New Middle East and the European lesson

http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/peters-blood-borders-map/

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/63217/jerry-z-muller/us-and-them

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/15/opinion/sunday/ross-douthat-changing-maps-in-the-mideast.html?hp&rref=opinion

Possibly a big change in India

Nobody really knows what will happen

A change?

Democracy is great because it allows you to kick out a government. Of course it doesn't guarantee that you choose a better one.

Ukraine from a distance

A detached view from China

the 2015 UK General Election

An good outlook on what we might be looking at next year

But what do they know

You might think that South Africans know something about a smaller group dominating a larger. But you'd be wrong; it is much nicer to have word games about "apartheid" and "jewish states" than to deal with reality

Farage and Neward

Leaving aide the claims of 'bottling', was this a clever move? The chattering classes think so.

Some more facts on the ground

It looks like Eastern Ukraine is splitting off. Not easy to imagine it being glued on again. When does life return to normal, domestically and internationally? Perhaps when there is no need to deter Putin.

The country we live in

No comment is adequate

As long as you don't say bears shit in the forest

Pointless fuss, obvious truth, there was going to be no progress anyway

Ukraine

People in the area are worried. Can Putin back down, if he wanted to?

Somebody has to stand up for the EU

As part of a developing 4 party system, the Lib Dems carve out a defining stance

Looking ahead

This article is interesting for 2 reasons. It assumes Assad will come out on top, which is noteworthy for an American publication. And it raises a discussion about what Syria will be like in future, which does bear thinking about (and influencing?).

After the weekend

Clearly the US has little choice but to acquiesce in the outcome in the Ukraine, which is looking very messy. While a bit of huffing and puffing might help to preserve the Western Ukraine, why does the US advertise its impotence by issuing empty threats?

Slow progress towards a sensible policy on Syria

The Telegraph publishing such a view is news

How far will it go?

Stakes are rising in the Ukraine

The next British government

A well-informed and non-partisan analysis. There aren't many of those, but of course it could still be wrong.

Getting ugly

We don't need a new war between Russia and the rest of the world, whether hot or cold. But it needs to 2 to keep the peace.

Time to take this possibility seriously?

Scottish independence has been a distraction from real politics up to now, a hypothetical game of currency and membership of international organisations. Might it actually happen? Even to admit the possibility changes some games.

A no-superpower world?

Not much news -- this is the latest example of a something that is well known and isn't news, as is this. Until we can see which way Ukraine and India go, this bears pondering (the big picture, never mind the detail)

The economy - astonishing

Hard to believe. Can it last longer than last year's cricket upturn?

Who lies more?

The fact of these claims being made certainly is news, but it would be very hard to work out what the truth is.

Accountability

At least in one country the legislature is being allowed to push for oversight by an elected body. Will any others follow?

A broader political debate in Britain

It seems this stop-UKIP campaign has failed, and that UKIP might do well in the European elections. What is the next threshold, how does UKIP get there and how will its opponents try to prevent it?

Another mystery

People have lost their ability to live with uncertainty, so will this will be another source of conspiracy theories?

The US concession?

Will the last peace talks succeed in the last round, or are we heading for a new game that might end with a unitary state between the sea and the Jordan?

More complicated?

Is the US discovering that Syria, and the whole Middle East, is more complicated than they thought? Here some Christians are caught in the middle of a fundamentalist Sunni war against everone who isn't fundamentalist Sunni.

Of course we still love you . . .

. . . with fracking reducing the need for oil, how much effort does the US want to spend on the intractable problems of the Middle East? If this is what they want, then why don't the American public like the lower international posture?

A 4 party system?

Clegg gets 36% -- how did Cameron and Milliband allow this?

Post-Snowden effect

What is proposed won't be what is enacted, and of course what it enacted will be bypassed; but it is important that "they" realise they must be seen to change the existing system, and that the efforts to tough it have failed.

Iran nuclear deal?

Motivation of Iran and US. Does it bother Iran to remember that the previous 2 Muslim states to give up nuclear programmes were both subsequently attacked, but Pakistan didn't and wasn't?

Middle East realignment

The title of this story is misleading -- it deals with a larger topic tangentiallyhttp://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/assad-is-already-counting-on-soldiers-still-at-school-to-fill-the-gaps-left-by-30000-casualties-9211142.html

Hugely significant for the finance industry?

The end of compulsory annuities; treating retirees as adults.

The state of the UK economy

Good analysis in the Guardian.

So what if India gets a new government?

