“Deadly flooding has affected more than one million people in Pakistan, officials said Wednesday.” Tens of thousands have been rescued and hundreds of thousands remain stranded (AFP, September 10, 2014).

Russia is moving further away from the “West” politically, militarily and monetarily. “Russia and China pledged on Tuesday to settle more bilateral trade in rouble and yuan and to enhance cooperation between banks… we’re going to encourage companies from the two countries to settle more in local currencies, to avoid using a currency from a third country [the U.S. dollar]” (Gulf News, September 9, 2014).

For over 300 years Scotland has been part of the UK. Now the Scots are set to vote on September 18 on independence from the UK (Telegraph, August 31, 2014). No one knows the exact outcome of the vote, but the Scottish National Party is already preparing—behind the scenes—for a “no” vote and working to obtain greater political powers for Scotland should such a vote occur (ibid.).

“Leaders of the House and Senate intelligence committees on Sunday prodded President Barack Obama to take decisive action against what they say are growing threats from Islamic State militants on U.S. soil” (Associated Press, August 31, 2014). According to U.S. lawmakers, “Those militants now are looking toward the United States or Western Europe for their next targets” (ibid.). “Sen.