Here’s a novel approach to immigration courtesy of New Zealand: kick the fat immigrants out. A South African chef weighing 286 pounds was denied the renewal of his working visa on account of being too heavy. The irony is that New Zealand natives have ample weight problems of their own; the country has one of […]

The fallout from Detroit’s bankruptcy filing will be felt far beyond its city limits. John Dizard at the FT explains what’s at stake for the municipal bond market and beyond in a fight that’s likely to find its way to the US Supreme Court.Dizard’s piece reinforces our impression that this is a lose-lose battle. Federal bankruptcy […]

Just as Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe claimed a resounding victory in parliamentary elections last week, China sent a token of congratulations: a reorganized coast guard officials call China’s “iron fist,” surveillance ships and aircraft that will continue to pester Japan’s more powerful navy in the East China Sea.The reorganization, announced months ago, was completed last […]

More Westerners are participating in Syria’s civil war than ever fought in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen or Somalia according to intelligence officials who spoke to the New York Times. Some worrisome statistics: Classified estimates from Western intelligence services and unclassified assessments from government and independent experts put the number of fighters from Europe, North America and Australia […]

With Israel’s cabinet having voted to release 104 Palestinian prisoners, the headlines this morning are particularly optimistic about prospects for Israeli-Palestinian talks. The NY Times: “Israel and Palestinians Set to Resume Peace Talks, U.S. Announces”. The Washington Post: “Peace talks set to begin after Israel agrees to free 104 Palestinian prisoners”.These are all a little misleading: Israelis and […]

How insecure is our energy infrastructure? This Wednesday at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas, security researchers are set to show off an exploit of a newly discovered vulnerability in a wireless sensor widely used in oil, gas and water processing plants: The new research on wireless sensors found flaws in the way they […]

The biggest news of the week was obviously the royal baby: here we look at the politics of choosing a name for England’s third-in-line for the throne. Perhaps just as interesting were new revelations about Anthony Weiner’s continued sexting: here we show that there isn’t a “bad” Weiner who sexts and a “good” Weiner who […]

The classical role of satire was not only to poke fun at groups or people, but also to use humor to point towards an important truth. Satire done well is often hard to come by, and we think today’s satirists often fall too much on the purely critical side. But this bit from the Onion—a publication […]

China’s shale oil reserves are the third largest in the world, but to this point they’ve remained largely undeveloped and unexplored. Beijing is hoping to turn that around, and earlier this week US energy company Hess Corp signed a shared production contract with PetroChina to begin work on China’s shale oil reserves. Reuters reports: Hu […]

The GOP civil war is on: on Friday New Jersey Governor Chris Christie directed some sharp remarks in Sen. Rand Paul’s direction over national security strategy. NYT: “This strain of libertarianism that’s going through parties right now and making big headlines I think is a very dangerous thought,” Mr. Christie said on a panel with […]