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.

“A generation of adults who grew up uncomfortable asserting authority over children has produced teachers who have never learnt to control a classroom, a government adviser says. New teachers often have not been taught basic techniques for managing pupils’ behaviour because they were trained by people who were themselves uncertain how to go about it” (The Times, June 17, 2015).