Ukraine’s days of importing most of its natural gas from Russia’s Gazprom might be coming to a close, much to Moscow’s chagrin and Kiev’s delight. Two new energy deals—one to develop shale gas reserves with Chevron, and another to explore oil and gas projects in the Black Sea with Eni and EDF—are set to be […]

Things really aren’t looking good in Egypt. The number of Christians fleeing the country is growing, a trend capped this weekend by a horrific incident. Unknown assailants on a motorbike opened fire at a wedding ceremony at the Church of the Virgin Mary in a working class neighborhood near Cairo, killing four. One of the dead […]

Is the dramatic rebound of California’s bonds just a mirage? That’s the question on the minds of a number of investors who think the bonds are still too unpredictable and susceptible to fluctuations in the state economy. Bloomberg reports: The best predictor of California’s revenue is the performance of the stock market, Jason Sisney, deputy state […]

You’ve probably never heard of the city of Harbin in northeast China, but 11 million people live there, and they can’t see ten meters in front of them. That’s because a toxic blanket of smog is smothering the city. Local monitors are recording record levels of small, dangerous particulate matter in the air.This could be […]

For refugees from the Syrian civil war, life is pretty bad, but the Alawites who have fled to Turkey might have the worst lot. For starters, their route into Turkey is particularly dangerous. Many came to refugee camps in southern Turkey via a route that took them near Aleppo, which is partly controlled by the […]

With the government up and running again, the long-awaited discussions over a US-EU trade deal are starting up again as well. But the short hiatus hasn’t changed anything as far as the negitioations go: France still refuses to give any ground on agriculture or l’exception culturelle (movies, TV, and music, essentially). The FT reports: “Red lines” insisted on […]

Yet more poll evidence is showing that American Jews are not the primary source of American pro-Israel feeling: Only 40 percent of Jews believe that God gave Israel to the Jewish people, but 82 percent of Evangelicals and 47 percent of white Protestants believe this. More African American Protestants believe that God gave the country […]

[With this essay, I’m returning to a series that I began late last spring on the five most important problems facing the American people today. Readers who want to go back and look at the first essays in this series can look here, here, and here. The first problem treated in the series was the […]

This week, WRM paved the way for a return to his “Big Five” essay series, covering America’s five make or break challenges in the coming decades. But first, he looked at the significance—if any—of the recent budget battle, the topic that’s captured the undivided attention of the media and chattering classes in recent weeks. Here’s […]

More and more health care watchers are questioning whether enough young adults will sign up for insurance under the ACA to keep the system afloat. The latest is centrist think tank The Brookings Institute, which has a new report out on Obamacare entitled “The Affordable Care Act: A User’s Guide to Implementation.” The report argues, among […]