The World’s Opinion Page, featuring exclusive commentaries by scholars, policymakers, practitioners, and civic activists.
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PS Deep Dives—available exclusively to subscribers—are collections of long-form expert commentaries designed to help readers understand the forces shaping our world.
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Over time, the pressure of strong sentiment in Hong Kong and around the world is more likely to shift the totalitarian regime in Beijing than fighting the police and causing property damage are | Chris Patten bit.ly/2Mxc36S
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By imposing draconian new security laws on #HongKong, Chinese President #XiJinping has in effect annulled the “one country, two systems” agreement that has served #China and the city for over two decades, says Chris Patten. #OneCountryTwoSystems bit.ly/2B0bcsH
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A pandemic that originated in China will likely end up weakening the country’s global position and hamstringing its future growth, writes @Chellaney. bit.ly/2A0iMTA
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The #COVID19 crisis has triggered a new debate within Europe about the need for a managed disengagement from China, writes @markhleonard. bit.ly/2XKaqI4
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It’s not an exaggeration to say that 2020 and the next few years will determine the fate not only of the United States and China, but also of the world, writes @georgesoros #Davos @wef #wef20 | #PSonPoint is a premium article bit.ly/36iVXVx
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Why #HongKong's struggle with China's government matters for liberal democracies elsewhere. | Chris Patten bit.ly/2z3LG5n
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.@RahulGandhi's expulsion from parliament has opened a new and sorry chapter in India’s political history, writes @ShashiTharoor – and has cast serious doubt on the survival of its democracy. bit.ly/3mfwn21
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.@georgesoros sees hope in popular rebellions like Hong Kong's, and in education that reinforces individual autonomy #Davos @wef #wef20 | #PSonPoint is a premium article bit.ly/36iVXVx
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The @UN must not stand by idly while #China breaches an international treaty and destroys what is left of #HongKong's freedoms and autonomy, writes @YangheeLeeSKKU, a former UN special rapporteur. bit.ly/37xzF4G
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Chris Patten: We must not allow China the opportunity to divide and rule. The world’s democracies must unite and openly show Xi’s regime exactly what we stand for. bit.ly/38cXHCr
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Slavoj Žižek laments that some of today's Western leftists are like the "anti-imperialist" pacifists who claimed, in 1940, that the Nazi blitz across Europe should not be resisted. bit.ly/3O0066N
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Today's quote is from American civil rights activist Rosa Parks
ALT Quote of the day graphic: Stand for something or you will fall for anything. Today's mighty oak is yesterday's nut that held its ground.
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Over the weekend, #China revealed new details of its national security law for #HongKong, which allows the #CPC to significantly tighten its control over the city. In May, Minxin Pei wrote about the “calamitous consequences” of the law. bit.ly/2BzoMTZ
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When China’s leaders finally declare victory against the outbreak of the new coronavirus, they will undoubtedly credit the Communist Party's leadership. But the truth is just the opposite: the party is again responsible for this calamity | Minxin Pei bit.ly/2Rx8mkE
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Perhaps no country has exploited weak enforcement of international law more than China, writes @Chellaney. But it is hardly alone bit.ly/2Mv9iDt
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The US should put up or shut up. Unless the @StateDept can prove its charge that #China is mounting a genocide against the #Uighur people in #Xinjiang Province, it should not abuse the term, say @JeffDSachs and William Schabas. bit.ly/3syNkBE
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#Chinese President #XiJinping’s aggressive bullying in recent months calls for a coordinated response from the rest of the world, and especially from liberal democracies, argues Chris Patten. bit.ly/3g2CNsB
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Big news! We're launching a new monthly column series by @yanisvaroufakis. Read his latest bit.ly/1SxgcRO
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Indonesian President @jokowi is the world’s most effective democratically elected leader today, argues @mahbubani_k. But almost no one outside the country knows about it. bit.ly/3iANrdu
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.@Chellaney: By trafficking in images of death, suffering, and private acts of mourning, Western media coverage of the #COVID19 crisis in India has broken one of the first rules of journalism. bit.ly/3fhUOEx
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By the end of the 1980s, many Westerners believed that #liberaldemocracy had triumphed over all other systems of #governance, notes Chris Patten. But things look a lot less rosy for liberal democrats today bit.ly/32y6hJe
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The #coronavirusoutbreak has laid bare the failures of Xi top-down, repressive approach for all of Chinese society to see. In @yuenyuenang's view, that fundamentally changes the power dynamic in China bit.ly/31UwUYo #Coronavirustruth
