The Humanitarian’s Dilemma

Stepping out of a car in the West Bank town of Kafr Qaddum, I was greeted by the stench of urine, feces, and burned tires — a foul reminder of the near-constant confrontation between Israeli settlers and soldiers on one side, and Palestinians on the other.

The Abu Ehab family — whose two-story house is on a slope just below the road we drove in on — is caught between these battles. The family members keep their chickens on the second floor and live on the first, but the walls do little to protect them from the exchange of tear gas, burning tires, and hurled rocks. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops frequently move around the Abu Ehab family’s property during nighttime search operations; at times, they enter the house.

In Mexico, Crime Is Bigger Than a Crime Boss

The alleged end of the tunnel through which Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera could have escaped from the Altiplano prison, at a house in Almoloya de Juarez, Mexico, on July 12. (YURI CORTEZ/AFP/Getty Images)

The July 11 escape of the notorious Sinaloa crime boss, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera, from a maximum-security prison in Mexico has drawn considerable Mexican and international media attention. While the brazen and elaborate nature of the escape will add to the lore already surrounding Guzman, the escape itself carries little significance for organized crime in Mexico — though it will place a momentary strain on coordination between U.S. and Mexican law enforcement. The forces that drive the evolution of organized crime and their impact on society in Mexico are simply greater than any single crime boss.

The Greek bailout deal resolves nothing

Even if the new bailout makes it through the Greek parliament in coming weeks, the programme's economic incoherence will make it fall apart.

Before the bailout deal was struck, the Greek impasse had descended into point-scoring and finger-pointing, with creditors blaming Greece for the country’s economic woes, and Greeks – and the centre-left in other countries – blaming the creditors for insisting on more austerity and trying to humiliate the country. Now that a deal has been struck, the argument will shift onto whether Alexis Tsipras, with his confrontational bargaining strategy, has won anything that a more emollient government would not. Tspiras and his supporters claim that debt relief and a long-term programme of fresh lending would not have been on the table without playing hardball. But the truth is that Greece capitulated on Monday July 13th, not the creditors, and this has important ramifications for the bailout’s success. 

Nine People Who Saw the Greek Crisis Coming Years Before Everyone Else Did

Although the problems in Greece didn't begin making big headlines until 2009, a number of economists, politicians and professors spotted cracks in the European currency union as early as the 1990s. Meanwhile, it's interesting to note that the country had a tough time making it into the single currency in the first place. Greece failed to qualify for the euro in 1998 before being granted admission in 2001. 

The iron lady vs iron EU.

Photographer: Jeff Overs/BBC News & Current Affairs via Getty Images

Here are some people who must have had crystal balls. 

Destruction—and I’m Leaving The Party

Dear Sigmar Gabriel,

I’ve been a member of the SPD since the age of 13. As you’ll know, that is not supposed to happen: You have to be 14 to sign up. But I was so impatient for Helmut Kohl’s conservative government to come to an end, and admired the history of social democracy so much, that I begged the comrades in Munich until they said: “You could always make a little mistake and write that you were born in 1981 rather than in 1982.”

Sigmar Gabriel, leader of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) (Reuters/Thomas Peter)

Since then I’ve often had my disagreements with the SPD. But I never regretted being a member. Until now.

India & the One Belt One Road paradigm

One Belt One Road (OBOR) is an initiative the Chinese envisioned in 2013 and are taking progressive steps to bring it to fruition. Execution of the plan will depend on how China is able to engage the countries involved in this perimeter, mainly in what it calls the Silk Road Initiatives. The OBOR has following two key components:

1. New Silk Road Economic Belt that links China and Europe, through Central and Western Asia
2. Maritime Silk Road (MSR) that will connect China and Southeast Asian countries, Africa and Europe.

Germany’s Destructive Anger

MATT CHASE

A DEAL has finally been reached that could keep Greece in the eurozone. Few are happy with the outcome. We’ve heard a lot about how the Greeks feel humiliated. But we’ve heard less about German anger, and we know they are angry. Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble was reported to have started yelling during Saturday night’s negotiations. France and Italy have both made huge loans to Greece, but neither country has expressed hostility to Greece. Why is Germany so angry?

The Final Iran Deal Is Here: What Iran Gives Up, What Iran Gets

Image Credit: Flickr/ U.S. Department of State

Iran and the P5+1—a group including the United States, Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom, and Germany—have reached a final agreement, a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) over Iran’s nuclear program. The agreement comes nearly 20 months after the November 2013 Joint Plan of Action, in which Iran made major technical concessions regarding the functioning of its civilian nuclear program in exchange for moderate sanctions relief. The final agreement is largely based off the framework agreement that was reached in early April 2015 in Lausanne, Switzerland. In broad strokes, the final deal will see a potential Iranian nuclear weapon program set back by at least a decade through a series of internationally enforced technical concessions. In exchange, Iran will receive relief from nuclear-related sanctions.

Cyprus Remembers 1974 Coup Against President Archbishop Makarios

Cyprus commemorates the dead and condemns the 1974 coup

Photo © CyprusExpat.co.uk

Today, 15th July, marks 41 years since the events which unfolded on this East Mediterranean island led to its division and occupation by Turkey. The Greek military junta, then ruling Greece, toppled the democratically elected president of Cyprus, the late Archbishop Makarios III.

The Berlin Bulldozer and the Sack of Athens

When finalizing my book European Spring last year, I hesitated before describing the eurozone as a “glorified debtors’ prison.” After this weekend’s brutal, vindictive, and shortsighted exercise of German power against Greece, backed up by the Frankfurt-based European Central Bank’s illegal threat to pull the plug on the entire Greek banking system, I take it back. There is nothing glorious about the eurozone: It is a monstrous, undemocratic creditors’ racket.