Is Germany up for grabs again after eight years of Merkel? A new group of polls suggest that it is, as Merkel’s conservative coalition has been steadily losing support in the run up to next week’s vote. As recently as last month, many observers believed Merkel would come out ahead without much trouble, but now […]

After years of claiming that it doesn’t exist, the New York Times has found evidence of voter fraud: a political machine organizing unqualified voters to swing an election in Alabama. Of course there are some twists: The turmoil began some weeks earlier. It raised the specter of the Machine, a secret society representing a league of select […]

Malaysia’s state-owned oil company Petronas is backing out of a multi-billion dollar venture to help develop Venezuela’s Orinoco Belt, one of the world’s largest heavy oil deposits. Carabobo-1 was the flagship Orinoco development project, and Petronas had an 11 percent stake in it. The FT paints the backdrop to the decision: The projects have been slow to […]

WRM’s mother is going off life support this morning. She has never wanted “heroic measures” and the family is honoring her wishes. She is with the people she loved and moving peacefully through the final stages of her life.Thanks to our readers for their thoughts and prayers. The medical team has been supportive and helpful […]

Syria continued to draw the world’s focus this week. Vladimir Putin penned an op-ed on the situation in the New York Times, Barack Obama interrupted Tuesday night primetime TV to once again make his case for action in Syria to the American people, and WRM wrote an essay looking into why the President has failed so abysmally […]

The QS World University Rankings are out for 2013, and the Anglosphere wins in style. The results are remarkable. American and British universities hold every spot in the top 10. American, British, Canadian, and Australian universities hold 34 of the top 50 spots. The Anglosphere represents 61 of the top 100.This isn’t just about the […]

SEPTEMBER 11: A member of the European Parliament, Belgian socialist Saïd El Khadraoui attends a debate on a negotiated political solution for Syria following the use of chemical weapons in the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Photo courtesy of Frederick Florin, AFP, and Getty Images.

One of the consequences of the White House’s Syria debacle is President Obama’s weakening hold on his own party. Assad is not the only person who is less afraid of the American President this week than last. We don’t seem to be hearing much about immigration reform or the Democrats’ other legislative priorities. And Larry […]

The fracking boom took off as a result of a perfect storm of favorable conditions—conditions that not only explain America’s unparalleled success, but suggest that this party is nowhere near over. The Financial Times reports: The International Energy Agency, the rich countries’ oil watchdog, predicts that before the end of the decade the US could be the […]

Is there an opportunity for Obama to turn things around with the Russian Option for Syria currently on the table? Our colleague Adam Garfinkle thinks that it’s there—if the administration is clever enough to exploit it. If the Russians are not serious and/or the Syrians are not willing to proceed, we retain the military option. […]