Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has just fought off a threat from within her own party. A member of Gillard’s ruling Labor party called for a leadership vote last week, worried that her faltering poll numbers would lead to wider defeat in September’s national elections. Though she won the vote unopposed, the Labor party’s outlook […]

There has long been a rift between Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the country’s clerical edifice, led by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, which once supported him. That rift threatens to widen as Iran’s presidential election draws near. Ahmadinejad’s time is up, and between now and June’s election, a two-way battle could be waged between […]

Thank goodness that dreadful Bush administration has come to an end. Otherwise the US would be threatening to militarily intervene in a Muslim country to prevent the development or use of weapons of mass destruction.Except…in yesterday’s talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Obama did threaten just such an intervention. Amid growing concerns about […]

Labor shortages are forcing Chinese companies to offer workers higher salaries and better working conditions. China’s stagnant demography and schools are producing a smaller and better educated workforce, forcing Chinese firms to compete with one another for labor. The Financial Times reports: China’s working age population, defined as being between 15 and 59, fell by 3.5m […]

Silicon Valley companies have a new doctor, and he may be the future of health care. Dr. Jay Parkinson is founder of a digital primary care practice called Sherpaa, in which patients use email and phone tech to have their ills diagnosed from any distance: Have a mysterious rash? Send a photo of it to […]

Strange but true: the government doesn’t want you to understand how much your health care costs or make intelligent buying decisions about health insurance.Suppose you want to know how much insurance to buy and want to research the cost of health care. Too bad. According to the LA Times, a new national report card on health care […]

What’s Greek for “up a creek without a paddle”? (Google’s answer: Μέχρι ένα κολπίσκο χωρίς ένα κουπί, though we don’t put much faith in automated translation of idioms.) Whatever it is, we suspect it’s being said a bunch in the halls of power in Nicosia.Cyprus’s parliament yesterday afternoon voted down the EU-backed proposal to raise €5.8 […]

On the tenth anniversary of the Iraq War, Meghan O’Sullivan, former Deputy National Security Advisor for President Bush, has a piece up at TAI looking back at the conflict and the lessons Americans have drawn from it: Given the complexity of U.S. efforts in Iraq over the past decade, the lessons derived will necessarily span volumes and require […]

A new study conducted by economist David H. Autor, and reported in the NYTimes, analyzes how and why men have started to lag behind the fairer sex, and what that means for marriage.It all boils down to education. Today, a degree is all but a prerequisite for finding gainful employment. Women have done a good […]

For years, America’s higher ed discussion has focused on encouraging more students to earn bachelor’s and associate’s degrees. But students with vocational certificates in fields like IT often earn more money than many of their peers with traditional degrees. The big disadvantage of certificates, though, is that it’s much more difficult to get financial aid. The […]