World News Insights: Opinion Articles

One day in Baghdad, I pondered the reasons why the United States decided to dissolve the Iraqi army. I didn’t find a convincing answer, neither from America’s opponents, nor from its allies. Then President Jalal Talabani said: “The US is confusing and confused. But it is a major power, which…

Nothing ruins a Chinese neighborhood like a vacant skyscraper owned by a bankrupt real estate developer. But Hefei, the capital of Anhui Province, has something worse: the first floors of a building intended to be one of the world's tallest. Its owner, cash-strapped China Evergrande Group, has…

Have we just passed peak inflation? That was the question economists were debating last week, when the US Labor Department published the latest consumer price inflation rate. The index in June was 9.1% above the level a year before — the highest figure since December 1981. Is that the top? We…

The delicate choreography of ships, trains and trucks at the world’s ports has been badly disrupted by the pandemic, and the turmoil is not likely to end soon. If a virus can have such an adverse impact on the journey of a plastic toy or automobile from Point A to Point B, consider the potential…

As a rule, politicians- especially while they are waging an electoral campaign- are inclined to say things that help them with their races or tickle the sentiments of their voters and parties. We journalists have become very used to seeing it. These statements only toy with peoples’ emotions and…

The Saudi-American and American-Gulf summits in Jeddah concluded with major announcements, most significant of which was the US president’s acknowledgement that Washington committed a mistake in withdrawing from the region. His visit was therefore, capped with returning Saudi-American ties back…

The war in Ukraine revealed the sensitivity of climate agreements to wars and major geopolitical developments, especially if they affect food and energy supplies and plunge the global economy into recession. No matter how stubbornly some may try to prove the opposite, there is no denying that…

Alphabet Inc. CEO Sundar Pichai sent a surprising memo to his staff this week: “Moving forward, we need to be more entrepreneurial, working with greater urgency, sharper focus, and more hunger than we’ve shown on sunnier days,” he wrote, according to tech news site The Verge. Not only did his…

In 1984, during the darkest period of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu’s Stalinist rule, I visited Targovishte, over an hour northwest of the capital, Bucharest, on the Wallachian plain. It was a hellish town of mud-strewn streets, a few battered cars, without any decent place to eat and garbage…

It’s getting harder for some emerging markets to hide from the dollar’s rampage. Staying on the sidelines or going slow while US interest rates climb risks further degradation of already weakened currencies — and a consequent worsening of inflation at home. To stand against this tide requires…

Russian President Vladimir Putin must be delighted that Germans, Poles, Israelis, Ukrainians and others are suddenly in each other’s hair about a historical figure named Stepan Bandera. Part of Putin’s web of lies is that Ukraine, a democratic country he attacked without provocation, is…

It may not have enough electric vehicles, powerpacks or the capital, but India has found a way towards mass electrification: swap batteries. The solution, where empty batteries can be exchanged for charged-up ones, is still in nascent stages in China, the world’s largest EV market, where it is…