Currently, only local authority-controlled schools are required to teach children about sex in biology classes, with no such requirement in academies, free schools, or independent schools. Little is currently known about the content of the new curriculum, but ITV News reports it would likely include age-appropriate lessons on sexting, online safety, and abusive relationships.

The curriculum is likely to cause concern among family and religious groups, especially as some reports suggest parents would be unable to remove their children from the classes, as they presently can. A spokesman for 10 Downing Street said: “There is a threat online and that threat we would all recognise has grown.

“That does mean that now is the right time to look at how we can ensure children have the access they need to the teaching in those subjects.”

In a mere three years, child abuse reports have skyrocketed in volume by 80 percent; and, as Chief Constable Simon Bailey of the National Police Chiefs’ Council and head of Operation Hydrant, “which is investigating multiple allegations of historic sexual abuse across the UK,” the BBC reports, “knew his view would cause nervousness and draw headlines.”

“But he said the numbers of reports of abuse were at ‘huge proportions’ — an NSPCC study in late 2016 used figures which suggested the number of individuals looking at such images could exceed half a million.”

Child pornography, indeed an incredibly serious crime from any standpoint, seems to have erupted in popularity — Bailey told BBC Radio 4’s Today program around 400 people each month are arrested by police working with the National Crime Agency for viewing indecent images.

Whether or not Bailey’s appeal to lessen the severity by default for pedophiles who view child pornography will result in a change in policy or law remains to be seen, but a furious backlash from victims and their families will almost certainly ensue now.

The Pope spoke of "an already reconciled diversity." He said he greatly appreciated the spiritual and theological gifts that the Reformation had given us and that he wanted to do everything he could "to overcome the obstacles that still remained."

Already in September 2016, Bishop Bedford-Strohm and Cardinal Marx presented their "Common Word" entitled "Healing Memories — Bearing Witness to Christ." After five centuries of condemning and inflicting wounds upon each other, both the two leading Churches in Germany declared that they intended to celebrate the Reformation anniversary together as a "Feast for Jesus Christ."

A further pivotal point in the commemoration process will be the main Service of Repentance and Reconciliation that the Council of the Protestant Churches and the Catholic bishops' conference will celebrate together at Hildesheim on March 11, 2017.

The resolution passed by the UNSC is absolute madness. There is unquestionable historical and archeological evidence that Jerusalem was the site of the First and Second Jewish Temples. Towards the end of the 1990s, as the Muslims built a third shrine on the Temple Mount at the site of Solomon’s Stables, they dumped 400 truckloads of debris on the outskirts of Jerusalem.

Archaeologists Professor Gabriel Barkai and Tzachi Davira have since then, with the help of volunteers, rescued the dumped rubble and have been meticulously sifting through the rubble. Since the beginning of the project, thousands of coins, seals, potsherds and mosaic tiles from the time of the First and Second Temples have been found.

The request specifically referred to Malloch’s “outrageous malevolence against the values that define this European Union.” It’s true that Malloch hasn’t exactly been shy in expressing his disdain for the EU, declaring that the failure of the European integration project “should by now be self-apparent to everyone. The European Union has become undemocratic and bloated by both bureaucracy and rampant anti-Americanism,” he wrote in a recent op-ed.

The movement toward a socialist United States of Europe, Malloch stated, “is very harmful to US business, to US investment, to US security, and is categorized by over-regulation, low growth, high unemployment, and structural rigidity.” Yes, despite EU officials’ evident indignation at Malloch’s stinging barbs, a preemptive strike against an ambassador that hasn’t even been nominated yet is without precedent.

“The EU does not want anyone but a pro-EU, US ambassador to go to Brussels,” Malloch said. “This undemocratic institution wants to force the US to keep things the way they were and deny President Trump his selection and to stop his views from being articulated there. They fear such truth and its forthright challenge.”

According to Volcano Discovery, 35 major volcanoes either are erupting right now or have just recently erupted, and dozens of others are stirring.  So what is causing this upsurge in volcanic activity?  Is something strange happening inside the Earth?

According to the USGS, magma is “molten rock underground”, and lava is molten rock “that breaks through the Earth’s surface”.  Right now, something is pushing magma up through the crust of the Earth at a number of key spots around the planet.  On the island of Sicily, the “giant fountains of lava” that are coming out of Mount Etna can be seen 30 kilometers away… And in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, a “firehose of lava” has been pouring out of the Kilauea Volcano since December 31st.

Meanwhile, a number of large volcanoes that have been dormant for a very long time all over the world have started springing back to life. For instance, the only active volcano in India has suddenly started “spewing lava and ash” after being silent for 150 years…

At one time scientists would speak of “dead volcanoes”, but now we are learning that it really isn’t safe to speak of any volcano as being completely “dead”.  So many of these long dormant volcanoes are roaring back to life, and why this is suddenly happening now is puzzling many of the experts.

And as you have seen, this isn’t isolated to just one or two geographic regions.  It literally is happening all over the globe. Last month, Indonesia’s Mount Sinabung in the southern hemisphere erupted seven times in the space of a single day, and meanwhile authorities in the northern hemisphere were warning us that four of Iceland’s biggest volcanoes are preparing to erupt.

