Foreign Policy Public Health Blog

Fat-Shaming Campaign Warns Israel's Kids: 'Obese Today... Ugly Tomorrow'

"When your child gains weight, his smile shrinks," read the caption under a cartoonishly ballooned head with a shrunken face beaming from the center. "One in four children in Israel is overweight," it continued. The picture hung on...

Published Fri, Jan 10 2014 2:07 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Middle East, Health

The Geert Wilders Road Show is going back to London

Dutch MP Geert Wilders won an appeal lifting his travel ban to the United Kingdom . He was barred from entering the country after British officials deemed him a risk to the public order. Wilders, who wants to ban the Koran, called the reversal a victory...

Published Tue, Oct 13 2009 1:05 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Terrorism, Europe, Culture, Islam

Sarkozy loves Gordon Brown in a non-sexual way

The Guardian's Andrew Sparrow flags a very strange excerpt from the Financial Times's account of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's "finest moment" -- his 2008 bank rescue plan: Tom Fletcher, Mr Brown's private secretary,...

Published Wed, Oct 14 2009 7:43 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Fun Stuff

Moscow to ban snow

Moscow mayor Yurk Luzhkov -- the man behind the world's ugliest statue -- has a new grandiose project, keeping winter snow out of Moscow: Moscow will blast clouds from the sky this winter to save money on snow removal, a city official said Wednesday...

Published Thu, Oct 15 2009 8:24 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Russia, Environment

Wen Jiabao apologizes for geology error

Say what you will about Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, the man does not want to mislead the public about rocks. Grandpa Wen wrote this self-correcting letter to Xinhua this week: In my article "Teachers Are the Pillars of Our Education," which...

Published Thu, Oct 15 2009 9:46 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Science & Technology, China

Morning Brief: Tsvangirai to boycott Zimbabwe government

Tsvangirai to boycott Zimbabwe government Top story: Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai announced that his Movement for Democratic Change will boycott Zimbabwe's unity government over the jailing of one of his top allies. Tsvangirai has been...

Published Fri, Oct 16 2009 5:38 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Morning Brief

Bonus Friday Photo: Mixed messages

Taliban fighters lay down their weapons as they surrender to the government of Herat Province on October 14, 2009 in Western Afghanistan. More than 40 insurgents handed in their weapons in the wake of an ongoing government security operation which killed...

Published Fri, Oct 16 2009 3:19 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Friday Photo

Is George Clooney helping?

George Clooney's "anti-genocide paparazzi" seems to be dominating nearly every transmission coming out of South Sudan this week. Clooney, along with the Enough Project, Harvard researchers, and some of his wealthier Hollywood friends have...

Published Mon, Jan 10 2011 10:35 AM by FP Passport

3 years old and caught in the crossfire

"Even in my worst nightmares I could not have conceived that this could happen," Lyutsina Khalip, the grandmother of a rosy-cheeked, 3-year-old boy who may soon become a pawn in Belarusian politics, told The New York Times yesterday. The boy...

Published Tue, Jan 11 2011 8:13 AM by FP Passport

Will Southern Sudan be a precedent for Somaliland?

If Southern Sudan successfully secedes, will other African pseudo-states follow suit? Guest-blogging at the Christian Science Monitor , Alex Thurston takes a look at Somaliland : There is one other region in Africa that appears within reach of independent...

Published Wed, Jan 12 2011 8:48 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Africa, Borders

Morning Brief: Hariri to stay as caretaker prime minister

Hariri to stay as caretaker prime minister Top story: Lebanon's President has asked Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri to stay on as a caretaker Prime Minister after the collapse of his coalition government yesterday. 11 Hezbollah ministers resigned from...

Published Thu, Jan 13 2011 6:37 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Morning Brief

Good job, Hillary

Hillary Clinton gave a good speech today , excoriating Arab leaders for their lousy record on reform and bluntly warning that if they don't shape up, they'll face growing extremism and alienation among their beleagured populations. "In too...

Published Thu, Jan 13 2011 11:46 AM by FP Passport

Tunisian journalist: 'There will be a military coup'

As I spoke by phone with Taoufik Ben Brik, a Tunisian opposition journalist, just moments ago, the country's President Zine el-Abidine Ben-Ali got onto a plane and left the country. "There will be a military coup -- we will see. You will see...

Published Fri, Jan 14 2011 9:40 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: North Africa

Friday photo: Thinking inside the box

A man takes a look at a rank of cabinet-sized rooms at China's first capsule hotel to be opened soon in Shanghai on January 11, 2011. China has followed Japan's lead in the capsule hotel market, amid an explosion of leisure travel in the world's...

Published Fri, Jan 14 2011 3:57 PM by FP Passport

Are the Maldives doomed?

Dan Drezner howls at the Maldives government's brilliant stunt of holding an underwater cabinet meeting (more photos here and here ) to make the case that "if we can't save the Maldives today, you can't save the rest of the world tomorrow...

Published Sat, Oct 17 2009 12:01 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: United Nations, Global Warming