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
Palestinian President’s UN Speech Falls Flat
After weeks of hinting that he would “drop a bombshell” at the United Nations, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday threatened to stop abiding by the 1993 Oslo Accords, which have set the framework for Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations for more than two decades. In his speech to the U.N. General Assembly, Abbas complained that… -
opinion
Time for the US to Rethink Its Support for the European Union
Since the end of the Second World War, the U.S. has encouraged the free nations of Europe to abandon their independence in the name of closer economic and political union. That process created today’s European Union, the EU. We encouraged this partly because we believed that Europe was like the American states, and that they… -
opinion
US Needs a Foreign Policy That Marginalizes Russia’s Ability to Mess With Us
The Kremlin is not our friend. Nor is Moscow a 10-foot-tall threat to our national interests. What America needs is a middling foreign policy that looks to marginalize Russia’s capacity to mess with us. And there is no better place to start this approach than in Syria. Putin has made a muscular move to support… -
opinion
To Defeat ISIS, We Need a Leader Who’s Not Obama
When President Obama said at the United Nations on Tuesday that “defeating ISIL requires—I believe—a new leader,” I thought for a brief moment I’d finally found something on which he and I could agree. Then I realized he wasn’t talking about his own leadership. The president was actually talking about the regime of Bashar Assad,… -
opinion
Cartoon: Who Is Really Pushing the Buttons of US Foreign Policy?
James Phillips wrote recently on Russian involvement in Syria: Russia’s aggressive military intervention in Syria poses major problems for the United States, its allies, and the future of Syria. It is likely to make a bad situation worse by propping up the Assad regime, intensifying the fighting, and driving more Syrian refugees out of the country…. -
opinion
Obama Settles for an Unbalanced Relationship Between US and China
Last week’s U.S.-China summit offers an object lesson in how President Obama conducts foreign policy. All the rhetoric, assumptions, and diplomatic tics of the Obama Doctrine are there. And the outcomes, as usual, are not good. For example, no matter how provocative China is, it must be, according to Obama, “engaged.” It may launch a devastating… -
news
The Consequences of Russia’s Bombing Campaign in Syria
Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the United States has worked to isolate Russia from the Middle East. Now, in 2015 and five years into a devastating civil war in Syria, Russia has not only entered the most intractable situation in the Middle East, but also attacked the situation with indiscriminate authority. Under the… -
opinion
Russia Broke the INF Treaty (Again). What the US Should Do
On Sept. 2, Russia tested a ground-launched cruise missile named SSC-X-8, in violation of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty, according to reporting by the Washington Free Beacon. This test represents the latest in a long train of Russian violations of the 1987 treaty, which prohibits ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges from 500 to 5,500… -
opinion
Putin’s Syrian Gambit Exposes Flaws in Obama’s Naive Foreign Policy
Russia’s aggressive military intervention in Syria poses major problems for the United States, its allies, and the future of Syria. It is likely to make a bad situation worse by propping up the Assad regime, intensifying the fighting, and driving more Syrian refugees out of the country. Secretary of State John Kerry doggedly tried to… -
news
State Takes Legal Action to Seize $135K From Bakers Who Refused to Make Cake for Lesbian Couple
The agency that ordered Aaron and Melissa Klein to pay $135,000 in damages for refusing to bake a cake for a same-sex couple began the legal process last week to seize the money the Oregon bakers are refusing to pay. “Our agency has docketed the judgment and is exploring collection options,” Charlie Burr, communications director… -
opinion
How the Wars in Ukraine and Syria Are Connected
LONDON—For the last year, I’ve been reporting on the Ukraine war. I’ve been back and forth to the front lines, embedded with Ukrainian troops and civilian volunteers. I’ve been on the receiving end of Russian weapons, including tanks, heavy artillery, mortars, machine guns, grenade launchers, sniper rifles, and good ol’-fashioned Kalashnikovs. I don’t know for… -
news
He Escaped From a North Korean Prison Camp. Now He’s Showing the World His Torture Scars.
SEOUL, South Korea—In an exclusive interview with The Daily Signal, human rights activist Shin Dong-hyuk shows scars that he suffered from torture inside a North Korean prison camp. Shin was born in a North Korean prison in 1982 and made a daring escape in 2005. He allowed The Daily Signal to film his back and… -
news
Who Are the Mysterious Members of the House Freedom Caucus?
With over 40 members and no official roster, the House Freedom Caucus—a conservative group in the U.S. House of Representatives that pushed for House Speaker John Boehner to leave office—consists of a core group of leaders going against the Washington establishment. After the start of the 114th Congress in January 2015, nine members of the… -
news
Why Does It Matter Who the House Speaker Is? Looking at House Leadership’s Responsibilities
House Speaker John Boehner announced last week he would be resigning from Congress, effective October 30, and Republicans have already begun competing for the top leadership posts in the wake of his news. House Republican leadership consists of four positions—speaker, majority leader, majority whip, and conference chair—and current House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California… -
opinion
While Iran Receives Billions From Lifted Sanctions, the U.S. Military Is Cut by Billions
There are many reasons to think that the Iran nuclear deal is an awful agreement—one of those being the $150 billion (or so) that Iran will receive as sanctions are lifted. While Iran is receiving $150 billion, the U.S. military is struggling under cuts that total over $180 billion over the last four years. In… -
opinion
4 Highlights From Obama’s Ridiculous Cyber Agreement With China
Last week, the White House announced that the U.S. and China had agreed to stop cyber economic espionage and work together to stop cybercrime. Well, that was easy, wasn’t it? Too easy. The reality is that the president has just made another paper agreement that will do little to change the behavior of bad actors…. -
opinion
Obama Puts Positive Spin on Disastrous Foreign Policy in UN Speech
President Obama’s seventh speech to the United Nations was well-received on Monday. This is hardly surprising, as his policies have been a broad embrace of priorities and tactics that have long been championed by the majority of the world’s governments. As stated by Peter Wittig, Germany’s ambassador to the United States and formerly Germany’s permanent… -
opinion
Is Russia Ramping Up Military Involvement in the Middle East?
As if Syria wasn’t nasty enough after four years of bloody civil war—a brutal Syrian regime, Islamic State barbarity, an Iranian and Hezbollah influx, and the presence of al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front and its bomb-building Khorasan group. Now reports of rampaging Russians. Reports indicate that Moscow has deployed a military expeditionary force of soldiers and equipment… -
opinion
What to Watch Out For When Obama Meets With Xi Jinping
In June of 2013, Presidents Barack Obama and Xi Jinping met at Sunnylands, the former Annenberg estate in Rancho Mirage, Calif. The “shirtsleeve summit” was intended to promote informal discussions between the two leaders. It failed to meet even limited expectations. The Chinese leader even refused to stay at the estate. On Friday, President Xi… -
opinion
Poland Is Key to a Safe Europe, and Putin Knows It
Good news in Eastern Europe is hard to come by these days with Russian President Vladimir Putin playing the bully in Ukraine and elsewhere, along with tens of thousands of fleeing Syrians and other Muslims seeking refuge in Europe. But I can report that an organization of young conservative Poles, committed to economic freedom and…