News and Prophecy Staff

As a country, Israel is quite small—smaller than Belgium, about half the size of Costa Rica, and roughly the same size as the state of New Jersey. But as small as it is, Israel is experiencing drastic differences in precipitation across the country (Times of Israel, April 5, 2021).

New research by Shanna Swan, an epidemiologist with Mount Sinai Medical Center, projects that “by 2045 most men may no longer be able to reproduce because of the impact of hormone-altering chemicals” in their environment (Politico, March 10, 2021). This research also suggests that female fertility rates are falling by about 1 percent each year.

The EU Observer reported on March 31 that more than 25 world leaders signed an open letter calling for the creation of an international treaty on pandemics. Signatories include the director-general of the World Health Organization and the president of the European Council. The letter states, “The question [of future pandemics] is not if, but when.”

That is the culture-defying title of a newly published biography chronicling the story of three polyamorous men who decided to engender two children through surrogate mothers (CNN, March 6, 2021). It tells of their court struggle to have all three names put on the birth certificates, in what may be the first of its kind legal parenting situation in the U.S.

Globally, about 4.4 percent of the population suffers from depression, and in the United States that number is nearly double, at 8 percent (Big Think, March 22, 2021). Due at least in part to the COVID-19 pandemic and its collateral impact over the last year, depression is rising around the globe.