World News Insights: Opinion Articles

A journalist can occasionally be plagued by a certain subject during their career. It seems I have been cursed with the issue of assassinations. I was very close to danger during one assassination and was on the other line of the phone when one figure was assassinated. Add to that that…

Two notable developments unfolded last week. The first was Reuters admitting- an entire week after the fact- that it had published a misleading report about Jordan’s King Abdullah II’s statements during his meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House. The report had sparked a baseless…

Lebanon has rarely undergone such critical moments since February 2005. Even if they are relatively peaceful, the period ahead will be uncertain and unsettling for the Lebanese. The "chemistry" of the region is changing, and the assumptions that could once be "taken for granted" are collapsing…

The skies are typically gray and gloomy at the Berlin International Film Festival, but this year’s edition, which runs through Sunday, began with snow for days. The wintry weather gave the event — known as the Berlinale — a magical glow at first, but it wasn’t enough to keep the demons at bay…

When German voters go to the polls on Sunday, the fate of companies like SKW Piesteritz will be at the top of their minds. The chemical factory halved its annual Christmas bonus for workers last year, and it just shut down one of its two ammonia plants. Hammered by high energy costs and what they…

With the Trump administration sending conflicting signals about its intentions on dealing with Iran, the Iranian leadership is once again divided on how to respond. One faction is trying to paint a grim picture in which the US will give Israel enough support to inflict a heavy defeat on Iran to…

A few days ago, on the 20th anniversary of Lebanese former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri’s assassination, many of those who remember what happened reiterated that they had remained confident he would not be killed until it happened. They believed that Hariri’s extensive Arab and international ties…

From the moment a law granting the warlords of the Lebanese civil war amnesty was passed, establishing “immunities” for official and legitimizing “impunity” (all compounded by an external veto on the dissolution of Hezbollah’s militia) the coup against the Taif Agreement and the constitution began…

It has been decades from the end of the Second World War in which the United States played a key role in defeating the Axis powers, and then reinforced transatlantic relations through the establishment and rise of NATO in 1949. The alliance managed to maintain a united front and remained…

On 13 February, French President Emmanuel Macron hosted in Paris the third international meeting on Syria – the latest attempt to marshal a coordinated international response since the downfall of the Assad regime. The Summit drew together high-level representatives from 20 regional and Western…

It is not fair to compare two absences, just as two presences cannot be compared. Our inclination to draw comparisons seems intuitive, and indeed it is, as Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s postponed funeral coincides with the twentieth anniversary of Lebanon’s former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri…

US President Donald Trump’s engagements, as well as his statements to the media, have sparked concern in many corners of the world, including Western Europe, where most countries are NATO allies. This alliance had been established on the basis of a "military doctrine" to counter the Soviet Union,…