The World Next Week: Libya on the Brink

The podcast for The World Next Week is up. Bob McMahon and I talked about the continued protests in Libya; the prospect of a government shut-down as the budget impasse persists; Apple’s release of a new iPad; and the Oscars.

[audio: http://www.cfr.org/content/publications/media/podcast/2011/20110224_TWN…]

The highlights:

• The international community has roundly condemned Col. Qaddafi’s effort to cling to power, but no one knows what might replace his regime.
• The federal budget brawl is producing a shutdown showdown that both political parties think they can win; one will turn out to be wrong.
• The new iPad will come with more bells and whistles, but the bigger story is how the competition between Apple and Google over how to compensate content generators for their work could help the ailing news business.
• Killing in the Name is an Academy Award nominated documentary that is worth seeing.

Bob and I aren’t the only commentators thinking about these issues. The New York Times reports on Qaddafi’s efforts to quell the protests. To learn more about the international responses to the turmoil, watch President Obama’s remarks on the situation and read about steps to create a no-fly zone over Libya. Jamie Fly thinks about how international affairs and defense figure in discussions of mushrooming deficits, and the Washington Post covers proposals for another stopgap funding bill to keep the government running. Technorati tells us what we can expect of the new iPad, and Reuters discusses the iPad alliance between News Corp and Apple.