PRINCETON — Among her final acts as chair of the Republican National Committee, Ronna McDaniel requested that her colleagues endorse the two people handpicked by Donald Trump to replace her.

 BUDAPEST — This summer, with its record temperatures, deadly floods and raging wildfires, which in Canada alone destroyed the equivalent of all the trees in Germany, might have felt like a final warning: Without urgent and drastic action, the current climate emergency will

PRINCETON — “All politics is local,” proclaims an old American saying. That might partly explain why democratic politics is going so badly, especially, but not only, in the United States.

PRINCETON — Is there an ideal design for parliament buildings and legislative chambers? The question seems abstract, but it comes up surprisingly often as a very concrete challenge.

PRINCETON — Should journalists say and write what they think?

RINCETON  —  Almost exactly a century after Fascist leader Benito Mussolini’s March on Rome and ascent to the Italian premiership, a politician whose party descends from the original Fascists, Giorgia Meloni, has been appointed as Italy’s prime minister.

PRINCETON  —  In the run-up to Brazil’s presidential election next month, President Jair Bolsonaro is crafting his own version of former US President Donald Trump’s “Big Lie”: the claim that a loss at the ballot box is fraudulent.

PRINCETON  —  A few victories by centre-left parties in large countries hardly makes for an international trend.

PRINCETON  —  The investigation by the US House Select Committee on January 6 is still a long way from establishing a comprehensive record of the assault on the Capitol last year, so one should resist facile generalisations about the insurrectionists.