As Donald Trump’s legal challenges multiply, so do comparisons of him to Richard Nixon, the only president ever removed from office. We’re getting used to headlines like “How Trump’s scandals mimic Watergate,” “Trump is going full Nixon on Mueller” and “Who’s worse, Trump or Nixon?”　Turn on MSNBC on a given night, and you’ll hear veterans of the Watergate scandal like John Dean and the prosecutor Jill Wine-Banks explaining the parallels -- the special prosecutor, the witnesses who may “flip,” th

Last week I chatted with Columbia University paleontologist Dennis Kent about some new work he and his colleagues published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences about the surprisingly big influence of Venus and Jupiter on the climate of Earth. The gravitational tug of the second and fifth planets from the sun act to stretch Earth’s annual orbit like a rubber band, pulling it into a more oblong ellipse and then back to something very close to a perfect circle over a cycle of 405

What would Karl Marx think of contemporary China? China certainly seems to think highly of Marx, holding celebratory events this month for the 200th anniversary of his birth. The government even sent a large statue as a gift to his hometown of Trier, Germany. China is proudly parading Marx and his thought as an alternative to Western liberalism.　I think Marx, if he could be magically reincarnated, would love today’s China but not for the reasons Beijing might appreciate. He would see China as a

It’s been nearly two years since the UK voted to leave the European Union. But the intervening period has done nothing to resolve the question of what that should mean.　Consider the latest Brexit-related fracas, which has seen members of Prime Minister Theresa May’s cabinet publicly squabbling about Britain’s future trade relationship with Europe. For many Brexit supporters, the debate has become a test of whether the UK is really leaving, or just pretending to.　This isn’t a polite disagreement:

Is the US better off trying to shape the world as party to an imperfect international accord, or as an outsider insisting on better terms?　One lesson from the Asian financial crisis of 1997-1998 ought to be: Rejecting ideas from allies merely opens the door to alternatives over which the US will have zero control. This wisdom is newly relevant, not only because US President Donald Trump is chipping away at the Iran nuclear deal. Today the US frets about increasing Chinese influence in Asia and b

North Korea’s state news agency slammed Japan for insisting on the return of abductees as a condition of normalizing ties, accusing its neighbor of going “against the trend” toward the “building of a bright future” in the run-up to an unprecedented summit between US President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un.“The reactionaries of Japan are hyping the ‘issue of abduction’ which had already been settled,” KCNA said in a commentary published Saturday. “This is just a mean and foolish behavior to stem t

With Facebook confronting calls to do more to protect user privacy as well as existential questions about its purpose in life, the company naturally used its F8 summit last week as an opportunity to cultivate an image as a less creepy presence in our daily lives.No, wait, never mind: Facebook announced it is launching an online dating service. The creatively named Dating application will let Facebook users create special profiles to employ in their quests for love and romance. Users who opt into

Only 24 hours ago I was lamenting the Malaysian political system’s incapability to self-correct after a plunder as brazen as the alleged $4.5 billion looting of 1MDB, a state investment firm. The voters proved me wrong.　By unseating Prime Minister Najib Razak, and handing his Barisan Nasional coalition its first loss of power in six decades, Malaysians have sent a clear and optimistic message: Corruption matters.　But what now? Mahathir Mohamad, the 92-year-old former leader who staged the upset,

Chinese President Xi Jinping was not on the ballot when Malaysians voted for a new government on Wednesday. But he was on election billboards. Although it’s probably not a role that Xi would’ve chosen for himself, China’s influence on Malaysia’s economy has become one of the most bitterly contested issues in a bruising campaign.　 That’s certainly awkward for China, which presents itself as a champion of economic development around the world. Increasingly, though, its vision isn’t shared. In Mala

If you’re surprised that last week’s trade negotiations between the US and China achieved little, take a look at the laundry list of demands the White House foisted on Beijing.President Donald Trump wants China to slash the trade deficit, end cybertheft of US technology, eliminate regulations impeding access for American companies, cease subsidizing new high-tech industries and more. Chinese officials probably were taken aback by the sheer breadth of requests.　One could argue that Trump asked fo

