The United States has made enormous progress in reducing water pollution since the Clean Water Act was passed nearly 50 years ago. Rivers no longer catch fire when oil slicks on their surfaces ignite. And many harbors that once were fouled with sewage now draw swimmers and boaters.

But as...

America has had a black president.

Is the country ready for a black president who is also a woman?

Speculation about the candidacy of Oprah Winfrey makes clear that some voters think so. Granted, Winfrey says she won’t run, but friends, commenta...

A new scientific study shows that bright electric light exposure of preschool children in the evening suppresses melatonin production almost completely, an important addition to the growing body of research in this area....

You might hesitate to make a character judgment about someone based on a first encounter. Most adults would probably want to see how a stranger acts in several different circumstances, to decide whether someone new is nice, mean or trustworthy.

Young children are...

In a letter on April 11 to the bishops of Chile, Pope Francis asked forgiveness for his “serious errors of assessment and perception.” His apologies were directed to the victims of Fr. Fernando Karadima, whose abuse of at least three men when they were children was...

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will meet with President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Largo on April 17 and 18.

The relationship between these two leaders’ countries may help shape the U.S. approach to upcoming talks with North Korea. Those talks will...

Going off to college might be a source of anxiety for some students, but once a student is on campus it shouldn’t be a total drag.

But that tends to happen more frequently when a student ends up at a college where the student body is weaker...

Presidents Raul Castro and Donald Trump both canceled trips to April’s Summit of the Americas in Peru, avoiding a potential confrontation – though U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez lobbed insults at each other in their stead.

Relations between the United States and Cuba have grown tense...

Conservatives have been seething since 2013 over what they say was an unfair effort by the IRS to scrutinize right-leaning organizations more closely than other groups seeking nonprofit status.

As a report from the Treasury Department’s ins...

Twenty years ago, on April 15, 1998, Pol Pot, the leader of Cambodia’s genocidal government during the late 1970s, died in his sleep at the age of 73. Born Saloth Sar, Pol Pot was...