Showing 1 - 10 of 14
Lifting the weight on our lungs
News, José Luis Castro, Published on 17/11/2025
» Take a deep breath. Most of us do it 20,000 times a day without thinking.
WTO at 30 after decades of challenges
Oped, Supachai Panitchpakdi, Published on 30/07/2025
» When I sat down to write an article "WTO at 10" for a commemorative book for the occasion in 2005, little did I know of the huge challenges the WTO and the multilateral trading system would have to confront in the following two decades.
Can the 30-baht health scheme survive?
Oped, Philip J Cunningham, Published on 19/06/2025
» I recently met Dr Jadej Thammatacharee, secretary-general of the National Health Security Office (NHSO), at the home of a mutual friend to ask questions, of which I had many, about the so-called 30-baht scheme -- also known as the "gold card" scheme.
Impostors' role in modern warfare
News, Diego Gambetta & Thomas Hegghammer, Published on 18/12/2024
» Israel's detonation of thousands of pagers held by Hezbollah fighters and loyalists in mid-September will be remembered as one of the most ingenious plots in the history of spycraft. It is also a reminder that the most powerful weapon in war is not a fighter jet, a drone, or even artificial intelligence, but rather something much older: impersonation.
When private corporations subvert states
Oped, Jayati Ghosh, Published on 12/12/2023
» Imagine a scenario where a private company effectively creates and controls its own jurisdiction within a sovereign country. This company introduces its own currency, enacts laws, and establishes courts, prisons, police forces, and even intelligence services. It formulates its own tax, labour, and environmental regulations (or lack thereof), regardless of their compatibility with national laws.
Is Najib Bukele the world's coolest dictator?
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 07/08/2023
» 'It's not perfect, but it's good. We've done something really good here," said El Salvador's vice-president, Felix Ulloa, defending the government's no-quarter war against the street gangs that have dominated the Central American republic for decades. President Nayib Bukele agrees, calling himself "the instrument of God".
When drones were bores and bees
Roger Crutchley, Published on 30/07/2023
» When I was a child the word "drone" was used either as a reference to a lazy male bee or a monotonous dull sound, epitomised by people like teachers, preachers or prime ministers "droning on" in boring fashion.
3 steps forward, but 2.5 back for populism
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 10/10/2022
» The reports about Luiz Inácio 'Lula' da Silva's impending comeback as Brazilian president verged on the ecstatic in the week before the vote on Oct 2. He was after all, fourteen points ahead of his populist rival, incumbent president Jair Bolsonaro, in the last opinion poll before the vote.
The 'pink tide' is rising in Latin America
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 15/06/2022
» 'Corruption isn't fought with slogans on TikTok," complained veteran Colombian presidential candidate Gustavo Petro. But social media can win elections, and a right-wing dark horse called Rodolfo Hernández, who calls himself the "King of TikTok", may crush Mr Petro's hopes of becoming Colombia's first-ever leftist president next Sunday.
Cold War getting too hot for comfort
News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 20/02/2022
» Having been brought up in the 1950s and 60s during what was known as the Cold War, I find it a bit sad that after all the ensuing decades nothing seems to have changed. Russia and the West are at it again, still calling one another names. But as long as it remains name-calling we'll take that.