Serge Schmemann

To function in an otherwise normal democracy, a hereditary monarchy requires that the citizenry accept a bit of fiction — namely that one family, standing above politics, can represent the nation and its values. That takes a bit of doing, especially with that most scrutinized royal house of them…

There were reports on Saturday that the International Atomic Energy Agency has a team of experts ready to visit Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant within days. It would not be a minute too soon: Artillery shells are landing with chilling regularity in and around the facility, Europe’s…

Reports are circulating that the United States is negotiating with Russia to exchange two Americans being held in Russian prisons for a notorious arms dealer serving time in America. The deal is totally lopsided: The two Americans — the basketball star Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan, a security…

On Dec. 25, 1991, at 7:32 p.m., the Soviet flag came down over the Kremlin, and the pre-revolutionary Russian flag of white, blue and red horizontal stripes took its place. It was a momentous moment but was witnessed by only a handful of foreigners and an irate Soviet war veteran on Red Square. …

Shortly after the attacks of Sept. 11, an English teacher in central Washington State assigned her eighth and ninth graders to write poems based on the lead article in The Times. The teacher, Tammy Grubb, said her intention was to give the students a way to process their feelings. The poems were…