France's new prime minister represents a tilt towards the left, but the president still seems determined to occupy the middle ground.
Category: Personalities
Election preview: Philippines
The Philippine presidential election seems a foregone conclusion, with the late dictator's son holding a big lead in the polls.
Putin blinks?
Russia moves towards annexation of the rebel-controlled Donbas. It's a gross violation of international law, but it's probably also a step away from the threat of full-scale war.
Death of a humorist
P.J. O'Rourke leaves behind a wonderful body of work but also an ambiguous moral legacy.
Death of an election expert
Lani Guinier, controversial scholar of election law and minority rights, dies at 71.
Death of a moderate
The death of Bob Dole reminds us of an era when the Republican Party was something fundamentally different from what it has since become.
Death of a tyrant
The death this week of a brutal twentieth-century dictator reminds us of how routine his crimes used to appear.
Death of a war criminal
Donald Rumsfeld, architect of invasion and torture, dies peacefully and unmolested. The results of his work live on.
Bonaparte, 200 years on
Two hundred years on from the death of Napoleon, his legacy has never ceased to be a live political question in France. Emmanuel Macron is the latest to try to deal with it.
Death of a show pony
Andrew Peacock was a flawed Liberal leader, but it is not mere nostalgia to think that he was a great deal more admirable than most of his successors.
The World is Not Enough 