Headlines

Bashar al-Assad is engaged in a murderous assault on Idlib, the last province to withstand him. Thanks to the Russian intervention, he is on the verge of retaking Idlib province, the last rebel stronghold. Against all odds, he has won the struggle against the uprising. But it is a hollow victory. Far from bringing order to his country, Mr Assad has displaced half its population.

Sept. 7.– Eight years of civil war have destroyed the economy and cost 500,000 lives. Mr Assad has nothing good to offer his people. They will be wretched and divided. He will govern by fear and brutality. For as long as he clings to power, he will stoke regional strife and jihadist terrorism that will be felt far beyond Syria’s borders.

"Assad or we burn the country.” For years Bashar al-Assad’s troops have daubed that phrase onto walls in the towns they recapture. The insurgents pushed the dictator to the brink. But Mr Assad shrugged off the empty threats of Western leaders, and enlisted the help of Iran and Russia. True to his slogan, he destroyed whole cities and gassed and starved his own people. What rebels remain are holed up in Idlib province. It, too, will soon fall. Against all the odds, the monster has won.

Tel Aviv, Sept.6.– At least five rockets have been fired from Gaza toward Israel, with one landing near Sderot, according to the IDF, which retaliated by attacking an observation post in northern Gaza with tanks.​

One of the rockets landed in an open area near Sderot, causing a fire to break out with minor damage. No casualties have been reported.​

US Vice-Presidente Mike Pence and Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki signed the deal on Monday.

Pence travelled to Poland when President Trump decided to remain in the US to face the emergency caused by a catastrophic hurricane.

Warsaw, Sept.2.– The US and Poland agreed Monday to a deal designed to secure 5G wireless networks in the European country, a move that could result in blocking Huawei Technologies and other Chinese telecommunications firms from its networks.

The deal with Poland comes as the US has been courting companies to reject Chinese technology in their next generation of wireless networks, telling allies it could put their citizens’ data at risk of espionage. 

 Cynicism is gnawing at Western democracies.

Aug.31.– Democracies are generally thought to die at the barrel of a gun, in coups and revolutions. These days, however, they are more likely to be strangled slowly in the name of the people.

Take Hungary, where Fidesz, the ruling party, has used its parliamentary majority to capture regulators, dominate business, control the courts, buy the media and manipulate the rules for elections. As our briefing explains, the prime minister, Viktor Orban, does not have to break the law, because he can get parliament to change it instead. He does not need secret police to take his enemies away in the night. They can be cut down to size without violence, by the tame press or the taxman. In form, Hungary is a thriving democracy; in spirit, it is a one-party state.