News and Prophecy Staff

In addition to struggling against COVID-19, India is facing two different strains of bird flu (Deutsche Welle, January 14, 2021). The nation has culled thousands of birds and warned citizens that the flu can spread through human-to-human contact, though the highest risk comes from contact with poultry.

Beginning last summer, the United Arab Emirates, Sudan, Morocco, and Bahrain signed onto the Abraham Accords—a peace deal some call “the most significant breakthrough in the Arab-Israeli conflict since the 1990s” (Foreign Policy, December 21, 2020). Many don’t believe these nations are interested in peace, but instead are concerned about how they can benefit from the deal—including technology, arms, and favors from the United States.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un recently “boasted of deploying hypersonic missiles, spy satellites, multi-warhead intercontinental ballistic missiles and the North's own nuclear-powered submarine” (Deutsche Welle, January 14, 2021). In response, South Korean officials are contemplating developing their own nuclear-powered submarine. Analysts are concerned “that North Korea is provoking an arms race with its southern neighbor and, potentially, Japan.”

As 2020 drew to a close, the European Union and China tied up a trade deal known as the “Comprehensive Agreement on Investment”—a deal that, only a year earlier, Chinese leaders thought very unlikely (The Diplomat, January 4, 2021). Ultimately, the agreement seeks to level the playing field for EU investments in China. In turn, more sectors of the European economy will open up for Chinese investment.

The year 2020 brought a massive locust plague that caused widespread destruction of crops and livelihoods in East African nations (Deutsche Welle, January 5, 2021). The COVID-19 pandemic has only added to the catastrophe, and about 35 million people have been left in a state of “food insecurity.”