The standard “Stories to Watch in the Year Ahead” feature typically arrives in early January, or even late December, but this year has been special. It was obvious that the first few months of 2021 would be dominated by COVID, the aftermath of the US presidential election and President Joe Biden’s first 100 days. With those issues now largely in the rearview mirror, if not completely gone, early May seems like a good time for my own version of which stories will matter most in

Viewpoints May 12, 2021

The Tokyo Olympics went off without a hitch. That is, at least, at a test event at the city’s National Stadium in preparation for the main spectacle. About 1,600 athletes, organizers and media got an early look Sunday at what the games will be like when they kick off on July 23. There was a full day of 100-meter heats, hammer throws and pole vaulting to make sure the Omega clocks, jumbo displays and robots on the field were working as they should. A key focus, however, was how such a lar

World News May 9, 2021

Non-pandemic health care hasn‘t been much on the agenda during President Joe Biden’s first 100 days. But reducing health care costs remains a priority for the public -- ranking ahead of addressing racism, crime, immigration or climate change. Democrats‘ wariness of the issue is understandable. The public is passionate about health care, but also risk-averse. Three of the last four presidents (two of them Democrats) wrecked their poll numbers with efforts to enact sweeping cha

Viewpoints April 28, 2021

COVID-19 is going to kill more people in 2021 than it did last year. If you want to see why, look at what’s happening in India. Cases have been surging in the country of 1.37 billion people. Case counts are rising quickly, too. Average infection numbers over the past seven days have run at nearly three times the level two weeks ago, a pace of growth that the US last saw in the early days of the outbreak a year ago. The real numbers may be yet higher. The city of Bhopal used COVID-19 pro

Viewpoints April 27, 2021

The original Earth Day on April 22 in 1970 drew Americans’ attention to their planet. This year’s is designed to draw the planet’s attention to Americans. President Joe Biden’s climate conference, kicking off Thursday, aims to demonstrate that the US is serious about tackling climate change, and showing it can outcompete China in the process. In doing so, though, Biden is also reaffirming his intent to transform the domestic scene with multitrillion dollar infrastructure

Viewpoints April 26, 2021

President Joe Biden‘s bid to retool the US economy has me thinking about the parallels with earlier transformational presidents: FDR and Reagan. One of the most interesting aspects of these previous administrations was that the big changes they implemented actually began under their predecessors of the opposite party. Just as Ronald Reagan expanded on Jimmy Carter’s accomplishments, and Franklin D. Roosevelt got a running start from Herbert Hoover, Biden is benefiting from a change i

Viewpoints April 23, 2021

To judge by the headlines, you’d think the most critical immunization issue facing the world is the safety and hesitancy concerns over the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines. That debate is genuinely important. Still, it shouldn’t distract from the biggest challenge the world will face over the coming months: the grossly unequal distribution of vaccines between rich and poor countries. The development and ramp-up of preventive medicine for the coronavirus are a testamen

Viewpoints April 22, 2021

As the late Swedish economist Assar Lindbeck memorably put it, “In many cases rent control appears to be the most efficient technique presently known to destroy a city -- except for bombing.” And yet that’s never kept economic populists from passing new rent curbs. One of the most radical such attempts, watched by cities all over the world, was enacted last year in Berlin. This week, however, Germany’s constitutional court ruled that the law is null and void. In the shor

Viewpoints April 20, 2021

In politics, as in sport, some miscues can be corrected or overcome. But not all of them, even for the world‘s most iron-fisted rulers. Whether borne of hubris or misreading the situation, slip-ups tend to increase as regimes age and the consequences can be unpredictable. Could this be the moment Vladimir Putin opens himself up to unforced errors of the authority-threatening kind? After more than two decades under his watch, Russia has entered a darker, more repressive phase. A bounce in

Viewpoints April 19, 2021

People lucky enough to have the option are looking forward to working from home more after the pandemic, polls suggest -- provided they’re not schooling from home at the same time. And polls also suggest employers are looking forward to offering that flexibility. Momentum is building for a “hybrid” workplace, according to experts, which would most likely allow for two to three days per week at home. Still, as vaccine rollouts gather pace and economies reopen, there doesn&rsquo

Viewpoints April 16, 2021

Beware the fog of propaganda around the Natanz attack. But beware, too, what the attack portends: a real escalation in the confrontation between Iran and Israel. And finally, beware any claims that the Biden administration is pivoting away from the Middle East. At the time of writing, it is not clear whether the damage to Iran’s largest uranium-enrichment facility over the weekend was the result of a cyberattack or sabotage by human hand. The regime in Tehran says Israel was responsible,

Viewpoints April 15, 2021

President Joe Biden is a famously nice guy. Maybe he should stop being nice, just for a while. His administration is reportedly close to punishing Russia for a series of glaring transgressions and abuses, including the epic SolarWinds computer hack that has left governments and businesses worldwide exposed to a mammoth data breach. As Bloomberg News reported Wednesday, the White House may soon announce economic sanctions against individuals close to Russian President Vladimir Putin and expel Ru

Viewpoints April 14, 2021

The “For the People Act” currently being proposed by House Democrats would transform the way the US runs federal elections. Known as HR 1, the bill would make it substantially easier to vote. It would also counteract restrictive legislation enacted by Republican state legislatures in recent years. One provision stands out from the rest: the one that would end state-level gerrymandering by requiring that all legislative districts be set by independent, nonpartisan commissions, rather

Viewpoints April 8, 2021

President Joe Biden’s multitrillion-dollar plans to revitalize the US economy are rightfully drawing comparisons to his predecessor Franklin Delano Roosevelt. But while it’s the same goal, the two have somewhat different approaches, reflecting both the distinctive circumstances and the better data available to Biden. Biden’s initiatives are a lot like a newer New Deal in some respects. The recently announced infrastructure spending plan includes money for roads, bridges, housi

Viewpoints April 6, 2021

For the past year, an assumption -- sometimes explicit, often tacit -- has informed almost all our thinking about the pandemic: At some point, it will be over, and then we‘ll go “back to normal.” This premise is almost certainly wrong. SARS-CoV-2, protean and elusive as it is, may become our permanent enemy, like the flu but worse. And even if it peters out eventually, our lives and routines will by then have changed irreversibly. Going “back” won’t be an opt

Viewpoints March 29, 2021