Portside

I think we now have seen the descent of a new Cold War divide – this time not in Berlin but on Russia’s borders. Can it end there? I mean it’s already fateful – can it not get worse? I think it depends on whether the West now rises to leadership and gives Putin the guarantees he needs to back off. Now, in America there’s a different view – that he has to back off first. But that’s where we stand. -- Steven Cohen

Inequality, Dignity of Work, West Bank

From Roxbury to Springfield, Worcester to Brockton and beyond

The case of Police Officer Howard Morgan in Chicago has put the whole criminal justice system on trial.

Last spring the non-profit Advocates for Children of New Jersey reported that in 19 of the state's 21 counties poverty was on the upswing, spreading well beyond places like the urban core of Camden and Essex to rural and suburban communities.

Japanese children can now be exposed to 20 times more radiation than was previously allowed, a level comparable to the yearly limit for German workers.

Beethoven in Hong Kong. Big Chill Caused by Polar Vortex. World Science U — Special Relativity Trailer. Whoopi Goldberg Presents Moms Mabley.

'Then comes the Christopher Columbus Syndrome. You can’t discover this! We been here.'

If the Supreme Court is willing to embrace the almost oxymoronic notion that corporations can be people of faith, then there could be little end to business owners’ ability to immunize themselves from the law — so long as they cover their objections to those laws in a religious wrapper.

'His ascent to power had meaning, but now his interventions are too rare and too piecemeal to constitute a narrative'