International News
Coverage of international events and global policy shifts. The Daily Signal offers news reporting with opinion and commentary on world affairs.
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opinion
Who Pays for the Arms Trade Treaty? You Do
The nations that ratified a global Arms Trade Treaty are gathering for their third annual conference this week in Geneva, Switzerland. As always, this conference features many nations declaring unwavering commitment and support for the treaty, which purports to require nations to regulate the conventional arms trade. What the Arms Trade Treaty actually does is give… -
news
US Air Force Dusts Off Old Skills to Fight a New Kind of War in Eastern Europe
ÄMARI AIR BASE, Estonia—A memorial site for Soviet air force pilots is hidden in the woods just outside the gates of this NATO air base. Some of the monuments are of stone, overgrown and weathered, engraved with a Communist red star and a fallen pilot’s name. Other memorials are made from a fighter jet’s vertical… -
opinion
Russia Will Not Win a Diplomatic Tit-for-Tat With the US
The recent U.S.-Russian tit-for-tat—the expulsion of diplomats and the closing of consulates—appears to be resulting in more parity of representation between the two global powers. That is no bad thing. According to the White House, the United States and Russia now have three diplomatic facilities in each other’s countries and a like number of diplomats… -
news
Trump to Kim Jong Un: Military Strike ‘Would Be a Sad Day for North Korea’
President Donald Trump warned it would be a “very sad day for North Korea” if the United States had to use a military option to confront the regime’s aggressive nuclear testing and audacious threats. “Military action would certainly be an option. Is it inevitable? Nothing’s inevitable,” @POTUS says. Over the weekend, North Korea’s communist dictator… -
opinion
How Saudi Arabia Is Laying the Foundation for Improved Relations With Iraq
The Iraq-Saudi Arabia relationship, while historically rocky, appears to be on the mend. Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990 prompted Saudi Arabia to close its border with Iraq. Since then, only Iraqi religious pilgrims have been allowed to cross once a year during the hajj season. After 27 years, the two nations are now… -
news
This Ukrainian Regiment Began With Civilian Volunteers. Now It’s Going Pro.
URZUF, Ukraine—At the Azov Regiment’s base in this beach resort town on the Sea of Azov coast, you can sometimes hear the sounds of shelling from the front lines, which are about 42 miles east of here, toward the Russian border. Yet, on this blustery summer day in late August, tourists are out swimming on… -
opinion
How the Trump Administration Is ‘Draining the Swamp’ at State Department
The State Department’s special envoys have long needed reform. That reform could be just around the corner if Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s new proposal pans out. Earlier this week, Tillerson sent a letter to Chairman Bob Corker of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee detailing his plans for eliminating and reorganizing nearly 70 special envoys,… -
news
Iran Could Become Fiercer Adversary Than North Korea, Experts Say
In a decade, Iran could emerge as a major nuclear power—and an entirely legal one under the international nuclear agreement reached by the Obama administration, experts fear. “In about 10 years time, Iran will have, thanks to this deal, an industrial-sized nuclear program,” said Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, during… -
opinion
How Ivy League Schools Discriminate Against Asians
Earlier this month, The New York Times ran an article titled “U.S. Rights Unit Shifts to Study Antiwhite Bias” on its front page. The article says that President Donald Trump’s Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division is going to investigate and sue universities whose affirmative action admissions policies discriminate against white applicants. This is an out-and-out… -
opinion
Russian Actions in Belarus Are Cause for Concern
Russian actions in Belarus, an Eastern European country slightly smaller than the state of Kansas, are causing concern among neighboring countries. Russia is planning massive joint military exercises next month in both Belarus and Russia, and is even constructing a nuclear reactor in the country, close to the Belarus-Lithuania border. A former Soviet nation, Belarus… -
news
With Mattis’ Visit to Ukraine on Its Independence Day, the US Sends a Message to Moscow
KYIV, Ukraine—A nation doesn’t always reveal its pride or its undying hope for a better future through military parades and presidential speeches. Sometimes, it’s a 40-year-old combat veteran standing rigid in his military fatigues, a medal pinned to his chest, bowing his head in remembrance of fallen comrades while tears run down his cheeks and… -
opinion
Closure of Kerch Strait Is Russia’s Latest Attack on Ukrainian Sovereignty
In May 2015, Russia began constructing a planned 11.8-mile bridge across the Kerch Strait, a body of water that sits between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. The Russian bridge project is meant to connect the Russian mainland with the Crimean Peninsula, the region of Ukraine that Russia illegally annexed in 2014. Two… -
news
Ukraine Says Its Rocket Engines Not Behind North Korea’s Missile Success
KYIV, Ukraine—In 2011, Denys Antipov, who was then a Korean language student at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, received an unusual request from the Security Service of Ukraine—the country’s successor agency to the KGB. The Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU, needed Antipov’s help in a delicate counterintelligence operation. In an undercover sting, the… -
opinion
What Europe Should Be Doing to Prevent Another Terrorist Attack Like Barcelona
Not so long ago, scenes of death and carnage on the streets of major European cities were a rarity. Not so any more. In this year alone, there have been major Islamist attacks in London (twice), Manchester, and Stockholm. We can now add Barcelona to that list. Smaller-scale acts of violence in France (on multiple… -
news
Desperate for Cash, Venezuela Gives Putin Control of Oil Assets
Venezuela is handing over unprecedented control of its state-owned oil assets to longtime financial backer Russia in an effort to stave off insolvency and economic collapse. Battered by civil unrest that threatens to become a total political meltdown, the socialist government of President Nicolas Maduro has offered an ownership stake in up to nine of Venezuela’s most… -
news
Underreported: Meet 2 Political Prisoners From Socialist Venezuela
In recent months, Venezuela has spiraled into a full-blown humanitarian and political crisis. Politicians with criminal backgrounds run the country, employing violence and arresting peaceful, anti-government protesters. In The Daily Signal’s feature series, “Underreported,” we interview Francisco Marquez, an ex-political prisoner who now lives in the United States, and Wuilly Arteaga, who recently was thrown… -
opinion
The Other Russia Story We Need to Talk About Is Adoption
The Russian government uses orphans as political pawns. The story of thousands of innocent Russian children in need of adoption has been lost amid the daily flood of news about Russia and the hyped-up debate over whether “adoption” is some kind of code for “sanctions” when it comes to high-level Russian-American meetings. We shouldn’t miss… -
news
Venezuela’s Socialist Leader Asks for UN Meeting With Trump as His Nation Crumbles
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro says he is ready to meet with President Donald Trump, just days after Washington hit the ruling socialist regime with sanctions. Speaking Thursday to the newly installed National Constituent Assembly, an all-powerful legislative body packed with Maduro loyalists, the socialist leader called on Venezuela’s foreign minister to arrange a phone call or face-to-face… -
news
Not Too Late to Prevent ‘Death of Europe,’ British Author Says
Europe’s migration crisis is a lesson in historical and philosophical degeneration, a best-selling British author argues. “Almost everything in this book is also a warning, in my view, to America,” said Douglas Murray, author of “The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam,” in remarks earlier this summer at The Heritage Foundation. “All the things…