News and Prophecy Staff

“Baseball bat-wielding gangs of children are mugging mothers and nannies on the school run in the latest crime wave to hit San Francisco” (The Telegraph, July 4, 2023). The city experienced 11 robberies amongst moms and nannies in just one week. Police believe it is the same gang of young boys who are “targeting women picking up children from school.” One mom was thrown to the ground by a boy who took her cell phone.

France is once again struggling with civil unrest, spurred this time by the killing of a 17-year-old young man of Algerian descent by police at a traffic stop. During a week of violent rioting, nearly a thousand shops and bank branches were looted or attacked, vehicles and buildings were burned, thousands of protesters were arrested, and hundreds of officers injured. The estimated cost of the rampage could reach $1.1 billion (CNN Business, July 5, 2023).

Many European politicians have long prided themselves on being “centrists”—neither too far to the right nor too far to the left. Those toward the ends of the spectrum have often been viewed as extremists. But this appears to be changing.

In Taiwan, there has been a recent outbreak of adults drugging children (BBC, June 20, 2023). One incident took place in a preschool where the staff are accused of sedating children by giving them phenobarbital and benzodiazepines via addictive cough syrups. Parents noticed their children going through withdrawal and reported the incident. The school has since been closed, and school directors fined. The principal and five teachers were arrested and are now free on bail.

AI has been in use behind the scenes for years and has become so common that it is involved in everything from the online shopping recommendations we receive to whether we are approved for a loan. But where is AI headed? Could AI even take over religion? With the advent of widely accessible AI services, such as ChatGPT, whole new realms of possibility have been opened, potentially replacing tremendous amounts of human work. Now, some are routinely using AI to generate original images, write original essays, and even imitate the voices of others.