The Biggest Winners And Losers From The Iowa Caucuses
ROBYN BECK via Getty Images
View mobile site
ChinaFotoPress via Getty Images
BEIJING -- The coming crash of the Chinese economy has reemerged as a popular view in the global media. The reason for such a prediction this time is the persistent deceleration of China's growth after 2010. The growth rate dropped from 10.6 percent in 2010 to 7.3 percent in 2014 and further down to 6.9 percent in 2015, which is the lowest record in 25 years. It is the first time that China has experienced such an extended period of deceleration after the transition to a market economy in 1979.
China-United States Exchange Foundation
In spite of China's enormous disadvantages, there will always be people thinking that China will one day want to lead the world. This perspective is erroneous.
Evgeny Gromov via Getty Images
We are much more important to each other than we realize: pivoting to North America can be the way to ensure that in a turbulent 21st century, our three countries are partners in success rather than accomplices in failure.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- During the cartoon crisis of 2006, an association with European xenophobia and Islamophobia had grave consequences for Denmark's international diplomacy and its exposure to international terrorism. Now, its new migrant law threatens to do the same.
MARCO LONGARI via Getty Images
AL-ZARQA, Jordan -- In the beginning, I completely believed that people should go after their freedom, even if the process involves violence. But from time to time I think to myself, is it worth all the losses and the innocent lives? Is it worth destroying a whole country and its history?
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SHANGHAI -- "Markets with Chinese characteristics" are as volatile and hard to control as markets with American characteristics. Markets invariably take on a life of their own; they cannot be easily ordered around. To the extent that markets can be controlled, it is through setting the rules of the game in a transparent way. The policy approach China adopts will strongly influence economic performance and prospects worldwide.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
An African virus is spreading in the Americas, apparently causing the babies of infected mothers to be born with deformed heads. The World Health Organization said it will soon spread to almost all countries in the Americas, including to the U.S. A perfect storm of biological events has unfolded -- any one of which by itself would have been relatively harmless.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
CAIRO -- I had a dream like any other Egyptian. I lived through the unforgettable moment when Mubarak was obliged to cede the throne. I was waiting for a new Egypt, for a different future to come. Now, we are living through the worst moments Egypt has ever lived. Yet even in this complex reality, we still have hope.
Five years since the Arab revolutions, Tunisia stands as the lone country to have embarked on a democratic path -- our exceptionalism instilling both a sense of pride and significant concern.
Sean Gallup via Getty Images
In many ways, Denmark has been singled out as the devil, when it comes to the treatment of refugees. The recent decisions of the Folketinget (Parliament) have not exactly been helpful.
Bloomberg via Getty Images
Bernie refuses to run the way that the pundits think he should. When questioned about the supposedly kryptonite topic of "big government" last night, he wasted no time in saying that he was going to bring back the era when government actually helped care for people. A leader is someone who figures out where the future is going -- not someone who joins the party once it's underway.
Penguin Random House
The global financial crisis that shook virtually every country, government, and household in the world in 2008-09 gave way to a frustrating "new normal" of low growth, rising inequality, political dysfunction, and, in some cases, social tensions. Now this new normal is getting increasingly exhausted.
Jonathan Rashad via Getty Images
Sisi's state is franticly trying to suppress a movement it claims to have already suppressed. As Egypt's central security chief declared they "will not allow another revolution," the hashtag "the people demand the downfall of the regime" quietly became the top trending topic in the Arab Twittersphere.
Adam Berry via Getty Images
The problem with "digital democracy" can be synthesized down to the willingness by those in power within the Bush and Obama administrations (and later, Google) to embrace the incomplete musings of a naïve young man -- Jared Cohen -- about issues he was ill-positioned to proffer.
It seemed that all around me, Jan. 25 was being subject to a burial, and that I would have to work backwards to understand what had happened before I could serve its cause.
Courtesy of Menna Elnaka
I believe we're ready to be liberated. But for this to take place, for any change to take place at all, people have to see and admit the ugly situation that surrounds them first.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The upcoming election isn't about detailed policy proposals. It's about power -- whether those who have it will keep it, or whether average Americans will get some as well.
KAZUHIRO NOGI via Getty Images
NEW DELHI -- Japan's passive, checkbook diplomacy is giving way to a proactive, western-facing approach focused on the Asian mainland, the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean. The single biggest factor driving Japan's political rise is the ascent of a muscular China.
Bloomberg via Getty Images /ASSOCIATED PRESS
MOSCOW -- The Russian political system is archaic. It was created during a historical period when rulers were awash in petrodollars and there was simply no apparent need for democratic institutions, checks and balances, independent judiciary, strong parliament, federalism, local government and so forth. Without easy money, the ruling regime will not survive without modernization.
