The Sunni-Shiite civil war is revving up to dangerous speeds. “Saudi Arabia expressly will not allow Iran to win in Syria,” wrote Jamal Khashoggi earlier this week at Al-Arabiya (h/t Michael Weiss over at NOW). Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist who is considered close to Prince Turki al-Faisal, the former Director General of Saudi intelligence, is pretty well plugged in. […]

Catholic schools have fallen on hard times. In the past ten years, enrollment has fallen by 22 percent, and in New York City alone the Archdiocese has closed 56 schools since 2011, leaving only 219 remaining. This long-term decline has many worried: Justice Sonia Sotomayor and other Catholic school alumni lament the fading of a system […]

Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro have both agreed to reverse the bus fare increases that sparked demonstrations and rioting across Brazil, but so far this has done nothing to quell the protests. The WSJ reports that hundreds of thousands of protesters hit the streets despite the apparent political victory. No one should be surprised […]

What’s a Hezbollah operative got to do to get some attention around here?Britain tried this week to get the European Union to label the “Party of God” a terrorist organization, but Austria, Italy, the Czech Republic, and others demurred. Previously reluctant countries like France and Germany finally hopped on board, but because the vote needs […]

Big news this morning: the FT is reporting that Germany has blocked resumption of Turkish accession talks into the EU. Turkish envoy Egemen Bagis responded angrily: “The EU needs Turkey more than Turkey needs the EU. If we have to, we could tell them ‘Get lost’.” Though some still some hope things can be stitched up, this could […]

The US Senate appears to be on the verge of getting some sort immigration deal cobbled together. In a bid to attract Republican votes, the Dem-controlled body proposed adding to its bill provisions for greatly strengthening border security. Reuters reports that Harry Reid could test the vote as early as Monday, with a senior Democratic […]

Amid the fallout from the recent NSA revelations, the biggest tech firms have tried to present themselves as only reluctantly complying with the Feds. But as the New York Times reports, the truth is that Washington and Silicon Valley have had an increasingly close relationship for years now. “NSA badges are often seen on the lapels of […]

Israel has finally announced its intentions for its vast reserves of natural gas yesterday. The tiny country has been sitting on outsized reserves of offshore gas for years, but until yesterday had been vague about what it would do with this resource windfall. Israel will keep 60 percent of the gas for domestic use—enough, reportedly, […]

It was the shot heard around the office for unpaid interns. Last week a federal judge ruled against Fox Searchlight Pictures for violating labor laws by using unpaid interns on the film “Black Swan.” Two days later, two former New Yorker and W Magazine interns brought a suit against Condé Nast Publications for similar infractions. […]

“Those who have visited both Detroit and Hiroshima will have trouble guessing which country won that war.” So writes scholar of American politics Michael Barone in the latest issue of the Claremont Review of Books. Barone is a native of Detroit, where he once worked in the office of Mayor Jerome Cavanagh during the 1967 riots […]