Opinion

It’s clear after election in Germany that the electoral failures of established socialist parties in Europe are not a few isolated events but a trend, an existential crisis for the center-left. There are few better illustrations of this crisis than Social Democrat leader Martin Schulz’s futile anger at Chancellor Angela Merkel in the aftermath of Sunday’s election. Schulz called her …

The Trump administration often talks about North Korea policy as if it’s an on-off switch. President Trump thundered that the US will “totally destroy” North Korea to defend itself and its allies. But Defense Secretary James Mattis blandly insisted the next day that it’s “still a diplomatically led effort.” Somewhere in this maze of public statements—including the announcement of new …

Margaret Thatcher redefined the UK’s relationship to Europe in 1988 in a fierce speech on the continent that chastised her European partners while promising to stick with them. Twenty-nine years later, Prime Minister Theresa May made a similar journey to do the opposite. In a speech Friday in Florence, May addressed continental Europe softly, about separation. When Thatcher went to …

For generations, the open road has provided good jobs for Americans, whether truckers, novelists or country-music lyricists. Soon it may be crowded with some less sympathetic protagonists: self-driving robots. Trucks with some degree of automation are already plying ore mines and hauling freight. Investment is pouring into the industry. As Congress debates a new law to promote self-driving technology, however, …

Angela Merkel’s victory in Sunday’s election gives her a fourth term as Germany’s chancellor and should be seen as a remarkable achievement—one that few would have predicted back in 2015, when her popularity slumped during the worst of the refugee crisis. Merkel’s resilience, based on a careful blend of principle and pragmatism, deserves to be celebrated. To be sure, this …

The European Commission tentatively opened the door to a plan by 10 member states, including Germany, France, Italy and Spain, to hit multinational tech companies with a turnover tax to compensate for their avoidance schemes. A new proposal presented by European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis allows for such stop-gap measures while it works with members states on a better, …

Before Obamacare, state governments were the chief regulators of health insurance. Obamacare put the federal government in that role. The latest Republican health-care bill, sponsored by Senators Lindsey Graham, Bill Cassidy and others, would partially reverse that shift in authority. It would also give states the ability to allocate a lot of federal health-care dollars as they wish. The fact …

What if your car could keep you out of an accident by knowing what was coming around the corner? No, I’m not just telling you what you already know about self-driving cars. Most of the self-driving prototypes we’re familiar with rely on sensors, which have limited range and can’t see past obstacles. That’s enough to prevent a lot of accidents—but …

Driverless vehicles may not be all that they’re cracked up to be. Indeed, they may be harmful to our collective security and well-being. Unless you’ve been vacationing on Saturn, you know that driverless vehicles are the next Big Thing. Almost every major car company (General Motors, Ford, Toyota, Mercedes) has a program, often in cooperation with tech firms. A few …

India’s digital push has got its timing all wrong. Yes Bank Ltd., one of the nation’s fastest-growing lenders, has cut 12 percent of its workforce, mostly salespeople. When Reliance Industries Ltd., controlled by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, starts a new bank soon, it won’t have any branches. According to BloombergQuint, shop attendants that sell its phones will double as bankers. It …