The Korea Herald

[Bina Shah] Honor killings: Where is the law?

Here’s a confession: I’m tired of hearing about women’s empowerment in Pakistan when the government is breaking all its promises to Pakistani women on the subject of safety and security in terms of gender-based violence. While debates rage about the Panama Papers, the situation in Karachi, the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor and the state of affairs in Indian-held Kashmir, the issue of “honor” killings has been swept under the rug. All the feel-good news about women entrepreneurs and girls’ edu

Sept. 8, 2016

[Bina Shah] Honor killings: Where is the law?

The US should make China a partner in space

When NASA officials recently dropped in on their counterparts in Beijing, they arrived in secret, issued no press release and, when queried by a reporter, initially didn‘t acknowledge the meeting. The topic of such furtive talks? The two sides merely hoped to work together on climate satellites.　As it happens, doing so may well be illegal. Since 2011, Congress has banned NASA from almost any direct interaction with China, in the hope of preventing espionage. Banning cooperation is rarely a sign

Sept. 8, 2016

[David Ignatius] Clinton should embrace her experience

Despite Hillary Clinton‘s recent slip in the polls, she has a big political opportunity, even though some of her advisers might regard it as a curse: She can run as the candidate who represents the “mainstream” leadership of both parties and knows how to fix our broken political system. In a year when anti-elitism has been a dominant theme in both parties, donning this establishment mantle might appear to be a mistake for Clinton. But let’s be honest: Her strength is that she‘s the voice of expe

Sept. 8, 2016

[David Ignatius] Clinton should embrace her experience

[Larry Tye] Kennedy campaign exhibited how to rise above nastiness

The more distraught we get about the name-calling, wall-building tone of this year’s presidential campaign, the more it helps to revisit a national campaign of half a century ago, which started out mired in similar meanness but then demonstrated how to rise above it.America was as riven in 1968 as we are today. Then, it was over a war that roiled racially torn cities, and tensions between the old and new in everything from electioneering to hairstyles. The question was: Which presidential aspira

Sept. 7, 2016

[Jonathan Zimmerman] Becoming more diverse but missing the point

Affirmative action has reached middle age.It has been almost 40 years since the US Supreme Court ruled that universities could consider race in admissions as a way to enhance student diversity. Regents of the University of California vs. Bakke (1978) barred schools from giving an advantage to minority students if the purpose was to compensate for historic discrimination against them. The only constitutionally acceptable rationale for affirmative action was to improve the education of all student

Sept. 7, 2016

[Leonid Bershidsky] Russian deal with Japan finally may be possible

Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to be more open than ever to a compromise with Japan that would end the two countries’ post-World War II territorial dispute. Both sides have been making tentative moves toward reconciliation since May, and a deal may finally be in the works after decades of false starts. 　In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Putin explained why Russia and Japan haven’t come to an agreement: “We are talking about finding a solution under which neither side will feel put

Sept. 7, 2016

[Leonid Bershidsky] Russian deal with Japan finally may be possible

[Kim Yoon-mi] Chuseok, a time for gratitude

Whenever Chuseok, or the Korean thanksgiving, comes around, I ponder how my father helped me witness the true meaning of the holiday during my teenage years.Born and raised in Seoul, Chuseok was the most painful time of year for me. Traveling to Buan, North Jeolla Province, meant going through the crazy traffic incurred by the massive exodus of Seoulites visiting their parents’ homes in rural areas. The more challenging part was that I had to spend several days at my grandma’s place doing “nothi

Sept. 7, 2016

[Kim Yoon-mi] Chuseok, a time for gratitude

[David Ignatius] Clinton should embrace her experience

WASHINGTON -- Despite Hillary Clinton’s recent slip in the polls, she has a big political opportunity, even though some of her advisers might regard it as a curse: She can run as the candidate who represents the “mainstream” leadership of both parties and knows how to fix our broken political system. In a year when anti-elitism has been a dominant theme in both parties, donning this establishment mantle might appear to be a mistake for Clinton. But let’s be honest: Her strength is that she’s the

Sept. 7, 2016

Self-driving cars come with complex issues

If you’re stopped by the police in your self-driving vehicle, would you need to show a driver’s license? This is not a riddle, it’s a legitimate question to be debated by lawmakers when they begin to address the reality of a world where not all cars and trucks have humans at the wheel.Yes, the driverless car is coming -- much sooner than you think. Ford says that within five years it will have a fully self-driving vehicle without steering wheel, gas or brake pedal for sale to ride-hailing compan

Sept. 7, 2016

[Kim Seong-kon] Feeling guilty and taking moral responsibility

In the epigraph of his novel, “The Victim,” Saul Bellow poses a problem of moral responsibility and reckoning. Borrowing from “Arabian Nights,” the Nobel Laureate asks a question: If a merchant threw date stones after eating the dates and accidentally killed the son of an Ifrit, would the merchant be responsible for it? Since the Ifrit and his son were invisible, the merchants did not know they were around. Still, however, the Ifrit wanted retribution for his son’s death and the merchant should

