In Argentina and Brazil, one cannot understand recent political changes without reference to the corrupt antics of populist and semi-populist operatives. But that simple explanation does not fit Chile, where outgoing President Michelle Bachelet misdiagnosed the public mood. — By Andrés Velasco SANTIAGO — In Chile’s November election, anti-establishment voting was the name of the game. A new populist left coalition, modeled after Spain’s Podemos, received one-fifth of the vote. Many long-established figures, including the president of the Senate, lost their seats in Congress. …

Economists have always believed that previous waves of job destruction led to an equilibrium between supply and demand in the labor market at a higher level of both employment and earnings. But if robots can actually replace, not just displace, humans, it is hard to see an equilibrium point until the human race itself becomes redundant. — By Robert Skidelsky LONDON — Dispelling anxiety about robots has become a major preoccupation of business apologetics. The commonsense — and far from foolish — view is that the more jobs are automated, the fewer there will be for humans to perform. The headline example is the driverless car. …

Journalists are increasingly being targeted by Interpol arrest notices, as authoritarian regimes abuse a system meant to curb cross-border crime. Media advocacy groups warn that Interpol has a responsibility to guard against this type of misuse, or risk losing credibility as a legitimate crime-fighting agency. — By Jago Russell, Christophe Deloire LONDON — Arrests of journalists in Spain and Ukraine on the basis of Interpol notices have raised serious questions about the methods of the international police agency. For media professionals in particular, the trends are deeply worrying.

Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that every child should have access to free primary education. Yet, 69 years after that pledge, a record number of children — some 70 million — are caught in the crossfire of humanitarian crises that are denying them schooling and placing their futures in jeopardy. — By Gordon Brown LONDON — For nearly seven decades of a tumultuous century, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has served as a beacon of hope worldwide. But some of its finely crafted provisions have come back to haunt us in the form of some shocking new statistics.

At this point, the best way to encourage Israelis and Palestinians to return to the negotiating table is to work to level the playing field. Because the US clearly won’t do that, the EU must take the lead, sending a message that is as forceful as it is necessary, by immediately recognizing the State of Palestine. — By Javier Solana MADRID — Once again, US President Donald Trump has taken a unilateral approach to foreign policy — this time, by recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. And once again, Trump has misinterpreted the realities of the Middle East. …

The climate policies lauded in Paris at the One Planet Summit this month are essentially high-cost, low-effect gestures. While the EU will devote 20% of its budget this year to climate-related action, even fully achieving the accord’s emissions targets throughout this century would prevent just 0.053°C of global warming by 2100. — By Bjørn Lomborg JAIPUR — Two years after the Paris climate agreement was signed, the French capital this month again attracted the world’s good and great, who gathered for President Emmanuel Macron’s One Planet Summit. …

“Carbon majors,” like big oil and gas companies, have long been the focus of efforts to curb climate change and stem rising temperatures. And yet, while energy giants like Exxon and Shell have drawn fire for their roles in warming the planet, the corporate meat and dairy industries have largely avoided scrutiny. — By Shefali Sharma BERLIN — Last year, three of the world’s largest meat companies — JBS, Cargill, and Tyson Foods — emitted more greenhouse gases than France, and nearly as much as some big oil companies. And yet, while energy giants like Exxon and Shell have drawn fire for their…

Legal setbacks in the US have forced the tobacco industry to concede that its products are harmful, and that for decades cigarette producers deliberately misled the public about the health effects of smoking. But these “corrective statements” do not mean that the war with the industry is over. — By Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and Tabaré Ramón Vázquez GENEVA — We all know how bad tobacco is, that it kills millions of people every year, and that it harms many more. We also know that tobacco companies have consistently lied about how much damage their products cause.

A chaotic Brexit, in which key questions about the relationship between the UK and the EU are left unanswered, may be avoided, but severe political and economic harm could still await both sides. What, then, accounts for the evident lack of urgency in taking the necessary steps to avoid such a scenario? — By Jean Pisani-Ferry PARIS — On December 8, the United Kingdom and the European Union’s 27 members settled on some key aspects of the Brexit divorce agreement, opening the way for the decision, on December 15, to open a new chapter in negotiations, focused on addressing the future EU-UK relationship…