The Economist
One lesson from Latin America is that governments can ease inequality through social programmes. Another is that disconnecting from the world makes the poor worse off, as they are today in Venezuela. Having gone through its anti-globalisation backlash, Latin America is finding that the world now offers fewer easy gains than in the past. So it will be hard to make up for lost time. But at least the region is (mostly) back on the right track.
Samuel Oakford & Peter Salisbury, Atlantic
Earlier this year, The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg published âÂÂThe Obama Doctrine,â in which the president described a Middle East populated by unreliable âÂÂfree-riderâ allies constantly drawing the United States into their petty rivalries, fueled by avarice, tribalism, and sectarianism. Key among those free riders were the Sunni Arab states of the Gulf, Goldberg wrote. The Saudis, along with the Iranians, Obama said, âÂÂneed... Читать дальше...
Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry, The Week
The country is divided over what, exactly, it means to be French.
Joel Pollak, Breitbart
The question of Syria is one that both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton would both prefer to avoid in the first debate.
John Hudson, Foreign Policy
If the West can't deliver for Syria's mainstream rebels, maybe al-Qaeda will.
Ellen Bork, Weekly Standard
Donald Trump likes dictators and likes to be liked by them. After meeting Egypt's president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi last week, Trump called Sisi "a fantastic guy," gushing, "he took control of Egypt. And he really took control of it." Trump approves of the unprecedented repression that followed Sisi's taking power, which includes extra-judicial killings, repression of civil society organizations, detention of tens of thousands and disappearances of hundreds. At Monday's... Читать дальше...
Alexander Buehler et al., Der Spiegel
Since 2013, over 10,000 migrants have drowned while attempting to cross the Mediterranean to Europe. Behind the deaths lies a multi-million dollar smuggling trade with financial connections to Frankfurt, Italy, and Libya.
Thomas Walkom, Star
Canada's trade deficit with South Korea rose from $3 billion to $3.8 billion.I'm not sure this is the result Canadians expected from pursuing free trade with one of the Asian tigers. It is, however, the result we got.
William McKinney, 38 North
Today, almost 63 years after an Armistice Agreement ended the daily combat of the Korean War, the Korean peninsula is still heavily armed with both conventional and nuclear weaponry. This status quo, however, is far from static; unchecked nuclear weapons development by North Korea poses a growing security threat to South Korea and Japan, to the US-ROK and US-Japan alliances, and to the US mainland. The North's expanding nuclear arsenal, coupled with reluctance within... Читать дальше...
Sanger & Broad, NYT
Inside the United States' intelligence agencies, though, there is considerable skepticism that North Korea is truly eager to plant a flag on the lunar landscape. The agencies are exploring another explanation: that Mr. Kim, the North Korean leader, is racing ahead, as the United States is distracted by a bruising presidential election, to develop a way for his growing arsenal of nuclear weapons to reach New York and Washington.
Lerer & Colvin, AP
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were meeting separately with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Sunday, giving each candidate fresh foreign policy talking points on the eve of their first presidential debate.Clinton met Sunday evening with Netanyahu for less than an hour in Manhattan, according to Clinton campaign officials. Her meeting came after Trump sat down with the prime minister at his residence in Trump Tower in the morning, Israeli and Trump campaign officials said.
Ioan Grillo, NYT
How these attacks on trade translate into policy is one of the most important questions to come out of this election. The Nafta-bashing rattles Mexican businesses in a nation that has built its economy on the accord and depends on commerce with its northern neighbor for a third of its income. Last year, Mexico exported $316 billion worth of goods and services to the United States, a sizable chunk of the country's gross domestic product of $1.1 trillion. Amid the election, some companies have delayed related investments... Читать дальше...
John O'Sullivan, National Review
As the shades gather, are there any strong arguments for Merkel to remain? Well, a feminist writer in the Daily Telegraph suggests that she has shown that women can exercise power. Hmmmmm. Hadn't that point already been proven by Golda Meir, Indira Gandhi, and Margaret Thatcher â not to mention Queen Elizabeth I, Catherine de Medici, and Cleopatra? And won't the point lose its intended force if the results of Merkel's exercising power continue to be relentlessly negative? Читать дальше...
Steven Borowiec, LA Times
Baek, a longtime activist, had been hospitalized in a coma since November, when he fell back andà hit his head after being blasted by a police water cannon at an antigovernment protest in central Seoul. Protesters had been criticizing President Park Geun-hye's government on a variety of issues. Baek and other farmers took part to call on the government to intervene in the rice market to boost prices.Ã
Adnan Abu Amer, Al-Monitor
Many scenarios emerged when the Palestinian local elections were delayed, with some saying elections may be held in the West Bank, and not in the Gaza Strip, where Hamas may appoint its candidates in the local bodies.
Walter Russell Mead, American Int.
Precisely because he has a colder view of international affairs than Obama, Netanyahu's leadership has made Israel stronger than ever.
Andrea Noel, The Daily Beast
The government claims the missing students were murdered by the cartels and incinerated en masse. But experts say they doubt that's the truth.
Michael Kugelman, The Diplomat
A shooting war is unlikely, but covert activities are a strong possibility.
Jacqueline Charles, Miami Hld
After decades of using the Florida straits to flee poverty and political turmoil, Haitians have carved out a new route to get to the United States. It's a staggering 7,000-mile journey over land, by bus, canoe and on foot, fraught with danger. Now the U.S. has issued a warning: turn back.
Leonid Bershidsky, Bloomberg View
The Russian leader's domestic and geopolitical ambitions play out in worsening economic forecasts.
Josh Rogin, Washington Post
President Obama will leave office having failed to use the tools at his disposal to make significant progress on getting child soldiers off the battlefield. That's the consensus among human rights groups who point to the fact that for six consecutive years, the Obama administration has subverted U.S. law requiring the president to sanction foreign governments that force children to fight.
