News and Prophecy Staff

“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.

On April 25, a devastating 7.8 earthquake struck the landlocked nation of Nepal and caused a fatal avalanche on Mount Everest.

Desperate attempts by refugees to flee to Europe from the political crises in several North African nations are ending in disasters at sea. In response to the rising number of fatalities, “The European Union proposed doubling the size of its Mediterranean search and rescue operations on Monday, as the first bodies were brought ashore of some 900 people feared killed in the deadliest shipwreck while trying to reach Europe” (Reuters, April 21, 2015).

China’s influence is spreading politically and militarily around the globe. China’s president Xi Jinping recently visited Islamabad to promote $46 billion in Chinese investments in Pakistan’s infrastructure, and Pakistan’s prime minister commented, “Friendship with China is the cornerstone of Pakistan’s foreign policy… Today, we have planned for the future” (Wall Street Journal, April 20, 2015).