Headlines

The decision to scrap term limits for China’s president, Xi Jinping, pierces the veil of Chinese politics and the chinese leader will be allowed to reign forever.   

Beijing, Feb.26.– The decision announced on February 25th to scrap term limits for China’s president, Xi Jinping, pierces the veil of Chinese politics. It reveals that, at a time when the ruling Communist Party is presenting China to the world as a modern, reliable and responsible state, capable of defending globalisation, the internal political system that the party monopolises is premodern, treacherous, inward-looking and brutal. It also shows that Chinese leaders’ own attempts to make the party otherwise have not got far.

Those attempts began in the 1980s under Deng Xiaoping, then the country’s paramount leader. In order to encourage predictability and institutional stability after the chaos of the last years of Mao Zedong, Deng introduced a series of reforms which stressed rules and norms, instead of strongman decision-making. The reforms included mandatory retirement ages and term limits for high-ranking politicians. The constitution of 1982 says the president “shall serve no more than two consecutive terms”.

Beirut/United Nations, Feb.24.– The U.N. Security Council on Saturday demanded a 30-day truce across Syria as rescuers in the country's eastern Ghouta region said bombing would not let up long enough for them to count bodies during one of the bloodiest air assaults of the seven-year war.

Shortly after the unanimous vote by the 15-member council, warplanes struck a town in eastern Ghouta, the last rebel enclave near Syria's capital, an emergency service and a war monitoring group said. Warplanes have pounded the region for seven straight days while residents holed up in basements.

Topics to be discussed: 

Crimea

Libya Arms Embargo;

Situation in Afghanistan;

Syrian National Dialogue Congress;

Chemical Weapons Use in Syria;

US Jerusalem Decision;

North Korea Sanctions;

Nuclear developments in Iran.

New York, Feb.10.– Moscow is ready for dialogue with Washington which "is necessary to both sides and the international community", Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia told journalists.

"We behave with restraint toward our American partners. We constantly say that we are ready for a dialogue to the extent that they are ready for it," Nebenzia said. "This dialogue is necessary — not only for us, but for them as well and for the whole international community."

• The world can look to Latin America as a source of inspiration for how citizens can reclaim and advance democracy.
• More than 600 initiatives in L.A. are trying to close the gap between citizens and governments by increasing political participation.

Feb. 8.– For the past decade, as trust in institutions has declined around the globe, politics in many countries has seemingly turned into a contest pitting self-interested “elites” against everyone else. And as the conviction that “elites” don’t represent the interests of “the people” has become increasingly common, two alternative ways forward have become ascendant, too.

One path is rooted in populism and represented by the building of walls, both literal and figurative. The other is inclusive, and founded on collaboration and trust.