World News Insights: Opinion Articles

More than ever before, the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria are coming together. The calculations in the Kremlin and in Turkey’s presidential palace are especially complicated now as the two capitals must consider three different angles. First, in a month the United Nations Security Council must vote…

Inflation, and especially the price of gasoline, appears to be what’s driving President Joe Biden’s unpopularity right now. That’s how it goes for presidents: Policy outcomes, especially on the economy, are what matter to voters — whether or not the administration has much short-run influence over…

Retail investors get free trades because wholesale market makers pay retail brokers for the privilege of trading with their customers’ orders, which means that the retail brokers can make lots of money without charging commissions. They get good execution because it is very pleasant for those…

With the Greek company Energian’s LNG extraction and storage vessel entering the Karish field, going past what Lebanon calls Marine Line 29 and anchoring itself in the zone “disputed” by Israel and Lebanon, the latter has become embroiled in the massive hot struggle to shape the new Middle East. …

The Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England all preside over inflation rates that have surged to quadruple their 2% targets. One of their brethren is highly skeptical of their chances of success in calming price increases. It may turn out that they’ve been lucky rather…

How did Facebook become a business worth $1 trillion at one point last year? Not just by fulfilling its mission of “connecting people,” but by keeping them hooked on the site, sometimes for hours on end. Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube and Twitter Inc. have spent…

How can the Tories dump a leader who has been as successful at winning elections and riding out controversy as Boris Johnson? And yet how can they stick with one whose character has become a liability, whom the public distrusts and whom many see as a threat to the integrity of governing…

Gautam Adani’s meteoric rise to the world’s ninth-richest person began with a port on India’s west coast in the 1990s and an abiding friendship with a politician who’s now prime minister. The rest has been all about finding the next industry that will make his debt-fueled empire a little bigger. …

A lot is being said about the war between Ukraine and Russia: its facts, motives, and implications for the world. This article does not delve into these matters, nor does it present a projection regarding its outcomes. Instead, it asks, far away from the loudness of war though not separate from it,…

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov continues his diplomatic rounds in and beyond the region. Recently, he met with foreign ministers of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) as Russia regards the stance of Arab countries, in general, as balanced. Lavrov is going to visit Turkey on June 8. There…

A journalist sometimes falls in love with a city he visits in search of a story or to carry out an interview or write a report. Perhaps this love stems from the sense that the city sleeps on ageless poems, melodies and art. Or perhaps because they are heirs to a raucous history that has left deep…

Sure, it works in practice, but does it work in theory? Over the years I’ve heard this parody of academic pomposity put in the lips of various targets, from French intellectuals to University of Chicago economists. Lately, though, I’ve begun thinking it myself — about the hawkish side in the debate…