Opinion

  World Refugee Day, which is observed on June 20 every year, yet again highlighted the plight of migrants worldwide amid gruesome UN reports the number of refugees and others fleeing their homes worldwide has hit a new record of 65.3 million people by the end of 2015. “This is the first time that the threshold of 60 million has ...

  Casey Michel SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS For the past year, there’s been a distinct distance between the rhetoric surrounding the Central Asia South Asia Electricity Transmission and Trade (CASA-1000) project and the unfurling realities on the ground. Regional officials, most especially within Tajikistan and Pakistan, have heaped continued praise on the project, and have found themselves supported by voices ...

  A few weeks ago, Apple’s Tim Cook was all smiles as he stepped into a sedan operated by Didi Chuxing. Apple had just invested $1 billion in the ridesharing company, and Cook was no doubt feeling satisfied. But he was probably feeling another emotion too: relief at getting a piece of China’s “internet of vehicles” before it’s too late. ...

  James D.J. Brown SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS On May 6, 2016, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe travelled to Russia to meet with President Vladimir Putin in Sochi. This was a bold move by the Japanese leader, as it was seen as breaking ranks with the G7’s policy of isolating Russia in response to the 2014 annexation of Crimea. U.S. President ...

  The political context around Hillary Clinton has changed. Until now, complaints about her have pervaded public commentary, usually with a predictable refrain. In a May podcast, former Daily Show host Jon Stewart couldn’t find much good to say about the next leader of the Democratic Party. He imagined Hillary Clinton, he said, “to be a very bright woman without ...

Mihir Sharma All too often, the stewards of India’s economy have been short of credibility. Politicians’ promises of economic reform are rarely fulfilled, bureaucrats’ assurances are widely disbelieved, and even India’s growth numbers have become objects of suspicion. Of late, one institution and its leader had proven exceptions to this rule: the Reserve Bank of India and its governor, Raghuram ...

WASHINGTON We Americans have a confused and contradictory relationship with vacation. In theory; we love it; in practice, we often dread it. So much expectation is heaped on a few weeks of free time that disappointment, if not inevitable, is common. Worse, our escape from the job and daily routine fills us with anxiety that, somehow, this interlude will inflict ...

Serious prospect of Britain leaving the European Union could trigger a domino effect within the UK itself, as Scotland could opt for another referendum, with intention to secede from the UK to join the EU. At worst, Brexit is widely believed to lead to a breakup of the UK if Brexiteers get their way on June 23. Northern Ireland and ...

  Franz-Stefan Gady SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS On June 15, China and the United States held their second round of bilateral talks on cybercrime and other cyber-related topics in Beijing. Originally intended to be a ministerial meeting, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson had to withdraw their participation to focus on the ongoing Orlando ...

  Leonid Bershidsky The shocking murder of British parliament member Jo Cox and the Orlando shootings were both hate crimes that defy political labels, whatever the professed motives of the killers. Nobody can predict what will set off a deranged killer and it would be deplorable to tar legitimate political campaigns because a killer identified with one cause or another. ...