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The removal of the Tigray People's Liberation Front will bring peace to the region's people and enable closer cooperation within the Horn of #Africa, says Ethiopian PM @AbiyAhmedAli. bit.ly/2O4qOBS
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.@BJP4India's attempts to silence @RahulGandhi may well backfire, notes @ShashiTharoor. bit.ly/3KNFzEf
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Chris Patten: @JimmyLaiApple's handcuffs and chains are a tragic symbol of what has happened to #HongKong’s once-free society in 2020. bit.ly/34sDxne
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India’s poverty rate has dropped from 29.5% to 3.9% over the past 12 years. These gains have reached all segments of Indian society, reflecting a more inclusive development trajectory than is widely recognized, writes @EACtoPM’s @ShamikaRavi. bit.ly/4lnkqzI
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A new @hrw report shows that #XiJinping's China is no longer content to stifle criticism of its own rights abuses, reports Aryeh Neier; it is now waging war on the entire international human-rights system. bit.ly/2OvzZbQ
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The old globalization was about finance; the new one is about infrastructure, writes Harold James of @Princeton bit.ly/2I5OXmx
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As the world enters a new decade, India under @narendramodi and the @BJP4India has begun a dark new chapter in its history, says Gandhi biographer Ramachandra Guha bit.ly/2ENbjql
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Today's quote is from @rodrikdani
ALT The correct answer to almost any question in economics is: it depends.
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The comprehensive stifling of #HongKong’s freedom has proceeded remorselessly, encompassing schools and universities, the legislature, courts, civil service, and the media, notes Chris Patten. bit.ly/34jEVsi
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With a @JoeBiden and @KamalaHarris administration, #India would never be overlooked; but that attention may not always be welcomed by the @narendramodi government, @ShashiTharoor suspects. bit.ly/385PYZ4
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Liberal democracies must point out collectively when #China assaults freedom, as it has done in #HongKong, or human life itself, as in #Xinjiang, argues Chris Patten. bit.ly/2NAFeJN
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The #Brazilian state of #RioGrandedoSul focused from the outset on avoiding the worst possible #COVID19 outcome, rather than simply hoping it would not materialize. @NgaireWoods of @BlavatnikSchool and @leanylemos of @governo_rs show why it worked. bit.ly/2M5fEZg
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When a former human-rights advocate and working-class hero backs dictators guilty of abominable butchery, shock is followed by abhorrence, writes @AndresVelasco. bit.ly/3YlAyrw
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In 2016, progress was made in developing vaccines for #Ebola, dengue, shingles, and malaria bit.ly/2jCKPhK
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Abe Shinzō brought clarity, strength of purpose, and credibility to Japanese foreign policy, transforming the country's stance vis-a-vis the region and the wider world, reflects @bill_emmott. bit.ly/3OVxzjV
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The idea of an open society terrifies Chinese President #Xi Jinping’s regime, because its system of control depends on party bosses at the center maintaining an iron grip on everything, notes Chris Patten. bit.ly/2KcJ9ey
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If Taiwan were to fall, the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh could become the Chinese government’s next target for “reunification,” warns @Chellaney. bit.ly/3NixclC
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Arizona Senator @JeffFlake made a big deal of his opposition to @realDonaldTrump. Where's his courage now? @nk18 bit.ly/2zjYvpi
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Decades ago, a wealthy group of corporate interests and right-wing ideologues hatched a plan to influence #US courts in systematic fashion. Under @realDonaldTrump and @senatemajlr Mitch McConnell, their plan succeeded spectacularly, writes @SenWhitehouse bit.ly/3q2gMQc
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Today's quote is from Stephen Hawking, theoretical physicist and cosmologist
ALT I have noticed that even people who claim everything is predetermined and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road
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Should Greece align its economic future with China? @YanisVaroufakis recounts his efforts to negotiate with the country
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“Europe is becoming a place where the numbers are prospering and the people are suffering.” - @yanisvaroufakis bit.ly/2xvq1zC
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In a new PS Big Question, @ProjectLincoln co-founder @reedgalen underscores Donald Trump’s enduring influence over a party to which he lacks the slightest loyalty. Read the feature at the link. bit.ly/3GYQ2us
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Aid workers in Ethiopia’s war-ravaged #Tigray region are running out of emergency food, warned @USAID's @SamanthaJPower last week. In February, @DrMehari of @EuropeanUni listed five reasons for why the @UN Security Council must urgently intervene. bit.ly/2WlTGtn
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Today's quote is from economist Thomas Piketty
ALT Quotagraphic: The history of the distribution of wealth has always been deeply political, and it cannot be reduced to purely economic mechanisms.
