Opinion

  Turkey’s parliament cleared the decks for constitutional reform that would concentrate even more powers in the office of the president. The parliament voted 339-142 to make the president the head of the executive and abolish the job of prime minister. The voters of the country will decide in a referendum on the proposal. In Turkey’s system, amendments to the ...

  The British government is making a twofold gamble on finance and Brexit. First, ministers seem to believe that London’s financial firms are crying wolf when they warn about the potential domestic cost of a so-called hard Brexit. Second, British officials seem convinced that the European Union is so reliant on the City that threats to raise the drawbridge are ...

  lf Mark Schneider, the new chief executive of Nestle SA, is wasting no time in hunting out acquisitions.The Swiss consumer group is considering a takeover of Mead Johnson Nutrition Co., the US baby-formula producer, according to a report yesterday from StreetInsider. But right now, Nestle’s sprawling portfolio needs pruning, not fresh additions. This looks like a deal it should ...

  It is no exaggeration to say that a bizarre new phase in human history began on January 20 as Donald J. Trump becomes the world’s most powerful man. All bets, to put it mildly, are off. Those entrusted to report on and analyze the contemporary world are especially befuddled. One can condemn Trump’s open loathing for the mainstream media. ...

  Leaving aside the missing element of grace and the improbability of his ever stopping to think, Donald Trump is the waterbeetle of politics. His feral cunning in manipulating the masses and the media is, like the waterbeetle’s facility, instinctive. The 72 days of transition demonstrated a stylistic seamlessness with his 511 days of campaigning, which indicates that the 1,461 ...

  After the Brexit vote, Christmas was always going to be the British consumer’s last hurrah. Official data today makes it look like the party never even got started. The volume of goods sold in December fell 1.9 percent from November, the Office for National Statistics said on Friday, the biggest drop since April 2012. This bad news is at ...

  Posterity will pass fuller and fairer judgment on the presidency of Barack Obama than is possible today, but on one issue the verdict is already clear: personal integrity. In an especially hostile political environment, Obama was civil and decent, and he served with honor and dignity. Partisanship should not prevent Republicans from acknowledging these truths. Like his predecessor, George ...

  And finally Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States on Friday, becoming commander-in- chief of a riven nation facing uncertainty under a leader who had never held before any political office or high military rank. In his inaugural speech, which lasted for about 16 minutes, Trump painted a bleak picture of America, which ...

  Last week, I joined the New Mexico governor, congressional delegation members, the mayors of Carlsbad and Hobbs, citizens and a proud workforce in commemorating the reopening of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant after a three-year shutdown because of an underground accident. The facility is the US’s only geological repository for nuclear waste, such as plutonium-contaminated materials from the Department ...

  It takes around 35 years for a median-income household to buy a 90-square-meter (970 square foot) apartment in Hong Kong. So, by 2052 in other words. That makes the former British colony the world’s least affordable city, according to Oxford Economics. Now, with Chinese buyers forking out ever-higher amounts for land sold by the government and outbidding domestic stalwarts, ...