World News Insights: Opinion Articles

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…

As president of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi saved the euro. In my estimation, this makes him history’s greatest central banker, outranking even the former Fed chairs Paul Volcker, who brought inflation under control, and Ben Bernanke, who helped avert a second Great Depression. In a…

In times like these, it’s easy to lose sight of the bigger picture. Take Twitter, which this morning blamed uncertainty related to Elon Musk’s acquisition as a factor in its second quarter slowdown, along with “industry headwinds associated with the macroenvironment.” That sounds a little as if…

Britain’s chickens have come home to roast. A dependably temperate climate has this week given way to extreme heat. “HOTTER THAN THE SAHARA,” bellowed the front page of the aptly titled tabloid The Sun on Monday. Worryingly, it proved to be a rare instance of accuracy from the paper. By…

Over the past decade, Chinese banks have lent generously to poor nations for China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative, a politically and economically motivated effort to help build ports, rail lines and telecommunications networks abroad. But now that some of those borrowers are having trouble…

In the week that followed the Jeddah Security and Development Summit, tens of reports were published in quick succession; some focused on the events, and others assessed its implications. Even the Tehran Summit that brought together the Presidents of Russia, Iran and Turkey did not manage to turn…

What a difference six months of a seemingly unwinnable war makes to a leader’s self-esteem. As the Russian war against Ukraine grinds on Vladimir Putin, the self-styled conqueror, seems to be descending from his high horse like the statue of Peter the Great in Pushkin’s famous poem to mingle with…

Early in 2009, I offered the world some tech advice that I have regretted pretty much ever since: I told everyone to join Facebook. Actually, that’s putting it mildly. I didn’t just tell people. I harangued. I mocked. Writing in Slate, I all but reached through the screen, grabbed Facebook…