Is the pope Catholic? Well, yeah. But considering the reaction that the recent reaffirmation of the Catholic Church's self-understanding (issued under the pope's signature by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) received, you might think that many were surprised to learn that the pope is, well, still Catholic.
Early participants in what is usually called the Protestant Reformation did not set out to be reformers. Perhaps "The Protestant Revolution", the title of William Naphy's book, is therefore a better label for the ecclesiastical rumblings that erupted at the beginning of the 16th century. For, as often seems to be the case, by pouring vinegar onto the theological limescale that the church had accumulated over the previous few centuries, the Reformation's main protagonists made something new by trying to go back to the beginning.
Germany's regional authorities may seek to delay a government plan to sell a stake in state-owned railway Deutsche Bahn AG next year because they say the proposed law could cut train services and fail to deliver competition.
(Economist: Summer of discontent)
The international financial system suffered fresh convulsions yesterday as it emerged that Germany's IKB Deutsche Industriebank, one of the country's leading small business lenders, has about £12 billion of exposure to high-risk sub-prime mortgages in the US.
What this summer's forest fires say about the priorities of EU politicians.
Bitchin' British...
Explorers used to go to the Pole for reasons of endeavour: now it is about economics. The Russians did not plant a flag 14,000ft under water below the North Pole because they wished to show off: they did it because they claim that area of the Arctic, and assert the right to oil and gas reserves there.
(LX op-ed: Arctic role)
Israel's interior minister faces accusations of racism after he suggested suspending the policy of allowing Ethiopians with Jewish ancestry to move to the country. While rabbinical authorities judge the so-called Falash Mura to be sufficiently Jewish to qualify for Israeli citizenship, Meir Sheetrit said they were not really Jewish and had been let in only because of "political correctness". In remarks that incensed the large Falasha community already in Israel, he implied that Ethiopians were fleecing the state by leaving the economic hardship of their birthplace and enjoying comfortable new lives in Israel.
It was business as usual during Christians United for Israel's recent "Israel Summit," its highly-publicized second summer sojourn to Washington. While CUFI was urging US legislators, and leaders of Israel, not to support giving up even an inch of land to the Palestinians, another group of US evangelical leaders unveiled a decidedly different approach for dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian situation.
Britain and America have been urged to prepare an exit strategy from Afghanistan by sources within the Pakistan government as the number of fatalities among NATO forces fighting the Taliban grows. The remarks, by a senior foreign ministry official, reflect the growing belief in Islamabad that NATO is as much to blame for the endurance of the Islamic rebel army as Pakistan, which has been accused by the US of failing to destroy Taliban training camps on its border.
Berlin has decided not to dispatch additional troops to Darfur as part of the planned UN peacekeeping mission there, arguing that the German military is already overstrained.
German press...
The UN Security Council approved sending 26,000 peacekeepers to the conflict-wracked Darfur region of Sudan. The government in Khartoum has endorsed the UN resolution, but German newspapers have doubts about the mission's chances.
European governments are warning Congress that US legislation aimed at Iran could hit European energy groups, undermine transatlantic unity on Tehran's nuclear programme and provoke a dispute at the World Trade Organisation.
A little-noticed statement by US Ambassador Ryan Crocker after last week's US-Iran meeting revealed that the main demand of the Bush administration to Iran is not to stop supplying weapons to Shi'ite militias but to use its influence with Shi'ites in Iraq to reduce their attacks on occupation forces.
Iran's Air Force Commander says the enemy is incapable of launching a military attack against Iran. "Thanks to the efforts made by young Iranian experts, Iran's Air Force has achieved appreciable success in different sectors of warfare, which has boosted Iran's position in the region and beyond."
This week the US media establishment is mainlining another fix for the Iraq war: It isn't so bad after all, American military power could turn wrong into right, chronic misleaders now serve as truth-tellers. The hit is that the war must go on.
What does George W. Bush share with Napoleon Bonaparte? Perhaps only one thing. Both men launched spectacular attacks on Arab countries, won stunning initial victories, and then became bogged down in a hopeless military occupations. If Bush has the wisdom to do what Napoleon did, he may yet be remembered as a leader of historic stature. All he has to do is cut and run. Napoleon's final message to Bush? You've already made history. Now get out of the way and let it happen.
Lured by the irresistible bait of $5 billion, the Bancroft family finally agreed to sell the Wall Street Journal to right-wing robber baron Rupert Murdoch. Chalk up one more big victory in the Foxification of America. For those who follow the news, that means there will be one less place you can look for good, strong, objective reporting – and one less newspaper that publishes the truth.
American Home Mortgage Investment Corp. plans to halt operations, becoming the 2nd-biggest residential lender to fail this year as bad loans spread to people with good credit records. "Conditions in both the secondary mortgage market as well as the national real estate market have deteriorated to the point that our business is no longer viable."
The European Central Bank signaled Thursday that it would raise interest rates in September to curb inflation amid an expanding economy. Its president also vowed to pay "great attention" to volatile developments in global financial markets. Most investors now expect the ECB to raise rates once more after a likely September increase, to 4.5%. But a meltdown of the US subprime lending market could prompt a reappraisal of that plan.
Once investors fought to get into hedge funds. Now some may be fighting to get out.
Investors sail into a credit storm amid worries about the debt markets. Now, at last, investors and lenders have woken up. Credit spreads, the premium that riskier borrowers must pay over government debt, have surged since June. That is a problem for companies and banks in the middle of doing deals.
(Economist op-ed: A good time for a squeeze)
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