Russia hinted that they wanted to calm any U.S. fears about building a nuclear power plant in Venezuela, whose government is not exactly the closest of the United States' friends. Just an illustration of lingering tension over socialism vs. capitalism, the Cold War, and the spread of nuclear technology. Russia has been building plants worldwide in a mission to sell nuclear energy.

China is gaining a reputation for corruption. One of it's most secretive areas of spending is in international aid, which seems to be a vehicle for huge kickbacks for very few people. Namibia accepted China's offer of millions of dollars to use to buy special scanners that analyze cargo containers for illegal or dangerous contents. China did not let Namibia choose the company to buy from or compare prices of companies; instead, a Chinese company was chosen for them, Namibia was to buy the scanners for a ridiculously inflated price, and the head of the scanner company received millions of dollars that had nothing to do with the scanners: "Investigators charge that Nuctech agreed to hire Ms. Lameck's consulting company, Teko Trading, in 2007, a month after President Hu's visit. Nuctech agreed to pay Teko 10 percent of the contract if the average price of one scanner was $2.5 million. If the price was higher, Nuctech would pay Teko 50 percent of the added cost. A subsequent agreement fixed the amount of commissions at $12.8 million, according to court records." China is using international aid to give friends huge amounts of money and fund national businesses. That is not how aid is supposed to work.

Countries are allowed to sell weapons to Sudan, but only if they receive confirmation that these weapons won't end up in Darfur. Chinese bullets were found in Darfur, which may not be China's fault, but the fact that they were trying to suppress the information is suspicious.

France is out of line on several different measures here: their laws include the right to equal housing, they may be violating EU freedom of movement laws, the ignored a European Parliamentary decision to suspend Roma deportation. In addition to not following laws, France also appears to be majorly discriminating against the Roma people: the legislature that cracked down on illegal camps ordered "systematic action to dismantle illegal camps, priority given to those of Roma", and there has been campaigning directly associating them with crime. Furthermore, "France denies that it has any minority populations and is the only EU member state that has not signed the Council of Europe's convention on the rights of minorities."....Wow.

This is video evidence on the toxic pollution caused by Texaco, bought by Chevron, which now refuses to take responsibility to clean it up. A family friend used to be a geologist and work examining soil quality. The company she worked at got most of their business from (I think) Chevron. Chevron (or some other company) would finish with well sites and then neglect to clean them up/ make them safe. When environmental agencies requested that Chevron examine and clean up their left over sites, Chevron made our friend's company file a report saying that they were "monitoring" the site to see what happens. Basically, instead of working to help the environment, they were helping a big petroleum company squirm out of taking responsibility. She eventually quit her job because 1) it wasn't what she had hoped it would be, and 2) there was nothing to do all day, since one of their only jobs was to report that sites were being "monitored" and meanwhile do nothing. NOTE: take this story with a grain of salt, because I don't remember the conversation perfectly, nor do I know the details of her job, the company, the situation, etc... this is just my general recollection.

Maybe more of an ethics topic, but I'd say it affects U.S.-Guatemala relations, too...