China has a leader who understands the importance of military power, grasps that China’s backwards and corrupt military structure can’t serve as the foundation for true great power status, and has the power, the money and the will to do something about it.

A study presented at the annual Populaton Association of America meeting suggests that millions of Americans changed their race or Hispanic-origin categories when filling out their 2010 census forms. What does this tell us about our political destiny as a nation?

A college president makes a smart case that administrative bloat is driven by government regulations and other cumbersome bureaucratic requirements. Sounds right to us.

Yesterday Credit Suisse pled guilty to conspiring to help U.S. account holders evade taxes. The Justice Department’s planned punishments—hefty fines and criminal cases against senior staff—strike the right balance between stabilizing the markets and making certain that justice is served.

The real reason Putin annexed Crimea may have had more to do with vast energy reserves just off its coast than any sentimental attachment to Russian empire.

Pew’s latest survey has a lot of good data on Ukraine. Here are two troubling data points that jumped out at us.

Syrian rebels have been defeated in the city of Homs, a stronghold they’ve held on to for three years. As they depart the city under a brokered government ceasefire, some are wondering whether this marks the beginning of the end for the revolution.

Gunmen opened fire on a crowded marketplace in a small Nigerian village, in an attack that left over 300 people dead. Boko Haram is likely to be behind the massacre.

Polio, after near-extinction, is on the rise in some of the world’s most troubled states. In response, the WHO yesterday announced a world health emergency.

The simmering tensions in Odessa could well usher in full-blown civil war to Ukraine in the coming days. It’s also as clear a signal as we have of how far Putin is willing to escalate the standoff—and of how expansive his geographical ambition is.