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
State Department Announces Plans to Circumvent US Law in Order to Advance Climate Agenda
State Department spokesman John Kirby announced that the Obama administration plans to circumvent U.S. law in order to advance its climate agenda. This should come as no surprise, as the president has already circumvented the Constitution through not submitting what is clearly an international climate change treaty to the Senate. U.S. funding for the United Nations… -
opinion
Bank of Japan May Further Increase Asset Purchases This Month
For almost a year and a half the Bank of Japan has been purchasing assets at around 7 trillion Yen (roughly $64 billion) a month, mostly in the form of Japanese government bonds, in an attempt to boost inflation and the economy. The Bank of Japan now respectively owns assets equivalent to over 77 percent… -
opinion
China Flexes Its Military Muscles While America Does Nothing
In the last few days, China has undertaken several new military actions. These include landing a military aircraft on one of their new artificial islands in the South China Sea, a visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to a newly established military headquarters, and testing a new ICBM. The purpose is simple: To send messages… -
opinion
North Korea May Be Preparing Another Nuclear Test
South Korea announced that it is monitoring increased activity indicative of another nuclear test at North Korea’s Punggyi nuclear test site. The South Korean Ministry of Defense commented that Pyongyang has the capability to conduct its fifth nuclear test anytime. It is expected the test would occur before the important North Korean Workers’ Party Congress–the… -
news
Former Soviet Fighter Pilot: Russian Jets ‘More Aggressive’ Than During Cold War
KYIV, Ukraine—As the NATO-Russia Council prepared to meet for the first time in almost two years, U.S. and Russian officials traded barbs over who’s to blame for a recent spike in military tensions. The ambassadorial level meeting set for Wednesday at alliance headquarters in Brussels was to be the first time the format, which comprises NATO… -
news
America’s Iran ‘Tilt’ Likely Topic as Obama Visits Saudi Arabia
President Barack Obama will visit Saudi Arabia Wednesday trying to salvage what he can from a historically stable partnership that has frayed over differing priorities related to major issues like the Syrian civil war and Iranian influence. As the Obama administration has focused its policies on defeating the Islamic State in Syria over ousting its… -
opinion
South Africa Is Losing the War Against Corruption
Once a model for emerging African democracies, South Africa is now mired in corruption that undermines its economy, provokes social unrest, and betrays the dreams and trust of millions of South Africans. South African President Jacob Zuma easily survived an April 5 impeachment vote in parliament, thanks to the large majority party he heads, the… -
news
White Man Tells College Kids He Identifies as Asian Woman. Here’s What Happened.
Can someone change his gender identity? What about his racial identity? And what about his height identity? Those are the questions one man posed to college students in Washington state. -
news
The 2 Million Voters Who Will Elect the Next President
There may be over 300 million people living in America, but a new book makes the case that it’s the 2 million living in just seven battleground counties that will ultimately decide who our next president will be. In “Going Red,” conservative columnist and HotAir senior editor Ed Morrissey weaves together both the data and… -
opinion
The Russian Propaganda War on Reality
The Russian government’s reliance on propaganda to advance its aggressive agenda and control its own population should give the West pause before partnering with Vladimir Putin. In an April 14 three-hour marathon call-in show on Russian television, for instance, Putin attacked American “imperial ambitions”—hardly an accusation that fits the Obama administration’s approach to the world. It… -
opinion
Why China’s Economy Is on Borrowed Time
On Friday China announced its economy had expanded at a 6.7 percent rate in the first quarter of 2016. While this is the slowest growth since the depths of the great recession, it conveniently remains within the government’s official target of 6.5-7.0 percent. Unlike all developed countries, there will be no revisions to this figure… -
news
Panama Papers and Political Turmoil Deal Ukraine a Reality Check
KYIV, Ukraine—The sniper’s bullet went into the head of the man standing in front of Valentyn Onyshchenko. Blood and brain matter sprayed into Onyshchenko’s face with enough force to break the then-21-year-old’s eyeglasses. “Like a robot” he weaved through the thousands of protesters gathered in central Kyiv for the February 2014 revolution. He went to… -
opinion
Failed Obama ‘Reset’ Has Encouraged Russian Aggression
People seem a bit surprised—even perplexed—by the breathless news reports and video of Russian warplanes “buzzing” an American warship operating in international waters in the Baltic Sea this week. The reality is that they shouldn’t be. That, of course, isn’t to say that we shouldn’t be deeply troubled for the safety of our sailors on… -
opinion
Russia and China Increase Defense Spending While US Continues Cutting
Every year at this time, we see the same kind of headlines: “U.S. biggest military spender in the world.” They’re all based on the release of the global military spending database, an annual report compiled by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). What the headlines usually miss is that U.S. defense spending is going… -
opinion
The Absurd Demands of Harvard Students Who Feel Guilty About Their ‘Privilege’
Where direct regulation does not change hearts and minds, America’s universities have long used indoctrination. At Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, for example, student orientation now includes instruction in “privilege.” If you aren’t already aware, “privilege” is a term employed in conversation as a way to encourage the listener to recognize that his or her… -
news
Ukraine’s Prime Minister Calls It Quits, Pressure Mounts to Form New Coalition
KYIV, Ukraine—In a televised address Sunday, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk announced he would step down Tuesday, marking the end of a two-month-long political crisis. “We cannot allow destabilization of the executive branch during a war,” Yatsenyuk said. Ukrainian forces are still battling combined Russian-separatist forces in a 2-year-old war that has killed more than… -
news
US Needs NATO Now as Much as Ever, Student of the Alliance Says
Policy leaders are reflecting on the legacy and future of NATO this week, the anniversary of the alliance’s creation 67 years ago. One of them is Luke Coffey, director of the Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation. “[U.S.] involvement in NATO means that Europe stays relatively secure and calm. And we’re… -
news
Kyiv, Washington Agree: Russian Threat Isn’t Going Away
KYIV, Ukraine—The Ukraine war is going into its third year, and leaders in Washington and Kyiv are bracing for the possibility that Russian military brinkmanship may be the new status quo in Eastern Europe. In Ukraine, some worry the time soon may be ripe for an uptick in the Russian-backed war in the eastern part… -
opinion
You’d Better Believe NATO Still Matters Today
Recently there have been some who have questioned NATO’s importance in the 21st century. Europe is currently experiencing a belligerent and aggressive Russia with old-school 18th-century imperial ambitions. The answer is—very important. Europe is currently experiencing a belligerent and aggressive Russia with old-school 18th-century imperial ambitions. While Russia’s actions in Ukraine may seem unimportant to… -
opinion
We Need a President Who Will Lead in Asia
Whoever occupies the Oval Office in 2017 will face security threats around the world—including in Asia. Stability in Asia is currently being threatened by North Korea’s growing military capabilities, China’s increasingly aggressive behavior, historical animosities, and rising nationalism. Withdrawing from the world and raising the isolationist drawbridge didn’t work in the 1930s and wouldn’t work…