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Last month, some of President Obama’s top intelligence advisers met in Silicon Valley with Apple’s chief, Timothy D. Cook, and other technology leaders in what seemed to be a public rapprochement in their long-running dispute over the encryption safeguards built into their devices.

But behind the scenes, relations were tense, as lawyers for the Obama administration and Apple held closely guarded discussions for over two months about one particularly urgent case: The F.B.I. wanted Apple to help “unlock” an iPhone used by one of the two attackers who killed 14 people in San Bernardino, Calif., in December, but Apple was resisting.

When the talks collapsed, a federal magistrate judge, at the Justice Department’s request, ordered Apple to bypass security functions on the phone.

What will happen to American politics if, as now appears likely, the Republican Party nominates Donald Trump? Here’s one bet: It will get more violent.

The United States is headed toward a confrontation, the likes of which it has not seen since 1968, between leftist activists, who believe in physical disruption as a means of drawing attention to injustice, and a candidate eager to forcibly put down that disruption in order to make himself look tough.

The new culture of physical disruption on the activist left stems partly from disillusionment with Barack Obama.

O.J. Simpson Prosecutor Marcia Clark: If Trial Were Held Today, It'd Probably Be Hung Jury

The Los Angeles prosecutor who tried and failed to convict O.J. Simpson says the infamous murder trial would probably end in a hung jury if it were held today.

Because in the wake of all these police shootings and all the racial mistrust that has been exposed, probably what would result, in my opinion, is a hung jury."

Pope Francis prayed Sunday for the victims of a brutal attack that killed 16 people at a home for the elderly in Yemen founded by Mother Teresa.

The attack at the facility run by Catholic missionaries in the port city of Aden left four nuns dead, the Vatican reported.

The nuns were part of a group founded by soon-to-be-sainted Mother Teresa. Two were from Rwanda, one was from India and the fourth one was from Kenya. Read More

At first, the attack had all the hallmarks of a typical Boko Haram assault. Armed fighters stormed a town on the border with Nigeria, shooting every man they saw.

Boko Haram, the Islamist extremist group terrorizing this part of the world, is on the hunt — for food.

After rampaging across the region for years, forcing more than two million people to flee their homes and farms, Boko Haram appears to be falling victim to a major food crisis of its own creation.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has suggested his counterparts south of the border would do well to know more about the rest of the world.

He answered in stereotypical Canadian fashion, suggesting "it might be nice" if Americans "paid a little more attention to the world."

n myriad polls and surveys, Americans are often found to be among the most "ignorant" populations in the developed world. Contrary to trends elsewhere, the rate of foreign language study by college students in the United States is declining, not increasing.

Pope Francis prayed Sunday for the victims of a brutal attack that killed 16 people at a home for the elderly in Yemen founded by Mother Teresa.

The attack at the facility run by Catholic missionaries in the port city of Aden left four nuns dead, the Vatican reported.

The impoverished Muslim nation has faced violence for years, some of it tied to al Qaeda elements that call it home.

In Libya, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton showed herself to be quick to use the American military without thinking about what comes next. As the decisive voice pushing the Obama administration to war, Clinton had no serious plan for a post-Qaddafi Libya, a point driven home forcefully once again in a New York Times cover story on Sunday.

Libya was not the first time she endorsed a U.S. military operation in the Middle East without thinking ahead: Clinton voted for the invasion of Iraq in 2003. She has shown repeatedly that she did not learn the lessons of Iraq, and has yet to admit to the failure of Libya.

The second is to acknowledge the limits of the capacity of the United States to transform the world in our interests and image. As explained in the New York Times, "Mrs. Clinton's deep belief in America's power to do good in the world ran aground in a tribal country with no functioning government, rival factions and a staggering quantity of arms."

AQI was weakened in Iraq in 2007 as a result of what is known as the Sunni Awakening, when a large alliance of Iraqi Sunni tribes, supported by the U.S., fought against the jihadist group. AQI saw an opportunity to regain its power and expand its ranks in the Syrian conflict

Although originally an al Qaeda affiliate, ISIS and al-Baghdadi had a public falling out in 2013 with Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s replacement and leader of al Qaeda “core,” over the role of another al Qaeda group, the al-Nursa Front, in Syria

ISIS saw a series of successes as it has cut its way from Syria into Iraq and towards Baghdad using a combination of military expertise and unimaginable brutality.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell has scheduled a news conference Sunday to discuss the fatal shooting by sheriff’s deputies of a man wielding a gun at a busy Lynwood intersection, an incident caught on a dramatic video that has sparked protests in the neighborhood.

The sheriff and homicide detectives will discuss the shooting at a news conference at 11 a.m. at the Hall of Justice downtown. A group of civil rights organizations are planning their own news conference and are calling for a meeting with McDonnell.

In the 29-second video obtained by KTLA and filmed from a restaurant across the street, a sheriff's deputy follows Robertson as he appears to be walking away from the deputy.

