Politics & Current Affairs

While Obama’s agenda remains forever stalled, his chief of staff may be on the receiving end of some unfortunate political realities, leaving his job in question following the midterm elections.

The Christian Science Monitor envisions a political compromise where trying the alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a military tribunal is exchanged for the closing of Gitmo.

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel does not have a reputation for being a very nice guy. President Obama’s fixer—or “Rahmbo” as he’s known—was of course at the center […]

A $1 billion budget for getting good food into America’s schools is “a far cry from what’s needed” to pay for healthy nutrition, writes The Washington Post.

There has been a surge in extremist groups in the United States, with armed militias driven by deepening hostility on the right to President Barack Obama and anger over the economy.

The General Election has yet to be declared in Britain, at a time when the polls appear to be narrowing between the two main parties, the ruling Labour Party and […]

Michael Foot, orator extraordinaire, Parliamentarian, journalist and bibliophile. Michael Foot, radical, internationalist and Socialist, has passed away at the very grand old age of 96, and rarely can it be […]

In the last twelve months we’ve seen two new political organizations hit the nationwide scene with an intensity and a geographic presence unheard of since the sixties. Unlike the Libertarian […]

The son of the founder of the Palestinian military group Hamas has admitted to spying for Israel for a decade, feeding information about Hamas’ terrorist plots to Israel’s Shin Bet.

A curfew on Chile’s earthquake-ravaged Concepcion has been extended until midday today in a bid by troops to contain looting from damaged shops and buildings by panicked residents.

Attention has been drawn once again to President Barack Obama’s struggle to stop smoking, more than a year after the habit threatened to blight his clean-living campaign image.

Spain has accused the Venezuelan government of helping Colombian FARC guerrillas make contact with Basque ETA rebels to request assistance in an assassination attempt.

Dubai has said it will impose an entry ban on Israeli dual nationals in the first sanction of its kind after the death of a top Hamas leader was murdered there in January.

The US and UK can handle decades of debt, according to a Financial Times commentator who says that seeing debt as a serious problem is an “alarmist view.”

Panchen Lama, the man “picked” by China as the second-highest figure in Tibetan Buddhism, has been appointed to the country’s top government advisory body.

I am one of the millions of Americans who have had trouble getting health care. After I left grad school I tried to get coverage with Anthem Blue Cross. A […]

Consumer activist Ralph Nader says that lax federal regulation of an ever-more complex auto industry is partly to blame for Toyota’s present crisis.

The Middle East’s poorest country, Yemen, already spends a third of its families’ income on fresh water, which is predicted to become too expensive to consume by 2017.

After the New York Times broke a story about Paterson’s possible intervention in a domestic abuse case on behalf of one of his aides, the governor of New York has suspended his election campaign.

The U.N. and E.U. have publicly condemned Libyan President Gaddafi’s call for jihad against Switzerland which has banned the construction of minarets inside its borders.

A new Utah law could criminalize pregnant women who miscarry, meaning they could face murder charges for the loss of an unborn child if their behavior is deemed “reckless.”

Coffee Party activism, which started on Facebook in furious protest against the Tea Party’s uprising, is spreading (and percolating) quickly in the months since Annabel Park instigated it.

Baltimore’s school system has long been plagued by chronic underachievement, dire dropout rates, severe crime, and countless other problems. Yet since becoming CEO of the City Public Schools in 2007, […]

An inquiry will be launched into the handling of a complaint that Governor David Paterson violently assaulted a female aide, after questions were raised over a suspected “hush up”.

Hopes for bipartisanship faded long before today’s summit, writes Politico’s Carrie Budoff Brown, who says Obama should offer some “key concessions” to win over Republicans.

Eight more army officers were jailed by a Turkish court pending charges of plotting a coup, in a move that has increased tension between the country’s government and the armed forces.

On Monday, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) announced that although he strongly supports the so-called public option, he wouldn’t vote to add it to the health care bill by way of […]

Still miffed about the 2000 election? Or even the 1992 election? Steven Brams feels your pain—and has developed a system that could prevent similar voter aggravation in the future. As the […]

The number of US fatalities in the Afghanistan war is nearing 1,000, “a grim milestone”, more than eight years after the Taliban was toppled from power.

After winning the unanimous backing of Latin America and the Caribbean in its claim to sovereignty over the Falklands Islands, Argentina is seeking a UN ruling over the row.