On Sept. 13 the BBC’s main evening news flashed up a TIME cover. There’s nothing particularly unusual in our stories making headlines in other media, but this was more than three years after publication. The story in question, about why Britons appear scared of their kids, and to what extent they’re right to be so, provoked comment and …
James Murdoch Recalled to Clarify Testimony
As the criticism over his testimony has mounted in recent weeks, so has speculation that James Murdoch would be recalled by the U.K. commission investigating the hacking scandal to clarify the record. As so the announcement Tuesday that Murdoch would indeed be returning to the stand came as no real surprise to anyone.
Committee …
Even as He Clashes With Israel, Turkey’s Erdogan is Displacing Iran’s Influence
The handwringing in the U.S. over the rock-star reception Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is eliciting on his “Arab Spring” tour of post-dictatorship Egypt, Tunisia and Libya is misguided. Erdogan represents a reality-based, credible and very popular incarnation of the old Bush Administration idea of a moderate Middle …
Lengthy Expose on a Journalist’s Death Heaps Scrutiny on Pakistan’s ISI
Dexter Filkins’s deeply reported piece in the New Yorker on the assassination of Pakistani journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad earlier this year is worth the read. Yes, it covers territory we’ve all trod across — the likely involvement of Pakistan’s military intelligence agency, the ISI; the confused allegiances of the Pakistani …
China Cracks Down on “Gutter Oil,” a Substance Even Worse Than its Name
Among the list of food safety scandals that have plagued China in recent years—toxic infant formula, pesticide-tainted vegetables, exploding watermelons, “lean meat powder” and pork reconstituted as beef—few are quite as stomach churning as the nauseatingly-named “gutter oil.” It involves, as the name implies, the resale of used …
For the U.S. to Leave Afghanistan, It Has to Be Ready to Stay
When former Saudi Ambassador Prince Turki bin Faisal Al Saud suggested last week at a terrorism conference hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington that the U.S. should have used the death of Osama bin Laden in May as an excuse to immediately pull troops out of Afghanistan, he was met with …
How John Galliano’s Criminal Conviction Sets a Poor Example for the Developing World
Few would disagree that disgraced British fashion designer John Galliano was acting like a drug- and alcohol-addled jerk. On two separate occasions at the same Paris bar last October and February, he unleashed anti-Semitic insults and was caught on video saying he loved Hitler. But if Galliano’s tirades were socially disturbing, a …
London’s New Police Chief: More of the Same?
Bernard Hogan-Howe may not have been anybody’s first choice to be the new head of London’s Metropolitan police, but the important thing is he was everyone’s last choice. Home Secretary Theresa May and London Mayor Boris Johnson on Monday announced that Hogan-Howe, who has been acting deputy commission for the last couple of …
Israel and Turkey: How a Close Relationship Disintegrated
Many are the challenges facing Israel on the cusp of a new season.
The Palestinians’ approach to the United Nations for statehood looms. The bid, set for Sept. 21, bears down on Jerusalem with the certainty of an autumn chill.
The weekend desecration of the Israeli embassy by a Cairean mob was one of those shocks that is not …
Gaffes Claim Another Japanese Minister. When Will They Ever Learn?
For a country whose language is shaded in infinite shades of gray, Japanese government ministers sure do make a lot of gaffes. Last Saturday, Japan’s new trade minister Yoshio Hachiro quit after visiting the tsunami-devastated Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant zone and calling it a “town of death without a soul in sight,” …
Arab Spring Over, Islamists, Generals and Old Regimes Battle for Power From Tunisia to Syria
There are countless great sources for those following the Middle East’s political clock by the movement of its second- and minute-hands. But for those looking to track the movement of the hour-hand, there are few better options than the New York Review of Books tag-team of Hussein Agha and Rob Malley. The former Palestinian …
Israel’s ‘Diplomatic Tsunami’ Has Arrived, As Ambassadors Are Forced to Leave Turkey and Egypt
As a raucous mob of protestors on Friday stormed past passive Egyptian policemen, breaching the wall around Israel’s Cairo embassy and sacking the unsecured parts of the building, Israel turned for help to the Obama Administration. Looking to the U.S. to shield it from international opprobrium has become a familiar pattern for Israel …
The Failed State That Keeps Failing: Quake-Ravaged Haiti Still Without a Government
Haitian President Michel Martelly announced a Presidential Advisory Council for Economic Growth and Investment this week. It’s got big international names – Bill Clinton, Wyclef Jean, Mohamed Yunus, to name a few – and a big mandate to harness international investment for destitute, earthquake-racked Haiti. So why isn’t it …