Politics and Government

• Zero Hour for the Middle East - After more than a decade of wars, from Syria to Gaza, the Middle East is exhausted by conflict. Is it ready to find another way?
• Families Demand Answers a Year After Deadliest Plane Crash in South Korea - Many details of the Jeju Air disaster that killed 179 people remain unclear despite multiple investigations by officials and protests by the victims’ families.
• In Myanmar, the Election Is Called Fake, but the Human Suffering Is Real - A coup set off a brutal civil war and made a poor country poorer. Now its military rulers are seeking a veneer of legitimacy by holding elections.
• What Went Wrong Before Hong Kong’s Inferno - Records show how government departments played down residents’ warnings about corrupt practices and substandard materials that fueled the deadly blaze.
• The Hindu Right’s 100-Year Quest to Reshape India - The far right juggernaut known as the R.S.S. and its most prominent member, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, are remaking secular India as a Hindu-first society, pushing aside minorities.
• Why China, a One-Party State, Is Backing Elections in This Country - The vote in Myanmar, widely seen as a sham, is a bid for legitimacy by the military government. It is also a way for Beijing to exert its influence there.
• Mistrial in Case of N.Y. Official Charged With Working for China - Linda Sun was accused by federal prosecutors of selling her allegiance and being rewarded handsomely for influence peddling.
• Angering Denmark, Trump Appoints Special Envoy to Greenland - President Trump, who has long said he wants to “get” the semiautonomous Danish territory, tapped Louisiana’s governor for the new position. Officials in Greenland and Denmark expressed outrage.
• France Needs a New France - The time has come for a Sixth Republic.
• ‘60 Minutes’ Pulled a Segment. A Correspondent Calls It ‘Political.’ - Sharyn Alfonsi, a “60 Minutes” correspondent, criticized the network’s decision to remove her reporting from Sunday’s edition of the show.