Europe may see itself as the globe’s green paragon, but its energy policies are a mess bordering on a disaster. Pushing through wind and solar energy while snubbing its own shale resources has driven electricity prices up and threatened an already sluggish recovery. The FT reports: “It’s fine being very, very green, but not if you’re interested […]

As the world focuses on places like Syria and Iran—if not also the debt limit/shutdown fiasco on Capitol Hill—sectarian violence continues to tear Iraq apart. In the past two days, as many as 40 people have been killed in at least eight separate attacks. On Monday, a wave of simultaneous bombings killed more than 30 people in Shia-dominated areas […]

A group of California Mayors, most of them Democrats, are going on an offensive against the state’s public unions with a new ballot measure, the “Pension Reform Act of 2014.” The measure would give local officials considerably more power to cut the pension benefits of public sector workers going forward, although all benefits earned thus […]

The fact that the US is leaving Afghanistan as quickly as possible is unlikely to encourage the Taliban to make any concessions. We’re losing influence there because others have realized they can just wait us out. The AP reports: The secretive leader of the Afghan Taliban pledged on Monday that his followers will keep fighting if […]

The “BRIC” label has never been very useful, but it’s always seemed particularly dubious when applied to Russia. India, China, and Brazil share as many differences as they do similarities, but at least they’re all indisputably more powerful than they were decades ago: Russia, on the other hand, is a country in decline.Nowhere is this […]

A new report warns that as the shale revolution pumps new life into American energy production, it also leaves states vulnerable to global energy price swings. Between 2010 and 2012, oil and gas industry jobs grew 10 times faster than overall American jobs. Fossil fuels’ share of America’s GDP has nearly tripled since 1999. But states replete with […]

A new app that allows for real time data on prices for everyday products could have big implications for health care. Price inflation for consumer products like milk and eggs is usually calculated by the Labor department, which collects data on prices once a month and releases a monthly report. Now, the WSJ reports, Premise Data […]

According to a senior officer in the Nigerian army, more than 950 prisoners have died in Nigerian detention facilities so far this year. Amnesty International reports that mass burials of people killed in prison are commonplace in the city of Maiduguri. Most of the dead were members of the Islamic insurgency, Boko Haram. The Telegraph reports: […]

The mild optimism in India following the resurgence of the rupee was bluntly quashed as wholesale price inflation for the month of September hit its highest point since the beginning of the year. The First Post reports: A massive increase in food prices has been a major driver of wholesale price inflation. Onion prices rose by […]

True innovation seems obvious in retrospect, though at the time it’s anything but. Here’s one such example out of Australia: two young engineers are planning to launch an army of drones to revolutionize freight and shipping. They are planning  a pilot program with an Australian textbook rental company: Zookal will use Flirtey to send parcels […]