Watching the confirmations hearings for Judge Merrick Garland as U.S. attorney general reminded me of a tragic trial in process in Hong Kong.

In late March 2020, two of the federal government’s top health experts, Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx, delivered a stark assessment about the potential for catastrophic loss of life in the U.S. from COVID-19. Even with lockdowns and social distancing, they warned during a public briefing of the coronavirus task force, between 100,000 and 240,000 people may die before the virus waned or was vanquished.

As the pandemic throws millions of Americans out of work, cars line up for miles outside food banks across the country. COVID-19 did not create the crisis of hunger in the United States, but it has exposed its root cause. Hint: it’s not a shortage of food.

As expected, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday court decided not to hear a claim by Pennsylvania Republicans that the U.S. Constitution was violated by a Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision allowing some late-arriving mail ballots to be counted.

The internet has been an enormous blessing to many industries. The newspaper business is not one of them.

When I deliver lectures on pandemic ethics over Zoom — part of my job as a bioethicist — one of the questions I am asked with increasing frequency is whether I believe there will be any silver linings to COVID-19. I usually respond with dark humor, a quip that I am grateful my barber now wears an N95 mask, so I can avoid small talk while he cuts my hair. Answering this question more seriously, in a manner that respects the deaths of half a million Americans, proves challenging: I do not wish to sound like a benighted Pollyanna who praises World War II for giving us the Slinky.

President Joe Biden says he’s ready to resuscitate the Iran deal former President Barack Obama disastrously gave us if Iran quits its advanced uranium enrichment, the kind that could ultimately deliver nuclear bombs. Bullying Iran says in reply that it will do no such thing unless Biden first ends the sanctions former President Donald Trump inflicted through getting out of the deal.

Even some progressives were perplexed when President Joe Biden nominated California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to be secretary of Health and Human Services.

Policymakers haven’t always considered how economic shocks impact women and men differently — or how governments should respond. When the 2008 recession hit, few asked how stimulus measures would affect women compared with men.

With Donald Trump out of the Oval Office and the coup attempt more than a month behind us, the Republican Party has now turned to the business of saving its soul.

The world is entering an exciting new Space Age. Where once the superpowers competed in a space race to the moon, today commercial companies like SpaceX, Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin are finding new business models to finally realize the economic value of space.

It was one thing for holiday gifts and Christmas cards to arrive a little late because of delays at the United States Postal Service. In fact, some people found it a bit amusing, and a little nice, to get a gift a month or more late and be to able extend the holiday cheer. What is no laughing matter is all the other heartache, inconvenience and threat to people’s livelihoods and health that backlogs in deliveries has caused. And there seems to be no end in sight to the troubles.

For close to two decades, U.S. presidents have sent American troops into combat without requesting authorization from Congress. As it conducts a review of U.S. military operations around the world, the Biden administration should push to restore the legislative branch’s proper role in deciding when and where the country goes to war.

Ethiopia’s worsening civil war, which has already drawn in Eritrea and is now spilling over into Sudan, threatens to destabilize the entire Horn of Africa, with alarming humanitarian consequences. American leadership is urgently needed to restore peace.

The Senate impeachment trial that ended in Donald J. Trump’s unjust acquittal established convincingly that the former president bore responsibility for the deadly attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6 by his supporters. But questions remain about the origins of the attack, the apparent failure of security officials to prepare adequately for it and the response once the Capitol was breached.

Infectious disease expert Dr. Peter Bornstein understands well the midwinter yearning for palm trees and ocean breezes. Most years, the Twin Cities physician has a family trip booked to a tropical getaway. He’s often advised new doctors who’ve moved to Minnesota from elsewhere to do the same.

The 50% increase in coronavirus vaccine production secured by the Biden administration last week means that, knock wood, there will be enough life-saving shots for every person in America by the summer. The challenges that remain ahead are distribution and, finally and most importantly, public buy-in.

On the campaign trail, Joe Biden pledged to use the Affordable Care Act as a foundation for extending health insurance to all Americans. And in his first major legislative proposal — a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package — Biden is trying to take the first steps in that direction. The moves are significant, but also limited in ways that set up tough choices down the road.

It’s been about a year since the early coronavirus alarms were raised, and despite a decline in infections, new fears are rising up. New COVID-19 variants are making pessimists worry that an even bigger next wave may be coming.

Think back to civics class in the early years of your education. This is when most of us first learned about the fundamentals of American government: The Constitution, separation of powers, federalism and more. We were taught that while our system isn’t perfect, it was constructed in a manner that diffuses power to protect against tyranny.