This year marks the 30th anniversary of the European Union. When the Maastricht Treaty took effect in 1993, Europeans embarked on a historically unique experiment in supranational governance and shared sovereignty. The EU’s single market allows for the free movement of goods, services, and capital among 27 member states; and, critically, its Schengen Area means open borders between member states (and free movement rights even in non-Schengen member states), granting more than 400 million p

How well do South Koreans speak English? The development of translation apps and decreased personal interaction after the pandemic may be making this question less important, but English education still occupies an important place in the South Korean society. English is a required language from elementary school through university. Scores of standardized English tests are usually required for employment and advancement in companies. English kindergartens and other types of private schools remain

During my first visit to the Dabudong War Memorial Museum, footsteps could be easily heard. Only a handful of visitors paced through the small hillside museum that recalls pivotal, last-ditch fighting in the early stage of the Korean War. The museum’s secluded site off the Seoul-Busan highway and a simple display of old howitzers and bazookas and memorial steles to fallen soldiers created a solemn atmosphere. They silently memorialized the unsung heroes who turned the tide of the war by pr

In Isaac Asimov’s “True Love,” an artificial intelligence takes over the identity of protagonist Milton Davidson and ruins his life. At first, Milton wants to find a perfect partner. In pursuit of this goal, he provides all the information about himself to his super-intelligent computer program Multivac or “Joe,” as Milton calls it. Joe then proceeds to comb through databases to find a girl who impeccably matches Milton. At last, Joe finds an ideal match for Milton,

For more than two years, Donald Trump’s most patriotic MAGA true believers have been accepting with unshakable trust what they were sure was rock-solid evidence that their leader really won reelection. They genuinely believe they’ve seen all the proof they need that the 2020 election was stolen from them. They have seen the videos on the websites they trust most, showing votes being stolen, changed, thrown away, whatever. They are sure they have seen proof. That’s why they are

Recent climate negotiations have been heated, to say the least. Beyond the usual recriminations over financing, the choice of Sultan Al Jaber -- chief executive of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) -- as the president of the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) in the United Arab Emirates has fueled considerable controversy. But if the world is to make genuine progress on climate change, the engagement of both the oil and gas industry and the Gulf region is essentia

J. Robert Oppenheimer was the first chair of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ board of sponsors, a group composed of the world’s leading scientists based at the University of Chicago. Because I serve as the bulletin’s president, I am fielding a lot of questions lately about why I think Christopher Nolan’s eponymous film about Oppenheimer, which hit theaters nationwide on Friday, is resonating so deeply with the public. The all-star cast, feted director, and script

Headline inflation is falling fast in the United States and the eurozone, following a succession of sharp interest rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank. But monetary policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic have made it clear that they are not done yet. Are they going to go too far? Core inflation, which is still running at around 5 percent in the US and the eurozone, remains a major cause for concern. Central bankers fear that, given a resilient labor market, hig