Wall Street J.
Saudi Arabia has pledged to boost oil output if needed, as the Trump administration starts banning all Iran oil exports on Thursday.
Stefan Karlo Rajic, The Strategist (ASPI)
Volodymyr Zelensky defeated Petro Poroshenko in Ukraine's presidential election in a landslide victory with more than 73% of the votes, but not everyone is happy. Zelensky was already well known for playing a fictional incorruptible president, Vasyl Holoborodko, in the television series Servant of the People. Alexander Motyl, a professor of political science at Rutgers University in New Jersey, has suggested that Zelensky let his television alter ego do... Читать дальше...
David P. Oakley, War on the Rocks
This week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo bragged about bringing swagger to State. But, considering the anemic 2020 budget proposal and vacant diplomatic postings, bluster might be a more apt word. For the third year in a row, the Trump administration has recommended significant cuts to the Department of State and the U.S. Agency for International Development. In the same budget proposal, the administration recommends a 5 percent increase for the Department of Defense. Читать дальше...
Heinrich August Winkler, Berlin Policy Journal
Pro-Europeans have long avoided a debate on the end goal of EU integration. It's time for honesty: ever closer cooperation between member states is the only realistic way forward.In the run-up to the European Parliament elections, none of the German political parties has shown quite as much ambition as the Free Democratic Party (FDP). In its election program, adopted at the end of January 2019, the pro-business liberal party calls for the convening... Читать дальше...
Economist
LEAKS IN WESTMINSTER are common. Leaks from meetings of the National Security Council (NSC), which include cabinet ministers, generals and an array of spooks, are not. When details of Theresa May's decision to allow Huawei, a Chinese telecoms group, to build next-generation infrastructure in Britain appeared in the Daily Telegraph on April 24th, an inquiry was duly launched. It took barely a week to find its man. The supposed mole? Gavin Williamson, the defence secretary.
Merrit Kennedy, NPR
The U.S. has lost more than 2,200 lives and spent more than $840 billion on Afghanistan, its longest-ever war.But the U.S. public is steadily provided with less and less key information about how the war is going. Now, another crucial measure of the war's progress is no longer public.
Denise Ho, Project Syndicate
This year's anniversaries of the 1919 and 1989 student protests in China will again highlight the Chinese authorities' contradictory attitudes toward the two movements. As the People's Republic looks ahead to the 70th anniversary of its founding this October, the country continues to reckon with its own history.
Uri Friedman, The Atlantic
The United States thought all the pieces were in place for Maduro to leave. Then everything came crashing down.