Indonesia and Iceland are about as far apart as you can get, and yet they are both being affected by this worldwide phenomenon. Without a doubt, something definitely appears to be causing a significant increase in worldwide seismic activity.

“Not only is the Quran more full of anti-Semitism than Mein Kampf – another terrible book – ever was, but one token of proof of totalitarianism is that you are not allowed to leave. That’s the proof of totalitarianism,” he said.

“Islam as an ideology does not allow freedom. Look at almost all the countries in the world where Islam is dominant – you see a total lack of civil society, of rule of law, of freedom for journalists, women, Christians, or even somebody who wants to leave Islam, an apostate.

“You are allowed to leave Christianity or Judaism and become an atheist or the follower of another religion; you are not allowed to leave fascism, you are not allowed to leave Communism. And still today in Holland, in Germany, in the Arab world, the penalty is death if you want to leave Islam.

“That kind of thinking, that kind of violence within an ideology is something that we should not import.”

The "Quds Foundation for Human Rights" issued a statement condemning the court for daring to claim that the Temple Mount is holy to Jews. It said that the court ruling mentioned not only previous Israeli Supreme Court decisions but also referred to Maimonides (the Rambam).

The group warned of the use of Jewish legal texts to prove that something is holy to Jews is outside the bounds of the court's legal rights. It also claimed that declaring the Mount holy for Jews is a violation of the rights of Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims. This is of course ridiculous; quoting the Rambam is meant as objective proof of the holiness of the site, it is not being quoted as a legal precedent.

By their logic, there is no such thing as a Jewish holy place, because every single such place is claimed as a Muslim holy place (by sheer coincidence, of course).

But the state refused to hand them over when requested by a director at University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health. So Joel Moskowitz, PhD, sued the state under the California Public Records Act.

Moskowitz, Director at the Center for Family and Community Health at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health explained to KPIX 5 the reason he sued. “I would like this document to see the light of day because it will inform the public that there is concern within the California Department of Public Health that cellphone radiation is a risk, and it will provide them with some information about how to reduce those risks.”

When asked why he thinks the state is trying to suppress this document, he said, “They claim that this would lead to chaos and confusion among the public, I suspect that they were afraid of the reaction from the telecommunications industry should they publish this document. In fact, they even argued that in their brief.”

Vice President Mike Pence, a born-again evangelical Christian who cast the tie-breaking vote in DeVos' Senate confirmation, also has a history of using politics to advance his religious agenda; last month he became the first vice president to speak at the annual anti-abortion March for Life, and has long waged war against Planned Parenthood in his home state of Indiana.

Then there's Ben Carson, nominated as secretary of Housing and Urban Development — a creationist who once said the theory of evolution was encouraged by Satan. Perhaps Carson wasn't entirely wrong, at least, not when you consider the Satanic Temple, a nontheistic activist organization that has for years worked to champion science — notably evolution and climate change — as a counterpoint to religious teachings pushed by public institutions nationwide.

Contrary to its name, the Satanic Temple is not composed of the kind of devil worshippers Carson evoked during his speech at a Seventh-day Adventists gathering in 2012. Rather, these Satanists identify as justice-oriented atheists, using the symbol of Satan not just as parody but also to challenge religious groups that use the mantle of God to justify their actions.

At a time when religious advocates hold tremendous power in the White House, the Satanic Temple's mission may become more important than ever — if its would-be supporters can get past all the demonic imagery.

Recently the Los Angeles chapter held a full-blown Satanic mass that included “a live bloodletting ritual”, but mostly it is the Satanic Temple’s ultra-liberal politics and anti-Trump message that is fueling interest in the group. Of course the Satanic Temple is not officially aligned with the Democratic Party, but without a doubt the organization is extremely opposed to everything that Donald Trump says that he stands for.

The Satanic Temple is exploding in popularity because that is where our culture is going. If you don’t like where our culture is going, stand up and try to change it, but be warned that there is often a very high price for standing up and proclaiming the truth. Everywhere you look evil is exploding all around us, and this battle is not for the timid at heart.

This thesis may be controversial because the divergent interests, languages, cultures, and histories of European nations make such a union seem nearly impossible. Many readers may react with strong avowals that Europe will never be fully unified. But my response is that “never” is a long time, so be careful what you say.

Political unification of Europe won’t be quick or easy, and it will take one or more crises to force the issue. But continuing ISIS attacks, Russian aggression toward Eastern European members, or the collapse of Europe’s over-extended banking system could trigger growing awareness that union is necessary. A banking crisis has an impact, not only on the economy, but on the political and military decisions of nations. Economic crises in Europe were, directly or indirectly, catalysts for worldwide depression and the waging of two world wars.

While most believe a fully unified Europe can’t be achieved, of course it can. The question is only what kind of a crisis it will take to make it happen. Winston Churchill was right when he said that the nations of Europe must band together to form a United States of Europe. From an economic standpoint, this is the only way European nations can compete commercially with the United States and China. And, beyond economic concerns, the very survival of Europe and its member nations may depend upon unity in the face of cultural, political, military, and financial storms now looming on the horizon.