Iran is brazenly sending troops to fight the rebels in Syria, and Congress is fed up with White House policy on Syria.The Washington Post reports that trained Iranian fighters are now on the ground in Syria to protect the resurgent Assad regime, with the aid of Iran-backed fighters from Hezbollah. Fractured and increasingly weak, the rebels […]

One of Europe’s most tolerant, immigrant-friendly countries is facing three nights of Paris-style riots from angry immigrants. The riots, which started when police gunned down an elderly man wielding a machete, have ignited a debate over how well the country is doing when it comes to integrating immigrants into Swedish society. The FT reports: Experts say that […]

A new Gallup poll shows that 72 percent of Americans think morals as a whole are getting worse in the country; 44 percent said the state of American morals is “poor,” which is six points higher than two years ago.We should take numbers like these with a grain of salt; morality isn’t exactly easy to […]

Three Chinese nationals have been accused of accepting bribes from China to disclose private research in magnetic resonance imaging that was being funded by the National Institutes of Health. Details from the New York Times: The defendants, all Chinese citizens, included Yudong Zhu, 44, of Scarsdale, N.Y., an associate professor in the school’s radiology department who was […]

The historian Philip Jenkins, who is an erudite and insightful observer of contemporary religion, writes a column for The Christian Century. In the issue of May 15, 2013, he has a piece reflecting on the twentieth anniversary of the attack by agents of the US government on the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, during […]

As the latest round of scandals swirls around the White House, there is the usual empty chatter from various spokesmen about the President’s intention to “pivot toward the economy” (again!) and to prioritize unemployment.If only that would happen; America’s jobs problem is big enough and crucial enough that it should be the President’s priority every […]

Hypocrisy is the name of the game in New York’s State Assembly, and the New York Times has finally taken notice. State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, the state’s major political power broker, has emerged unscathed from last week’s slew of accusations that he whitewashed sexual harassment allegations against prominent Democratic Assemblyman Vito J. Lopez. Even after a […]

More than 70,000 Syrians have been killed by their own government, and there is now overwhelming evidence that the regime has used chemical weapons. The “international community”, in a display that is cynical even by its own usual jaded standards, has remained impassive and impotent. Even the Obama Administration, which declared Syria’s use of chemical […]

College students may see their debt rise sharply overnight, as the interest rate for Stafford Loans is set to double to 6.8 percent on July 1st. Fortunately, students have some friends in high places: The Obama administration, House Republicans, and various senators have each proposed plans that would forestall the rate jump. (Inside Higher Ed has a […]

California’s “Hydrogen Highway” is a road to nowhere. About a decade ago, then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger called for the state to invest more than $50 million in the program, which was to lead to the creation of 100 hydrogen fuel stations capable of serving 2,000 fuel-cell vehicles. Today, the state has a whopping total of nine […]