Opinion

For several years the European Union has heaped criticism on the governments of Poland and Hungary for flouting EU rules and undermining EU values. So far, it’s been mostly talk. Lately the violations have mounted. Support for some kind of punishment is growing, and a showdown seems to be looming. Yet the EU is finding that it lacks good — ...

India’s paradoxical relationship with beef took a new turn last month, when the environment minister imposed a ban on the sale of cows and buffaloes for slaughter at animal markets. Cow slaughter has been banned for decades in India because of the cow’s traditional status as a respected creature in Hinduism, the largest religion in India. In some cases, penalties ...

Sporting a white button-up shirt and black blazer, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Chairman Jack Ma sat on stage with Charlie Rose to make his pitch to America. If you miss the opportunity to sell your products to China, you will miss the opportunity. You will miss the future. With a line like that, Ma — China’s richest man — could ...

When I met Tony Martinez, the mayor of Brownsville, Texas, he had a somewhat wacky argument against the border fence that separated the town from Matamoros, Mexico. “We are about to become an interplanetary civilization,” he told me. “And here we are talking about a wall separating what is essentially the same community.” The reason he said so is that ...

It’s time to take a brief break from Donald Trump. Whatever you think of him, there’s no denying that he dominates the news cycle. We seem to assume that the nation’s future depends on Trump’s fate, for better or worse. The reality is otherwise: The nation’s future also hangs on larger economic and social trends that no president can shape. ...

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., already the largest Chinese company by market capitalization, is nothing if not ambitious. Its chief financial officer, Maggie Wu, recently told investors she expects revenue to increase by up to 49 percent next year, a staggering prospect. But perhaps more staggering is how Alibaba hopes to get there: In part, by tapping the US market. By ...

Ever since the U.S. announced its withdrawal from the Paris agreement, China and India have been hailed for firmly recommitting to the global emissions pact. The praise is fair: It’s good that two of the world’s three biggest greenhouse-gas emitters have renewed their promise to act. But if they really hope to lead on climate, they’ll have to be more ...

With Brexit negotiations, the British government has only the most tenuous grip on power. Amid paralyzing uncertainty, how can the main actors — Prime Minister Theresa May, opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, and government leaders across the European Union — make their way forward? The main thing is to agree to reach a deal of some kind before the U.K. officially ...

China’s regulators, it seems, are on the attack. Guo Shuqing, chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, announced recently that he’d resign if he wasn’t able to discipline the banking system. Under his leadership, the CBRC is stepping up scrutiny of the role of trust companies and other financial institutions in helping China’s banks circumvent lending restrictions. The People’s Bank ...

Like an Instagram filter that brightens an otherwise hazy photograph, the lens through which Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is looking at Philippine conglomerates might be a tad too radiant. The investment bank published a research report Monday calling on investors to show some love to the nation’s largest business dynasties, which it said are poised to benefit from rising consumer ...