Republican Party polls show that energy is intensifying as a major issue, and that it could easily escalate around Memorial Day weekend, when millions of Americans will start their vacations by filling up their tanks with gasoline that already costs $2 a gallon or more in some places.
A trade war with China would be disastrous and bound to escalate around the world.
In the process, the quotidian acts of these two women become just as significant as the melodramatic plot elements that escalate around them.
In 2011, Pearce gained overnight popularity after footage emerged of her standing her ground as violence escalated around her in Hackney, east London.
With memories of last year's Danish cartoon row still fresh, there are understandable concerns that the situation could dramatically escalate around the world.
The attacks in recent weeks have escalated around Dara'a, in the south, and in Hama, a tense city in central Syria where vast protests gathered earlier this year before security forces retook the city in August.
"Argentine soccer is very rich in this discussion of 'How should we win?' " said Ezequiel Fernández Moores, a prominent Argentine soccer columnist, who noted that feuding was prone to escalate around tournaments involving the national team.
Eight weeks into the declared truce between President Bashar al-Assad's regime and non-jihadi rebels, violence has escalated around Aleppo, with dozens of people killed by government airstrikes and rebel rockets.
