News

Modern research indicates, “About 60% of giant herbivores—plant-eaters—including rhinos, elephants and gorillas, are at risk of extinction” (BBC, May 2, 2105).  Professor David Macdonald of Oxford University noted “The big carnivores, like the charismatic big cats or wolves, face horrendous problems from direct persecution, over-hunting and habitat loss, but our new study adds another nail to their coffin—the empty larder… It’s no use having habitat if there’s nothing left to eat in it… With rhinoce

“Disputed territorial claims have turned the tensions between China and Japan into a favourite subject for a whole genre of futuristic fiction with writers seeing this as the spark that might set off a third world war in Asia” (BBC, May 2, 2015). According to some sources “Japan will abandon its pacifist constitution within four years under plans being pushed forward by the party of Shinzo Abe, the nationalist prime minister.

Recently, “Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi paid a brief visit to Saudi Arabia on Saturday to discuss the Yemen war and the wider regional landscape with Saudi leaders” (Jerusalem Post, May 3, 2015). The visit, which lasted less than two hours, focused on difficult issues in the region—especially in Yemen, Syria and Iraq. This was President al-Sisi’s third visit to the Saudi kingdom since January.

“Britain is experiencing the same decline as Rome in 100bc, with the collapse of civilisation inevitable… Dr Jim Penman, of the RMIT University in Melbourne, believes Britons no longer have the genetic temperament to advance because of decades of peace and a high standard of living… Britain is existing in a period similar to the decades before the fall of the Roman Republic where social tensions were rife, the gap between the rich and poor was increasing and extremism was growing.

For many in the Western world, news about feuding factions in the Middle East or Africa may seem “far away.” Yet it is also erupting in America—from Ferguson, Missouri to Baltimore, Maryland, on the edge of the U.S. capital. Recently, the governor of Maryland called out the National Guard and the city of Baltimore instituted a curfew to quell the violence that broke out after the funeral of 25-year-old Freddie Gray.