In the wake of a political murder, the hate campaign continues
On the day after the murder of Jo Cox in 2016, stunned politicians on both sides of the Brexit referendum campaign fell silent. Cox was a member of the British parliament who favored remaining inside...
View ArticleTheresa May experiences a historic parliamentary humiliation
We guessed it. But now we know: There was no Plan B. After months of negotiation and many hours of debate, after long delays and rumors of more delays, after protesters had rung bells and waved...
View ArticleA crisis of conservatism creates gridlock on both sides of the Atlantic
In the capital cities of the two great anglophone powers, public business has ground to a halt. On one side of the Atlantic, federal workers are lining up to receive free food while the president holds...
View ArticleVenezuela is how ‘illiberal democracy’ ends
For absolute proof that the ideological language of the 20th century is insufficient to describe the political realities of the 21st century, look no further than the international alliances that have...
View ArticleRegulate social media now. The future of democracy is at stake.
A few days ago, ProPublica, an independent, nonprofit newsroom, discovered that a tool it was using to track political advertising on Facebook had been quietly disabled — by Facebook. The browser...
View ArticleThe Black Hole at the Heart of NATO
Tents, generators, and portable toilets had transformed an old police barracks on the outskirts of a Polish village. Inside the tents, men speaking different languages sat on folding chairs at long...
View ArticleThe new censors won’t delete your words — they’ll drown them out
Winston Smith works at the Ministry of Truth. Each day, the hero of George Orwell’s “1984” “corrects” old newspapers to make sure that the information is in still accord with the current Party line....
View ArticleIt’s not xenophobia that links the ‘new populists.’ It’s hypocrisy.
In recent months, academics, columnists and analysts have spilled gallons of ink analyzing the so-called “populists” who are winning elections, or coming close to winning them, in so many countries....
View Article‘Never again?’ It’s already happening.
Because I write books about Soviet history, and because I often speak about them to U.S. or European audiences, I am frequently forced to confront the problem of Western indifference. Why, I am asked...
View ArticleAn off-key Pence sings from the Trump hymnal to a stony European reception
Even inside a hotel so secure that it has body scanners at the entrance and snipers on the roof, Vice President Pence travels with a vast security detail. Its main function, it seems, is to elbow...
View ArticleIs this the end of political parties?
George Washington thought they were “potent engines” easily abused by “cunning, ambitious and unprincipled men.” The English poet Alexander Pope thought they manipulated “the madness of the many, for...
View ArticleForget Hanoi. Trump has already done irreparable damage to America’s reputation.
Yes, the details were engrossing. The photograph of the empty lunch table where President Trump and Kim Jong Un were supposed to celebrate the deal they never signed. The menu of the meal that they did...
View ArticleBrexit has devastated Britain’s international reputation — and respect for...
In Madrid last week, a senior politician told me that he was watching the Brexit crisis with growing astonishment. “England, the mother of parliaments,” he said, shaking his head. “We’ve looked up to...
View ArticleRadicalism kills. Why do we only care about one kind?
It begins with humor. The alt-right’s jokes, a teenage friend assures me, are genuinely funny: They ridicule the pomposities of “mainstream” culture, laugh at political correctness and create...
View ArticleTheresa May isn’t the adult in the room. She’s part of the problem.
“She was dealt a bad hand.” “She took a poisoned chalice.” From a great distance, it is possible to feel sorry for British Prime Minister Theresa May. She seems so dignified. She seems to be trying so...
View ArticleThe Mueller probe shows that our laws need fixing
The Russian government made extensive efforts, through hacking of email as well as information warfare, to help Donald Trump win the 2016 election. Multiple members of the Trump campaign knew of these...
View ArticleFrance’s yellow vests highlight a gap between policy and how it’s perceived
At the national level, support is dropping. More than half of French people now say they want the gilets jaunes — the yellow-jacketed protesters with a record of violence — to stop their...
View ArticleTheresa May was warned about Brexit. She didn’t listen.
At every fateful historical turning point — every time a bad decision is taken or a wrong choice is made — there is always someone who tries to stop it, someone who predicts the consequences, someone...
View ArticleUkrainians are trying to figure out where the sitcom stops and the election...
Vasiliy the schoolteacher is late for work. He grabs his clock, he jumps out of bed, he shouts at his father, and he begs his mother to iron his shirt. He burns the coffee. He bangs on the door of the...
View ArticleRussia is cultivating Germany’s far right. Germans don’t seem to care.
It’s not as though the relationship between the Russian government and the German far right, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, has ever been a secret. Last year, when the government expelled a...
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