New North Korea Missile Launches a Cry for Attention

With the third largest U.S. cell phone company up for sale and a Japanese company with a close relationship with China about to buy it, alarm bells are being raised in Washington. Will the U.S. government allow the Japanese company, SoftBank, which relies heavily on telecommunications equipment made by the Chinese company Huawei, to buy Sprint Nextel? It appears likely that Softbank’s bid will be derailed and that Dish Network Corp., which has made a competing offer, will win out. But there are other factors at work, as well.

A series of recent moves by South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) to solidify its control over the country’s political landscape appear to be driven by its growing concern that ongoing economic and social troubles could undermine its hold on power. Unprecedented levels of unrest over the past year have tested the leftist party’s authority as it struggles to project an aura of invulnerability before presidential elections next year.

After brokering a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel in November 2012, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi emerged as one of the most powerful figures in the Middle East. But his legitimacy inside Egypt has taken a hit with his move to purge 3,000 secular judges, which would remove the opposition’s only means of challenging total domination of the government by the Muslim Brotherhood. The result is likely to be a rising swell of violent protest over the coming months, violence that could eventually see Morsi forced from office.

Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has rammed new judicial reforms through the legislature in yet another effort to seize more power and undermine democracy. The reforms are likely to hurt the country’s economy and could mark the beginning of a new period of authoritarianism in Argentina.