The Londoner

Weather : Floods Bring Christmas Misery Rail passengers are told to avoid parts of southwest England and South Wales as much of the UK is deluged by rain . ENGLAND Families preparing for Christmas have been hit by floods and travel chaos as heavy r ain batters Britain . The southwest of England has been particularly badly affected by the downpours. Three severe flood warnings - which means there is a danger to life - were issued in Devon and Cornwall . Conditions are so bad that rail passengers have been told to avoid parts of southwest England and South Wales. And motorists and shoppers faced difficult conditions on one of the busiest weekends of the year for travel and shopping. Floods in Helston, Cornwall , led to homes being evacuated ...

As expected, John Kerry, the senior senator from Massachusetts and former Democratic presidential candidate in 2004, has been nominated by President Obama to replace Hillary Clinton as secretary of State in Obama's second term. Kerry is popular in the Senate on a bipartisan basis. His confirmation should present few issues, especially since he has already gone through the even more severe vetting process of an intense and highly competitive presidential race. And because of his detailed knowledge of many foreign policy issues, due to his chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee over the years, not to mention his presidential aspirations and his Vietnam military service at an earlier stage in life, he is also well placed to ensure thoughtfulness and continuity in American foreign policy in the months ahead. Like Clinton, Kerry is diligent, hardworking, patient and pragmatic. Like her, while not necessarily personally close to President Obama at th...

Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe triumphantly returned to power this week, five years after a humiliating resignation from office. His Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) , which ruled Japan for over half a century before losing the Lower House to the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) in 2009, won a landslide victory that gives it a supermajority in the Japanese parliament. Yet the vote appears more to be a punishment for the failures of the DPJ than a reflection of deep support for the LDP. Given voter dissatisfaction with all of Japan's political parties, Abe and the LDP have a small window to convince the public that they have the answers to what ails Japan. Abe needs to hit the ground running. In particular, there are three things he should focus on: One: Economy, economy, economy Japan's voters are concerned most with the state of the economy and their personal finances. After two decades of economic stagnation , and a country that has sunk back...

Here's the question no one is asking as 2012 ends, especially given the effusive public support the Obama administration offered Israel in its recent conflict with Hamas in Gaza : Will 2013 be a year of confrontation between Washington and Jerusalem ? It's on no one's agenda for the New Year. But it could happen anyway. It's true that the Israeli-Palestinian peace process appears dead in the water. No matter how much Barack Obama might have wanted that prize, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rebuffed him at every turn. The president appears to have taken it on the chin, offering more than the usual support for Israel and in return getting kloom (as they say in Hebrew). Nothing at all. However, the operative word here is "appears." In foreign affairs what you see -- a show carefully scripted for political purposes -- often bears little relation to what you actually get. While the Obama administration has acceded ...

European politics are impotent, moribund and in need of life support Fired up perhaps by his engagement to a woman 49 years younger than himself, the 76-year-old Silvio Berlusconi has announced his return to politics . He will head the centre-right Popolo della Libertà (PDL) in spring elections. His successor – the unelected Mario Monti – is, he says, pushing the country into recession with his austerity programme, and the PDL will no longer support him. In response, Monti immediately announced his resignation. European leaders threw up their arms in horror. The markets got nervous and interest rates on Italian government bonds shot up. Important elements of  Berlusconi's party rebelled and threatened a split; if Monti stands as a candidate for a centrist coalition, they will join him, they say. Meanwhile, the Partito Democratico (PD), the  leftwing opposition, is gloating. With opinion polls giving them a good lead, the election...

The Chinese government is rapidly building a bigger, more sophisticated military . Here’s what they have, what they want, and what it means for the U.S. In a single generation, China has transformed itself from a largely agrarian country into a global manufacturing and trading powerhouse . China’s economy is 20 times bigger than it was two decades ago and is on track to surpass the United States’ as the world’s largest. But perhaps most startling has been the growth of China’s ambitious and increasingly powerful military . Just 10 years ago, the budget for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) was roughly $20 billion. Today, that number is more like $100 billion. (Some analysts think it’s closer to $160 billion.) The PLA’s budget is only a sixth of what the U.S. devotes to defense annually, but defense dollars go much further in China, and in the years ahead, Chinese military spending will grow at the same rate as its economy. Meanwhile, ...

Christmas will be more widely celebrated in China this year than at any time in memory. Everyone who claims any knowledge of the subject believes that the number of Chinese Christians has been growing steadily over the last decade. Communist bureaucrats harass Christians , isolate them, try to manipulate and divide them. And yet by the standards of recent decades, Chinese Christianity now seems remarkably resilient. No one knows how many Chinese are Christian . The State Administration for Religious Affairs, which supervises all religion, says there are about 25 million, apparently the government’s optimistic understatement. Christian activists , on their many blogs, claim 50 million to 100 million. The Global Religious Landscape , a demographic study released this week by the Pew Research Center, estimates 68 million, based on 2010 data. Whatever the real number, no one denies the memorable comparison made on the BBC in September by Tim Gardam, a journalist and...