海角大神

The latest legal challenge to the Affordable Care Act may seem like just another episode in an endless saga. Here鈥檚 why this case may be different.

It鈥檚 human nature to fear the unknown. But learning what motivates people鈥檚 actions can lead to understanding. Our reporters spent a day in a Louisiana abortion clinic to try to show what happens behind its doors.听

Can you import workers without changing the social fabric? Japan keeps trying to square that circle. But the door may be opening聽鈥� ever so slightly聽鈥� to changes that could benefit newcomers and native-born Japanese alike.

鈥淗ome鈥� usually doesn鈥檛 just mean a building; it means a community. When governments need to relocate residents for development projects, does their responsibility include more than money for individuals to find a new house?

Mayor Steve Williams has made Huntington, West Virginia, a model for tackling drug addiction.听Part 2 in a summer series on people who are facing 鈥� and successfully navigating 鈥� America鈥檚 most intractable challenges.

These are busy days for professional mediators in some of the world鈥檚 most dangerous conflicts, from Sudan to Venezuela. You don鈥檛 hear much about these globe-trotting interlocutors, however. That is the point. Their skill set includes the humility not to be visible, not to take credit, and not to push solutions on warring parties. The 鈥渟oft鈥� power of such honest brokers lies mainly in honest listening for shared concerns.

This week, for example, Norway will mediate between the Venezuelan regime of Nicol谩s Maduro and its main opponent, the internationally recognized president, Juan Guaid贸, on neutral turf in Barbados. Norway has a long history in facilitating peace deals, such as the 1993 accords between Israel and Palestinian negotiators. Lately, Norwegian diplomat Dag Nylander was crucial in arranging a 2016 peace agreement that ended Colombia鈥檚 long civil conflict. Now his trust-building skills are being tested in Venezuela, where previous mediation efforts by Spain and the Vatican had failed.

Don鈥檛 expect to see the face of the self-effacing Mr. Nylander in news photos. A back channel mediator prefers to stay in the background, working behind closed doors to find openings for the parties to discover their own solutions.

In Sudan, which has witnessed seven months of a violent standoff between pro-democracy protesters and a military regime, the role of neutral mediation fell largely to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. He has a Ph.D. in conflict resolution. A tentative deal to restore democracy was reached last week after outside pressure from the United States and Gulf countries. Mr. Abiy has been instrumental in soothing other friction points in Africa.

Last weekend, Germany and Qatar facilitated the first talks between the Taliban and officials of the Afghanistan government. The German envoy to Afghanistan, Markus Potzel, says much of his work is managing expectations and waiting until all parties want to come to an agreement. Peace, he emphasizes, is not merely the absence of conflict. It requires including the views of all parties, narrowing the divide, and then looking for common ground.

Finally, one of the Middle East鈥檚 most effective mediators, Oman, joined the challenge to end the Syrian conflict. Its foreign minister made a rare visit to Damascus this week. Oman helped Iran and the U.S. achieve their 2015 nuclear deal.

If mediators rely on force, it is the force of moral persuasion. That includes an ability to convince the parties to examine their own attitudes and actions. Negotiations are not always contentious. They can also be contemplative. Mediators, by their own nature, bring that quality to the table.听