The biggest land grab since the scramble for Africa is taking place under the sea. Last Wednesday was the ten-year deadline for most countries to submit claims over seabeds. States that have ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea are able to claim extensions to their continental shelves beyond the normal […]
The internal power struggles in the Kremlin are still surprisingly hard to understand and predict. President Dmitry Medvedev was Vladimir Putin’s handpicked successor (Putin was constitutionally prevented from seeking a third consecutive term in office in 2008). At the time, many outside analysts and experts believed Medvedev would simply implement Putin’s desired policies and actions. […]
Thanks to my colleague Roger Scher for sending me an article from today’s New York Times concerning “Love Land” (I wrote about it yesterday: here). It turns out Chinese authorities have had enough and have ordered the park to close. Read more here.
A lot is going on in the Rising Powers at the moment, so why not begin the week with a survey of key developments and important news articles?
China is to have its first-ever sex theme park, to be called “Love Land”. For a traditional country, the development seems quite radical. The purpose of the park, located in Chongquing province, is to educate people about sex. The park’s manager explains: “We are building the park for the good of the public… to help […]
The New York Times features an article today by Andrew E. Kramer concerning Russia’s gas worries. Kramer explains that as gas prices (not to be confused with oil prices) fall, Russia’s state-run gas company Gazprom will suffer. The main reason is because Gazprom is contractually obligated to purchase gas from its Central Asian former-soviet neighbors […]
Paul Krugman, columnist for the New York Times, wrote an op-ed this week arguing that China, the empire of carbon, “cannot continue along its current path because the planet can’t handle the strain.” China is the world’s leading producer of carbon dioxide and the country’s “emissions, which come largely from its coal-burning electricity plants, doubled […]
“Over the past several years, we have seen cyberattacks against critical infrastructures abroad, and many of our own infrastructures are as vulnerable as their foreign counterparts,” warned Dennis Blair, the United States Director of National Intelligence. “A number of nations, including Russia and China, can disrupt elements of the US information infrastructure.” Several commentators and […]
The New York Times this week has featured Op-Ed contributions discussing the weakness of the American Dollar and its potential fall as the world’s major reserve currency. The only obvious choice for a successor to the Dollar is the Chinese renminbi, as argued by Nouriel Roubini. As Roubini points out, major reserve currencies are held […]
Nigeria recently surpassed the United States as the world’s second largest film industry behind India. Bollywood produces the most movies in the world, followed by Nollywood and Hollywood. According to research conducted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), however, “US movies continue to dominate cinema admissions around the world.” In some […]
One of the under-the-radar news stories these past several weeks has been mysterious indirect negotiations between American and Iranian officials regarding Tehran’s nuclear program. The Iranian nuclear program is worrisome to most western powers not because it would provide Iran with an alternative power source, but because if Tehran were to convert its civilian-level nuclear […]
Ahead of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s trip to Beijing next week, Brazil announced that China surpassed the United States as the country’s largest trading partner. Trade with China totaled $3.2 billion in April, compared with $2.8 billion in imports and exports with the US. “The US has been Brazil’s principal trading partner for […]
Among residents of the BRIC nations, Brazilians are the happiest, followed by Russians, whereas the Chinese are the least happy, followed by the Indians, according to a recent OECD report.
The temperature in South Asia, often sweltering, has heated up over the last week. Read a selection of news reports below. With the peace deal between the government of Pakistan and the Taliban in tatters and pressure on Pakistani President Zardari from Holbrooke and Co. getting heavy, the Pakistani armed forces launched attacks in recent days on the […]
This weekend Russia unveiled its new missile defense system as part of a military parade to celebrate Victory Day (WWII) in Moscow. Put on show around Red Square was the S-400 missile defense system, which many in Russia consider to be a counterweight to American Patriot missiles. President Dimitry Medvedev spoke at the event, stating: […]