World News Insights: Opinion Articles

Intel Corp.’s future is looking a bit grim. Late Thursday, the chipmaker posted worse-than-expected sales results with adjusted revenue of $18.1 billion in the quarter ended in September, up 5% compared with the prior year, and below the $18.24 billion median estimate of analysts surveyed by…

A friend in need is, as Beijing well knows, a friend indeed. In the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, as the West turned inward, China sent African nations protective equipment and test kits, enlisting support from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. co-founder Jack Ma. Beijing promised vaccines and…

Desperately trying to retain a modicum of relevancy in the Syrian imbroglio, the United Nations has shaken an old ghost out of slumber to claim a few headlines. The UN Special Envoy on Syria Geir Pedersen has brought the so-called “Constitution Committee” out of its two-year hibernation to “start…

Two years after the October 17 protests began in Lebanon, the scene has gone back to normal. The revolution, whose participants had claimed they wanted to evade the fatal curse of civil wars, it seems, with all its crowds, supporters, songs and slogans, very far from today’s reality of armed…

Google has long been an also-ran in the smartphone world. But as of this week, the Alphabet Inc. unit may have finally figured out how to compete with its iPhone-making rival: custom silicon. On Tuesday, Google unveiled the Pixel 6 and the Pixel 6 Pro, both featuring a new Google-designed main…

Facebook Inc. may be preparing a fresh coat of paint for itself. A report in technology news site the Verge, citing a source with direct knowledge, says that the company is planning to change its name next week to reflect its new focus on building the metaverse — a new digital network for…

Once again Britain has one of the highest rates of Covid infection anywhere. The UK just reported its biggest single day Covid case increase in three months and a 16% increase in confirmed cases in the week to Oct. 18. The government has warned of a bad winter. While deaths from Covid are now…

Some things are so predictable you could almost set your watch by them: debt ceiling standoffs on Capitol Hill, the Bitcoin bubble rising from the dead again, Manchester City winning the Premier League. Add to that list the news that China’s planned property tax has run into serious headwinds. …

It is no longer a secret that Hezbollah has an issue with courts. The party hates and fears them. The reasons can be traced back to actions that many see as legitimate causes for suspicion. However, there is another dimension to Hezbollah’s hatred for and fear of justice: it lies in the makeup of…

The news in America has been bad for President Biden for weeks. He promised to rebuild America and to bring experts to his administration who know how to manage government offices wisely, unlike the Trump team which brought chaos all the time. What we have seen in recent weeks is chaos in the…

The US rollout of Covid-19 booster shots has been defined, unfortunately, by confusion. Last month, the Food and Drug Administration approved additional shots for many people who had received the Pfizer vaccine, but not for anyone who’d gotten Moderna or Johnson & Johnson. And in contrast to health…

Feedback on my newsletter about the embrace of “they” as a gender-neutral pronoun referring to a single person — Joel is wearing their green shirt today because it matches their pants — has been, well, pointed. It seems that quite a few people have a major problem with this change in pronominal…