World News Insights: Opinion Articles

China’s growing influence in the microstates of the Pacific Ocean has raised alarm among the powers that traditionally dominated the region — Australia, New Zealand, and the US. If they want to halt Beijing’s advance, they’re going to have to start offering more in return. A security pact with…

In May, for the first time in more than three decades, Germany’s storied trade surplus disappeared. Not only is imported natural gas more expensive, but demand in China is falling — neither of which is good news for Germany. Nevertheless, the fallout will be more manageable than many people expect,…

It’s the summer calm before the winter storm in Europe. Tourists are back in Paris, Madrid and Rome, but they can’t save the Old Continent from the threat of recession. Strikes and staff shortages give a hint of the high inflation eating into people’s pockets -- and darkening their mood. France…

Political opponents are usually too quick to label each other “anti-science.” But the label is entirely deserved when it comes to the US Congress, which has spent months denying a White House request for billions in additional Covid-19 research funds. There’s still so much to learn about the…

Prime Minister Boris Johnson will be remembered for Britain’s exit from the European Union long after the world has forgotten the tousled hair, the quotations in Homeric Greek, the fibs, fabrications and scandals — not to mention the time he got stuck on a zip line while serving as London mayor,…

The Federal Reserve’s runway for raising interest rates to tackle the worst inflation in 40 years just got a little bit longer after a Labor Department report Friday showed unemployment remained near generational lows in June. That means the Fed is likely to deliver on another 75-basis-point…

Samsung Electronics Co. reported just enough earnings data Thursday to tease us about what might be heading our way. Second quarter revenue and operating profit at the South Korean Goliath portend a tough second half for global technology hardware manufacturers. Sales pipped estimates by a…

No single term is as ubiquitous in the strategy documents of the free world today as “Indo-Pacific.” And yet the phrase never appeared in defense white papers or summit readouts two decades ago. The geopolitical, geo-economic, and military links between these two great oceans, as well as the…

Japan has been brought to a standstill by the news that former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe died after being shot on the campaign trail for Sunday’s upper house elections. A lone gunman attacked Abe, who was pronounced dead at a hospital in Nara from wounds in his chest and neck. This is a tragedy…

As a shorthand phrase “the war in Ukraine” may please headline writers and politicians keen on facile simplifications. The phrase gives the impression that the war is going on in a remote place called Ukraine and only tangentially affects the rest of the world. The rest of the world is divided into…

One of the world’s biggest battery companies is mulling a reversal on a $1.3 billion project to churn out electric vehicle powerpacks in Arizona. South Korea’s LG Energy Solution Ltd. cited surging costs and slowing demand as it now rethinks the investment announced in April. That’s a blow to…

Responding to news indicating that he backed off from his electoral promise to relinquish Saudi Arabia, US President Joe Biden initially replied by saying that he might visit Israel but probably not the Kingdom. Later, following the leak of further confirmed news on a potential visit to Riyadh, he…