World News Insights: Opinion Articles

As the global climate summit concludes at Glasgow, Scotland, the initial reactions will focus on the various national commitments made to reduce emissions — the key metric for preventing further temperature rises. But alongside environmental science and economic impact, leaders need to pay…

James Stavridis

Climate Summit (COP26) enters its second week with global consensus on one matter: that climate is already changing at a dangerous pace due to human activities. If some consider this an already established given, it is worth remembering that it wasn’t long ago that the voices of skeptics continued…

Najib Saab

There are dozens of ships anchored off the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach this week, imperiling global supply chains and holiday gifts. Also imperiled? The safety and well-being of the seafarers working on those ships, many of whom haven’t touched land in more than a year due to pandemic-era…

Adam Minter

Most of human history is irreparably lost to us. Our species, Homo sapiens, has existed for at least 200,000 years, but we have next to no idea what was happening for the majority of that time. In northern Spain, for instance, at the cave of Altamira, paintings and engravings were created over a…

David Graeber and David Wengrow

The UK was the first country to approve a Covid-19 vaccine; it has now become the first to approve an at-home treatment for Covid. On Thursday, the medicines regulator, MHRA, green-lit the antiviral drug molnupiravir, produced by Ridgeback Biotherapeutics and Merck & Co. and shown in trials to…

Therese Raphael

The “China shock” was one of the most significant economic events of the last two decades in America. Most of the shock is now over — Chinese imports are competitive with much of the output of US manufacturing, and China has already displaced many US jobs — but there is a new and possibly larger…

Tyler Cowen

As the automobile industry evolves toward an electric future, incentives will be a big driver of the transition — not just potential tax credits to accelerate demand, but investor behavior that helps shift automakers' priorities. Manufacturers are going to try to ramp up spending on future…

Conor Sen

Progress on Covid-19 vaccines has been wonderful for the world, but in financial markets it has dulled enthusiasm for firms whose business involves virus testing. Now two of Europe’s big Covid-19 diagnostics firms — German-listed Qiagen NV and France’s BioMerieux — are mulling a union. The snag is…

Chris Hughes

The majority of Lebanese politicians running the country are professional procrastinators. They are incredibly skilled at pushing dates and delaying stances and solutions. They behave on the basis that this profession grants them the ability to steer their public and private affairs, playing…

Mustafa Fahs

At a time when President Joe Biden’s competence is being questioned, let's talk about blocking and tackling — that is, how the administration is doing on the basics of the presidency. Note that this is very different from the question of whether he’s making good policy decisions, however one would…

Jonathan Bernstein

What do you do when you want to do something and yet you feel embarrassed about doing it? This is the question that the “Supreme Guide” of the Islamic Republic in Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei faced this week as he wondered how to deal with one of his annual rituals celebrating the seizure of the…

Amir Taheri

The UK was the first country to approve a Covid-19 vaccine; it has now become the first to approve an at-home treatment for Covid. On Thursday, the medicines regulator, MHRA, green-lit the antiviral drug molnupiravir, produced by Ridgeback Biotherapeutics and Merck & Co. and shown in trials to…

Therese Raphael