'Without mandatory testing, bird flu will continue circulating at farms across the country'

'I ran Operation Warp Speed. I'm concerned about bird flu.'

David A. Kessler at The New York Times

The incoming administration "must be prepared to tackle one issue immediately: the possibility that the spreading avian flu might mutate to enable human-to-human transmission," says David A. Kessler. What is "worrisome is that our arsenal to fight back might not be up to the task," so "bulk milk testing should be mandatory in all states with dairy farms." If the "virus begins to transmit efficiently among humans, it will be very difficult to contain."

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'The UN has failed us on Gaza. We need to decolonize and radically reform it.'

Omar Barghouti at The Guardian

Of the "many things that need fixing in this world to stop the genocide in Gaza and prevent any power from ever again doing 'a Gaza' on any vulnerable community, decolonizing the U.N. may be of utmost priority," says Omar Barghouti. This is a "transformative process that integrates the perspectives of marginalized and most affected communities and nations." This "radical yet incremental process aims at reclaiming the U.N. as the heritage of humanity at large."

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'Resolving India's population woes requires political maturity'

Sitaraman Shankar at Al Jazeera

There is "already an obvious, short-term solution" to India's "diminishing demographic dividend problem: moving people from where they are in excess to where they are actually needed," says Sitaraman Shankar. This "would keep real wages down, and push locals of rich states into higher-paying jobs, while providing some relief to states that are struggling to provide a decent standard of living for their massive populations." But this "would require a lot of political maturity."

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'What the US can learn from "Wicked"'

Patti Waldmeir at the Financial Times

It is "hard not to see 'Wicked' as a parable for our fractured times," says Patti Waldmeir. People "have to find the humility to listen — no matter how convinced I am that extreme views like that helped defeat the Democrats." The film "can do its little bit to help America find its way: to the bursting of bubbles and the making of friends, even between America's new politically popular class, the Republicans, and its new outcasts, the Democrats."

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