powers

Division and suspicion have gripped five villages near Kenya's coast as global powers from the United States to China eye a forest that is rich in rare earths -- minerals vital to high-tech and low-carbon industries.

While the president's powers are limited, the office-holder's influence can be profound.

Judge Marsha Berzon wrote an extraordinary dissent in which she asserted that without careful judicial review of the Guard’s domestic deployment, “this country could devolve into one in which the use of military force displaces the rule of law, principles of federalism, and the federal separation of powers, all fundamental precepts of our democracy long understood as protecting the liberties of individuals and the assurance of self-governance.”

Ending that stance would usher in a new era in U.S. relations with North Korea, one where the two countries engage as fellow nuclear powers instead of fierce adversaries.

And speaking of decoupling, it surely can’t be good that the United States and China — the world’s two biggest economic and military powers — are drifting apart, even as tensions between them rise.