Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- June 14, 2018

A petrol bomb explodes near riot policemen during clashes with university students protesting over a controversial reform to the pension plans of the Nicaraguan Social Security Institute (INSS) in Managua, Nicaragua April 20, 2018. REUTERS/Oswaldo Rivas

Christopher Dickey & Bianca Jagger, Daily Beast: Facing Down the Death Squads of Nicaragua

In Nicaragua’s second great uprising, an aging, corrupt leader of the first revolt has become the savage enemy of the new one.

Bianca Jagger is on the phone from Nicaragua. Over the past two weeks she has campaigned for human rights in her native country, and borne witness to mounting violence as the regime uses murder to hold on to power. We had talked several times over several days, but now, as she spoke about students she had met with, and who had been shot down, she choked back tears.

Over the last two months, largely unnoticed by the rest of the world, unrest in Nicaragua has grown into a nationwide uprising that has fought to remain peaceful. What began in mid-April after a violent crackdown on protests about pension reforms has continued to gain popular support, and to be met with increasing brutality and deadly force, especially by the paramilitary gangs known as “shock forces” or turbas.

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Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- June 14, 2018

Nicaragua Is Teetering on the Edge of a Civil War -- Frida Ghitis, WPR

Assault on Yemen's Hodeida will bring 'famine' and 'devastation' -- Wesley Dockery, DW

Trump Could Transform the U.S.–North Korea Relationship -- Peter Beinart, The Atlantic

Trump Meets Kim, Averting Threat of Nuclear War—and US Pundits Are Furious -- Tim Shorrock, The Nation

Red Alert: Trump Ends ‘Provocative’ War Games With South Korea to Play Footsie With North -- Gordon G. Chang, Daily Beast

Trump’s next target: NATO -- Paul Taylor, Politico

Trump vs Nato: the trade war is becoming a security crisis -- Fraser Nelson, Spectator

Australia torn by its Afghan war crimes -- Lachlan Colquhoun, Asia Times

India slams UN report on Kashmir, calls it 'selective compilation of largely unverified information' -- Indrani Bagchi, Times Of India

Asylum row could bring down Angela Merkel's government -- Jens Thurau, DW

Why is Macedonia changing its name? -- Dimitar Bechev, Al Jazeera

113 Politicians Have Been Killed Ahead Of Mexico’s Election. There Are Still Two Weeks To Go. -- Karla Zabludovsky, BuzzFeed

There’s Something Fishy About U.S.-Canada Trade Wars -- David Singerman, The Atlantic

The Next Plague Is Coming. Is America Ready? -- Ed Yong, The Atlantic