Ishaan Tharoor The Washington Post

Thursday Russia embarks on a week of combat exercises and military maneuvers that will be closely watched by neighboring countries and the United States.

It's hard to imagine the leaders of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates thought it would go this way. Officials from their governments - as well as junior partners Egypt and Bahrain - described the punitive sanctions they collectively slapped on Qatar in early June as an unfortunate but necessary action, aimed at bringing the pesky Qataris to...

In the early hours of Wednesday, Saudi Arabia's King Salman elevated his 31-year-old son to be the kingdom's crown prince, replacing the king's 57-year-old nephew, Mohammed bin Nayef. The formal ascension of Mohammed bin Salman establishes the young royal as the most important political figure in the country, given the widespread suggestions that h...

Qatar, with just over 300,000 citizens, has played an outsize role on the world stage because of its great wealth of oil and natural gas.

Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz's month-long journey through Asia has been eye-catching because of its scale. The world's most powerful royal is touring seven countries with a traveling court of more than 1,000 people, including 25 princes and 10 ministers. The entourage's total baggage weighs a reported 506 tons.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday ending the United States' participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a sweeping trade pact negotiated with 11 other nations. It was neither ratified by American lawmakers nor expected to pass a vote in Congress. But Trump chose to kill it anyway with an executive action, underscoring h...

Both President Barack Obama and President-elect Donald Trump believe the United States never should have invaded Iraq in 2003 (or, at least, Trump claims he now does). The war in Iraq and its chaotic aftermath in many ways prefigure the present moment in the Middle East; it triggered a sectarian unraveling that now haunts both Iraq and Syria and lo...

A letter publicized this week by the German tabloid Bild reveals how Donald Trump's grandfather Friedrich Trump begged local authorities in southern Germany to revoke an expulsion order for avoiding military service as a teenager. His plea, it seems, proved unsuccessful, and Trump had to settle for a life across the Atlantic.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem's Old City is Christianity's most hallowed shrine. It's believed that the rock-cut tomb at the heart of the church was where the body of Jesus Christ was once laid.

Last week, the leader of Qatar, Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, reportedly jetted into Kazakhstan on a private hunting trip. But things didn't go quite as planned.

Japan's demographic challenges are well-known: It's home to the world's oldest population and has a shrinking birthrate and an astonishing number of single people. And it seems that, despite government efforts to incentivize marriage and child-rearing, things aren't quite trending in the right direction.

A recent trove of documents linked to the Islamic State reveals an increasingly pronounced phenomenon: Many of the young recruits to the extremist organization don't know much about Islam.

In the age of the smartphone, the coup attempt in Turkey perhaps didn't stand a chance. As speculation swirled on social media on Friday night, a group of mutinous troops took over the state-run TRT station - not a particularly popular network - and forced an anchor to read on air a statement drafted by them about the apparent power grab.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan -- the most significant ruler in the republic's history since its founder, Mustapha Kemal Ataturk -- is obsessed with Egypt. Three years ago, a military coup there ousted the democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi, arrested him and his allies, ruthlessly cracked down on his Muslim Brotherhood, and inst...

What a strange few weeks it has been for Boris Johnson. The former London mayor's political star soared last month when he led Britain's "leave" campaign to a shocking victory in a national referendum on the country's membership in the European Union.

Thursday Russia embarks on a week of combat exercises and military maneuvers that will be closely watched by neighboring countries and the United States.

It's hard to imagine the leaders of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates thought it would go this way. Officials from their governments - as well as junior partners Egypt and Bahrain - described the punitive sanctions they collectively slapped on Qatar in early June as an unfortunate but necessary action, aimed at bringing the pesky Qataris to...

In the early hours of Wednesday, Saudi Arabia's King Salman elevated his 31-year-old son to be the kingdom's crown prince, replacing the king's 57-year-old nephew, Mohammed bin Nayef. The formal ascension of Mohammed bin Salman establishes the young royal as the most important political figure in the country, given the widespread suggestions that h...

Qatar, with just over 300,000 citizens, has played an outsize role on the world stage because of its great wealth of oil and natural gas.

Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz's month-long journey through Asia has been eye-catching because of its scale. The world's most powerful royal is touring seven countries with a traveling court of more than 1,000 people, including 25 princes and 10 ministers. The entourage's total baggage weighs a reported 506 tons.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday ending the United States' participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a sweeping trade pact negotiated with 11 other nations. It was neither ratified by American lawmakers nor expected to pass a vote in Congress. But Trump chose to kill it anyway with an executive action, underscoring h...

Both President Barack Obama and President-elect Donald Trump believe the United States never should have invaded Iraq in 2003 (or, at least, Trump claims he now does). The war in Iraq and its chaotic aftermath in many ways prefigure the present moment in the Middle East; it triggered a sectarian unraveling that now haunts both Iraq and Syria and lo...

A letter publicized this week by the German tabloid Bild reveals how Donald Trump's grandfather Friedrich Trump begged local authorities in southern Germany to revoke an expulsion order for avoiding military service as a teenager. His plea, it seems, proved unsuccessful, and Trump had to settle for a life across the Atlantic.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem's Old City is Christianity's most hallowed shrine. It's believed that the rock-cut tomb at the heart of the church was where the body of Jesus Christ was once laid.

Last week, the leader of Qatar, Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, reportedly jetted into Kazakhstan on a private hunting trip. But things didn't go quite as planned.

Japan's demographic challenges are well-known: It's home to the world's oldest population and has a shrinking birthrate and an astonishing number of single people. And it seems that, despite government efforts to incentivize marriage and child-rearing, things aren't quite trending in the right direction.

A recent trove of documents linked to the Islamic State reveals an increasingly pronounced phenomenon: Many of the young recruits to the extremist organization don't know much about Islam.

In the age of the smartphone, the coup attempt in Turkey perhaps didn't stand a chance. As speculation swirled on social media on Friday night, a group of mutinous troops took over the state-run TRT station - not a particularly popular network - and forced an anchor to read on air a statement drafted by them about the apparent power grab.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan -- the most significant ruler in the republic's history since its founder, Mustapha Kemal Ataturk -- is obsessed with Egypt. Three years ago, a military coup there ousted the democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi, arrested him and his allies, ruthlessly cracked down on his Muslim Brotherhood, and inst...

What a strange few weeks it has been for Boris Johnson. The former London mayor's political star soared last month when he led Britain's "leave" campaign to a shocking victory in a national referendum on the country's membership in the European Union.