In recent years, urban regeneration -- or reviving old, rundown neighborhoods -- has become a hot topic among architects and city planners in Korea. Instead of demolishing large areas of a city to make way for apartment complexes, planners have begun to focus on improving existing neighborhoods. The problem, of course, is how. It is also a new question in the Korean context.From the beginning of the 20th century to the present, two waves of change remade Korean cities. The first was during the J

John Sidney McCain’s life and legacy are summed up by one word: courage. No modern American public figure more embodies that quality than the Arizona senator who died Saturday after a battle with brain cancer.　He displayed courage during 5 1/2 years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, then he displayed a different kind of courage leading the effort to normalize relations with that country even though it had beaten and tortured him.　His courage was on display when he took on a Republican administrat

“Waiting for the jury to come in” is a good description of what this August has felt like. We’ve all been wondering how our legal system would cope with President Trump -- even as we awaited the broader verdict of public opinion that will come with the November midterm elections. Many Americans will probably remember how they heard the news Tuesday that 12 of our fellow citizens had voted to convict Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort on eight felony counts, and that Trump’s personal

The economic collapse in Venezuela continues to be spectacular and horrifying. Thanks to hyperinflation, the stack of cash it takes to purchase vegetables is often larger than the vegetables themselves. Tens of millions of Venezuelans are going hungry, and dangerous weight loss is rampant, indicating that outright famine may be close. The country’s health system is in crisis. And all this is despite oil prices having doubled from their 2016 lows; if prices crash, expect the situation to worsen f

At the Sephora beauty store in Shanghai’s Super Brand mall, face masks are such a big thing they have their own section. There are rows and rows of them, ranging from special concoctions for the eye area to products that reduce the appearance of fine lines.　The face mask frenzy isn’t confined to the high-end market occupied by this division of luxury group LVMH. It’s the same at a Primark discount emporium near the British seaside town of Margate, and a Walmart big-box store in Washington, DC, w

For foreign countries that have made big bets on Donald Trump’s presidency -- such as Russia, China, North Korea and Saudi Arabia -- the US midterm elections pose a significant problem: Trump’s maneuvering room may be sharply limited if Democrats win control of the House. Foreign governments are always attentive to US electoral politics, because they’re so affected by American foreign-policy decisions. But this president is a special case. Trump is such a disruptive leader, and his party’s hold