As winter approaches, public concern about the toxic smog blowing in from China is growing. The smog in China gets worse during the winter as people burn coal for heating. The smog contains a high level of “particulate matter,” which refers to extremely small pollutant particles floating around in the air. These particles include nitric and sulfuric acids, organic chemicals and metals. Their density is diluted as they cross the West Sea, but meteorologists say up to 50 percent of them reach Kore

Critics of a deal on Iran’s nuclear program, both in the U.S Congress and the Israeli government, need to answer a question: Is there a better alternative?Even before we know all the details of the agreement hammered out in Geneva this weekend, there’s reason to worry about an interim accord that eases a few of the painful economic sanctions imposed on Iran in return for Iran’s freezing its drive to develop nuclear weapons. The Iranian regime has been untrustworthy for decades, and the desire fo

While there may be some bruised feelings and anger left behind in the aftermath, the so-called “nuclear option” unleashed Thursday by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the Democrats hardly seems worthy of its destructive billing. It means only that from now on in judicial nominations other than those for the Supreme Court, the majority will no longer have to muster 60 votes to win confirmation.That Senate Republicans immediately compared the change in Senate rules to Obamacare ― a non sequit

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts ― Since 1976, the U.S. dollar’s role as an international currency has been slowly waning. International use of the dollar to hold foreign-exchange reserves, denominate financial transactions, invoice trade, and as a vehicle in currency markets is below its level during the heyday of the Bretton Woods era, from 1945 to 1971. But most people would be surprised by what the most recent numbers show.There is an abundance of explanations for the downward trend. Since the Vietn

The need to respond effectively to climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time, particularly more so in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan. While no one typhoon can be directly linked to climate change, rising global temperatures and warming oceans provide the conditions that fuel these kinds of monster storms. A recent analysis of the economics of climate change in the East Asian countries of People’s Republic of China, Republic of Korea, Japan and Mongolia delivers two clear mess

Historians may look back at Typhoon Haiyan as a turning point in disaster journalism and the politics of climate change. For the first time, an extreme-weather catastrophe in the tropics has shrugged off its “made in Asia” label and gone global.Coverage of storms, floods and droughts usually begins and ends with war-zone style reporting about dire conditions on the ground. The raw numbers of the dead are interwoven with tragic personal histories of survivors who have lost homes and loved ones. T

PARIS ― In 2005, two founding members of the European Union, France and the Netherlands, rejected by popular referendum the EU’s proposed constitutional treaty. Two far-right parties from these countries, the French National Front and the Dutch Freedom Party, have now formed an alliance ahead of the European Parliament elections in May 2014. They hope to attract likeminded parties in other EU countries and form a parliamentary bloc powerful enough to slay “the monster of Europe,” as Geert Wilder

“Syd Field died today,” I tell my son.“Who’s Syd Field?” he asks.“He came up with a theory that there was a formula that was used in every great screenplay, and if you followed that formula, then you could write a good screenplay.”“He made writing math?” My son squinched up his nose in disgust. Writing is a pleasure for my son and math is not. And there lies the rub with Syd Field.Here is the man who put the first book of film anatomy on the desks of every wannabe film maker. He showed us a diff

One lesson that Korean corporations learned from the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis is that you need money set aside to survive a credit crunch. They have since steadily increased their cash holdings to build a buffer against unexpected financial shocks. So when the global economy was thrown into turmoil in 2008 due to the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis, major Korean corporations were not affected as they had already accumulated enough retained earnings to avoid any cash crunch. Yet they have gon

Prosecutors have found evidence confirming the allegations that the National Intelligence Service was systematically involved in the parliamentary and presidential elections last year. Investigators probing the state spy agency said they have newly discovered more than 1.2 million Twitter messages disseminated by NIS agents in the run-up to the two important elections. The 1.2 million messages were mostly retweets of 26,550 original texts. Investigators suspect that NIS agents had used “Twitterb

