Like most politicians, China’s capitalist/communists are convinced that recent news coverage involving hacked Gmail accounts and the arrest of artist/democracy activist Ai Weiwei mean only one thing: Beijing needs better public relations. According to this editorial from China’s state-run Huanqiu, China suffers a negative public image because it has allowed a hostile Western media to characterize its actions. Notably, however, at the end of the editorial, the author appears to call...

Along with the Freemasons, the Illuminati, and the Zionists, the Bilderberg Group is a member of that august club of organizations that in the minds of conspiracy theorists around the world, are at the helm of global affairs. According to this article from Switzerland’s Suedostschweiz, which includes a letter from Swiss MP Dominique Baettig calling for the arrest of U.S. officials, the group is rumored to be meeting in St. Moritz, Switzerland – starting today. The news item from Suedostschweiz...

After months of scrambling to contain an astonishing series of natural and manmade catastrophes, this editorial from Japan’s Nishinippon Shimbun warns Japanese officials that while they’ve been overwhelemed with domestic issues, the global situation has been evolving rapidly and mostly without any influence being applied by Tokyo. The Nishinippon Shimbun editorial says in part: Even as the Japanese government has been rushing around dealing with the earthquake and nuclear accident,...

Is Mexican President Calderon too cozy with the United States and its involvement in his country? La Jornada columnist Javier Jimenez Espriu writes that Calderon’s apparent self-comparison to staunch U.S. ally Winston Churchill and rumors of U.S. military activities in Mexico are causes of great concern. For Mexico’s La Jornada, columnist Javier Jimenez Espriu writes in part: I’m worried by the exaggerated gesture of megalomania reflected by the fact that Calderón considers his...

Are offers of Western aid to the Arab revolutions a shell game designed to benefit the world’s wealthiest nations at the expense of Arabs demanding freedom and justice? Columnist H. Sulayman of Algeria’s El Khabar writes that the G8 countries are pretending to side with Arab peoples after decades of taking benefit from their oppression. For Algeria’s El Khabar, columnist H. Sulayman writes in part: Listening to the G8 heads of the richest countries in the world talk about “assistance...

Washington’s decision to impose sanctions on Venezuela’s state oil company for doing business with Iran have triggered fury in the Latin American Left. Tomas Borge, the last living founder of Nicaragua’s Sandanista National Liberation Front, writes for Aporrea that the sanctions are just an old trick of the ‘Yankee Empire’, and that Venezuela has just as much a right to relations with Iran as the U.S. does to ties with ‘genocidal Israel.’ For Venezuela’s...

Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu’s rebuke of Presisdent Obama before a joint session of the U.S. Congress has not only weakened Obama’s hand at home, but has badly damaged his influence among Arabs. For Algeria’s Le Quotidien d’Oran, Kharroubi Habib writes that this leaves Palestinians one choice: to press the U.N. when the General Assembly opens in September to recognize a Palestinian state based on Israel’s 1967 borders. For Le Quotidien d’Oran, columnist...

Have the anti-French headlines in New York’s tabloid press since the arrest of the disgraced Dominique Strauss-Kahn gone too far? Marie-Christine Tabet of Le Journal du Dimanche au Quotidien writes that the blood-sport of New York newsgathering is such, that chances are, the ‘French bashing has only just begun.’ For Le Journal du Dimanche au Quotidien, Marie-Christine Tabet reports on how New York media is covering the story: The big story. For Charles B., the arrest of Dominique...

Can the U.S. Congress be called more hostile toward Palestinians and Arabs than even the Israeli Knesset? According to columnist Hafiz al Barghouty of Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah, the speech of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to a joint session of the U.S. Congress should be a lesson to Palestinians and Arabs not to trust the United States. For Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah of the Palestinian Territories, Hafiz al Barghouty writes in part: Even before Netanyahu’s speech before the “American Knesset,”...

Happy Memorial Day weekend, everyone. Bob Dylan was 70 years old this week, and the editorial board of Germany’s Die Welt published this open letter in tribute to the American music icon. Die Welt’s message?: keep showing the world how to change with the time – because “the times – they are a changin’” The open letter from the Die Welt editorial board says in part: Dear Bob, So how does it feel now that you’ve done everything in your life as a pop...

Leave it to Beijing to raise the bar on Dominique Strauss-Kahn conspiracy theories. When a publication run by the Chinese government publishes an article like this, it’s a sure sign that U.S.-China economic and political relations are in the midst of a very rough patch. Did the United States ‘frame’ Dominique Strauss-Kahn because of IMF forecasts of U.S. economic frailty and Chinese strength? According to this analysis from China’s state-controlled Huanqiu, it’s reasonable...

It seems that when it comes to the Middle East, President Obama can’t win. With blistering criticism from Israelis over his assertion that peace talks with the Palestinians be based on the 1967 borders, this article from Samidoon of the Palestinian Territories rips into Obama as insincere about wanting justice for Arabs, and criticizes America for long favoring Arab despots and Israel. For Samidoon, Dr. Abdul Alsutar Kassem writes in part: America is now attempting to adapt to the new Arab...

