How much of America’s carping about the undervalued yuan has to do with fundamental fairness, and how much with the U.S. midterm elections? According to Izvestia columnist Dmitry Kosyrev, the complaints and President Obama’s change of tone are almost entirely election-related. And agreeing with much of the global reaction on the issue, he writes that China’s resistance is a very rational decision not to end up like Japan, which was browbeaten by Washington to allow the yen to...

When President Obama visits India next month, should he raise the issue of ‘Hindu terrorism’ against Christians, Muslims and other minorities, particularly members of what were once known as the ‘untouchables?’ Is there, in fact, a major problem with Hindu terrorism – and should this be part of the ‘war on terror’? Rather than focusing on Afghanistan, bilateral trade and the U.S.-India nuclear agreement, columnist Zaheerul Hassan of Pakistan’s Pak...

In addition to World War I history buffs, this article is for people who detest John Maynard Keynes and the stimulus packages his theories justified – and which are still in use today – most notably by President Obama and most of the developed world last year. As was reported in September, World War I is officially over, now that Germany has delivered its last chunk of reparations imposed on it at Versailles in 1918. According to Fernando Gabriel of Portugal’s Diario Economico,...

For many people around the world, American politics is as unfathomable as the Byzantine machinations of North Korean politics. To assist his German readers, columnist Josef Joffe of Die Zeit explains why an entity like the Tea Party can emerge so suddenly in the United States to take over a major party, whereas in Germany, groups on the extremes have hardly a prayer of doing so. For Die Zeit, Josef Joffe writes in part: America is – as always – different, and that’s why the Congressional...

Apparently bewildered by global applause at the decision to award imprisoned democracy dissident Liu Xiaobo the Nobel Peace Prize, this very defensive editorial from China’s state-controlled Global Times argues that the United States and the West ‘prohibits political diversity among countries.’ Later, in apparent defense of its own authoritarianism, it continues, ‘in some situations, the West supports authoritarian governments based on pure self interest.’ The editorial...

It’s a conspiracy theory that has been brewing for years and its adherents now believe the moment of truth has come: Have America and Iran made a deal on the disposition of Iraq? Columnist Tariq Hameed of the Iraq News Agency writes that Iraqis who question this conspiracy theory have another perhaps less flattering explanation: Washington is clueless. For the Iraq News Agency, columnist Tariq Hameed writes in part: Among much of the Iraqi and Arab political, intellectual and media elite,...

Is the United States whining about an artificially devalued yuan, when its real economic problems have more to do with an undereducated work force and a concomitant lack of jobs? Columnist Jan Dams of Germany’s Die Welt warns that if the United States expects to pull itself out of its economic doldrums, it should follow Germany’s example. For Die Welt, columnist Jan Dams writes in part: The reason that this currency adjustment can’t come soon enough for the U.S., and Americans resent...

Columnist Mario Antonio Sandoval of Guatemala’s Prensa Libre has a suggestion for how the United States could help compensate Guatemalans for the experiments U.S. doctors and scientists performed on unwilling Guatemalan subjects in the 1940s. In George W. Bush’s time in office, Guatemala President Alvaro Colom pushed hard for ‘Temporary Protected Status’ for Guatemalans in the U.S. illegally. TPS is granted to nationals of designated countries who can’t return home...

Posting articles like these is no pleasure. But part of the practice of journalism is to alert the public to things they might not want to see or hear, and which, in our judgment as journalists, they ought to see or hear. Global reaction to how the United States government intentionally infected unknowing Guatemalans and perhaps even American troops – is one such occasion. Over the past 24 hours we have posted two additional articles about America’s STD experiments on unknowing Guatemalans...

It’s a tongue-in-cheek – but an interesting idea to ponder: what if world leaders could run for office in other countries? In this article from France’s Le Monde, Robert Sole takes a humorous look at the fascinating possibilities. For Le Monde, Robert Sole starts out this way: The president of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, has just received a very amicable governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, at his residence in Gorki, near Moscow. “I know you’ll soon be leaving...

Continuing with our coverage of the U.S. syphilis experiments from the Guatemalan side, now that it has been revealed that the United States performed the deadly research in the 1940s, columnist Dina Fernandez of Guatemala’s El Periodico writes that regardless of the righteous indignation that the people in her country feel toward their ‘neighbors to the north,’ Guatemalans must take responsibility for the fact that their nation is so backward, it continues to lack a system of...

According to this news item from the Iraq New Agency and contrary to a recent report in the Financial Times, Washington is not at all pleased that Muqtada al-Sadr looks like the kingmaker in Baghdad. Once referred to by the U.S. as a ‘radical Shiite cleric,’ al-Sadr has created an alliance with current Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, assuring him of a second term despite his evident electoral defeat last March. According to the news item by reporter Amina Yunis, a member of al-Sadr’s...

When President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize last year, there was a lot of criticism. While Barack Obama’s intentions seemed great – many said he hadn’t actually done anything. Not so for this year’s winner. Financial Times Deutschland columnist David Bocking writes that this time around, the Nobel Committee awarded a man that has risked everything – including his life – to promote freedom and democracy in China. From the Financial Times Deutschland, columnist...

