Opinion

One of the biggest geopolitical developments of the last two years has been the quiet decline of Huawei Technologies Co In 2019, the Chinese telecommunications behemoth was racing toward dominance of the world’s 5G networks. It was a symbol of Beijing’s apparent rise to technological primacy. Today, however, Huawei isn’t thinking about supremacy: “Our aim is to survive,” its chairman ...

Class hasn’t had enough attention in the drive for workplace equality. Perhaps thanks to a British preoccupation with this topic, the UK arm of accounting giant KPMG is addressing the deficit. The firm has been analysing its workforce by nosing around what employees’ parents used to do for a living. It’s a legitimate inquiry. The tricky issue is what to ...

It has been only 17 months since the biggest unthinkable in the oil market — the price turning negative — illustrated vividly that the global economy was experiencing an unprecedented shock that required an exceptional policy response by the government and the Federal Reserve. This week, Fed policy makers will discuss how to unwind two of its three chief components ...

The world reads current reports from Afghanistan with revulsion: the Taliban’s revenge against supporters of the former government and Western forces, bloody chaos at the Kabul airport, and renewed repression of women. Yet it is also plain that the victorious extremists themselves are daunted by the challenge of assuming administrative responsibility for a nation that is bankrupt without Western financial ...

Space races are supposed to be won in engineering labs or up in orbit. Thanks to Jeff Bezos, the next one might be won in a courtroom or regulator’s office. As Bezos’s companies fall behind Elon Musk’s SpaceX in the race to return humans to the moon and launch satellite-based broadband services, they’re increasingly resorting to politics and legal filings ...

Leaders of the top US industrial companies gathered virtually for the annual Morgan Stanley Laguna conference. Unsurprisingly, much of the discussion centered around the rising cost of raw materials, labor and logistics and the increasingly difficult challenge of getting enough supply to keep up with demand. “The inflation is unprecedented,” 3M Co Chief Financial Officer Monish Patolawala said at the ...

Europe has an energy problem, and it could get worse once winter grips the continent. Gas and electricity prices are soaring, windmills are standing idle for lack of wind and shuttered coal-fired power plants are being brought back into use. There are even suggestions to use diesel generators for private generation. But oil isn’t the solution to the continent’s energy ...

One of the Taliban’s first acts after they swept to power in Afghanistan a month ago was to force most working women out of their jobs and into their homes. That’s going to add to the risk of starvation facing the country after years of crop failures and the collapse of this year’s wheat harvest. In an aid-dependent economy already ...

There’s no shortage of excitement for electric vehicle battery startups or multibillion dollar investments in the industry, as companies, backers and scientists look for the winning play. China, though, is moving on to the next leg in the race — one that isn’t dependent on a big, bold breakthrough — with sodium-ion batteries. Done right, this technology could lead to ...

Billionaires Bernard Arnault and Vincent Bollore made a spectacular entrance into the activist fight over Lagardere SA last year. Fast forward to today, and Bollore-controlled Vivendi SE is on the verge of taking over the storied media group behind Paris Match, while the London-based activist who started the saga looks poised for a tidy exit. The puzzle is why the ...