The FCC has just taken a first step towards dramatically upgrading in-flight WiFi available to travelers. On Thursday the commission proposed auctioning newly available airwaves to improve in-flight connections via air-to-ground systems. NYT: The new format would use a more reliable system of contact between a plane and the ground, agency officials said, and should allow […]

The big news two days ago was the announcement, by Secretary Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, of plans to hold a conference on Syria sometime this month. Now, if this conference—assuming it ever happens—can stop the civil war and lead to a relatively smooth landing (“smooth” in this case is a very elastic […]

Consumer financial services company Bankrate Inc. has done a new analysis on the worst states for retirees. Using data on “state taxes, local crime rates, access to medical care and cost of living,” among others, the company compiled a list of ten places to avoid. The ten worst states to retire in, in descending order, […]

 The dust is still settling after a hectic week in the Middle East, but it’s worth taking a look at an interesting chain of events. First, John Kerry traveled to Moscow and agreed with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to hold a “Syria Conference” in order to “bring both sides to the table,” as Kerry said. […]

Enstitute, a new alternative to college, may be bringing higher education back to the Middle Ages. Rather than college degrees, Enstitute offers a two-year program that aims to give college students real-world job experience, akin to the venerable apprenticeship model. The New York Times reports: [Enstitute] teaches skills in fields like information technology, computer programming […]

Egypt received its sixth Standard & Poor’s downgrade since the fall of the Mubarak government yesterday. The drop of its short- and long-term credit rating from B to C territory is only the latest failure to befall the government of President Mohamed Morsi. His administration is now presiding over an economic and social tragedy so […]

Of the Big Five questions facing America today, the most pressing and urgent is the question of jobs. This is more than the problem of recovering from the last economic slump; it is more than the impact of globalization and automation on manufacturing jobs. The American economy is shedding jobs, especially long-term, well-paying jobs with […]

The Department of the Interior will be announcing a new set of fracking regulations in the coming weeks. Details are scarce at present, but that hasn’t stopped greens and browns from staking out their battle lines. The FT reports: The interior department’s bureau of land management is due to release new rules on the use of hydraulic […]

Editors’ note: What follows is the seventh part of an exchange on Russian-Western relations following from David Kramer and Lilia Shevtsova’s monthly column at The American Interest Online (see especially their February 21 essay, “Here We Go Again: Falling for the Russia Trap“). The exchange, a complete listing of which may be found below, has also provoked […]

Water disputes between China and its neighbors are not confined only to the sea. Disagreements over fair use of rivers can be just as problematic.Take the Nu River. Barely a trickle at its origin in the glaciers of the high Himalayas, the Nu becomes a torrential river as it flows through China to Burma and […]