World News Insights: Opinion Articles

The European “way of life” has always been a vague concept, but — after Covid-19 — it chimed with a new generation looking for la dolce vita. Citigroup Inc. is one unlikely poster child. At its new office in Malaga, Spain, junior bankers can expect to be paid half the salary of their London…

Like everybody I know in Germany, I bought the so-called 9-euro ticket this summer. Three, in fact — one each for June, July and August. I put the QR codes in my cell phone’s digital wallet, and was free to hop on and off all buses, trams, local and regional trains nationwide. This all-you-can…

Earlier this week, President Joe Biden seemed to commit to saying “The pandemic is over.” The backlash was swift. That’s understandable, given that hundreds of people are still dying from Covid every day. But President Biden may be doing what comes naturally to many of us — judging the situation by…

The ongoing protests in Iran are not driven by specific demands and grievances like the others we have seen over the past five years, and they are not political reactions like the Green Revolution of 2009 either. When an elderly woman dares to take her headscarf off, goes out into the streets of…

The hazards of keeping up with the Joneses. The relentlessness with which central banks are increasing interest rates reflects alarm at rising prices — and an aversion to being portrayed as insufficiently courageous at a time of economic peril. With so much hiking, officials should fret about the…

How much does it actually cost to build an electric car? As new EV makers burn through billions of dollars of cash and pour hundreds of millions more into research and development, the answer, it seems, is a lot. And all that money hasn’t moved the world much closer to mass adoption. EVs are…

But what is it for? This is the question that the media in Russia, China, Iran and half a dozen countries were posing all last week in the wake of a summit in Samarkand that brought their leaders together as members or aspiring members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). The Russian…

All of a sudden, everyone was inspired to bring down the wall that had been obstructing the formation of a government, accepting the proposal that Mikati had submitted around three months ago. All that remains is minor adjustments that will not affect shares or the figures that the various…

With the end of Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral service, the world is back on track with its dilemmas. The war in Ukraine is becoming more complex, and peace is far from being reached, as new obstacles arise every day. Referendums called for by the pro-Kremlin administrations in the four regions…

With the elections in Brazil scheduled for next month, the country is receiving increased international attention. The heightened interest is understandable given the likely effects of the elections on Latin America as a whole, but also on the leadership role Brazil could be in a position to…

In Charlotte County, population 11,448, forests and farms slope gently toward pretty little streams. The Roanoke River, whose floodplain includes one of the most ecologically valuable and intact forests in the Mid-Atlantic, forms the county’s southwestern border. On a recent driving tour, a…

In popular culture the midlife crisis is fodder for comedy, personified by the 40-something guy who suddenly hankers to sky-dive or buy a convertible. In scientific circles the midlife crisis is sometimes said not to exist at all: “Epidemiological study of psychological distress in adulthood does…