Foreign ministers of El Salvador and China, Carlos Castaneda and Wang Yi, celebrate a toast at a signing ceremony to mark the establishment of diplomatic relations between El Salvador and China, Beijing, Aug. 21, 2018 (AP photo by Mark Schiefelbein).

El Salvador’s decision last month to cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan and establish relations with China came as a blow to Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, who condemned Beijing for “increasingly out-of-control international behavior.” The move also prompted a harsh response from the United States, as the White House expressed “grave concern” and accused China of “political interference in the Western Hemisphere.” However, according to R. Evan Ellis, a research professor of Latin American studies at the U.S. Army War College, both Washington and Taipei may be powerless to prevent more countries from following suit. In an email interview, he explains […]

Tourists stand under the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Aug. 2, 2018 (AP photo by Michel Euler).

PARIS—What does the world look like when you’re not watching it? Every year at the end of August, I have the chance to answer that question when, for two weeks, I unplug and check out of the online media sphere. Often, with the help of my archaic non-smart phone, I’ve been able to remain entirely out of reach of the internet and email. This year, I limited my “staycation” news consumption to a morning glance at The New York Times homepage. By some odd fluke, my August media fast has often meant learning about major news events the old-fashioned way: […]

A protester holds a sign that reads, “CSU where is your Christian-social conscience?”, Munich, Germany, July 22, 2018 (Photo by Alexander Pohl for Sipa USA via AP Images).

BERLIN — Earlier this summer, the leaders of Bavaria’s conservative Christian Social Union, the sister party to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats, threatened to bring down the German government in a showdown with Merkel over stricter measures for refugees and asylum-seekers. The move was largely seen as an attempt by the party, which is facing a challenge from the far-right, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany, or AfD, to prove it was tough enough on migration issues. It didn’t work out the way they intended. Two months after Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, the head of the CSU, first went head-to-head with Merkel, […]

An MD 530F military helicopter targets a house where attackers were hiding, Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 21, 2018 (AP photo by Rahmat Gul).

Aug. 11 was the beginning of a very difficult week in Afghanistan. After several weeks of growing pressure from the Taliban, over 1,000 of its fighters attacked Ghazni, a city of 270,000 that straddles the vitally important Highway 1 linking Kabul with the south of the country. The attack on Ghazni brought back haunting memories of the battle for Kunduz in the summer of 2015, when the Taliban seized control of a major Afghan city for the first time since 2001. A series of Taliban attacks across several neighboring provinces compounded an already bad situation. In the Ghormach district of […]

Migrants sit in front of Spanish police officers at the port of Algeciras, southern Spain, July 31, 2018 (AP photo by Marcos Moreno).

MALAGA, Spain—On a recent Wednesday morning, Montee Thompson sat on the edge of a concrete planter box outside the central bus station in this coastal town in southern Spain, where palm trees dot the landscape and, during the summer months, tourists come by the busload to sun themselves on the beach. The 36-year-old was unsure of where he was, or what he should do next. Originally from Liberia, Thompson had arrived in Spain the previous weekend, having traveled from Morocco in a small rubber boat carrying 15 other men. The group spent nearly a full day adrift at sea before […]

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, left, and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang attend a welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Aug. 20, 2018 (AP photo by Andy Wong).

Editor’s note: This article is part of an ongoing WPR series about China’s ‘Belt and Road’ Initiative, a major infrastructure and development program across Eurasia. Speaking to reporters on the final day of a five-day visit to China last month, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad announced that his government would cancel three major Chinese-financed infrastructure projects due to concerns over the projects’ costs and debt burdens. The announcement came as other Chinese-financed projects in Pakistan and Sri Lanka—part of the country’s sweeping Belt and Road Initiative—ran into trouble. In an email interview, Yun Sun, director of the China Program at […]

President Donald Trump talks on the phone with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto in the Oval Office of the White House, Washington, Aug. 27, 2018 (AP photo by Evan Vucci).

To ancient Greeks, the dog days of summer came when the star Sirius, known as the dog star, was positioned prominently above the horizon just before sunrise. The star was linked with disaster, even war, at the height of a hot summer. Its meaning evolved over the centuries as it was translated from ancient Greek to Latin and, eventually, English. In Washington this summer, U.S. trade policy has suffered through its own version of the dog days. There was the lethargy associated with trying to resolve the trade war with China. There was the sudden storm of President Donald Trump […]

Showing 69 - 75 of 75First 1 3 4 5