Over the next few weeks, hundreds of thousands of international students will graduate from our universities and be sent back home by our broken immigration system — along with their ideas and talent. As we enter a new growing season, farmers across the country will be forced to cut back on production as they struggle to find adequate labor. And business owners will continue fighting against an economy that is still finding its way out of a recession.

On May 11, Pakistanis rejoiced at the first peaceful transition of power from one civilian government to another. However, that should not overshadow the problems that the country faces. The ball is in Nawaz Sharif’s court, the likely next prime minister. Having served twice before, he is lucky to have a rare, third chance to run the country.

Folks, deep breath time. This is not the end of the Obama presidency. It’s a bad stretch with an unfortunate confluence of unfortunate events. None of which will make the first paragraph — not even the first page — of the account of the Obama administration in the history books.

The Arctic, which is melting and thereby creating new shipping routes and access to minerals, poses a foreign policy challenge for the United States and other nations — particularly in the warmer months when once-impassable seas become open. But it’s easy to put off dealing with it. The process is like the annual scramble for summer camp: The need for planning begins around February, when the season seems so far away and the kids are still in school and wearing snow boots. Then, suddenly, it’s mid-May.

The first wave of Cubans — many of them for the first time in 50 years — are leaving their island to see the world. Among them the famous blogger Yoani Sánchez. They seize the opportunity of Cuba’s new travel law which went into effect earlier this year. Finally.

As I walked into The Miami Herald at its Biscayne Bay location for the last time last week, I pictured all of the characters who entered and exited the building like a stage during its half-century run.

We read a great deal lately about the high cost of education, and as sequestration goes into effect the discussion often turns to eliminating taxpayers’ dollars from education.

When Oedipus, the tragic hero of Greek mythology, realized in agony and shame the calamity he had brought his city, he could not bear to see the results of his hubris. Overwhelmed with the knowledge of his wrongdoings, Oedipus stabbed his own eyes out, and went into exile.

Many adults blame videogames for their children’s poor behavior and grades; they feel that violent video games will most likely result in violent children. Videogames do not spark violent behavior, though they may encourage the idea unintentionally. It is the duty of parents to make sure their children can distinguish reality from fantasy.

The rumble of a train comes through the window. In Berlin there is always the sound of a train somewhere.

It hardly qualifies as breaking news that Europe is in the middle of a deep and protracted economic contraction. When a story, no matter how shocking, goes on for years, the natural inclination is to let it fade to the background of our awareness. But a visit to Spain — even to one of the cities where the economic tragedy does a good job of hiding behind hordes of tourists and beautiful architecture — is a reminder of the extent of the disaster that has befallen Europe, until recently one of the world’s most prosperous regions.

A bill requiring judges to sentence youth convicted of homicide to at least 50 years in prison has put the Florida Senate on a collision course with the courts — unless Florida gets it right.

Angelina Jolie’s genes threatened to kill her. But, for the time being anyway, she doesn’t own them.

His name might not be as infamous as “Milosevic” or “Saddam,” but the fight against impunity claimed another “first” earlier this month. Efraín Ríos Montt, a former Guatemalan general, became the first former Latin American president convicted of genocide and war crimes, extending the long arm of justice to another corner of the world, for at least a moment in time.

Phone (305) 364-0020 and you'll hear this recording: "You have reached the South Florida Council, Boy Scouts of America, and Learning for Life."

I recently met Florida death penalty exonerees 23 and 24. They are, respectively, Herman Lindsey of Pompano Beach and Seth Penalver of Fort Lauderdale. They’re not choir boys, but they’re not murderers, either. And they were on the list to be killed by the state.

During the last decade in countries like Brazil, Chile and other areas in Latin America, changing economic policies and innovative social inclusion programs are giving rise to economic growth built on exports and an increasingly prosperous middle class. But in Central America, a region of growing strategic importance to the United States, many countries face a bourgeoning security and law-enforcement crisis that demands greater attention from us all.

I know it was hard to hear anything last week over the cacophony of the White House roof falling over Benghazi, the IRS and spying on reporters. But still, I was surprised there wasn’t more fuss about the Obama administration’s war on Shakespeare.

Another apparel factory has collapsed in a poor Asian country, killing three workers, and I fear I’m partly to blame.