A key foreign policy objective of the Obama administration has been to dress up the war on terror as a police and intelligence operation backed by drone strikes. The rhetorical and tactical shift seeks to reassure Americans and shift their attention from the Conflict Formerly Known As the Global War on Terror to foreign policy […]

I have written from time to time on this blog about the phenomenon of anti-Semitism — a vice that is far more widespread and insidious than many understand. I have written about it in Europe, and readers have replied that it is simply a matter of immigrants. “Real” Europeans don’t do that anymore.Not so, alas. […]

The prestigious international law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf is going bust, as 67 of 300 partners have jumped ship since January. The firm’s troubles began after Dewey and LeBoeuf, two separate firms, came together in 2007 and started reporting disappointing financial performance shortly thereafter. As a result the firm has been slashing partners’ salaries. At […]

Germany’s once proud and profitable solar industry is going down. In recent months  disappointing earnings results, factory closings and bankruptcies have followed in quick succession. Thousands of people have lost their jobs, and more will follow.Spiegel reports: The solar industry, once a beacon of hope for an eastern German economy that struggled for years to […]

Another day, another drone strike in North Waziristan. The CIA hadn’t launched a drone attack in Pakistan in several months as Washington tried to settle the furor that erupted after the November attack, in which American planes killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. But despite the Pakistani parliament’s recently issuing a scathing statement about the November incident, […]

In about a month or so, French aviation investigators will release a report detailing the causes of one of the greatest air disasters in recent times: the disappearance of Air France Flight 447 over the south Atlantic in 2009. The Telegraph has a preview of the findings, including an absolutely gripping retelling of the final […]

The first word that popped into mind here at Via Meadia headquarters upon the announcement of Facebook’s eye-popping $1 billion purchase of the photo-sharing company Instagram started with B and rhymed with trouble. Long a Silicon Valley darling for its tasteful design and impressive user base growth, Instagram nevertheless had no income and had announced no […]

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be arriving in Beijing at perhaps the diciest moment in US-China relations since Richard Nixon reached out to shake Chou Enlai’s hand on his historic visit to what American conservatives then still called Red China.Last fall, the Obama administration pulled off a diplomatic revolution in maritime Asia — the […]

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is hinting that he will hold Israel’s next election this year rather than waiting until 2013. Many analysts think that September or October are the most likely dates — before or after the High Holy Days. Polls suggest that could be a smart move; Netanyahu’s party is expected to do […]

A breaking story on the BBC adds to the urgency of an earlier post today about the religious war gaining momentum in Africa. The latest attack by a gunman on a church in Maiduguri, Nigeria is reported to have killed five people including the pastor of the church.Meanwhile, the death toll in the Kano attack […]