The U.K. joins a growing consensus in favor of natural gas as leaders explore innovative solutions to the recession and dependence on Middle Eastern oil. The British government is set to approve up to 30 gas-fired power stations that will replace coal, nuclear, and older gas plants. Chancellor George Osborne expects this enthusiastic support for new […]

The full extent of the damage caused by the Libyan afterparty is slowly becoming clear, as bad news from Mali continues to trickle in. Flooded with weapons and veterans from Libya, the northern half of Mali has become a Texas-sized Saharan safe haven for al-Qaeda and affiliates. Newly galvanized young men from across the region are […]

Truth be told, there is very rarely a slow news day in what our government types referred to as the MENA region (MENA standing for Middle East and North Africa). But some days really stand out above the average for action, avarice and atavistic behavior. Yesterday was one of them. The place is really hopping, […]

China hasn’t been doing much to win friends lately. On Tuesday, Vietnam denounced China’s claims to the Spratly and Paracel islands, in reaction to Chinese sabotage of oil explorations by a Vietnamese company. Vietnamese leaders are now up in arms, pledging to protect their economic interests in the South China Sea. Reuters has the story: […]

The EU has seemingly had too many “rescue packages” to count, but October’s was different from the rest, containing as its centerpiece a pledge to unify all Eurozone banks under a common supervisory entity. A centralized banking system would allow Europe to recapitalize banks with EU bailout funds and make it more difficult for individual […]

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi is reportedly on the run from thousands of protesters who stormed the presidential palace in Cairo, Reuters reports: Officers fired teargas at up to 10,000 demonstrators angered by Mursi’s drive to hold a referendum on a new constitution on December 15. Some broke through police lines around his palace and protested […]

Hailed as the great success for moderation in the aftermath of the Arab Spring, Tunisia, the place where it all began, has been unsettled by a rise in violence due to a small but confident Salafi minority. The moderate Islamists running the country in a coalition with secular forces seem to be afraid to take […]

IBM’s Watson supercomputer is still best known for its appearance on Jeopardy! last year, but it and systems like it are already beginning to transform industries from medicine to finance.A new piece in the New York Times shows how computer systems that analyze a patient’s symptoms, medical records, and case history databases are already beginning to […]

In a desperate move to balance the budget, Californians opted to raise tax rates on top earners in the last election. Over the next few years, the state will be extracting $6 billion in new tax revenue from individuals and families earning more than $250,000 and $500,000 a year, respectively.The early budget outlook is positive; the […]

The New York Times offers some reasons why it isn’t. The debt burden and the opportunity cost in years of a college education are leading Gen Xers to rethink its value. Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg are modern role models for ambitious college dropouts, and programs like UnCollege are helping the young acquire skills and education […]