World News Insights: Opinion Articles

When looking at the recent deal on the Karish gas field and the demarcation of maritime borders between Lebanon and Israel, we must look beyond gas to understand why Iran’s allies are circumventing any talk of political concession in the media. The dimensions of the deal go even deeper than the…

It’s the time of year when US public health officials are practically begging people to go out and get a flu vaccine. This year, their message is particularly urgent: Protect yourself now because the country might be in for a bad flu season that coincides with a resurgence in Covid cases. Last…

The West finds it very difficult to understand strong leaders, who resort to dictionaries that do not match its own. It is unable to grasp the true reason for their rise and the links that connect them to their people. The West cannot understand their true aspirations and far-reaching goals…

Days ago, Riyadh sent Washington, through a foreign ministry statement, a strongly-worded message firmly pushing back against claims that the OPEC+ decision reflects a position on international conflicts. The statement also stressed that the decision was unanimous and taken on economic grounds,…

Every Chinese leader stamps their mark on the country they rule for five, 10, (or 15) years. Xi Jinping’s brand is indelible, but the technology companies which have powered China’s economic rise over the past decade will be searching for clues on how to navigate his third term. When Xi took…

Unrealistic as it was technically, the idea of a pan-Asian currency always had some political support: Since 2005, the Japanese have published the exchange value of something called the Asian Monetary Unit, a precursor to what would one day become the region’s equivalent of the euro. The debt…

For some, it is difficult to let go of old clothes when they become worn out, frayed, and unwearable. The reason is a sentimental attachment they have for these clothes and an old familiarity with them, which makes disposing of them akin to ripping out part of the person’s past and memory and…

The foreign ministers of the European Union will discuss on Monday the transfer of Iranian drones to Russia and their use in Ukraine. They might also agree on future sanctions tied to the matter, according to Reuters. The delay in the response of the Europeans and, before them the Americans, in…

What do Neanderthals have to do with medicine? More than enough, it turns out, to earn Svante Pääbo Monday’s Nobel Prize in medicine for sequencing the Neanderthal genome. It may sound more like a feat worthy of an anthropology prize, but scientists are already using Neanderthal DNA to make…

The wave of protests in Iran ignited by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini on September 17 continues to this day. The number of people killed is unknown but it is said to be close to 200 and maybe even more. In fact, this is one of the many crises Iran has experienced throughout the years…

The big economic news of the week was, of course, Thursday’s report on consumer prices. And there’s no way to spin that report: It was ugly. There has been a lot of buzz from private-sector observers to the effect that inflation is rolling over, but there was no sign of that in the official numbers…

Just a few months ago, the concept of using artificial intelligence to generate unique artwork seemed cutting-edge and futuristic. Pretty soon it will be as mundane as running a Google search. Microsoft Corp. announced this week that it was making the most of its $1 billion investment in OpenAI,…