Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif arrived in parliament on Monday with a great cloud of questions hanging over his head, not least of which were the seven questions that the combined opposition had wanted him to answer. He left answering few of them except perhaps the most immediate — there will be a parliamentary committee consisting of both government and opposition members who will draw up mutually acceptable terms of reference for a judicial commission to investigate the disclosures in th

May 19, 2016

The latest news on the global economic situation seems bittersweet, especially in relation to the impact of low unemployment in the U.S. An improvement in the U.S. economy has two side effects: a positive one in the potential rise in imports from emerging markets and a negative impact in the potential rise in interest rates.Fears of Chinese banking debt, of Japan, of the euro area and more are resurfacing, and predictions from the International Monetary Fund have indicated a negative tone. The p

May 19, 2016

Having seen “The Three Faces of Eve” and “Sybil,” I imagine Donald J. Trump reclining comfortably in a state of mild hypnosis. “I’d like to speak with John Miller now,” the psychiatrist intones.　The patient rouses, looks momentarily confused, then his eyes brighten in awareness.　“Hello, John,” says the therapist. “Tell me about Donald Trump.”　“Have you met him?” the man who now calls himself “John” replies. “He’s a good guy, and he’s not going to hurt anybody.”　“Right,” says the psychiatrist. “T

May 19, 2016

On Oct. 21, 2014, Robin Raphel, a former assistant secretary of state, got an urgent call from her daughter, who said that something had triggered the burglar alarm at home. When Raphel arrived, she found FBI agents searching through her files and other personal materials. Raphel frantically telephoned her office at the State Department to ask what was happening; colleagues said they had been instructed not to speak with her. Agents were already rifling her desk at State, and putting up yellow t

May 19, 2016

It hasn’t even begun, and people are already tired of it.The new 20th National Assembly begins at the end of this month, and does so on a very low note.The warning could not have been clearer from the voters in the latest election.The ruling Saenuri Party had its majority snatched away, while the main opposition The Minjoo Party of Korea was nearly locked out of its home base in the Jeolla provinces.Yet the fleeting truce among the parties’ battling factions during the campaign period quickly en

May 18, 2016

Are Americans as stupid as the rest of the world thinks we are?Two conversations — one with a colleague and one with my daughter — left me pondering that question recently.The colleague told me about a visit to our newsroom last summer by a group of foreign journalists and government officials. Why isn’t the American press covering Donald Trump more seriously? they asked. This guy could be your next president.No way, we all thought back then. He’s just a reality TV star. We aren’t that stupid. T

May 18, 2016

Even by European Union standards, the response to the refugee crisis is a mess. This seems to defy logic: While the crisis is certainly a challenge, human rights -- and, indeed, refugee protection -- is embedded in Europe’s DNA. Moreover, the EU’s aging and demographically challenged member states need immigrants. Yet, instead of spurring solutions, the current crisis has been bringing out all that is ugly, feckless, and dysfunctional about the European project. What happened?As is so often the

May 18, 2016

For a long time, it looked like Apple had found the key to unlock the Chinese market. A world-famous brand, extensive factories in China and cooperation with the government’s demands led to booming sales of iPhones and other Apple products.Recently, however, the company has discovered that even the best-behaved of Western multinationals may not be able to hold the government’s favor for long. The Chinese government just shut down two of Apple’s key service products, the iBooks Store and iTunes M

May 18, 2016

The political earthquake now shaking the pillars of the Republican Party throws into stark relief what is unique about campaign 2016 — that the fault line is not the typical polar clash of left vs. right, but a far more fundamental up-down cleavage between rank-and-file Americans and the power elite.In both major parties, the primary campaign has unearthed a mass mutiny against the powers that be, reflecting a profound rift in American society with ramifications far beyond this year’s election.F

May 17, 2016

A few years ago Afghanistan became the longest war in United States history. This month, President Barack Obama passed all other presidents for being at war longer than any other.That sad date was May 6. Obama still has eight months left before he finishes his second term.Obama had pledged to end the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and close the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, when he was elected in 2008 as the first African-American president in U.S. history. He has been able to accomp

May 17, 2016

Everyone won’t agree on this, by any means, but I’m glad that President Barack Obama will be making a stop at Hiroshima during his imminent trip to Japan.I’m less concerned about whether such a visit would look like an apology to Japan than I am about our willingness to use the brutal deaths of many thousands of people as part of an argument, 71 years later, about who was right and who was wrong.That fact is, the mass destruction of a large civilian population, such as the one that occurred at H

May 17, 2016

It has been a triumph of democracy in the Philippines, more specifically the victory of the Aquino legacy that was bequeathed to the country exactly 30 years ago (February 1986). Yet in the moment of almost euphoric celebrations, there is a whiff of cynicism across the nation not least because of the President-designate, Rodrigo Duterte’s reckless bombast and direly controversial utterances on emotive, even personal, matters, most particularly his remarks on sex and expressed pledges to kill cri

May 16, 2016

ATLANTA -- Conventional wisdom lays much of the blame for the rise of Donald Trump on angry American voters, who have allowed him to break every rule in the political playbook without paying a price. But more responsibility arguably lies with the American broadcast journalists who amplified his schoolyard name-calling and bizarre policy views.All along Trump’s march to becoming the Republican Party’s presidential nominee, partisan commentators spun and re-spun his countless outrageous statements

May 16, 2016