World News Insights: Opinion Articles

The predicaments that have beleaguered some of the major global oil companies – in courts and within their own boardrooms – have proven beyond doubt that they will no longer be able to ignore the facts of science, rule of law and the pressure of public opinion. The recent developments also…

India’s internet future — free and open, or stymied and controlled — may be decided by a 224-page lawsuit filed by WhatsApp last week. Saying that it wanted to curb fake news, revenge porn and other ills, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government introduced new rules in February that would…

Zoom Video Communications Inc., maker of the ubiquitous videoconferencing tool that made a global pandemic less isolating, just reported another quarter of explosive growth. While its business may not continue to soar quite so much, Zoom is well positioned, appears to have a loyal fan base and…

Ever since President Joe Biden ordered US intelligence agencies to investigate reports that the Covid-19 virus might have escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan, commentators have argued over what difference it makes if the theory turns out to be right. Here’s why the answer matters: The discovery…

At the end of the fifth round of negotiations on the Iranian nuclear deal in Vienna between the P4+1 countries and Iran, the parties to the deal hadn’t concluded an agreement. But they preferred not to admit this round’s failure and chose to spread the rumor of a positive climate. For its part,…

Last February when the new Biden administration launched its promised bid for a revival of the Obama “nuke deal” with the Islamic Republic, apologists described it as an attempt at preventing another Middle Eastern war. This echoed the old mantra that in dealing with the Khomeinist regime, the…

China has two problems with opposite momentums — one of seemingly irreversible shrinkage; the other of uncontrollable sprawl. The first has been written about a lot recently: The slowing population growth that threatens the country’s economy. It’s hard for the government to convince people not to…

With his shock of uncombed blonde hair, national tour calling for a “hard” Brexit and ability to inspire confidence in ordinary people, it’s hard to overstate the impact that one person’s enthusiasm had on British public opinion toward leaving the European Union. No, not Boris Johnson. That…

Last month my home state of Virginia lifted its mask mandate, at least for fully vaccinated people and subject to some modest qualifications. My employer, a public university, followed suit. At the same time, the stores and restaurants I frequent have continued their mandates without…

Lebanon's suffering from one of the world’s three worst economic crises since the middle of the nineteenth century has not provided an incentive sufficient to compel the political clique imposing its control over the country to take steps to prevent the exacerbation of the comprehensive collapse. …

How worried should we be about the state of democracy in the US? A group of leading political scientists who study the issue say: a lot. A whole lot. In fact, they say: “our entire democracy is now at risk.” They’re correct. If they had asked me, I would’ve signed on. The problem is easy enough…

A lawsuit in Texas is challenging a hospital’s requirement that its employees get vaccinated against Covid-19 before returning to work. The case isn’t going anywhere, legally speaking. But the central claim is worth examining because it’s at the core of a lot of vaccine hesitation. The Texas…