"The [Iran] episode exposes a malady of American foreign policy. It lacks consistency, coherence and moral clarity, treats friends and adversaries by separate standards, and is reflexively interventionist. Thus has America lost much of the near-universal admiration and respect she enjoyed at the close of the Cold War. This hubristic generation has kicked it all away."
"Assistant Professor Thornhill said that he had expected some grumblings but hadn’t foreseen such an uproar from many who saw the class as an affront to an entire race — and some who viewed it as a personal attack on them for being white."
"The Trump administration put new requirements in place on Friday for the 38 countries participating in the U.S. Visa Waiver Program, including that they use U.S. counterterrorism data to screen travelers, officials said. The United States will also start assessing VWP countries on their safeguards against 'insider threats' at their airports, especially those with direct flights to the United States, officials said."
"As recently as late October, Mugabe said black owners who invited whites back to rent and work seized fields would lose their farms. But the Zimbabwe Independent reports that the former first family was doing exactly that: leasing out part of Mazowe Citrus Estate to a company in which some of the main shareholders were white."
"With one unit of Bitcoin now worth 10,000 times the US dollar, it makes sense that the Fed would begin to feel a bit defensive. Indeed, the speech comes to the defense of the central bank, the existing money, and payment system networks, and calls for the pace of innovation to be controlled by regulators in the interest of 'prudence.'"
"The coalition said that despite 'significant successes' against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS), 'combat has taken a toll on populations suffering under the militant extremists.' 'We continue to hold ourselves accountable for actions that may have caused unintentional injury or death to civilians,' the report said."
"Americans aren’t exactly itching for a new war. (A majority, in fact, believes the country would be better off staying in the nuclear deal with Iran.) So how can the Trump administration build a case for a pre-emptive strike? Those claims of a nefarious alliance with Al Qaeda might help."
"As bad as the North Korean government is, it is does not go abroad looking for countries to invade. The designation is a political one, allowing Washington to ramp up more aggression against North Korea. What is terrorism? Maybe we should ask a Yemeni child constantly wondering when the next Saudi bomb overhead might kill his family. Or perhaps we might even ask a Pakistani, Somali, Iraqi, Syrian, or other child who is terrified that the next US bomb will do the same to his family. Perhaps we need to look at whether US foreign policy actually reflects the American values we claim to be exporting before we point out the flaws in others."
"Saudi Arabia’s crown prince this week called Iran’s supreme leader the 'new Hitler of the Middle East.' Salman also told The New York Times the war in Yemen was 'going in its favor.' The war, which has raged since 2015, has pitted a Saudi-led coalition backed by the U.S. against the Houthi rebels and forces loyal to Yemen’s ousted president. The war has left over 10,000 people dead, driven 3 million from their homes and destroyed the country’s already fragile infrastructure."
"'It just doesn't make sense. This thing is not regulated, it's not under control, it's not under the supervision' of any central bank, Alwaleed said in an interview on CNBC's 'Squawk Box.' 'I just don't believe in this bitcoin thing. I think it's just going to implode one day. I think this is Enron in the making,' Alwaleed said."