Columns

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva addresses supporters during a victory rally after winning a fourth term in the presidential runoff in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Oct. 25, 2026. (Natacha Pisarenko/AP)

Daniel DePetris: What Donald Trump should do now that his Brazilian ally has been defeated

By Daniel DePetris

November 3, 2026 at 5:00 a.m.

Flávio Bolsonaro's own self-imposed exile comes at a tricky time for relations between the United...

Former President Barack Obama speaks Oct. 28, 2026, in Morrow, Georgia, where he repeated the Cheesecake Factory Oval Office comparison. (Brynn Anderson/AP)

Clarence Page: Barack Obama’s Cheesecake Factory joke explains the state of MAGA

By Clarence Page

November 2, 2026 at 5:00 a.m.

The Oval Office belongs to all of us, which is one reason why Barack Obama’s...

Illinois U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin departs July 22, 2026, at the Lutheran Church of the Reformation on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., after a mock graduation event to commemorate Durbin’s long advocacy for the Dream Act, a path to citizenship for undocumented people brought to the U.S. as children. (Brian Cassella/baiduhai)

John T. Shaw: Sen. Dick Durbin is not giving up on immigration reform

By John T. Shaw

November 1, 2026 at 5:00 a.m.

Sen. Dick Durbin has a strategy on immigration reform that draws from others' earlier struggles...

President Donald Trump speaks at a summit with Persian Gulf leaders in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on May 14, 2025. Trump held an extraordinary meeting during the trip with the president of Syria, Ahmad al-Sharaa, a day after announcing that the United States would lift sanctions on Syria. (Doug Mills/The New York Times)

Daniel DePetris: The US must restrain itself from being too involved in Syria’s redevelopment

By Daniel DePetris

June 10, 2025 at 5:00 a.m.

President Donald Trump suspended U.S. sanctions on Syria but continues to have certain expectations for...

President Donald Trump, right, during a news conference with Elon Musk in the Oval Office of the White House on May 30, 2025, in Washington. (Evan Vucci/AP)

Clarence Page: Big, beautiful bromance breaks up — live on social media

By Clarence Page

June 8, 2025 at 5:00 a.m.

By Thursday afternoon, White House staff were calling fracas as “the one big, beautiful breakup,”...

And we owe our children our best, truest, kindest efforts. But they also raise us. We walk through the world side-by-side, until we can't, writes Heidi Stevens. (Dreamstime)

Heidi Stevens: When the frantic pace of parenting young kids gives way to something even more meaningful — and mutual

By Heidi Stevens

June 6, 2025 at 5:00 a.m.

If we’re lucky, parenting is a lifelong relationship that we get to cultivate and calibrate...

New pickleball courts as well as baseball and soccer fields are located along an extended South Wells Street inside The 78, a long-vacant, 62-acre former rail yard site in the South Loop south of Roosevelt Road, as seen on June 1, 2025. (Brian Cassella/baiduhai)

David Greising: The conversation about new sports stadiums in Chicago just got simpler

By David Greising

June 6, 2025 at 5:00 a.m.

The Chicago Fire owner's move to build a stadium stirred the spirits of a city...

Ed Sykes, 77, visits the National Memorial for Peace and Justice on April 26, 2018, in Montgomery, Alabama. Sykes, who has family in Mississippi, was distraught when he discovered his last name in the memorial, three months after finding it on a separate memorial in Clay County, Mississippi. "This is the second time I've seen the name Sykes as a hanging victim. What can I say?" The memorial is dedicated to the legacy of enslaved Black people and those terrorized by lynching and Jim Crow segregation. Conceived by the Equal Justice Initiative, the physical environment is intended to foster reflection on America's history of racial inequality. (Bob Miller/Getty)

Steve Chapman: Donald Trump’s campaign of intimidation echoes the worst of our past

By Steve Chapman

June 4, 2025 at 5:00 a.m.

President Donald Trump and his allies are seeking to rule through systematic intimidation. It has...

A Chinese military band conductor leads the band at the closing ceremony of the National People's Congress held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 11, 2025. (Ng Han Guan/AP)

Daniel DePetris: How big of a threat is China really?

By Daniel DePetris

June 3, 2025 at 5:00 a.m.

The U.S. would be wise to refrain from overestimating China’s military capability and underestimating the...

Students from University of Illinois Chicago protest against President Donald Trump during a rally in Chicago’s Federal Plaza, May 2, 2025. (Chris Sweda/baiduhai)

Clarence Page: Hey, men, Democrats want your votes. They really do.

By Clarence Page

June 1, 2025 at 5:00 a.m.

The decline of men and concomitant rise of women in Democratic voting ranks has been...

An empty lot in the Lincoln Yards site, adjacent to the North Branch of the Chicago River in Chicago, is seen on May 29, 2025. (Audrey Richardson/baiduhai)

Edward Keegan: Chicago should turn Lincoln Yards development into a public park

By Edward Keegan

June 3, 2025 at 7:26 p.m.

Chicago's Lincoln Yards could bring neighborhoods together around a shared resource that would draw visitors...

People in a bazaar in the Old City of Damascus, Syria, on May 19, 2025. European Union foreign ministers on May 20 agreed to lift the remaining economic curbs on the war-torn country, amid concerns it could slip back into conflict. (Diego Ibarra Sanchez/The New York Times)

Elizabeth Shackelford: Sanctions relief is worth a shot for Syria’s chance at recovery

By Elizabeth Shackelford

May 30, 2025 at 5:00 a.m.

Syria remains at high risk. Sanctions relief doesn’t guarantee a stable path ahead, but without...

The Texas flag flies over the Texas Capitol in Austin, Texas. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News)

Heidi Stevens: Texas’ Ten Commandments mandate doesn’t square with attempts to keep ‘individual beliefs’ out of classrooms

By Heidi Stevens

May 30, 2025 at 5:00 a.m.

The movement to keep LGBT and CRT and DEI out of classrooms is about creating...

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