Although America’s political system seems unable to stimulate robust, sustained economic growth, it at least is stimulating consumption of a small but important segment of literature. Dystopian novels are selling briskly — Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932), Sinclair Lewis’ It Can’t Happen Here (1935), George Orwell’s Animal Farm (1945) and 1984 (1949), Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 (1953) and ...

  When a cloud-storage malfunction at Amazon Inc. temporarily knocked out services including Netflix, Slack, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s website, “smart” thermostats and my email server, it demonstrated how much we’ve all come to depend on one company’s infrastructure. It also shows how the centralization of data has made the internet — at least the part that most of ...

  “I have ordered the Department of Homeland Security to create an office to serve American victims,” President Donald Trump said in his address to Congress Tuesday night. He was referring to a very specific kind of victim — those harmed by undocumented immigrants. And his comments show that, current conventional wisdom notwithstanding, President Trump is not so different from ...

  British Prime Minster Theresa May is facing political fights not only in Brussels over Brexit, at home, she’s bracing for Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to call a second referendum on independence. In 2014, Scotland rejected independence from UK by 55-to-45 votes. But the recent survey shows that margin is narrowing. Only 51 percent of Scots favour to stay ...

  MANILA / AP The Philippine defense chief and two other Cabinet members on Saturday toured a US aircraft carrier patrolling the disputed South China Sea on the invitation of the Navy, US Embassy officials said. Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez and Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II visited the USS Carl Vinson along with three Philippine security ...

  PRISTINA / AP The European Union’s foreign policy chief has urged Kosovo’s opposition to ratify a border demarcation agreement with Montenegro, the last remaining condition before its citizens enjoy visa-free travel with Europe’s Schengen member countries. Federica Mogherini was in Kosovo, the last stop on her tour of the Western Balkans, where she met senior leaders on Saturday. She ...

  AMMAN / AP Jordan on Saturday executed 10 prisoners with ties to militant groups who carried out five shootings and a bombing since 2003, the government spokesman said. It was the largest round of executions in the kingdom in recent memory. Among those killed in the attacks were a British tourist, an outspoken Jordanian critic of extremism and members ...

  TEHRAN/ AP Iran successfully test-fired a sophisticated Russian-made air defense system, the official IRNA news agency reported on Saturday. The report said the test of the S-300 system came during a recent military exercise named Damvand, the name of Iran’s highest mountain. It said the test targeted various flying objects including missiles. With a range of up to 200 ...

  KABUL / AP At least eight Afghan civilians, including four children, were killed in an attack in western Farah province, according to Afghan officials. However there is disagreement over what exactly caused the deaths. Mohammad Naser Mehri, spokesman for the provincial governor, said Saturday that the incident was a roadside bomb explosion which took place in the Bala Buluk ...

  IRBIL / AP The United Nations warned that the alleged use of chemical weapons in Mosul, if confirmed, would be a war crime and a serious violation of international humanitarian law, according to a statement released on Saturday. “This is horrible,” Lise Grande, the humanitarian coordinator in Iraq said in the statement, “there is never justification — none whatsoever ...