With most reporting on Mexico focused on illegal immigration, poverty and the drug wars, it’s not hard to see why so many Americans view Mexico as the archetypical annoying neighbor. But it actually has a bright future ahead, thanks to the success of President Peña Nieto’s economic reforms.

One reader’s Obamacare story: We met with our broker the second week in October. It’s nearly February. We still don’t have our coverage figured out. From now on, I’m calling it Kafkacare.

Here’s a stark example of the transformative power of shale: a Gulf petrostate is mulling American gas imports. The United Arab Emirates lays claim to the world’s seventh-largest proven reserves of natural gas, but it’s finding it difficult to resist the allure of cheap American shale gas.

Let’s call a spade a spade: Germany’s Energiewende is an unmitigated policy disaster. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) reported this morning that one in three workers in Germany’s solar industry lost their job last year.

It may have looked like Francois Hollande’s affair was good for his political fortunes. The bump in polls was real, but it speaks to a deep and thoroughgoing malaise that’s gripping France’s body politic.

While al-Qaeda and its affiliated groups still pose a serious threat to Americans, Islamic militant organizations once thought to be restricted purely to local infighting are adopting an increasingly international kill list, with or without assistance from Bin Laden’s former network.

Public and private union membership numbers are trading places, according to a report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But America’s labor unions have still not figured out how to make themselves relevant to workers in the private economy.

With a Scottish referendum on secession from the United Kingdom just eight months away, the nationalists may be gaining significant ground. A new poll shows those in favor of independence have increased by five points, putting those opposed to secession just seven points ahead.

For more than a month, Iraqi Kurdistan has been piping oil across its northern border to Turkey, against the wishes of the central Iraqi government. Kurdish crude is bringing long-simmering tensions between Baghdad and Irbil to a head, and what happens next will affect Turkish-Iraqi relations for years to come.

Six Egyptian embassy employees are kidnapped and released in Tripoli as the fallout from the Libyan misadventure spreads out this weekend.