It’s now been nearly a year since the NATO’s Libya mission was completed, but the afterparty is still dragging on in nearby countries. This week, the FT reported that France is growing particularly concerned with the growth of al-Qaeda groups in northern Mali, where Islamic militants have established a firm foothold in the region: For years, al-Qaeda […]

by John EllisMitt Romney should enjoy his seven-point lead in the Gallup tracking poll. It isn’t likely to last. The next debate focuses on foreign policy and national security issues. Regardless of what you think of the president’s policies in this arena, he is fluent in the subject matter. Mr. Romney, demonstrably, is not. So […]

Echoes of the Scopes Monkey Trial in the North Star State? Minnesota’s bureaucrats are trying to make teaching illegal in the state—online teaching, anyway.Via the Chronicle of Higher Education, we see that the Stanford-based Coursera is putting a special warning in its terms of service for Minnesota residents: Coursera has been informed by the Minnesota Office […]

Reuters reports: In a rare challenge to Pakistan’s powerful generals, the country’s Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the military should stop interfering in politics.. . . Chief Supreme Court Judge Iftikhar Chaudhry said military intelligence agencies must stay away from politics.“Such organizations have no role to play in the political activities/politics, for formulation or […]

The European Union is the world’s most dysfunctional policy-making body, and environmentalists are the world’s most dysfunctional policy lobby. Put the two together, and watch the fun begin. Like a string of firecrackers, Europe has been watching one green fiasco explode after another.The latest: a “solution” to the biofuel scandal which began in 2008, when […]

Since winning election in 2002, one of the AK Party’s long-standing goals has been to replace the current constitution, which was put in place after a military junta in the early 1980s. The new constitution is supposed to ensure stronger individual rights for all citizens, including freedom of religion and a right to education in […]

The European Union has finally decided whom to send to Oslo to accept the Nobel Peace Prize: Jose-Manuel Barroso, Herman Van Rompuy, and Martin Schulz, representing the European Commission, the European Council, and the European Parliament, respectively. We’re not sure why Mario Draghi of the European Central Bank is not tagging along with his big […]

On the campaign trail, Obama has boasted loudly and repeatedly of his record on higher ed. In particular, the president likes to remind us that he has increased the number of Pell Grants (by about $26 billion in four years), streamlined the financial aid process, and given more government aid to community colleges.All of this […]

Last week it was China; this week it’s Japan where nationalists are raging against the country across the sea . And unlike in China, this time it isn’t just hotheaded micro-bloggers; it’s former prime minister and opposition leader Shinzo Abe, who is widely expected to become PM next year. Abe has decided to visit the […]

With EU ministers preparing for a major summit on Thursday, all eyes are on the latest plan to save the euro: unified supervision of Eurozone banking. There’s only one problem: the plan is probably illegal. As the FT reports, a top secret body of legal experts has advised EU finance ministers that current European treaties do […]