Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover has triggered widespread criticism. Many people are panicked about the direction Musk will take the social platform. There’s a reason for alarm, but focusing solely on Musk ignores the crisis of monopoly control without accountability that characterizes much of the media in this country. In recent decades, the notion of a public square, or the space available to deba...

President Moon Jae-in said in his final TV interview that he wanted to lead a quiet retired life in his country home, forgotten by people. Related to this wish or not, Moon signed into law two bills that many South Koreans believe are designed to protect himself and his colleagues from being subject to legal judgment for what they did while in power. Moon’s left-wing Democratic Party of Korea wi...

Faced with the horrors of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and recognizing the limited military options open to them, Western governments understandably deployed their economic and financial arsenal. Such sanctions have been imposed on errant countries before, of course, with varying success, but not to anything like the same extent as against Russia now. Notably, the United States and its allies s...

As Western leaders struggle to curb Vladimir Putin’s aggression in Ukraine, there may be no one with keener insight into the Russian leader’s mindset than Bill Browder. Browder was once the largest foreign investor in Russia, as head of the Heritage capital management fund. But the American-born financier was banned from Russia in 2005 after arousing Putin’s wrath with his investigations into Ru...

US President Joe Biden likes to say that we are locked in a global battle pitting democracy against autocracy. In Seattle last week, he described a phone conversation he’d had with Chinese President Xi Jinping in which Xi argued that democracy doesn’t work anymore. Among other things, Xi said, democracy requires consensus, and mustering a consensus takes too long in a fast-moving world. Biden d...

When I was young, my mother used to take me for a drive in the mountains during spring. We enjoyed looking at the flowers. The frozen land during winter has resurfaced with a scene of spring surrounded by trees and flowers. The change from winter to spring was truly beautiful. When she took a drive with me, we always listened to songs related to spring. Mother and I especially enjoyed “Spring” b...

With Elon Musk set to buy Twitter for $44 billion, commentators are scrambling to understand what the “free speech absolutism” espoused by the world’s richest person will mean for the platform. But the principle could also create headaches for Musk himself. With the European Union and the United Kingdom about to enact laws aimed at making social media safer and more accountable, Musk has seeming...

Widespread skepticism and misgivings about relocating the presidential office and residence before Inauguration Day on May 10 have been validated, unfortunately. The eight-week window to replace the Blue House has proven overwhelmingly inadequate. President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol has painted himself into a corner with his campaign vow to “never spend a single night in the Blue House” after he takes...

Five Israelis shot dead in Bnai Brak and two more in Tel Aviv. Clashes at the Al Aqsa Mosque, where more than 150 Palestinians were wounded by Israeli riot police. Stabbings in southern Israel and Jerusalem; counterterrorism raids across the West Bank that killed more than a dozen Palestinians. Exchanges of rockets and airstrikes between the Gaza Strip and Israel. These are headlines from the la...