News and Prophecy Staff

Last week’s terrorist shooting of 17 civilians in Paris shocked France and the world (FoxNews, January 11, 2015). Following this tragedy, 40 world leaders joined 3.7 million people in rallies in Paris and throughout France on Sunday in a show of solidarity against terrorism (CNN, January 11, 2015).

“Israel on Saturday froze NIS 500 million ($127 million) in Palestinian tax revenues collected on Ramallah’s behalf, in response to the Palestinian Authority [PA] filing a request to join the International Criminal Court earlier this week”—a move intended to allow the PA to prosecute Israel for war crimes (Times of Israel, January 3, 2015).

“A widening rift between Moscow and Washington over cruise missiles and increasingly daring patrols by nuclear-capable Russian submarines threatens to end an era of arms control and bring back a dangerous rivalry between the world’s two dominant nuclear arsenals. Tensions have been taken to a new level by US threats of retaliatory action for Russian development of a new cruise missile” (The Guardian, January 4, 2015). The U.S.

On Wednesday, two gunmen entered the offices of France’s most popular satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and killed twelve people including two police officers. President Hollande called this a “terrorist attack, there is no doubt about it” (The Guardian, January 7, 2015).

“For more than a year, secret talks had taken place between U.S. and Cuban officials both in Canada and at the Vatican. The Pope wrote letters to both Obama and Castro inviting them to resolve their situation through humanitarian efforts” (CNBC, December 17, 2014). “In their first-ever meeting at the Vatican in March, President  Barack Obama  and  Pope Francis  devoted a significant portion of their hour together to discussing a country thousands of miles away—Cuba—a fact that wasn’t disclosed until Wednesday.