David Roberts, Vox
If superblocks were fully implemented across the city, Rueda estimates that 60 percent of road space now devoted solely to cars would be shifted to mixed use or car-free. Amazing.
Andrei Babitsky, Moscow Times
Life often has a way of showing just how insipid things are in Moscow. The most recent vivid example happened at Patriarch's Ponds, the elite central district perhaps best known abroad for its starring role in Mikhail Bulgakov's âÂÂThe Master and Margarita.â A long-running conflict there speaks volumes about how things work in the capital city. The plot of this story is simple: the residents of Patriarch's Ponds wanted peace and quiet.
Neri Zilber, Foreign Policy
Avigdor Lieberman is combining tough talk with measured deeds. Could that be a recipe for becoming prime minister?
Ramzi Kassem, New York Times
France is reeling. Unaccustomed to such violence, its politicians proclaim the nation is âÂÂat warâ with terrorists. But should an open, democratic society indefinitely grant exceptional powers to its police and security services? Earlier this year, at the invitation of French and international rights groups, I traveled to France to investigate that question.
Paul Wood, The Spectator
Many Islamic State fighters joined up because Isis were the strongest, richest and most successful group. But now that they look like losers, the defections are gathering pace, hastening the collapse of the âÂÂCaliphate' predicted in this magazine in January and which may be starting to happen now. The latest loss is the important town of Manbij. The battle is still going on, but commanders of the advancing Kurdish forces say Isis fighters are shaving off their beards... Читать дальше...
James Denselow, Al Jazeera
Never before in the history of conflicts we had so much information as to what is happening, yet know so little.
Judy Dempsey, Washington Post
The European Union raises red flags as the nation tilts to the right and away from the rule of law.
Marian Blasberg & Jens Gluesing, Spiegel
On the eve of the Olympic Games in Rio, Brazil is embroiled in its deepest political and economic crisis in decades. The countries elites are ensnared in scandal and President Dilma Rousseff is facing possible impeachment.
Peter Berlin, Politico EU
If Moscow can invade Crimea and get away with it, then it can cheat to win Olympic medals.
Yuki Tatsumi, Japan Times
Yuriko Koike just won the biggest gamble of her political career.
Gideon Levy, Haaretz
So, the American liberal says he's 'taking a break' from Haaretz. The Palestinians are far more tired of the occupation. They'd also like a break.
Jeff Jacoby, Globe
The chairman of the Palestine Olympic Committee is a notorious PLO chieftain with a long record of extolling terror. Don't Palestinian athletes deserve better?
Chayenne Polimedio, The Daily Beast
We were convinced that the Rio Olympics would show everyone that Brazil was a country worthy of respect. Instead we have been humiliated.
Tom Harris, Telegraph
If Corbyn had had his way, numerous interventions in which the UK participated would never have happened. Iraq, obviously. But also the first Gulf War in 1991 when the UN authorised force to liberate Kuwait from occupying Iraqi forces. Also Kosovo, in 1999, when Nato-led forces intervened to stop the ethnic cleansing and genocide of Kosovan Albanians at the hands of Serb forces (Corbyn claimed as recently as 2004 that the genocide never happened). Also Afghanistan: Corbyn's precious Stop The War Coalition was founded... Читать дальше...
Frank Ching, G&M
The case of a Hong Kong journalist is the latest example of Beijing exercising jurisdiction over ethnic Chinese who are nationals of other countries, including Canadians and Australians
Mohammed Salih, Al-Monitor
Former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's visit to Sulaimaniyah has sparked rumors of his hopes of regaining the premiership.
Kevin Williamson, National Review
Violence is always at the end of the socialist enterprise, as the poor people of Venezuela are discovering. Our friends on the Left assured us for many years that Boss Hugo and his epigones in the regime of Nicolás Maduro were democratic socialists, not the mean Stalinist type, and the praises of that so-called democratic-socialist regime were sung by everyone from Democratic congressmen such as Chaka Fattah of Philadelphia to progressive celebrities such as Sean Penn. Читать дальше...
Susan Booysen, Business Day
The local government election signals change. For the first time in SA's democratic era, in this 10th major electoral event, the ANC is facing the prospect of losing its dominance in several strategically important centres.
Edward Luttwak, Foreign Policy
The alliance between Erdogan and Gulen came apart because it's impossible to reconcile their rival interpretations of Islam -- and Islamism.
Stephen Kinzer, New York Times
The sweeping purges and mass arrests since last month's failed military coup in Turkey have confirmed many of the worst fears about President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government. They are the most recent in a long history of abuses. Over the last few years, Mr. Erdogan has harshly repressed the Turkish press and civil society, supported extremist militant groups in Syria, broken off a promising peace process with his country's Kurdish nationalists, and worked relentlessly... Читать дальше...
Robert Fisk, The Independent
As armed rebels â âÂÂterroristsâ in the eyes of the regime â tighten their grip on the country, at one stage holding 60 per cent of the land, government troops hit back, seizing control of the main roads and laying siege to major towns.à The ruthless dictator, supported by Russia, accuses foreign powers of assisting his rebel enemies. There are massacres by both sides. NGOs fear for the tens of thousands of civilians trapped amid the fighting, while... Читать дальше...
Frederic Hof, RealClearWorld
When things go badly for declared U.S. policy in Syria, locals in the region -- regardless of which side they are on -- often conclude that what is declared is really deception: that surely the world's sole superpower cannot be as clueless as it sometimes seems. A group of visiting Lebanese Army officers, commenting on the desultory military campaign against Islamic State in eastern Syria, recently offered the view that Washington wants the terror group to survive. Читать дальше...
Matthew Lee & Bradley Klapper, AP
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump says his Democratic opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, was responsible for negotiations that led to a $400 million U.S. payment to Iran. Reacting to a Wall Street Journal story published Wednesday that described the delivery of the cash to Tehran in January, Trump accused Clinton on Twitter of having opened talks to give Iran the money.
Eli Lake, Bloomberg View
It started with Reagan. Now Tehran expects it can extort cash from any administration.