World News Insights: Opinion Articles

Two years ago, almost to the day, the world’s attention turned to Baghdad amid its efforts to further peace. It held an exceptional summit at an exceptional time. Overcoming deep polarization was its agenda, as my brothers and I, alongside the rulers of neighboring countries, worked tirelessly to…

In various ways, philosophers and thinkers have said that life is absurd and futile, and that its culmination in death attests to its absurdity and affirms its futility. But what about when death is not merely an event that brings life to an end but is the very essence of life? This…

Do you know what toothpaste, cameras, soap, computers, jet fuel, car wheels, contact lenses and prosthetics have in common? Oil: If oil were to disappear today, we would lose many important goods and services that require oil or an oil derivative. Without oil, we would see transportation…

In 1961, the beautiful city of St. Petersburg committed a grave sin. It gave birth to a poor child with a great appetite. The poor boy did not know his father, who had died young. He banked on skiing as a way to meet his ambitions, but he never really took off. As a teenager, he turned into a…

Yevgeny Prigozhin, commander of the Wagner militia, his deputy and senior aides, were all killed, while Russian President Vladimir Putin remained... This is normal, as the stew was burnt and the real cook remained... Putin stayed because he is good in the political kitchen, according to the rules…

The crisis in Niger is shaking all of West Africa, and its repercussions are being felt across the continent. After the Berlin Conference of 1884 - in which 13 European states met, with the United States and the Ottoman Empire also in attendance, to divide Africa’s territory (ten times the size of…

“Are you there? “This was a question shot at me from a Syrian Twitter acquaintance the other day, followed by a stark reminder: «Hi there! The war in Syria isn’t over!” For years, the sender of the message had informed me and doubtless many others of what was going on in his war-struck homeland…

The people of Sudan have been closely following the intense battles for control over the armored corps base in southern Khartoum. The Rapid Support Forces have launched several attacks on the base in quick succession as they vied for control over this crucial Sudanese army base. For the past three…

In UFO arcana, one of the figures claiming a whistle-blower’s knowledge of a secret US program to reverse-engineer recovered alien technology is a man named Bob Lazar. Here’s how Lazar has told the story: As a physicist educated at MIT and Caltech, he was hired by the US Navy in the 1980s to…

The debate about the efficacy of sanctions rages on. Were sanctions effective, for example, against Saddam Hussein’s regime in the past? Have the sanctions currently imposed on North Korea had the desired effect; what about Iran? Has the Caesar Act worked in Syria? Have the sanctions imposed on…

Many adjectives could be used in describing the current moment in history of the Arab Levant, but we can add another: it is a struggle between two conceptions of "dignity". In the Axis of Resistance's rhetoric, Gaza is the crown jewel of dignity, not only that of the Palestinians, but also Arab…

The group of nations known as BRICS — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — represents 40 percent of the world’s population and a quarter of the world’s economy. Now it is considering expanding, in a push to be seen as a credible counterweight to Western-led forums like the G7 group of…