World News Insights: Opinion Articles

Over the past 18 months, humanity has dutifully trooped into lockdown and back out again — offering up a massive amount of personal data along the way. Remote work, Zoom schooling and contact-tracing became part of daily life; even today, in the name of public health, diners in Paris have their…

There it is again: Another automaker makes a big announcement about its electrification plans with a battery manufacturer. Going by previous proclamations, that’s not just ambitious, but it’s also far-fetched. Ford Motor Co. and SK Innovation Co. announced they’re partnering to spend $11.4…

As Facebook weathers yet another scandal, this time fueled by its internal research on the effects of Instagram, I’d like to focus on something slightly different that should be a scandal, too: the quality of that internal research. Facebook has been pushing back against a story in the Wall…

With gusto, US representatives voted on nearly 300 resolutions and amendments, including an amendment to block military, logistic, and arms assistance to Saudi Arabia under the pretext of the war in Yemen. The amendment will later be up for a vote in the Senate. But there are other sides to the…

The forces driving European defense are in flux, with four key variables affecting the way the continent’s leading nations engage not only their own security, but the entire world’s. Taken together, this is the most significant set of issues the transatlantic security alliance has seen since the…

As the coronavirus spread through Europe last year, cartoons and posts began going up on French social media that might as well have come straight from the 14th century. In one series, Agnes Buzyn, who is Jewish and was France’s health minister until February 2020, was depicted with grotesquely…

Merck & Co. and Ridgeback’s antiviral pill molnupiravir is a potential pandemic game-changer, judging from the positive test data that arrived Friday. To make the most of this promise, governments and global health organizations need to prepare to manufacture the pills in great quantities. The…

A longstanding business variable is gaining in relevance: Which time zone are you in? This is going to be a bonus for some parts of the world, and a setback for others. The relevant driver of change is the growth of remote work. That started with the pandemic, but the movement has taken on a…

In his first statements on foreign policy, Islamic Republic’s new President Dr Ayatollah Ebrahim Raisi made two claims: First that he would be the ultimate arbiter of Tehran’s foreign relations and, second, that his top priority is to “establish close ties with neighbors and promote peace and…

We’re just six weeks into the Taliban’s second shift as Afghanistan’s rulers, and the picture could not be bleaker. Bodies hang in public squares and women are banned from their jobs. High schools are closed to girls, the women’s ministry has been replaced by the Ministry for the Promotion of…

We’re often told that humans are lousy at judging risk, and the pandemic seems to have confirmed this in spades. What else can explain vaccine hesitancy or otherwise healthy people wearing two masks as they walk alone, outside? Yet despite all the evidence pointing to our inability to make sense…

In the US, central bankers trade stocks and federal judges hear cases of companies in which they hold financial interests. The first is legal (but controversial); the second is illegal but not uncommon. In China, however, the official position on such issues is: No. As President Xi Jinping reins in…