As cities wrestle with how to reform policing to reduce the use of lethal force, Albuquerque has created a new kind of responder on the streets. It sends behavioral specialists to deal with calls that involve emergencies like mental health issues and homelessness.

British politics have been rocked by a cash-for-access scandal that caused Boris Johnson to do an about-face on easing anti-sleaze rules. It is proving a gut check for traditional democratic values.

Russia showed signs at COP26 that it is finally getting serious about the threat of climate change. But the Kremlin’s shift in thought may need to go further to prepare the country for the future.

An educated society is vital to democracy, but are schools obligated to teach students how government works? And who should decide that, the states or the courts? Both questions are at the heart of an appeals case in Boston.

Few people on the planet were more interested in food than Julia Child, says Monitor film critic Peter Rainer. Judging from the new documentary “Julia,” he adds, few people are as interesting.

Having experienced four wars over four decades, Iraqis know a thing or two about people fleeing woe and trouble. With its democracy now more firmly in place, Iraq joined a new United Nations program earlier this year that assists countries in dealing with all aspects of migration, from root causes to protecting migrants. And just in time. The tense crisis in Europe along the border with Belarus involves mostly Iraqi migrants.

Thousands of them were lured to Belarus earlier this year by strongman Alexander Lukashenko and then used as human weapons to cross into Poland and Lithuania in retaliation for European Union sanctions on his anti-democratic regime. By July, the EU asked Iraq to clamp down on human trafficking and, without too much prodding, the government went into action.

Flights carrying migrants from Baghdad to Minsk were canceled. Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi set up a special team to discourage the migration. He called for urgent aid to the stranded Iraqis in Belarus and planned evacuation flights to bring the migrants home if they volunteer to return. (Few of the migrants are considered refugees.) The government is spending about $200 million for the effort. 

Mr. Kadhimi also promised a probe into criminal networks working with Belarus to bring in migrants. In addition, the crisis forced a renewed debate in Iraq about trying harder to reduce the poverty and political unrest that drove thousands of Iraqis to emigrate to Europe.

EU officials commended Iraq for its response and wished other countries with migrants in Belarus were doing the same. Last March, after Iraq joined the U.N. program to improve its “migration governance,” the U.N. designated it as a “champion” country for its commitment to dealing better with migrants. That sort of progress by Iraq might be a model, helping deter authoritarian leaders who try to use migrants as tools of geopolitics.