You may be asking yourselves the same question we are: How should we evaluate the ferment in the White House? Washington staff writers Peter Grier and Linda Feldmann unpack one piece of that. 

Russian alarm is growing over US political turmoil. But any legitimate attempts to calm the roiled waters of Washington are being sharply constrained by US suspicion of Russian motives.

How do you best make the punishment fit the crime? The question features in literature – think Dostoyevsky – as well as comic song (see Gilbert and Sullivan). The answer may lie in setting aside conventional notions of “tough” and “soft,” and looking at what blend of factors is most likely to help criminals set a new course after serving their time.

If America has its 1 percent, Iran has its 4 percent – the tiny minority that hasn’t struggled amid decades of sanctions. Presidential candidates are piling on, wooing the 96 percent with a globally familiar populist pitch. But that crowd is savvy: What they want most, they say, is to trust those who aspire to lead them. 

Large construction firms are accustomed to weighing political and social factors in their work around the globe. But the proposed wall may be pointing to a new era of corporate risk. 

When nations are at odds or even at war, sometimes peace can come quietly through a back door. China and the United States reconciled decades ago through a table tennis match. Serbia and Albania have edged closer after putting on a production of “Romeo and Juliet.” India and Pakistan have talked of joint research on Himalayan glaciers. South Korea, host of the next Winter Olympics, hopes to welcome a team from North Korea.

The latest example of indirect peacemaking is the opening of the Middle East’s first scientific research center on May 16. Located in Jordan and nearly a century in the making, it is funded by nine countries in the region, some of which do not officially recognize each other. Yet now scientists from Israel will be working alongside Iranians and Palestinians. And even though Turkey does not recognize the Republic of Cyprus, their researchers will be talking a common language, that of science and math. The other countries are Pakistan, Egypt, Bahrain, and Jordan.

The center’s focus is a particle accelerator, the only one in the region and a useful tool for peering into molecules in fields from biology to archaeology. Its name is SESAME, an acronym for Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East. But the name is also the magic password to open a cave full of gold in the fable “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.”

One model for SESAME is CERN, the large, Swiss-based particle physics laboratory. It was set up after the devastation of World War II to bring together European countries around joint research. This collaboration across boundaries later proved a useful model in other areas of science, such as space exploration.

Science, like the arts and sports, can serve as an ice-breaker and neutral ground for estranged peoples. They require qualities of thought that lift people above national identities or cultural differences. In science, there is an inherent demand for truth, openness, and trust. Researchers often unite in the joy of making discoveries. They later carry back home those moments of unity experienced during mutual learning.

SESAME, while located in the desert and near the war in Syria, is a small bridge between people in the Middle East. Its value goes beyond the science itself, setting yet another example of a cause greater and more lasting than any differences over religion, ideology, or ethnicity. Like the light beams it emits to probe matter, it is a light of hope in a dark corner of the world.