Commentary
Commentary: Islamic State is becoming more dangerous as it weakens
By many measures, Islamic State is a weakened and demoralized force. After months of U.S.-led bombing and defeats by local troops in Iraq and Syria, the group lost thousands of its fighters, was forced to relinquish significant territory and has been cut off from routes it used to move weapons and reinforcements.
Commentary: It’s time for Europe to stop holding referendums
The European Union lexicon, already stuffed with ugly words and phrases, needs to coin a new one: “plebiphobia.” Unlike some anxieties, the fear of referendums is well-grounded. Following Britain’s vote in June to leave the union, plebiscites this autumn in Hungary on migration and in Italy on constitutional reform may further destabilize the EU. More fundamentally, plebiphobia rules out the very reforms needed to prevent more Brexit-like uprisings.
Commentary: For outside world, U.S. election is all about Trump
“I can’t bring myself to stay up for the debate tonight,” one UK Labour Party insider announced at the bar at the party’s annual conference in Liverpool a few hours before the first Trump-Clinton face-off. “It’s on too late and it’s just too depressing”.
Podcast: When the 'War on Drugs' got literal, and how it could end
The War on Drugs, declared during the Nixon administration, has become a shooting war. Every year brings new atrocities. More than 40 teachers massacred in Mexico under circumstances that are still unclear in 2014, entire towns held hostage.
Commentary: Clinton won the debate. So what?
Many political analysts and commentators declared that Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton delivered a pitch-perfect performance at the presidential debate on Monday night.
Commentary: The real danger in Trump’s public response to his secret security briefings
Presidential nominees are not supposed to talk about the intelligence briefings they receive as part of their race for the White House. The classified security information is supposed to help them fully prepare for the presidency — not to be discussed publicly on the campaign trail.
Commentary: How Washington confirms a terrorist ‘kill’
Islamic State took an unusual step in late August when it announced that its spokesman and external operations leader Abu Muhammad al-Adnani had been killed near Aleppo, Syria.
Commentary: Aid attack deepens the West’s Syria policy nightmare
Those who think events in Syria cannot get worse are “dead wrong”, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Wednesday. He’s correct, of course.
Commentary: Inside Putin’s unburstable bubble
A few days before the Russian parliamentary election, the Russian anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny released a video of the country house used by the prime minister -- and former president -- Dmitry Medvedev. Navalny and his colleagues had located Medvedev after he posted a photo on Instagram of his mushroom-picking excursion near the Volga River.
Commentary: Forget isolation. Israel’s diplomatic ties have never been better.
Barack Obama is meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly Wednesday, at a time when the U.S. president is considering whether to initiate an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal before he leaves office.
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