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
How China’s One-Child Policy Is Setting Nation Up for Economic Crisis
China is missing out on its biggest economic asset: its people. Economist Nicholas Eberstadt estimates that, even if Beijing were to eliminate its one-child policy today, Chinese economic growth would still decline in the 2020s, because the next generation’s working-age population is already so markedly small. Since implementation in 1979, the one-child policy has reduced… -
opinion
Why Michelle Obama Was Wrong to Trash America at the UN
In her speech to the United Nations this week, first lady Michelle Obama chose to highlight some of the negative things women face in the United States today. Successful women don’t have time to get sidetracked by gender-equality debates. “Women here are still woefully underrepresented in our government and in the senior ranks of our… -
opinion
3 Key Areas Obama Should Focus on in Talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the United States presents an historic opportunity to further deepen U.S. relations with India. India, the world’s largest democracy, has the potential to become a key U.S. partner in the decades ahead. Unfortunately, the Obama administration has neglected the relationship and failed to build on the significant accomplishments… -
opinion
China’s Coercive One Child Policy Turns 34
Few can forget the image that circulated online a few years ago. A young Chinese woman lay exhausted in a hospital bed, staring hopelessly at the body of her baby girl, reportedly killed after a forced abortion at seven months. Feng Jianmei and her baby daughter were victims of China’s coercive, unrelenting one-child policy that… -
opinion
Obama’s UN Speech: Long on Rhetoric, Short on Substance
President Barack Obama’s 2014 speech to the United Nations General Assembly today highlighted a number of major crises facing the world today, but it focused particularly on the responsibility of nations “to observe and enforce international norms” and reject “the cancer of violent extremism.” In substance, though, it was a strangely bipolar speech. Obama laid… -
news
Obama’s 4 Ways for UN to Beat ISIS ‘Network of Death’
In a speech before the United Nations General Assembly today, President Obama presented his case for a global effort to defeat the Islamic State terrorist group, vowing to engage a broad coalition to dismantle the brutal jihadists’ “network of death.” Obama delivered his address two days after he expanded the American-led air campaign against the Islamic State,… -
opinion
‘I Think Our Values Are Better’: UK’s Liam Fox Talks the West and Islamic State Threat
Daily Signal’s Genevieve Wood talks to Liam Fox, former United Kingdom defense secretary and a conservative member of parliament, about ISIS and what must be done. “Now why are we not saying that religious tolerance is better than imposed orthodoxy, than equal rights for women is better than a frankly misogynistic view of the world?”… -
news
David Letterman Thinks He Knows Who The White House Intruder Is
On Monday, David Letterman discussed the recent string of security breaches at the White House. “This is crazy,” said Letterman. “You want to go to the White House, just hop the fence!” This month alone, there have been three separate individuals who attempted to jump over the fence, one of whom actually made it inside… -
news
Australia Foils Terror Plot to Randomly Behead Civilians
Australian security officials say they stopped a suspected plan by Islamist extremists to capture random citizens and behead them in public and on camera. More than 800 security personnel raided 25 homes across two cities early yesterday morning in what authorities said was the largest counterterrorism raid ever conducted in Australia. Authorities said they arrested… -
opinion
Russia Propaganda Rises Again: Fake Maps Depict a Much Smaller Ukraine
Russian propaganda specialists, political technologists if you will, are flooding the Internet with redrawn maps of Ukraine, shrinking the country to half its actual size. On the new Russian maps, all that’s left of Ukraine is western Ukraine. Eastern Ukraine has been renamed Novorossiya (New Russia). The brain behind the Russian propaganda surge is former… -
opinion
The Party Is Over in China, for Now
The current anti-corruption campaign underway in China is the real deal. What first appeared to be a convenient way to eliminate political opponents when President Xi took power in late 2012 has morphed into a campaign than no one could have imagined. In 18 months, nearly a quarter million officials and others have been held… -
opinion
Would a Newly Independent Scotland Be Able to Join NATO, EU?
Scots go to the polls Thursday to decide whether to continue life within the United Kingdom or as an independent country. That is their choice and they have the right to make it without outside interference. But they also have a right to make an educated decision. So how could Scotland’s decision influence its relations… -
opinion
Japan’s Lousy Economy Is a Warning for U.S.
Japan is flush with national pride this week, thanks to Kei Nishikori, the tennis phenom who knocked off seemingly indestructible Novak Djokovic to reach the U.S. Open finals and become the first Japanese to reach a grand slam final ever. If only Japan's economy could perform half as well. For also this week, Tokyo announced… -
news
Geography Lesson for Top Obama Aide: Syria Doesn’t Border Saudi Arabia
Speaking to reporters before President Obama’s Wednesday night address on the terrorist group ISIS, a senior administration official mentioned Saudi Arabia’s “extensive border” with Syria. Trouble is, Saudi Arabia and Syria share no border. The senior Obama administration official, who was not identified by name under well-established rules, was speaking about 6 p.m. on a… -
opinion
A Nuclear-Capable NATO: Requirement for Deterrence
With the recent aggression by Russia in eastern Ukraine, NATO allies, especially those in the Baltic and Eastern Europe, have become increasingly concerned about a Russian occupation. NATO’s ability and will to meet the Russian threat has come under scrutiny from security experts. Former national security advisors Brent Scowcroft, Stephen J. Hadley, and former Defense… -
news
Bishop Who Led Prayer After Cruz Heckling Says Texas Senator ‘Came Out Slugging’
After Sen. Ted Cruz was booed off the stage at a gathering of Middle Eastern Christians for making pro-Israel comments, a New York bishop stood before the frantic audience to lead a prayer for him. In an interview with The Daily Signal today, Bishop Gregory Mansour of the Maronite Eparchy of Saint Maron of Brooklyn said he… -
news
Teens Who Smoke Pot Daily 60 Percent Less Likely to Graduate From High School
Teens who smoke marijuana daily are over 60 percent less likely to graduate from high school than their peers who never use, according to a study released this month. According to The Lancet Psychiatry, a British health research journal, teens who smoke marijuana daily are “also 60 percent less likely to graduate college and seven times more… -
opinion
Heritage at the NATO Summit
Last week, I participated in the Future Leaders Summit at the venue of the NATO summit in Wales, dubbed the most important summit in NATO’s history. The Future Leaders Summit, part of the Atlantic Council’s Young Atlanticist Program, offered young leaders an opportunity to interact with senior representatives from NATO member states and other countries…. -
opinion
Poverty, Not Climate Change, Bigger Concern for China and India
According to a recent news story, President Xi Jinping of China and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India will not attend the upcoming UN climate summit. The clear, but unsaid, implication is that the two most populous and still poor countries do not want to attend a bashing of CO2 emitters—of which they are major… -
news
‘Horrific, Hellish and Awful’: Ohio Man Treats Ebola in Africa, Helps Save U.S. Aid Workers
Dr. Kent Brantly, the American doctor infected with Ebola while working in West Africa, only saw Tim Mosher’s eyes. As part of his mission in Liberia with the nonprofit aid group Samaritan’s Purse, Mosher treated Brantly, a colleague whom he had never formally met but whose life he was now helping save. With six or…