While Obama’s “pivot” to Asia has gathered most of the headlines in the past few months, he isn’t the only world leader looking East. In an intriguing piece in The Diplomat, Richard Weitz claims that Russian President Vladimir Putin may be planning an Asian pivot of his own, looking to boost his country’s profile in […]

The Tablet is an international Catholic weekly published in Britain. It was founded in 1840, a time when British Catholics still suffered from various civil disabilities. Today it is a very useful source of information about events and ideas in the world of the Roman faith. In its issue of February 18, 2012, it published […]

Nicolas Sarkozy is running scared. Socialist candidate Francois Hollande has wrong-footed the embattled French President by running against the bankers and finance capital, always a popular move in France–and one particularly damaging to Sarkozy. As Reuters reports: Sarkozy is battling to shake off the image that he is a friend of the rich, which has […]

A United Nations advisory NGO has made a startling discovery: great historical works of literature may contain prejudices that were common currency at the time of their writing. Thankfully, when it comes to Dante’s Divine Comedy, reports The Telegraph, they’ve decided to do something about it: The classic work should be removed from school curricula, […]

South Korea has long maintained singular military focus on its capricious neighbor to the North. Recently, however, its attention has begun shifting toward China, thanks to a territorial dispute over a submerged rock in the ocean between them. China recently renewed its claim to the Leodo rock, near South Korea’s Jeju island, prompting alarmed officials to […]

On a beautiful spring day in Washington, complete with daffodils and cherry blossoms, I’m stuck indoors sucking down Cherry Coke Zero (the official beverage of Via Meadia) and organizing some thoughts to give a talk later this afternoon at AEI.For those interested in attending, the event is on the 12th floor of 1150 17th St. […]

If you needed more proof that arithmetic-deficient politicians and dysfunctional government are largely to blame for the disastrous state of New York’s finances, Albany Democrats have just supplied it.New York’s Assembly Democrats have voted down Governor Cuomo’s pension reform plan, hammering yet another nail into the state’s financial coffin. The Assembly refused Cuomo’s suggestion to […]

With President Obama and David Cameron toasting one another in Washington and bonding at a March Madness basketball game in Ohio, the “special relationship” between the US and the UK seems to be in good shape.  But is it?Beneath all the warm-and-fuzzy, there’s a sense on the British side that the two allies are drifting […]

China is tightening the screws on Europe in the trade war over environmental regulations for airliners. Following Europe’s announcement that airline carriers–foreign carriers included—would be forced to buy expensive “carbon offsets” for planes traveling to EU member states, China responded by putting plane orders from a number of European aerospace companies on hold. This has […]

Next week, the UN Human Rights Council will meet in Geneva to vote on a resolution that calls for an independent investigation into the last months of the Sri Lankan civil war. A recent documentary, aired on Britain’s Channel 4 and titled “Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields,” details the very brutal ending of that war, and […]