Sábado, 1 de octubre de 2016 (Continuación)

Children hold dolls symbolizing dead babies during in a sit-in in solidarity with the people of Aleppo and against Russia's support of the Syrian regime, in front of the Russian embassy in Amman, Jordan, May 3, 2016. The placard reads, "Russian are baby killers". REUTERS/Muhammad Hamed

EuropaMundoOriente Próximo, ,

The destruction of Aleppo, especially the city’s eastern neighborhoods that are tenuously held by anti-regime rebels, is largely pushed out of the nightly news by the fierce fighting around the presidential race in the United States. A few doughty reporters and photographers venture into Syria, but usually the cameras stay at a safe distance, so that much of what we see are the flashes and smoke from shells and bombs bursting in its cities.

At other times, we see smartphone video of haggard people running for shelter or transporting the wounded, screaming in pain, to hospitals where there is little help for them.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsiaInternacionalTerrorismo Internacional, , ,

It's safe to say that India-Pakistan relations are nearly on a war footing.

Saber rattling has been near constant in recent weeks after terrorists -- from Pakistan, according to India -- stormed an Indian military base in India-controlled Kashmir and killed 18 soldiers. India's home minister denounced Pakistan as a "terrorist state." Pakistan's defense minister threatened nuclear war.

Then came Thursday, when India claimed to have carried out a "surgical strike" across the border into Pakistan-controlled Kashmir. The operation, according to the Indian government and military, targeted terrorist "launch pads" and killed several dozen militants. New Delhi's detailed (and perhaps exaggerated) account said the operation lasted four hours.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAméricaMundoOriente PróximoInternacionalTerrorismo Internacional, , , ,

Years ago, at the height of the Arab Spring, I asked Zbigniew Brzezinski about prospects for democracy in Saudi Arabia. The grand old man of muscular American foreign policy — national security adviser to Jimmy Carter and a believer that the US had become “the first truly global power” — looked decidedly unimpressed.

“Democracy, in Saudi Arabia?” he rasped. “How do you know they wouldn’t elect Osama bin Laden?”

We moved on to other topics. America generally does move on to other topics when the subject of Saudi Arabia is raised. Those self-styled “grown-ups” who run US foreign policy regard any serious questioning of the relationship with the desert kingdom as a sign of weakness, pottiness, or childishness.…  Seguir leyendo »

EuropaUnión Europea,

Few people could have predicted the first policy on which Britain’s new prime minister would take a stand. It is none of the issues that have dominated British politics in recent months: Brexit, immigration, terrorism. Rather, Theresa May has decided it is to be grammar schools.

Grammar schools are state-supported secondary schools that select their pupils through an exam taken at age 11 known as the 11-plus. Once a centerpiece of Britain’s education system, they have largely been phased out over recent decades.

The history of grammar schools goes back to the Middle Ages, but the modern version emerged out of the 1944 Education Act, one of a series of laws that shaped social policy in postwar Britain.…  Seguir leyendo »