World News Insights: Opinion Articles

Partisan gerrymandering in the computer age has undermined majoritarian democracy — that much is clear. Using algorithms to give one party a numeric advantage over another is more effective than old-fashioned gerrymandering done by hand, and reduces the number of competitive districts for the House…

A decision to cut off the flow of technology goods and services to Russia, among a raft of restrictions set in motion in response to the invasion of Ukraine, might not amount to much. It will take time before the moves have any impact, and there are ways to circumvent the sanctions’ effects. Yet…

In September 1983, Stanislav Petrov was a lieutenant colonel in the Soviet military, assigned to the command center that monitored early-warning satellites over the United States. During one of his shifts, the alarms went off: The Americans had seemingly launched five Minuteman intercontinental…

The great NATO enlargement debate never ends. In the 1990s, US officials and academics argued about whether pushing the North Atlantic Treaty Organization into Eastern Europe was likely to sustain the post-Cold War peace or prematurely end it. More recently, critics have charged that Russia’s war…

These days, the first thing you’re asked in Hong Kong (when you do see people) is, “So, what’re you guys thinking?” That question is underpinned by the certainty that, given the city’s increasingly illogical, fear-inducing and chaotic Covid policies that have left the population on edge, surely you…

Ingenuity has always marked Vladimir Putin’s image. It first manifested when he contained the winds of disintegration and drove them away from the Russian Federation, then became more evident when he convinced quite a few Western leaders that he was fit to join the dance of international relations,…

In 1968, the Soviet Union invaded the former Czechoslovakia. The ‘Prague Spring’ was trampled by Warsaw Pact tanks. Alexander Dubcek, the Communist who wanted to renew Socialism and give it a “human face,” was shipped to Moscow. Europe was more terrified than it had been in 1956, when the…

For actors, it is the most gripping, feared line ever written. “It is the Mona Lisa of literature,” said Simon Godwin, the director of the Shakespeare Theater Company here. “It is something we’re so deeply familiar with, it is hard to bring new context to, and to make it live again.” So it…

Long before Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, his aggressions were often met by the accusation — leveled by John Kerry and Angela Merkel, among others — that he’s a 19th-century figure in a 21st-century world. It’s a line that seemed intended to judge Putin guilty not just of wickedness but of…

Casualties are mounting in Ukraine. Bombs continue to fall. More than 2 million refugees have fled the fighting. Vladimir Putin seems to have assumed he could get a swift victory, underestimating the fierce resistance from Ukraine. Two weeks in, Russia is intensifying its assault on Ukraine, and…

In a village located in Saudi Arabia’s northwestern Tabuk region, Omar, 14, looked perfectly ready for his important role, along with stars featuring in an international movie that was filmed near his hometown. The young man, who had never tried acting or attended any kind of filming events,…

Omicron cases, hospitalizations and deaths have been substantially declining across the United States for more than a month. In response, governors and mayors are rolling back restrictions like mask mandates and vaccine passports. Many wonder whether this period of low cases and decreasing demands…