Opinion

  As President Vladimir Putin further tightens his grip on power after dubious elections that gave his party an absolute majority, Russia is sliding into protracted stagnation. The Economics Ministry has adjusted downward its forecast through 2019 and Russia is now expected to underperform the global economy even more than previously anticipated. That is the background against which Putin’s continued …

  The U.S. is still fighting a war in Afghanistan and has troops in Iraq, the Iranian nuclear deal remains controversial, the Islamic State is weakened but continues to be threatening, North Korea is launching missiles, Russia flaunts international norms and China has expansionary designs. It’s a dangerous world. Yet in the U.S. presidential election the foreign policy debate chiefly …

  The movement to pardon NSA leaker Edward Snowden is picking up momentum, with human-rights groups, editorial boards, the Libertarian candidate for president and some former intelligence officers hopping on board. Even Eric Holder, the former attorney general, has said Snowden performed a “public service.” But to show leniency for the man now enjoying Vladimir Putin’s hospitality in Moscow would …

  The non-oil tourism sector is one of the key cornerstones of the UAE’s economic diversification plan. And the country is giving the much-needed impetus to the segment. The Dubai Opera, Guggenheim and Louvre Museums in Abu Dhabi, Warner Bros. theme park in Yas Island and Dubai’s Mohammed bin Rashid City District One are the latest projects in the list …

Shortly after British voters defied the leaders of both major political parties by deciding in June to leave the European Union, it was tempting to write the political obituary of Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn. His party’s polling was at a three-decade low. Most of his shadow cabinet resigned, furious that he was a no-show during the Brexit campaign. Labour …

  There is a certain tragic irony in the fact that a crackdown on U.S. colleges with low graduation rates was announced during the very week when the Times Higher Education Supplement published its annual list of the world’s best universities. The coincidence provokes the thought that there is too much of this going on. By “this” I mean the …

  A recent survey by Datincorp, a Caracas-based pollster, found that some 57 percent of Venezuelans wanted to leave the country. That number, up from 49 percent just four months ago, is just one facet of the rolling collapse in South America’s most benighted nation, which has gone from oil powerhouse to global exporter of people in a little over …

  Donald Trump has few supporters in liberal Silicon Valley — even Peter Thiel, the PayPal co-founder and Facebook board member, who spoke for the Republican nominee at the Republican National Convention, hasn’t given a cent to the campaign. Yet the tech world doesn’t unanimously favour Democrats. Consider, for example, the financial support that Oculus founder Palmer Luckey has given …

  It’s hard to be a Bush these days. Liberals still condemn the most recent President Bush for “lying us into war” in Iraq. Even if you credit George W. Bush with benign intentions, his record is undeniably grim. In foreign policy, fiscal policy and much else — including its catastrophic inattention to the aims and capabilities of Osama bin …

  The federal government will shut down at the end of the month unless Congress can pass a continuing resolution to keep the doors open. And Congress just left for the weekend with things looking bleak indeed. Unresolved is funding for efforts to fight the Zika virus, to help Flint, Michigan, deal with its drinking-water crisis, and to aid in …