Despite the hoopla over dysfunction in Washington, the government can still do useful things. To prove it, the Food and Drug Administration should move aggressively to implement and then strengthen its proposed cancer warnings about tanning beds. A stunning 20 million to 30 million Americans each year use tanning beds. Use is particularly concentrated among young white women. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that about 30 percent of white women between the ages of 18 and

Everyone loves a good perp walk. For South Koreans, Lee Jay-hyun’s made great theater. The sight of Lee ― chairman of the conglomerate CJ Group and grandson of Samsung’s legendary founder ― being led away by police last week on embezzlement and tax-evasion charges has been portrayed as an early victory for President Park Geun-hye’s five-month-old government. The arrest supposedly shows that Park is serious about reining in the chaebol ― family-owned behemoths that continue to dominate Asia’s fou

For years Chinese have been told that the blinding, sooty haze choking Beijing and other cities is the price of progress. All rapidly industrializing economies have endured appalling levels of pollution, officials say. They insist that the only alternative is to slam the brakes on China’s economy and consign tens of millions to poverty. Yet China’s appetite for energy is literally killing its people. A study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences illustrates how d

“No testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a kind that its falsehood would be more miraculous than the fact which it endeavors to establish.” ― David HumeLast week the Vatican announced that a meeting of cardinals and bishops had ruled that the late Pope John Paul II was responsible for a second miracle, and thus the way was cleared for sainthood.The Congregation for the Causes of Saints decided he had cured a woman from Costa Rica in 2011 after a panel o

President Obama’s recent trip to Africa is a marker of the continent’s progress on freedom, democracy and the market economy.The continent is by no means universally democratic, but South Africa and Senegal, two of the three countries Obama visited, are two of the continent’s freest, and the third country, Tanzania, is freer than it once was. Most of Africa is at peace, though there remains a problem with terrorism.The economy of sub-Saharan Africa has been growing at a rate of more than 5 perce

What is the point of immigration reform? It is not about securing the political future of one political party or the other. Nor is the point to supply business with an abundance of cheap labor. And contrary to much of what we’ve heard in recent weeks, the primary goal is not to create a border so secure it would make Kim Jong-un proud. Immigration reform is primarily about respect ― for the dignity of human beings and for the rule of law. Reform should legalize work, reduce incentives for illega

Looking at the news from Washington a little more than a week ago, Americanophiles in Turkey were confused: Was the U.S. moving more toward openness and tolerance or back to more fundamentalism? Were Americans following Kemal Ataturk or Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan? The Supreme Court ruled, barely, for gay marriage with limits. The Senate cleared immigration reform amid warnings the measure would die in the House. Across the country, states were close to banning abortions. The picture isn

The Arab Spring has come full circle.Two years ago, huge crowds in Tahrir Square called for the removal of a military-backed dictator and for democratic elections. Today, opposition crowds in the same square are cheering the military’s ouster of an elected government. So much for the popular appeal of electoral democracy!Opposition groups lay the blame for Egypt’s ongoing economic and state collapse at the feet of ousted President Mohammed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood. The military has now p

The financial industry has been under a constant state of attack for the past year as hackers attempt to steal clients’ money, crash computer systems and disrupt capital markets. So far, the industry has been able to thwart the most serious attacks and protect its clients, but hackers are adapting and growing more dangerous. It is vital that Congress recognize the urgency of this situation and take action to provide the private sector with the tools and support it needs to defend the millions of