World News Insights: Opinion Articles

So far, there aren’t many winners in Russia’s brutal conflict in Ukraine. But among the biggest losers is China. European Union officials have plaintively called on Beijing to broker a settlement between Kiev and Moscow. That’s probably wishful thinking. China isn’t neutral enough to serve as a…

With anxiety and panic brimming over as an omicron outbreak surges through the city, Hong Kong has shown what it doesn’t care about: the future. On Tuesday evening, the territory’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced measures including mass testing for its 7.4 million people and further…

The covid pandemic and the invasion of Ukraine are two overwhelming events that will mark the twenty-first century with their impacts and repercussions. This will not be limited to human loss and physical destruction and the unquestionable political and economic volatility, but will also affect…

The Arab scene continues to affirm, with its successive setbacks that reflect its nature par excellence, that the Arab world’s problems are deeply rooted and becoming increasingly complex and difficult as time goes on. That is evident from how crises/ alliances are dealt with, whether within the…

We are now in Covid limbo. Cases are down and still falling, yet scientists aren’t willing to declare the pandemic over — or, conversely, to predict when the next wave might come. But perhaps it’s a good thing that public health officials are displaying a little less confidence. Researchers still…

In the fantastically terrifying HBO miniseries “Chernobyl,” the scientist Valery Legasov warns, "If we don't find out how this happened, it will happen again." The same could be said, I fear, about the predations of a revanchist Russia, where President Vladimir Putin seems as blinkered to reality…

There was a time around two decades ago when the notion circulated that the era of the China tea-leaf reader was drawing to a close. With the nation joining the World Trade Organization in 2001 and the economy becoming more transparent and rules-based, the value of specialists who could parse the…

The horrific carnage in Ukraine has led to cries across the world for Vladimir Putin to be charged with war crimes. I share the outrage, and would like to see the Russian president punished. But the threat of a future war crimes trial isn’t likely to prove much of a deterrent. Let’s start at the…

European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has declared a pause in the Iranian nuclear negotiations in Vienna, caused by “external factors.” “A final text is essentially ready and on the table,” Borrell tweeted. “As coordinator, I will, with my team, continue to be in touch with all…

We are rapidly expanding our understanding of cancer – how to prevent it, detect it, diagnose it, and treat it. Global deaths from cancer, corrected for ageing, declined by 15% from 1990 to 2016. Years of endeavor in research and development, improvements in public health, and efforts to…

When he launched his invasion of Ukraine over two weeks ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared like a man who knew what he was doing. In his televised session with the High Council of National Security, he gave the impression that he had a precise war plan with clear objectives. Now,…

Many of us have put Covid largely out of our minds. But one of the most intriguing and important areas of study is exactly what Covid does to the mind. The answer to that question is still far from clear. And yet it affects how we treat Covid as well as how we manage future pandemics and viruses. …