“I profoundly disagree” with the German defense minister, French President Emmanuel Macron said the other day, calling her view on trans-Atlantic relations “a historical misinterpretation.” The German minister in question, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, promptly upped the ante, labeling Macron’s contrasting vision “an illusion.” This unusual dialectic between a French president sometimes described as “Jupiterian” and a generally understated Ger

Putting up the Christmas tree over the weekend, I was reminded once again of all the plans that came to naught this year, including long-planned trips. Among the ornaments that hang on the tree are baubles and trinkets bought on trips abroad -- a rough, handmade snowman bought at an Amish village in Pennsylvania, a Tiffany-style glass ball picked up on a rushed weekend trip to New York. Collected over the years, they remind us of our times there. It goes without saying that there were no new or

Does anyone recall the old Alka-Seltzer commercial that went, “Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, Oh what a relief it is?” That song ricocheted ‘round my head as the Trump administration finally greenlit a transition period to the Biden presidency. And as President-elect Joe Biden unveiled his national security team, including longtime foreign policy aides Antony Blinken as future secretary of state and Jake Sullivan for national security adviser, along with former Secretary of State Jo

The world is unequal enough and the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to make things more unequal still. Poorer countries have had to take on debt they will struggle to pay back. Their more fragile health care systems and crowded cities forced them into stricter and more economically harmful lockdowns, and poverty rates have risen dramatically. Now, they rightly fear a staggered recovery from the pandemic will further disadvantage them, given how expensive vaccine rollouts look to be. It should not b

About this time 70 years ago the Korean War reversed again. Alarmed by UN-South Korean troops rapidly advancing northward, China entered the war to prevent their permanent occupation along its border. Massive human-wave attacks buckled the Allied Forces, obliterating their “home by Christmas” dream. “My ROK 1st Division and the US 24th Division crossed the Chongchon River heading south on Nov. 28. It was snowing,” recalls General Paik Sun-yup in his memoir “From Pu

You wouldn’t try to sell coal to Newcastle. So how would you rate your chances of peddling meat substitutes to the country that invented tofu? Beyond Meat Inc., the US maker of plant-based burgers and sausages, on Wednesday announced a new product designed to crack China, the world’s biggest meat market: imitation ground pork. It’s not hard to see why this was a necessary step. For decades, China has consumed about half the world’s pork. Even in the wake of an epidemic

While US President Donald Trump has not yet officially conceded his election loss, approximately 10,000 Trump supporters recently gathered at One Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC for the “Million MAGA (Make America Great Again) March.” Some of the protesters came all the way from the west coast and Florida. They sang the national anthem and chanted, “Stop the steal!” According to the Guardian, there was a group of Koreans and Korean Americans in the crowd. The Guardian wr