World News Insights: Opinion Articles

Despite my best efforts to stay young at heart, I have somehow reached the point in my life — 42 years old, dad, mostly sedentary — where I feel perpetually assaulted by small changes in my daily routine. This was certainly an expected development, but one I feel relatively powerless against…

The sultans of Silicon Valley are in a political snit, with some billionaires suddenly turning against Democrats. It’s not just Elon Musk. Other prominent players, including Jeff Bezos, have lashed out at the Biden administration, and we now know that Oracle’s Larry Ellison participated in a call…

Since the initial Omicron wave receded and inflation replaced Covid-19 in the headlines, the debate over reopening has largely been settled in favor of the reopeners. But the debate over the wisdom of reopening and unmasking hasn’t gone away. As Covid cases rise again, there is still a vocal…

I have an experienced Lebanese politician’s comment about the elections in mind. The ‘excess’ of comments and analyses since the date of the elections was announced has overcome Hezbollah’s ‘excess’ of force. In truth, much has been written about these elections, in terms of predictions and…

Russia could not have foreseen such strong military resistance on the ground. The resolve and solidarity in the West and sanctions have also been well beyond Russia’s expectations. Russia has finally broken the defenses in Mariupol's Azovstal steelworks. Ukrainian soldiers have left the grounds…

One of my Lebanese friends and a reader of Asharq Al-Awsat has blamed me. He said: “You go to Berlin to write about the situation of Ukrainian and Syrian refugees. Do you think our conditions are better than theirs? Haven’t you been told that cancer medicines are lacking? That the number of those…

High school teacher S. Jeeva has spent two days in the baking sun lining up for cooking gas in the north of Sri Lanka’s capital. He’s been standing with thousands of others waiting for a delivery that, so far, hasn’t come. Meanwhile, many of his students, who will sit for important national exams…

I have never taken up the opportunity to attend the Davos meeting and I will pass again this year. That, however, does not mean that I do not follow its evolution and outcomes. I am certainly interested in what could emerge from a meeting that brings together so many leaders of governments, civil…

It's been more than two years since countries started closing their borders to visitors to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Now China, facing its worst outbreak of the pandemic, is trying a new tactic. Henceforth, “unnecessary” overseas travel by Chinese citizens will also be restricted,…

The recent Lebanese elections, which saw Hezbollah losing its allies and the parliamentary majority, and the entry of independents into parliament, is not only a lesson for the party, Iran and the Lebanese, but rather a message for the entire region. The first lesson is “not to rely on agents,”…

There are countless reasons, in theory at least, for the Lebanese to change their allegiances: the economic crisis, the evisceration of their bank deposits, the explosion at the port of Beirut, political and security instability... But other factors that most established political analysts do not…

When the global elite meets at the Swiss resort of Davos this week, for a spring gathering of the World Economic Forum (WEF), war will have forced its way to the top of the agenda. The pandemic has shrunk the annual jamboree of the great and the wealthy. Absent will be Russian oligarchs who hung…