Given France’s historic and generally close ties with Arab regimes, it’s perhaps not surprising that Paris’ relationship with Israel has always been somewhat complicated. And while French President Nicolas Sarkozy has made …
Europe
Can A European Ban on Iranian Oil Push Tehran to Fold Its Nuclear Program?
With its agreement in principle to impose an embargo on Iranian oil, the European Union has taken a big step closer to the U.S. stand to force Tehran to renounce its suspected military nuclear develop program. But while it seems …
Latest Inquiry into British Hacking Scandal Scrutinizes Ties Between Police and Press
Throughout much of 2011, Britain was gripped with revelations of the nefarious phone hacking scandal that engulfed one of its oldest newspapers, News of the World. The scandal saw the shuttering of the 168-year-old paper, the …
The Fukushima Effect: France Starts to Turn Against Its Much Vaunted Nuclear Industry
Is France’s long, proud, and at times defiant affection for nuclear energy finally beginning to wane in the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster? While it’s still too early to pronounce France’s nearly four decade love …
Two Men Found Guilty of 1993 London Racial Murder
London’s first murder of 2012 took place a few streets away from my apartment, at 4 am on New Year’s Day. Aaron McKoy, described by one friend as “a humble person who loved life,” had been celebrating his 22nd birthday in a local …
Yesterday’s Gone: Euro Optimism Goes Flat and Here Comes 2012
As has become common during the nearly two years of Europe’s escalating debt crisis, reasons for guarded optimism that surfaced this week are being replaced with concern and doubt. In the wake of last week’s uplifting news …
More Taxes, Please: We’re French
Europe may be agonizing amid the worst financial crisis since the Second World War, but that still isn’t forcing France to accept the logic of economic liberalism that dominates much of world. That largely “Anglo-Saxon” …
How a Huge Infusion of Cheap Money will Help European Banks But Not Europeans
Might the world be witnessing the first signs of stabilization in the European debt crisis that has placed the euro’s very existence in doubt? That’s a hypothesis some observers are starting to consider carefully, thanks to a …
Is The Government Of Protest-Loving France Orchestrating Strikebreaking?
To many observers abroad (and even some closer to home), France has the reputation of being a singularly strike-happy place—a country whose workers will walk out at the first sign of professional or even political discord. …
Piers Pressure: U.K. Hacking Inquiry Raises Fresh Questions for CNN’s Morgan
Why Qatari Owners of Paris’ Soccer Team Hanker For Aging Englishman Beckham
Why does perennially under-performing Paris Saint-Germain of France’s anemic professional soccer league see hiring a fading star at over $1 million per month as vital to assuring its future? Because the aging player in question …
Don’t Mention the War? Brits Can’t Help Themselves
Schedule clashes are inevitable during the festive season, and on the evening of Dec. 19, the mayor of London, Boris Johnson, and Britain’s Foreign Secretary, William Hague, held Christmas drinks at opposite poles of the city …
The French on a Credit Downgrade Threat: Pick on Britain
Tis the season—for painful downgrades by credit agencies that is, as Thursday’s move by Fitch targeting six of the world’s largest banks again shows. And indeed, because such action is now so common, the big question …