News and Prophecy Staff

“China is challenging the balance of power in the Pacific with much greater determination… A symbolic moment was reached in 2014 when the IMF announced that, measured in terms of purchasing power, China is now the world’s largest economy… China’s rise is just part of a larger shift in economic power. According to the IMF, three of the world’s four largest economies are now in Asia” (Financial Times, August 5, 2016).

After decades of misrule that has destroyed his nation’s economy and caused widespread suffering, Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe is losing the support of his own military.

“A young Japanese man went on a stabbing rampage Tuesday at a facility for the mentally disabled where he had been fired, officials said, killing 19... When he was done, Kanagawa prefectural authorities said, 26-year-old Satoshi Uematsu had left dead or injured nearly a third of the almost 150 patients... It is Japan’s deadliest mass killing in decades” (Associated Press, July 26, 2016).

On a trip to Poland, “Pope Francis has warned that a recent wave of jihadist attacks in Europe is proof that ‘the world is at war’” (BBC, July 27, 2016). “Not a war of religion. There is a war of interests. There is a war for money. There is a war for natural resources. There is a war for domination of peoples. This is the war.

“Japanese scientists say that watching TV for hours can raise the risk of dying from a blood clot in the lungs. Researchers studied the viewing habits of 86,000 people between 1988 and 1990—then monitored their health over the next 19 years… for every extra two hours of TV watched per day, the risk of [death]… increased by 40%.