Opinion

The US reopened its borders, welcoming fully vaccinated foreign travelers after a long 604 days of closure. I was one of them, leaving the UK for the first time since February 2020 to fly to New York City. Thankfully, the whole process was a breeze, except for a punishingly breeze-free stint in the stuffy corridor that led me through border ...

London is one of the most watched cities in the world: Its inhabitants are caught on camera about 300 times a day on average and the British capital has become a testbed for police use of live facial recognition. But the technology, which powers a multibillion-dollar market for security firms and building management, has troubling limitations. To show it up ...

When it comes to inflation accelerating around the world, don’t count on a swift response from the two most important economies. The US and China are trapped by their own policy choices and domestic priorities. Neither has much appetite for an assault on price increases. Germany’s calls for a clampdown are too late. For anyone still wedded to the idea ...

For all the weeks of negotiation and hard-headed diplomacy that go into the text of an international agreement, the words that result in the end aren’t a magic spell. Whether the communique resulting from the Glasgow climate conference promises to “accelerate the phasing out of coal and subsidies for fossil fuels” (as initial drafts proposed) or instead to escalate “efforts ...

Few people can have seriously expected Opendoor Technologies Inc to suffer the sort of calamity that real estate listings giant Zillow Group experienced recently at its so-called iBuying unit. The housing market has cooled a little but it’s still a great time to be flipping homes, providing you don’t mess up the basics. Still, there was understandable relief when Opendoor ...

Now it’s Johnson & Johnson’s turn to break itself up. The $435 billion US pharmaceutical behemoth is to carve out its consumer-health arm, leaving behind a more focused drug-discovery and medical-devices business. The idea of spinning off the company behind Listerine mouthwash and Band Aids has been in the air for some time — because it makes eminent sense. The ...

The Communist Party’s historical resolution that smooths the way for Xi Jinping to rule indefinitely doesn’t shrink from bestowing greatness on China’s leader. That notably includes giving him credit for successfully completing an economic transition that has far from run its course. China’s development “has become much more balanced, coordinated, and sustainable,” says the communique released by the official Xinhua ...

Beijing’s real estate crackdown has sent shudders well beyond the sector. But US President Joe Biden may have China Inc covered. President Xi Jinping’s efforts to rein in property giants has left industrial companies in the lurch. Real estate accounts for a quarter of China’s economy and a big chunk of the global construction business. No one’s going to be ...

The world may be going crazy over digital currencies, but tiny Singapore is swimming against the tide. The central bank has decided against offering a paperless version of the city-state’s legal tender — at least for now. Not because an electronic version of cash may flop, but because it’ll most likely be a hit. That could have consequences for the ...

The nuclear fusion startup Helion, which announced that it has raised $500 million, says it has developed new technologies that may make nuclear fusion viable — practically, economically and environmentally. It is too early to tell if its claims will pan out, but there have been so many breakthroughs lately that they cannot be dismissed. The possibility of carbon-free energy ...