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“The number of birds in Germany and Europe has dropped significantly over the past 30 years… In Germany, one-third of all bird species have seen ‘significant population declines’ since the end of the 1990s… Birds in agricultural areas are particularly threatened, with 300 million pairs of breeding birds living around farmland across the European Union...
Over 6.5 million asylum-seekers from the Middle East intend to enter Europe, according to a confidential German report (The Telegraph, May 25). Half of these people are waiting in Turkey. “Up to one million potential migrants were living in Egypt and in Libya and up to 720,000 in Jordan, the paper said.
Last week, Foreign Policy ran an article entitled “Germany Is Quietly Building a European Army Under Its Command” (May 22, 2017). For decades, German defense spending has been kept very low. However, under its Framework Nations Concept, Germany is working with small European nations like the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, and Romania.
The Independent reports that the prestigious Highgate School north of London may adopt a “gender neutral” dress code allowing boys to wear pleated skirts “in response to growing numbers of children questioning their gender” (May 14, 2017).
Overshadowed by the fireworks of the Middle East, “The drug war in Mexico was ranked 2016’s second deadliest conflict in the world, with only the war in Syria being labelled worse” (IB Times, May 10, 2017).
According to a recent study by the Pew Research Center, “Muslims are projected to be the world’s fastest-growing major religious group in the decades ahead” (PewForum.org, April 5, 2017). The study indicates that births to families which identify as Muslim are projected to surpass births of those who identify as Christian, especially in Europe.
The Guardian reported on a recent study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences about Henderson Island in the Pitcairn Islands. According to researchers from Tasmania and the UK, “One of the world’s most remote places, an uninhabited coral atoll, is also one of its most polluted...
Iran and Saudi Arabia are waging an alarming battle of words. In response to threatening words from Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Iran’s defense minister stated, “If the Saudis do anything ignorant, we will leave no area untouched except Mecca and Medina” (Reuters, May 7, 2017).
In South Sudan, one million children have been “internally displaced” by war and famine, and another one million children have fled the nation (EuroNews, May 9, 2017). The BBC reports that the United Nations declared a famine in South Sudan in February, the first time this declaration has been made in any country in six years (April 4, 2017).
Rivers in Britain are drying up and threatening trout and waterfowl populations, thanks to an unusually dry winter and spring (The Telegraph, May 8, 2017). On the other side of the pond in Montreal, rain and snowmelt are causing devastating floods. Thousands have been evacuated from over 100 towns and cities (BBC, May 8, 2017).