News and Prophecy Staff

During a small ceremony on December 10, the last day of the Jewish Hanukkah festival, temple activists dedicated a portable altar just outside the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The dedication ceremony involved priests in traditional dress and a slaughtered lamb as an offering, although the sheep was slaughtered off-site.

As the United States moves forward with plans to exit from the INF arms control treaty with Russia and also discusses placing more missiles in Europe, Russian leaders are voicing growing concerns. Recently, the Russian ambassador to the EU warned that “the US risks triggering ‘dramatic events’ if it stations missiles in Europe” (Financial Times, November 21, 2018).

The title of a recent New York Times Magazine article read like a stark announcement: “The Insect Apocalypse Is Here” (November 27, 2018). The article describes the devastating loss of insect populations around the globe in recent decades. According to research cited in the article, Monarch butterfly populations in the U.S. have declined by 90 percent in the last 20 years. The rusty-patched bumblebee has declined by 87 percent during the same period.

Demonstrations over higher fuel taxes have resulted in riots in Paris (Deutsche Welle, December 3, 2018). Demonstrations have spread all over France, with hundreds of thousands participating.

“Scotland will become the first country in the world to embed the teaching of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex rights in the school curriculum” (The Guardian, November 9, 2018). “State schools will be required to teach pupils about the history of LGBTI equalities and movements, as well as tackling homophobia and transphobia and exploring LGBTI identity….