Politics & Current Affairs

The Western Balkans remains the missing piece of a strong, free Europe, write The Wall Street Journal commentators, and the US must work hard to help slot it into place.

Washington is standing firm as US relations with Israel hit a “crisis of historic proportions” over a dispute about Israel’s plans to expand a settlement in east Jerusalem.

The swaths of Red Shirt supporters demonstrating in the Thai capital, Bangkok, appears to have dwindled dramatically as the group prepares to spill blood on the steps of parliament.

Britain and America, “two nations, divided by a common language,” have reached an ideological parting of the ways despite symmetry of politics, writes The Washington Post.

Finally someone has said it, remarks Fox News’ Michael Goodwin. Vice President Biden stated categorically in a speech in Israel that the US will not tolerate nuclear weapons in Iran.

What can policy makers learn from the tons of research published each year telling us why or how people could become happier? The New Yorker’s Elizabeth Kolbert inquires.

Attention has been drawn once again to the US’ “don’t, ask don’t tell” policy regarding homosexuality in the armed forces after a lesbian solider was “outed” by police.

As the fight in Afghanistan heightens, with more troops flown in and more and more losses recorded, the conflict has come to be seen as Obama’s war, writes The Chicago Tribune.

This afternoon in London, hundreds of people, friends, family and other soul mates will gather for the funeral of the former Labour leader, writer and campaigner, Michael Foot. I have […]

Tens of thousands of Thais have gathered in Bangkok calling for new elections and to support former prime minister Thaksin who has lived in exile in Dubai since a coup deposed him in 2006.

The obstinate divide over healthcare reform is spilling into other areas of domestic policy such as immigration reform and financial regulation where Democrats are increasingly going it alone.

Secretary Clinton has warned Israel of faltering relations over its gutsy announcement to build new settlements in Jerusalem during a visit by Vice President Biden.

Itawamba Agricultural High School would rather cancel the prom than let a lesbian couple attend. More than a month ago, Constance McMillen, an 18-year-old senior at the Mississippi school, asked […]

Anti-choice zealot Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich) overplayed his hand. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer announced today that the House Democrats will move forward without a deal on abortion coverage.  Why […]

As Washington recovers from what has been dubbed the “Massa-cre”, the disgrace of ex-Democrat Eric Massa, Fox News asks how the current “parlor game” could ever happen.

That the legal system is broken and rife within justice is a well-worn fact, familiar to anybody who watches prime-time TV. But, what if the problem with the law isn’t […]

It’s not clear if the Democrats have the votes to get health care reform through Congress. Earlier versions of the bill have already passed both the House and the Senate—and, […]

Then check out these guys. The “coffee party” had about 29,000 Facebook “fans” on the morning of March 1, according to this New York Times story. By the same afternoon, […]

Iraq stands on the edge of a precipice. Widespread claims of electoral fraud have emerged over the past few days as the country went to the polls, and in Brussels, […]

Worldwide indignation has met new election laws announced by Burma’s military rulers, in what US government spokesperson Philip Crowley has said is a “democratic mockery.”

Privacy laws being invoked by opponents of same-sex marriage, giving them the right to be unseen and anonymous in court, is like a “drive-by assault” to gay rights activists.

Bloggers are talking today about a striking chart comparing the foods we should be eating with the foods the government subsidizes. The chart, originally published in 2007 by the Physicians […]

Rep. Bart Stupak is being coy. On Monday, the anti-choice Democrat told a town hall meeting that there was “no such thing as compromise” on abortion funding under health care […]

Heavily criticised revelations about an east Jerusalem building plan announced during US Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to Israel have been dismissed by officials as “bad timing.”

Rahm Emanuel has been branded the “son of the devil’s spawn” by Republican Eric Mass, who also said, “He is an individual who would sell his mother to get a vote.”

Former Mayor of Baltimore Sheila Dixon’s Xbox video game, which prosecutors allege she bought with gift cards meant for the poor, is now up for grabs on online auction site eBay.

“We all cheat,” says C.U.N.Y. Graduate Center professor of sociology Juan Battle. “The difference is, we don’t get caught and we don’t do stupid things like leave ridiculous messages on […]

Iran has found its own bastion for liberation, comparable to South Africa’s Nelson Mandela, in the form of the defeated opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, writes The New Republic.

Robert Fisk remarks upon the “democracy” being won out in Iraq and questions whether the country’s next sectarian government can really overcome the Sunnis-Shias antagonism.

Lord Michael Ashcroft is a Conservative Peer who does not pay any income tax on his foreign earnings. He is more usually described as a “Belize-based businessman”; Belize may not […]