Many German primary and secondary schools are teaching about diversity to break gender stereotypes and help children view homosexuality as natural. However, one classroom teacher created a petition against this attempt to promote “an educational, moral, and ideological reeducation” in German schools. He says that the curriculum is one-sided and that it fails to highlight the risks of a homosexual lifestyle (Deutsche Welle, January 12, 2014).

Many people in the USA are deeply concerned about the admission by the National Security Agency (NSA) of eavesdropping on private, personal telephone calls and the monitoring of e-mail. “Leaks” or revelations made by Julian Assange of WikiLeaks, who is reportedly taking refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, and more recently, Edward Snowden, who has sought asylum in The Russian Federation, have set the diplomatic community on edge.

“ALARMING numbers of pregnant women are putting their unborn babies at serious risk of being born with alcohol poisoning. Shocking statistics have just uncovered an almost 50 per cent rise in Foetal Alcohol Syndrome in the past two years, with more than 300 children significantly affected last year” (Sunday Express, February 9, 2014).

In a move to stem the flow of poor migrants into its nation, “Swiss voters on Sunday (9 February) backed a call to cap migration from EU countries” (EU Observer, February 10, 2014). The vote, backed by 50.3 percent of voters, goes directly against the four fundamental EU freedoms: “free movement of people, goods, capital and services” and has drawn criticism (ibid.).

Earth’s population will grow by 25 percent, to more than nine billion, by 2050 (Deutsche Welle, January 20, 2014). With this increase will come a far greater need for food. “Experts assume that global food production must increase by 70 percent in order to meet the world’s changing dietary habits” (ibid.).