International

A Turkish-Trained Speaker, a Boycotted Vote: Somalia's Parliament Deepens Its Legitimacy Crisis

MOGADISHU, Somalia 

Somalia's House of the People elected a new speaker of parliament this week in a vote that half the country's federal member states refused to join, capping months of escalating tension between Mogadishu and its regional governments and raising fresh questions about who actually controls…

Out of the Presidential Palace, Into the Senate: Talon's New Perch Raises Succession Questions in Benin

Porto-Novo, Benin 

Patrice Talon, who stepped down in May as Benin's president after completing the two terms allowed him under the constitution, was elected six days earlier this month to lead the country's brand-new Senate — a body that did not exist a year ago, that he himself created, and that just…

Guinea-Bissau's Junta Prepares Referendum to Expand Presidential Power as Regional Bloc Meets Over the Crisis

BISSAU, Guinea-Bissau 

Nine months after soldiers overthrew Guinea-Bissau's elected government, the military-led transitional authorities are pressing ahead with a Aug. 30 referendum that would fundamentally rewrite the country's constitution to concentrate power in the presidency — even as the Community of…

North Korea Prepares to Send Up to 50,000 More Troops to Russia as Pyongyang-Moscow War Alliance Deepens

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said this week that Russia has decided to bring in as many as 50,000 additional North Korean soldiers, a sharp escalation of a military partnership that has already sent thousands of Pyongyang's troops into combat and, according to Kyiv, North Korean-made ballistic missiles into Russian strikes on…

Colombia's Deadliest Quake in a Century Tests a New President Three Days Into Office

World Politics 

Background
Colombia sits astride one of the most seismically active zones on Earth, wedged against the boundary where the Nazca, Caribbean and South American tectonic plates grind past one another beneath the northern Andes. The country has a long history of destructive…

Trump's Secret Escape From Turkey: Inside the Catering-Truck Ruse That Evaded an Iranian Assassination Plot

NEWS

More than a month after it happened, the American public learned this week that President Donald Trump did not fly home from July's NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, the way the White House said he did. Rather than boarding Air Force One in full view of the traveling press corps, Trump was quietly moved across…