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INTERNATIONAL EDITIONS: HIGHLIGHTS AND EXCLUSIVES, MARCH 17, 2008
COVER: Hear Her Roar. (All overseas editions). Newsweek examines gender, class and Hillary Clinton in its cover package that includes essays from Newsweek writers and beyond on the complex feelings Hillary stirs in many women. Author Tina Brown writes in a guest essay that, “Hillary’s appeal to the boomer gals is wider and deeper” than the gender wars of the past. “It’s a revolt that has been overdue for a while and has now found its focus in Clinton’s candidacy,” writes Brown, who spent time on the road with the Clinton campaign. Other writers offer passionate views on the global view of women in leadership positions, whether the U.S. wants a woman president, the challenges Hillary faces in attracting younger women, the impact of the Clinton marriage and the pressure placed on black women to choose. Among the voices featured is Monica Crowley, a nationally syndicated radio host and panelist on “The McLaughlin Group,” who offers advice from the conservative right.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/120064
‘A Common Experience.’ National Correspondent Suzanne Smalley interviews Clinton days after her comeback victories about her relationship with women voters, her comeback strategy, why her candidacy is good for the Democratic Party and her plans for winning the youth vote. “I won the youth vote in Massachusetts and in California. I did very well with it in Ohio. And I think it’s because more and more young people are starting to ask themselves, ‘Well, I’ve got this very personal feeling about Senator Obama, but I also want to be sure that I’m picking the person who would be the best president,’” Clinton tells Newsweek. “So there is a sense of a real dilemma about the choice, which I recognize, but … I feel like we’re really making progress,” she says.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/120062
Sarkozy Rolls Out His Tongue. Paris Correspondent Tracy McNicoll reports that Nicolas Sarkozy’s unprecedented style may ruin his presidency. Less than a year ago, he campaigned to be “the purchasing-power president” who would lift the French economy and get a country accustomed to 35-hour weeks back to work. He has started the ball rolling on tough reforms, including ending special retirement privileges for certain public-sector employees and making work contracts more flexible. But he has failed to deliver fully due to a penchant for dwelling on issues that are much larger (God) and smaller (taxi fares) than those he campaigned on.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/120098
Playing With the Old Blood Rules. Beijing Bureau Chief Melinda Liu reports that after almost 30 years in force, China’s unpopular one-child rule has finally broken down although no one can say exactly what changes the government will make, or when. The one-child rule has distorted the population in a manner that threatens the nation’s future. The policy has limited the number of children available to care for parents in a rapidly aging society in which the state provides few services. The one-child rule has also turned China’s traditional bias for sons into a motivation to screen out girls, yielding a population heavily overweight with men. Coupled with the tumultuous impact of rising wealth, the policy has reshaped families in a number of unintended ways, including a breakdown of filial piety, the sense of loyalty and shame that drove generations past to protect their elders no matter the cost.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/120100
A New Home Away From Home. Liu also reports on the Yixian Home for the Elderly in Shanghai’s Changning district, which has found a unique way to care for its elderly empty nesters. The home’s claim to fame is a system of Webcams, or “global eyes,” mounted in public areas such as the restaurant, gym and leisure hall. These cameras allow the relatives of the 300 residents to watch them at any time by logging on to the home’s Web site.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/120101
Chaos in the Kremlin. Moscow Bureau Chief Owen Matthews reports that although Vladimir Putin’s protégé, Dmitry Medvedev, is set to take office as the new Russian president on May 7, control of the country will remain in Putin’s hands. Putin has declared the prime minister’s new job to be the nation’s top “executive” position, and virtually every top bureaucrat in the country owes their job to him. Yet Russia’s 1993 Constitution grants the new president sweeping powers to rule by decree, as well as to hire and fire governments at will, and Medvedev last month promised a housecleaning. If Medvedev wants to wield any real power, he will have to take on the culture that Putin created.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/120099
Talking to the Enemy. Jerusalem Bureau Chief Kevin Peraino reports that an increasing number of Israelis want to reach out to Hamas for direct negotiations, even as violence flares in Jerusalem. In a Haaretz-Dialog poll last month, 64 percent of Israelis said they supported direct talks. That includes members of the dovish Labor Party, where 72 percent favor negotiations. But, surprisingly, it also includes 48 percent of those surveyed from the hawkish Likud Party. The numbers are a reflection of the Israeli public’s growing frustration at what they see as a failing Gaza policy.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/120083
GLOBAL INVESTOR: The Triumph of OPEC. Contributing Editor Robert J. Samuelson writes that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) may have finally become a working cartel. During last week’s OPEC meeting in Vienna, oil ministers declined to increase production despite a fairly obvious case for doing so. “They [OPEC ministers] indicated that they might actually reduce production if weak demand—presumably reflecting weak economies—threatens to depress prices,” Samuelson writes. “What’s wrong is that a fall of oil prices is one of the mechanisms by which a recession or economic slowdown corrects itself … If the automatic stabilizer is disarmed—or, worse, transformed into an automatic ‘destabilizer’—then the slowdown or recession may get worse.”
http://www.newsweek.com/id/119895
WORLD VIEW: The Rise of China’s Neocons. Mark Leonard, executive director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, writes that China’s neocons— “or ‘neocomms,’ as they should be known”—represent a new twist on the Mao-era policy of challenging Western hegemony. “The neocomms argue that China should be less focused on appeasing Washington and more concerned with Beijing’s own priorities. These include resisting democracy promotion and humanitarian intervention abroad, in order to protect China and its allies from external interference,” he writes.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/120109
THE LAST WORD: Mehdi Karrubi. Karrubi, leader of Iran’s National Trust Party, speaks with Newsweek about resuming relations with the United States. “America doesn’t have a good history in Iran, but I am in favor of resuming relations now. Even the late Imam Khomeini said that if the American government changes its behavior, we can resume relations with it. He didn’t mean that the Americans should convert to Islam. It’s just that the Americans should accept us as equals and respect our independence.” He adds that of the current U.S. presidential candidates, he would support “whoever who can play a positive role in the Middle East as a whole.”
http://www.newsweek.com/id/120108
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