Opinion

A few years ago, I visited a dusty warehouse selling secondhand clothes in Cotonou, Benin. In the back, behind bundles of used Canadian T-shirts, were two pallets of unboxed solar panels. I assumed they were destined for the roof. One of the employees told me otherwise. “Our boss sells them to his customers across the border,” she said, referring to ...

Kamala Harris’ historic visit to Vietnam — the first time a US vice president has visited the country since the end of the war — has got me thinking about the relationship between the two countries. Both nations’ interests would be served by a closer economic partnership. But making such a partnership work will require far-sighted policy changes on the ...

It would normally be awkward asking a group of companies worth more than $4 trillion for help. But the leaders of Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Microsoft Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google sat up and listened when President Joe Biden sought their cooperation last week in protecting US infrastructure from cyber threats. They weren’t just being polite. All four firms are ...

One of the most disturbing aspects of the terrorist atrocity at Kabul’s airport is the reaction it failed to arouse. This act of stunning depravity should have reminded Americans that what they have in common as civilised people is much more important than what divides them. There’s little sign it did. The anniversary of the 9/11 attacks is approaching, and ...

In an industry facing its biggest crisis since the dawn of jet aviation, Qantas Airways has been having rather a good pandemic. It’s the return to normalcy it needs to worry about. Shares rose 3.5% last week, the biggest increase in a year, in spite of the announcement of a A$1.83 billion ($1.33 billion) annual loss. One reason for the ...

T-Mobile US Inc, the nation’s fastest-growing wireless carrier, has been working for years to shed its image as a discount you-get-what-you-pay-for service. But the revelation that lax security allowed a hacker to infiltrate and potentially sell personal data on some 50 million T-Mobile customers is just the latest incident in recent weeks that may damage a hard-fought reputation as the ...

After making great strides in promoting renewable energy, India is once again being singled out as a global climate laggard. Its negotiators blocked agreement on tackling emissions at the G-20 meeting in Naples earlier this year, publishing an eye-catching dissent calling for the group to focus on bringing down high per-capita emissions in rich countries. India later skipped a ministerial ...

There must be no repeat of 2015. That’s been the refrain from politicians across the European Union as they watch the unfolding humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan, which can be expected sooner or later to cause renewed mass migration. These European politicians include candidates for chancellor in Germany, nervous about a national election on September 26; leaders such as Austrian Chancellor ...

When a powerful technology company wants everyone to know it has made large concessions in its business practices, it pays to look at the fine print. Sometimes the details don’t match up with the rhetoric. That seems to be the case regarding Apple Inc’s class-action settlement with app developers. The smartphone giant announced that it reached an agreement, pending court ...

The Bank of Korea (BOK) has become the first advanced Asian economy to raise interest rates after the pandemic. This isn’t a one-and-done. When central banks start cutting or raising borrowing costs, they rarely pause after one move, because a single step gets little macroeconomic traction. Policy makers also face a public-relations debacle if they abandon new strategies quickly. So ...