INDIA - India’s new Army Chief of Staff, General Bipin Rawat, has made a series of belligerent remarks since assuming his new command on January 1. Most ominously, in an exclusive interview with the Times of India published Wednesday, Rawat boasted about the Indian military’s preparations to fight a simultaneous or “two-front war” against its main, nuclear-armed, strategic rivals: China and Pakistan. Rawat has also issued repeated warnings to Islamabad that, if “provoked,” India can and will strike inside Pakistan to suppress anti-Indian Kashmiri insurgents. Following this week's Agni-IV [missile] test, the Chinese state-run Global Times ran a column accusing India of “missile fever” and suggesting that if the UN fails to act China could help Pakistan expand its missile program.
USA - A class to be offered this spring at Ohio State University is an identity politics-based course that in large part is focused on teaching students how to detect microaggressions and white privilege. The course is dedicated to social justice themes, and pledges to teach students how to “identify microaggressions,” define and address “systems of power and privilege,” advance notions of diversity and inclusion, and prioritize “global citizenship,” its description states. “Crossing Identity Boundaries” aims to expand students’ “self-awareness” and help them develop “dialogue skills.”
USA - He was a skilled communicator and a celebrity. She was strong-willed and shared his disdain for big government. They were the power political couple of the 1980s: Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. Now a similar pairing is emerging three decades later in President Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May, who met at the White House on Friday.
USA - In his first frantic week at the White House, Donald Trump is doing almost exactly what he promised to do during his campaign, stunning those who thought he'd adapt his style as president. Trump has signed an executive order to begin building a wall on the Mexican border and doubled down on his promises to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement and repeal ObamaCare.
USA - Vice President Pence assured anti-abortion protestors Friday that their cause has friends in the new administration, vowing that officials "will not rest" until the "pro-life" culture is restored in the US. Speaking at the annual March for Life in Washington, Pence proclaimed that "life is winning again in America" and outlined how the Trump administration would advance anti-abortion policies. "Be assured, along with you, we will not grow weary. We will not rest until we restore a culture of life in America, for ourselves and for our posterity," he said at the event. Pence, the first sitting vice president to attend the March for Life, vowed that the administration would work with Congress to defund Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers.
USA - The administration of new US President Donald Trump is reportedly preparing executive orders that aim to minimize the role the US plays in the UN and other international bodies, including organizations supporting the Palestinians or in which the Palestinian Authority has official representatives. According to a report published in the New York Times on Wednesday, the first of two draft orders calls for stopping US funding to any UN or other global agency according to a list of criteria. One of these criteria is giving the Palestinian Authority or the Palestinian Liberation Organization full membership, or any organization that “is controlled or substantially influenced by any state that sponsors terrorism” or is blamed for the persecution of marginalized groups or any other systematic violation of human rights.
USA - US President Donald Trump says relations between the United States and Israel were repaired once he took office, noting, however, that it’s too early to talk of moving the US embassy to Jerusalem or his reported freeze on money transfers to Palestinians.
UK – Banks are attempting to push people into a cashless society, the ATM industry has claimed, as it warned that rural areas will be worst hit by an attack on free cash points. Yesterday crisis talks between cash machine providers and banks, at least one of which wants to reduce the fees they pay for standalone cash points, failed to reach a resolution.
USA - The Dow Jones Industrial Average provides us with some pretty strong evidence that our “stock market boom” has been fueled by debt. On Wednesday, the Dow crossed the 20,000 mark for the first time ever, and this comes at a time when the US national debt is right on the verge of hitting 20 trillion dollars. Is this just a coincidence?
VATICAN - Pope Francis greeted former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Wednesday, just days after the film star’s name had been floated as a possible candidate for US Ambassador to the Holy See. Schwarzenegger, a Roman Catholic, has been repeatedly criticized by Church figures for his support for abortion and gay marriage, and for state funding of embryonic stem cell research. Nonetheless, his name began appearing recently in short lists of possible candidates for the office of US Ambassador to the Vatican, an important listening post for the American government.
ITALY - Etna (Italy) awakens after 8 months, Colima (Mexico), Ebeko (Russia) and Sabancaya (Peru) strongly erupt. There is no rest! On January 23, 2017, at sunset, small strombolian explosions were reported at the south-east crater. This is the first volcanic activity of Etna in the last 8 months.
USA - Vast ranges of volcanoes hidden under the oceans are presumed by scientists to be the gentle giants of the planet, oozing lava at slow, steady rates along mid-ocean ridges. But a new study shows that they flare up on strikingly regular cycles, ranging from two weeks to 100,000 years — and, that they erupt almost exclusively during the first six months of each year. The pulses — apparently tied to short- and long-term changes in earth’s orbit, and to sea level — may help trigger natural climate swings. Scientists have already speculated that volcanic cycles on land emitting large amounts of carbon dioxide might influence climate; but up to now there was no evidence from submarine volcanoes. The findings suggest that models of earth’s natural climate dynamics, and by extension human-influenced climate change, may have to be adjusted. The study appears this week in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
UK - As American allies across Europe and Asia brace for President Trump, Britain stands out for the degree to which it is proceeding as if little has changed. The country, consumed with managing “Brexit” and its associated domestic political dramas, appears to have taken relatively few steps to prepare for the geopolitical earthquakes that Mr Trump could bring to the international and European orders on which Britain relies, and that his proposals would undermine.
UK - Scientists say the world has edged closer to apocalypse in the past year amid a darkening security landscape and comments by Donald Trump. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BPA) moved the minute hand of the symbolic Doomsday Clock from three minutes to two-and-a-half minutes to midnight. It is the second closest it has been. BPA chief Rachel Bronson urged world leaders to "calm rather than stoke tensions that could lead to war". In a report, the BPA said President Trump's statements on climate change, expanding the US nuclear arsenal and the questioning of intelligence agencies had contributed to the heightened global risk.
USA - For too long now, the American people have allowed themselves to be persuaded that the government’s job is to take care of us: to feed us, clothe us, house us, educate us, raise our children, heal our infirmities, manage our finances, protect us from our enemies, guard us against all dangers (real and imaginary), and provide for our every need.
Disclaimer:
The views expressed in this section are not our own, unless specifically stated, but are provided to highlight what may prove to be prophetically relevant material appearing in the media.
“Just what is an APOSTLE?”
Today we find the Church of God in a “wilderness of religious confusion!”
The confusion is not merely around the Church – within the religions of the world outside – but WITHIN the very heart of The True Church itself!
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