Conservative critics of potential presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg complain that the former New York mayor loved skyscrapers, hated cigarettes, trans fats, and Big Gulp sodas, and supported such liberal causes as gun control and battling climate change. But New Yorkers—and other Americans who paid attention to his three terms as mayor—also know that he never lost a political race, and that, during his 12 years in City Hall, New York's crime rates plunged, schools improved, tourism soared, racial tensions eased, and city revenues swelled. His achievements—and failures—for New York are clear.

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"Do not be happy America," the Islamic State's audio message warned as it confirmed the death of its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and his putative successor in back-to-back attacks over the weekend by U.S. forces in northern Syria. Even as the seven-and-a-half minute audio message circulated on the Internet, declarations of "bay'a," allegiance, to ISIS's new caliph, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Quarayshi, were pouring in. Many more are expected in coming weeks, as the group's affiliates in some 22 "wilayat," or provinces across the globe, pledge support for the new leader and the group's enduring mission—the implementation of its brutal interpretation of Islamic law.

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President Trump took a victory lap Wednesday when he claimed that the "cease-fire" on the Turkish-Syrian border justified his decision to lift all sanctions on Turkey.

The halt in the fighting, moreover, supposedly proved the ostensible wisdom of the president's widely criticized decision to betray America's Kurdish allies by greenlighting Turkey's invasion of Syria to establish a security zone at the border.

But Trump's hastily organized appearance in the Diplomatic Reception Room in the White House had a broader agenda.

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"Nothing lasts, except the music." Jimmy Miller was deep into a hash-induced soliloquy about life, love, loss, and music, contemplating the fleeting nature of fame, as we walked to Olympic Studios on a cold, wet night in London. It was the harsh winter of 1968 following the legendary Summer of Love. My elder half-brother had already become a musical force in London, but it hadn't fazed him. He was 26; I was 20.

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The United States has done it again. After a telephone chat with President Recep Erdogan, Turkey's Islamist autocrat, President Trump has abruptly reversed U.S. military policy against the advice of the State Department and Pentagon and paved the way for a Turkish invasion of northeastern Syria.

His stunning decision has not only jeopardized a costly victory over the Islamic State, it has betrayed the Kurds, people who were pivotal in defeating the Islamist militants.

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