Fareed Zakaria

New job: Fareed Zakaria, a Newsweek columnist and editor of the magazine's international editions, is joining CNN as an analyst and host of a weekly program on international news.

On Nov. 26, 2008, 10 gunmen traveled to Mumbai, India, from Karachi, Pakistan, in a hijacked fishing boat with guns, grenades and bombs and orders to kill people for as long as they could, and then die. The approaching first anniversary of that event, known in India (in what I suppose will forevermore be the way these things are expressed) as 26/11, is anticipated tonight by the HBO documentary "Terror in Mumbai." Written and directed by Dan Reed (whose resume includes documentary films, episodes of "Lewis" and "Agatha Christie: Poirot" and the Gillian Anderson feature "Closure")

FAREED ZAKARIA has some things right ["Talking About What Ails America," by Utku Cakirozer, May 23]. California is a "basket case." But "blaming foreigners -- in the case of California, blaming Mexicans" isn't a groundless connection. The decline in the socioeconomics of this once great state can directly be attributed to our wonderful illegal "visitors" and the millions of their children given citizenship by accident of birth. The majority of whom just happen to be from Mexico. From the collapse of older family neighborhoods into crime-invested boardinghouses, to schools so busy catering to teaching the Spanish-speaking population that English speakers are neglected, to overburdened human service organizations, these "foreigners" have a direct link to the destruction of this state, and it is unfortunate that Zakaria doesn't see the connection and therefore cannot understand that the California of his childhood memories and the California that exists today are a direct result of his idealized "globalization."

The QUALITY of an interview has, naturally, a great deal to do with the quality of the interviewer. But it may have just as much to do with the perceived quality of the interviewer. In other words, is the person asking the questions worthy of receiving a greater-than-usual dose of truth? Fareed Zakaria, host of the new CNN Sunday talk show "Fareed Zakaria GPS" (10 a.m.), comes to that battle well equipped.

On Nov. 26, 2008, 10 gunmen traveled to Mumbai, India, from Karachi, Pakistan, in a hijacked fishing boat with guns, grenades and bombs and orders to kill people for as long as they could, and then die. The approaching first anniversary of that event, known in India (in what I suppose will forevermore be the way these things are expressed) as 26/11, is anticipated tonight by the HBO documentary "Terror in Mumbai." Written and directed by Dan Reed (whose resume includes documentary films, episodes of "Lewis" and "Agatha Christie: Poirot" and the Gillian Anderson feature "Closure")

He's the new glamour boy of the national media. Bestselling author. Columnist for Newsweek magazine. Editor of Newsweek International. Regular guest on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos." New York magazine last month described him as "silky and unflappable," "dimple-chinned, with expressive eyebrows" and said he could be both "the Indian incarnation of Cary Grant" and "the first Muslim secretary of State." There's only one problem with this panting adulation.

The QUALITY of an interview has, naturally, a great deal to do with the quality of the interviewer. But it may have just as much to do with the perceived quality of the interviewer. In other words, is the person asking the questions worthy of receiving a greater-than-usual dose of truth? Fareed Zakaria, host of the new CNN Sunday talk show "Fareed Zakaria GPS" (10 a.m.), comes to that battle well equipped.

The world's tallest building rises in Taipei, while the largest factory and shopping mall sprawls in China. Nine of the globe's 10 biggest shopping centers aren't in the United States. The planet's largest casino isn't in Las Vegas -- it's in Macao. Bollywood's bigger than Hollywood -- both for the number of movies made and tickets sold. So what are Americans to make of these indicators that we're lagging behind?

Nineteen months after Sept. 11, in the immediate aftermath of the war in Iraq, "big books" on terrorism are giving way to more modest books on the challenges of democracy. But such meditations come at a peculiar time for the very concept of democracy.

Power in America today is what sex was in Victorian Britain: a primal, life-shaping force shrouded in denial and hypocrisy. This is true in domestic affairs when it comes to subjects like class, race and wealth; it is equally true in international relations, a field in which few Americans think, and even fewer write, clearly and frankly about the nation's international role.

FAREED ZAKARIA has some things right ["Talking About What Ails America," by Utku Cakirozer, May 23]. California is a "basket case." But "blaming foreigners -- in the case of California, blaming Mexicans" isn't a groundless connection. The decline in the socioeconomics of this once great state can directly be attributed to our wonderful illegal "visitors" and the millions of their children given citizenship by accident of birth. The majority of whom just happen to be from Mexico. From the collapse of older family neighborhoods into crime-invested boardinghouses, to schools so busy catering to teaching the Spanish-speaking population that English speakers are neglected, to overburdened human service organizations, these "foreigners" have a direct link to the destruction of this state, and it is unfortunate that Zakaria doesn't see the connection and therefore cannot understand that the California of his childhood memories and the California that exists today are a direct result of his idealized "globalization."

The world's tallest building rises in Taipei, while the largest factory and shopping mall sprawls in China. Nine of the globe's 10 biggest shopping centers aren't in the United States. The planet's largest casino isn't in Las Vegas -- it's in Macao. Bollywood's bigger than Hollywood -- both for the number of movies made and tickets sold. So what are Americans to make of these indicators that we're lagging behind?

New job: Fareed Zakaria, a Newsweek columnist and editor of the magazine's international editions, is joining CNN as an analyst and host of a weekly program on international news.

Nineteen months after Sept. 11, in the immediate aftermath of the war in Iraq, "big books" on terrorism are giving way to more modest books on the challenges of democracy. But such meditations come at a peculiar time for the very concept of democracy.

He's the new glamour boy of the national media. Bestselling author. Columnist for Newsweek magazine. Editor of Newsweek International. Regular guest on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos." New York magazine last month described him as "silky and unflappable," "dimple-chinned, with expressive eyebrows" and said he could be both "the Indian incarnation of Cary Grant" and "the first Muslim secretary of State." There's only one problem with this panting adulation.

Power in America today is what sex was in Victorian Britain: a primal, life-shaping force shrouded in denial and hypocrisy. This is true in domestic affairs when it comes to subjects like class, race and wealth; it is equally true in international relations, a field in which few Americans think, and even fewer write, clearly and frankly about the nation's international role.

SATURDAY The Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, the Middle East, the economy, the World Cup, Chelsea's wedding: President Bill Clinton. 3 p.m. CNN Larry King Live 6 and 9 p.m. CNN McLaughlin Group 6:30 p.m. KCET SUNDAY Today Straight No Chaser performs; Wimbledon finals; safe-deposit boxes; traveling with pets. (N) 4 a.m. KNBC Good Morning America (N) 6 a.m. KABC State of the Union With Candy Crowley War in Afghanistan: Afghan Ambassador Said Tayeb Jawab; Afghanistan, veterans in Congress: Rep. John Boccieri (D-Ohio)