World News Insights: Opinion Articles

Lebanese citizens have nothing left but the luxury to dream of the new year. Nothing happening today gives the Lebanese grounds to await a less miserable future. They only have dreams. The dream of getting back the fruit of their life’s labor deposited in banks. The dream of light during their…

What to Expect in 2022 The year will be a money milestone. Jan. 1 marks two decades since the first euro banknotes and coins got into people’s pockets. Even anarchic Bitcoiners should care: The euro was the first new currency of the 21st century (though clearly a product of the 20th). It was…

We pay too little attention to delivering effective government as a critical democratic value. We are familiar with the threats posed by democratic backsliding and the rise of illiberal forces in several democracies, including the United States. But the most pervasive and perhaps deepest challenge…

Two of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse will keep us busy in 2022 as they did in 2021. One is plague — in our case the SARS-CoV-2 virus that keeps mutating. As I predicted in March, we’re in for a seemingly permanent struggle between us (science) and nature (evolution). We keep coming up with…

News that the US population barely grew this year, together with ever-falling birthrates and the decline in immigration, raises the possibility that the nation will be shrinking in the not-so-distant future. So fewer people should make housing more affordable for those looking for it, right? Well,…

A year ago, the world cautiously welcomed 2021. The year 2021 was going to be a year of health and a review of humanity’s life and lifestyle in previous centuries. The breakout of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 reminded humanity that, if life is going to persist on this earth, we need to…

Next week the Iranian regime will commemorate the two-year anniversary of the death of General Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by a US drone strike on Jan. 3, 2020. President Joe Biden should also mark the occasion — by noting that the US is prepared to go beyond economic sanctions in its efforts…

When Czar Peter the Great was passing through the town of Gardelegen during one of his long European trips that opened Russia to the West, the notoriously heavy drinker was so taken with the local beer, the Garley (or Garlei, as it was then spelled), that he declared it the best drink in the world…

You might think that the IPO of electric-truck wunderkind Rivian Automotive Inc. — with its valuation soaring past $100 billion on zero revenue — perfectly captured the madness in autos in 2021. I disagree; it was actually Rivian’s first quarterly results, when the company said it would miss its…

Scientists who’ve been reluctant to talk up any new Covid-19 treatment are suddenly using the expression “game changer” to describe the Pfizer antiviral pill Paxlovid. But the changed game will include rationing. It’s no coincidence that it works the same way as the drugs that changed everything…

The news last week of the death in mysterious circumstances of the Islamic Republic ambassador to Sanaa reminded me of a 19th century English limerick: Who and where and when and what Is the Akhund of Swat Is he lean or is he fat Is he cold or is he hot The Akhund of Swat? The Akhund of…

For nearly two years, American officials have changed recommendations on how to manage the coronavirus. On Monday we got one of the biggest shifts yet: Infected people, who had long been told to isolate for at least 10 days, now have to isolate for only five days if they feel fine, regardless of…