Turkey came out in favor of an independent Kurdistan this weekend, while Israel renewed its vocal support.

Carl Gershman, Thomas Carothers, and Daniel Calingaert spoke on a panel entitled “How Can We Do Better at Promoting Democracy?” as part of a recent conference on “Re-thinking Democracy Promotion Amid Rising Authoritarianism.” The conference was jointly sponsored by The American Interest, Freedom House, and Johns Hopkins-SAIS.

As it expands its reach, ISIS has proclaimed the territory under its control to be an Islamic empire. How will will regional governments, not to mention other jihadi groups, respond to the new “caliphate”?

A fine piece of reporting in the WSJ shows us why Ukraine is, and is likely to remain, pathetically weak and resistant to reform.

Scientists have figured out how drug-resistant bacteria use a protein to build their “defensive barriers,” and thus, how that protein could be inhibited. This is big news in the war on bacteria.

Fledgling projects seek to fight Islamic extremism by introducing critical thinking and the scientific method to Arab societies. They may already be influencing education and government-run media.

Argentina tried to play fast and loose with a Supreme Court ruling this week, but a New York judge smacked it down.

A team from Cornell University has designed a microchip that can be inserted directly into plants to tell farmers exactly when their crops need watering. This is very good news for Gaia.

Good afternoon, TAI readers! We hope you’ve had a restful weekend. As you gear up for the week ahead, take a look at what you may have missed on the site during the week we’ve left behind:

The religious news out of the Middle East isn’t unrelentingly bad this week. Our Lady of Arabia, the first Catholic cathedral in Bahrain, is slated to be built on land donated by the country’s king himself.