What We’re Reading

Preeti Aroon “Newspapers thriving? Yes – in Asia,” by Simon Montlake in the Christian Science Monitor. Last year, FP said you can no longer argue that newspapers are dead. Although newspaper circulation may be falling in North America, it’s climbing in Asia, fueled in part by rising literacy rates and greater freedom of the press. ...

By , a former managing editor of Foreign Policy.
596823_balcony_05.jpg
596823_balcony_05.jpg

Preeti Aroon

Preeti Aroon

  • Newspapers thriving? Yes – in Asia,” by Simon Montlake in the Christian Science Monitor. Last year, FP said you can no longer argue that newspapers are dead. Although newspaper circulation may be falling in North America, it’s climbing in Asia, fueled in part by rising literacy rates and greater freedom of the press.

Shaun Heasley/Getty Images

Mike Boyer

  • Guest List for the First Lady’s Box at the State of the Union,” posted by Time‘s Mark Halperin. If this list is any indication, watch for the speech to be big on the economy and Iraq, with maybe a little health care and AIDS in Africa chucked in for good measure. The question is whether the economy or Iraq gets more time.

Christine Chen

  • The $100 Billion Woman,” in Fortune. Melinda Gates finally goes public about what it’s like being half of the world’s most powerful philanthropic partnership, giving away billions of dollars to fight malaria and other neglected diseases.

Blake Hounshell

  • McCain’s Secret Plan to Capture Bin Laden,” at the Wall Street Journal‘s Washington Wire blog. The Arizona senator knows how to get the world’s most wanted man, but he’s keeping it to himself, in his words, “because I have my own ideas and it would require implementation of certain policies and procedures that only as the president of the United States can be taken.”

Drew Kumpf

Prerna Mankad

  • It’s time to drink toilet water,” in Slate. Eileen Zimmerman brings to light the merits of drinking recycled sewage water. It’s clean, efficient, and environmentally friendly, yet people still can’t overcome the “yuck” factor.

Blake Hounshell is a former managing editor of Foreign Policy.

More from Foreign Policy

Children are hooked up to IV drips on the stairs at a children's hospital in Beijing.
Children are hooked up to IV drips on the stairs at a children's hospital in Beijing.

Chinese Hospitals Are Housing Another Deadly Outbreak

Authorities are covering up the spread of antibiotic-resistant pneumonia.

Henry Kissinger during an interview in Washington in August 1980.
Henry Kissinger during an interview in Washington in August 1980.

Henry Kissinger, Colossus on the World Stage

The late statesman was a master of realpolitik—whom some regarded as a war criminal.

A Ukrainian soldier in helmet and fatigues holds a cell phone and looks up at the night sky as an explosion lights up the horizon behind him.
A Ukrainian soldier in helmet and fatigues holds a cell phone and looks up at the night sky as an explosion lights up the horizon behind him.

The West’s False Choice in Ukraine

The crossroads is not between war and compromise, but between victory and defeat.

Illustrated portraits of Reps. MIke Gallagher, right, and Raja Krishnamoorthi
Illustrated portraits of Reps. MIke Gallagher, right, and Raja Krishnamoorthi

The Masterminds

Washington wants to get tough on China, and the leaders of the House China Committee are in the driver’s seat.