News and Prophecy Staff

Germany has a new chancellor, former finance minister Olaf Scholz. Scholz brings with him a coalition government and many new cabinet ministers. He also brings an ambitious and fast-moving plan, as he is already moving to tackle climate- and pandemic-related issues (Deutsche Welle, December 8, 2021). Chancellor Scholz is considered a “no nonsense” leader who identifies goals and quickly goes after them.

There are three major “rumors of war” brewing around the globe. Respected columnist Ambrose Evans-Prichard recently wrote that “the world is at the most dangerous strategic juncture since the Cuban missile crisis in 1962.

The European Union has drafted a law that will allow “Brussels to impose economic pain—ranging from trade and investment restrictions to sanctions on intellectual property rights—on any country that has sought to economically blackmail the EU” (Politico, December 6, 2021). This law will be the EU’s biggest foreign policy advance in decades.

According to the United Nations, “Tens of millions are going hungry in Latin America and the Caribbean as the Covid-19 pandemic sharpens a regional malnutrition crisis to its worst levels in decades” (CNN, November 30, 2021). From 2019 to 2020, rates of hunger in the region rose by 30 percent. Lockdowns and loss of jobs have limited the ability to obtain food, with women going hungry at greater rates than men.

For decades, Europeans have not been outwardly religious, yet the United States has been different—until recently. In 1975, most Americans (68 percent) viewed organized religion with confidence, but that has dropped to 36 percent (Christianity Today, October 19, 2021). This decline in confidence in organized religion has also contributed to a continued decline in church attendance.