OPINION

By Elina Noor SINGAPORE – Following OpenAI’s public launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, the underpinnings of AI large language models seemed firmly “WIRED”: Western, industrialized, rich, educated, and democratic. Everyone assumed that if LLMs spoke a particular language and reflected a particular worldview, it would be a Western one. …

By Brahma Chellaney NEW DELHI – Israel and the United States have dealt punishing blows to Iran’s nuclear infrastructure. “Operation Rising Lion” and “Operation Midnight Hammer” have been portrayed as precision strikes that will stop the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program in its tracks. But whatever the bombings might have achieved …

By Brian J. Chen BALTIMORE – Five months into his second presidency, Donald Trump is already ushering in a new era of imperial technological governance in which both domestic and foreign regulatory authorities are subordinated to a US administration increasingly dominated by Big Tech. Silicon Valley has cultivated its political …

By  Kinley Tenzin Wangchuk Whenever I drive in the Thimphu city traffic, I’m reminded of a song The Pretender by Jackson Browne which is about settling for less than our dreams, feeling stuck in the mundane routines of life. I’m gonna rent myself a house In the shade of a …

BERLIN – The devastation caused by the 2024 flash floods in Valencia, Spain, was so surreal that some images sparked a global debate over their authenticity. In an era when AI technology can produce hyper-realistic fakes, photos showing cars piled haphazardly atop one another in narrow, mud-filled streets seemed almost …

By Paola Subacchi PARIS – As Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” tax bill heads to the US Senate, investors everywhere are growing increasingly uneasy. On May 16, the credit-rating agency Moody’s downgraded US sovereign debt from its long-held triple-A status to Aa1 – following similar decisions by Standard & Poor’s (in …

Adair Turner LONDON – Many fear that America’s withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement will undermine the international consensus to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Yet just in the last month, there have been two major steps toward widespread carbon pricing where it is needed most. To be sure, carbon pricing is …

By  Hélène Rey International monetary and financial systems may not be immutable, but nor do they change often. That is why the upheaval spurred by US President Donald Trump’s trade and tariff war is so remarkable – and difficult to decipher. To figure out what is going on, it is …

By Richard Haass NEW YORK – This is hardly a golden era of diplomacy. A ceasefire – let alone a lasting peace – between Russia and Ukraine remains a distant possibility, and neither Israel nor Hamas seems to view a long-term truce in Gaza as a priority. The one bright …

By Kaushik Basu NEW YORK – On March 26, President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing a 25% tariff on all cars and light-duty trucks imported into the United States. This measure took effect on April 3 – one day after the administration rolled out its “reciprocal tariffs” on US trading …