Last Memorial Day our nation was in the midst of a bitter debate over the repeal of “Don’t ask, don’t tell” (DADT); over whether women should serve aboard our nuclear submarines and in combat; over immigration, in particularly whether to provide a path to citizenship to certain undocumented immigrants who have come to our country as children and who go on to serve honorably in our...

WASHINGTON — While the United States remains utterly frozen in a debate about budget deficits and all the things that government shouldn’t do, other countries are marrying public and private resources to make themselves stronger and more competitive. While the United States is not even sure we should have gone halfway toward providing health insurance to all of our citizens, other democratic...

All or most of them were women and children. The lethal strikes took place in Helmand province. Local Afghan authorities are apparently saying that 12 of the deaths are children, two are women, and six others were injured. Hamid Karzai, in condemning the killings, gave a different breakdown: 10 children, two women, and two men.

China’s desire to buy up farmland makes Brazil uneasy: China has become Brazil’s biggest trading partner, buying ever increasing volumes of soybeans and iron ore, while investing billions in Brazil’s energy sector. The demand has helped fuel an economic boom here that has lifted more than 20 million Brazilians from extreme poverty and brought economic stability to a country accustomed to periodic crises. Yet...

An Egyptian court has fined jailed former President Hosni Mubarak and two others from his discredited regime $90 million for slicing off telecommunications at the height of the demonstrations that ultimately toppled him. It may seem like a staggering amount of money but if other reports are believed it’ll be a drop in the bucket to Mubarak, if he has even some of the money some estimate he has stashed...

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...

Olle Johansson, Sweden This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to be on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

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?...

Last fall we traveled throughout France, enjoying the beauty of her countryside, her idyllic villages and pastoral hamlets, her historic castles and abbeys, and the glitz of places like Cannes, Nice and St. Tropez. I could tell you all about it, but I am sure you’ve heard it all before. Instead, on this Memorial Day weekend, permit me to write a few words about a sight that brought home to me the ultimate...

India is Africa’s second biggest trading partner after China — and it’s trying to play catch up with China in Africa. One way: it’s announcing that it will give $5 billion in aid/investments in Africa. Details: pp Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com The Economist has a piece about India playing catch up. Here’s the beginning of it: For...

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,...

It’s getting harder to coopt reality for entertainment. Columnist Ross Douthat proposes a Dominique Strauss-Kahn epic—“one of those sprawling, complex, kaleidoscope-of-globalization movies that aspire to Oscar glory. Think ‘Traffic’ or ‘Syriana,’ ‘Crash’ or ‘Babel’”—but he has the wrong genre. The boffo box office gold may be in a remake of low comedy. Imagine the poster for the 1988...

And the volcanic lava flow that erupted in response to Pres. Obama’s outrageous assertion that Israel does not have the right to permanently annex the Palestinian land that it has illegally occupied since seizing it in the 1967 Six-Day War, continues, via the Wall Street Journal (emphasis is mine): Mr. Obama got some applause Sunday by calling for a “non-militarized” Palestinian state. But...

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...

Dominique Strauss-Kahn-Le Pew by Daryl Cagle My only exposure to French culture as a child was Looney Tunes cartoons featuring the lecherous skunk, Pepé Le Pew. When I grew up, my views of France changed, and I thought of the French as romantic, a view that seems to contrast with Dominique Strauss-Kahn, whose alleged sexual assault on a hotel maid is remarkably similar to Pepé Le Pew’s antics. Maybe...

As David Headley gets ready to spill the beans at a Chicago court about Pakistan ISI’s direct involvement in Mumbai 26/11 attacks, the White House in Washington is nervous. Headley’s statements during Chicago trial “will be explosive,” said one senior Obama administration official, who confirmed that White House officials are well aware and closely watching, says MSNBC. But that’s...

Benjamin Netanyahu may eventually figure out that Barack Obama is not George Bush, who never seemed to grasp that Israel’s survival depended on the U.S. and not the other way around. Nor did Bush have Netanyahu’s measure. Obama does, understanding that he is a coward masquerading as a bully who is caught between Israeli factions even more bellicose than himself (think far-right Republicans) and...

While President Barack Obama gingerly navigates the minefields of Israeli security and the Arab spring, a potentially devastating crisis for American foreign policy and security is shaping up in Pakistan. Even as I write this, a terrorist attack is reported underway in Pakistan against a major air force base and nearby naval base outside the southern city of Karachi. About 15-18 well-armed terrorists affiliated...

Andrew McCarthy accuses Pres. Obama of “borderline treachery” for telling Israel that a future Palestinian state must be drawn along Israel’s original 1967 borders, also called “the Green Line.” Here is a chunk of what he writes (emphasis is mine):

And now we see it spread: the clamor for change that ripped out of the body politic in many countries in the Middle East has now hit modern day Spain. Protests there have attracted some 25,000 people. And this time it’s not aimed at a political party but a general thirst on the part of young people that the way things are done in Spain change. Spain has the highest unemployment rate among youth in the...

Patrick Chappatte, Le Temps, Switzerland This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to appear on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

In a meeting that reportedly oozed with awkwardness, President Barack Obama met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — and Netanyahu apparently felt that with the cameras going it was a perfect place to offer Obama a “teachable moment.” Literally. With a lecture. A smart move? Or one that will sour Israel’s critics here and abroad and prove to be unwise in dealing with the Obama...

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...

Inside-the-beltway journalist, David Ignatius, writes about the US-Pakistan relationship in a new book. He was interviewed on NPR today. Remember, the US-Pakistan relationship, like our relationships with many nations, is wary, duplicitous, and necessary — as are all relationships between nations. Ignatius says the case of CIA contractor Raymond Davis — who was arrested and released after a payment...

Our Quote of the Day comes from the Pakistani paper “Dawn,” which in a piece by Cyril Almeida argues that the uneasy relationship between the United States and Pakistan will remain the same. Here’s part of it: With all the hand-wringing and ‘what ifs’ going around in recent days, you would think nobody has a clue how the Pak-US relationship is likely to play out in the days ahead. Rubbish....