Angela Merkel has promised to meet with her new French counterpart François Hollande following his inauguration next week to discuss the EU rescue plans. Yet although this meeting is still a week away, Merkel is already taking steps to prepare for Hollande’s visit. In a break with her previous statements on the matter, Merkel, along […]

The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan has been relatively quiet as waves of unrest and civil conflict reshape the Arab world. Could that be about to change? According to a Washington Post report, Jordan’s King Abdullah is facing growing discontent among his traditional supporters: That one of the most overt challenges yet to the authority of Jordan’s king […]

Is it payback time in Asia?China has been remarkably patient as the US raised its profile in Asia, supported China’s neighbors over the South China Sea issue, pulled Myanmar out of its tight orbit around China and stepped up its military presence in the region. But a combination of Philippine and Chinese assertiveness in the […]

Some good news for a change from the Indian subcontinent: Pakistan is unpicking official barriers to trade, after last year offering most-favoured nation trading status to India (reciprocating India’s 1996 offer). Restrictions on traded goods, notably by road, are going, with potentially huge effects. Road transport is only one-third the cost of shipping goods to […]

The White House is all about social issues these days, and a new AP-GfK poll explains why: Americans think the economy is getting worse. As recently as February, 20 percent of Americans thought the economy was in “good” shape; currently only 10 percent share that opinion. Two thirds think the economy is in “poor” shape, […]

When Iraq issued an arrest warrant for former Vice President Tariq Hashimi last year, and Hashimi subsequently fled to Iraqi Kurdistan, most outsiders assumed Prime Minister Maliki was pursuing one of his enemies on trumped up political charges (like “running death squads”). After all, numerous other Iraqi high politicians might be guilty of the same […]

In what will widely and accurately be seen as a snub to President Obama, the newly reminted Russian President Vladimir Putin has regretfully announced that he will not be attending the G-8 Summit at Camp David. Despite reports that the summit was moved to the location to accommodate his wishes, a statement from the White […]

Today’s Washington Post story on Romney’s school days and his penchant for practical jokes—sometimes of a disquieting nature—underscores a point we made yesterday here at the site: there’s a pressing need for Romney to make a strong personal impression on the American people. Because if he doesn’t, others will fill in the gap.Now, to anybody […]

Kwame Kilpatrick, the disgraced former mayor of Detroit, has already served time for obstruction of justice and parole violations, but he may be making another, longer, pit stop in the pokey, this time for even graver crimes. The Wall Street Journal reports that federal prosecutors following a multi-year investigation allege that the squalid Kilpatrick and […]

Near the remote Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea, Filipino and Chinese ships continue their standoff over a month after the crisis first began. Now China is turning to new weapons to make the Philippines back down.The WSJ reports: Several leading Chinese travel agents said Thursday they have suspended tourism to the Philippines as […]