President Jacob Zuma has survived yet another attempt to oust him, beating back a no-confidence vote in South Africa’s parliament. A Pyrrhic victory for Zuma’s supporters in the ruling African National Congress, the outcome is a clear loss for the rest of the country. Tuesday’s vote was instigated by the opposition last spring, after Zuma fired his respected finance minister, …

The diligence of congressional Republicans in holding Donald Trump’s presidency in check has so far inspired little confidence. Even some Republicans have been disappointed. “To carry on in the spring of 2017 as if what was happening was anything approaching normalcy required a determined suspension of critical faculties,” Republican Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona wrote. “And tremendous powers of denial.” …

Andrea Jones-Rooy recently made a very interesting economic argument in the pages of FiveThirtyEight. She claimed that President Donald Trump’s proposal to reinstate a ban on Americans travelling to Cuba might actually help that island nation’s economy: Cuba is showing few signs of economic diversification: It is already suffering a domestic brain drain. … The government also still manages most …