Opinion

India’s worst economic slump is no time for the government to sow doubts about the credibility of its institutions. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) postponed its three-day, rate-setting meeting without giving a reason. It was probably cancelled because the panel didn’t have enough people to convene; the six-person committee requires four officials to proceed. The terms of three members ...

When Boris Johnson had his breakthrough meeting with then Irish leader Leo Varadkar outside Liverpool in 2019, he had a burning need to strike a Brexit deal and only one major obstacle standing in the way: the Irish border. Faced with either betraying Brexiters in his party, which would have been the end of his leadership, or plunging his country ...

Inch by inch, since the start of the pandemic, the White House has sought to sabotage the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention for the political benefit of President Donald Trump. To an alarming extent, it has succeeded. Once globally recognised as “the best science-based, data-driven agency in the world,” in the words of its current director, the CDC ...

Strong states grow stronger by putting limits on their own power; weak states become weaker by descending into arbitrariness. India has to choose which it wants to be. That’s the message being given to New Delhi by an international arbitration tribunal in The Hague. The panel threw out the Indian government’s $3 billion tax demand against Vodafone Group Plc, finding ...

Having delivered a heavy blow to the semiconductor plans of China’s biggest technology manufacturer, the US government now seems keen to knock down the nation’s biggest contract chipmaker. The action looks opportunistic. Export restrictions placed on Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) mean US companies will have to apply for a license to sell some products to the Shanghai-based chipmaker. The ...

Keir Starmer, the Labour Party’s new leader, has made a smooth start wooing British voters. In his former career the leader of the UK’s official opposition was indeed a successful defense lawyer in human rights cases, knighted subsequently for serving as Director of Public Prosecutions. Now he’s restoring Labour’s fortunes after a disastrous election and leads Boris Johnson in the ...

Here is a paradox. It is pretty easy to predict the voting patterns of new Supreme Court justices. But it can be exceedingly difficult to predict the votes of justices in specific cases, which means that it can be difficult as well to predict how those cases are going to be decided. When President Bill Clinton appointed Stephen Breyer to ...

The US Congress has a full plate, to say the least. The coronavirus pandemic has claimed over 200,000 lives, and the virus will continue to spread this fall and winter. Members of both houses are up for re-election in November. The Senate will probably be asked to approve President Donald Trump’s next nominee to the Supreme Court. Funding to keep ...

It’s important in the fashion world to make a big entrance and Chanel is doing just that with its inaugural 600 million-euro ($700 million) bond. It has chosen to issue debt that’s linked to environmental sustainability targets; the bond includes a penalty if the company doesn’t live up to its green goals. The famous French luxury brand — headquartered in ...

The CDC posted and then retracted a statement about Covid-19 being an “airborne” disease. While the switch generated tons of attention from the press, infectious disease experts say it’s not clear it would have made much difference if the word had remained. The term might just confuse the public even more. The more serious problem is that we are losing ...