Foreign Policy Public Health Blog

North Korea releases nuclear destruction video set to 'We Are the World'

With a North Korean nuclear test looming imminently on the horizon, the nation's propaganda machine appears to be in full 1980's-pop-swing. Last weekend, the government uploaded a video to its official website depicting a young Korean man falling...

Published Tue, Feb 05 2013 8:01 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: North Korea, East Asia, Culture, Media, Nukes

China's Nobel Prize winning author: Just the juicy bits

Mo Yan, the Chinese writer whose novels burst with burlesque renderings of alcohol, sex, and violence, won the 2012 Nobel Prize for Literature Thursday for his "hallucinatory realism," blending aspects of "folk tales, history and the contemporary...

Published Thu, Oct 11 2012 8:27 AM by FP Passport

China's little red envelopes

As China gears up for celebrations of the Chinese Communist Party's 90th anniversary, officials are scrambling to stifle public discourse over endemic corruption within the party. On June 11, Beijing public relations consultant Chen Hong created a...

Published Wed, Jun 22 2011 2:27 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Corruption, China

What we've learned from the Obama administration's past drone speeches

President Obama is giving a much-hyped counterterrorism address this afternoon at the National Defense University in which he'll announce new restrictions on drone strikes and targeted killings, and renew his push to shutter the Guantánamo Bay detention...

Published Thu, May 23 2013 7:00 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Terrorism, al Qaeda, Law, Obama Administration, U.S. Foreign Policy, Military, National Security

EU protects citizens from dangers of unregulated olive oil bottles

The reusable olive oil bottle -- a staple on restaurant tables across Europe, evocative of summers in Tuscany and vineyards in southern Spain -- has been banned from restaurants by the powers that be in Brussels, in a move the European Commission has...

Published Sat, May 18 2013 12:01 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Europe, Business, Trade

Brothers in arms: A brief history of sibling terror plots

News that the two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings are brothers has sparked a great deal of interest in their family history and the relationship between the two siblings. But if they were indeed behind the assault, they wouldn't be the first...

Published Fri, Apr 19 2013 4:00 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Terrorism, History

How influential was that Reinhart-Rogoff paper, exactly?

The world of anti-austerians is abuzz (and maybe somewhat gleeful ?) this afternoon about news that a paper by Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff -- the paper for those policymakers looking for serious academic work to back up their proposals for debt...

Published Tue, Apr 16 2013 3:00 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Europe, Politics, Economics, Finance

Morning Brief: Niger's junta names colonel as new leader

Niger's junta names colonel as new leader Top story: After Niger President Mamadou Tandja (pictured) was captured in a military coup yesterday, a certain amount of normalcy has reportedly returned to the capital city of Niamey, where businesses and...

Published Fri, Feb 19 2010 6:01 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Morning Brief

Israeli Embassy's Dubai tweet is not a hit

The latest Twitter fail comes courtesy of the Israeli Mission to Britain. The Thursday tweet included a link to a story about Israeli tennis player Shahar Peer's advancement to the quarterfinals of the Dubai Championship, but also seemed to jokingly...

Published Fri, Feb 19 2010 3:12 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Britain, Middle East, Israel/Palestine

What is a chemical weapon, anyway?

When it comes to weapons of mass destruction, chemical weapons have long taken a backseat to nuclear weapons in the competition for public interest and non-proliferation scrutiny. But the Syrian civil war has flipped the status quo on its head, as the...

Published Fri, Mar 22 2013 9:00 AM by FP Passport

India's politicians have their own rape problem

In light of the recent brutal gang rape on Dec. 16, which led to the death of a 23-year-old medical student in India, there have been substantial criticisms of the government for not doing enough to protect women. Protestors say they will continue till...

Published Thu, Jan 03 2013 12:57 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Corruption, Justice, Politics, South Asia, India

Is Starbucks imposing its own sanctions on Iran?

Iran's English-language, state-sponsored media service PressTV may have stumbled onto something, in spite of itself. An article published Thursday cites a bizarre YouTube rant by financial analyst and PressTV contributor Mike Stathis (author of recent...

Published Mon, May 06 2013 8:40 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Media, Iran, Business

Drone-proof clothing for the countersurveillance fashionista

Stealthy? Yes. Fashionable? Well, what do I know. Citing a desire to explore "the aesthetics of privacy and the potential for fashion to challenge authoritarian surveillance," New York artist Adam Harvey will be unveiling a line of "drone...

Published Fri, Jan 11 2013 12:23 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Culture, Fun Stuff, Intelligence, Cool

Both British candidates hire Obama advisors for TV debate prep

Both sides in Britain's national elections are looking to capture a little bit of the Obama magic in a series of upcoming televised debates: David Cameron has hired two of President Obama’s former advisers to help him to prepare for the televised...

Published Mon, Mar 01 2010 10:21 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Britain, Elections, Media

Morning Brief: Labour majority ends with hung parliament

Labour majority ends with hung parliament Top news: The Labour Party's 13 years of majority in the British Parliament came to an end last night with Prime Minister Gordon Brown's party losing at least 86 seats to David Cameron's Conservatives...

Published Fri, May 07 2010 5:40 AM by FP Passport