Parma

For Turkey's strongman Erdoğan, trouble seeing eye to eye with Trump

It was a jubilant moment of victory for Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. In a mid-December telephone call, he appeared to persuade President Trump to upend years of American policy in Syria by stepping away from US-backed Kurdish militias that Turkey calls terrorists and handing the reins to America’s NATO ally. It’s yours,” Mr. Trump reportedly said of Syria.

In Indonesia, honesty has been a good catch

Soon after becoming president of Indonesia more than four years ago, Joko “Jokowi” Widodo asked people in the world’s fourth most populous nation to undergo a “mental revolution,” aimed mainly at curbing corruption. On many counts, Jokowi has landed his revolution. Fish stocks in Indonesian waters have more than doubled since 2013.

Sudanese protests test warming Western ties with a longtime foe

As a massive antigovernment protest movement mushroomed in Sudan over the last three weeks, from a distance it appeared obvious which side Western powers were on. “We are appalled by reports of deaths and serious injury to those exercising their legitimate right to protest,” read a Jan. 8 statement by the United States, Britain, Norway, and Canada condemning the regime’s violent crackdown on demonstrators, which has so far killed more than 40 protestors according to Amnesty International. Sudan’s beleaguered President Omar al-Bashir, meanwhile, made clear that he felt foreign powers had helped stoke the unrest – which started over economic concerns – through sanctions and other measures.

Shutdown Day 26: A game of chicken no one wants to lose

The government shutdown is now on Day 26, the longest in history, and its impact – from airports to prisons to food safety – is growing exponentially. Neither President Trump nor the Democrats are showing any sign of budging from their positions. Today, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sent a letter to Mr. Trump suggesting that the State of the Union address, scheduled for Jan. 29, ought to be postponed until after the government has reopened.