Some European and American officials deeply fear that violence in Syria will come home. Dozens and in some cases hundreds of people from European countries like the UK and Denmark have made the trek to the eastern Mediterranean and are fighting in the Syrian civil war. They could bring their new skills, contacts, and a hardened ideology to their countries of origin.

President Obama’s address yesterday on inequality was a concerted effort to shift the conversation away from Obamacare, at least until the implementation is far enough along to be repeal-proof. Whether or not it succeeds, the speech is another sign that ideological arguments over the causes of social immobility are heating up. Whichever narrative wins over an increasingly attentive public is likely to influence policies ranging from tax code reform to social welfare spending, so it’s worth parsing Obama’s version carefully.

10 Downing Street has talked a big game on fracking in recent months, but local opposition has stymied efforts to explore Britain’s estimated 1.3 trillion cubic feet of shale gas. As heating bills spiral ever upward, British politicians are flailing about trying to find ways to bring energy costs down. On Thursday, in his Autumn Statement, Chancellor Osborne outlined tax incentives meant to jump-start the country’s shale gas production.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s choice for the new chief of Pakistan’s powerful army is General Raheel Sharif (no relation), a man said to be a “soldier’s soldier” with little interest in politics. Having been ousted and then exiled for ten years by the last army chief he selected, Gen Pervez Musharraf, Sharif was keen on making a safer choice this time around.

Having gained ground at the college level for years now, MOOCs are now making forays into primary and secondary education. A number of of professors at Davidson College are teaming up with MIT’s edX to create an online course to help high school students prepare for Advanced Placement tests. The courses will be available to anyone who wants them, either individuals who want to supplement their classroom instruction, or teachers who will use them as a teaching tool.

Tuesday’s passage of pension reform in Illinois and the federal ruling on Detroit’s pensions in bankruptcy court have heightened Chicago’s municipal pension emergency. State law demands that the Windy City must increase contributions to public employee pensions by $590 million in 2015, totaling $1.5 billion. If a deal to lower that figure isn’t reached by this time next year, Chicago could be forced to hike property taxes by as much as 70 percent, cut vital city services, or both.

Japan, China, and South Korea took a break from bickering about disputed territory to agree to exchange information on nuclear disasters. The WSJ has the story: Under the agreement, each country’s regulators must quickly provide information of nuclear accident to its counterparts in the other two countries by both email and phone. All accidents deemed […]

There’s been a lot of controversy over something called the “Knock Out Game” in which young attackers punch people in the face with no obvious motive or reason. Some (mostly right wing) outlets are warning about a national epidemic of hate crimes, some (mostly left wing) sites have been calling it much ado about nothing and relegating the story to the category of “urban myth.” In the latest twist, Laurie Cumbo, a newly elected member of the NY City Council from Brooklyn (who is African-American) has released an open letter, which you can read on her Facebook page, in which she says that these attacks (NY police are investigating a number of incidents) near Crown Heights may be the fault of local Jewish residents.

An accidental discovery by an Argentinian car mechanic could make child-birthing easier for women worldwide. In the barbershops and car garages and offices across the world the next Jorge Odon might even now be accidentally discovering the next simple, cheap device for improving our health care experience.

For the time being, Western hopes that Ukraine will begin to tilt more toward Europe depend mostly on a heavyweight boxer allied to nationalist thugs. The three main leaders of the protests are a motley bunch.