Karl Rove talks about the big issues facing Americans at home and abroad and what the most important decisions will be for the new President.

The discovery of gravitational waves earlier this year - something predicted a century ago in theory by Albert Einstein - may usher in an entirely new type of physics that could completely change the way we understand the universe, said Dr David Reitze at Caltech. It may also allow us to find ways to listen in to the echoes of the very foundation of the universe in the immediate aftermath of the Big Bang. Reitze is the chief scientist in charge of the search for gravitational waves, a 25 year-project jointly managed by Caltech and MIT that involved some 1,000 scientists working in the US and around the world. He talked to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council on Wednesday April 21st about the thrill he and his colleagues felt when they first heard the "beeps that went around the world".

Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations Secretary-General, said the international community was failing in its moral duty "to make the world a better place", and called for improved global cooperation to reduce conflict and suffering. Speaking to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council on Tuesday, April 5th, Ban said that "in this 21st century with all of the prosperity and capabilities we have, we should haven't so many people suffering." More than 125 million people around the world need daily humanitarian assistance - among them more than 60 million refugees. "This is the most number of people since the end of the Second World War." Ban talked about his frequent visits to refugee camps and the parallels with his experience of being forced from his home at age 6 by war in Korea. He also talked about his fears of nuclear materials being acquired by non-state actors and said "there are no right hands for the wrong weapons." He also talked about the importance of empowering women and he made a plea for California to "remain at the forefront of climate action."

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon spoke to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council on Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Frank Gehry, after nearly six decades working as an architect, said he would like his legacy to be "transmitting feelings through materials." Gehry spoke to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council on Wednesday, March 2 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art where there is currently a retrospective exhibition of his work. Gehry said completing Walt Disney Concert Hall was a "rough one" and that when the design for the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao was first revealed his life was threatened. After celebrating his 87th birthday last weekend, he said he is spending a lot of his time on the LA River project which he describes as a "very dense problem and a very exciting prospect."