Global News Journal
Beyond the World news headlines
from Tales from the Trail:
U.S. State Dept. figures out how to say “Twitter” in Arabic
It took a while, but the U.S. State Department is now tweeting in Arabic.
With unprecedented political turmoil rocking Egypt and protesters turning to social media such as Twitter and Facebook, the mouthpiece of U.S. foreign policy wants in on the game.
Its first message? #Egypt #Jan25 تعترف وزارة الخارجية الأمريكية بالدور التاريخي الذي يلعبه الإعلام الإجتماعي في العالم العربي ونرغب أن نكون جزءاً من محادثاتكم
(Translation: "We want to be a part of your conversation!")
The new State Department Arabic Twitter feed, @USAbilaraby, joins a growing chorus of Twitter feeds describing and commenting on events in Egypt and across the Arab world, where social media is helping to broadcast political ferment.
The feed, which currently has a scant 161 followers, has passed along messages including President Barack Obama's statement that the future of Egypt is in the hands of the Egyptian people and Vice President Joe Biden's demand that Egypt immediately stop harassing journalists and scrap its emergency law.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has directed the State Department to spare no effort to harness the power of the Internet to spread the U.S. message, and has repeatedly emphasized that Internet freedom -- like freedom of speech -- is an inalienable right. She has drawn the lines at Wikileaks, but there the rationale is that the leaked State Department cables are stolen property belonging to the U.S. government.
from Tales from the Trail:
Where’s an embattled leader to go?
Spa treatment or desert retreat?
With so many possible locations from which to choose and no worries about stretching the 401K, where's an embattled leader to settle in retirement?
Egypt's Hosni Mubarak has announced he will not run for reelection in September. But protesters who have taken to the streets of Cairo and other Egyptian cities by the thousands are demanding he leave office now.
Mubarak, 82, vows never to flee and says he will die on Egyptian soil.
Nevertheless, a departure with dignity may be among various scenarios under discussion as stakeholders continue searching for ways to bring the crisis in Egypt to an end.
Will it end with Mubarak traveling to Germany for a prolonged medical stay?
Germany's Spiegel Online reports, based on information it obtained, a luxury clinic near Baden-Baden -- a German spa town on the edge of the Black Forest -- is favored as a likely destination.
from Tales from the Trail:
Panda diplomacy: the remix
The latest chapter in the long story of panda diplomacy was written at Washington's National Zoo, where the Chinese government agreed to lengthen the "loan" of popular panda pair Mei Xiang and Tian Tian for another five years. Actually, the loan is conditioned on whether they produce a new heir or heiress to the cuteness of panda-dom in the next two years; one or both could be exchanged for more fecund substitutes.
They have a good track record: Washington native Tai Shan, born in 2005, headed back to China last year.
This was a big enough deal for President Barack Obama to mention it at an elaborate state dinner at the White House for Chinese President Hu Jintao.
“Today, we’ve shown that our governments can work together, as well, for our mutual benefit,” Obama told the glittering gathering. "And that includes this bit of news: Under a new agreement, our National Zoo will continue to dazzle children and visitors with the beloved giant pandas."
In the United States, panda diplomacy started soon after President Richard Nixon's 1972 trip to China. But the idea that China might be able to export, or at least loan, this cuddly symbol to further diplomatic ends may date back to the Tang Dynasty, when 7th century Chinese Empress Wu Zetian sent a pair of pandas to Japan.
For some reason, Washington has gone disproportionately gaga over pandas. In 2004, the PandaMania exhibition put fancifully painted panda sculptures around town; there's still one near the hotel where the Chinese government set up its press operations for President Hu Jintao's visit. Asked why people in the United States are so smitten, Chinese conservation official Zhang Shanming told reporters it just might be that, when pandas sit on their hind quarters, eating, they look like human babies.
To be honest, Tian Tian and Mei Xiang didn't look so much like babies in that distinctive pose; they looked more like furry beanbags as the big deal was unveiled. But pandas are pandas and Washingtonians are likely to continue the love affair with them.
from Tales from the Trail:
Washington flatfooted by return of Haiti’s “Baby Doc”
He departed Haiti in 1986 aboard a U.S. Air Force plane, winging to stage-managed exile after weeks of pressure from the Reagan administration.
Haiti's infamous "Baby Doc", Jean Claude Duvalier, made a surprise reappearance in his homeland this weekend, and Washington's planners had less than an hour to prepare.
"We were informed about an hour before the point that he landed this weekend," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said. "If I look at the list of challenges that Haiti faces today having a former dictator return to Haiti just adds to Haiti's ongoing burden."
It's a burden that has direct implications for the Obama administration, which has staked considerable political capital on the faltering effort to get Haiti back on its feet following last year's earthquake disaster and a political crisis caused by inconclusive elections in November.
Crowley said the French government informed the United States that Duvalier -- who was aboard an Air France jet -- was about to make landfall on the Caribbean island. "We were given a heads-up roughly an hour before he landed," Crowley said, adding that he believed the French had passed along the information as soon as they had it.
