Politics

This year is shaping up to be the most unconventional moment in American politics in a generation. A race that mere months ago seemed to promise yet another Bush vs. another Clinton has so far given us instead the populist insurgencies of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. Whether or not either of them gets his party’s nomination, the neoliberal consensus of the past two decades seems about to shatter. Free trade, immigration, waging war for democracy, and even the relative merits of capitalism and “democratic socialism” have all come into question.

Ramesh Ponnru makes a good case that the U.S. shouldn’t take sides in the U.K. debate over “Brexit”:

Cape Breton Island in Canada’s Nova Scotia is inviting weary Americans to make it their new home should Republican real estate billionaire Donald Trump win the White House in November. The Hill reports: “Hi Americans!” a statement on a tourism website for Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, reads. “Donald Trump may become the next president of your country.

President Putin made an unusual and urgent call to King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud on Wednesday after the leader of Saudi Arabia refused to speak to President Obama on the upcoming Syrian ceasefire later this week – a situation which risked a World War if left unresolved. The Saudi king spoke to Putin about the nature of the Russian-US ceasefire agreement in Syria, before agreeing to cooperate with it. “The king of Saudi Arabia welcomed the reached agreements and expressed readiness to cooperate with Russia for their implementation,” The Kremlin reports.