William Williams

What if you could travel the Earth, expenses paid, from Africa to Jerusalem and from Asia to the Americas? Well, one man is doing that, right now! No, he will not literally tread across the Pacific Ocean on some kind of special rubber gadget footgear… but he is covering a lot of distance on foot, in service of National Geographic.

On Thursday, May 5th, in Syria’s war-torn Homs province, beautiful music temporarily drowned out the echoes of bombs and gunshots. On a stage where Islamic State militants once murdered their victims and destroyed ancient artifacts, a Russian symphony orchestra played familiar classics. What prompted this brief interlude of peace and normalcy amid the ongoing terror?

With all the troubles facing Israel and the Middle East, newsreaders could easily miss—or ignore—an argument over posters. But, quite often, “little” issues highlight big human interest stories. One Jewish outreach group’s clash with the United Nations over a Jewish history display might do exactly that.

Over the past weekend, the notorious Boko Haram jihadist group made yet another attack, leaving 85 civilians and refugees dead amidst the ruins of a burning village. Nigeria’s military received yet another embarrassing black eye, as jihadists seemingly hit and run without retaliation. Why does this kind of madness continue?

Today we may take for granted the presence of women as world leaders. Such was not so common 50 years ago, this month when Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (no relation to nonviolence advocate Mohandas Gandhi) became India’s Prime Minister—13 years before Margaret Thatcher became the United Kingdom’s first female Prime Minister and 39 years before Angela Merkel earned that distinction in Germany.