Washington may have cut an unlovable deal to avert a default on its debts, but U.S. and global stock markets are tanking anyway. That’s because the measures agreed Tuesday can’t reverse the slide of the U.S. economy — its fundamentals, to use a phrase beloved by politicians, are less than sound. So, what the world sees in America’s …
Europe
Piers Morgan Tomorrow? The Hacking Scandal Laps At The British Star
If News International holds a soirée at the Conservative Party conference this October, it’s likely to be a subdued affair. At the zenith of Rupert Murdoch’s influence over British public life, invitations to such shindigs were as sought after as Willy Wonka’s golden tickets. Would-be gatecrashers who evaded fire-breathing, …
Why The French Inquiry Of Christine Lagarde Is Unlikely To Threaten Her IMF Job
Does Friday’s decision by French justice officials to open a legal investigation into abuse of power allegations against Christine Lagarde mean the International Monetary Fund head risks losing her job less than a month after succeeding the disgraced Dominique Strauss-Kahn? The short answer is no, and for many reasons. Still, that …
Revelations Surrounding Air France Crash Inquiry Sparks Accusations Of Manipulation
It didn’t take for confirmation of our warning last week that the initial report into the causes of the 2009 crash of Air France flight 447 wouldn’t stifle debate about who was to blame for the calamity. Less than a week after France’s official Bureau of Investigations and Analyses (BEA) issued a preliminary finding stating …
Mired in Libya and Fearful of Consequences, West Holds Back From Syria Intervention
“Liberal Interventionists” in Washington had hoped, last March, that the decision by the U.S., Britain and France to launch U.N.authorized military action in Libya represented a new Western willingness to protect civilians under threat by their own regimes. The paralysis of the same governments and the wider international community …
Jail, Arrests and Resignations in Britain’s Hacking Scandal
Britain’s long-running hacking saga has finally seen one of its protagonists jailed, the first such penalty since the News of the World‘s royal editor Clive Goodman and the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire were imprisoned in 2007 for intercepting voicemails intended for Princes William and Harry and their aides and friends. On Aug. 2 …
Turkey: What if They Called a Coup and Nobody Came?
A few short years ago, the mass resignation of the top echelon of Turkey’s military leadership might be interpreted as the equivalent of that moment, on a beach, when the waves suddenly roll so far out to sea that thousands of yards of sand are revealed: Any coastal dweller will tell you that’s the moment to run for the hills because a …
Weekend Violence Increases Fears Of Libya’s Opposition Splitting Apart
It didn’t take the prescient gifts of Nostradamus to foresee that Thursday’s killing of Abdel Fattah Younes –commander of Libya’s anti-Gaddafi rebel forces–would exacerbate the tensions and divisions already rife within the opposition’s leadership. But it is a little surprising just how swiftly the suspicions of treason and …
Preliminary Report On 2009 Air France Crash Indicates Pilot Responsibility
Some of the mystery behind the tragedy may be solved, but that doesn’t mean fighting is over about who’s to blame for the 2009 crash of Air France flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. New findings released Friday by French investigators indicated pilots of the craft were insufficiently trained for the emergency situation …
Mysterious Assassination Of Libyan Rebel Commander Threatens Further Division Of Anti-Gaddafi Forces
Details surrounding Thursday’s assassination of the commander of Libyan rebel forces remained confused on Friday, though one thing does seem clear amid the uncertainty: the killing isn’t good news for insurgents battling Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, or the Western nations backing their effort. Indeed, initial reaction to the death of …
Disarray on Gaddafi’s Fate, Top Rebel’s Killing Highlight Struggling Libya War Effort
(Update: The mysterious circumstances of Thursday’s killing of General Abdul Fattah Younes, military chief of staff of the Benghazi-based Transitional National Council, suggest the rebel war effort is teetering in crisis. The Independent reports that Younes had been in rebel custody at the time of his killing, having been arrested …
Lame Pop Icons: France’s (Other) Cultural Exception
This kind of mind-boggling violence couldn’t happen anywhere but in France. Seriously.
On July 27, the imitator of a dead crooner no one outside France cares about stabbed a rival impersonator of a decrepit rock star few people beyond French borders have ever heard of (and have run from, ears plugged, if they have). Call it the …
New Developments On Libya Bring New Confusion About An Outcome
Another day in Europe, more mixed messages on just how Western allies in the NATO-led Libyan air intervention plan to end a campaign that has now officially attained “slog” status. Just hours after comments Tuesday from British officials saying they’d accept embattled leader Muammar Gaddafi remaining free in post-war Libya so long …