Can sports increase dialogue and cultural understanding between people around the world? The U.S. State Department believes so — and has tapped Salisbury University’s Dr. Dean Ravizza to assist. Recently, for a 10-day Israeli/Palestinian basketball program, the Princess Anne resident designed a series of lectures and activities emphasizing concepts such as negotiation, teamwork and group dynamics.

Mexico City was badly damaged in the deadly 7.1 magnitude September 19 earthquake, and although aid poured into the city, the hard-hit villages were left to cope alone until volunteers from Israeli humanitarian aid nonprofit IsraAID suddenly turned up. “IsraAID was the first group to offer help to our village,” said a resident of Hueyapan in the Mexican state of Morelos, one of the areas most affected by the recent earthquakes.

It is not every day that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets leaders of Arab countries publicly and with cameras capturing the moment. In fact, it has hardly ever happened in the eight years since Netanyahu became prime minister for the second time in 2009. And that is precisely why the 90-minute meeting in New York on Monday evening with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was so significant.