News and Prophecy Staff

For many in the Western world, news about feuding factions in the Middle East or Africa may seem “far away.” Yet it is also erupting in America—from Ferguson, Missouri to Baltimore, Maryland, on the edge of the U.S. capital. Recently, the governor of Maryland called out the National Guard and the city of Baltimore instituted a curfew to quell the violence that broke out after the funeral of 25-year-old Freddie Gray.

On April 25, a devastating 7.8 earthquake struck the landlocked nation of Nepal and caused a fatal avalanche on Mount Everest.

Desperate attempts by refugees to flee to Europe from the political crises in several North African nations are ending in disasters at sea. In response to the rising number of fatalities, “The European Union proposed doubling the size of its Mediterranean search and rescue operations on Monday, as the first bodies were brought ashore of some 900 people feared killed in the deadliest shipwreck while trying to reach Europe” (Reuters, April 21, 2015).

China’s influence is spreading politically and militarily around the globe. China’s president Xi Jinping recently visited Islamabad to promote $46 billion in Chinese investments in Pakistan’s infrastructure, and Pakistan’s prime minister commented, “Friendship with China is the cornerstone of Pakistan’s foreign policy… Today, we have planned for the future” (Wall Street Journal, April 20, 2015).

“Divorcees are more likely to have a heart attack than their peers who stay married, US research suggests” (BBC, April 15, 2015). According to a Duke University study of over 15,000 people, “Women who divorced once were 24% more likely to have had a heart attack in the study than women who were continuously married. The figure was 77% for those having multiple divorces” (ibid.).