The Chinese minister of trade Bo Xilai was in Paris yesterday. Most likely this is simply a happy coincidence, but the timing couldn’t have been better. The issue of Chinese textile imports has become one of the issues in the French referendum, and minister Bo was conveniently available to make all the right gestures:
“We want [...]

For those who are interested, the German S?ddeutsche Zeitung has an amusing photo gallery of newspapers from around the world reacting to the new pope. It’s quite telling even if you don’t understand the German comments on the side. (”N?chstes Bild” means “next picture” - click there to take the tour.)

Anti-Japanese riots continued in a number of Chinese cities. Despite a meeting of the two countries’ foreign ministers, little sign of abatement. Given that the country where the rioting is happening is a one-party socialist state with nationalist leanings, there’s bound to be official connivance at some level.
Why is selling the PRC weapons a good [...]

For everyone interested in the Wolfowitz appointment, I strongly recommend World Bank President, a blog devoted to the issue in its title. From it, I learn that the World Bank staff is already expressing concerns that staff views should play a role in the selection of the next Bank president, and that you can [...]

Apparently, lifting the embargo on selling arms to China is high on the agenda for the meeting of the EU foreign ministers next week.
The reasonably senior US diplomat said he wondered what the EU would be getting if it chose to lift the embargo now. Is there more than just contracts involved? Or are the [...]

Everybody ready for neo-con development politics?
President Bush said today he is nominating Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul D. Wolfowitz to be the next president of the World Bank, tapping one of his administration’s most controversial figures as the U.S. choice to head the 184-nation institution.
Because, y’know, after engineering a military quagmire in Asia, Robert McNamara [...]

I have to confess that I’m utterly mystified by this story.
Short recap for those who haven’t followed the events. Giuliana Sgrena, an Italian journalist for Il Manifesto and contributor to the German Zeit, was abducted outside of Baghdad on February 4. The outrage was great - Italians went on the streets to [...]

The always readable Timothy Garton Ash has another good column in today’s Guardian discussing how Europe’s inability to speak with one voice on the international stage weakens its impact. As he points out, the sheer number of people waiting to meet with President Bush this week help to show what the problem is:
Who knows what [...]

We have’t given that much attention to President Bush’s visit to Europe, but the good thing about blogging is that there’s always someone to pick up your slack, so check The Periscope for updates and links to coverage of what’s happening.

Having missed my flight from Salvador back to Rio de Janeiro, I find myself in the airport?s cyber-caf? with a little extra time to spend. Alas, not enough to finish and type the lengthy post commenting on Amitai Etzioni?s thoughts about guilt and responsibility ? I began hand-writing it on another flight, but finding the [...]