At least we’re learning. Remember when the early reaction to the outbreak of a deadly virus in Wuhan was to discourage people from changing their travel plans? South Africa’s government didn’t sit on information about a new worrying variant of Sars-CoV-2, which the World Health Organization (WHO) has now dubbed omicron. It didn’t downplay it. On the contrary, authorities shared ...

Now that President Joe Biden has signed the $550 billion infrastructure legislation, $15 billion will be spent to remove lead from the nation’s drinking-water systems. Of all the economic and social necessities in the spending package — from roadways and bridges to the power grid and broadband expansion — ensuring access to safe, clean water is perhaps the most fundamental. ...

Brexit was supposed to let the UK “take back control” of its borders from others, namely the European Union (EU). Yet, as with so many other simplistic slogans echoed by populist administrations around the world, it has managed to achieve the opposite. In Northern Ireland, it has threatened peace and created new political divisions over the compromises needed to avoid ...