How do you tell a plausible charge from a fevered fantasy? As allegations drip, drip about President Donald Trump’s purported ties with Russia, most news consumers will want to keep an open mind about potential wrongdoing. But they won’t want to get lost in some eternal connect-the-dots game that never forms a coherent and believable picture. 　There’s a difference between thinking that Moscow may have hacked the Democratic National Committee and thinking that Moscow actually hacked the election,

The UK has formally served notice that it’s quitting the European Union. Beyond a doubt, this decision was a grave mistake -- but it’s done, and now Britain and its European partners need to arrange the friendliest possible divorce.The EU’s initial posture has been anything but friendly, which is understandable. Britain is the defaulting party and shouldn’t expect gratitude. Europe’s leaders, watching anti-EU sentiment gain ground in other countries, are rightly concerned that various EU exit mo

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic was in Moscow when protesters carrying images of a yellow rubber duck marched against top-level corruption. What he saw was a global ducky conspiracy.　“I don’t believe in coincidences,” Vucic said, according to the Serbian newspaper Novosti. “If someone tells me that different people have thought of the same symbol in Belgrade, Brazil and Moscow, don’t expect me to believe it.”　Vucic’s skepticism is misplaced. The rubber duck has become an unlikely protest

President Donald Trump has called our military “a disaster,” and he wants to remake it with a $54 billion increase in defense spending. He imagines the cash infusion will go toward big ships, aircraft carriers and fighter jets.　Most experts believe that the world’s largest expeditionary force is actually in good shape. But if a partial overhaul is inevitable, the new administration would be wise to limit flashy, big-ticket items and consider stocking up on mules and ropes for specially trained m

China appears to be thriving in the age of Trump. Faced with a protectionist US administration in Washington, Communist Party leaders have improbably recast themselves as champions of globalization, free trade and openness. Recently, they’ve admonished Western policymakers to treat Chinese investors more graciously before expecting China to open its own markets further. Greater liberalization, central bank chief Zhou Xiaochuan recently warned, will depend on whether Chinese investors “get better

President Donald Trump’s craven lies that President Barack Obama had his “wires tapped” are viscerally repugnant and maddening for anyone but the most rabid, delusional Obama-haters.　First, it is destabilizing to realize that a sitting president of the United States has the moral capacity to slander his predecessor egregiously, without regret, guilt or apology after his lies are shown to be just that — lies. And let’s remember, such a man has his finger on the button.　Second, Trump is getting aw

Determined to destroy Barack Obama’s signature health care achievement, Republicans in the US Congress and President Donald Trump have insisted the Affordable Care Act is a failure. If it were a car, it would be “missing two tires, leak gas and have a busted transmission.” The health care system is in a “death spiral.” Americans yearn to be freed from this “nightmare.”　Yet on Friday, as Trump and House Republicans conceded a humiliating defeat and pulled their repeal-and-replace bill minutes bef

Way back when the United States was just a baby nation, its citizens built a house for their president. Not a palace for a king like the one they had shed, but a democratically suitable residence on a regular street. It was a little larger than many but with a common address — 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue — and was something they could be proud of.　It took very little time for this classic mansion to take on its own identity, separate of its occupant’s, as a place the world knew was the seat of gove

It’s easy to call for destroying the Islamic State group, as President Donald Trump does to thunderous applause from his supporters.　But our new commander in chief is learning how difficult and bloody war can be -- and he’s starting to stray dangerously close to deepening American involvement in intractable wars.　The US military is investigating whether its weapons killed as many as 200 civilians in Mosul, where a March 17 airstrike was called in by Iraqi troops targeting Islamic State group fig

Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Joseph Dunford found something constructive to tell senators on an appropriations subcommittee this week, even if it had nothing to do with the Pentagon budget. The two men challenged lawmakers to finally provide a legal basis for the US war against terrorist groups. It’s something that President Barack Obama was never able to get from Congress. So instead, for his entire presidency, Obama based US counterterrorism efforts abro