Seismologists are tackling a troubling question with enormous implications for America’s—and the world’s—energy future: does fracking cause earthquakes? The debate is centered in Oklahoma, which has experienced a rash of earthquakes in recent years. The state has experienced more than 100 3.0+ magnitude quakes so far this year, more than five times the state’s 2009 […]

The number of people infected with AIDS in South Africa exceeds the population of Denmark, and people are dying at rates that are hard to wrap your head around: The country has the world’s most severe HIV problem, with some 5.6 million citizens – more than 10% of the population – currently living with the […]

Grassroots support for President Obama’s Affordable Care Act “fix” is coming from an unexpected source: insurance commissioners of states with Republican governors. The NYT has the breakdown: Of the 13 states that have so far said they will allow consumers to renew canceled plans, all but four are led by Republican governors and have generally […]

Washington, DC is two weeks away from ribbon-cutting ceremonies for its first two Walmarts. For the stores’ 600 available jobs Walmart has received 23,000-plus applications—38 per job. Matt Yglesias explains why this makes sense and should be celebrated: But when you’re talking about a city’s economy, it’s important to distinguish between two kinds of job growth. […]

When last we left it, Ukraine was snubbing Russian gas in the run-up to its landmark vote later this month on joining a free trade and association agreement with the European Union. Since then, Ukraine has restarted imports, though is still paying some of the highest prices in Europe for the privilege.Kiev has long played […]

On November 11, 2013, Religion News Service reprinted an Associated Press story by Gillian Flaccus on the development of “atheist mega-churches”. These have the rather revealing name “Sunday Assemblies” (perhaps an allusion to the Pentecostal Assemblies of God—in the hope of emulating the success of the latter?). The story described a recent gathering of this […]

A few weeks ago, Pervez Musharraf was released on bail for all the charges brought against him. He was a free man, and Dawn, Pakistan’s largest English language newspaper, explained why: “the boys [Pakistan’s military] really do look after their own.”But things have rapidly changed within a few days, as charges of high treason—which potentially […]

A joint South Korean-Chinese monument to Ahn Jung Geun, who is revered as a freedom fighter in South Korea but condemned as a criminal in Japan, is proceeding on schedule, the South Korean president said yesterday. Ahn shot and killed Hirobumi Ito, Japan’s first Prime Minister, as he paid a visit to a colonial territory in China […]

Life is tough for American college grads, but their peers overseas aren’t doing much better: Nearly half of all recent graduates in the UK are currently working in jobs that do not require a college degree. The exact number is 47 percent—much higher than the 39 percent in this category five years ago, and higher […]

Does the Obamacare debacle mean the death of the American liberal dream? Thomas Edsall, an op-ed columnist for the New York Times, thinks that it might. In a strongly worded and closely reasoned piece, Edsall asks what, for many loyal Times readers, is the unthinkable question: [I]s the federal government capable of managing the provision […]