What Has Gone Wrong Between Iran and the United States? Iran was a coveted prize in the 19th-century Big Game between Russia and England, a pivotal point in the 20th-century Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, and for the last 40 years, a stalwart bastion of Shia anti-Americanism and its particular brand of anti-Israeli rhetoric and policy. .............. the first newspapers of North America were absolutely enchanted by Iran, writing with a “breathless” energy about Iran and its battle with the Ottoman Turks, deemed to be “a danger to Christendom.” .............. “one of the great unspoken rivalries of the 20th century: the competition between the United States and Great Britain for Iran’s vast petroleum bounty.” ............. No less powerful, however, are the leaders of the current regime in Iran, particularly Ali Khamenei, who thrive on United States-Iran antagonism. ............ Khamenei has a long history of anti-American sentiment, dating back to his days as an unknown seminarian translating the works of the obsessively anti-American Sayyid Qutb, and clerics close to Khamenei have even created a theological basis for this antagonism. .............. The published text of the Ayatollah Khomeini’s lectures elucidating this concept makes it clear that he was committed to the absolute rule of a “learned jurist” over the people, who are seen as incapable of managing their own affairs. .............. This constitution was tailor-made to allow a junior cleric like Khamenei to ascend to the role of the Supreme Leader in what was now literally called the absolute guardianship of the jurist. And Khamenei, with the power granted him by virtue of his absolute guardianship, has by fiat declared a ban on normalized relations with the United States.
In Biden’s Catholic Faith, an Ascendant Liberal Christianity President Biden, perhaps the most religiously observant commander in chief in half a century, speaks of how his Catholic faith grounds his life and his policies. ................. Mr. Biden, perhaps the most religiously observant commander in chief in half a century, regularly attends Mass and speaks of how his Catholic faith grounds his life and his policies. .......... And with Mr. Biden, a different, more liberal Christianity is ascendant: less focused on sexual politics and more on combating poverty, climate change and racial inequality. ....... Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez connects her Catholic faith with her push for reforming health care and environmental policy. She has said her favorite Bible story is one where Jesus, in anger, threw money changers out of the temple. ............ For Mr. Biden, “it was a subtle and explicit effort to show a different vision of a way in which a Christian could imagine themselves as part of a diverse America, one that is defined by these common objects of love, rather than by hate and fear or exclusion,” he said. ............. the coming of a new America, one “built on love, rooted in justice and propelled by our moral imagination.” ............ to pursue a Third Reconstruction, decades after the civil rights era. He urged them to address “interlocking injustices of systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation/denial of health care, the war economy, and the false moral narrative of religious nationalism.” ........... Jesus taught that a nation is judged by how it treats the least of these, the poor, the hungry, the sick, the immigrant ......... “That is a deeply biblical posture,” she said, “mourning with those who mourn.”
Hong Kong Crackdown Is an Early Test for Biden Even with Trump out of office, prospects seem dim for rapprochement between China and the United States. ............ as far as Hong Kong is concerned, there appears to be continuity between the two presidential administrations
Fauci on What Working for Trump Was Really Like From denialism to death threats, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci describes a fraught year as an adviser to President Donald J. Trump on the Covid-19 pandemic.
‘More painful than death’: a year on from coronavirus lockdown chaos in Wuhan City of 11 million was sealed off for 76 days on January 23 as authorities tried to contain the spread of the new virus Those who were there recall overwhelmed hospitals, empty streets and resilience, and say they fear it could happen again ........ Another friend told Yue that his mother had been placed in a body bag while she was still breathing. .......... “It felt like the only thing that was moving in the city was that bus … and the people who were on it were shouldering all the responsibility [to save lives],” she said. “I felt my power as an individual was not enough … I felt helpless.” ............. “I survived the Great Famine,” he said, referring to the catastrophe between 1959 and 1961 that claimed at least 45 million lives. “Chinese went hungry for so many years,” he said. “For the people who lived through this, is there anything they couldn’t bear?” .......... “When millions of people died in China in the Great Famine, the conclusion was that it was a natural disaster, which it was not,” he said. “The situation is the same today – we have a history of not telling the truth.”
My Neighbor, My Pandemic Pal Coronavirus precautions have made it harder for people to spend time with friends and family. For some, neighbors are filling the gap.
