World News Insights: Opinion Articles

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…

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…