The U.S. presidential campaign can be puzzling for a foreigner. But it’s a window on popular culture as Republican candidates jockey for position. U.S. presidential candidate Ted Cruz (IJReview) What does the race to the U.S. presidency have to do with bacon and...
This article is part of a News-Decoder series of “decoders” that explain crucial background to big issues. For more decoders, click here. The United States seems a monolithic hegemon to many outside its borders. But its political system is a complex and...
The world is in the midst of the largest immigration crisis since World War Two. How is it being handled? This article is part of a News-Decoder series of “decoders” that explain crucial background to big issues. For more decoders, click here. Why is this...
This article is part of a News-Decoder series of “decoders” that explain crucial background to big issues. For more decoders, click here. As the most populous country in the world with one of the fastest growing economies, China is projected by many to be...
Transgender stars like Caitlyn Jenner have helped foster acceptance, but the path to civil rights for transgender people will be long and arduous. Marchers at the Trans March in Albuquerque, N.M., 29 May 2014. (AP Photo/Craig Fritz, File) Caitlyn Jenner has grabbed...
By Barry Moody U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to Kenya and Ethiopia last week focused attention on a vital front in the struggle against Islamic terrorism that rarely makes headlines despite posing a deadly threat. Obama’s discussions with Kenyan and Ethiopian...
By far the loudest cries of alarm about the Iran nuclear agreement are coming from the only country in the region that has a nuclear arsenal — Israel. A view of Israel’s Sorek nuclear reactor center near the central Israeli town of Yavne. 5 July 2004. (AP Photo, file...
The Chinese leader has pushed politics over economics. But will it be enough to power the People’s Republic? Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, 31 March 2015. (AP Photo/Feng Li, Pool) (This article was originally published by the Asia Society on...
By Harvey Morris In a dramatic turnabout, Turkey has launched air strikes against Islamic State (IS) forces that hold territory in neighboring Syria and Iraq. After a year in which Turkey stood aside from a struggle to defeat IS jihadists, the Ankara government’s...
By Colin McIntyre A quarter century after the fall of the “Iron Curtain” and the Berlin Wall separating Communist East Europe from the West, new barriers are going up across the continent. In stark contrast to the old barriers erected by the Soviet bloc to keep its...