World News Insights: Opinion Articles

While the entire Arab Levant has become a patchwork of explosive hotbeds and combat zones, be they active or dormant, Iraq is the most prominent, broadest arena in which the travails of the region play out, as well as being its most dangerous. As for the horizons for violent polarization that loom…

The war in Syria has stopped but the crisis in the country have not ended. Assad, who as been elected as president for the fourth time (but not everyone is convinced that these elections have rendered him the legitimacy which he claims) does not control all of Syria. More than 2/5 of Syria is…

Tensions, already very high between the US and China over Taiwan, were exacerbated by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s “farewell tour” visit to the island. Many analysts are warning that an invasion by Beijing could come sooner rather than later — within 18 months is a common projection — often citing…

The financial capitals of the world have lost their luster. The bright lights of New York City seem to have dimmed. London has far too many issues to contend with, from inflation, messy politics and homes not built for the heat to a dysfunctional international airport. Hong Kong is a dark shadow of…

Pfizer continues to spend its Covid windfall wisely. The pharma company said it would spend $5.4 billion to buy Global Blood Therapeutics, which has one approved drug to treat sickle-cell disease and two more in development. It’s a smart deal for both companies. Pfizer can put needed marketing…

Gold, according to financial markets lore, is a pretty simple beast. For all its complexities, at bottom what it likes is a weak dollar, turmoil, and lower interest rates. Falls in the greenback mathematically raise the price of dollar-denominated commodities. Turmoil makes investors head for…

I am writing this from Amritsar, India, in the state of Punjab. The Sikh Golden Temple here is one of India’s leading attractions, and last night I shared space with thousands of people over the course of four or five hours. In that time, I saw only two people who might qualify as White Westerners…

After five years of negotiations involving the government, tech companies and civil society activists, the world’s largest democracy is sending its debate on privacy back to the drawing board. The Indian government has junked the personal data protection bill, and decided to replace it with “a…

It seems so naïve now, that moment in 2020 when Democratic insiders started to talk of Joe Biden as a transformational figure. But there were reasons to believe. To hold off a pandemic-induced collapse, the federal government had injected $2.2 trillion into the economy, much of it in New Deal-style…

It’s a hot summer and the message is clear; the residents of the planet must save themselves before it is too late. They have to get the signals sent by hurricanes, floods, and wildfires. Climate change will destabilize the world, hit crops and make some places uninhabitable, cause massive…

A few days ago, Coinbase Global Inc.’s top lawyer issued an unequivocal rejection of the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s allegations that digital tokens it offers its customers were, in fact, unregistered securities. “Coinbase does not list securities,” Paul Grewal wrote in a blog post. …

When it comes to electric vehicles, there is no great American supply chain. Storied automakers General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. have just proved as much. General Motors last week signed three significant deals. They include a $10.8 billion dollar agreement with South Korea’s Posco Chemical…