Free Republic

Turkish autocrat Recep Tayyip Erdogan is coming to Washington, DC, on May 16 loaded for bear.  He has an ambitious agenda and apparently feels he can achieve it all because he holds “trump” cards against the President of the United States. Erdogan and his proxies have publicly said they want to convince the United States to jettison its budding alliance with the Syrian Democratic Union (PYD) and its armed wing, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the Kurdish group that has become the tip of the spear in the fight against ISIS in Syria. On this point, they will encounter resistance...

Not for turning: Schroeder's reforms will continue German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has vowed to stick to his reform programme despite an election drubbing in his former stronghold city of Hamburg. State elections on Sunday delivered Mr Schroeder's Social Democrats their worst defeat there since World War II. The Christian Democrats won an absolute majority in the state parliament after a huge upsurge in support. The result was being blamed largely on Mr Schroeder's unpopular reforms, which include cutting some welfare benefits. We will keep the process going because there is no reasonable alternative Gerhard Schroeder On Monday Mr Schroeder...