The US conducted overflights over the areas in the South China Sea that China has claimed as its national territory. The Chinese ordered the US planes to leave immediately (eight times!). The fear is that China is trying to enforce a military exclusion zone in what the US and other countries regard as international waters. The risk of an overt confrontation is high, but the costs of allowing a country to unilaterally declare part of the high seas as sovereign territory are also quite high. For example, every eight hours an oil tanker sails those waters to deliver oil to Japan, and the possibility that those deliveries could be jeopardized during a time of crisis is likely something the Japanese would not be willing to tolerate. We will see how the game of chicken progresses.
The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the bombing of a Shiite mosque in Saudi Arabia. If true, the act represents a direct challenge to Saudi control and will likely cause a firm response. Saudi Arabia has to take some responsibility for the success of the Islamic State since the IS espouses a policy quite similar to the Wahhabism practiced in Saudi Arabia. But the caliphate declared by the IS represents a direct challenge to the monarchy established in Saudi Arabia.
For several years we have worried more about ice melt in the Arctic than in the Antarctic since the ice in Antarctica did not seem to be melting nearly as quickly. But recent evidence suggests that since 2009 the rate of ice melt in Antarctica has increased far more than predicted. Ice melt in Antarctica is a more serious issue for the world as a whole since more of the ice in Antarctica rests on bedrock and would therefore contribute more to a rise in sea levels. Once again, what we didn’t know proves to be especially important.
World Politics News 
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