The latest battles over what books are best for children appear to be mostly shaped by larger political fissures over freedom of speech, equality, identity, and moral standards. Our reporter looks at how some librarians are navigating this terrain.

A recent raid that killed an ISIS leader may appear to be progress against terrorists, as U.S. officials said. But our reporter looks at why there’s little trust or confidence among Syrians in continued Western support.

Recent studies show trust in government is key to effectively fighting the pandemic. But when trust falters, how can it be rebuilt? Our London columnist finds some answers. 

New transfer rules give student-athletes more leverage, and more respect, than ever before. But navigating that newfound freedom, our reporter finds, is challenging coaches, schools, and players.

Popularizing art can be difficult. But our reporter explores a Twitter feed that’s offering the joy of discovery and awakening national pride in Canadian artists and their works.

A new course at the University of New Haven offers this promise to students: “We’re going to train you to protect the sports that you love.” Designed to provide tools and skills for people to spot corruption in sports, the course is well timed.

With gambling on sports now legal in 30 states since a 2018 Supreme Court ruling, this year’s Super Bowl is expected to set a record for the number of Americans wagering on the championship game. Total spending on bets is estimated to be unprecedented $7.6 billion. And along with these records are rising concerns that gambling on pro football will, as NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell once put it, “fuel speculation, distrust, and accusations of point-shaving or game-fixing.”

The National Football League is already under a cloud of suspicion over how it maintains the integrity of its games – even as it partners with the gambling industry. This month, former Miami coach Brian Flores alleged in a lawsuit that the Dolphins team owner offered him $100,000 per game in 2019 to intentionally lose in order to improve the team’s ability to draft better players. That charge was followed by a similar complaint against the Cleveland Browns by former coach Hue Jackson.

If the allegations are proved to be true, football fans might begin to doubt the league’s official data – which is used widely by gamblers. While most pro sports have set up systems to watch for match-fixing and betting irregularities, the rapid increase in legal sports gambling will test those systems.

“The NFL has always prided itself in ‘Every game matters, no matter what.’ OK, and now all of a sudden, it looks like that’s not quite true,” Richard McGowan, a Boston College associate professor, told The Boston Globe.

Cheating scandals in athletic competitions, from bribing of players to doping, have rocked many sports worldwide. Yet they need not prevent sports from returning to the purity of their ideals. Athletics, writes Michael Sandel, a political philosopher at Harvard University, must “fit with the excellences essential to the sport.” Rules for sport must make sure sports do not “fade into spectacle, a course of amusement rather than a subject of appreciation.”

For sports fans, such appreciation can include joining together to safeguard a sport. There’s now even a university course in how to do that.