Argentina, the United States and Iran appear to be the most disliked World Cup teams. Brazilian fans enter the World Cup as the most confident, though Argentines and Spaniards aren’t far behind in their home-country optimism. And fans across many countries agree that the Brazilians play the most attractive form of soccer. These are among the results from a study of people in 19 countries conducted by YouGov, the online survey firm, in collaboration with The Upshot. 

While the international outcry is gratifying in its endorsement of human rights and its outrage at the Islamic jihad and Sharia law, hashtag diplomacy has distinct limitations; it may serve as a starting point provided it doesn’t merely fade away after serving only to vent emotion, and it is no substitute for action.

High street giant Gap is to become the first American retailer to source garments made in Myanmar, the US embassy in Yangon said, over a decade after sanctions against the former junta slashed the country's textile industry. 

The discourse surrounding drone strikes in the FATA region has always been complex. At least, that is what the New America Foundation’s Peter Bergen said recently, a revelation that was backed by a statement from an unnamed official in Islamabad. With a sharp decline in the number of drone strikes from 2010 onwards, and no strikes at all so far in 2014, it seems as if the Obama administration, ahead of a complete withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2016, has finally decided to wrap up the CIA drone campaign in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, or FATA.

A new poll shows military veterans and their families say overwhelmingly that President Obama made the wrong call by trading five Taliban prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. And a plurality of all Americans agree.