Rio de Janeiro! The International Olympic Committee (IOC) awarded Brazil the honor (and burden) of hosting the 2016 Olympics. Despite strong pitches from three heavyweight cities, Madrid, Chicago, and Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro won the bid.
Today the “Three Amigos” wrapped up the annual two-day summit between Canada, Mexico, and the United States with a press conference in Guadalajara, Mexico. Expectations going into the summit were muted as the leaders mostly followed up on previously agreed upon measures rather than breakthrough negotiations over new issues.
Christina Larson, a new fellow at the New America Foundation, has written two great pieces this week (here and here) on the bloody clash between the Chinese government and the Uighur population in Xinjiang province.
On Saturday the Organization of American States (OAS) withdrew Honduras’ participation rights citing their breach of the Inter-American Democratic Charter as the basis for this decision. The charter insists that all member nations abide by democratic principles and outlines repercussions for “unconstitutional interruption of the democratic order”.
Recently ousted President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras has vowed to return to his country this weekend to reclaim his position as President of the Republic.
On Sunday the Honduran military ousted President Manuel Zelaya hours before the country was to vote on his referendum to extend presidential term limits. President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton were quick to speak, but slow to draw conclusions.
Commentary on Iran’s election fallout from the greater Middle East has been eerily absent for the past eleven days. The wait-and-see posture has been adopted by the region’s leaders and civil groups alike; respectively they are nervous and hopeful.
Though there is an outright war going on between the central government of Pakistan and the Taliban, there is also a PR battle being waged to see who will win the devotion of the Pakistani majority.
Dick Cheney’s post-office media tour has reached an unprecedented level. Today the American Enterprise Institute hosted the suddenly chatty former vice-president for a speech on national security. This was conveniently scheduled to air immediately after President Obama’s national security speech at the Archives.
Today is a big day for Mexico City. President Obama’s overnight stay is the first visit from a U.S. President since Clinton’s two-day stopover in 1997. Really; it’s been twelve years since the President of the United States has visited the capital of Mexico.