The stakes are much higher for China’s upcoming leadership change than they appear at first glance. The country’s economy is beginning to slow after a decades-long meteoric rise, and both domestic factionalism and greatly worsening foreign relations with have set the stage for political unrest. Theoretically, a technocratic consensus is handling the power handoff, but the reality […]

Just when it looked like the Bo Xilai saga was finally over, a new wrinkle has emerged. New reports out of China claim that Neil Heywood, the British businessman whose apparent murder by Bo’s wife sparked the scandal, was suspected by the the Chinese Ministry of State Security of being a spy.These suspicions may have been […]

In her six years in office, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has not exactly developed a reputation as a fiery or controversial orator. But her comments at a church on Monday have her critics fuming. The Times of Israel reports: Opposition MPs have criticised the Chancellor, Angela Merkel, for claiming that Christianity is “the most persecuted religion worldwide”.Merkel’s comments came […]

A video depicting more than 20,000 Australian sheep being inhumanely slaughtered at a Pakistani port has started a row between the two otherwise friendly nations. Outrage within Australia has grown strong enough to compel Australia’s Prime Minister Julia Gillard to hold talks with her Pakistani counterpart to discuss the incident. The Telegraph has the story: “I did raise […]

More sad news on Argentina’s decline: President Cristina Kirchner is bringing the hammer down on media conglomerate Grupo Clarín SA. Claiming that Clarín is a media monopoly that is stifling the media landscape, Kirchner has ordered it to liquidate many of its assets by December 7. If the company refuses to comply by the deadline, the government […]

During the campaign, Mitt Romney vowed that as president he would do more than the Obama administration to support the Syrian rebels. Rebels who “share our values” would “obtain the arms they need to defeat Assad’s tanks helicopters and fighter jets,” Romney said during a speech on October 8. Even though the rebels will never get […]

As the American political establishment turns its thoughts away from the election and back to the business of governing, the fiscal cliff looms large in the weeks ahead. But Washington’s fiscal cliff isn’t the only precipice on the horizon: The news from Europe is getting worse, and the German economy continues to sputter. The Financial […]

Here’s something you don’t see every day: Good news from Somalia.Mogadishu is on the mend and is pulling itself out of the chaos and anarchy that have gripped it for decades. The NYT has the story: In the past several months, Mogadishu has made a notable turnaround, making such a high-level visit possible. A city that once […]

Last week, Michael Barone, Washington Examiner’s senior political columnist and a noted scholar of American politics, broke with the conventional wisdom, predicting a big win for Romney in the electoral college. Now that the smoke has cleared (although Florida has yet to be decided), it’s clear that this was way off: It was Obama, and not Romney, who cracked […]

Even those who voted for Romney can take heart in one aspect of the 2012 campaign: racism continues its historic retreat in the United States.In the heat of the campaign, voices were heard saying that a defeat for Obama in 2012 would be a sign of racism in America. We could never buy that. Though […]