News and Prophecy Staff

Overshadowed by the fireworks of the Middle East, “The drug war in Mexico was ranked 2016’s second deadliest conflict in the world, with only the war in Syria being labelled worse” (IB Times, May 10, 2017).

According to a recent study by the Pew Research Center, “Muslims are projected to be the world’s fastest-growing major religious group in the decades ahead” (PewForum.org, April 5, 2017). The study indicates that births to families which identify as Muslim are projected to surpass births of those who identify as Christian, especially in Europe.

The Guardian reported on a recent study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences about Henderson Island in the Pitcairn Islands. According to researchers from Tasmania and the UK, “One of the world’s most remote places, an uninhabited coral atoll, is also one of its most polluted...

Iran and Saudi Arabia are waging an alarming battle of words. In response to threatening words from Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Iran’s defense minister stated, “If the Saudis do anything ignorant, we will leave no area untouched except Mecca and Medina” (Reuters, May 7, 2017).

In South Sudan, one million children have been “internally displaced” by war and famine, and another one million children have fled the nation (EuroNews, May 9, 2017). The BBC reports that the United Nations declared a famine in South Sudan in February, the first time this declaration has been made in any country in six years (April 4, 2017).