World News Insights: Opinion Articles

Though it originally emerged in Europe, "the thirties" has become a universal term and concept. It refers to nationalist and youth movements, fascist and semi-fascist, impressed by violence and might. They try to stand in for their states, which they decry as weak and disintegrating, and each of…

Only a few days ago, European officials were feeling pretty good about their united position regarding Russia’s troops along the Ukraine border. But the quiet hope was that Moscow wouldn’t push them to the brink of actually having to deliver on their threat of sanctions. This week, as the dust…

Perhaps Pat Gelsinger knows something investors and traders don’t, because he’s decided that Tower Semiconductor Ltd. is worth more money than the Israeli company has been valued at any time in the past 17 years. At $5.4 billion, the Intel Corp. chief executive officer is paying over 35-times…

For analysis of what’s at stake for Europe, Russia, the US and the world more generally in the potential Russian invasion of Ukraine, I’ll defer to experts for foreign policy analysis — I do recommend checking out recent posts by political scientists at the Monkey Cage (see several links in this…

The puffy face of the man on the screen was distorted by hatred: Eyes narrowed, thin lips pressed together and pushing out sharp words in angry bursts. At times, the right hand — with an expensive watch on the wrist, concealed by too-long shirt and jacket sleeves — slid under the desk, as if he…

Based on the statements by Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi and Qatar’s Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on Monday, it seems that a deal is imminent between Iran and the United States. The issues pointed out by Raisi as necessary for the deal won’t be easy for US President Joe Biden to deal with…

After a year of negotiations and five years of sanctions, Iran and the West are on the cusp of announcing the revival of their comprehensive nuclear deal. I imagine the announcement will be accompanied by a large-scale Iranian “propaganda” portraying Tehran as the victor. Surely, Iran is a…

The power crisis of recent months has sent the prices of oil, coal and gas to multi-year record levels. It’s also given deep-pocketed energy transition advocates an opportunity that they haven’t had in years: to put their money where their mouths are. That’s the thinking driving the A$7.9…

It’s the $96 billion — and counting — question for investors in China. After last year’s bruising crackdown on Big Tech, Wall Street has been speculating on when Beijing will relent. The latest selloff in benchmark tech stocks is a wake-up call that the worst is far from over. The government…

When a major conflict like Ukraine breaks out, journalists always ask themselves: “Where should I station myself?” Kyiv? Moscow? Munich? Washington? In this case, my answer is none of these. The only place to be for understanding this war is inside Russian President Vladimir Putin’s head. Putin is…

To an ethnic Russian who came of age in the twilight of the Soviet Union, nothing feels more absurd than the idea of war between Russia and Ukraine. Partly, that’s personal. In the south of Russia, where I grew up, half of the people I knew had Ukrainian last names. My younger cousin’s nickname…

Regardless of the occasion, the leader of the terrorist Hezbollah has been making frequent television appearances – even more than most Lebanese politicians - to talk about everything and nothing. In his latest appearance, he said that "we have the ability to convert our thousands of missiles…