Get ready for the water wars.Most of the world’s population takes water for granted, just like air ― two life-sustaining substances. After all, the human body is nearly two-thirds water.But a Hindustan Times blogger said that in India right now, as in so many other places around the globe, drinkable water has become such a “precious commodity” that it’s dragging the world into “water wars to follow the ones for the control of fuel oil.”Climate change is drying up lakes and rivers almost everywhe

When she was 22, the future Jacqueline Kennedy won a Vogue contest with an essay in which she dreamed of being “a sort of Overall Art Director of the Twentieth Century.” As first lady, she proved herself a genius at visual persuasion. She crafted her own image, refined her husband’s, re-created the White House’s, and even shaped America’s abroad.Her most evocative and enduring image-making came when John F. Kennedy was assassinated, 50 years ago this week. She art-directed the funeral’s pageantr

Walmart just reported shrinking sales for a third straight quarter. What’s going on? Explained William S. Simon, the CEO of Walmart, referring to the company’s customers, “Their income is going down while food costs are not. Gas and energy prices, while they’re abating, I think they’re still eating up a big piece of the customer’s budget.”Walmart’s CEO gets it. Most of Walmart’s customers are still in the Great Recession, grappling with stagnant or declining pay. So, naturally, the company’s sal

PARIS ― The U.S. has accepted a proposal by Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan to train as many as 7,000 conventional Libyan soldiers plus counterterrorist forces. What an exceedingly bad idea. This could put the Obama administration’s Hope-and-Change bus on the road to a potential new fiasco in Libya. Think Benghazi ― except everywhere.Speaking at the Reagan Presidential Library in California last week, the man who led the mission to kill Osama bin Laden, Admiral William McRaven of the U.S. Speci

The government is rolling up its sleeves to reform state-run corporations as their lax management despite excessive indebtedness is causing public anger. In her budget speech at the National Assembly on Monday, President Park Geun-hye pledged to reform the public sector. Referring to the glaring instances of managerial laxity at public agencies exposed during the parliamentary audit period, Park said the government would ensure that such practices are not repeated.She also said the government wo

The revised law on executive compensation disclosure is taking effect Nov. 29 to improve corporate transparency and protect shareholders’ rights. But questions are being raised about its effectiveness as it has loopholes. The current compensation disclosure rule is too lax. Under it, a listed company is only obligated to disclose two things ― the total and average amount of compensation it pays to its “registered” directors. A registered director is an inside director who is also a board member.

CAIRO ― Bassem Youssef, Egypt’s popular television comedian, expresses the irreverent confidence this country will need to regain stability. On air, he mocks the autocratic tendencies of both the Muslim Brotherhood leaders and the army generals who toppled them from power. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sissi and his adoring supporters unfortunately seem to have lost the celebrated Egyptian sense of humor. Youssef presented a hilarious episode on Oct. 25 that showed footage of Sissi admonishing the nation

The world appeared to change on Nov. 15, the day bold and epochal reforms were unveiled that promised to overhaul one of the world’s biggest economies. Analysts, investors and historians alike rejoiced at the audacity of the plan.That was Japan. On Nov. 15, 2012, Shinzo Abe, then one month away from becoming prime minister, pledged “unlimited” stimulus and the kind of supply-side policies for which investors had long been clamoring. A year later, the buzz is gone, and not a single structural ref

Are some people destined for success, or is the whole idea of destiny a myth, a comforting tale that we tell ourselves? When artists or political leaders become household names, are they just lucky?You might think that the Beatles, probably the most successful popular musicians in the last 50 years, were bound to succeed. But an astonishing new book, “Tune In,” by Mark Lewisohn, suggests otherwise. Without explicitly saying so, Lewisohn’s narrative raises the possibility that without breaks, coi

As historians and journalists downgrade the legacy of President John F. Kennedy on the 50th anniversary of his death this week, ordinary citizens around the globe will remember a cherished figure.More than all but the greatest U.S. presidents ― George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt ― Kennedy is an icon of American political culture. Yet, as New York Times Executive Editor Jill Abramson observed recently, there has never been a major historical work on the Kennedy presidenc