Globe Trot: Southern Baptists to scale down international missions

SOUTHERN BAPTISTS: The International Mission Board of Southern Baptists has announced a 15 percent reduction in its workforce, cutting 600 to 800 missionaries and support staff, in light of a funding shortfall. The Wall Street Journal reports:

“The cuts to the program, considered America’s flagship evangelical missionary organization, underscore a fundamental change in mission work as the church becomes more global and the tradition of lifetime assignments for Christian missionaries sent ‘from the West to the rest’ declines.”

CHINA: Authorities summoned U.S. Ambassador Max Baucus to protest the U.S. Navy’s sailing a destroyer close to the artificial islands China has constructed in disputed waters in the South China Sea.

ISRAEL: Having been trounced by Britain’s academic and artistic elites over her opposition to a boycott of Israel for its treatment of Palestinians, the UK’s most popular author, J.K. Rowling, is recanting.

MALARIA: A drug used to treat intestinal parasites is showing promising results as a preventative for malaria. In short, ivermectin works by poisoning the mosquito when it comes in contact with skin.

SYRIA: According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, ISIS tied three men to the ancient columns at Palmyra and blew them up along with the historical site.

IRAQ: Iraqi policemen (normally a tough group) taken hostage by ISIS turned tearful recounting their time in captivity before they were freed in a U.S.-Kurdish raid that led to the death of U.S. Delta Force Master Sgt. Joshua Wheeler.