Democracy is not a switch that flips on the day a person turns eighteen. It is a set of habits, instincts and intellectual muscles that need to be developed over time, and this is especially true for teenagers who are about to be handed the vote. That belief underpins a new inquiry from the Education Committee, launched at a decisive moment in British political life. With the government preparing to allow 16- and 17-year-olds in England to vote for the first time, the committee is asking a simple but profound question: are we actually teaching young people how to take…

It was a familiar scene outside the Supreme State Security Prosecution office in Cairo on Wednesday: family members, colleagues, and supporters gathered in the gray light, waiting for a woman whose name has become synonymous with independent journalism in Egypt. Lina Attalah, editor-in-chief of Mada Masr, emerged after hours of questioning, her release secured only after a bail payment of 100,000 Egyptian pounds—roughly $1,850. Human rights lawyer Nabeh Elganadi confirmed the news, but there was little sense of triumph in the air. Attalah was not walking free; she was walking out of one chapter of a legal ordeal that has…