Foreign Policy Public Health Blog

The Egyptian Prime Minister's New Problems Look a Lot Like His Old Problems

Two and a half years after the fall of Hosni Mubarak, Hazem el-Beblawi must be experiencing a wave of déjà vu. Egypt watchers may recall that during the second half of 2011, Beblawi served as the minister of finance for the military's transitional...

Published Wed, Jul 10 2013 2:30 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Egypt

Is This the Most Interesting Opening Paragraph Wikipedia's Ever Published?

Most Interesting Man in the World , meet your match. On Sunday, Twitter user Matthew Barrett created something of a sensation by linking to the obscure Wikipedia biography of the British army officer Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart. His tweet -- "This...

Published Thu, Jul 11 2013 10:00 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Fun Stuff

Where Do the World's Top Art Collectors Live?

ARTnews is out this week with its list of the top 200 art collectors of 2013 , identified through interviews with major players in the art world -- and the United States emerges as the dominant player, with half the collectors citing it as their primary...

Published Thu, Jul 11 2013 3:30 PM by FP Passport

Americans' Long Noses and Marrying Jack Lew: Deciphering the Jokes of China's Vice Premier

On Tuesday, I compared the Strategic and Economic Dialogue, an annual meeting between high-ranking U.S. and Chinese officials, to cardigan sweaters and actuarial tables -- to make the point that typically nothing interesting gets said publicly at these...

Published Fri, Jul 12 2013 10:00 AM by FP Passport

Is North Korea's Economy Really Growing?

On Friday, Bank of Korea, South Korea's central bank, released numbers showing that North Korea's GDP increased 1.3 percent in 2012 -- the country's fastest growth rate since 2008. But Marcus Noland , a North Korea expert at the Peterson Institute...

Published Fri, Jul 12 2013 2:25 PM by FP Passport

Egypt Protest Leader Snubs State Department #2

CAIRO - Deputy Secretary of State William Burns is currently in Egypt, making him the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit since Mohammed Morsy was ousted from power earlier this month. But the activists who organized the massive protests that helped...

Published Mon, Jul 15 2013 5:41 AM by FP Passport

Captured Zetas Leader Built Reputation on Sadistic Violence

In the macabre world of Mexican gangland violence, Miguel Ángel Treviño Morales, the Zetas chief who was captured on Monday, stands out in his taste for violence. Dismemberment, acid baths, and decapitation were standard tactics for the man who helped...

Published Tue, Jul 16 2013 2:00 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Drugs & Crime, Mexico

Was Egypt a 'Democratic Coup'?

Following Mohamed Morsy's overthrow in Egypt, I wrote about Ozan Varol's argument that under certain rare circumstances, coups can be described as "democratic" if they are staged against authoritarian regimes with the widespread support...

Published Wed, Jul 17 2013 8:45 AM by FP Passport

Google Accidentally Sinks Scottish Island

According to Google Maps , the residents of the island of Jura, Scotland, are drowning in the Atlantic Ocean. In reality, they're fine. An error in the program, discovered earlier this month , has resulted in the island showing up as a mere patch...

Published Wed, Jul 17 2013 4:00 PM by FP Passport

How a CIA Officer Wanted for Kidnapping in Italy Ended Up Arrested in Panama

On Wednesday, the story of Robert Seldon Lady, a former CIA station chief in Milan, Italy, took another improbable turn when he was arrested in Panama near the Costa Rican border. Lady has been living quietly in the United States since fleeing an Italian...

Published Thu, Jul 18 2013 4:00 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Terrorism, Europe, Latin America, Law, Diplomacy, Intelligence, U.S. Foreign Policy, International Relations, National Security

A French Bradley effect?

U.S. political junkes are well aware of the "Bradley effect," a scenario in which embarassed white voters tell pollsters they're planning on voting for a minority candidate, then vote for a white one when they get in the booth, producing...

Published Tue, Mar 16 2010 11:21 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: France, Elections, Race/Ethnicity

FP makes the prime minister's briefing in Zimbabwe

A few weeks back, I reported on the case of Georges Tadonki , a former U.N. official who claims that he was dismissed in part because he was outspoken in his warnings of a cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe in 2008 and 2009. Earlier this month, the report caught...

Published Wed, Mar 17 2010 11:47 AM by FP Passport

Quiz: Which has the highest death rate: Germany, Iraq, or Kenya?

For those of you who don't subscribe to the bimonthly print edition of Foreign Policy, you're missing a great feature: the FP Quiz. It has eight intriguing questions about how the world works. The question I'd like to highlight this week is...

Published Wed, Mar 17 2010 2:43 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Africa, Germany, Iraq, Public Health

Cuba: U.S. diplomat joined demonstrators

Cuba's state news agency is reporting that Lowell Dale Lawton, an official at the U.S. interests section in Havana, joined a protest march by the womens' opposition group Ladies in White yesterday. The Miami Herald 's Cuba Colada blog translates...

Published Thu, Mar 18 2010 11:25 AM by FP Passport

A pundit's guide to the post-health care bill world

The undisputed top political story in the U.S. media right now is the impending House of Representatives vote on health care reform. Domestic policy isn't our beat (except when it gets in the way of foreign policy ) but we know that in Washington...

Published Fri, Mar 19 2010 10:46 AM by FP Passport