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Pardis Mahdavi (center) gathers with other family members based in the US.

The tiny but mighty hyphen: Does it unite or divide?

Language

Some Americans, like Pardis Mahdavi, feel caught between two worlds. Her parents immigrated to the US from Iran, and she’s never really felt completely at home in either country. So now, she’s adopted a hyphenated identity.

Mona Lisa

Biographer Walter Isaacson, on Leonardo da Vinci’s art and science

Arts
TV meteorologist

In hurricane-prone Miami, one meteorologist is forecasting the future

Environment
surf practice

Why practice rarely makes perfect

Culture
Denisse

Meet the women who escorted Jane Doe to her abortion

Justice
Ada Colau

Barcelona’s mayor is on a quest to ‘feminize’ politics amid independence debate

Global Politics

The conflict between proponents of Catalan independence and Spanish unity has reached a head this week, as Catalan President Carles Puigdemont continues to threaten to declare unilateral independence while Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy takes steps to revoke the region’s autonomy. Almost daily pro- and anti-independence rallies throughout the country echo the leadership’s division, only ratcheting tensions.

Bono and Adam Clayton of U2 performing in Mexico City in 2011

Aha moment: Bono and belly dancing

Arts

She gave up ballet, but Yillah Natalie discovered her life’s work in U2’s “Mysterious Ways”: belly dancing.

A 1923 Ku Klux Klan parade in Albany is pictured

In the shadow of a racist past, Portland still struggles to be welcoming to all its residents

Conflict

A murder on a Portland light rail train brought back a lot of memories of painful times in the city’s history.

A picture illustration shows a Facebook logo reflected in a person's eye, in Zenica, March 13, 2015.

Russian trolls tried to recruit a prominent US activist. He didn’t take the bait, but others did.

Global Politics

Evidence is mounting that Russian trolls working for the Kremlin-linked Internet Research Agency stoked divisions in the US during the last election, going as far as to contact US-based activists to promote and organize rallies and other actions.

A woman wearing a headwrap and as shimmering blue and gold dress stands in front of a camera, with her hands to her hips.

Fashion, faith and culture come together through the global art of head wrapping

Culture

Head wrapping goes beyond style for one Detroit anthropologist. It’s also a way to bridge cultures.