launched an init

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a year ago, the West has tried to curtail Moscow’s ability to finance the war by restricting its lucrative energy exports. Over that same time, Asia’s biggest democracy, India, has ramped up its imports of Russian o

Within hours after the devastating earthquakes in southern Turkey and northern Syria early Monday, more than 60 nations pledged support. That compassion even reached across enemy lines. Israel has said it would send aid to Syria. Russians and Ukraini

President Joe Biden’s first two years in office have been a study in contrasts: of highs and lows, triumphs and tragedies, stability and chaos. The nation has so far avoided a recession, and economic forecasts are looking rosier, with unemployment at

Last week, Iran’s ruling clerics began a 10-day anniversary celebration of the 1979 revolution that created the Islamic Republic. Yet nearly five months into mass protests against the regime, public enthusiasm for the commemoration is, to say the lea

Surrounded on all sides by blinking screens, Jim Moore helms the deck of his computer fix-it shop, MotherBoards Tech.  Here from his home-based workbench the self-described “total geek” has steered his business for nearly 25 years. Meanwhile, the sma

The focus of Black History Month is and always should be the achievements of Black Americans. But if you’d consider being radically inclusive for a moment, I’d like to give a shoutout to some white men this year. This is a necessary exception because

Abdul Majeed Wani uses a flashlight to carefully inspect his blooming saffron crocus plants in red plastic baskets placed on iron racks. He’s deliberately deprived this small room of natural light, covering the windows to “maintain the quality” of th

A rare opportunity for the United States and China to revive critical dialogues blew up in a plume of smoke this weekend as a U.S. Air Force jet downed a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the South Carolina coast. Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said Chi

Violent clashes between protesters and police in Peru in recent weeks have sharpened fears that the South American country is edging closer to a failed state. It has had six presidents in as many years. At least 58 people have been killed during demo

On one side of Chauncy Street in downtown Boston last week, laid-off tech workers came to the headquarters of internet provider Starry to drop off their company equipment and say goodbye. “It’s sad,” says the security guard downstairs. “I tell them I

Considering how much of our days and nights are taken up in the workplace, it’s remarkable how rarely this is dramatized in the movies. People in films may hold jobs, but we do not often see how their lives might revolve around them. Perhaps the reas

Two strongman leaders could go a long way to determining how the Ukraine war ends. Both are intolerant of dissent, both harbor 21st-century ambitions fueled by nostalgia for vanished empires, and both are scornful of what they see as America’s outsiz

When Chicagoan Laquan McDonald died in a hail of bullets after fleeing police in 2014, the city refused to release dashcam footage. What it showed was one officer shooting a retreating Mr. McDonald, and then pumping over a dozen more bullets into the

It is a mark of progress in honest governance that a few experts are starting to ask this question: Do national laws against corruption apply in outer space? The question is not so far-fetched. One American company, Lonestar, plans to put computer se

Community watches, neighbors as first responders, the creation of local militias: After a spike in Israeli-Palestinian violence and the deadliest month in the West Bank in years, Palestinians who feel vulnerable and abandoned say they have dwindling

It’s almost unheard of for a modern-day trumpet player to break out from the niche world of jazz clubs. But Ibrahim Maalouf, who fills arenas in France and attracts sizable audiences worldwide, doesn’t make music that sounds like that of a typical tr