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"It’s not two branches that govern Congress now, but two parties, and one of them has surrendered reason and common sense," @RepRaskin told @ElizabethDrewOH following the conclusion of Donald #Trump's second Senate #impeachment trial. bit.ly/3piWSPj
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Just in the last three years, the @federalreserve has mishandled its interest-rate hiking cycle, faced insider-trading allegations, and stumbled in its supervision of banks. None of these failures has gone unnoticed globally, writes @elerianm. bit.ly/3MDKIQy
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With #China willing to step in as #Myanmar’s patron, the military junta has no reason to worry much about expressions of disapproval from a diminished #America, says Ian Buruma. bit.ly/30cYJLA
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Putin has built a modern-day Sparta, a regime that lives only for war. Now that the Ukrainians have begun to repel the Russian military, the dictator in the Kremlin has nothing left, argues @anders_aslund.
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In a new Big Question, @AlexLHinton explains just how dangerous Trumpism 2.0 could be. Read the feature – which also includes insights from Ian Buruma, @ruthbenghiat, and @reedgalen – at the link. bit.ly/3X76EpE
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Economists love marginal-cost pricing because it normally provides appropriate incentives with only small distributive effects. But in these non-normal times for Europe's electricity system, it has become a huge problem, explains @JosephEStiglitz. bit.ly/3F4aKbM
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.@Chellaney: China is applying the same strategy on the roof of the world that has driven its expansion in the #SouthChinaSea: gradual territorial encroachments followed by militarized construction. bit.ly/30RXfXr
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America’s role in the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas has exposed the hollowness of Western countries’ stated belief in basic human rights and their inconsistent compliance with international law, says @elerianm. bit.ly/3TGD6Af
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Donald Trump's tough China policy is his most consequential – and constructive – foreign-policy legacy. Unless @JoeBiden pursues a similar approach, the erosion of US global leadership will become inexorable, argues @Chellaney. bit.ly/39wWcBw
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By making good economics popular, accessible, and democratic, #MMT advocates like @StephanieKelton and @ptcherneva have threatened central bankers' unmerited mystique, argues James K. Galbraith of @UTAustin. bit.ly/3mL3Knw
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Chris Patten: The West should not be browbeaten into embarrassed silence in the face of China’s violation of its obligations regarding Hong Kong, a city that exemplifies many of the values that Xi’s CPC wants to bury. bit.ly/2XgPoSr
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The @federalreserve has made a series of compounding mistakes over the past two years. It must openly acknowledge them if it is going to restore its credibility and policy effectiveness, says @elerianm. bit.ly/3VK1yhH
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Since 2016, Donald Trump has repeatedly proved to be toxic at the ballot box. This November is likely to be no different, writes @ProjectLincoln co-founder @reedgalen. bit.ly/4376Fh5
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Modern Monetary Theory offers a dangerous half-truth that has become particularly seductive now that governments are desperate for tools with which to keep their economies afloat. | Willem Buiter. bit.ly/2z4KVbR
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Acting as if all criticism is illegitimate, as PM @narendramodi’s government does, is the hallmark of a banana republic, not a mature democracy, observes @ShashiTharoor. bit.ly/3SeUclR
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Recent experience suggests that China is far more likely to exploit India’s weaknesses than act as a good-faith partner, warns @Chellaney. bit.ly/4285TB1
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#China's newest claim to #Bhutan's territory shows that, as long as the #CPC is in power, none of the country's neighbors are safe, writes @Chellaney. bit.ly/2ZLfkqk
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The COVID-19 pandemic should be a wake-up call for a world that has accepted China’s lengthening shadow over global supply chains for far too long | @Chellaney bit.ly/3d0bjTG
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An overwhelming body of evidence and international law support the determination that the mass atrocities against the #Uyghur people of #China’s Xinjiang province constitute genocide, say @IrwinCotler and @yonahdiamond of @TheRWCHR.
