Wednesday evening at Denson, in our hometown of Washington, D.C., The Signal launched Altered States, our latest newsprint extra. Our friends and partners from the Human Rights Foundation were with us, along with a great crowd from all over the city who, it turns out, know how to turn a tough subject into a lively, inspirational time. A follow-up to last year’s The Long Game, Altered States runs down the question, How much influence do autocratic states have over democratic life? With Ben Freeman, Miranda Patrucić, Justin Callais, and Josh Rudolph, the new edition looks at how dictators build political influence in the U.S., why they keep disrupting so many other countries, why autocratic corruption is such a problem for the democratic world, and what democracies can do about it.
Limited copies available. Get yours before they’re gone.
—John Jamesen Gould
This week:
Developments
What will come of the U.S. and Ukraine reconnecting in Saudi Arabia to work out a possible cease-fire with Russia; what the U.S. administration is trying to get out of its unpredictable approach to tariffs; what a difference a new Canadian prime minister can make; what it means that Congo is now offering $5 million bounties on leaders of the M23 rebel group; and why Syria’s new authorities are struggling stabilize the nearly 200,00 square kilometers they now govern. + Suspicious minds in Taiwan; British menu items in Europe; and a sudden ski-jumping scandal in Norway.
Connections
Interpol arrested Rodrigo Duterte this week. Now he’ll face charges of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court. Why is he still so popular in the Philippines?
Exchanges
What’s behind the France-Algeria contretemps? Can Europe defend itself? (Cont.) + What’s the Trump administration doing to the U.S. National Institutes of Health?
Features
What is international law, anyway? Yuan Yi Zhu on how democratic countries are responding to expansive rulings by international courts. + How did Afghanistan turn into a global security problem again? Nilofar Sakhi on the Taliban, al-Qaeda, and the expanding “web of militancy” within the country and beyond.
Books
Why is the U.S. Supreme Court such a constant political flashpoint? A look at what Alexis de Tocqueville could already see about the question almost 200 years ago in Democracy in America.
Music
From Haim, Panda Bear, Josephine Orme, DJ Koze, and Robert Forster.
Weather report
Virunga National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo …
