With Kurdish independence closer than ever, Canada needs to prepare a response

"There's no missing the signs that something unspeakable happened in Allende, a quiet ranching town just a 40-minute drive from Eagle Pass, Texas," writes Ginger Thompson. This joint investigation from ProPublica and National Geographic describes in heartbreaking detail how the mishandling of information by American DEA officials led to a horrendous assault by a cartel on a Mexican town. 

Donald Trump promised to "Make America Great Again," but according to FiveThirtyEight's Nate Silver, he might instead be "Making Europe Liberal Again." Counter to the prevailing narrative of a swing towards right-wing parties, Silver compares politics in several European countries and finds it has become more difficult to make the case that a nationalist tide is on the rise.

To mark the 50th anniversary of the Six Day War, Hisham Melhem argues in Foreign Policy that the places that once fostered intellectualism in the Middle East are now nearly gone: "Cairo has lost its greatness, Baghdad is on its way to becoming almost exclusively a provincial Shiite capital, Aleppo was sacked for the first time in 600 years, and Damascus is a city in fear."

For Buzzfeed, Albert Samaha travelled home to the Philippines to understand how and why so many people have rallied around its violent and dangerous president, Rodrigo Duterte. Since his election, Duterte has been responsible for thousands of deaths and yet maintains popular support. Samaha paints a complex picture of a country caught struggling to forge a righteous path forward.