Brazil’s hosting of the World Cup soccer tournament in June through July 2014 was a trial of sorts for President Dilma Rousseff, who will stand for re-election in October. Any serious problem during the games could have turned the upcoming election into a referendum on whether she is the best person to head the government in the summer of 2016 when Brazil hosts the Olympics.
Until mid-July, the diplomatic crisis generated by Russia’s annexation of Crimea in March and Moscow’s ongoing indirect support for a pro-Russia separatist rebellion in eastern Ukraine appeared to have settled into a state of equilibrium. Powerful EU members resisted pressure from the U.S. for an expansion of economic sanctions targeting strategic government agencies and powerful political and business allies of President Vladimir Putin.
The recent primary defeat of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor was one of the bigger shocks to American politics in some time. Congressional leaders, known to bring home the bacon for local folks, usually are handily reelected. But Cantor’s loss will do more than simply reshuffle the biggest offices on Capitol Hill.
Government policies have unintended consequences that can play out far into the future. There is perhaps no better example of this than the complex legal changes that have impacted the current surge of unaccompanied immigrant children (UAC) coming across the border. American policies crafted in the 1990s likely unintentionally had a role in incentivizing some of the migration and the smugglers that carry many of the migrants.
The court-ordered removal of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra on the grounds of abuse of power proved to be the final nail in the coffin for the troubled PTP government that came to power on a wave of popular optimism in 2011. Growing street protests and clashes between the red-shirted supporters of the PTP (and exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra) and their yellow-shirted opponents threatened to trigger an escalating cycle of violence.
President Xi Jinping has broadened his government’s anti-graft campaign to include former senior Communist Party officials and high-ranking military officers. In an unprecedented move, the authorities recently rounded up hundreds of associates and relatives of Zhou Yongkang, a former domestic security czar who retired from the Politburo Standing Committee in 2012. Perhaps even more surprising are reports of corruption charges against Lt.-Gen. Gu Junshan, former deputy logistics chief of the army.
In June of 2013, President Obama announced plans for sweeping reforms in coal fired power generation. His Climate Action Plan included a call for the EPA to draft carbon emission standards aimed at putting “an end to the limitless dumping of carbon pollution” from power plants. The President’s words appeared to be the death knell for the coal industry.
SPECIAL REPORT—As we enter the summer months before the fall mid-term elections, all political eyes in the United States and around the world are on the U.S. Senate. The GOP needs to pick up six seats in November’s elections to take outright control of the U.S. Senate in 2015. Here’s why the GOP will do it.
His dominant political position buttressed by gains for his United Russia party in regional and local elections held in September 2013, and a raised international profile for Russia after successfully hosting the Winter Olympic Games earlier this year, President Vladimir Putin has stepped up repression of dissent at home while adopting a disconcertingly aggressive posture in the foreign policy arena.
I am a die-hard advocate for supporting U.S. exports, so it concerns me that exports have been taken hostage during the ongoing Congressional infighting. Exports are vital, considering that more than 38 million American jobs depend on trade. One in three manufacturing jobs depends on exports, and one in three acres on American farms is planted for hungry consumers overseas.
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