Another scandal is erupting in the ongoing EU bailout saga. This time around, a report by the German foreign intelligence agency, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), has revealed that foreign taxpayers will, in bailing out Cyprus, be helping make Russian mafiosos whole: The BND report concluded that this “black money” amounted to €26 billion—about 150% of the country’s […]

A story in this morning’s New York Times points out that the United States did not have forces in place capable of protecting its personnel and Benghazi last September. At the heart of the issue is the Africa Command, established in 2007, well before the Arab Spring uprisings and before an affiliate of Al Qaeda became […]

The October employment numbers deepened the gloom among African Americans and those (including the Via Meadia team) who believe that the United States as a whole cannot progress as it should unless African Americans are getting ahead too. As a report from Think Progress reminds us, in October, African American unemployment rose almost a full […]

As our readers on the Eastern Seaboard are well aware, the biggest story of the week was the arrival of Hurricane Sandy and the destruction it caused in New York and New Jersey. At the time, we had this to say: Hurricane Sandy is many things; one of those things is a symbol. The day is […]

Victor David Hanson’s beautiful heartfelt reflection on California is a must-read this weekend. Hanson, a fifth generation Californian, does a masterful job of describing the beauty, allure and immense potential of his home state, clearly synthesizes what’s gone wrong, and gives many reasons for optimism about its future.We won’t summarize the wide-ranging, personal piece as we […]

India’s government has been widely criticized for the slow pace of economic reform, but in recent weeks the Congress party appears to have renewed and strengthened its commitment to the cause. A major rally in Delhi saw speaker after speaker defend the importance of economic reform.Most important, Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul, widely believed […]

When a boy in a blindfold drew his name in a church ceremony in Egypt yesterday, 50 year old Bishop Tawadros might have just gotten the toughest job in the world: he has been chosen as the leader of the largest remaining Christian minority in the Middle East at a time when Islamist revolutions are […]

As Xi Jinping prepares to assume his new leadership role in China, there’s a lot of speculation about where he’ll take US-China relations.A lot of this speculaton is overdone; China’s collective leadership system and the careful balancing among factions, not to mention the continuing influence of ‘retired’ officials, mean that changes in personnel don’t necessarily […]

Presidents Putin, Chavez and the retired Fidel Castro have expressed varying degrees of support for President Obama’s re-election; now it looks as if the mullahs in Iran are casting their vote. According to the Guardian, Iran is making a goodwill gesture on the eve of the American presidential election: Iran has suspended the enrichment of […]

The final tally is not in yet, but Superstorm Sandy may have left as much as $18 billion of damage in its wake in New York State alone. Reuters reports that plans are afoot to price out and potentially build a series of dams, levees and barriers which will protect the area in case another big […]