Angela and Recep
Turkey, Germany and the West

A spat over detained human rights activists points to deeper festering problems.

MUJAHID SAFODIEN/AFP/Getty Images
Democracy in South Africa
The Zuma Dynasty?

Many will breathe a sigh of relief when Jacob Zuma leaves office. But what if his ex-wife succeeds him?

Conceding Syria
Trump Ends Support to Anti-Assad Rebels

There are good reasons to re-think U.S. commitments in Syria. But ending support to the rebels will pose real costs for no clear benefit.

American Balkanization
NYT Soft-Pedals Soft Secession

California, New York, and lesser liberal states are inaugurating something new and dangerous in American politics.

blue reform?
Do Centrist Dems Have a Future?

There are still Democrats who occupy something like the liberal center that Bill Clinton helped forge in the 1990s.

Market Forces
Trump Can’t Change Coal’s New Reality

A railroad CEO is grim about coal’s future in America.

Market Failure
California’s Green Policies Are Going Haywire

Between its broken carbon market and its out of control solar industry, little is going to plan in the Golden state.

SHARON FARMER/AFP/Getty Images
The Peace Process
How to Turn the “Ultimate Deal” into the Ultimate Failure: Ignore the Past

Three lessons the Trump Administration must learn if it wants to avoid a costly and embarrassing failure.

Optics My Dear Boy
The Private Putin Meeting and Trump’s Legitimacy

Trump’s willingness to meet with Putin without even an American interpreter present was at best a sign that he hasn’t mastered some of the most basic elements of his job.

overregulated
California Wakes Up to Housing Cataclysm

Stifling building restrictions in one of America’s most progressive states have choked off access to housing for people of modest means.

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