Hollywood portrays forensic science as nearly infallible. It isn’t. Now a Houston lab has become a model of reform, boosting trust in this critical part of the justice system. 

The pandemic is spurring the rise of portable health records, and businesses could make the so-called vaccine passport a ticket to preferred treatment. It’s an issue with ethical, public health, and economic implications. 

The U.K. is putting together a once-in-a-generation bill that will redefine what domestic abuse is. In doing so, it could provide a lasting foundation for survivors to restart a life of agency, free from violence.

European soccer’s values of community and custodianship were behind the three-day rise and fall of the proposed Super League, which would have imposed a U.S. corporate sports model on the continent.

The jury’s guilty verdict for Derek Chauvin made our commentator wonder how much more he could hope for. Police reform, to be sure. But his ultimate goal – humanity for all – entails so much more.  

Can a movie keep history from repeating itself? Monitor film critic Peter Rainer says award contender “Quo Vadis, Aida?” succeeds in its mission to get people thinking and talking about the tragedy that occurred in Srebrenica in 1995.

When a breakthrough is reached on an important public issue after a long period of resistance or inertia, there is a tendency to look to circumstance for an explanation of the change. A rare alignment of relevant factors, perhaps, or a novel deal between political rivals. When a shift touches on several intractable problems at once, it is worth asking if something deeper is happening.

In recent days, three significant hurdles were cleared. World leaders set aggressive new targets to cut carbon emissions. A police officer in the U.S. was convicted of murdering a Black man. And the Group of Seven nations, led by the UK, launched an international partnership to prevent future pandemics.

This does not mean that the current pandemic, climate change, and the problems of race and American law enforcement have been solved. Pledges on climate change have been made and missed for decades. An average of four Americans were killed by police each day during the 22-day trial of former Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin. In India COVID-19 cases are spiking rapidly.

But the headlines this week point to a broadening acknowledgment, as the Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III of Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ said in The Washington Post, that “we are all interconnected, inextricably bound to each other.”

Among the reasons for this may be political shock and recognition of a common adversary. A year ago, as countries were scrambling to shut their streets and borders to contain the coronavirus, Columbia University psychology professor Peter Coleman noted that history often pivots when people are jarred by crisis into a wider range of urgency and empathy. Nazi Germany’s 56-day bombing campaign against Britain, he told Politico, stirred “an ascendance of human goodness – altruism, compassion, and generosity of spirit and action.” He foresaw a similar response in the pandemic, noting that “the time of change is clearly ripening.”

In a similar way, the shock of a nine-minute video led to the Chauvin verdict while erratic weather over the past year has led to heightened alertness to its causes. Recognition of these outsize events has shaped public coordination on solutions. At his virtual summit on climate change yesterday, President Joe Biden vowed to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by at least half by 2030 from 2005 levels. Japan, Britain, and the European Union made similar pledges. Those goals invite skepticism. The goals will require massive and rapid transformations in power grids, infrastructure, transportation, agriculture, and construction.

Yet their boldness, like the response to COVID-19 or the injustice in Minneapolis, reflects a reaching toward a higher good. Mr. Biden cast the climate crisis as “a moral imperative.” The challenge of police brutality, argued the Rev. Dr. Roderic Land of Calvary Baptist Church in Salt Lake City, Utah, in the Deseret News yesterday, made clear that “somehow we have to start seeing each other as human beings and as brothers and sisters, period.” How, he asked, “do we begin to help police officers see that ... these people of color are also human?” 

Jolted by necessity, much of humanity is taking a fresh look at neglected problems – and this collective awakening by individuals has helped redefine the common good. Tragedy has led to shared purpose.