World News Insights: Opinion Articles

The importance of masks to public health is fading as other pandemic-fighting tools emerge: highly effective vaccines, better tests and now powerful antiviral drugs. So it’s time to consider making masks optional in most settings. It made sense to turn to masks when Covid-19 was spreading fast…

An objective reading of the situation in Iraq and Lebanon leads us to only one conclusion; the accused is one and the same, and has been convicted. Contemplating the contours, scenes, scenarios, preparations and direction, we find similarities between the two countries, both of which are…

In retrospect, the autism warning signs were all there. A calm, easy baby from birth, around the age of two my middle son appeared to stall. He had a magpie eye for complicated words and entire Peppa Pig episodes, repetitions I now recognize as echolalia. He had no interest in role-playing games…

An interview with two new biographers of former President Jimmy Carter, Jonathan Alter and Kai Bird, makes the case for revisionism, arguing that just as Harry Truman was an unpopular president whose greatness was only recognized later, Carter too was … well, if not great, at least close to great. …

The nuclear fusion startup Helion, which announced last week that it has raised $500 million, says it has developed new technologies that may make nuclear fusion viable — practically, economically and environmentally. It is too early to tell if its claims will pan out, but there have been so many…

When is free not free? I’ve been thinking a lot about that, as Twitter this week finally offered its “Blue” subscription to customers in the United States and New Zealand, after testing it in Canada and Australia. Twitter put some real effort into providing news-loving users like me a reason to…

Talk of a broad battle being prepared to decide Idlib’s fate is gaining steam, amid periodic Russian airstrikes, Syrian artillery bombardment and news of the arrival of Syrian regime reinforcements to the east of the city… Increasing indications of an imminent Turkish military campaign against the…

When he stunned the Glasgow climate conference by committing India to achieving net-zero emissions by 2070, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi issued a crucial caveat. Without the “transfer of climate finance and low-cost climate technologies,” he said, developing nations such as India would never…

Although the next French presidential election is months away, the way the media in Paris along with French chattering classes are behaving, one might think that we are on the eve of polling day. Turn on any TV channel and open any newspaper and you are likely to run into oodles of speculation…

A crucial part of the semiconductor sector will likely be hit by an oversupply next year, pushing prices down and highlighting the vagaries of an industry that’s now facing a debilitating shortage of other components. That may mean falling earnings for some companies, but likely won’t make your new…

Consider this thorny situation: You’re in a long-term relationship. It was great for a while, but your goals have changed. Do you have a respectful breakup, or just ghost your partner? This is the dilemma Beijing is facing with overseas investors worried that they will lose their shirts if China…

My granddaughter Sara who follows my work, especially my writing on Palestinian issues, and I only write about other matters every so often, asked me: “Why does Yasser Arafat occupy a central role in every book you have written? Even when you wrote about Mahmoud Darwish, Moscow, and the station.” …