Politics

Lee Jones explains why economic sanctions aren’t a very useful tool. Here he addresses whether sanctions helped produce the nuclear deal:

I’m late to the much-discussed New York Times Magazine profile of Ben Rhodes, the 38-year-old White House staffer who is President Obama’s “foreign policy guru.” This paragraph early in the piece lets you know (you might think) what an arrogant piece of work is Ben Rhodes. Emphasis mine:

Hundreds took to the streets of the Moldova’s capital Chisinau, on Sunday to protest against a display of NATO and US military vehicles. US and NATO soldiers had organized an exhibition of military vehicles and equipment on a central square in Chisinau earlier in the day, but were forced to leave following the demonstration. Russia Today reports: The exhibition of US military equipment on the city’s Great National Assembly Square on Sunday was presented as part of the V-Day celebrations, but instead provoked hundreds of protesters to take to the streets in outrage.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump wants to build a wall to keep foreigners out and Secretary of State John Kerry calls for a “borderless world.” Isn’t there a better option?

Two weeks after Austria's dramatic result in its first round presidential elections which saw the right wing, anti-immigrant Freedom Party sweeping its competition, gathering over 35% of the vote and leaving the other five candidates far behind, moments ago Austria unveiled the latest casualty from Europe's anti-refugee, right wing revulsion when the country's Chancellor Werner Faymann resigned after losing the support of his colleagues in the Social Democratic party.