Houston and the San Francisco Bay Area are quickly becoming two of the most powerful cities in the country. So far both have grown without bumping into each other, but a conflict might be coming.

A new measure in California looks to bring modest prison reforms to the state’s harsh system. With the help of massive donations from a conservative evangelical, it looks likely to pass—but even then, CA’s reforms will still lag behind those pursued by more conservative states.

UKIP’s near-upset of Labor is in many ways more telling than its victory in Clacton. But the British elite has a long history of co-opting its malcontents.

After a month of media hype about Kim Jong-Un’s disappearance, we have new details about the Hermit Kingdom’s behavior on the world stage.

The Boston Globe believes that calling ISIS “Daesh” will help defeat them. They’re unfortunately wrong in both facts and views.

Warsaw desperately wants to wean itself off of dependence on Russian natural gas, but exploration of domestic shale reserves (fracking) has so far been a disappointment.

India and Pakistan have been trading fire on the border for a week. Small conflicts like this one are horrible for those caught in the shelling, but they also serve the interests of key domestic constituencies in both Pakistan and India.

Twice the number of Cubans are fleeing their country this year than last—more than any time since the 1944 rafter crisis. Untold thousands will die trying to cross in unsafe, homemade boats. This is the legacy Castro left his country, still being paid for into the third generation.

Some restaurants in LA are adding a separate Obamacare surcharge to their bills to cover the cost of providing insurance to their employees. Partisans will squabble over the details, but the bigger story here is the complexity of the employer-provided system.

The Battle of New Orleans, a big battle in a little war fought 200 years ago, shaped U.S. history more than most Americans realize.