French presidential careers tend to begin euphorically, screech to a halt in the face of protests over promises becoming policy and end somewhere between indifference and contempt when voters bring out the ballot-box equivalent of the guillotine. The results of regional elections seemed to prove the pattern. President Emmanuel Macron’s party racked up a humiliating defeat less than a year ...

As US troops prepare to leave Afghanistan after nearly 20 years of combat, the situation on the ground could hardly be more disheartening. Taliban insurgents are already racking up battlefield gains; deprived of US close air support and help maintaining its equipment, the Afghan military may well crumble against concerted onslaught. Al-Qaeda maintains ties to the Taliban and could pose ...

Bloomberg Jacob Zuma, who’s been repeatedly implicated in aiding and abetting the plunder of state funds during the near decade he led South Africa, was sentenced to 15 months in jail for defying a court order to testify at a graft inquiry. The Constitutional Court ruled in January that Zuma had to respond to questions from a judicial commission headed ...