The persuasive power of evidence is overrated. If you are not collateral damage in the escalating trade wars, the bulletins from the wars’ multiplying fronts are hilarious reading. You are collateral damage only if you are a manufacturer, farmer, or consumer, so relax and enjoy the following reports. Whirlpool, which makes washing machines and demands for government protection, wheedled Washington into imposing tariffs on, and quotas for, imported machines. Unfortunately for Whirlpool, American steel and aluminum makers horned in on the protectionist fun, getting tariffs — taxes paid by Americans — imposed on imports of those materials that, the Wall Street…

From militancy in the southern Philippines to hardline preachers taking shelter in Malaysia, politicized forms of conservative Islam are on the rise in Southeast Asia. Encouraged by governments and local elites who seek to draw legitimacy from local traditions, extremist thought is spreading among young people across the region. Nowhere is this more evident and more worrying than in Indonesia, the region’s largest and most populous Muslim state, home to 260 million people, 87 percent of whom are Sunni Muslims. A young democracy with a history of religious tolerance toward its Christian and Hindu minorities, Indonesia has nevertheless had to wage…

Iraqis disagree about many things but on one topic they are united: they believe they live in the most corrupt country in the world, barring a few where there is nothing much to steal. They see themselves as victims of a kleptomaniac state where hundreds of billions of dollars have disappeared into the pockets of the ruling elite over the past 15 years, while everybody else endures shortages of everything from jobs and houses to water and electricity. The popular rage against the political class that came to power in 2003 explains why the movement led by the populist-nationalist cleric…

Few phobias run deeper in Europe than the fear and hatred of Turks. For at least six hundred years, Europe was locked in innumerable wars with first Seljuk, then Ottoman Turks. My big St Bernard is a descendant of dogs bred to attack Arab and Turkish raiders coming over Switzerland’s St Bernard Pass.Today, by contrast, there are some 10 million ethnic Turks in Europe, most of whom came in past decades as guest laborers, prized for their hard work, honesty and reliability.Turkey joined NATO in 1952 at a time when the US dominated the continent and Mideast. The Turkish armed forces…

The US is the richest country on Earth, the third largest, and one of only two superpowers (the other being China). So it makes sense that foreign policy for such an influential country might be complex. But it’s often bizarre, too. From the contradictory to the just plain strange, there are plenty of US policy decisions that can only be described as “weird.” 10Nearly Voting Against Itself At The United Nations https://listverse.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/10-cuba-resolution_000018961549_Small-300x177.jpg 300w, https://listverse.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/10-cuba-resolution_000018961549_Small-407x240.jpg 407w, https://listverse.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/10-cuba-resolution_000018961549_Small-364x215.jpg 364w" sizes="(max-width: 632px) 100vw, 632px" style="border:0px;font:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;margin:0px;padding:0px;max-width:100%;height:auto;transition:opacity 0.25s ease-in"> Every year, the countries of the United Nations gather to pass judgment on the continued embargo…