Opinion

Joe Biden has argued that President Donald Trump didn’t so much build a strong economy as inherit one. It’s good line — but it ignores the successes, at least before the pandemic, of Trump’s unconventional policy. If Biden is elected president, he should continue Trump’s economic approach rather than returning to Barack Obama’s. Between December 2009 and December 2016, the ...

Every new president in the last 30 years has come to office with his party holding a majority in both houses of Congress. Three of those four new presidents lost that power quickly. One or both houses of Congress flipped to the opposition two years later as voters reacted to what they considered the president’s excesses. The exception was George ...

After a summer of hope, Europe looks set for a tragic winter. The dream of keeping the pandemic in check with limited sacrifices is gone. Governments are readying themselves for a new round of tough containment measures. Ireland paved the way a week and a half ago, imposing a national lockdown while keeping schools and essential stores open. France has ...

Beijing’s goal of building a self-reliant technology industry has been elevated to become a strategic pillar, part of the latest five-year plan setting out top national priorities. This means that China is redoubling efforts to wean itself off foreign companies, with the result likely to be a cohort of domestic giants and a slow freeze-out of overseas competitors. Just as ...

There has been much worried Democratic speculation about how the Supreme Court might intervene to hand the election to President Donald Trump. Many scenarios are possible, but one is much more probable than the others. After the Supreme Court ruling blocking late-arriving mail-in ballots from being counted in Wisconsin, we can now say very concretely what the Bush v Gore ...

It’s not every day that the defense minister of a major NATO ally proposes a new deal in transatlantic relations by repeatedly and emotionally avowing her “gratitude” towards the US But that’s what Germany’s Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer did last week. Even in the final throes of a presidential election, the cognoscenti in Washington on both sides of the aisle would be ...

Concerns that the forthcoming release of the PlayStation 5 could depress Sony Corp revenue in the September quarter weren’t realised, paving the way for what could be a blockbuster holiday season for the Japanese giant. What’s worth noting, however, is the supporting cast that helped set the company up for such a good fiscal 2020 that it boosted both its ...

What to do about schools is perhaps the biggest dilemma facing policy makers right now. Closing them could lead to a “lost generation” of learners and make it harder for parents to get back to work. Keeping them open could further propagate the virus. Should governments choose the latter, they will need other ways to mitigate the impact on health. ...

Amy Coney Barrett’s appointment to the Supreme Court was achieved over furious Democratic objections, in what might be the closing days of both Donald Trump’s presidency and Republican control of the Senate. Seen by critics as improper and even illegitimate, it could have a lasting impact. It cements a 6-3 conservative majority at the top of the judicial branch of ...

The past few days have offered the most clarifying hours of American politics since the night of November 8, 2016. Four years ago, President Donald Trump’s unlikely victory put the world on notice that the US was slamming the brakes on the 21st century. Last weekend, the White House and Congress defined the 2020 election in the starkest terms yet. ...