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#China's antagonistic response to Western concerns over forced labor in Xinjiang will backfire, says Minxin Pei. bit.ly/39TQObe
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Calls for a gentler form of capitalism that looks beyond shareholder value are mere fads, says @yanisvaroufakis. To imagine what transcending capitalism might mean in practice requires rethinking the ownership of corporations bit.ly/2ZzMdEL
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The global economy's single most important institution has lost its way and must urgently address two structural deficiencies, writes @elerianm. bit.ly/41b8pDL
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A mature sovereign state does not automatically cast others into outer darkness if they disagree with it, says Chris Patten. But the Communist Party of China clearly believes otherwise. bit.ly/3uGKgnM
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.@yanisvaroufakis: A decade ago, eurozone countries were supposed to emulate Germany. Today, the tables have been turned, because Germany's economic model, which relied on repressed wages, cheap Russian gas, and Chinese demand, is no longer tenable. bit.ly/3Q8IgQA
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Although Russia will not pay any reparations to Ukraine as long as Vladimir Putin remains in power, that should not deter Ukraine and its allies from pressuring the Kremlin to take responsibility for its war of aggression, writes @anders_aslund. bit.ly/3NEzefC
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China’s claim to sovereignty over #Taiwan should be challenged on the basis of both history and the welfare of its 24 million citizens, says Chris Patten. bit.ly/2Tts04t
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#Xi Jinping managed to change the South #China Sea’s geopolitical map without firing a shot. But his efforts to use the same tactics against #India have produced only a dangerous stalemate, notes @Chellaney. bit.ly/2EtT3pi
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Sweden and Finland will furnish @NATO with important new and expanded capabilities, including a greater capacity to control the Baltic Sea, and thus to support the defense of the three Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), writes @carlbildt. bit.ly/3K1QXIL
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Given China’s population size and rapid economic growth, some pessimists believe that shaping Chinese behavior is impossible. But this is not true if one thinks in terms of alliances, argues @Joe_Nye. bit.ly/375BSph
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Today's quote is from Stephen Hawking
ALT The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.
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.@ShashiTharoor: As countries scramble to secure supplies in the face of "vaccine apartheid," #India has enhanced its global standing by making vaccines that are readily available in the world's poorest countries. bit.ly/3lvenvL
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Other central banks will have no choice but to follow the @federalreserve in raising #interestrates beyond what would have otherwise been needed, to avoid “importing” more #inflation and financial instability, predicts @elerianm. Read more at the link. bit.ly/3flTJPu
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#Ethiopia is so consumed by the fighting in Tigray that it is no longer a source of regional stability, and appears to be renouncing its role as regional peacekeeper, argues @DrMehari. bit.ly/3ajW5tp
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.@elerianm cannot recall a time when so many former @federalreserve officials and their international counterparts have been so critical of the institution’s competence. bit.ly/3Ge0jCa
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If Putin is allowed to succeed in #Ukraine, a new world will be born, in which larger states will once again be able to invade their neighbors with impunity, warns Oleksandra Matviichuk (@avalaina). bit.ly/3kiiBXM
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Today's quote is from Isaac Asimov
ALT The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.
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Libya eventually agreed to pay $2.7 billion in compensation to the families of the Lockerbie bombing victims. Russia's war in Ukraine falls into the same category as that atrocity, but on a much larger scale, @anders_aslund observes. bit.ly/3uryFuY
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More than a decade of socialism for bankers and austerity for most of the rest thwarted capitalism’s dynamism, plunging it into a state of gilded stagnation, says @yanisvaroufakis. bit.ly/3DHmOPG
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Building a coal-fired power plant in Bangladesh would generate economic benefits worth more than 500 times the financial cost of climate damage, argues @Copenhagen_CC's @BjornLomborg bit.ly/2O0lUl4
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Earlier today, Ethiopian PM Abiy Ahmed said that serious crimes have been committed in #Tigray. In February, @DrMehari called for the establishment of an international commission to help restore peace to the country’s northern region. bit.ly/3cYtAkZ
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Carl Bildt urges Europeans to prepare for the worst from Donald Trump’s America, which is behaving like an adversary. project-syndicate.org/commen…
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Chris Patten: Free and open societies should work together to make clear to China that a good relationship requires respecting and defending the rules-based international order. bit.ly/3cgEYJo
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.@yanisvaroufakis takes a withering view of the privatization plan imposed on #Greece bit.ly/1SxgcRO
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