World News Insights: Opinion Articles

Whenever human societies evolve culturally, they build cohesive and coherent systems of values to guide them. Building these value systems is influenced by the prevailing affective and linguistic experiences of each nation. People articulate their values based on the terminology that is…

Haven’t the Lebanese people the right to denounce the lack of respect for the constitutional deadlines? Aren’t they allowed to be surprised that a new president has not been elected at the end of the reign of the occupant of the palace, and to dread the much-hoped for election results, which…

Dictators are rarely funny. Even ones who cultivate bare-chested, bear-hugging personas and have a penchant for extra-long tables. In more than 20 years of watching Russian President Vladimir Putin, I can’t recall him laughing spontaneously, or cracking a joke — certainly not a memorable one…

We all learn from failure. Our mistakes become the bridge to our successes, teaching us what works and what doesn’t, so that the next time we muster the will to try, we’ll succeed. But nefarious actors can also learn from failure. And that, unfortunately, is where we find ourselves with…

The blitz of Omicron variants has felt like one long wave. And many questions have arisen amid the tumult. Are we seeing the emergence of entirely new coronavirus variants that are impervious to immunity from vaccines and previous infections? If we keep getting reinfected, is it inevitable that…

Turkey has, once again, started planning to launch a new military offensive in northern Syria. Its rhetoric is coupled with substantial military mobilization along the border region, making the materialization of Ankara's threat a likely possibility. The threatened territories are currently held…

Creating what has become known as the Maronite Archbishop Moussa al-Hajj affair after he was apprehended at the Naqoura Crossing in southern Lebanon sums up the entire country’s state of affairs: What mindset and kind of governance are intended for it? How the country is intended to be? This…

No one following the news can come to any other conclusion than that our world is undergoing insane times. Where do we start? Well, with the Ukrainian crisis, which I always say could have been avoided with a Zoom meeting, not constant rounds of meetings. The persistence of this senseless war…

What’s captured people’s attention about the Washburn fire raging in Yosemite isn’t just its size or scope, but the fact that it threatens a giant Sequoia with a name, Grizzly Giant, and an extreme age: It’s almost 3,000 years old. The oldest trees have scientific as well as sentimental value…

Something surprising is missing from the conservative opinions the Supreme Court issued at the end of its recent term on abortion, religion and gun rights: originalism. The court’s new majority did not decide these era-defining cases using the idea, associated with the late Justice Antonin…

Here’s a great idea that unfortunately won’t become reality any time soon: Germany should recognize English as a second official language. So should most countries, in fact. The idea popped up this month in a 10-point program put forth by the Free Democrats, the business-friendly and liberal…

The timing of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s proposed trip to Taiwan puts President Joe Biden in a bind. Having drawn threats and condemnation from Beijing, the visit risks undermining any fruits of a planned call between Biden and China’s Xi Jinping. For Pelosi to postpone or cancel, though, would…