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As the cold spell that froze much of the United States thaws, don’t count on it to limit the populations of pests that you don’t like.

With climate change warming the Arctic air, researchers say, cold snaps are getting warmer. The recent spell of cold was an outlier.

A woman who left France and became a prominent propagandist and recruiter for the Islamic State has asked her family, friends and country for a pardon. This is how she went from a Paris suburb to the Syrian battlefield.

These zero-proof drinks from top bartenders all over the country are healthy-ish, use fresh ingredients — and won't give you a hangover.

A state “target” meant to limit the number of students receiving special education services violated federal law, regulators said in a letter ordering the state to make amends.

Ms. Donegan said she created the list for women in the media industry to document what many discussed in private: the names of men to stay away from.

The historian Niall Ferguson’s new book goes a long way toward redressing the lack of perspective to a concept central to the technological “revolution”: networks.

The Hulu series follows in the tense, entertaining footsteps of previous Israeli shows like “Fauda” on Netflix and “Prisoners of War” on Hulu.

A Mexican baseball team brought in an analytics expert. But in a clash of tradition and modernity, a manager ended up fired and the data is now hardly used.

Biophilic buildings aim not just to leave a minimal carbon footprint but also to promote the health of those who live and work there.

Like the ocean, fresh water absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But the effects are likely to vary widely from place to place.

Eight tips to help keep your travel expenses nominal and your wallet fat this year.

Known for high test scores, but with disappointing results in college, the Achievement First network tries a new model to help children learn independent thinking.

As the women behind Time’s Up figure out if they can sustain the momentum from Sunday’s event, the Academy Awards face the specter of uncomfortable male moments.

The animator David Heredia, who will be at the Black Comic Book Festival this weekend, brings to life heroes who don’t necessarily wear capes.

Here’s what you need to know to start your day.

“THE horse may be out of the proverbial barn.” So wrote Ben Bernanke, a former chairman of the Federal Reserve, in early 2016, arguing that capital controls might be powerless to save China from a run on its currency. He was far from alone at the time. As cash rushed out of the country, analysts debated whether the yuan would collapse, and some hedge funds bet that day was coming fast. But two years on, the horse is back in the barn: the government’s defence of the yuan has succeeded, in part through tighter capital controls.

The latest evidence was an 11th consecutive monthly increase in foreign-exchange reserves in December. During that time China’s stockpile of official reserves, the world’s biggest, climbed by $142bn, reaching $3.14trn, roughly double the cushion usually regarded as needed to ensure financial stability. Another sign of China’s success is the yuan itself. At the start of 2017 the consensus of forecasters was that the currency would continue to weaken; it finished the year up by 6% against the dollar.

Investors and analysts were not wrong in viewing Chinese capital controls as porous. Enterprising types had—and have—umpteen ways to sneak money out, from overpaying for imports to smuggling cash across the border in luggage. But there is a wide spectrum between a fully open and fully closed capital account, and China has showed over...

Waiting for the auditor

WHEN Afghan lawmakers were debating rules of conduct for accountants, some were confounded by their strictness. Why should those found guilty of murder, asked one member of parliament, be struck off? That is a sign of the challenges facing the professional body for bean-counters, Certified Professional Accountants (CPA) Afghanistan, which was launched last month.

Attempts to establish a home-grown profession start from a low base. Back in 2009 Kabul, a city of around 4m, had fewer than 20 qualified accountants. Neither standards nor oversight for the profession were in place. Most local outfits were branches of firms from elsewhere in South Asia or farther afield.

Boring old accountancy might not seem a priority for a war-torn country. But in business it can foster trust and transparency—scarce commodities in a country where corruption is systemic. Because of the difficulty of verifying borrowers’ financial positions and...

THAT 2017 suffered from more than its fair share of natural catastrophes was known at the time. In the wake of Hurricane Harvey, the streets of Houston, Texas, were submerged under brown floodwater; Hurricane Irma razed buildings to the ground on some Caribbean islands. That the destruction was great enough for insurance losses to reach record levels has only just been confirmed. According to figures released on January 4th by Munich Re, a reinsurer, global, inflation-adjusted insured catastrophe losses reached an all-time high of $135bn in 2017 (see chart). Total losses (including uninsured ones) reached $330bn, second only to losses of $354bn in 2011.

A large portion of the losses in 2011 was caused by one catastrophe: the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Losses in 2017 were largely traceable to extreme weather. Fully 97% were weather-related, well above the average since 1980 of 85%. If climate change brings more frequent extreme weather, as Munich Re and others expect, last year’s loss levels...

EVERY Tuesday, senior members of the administration gather in the White House to discuss trade. They are divided between hawks, who argue that America needs to be tougher in its defence against what they see as economic warfare waged by China, and doves, who worry about the costs of conflict. So far, against all expectations when President Donald Trump entered the White House, the doves have prevailed. The first of a series of legal deadlines could soon unleash the hawks.

Last April Wilbur Ross, the commerce secretary, initiated a probe into whether steel imports were a threat to America’s national security. His department pointed to a “dramatic” increase in steel imports over the previous year and to the idling of nearly 30% of America’s steel-production capacity, as imports feed a quarter of its consumption. If the report, due by January 15th, finds imports are a threat, Mr Trump, under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, will have 90 days to respond.

The report’s...