Opinion

I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news: The internet is not a fair place. And the current fight over “net neutrality” is not going to change that. For those of us whose eyes glaze over at the mention of net neutrality, here’s the basic principle: Companies such as Comcast Corp. and AT&T Inc. that sell internet connections shouldn’t …

The newest hurdle for the American Health Care Act, which has yet to win over doctors, nurses, hospitals, health insurers, older people, Democrats and some Republican senators, is something called the “Jimmy Kimmel test.” The bill fails that, too. The shorthand arises from comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s tearful monologue earlier this month about his newborn son’s heart defect. Kimmel told his …

Troops mutiny in Ivory Coast. Ebola resurfaces in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Zambia jails its most prominent opposition leader. Corruption deepens in South Africa. These recent headlines are a reminder that terrorism and violent extremism aren’t the only challenges facing sub-Saharan Africa. Yet the Trump administration shows little interest in the continent beyond this narrow concern. That’s a mistake. …

As anyone who’s attended an Indian wedding knows, we far too often leave vital organizational tasks till the last minute, then tackle them all in an enormous, frenetic rush. The countdown to the 1 July deadline for the introduction of India’s new goods and services tax, or GST, feels a lot like that. This is perhaps India’s most comprehensive and …

It took S&P Global Ratings five extra years of hand-wringing to acknowledge that Indonesian sovereign debt was investment grade. Now that it has, expect the ripples to be felt in places other than the bond market. Fitch Ratings gave the Southeast Asian nation the all-important upgrade in December 2011. That was 14 years after the Asian crisis led 59 percent …

When it comes to productivity, only two things are undebatable: that the official rate of US productivity growth has stalled since at least 2007, having started to slow before then, and that there is no consensus about why or what to do about it. There is, additionally, some broad consensus that without stronger productivity growth going forward, standards of living …

The idea of a grand bargain between the US and Russia is less popular in Washington than ever before. And yet one of the biggest foreign policy problems for the US — that of North Korea — cannot be resolved without Russia’s participation. In recent years, Russian President Vladimir Putin has made sure to rebuild a close relationship with North …

More than a billion people worldwide live without reliable access to electricity. Providing them with power will require hundreds of billions of dollars of investment, vast deployment of technology, and adaptable business and financial market strategies. Much of the job can be done with power generation systems that are not connected to a central grid, and with largely fuel-free technology. …

The state of Illinois regulates many common trades that maybe it shouldn’t, such as those specified by the Barber, Cosmetology, Esthetics, Hair Braiding, and Nail Technology Act of 1985. And it doesn’t regulate one industry that needs to be: gun dealerships. Despite a gruesome spike in gun violence in Chicago in recent years, regulation of gun retailers is left to …

Say at least this for the manifestoes that the Conservative and Labour parties have presented this month: Some honesty has returned to British politics as far as tax and spending decisions are concerned. This would be a cause for celebration were it not for an additional detail: When it comes to Brexit, the U.K.’s main parties are yet to wake …