World News Insights: Opinion Articles

Just a day after it was revealed that Elon Musk had bought $3 billion of Twitter Inc.’s stock, making him its single largest shareholder, the company’s chief executive officer took to Twitter to announce how the world’s richest man had decided to exercise his leverage. “I’m excited to share that…

China’s strict Covid-zero policy is getting costlier by day. As the infectious omicron variant spreads, the government is resorting to widespread lockdowns. Shanghai, a city of 25 million people, is at a standstill, and cities accounting for a quarter of China’s gross domestic product are under…

In recent months, a string of carmakers and electric vehicle battery producers have announced their intentions to build facilities in the US. Manufacturers from across the world are throwing around billions of dollars of investments into EV battery technology, too. Meanwhile, President Joe…

If there has been a silver lining to this terrible Covid-19 pandemic, it is that the rate of Americans without health insurance dropped to a near historic low, thanks to various federal initiatives connected to the government-declared public health emergency. Now, with the pandemic’s acute phase…

President Biden bragged on Twitter on March 26 that “as a result of our unprecedented sanctions, the ruble was almost immediately reduced to rubble.” It was an ill-timed tweet. The Russian currency did crash in February after sanctions were imposed, but by the time Biden exulted, it had already…

The Biden administration has done an admirable job checking Russian disinformation efforts by disclosing US intelligence assessments of Moscow’s intentions and marshaling unified political support for Ukrainian sovereignty and indirect military support for its defense. But the administration has…

I spent a little time in my Friday column going over the details of the 1918 Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill, which was the first major piece of anti-lynching legislation introduced to the United States Congress. It’s named after Representative Leonidas C. Dyer, a white Republican from Missouri who…

I felt anxious when Asharq Al-Awsat’s reporter, Fidaa Itani, sent photos and stories from the city of Irpin in the vicinity of Kyiv. The massive destruction was not surprising in a place that witnessed fierce battles between the two warring armies. The harshest images were those of burning Russian…

A popular blockchain game called Axie Infinity has suffered what could well be the biggest security breach in the history of decentralized finance. Hackers forged withdrawals last week from the game’s Ronin Network, which lost approximately $615 million and said it was working with law…

Almost six weeks into the war between Russia and Ukraine, I’m beginning to wonder if this conflict isn’t our first true world war — much more than World War I or World War II ever were. In this war, which I think of as “World War Wired,” virtually everyone on the planet can either observe the…

Thanks to Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine, Russia is now more isolated than it has ever been. The economy is under sanctions and international businesses are withdrawing. The news media has been even further restricted; what remains spouts paranoia, nationalism and falsehoods. The…

On the second day of a the two-month ceasefire declared between Houthi militias in Yemen and the coalition led by Saudi Arabia, Iran and the US have welcomed the ceasefire. Mediated by the United Nations, the ceasefire will allow sending of humanitarian aid to a country that’s experiencing a human…