Der Spiegel
This is where Fortress Europe begins, secured with razor wire and defended with tear gas. Desperate scenes played out here on Monday, reminiscent of those witnessed in Hungary back in September. A group of young men used a steel beam as a battering ram to break down the gate. Rocks flew through the air as the gate flew off its hinges, prompting the volleying of tear gas cartridges and stun grenades from the Macedonian side. Men could be seen running and children screaming. One woman lay on the ground with her daughter, crying.
Nicholas Eberstadt, NRO
Americans' first instincts are to misunderstand practically everything that the North Korean state is really about.
Raf Noboa y Rivera, The Guardian
Of all the incongruous links between music and peoples, one of the strangest appears to be that between Steven Patrick Morrissey, the former lead singer of the Smiths, and Mexicans. Specifically, Mexicans in southern California. Notably, he’s not popular south of the border. Of all the potential singers you’d imagine a culture steeped in masculinity and machismo could choose, why would they embrace this son of northern England?
Mohanad Hage Ali, Al Arabiya
A few months ago, in a remote town in Idlib province, northern Syria, an unusual foreign militant presence alarmed Syrian locals. The fighters were reportedly of the Muslim Uighur minority from Xinjiang province in Western China.
Robin Wright, The New Yorker
The Abu Sayyaf raid [in Syria in May of 2015] was critical. We did a Special Forces operation to capture Abu Sayyaf, the No. 1 financier in ISIL, right outside Shaddadi. It ended up killing him and capturing his wife. We got more sensitive site exploitation—the S.S.E.—off of that raid than from any Special Forces raid in history. We learned an awful lot. We’ve already reduced their economic generation, oil and gas, by thirty per cent or so. This is not going to stop. Читать дальше...
Abigail Leonard, Newsweek
Only a handful of women are in leadership positions. Just 9 percent of Japanese managers are female, compared with 43 percent in the U.S. In 2003, Abe set a goal of increasing that to 30 percent by 2020, but in December his administration announced it was slashing the target in half. As policymakers struggle to find solutions, young women are realizing they are now responsible for both raising the birthrate and expanding the shrinking labor force.
Dan O'Brien, Irish Independent
Having Trump in control of the US military would send shock waves around the world. It would deeply unsettle allies who depend on American security guarantees, which includes Ireland and the rest of our continent. It would do much more than unsettle rivals, potentially pushing them into an arms race with Trump's America.
Arash Karami, Al-Monitor
With the passing of Ayatollah Tabasi there is now a vacancy for being custodian of one of the wealthiest charitable foundations in the country, Astan Quds Razavi; the position will be highly coveted for its religious and material significance.
S. Sengupta, NYT
At no point in recorded history has our world been so demographically lopsided, with old people concentrated in rich countries and the young in not-so-rich countries. Much has been made of the challenges of aging societies. But it’s the youth bulge that stands to put greater pressure on the global economy, sow political unrest, spur mass migration and have profound consequences for everything from marriage to Internet access to the growth of cities. The parable of our time might well be... Читать дальше...
Robert Zaretsky, RealClearWorld
"Vote for the crook, not the fascist!" So urged the French newspaper Libration on the morning of April 23, 2002. The paper's editors had woken up to a reality that few thought possible. Following the first round of the presidential election, the incumbent president, Jacques Chirac -- long suspected of campaign finance shenanigans -- would meet Jean-Marie Le Pen -- the foul-mouthed leader of the anti-Semitic and authoritarian National Front -- in the second and decisive round of voting two weeks later.
Michael Carl Haas, The Diplomat
The capital ship and its technological nemesis – the cheap and plentiful missile weapon – have evolved together, in a dynamic that is intimately familiar to any remotely historically minded analyst of military affairs.
M.K. Bhadrakumar, AT
Tehran never quite gave up on Turkey. It simply relegated the relationship to the backburner. But it took care not to get sucked into the Turkish-Russian discord.
A. Maisel & W. Duval, War on the Rocks
Winter days are not long in the Baltics, and we had no plans to be Skrunda-1s overnight guests.
Economist
A record 4,279 Americans worldwide renounced their United States citizenship last year.
H. Kazianis, Nat'l Interest
whoever said war was always the most logical of choices?
