Commentary
Commentary: Merkel’s moral authority sets direction for Europe
Germans choose a government on September 24, and that government is likely to be headed, for the twelfth year running, by Angela Merkel. The uncharismatic 63-year-old from East Germany may not have captured her fellow Germans’ hearts, but she has appealed so strongly to their rational selves that polls suggest they find no reason to replace her.
Commentary: How good government can limit hurricane damage
The flood waters have not yet entirely receded from Houston and the Gulf Coast, but Texas Governor Greg Abbott is already talking about damage on the order of $180 billion, which would make Hurricane Harvey the most expensive storm in U.S. history. Meanwhile, Hurricane Irma is rolling into South Florida, threatening massive damage to another heavily populated region.
Commentary: Here’s what a realistic Ukraine settlement may look like
U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis wants the Trump administration to supply Ukraine with “defensive weapons” to combat the Russian-supported separatists occupying parts of eastern Ukraine's Donbass region. On a recent visit to Kiev, Mattis told a news conference that these weapons “are not provocative unless you are an aggressor, and clearly Ukraine is not an aggressor.”
Commentary: Europe bursts out of its Brexit blues
These are unexpectedly good times for the European Union. More than a year after Britons voted to withdraw from the organization, the euro has hit eight-year highs against the pound, eurozone economies have recorded improved growth and voters have rejected far-right populists in France and the Netherlands.
Commentary: Britain’s deluded hopes for a painless free-trade deal
Watching the slow-motion crash of Britain’s exit negotiations with the European Union is a disconcerting experience. A state that once ran a global empire is looking second-rate as the government’s implausible expectations about what it may be able to achieve in the talks are dashed. The British lack of realism, especially about vital future trading arrangements with the EU, reflects divisions within a government weakened after Prime Minister Theresa May lost her Conservative majority at the general election in June. But it also shows the government’s dismaying lack of historical and strategic understanding about how Britain lost its clout outside the European club more than half a century ago.
Commentary: Britain stumbles toward a new deal with the U.S.
To paraphrase a former U.S. secretary of state, Britain has lost a community but not yet found a friend. That the island is adrift became ever clearer last week as British officials made little progress in their third round of talks over the best way to exit the European Union.
Commentary: The downside of banning Americans from North Korea
Sixty-four years after North Korea and the United States signed an armistice to suspend the Korean War, the U.S. State Department has forbidden American citizens from traveling to the hermit state. The notice was put in the federal register on August 2; it becomes effective on Friday.
Commentary: A win for Trump’s gas diplomacy
Last week, American liquefied natural gas (LNG) made its way to the somewhat unlikely market of Lithuania. The former Soviet republic traditionally bought its gas from Russian state company Gazprom; this was its first shipment from the United States. For President Donald Trump, that must have been a gratifying sign of the success of his administration’s nascent energy diplomacy.
Commentary: Putin's weird war gets ever riskier
September will be a nervous month in Eastern Europe. On September 14, Russia will unleash what may be its largest military exercise since the Cold War. In Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and elsewhere, officials are openly concerned that the “Zapad (‘West’) 2017” drills near their borders will be used as cover for a military attack.
Commentary: The conservative case for Republicans to stop lawmaking in secret
When Congressional Republicans return from recess next week without anything to show for their party’s unified control of Washington, it will be time for them to attempt something radical: a return to regular order in both houses of Congress.
Commentary: Beyond regular security, another way to prevent extremist attacks
Spain’s counter-terrorism laws are among the toughest in Europe. Its immigration policies are restrictive and the razor-wire fences at its borders are menacing. Yet this didn’t deter a group of young, male, Muslim immigrants – some born in Morocco, some in Spain to Moroccan immigrant families – from turning violently on their neighbors on August 17, killing 15 people in a series of attacks in and around Barcelona.
Commentary: As global hostilities rise, Trump is no help
"Not this August, nor this September," wrote Ernest Hemingway in the summer of 1935 as international tensions in Europe and beyond began to simmer. "But the year after that or the year after that, they fight."
Commentary: The fight for internet freedom in Trump's America
One of the great things about America is that if you don’t like the government, you have the right to speak out against it. Since President Donald Trump took office in January, ordinary citizens have been voicing dissent on the Internet and in the streets. Recently, an extraordinary request from the Department of Justice (DOJ) threatened to make people increasingly afraid to exercise that right.
Commentary: Bannon’s departure may harm U.S. foreign policy
Steve Bannon made many enemies during his stormy seven-month tenure at the White House. He clashed with Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner as well as top economic advisers and national security adviser H.R. McMaster. Bannon was also a divisive force for the country, instrumental in decisions like the travel ban barring people from several Muslim majority policies from entering the United States; a supporter of building a wall with Mexico, and a conservative blamed for stoking white voters’ resentment towards minorities.
Commentary: The elephant in the room at the NAFTA talks
The first round of long-awaited talks on modernizing NAFTA finished Sunday, with Canada, Mexico and the United States issuing a statement that they had made “detailed conceptual presentations “ of their positions. Negotiators from the three countries will meet again in Mexico on September 1 to continue trying to revise the trade pact. But while all say they are keen to see a new deal emerge, they still have to navigate the political risks attached to any commercial agreement.
Commentary: Here's what to do with those reviled statues
Statues live. The Robert E. Lee statue in Charlottesville certainly does. The majority of Americans, including his fellow Republicans, disapprove of Donald Trump’s defense of Confederate monuments and his tardiness in condemning the white supremacists whose protests against a decision to remove the Lee statue led to the violence that killed a woman demonstrating against them.
Commentary: Trump’s dangerous dismissal of right-wing militants
In the wake of the bloody havoc in Charlottesville last weekend, and with more white nationalist protests planned for other cities in the weeks ahead, Donald Trump is being widely lambasted for equivocating about who is responsible for the violence. But his penchant for minimizing the threat of domestic far-right and white supremacist militants isn't new. Like other conservatives, Trump has avoided confronting this threat, or even acknowledging its reality. And he's turning that denial into policy.
Commentary: Aung San Suu Kyi’s free press dilemma
Aung San Suu Kyi is treating the press in Myanmar poorly, and that may impede her efforts to democratize the conflict-wrought country. But is Suu Kyi’s apparent authoritarian streak mere caution? Expanding civil liberties too forcefully could bait the former junta into retaking full control of the Southeast Asian nation, setting back the cause of liberty and democracy.
Commentary: Understanding Kim Jong Un’s nuclear game plan
On October 3, 1942 – 75 years ago this year – a prototype German V-2 rocket launched from the German military firing range at Peenemunde in the Baltic reached an altitude of 84.5 kilometers (52.5 miles.)It was, by some definitions, the first human-built object in space.
Commentary: From Putin to Zuma to Trump, voters put personality over policy
Jacob Zuma, president of South Africa, survived a no-confidence motion in the country’s parliament earlier this week. It was the eighth since he took office eight years ago.
About commentary
The views expressed by the authors in the Commentary section are not those of Reuters News.
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