Russia’s challenge to the West has been building for a long time, and has reached a crescendo with the crisis in Ukraine. The window is closing, but there is still time to act and tip the balance.

Public pensions rode the stock market to 16 percent this year. This is good news for pensioners, but funds have mishandled similar big gains in the past—their pensions are still far from safe.

America’s director of national intelligence had some sobering words on the current state of play in Syria yesterday, suggesting that the recent chemical weapons agreement has actually strengthened Assad’s position. Iran is watching closely, and taking notes:

The Chinese Navy has sent its largest landing ship to conduct military exercises in the Indian Ocean to send a message to India. China’s rivals in the Pacific will be watching as well.

Bill de Blasio plans to cut over $200 million from NYC charter schools in his new education capital plan.At first this was billed as an attempt to raise more money for pre-K programs, but de Blasio later stepped in to correct the record: He just doesn’t like charters.

We need to crush the doctor-as-middleman beneath the feet of health care progress. The Obama administration just took an important stomp in that direction.

In an act of highly provocative rhetoric, Naoki Hyakuta, an acting governor of Japan’s public broadcaster NHK, has publicly denied that the Nanjing Massacre ever took place. This is not going to go over well with Japan’s neighbor across the East China Sea.

In a huge blow to the embattled government of Thailand’s prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra, China abandoned a plan to buy a massive amount of rice from Thai farmers today. Is that a message of support for Thailand’s opposition, which is pushing toward a coup?

The African National Congress (ANC) has led South Africa since the end of apartheid without any serious opposition, but last week it appeared that might change with the announcement of a merger between two opposition groups. But it appears we may have all spoken too soon.

Our running series for college students on how to make themselves completely miserable continues with the news that Rutgers University will offer a course called “Politicizing Beyoncé” that will “explore race, gender and sexuality in America via Beyoncé’s music.” If young people simply take out massive loans and spend four years in courses like this, we promise them all the long-term unhappiness they could ever want.