Cash-strapped European governments in the Catholic south are going the Henry VIII route and turning to one of the few sources of revenue left: the properties and activities of the Roman Catholic Church.In Spain, government officials are looking to tax the church’s non-religious property holdings, as The Washington Post reports: In the coastal city of Buenavista del Norte […]

America’s energy revolution has the potential to fundamentally alter the way we think about geopolitics, economics and energy policy. But this revolution is happening so quickly that many of us are still having trouble wrapping our heads around it all.Daniel Yergin’s short interview with the Wall Street Journal should help that discussion along, and it hits […]

Although South Sudan’s oil hasn’t resumed its flow through its northern neighbor, its oil wealth has enticed the Chinese to provide $2.5 billion in loans to the impoverished country. This time, China’s development money has a more benign face: Chinese companies are planning to invest billions to build expansive modern university campuses, says Reuters.China has […]

Here’s an update on what’s been happening in the seas around East Asia over the past few days:On Tuesday, the Japanese government announced the purchase of the Senkaku Islands from the previous owners, a private Japanese family.Immediately afterwards, China sent “an unusually large” group of maritime patrol ships—”the largest such mission ever”—to the disputed waters.The […]

Friday is traditionally the biggest day of protests in the Muslim world. Today protests and riots have erupted across the globe, at least partly driven by a 14-minute video clip insulting the Prophet.Here’s Via Meadia‘s roundup of the days events so far:A map of where protests are happening (courtesy of the Atlantic).View Muslim Protests in a […]

The Caspian natural gas pipeline project is back on the front burner. After a decade-long hiatus, Turkey and the EU are reviving the project to bring natural gas from Turkmenistan through Azerbaijan to Turkey and on to Europe. Asia Times has the story: On September 3, the EU’s Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger, Turkish Energy and […]

The Chicago teacher strike, the high-profile fight pitting two branches of his own party against one another, is now entering its fourth day. The New York Times dissects the conflict and profiles the risks it poses to the president: The strike pits several core components of the Democratic coalition against one another: The teachers’ union […]

Reuters reports that the death toll in a new Congo ebola outbreak is up to 31. New cases are still turning up and there’s real possibility this could spread.99 times out of 100, it won’t. Ebola kills very quickly; people sick with it don’t usually travel much and these outbreaks tend to burn themselves out very quickly. […]

Greece still does not have enough money to pay its debts, and may require a third bailout, says the Wall Street Journal, quoting an IMF official: “Greece will require additional financing, which may take the form either of official-sector involvement or of additional loans, hopefully on more favorable terms,” Thanos Catsambas, an IMF alternate executive […]

The violent unrest continues in South Africa, where several more mines were shut down Wednesday after more than a thousand protesters demanded higher wages from mining companies.The protests were started by the new Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU), which was formed due to dissatisfaction with the ANC-aligned National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). The […]