World News Insights: Opinion Articles

The cyber criminals are winning. After the recent spate of devastating attacks, experts say it’s only going to get worse from here, with hacking tools becoming increasingly available and high ransomware payments enticing more malicious actors and daring them to go after ever bigger targets…

Tae Kim

An innovative lottery program in Ohio looks like it might have succeeded in raising vaccination rates. If the result holds, it means a triumph for behavioral economics. And that will open up the possibility of using lotteries to lure people into doing all sorts of things. Less than 50% of the…

Noah Smith

You know something is wrong with the public health messaging in the US when a tow truck driver is giving out better information on Covid-19 transmission than the WHO or CDC. His words of wisdom to me, when he came to tow my car back to the dealer earlier this spring, was that if you’re indoors with…

Faye Flam

After land and oceans, will space become the new waste dump? The issue is not a new one, as it has been the focus of discussion for years, and has been regarded by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) for two decades as a crucial emerging challenge facing humanity. However, the panic…

Najib Saab

The announcement of yet another Chinese tech founder stepping down from the frontlines has people rushing to point the finger at Beijing. Yet executive retirement, especially in the transitional phases of a company, should be celebrated and encouraged. Zhang Yiming, who started content platform…

Tim Culpan

Inflation is coming. Or wait, it’s already here. Bond investors are looking at the 4.2% annual rate that US consumer prices jumped to in April and wondering if it’s all because of depressed levels from last year. Could it be that the Federal Reserve is wrong about higher prices being transitory? …

Andy Mukherjee

One can hardly blame people for being worried about the new Covid-19 vaccines when there are so many anecdotal reports of weird side effects — including women experiencing disturbing changes in their menstrual cycles. Reports of early and unusually heavy periods or other irregularities were…

Faye Flam

Complacency, populism and poor infrastructure fueled a devastating second wave of Covid-19 in India, a disaster that has infected millions and wrought havoc well beyond its borders thanks to a new, more contagious variant. But none of those failings are unique to the country. So why are we not…

Clara Ferreira Marques

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…

Zuhair Al-Harthi

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…

Nina Burleigh

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…

Nicholas Kristof

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…

Therese Raphael