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Should colleges teach the classics? To some, the Greek and Roman canon is for elitists whose idea of small talk is to quote Pliny the Younger in Latin.  But for Anika Prather, these ancient works are vital to understanding Black history. That’s why she’s dismayed that Howard University, where she teaches, is dissolving its classics department. The historically Black university in Washington, D.C., says it’s resetting priorities as student demands shift. At the same time, some worry that ...

By Peg Rosen Correspondent On a dead-quiet pandemic Tuesday morning last spring, my husband, Paul, and I regarded our trim New Jersey colonial. It’s startling to view one’s home from the street. At a safe remove, you see it as just another house.  It was with those eyes that we considered it and talked about selling – for real this time – and all that we had to do to prepare for that. Pandemic upheaval had distanced us from the life that was. It made change considerably less d...

The rover is to explore an area known as Utopia Planitia. The landing follows China’s launch of the main section of a permanent space station and a mission that brought back moon rocks last year.

The United States told Israel “that ensuring the safety and security of journalists and independent media is a paramount responsibility,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said.

Kabul Days after losing her younger sister in a bomb attack on the school in Kabul that both girls attended, Farzanah Asghari stood by the her teenage sister’s grave and quietly wept. At least 80 people were killed and more than 160 injured in the attack near the Sayed Ul-Shuhada High School in the Afghan capital as students started to make their way home. Many are still in a critical condition. Yet students, families, and teachers who spoke to the Thomson Reuters Foundation all expressed the...

China’s delivery workers and others in the gig economy have called for better working conditions – but Beijing wants to call the shots on reform.

Why does Brookline, Massachusetts, require masks outdoors, despite CDC guidance? The answer points to differing levels of comfort with risk.

Westmoreland, New Hampshire Much like the round clock faces, gears, and planets that often populate his artwork, Robert Seaman has come full circle. Mr. Seaman, who is now 88 years old, has been drawing since he was a boy, and at age 60, left a real estate career to pursue his hobby professionally. But it took the coronavirus pandemic to fully return him to his passion. “As a kid, I kept lurching between being a loner and being an extrovert,” he said. “But in my introvert phase, I would l...

Naxos and Athens, Greece In her kitchen, Kyriaki Kapri has enough food to feed an army. Piles of squid for frying, lemons to be quartered, thumb-thick potato wedges to make oregano-sprinkled French fries, and seafood for the dishes famous on the Greek island of Naxos. She’s done everything she can think of to prepare for tourists at her Naxos beachside restaurant Gorgona – Greek for Mermaid – but customers are still a rare sight. Greece launched its tourism season Friday amid a competitiv...

A hydropower dam in Indonesia that would help cut carbon emissions threatens a fragile ecosystem. An environmentalist explains why it’s worth it.