World News Insights: Opinion Articles

The Riyadh initiatives do not only concern Saudi Arabia. When a country with such economic, political and religious influence witnesses a comprehensive renaissance and a deep modernization process, it impacts its surroundings and provides a model for the ability to join the train of progress and to…

The US-China rivalry can be seen through many lenses. It is, as President Joe Biden has said, a competition between democracy and autocracy. It is a contest between an established power and the upstart seeking to claim its place. It is a race to master advanced technologies that will drive economic…

The Asian Development Bank and a handful of financial institutions will take an ambitious proposal to end Southeast Asia’s coal addiction to the COP26 climate talks. They want to speed up the shift away from the dirtiest fossil fuel by buying out coal-fired power plants and closing them early,…

As a US diplomat managing our relations with China, I often was asked, “What is our leverage over China?” Beijing was always either doing something we didn’t like — buying oil from Iran, building a port in Cambodia, locking up dissidents — or not doing something that we thought it should, like…

The world’s activists and delegates soon on their way to Glasgow have reason to be anxious. After all, they are gathering for a climate summit with exceptionally high stakes. Known as COP26 and running from Oct. 31 to Nov. 12, the conference is perhaps one of the world’s last chances to keep the…

Fifty years on from the foundation of the United Arab Emirates, during which its achievements have exceeded all limits and expectations, the country has begun working, over the past years, on strengthening its national Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter Terrorism Financing (CTF) regimes to…

Suppose you hire a plumber to fix a leak. While the plumber works, you’re busy on your laptop. An hour later, he tells you he’s done and hands you a bill. In theory, you could decline to pay until you’ve crawled beneath the sink to check the newly welded joint for signs of moisture. But a…

There have been 25 conferences under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change since the body first met in 1995. Over that period, some 894 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide, about 37% of all greenhouse pollution in human history, has been emitted. What makes anyone think that…

Crushed by $300 billion in debt, Evergrande, one of China’s biggest property developers, is sliding toward bankruptcy. This has prompted fears of a wider property crash or even a financial crisis. But this is hardly the only crisis besieging the government of Xi Jinping. An unexpected…

When the Glasgow Climate Summit kicks off in a week, all eyes will be on what new commitments world leaders will make to cut carbon emissions and finance climate change programs. However, all of these measures remain confined to a circumstantial management of the symptoms, and fall short of a…

Since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan two months ago, the international community has tentatively engaged with the new ‘government’ in Kabul, seeking to explore what kind of relations are possible with a Taliban-run entity. Until now, this phase of exploratory dialogue has resulted in very…

Mark Zuckerberg wants to rechristen Facebook Inc., giving the financial powerhouse — and social media hothouse — a fresh identity. While Zuckerberg’s corporate baby has handily weathered prior crises, boasts an enviable global footprint and continues to rake in massive profits, critics have turned…