Philip Brasor, Japan Times
The numbers of young people dating or getting married increased steadily until 2000, at which point they leveled off. Since the recession of 2008, the numbers have been dropping. When people feel secure, they're more likely to seek romantic commitments. It's not rocket science, but, as those reporters told Fukasawa, it's not news either.
Mansour Almarzoqi, TNI
The Arab coalition is determined to prevent Yemen from becoming another Iraq.
Daniel Larison, AmCon Mag
It is obvious that no American interests have been served by supporting this war.
Nancy Youssef, The Daily Beast
With a heavy bombing campaign that included hospitals, Russia and the Assad regime are ensuring the destruction of Aleppo and any moderate U.S.-backed rebels in it.
James Forsyth, The Spectator
The PM has outfoxed her colleagues and now looks set for a long premiership.
Fabio Rafael Fiallo, RealClearWorld
As much as any of his policy proposals, Trump's infatuation with Putin may well be the defining feature of the foreign-policy package that Trump is trying to sell to U.S. voters. Little wonder that in the first presidential debate Hillary Clinton didn't fail to attack her Republican opponent for his attitude toward Putin.
Amanda Taub, New York Times
Most conflicts are Yemens, not Syrias or Darfurs.
Mike Eckel, RFE/RL
Two U.S. officials were drugged in St. Petersburg while attending a conference there in November 2015, RFE/RL has learned from sources with knowledge of the incident. Officials now believe it was part of a pattern of harassment that also included an attack on a diplomat by a Russian guard at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow in June.
Lee Smith, Weekly Standard
n liberating himself from the wisdom and guidance handed down by history, Obama has left himself with no option -- except the White House's hollow protests against the barbarism now encircling Aleppo.
John Lloyd, Reuters
Vladimir Putin is, bit by bit, seeking to rebuild the glory and the power that he believes was the Soviet Union. The USSR was a large player in the Middle East. Today, the sole physical inheritance from those years is the leased docking facilities at Tartus, on Syria's northern coast. After the evacuation of the Soviet bases in Egypt's Alexandria and Mersa Matruh in the late 1970s, Tartus remains Russia's only foothold on the Mediterranean. Though views differà on how vital... Читать дальше...
Wesley Pruden, Washington Times
Throwing a stone at Saudi Arabia, where stoning women is the national sport, is great fun, and nobody deserves an occasional stoning like the Saudis, just to let the king and his legion of princes know how it feels.
Jay Nordlinger, National Review
These three countries -- Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia (south to north) -- have staged a remarkable comeback. They are proud of it. And should be.
Kathy Gannon, AP
For generations now in Pakistan, they've called it "honor" killing, carried out in the name of a family's reputation.The killers routinely invoke Islam, but rarely can they cite anything other than their belief that Islam doesn't allow the mixing of sexes. Even Pakistan's hard-line Islamic Ideology Council, which is hardly known for speaking out to protect women, says the practice defies Islamic tenets.It doesn't matter: in slums and far-off villages, away from the cosmopolitan city centers... Читать дальше...
Michael O'Loughlin, Irish Times
Lack of shame permeates Irish society like a cancer, above all in the health service.
Ishaan Tharoor, WP
Around Christmastime, myriad Dutch adults and children have customarily donned frilly wigs, patted themselves in blackface, painted their lips red and japed around in costumes as "Black Pete," the dark-skinned helpers of Sinterklaas, or Saint Nicholas.
Peter Harling, Synaps
Our massive moral failure has been a source of public embarrassment and personal unease for many officials involved in the conflict's management. Gradually they have been gravitating toward a solution to their own psychological tension: âÂÂstopping the violenceâ to appease themselves, even at the expense of diminishing any prospect of closure for Syrians. Such self-centeredness has become, in itself, an obstacle to any progress: all the policy talk about âÂÂwhat... Читать дальше...
Noah Smith, Bloomberg View
Economies are about trade, and trade costs money. The farther away two place are, the more it costs companies to ship goods and to send people over to meet with subsidiaries, suppliers and customers. Those costs are one of the basic reasons why economic activity tends to cluster together in cities and industrialized regions. It also means that one city or region can get rich by trading with big concentrations of economic activity that are close by -- the wealthier France is... Читать дальше...
Andrea Noel, The Daily Beast
When priests and journalists defend the poor, the cartels murder them with impunity. Meanwhile, bishops bless the drug lords.
Alex Spence & Tom McTague, Politico EU
A euroskeptic Tory who sports a sumptuous beard, May's 36-year-old policy chief believes the party needs to become the natural home of the sort of people he grew up among: âÂÂordinary working peopleâ who feel Westminster is not on their side.
Charles Grant, CER
The British government needs to understand why the 27 are taking a hard line on Brexit, and then work hard to secure their goodwill.
Colum Lynch, Foreign Policy
As China steps up its commitment to U.N. peacekeeping, Beijing is said to be eyeing a leadership role -- with potentially troubling human rights implications.
