To the Point
The Shanghai Expo and America's Economic Decline
This year's Shanghai Expo celebrates China's extraordinary pace of economic development. The US barely showed up. Does that half-hearted effort reveal more than an image problem? Should Americans and their leaders sit up and take notice? Also, BP resumes work to kill its leaking well, and WikiLeaks and the war in Afghanistan.
By Warren Olney • • 50m ListenThis year's Shanghai Expo celebrates China's extraordinary pace of economic development. The US barely showed up. Does that half-hearted effort reveal more than an image problem? Should Americans and their leaders sit up and take notice? Also, BP resumes work to kill its leaking well, and 92,000 secret reports on the war in Afghanistan are now on line. We ask what they reveal and what the likely impact might be.
Banner image: Commissioner General Jose Villareal in front of the USA Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai Expo
In this episode
3 storiesBP Resumes Work to Kill Well, Awaiting Haywood Decision
AP is reporting that Tony Hayward will step down as the CEO of BP in October and take over operations in Russia. Meantime, efforts to stop the Gulf oil leak have resumed without any serious damage from Tropical Storm Bonnie. Steven Mufson is energy correspondent for the Washington Post .
Read the story8 minThe Shanghai Expo and America's Economic Decline
This year's Shanghai Expo makes the Beijing Olympics look like a Little League tournament, according to one observer, with 70 million people expected. But the US pavilion is being criticized as "bland," "uninspired" and "unimpressive." Does that reveal more than an image problem?
Read the story36 minThe WikiLeak Leak and the War in Afghanistan
A group called WikiLeaks has released some 92,000 classified military reports about the war in Afghanistan, and they're now the subject of lengthy articles in the New York Times , Britain's Guardian and Germany's Der Spiegel .
Read the story7 min
