Surprise! Russia’s leaders are surviving the wildfires much more comfortably than their beleaguered constituents, up to 700 of whom are dying per day in Moscow alone. Indeed, as the flames threaten to kill up to 15000, cost $15 billion worth of GDP and even turn radioactive (!!!), some things they don’t seem to threaten are […]
Haitian-born philanthropist, Wyclef Jean is the first Haitian presidential candidate to make an announcement to run from abroad. Jean told the press last week that he would resign from Yele Haiti, his charity organization to focus on his campaign, amidst reports that he owes millions in back taxes to the U.S. government and accusations that […]
Contrary frequent assertions that the development of physical infrastructure is the key to ensuring India’s future, two important speeches last week underscore how the country’s destiny actually lies in the aggressive nurturing of its human capital potential.
The humanitarian needs of the victims of the floods are urgent and immediately obvious. Clean drinking water, food, shelter, clothing, and medicine to help maintain the dignity and capabilities of the tens of millions of people affected by the raging floods in the Khyber-Pahktankhwa Province. Unfortunately dense fog and a running forecast of heavier rain has stymied […]
Two smaller events happened over the course of the week that seemed worth passing on. The first being the announcement that France has appointed a special mediator in an attempt to get peace negotiations going between Israel and Syria. While George Mitchell is green with envy, I’m not sure this really matters much to the […]
Recently the news broke that three Israeli citizens were arrested and charged with spying for Syria. Apparently the arrests took place in early july but were only announced last thursday due to a court gag order. A father and son Druze tandem teamed with another Arab Israeli citizen to spy on several targets in northern […]
Whispers abound, as do headlines: Obama may ease US travel to Cuba even if Congress won’t act. The separate powers of the Executive and Congress prevent President Obama from acting solo on a number of issues, but educational travel to Cuba is not one of them. The Executive does not need congressional approval to ease […]
Rodrigo Camarena, over at the Brazil blog, has published a briefing on the cooperation between Mexico’s PAN and PRD in state elections. The awkward coalition pairs the relatively stoic process for internal disputes and leadership changes in the PAN, and the squabbles that saw the PRD’s rapid fall from grace after the 2006 presidential election. […]
Looks like it is oil spill season. Even as the news and uproar about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is still fresh, there has been a fresh spill, albeit smaller, off the coast of Mumbai. This one was caused when two Panamanian flagged cargo ships – MSC Chitra and MV Khalijia-111 – […]
So Fidel did, in the end, appear and speak before the Cuban National Assembly—just in a separate meeting from that of his brother Raúl (though the current President Castro joined this meeting as well to hear Fidel speak). In his 12-minute speech on Saturday, Fidel repeated his recent warnings that tensions between the United States […]
Those are not my words, but a quote attributed to Patrick Karegeya (the former Rwandan intelligence chief who was jailed twice, stripped of his colonel rank, and forced into exile by the Kagame government) calling for the defeat of President Paul Kagame of Rwanda. Kagame, the rebel-hero who defeated the genocidal government in July 1994, […]
We sit pat in August, in what is likely to be a set of hazier days, than the hot set just recently passed. But seven day out July is still fresh in our minds. Is it not? The month just passed in Bangladesh might strike anyone as a set of strides in the direction […]
A satirical take on the ‘War on Terror,’ Tere Bin Laden earns its radical chops simply for being a completely Indian production on a story entirely based in Pakistan.
Stories that have crossed my desk in recent days with brief commentary as applicable: I think there is no getting around it. ANC Youth League president Julius Malema is a South African politics version of Rasputin: it is seemingly impossible to kill his career, even by self-inflicted wounds. Obvious But It Probably Had To be […]
The recent murders of the innocent and brave medical aid workers are heinous crimes against humanity. In a troubling turn, this news heralds a new problem in Afghanistan: the murders were committed in Northern Afghanistan, long thought Northern Alliance territory where the Taliban owned no ground. The murders offer proof that the insurgency throughout Afghanistan […]