| Will Trump’s State Department push religious freedom to center stage? Posted: 09 Jan 2019 02:31 PM PST ![Will Trump's State Department push religious freedom to center stage?]( "Will Trump's State Department push religious freedom to center stage?") One of the most underestimated movements in Washington today started with a man and a vacuum sweeper. It was 1999, and Robert Seiple had just been named America's first ambassador at large for religious freedom, a position created by Congress the year before. "It was just me and a vacuum sweeper," Mr. Seiple recalled recently at a conference commemorating the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA).
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| Once a nation of joiners, Americans are now suspicious of those who do Posted: 09 Jan 2019 01:58 PM PST ![Once a nation of joiners, Americans are now suspicious of those who do]( "Once a nation of joiners, Americans are now suspicious of those who do") Shahid Shafi and Brian Buescher may not seem to have much in common. One is a recently naturalized citizen and a trauma surgeon in Southlake, Texas. At the same time, American history has also been rife with anxiety and distrust about some of those organizations, from George Washington's concerns about political parties to the widespread belief that John F. Kennedy, a Roman Catholic, would be more loyal to the pope than the Constitution.
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| Breaking Latin America’s migration driver Posted: 09 Jan 2019 12:18 PM PST ![Breaking Latin America's migration driver]( "Breaking Latin America's migration driver") Gang violence in Latin America continues to force thousands of people to flee each year. Many strategies have been tried, especially in Central America. Now a new president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, has been quickly initiated into this ongoing search for solutions.
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| A shutdown fight that’s about much more than a wall Posted: 09 Jan 2019 12:13 PM PST ![A shutdown fight that's about much more than a wall]( "A shutdown fight that's about much more than a wall") In the Trump era, the big issues of the day often live on two planes: the actual and the meta, the issues themselves and the outsize meaning they take on at a time of pitched partisan conflict. The partial government shutdown is at Day 19 over the impasse, after dueling televised statements Tuesday night that offered no way out. For Trump, the wall was a core campaign promise, even a key to his election, as it came to stand for his effort to defend Americans' safety and identity.
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