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Moral authority or national interest? Senate weighs both in Saudi relations

Can the United States exercise its moral authority in foreign policy without giving its vital national interests short shrift? To a degree not seen in decades, senators of both parties have asserted the importance of factoring in America’s long-held values and global role as moral guide as they wrestle with two key questions: How to address the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and how involved the US should be in the Saudi intervention in the Yemen conflict.

An unlikely place for women to help end a tragic war

The country of Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula has two notable distinctions. It is currently home to the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophe, caused by a war raging since 2015. Yemen’s warring parties agreed to a cease-fire for the port city of Hudaydah, the main entry for aid to feed a country on the brink of mass famine.

In Armenia, a democratic revolution that no one noticed

Young people drove Armenia’s “Velvet Revolution” – that’s the common narrative. This is the first time we are having free and fair elections,” says Siransush Abovyan. Recommended: Armenia is having a 'color revolution.' So why is Russia so calm?

A new age in Europe, 30 years later

It was, for the continent of Europe, the end of an era. The geopolitical picture in Europe is shaping up a bit like “Back to the Future,” dominated by two historical rivals: Germany and Russia. Without the steady hand of late US President George H.W. Bush, it’s not at all clear that the fall of the wall would have led to the reunification of Germany, only a few decades after a world war in which Nazi aggression had scarred the memory of Europe. And without the stewardship of German Chancellor Angela Merkel since 2005 – who last week passed on the leadership of her Christian Democratic Union party, and has confirmed this term will be her last – the tensions with Vladimir Putin’s Russia over the former Soviet-bloc countries of Eastern Europe would have been even harder to navigate.

Meanwhile in … The Hague, a church has held a seven-week-long continuous service to stop a family from being deported

In the Hague, a church has held a seven-week-long continuous service to stop a family from being deported. According to Dutch law, police cannot enter places of worship during an ongoing religious service. In July, Tham Luang Nang Non cave was anxiously watched by the world as rescuers worked to save 12 soccer team members and their coach from a flooded underground passage.

Why an Argentine leader seeks to break the pull of populism

Young Andrés Watle has only been around for about three decades – and yet that’s long enough to have known the economic ups and downs of Argentina’s legendary populist governance. “It seems great when you’re living the good times of el populismo, with services practically given away and a feeling that we’re a wealthy country,” says Mr. Watle, a Buenos Aires travel agent. Breaking the pattern of the boom-and-bust economic cycles that have defined Argentina’s economy for decades was a central objective of Argentine President Mauricio Macri when he took office in 2015.

The ballot broker: North Carolina race puts face on electoral fraud

A country still dealing with potential election interference by foreign agents is now facing a home-grown scandal: credible and bipartisan allegations that a small-town operator in rural North Carolina used illicit means to swing a 905-vote win for a Republican House candidate. A bipartisan elections board in North Carolina unanimously declined to certify the Ninth District election last week after “unfortunate activities,” in the words of the board’s vice chair – apparent mass-manipulation of absentee ballots – came to light. Affidavits suggest that Republican officials shared early voting data with partisans while withholding that information from Democrats.

Putin’s praise of a truth-telling dissident

An object of investigation in the West for spreading fake news, Vladimir Putin paid tribute on Tuesday to a man known for truth-telling. The Russian president praised the late Alexander Solzhenitsyn on the centennial of his birth and unveiled a statue honoring the Nobel Prize-winning author. For decades, Solzhenitsyn was a fierce critic of his country.

A reporter's backstory – finding a way to humanize a global crisis

In our continuing series of profiles, let us introduce you to our Paris-based reporter at large, Peter Ford, who coordinated much of our On the Move coverage. Before returning to Paris, Peter was our bureau chief in Beijing for a decade. Before that, he served as the Monitor’s bureau chief in Moscow and Paris.

Global solutions on migration start at home

 With one in every 30 people in the world now migrants, it was inevitable that the United Nations would try to coordinate the immigration policies of nations that send, receive, or block migrants. About 85 percent of UN members signed the nonbinding “Global Compact for Migration,” one that calls for “safe, orderly, and regular” migration. The discussion helped nations look inward, compare themselves with others, and perhaps notice how their domestic divisions influence their migration practices or their standing in the world.