Sept. 6, 2016

[Kim Seong-kon] Feeling guilty and taking moral responsibility

[Noah Feldman] Judicial Watch‘s pursuit of Clinton goes too far

The Clintons have been subject to fishing expeditions before, but why is a federal court making Hillary Clinton give sworn responses now to questions about her use of a private e-mail server back when she was secretary of state? This all stems from a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by a conservative group seeking State Department information about Clinton’s aide Huma Abedin. With a series of permissive rulings, the judge has allowed the suit to get out of hand. It’s now an inquiry int

Sept. 6, 2016

[Jake Blumgart] 50 years on, ‘Star Trek’ endures

As Gene Roddenberry‘s “Star Trek” boldly passes the 50-year mark Thursday, the series is in impressive shape.The latest movie -- “Star Trek Beyond” -- made about $250 million at the domestic box office and received an 83 percent “Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which is far better than most of this summer’s hideously awful blockbusters. A new series, “Discovery” -- No. 7 in the franchise -- makes its debut on CBS in early 2017, seemingly in a serialized fashion where the characters and plotlin

Sept. 6, 2016

[Lee Jae-min] Parents choose to have one child

Korea has a one-child policy. It was not created by the government, but imposed by informed parents themselves. It turns out that no matter what the government says, and despite all the conceivable incentive packages, Korean parents choose (and in fact are determined) to have just one child. Look at the numbers. Korea’s birth rate has been stagnant at around 1.2 children per woman almost for a decade now. What is striking is that this is the period when the government made all-out efforts to boo

Sept. 6, 2016

[Lee Jae-min] Parents choose to have one child

[Heather Moore] Too many schools are still flunking lunch

I don‘t care what kids say -- the school lunch lady is not trying to kill them. The federal government is. Well, I have my suspicions, at least. Many of the meals served as part of the National School Lunch Program are high in fat and cholesterol and contain considerably more sodium than fiber. They’re a heart attack in the making. I wonder if that‘s why the American Heart Association has warned us that atherosclerosis -- hardening of the arteries -- begins in childhood and progresses into adult

Sept. 6, 2016

[Leonid Bershidsky] Putin doesn't get American politics

President Vladimir Putin is watching the US election campaign with a mixture of irony, disgust and imperfect understanding. Just as American presidents and senators are not well-versed in Russian politics, Putin, too, is no expert on foreign arenas. He regards the current US political show just as any ordinary guy would -- even though the election outcome is extremely important to him.　In an interview with Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait, Putin’s mocking misunderstanding of the US el

Sept. 6, 2016

[Eli Lake] Kerry blunts US hard power in South China Sea

There are times when I want President Barack Obama to invent a global crisis for John Kerry to solve, just to keep his secretary of state from making the real ones worse. Consider what happened at New Delhi this week, where Kerry offered a remarkable comment about the current tensions in the South China Sea. He said there was no “military solution.”Kerry was asked about China’s public indifference to a decision in July from an international tribunal at The Hague that flatly rejected China’s clai

Sept. 5, 2016

[Robert B. Reich] US politics after Trump

I recently got a call from a political analyst in Washington. “Trump is dropping like a stone,” he said, convincingly. “After Election Day, he‘s history.”I think Trump will lose the election, but I doubt he’ll be “history.”Defeated presidential candidates typically disappear from public view. Think Mitt Romney or Michael Dukakis.But Donald Trump won‘t disappear. Trump needs attention the way normal people need food.For starters, he’ll dispute the election results. He‘s already warned followers “

Sept. 5, 2016

[Tom Pu-chih Hsieh] Bankruptcy in pension system -- a crisis in modern society

This is the 10th article in a series of columns on global affairs written by top editors from members of the Asia News Network and published in newspapers across the region. –Ed.The bankruptcy of public pension funds is an issue worldwide.According to a recent study conducted by Allianz, pension systems in most Asian countries are “fragile and unstable.” Hong Kong and Singapore are the only counties in Asia to rank within the top 20 nations worldwide for pension sustainability.Western countries

Sept. 5, 2016

[Tom Pu-chih Hsieh] Bankruptcy in pension system -- a crisis in modern society

[Richard Trumka] Working people ready to go on offensive

Labor Day is a time for working people to reflect on the progress we have made and the challenges that remain. This year, like many in the past, has had its share of ups and downs. But our momentum is unmistakable. Collective action and collective bargaining are on the rise. Working people have seized the national agenda. And we are working hard to ensure that our elected leaders will rewrite the economic rules that for too long have benefitted the wealthiest few.This recent momentum started wit

Sept. 5, 2016

[Adam Minter] So long to the Asian sweatshop

For 30 years, the word “sweatshop” has conjured up a very specific image: low-wage Asian workers making branded clothes in crowded, unsafe factories for consumers overseas. The power of that image has launched human rights campaigns, altered how major companies source their products and informed (often incorrectly) how politicians in rich countries shape their trade policies.Now that image is fading into history. In Asia, at least, the factors that made sweatshops an indelible part of industrial

Sept. 5, 2016

[Adam Minter] So long to the Asian sweatshop