Since the collapse of the USSR, a state in which ideology regulated everything from foreign affairs to personal life, some Russians have searched hard for a new “Russian idea” to animate national existence and impart a sense of belonging and purpose.

Thu, 21 Feb 2019 15:47:32 -0500

On Tuesday Manny Machado, a baseball player from the Dominican Republic, signed a $300 million contract to play for the San Diego Padres. In the National Basketball Association, players – most of whom are African-American – brag when they succeed in earning a “max contract,” the highest salary allowed. Recommended: The Monitor's View Is progress on race still possible?

Thu, 21 Feb 2019 15:18:32 -0500

Three times a week, Aishatu Abdullahi slips on a flowy blue hijab, slings a bulging backpack of supplies over her shoulder, and sets out to sell her wares, door-to-door, to the women in her neighborhood. In another time, in a different place, she might have been an Avon Lady, unzipping her bag to reveal tiny samples of lotions and lipsticks to neighborhood homemakers. Mrs. Abdullahi is part of a team of door-to-door contraceptive saleswomen hired by the family-planning charity Marie Stopes International to bring birth control to women here who can’t – or won’t – get it elsewhere.

Thu, 21 Feb 2019 12:42:01 -0500

As a kid, Janina Millis would sit at the foot of her grandfather’s chair watching Carolina basketball games and cheer at every basket. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was a dream school for her, but as a first-generation student without career plans, she never thought she’d make it there. Instead, she enrolled at Carteret Community College in Morehead City, N.C.

Thu, 21 Feb 2019 12:11:30 -0500