Foreign Policy Public Health Blog

Umbrellas and renovations: The not-so-subtle ways Chinese officials keep people from commemorating Tiananmen

On June 4, 1990, one year after Chinese soldiers massacred protesters in Tiananmen Square, the Chinese government dispatched a police convoy to pacify hundreds of demonstrators at Peking University in northwest Beijing. Instead of directly criticizing...

Published Tue, Jun 04 2013 8:00 AM by FP Passport

Obama's Fishy Explanation for Calling Britain's Finance Minister the Wrong Name

The president, it seems, committed a minor gaffe during this week's G-8 meetings in Northern Ireland. According to the Financial Times , the stumble came during a discussion of tax avoidance issues, when Barack Obama thrice interrupted the British...

Published Wed, Jun 19 2013 4:03 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Britain, Culture, Celebs, Barack Obama, Just Kidding

Angela Merkel Discovers the Internet -- and Inspires a Meme

Barack Obama's visit to Berlin may have sparked a wave of commentary and analysis , but it was an offhand remark from German Chancellor Angela Merkel that gave birth to a meme. Responding to questions about the National Security Agency's PRISM...

Published Thu, Jun 20 2013 11:30 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Europe, Fun Stuff, Germany

Say Hello to China's Brewing Financial Crisis

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 In global economy these days, there are known unknowns, unknown unknowns, and then there's the Chinese credit market. On the heels of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's...

Published Fri, Jun 21 2013 11:05 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: China, Economics, Finance

Morning Brief: Edward Snowden Escapes Hong Kong, Flouts U.S. Arrest Warrant

Edward Snowden Escapes Hong Kong, Flouts U.S. Arrest Warrant Top news: Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor behind recent revelations about the agency's intelligence program, made his escape from Hong Kong Sunday, flying to Moscow possibly en...

Published Mon, Jun 24 2013 5:57 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Morning Brief

Berlusconi Has 2,500 Problems but Prison Ain't One

The two-year Bunga Bunga Trial has finally come to a close, and a court in Milan has found Silvio Berlusconi guilty of paying for sex with a minor. The court sentenced the former Italian prime minister to seven years in prison and banned him from public...

Published Mon, Jun 24 2013 5:30 PM by FP Passport

The Americans Who Escaped to Russia Long Before Edward Snowden

In camping out at a Moscow airport, Edward Snowden is joining a long line of Americans who have fled to Russia. Suffice it to say, it's not the most flattering group of individuals with which to be associated.[[BREAK]] The most notable, of course...

Published Tue, Jun 25 2013 4:10 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Russia, Diplomacy, Politics, Eastern Europe, History, Intelligence, U.S. Foreign Policy, International Relations

Whatever Happened to Obama's Global Gay Rights Agenda?

On the heels of Wednesday's gay marriage rulings at the Supreme Court, a farcical piece of political theater played out on MSNBC. As the plaintiffs in the Prop 8 case were making an appearance on the cable network, Chad Griffin, the president of the...

Published Wed, Jun 26 2013 1:30 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: Africa, Human Rights, Obama Administration, U.S. Foreign Policy

The senate's 290 problems

The Senate: Washington's cooling saucer or Washington's walk-in freezer with a sticky door that's hard to open from the inside? It's a question FP's excellent researcher Andrew Young and I asked when he sent me this Hill article on...

Published Tue, Feb 23 2010 12:04 PM by FP Passport

Quiz: How many ambassadors to the United States are women?

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...

Published Wed, Feb 24 2010 9:27 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Diplomacy, Women, Hillary

Where China is investing

The Heritage Foundation has pulled together a fascinating study of Chinese investment -- showing (with really nice charts and maps!) just where all of those yuan are heading overseas. A few things to note, plus one question.... Sub-Saharan Africa is the...

Published Wed, Feb 24 2010 2:18 PM by FP Passport

Filed under: East Asia, China, Business

Nicholas Sarkozy's apology tour

French President Nicholas Sarkozy has, in the past, shown little interest in discussing the darker periods of French history. His summed up his attitude while visiting former colony Algeria two years ago, saying : "Young people on either side of...

Published Thu, Feb 25 2010 10:47 AM by FP Passport

Qaddafi declares jihad against Switzerland

This is getting ridiculous : "Any Muslim in any part of the world who works with Switzerland is an apostate, is against (the Prophet) Mohammad, God and the Koran," Gaddafi said during a meeting in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi to mark...

Published Thu, Feb 25 2010 1:52 PM by FP Passport

Baroness Ashton taking heat

Theres seems to be more trouble at the top in the Europe's strange new leadership structure with NATO defense ministers blasting the EU High Representative Baroness Catherine Ashton for skipping their meeting: “Isn’t it rich that this morning, to...

Published Fri, Feb 26 2010 8:58 AM by FP Passport

Filed under: Europe

Do Americans really want to cut foreign aid?

This chart from John Sides at the Monkey Cage made the rounds on the blogosphere yesterday: Several on the Internet noted the inherent contradiction: Most conservatives want a smaller government, yet they also do not want to cut anything -- save for foreign...

Published Fri, Feb 26 2010 12:54 PM by FP Passport