Not much, seems to be the consensus.

Might Saudi Arabia stop supporting jihadis?

Intriguing possibility. This is the best discussion I could find online.

This isn't news -- it was obvious from the start. Quite a lot of other non-news in today's papers too.

What does Ukraine expect, and why?

They might be better to get on with what the neighbourhood bully has left them, after taking the Crimea back. The western countries might say the actions were illegal and perhaps they were, but that doesn't fix it -- after all, the illegal occupation of Palestine continues.

Another unstable oil producer

Interesting how the various Arab springtimes play out -- Egypt, Tunisia and Libya. Many aspects -- instability on Europe's border, oil supplies, another source of jihadi experience.

the shape of post election British politics

Is this the point from where Labour is the next government? It is hard to see the LibDems wanting to keep Cameron in power and ruin the economy by leaving the EU. And do the Tories then drift off to the right?

In search of Obama's balls

If Obama won't do anything about this, will the likes of Netanyahu and Putin take it as a sign that they can just run down the White House clock?

The state of the world

Is it hard to believe that this describes the same world and homo sapiens we see outside out front doors, or do we just not want to think about it?

The news today

A new feeding frenzy for lawyers; a new blow to the banks?

The news today

Good news from the Arabic Spring -- at least one seems to be progressing to summer.

The news today

Wasn't Hilary supposed to be sophisticated and sensible? If not in health matters, at least in foreign affairs? It must be hard to stay in the press while you decide whether to run.

The news today

Is this the sound of the Tories pissing off the Lib Dems to lose the chance to be the post-election government, or just the distancing of coalition relationship before the election?

The news today

If Putin stops at Crimea then the question is probably only how quickly it blows over, because nobody will fight him for it.

The news today

Here is some sense  to balance the hysteria about the Crimean issue; but here is real news.

The news today

It's difficult to see an outcome that isn't very significant to the region in one way or another.

Back

Instead of arguing about who owns it, let everybody have his own Ukraine,

Double edition

There might  not be any news tomorrow, so I don't have to choose between the UK story and the important European one.

The news today

One step at a time the reaction grows. This is why it matters.

The news today

Of course he is trying to win the war, now that he is ahead and his opposition is in disarray, with the crazies on top. So?

The news today

Of course he is trying to win the war, now that he is ahead and his opposition is in disarray, with the crazies on top. So?

The news today

Now this really is news by any measure.

The news today

The cause might well be correctly identified, although it doesn't follow that the suggested remedy is also correct -- we might be unable to shut the door because the horse might have bolted. It'll be interesting to see how this features in the political debate (if there is one after the floods have subsided).

The news today

And he thought it was a pro-israel speech. Clearly not sufficiently so.

The news today

Developing story: from the point of shaping the next few years, the most important man in Britain is a short Canadian.

And is something good coming to an end?

The news today

What started off being an unusual spell of weather is beginning to have the makings of a disaster. Finger pointing about who is at fault is a clearly the most important.

The news today

Is it just those xenophobic Swiss, or is this is the beginning of the 'full' signs going up in Europe?

The news today

It just won't stop raining and flooding.

Our right to know

This is a gross interference with the rights of a free press, and provokes worldwide outrage. This is newsworthy but apparently not a cause for any criticism. And of course this is perfectly OK.

All bad.

The news today

Is this really the country we live in? Man caught; no conviction.

The news today

What a strange news day; a combination of the obvious and the pointless.  Clegg is the latest person to waste his time talking sense about drugs. Some more bickering over a public appointment. The obvious: as we all have to die, if the easily treated causes are eliminated then the difficult to treat one will get us. It's probably too much to hope that this could trigger a grown-discussion about the cost of care.

But the very gradual change in the middle east continues, on the ground and in external political attitudes.

The news today

As sensible drugs policies gradually spread across the world, are the Dutch again leading the way? Consumption and the retail trade are legal, but how much sense does it make to continue leaving the criminals in charge of the supply chain? As a start, at least allow home production. 

The news today

Will the new Labour party rules change the outcome or just the way of getting to the same point?

The news today

Peace in Palestine. Very unlikely, says The Guardian. No opinion, but look at the tactical politics in Israel, says the Economist. Well, perhaps this is not a waste of time but might even be "a modest sign of progress in a process that has so far yielded little", says the NYT. Phew, sounds pretty good.

At least there is no doubt about the state of the Syrian talks. Pity.

The news today

Changes to UK Nationality Law. Nowhere better reported than in the the guardian politics blog

Founding message

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