World News Insights: Opinion Articles

Zoom Video Communications Inc. is becoming less exciting. That will serve the videoconferencing leader just fine. Late Tuesday, the company posted its second consecutive quarter of modest outperformance. It generated April-quarter revenue of $956 million, above the $910 million Bloomberg…

As Britain basked in a mini-heatwave over the long weekend, you could have almost forgotten there were any remaining Covid-19 restrictions on pubs and restaurants. But social distancing, mandatory table service and a ban on groups larger than six are still in place in England until June 21,…

The Palestinian cause's huge gains, manifested in shifts in global public opinion, deserve to be celebrated and inspire optimism. Optimism not only regarding the Palestinians' rights but also justice in the world we live in and its propensity for transformation. But this gain seeks Palestinian…

More than a few dystopian fantasies depict a future in which humanity’s water supply derives from recycled human waste. As Frank Herbert imagined it in his 1965 novel "Dune" — now a much-anticipated fall 2021 blockbuster — the humans inhabiting a dessicated, rainless planet must wear “stillsuits”—…

If China hopes to avert a fall in its population by raising the maximum number of children per mother from two to three, it’s going to have its work cut out. That’s because declining fertility, once started, tends to be an inexorable force that few nations have managed to arrest, let alone…

In cities at least, India’s nightmarish second wave of Covid-19 finally seems to be ebbing. Delhi has brought its test positivity rate below 2% for the first time in two months. The pandemic’s scars won’t be easily erased, however — and they should be a warning to other developing nations. Those…

Human behavior during Covid has upended one of the most fundamental assumptions of economics, even if economists haven’t yet come around to admitting it. In sum: People are worse at big, important decisions than previously thought, and better at small, trivial ones. Standard economics theory…

A digital currency issued by the Federal Reserve would revolutionize the US financial industry. Yet while economic and financial digitization is crucial, as Fed Chairman Jerome Powell says, it cannot also be universal. The result is that major economies are going to end up with at least two…

Something seems to have changed in housing market psychology over the past month. Prospective buyers who find themselves in bidding wars might not have noticed it yet, but there are multiple signs that the market is beginning to cool. Last week's consumer-price report, which came in much hotter…

The Covid-19 pandemic has shown us two sides of technological progress. There’s the positive side that’s delivered safe and effective vaccines in record time, helped economies with new stay-at-home online tools and improved disease surveillance and public health. And there’s the negative side…

Even if we never learn whether Covid-19 escaped from a lab or jumped to humans from animals, the public is entitled to a closer look at what’s going on in virology labs. Some scientists worry that laboratory scientists are getting too little oversight on projects that could potentially start…

To fortify Hady Amr’s behind the scenes diplomatic efforts, which had run their course, Washington sent its secretary of state, Antony Blinken, to the region to contain the ramifications of the war in Gaza. The step - though late - indicates that Washington is aware of the dangers of the conflict…