It’s Tuesday, April 2nd, A.D. 2024. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard at www.TheWorldview.com.  I’m Adam McManus. ([email protected])

By Kevin Swanson

South African bus crashes, killing 45

A bus carrying 46 persons from Botswana to an Easter service in Moria, South Africa drove off a bridge and burst into flames over the weekend, resulting in 45 deaths, reports a South African news site.

Only one person, an 8-year-old girl, miraculously survived the crash. One relative told the New York Times, “No one can explain this miracle.”

Arsonist torches Bibles

Somebody set a trailer full of Bibles on fire in the parking lot of Global Vision Bible Church in Juliet, Tennessee on Sunday.

Pastor Greg Locke made a statement on Facebook. He wrote, “Our security cameras caught a man dropping off a trailer in the middle of the intersection and blocking the road into our church. He then got out and set fire to an entire trailer full of Bibles right in front of our church.”  

The police are investigating.

Will Scottish be imprisoned for “misgendering”?

News pundit Paul Joseph Watson of Modernity News is suggesting that thousands will be investigated and some imprisoned in Scotland for misgendering. That would include the likes of famous author J.K. Rowling.

This week, Scotland’s Hate Crime and Public Order Act of 2021 goes into effect. Anyone who is “stirring up hatred” on the basis of sexual orientation or transgender identity will be prosecuted. Sanctions could extend to seven years in prison for any “insulting” behavior towards the protected groups.

Israel killed top Iranian commander in Syria

An Israeli air attack leveled a building on or near the property of the Iranian consulate in Syria, resulting in multiple casualties, reports the BBC.

The Iranian state-affiliated media has confirmed that a top commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, Mohammad Reza Zahedi, was killed in the attack.

Germany legalized marijuana

Germany has just legalized private possession and the recreational use of marijuana.

The Deutsch Welle news site quoted the president of the German Society of Psychiatry. He said, “I fear that with this law we are casting out the devil and replacing him with Beelzebub.”

Germany joins the European Union countries of Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Belgium, and the Netherlands with this move.

Drug-related executions up

But now, worldwide drug-related executions are on the rise.  

Records available for 2023 reveal that 467 people were executed for drug-related offenses. And that doesn’t include China, North Korea, and Vietnam. Most of the data comes from Iran, Kuwait, and Singapore.  

These numbers are up 44% from the previous year.

Americans are crippling themselves with illicit drugs

People in the United States consume more illicit drugs than any other nation, according to data from World Population Review.

America rates 6.7 on Disability-Adjusted Life Years.  Estonia, Mongolia, Canada, Greenland, and Russia also rate between 3.8 and 5.0 on Disability-Adjusted Life Years, due to illicit drug use.

For drug deaths per 100,000, the U.S. rates twice as many than the second highest in the world — Estonia, and three times as many deaths as Canada, which stands at third place in the world for drug deaths.  

Drug-related U.S. deaths have exceeded 110,000 per year.  95% of the world's opium comes from a mere three nations: Afghanistan (the world leader), Mexico, and Myanmar.

The nations with the lowest drug-related deaths in the world are found in Africa and Southeast Asia.

Proverbs 11:19 reminds us that, “As righteousness leads to life, so he who pursues evil pursues it to his own death.”

Interest payments on U.S. debt have exploded

U.S. government interest payments, as a percentage of total tax receipts, have exploded to 35%.  

That’s the highest level since big inflation rates of the 1980s and early 1990s.

Cost of housing skyrocketing

To afford a median-priced house i