News and Prophecy Staff

A recent study warns that “future crops will face threats… from the massive expansion of cities… By 2030, it’s estimated that urban areas will triple in size, expanding into cropland and undermining the productivity of agricultural systems that are already stressed… Roughly 60% of the world’s cropland lies on the outskirts of cities—and that’s particularly worrying, the report authors say, because this peripheral habitat is, on average, also twice as productive as land elsewhere on the globe” (

A new U.S. intelligence report predicts “[t]he risk of conflicts between and within nations will increase over the next five years to levels not seen since the Cold War as global growth slows, the post-World War Two order erodes and anti-globalization fuels nationalism” (Reuters, January 9, 2017).

Venezuela is descending into chaos! “President Nicolas Maduro announced Sunday that he has decided to raise the monthly minimum wage by 50 percent… the fifth that he has ordered over the past 12 months, for a total annualized increase of 536 percent” (Fox News, January  9, 2017).

“‘Do not go to bed angry’ is common advice for couples who want to improve their relationship, and it may have a scientific backing. Researchers have found out that negative, emotionally-charged memories, like the ones that follow an argument, were harder to suppress after a good night’s sleep” (IB Times, November 29, 2016).

Italian lawmakers are seeking to change the traditional view of fidelity within marriage. “Married couples in Italy will no longer have to pledge fidelity to each other under a draft law being considered by Parliament… The promise not to cheat is a ‘cultural legacy from an outdated and obsolete view of marriage, family, and the rights and duties of spouses’, according to a dozen senators backing the bill. The amendment was presented by Laura Cantini, a senator… who has described the change as a step forward from what she called the ‘legacy of an outdated vision of marriage’.