President Donald Trump finally made good on his promise Tuesday to get out of the Iran nuclear deal. As I have written, I would have kept the agreement in limbo and let the regime’s clerics twist in the wind. But what’s done is done. Much will be written about what the US and its allies should do on the nuclear file. Iran’s leaders have made vague threats, and the West must prepare for the prospect of losing visibility into the country’s declared nuclear infrastructure. That said, the most urgen

Asia’s companies should be on high alert.Activists, both homegrown and American, are coming after bloated balance sheets and family-controlled firms, and succeeding more often than hitherto in forcing through higher dividends and board changes.　Whether it’s because the Japanese and South Korean governments want their companies to respect minority investors’ interests, or because the activists themselves have adopted a less abrasive style, Asia is a hunting ground like never before. Last year, 31

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has pledged to dismantle his nuclear test site, and supposedly, he’s even inviting the international press into his usually off-limits kingdom to witness the extravaganza. The gesture is meant to prove he’s serious about eliminating his weapons program -- and he wants all the world to see it.　But be warned: This could be a show of the dog-and-pony variety. Some experts claim the site has already been pulverized by previous tests and is now of little use. If that’s

Is President Donald Trump about to talk himself into an impeachment? 　The topic du jour may be Rudy Giuliani’s bombshell about Stormy Daniels, but the more important story remains Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of the Russia scandal and possible obstruction of justice by the president. Trump has been taking to Twitter to make some newish arguments about obstruction, apparently trying to prove the preposterous idea that presidents cannot obstruct justice. He’s only bolstering the

President Donald Trump has been determined to confront the US’ European allies on every issue of importance, from trade to climate change to the multilateral deal with Iran. As politicians and publics on this side of the Atlantic become increasingly wary, it’s worth asking whether he really wants allies at all.　After the unsuccessful visits of the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, to Washington, Trump has given Europe another month’s respite from puniti

Last month, the US and UK governments released a joint “Technical Alert” on the dangers of “Russian state-sponsored cyber actors.” While timely and targeted, this alert shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.　We’ve witnessed enough cyberattacks in recent years to understand that the digital domain is humanity’s new battlefield. And while the West is ramping up its defenses, its efforts aren’t guided by an overall doctrine. That’s right: There is no master plan.　What we need now, before a more serious

Federal Reserve officials left interest rates unchanged, acknowledging inflation is close to target without indicating any intention to veer from their gradual path of interest-rate increases.“Inflation on a 12-month basis is expected to run near the committee’s symmetric 2 percent objective over the medium term,” the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee said in a statement Wednesday in Washington. “The committee expects that economic conditions will evolve in a manner that will warrant

Don’t call Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s long-awaited Bitcoin-trading business a full-fledged desk, and don’t expect it to buy and sell Bitcoins, at least at first.The bank, preparing to pioneer a new cryptocurrency market on Wall Street, plans to start small and offer a limited number of derivatives, according to a person briefed on the decisions. It will trade Bitcoin futures in a principal, market-making capacity and will also create non-deliverable forward products. (Yonhap)Wall Street firms be

Toxic levels of pollution leads annually to the early death of an estimated 7 million people, according to a new World Health Organization report.Nine of 10 people around the world are exposed to dangerously high levels of pollutants that can lead to cancer and cardiovascular diseases, according to the study, which drew off the most-recent 2016 data.  (Yonhap)Air pollution levels were the highest in the eastern Mediterranean and southeast Asia, where in some areas airborne toxins were five times

The public may cheer a whistleblower, but it’s not easy to be one. While they expose fraud and abuse that otherwise would remain veiled, whistleblowers in Europe often face retaliation by their employers and other repercussions. A new proposed European Union directive seeks to change that; it might also prove useful in countering the erosion of democratic values in the bloc’s east.　Currently less than half of European Union countries have legislation protecting whistleblowers. A patchwork of nat