“Two trends in the international arms trade, in particular, have caught the attention of Western governments. For one, for the first time since the Cold War, the ranking of the world’s five largest arms exporters has changed. China has pushed Britain out of the Top Five. And secondly, military expenditures in Asia in 2012 exceeded those of the European Union for the first time ever” (Deutsche Welle, March 18, 2013).

Europe’s top trade unionist, Ms. Bernadette Segol, recently stated, “Rising unemployment, bleak economic prospects and continued austerity is making people question the benefits of the EU” (EU Observer, March 14, 2013). Speaking about the negative impacts of austerity measures, Ms. Segol also said “doubts about the benefits of the European Union [are] showing more and more” (ibid.).

The extended drought in the U.S. Plains states has caused beef cattle producers to sell cows. In the short term this sell-off has kept beef prices steady, but eventually this will end and beef prices will increase as fewer cows means fewer calves born to be fattened.  U.S. beef cow inventory declined 3.1 percent in 2011 and the decline continued throughout 2012. Last April, the 2012 U.S.

In two years, the Syrian conflict has claimed the lives of more than 70,000 people! The once beautiful cities of Damascus and Aleppo are becoming piles of ash and rubble, while world leaders cannot agree on a solution to this terrible war. “So far, a consensus has prevailed in the European Union that an arms embargo is a good way to keep the conflict in Syria from escalating” (Deutsche Welle, March 6, 2013).

Wednesday evening, 115 sequestered Catholic cardinals voted in a new pope (New York Times, March 13, 2013). The former archbishop of Buenos Aires, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 76, hails from Argentina and is the first non-European pope in 1,200 years. He represents the Latin American church and also the Catholic church south of the equator—its fastest-growing region.