Does the West, through the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, unfairly single out China for criticism? According to this editorial from China’s strictly state-run Global Times, awarding Chinese democracy activist Liu Xiaobo with the Peace Prize was a ‘display of arrogance and prejudice against a country that has made the most remarkable economic and social progress.’ Once again, the current Chinese government seems to regard economic prowess as a pass for not providing the political...

Sometimes when the foreign press publishes interviews with Americans, it reveals more about them then it does about us. With the U.S. in the midst of a bitter midterm election campaign, this interview from France with two residents of the South by Rue 89 correspondent Damien Spleeters has the Americans warning the Frenchman that a War of Succession may soon be in their future. For Rue 89, Damien Spleeters writes in part: With Mo and Addie, I spoke of the South and its identity, forged by the War...

Are Muslims unwilling to accord others the same rights they demand for themselves? From the Pak Tribune, highlighting the tolerance of American Christians and Jews and sharply criticizing the Taliban, the Saudis and Muslim ‘apartheid’ toward other religions, this article by columnist and former Pakistan Air Force pilot Anwaar Hussain argues that it’s time Muslims looked in the mirror before complaining about the injustices practiced by members of other religions. For the Pak Tribune,...

With terror warnings and fear of Muslims apparently on the rise again across the West, what will it take to turn the situation around? According to columnist Patrik Etschmayer of Switzerland’s News, Muslims need to experience an ‘enlightenment’ like the West had 300 years ago, so moderates can come out of the closet. Unfortunately, Etschmayer writes that there is so sign of such an event on the horizon. Meanwhile in the United States, ‘a counter-enlightenment by fundamentalist...

As we continue to discover, almost everywhere, whether it be Europe, Latin America, Africa or Asia, the Republican Party and Tea Party movement are anything but popular at the moment. The only stand outs seem to be some of the British and Israeli press. This article by columnist Arturo Balderas Rodriguez of Mexico’s La Jornada warns that a Republican victory would be a great defeat for social equality in American society. Why? Because a midterm defeat for Democrats would resurrect the image...

Recently there have been reports that thanks to the support of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr – and the tacit consent of Iran and even the U.S. – Nouri Al-Maliki is close to being named for a second term as Iraq’s prime minister. According to this article by columnist Tariq Hamid of the Iraqi News Agency, this electoral outcome, which insults Iraqi voters who elected Ayad Alawi, calls into question whether Muqtada al-Sadr and Nouri al-Maliki consider Iraq more important than their...

Now that the U.S. has admitted to performing deadly syphilis experiments on unknowing Guatemalans, a debate in Guatemala has erupted about why and who in the Guatemalan government might have approved them in the first place. According to this news item from Guatemala’s El Periodico, some Guatemalans suspect that the ‘gringos’ are planning to pin blame for the crime on former Guatemala President Juan Jose Arevalo. The El Periodico news item says in part: Government officials and...

It’s the battle of the titans – but one that neither side wants to win. Who has more poor people: the United States or China? And who’s poor are worse off? For the state-controlled Global Times, columnist Chiang Meng writes that despite recent statistics from the Chinese themselves, China’s poor are more numerous and far worse off than their American counterparts. For the Global Times, Chiang Meng writes in part: On September 16, the U.S. Census Bureau released a report...

What is the Tea Party and where did it come from? This editorial from Switzerland’s Le Temps attempts to put things into context, describing the Tea Party as a ‘cry of agony’ that Europeans shouldn’t scoff at, but should recognize in their own right-wing upsurge. The Le Temps editorial says in part: There is drinking and eating in the Tea Party. As has happened before, it took time for this movement, which short-circuits the traditional American parties while claiming to...

It was revealed on Friday that United States scientists traveled to Guatemala in the 1940s and injected ‘prostitutes, soldiers, prisoners and the mentally ill’, without their consent, with syphilis and gonorrhea. Not surprisingly, the people of that nation are outraged and U.S. officials at the very highest levels are expressing apologies. This morning’s editorial in Guatemala’s Siglo Vientiuno struggles to describe the enormity of what Guatemala President Alvaro Colom...

It’s fair to say that most of Europe looks askance at America’s newest Tea Party – and this article from France’s Liberation by Didier Péron does nothing to dispel that impression. Focusing on what is now a somewhat famed photo of Tea Party darling Christine O’Donnell’s facial expression after winning the Republican Senate primary, Péron likens her to a sitcom comedian determined to get the audience to laugh at just the right moment. For Liberation, Didier...

It’s not news to say that Pakistan is a nation in crisis. But recent U.S. drone attacks and ‘hot pursuit’ attacks by helicopter gunships into Pakistani territory, combined with some of the worst flooding in history, have raised tempers among Pakistanis to a fever pitch. Two editorials we posted today, one from The Nation and the other from The Frontier Post, reflect such anger at the United States and Pakistan’s own leadership, one wonders how long Islamabad’s newly-installed...