World News Insights: Opinion Articles

Perhaps the worst thing anyone in the upper echelons of government can do is fail to distinguish between their personal opinions and convictions and between those of their country, creating a great deal of confusion. Why are some Lebanese so keen on ruining their country's relationship with its…

Early in the 20th century, it was not uncommon for children to suffer the agonies of infectious diseases or witness family members who did. Children got terribly sick and died at home. Their survivors — including some of our grandparents and great-grandparents — were intimately acquainted with the…

If you oppose war crimes only by your enemies, it’s not clear that you actually oppose war crimes. That’s a thought worth wrestling with as many experts suggest that both Hamas and Israel were engaged in crimes of war in the Gaza conflict. For the same reason that we deplore Hamas’s shelling of…

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s cabinet met this week to debate whether to approve the terms of a free-trade agreement with Australia. What, you might wonder, could be less controversial? After all, there’s nothing more Brexity than free trade. In a set-piece speech in early 2020, Johnson…

The Covid-19 pandemic seems to be ending almost as abruptly as it began. Across the US, states are dropping restrictions on business activity and people are resuming normal lives. Throughout the pandemic, there’s been evidence that remote work has increased the productivity of some workers and…

All eyes are on the Iranian Guardian Council, which decides which candidates are qualified to continue the presidential race. Its 12 members will draw the contours of the next Iranian president, leaving the electorate with a pseudo-superficial right to vote only after the Council had determined…

Within days the all-powerful Council of the guardians of the Constitution is expected to publish the list of “approved candidates” for next month’s presidential election in the Islamic Republic in Iran. According to official reports a total of 592 men and one woman have filled the forms for…

Queen Elizabeth had a problem, and it was not Meghan and Harry. This was the first Queen Elizabeth, who ruled from 1558 to 1603. Her problem was Spain. The Catholic Spanish Empire continually threated Protestant England, using vast resources flowing into the Spanish coffers from the colonies in the…

There are more than 10 effective Covid-19 vaccines in use around the world, so it's easy to forget those still in development. That's a mistake. These candidates may be taking longer to arrive, but they're essential to the pandemic fight. Most of the world is still unvaccinated, keeping the virus…

When UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson told President Biden's Earth Day summit that protecting the environment was not “some expensive, politically correct, green act of bunny hugging,” supporters laughed, opponents were outraged and Greta Thunberg changed her Twitter bio to “Bunny Hugger.” But…

From the first day of the round of fighting in Gaza, it became apparent that Hamas had made significant gains. It prevented Israel from celebrating Jerusalem Day and fired successive rounds of missiles to Tel Aviv and several cities far from the frontlines, using novel tactics that confounded the…

China is — yet again — looking to deal with its mountain of hidden debt. An absurd solution has emerged: just make it go away. But much like a landfill, it won’t ever quite disappear. Earlier this month, Zhao Quanhou, a top researcher at the Chinese Academy of Fiscal Sciences, which is affiliated…