World News Insights: Opinion Articles

As the Taliban seize control of Kabul and indeed all of Afghanistan, it is worth pondering the less obvious lessons of this 20-year episode. It is a reminder of why I cannot bring myself to be a foreign policy hawk, even though I largely accept the hawks’ worldview and underlying values. Let’s…

In 2006, as a Navy vice admiral, I was in Iraq traveling with Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld. At a town hall with US troops, he famously answered a question about the US Army’s lack of armored vehicles by saying, “You go to war with the army you have — not the army you might want or wish to have…

Could climate alarm bells be ringing in the Kremlin? Official pronouncements and a newfound urgency suggest the reality of greener global demand may finally force a fossil fuel behemoth to accept the inevitable. Last week, in a ministerial meeting that touched on environmental monitoring,…

Communal armies, those of sects, ethnicities and clans, always defeat the state’s army. This is a fact we find its latest and clearest manifestation in Afghanistan, which had previously been home to similar scenes twice, in 1992 and 1996. Despite American training, as well as armament and…

If you read a novel that ends with the return of the Taliban to the streets of Kabul, you would perhaps say that it is funny and strange. Maybe you would accuse the author of exaggeration and searching for the impossible and unacceptable. You may rub your eyes to make sure what you read is true. …

Years of hope: In the aftermath of September 11, Taliban’s refusal to act against Al-Qaeda and its leader, led to the military campaign of the United States and its allies, followed by the end of Taliban rule. Later on, the victors engaged in mopping up operations and state building in…

The UK’s “Freedom Day” has been declared a damp squib by taxi firm Addison Lee, and it’s hard to disagree. Even with hospitalizations and deaths low — and cases falling — mobility is plateauing and below pre-pandemic levels in some areas. Brits are exercising their freedom to mingle selectively. We…

The world’s largest automaker has some lessons for its peers reveling in their pandemic-time earnings bump: For lasting results, it’ll take more than just selling a large number of cars at high prices. Toyota Motor Corp. had a record quarter, posting operating income of 997.4 billion yen ($9…

Did you hear? Facebook Inc. is going to become a metaverse company. At least that’s the story its management wants everyone to believe after a flurry of interviews and announcements over the past couple of weeks. It’s a narrative that seeks to put the social-media giant at the leading edge of one…

According to the sixth assessment report of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the first part of which was released this week to much fanfare, global average temperatures, currently about 1.1 degrees Celsius over the “pre-industrial” (1850 to 1900) baseline, will pass…

As it was once said of the volatile Irish economy, the state of the British royal family is catastrophic but not serious. The institution has survived the wildest antics and personal shortcomings of its members — messy divorces, internecine quarrels, sexual and financial scandals. Yet the queen has…

The spillover has already begun, before the Taliban have even reached Kabul. City after city is falling as the insurgents draw closer to the capital. And it will only get worse from here as the conflict expands beyond Afghanistan’s borders. Extremist groups based in the country, some with…