News and Prophecy Staff

Long ago, Plato and others observed that governments appear to run in cycles. Monarchies have been the most prominent form of government. After the death of a king, nations are often ruled by an oligarchy or an aristocracy (rule by an elite few). When democracies (rule by the people) emerge next, they have a tendency to descend into anarchy (lawlessness), providing opportunities for “strong men” (dictators and tyrants) to gain control by promising to restore order. Whether or not this exact sequence is followed, change is certainly the rule.

Turkey and its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, have been moving away from the EU and the West for some time. President Erdogan recently announced that the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul would revert to a mosque, to the dismay of the pope (Catholic News Service, July 14, 2020).

According to the Telegraph, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a second pandemic in Africa: violence against women (June 24, 2020). Between the COVID-19 lockdown and rapidly declining national economies, sexual violence has increased throughout the world, and Africa has not been immune.

China and Iran have worked together for years on many projects. The Wall Street Journal reports that a draft agreement between the two nations is currently in the works in the Iranian parliament (July 12, 2020). If approved, the agreement “would pave the way for Chinese investments in Iranian free-trade zones and for joint projects in other countries, such as Syria and Iraq.

An alarming study recently appeared in the highly respected journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Examining viruses found in pigs from 2011 to 2018, Chinese scientists identified a strain of the H1N1 flu virus that has “all the essential hallmarks of a candidate pandemic virus” (Reuters, June 29, 2020).