In its next generation of jet engines, General Electric Co. plans to use a new, and possibly revolutionary, technology. In each engine, 19 nozzles will shoot fuel into a combustion chamber, where it mixes with compressed air. Because the fuel must be distributed precisely, the interior of a nozzle is very sophisticated: Elaborate chambers and passageways help curtail emissions, control nitrous-oxide levels and prevent temperature surges. Previously, making each nozzle required welding 20 dispara

Here’s the White House view of the current trilogy of so-called scandals: Republicans are trying to destroy President Barack Obama’s second term by magnifying bureaucratic miscues and distorting policy realities. This isn’t without some merit. On none of these issues ― the deadly debacle at the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Libya, the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative groups, or the Justice Department’s secret and sweeping seizure of Associated Press phone records in an anti-leak

Activists complain that U.S. President Barack Obama, who welcomes Myanmar’s President Thein Sein to the White House this week, is embracing the former general too soon, before he’s proved his reformist bona fides. In fact, Obama is late to the party. Nowadays international businessmen, academics and aid workers throng Yangon’s dilapidated airport. In parts of the former capital, rents rival Singapore’s. “If you don’t have a Myanmar visa in your passport, you’re a nobody,” one giddy investor told

If the horrific garment factory collapse last month in Bangladesh has any silver lining, it is the response from more than 30 of the world’s leading apparel companies ― including Benetton, PVH, Abercrombie & Fitch, H&M, Inditex (Zara), Marks & Spencer and Tesco ― to sign an agreement to protect the safety and lives of that nation’s workers, who make the companies’ products.The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh is a historic advance over the voluntary private factory monitoring tha

Addressing the scandal exposed at the Internal Revenue Service last week, President Barack Obama announced the resignation of the agency’s acting commissioner, adding: “I’ll do everything in my power to make sure nothing like this happens again.” Ideally, the scandal will lead to reform of the vague rules that govern political groups. It will also lead Congress to end the practice of anonymous donations to political causes, which is at the heart of the controversy. Are you sufficiently naive to

AUSTIN, Texas ― The twin revelations of the Internal Revenue Service targeting conservative political organizations and, now, that the U.S. Justice Department was spying on the Associated Press ― all in a few days ― mean this: It is time to air the dirty laundry of this administration’s intelligence and surveillance programs ― and it is way past time for heads to roll in Washington.Love it, like it or hate it, one thing is clear about the Obama administration: It is addicted to secrecy. First, C

Ten years ago this month, President George W. Bush climbed confidently from the cockpit of a fighter jet that had landed on the USS Abraham Lincoln flight deck. He strode to the microphone and declared an end to major military operations in Iraq.Behind him fluttered that infamous banner that declared “Mission Accomplished,” an embarrassing artifact that nonetheless is housed in the new library he dedicated last month.A great deal has been written about the miserable failure of the Iraq war. Much

PARIS ― Hardly a day goes by without America-bashers accusing the U.S. of “imperialism” or “interventionism.” Meanwhile, China is largely exempt from that sort of criticism from the same crowd. If only they’d listen to the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and a few other stray voices.In late 2011, I had the privilege of sitting on a panel in Morocco with Lamido Sanusi, the aforementioned Central Bank of Nigeria governor, who’s on a mission to clean up Nigerian corruption. Sanusi told me t

The title of a book by the late American sinologist Benjamin I. Schwartz, “In Search of Wealth and Power,” rather accurately sums up the preoccupation of generations of Chinese intellectuals, reformers and revolutionaries in modern times. These men and women, with varying degree of success, sought to stem the tide of imperialist encroachment on China in its struggle for survival in the modern world, principally by unlocking the secret to “wealth and power.” A wealthy and strong China, one that i