The milkman is back, but this time he’s driving a Google truck. Google is pioneering a new same-day delivery service that brings groceries and other items purchased online straight to your door. Here’s how it works: A mix of national, regional and neighborhood merchants are enlisting in Google Shopping Express. The best-known names on the list include […]

When the Presidents and other important officials from four African countries visited Washington this week, their trip was ostensibly to celebrate democracy and “good governance.” But the real story behind the visit by these representatives of Malawi, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Cape Verde is the increased attention Washington’s defense establishment is giving to Africa.“The leaders discussed […]

Here’s a sign that China’s assertive policy in the South China Sea is not paying any dividends: even countries otherwise predisposed to not rock the boat are speaking up. As of November of last year, newly issued Chinese passports feature a provocative watermark map that clearly depicts various disputed territories as China’s. Vietnam and the Philippines […]

Three of the world’s most dangerous rogue regimes have found themselves in a rare moment of accord with the US Senate. Iran, North Korea, and Syria blocked the much-ballyhooed UN arms treaty yesterday, a legally binding pact backed by the Obama administration to let the UN regulate the world’s conventional weapons market: “The achievement of […]

by John DonneLet man’s soul be a sphere, and then, in this, Th’ intelligence that moves, devotion is; And as the other spheres, by being grown Subject to foreign motion, lose their own, And being by others hurried every day, Scarce in a year their natural form obey; Pleasure or business, so, our souls admit For […]

The Economist is finally ditching climate change hysteria. As a new piece in the British newsweekly notes, the world just hasn’t gotten much warmer over the past 15 years. We’ve been pumping greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere at ever-increasing rates, yet temperatures haven’t risen anywhere near as much as scientists predicted. Climate modeling, the editors note, is still […]

Editors’ note: What follows is the third part of an exchange on Russian-Western relations that began with David Kramer and Lilia Shevtsova’s February 21 essay, “Here We Go Again: Falling for the Russia Trap.” On March 12, Thomas Graham responded with his essay, “In Defense of a Strategic Approach to Russia.” Further contributions to this […]

The pension crisis and the dying Fordist economy have joined forces to sink another US city. Looking to plug a massive hole in its budget the city of Flint, Michigan, went for the nuclear option, firing 20 percent of its employees and restructuring its public services through a mix of cutbacks and outsourcing. The plan worked: […]

Are NIMBYs killing the American city?All over the country, associations of concerned citizens are imposing moratoriums on liquor licenses for new bars and restaurants in their area, reports Matt Yglesias at Slate. These groups generally think they’re doing themselves and their neighborhoods a favor by restoring some decency and sanity to communities already polluted by […]

A high-level US congressional delegation visited Narendra Modi in India today; it’s a sign that Washington is warming to the politician, who is expected to make a run for Prime Minister next year. It was the highest level visit by American lawmakers since anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat in 2002, in which hundreds died. Modi is […]