Opinion

  More than 75 countries and international organisations gathered in Paris to discuss the ways for a long-lasting peace between Palestinians and Israelis. It was the last significant gathering before Obama exits White House. The attendees at the international meet see the creation of the Palestinian state as the only acceptable solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The meet manifests the …

  What would it take to convince American drivers to buy a Chinese-branded car? China’s automakers have tried and failed to answer that question for at least a decade. Now another one wants to try: This week, on the eve of the Detroit Auto Show, Guangzhou Automobile Group Co. (GAC) announced that it will begin exporting cars and sport-utility vehicles to …

  Attendees at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week could play around with a dizzying array of unmanned aerial vehicles. Drones that take selfies. Drones equipped with thermal imaging cameras to see at night. Drones that help fishermen chase their prey. No use is too niche as drone-makers chase a market that’s forecast to grow an average …

  Next week, the nation’s retailers — and, more to the point, the people who want to sell things to the nation’s retailers — will gather at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center on the western edge of Manhattan for the National Retail Federation’s “Big Show.” On the advice of a reader of the column I wrote in early December …

  “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark,” mutters Marcellus as ghosts and mad spirits haunt Elsinore Castle in the first act of Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet.’ After this past week of salacious leaks about foreign espionage plots and indignant denials, people must be wondering if something is rotten in the state of our democracy. How can we dispel the dark …

  While ATMs in India are still waiting to get refilled, analysts’ spreadsheets are finally getting populated. The high-frequency statistics they need to weigh the impact of the country’s bizarre currency ban are slowly trickling in. By the looks of things, some earnings forecasts may escape with just a trim; others may need the slash-and-burn treatment. Sample two pieces of …

  James Mattis, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, has called Russia the “most dangerous” short-term threat to US interests and raised the question of whether President Vladimir Putin is “delusional.” Trump, meanwhile, has praised Putin’s savvy and talked of repairing US-Russia relations. This isn’t the only issue on which Mattis is at odds with his prospective boss, and …

  Donald Trump did it again. He called John Lewis, civil rights icon and Democratic congressman ‘all talk and no action.’ The Republican billionaire response came a day after John Lewis described Trump as an illegitimate president. Lewis, like many other Democratic lawmakers, vowed to give Trump’s swearing-in a miss. Trump blasted Lewis saying that he should instead clean his …

  China’s leaders are hardly disguising their fears about money leaving the country. They’ve imposed new disclosure rules limiting how Chinese — who are allowed to convert up to $50,000 worth of yuan into foreign currency each year — can spend that money overseas. Simultaneously, they’re striving to tamp down worries about the tumbling yuan, which has fallen to an …

  Bridgewater, the world’s largest hedge fund, has been portrayed as a bizarre, Moneyball-type machine in which employees’ every move is monitored and assessed, increasingly by computer algorithms. Awful as that may sound, what if it’s actually a step toward a happier and more prosperous world? Granted, descriptions of the place — including a recent Wall Street Journal article to …