It seems that many in Pakistan are convinced that with relations with the U.S. souring, closer ties with China are the answer to Pakistan’s troubles. According to this editorial from Pakistan’s Frontier Post, whereas the United States tends to use Pakistan when its in Washington’s interests and then treat it like ‘garbage,’ China has always been an ‘all-weather friend.’ The Frontier Post editorial says in part: With Americans haughtily boxing Pakistan into...

Has the United Nations outlived its usefulness? For Bolivia’s Bol Press, Professor Alvaro Cuadra of Chile’s Universidad ARCIS writes that just as the League of Nations collapsed when World War II broke out – making it’s failure obvious, the U.N., born out of WWII, has similarly proven itself incapable of many of its central tenets, including ‘saving future generations from the scourge of war.’ For Bolivia’s Bol Press, Professor Alvaro Cuadra writes in part: The...

Days ago, Germany’s Die Welt published an investigative report on a secret agreement between Venezuela and Iran for a joint medium-range missile base on Venezuelan soil. The 1,100 word article by columnist Clemens Wergin, outlines not only the location of the base, but offers details on its design and strategic purpose, which will not only pose a threat to the United States, but to Venezuela’s Latin American adversaries, including Colombia. For Germany’s Die Welt, Clemens Wergin...

It’s fair to say that with the arrest of Socialist Party rising star and IMF Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the French left is in disarray. Meanwhile, the French press is under attack from the “Anglo-Saxons” for, in effect, giving “DSK” a pass all these years – even though his behavior toward the opposite sex was widely known. In this article from France’s left-wing Liberation, columnist Nicholas Demorand issues a strong rebuke of those who believe French...

At home and abroad, large numbers of people are asking the same question: regardless of the crime or the criminal, is it fitting with common decency to celebrate a man’s death – even a man like Osama bin Laden? For Portugal’s Visao, Filipe Luis writes that even if he and most people see the benefit of eliminating bin Laden, the celebration of the event in and out of Portugal was a shameful spectacle. And – like this past article from Mexico’s La Jornada, Luis also...

There is an odd parallel to the U.S. mission to pluck Osama bin Laden from Pakistan and the New York arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, one of France’s most powerful and successful politicians. While the French, like Pakistan, are aghast at how the presumed wrongdoer was ‘detained’ – they both also assert disgust with the crimes they are – or were – charged with. To say that the French are shocked with the way Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been treated by the U.S....

If German Special Forces had been the ones to whisk Osama bin Laden from Pakistan – could Germany have reformed him, turning him into a model German citizen? In this tongue-in-cheek skewering of German liberalism, Die Welt columnist Gideon Boss writes that because of those ‘Mickey Mouse’ Americans, we will never know. For Die Welt, Gideon Boss writes in part: One might well ask whether things would have been different if an Anti-Conflict Team of Berlin police officers had visited...

For Americans who yearn for life in Europe, with its more generous social safety net and strict rules for firing employees, columnist Andrzej Lubowski of Poland’s Gazeta Wyborcza has some disheartening news: the idyllic lifestyle Europeans have come to expect is in its death throes. For Gazeta Wyborcza, Andrzej Lubowski writes in part: “There is nothing more enjoyable than an evening stroll in early summer along the Rhine in Basel, while watching young men, women and entire families...

Is NATO making a mistake by maintaining a stalemate between Libyan despot Mohammar Qaddafi and the insurgents seeking to topple his 40-year-old regime? For Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung, columnist Stefan Kornelius writes that unless NATO is willing to accept a continuation of Qaddafi’s rule or a fruitless continuation of currect circumstances, it should start setting up ‘protection zones’ across the country – not only to protect civilians, but to restrict Qaddafi’s...

Is the U.S. reaction to Osama bin Laden’s death embarrassing for a country that likes to see itself as a magnanimous force for justice in the world? For Mexico’s La Jornada, columnist Jose Blanco writes that U.S. behavior since bin Laden was killed rips the mask off of a hypocritical, self-absorbed global empire, intent on infringing on the sovereignty on other nations under the guise of a global rule of law. For Mexico’s La Jornada, Jose Blanco writes in part: It cuts straight...

How do Iraqis feel about the apparent death of al-Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden? For Iraq’s Al-Sabaah newspaper, columnist Amran al-Abaidi writes that Iraqis are right behind the Americans in celebrating the demise of a man that inflicted untold horror on the Iraqi people – far more, he writes, than the American invasion itself. For Al-Sabaah, Amran al-Abaidi writes in part: The world has every right to joyfully welcome the death of the leader of terrorism. America in particular...

Is the demise of Osama bin Laden a moment that all of world religions should seize upon to begin building a world free of war and religious strife? After ten years of chaos that emerged from a perverse interpretation of Islam, columnist Víctor Corcoba Herrero of Diario Decuyo’s writes that it’s time for all religious leaders to end the terrorist strife by promoting the ideals they all claim to hold dear. For Diario Decuyo, Víctor Corcoba Herrero writes in part: “How have we...

Now that al-Qaeda’s prime mover has left the scene and we’ve had ten years to digest the neurotic episode that the West and the world experienced after 9-11, is it time to retool how the terrorist threat is addressed? This editorial from Spain’s El Pais suggests that it’s time for the world’s democracies to restore the values they proclaim to hold dear, which were set aside to fight al-Qaeda. The El Pais editorial says in part: Muslims were the first to bury bin Laden’s...