World News Insights: Opinion Articles

Whether Lebanon’s Prime Minister designate Saad Hariri is ‘the man of the moment’ or not, or whether the demise of Lebanon is a ‘landmark’ in the series of Arab collapses or not; these matters mean little in the calculations of major world powers, including those of the G7. The G7 world powers’…

When it comes to health breakthroughs, Covid-19 vaccines have received the lion’s share of recent attention – and rightly so, as they are key to ending a global pandemic that has killed millions and disrupted the lives of almost everyone on the planet. But there have also been big advancements in…

On July 4, President Biden is planning to mark “a summer of freedom,” with a large event at the White House to celebrate the resumption of American life. It will be a key moment for the administration, which has hit goal after goal on the pandemic since taking office and — of late — has been…

“Psst, I’m buying Bitcoin” sounded like a hot tip during lockdown, but not anymore. In the (almost) six months it’s taken for the cryptocurrency to soar past $30,000 to $63,000 and back again — it’s now hovering around $33,000 — a lot has changed in the real and virtual world. And, despite the…

In policymaking circles in Washington DC, it has become common to hear the claim that twenty years after the 9/11 attacks, the war on terrorism is finally coming to an end. For some, this is because the United States is withdrawing from “forever wars” like in Afghanistan and reducing its…

Those who said that there is only one voter in Iran weren’t wrong; it’s the supreme leader, whether it is Khomeini or Khamenei. The latest elections that made Ebrahim Raisi president are an eloquent testament to this. More eloquent is the history of the presidency in Iran, especially the events…

Energy policy is often judged by three criteria: cost, reliability and effect on carbon emissions. That makes good sense, but I would like to suggest an alternative approach: Ask which green energy policies can get the support of most special-interest groups, and the fewest forces in opposition,…

News of young talent fleeing investment banks, employers scrambling to lure them back, and all the memes of overworked analysts might make it seem like woke millennials aren’t willing to burn the midnight oil. Post-pandemic life has been an opportunity for introspection. Gone are the days when a…

There’s a lot at stake in the quest to understand so-called long Covid. It may come as a surprise to some, but lingering post-infection symptoms don’t only happen with SARS-CoV-2. And what we’re learning from studies of Covid long-haulers might eventually help us understand other diseases, from…

“Legacy” and “mature” are the words usually thrown at the semiconductors Tom Caulfield produces at factories in Singapore, the US and Germany. He doesn’t like that. Instead, the chief executive officer of GlobalFoundries wants people to refer to his chips as “feature-rich,” a term he feels…

Perhaps some readers are like me when they watch a horror movie. You know something terrible is about to happen and you want to shout and warn the character not to open the door or to take an emergency action before it is too late. But it is of course a horror movie and the killer or the monster…

Face masks were the most ubiquitous visual symbol of the Covid-19 pandemic, but they’re fading from sight as more and more people get vaccinated. Roughly 177 million Americans — or 68.7% of the adult population — have received at least one dose, according to Bloomberg’s Vaccine Tracker. New York…