The video of "Chongqing Superman" has gone viral amidst the explosion of protests across China against the government's "zero COVID" policy. A man in a grey T-shirt with a Superman backpack stands on a street corner in the southwest Chinese city of Chongqing, ranting against the soaring price of carrots -- and the government's failed strategy to totally eliminate COVID. He fiercely denounces the "lack of freedom and (the) poverty" that have resulted from

In April 2022, the world’s richest person, Elon Musk, asked, “Is Twitter dying?” Five days later, he launched an apparently whimsical bid to buy the social media platform. It took months of legal wrangling to complete the deal, but on Oct. 27, Musk honored his $44 billion offer, acquiring a new toy: free speech. Financially, Musk’s acquisition of Twitter was an odd move. Despite its user base of some 200 million -- including politicians, journalists and celebrities -- Tw

Dec. 5 marks the 1,000th day since the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 pandemic. With social distancing, vaccines and other interventions as well as natural infection, the world may be seeing a glimmer of light at the end of the pandemic tunnel. But the pandemic is still not over. China has posted record numbers of cases lately and concern is growing that the COVID-19 in China will not respond to “Zero COVID” policies of the past. The question: Is China ready? Vacci

A good way to predict future changes in a language is to listen to young people because they usually carry patterns in language use with them as they age. In the South Korea, the language of young people differs greatly from older generations, which suggests sweeping changes in language use in the years to come. Vocabulary changes most quickly as new words appear and spread in response to social trends. Trendy words also disappear as the trends that support them change or disappear. By contrast,

Ukraine has notched another big victory in its war against Russian aggression: the liberation of the Kherson without a grueling urban battle. Yet that triumph was met with mixed messages from US President Joe Biden’s administration on a very sensitive subject: whether the Ukrainians should begin peace negotiations with Russia. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, argued that the Kyiv government should seek a settlement before the conflict becomes a stalemate like

I once went to the village of Koreme in Iraqi Kurdistan and walked along a dirt road past a little brick school and a makeshift mosque to a dusty field of almond trees and high grass where all the males of the village -- age 13 to 43 -- had been taken in 1988 and told to squat, side by side. Iraqi soldiers then opened fire, and 27 Kurdish men and boys were killed. I spoke to one of the few survivors, who had hidden behind a tree with a bullet through his knee while his brother, nephew and neighb

If you've been yearning for a preview of the battle for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, the place to be last weekend was Las Vegas, where the Republican Jewish Coalition held what some attendees cheekily called a "kosher cattle call" for potential candidates. Former Vice President Mike Pence was there. So were former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and former Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo. Former President Donald Trump app

Recently, the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington launched a project called “Renewing America.” The CFR came up with a compelling reason for it. According to their recent statement, “Some of the most important national security threats to the United States come not from without, but from within. With its Renewing America initiative, the Council for Foreign Relations is monitoring nine critical domestic issues that shape the ability of the United States to navigate the de

Our news screens were erupting with breaking news of yet another mass shooting. But this time the news that began with a barrage of bullets also became something special -- a tale of battlefield heroics on the homefront of a nightspot in Colorado Springs. A brave military veteran, Richard Fierro, had rushed toward the first flashes of light as he had been trained to do. He smashed the gunman to the ground and pummeled. Mercifully and miraculously, a horrific fatality count of five innocent sou

Ukraine’s capture of Kherson two weeks ago, coming after months of grueling combat, was perhaps the most humiliating setback for Russian forces since the war began nine months ago. The successful Ukrainian counteroffensive occurred five weeks after Putin declared Kherson, as well as Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia, a part of Russian territory. The Kremlin’s propaganda network has gone to work explaining to the Russian population that the pullback was a difficult but absolutely nece

Interest rate hikes and supply chain disruptions caused by global inflation have been adding to concerns about the possibility of recession. The Russian-Ukrainian War and the growing rivalry between the US and China have divided the world into economic blocs and have fueled competition among countries to secure supply chains that serve their best interests. This artificial reshaping of the global economy has led to market rigidity and distorted resource distribution. The private sector alone can

In the wake of the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, and amid reports that FTX’s founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, diverted billions of dollars of clients’ funds, some observers have linked the alleged financial malpractice to ideas widely held within the “effective altruism” movement, which Bankman-Fried says inspired him. More specifically, they point to the ethical view that the end justifies the means. Effective altruism holds that one of our aims should be to do

In recent days we see an increase in calls for a negotiated solution of the war in Ukraine. From the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, from progressive members of Congress and from leading international relations scholars, a growing number of voices urge the US to invest in negotiations between Russia and Ukraine and to give peace a chance. According to some reports, the Biden administration is also warming up to the thought. It’s a dangerous idea. Fears of nuclear escalation between Russia an

Kim Ji-hyeon and Kim Hyeon-su were probably headed for marriage – but they decided to celebrate Halloween in Itaewon. An envelope for a cash wedding gift beside a drying stalk of white chrysanthemum implies the couple’s unfulfilled dreams. Post-it notes surround the tragic mementos, conveying the wishes of their family members. “Live happily in heaven. From Your Daddy, Mommy and Little Brother.” “Dear Hyeon-su, please take good care of Ji-hyeon. My beloved daughter,

Someday, history’s chroniclers will label this November as the month when America’s political elites and also America’s just plain people of the left, center and right suddenly began trying to see beyond the horizon -- urgently hoping to discover their next generation of leaders. Looking right, we are seeing the Trumpers looking beyond Trump. Looking a bit to the left of them, we are seeing the Never Trumpers, Republicans who are still sane and patriotic; but now they are wonde