- The key to the COVID-powered challenges of 2022
There will be no return to the status quo ante after COVID-19, because the pandemic has changed too many things.
- Why China continues to rise?
In just four decades, China’s economy has achieved an unprecedented level of wealth and development, and, until recently, its upward trajectory of economic growth and prosperity seemed set to continue.
- Fixing global trade finance
Goods and services move around the world via critical infrastructure: roads, ports, rail networks, shipping routes, and data servers.
- Putin's Ukraine formula
As reports pile up about Russia’s military mobilization on Ukraine’s border and the Kremlin’s diplomatic demands, questions abound.
- The failures of 2021
The end of a year invites reflection on the events and trends that have shaped it.
- Avoiding the worst in Ukraine and Taiwan
Two dangerous flashpoints, in Europe and Asia, could bring the United States, Russia, and China into open conflict.
- Latin America's new lost decade
In any other year but this one, economic growth in Latin America would give the region’s governments reason to boast.
- Why is southeast Asia so concerned about AUKUS and Australia’s plans for nuclear submarines?
The announcement of a new strategic alliance between Australia, the US and UK (AUKUS) has caught many by surprise.
- Russia is positioning itself as a global partner after the U.S. Afghanistan debacle
As many commentators have pointed out, the withdrawal of United States-led forces from Afghanistan has done lasting damage to the reputation of the U.S. and its allies as reliable partners on the international stage.
- COVID smell loss can have profound effects on your life, from weight change to intimacy barriers
It took a while to be officially recognised, but smell loss eventually became known to be one of the defining features of COVID-19.
- Alexander Litvinenko: court judgment on assassinated Russian spy has cross-border implications
The European court of human rights has ruled that Russia is responsible for the 2006 assassination of Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko in the UK.
- How soon could carbon capture technology solve industry CO2 shortages?
The recent spike in natural gas prices has closed many plants that make fertiliser in the UK – sending a shockwave through lots of other industries.
- Latest parliamentary win by Putin’s United Russia has been years in the manufacturing
President Vladimir Putin’s ruling United Russia party defied economic concerns and a recent slump in support to retain a parliamentary majority – to the surprise of almost no one.
- Prosecute the populists?
Until the cease-fire, the world’s attention was trained on Israel’s airstrikes on Gaza, which may have suited Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who is facing trial on corruption charges.
- The Polish opposition’s own goal
Over the past six months, Poland’s government coalition, comprising Law and Justice (PiS) and two tiny parties, had been decaying markedly, creating a golden opportunity for the opposition to oust it.
- The death of free speech in Hong Kong
The Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily has been forced to close.
- Accommodating China is unavoidable
In their latest communiqué, NATO leaders declared that China presents “systemic challenges to the rules-based international order.
- Beware America’s soaring public debt
America needs to rein in its soaring national debt.
- Biden’s predecessors emboldened Putin. Here’s how he can get Russia right
Joe Biden is the fifth American president to deal with Vladimir Putin.
- Disorder from the courts
In the notorious case of Dred Scott v. Sandford in 1857, US Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney ruled that African-Americans were not and could not be citizens of the United States, and that the 1820 Missouri Compromise – which had created an (admittedly uneasy) equilibrium between slave and free states – was unconstitutional.