News and Prophecy Staff

The respected journal Foreign Affairs recently published an article on the emerging role of “middle powers” (“Can Middle Powers Lead the World Out of the Pandemic?,” June 18, 2020).

About a year ago, there appeared to be a thaw in the perpetually tense relationship between North and South Korea, stirring hope for increased unity between the two countries. However, last week North Korea “blew up an inter-Korean liaison office in its city of Kaesong”—an office built in 2018 that was used for inter-Korean meetings (Deutsche Welle, June 16, 2020).

Finnish politician Päivi Räsänen is a physician and a Lutheran who has written on and spoken extensively about homosexuality and the Bible. Her views on homosexuality reflect the Bible’s clear teaching that homosexuality is a sin. As Jonathan Van Maren describes in a May 28 article for First Things, her position and writings on the matter have resulted in her being interrogated by Helsinki police on several occasions.

Concerns are rising that the ongoing border dispute between India and China in the Himalayas will expand to include military action. At the end of May, many sources reported that troops on both sides have engaged the other in physical attacks, though both sides claim no shots have been fired and that altercations have been limited to clubs and stones, injuring dozens.

It appears that the COVID-19 pandemic has affected more than just people and the economy. New research by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning of “‘unusual or aggressive’ behavior in American rats as a consequence of more than two months of human lockdown” (The Guardian, May 25, 2020). Urban rats that normally feed on food waste from restaurants and trash in the streets no longer have these food sources available to rely on.