The background: When asked by a viewer at the CNN-YouTube debate if he would meet with the leaders of rogue nations without preconditions during his first year in office, Obama said yes, explaining that President Reagan met with the leader of “the evil empire” and that the whole point of diplomacy is to talk to your adversaries. Clinton quickly disagreed, saying that she favored more diplomacy, but didn’t want to hand bad actors like Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad propaganda victories....

This speech, which he wrote himself over the last couple of days, was not necessarily the obvious path when confronted by the campaign crisis involving the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s inflammatory sermons. To understand the quality of it, consider some of the Obama campaign’s other options. If he were approaching the controversy conventionally, Obama would have simply expanded on his March 14 cable interviews and denounced Wright’s comments (e.g., “God damn America!...

Panamanian referee John Pitti booked Altidore in the 80th minute of the World Cup qualifier at Red Bull Arena after an incident involving Costa Rica midfielder Johan Venegas. The booking occurred after Venegas appeared to catch Altidore with a late challenge, prompting the U.S. striker to confront his opponent during a stoppage in play. Replays showed Altidore then bumping his chest into Venegas, who embellished the contact while falling to the turf....

McCarthy was officially presented as the replacement for Jason Garrett on Wednesday at the Cowboys’ Ford Center in Frisco. The former Green Bay Packers coach spent the 2019 season out of the league having been fired from his previous position in 2018. However, Jones was impressed enough at interview to hand him the reins to one of the most storied franchises in the NFL. MORE: Pros and cons of the Cowboys’ Mike McCarthy hire...

After the ugliness of the past day-and-a-half–Obama wears turban! Obama is Somali ’native’!–I was starting to worry that I’d be forced to opine on As a presidential candidate, you don’t always know in advance who’s going to introduce you at a rally. Most of the time, the opening acts are innocuous; a Lindsey Graham here, a local alderman there. But recently, a few of these folks–like union president Thomas Buffenbarger, who prefaced Hillary Clinton’s Feb....

More than any other, the global environmental challenge needs bold forward-looking acts of statesmanship–and on a global scale. This winter, the British government is taking major steps to move the debate forward. Britain is proposing the creation of the first global carbon market–and leading the way with extending the European emissions-trading scheme. Britain is also proposing a multibillion-dollar international initiative through the World Bank–with the richest countries investing in energy efficiency and alternative energy in the poorest countries....

After Saddam’s capture, U.S. stocks actually declined slightly, as did the dollar. The euro–which was worth only 86 cents in early 2002–inched up to what was then a record $1.23. The actual changes didn’t matter much, but they reflected a simple reality: finding Saddam, though critical for Iraq, barely altered the powerful money flows now moving global stock, bond and currency markets. What’s occurring is a turnaround from the patterns of the late 1990s, when foreign money poured into the United States, chasing the Internet dream and rising stocks....

What could Ingram change about Corker, the starchy former mayor of Chattanooga? Everything but his clothes, apparently. Speaking to a group of sheriffs last week, Corker was buttoned up in a charcoal pin-striped suit. (“We need to change that,” Ingram later grumbled in a Nashville bar.) Still, Ingram has helped turn the Corker campaign around with new ads and a new message–that Corker is a self-made businessman from Tennessee, while his opponent, Harold Ford Jr....

“Where the Truth Lies,” his wonderfully witty first novel, proves once and for all that Holmes is no one-hit wonder. Swimming in the Scotch-soaked excesses of 1970s Los Angeles, our plucky young protagonist (aren’t they all?) starts snooping into a decades-old murder. How did that luscious redhead (aren’t they all?) wind up in the bathtub, missing a pulse and a couple of toes? Could America’s most beloved comedy duo be involved?...

Just up the hill from the cove, past the tethered goats and the sweet-potato fields, are what Chinese investigators see as monuments to the smuggling of foreign cigarettes: five garish mansions rising incongruously on the edge of the old fishing village of Shadi. All the houses belong to the family of Cai Wanhe, a 51-year-old man with no fixed job and no shortage of disposable income. Besides building a three-story house that resembles a giant bird cage, Cai has donated his money–and his name–to the village’s new primary school, old folks’ home and basketball court....

John Paul II is furious. In March he sent a letter to all heads of state, including Clinton, warning that the Cairo conference could mean ““a serious setback for humanity.’’ He later repeated his warning in a scathing address to Dr. Nafis Sadik, the secretary-general of the conference. The pope is fighting, he recently said, ““a United Nations plan to destroy the family.'' White House officials don’t want or anticipate an emotional clash....

It also became his obsession. By the time he finished graduate school, Englander was writing all day, six days a week. Since last summer, he’s been the talk of publishing for the reported $350,000 advance he received for his astonishing debut, For the Relief of Unbearable Urges (205 pages. Knopf. $22). That’s an unheard-of sum for a collection of stories by any writer, let alone an unknown. “It’s so much bigger than I could have imagined,” Englander says of the deal....

Today in China, in the semifinals of the Women’s World Cup, Brazil did it again, outracing, outhustling and outmuscling the Yanks and dazzling them with their superior technique and ball skills. And this time the United States team had no answer, absorbing a 4-0 thrashing that stands as the worst defeat in U.S. women’s soccer history. Much of the pregame discussion had focused on the stunning decision by U.S. coach Greg Ryan to sit down his No....

This slickly produced commercial has a companion spot that shows an attractive, older couple adopting a baby (all three are white). Many pregnant women, the announcer says, have “held to their belief that nothing is more precious than human life.“They decided to “tough it out” and found people to adopt their children. The two ads are infuriating many in the pro-choice movement, who consider them judgmental and manipulative, while delighting pro-life viewers who find them positive and life affirming....

Venerable safety Troy Polalmalu, the captain of the Steelers defense, told reporters they’re ready for Brian Hoyer’s backup to enter the game in a sub-package. “The thing about it, New York tried to do that with Tim Tebow a little bit,” Polamalu said. “But Tebow’s a guy you have to just play and play and grind out the entire game. I don’t think Johnny is that type of guy. I think if Johnny came into the game, he would make some splashes, he doesn’t need to get into a rhythm....

YERGIN: No, this is not the ’70s. This is a new OPEC, trying to chart a middle ground. OPEC has its heart and mind set on keeping oil prices between $22 and $28 for what’s called the OPEC barrel. That’s $3 or $4 lower than the benchmark West Texas Intermediate, currently selling at around $27. They’re worried that it will fall through the bottom of that band. They’re seeking to preserve their revenues, on which their national budgets depend....

This “historical” Jesus performed no miracles, but he did have the healer’s touch, a gift for alleviating emotional ills through acceptance and love. He called for an utterly egalitarian Kingdom of God-not on some day of judgment, but in the here and now. He wanted people to experience God directly, unimpeded by hierarchy of temple or state. The authorities executed him, almost casually, after he caused a disturbance in Jerusalem during Passover....

But rather than rehearse our many ideological differences, I come to NEWSWEEK not to bury Buckley, but, believe it or not, to offer some respect for the man and the editor. More important than any of the particular ideas in which Buckley believed was his belief in the power of ideas themselves. When the audacious, young Yale grad founded National Review in 1955, he hoped to accomplish more than anyone really expected a magazine to be capable of....

A Certified Important Book you haven’t read: “Crime and Punishment” by Fyodor Dostoevsky. I’ve never gotten beyond page 50. A book you wanted to share with your kids: My five kids liked me to tell them stories instead of reading to them. And now they’re all good storytellers, and my son Peter will have his first book published next year.