Egypt’s Second Twitter Revolution

CAIRO — Ayman Moussa’s father died on Nov. 12. But there was little hope, it seemed, of the young engineering student and activist making it to the funeral.

Moussa’s friends tried to figure out how to get him a temporary release so he could pay his last respects. Articles in the traditional media were out—Egypt’s free press is anything but. Any demonstrations in the street are ruthlessly smacked down.

Aamer, 48, was held over extremely serious claims - that he had led a Taliban unit and was an associate of Osama Bin Laden. The US military classified him as a threat, but he was never charged.

His lawyers say the case against him came from unreliable allegations extracted during torture and that his treatment at the US military base in Cuba raises serious questions about the legality and morality of the so-called war on terror.

The Saudi national lived in London for five years, settling with a British wife - but says he found it hard to be a practising Muslim in the UK.

The 369th Regiment, the longest-serving and most decorated US unit in World War One, earned the nickname the "Harlem Hellfighters" for courageous acts on the battlefield.

When these men returned home in 1919, they were hailed as heroes by some but also faced violence and renewed racism, according to Max Brooks in his new graphic novel about the legendary all-black military unit.

This work of historical fiction tells the unit's little-known tale, from discrimination in training to brutality and victory in the trenches of France.

just recorded the highest influx of migrants to Greece yet in 2015.

48,000 refugees and migrants crossed from Turkey to the Greek islands

flummoxing European policy-makers and swamping the ability of authorities to care for them.

Earlier this year the administration had announced plans to draw down to a skeleton force of around 1,000 troops in Afghanistan by the end of its term. That decision would have tied the hands of the next president as it is much easier to maintain an existing troop presence -- both from a logistical point of view as well as politically -- than it is to ramp one up substantially.

two-thirds of Afghans favored a long-term role for U.S. and other international forces, while the Afghan government, led by President Ashraf Ghana and CEO Abdullah Abdullah, have been imploring U.S. officials to maintain a substantial troop presence.

Amnesty writes: "Mass murder, gang rapes and house-to-house searches by Taliban death squads are just some of the harrowing civilian testimonies emerging from Kunduz. ...Women human rights defenders from Kunduz spoke of a 'hit list' being used by the Taliban to track down activists and others, and described how fighters had raped and killed numerous civilians."Third, an overwhelming 92% of Afghans prefer the current government to the Taliban, according to a poll taken earlier this year. In other words, not only is the United States on the right side of history in supporting the Afghan government against the Taliban, the Afghan people also overwhelmingly support this.

In the 1990s, the central political institutions radiated confidence, derived from an assumed vision of the post-Cold War world. History would be a slow march toward democratic capitalism. Nations would be bound in peaceful associations like the European Union. The United States would oversee a basic international order.

This vision was materialistic and individualistic. Nations should pursue economic growth and a decent distribution of wealth. If you give individuals access to education and opportunity, they will pursue affluence and personal happiness. They will grow more temperate and “reasonable.”

Since 2000, this vision of the post-Cold War world has received blow after blow. Some of these blows were self-inflicted. Democracy, especially in the United States, has grown dysfunctional. Mass stupidity and greed led to a financial collapse and deprived capitalism of its moral swagger.

2015 was the year that concerns about the return of fascism went mainstream, thanks to the popularity of the likes of Donald Trump, who leads the polls to be the Republican presidential candidate in the US

When you dehumanised the people of Afghanistan and Iraq so that their fatalities weren't even worth counting.When you applauded drone attacks on nameless “combat-age men”.When you insisted that we really *must* have an "honest conversation" about "Muslim extremists".When you asked in total ignorance “where are the Muslim voices condemning X, Y and Z”?When you singled out something called the "Muslim community" as having a "problem" with "radicalisation".When you justified all of the above by swearing you weren't against *Islam*, just *Islamism*.Yes, Western liberals, when you did all of this and more, you were the warm up act for the main show now being brought to you by Donald Trump.

Secondly, resist the ‘war on terror’

In the year since the Charlie Hebdo terror attack, free speech and political correctness, particularly in the West, have been presented as antithetical.

As a few of the panelists noted, the Constitution enshrined the right to offend as a bedrock of free speech, but in recent years, the right not to be offended has taken precedent.

However, the segregation and self-censorship among liberals, shaped partly by the desire not to offend, has been just as devastating, in part because it has undermined what many progressives have hailed as a pillar of liberalism: the ability to debate ideas and confront difficult issues.

Every one of my 30 second-graders raised their tiny hands. That was what they heard at night -- gunshots. And, I couldn't honestly calm their fears. We had lockdowns almost every month -- due to drive-by shootings or gang activity on the corner.

While there, I got mugged in broad daylight, at gunpoint, by two young men. One pointed a sawed-off shotgun at me. It looked like a rifle as I stared down the barrel

I loved the kids, and the parents, but risking my life to go to work just didn't seem worth it. I can't imagine how the teachers at Sandy Hook or Columbine managed to return to work after those horrific massacres.