| | | | Is Theresa May Running Out the Clock? | | A fresh wave of Brexit panic is in the air after Prime Minister Theresa May has put off a vote on her deal—it will happen "by March 12," May said—bringing Parliament's decision day "scarily close" to the March 29 deadline for Britain to leave the EU.
This amounts to a "ploy" to pressure MPs, The Guardian editorializes: May won't win key concessions from Brussels, and she's simply maneuvering Parliament into a last-minute decision between her deal and no deal at all.
The right thing to do is postpone Brexit altogether, pushing back the March 29 deadline, the paper argues. But even that might not solve anything, in the end, Peter Thal Larsen points out at Reuters: If British politics are fractured now, there's little reason to believe that will change with more time to debate. | | Venezuela's Stalemate Hasn't Gotten Any Easier to Solve | | For now, American pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro only seems to have united his socialist-movement base, Ivan Briscoe writes in Foreign Affairs. Some in that group are openly critical of Maduro, and their loyalties could change—meaning that despite their bluster and solidarity against the US in interviews with Briscoe, an opening exists for negotiation over Venezuela's future, but it is a "narrow one and full of mistrust."
The weekend's border clashes, meanwhile, marked a major setback for opposition leader Juan Guaido, Nicholas Casey and Albinson Linares write at The New York Times: His supporters had hoped for a watershed moment, but as aid trucks were blocked from entering the country by a Venezuelan military that refused to change sides, the moment was a letdown. | | Trump's Dangerous Game With Huawei | | President Trump has done it again, hinting last week that he might ask the Justice Department to drop its charges against Huawei. This point has been made before, but more are taking notice: The Wall Street Journal weighs in this time to repeat that Trump's comments are very bad for the rule of law.
Offering dropped indictments for trade concessions undermines DOJ's credibility, risks turning law enforcement into a political tool, and makes "American punishment seem as arbitrary as China's," the Journal argues. It's also a slight to Canada, which arrested Huawei's CFO for extradition at America's request, suffering its own consequences as China retaliated by arresting Canadians.
Trump's talk of Huawei provides a dark lining to the good news of a delayed tariff war, with signs pointing to cautious optimism as talks continue. | | How the Far Right Is Testing German Democracy | | How does an otherwise healthy, liberal democracy deal with the strains of illiberalism within it? That's the question Germany faces, after the country's domestic security agency announced last month it would place under surveillance parts of the far-right Alternative fur Deutschland party.
The party has pushed the boundaries of Germany's constitution and restrictions on hate speech, aimed at preventing a return to Germany's dark past, Emily Schultheis writes at The Atlantic. But the party won 12.6% of the vote in 2017's elections and is represented across the country—posing a test for German institutions built to restrain the ideas some AfD members have espoused.
This new wrestling can be a good thing, one expert tells Schultheis, as it demands that Germans reexamine the terms of political debate—a healthy process for democracy. | | Losing Leverage Over North Korea | | President Trump has already lost a tangible bit of leverage over North Korea, heading into this week's summit with Kim Jong-Un, Grant Harris argues at Project Syndicate: His tweet declaring an end to North Korea's nuclear threat has only emboldened some African nations to do business with North Korea, skirting nuclear sanctions and giving Kim a foothold in the region.
This week's summit will be a failure if Kim continues to avoid sanctions—and continues to gain acceptance on the world stage—in its aftermath, CNN's Samantha Vinograd writes. | | | | | | |
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