News

The evening of April 14, 1865 was filled with joy and laughter for more than 1,000 Washingtonians who had come together at Ford’s Theater to watch a popular comedic play, Our American Cousin. But soon after the third act had begun, sometime after 10:00 p.m., the mood turned to grief and horror as a bloody stain was spattered onto the history of the United States.

Late last month unusual rains hit Chile’s arid region, causing widespread flooding. “The downpour began… in the Atacama region, home to the world’s most arid desert, and lashed the area for hours, turning riverbeds that had been dry for years into torrents” (AFP, March 26, 2015). “President Michelle Bachelet said the downpour—equivalent to at least 10 times the previously drought-hit region’s average annual rainfall—had caught authorities off-guard.” (ibid.).

“As California experiences the fourth year of one of the most severe droughts in its history, a senior NASA scientist has warned that the state has about one year of water left” (The Guardian, March 16, 2015).

China is making efforts to bring together its Asian neighbors as it seeks “to extend its influence in the region in a bid seen as a challenge to the previous dominance of the United States” (Deutsche Welle, March 28, 2015). At a recent Asian forum, China led the creation of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)—an Asian alternative to the U.S.-led World Bank.

Currently, Israeli “Security services prohibit non-Muslims from praying or engaging in other forms of worship on the site [The Temple Mount], claiming such activity triggers Palestinian violence” (Jerusalem Post, March 3, 2015).  But, in a court ruling last month in favor of one man’s right to prayer on the Temple Mount, “Activists hailed what they labeled as an historic victory… after the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court issued a ruling ostensibly backing claims