Democracy
Lula Won Brazil by 1.8 Percentage Points. Winning the Country Will Be Harder.
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will return to the Brazilian presidency twelve years after leaving office. In last Sunday’s runoff, Lula received 60,345,999 votes, or 50.90% of valid ballots, against Jair Bolsonaro’s 58,206,354 votes, or…
Iraq Finally Has a President. It Took an Entire Year After the Election.
Abdul Latif Rashid defeated incumbent President Barham Salih in a parliamentary vote and was sworn into office. He then nominated Mohammed Shia al-Sudani as prime minister-designate, giving Sudani the task of assembling a cabinet capable…
Britain Buried Its Queen. It Is Also Deciding What Her Seventy Years Meant.
On Monday, Britain held the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey. Around two thousand people attended the service, including presidents, prime ministers, monarchs and representatives from countries across the world. Archbishop of…
One in Five Swedish Voters Chose a Party the Political Establishment Once Refused to Work With.
Sweden’s election has produced a change of government, but the politician most responsible for changing Swedish politics may not become prime minister. After an extraordinarily close count, the bloc of right-wing parties finished with 176…
Britain Changed Its Prime Minister on Tuesday and Its Monarch on Thursday. The State Barely Stopped Moving.
On Tuesday, Liz Truss travelled to Balmoral and was formally appointed prime minister after winning the Conservative Party leadership contest against Rishi Sunak. Boris Johnson’s premiership, which began with an enormous parliamentary majority in 2019…
Kenya’s Election Is Disputed Again. This Time, the Most Important Battle May Happen in Court.
Kenya has a president-elect, at least according to the official result announced on Monday. William Ruto, the current deputy president, was declared the winner of the 9 August election with 50.49% of the vote, narrowly…
Pelosi Went to Taiwan. China Responded With Missiles. Was the Visit Worth It?
The Speaker of the US House of Representatives arrived in Taipei on Tuesday despite repeated warnings from Beijing that her visit would provoke a serious response. She met President Tsai Ing-wen, addressed Taiwanese officials and…
France Re-elected Macron. Then It Took Away His Parliamentary Majority.
Two months ago, Emmanuel Macron won re-election with 58.55% of the valid vote. Last Sunday, French voters gave his political coalition only 245 of the 577 seats in the National Assembly, leaving it 44 seats…
France Elected Macron President. It May Not Want Him to Govern Alone.
Less than two months ago, Emmanuel Macron defeated Marine Le Pen by more than seventeen percentage points and became the first French president in twenty years to win re-election while still in office. Tonight, France…
America Is Investigating January 6. The Riot May Not Be the Most Important Part.
More than seventeen months after supporters of Donald Trump stormed the United States Capitol, Americans watched the first prime-time public hearing of the House committee investigating January 6 on Thursday night. The images remain extraordinary…
Britain Is Celebrating 70 Years of a Queen Nobody Elected. Why Does That Still Work?
Queen Elizabeth II has now been monarch for seventy years. She inherited the throne in 1952 because her father was king. She has never faced an election, cannot be voted out and occupies an office…
Australia Changed Government. The More Interesting Change May Be Who Its Wealthiest Voters Abandoned.
Anthony Albanese was sworn in as prime minister on Monday after the Labor Party defeated Scott Morrison’s Liberal-National Coalition, ending almost nine years of conservative government. Only hours later, Albanese flew to Tokyo for a…
