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Bad Boys and Their Toys
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Muammar al-Qaddafi may have called himself a simple Bedouin, but when it came to transport, camels were not his thing. In 2009, he unveiled his own custom-designed supercar, the Saroukh El Jamahiriya, or Libyan Rocket, a five seat sedan shaped (oddly enough) like a rocket. But speed wasn't quite the Brotherly Leader's goal: with an amemic 230 horsepower engine, it wasn't designed to tear down Tripoli's highways. Instead, it was designed to be the safest car in the world, complete with pop-out bumbers and double digit airbags. Sadly, only one was ever built. And he could have used it.
Muammar al-Qaddafi may have called himself a simple Bedouin, but when it came to transport, camels were not his thing. In 2009, he unveiled his own custom-designed supercar, the Saroukh El Jamahiriya, or Libyan Rocket, a five seat sedan shaped (oddly enough) like a rocket. But speed wasn't quite the Brotherly Leader's goal: with an amemic 230 horsepower engine, it wasn't designed to tear down Tripoli's highways. Instead, it was designed to be the safest car in the world, complete with pop-out bumbers and double digit airbags. Sadly, only one was ever built. And he could have used it.
Muammar al-Qaddafi may have called himself a simple Bedouin, but when it came to transport, camels were not his thing. In 2009, he unveiled his own custom-designed supercar, the Saroukh El Jamahiriya, or Libyan Rocket, a five seat sedan shaped (oddly enough) like a rocket. But speed wasn't quite the Brotherly Leader's goal: with an amemic 230 horsepower engine, it wasn't designed to tear down Tripoli's highways. Instead, it was designed to be the safest car in the world, complete with pop-out bumbers and double digit airbags. Sadly, only one was ever built. And he could have used it.
Foreign Policy and Ken Silverstein have kept a close eye on the lavish lifestyle and shady dealings of Teodorin Obiang Nguema -- the son of Equatorial Guinea's long-serving dictator -- including his car collection of seven Ferraris, five Bentleys, four Rolls-Royces, two Lamborghinis, two Mercedes-Benzes, two Maybachs, two Bugatti Veryrons, and an Aston Martin (a blue Bugatti Veyron, such as the one seen above, was reportedly a favorite). And all this on a government minister's salary of $5,000 a month -- it must have been a sad day, then, in Paris this September when the French government seized 11 of his supercars over money laundering charges.
Foreign Policy and Ken Silverstein have kept a close eye on the lavish lifestyle and shady dealings of Teodorin Obiang Nguema -- the son of Equatorial Guinea's long-serving dictator -- including his car collection of seven Ferraris, five Bentleys, four Rolls-Royces, two Lamborghinis, two Mercedes-Benzes, two Maybachs, two Bugatti Veryrons, and an Aston Martin (a blue Bugatti Veyron, such as the one seen above, was reportedly a favorite). And all this on a government minister's salary of $5,000 a month -- it must have been a sad day, then, in Paris this September when the French government seized 11 of his supercars over money laundering charges.
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Muammar al-Qaddafi may have called himself a simple Bedouin, but when it came to transport, camels were not his thing. In 2009, he unveiled his own custom-designed supercar, the Saroukh El Jamahiriya, or Libyan Rocket, a five seat sedan shaped (oddly enough) like a rocket. But speed wasn't quite the Brotherly Leader's goal: with an amemic 230 horsepower engine, it wasn't designed to tear down Tripoli's highways. Instead, it was designed to be the safest car in the world, complete with pop-out bumbers and double digit airbags. Sadly, only one was ever built. And he could have used it.
When Washington seeks to curtail Beijing’s ambitions or punish Moscow for its war in Ukraine, it often turns to a familiar tool: sanctions. In the last two years, the Biden administration ...Show morehas deployed unprecedented muscle in the form of sanctions as part of its foreign-policy arsenal.
The question is whether those sanctions work effectively. In which countries are they achieving their desired impact? Where are they less successful? And how does the use of sanctions impact U.S. power more broadly?
Join FP’s Ravi Agrawal in conversation with two experts: Agathe Demarais, the global forecasting director at the Economist Intelligence Unit and author of Backfire: How Sanctions Reshape the World Against U.S. Interests, and Nicholas Mulder, an assistant professor of history at Cornell University and author of The Economic Weapon: The Rise of Sanctions as a Tool of Modern War. Together, they will explore how sanctions impact U.S. interests today and whether policymakers need to change course.
Muammar al-Qaddafi may have called himself a simple Bedouin, but when it came to transport, camels were not his thing. In 2009, he unveiled his own custom-designed supercar, the Saroukh El Jamahiriya, or Libyan Rocket, a five seat sedan shaped (oddly enough) like a rocket. But speed wasn't quite the Brotherly Leader's goal: with an amemic 230 horsepower engine, it wasn't designed to tear down Tripoli's highways. Instead, it was designed to be the safest car in the world, complete with pop-out bumbers and double digit airbags. Sadly, only one was ever built. And he could have used it.
The new Israeli government is said to be the most far-right, religiously extreme, and ultranationalist coalition in the country’s history, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-ser...Show moreving prime minister.
Is Israel’s democracy really at risk? What would the government’s planned judicial overhaul mean for Israel’s standing, global cooperation, and economic investments? How does the new government complicate matters for U.S. President Joe Biden’s national security strategy?
Join FP’s Dan Ephron in conversation with Amir Tibon, a senior editor and writer at Israel’s Haaretz newspaper. They’ll discuss Israel’s new far-right government, its plans to overhaul and weaken the judiciary, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ongoing corruption trial, and U.S. policy on Israel under President Joe Biden.
Muammar al-Qaddafi may have called himself a simple Bedouin, but when it came to transport, camels were not his thing. In 2009, he unveiled his own custom-designed supercar, the Saroukh El Jamahiriya, or Libyan Rocket, a five seat sedan shaped (oddly enough) like a rocket. But speed wasn't quite the Brotherly Leader's goal: with an amemic 230 horsepower engine, it wasn't designed to tear down Tripoli's highways. Instead, it was designed to be the safest car in the world, complete with pop-out bumbers and double digit airbags. Sadly, only one was ever built. And he could have used it.
To mark the halfway point in U.S. President Joe Biden’s first term in office, Foreign Policy asked 20 experts to grade his administration’s performance on relationships with Russia and C...Show morehina, as well as on issues such as defense, democracy, and immigration. The assessments ranged all the way from A- to a failing grade. But more broadly, is there a way to define his administration’s agenda? Is there a Biden doctrine?
FP’s Ravi Agrawal spoke to experts with very different perspectives for insights. Nadia Schadlow was a deputy national security advisor in the Trump administration and is now a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. Stephen Wertheim is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a longtime advocate for ending so-called forever wars. Perhaps surprisingly, Wertheim was more critical of Biden’s foreign policy—specifically on China—than was Schadlow. Is that because Biden has largely doubled down on former President Donald Trump’s China policies?
Watch the interview or read the condensed transcript to find out.
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The Saadé family has raked in huge profits, turning CMA CGM into a strategic asset for Paris and a potential economic lifeline for France’s impoverished second city.