The title, get it? Those are lyrics from the song "Donna," and this post is about "Ghana" and...oh whatever. Apologies for being away from the blog. Alhurra asked me to do a show today and there went my afternoon. I'll be back with some conflict news tonight. Meanwhile, where was I? Oh, right, Ghana. Yes, … Continue reading Now that you’re gone, I’m left all alone

Lots of political news worth mentioning today. First, Austria's second attempt at a presidential runoff produced a victory for left-wing ex-Green candidate Alexander Van der Bellen, with somewhere around 53% of the vote, and a defeat for far right-wing populist Norbert Hofer. The margin was considerably wider than Van der Bellen's very slim initial runoff … Continue reading Politics was a little nuts today

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on September 11, 2001: CBS News has learned that barely five hours after American Airlines Flight 77 plowed into the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was telling his aides to come up with plans for striking Iraq — even though there was no evidence linking Saddam Hussein to the attacks. … Continue reading We are so screwed

He's still more than a month and a half away from officially becoming our president, but Donald Trump is already making quite an impression among leaders around the world. We already know that he and Vladimir Putin get along well, and it probably shouldn't come as a surprise that a number of other authoritarian bros … Continue reading Trump around the world

Recently the Washington Post's "Monkey Cage" blog published a piece discussing the findings of a 36 nation African survey that asked people for their views on the importance of democracy and the degree to which their own countries were democratically governed. The report found that, while fewer people view democracy positively than did in similar … Continue reading Surprise election results: West African edition

ISIS is reportedly down to its "last stand" in the Libyan city of Sirte, left controlling only about "two blocks," which at the rate that operation is going could mean another three months of fighting. Still, it's good news. Here, on the other hand, is something that is not good news: Rival armed factions battled … Continue reading Just when you thought it was safe to plan that Libyan vacation

Here's Myanmar's de facto leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, speaking to people whom she wants to convince to invest in her country: "We do not want our country to be unstable. But we've had a long history of disunity within our nation," Suu Kyi said, addressing senior business representatives at the International Enterprise … Continue reading Aung San Suu Kyi’s “unavoidable reconciliation”