Crowley declined to stake out a U.S. position on Haiti's move to charge Duvalier with corruption, theft and other crimes during his 15-year rule over the impoverished island nation, which is remembered as an especially violent and chaotic period in the country's turbulent history. The White House, for its part, urged Duvalier to work with other Haitian politicians to begin resolving Haiti's problems.
"Any political leader or any former political leader should focus not on him or herself but on making progress toward a set of important elections and dedicate their time and their energy to a reconstruction of the country," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.
from Tales from the Trail:
Clinton jokes about Yemen stumble
Call it the Trip.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, wrapping up a high-stakes trip to Yemen to discuss counter-terrorism cooperation on Wednesday, stumbled briefly upon re-entering her airplane. Clinton was unhurt and newswise it was a non-event -- except that it was captured by television cameras.
Clinton's video misstep ended up going out on YouTube and became a minor Internet sensation, prompting snarky headlines from some of the world's headline writers ("Unexpected trip on Clinton plane!" joked one).
It's the kind of pointless fingerpointing that public figures (and sometimes journalists) loathe because it distracts from real news, in this case Clinton's effort to broaden the U.S. relationship with Yemen, which is gaining notoreity as one of the world's main incubators of al Qaeda.
But Clinton obviously decided to take control of the meme, because she mentioned it herself on Thursday during a meeting at her next stop in the Gulf state of Qatar.
Qatar's ruler, welcoming Clinton to his palace, spoke about how he had fallen in his home and Clinton responded with her own story. "It happened to me just yesterday actually. I was going up the stairs to the airplane and I was looking over my back and waving and then I turned and there was a bump in the, in the entry into the plane. You know, those things happen," she added.
They do indeed. But when they happen to Hillary Clinton, they usually end up being news.
Was Bill again upto his old tricks? This came to her mind involuntarily and then O’ops, the lady diplomat forgot the bump?
Rex Minor
from Tales from the Trail:
Clinton dispels bikini wrestling myths in Australia
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would like the world to know: the United States is not about wearing bikinis and wrestling all day.
Clinton took her personal diplomacy to Australia's airwaves, braving a popular radio comedy team who grilled her on potato chips, reality tv and the diplomacy of barbecues.
Clinton's appearance on the Hamish and Andy show was part of her effort to get in front of as many foreign audiences as possible, and the official transcript released by the State Department makes for some bizarre reading.
For one, Clinton had to dispel some unrealistic notions of American life as conveyed by popular reality shows such as "Keeping up the Kardashians".
"If you look at American TV as much of the rest of the world does, you would think we all went around wrestling and wearing bikinis. I mean, that's what you would think we spend our entire day," Clinton said.
Not even a bit of the day? Clinton wouldn't be drawn.
First of all Hamish and Andy don’t grill anyone… they’re non-political soft comedians.
Secondly no-one in Australia thinks the US is about bikinis and wrestling. When we think America we think guns, war, money, Jerry Springer and loud, dumb, arrogant people… the same as everyone else thinks..
from Tales from the Trail:
McCain sees India, U.S. teaming up against “troubling” China
As President Barack Obama begins his visit to India, his erstwhile rival John McCain is voicing hope that Washington and New Delhi will tighten up their military cooperation in the face of China's "troubling" assertiveness.
McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential candidate and the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, told a think-tank audience in Washington on Friday that the two huge democracies were natural allies in the quest to temper China's ambitions.
"While India and the United States each continue to encourage a peaceful rise for China, we must recognize that one of the greatest factors for shaping this outcome and making it more likely is a robust U.S.-India strategic partnership," McCain said.
McCain suggested that India and the United States could increase the level of representation at each other's central military commands and work to make their armed forces more "interoperable" through joint military exercises and sharing of intelligence.
"There's no reason why we can't work to facilitate India's deployment of advanced defense capabilities such as nuclear submarines, aircraft carriers, missile defense architecture as well as India's inclusion in the development of the joint strike fighter," the next generation fighter aircraft being developed by the United States, the United Kingdom and others, McCain said.
The United States should also firmly back India's desire for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council, he said.
Perhaps we should ask ourselves why John McCain would want to escalate the rhetoric in an already tense situation with China so publicly. Does anyone think that the best way to bring our situation with China to a peaceful conclusion would include teaming up with another country and issuing daily public insults about your supposed world partners (ie China)?
I have two theories. One, though certainly no proof exists, is that McCain would like Obama to look bad at all costs, so he has set him up to fail in foreign policy by picking the easiest public fight in history!
The second, though less develish is probably the most likely. McCain really does believe that the best way to change things is through public feuding and insult escalation and furhter through military action and intimidation. This itself is a problem. Shouldn’t war still be the “last resort”? And if you want to go to war or pick a fight with somebody, why not North Korea? They are dangerous and they are furthermore testing nuclear weapons and shooting up South Korean islands with missles.
