The Zeen

Liz’s view Looking around at our casino economy, I keep asking: Who is all this for? The long tail of nonsense bets on prediction markets can’t possibly be what Dwight Eisenhower had in mind when he endorsed the “people’s capitalism” put forward by America’s greatest Cold War propagandist, Theodore Repplier. ...

Saudi Arabia’s $1.5 billion pledge this month to help Syrians return from refugee camps is a major boost to the government in Damascus, which is working to consolidate power and restart the economy after more than a decade of war. The package — tied to housing, infrastructure, utilities, and small ...

Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah, the architect of Qatar’s LNG industry that transformed the country from a declining oil producer into one of the world’s wealthiest nations, died in London on Wednesday. The former energy minister was born in 1953, nearly two decades before Qatar’s independence. He grew up in ...

More than 1,000 Bahraini citizens have sent messages of support to King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa in recent weeks, praising a clampdown on those accused of being sympathetic to Iran. In what appears to be a well-coordinated campaign, the first cables were sent in early May, soon after the king ...

In the last century, industrialized farming has killed off delicious food – but a brigade of chefs, breeders and farmers are fighting to bring it back Bill Tracy is clearly not one to brag, but after a while, it seems he just can’t help himself. “I did come up with ...

We need rules for the Democratic primaries that will lift up the voices of talented Democrats In democracy, the rules matter. Six months before the midterms, the US supreme court’s Callais decision dramatically changed the rules of US elections by gutting the Voting Rights Act and capsizing the 15th amendment. ...

Poignant, hilarious, loaded with a super-sharp script … the second outing for this midlife comedy is even more fantastic than the first Middle age is a brutal time of life. As those of us mired in it know, it’s perfectly suited to being mined for laughs (the unhinged type of ...

As part of a growing anti-tech movement, startup dumb.co is pushing flip phones as a way for young people to find ‘social and spiritual freedom’ “They aren’t as dumb as they look,” our facilitator said, referring to the dark gray flip phone in his hand. He just as easily could ...

The city of Dayton, Ohio has covered its Flock automated license plate reader cameras with black trash bags in part because police there are unsure whether the cameras are still active and the city also doesn’t seem to know whether it is allowed to take the cameras down. The move ...

The Sun is experiencing “striking” long-term shifts in its behavior that have gone undiscovered for more than a decade, according to a study published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society on Wednesday.  The Sun passes through a cycle of high and low activity that lasts roughly 11 ...