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David R. Sands

David R. Sands

dsands@washingtontimes.com

David R. Sands covered numerous beats, including international trade, banking, politics and Capitol Hill, and spent eight years on the foreign desk as senior diplomatic correspondent. He has authored The Times' weekly chess column since 1993.

Articles by David R. Sands

FILE - In this Thursday, Nov. 27, 2014 file photo, Giselle Basurto, of Mexico, shops at a Kmart store in New York on Thanksgiving Day. Retail sales rose 1.8 percent from Nov. 1 through Monday, Dec. 15, 2014 according to data provided from First Data Corp., which tracks purchases at 800,000 stores including online. The modest growth comes despite the heavy discounting customary throughout the season. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Weak holiday retail numbers clouds U.S. recovery hopes

U.S. retail sales unexpectedly tumbled nearly 1 percent in December, the Commerce Department announced Wednesday, sending U.S. stock markets lower and leading at least one analyst to says it's time to pump the brakes on talk of a strong U.S. economic rebound in 2015.

January 14, 2015
Sadness swept a source of satiric laughter Wednesday after masked gunmen killed some nationally known cartoonists and writers at Charlie Hebdo's office in Paris. (Associated Press)

No religion safe from satire of Charlie Hebdo cartoonists, writers

A ring of Roman Catholic cardinals voting on a new pope are drawn engaged in group gay sex. A mock movie ad for "Untouchables 2" shows a Jewish rabbi pushing a Muslim imam seated in a wheelchair. Singer Michael Jackson is depicted as a dancing skeleton just days after his fatal drug overdose. President Obama tries to "reassure" white American voters by asking a hooded KKK member to be his running mate.

January 7, 2015
The leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, Joseph Kony answers journalists' questions following a meeting with U.N. humanitarian chief Jan Egeland at Ri-Kwamba in southern Sudan. (AP Photo/Stuart Price, Pool, File)

Invisible Children, group behind Joseph Kony video, will slim operations

While notorious Lord's Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony remains — for now — at large, the organization that did the most to spotlight his crimes and spark an international manhunt for his capture is closing down its mission in Uganda as part of a major downsizing.

December 31, 2014
Garcia Martinez-Smyslov after 23…Rxf4.

DAVID R. SANDS: Cuba move a boon for chess

It probably didn't factor into his decision, but President Obama's recent diplomatic breakthrough with Cuba could have the side benefit of re-establishing normal relations with one of the world's great chess-playing cultures, a country with a rich history in the game that has long punched above its weight in global chess circles.

December 30, 2014
Harikrishna-Radjabov after 23. Nh4.

DAVID R. SANDS: Basking in the Basque: Format offers unique chess challenges

It's rapidly (no pun intended) becoming one of my favorite events of the year. In addition to bridge, Go, checkers and other tournaments, the annual SportAccord World Mind Games, held earlier this month in Beijing, includes a "Basque rapid" chess event in which top grandmasters play two games simultaneously, one with the White pieces and one with the Black.

December 23, 2014
Naroditsky-Holt after 18...a4.

DAVID R. SANDS: St. Louis claims first crown in U.S. Chess League play

In St. Louis this year, the Cardinals were good, but the Arch Bishops were better. The baseball team may have come up short in the playoffs, but the Gateway City's U.S. Chess League franchise went all the way, winning its first league championship in a blitz playoff against the Dallas Destiny Dec. 3.

December 22, 2014
Signs advertising currencies light next to the exchange office in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2014. After a massive overnight rate hike by Russia's Central Bank, the ruble staged a two-hour rally Tuesday morning before rolling back to new historic lows. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Russian government strike fails to halt ruble’s slide

A sharp overnight hike in interest rates by Russia's central bank has failed to halt a record slide in the value of the ruble, which after a brief rally has fallen more than 11 percent against the dollar Tuesday in the face of intense selling by speculators.

December 16, 2014
Russian President Vladimir Putin listens during a meeting in Moscow's Kremlin, Russia on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2014. The surprise Central Bank decision to raise the rate to 17 percent from 10.5 percent came in the early hours on Tuesday in a desperate attempt to prop up the troubled currency. It’s the biggest interest rate hike since 1998, the year when Russia defaulted on its sovereign bonds. (AP Photo/RIA Novosti, Alexei Nikolsky, Presidential Press Service)

Russia central bank hikes interest rates to save ruble

Acting at an unannounced meeting after the markets had closed, Russia's central bank Monday sharply raised a key interest rate to fight currency speculators and prevent a further collapse in the value of the ruble.

December 15, 2014
People signing up for unemployment fill a room at the Atlantic City Convention Center in Atlantic City, N.J. on Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2014. Thousands of newly laid-off casino workers turned out for a mass unemployment filing. The Wednesday morning session comes after a weekend that saw more than 5,000 employees at the Showboat and Revel lose their jobs. (AP Photo/Mel Evans) **FILE**

Minimum wage hike killed jobs, hurt low-skilled workers: study

In one of the most rigorous studies of its kind, two economists have concluded that an increase in the federal minimum wage in the mid-2000s resulted in substantial job losses and lower net income for the low-skilled workers the hike was supposed to benefit.

December 12, 2014
Poland's prime minister Ewa Kopacz said revelations of CIA torture could harm her country's relations with the U.S. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz)

China: Torture report undercuts U.S. on rights

There were no immediate reports of violence, but America's image took a hit overseas nonetheless Tuesday with the release of the Senate Intelligence Committee's findings on torture and the treatment of detainees by the CIA in the post-9/11 global war on terror.

December 9, 2014
Lebanon currently hosts over 1.1 million refugees of the Syrian civil war, which equates to about a quarter of all people living within the country. Cutbacks in aid by the U.N., partly due to donor nations not coming through with promised funds, threatens to starve many such refugees. (associated press)

U.N. revives suspended food aid for Syrian refugees

Just over a week after cutting off critical food aid to some 1.7 million refugees of the Syrian civil war because of a lack of international contributions, the U.N.'s World Food Program announced Tuesday morning it had found the money to resume the program.

December 9, 2014