News and Prophecy Staff

Artificial intelligence (AI) is taking the world by storm. You can now use AI to learn languages, translate documents, compose music, and even write term papers for school. AI is everywhere, but its potential for danger and harm is still not fully understood—and is often underestimated.

Today, fewer Americans than ever are having children. In 2023, the fertility rate in the United States actually fell to 1.6 births per woman, and that is below replacement level, which is 2.1 births per woman (CNBC, August 16, 2024). However, Americans are simply following a trend that is evident in many other Western nations.

“Nuclear War Is Much Closer Than We Dare Imagine” was the sobering title of an article in the Telegraph on August 21. The article outlines Russian, Chinese, and North Korean nuclear advances, and discusses Russia’s work on new nuclear-related space-based technologies about which few details are known.

As Europe’s manufacturing sector struggles, new German data is sobering. The Telegraph reports that German employment rates are falling at their fastest rate in four years, and manufacturing orders are being further cut (August 22, 2024). And now the service sector is starting to slow.

Today, farmers are under pressure to produce greater and greater amounts of food, due in part to the large number of people who live in cities and are unable to produce their own food. Factory farming or “feedlots” is a common approach to provide meat for such vast populations while maximizing profits. But factory farming creates its own problems. When thousands of animals are forced into small spaces for prolonged periods of time, numerous problems arise.