Living in these troubled times, we ponder the things that are most precious in life. Some people might think of expensive jewels as precious, such as a diamond ring, a platinum bracelet, or a pearl necklace. Others may pick famous brand name products, such as a Chanel handbag, a Gucci purse, or a Rolex watch. Those who adore expensive cars would treasure a Rolls Royce, a Ferrari, or a Bentley. I addition, there are those who think of political fame and power as a precious thing, such as a minist

Lots of companies have lately been victimized by ransomware hackers -- cybercriminals who infiltrate and encrypt IT systems, then demand money to unlock them. In addition to the much-publicized attack on Colonial Pipeline, recent victims have included one of the biggest US meat packers and the Irish health care system. Cyber pirates might have derailed my family’s annual Martha’s Vineyard vacation by targeting the Steamship Authority -- which controls ferry service to the Island -- a

The most eagerly awaited event in President Joe Biden’s overseas trip to Europe is his June 16 summit meeting in Geneva with Vladimir Putin. This is a high-drama event -- regardless of whether the drama takes place in public. Biden has billed his entire trip as an effort to rally the world’s democracies to the competition with dictators at a seminal moment in history. He will meet Putin only after conferring with America’s closest European allies, and with NATO. “We hav

I’m a big believer in self-reflection on a personal level, a professional level and a societal level. I firmly believe that if we as individuals and collectively are able to critically think about our failures and shortcomings, we can use them as motivation and as a road map for how to improve. Now I wanted to begin there because it informs how I view this ongoing debate around critical race theory, which seems to have become the latest partisan flashpoint in the “culture wars.&rdq

President Joe Biden’s recently unveiled budget marks a new era in US economic policymaking. Decades of trickle-down tax cuts are out the window; Biden is betting that trickle-up economics will deliver the kind of sustained and equitable growth we all want. But that’s a dangerously shortsighted strategy that in the long term will create far more stagnation than a Reaganomics agenda. Biden is proposing a very large expansion of government spending, to 25 percent of GDP from 20 percent

Andy Weir’s much-awaited “Project Hail Mary” is certainly a page-turning interstellar tale that sends sci-fi fans on a thrilling space journey. Kirkus Reviews, a US-based book review magazine, hails it as an “unforgettable story of survival and the power of friendship.” But when I was reading the novel, switching between text and audiobook on my commute, instead of the matters of survival and friendship, something else kept me thinking about my own experiences.

At the upcoming G-7 summit in Cornwall, the major economies’ leaders have a critical opportunity to agree on a plan that not only drives a strong recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic for their own countries, but also speeds the transition to a more sustainable, inclusive and resilient global economy. A key lesson that I trust G-7 governments have learned from COVID-19 is how exposed and vulnerable every country is to global threats, including infectious diseases, climate change and biodive

Experts say that the coronavirus pandemic has devastated humankind to a level no one had imagined. However, as there is a saying that “every cloud has a silver lining,” we can still learn the lesson that crisis can lead to opportunity. I am so glad to share that my school took this difficult time as an opportunity for the school to grow in a very special way. That’s because my school community was open to changes and approached all the hurdles with an optimistic attitude. Th

Labeling misinformation online is doing more harm than good. The possibility that COVID-19 came from a lab accident is just the latest example. Social media companies tried to suppress any discussion of it for months. But why? There’s no strong evidence against it, and evidence for other theories is still inconclusive. Pathogens have escaped from labs many times, and people have died as a result. Social media fact-checkers don’t have any special knowledge or ability to sort fact fr

Artists are no strangers to poverty. Great artists died in dire situations –- and despair about their own art. Vincent Van Gogh famously sold a single painting during his entire career. He died penniless and destitute, saying, “The sadness will last forever.” When Paul Gauguin died alone in poverty, he had no idea of the impact that his work would have on the art world. I couldn’t but recall these stories of poignant irony on my recent visit to the Park Soo Keun Museum

Catching up with a friend over Zoom, I wondered recently what might have happened if China had come clean about the presence and origins of COVID-19 before it spread beyond Wuhan. But, my friend asked, wouldn’t the United States have done the same and tried to hide it too? No, I replied. Even if our government had tried, it would have come to light. That’s the beauty of an open society and a free press. Imagine if COVID-19 had first emerged in a country with a free press. Governmen

It seems that our left-wing politicians today tend to think that corporations only exist to exploit their workers. Perhaps that is why they so frequently discourage our enterprises and give them such a hard time. Yet, corporations create jobs, often pay high salaries and instill a good impression of South Korea around the world. They even contribute to our diplomacy by investing in foreign countries. At a recent press conference after the summit between Korea and the United States, US Presiden

Korean President Moon Jae-in did make some strong commitments at the P4G Summit, repeating the country’s Net Zero 2050 pledge, an end to financing coal projects internationally, and a significant increase in the green share of Korea’s Official Development Assistance. At the summit, President Moon did not yet commit to a stronger Nationally Determined Contributions’ target for 2030, but he promised it will be announced before COP26 in November. The Global Green Growth Institut

As rich countries get their vaccination numbers up while poorer countries are still struggling, there is some hope that we are getting to grips with the pandemic. On the climate change front, there have been some remarkable achievements in the last two months. First, US President Biden’s Climate Summit in April got 40 top leaders to commit toward working together on climate change. Even though several countries did not commit to anything new, just getting the US back to the Paris Agreemen

Late last month, the American actor John Cena issued a groveling public apology after having referred to Taiwan as a “country” in an interview to promote his latest film. Though he was using the term to refer to a linguistic media market with a discrete distribution channel, not to the status of the island of Taiwan in international law, the Chinese government would make no allowance for such distinctions. What are we to make of this episode? Clearly, globalization has gone terribl