Palm Desert

Trump’s Putin meeting showed his naiveté, Trump-Putin’s meeting was overhyped, Why Donald Trump Jr.’s handling of Russian lawyer meeting makes things worse, Has China lost its grip on Hong Kong youth?, After Mosul, Islamic State remains a threat

“The meeting between US president Donald Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit ... confirmed the expected naivete of the American president. “I did not know whether to laugh or cry when Trump and Putin announced they wanted to set up a cyber security unit, so that election-tampering cybercrimes were ‘under control’. “After so much hype ..., the meeting between U.S. President Donald J. Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin ... [at the G20 summit in Hamburg] turned out to be much ado about nothing...,” writes Thérèse Margolis.

Readers write: Mealtime memories, prisoner empathy, violence and children

Recommended: Could you pass a US citizenship test? Thank you for your June 12 cover story, “The story of prisoner 5770102414.” Being a published writer, activist, and advocate against the mistreatment of prisoners, I could only empathize with Prontip Mankong. As the mother of a 5-year-old, I want to thank you for the June 19 OneWeek article “In facing terror, a little humor helps.” I am deeply troubled that President Trump advocates fear of “others” and that his proposed budget asks Congress to prioritize aggression over diplomacy.

A disrupter at UN: Can new chief shake up bureaucracy to speed progress?

António Guterres, who took over as United Nations secretary-general early this year, acknowledges that the world community has made encouraging progress in improving people’s lives over recent decades. Just two examples: Malaysia reduced poverty levels from about half the population in 1970 to under 10 percent in 2000, allowing the country to focus on eradicating poverty by 2030. Recommended: What do you know about the United Nations?

Why there's a growing rift in GOP over law and order

Should the government be able to take your money, car, or home without charging you with a crime? For Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a “careful” plan to expand the program amounts to a common-sense approach to support law enforcement and weaken criminal enterprises amid an uptick in violent crime. Democrats and civil libertarians have been up in arms about such seizures for years, saying the war-on-drugs-era tactic creates absurd incentives that have in many cases resulted in “policing for profit,” as the nonprofit Institute for Justice found in a 2015 report.