Matt Singh, Bloomberg View
Britain's electoral system punishes division and favors broad-church parties.
Scott Arbeiter, New York Times
This year the United States will take in 85,000 of the world's most vulnerable so they can begin new lives in America, the highest number since 2001. But at a time when 65 million people have been displaced by violence, and 20 million of them are classified as refugees â more than half of them children â it is not enough.
Barbie Latza Nadeau, Daily Beast
Italy's best known photographer of the Mafia reflects on her life-long battle against it and how the mob is changing to adapt to modern times.
S. Gilmore, Bos Globe
Russia's recent elections only show how the country has been eroded under Putin's leadership.
Karina Piser, WP Review
Kinshasa has descended into chaos after the Democratic Republic of Congo's election commission announced plans on Monday to postpone the next presidential vote, which had been slated for November. The delay is widely seen as an attempt by President Joseph Kabila to extend his presidency in defiance of a constitutional two-term limit.
Hugh Eakin, NY Review of Books
In the account of Palmyra that has been told by the Syrian government and repeated in the international press, the devastation of Palmyra began with the arrival of the jihadists in May 2015. Before the takeover, Syrian officials had managed to remove a large number of free-standing sculptures and antiquities, and Tadmor, despite the collapse of its tourist economy, was considered a safe haven. Then ISIS came and began blowing up monuments and staging mass executions in the site's Roman amphitheater. Читать дальше...
Bonnie Kristian, Federalist
U.S. efforts to remake Afghanistan in its own image fostered corruption and cronyism instead. As if we needed more evidence nation-building is a bad idea.
Joshua Keating, Slate
Theà New York Timesà reports Wednesday that the Obama administration is considering a plan to provide direct military aid to Syrian Kurdish fighters to launch an offensive to retake ISIS's capital, Raqqa. This is a sign, along with the ongoing campaign toà retake Mosul in Iraq, that the administration plans to make the destruction of ISIS a priority in its final months. After the recent collapse of the Syrian cease-fire made a more comprehensive settlement of the Syrian conflict all but impossible... Читать дальше...
Antonia Colibasanu, Geopolitical Futures
The Kremlin is searching for ways to hold the country together in the face of a struggling economy.
T Dershowitz & A Fixler, FDD
As Iranian President Hassan Rouhani makes his case before the United Nationsà todayà that the Islamic Republic merits a place in the community of nations and boardrooms worldwide, his government continued arresting reporters and sentencing foreign nationals to prison on trumped-up charges. Amid Rouhani's charm offensive, it is crucial to remember that Iran continues to use hostage-taking as a tool of diplomacy, and remains both a toxic business environment and a serial violator of international norms.
Mark Halperin, Wall Street Journal
Lulled to believe nuclear catastrophe died with the Cold War, America is blind.
Tom Rogan, National Review
The former KGB operative has wagered that Obama will say and do nothing in the face of slaughtered civilians. But Kerry will say he's sad.
Michael McFaul, Wash. Post
Reagan saw America as a powerful beacon of democracy and hope; Trump's policies would weaken and isolate the nation.
Guy Verhofstadt, Project Syndicate
The recent informal EU summit in Bratislava, Slovakia, was supposed to demonstrate solidarity and kick-start the post-Brexit reform process. But instead of displaying unity, the meeting revealed only further division.
Ursula Lindsey, Le Monde Diplomatique
by Ursula Lindsey (Le Monde diplomatique - English edition, September 2016) // Two new accounts of Syria and Egypt, the states that failed after their popular attempts at revolution. At what point did the revolution in (...)