Days before Sam Altman was fired — and then rehired — as CEO of OpenAI, researchers at the company wrote a letter to its board of directors warning that a major new discovery could threaten humanity. We don’t know more about the details of that breakthrough or its precise role in the soap opera that’s consumed the tech world in recent weeks, but we do know that artificial intelligence is advancing at a rapid pace, and our public policy to regulate it is moving at the speed of Washington.

This is the season of controversial big-government actions by Republicans and Democrats. They too often want to direct people’s actions toward how politicians see fit. While these range from policies dealing with industrial support, climate change, and labor markets, one concern is regulating social media.

News that Sandra Day O’Connor, the Supreme Court’s first woman justice, had died Friday at age 93 brought back fond memories in these offices of her gracious — and well-attended — visit 10 years ago to our Editorial Board.

After a tenuous few days of calm during the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas, the fighting has started anew in Gaza, with Hamas firing rockets and Israel responding with airstrikes. It’s not clear when the hostilities may stop again, only that at some point, hopefully in the near future, the war will be over and the explosions will stop.

I arrived in Palestine and Israel just months after Hamas’ election victory. It was July 2006, and Israel’s first Gaza war (with Hamas) and second Lebanon war (with Hezbollah) were just finishing. My wife and I were living in East Jerusalem, where our two kids would learn to walk and over the years form indelible memories in Israel and the occupied West Bank.

Argentina’s new president-elect, Javier Milei, met officials from President Joe Biden’s administration in Washington last week. Having campaigned as a Trump-style scourge of the elite, who sees climate change as a “socialist lie,” he said closer alignment with the U.S. will shape his foreign policy and that he was “very comfortable” with the way the talks had gone. This does little to dispel uncertainty over what lies ahead for his country.

In December 1966, the CBS special “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” premiered. At the time, it was “the most expensive half-hour ever put on TV” due to animation costs, music and narration.

In mid-November, 16 men were the first incarcerated students to graduate with a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University. As an educator in the program, I have learned that their stories are crucial for healing and growth — for them, certainly, but also for us who live in this society that practices punishment and exclusion instead of grace and restoration.