From time to time on the blog we plan to highlight a new feature: short summaries of the books VM staff writers are reading and thinking about. This week Peter Mellgard (@PeterMellgardAI), who covers the Middle East and Asia, talks about an old and uncelebrated book about WWII.Kaputt is a dark and haunting tale written by Kurt Erich Suckert, an […]

Last week was supposed to be a landmark time for Ukraine. At least, the EU hoped it might be. Ukraine was set to sign a free trade and association agreement with the EU in Vilnius until talks broke down last week and Kiev pulled out of the deal. Brussels tried to rescue the deal, but […]

Thanksgiving was going to be a big day for SpaceX—the privately owned, Elon Musk-led space exploration company. SpaceX was set to launch its first satellite into geostationary orbit, in what Musk called his “toughest mission to date.” The maiden flight was originally scheduled for Monday evening, but pressure fluctuations in a liquid oxygen tank pushed […]

As China doubles down on its new Air Defense Identification Zone, the Obama administration told US airlines to comply with new rules in east Asia. US, Japanese, and South Korean warplanes have flown through the zone, disregarding China’s rules, but after Chinese jets shadowed a joint Japanese-American exercise in the area, Washington has reportedly warned […]

When it comes to Detroit, much of the nation’s attention is focused on the bankruptcy case which is expected to be decided on by a judge early next week. But over at City Journal, Steven Malanga asks the question (h/t Megan McArdle) that is likely to persist as more and more cities go through bankruptcy: […]

In a sign that definitely won’t reassure the American people, the White House this week cancelled its own Affordable Care Act enrollment push, and is asking some of its health care allies to pull back on promoting Obamacare over the next few weeks. The New York Times has more: Administration officials said Tuesday that they […]

On the sixth day of anti-government demonstrations in Thailand, hundreds of protestors broke open the front gate of the army headquarters and forced their way inside. They appealed to the army for support and later withdrew without a fight. Yesterday the current prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, the sister of former prime minister and divisive leader Thaksin […]

Beijing is refusing to back down in the dispute over its newly-declared Air Defense Identification Zone in the East China Sea. Dozens of American, Japanese, and South Korean aircraft have since passed through the ADIZ on what officials called standard exercises. At first China said only that it had monitored the flights from afar; today, […]

Detroit won’t hear from a court whether it is allowed to enter bankruptcy until early next week, but its numerous creditors are already working to divide the city’s assets. On Tuesday, a group of creditors comprising an unusual mix of financial institutions and city unions, asked the court to create a new commission to value […]

The Music Teachers National Association, a Cincinnati nonprofit founded in 1876 to advance music study, apparently had language buried in their by-laws encouraging members not to poach students from each other. At some point in the last year, this fact became known to the Federal Trade Commission, and in March they opened up an investigation of the […]