In the popular country song, “Whatever You Say” by Martina McBride, the lyrics include a line that says, “I know you can hear me, but I don’t think you’re listening.” This verse is part of a song that talks about someone who just wants to be heard and listened to. These lines in the lyrics, along with the others that follow, resonate with women of all types and ages. As women, isn’t that what we really want most of the time? To just be heard? We aren’t looking for an answer to our questions, a solution, or a therapist.

After 54 years of animosity, Cuba and the U.S. “formally restored diplomatic relations after an agreement struck last year putting aside decades of hostility came into force. Just after midnight local time [July 20, 2015], the diplomatic missions of each country became full embassies.

"Why America is Falling Behind the Rest of the World" is the title of a sobering new Time Magazine article (July 21, 2015). The article reviews twelve signs of the decline of America—the research findings of two faculty members at Brooklyn College and City University of New York.

“French president Francois Hollande has called for a stronger more harmonised eurozone following a politically turbulent few weeks in which crisis with Greece has exposed the fault-lines in how the single currency is managed... He called for a vanguard of countries that would lead the eurozone, which should have its own government, a ‘specific budget’ and its own parliament” (EU Observer, July 20, 2015).

Diplomats were smiling in Vienna last week when the United States and six other nations struck a nuclear weapons control deal with the Iranian government. Yet, while many in the West consider the deal a historic breakthrough, other nations such as Israel and Saudi Arabia now fear that Iran may use this deal as cover to create a nuclear weapon.