World Politics News   Articles for World Politics Course

The Greek economic crisis, by itself, would not be a major issue for the eurozone–the fear has always been that a Greek default would spread fear that would jeopardize larger economies in the eurozone, specifically Spain and Italy.  The Spanish government is not as indebted as the Greek government, but the Spanish banks are hopelessly indebted.  To help out the banks, the Spanish government is lending money to the banks, but no one believes that the Spanish government has enough money to shore up the banks.  Today, panic began to set in as Spanish borrowing rates neared the crisis level of 7%.  It is very difficult to see how the disintegration of the eurozone can be contained–the best one can hope for is that the unraveling can be managed so that it proceeds slowly.

It seems as if Fatah and Hamas are having serious talks about a unity government for Palestinians.  Fatah, in the West bank, and Hamas,  in the Gaza Strip, have been at odds since 2007 and the unwillingness of both sides to compromise has seriously weakened the Palestinian cause.   There have been false in the past, but it seems as if this negotiation is being more seriously pursued.

There have been two more self-immolations in protest of Chinese rule in Tibet.  There have been almost two dozen self-immolations in the last 14 months, but these last two took place in the capital of Tibet, Lhasa.  The capital is under very tight Chinese control, so the protesters were very determined and organized.