Diplomats stationed at the US consulate in Lahore have been moved to Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital, because of a specific terrorist threat, American officials said Friday. It appears that this threat is separate from the one that caused the US to close down 19 other embassies and consulates this week. The US also advised Americans not […]

What’s this you say, New Yorker? Libya’s not working out too well? The smoke had not yet cleared when the victory was being touted as a shining example of what Western powers could do on a modern battleground without ever putting “boots on the ground.” With no further need for war and with Western powers fussing […]

The UK is sitting on a bounty of shale, but the country is finding it exceedingly difficult to imitate America’s success with the resource. NIMBY-ism and misguided green concerns are stalling exploratory well drilling, but the Spectator reports that Brussels is also holding the country’s shale ambitions back: Various environmental non-governmental organisations are trying to use the European Union to stop fracking. In a […]

Hot on the heels of jihadists around the world snickering at the hasty mass closing of US embassies around the Middle East, Ezra Klein of the Washington Post points out that the right wing Chinese Global Times is clucking at the spectacle of President Obama backing out of a summit with Putin over the Snowden affair: Russia has […]

The Times of Israel reports that Amos Yadlin, chief of the IDF’s Intelligence Directorate from 2006 to 2010, indicated in an interview on Wednesday that people in the Obama administration may be softening their stance on an Israeli strike against Iran: “In 2012 the [Americans’] red light was as red as it can get, the brightest red,” Yadlin said in […]

The Philippines is plowing ahead with a military upgrade and increased cooperation with the US navy, the AP reports. In a letter to Philippine Congressional leaders, the defense and foreign affairs ministers wrote that American troops and ships will soon be allowed more access to Philippine territory to help the Philippines maintain a “minimum credible defense” […]

President Obama’s campaign promises of millions of green jobs haven’t materialized. A draft report by the Government Accountability Office found that the Labor Department’s $500 million program to train people for green jobs produced just 55 percent of its targeted job placements—and most of those jobs were not in the solar or biofuels industries. But […]

On the home page of the WSJ‘s web edition this morning was a story suggesting that China’s economy is “showing signs of stabilizing after a six-month slowdown, a prospect that could boost the outlook for world growth as the U.S. steadily improves and Europe edges out of recession.”Other newspapers and analysts have also been cheering […]

In the NYT‘s Economic Scene column this week, Eduardo Porter compares the Obamacare roll-out to Harvard University’s introduction of a similar plan in the mid-1990s. In that case, the university made changes that were intended to encourage covered employees to shop around for care. The plan seemed like it was working, at first; competition had cut […]

The Obama administration’s decision to shutter 21 embassies across the Middle East for fear of a “serious,” albeit vague Al Qaeda threat hasn’t won it many friends this week. Especially in the wake of Benghazi, no doubt the President considered the move a necessary and responsible safety precaution to protect the lives of American diplomats. […]