An Apology for Multiculturalism

Russia's Main Intelligence Directorate — known as the GRU — has in recent years been blamed for a slew of things (for instance, hacking the Clinton campaign's emails, poisoning Russian former spy Sergei Skripal and others in England, and shooting down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17). In The Daily Beast, Amy Knight lays out how the GRU — whose power was thought to be waning just a few years ago — bounced back.

Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, two reporters for Reuters in Myanmar, uncovered the murder of 10 Rohingya Muslim men during a military operation, and were subsequently arrested. As Tom Lasseter reports in this special investigation for Reuters, the government's prosecution of the two men for their journalism is "seen by many as a test of the country's nascent democracy."

In Prospect magazine, Tom Fletcher pens a colourful profile of Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, the outgoing United Nations human rights chief who has pulled no punches with dictators and despots, been a fiery defender of the international order and tried steadfastly to shine light in dark corners. But now he is leaving, writes Fletcher — and what does that mean for the state of the world?

Last weekend, the world learned of the daring rescue of 98 members of the Syrian Civil Defence — the White Helmets — and their families. In The Globe and Mail, Mark MacKinnon reveals the inside story of what he calls "a triumph of behind-the-scenes Canadian diplomacy," in which Robin Wettlaufer, Ottawa’s special envoy to Syria, and Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland play a starring role.