Mario Pentón, Miami Herald
Hundreds of young artists protest on a sidewalk outside the white mansion housing Cuba's Ministry of Culture in Havana's once aristocratic Vedado neighborhood. Famous musicians long aligned with the communist government poke a finger at the revolution with a song that mocks a slogan penned by Fidel Castro. Rights activists march through the streets demanding greater protections for animals.
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Rachel Cheung, World Politics Review
The United States and China struck a rare cooperative tone in a joint statement issued after two days of meetings between John Kerry, the Biden administration's climate envoy, and his Chinese counterpart, Xie Zhenhua, in Shanghai last week. That contrasted starkly with the confrontational public remarks that preceded
Gloria Porras, Americas Quarterly
Campaigns against judges like herself imperil Guatemala's democracy, writes Gloria Porras.
Jonathan Marks, Project Syndicate
Colleges and universities should focus on shaping people who honor reason. But what campuses now lack, for the most part, is a standard of praise and blame according to which it is shameful to close one's ears to challenging arguments and disorienting questions.
Helga Dickow, African Arguments
Dying on the frontlines after two decades in power, Idriss Déby leaves behind fractured politics, poverty, and a rebel group on the march.
Economist
ne man commands a police state. The other is locked up and close to death. Nonetheless, Vladimir Putin fears his prisoner. Alexei Navalny may be physically weak: after most of a month on hunger strike, he was moved to a prison hospital on April 19th, perhaps for force-feeding. Yet he is still Russia's most effective opposition leader. His jocular, matter-of-fact videos resonate with voters. One, a guided tour of a gaudy palace that Mr Putin denies owning, has been viewed more than 116m times. Читать дальше...
Taipei Times
With the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) scheduled to hold a chairperson election in July, the party is embroiled in a phony war, as party members slowly come out of the woodwork to sound out support, while holding short of making a formal declaration of interest.
Audrye Wong, Foreign Affairs
China, it is often said, has mastered the art of economic statecraft. Observers routinely worry that by throwing around its ever-growing economic weight, the country is managing to buy goodwill and influence. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Beijing has exploited its dominance of manufacturing supply chains to win favor by donating masks and now vaccines to foreign countries. And it has long used unfair state subsidies to tilt the playing field in favor of Chinese companies. Читать дальше...
Doug Bandow, The American Conservative
To counter China, the Biden administration should recognize its allies, especially India.
Andrea Lorenzo Capussela, Financial Times
The government of Italian prime minister Mario Draghi is putting the finishing touches to an investment and economic reform programme that is to be powered by some €200bn in EU grants and loans.
Anne Applebaum, The Atlantic