World News Insights: Opinion Articles

I have good news and bad news for you. Let’s start with the bad: a concept I call Depressing Math. Check this out: That’s one box for every week of a 90-year life. It often feels like we have countless weeks ahead of us. But actually, it’s just a few thousand — a small-enough number to fit…

The French call it retourner sa veste — to turn one’s coat to fit the changing political times. And with widespread international condemnation of Russia growing as its forces close in on Ukraine’s capital, there is a lot of coat-turning happening across Europe. Traditionally pro-Putin political…

If you had any sense of history and found yourself near the German Bundestag in Berlin on Sunday, you could have heard the sound of an explosion. It wasn’t a physical one, like the blasts of the bombs Russian President Vladimir Putin is lobbing at the brave people of Ukraine. It was instead the…

A South African biotech company has recreated small quantities of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine. Its achievement, done in partnership with the World Health Organization, is part of a broader plan to help low- and middle-income countries become less reliant on US and European drug makers, which have…

Every era has a figure who strips away its pleasant illusions about where the world is headed. This is what makes Vladimir Putin the most important person of the still-young 21st century. Over the past week — and over the past generation — Putin has done more than any other person to remind us…

As of the end of last week, markets were in an emphatic “risk-on” phase. After the initial shock of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the S&P 500 had regained a stunning 6.6% in two days’ trading. I argued that the market was working on the assumption that Vladimir Putin would get what he wanted, and…

Rarely has a German government appeared so steadfastly decided than when it announced its response to the Russian assault on Ukraine. During an emergency session of the German Bundestag on Sunday the tripartite coalition announced a number of punitive measures against Russia, recurring to an almost…

American policy on Ukraine comes from mixing analytical thinking among the national security experts with emotions among the American public that influence politicians. On the analytical side, there was an argument among experts and officials about whether the expansion of NATO to former Communist…

Historians may describe the period between the First World War and today as one of conflict over empire: empires’ disintegration as a result of this war and the subsequent continuous attempts to rebuild them, attempts that cost many wars and a lot of blood and destruction. This happened in Russia,…

You mustn't say that this war is far from and doesn't concern you. It is the most violent earthquake to rattle the "global village" in decades. This war will affect the price of wheat and the loaf of bread needed by your children. It will affect the price of gas that helps you warm your home. It…

Russia’s attack on Ukraine came in the face of stern warnings and escalating economic sanctions from world leaders, including steps to tighten the screws on the country’s debt and access to funding in international markets. While the US and its allies can do more to cut Russia off the global…

Russia’s war for Ukraine’s territory is being waged with tanks and artillery, but the battle for the world’s hearts and minds is being fought largely on social media — and there, at least, Vladimir Putin is losing. Cell phone videos of desperate Ukrainians huddled in subways have a power…