Chinese online-gaming mogul Zhu Jun is used to winning big. After all, he made his fortune in part by being the first to nab China distribution rights for the World of Warcraft franchise. But the soccer team that he bought with …
U.K.
After Falling Out with Europe, U.K.’s Cameron Faces Fallout at Home
“Ou est Nick Clegg?” cried one Labour MP, quite possibly demonstrating the beginning and end of his French language skills. His colleagues contented themselves with shouting the question in English. It didn’t need an interpreter …
Not So Great, Britain: After E.U. Summit, U.K. Drifts Toward Isolationism
“Mommy, daddy, where were you when Britain left Europe?” David Cameron’s deployment in the early hours of Dec. 9 of the British veto over a Franco-German plan to save the euro will be seen as a pivotal moment by future …
Why Is Donald Rumsfeld on This Package of Spicy Peanuts?
There are, in this salty tale of frolics, politics and peanuts, a number of what Donald Rumsfeld, might call known knowns. These are things we know that we know — like how a photograph of a young Rumsfeld, a chopstick balanced …
Case of Scottish Hacker Illustrates Divide Between U.S. and U.K. Extradition Laws
Sometimes the bleakest of battles can find some unexpected support.
In 2002, a Scottish man living in North London found himself under suspicion for hacking into dozens of Pentagon and NASA databases from his home computer. …
Crunch Time for the Euro and Europe: Taking Note of the Elephant
Elephant, meet room.
Doubt and despair returned to Europe by Tuesday despite positive reaction a day earlier to the French-German proposals to save the teetering euro. The reason? The pachyderm in the room that markets see all …
Is Sarkozy and Merkel’s New Debt Proposal The Beginning of The End To The Euro Crisis?
The details of the campaign by France and Germany to save the euro became a little clearer Monday though substantial questions about it remain as the week winds toward a European Union summit on the euro crisis summit on Friday. …
British Ambassador Describes Embassy’s Takeover by Iranian Mob
Dominick Chilcott, the UK’s wonderfully named ambassador to the Islamic Republic of Iran, has given the Washington Post’s Frances Stead Sellers a blow-by-blow account of the view from inside the British embassy when an Iranian mob breached its gate and ransacked the compound, as well as an embassy residential compound a few miles away. …
After the Embassy Attack: Are Iran and the West Lurching Toward War?
The prospect of Iran and its Western adversaries stumbling into a military confrontation that neither side wants seems worryingly less improbable by the day. And if they do, each side will have plenty of evidence at hand to blame the other for instigating the conflagration. The latest round of brinkmanship, this week, came in the …
Austerity Nation: Britain Strikes as Government Extends Spending Cuts
In a nation where the weather changes by the hour, it’s useful to consult the morning forecast. For the two million public sector workers who walked out of their jobs across the U.K. this morning, today’s outlook likely seemed heavy with symbolism. Blustery winds across the northwest matched the chill of newly announced austerity …
For Old Times’ Sake: Iranians Briefly Sack the Embassy of Their Once and Future Satan—Britain
For 18 nights in 1976, Iran was transported by the miniseries version of “My Uncle Napoleon,” a virtuosic comic novel about a Tehran household dominated by a conspiracy-minded paterfamilias who believes everything bad that happens to him is being arranged by the British.
On Tuesday, a mob overran the red brick compound on Ferdowzi …
Should Foreign Residents Be Allowed to Vote in France? Sarkozy Flip-Flops
Even when opinions in the U.S. and France do manage to generally agree on certain subjects, meshing trans-Atlantic views often end up differing in some rather remarkable ways. Take immigration. The issue remains an equally high-temperature political flash point in both countries. So, too, does the conjoined challenge of integrating
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Should World Soccer Chief Sepp Blatter Quit Over His Racism ‘Denial’?
Updated: Fri. Nov. 18, 4.45 a.m. ET
The irony was inescapable. FIFA President Sepp Blatter, a man who can’t seem to avoid controversy and spends much of his waking life shaking hands, has found himself at the center of a new imbroglio by suggesting that pressing the flesh was a suitable remedy for racial abuse. Specifically, he …