The holidays are upon us, often seen as make-or-break it time for brick-and-mortar retailers as shoppers stream into their stores by the millions.

FORBES: What Offline Retail Stores Can Learn From E-Commerce

So his attempts to win over the Labour movement could prove a make-or-break time for his leadership.

BBC: Blair's crucial conference speech

At this pace, it seems to hard to believe that a global deal on emissions targets (reconciling new emitters with older ones) can be reached next December at a meeting in Copenhagen, seen as a make-or-break time for UN efforts to cool the world.

ECONOMIST: Global consensus on climate change is maddeningly elusive