The image is quite romantic at first glance: Six Buddhist monks have set sail from Vietnam, destined for the chain of rocky atolls and reefs that make up the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. It’s a desolate archipelago with no indigenous inhabitants that plays host to a few scattered military bases belonging to five of […]

Last month, Via Meadia reported that a top Saudi cleric had issued a fatwa calling on Muslims to destroy all churches in the Arabian peninsula. We were happy to note the response of Mehmet Görmez, head of Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate, who eviscerated the Saudi cleric on political, moral, and Islamic grounds. We similarly welcome the recent […]

Some relief for motorists could be on the way, at least according to the latest report from the International Energy Agency (IEA). Despite fears that sanctions against Iran would suffocate global oil production, the IEA said global oil inventories increased by up to 1.2 million barrels a day in the first quarter of 2012. Most […]

The holiest place in Islam is undergoing an enormous facelift. Not very many Westerners seem to realize, or care.Basharat Peer writes about the hajj in this week’s New Yorker. What he found in Mecca is at once tragic and awesome. The Saudis, it seems, are eager “to erase all vestiges of the past.” The Saudis […]

The standoff between a Filipino warship and two Chinese surveillance vessels began over disputed fishing rights in a part of the South China Sea, where both countries claim sovereignty, but much more than seafood is at stake for the PRC. China wants to dominate the territory, but strong-arming its smaller neighbors drives them straight toward Uncle Sam.China’s […]

Today’s welcome respite to the Syrian conflict represents a rare moment of calm, but the Obama Administration’s approach to the ongoing conflict has been one of the most muddled aspects of its foreign policy to date. Last March, President Obama controversially bypassed Congress to intervene in Libya on humanitarian grounds, where America had few, if […]

More baby steps toward reconciliation for India and Pakistan: Today India’s top diplomat offered to talk to Islamabad about Kashmir, the most contentious issue between the two countries. Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai told the WSJ that India “would be happy” to reopen talks on the disputed territory, which both countries claim in its entirety. […]

A sobering report from the IMF finds that the U.S. government may be underestimating the life expectancy of its aging population by as much as three years. This means Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, which are already buckling under the strain of the Boomers’ looming retirements, are even closer than we thought to collapse if […]

Despite all the talk that we are in an era of unprecedented political polarization, there are some issues where bipartisanship is making a comeback, especially at the state level, where strained budgets are creating a pragmatism that hasn’t reached the federal level yet. This is most clearly seen in the Midwest and the Northeast, where […]

Cracks are appearing in Iran’s high political circles that could threaten its stance in nuclear negotiations. Until now, Iran’s leadership has sought to put aside its differences and present a unified front when discussing the nuclear program with the West. This may no longer be the case.The WSJ has the story: Iran’s foreign minister, Ali […]