What you need to know about the meeting taking place in Beijing known as the “Two Sessions.”

“We will never tolerate any activity ... which attempts to separate Taiwan from the motherland.”

This week we witnessed a world coming together and a world falling apart, a world between engagement and terror. For the first time in nearly 90 years, an American president visited Cuba, turning upside down the anti-Yanqui narrative that has been the raison d'être of one of the Western Hemisphere's most longest-lasting dictatorships. In Brussels, it appears that some children of Muslim immigrants expressed their explosive alienation in terror attacks in the very city many of them grew up, which also happens to be the capital of Europe. (continued)

Russian President Vladimir Putin's surprise announcement this week of a withdrawal of some forces from Syria has put an end to the narrative that Russia was bound to be trapped in a Mideast quagmire. Whether in Ukraine or in Syria, it has become clear that Russia's actions are as much about its role in the world order as about those countries. (continued)