South African Prosecutors Drop Bogus Charges Against Finance Minister
The cause of democracy has been taking some heavy blows around the world as of late, with authoritarian strongmen riding roughshod over legal protections and constitutional limits. So it’s good news...
View ArticleFixing Healthcare by Fixing Healthcare Delivery
While the press corps and the political world obsess over the presidential race, other Americans are, fortunately, getting on with their lives. In the field of medical education, there’s even been a...
View ArticlePublic Sector Workers to Be Automated Away
Next up on the robot kill list are public sector workers: almost 90,000 people stand to lose their jobs in Scotland alone. The Herald: One in six public sector workers in Scotland will be replaced by a...
View ArticleChina Makes Hay as Obama Fades Away
In another blow to Washington, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak announced during his China trip that Malaysia would cooperate with the Chinese navy in the South China Sea. The Associated Press...
View ArticlePrivatized Pensions No Cure-All
It’s clear that Chile’s private pension system, similar to what many would like to see the U.S. and other Western countries adopt to replace social security, needs reform. Chileans have been violently...
View ArticleThe Second Front Against ISIS Opens
With the battle for Mosul heating up, the attack against Raqqa begins. The Wall Street Journal: U.S.-backed Kurdish and Arab forces in Syria began a long-anticipated offensive against the Islamic...
View ArticleSaakashvili Washes Hands of Odessa
Mikheil Saakashvili is calling it quits as governor of Ukraine’s Odessa region. In announcing his resignation, the former Georgian president turned on his patron, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko,...
View ArticleThe State of Play
Emotions have, understandably, been running high in one of the strangest and most frustrating U.S. political campaigns in many years. An upset remains possible, but on the eve of the 2016 election,...
View ArticleAs Xi Ousts Finance Minister, China Still Trapped
China’s reformist finance minister, Lou Jiwei, has been dismissed from his post amid a surprise reshuffle in Beijing. The Wall Street Journal has the story: On Monday, with nearly two more years to go...
View ArticleJapan and Russia Gear Up for High-Stakes Talks
Japan and Russia are laying the groundwork for a major summit next month, at which Vladimir Putin and Shinzo Abe will discuss a host of economic projects and an unresolved territorial dispute....
View ArticleHappy Veterans Day
On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month came word that guns of World War One had stopped firing; the war that ripped Europe to pieces had come to an end.The consequences of that...
View ArticleStart-Up Formation at Historic Lows
Start-up formation is down to historic lows, the WSJ reports: Job gains from new firms are at the lowest share of employment in over 20 years, another sign of the declining role entrepreneurship plays...
View ArticleMany Question Marks over Trump’s Asia Policy
Even though some around Washington spoke in hushed tones about the outside chance that President Obama might try to pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal in a lame-duck session, the likelihood...
View ArticleHouse of Clinton Looks to Keep Hope Alive
The Clinton dynasty will not go gentle into that good night. For the machine to work—for the Foundation to look attractive to donors, for the apparatchiks to have paychecks, for the patronage networks...
View ArticleTrump’s Win Could Be Palestine’s Loss
The election of Donald Trump, being hailed in some corners of Israel’s right, may spell trouble for the Palestinians and advocates of a two-state solution. The New York Times reports: Emboldened by the...
View ArticleObama’s Never-Ending Lecture Tour
President Obama, who has done less for Europe than any American president since Calvin Coolidge, cannot stop telling Europeans what to do. As he sets out on his final European tour as president, with...
View ArticleBlasphemy Case Heightens Tensions in Indonesia
Tensions are brewing in Indonesia over a blasphemy complaint lodged by hardline Muslim groups against the Christian Governor of Jakarta, which police say they will now investigate. Reuters has more:...
View ArticleTurkey and EU to Break Up
The European Parliament isn’t usually a place where news is made, but the vote on ending accession talks with Turkey marks an important geopolitical turning point—and is another sign that the Clash of...
View ArticleGreek Mess Still Unresolved
The EU and IMF are still wrestling over Greek debt. The Financial Times: The eurozone is running out of time to secure an agreement this year on International Monetary Fund participation in Greece’s...
View ArticleA Dictator Dies a Failure
The reactions to Fidel’s death have mostly fallen along predictable lines. There are the expected conservative condemnations of a dictator, and the equally predictable lefty eulogies of a man who...
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