I can only surmise that McCain really believes these things because the initial explanation is just too scary to think about. That would make him an out and out traitor to the United States and I certainly hope that this war hero would never be on the level of Boehner and that he could somehow rise above that Republican Charleton.
But that leaves this aweful explanation about the military being first and foremost on his mind to use in nearly any situation. He has often said that he would never negotiate with what he perceived to be terrorists. He has made marked comments on how he would never even open lines of communication with people that he perceived to be threats. Well, I ask you, what would be the outcome of that disastrous policy 100% of the time? War. No thanks. Bush gave us enough unjustified war. Let’s work it out this time.
from Tales from the Trail:
Green energy aspirations for Obama’s India visit
When Barack Obama heads for India next month, he'll be carrying a heavy policy agenda -- questions over the handling of nuclear material, the outsourcing of U.S. jobs and India's status as a growing economic power, along with regional relations with Pakistan and Afghanistan. But Rajendra Pachauri, the Nobel Peace laureate who heads the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, hopes the U.S. president has time to focus on clean energy too.
Even as Pachauri and the U.N. panel evolve -- and as Pachauri himself weathers pressure from some quarters to resign -- he urged Obama to work on U.S.-India projects that he said would enhance global energy security.
Given India's red-hot economic growth rate -- 8 or 9 percent a year, Pachauri told reporters during a telephone briefing -- he said it makes sense for the United States to work with India to head off an expected soaring demand for fossil fuels.
Over the next two decades, Pachauri said, "If we continue on a business-as-usual path, India will be importing something like 750 million tons (that's about 5.25 million barrels) of oil a year ... and possibly over 1,000 million tons of coal. So I think India has to make some very radical shifts and bring about a movement towards cleaner energy technology."
While the two countries have launched a few initial programs in this area, Pachauri acknowledged that "nothing of great substance has been achieved so far." Obama's passage to India could change that, he said on the call, which was set up by the environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council.
Areas ripe for cooperation include collaborative research and development in new areas of energy technology, as well as "a much more liberal approach" to investments in clean energy technology, Pachauri said.
Low interest financing for Indian clean energy projects, including large-scale solar projects in the Indian states of Rajasthan and Gujarat, would also be welcome, he said.
from Tales from the Trail:
Clinton sees diplomats of the future in cargo pants as well as pinstripes
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has urged Congress to finance a major new U.S. push on overseas development aid, arguing that only by building up a global middle class will the United States increase its own national security.
Clinton, in an article in Foreign Affairs magazine which previews a pending State Department report on diplomacy and development, says it is essential for Congress to keep the money flowing even as the United States grapples with its own financial problems at home.
"The American people must understand that spending taxpayer dollars on diplomacy and development is in their interest," Clinton wrote, saying it was time to put to rest "old debates on foreign aid."
"It is time to move beyond the past and to recognize diplomacy and development as national security priorities and smart investments in the United States' future stability and security," Clinton said. "These missions can succeed, but only with the necessary congressional leadership and support. Congress must provide the necessary funding now."
Clinton's article comes ahead of the expected release of the State Department's first Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR), a study launched in July 2009 which aims to set the framework for how U.S. diplomacy and overseas aid efforts will work together in coming years.
As with so many things in Washington, it will essentially be a plea for more money -- a sore spot for Clinton, who frequently contrasts the relative ease the Pentagon has in pushing funding requests through with the much tougher sell she must make for diplomatic and development projects.
from Tales from the Trail:
Hillary Clinton stops to see Bill’s statue in Kosovo
Hillary Clinton stopped on Bill Clinton Boulevard to view one of Kosovo's main attractions: the Bill Clinton Statue.
Clinton, on her first visit to Kosovo as secretary of state, on Wednesday received a rapturous welcome from the crowd waving U.S. flags and cheering on the Clinton Brand, which many Kosovars see as key to their country's independence.
Clinton stopped and looked up at Bill -- now 12 feet high and a shimmering gold -- and expressed her satisfaction with the likeness.
She then plunged into the crowd, or at least as far as security would allow, pressing the flesh campaign-style and expressing her delight at being back in Kosovo as an independent country.
"I'm so glad to be back after 10 years, it's wonderful," Clinton said as reporters and officials scrambled around, the careful choreography of the motorcade thrown topsy-turvy by the unscheduled stop.
Clinton appeared about to leave, but then a local store caught her eye: "Hillary", a women's wear boutique about half a block from the statue. The crowd followed Clinton into the small shop where she took a quick look at the wares, smiled and left -- no sale.
Clinton's stop in Kosovo comes at the tail end of a three-day trip through the Balkans that has seen her repeatedly urge the region's fractious leaders to put their ethnic animosities behind them and start seriously working to catch up to Europe.
You aren’t going to undo 57 years of Republican middle east (and everywhere else) screw ups with this gesture (nice as it is).