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Nuclear power: Go ahead or stop now?

After an 8.9 magnitude earthquake and tsunami hit Japan on Friday, engineers are pumping seawater into damaged nuclear reactors to prevent a catastrophic full-scale meltdown, but major damage has already occurred and the plants likely won’t operate again, experts said.

The political impact of the crisis is also hitting home in the United States. The U.S. currently has 104 nuclear reactors operating, and analysts expect four to eight new reactors to be built.

Senator Joe Lieberman, who chairs the Senate’s homeland security panel, said on Sunday the United States should “put the brakes on” new nuclear power plants until the impact of the incident in Japan becomes clear.

What are your thoughts on the use of nuclear power? Give your answers below.

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Americans’ attitudes toward China

Senior officials from the United States and China are due to meet in Beijing for Strategic and Economic Dialogue, an annual meeting to discuss broad economic, foreign policy and security concerns. The meeting comes on the heels of a tension filled year of relations between the two global powers.

Many U.S. lawmakers who believe that Beijing deliberately undervalues its currency for an unfair trade advantage are now looking for progress on that issue at the talks.

Economists say China’s currency is pegged to the dollar at a rate that is between 15 and 40 percent lower than the level markets would set if the yuan were freely traded. This has helped its economy weather the global recession at the expense, critics argue, of jobs everywhere else in the world.

Slamming the Chinese over its currency policy is politically appealing in an election year in which U.S. unemployment is near 10 percent and China’s trade surplus is expanding again.

Has the differences between the two powers affected Americans’ attitudes toward China? We invite you to take our polls and share your thoughts.

Are you worried about losing your job because of competition from China?

Can a new president repair relations with Europe?

Presidential candidate Barack Obama spoke at the “Victory Column” in Berlin’s Tiergarten park in front of thousands of Germans and tourists in his only formal address during his week-long foreign tour. He called on Europe to stand by the United States in bringing stability to Afghanistan and confronting other threats from climate change to nuclear proliferation.

Relations between the United States and Germany reached a post-war low under former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who strongly opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq. He said Germany would “not click its heels” and follow President Bush into war — a position that tapped into wells of German pacifism but infuriated Bush. But Chancellor Angela Merkel, who grew up behind the Wall in the communist East, has worked hard to repair ties with the U.S. and has emerged as one of Bush’s closest allies in Europe.

Obama and Merkel met for the first time on Thursday and touched on Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Middle East peace, climate change and the global economy during their talk.

A Pew Research Center poll showed Germans favor Obama over John McCain by a 49 point margin. But some German officials have said Obama risks disappointing Europeans because their expectations are so high.

Can a new president repair relations with Europe?

For the full article on Barack Obama’s speech in Berlin, click here.