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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news
The Daring Escape From a North Korean Prison That Took One Life but Saved Another
SEOUL, South Korea—North Korea will be at the top of the agenda when President Barack Obama meets with his South Korean counterpart Park Geun-hye at the White House Friday. Shining light on North Korea’s human rights abuses has been a priority of activist Shin Dong-hyuk for a decade. He wants the international community to know… -
opinion
Masters of Psychological Warfare: How the Chinese Are Winning a Secret War
The comprehensive nature of issues discussed during Xi Jinping’s visit once again illuminated the extent of China’s political and social influence in the United States. On October 6, The Heritage Foundation, in cooperation with The Project 2049 Institute, cosponsored the public program event “Influence Operations: Chinese Political Warfare in East Asia and Beyond.” The event… -
news
As Obama’s Time in Office Lengthens, Number of Democrats Who Think Government Has Too Much Power Has Grown
A Gallup poll released Friday shows that 60 percent of Americans believe that the federal government has too much power. Where once distrust of government power was a distinctly conservative trait during President Barack Obama’s presidency, now the concern about increasing federal power has crept across party lines and brought the level of distrust for the government… -
opinion
Putin Is Not a Child. Obama Should Stop Treating Him Like One.
In last Friday’s press conference, President Obama called Vladimir Putin’s incursion in Syria “an act of weakness.” It’s his pat answer when Putin misbehaves. The White House likes to portray the Kremlin as a place filled with petulant children who don’t understand what’s in their own best interest and will one day rue their misguided… -
news
Meet the Single Mom Who Took On the IRS
Sabina Loving always knew she wanted to work for herself. So much so that, when an abandoned storefront was renovated and became available for rent across the street from her house on the South Side of Chicago in 2010, she decided that one day she would operate her budding tax-preparation business out of it. “When… -
opinion
North Korea Will Launch a Missile, but Not on Oct. 10th
It had become an article of faith among the media and punditgentsia that North Korea would launch a long-range missile on Oct. 10 to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Korea Workers Party. But while Pyongyang has been publicly emphatic about having the sovereign right and intent to launch, it never declared… -
opinion
Meet Bill Main, a Tour Guide Who Fought D.C. to Be Able to Give Tours Without Government Permission
Many politicians want to know what holds workers back. Too often they don’t need to look any farther than the laws they pass. One in three jobs in the economy now requires government permission to hold. Workers without a license can’t work in them. This makes sense for surgeons and pharmacists. But many jobs, like… -
news
21 Questions With Washington Florist Who Refused to Serve Gay Wedding
Barronelle Stutzman, more commonly known as the “Washington florist,” came under fire this year for refusing to make flower arrangements for a gay couple’s wedding. Stutzman, owner of Arlene’s Flowers in Richland, Wash., cited her Christian religious beliefs about marriage. After she was labeled a “bigot” by those who oppose her, The Daily Signal sat down with… -
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…