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
Why China’s Human Rights Violations Do Matter
Xi Jinping is set to visit the United States this week for his first official state visit as president of China. While strategic concerns about cyber security and tensions in the South and East China Sea will inevitably overshadow broader, systemic human rights challenges, President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry must nonetheless… -
opinion
A ‘State Visit’ for China’s President Sends All the Wrong Signals
The president of China, Xi Jinping, arrives in Washington tomorrow for a “state visit.” It is certainly appropriate for President Obama to meet with Xi in order to manage the differences between the U.S. and China and to explore areas of cooperation. There is too much at stake in a relationship between the world’s two… -
opinion
Putin Looks to Remove American Influences From Russia
Last week the Russian government added one more issue to its growing heap of disputes with the United States. By pulling the plug on the U.S. sponsored America Center hosted at M. Rudomino All-Russia State Library of Foreign Literature in Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin has subtly moved against the U.S. According to a press… -
opinion
Putin Doubles Down in Syria
Civil war has left Syria a country in name only. The UN counts at least 270,000 people killed and a million more injured since fighting began in 2011. In the first eight months of 2015, half a million refugees from Syria and beyond have flooded Europe. It is a serious crisis, and both Russian President… -
news
‘Not in My Backyard’: Green Energy Mogul Who Opposed Wind Farm Adopts a Different Approach Away From Home
A green energy mogul who protested an offshore wind farm near his summer home on Martha’s Vineyard is criticizing Vermonters who oppose his company’s four-megawatt combined solar farm proposed in Bennington. In 2010, Thomas Melone, CEO of Allco Renewable Energy, petitioned to block Cape Wind, a large offshore wind farm sited in federal waters in Nantucket… -
news
Activist: China’s One-Child Policy Responsible for More Violence Against Women Than Any Other Policy
NASHUA, N.H.—The pro-life movement should be an international effort, according to Reggie Littlejohn, the president of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers. Speaking at the Bringing America Back to Life conference in New Hampshire, Littlejohn said that as the American abortion debate comes to the forefront of public discourse as we wrestle with the allegations that Planned… -
news
Republican Who Attacked Senate Leadership on Planned Parenthood Draws a Line in Defunding Debate
The lead Republican sponsor of a House bill to temporarily halt federal funding to Planned Parenthood attacked Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday for his failure to fight on the issue. “You don’t put up a white flag until you’ve fought the battle,” Rep. Diane Black, R-Tenn., told talk-radio host Dana Loesch. “We haven’t… -
news
Meet 3 Women Who Spent More Than 15 Years in Prison for Nonviolent Drug Crimes
Stephanie George has never used drugs, but she earned a prison sentence of life without parole for a drug-related crime. Today, by the luck of a commutation from President Obama, George is living again, learning to mother her 24-year-old daughter and working in a restaurant because her criminal record impedes her hair-stylist ambitions. “I thank… -
opinion
Why Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s Stance on Marriage Led to His Ousting
Australian politicians have again treated the nation like a failed Pacific Island state, launching yet another coup to topple a serving prime minister. Prime Minister Tony Abbott was cut down by one of his Liberal Party cabinet ministers, Malcolm Turnbull, in a party room vote brought on Monday. Abbott, a conservative, visited the Heritage Foundation… -
opinion
North Korea Restarts Nuclear Weapons Facility, Hints at Nuclear Test
For the second day in a row, Pyongyang raised the ante on rhetoric suggesting it might conduct a prohibited nuclear or missile test in violation of numerous United Nations resolutions. North Korea may conduct either test to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Korea Workers Party on October 10. While satellite imagery previously… -
news
Refugee Crisis Has European Union Grappling With Its Destiny
As Europe has struggled to articulate a collective response to a flood of refugees from the Middle East and Africa, Germany has positioned itself as the continent’s good cop, coming to the rescue with a vow to take in 800,000 migrants. With that pledge, German Chancellor Angela Merkel hoped to inspire the European Union’s 27… -
news
At Home With Dave Brat: Conservative Who Ousted Eric Cantor Sees Little Change in Washington
GLEN ALLEN, VA.—Rep. Dave Brat is weaving his way through a crowd of businessmen and women at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College, stopping to shake hands and say hello to nearly all of the 50 attendees who’ve come to watch him speak. To those observing the Republican congressman, it seems as if he knows nearly… -
opinion
China Just Sent a Message to America: Don’t Mess With Us
Napoleon Bonaparte is credited with saying some 200 years ago that “China is a sleeping giant. Let him sleep, for when he wakes, he will shake the world.” Pretty spot on, don’t you think? China’s stock market and questions about the Middle Kingdom’s economic future have certainly shaken up world markets in recent weeks, but… -
opinion
Five Key Points on Europe’s Refugee Crisis
In the wake of civil war in Syria, the rise of the Islamic State (ISIS), an Islamist ascendancy in Libya, and a series of conflicts in the Middle East and North and East Africa, hundreds of thousands of people have made their way to Europe, seeking asylum as refugees. Some of those fleeing war zones… -
opinion
Chinese Military Parade Sends Multiple Signals
In honor of the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) staged a major military parade, featuring some 12,000 troops and major displays of new equipment. Prominent among these was the DF-21D, the so-called “carrier killer” anti-ship ballistic missile. The parading of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA)’s… -
opinion
The Connection Between China’s Stock Market Collapse and Its Past Spectacular Growth
In mid-June, China’s Shanghai Composite Index was up a dazzling 60 percent since the beginning of the year. It was the highest level in more than six years. Some took it as a sign that the recent weakness in China’s economy would be short-lived. Yet it is only a little more than two months later,… -
opinion
Iran Could Outsource Its Nuclear Program to North Korea
Of the myriad of mind-blowing flaws contained in the Iran nuclear deal—a subject that has dominated the foreign policy debate across the country this summer—there’s one angle that hasn’t gotten enough attention. It’s the possibility that Iran could outsource its nuclear program. In other words, Tehran could play along with the P5+1 (China, France, Germany,… -
opinion
Europe Gives Trinidad the Charlie Brown Treatment
The nations that have ratified the controversial Arms Trade Treaty, which seeks to regulate the international sale of conventional arms, concluded their first meeting last week in Cancun. One order of business at the four-day meeting was to pick the location for the Arms Trade Treaty’s headquarters – its secretariat. And when the time to… -
news
Math Teacher Who Arrived Late to Work 111 Times Allowed to Keep His Job
In a decision that reinvigorated some of the frustrations between teacher unions and the public school system, a New Jersey elementary school teacher who blamed being late to work 111 times over the past two years on “eating breakfast” was allowed to keep his job. “I have a bad habit of eating breakfast in the… -
opinion
South Korea Looks To China for Help With Aggressive North Korea
South Korean President Park Geun-hye traveled to Beijing this week to attend events commemorating the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. She met with Chinese President Xi Jinping to discuss North Korea—both the regime’s recent provocations and the nascent effort at inter-Korean reconciliation. Both leaders warned North Korea against committing further provocations….