When he addresses a joint session of Congress next week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is sure to mention the Jordan River Valley. He usually does when the topic is peace talks and Israel’s security. Netanyahu is among those who insist that, as a condition for withdrawing Israeli troops from the high ground that makes up …
Infrastructure
Poor Panama. China’s Just Not That Into You.
The list of countries that have chosen diplomatic relations with Taiwan over mainland China reads like an exercise in national obscurity. The 23-nation compendium includes Burkina Faso, Tuvalu and Saint Kitts and Nevis, along with Palau, Swaziland and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Nevertheless, the People’s Republic has assiduously …
A Game of Two Halves: Can Soccer’s Governing Body FIFA Finally Clean Up Its Act?
Where were we when we last discussed the soap opera that is soccer’s governing body (and veritable global behemoth), FIFA? Ah yes, President Sepp Blatter — who, given the power of his position and the popularity of the sport, is arguably as influential as the Pope — claimed he was going to clean up the sport for good if re-elected on …
What’s The One Thing Not Growing Fast In China? Its Population.
China, as we all know, is a rapidly expanding country. Economic growth is chugging along, the military is adding new high-tech hardware and international luxury brands are opening new stores on a near daily basis. But according to the results of the nation’s sixth census, China isn’t growing quite as dramatically in one key respect: …
Six Years After France’s Suburban Project Riots, No Justice For Its Iconic Victims
The decision Wednesday by a French appeals court to drop the case against two police officers implicated in the accidental deaths of youths that sparked nation-wide rioting in France in 2005 offers a reminder of how little things have changed for France’s blighted suburban housing projects since those dark days. Thankfully, …
A River’s Fate: Battles Loom over the Mekong
The Mekong River is one of the world’s most evocative waterways, a crucial channel that begins in China and runs through five other countries: Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Nations downstream, in particular, consider the river a lifeblood. But upriver in China, recently built dams have constrained the Mekong’s force, …
Amid Corruption Scandal, China Slows its High-Speed Trains
When China’s railway minister was sacked in February amid allegations of widespread corruption, one immediate question was what effect it would have on his effort to build a world-class high-speed train system. The answer, it emerged this week, is that China’s sleek, white bullet trains are going to ease up on the throttle. Sheng …
After the Earthquake, Not All Quiet on China’s Western Front
One year ago today, an earthquake hit the northeastern edge of the Tibetan plateau, leveling a small, majority-Tibetan town. The magnitude-6.9 temblor shook buildings from the hills and pulled monasteries and mud-brick homes to the ground. The first images from the scene showed crimson-robed monks digging though the rubble by hand. They …
Why Burma’s Sanctions Debate Doesn’t Really Matter
The Burma sanctions debate in the West is made largely immaterial by the investment currently flooding the country, mostly from Asian nations that have few moral reservations about enriching the Burmese ruling generals. Chief among the eager investors are China, Thailand, South Korea, Singapore and India. Their target? Burma’s rich …
Chile Goes Atomic? Why the Japan of the Americas Still Wants Nuclear Energy
This article was written by Tim Padgett with Aaron Nelsen in Santiago
During President Obama’s visit to Chile this week, he and President Sebastián Piñera were supposed to have ceremoniously signed a nuclear energy cooperation agreement. Instead, the pact, under which Chile would gain U.S. nuclear technology and training, was …
On Japan’s Coast, Survivors Fear the Fate of Their Towns
The 300-year-old Daiou temple is the last thing left standing in its neighborhood of Minami Sanriku, perched over a tangled sea of what were once greenhouses, cars, houses and lives. A delicate bronze Buddha statue, just feet away from a trailer that has been tossed on its side, observes the destruction from behind a barrier of trees …
Egypt Resumes Gas Flow to Israel, but Relations Still in Flux
It took five weeks instead of five days, but Egypt has resumed natural gas shipments to Israel , repairing the damage from a sabotaged pipeline and offering succor to Israeli hopes that the world may not have turned entirely upside down after all.
Israel relies on Egypt for nearly half of its natural gas needs, and it has a plenty of …
Not So Fast: China Puts Nuke Power Projects on Hold
In China, there have been a range of reactions to the crises in Japan: smug satisfaction, heartfelt sympathy and, also, soul-searching. “Faced with that type of danger, I doubt I’d be able to behave so well,” said one blogger quoted by the Wall Street Journal. “The casualties from an 8.9 event in China would be hundreds of times higher …