‘America’s airport problems need to be fixed now’
Chicago Tribune editorial board
The U.S. “cannot function with travelers stuck in security lines for three and four hours,” says the Chicago Tribune editorial board. TSA employees “cannot be expected to go weeks or months without paychecks they need to pay their bills,” and ICE agents “have a job to do other than looking inside travelers’ bags and checking identification, tasks for which they are not directly trained.” Americans “have the right to expect their government to take care of these things.”
‘Affordable housing is possible, if we stop ignoring the obvious’
Sam Raus at USA Today
American cities are “short on housing yet full of unused space,” says Sam Raus. With “nearly a quarter of the workforce going remote, and no amount of return-to-office mandates likely to change this trend, it’s time for cities to repurpose these empty buildings to meet the demands of the moment.” Turning “cubicles into apartment complexes for those who still live in cities would require state and local politicians approaching zoning policies, building codes and taxation with fresh eyes.”
‘Israel’s displacement of civilians in Lebanon is a possible war crime’
Nadia Hardman at Al Jazeera
Israel’s “attacks in Lebanon — and the threat of more to come — have caused more than a million people to flee their homes,” but the “laws of war stipulate that civilians cannot be forced to leave their homes unless imperative military reasons dictate,” says Nadia Hardman. The “evacuation must be temporary, and people must be allowed to return once the hostilities end. In short, war is not a license to expel people from their land.”
‘With Tina Fey as first host, “SNL UK” kicked off with familiar skits and very British humor’
Robert Lloyd at the Los Angeles Times
After “50 years of being practically synonymous with New York City, ‘Saturday Night Live’ has opened the door to London with ‘Saturday Night Live U.K.,’ following in the steps of ‘Law & Order U.K.’ and possibly nothing else,” says Robert Lloyd. Of “all the cities in the world that might conceivably replicate the spirit of the NBC original, the British capital, with its urban dynamism, media concentration and 20,000 comedians, feels like the obvious, and perhaps only, choice.”
Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
