"When the Qing army is surrounding the fortress, how come you are trying to kill one another within?” The king scolds in exasperation as his courtiers call for punishing opponents in their argument over whether to make peace with the enemy and save their country and people from demise or fight to the end and die gloriously. At a moment when their fate is hung by a thread, the court is severely divided between pacifists and militants. However, isolated in a snow-covered mountain fort

Let’s tell the blatant truth right up-front: US Senate Republicans are upset by the leaking of the Supreme Court’s always-secret draft opinion. We all now know that the court’s new conservative majority voted secretly in February in favor of overturning the half-century of precedent-setting rulings that legalized the rights of America’s women to have medically safe abortions. But they weren’t quite ready to tell you how dangerous the court’s still-being-cons

The ship called the Republic of Korea has a new captain in charge who just launched his maiden voyage. While congratulating his inauguration wholeheartedly, we hope that the new captain is a reliable one who can skillfully navigate through dangerous reefs on the rough seas. Indeed, it is quite likely he will sail in uncharted territory during a perfect storm. Of course, he cannot sail the ship alone; he must have a competent crew including the first, second, and third mates, in addition to exper

Is it right for European countries to continue to pay Russia 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) a day for energy when they know that they are funding Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine? Last month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that European countries prospering from Russian energy are “earning their money in other people’s blood.” Russia did not need to take peace talks seriously, he suggested, because of the billions it receives for its oil and gas e

I returned Monday from traveling to Ukraine with a congressional delegation led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. We met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his top national security team in Kyiv for almost three hours. Zelenskyy is a remarkably impressive wartime leader. His grasp of the military, civilian and humanitarian issues facing his country is extraordinary. Although it was our first meeting, I felt I knew him because of all I’d learned through my role as lead House man

In the first few days after Russia invaded Ukraine, Lilia Onyshchenko was hastily directing teams of workers throughout Lviv’s Market Square, which dates to the 16th century. As head of historical preservation in Lviv, she is on a mission to safeguard her city’s invaluable historical treasures from Russia’s unprovoked aggression. Lviv is filled with Byzantine- and Baroque-style churches and architectural marvels from the medieval to the Renaissance periods, and its Old Town is

Emmanuel Macron’s reelection victory in France’s recent presidential election was welcomed most heartily in EU and NATO countries. Macron’s far-right opponent, Marine Le Pen, has long been critical of the EU and NATO and has threatened to pull France out of both organizations. As the second largest economy in the EU and one of the strongest military powers in NATO, a French withdrawal would have disastrous consequences for both organizations. Macron’s win is also a victo

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 debate, contest, experiment with and expand democratic discourse, is a struggle fraught with

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 with its huge majority strength in the National Assembly has unilaterally completed legislation

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 seized much of the Russian central bank’s foreign-exchange reserves, and cut off some Russ

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 Russian government corruption. Browder’s courageous Moscow lawyer, Sergei Magni

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 dismissed the idea that democracy is passe or unworkable. But I’ve begun to wonder

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 seemingly chosen a bad time to roll back content moderation on Twitter. In fact, despite o

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” by Vivaldi. We talked a lot about flowers, trees and scenery of spring while listening to

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 last month, marking the end of a period of relative calm between Israelis and Palestinians and raising