Opinion

President Donald Trump doesn’t want you to pay attention to the polls, which on average show him losing badly to former Vice President Joe Biden in November — losing much worse than he was to Hillary Clinton at this point in 2016. But you don’t have to believe the public polls to see how poorly Trump’s re-election campaign is going. ...

There are at least 104,149 US military personnel who will not be leaving Europe. They rest in military graves, testimony to the cultural affinities and strategic vulnerabilities that produced the NATO trans-Atlantic alliance, now 71 years old. Intelligent, informed, public-spirited people can support the policy of removing by September about one-third of the 34,500 US troops stationed in Germany. Forces ...

In parts of Germany, Bavarians were once known as “needleheads.” One day, God, angered at the solipsism in the country’s beautiful southernmost state, is supposed to have picked a local up by the head, thus elongating it like a needle, and rotated it. “See,” God said, “there’s more to the world than just Bavaria.” The tale might offer a useful ...

Boris Johnson was elected as Britain’s prime minister because he’s a ruthless optimist, yet he has presided over one of the gloomiest periods in the country’s postwar history. If he wants to cheer people up again, he needs a credible plan for reopening the UK’s schools. Release from lockdown is painfully slow here, and the economic recovery is stuttering because ...

As protests against racism have gathered global momentum in the wake of George Floyd’s death, it has become clear that US President Donald Trump is not the only leader in the world with a problem. There isn’t a single wealthy Western country that is racism-free. European nations, the US, Australia, Canada: All were founded—or fattened—on the proceeds of either slavery ...

June 09 was primary day in West Virginia, and the Republican-led state government there did something sensible that other states should embrace: They made it easier to cast absentee votes. All 50 states permit absentee balloting, but they don’t always make it simple. West Virginia is one of about 16 states that require a medical or other excuse. But because ...

While India is just beginning to confront the full economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, optimists see reasons to hope. Global manufacturers are looking to diversify supply chains and Indian leaders seem to be trying to attract their business. The recent decision by Uttar Pradesh — India’s biggest state — and a few others to relax stifling labor regulations has ...

Don’t be fooled by red replacing black as this season’s colour at Zara-owner Inditex. The Spanish fast-fashion behemoth reported its first loss since it went public in 2001 after shutting stores during Covid-19 lockdowns worldwide. But nimble retailers will still prosper as economies open back up again, and Inditex is among them. In fact, with a big investment plan to ...

For all the death and illness the coronavirus has caused, it has done the world one great and surprising favour. It has spared our children. “Influenza almost always selects the weakest in a society to kill, the very young and the very old,” John M Barry wrote in “The Great Influenza,” his definitive account of the 1918 pandemic. But while ...

To place today’s racial tensions in perspective, you must remember this: Back in the day, post-lynching souvenir hunting — fragments from the hanging tree; victims’ body parts — was a hobby for some. A student who found a victim’s tooth at Moore’s Ford Bridge in July 1946 gave it to his friend for her charm bracelet. The past really is ...