• Israel exits U.N. panel: Israel says it will follow the United States and withdraw its participation from the United Nations Human Rights Council, citing “ongoing and unrelenting institutional bias against Israel.”
• Judge pauses federal buyouts: A federal judge Feb. 6 temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s plan to push out federal workers by offering them financial incentives.
  • Related Monitor story: Elon Musk’s disruption of entire U.S. departments and agencies, even if it works, would not begin to address the issue of huge federal deficits.
• Justice Department sues Chicago: The U.S. Justice Department sued the state of Illinois and city of Chicago Feb. 6, accusing the Democratic strongholds of unlawfully interfering with Republican President Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
• Baltic states’ power: Nearly 3 1/2 decades after leaving the Soviet Union, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania this weekend will flip a switch to end electricity grid connections to neighboring Russia and Belarus – and turn to their European Union allies.
• West Point DEI: The U.S. Military Academy has disbanded a dozen West Point cadet clubs centered on ethnicity, gender, race, and sexuality in response to the Trump administration’s push to eliminate diversity programs throughout the government.
  • Related Monitor story: President Trump is attacking DEI in government and beyond. What will be the impact?

Whatever becomes of President Donald Trump’s proposal to take over Gaza and resettle the Palestinians there, one thing is certain: The Arab world is not on board. Many consider the plan a form of what the United Nations terms “ethnic cleansing”; others say it could lead to war if carried out. The question is whether that broader unity can spread among the Palestinians themselves. For now, old factions remain, and that could weaken any regional attempts to push back.

Employees of what was once known as Twitter will tell you that Elon Musk doesn’t mind causing a little disruption. But can private sector tactics be directly applied to the U.S. government? As President Donald Trump’s top lieutenant in reining in the federal government, Mr. Musk is giving it a go. Eventually, the courts will have to weigh in with what the Constitution and federal law have to say. Here, we examine some of the top questions that are emerging.

If you go back 120 or so years, there’s a strong echo of what’s happening today. President William McKinley was a famous proponent of the power of tariffs and of an expansionist United States. Donald Trump has leaned into those principles early in his second term. One big difference, of course, was that the U.S. was not the leader of the free world in McKinley’s time. And that could affect the calculations for Mr. Trump.

Canadians have long been a patriotic lot. But even Canada has not been immune to the economic and social malaise that seems to be affecting so many nations worldwide. Then Donald Trump vowed to hit Canada with tariffs. The result was a surge of national pride. True, none of the underlying problems has changed. But facing a moment of national trial has brought the country together in a potent way.    

New Orleans started the new year with a terror attack. One month later, 125,000 people are flying in for the Super Bowl. And there’s no doubt the city is humming and ready for business. Enhanced security is prominent, but so is the anticipation for a party. “No matter what happens to this city ... they have always dusted themselves off,” says one French Quarter worker.

How do you police crowds – sports fans, protesters – in a way that calms, rather than provokes? Through conversational deescalation, our writer learned in an Ohio city. “To stand with a crowd has a certain power,” Simon Montlake tells host Clay Collins on our “Why We Wrote This” podcast. How to meet that power when it threatens to boil over? “A ‘dialogue policeman’ is ... also armed. They’re also ready to respond. But their whole approach and mindset and relationship to the people they’re policing is not the warrior mindset.” 

American educators are scratching their heads over how to get screen-seduced students to read books (the paper kind). According to the latest “national report card,” reading scores for children are at an all-time low. Yet one trend belies this aversion to the printed page: Last year saw an unexpected surge in Bible sales, particularly among young people.

Sales of all religious books rose some 18% through October 2024, according to book tracker Circana BookScan. Yet Bible sales were up a popping 22%. Compare that with only a 1% rise for all book sales.

Among members of Generation Z, including college students, “You have a generation that wants to find things that feel more solid,” Amy Simpson, publisher of Tyndale House Publishers’ Bible division, told The Wall Street Journal.

The new popularity of Scripture and Bible-related materials indicates “a hunger for something eternal and stable,” Doug Lockhart, a senior vice president of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, told Publisher’s Weekly.

One explanation comes from a new survey by the Christian research group Barna: Some 52% of American teens – Christian or not – say they are “very motivated” to learn about Jesus. Barna attributes this to an “openness and curiosity about spiritual matters.”

Other possible reasons: On TikTok, YouTube, and podcasts, personal accounts of faith are popular, as is the hit TV series “The Chosen,” based on the Gospels.

The Bible has long dominated bestseller lists. Its appeal is perennial, always there with universal messages that meet the needs of the times. According to a 2023 survey by the American Bible Society, more than half of Americans wish they read the Bible more. Given the big bump in Bible sales, it is the children who are leading them to act on that wish.