Climate talks in Warsaw are wrapping up this week, and it’s looking like, once again, delegates will head back to their respective countries with nothing to show for their efforts. At this point, it’s hard not to conclude that this annual coming together is anything but a farce. The Financial Times echoes Via Meadia‘s criticism of this […]

The outgoing head of the UN Relief and Works Agency has blamed Israeli limits on imports for the shutdown of 19 out of 20 projects operating in Gaza. The Times of Israel: “Given that Israel does not allow exports and hence a resumption of normal economic activities, prices are rising because commodities are becoming scarce, lack […]

Japan is struggling to keep the lights on in the wake of the Fukushima disaster. The country shut down its reactors after the tsunami and resultant nuclear disaster, and with public opinion still firmly against the energy source, the Abe government has no time table for turning the reactors back on. To fill the hole […]

Judge Richard Posner has publicly thought better of one of his earlier controversial rulings on the constitutionality of an Indiana voter ID law. This reset should encourage other courts not to rely on Judge Posner’s opinion, but rather to look at each voting restriction and evaluate its constitutionality on the basis of prior constitutional decisions and the facts presented in each case that challenges restrictions in a voting law.

The disastrous rollout of the Obamacare website, the continued revelations about the extent of NSA surveillance, the lingering IRS scandals and the administration’s continued fecklessness in the Middle East have all done a number on Obama’s image over the past year. But just how bad was the damage, exactly? The Washington Post reports that if the […]

Violence between Muslims and Christians is spiraling out of control in the Central African Republic. Since a rebel alliance called Seleka overthrew the regime of François Bozizé, himself a dubious former Army officer who led a rebellion in 2003, in March, gangs of former Seleka fighters have rampaged through many villages, killing and terrorizing civilians.In […]

The Rabbis say that to save a single life is to save an entire world. There aren’t many stories that come out of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that give us reason to hope, but today carried a small one: the granddaughter of Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh was treated yesterday for a deadly disease in an […]

Pundits are calling it the “Francis effect,” and it’s blowing up the blogosphere. Parishes around the world are seeing increased mass attendance and interest in the Catholic Church from disaffected Catholics. This uptick has been noted in The Sunday Times, The Guardian, and CBS. Here’s how The Week described it: Pope Francis is charming non-Catholics, and even a few atheists, but […]

After a year of setback after setback, the hype around MOOCs is settling down a bit. The latest evidence of this comes courtesy of an interesting profile piece at Fast Company of Udacidy CEO Sebastian Thrun, a man who is in many ways the godfather of the MOOC concept.When he first founded Udacity, Thrun, a Stanford professor was […]

Car bombs and street fighting have happened in Lebanon as a result of the civil war next door in Syria but this morning’s attack definitely represents a serious escalation. Reports are still emerging, but Lebanese security officials, examining video surveillance, say a suicide bomber rushed the Iranian embassy and blew himself up; within two minutes […]