How to help your child cope amid the coronavirus pandemic: spend more time with them, use social media less – and find ways to laugh every day The coronavirus pandemic has had a negative impact on children in many ways and parents need to do what we can to help them cope Use the opportunity to spend more time together, whether that’s through watching movies at home, cooking together, or going on hikes
Why the New Covid-19 Variants Could Be More Infectious Mutations in the virus’s appendage have created potentially more infectious versions of the pathogen, including one currently circulating around the world ............ As viruses replicate, they change, or mutate. Some mutations give these viral variants an edge, such as being better able to latch on to and infect human cells. That’s what scientists think happened with the coronavirus variant that swept through the U.K. recently and which is now showing up in states across the U.S. Mutations can also make a viral pathogen stealthier, or better at evading the body’s immune system. That’s what some scientists find worrisome about another mutation seen in the variants that emerged recently in South Africa and Brazil.
Was the Constitution a Pro-Slavery Document? Gradually the antislavery advocates accumulated a variety of textual protections for freedom and limitations on slavery. Then they began moving beyond the text of the Constitution to invoke its spirit, which, they said, was mainly derived from the Declaration of Independence and its inspiring dedication to equality. By the 1850s the antislavery Northerners had built a powerful case for antislavery constitutionalism. They had created a “Constitution that made freedom the rule and slavery the exception.” .............. The Republican Party became the political embodiment of this antislavery constitutionalism, with Abraham Lincoln its most eloquent spokesman. So fearful were the Southern slaveholders of Lincoln and the Republicans that simply his election as president in November 1860 precipitated the immediate secession of many slave states. By Feb. 1, 1861, even before Lincoln took office in March, seven states had formed the Confederacy. Four more joined between April and June 1861. .................. he had to make his way along a very “crooked path” to achieve the ultimate extinction of slavery that he wanted .............. Despite all the backtracking and roundabout routes that Lincoln and his party followed, however, they never abandoned the central tenets of the antislavery constitutionalism that had developed over the previous half-century. .............. By the end of January 1865 there were 27 free states and nine slave states in the Union, exactly the proportions needed to ratify the amendment. Enough states had abolished slavery on their own to make acceptance of a nationwide abolition amendment by three-quarters of the states possible. “This amendment,” Lincoln said, “is a king’s cure for all the evils. It winds the whole thing up.”
Joe Biden’s Catholic Moment The new president elevates a liberal Catholicism that once seemed destined to fade away.
A Summit of Their Own: A Nepali Team Climbs K2 A bold winter ascent captures the last great challenge in the world’s highest mountains. ........... Scaling K2 in winter was perhaps the last great prize of high-altitude mountaineering, a sport born as an expression of national strength among Western European nations in the mid-20th century. .......... After quitting the military in 2018, he masterminded a record-setting mountaineering binge he undertook the next year, climbing all 8,000ers in six months, six days. ......... Going by the moniker Nimsdai, Purja is an outspoken voice on social media, exuding the confidence of a mountaineering Muhammad Ali ............ when 10 mountaineers left Camp 4 on the Abruzzi Ridge in minus-70 degree Fahrenheit weather and pushed toward K2’s summit, every one of them was Nepali. ............ They climbed the last few feet together while singing the national anthem of Nepal. ............ The Nepalis, on the other hand, got lucky with the weather, avoided avalanches, worked together and, he added, “were determined to show the world that Nepali climbers were amongst the best.”
A New Era of Far-Right Violence The imagery of the Capitol siege will have enduring resonance.
In Los Angeles, Teachers and Students Struggle With ‘No Human Contact’ The nation’s second-largest district has kept classrooms closed since March. The superintendent acknowledges it is “disproportionately hurting students who can least afford it.” .......... No matter how hard she tried, how many voices she used, she could not hold the attention of kindergartners while reading to them on Zoom. ............ roughly 600,000 students in the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second-largest after New York City ................. “If you’re a first or second grader, and someone at home is not helping you, you’re probably not making a ton of progress” .............. remote instruction falls far short of classroom learning ........... Roughly 80 percent of students live in poverty ......... “Studying virtually is nobody’s dream. But I cannot imagine my daughter going back at all this year, since we’re seeing a rise in cases every day.” ............ As she conducts class, she wonders what her students are getting from the lessons. Many of them struggle to find a quiet place in their home; she sees them wiggling on top of their beds or next to a brother or sister. Often, she asks students to mute themselves so that the voice of a sibling’s teacher doesn’t interrupt her.
Canada Formally Declares Proud Boys a Terrorist Group The designation could see bank accounts linked to the group frozen and assets seized, while also expanding police investigative powers.
The Trump Presidency Is Now History. So How Will It Rank? As scholars consider the legacy of Donald J. Trump, it appears that even the woefully inadequate James Buchanan has some serious competition.
