Tulsa

In Jordanian city hit by ISIS, old lessons on Christian-Muslim coexistence

When Islamic State jihadists seized the Crusader castle in the heart of this southern Jordanian city in December, Maher Habashneh had just one thing in mind. Braving stray bullets from a firefight playing out in the city center between ISIS and an alliance of security forces and city residents, Mr. Habashneh rushed to the home of Waddah Amarien, where he stood guard until his childhood friend returned from Amman early the next morning. Habashneh, an unemployed university graduate, is Muslim, Mr. Amarien is Christian.

As Taiwan debates gay marriage, advocates eye influence abroad

As bills to legalize same-sex marriage made their way through the legislature last year, Taiwan seemed poised for a blast of international limelight – not so common for the island of 23 million. For LGBT advocates throughout Asia, the proposed law promised to be an exciting “first” for the region. For a groundswell of Taiwanese, it also represented one more step in Taipei’s years-long strategy of compensating for its diplomatic handicaps with “soft power” strength, bolstering its image as a place open to social change – particularly in contrast to mainland China, which claims sovereignty over Taiwan.

Manchester attack: three questions to consider

In what has become an all-too-familiar occurrence, an apparent terrorist attack has once again struck the European public, this time at a concert by American singer Ariana Grande in Manchester, England, attended by thousands of pre-teen and teenaged girls. At the time of writing, the death toll was at 22, with more than 50 injured in what has been described as a suicide bombing just at the foyer of the Manchester Arena. Media reports and recent patterns suggest that the perpetrator is likely another radicalized, lone-wolf attacker, perhaps inspired by the so-called Islamic State, which has already claimed responsibility.

Trump has denied 'collusion' with Russia. But is that the real issue?

If there’s a single word at the center of the FBI investigation into the Russian connection to the 2016 US election, it might be “collusion.” It means secret or illegal cooperation, especially to cheat or deceive others. “That is important stuff for the public to be aware of even if it absolves the campaign staff of ‘knowing collusion,’ ” says Julian Sanchez, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute who studies national security and intelligence surveillance, in an email interview.