TURKEY - When Turkey’s semi-official newspaper Yeni Safak called for urgent action in forming a 57-nation “Army of Islam” to besiege and attack Israel, a suggestion undoubtedly approved with at least a wink and nod by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, it would signal the possible intent to create the largest military force on the planet – one nearly as large as the total population of the Jewish state.
UK - Police officers investigating the Telford grooming gang scandal, possibly the largest in UK history, were sent an internal memo telling them “in most cases the sex is consensual”. The initial police probe, Operation Chalice, identified at least 100 potential victims in Telford targeted between 2007 and 2009. However, fewer than ten men were jailed despite the police admitting as many as 200 groomers may be involved.
SAUDI ARABIA - Saudi Arabia will enter the nuclear arms race if Iran is ever successful in developing a weapon of mass destruction, according to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. He also branded Iran’s supreme leader the “new Hitler.” The next leader of Saudi Arabia made the comment in an interview set to air on CBS 60 Minutes this weekend. The two countries have continuously clashed over religious teachings, as well as Saudi Arabia’s close ties to the US government. Asked about Saudi Arabia’s view of nuclear armaments, the prince declared that the country will seek to develop such weaponry only if it comes under threat from Iran. “Saudi Arabia does not want to acquire any nuclear bomb. But without a doubt if Iran developed a nuclear bomb we will follow suit as soon as possible,” he said.
USA - US President Donald Trump has signed into law a bill which aims to deepen ties between the US and Taiwan. China has issued multiple warnings to both Washington and Taipei over the law. The Taiwan Travel Act (HR 535), which US lawmakers presented to Trump on March 5, aims to increase travel and visits "at all levels," including state officials and business leaders, both on the American and the Taiwanese side.
VATICAN - The Vatican under Pope Francis is consolidating its opposition to “gender theory,” the notion that maleness and femaleness can be separated from biological sex, according to veteran Vatican analyst John L Allen, Jr. Francis denounced gender theory for its denial of “the difference and reciprocity in nature of a man and a woman” and for its dream of “a society without sexual differences” in a lengthy 2017 teaching letter on marriage and the family called “The Joy of Love” (Amoris Laetitia). “An appreciation of our body as male or female,” he wrote, is “necessary for our own self-awareness in an encounter with others different from ourselves” and is far from the “unisex utopia” that some would like to impose. Efforts to blot out sexual differences based on anatomy are symptomatic of a sick society that “no longer knows how to deal with it,” he added.
UK - He is favourite to be the next Conservative leader – and, therefore, Prime Minister. "In religion he is fervent in his support of the one holy, Catholic and apostolic Church - the accumulated knowledge of 2,000 years of revelation to the Church”. “I am a Catholic and I take the teachings of the Catholic Church seriously.”
USA - An Indian publisher came under fire this week for including Hitler in a children’s book about world leaders who have “devoted their lives for the betterment of their country and people.”
UK - Two species of vertebrate, animals with a backbone, have gone extinct every year, on average, for the past century. Currently around 41 per cent of amphibian species and more than a quarter of mammals are threatened with extinction. There are an estimated 8.7 million plant and animal species on our planet and about 86 percent of land species and 91 percent of sea species remain undiscovered.
GERMANY - Germany finally snaps as nation to become EU ‘cash cow’ after Brexit. A German politician has demanded an end to the “madness” which sees Berlin pumping cash in to the European Union while taking less and less out and has warned it will become even worse after Brexit. Alternative for Germany (AfD) economic policy spokesman Mario Beger lashed out after EU Budget Commissioner Günther Oettinger told Germany’s regions they should expect to receive significantly less money from Brussels after Brexit.
GERMANY - In the lead-up to Sunday's Russian presidential election, President Vladimir Putin said in an interview that German Chancellor Angela Merkel regularly sends him cases of Radeberger beer, because she knows he developed a taste for it during his day with the KGB in what was once East Germany. Merkel confirmed the anecdote, though she was not likely amused by it. "In the end, a cooperative approach to the Putin system doesn't work," said Stefan Meister, Russia expert at the German Council on Foreign Policy (DPAG). Whereas the British government has chosen to directly confront Russia, the Chancellery has been reluctant in countering Kremlin aggression. "Germany is looking for a new Russia policy," said Meister.
SAUDI ARABIA - In August, a petrochemical company with a plant in Saudi Arabia was hit by a new kind of cyberassault. The attack was not designed to simply destroy data or shut down the plant, investigators believe. It was meant to sabotage the firm’s operations and trigger an explosion.
GERMANY - North Korean rockets could now reach Germany and Central Europe, a top German intelligence official told lawmakers, according to a report by German newspaper Bild am Sonntag. Ole Diehl, the vice president of Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, told members of the Bundestag this past week during a closed-door meeting that the evaluation was confirmed “with certainty,” Bild reported, citing participants in the briefing. Diehl also reportedly said that the ongoing discussions between North and South Korea showed tensions are thawing. Former US and South Korean officials are expected to meet with a North Korean diplomat, who traveled to Finland on Sunday, according to Reuters.
ETHIOPIA - When Eritrea gained its independence from Ethiopia in 1993, Ethiopia became landlocked and therefore dependent on its neighbours – especially Djibouti – for access to international markets. This dependency has hampered Ethiopia’s aspiration to emerge as the uncontested regional power in the Horn of Africa.
VENEZUELA - Venezuela imposed electricity rationing this week in six western states, as the crisis-hit country’s creaky power grid suffered from a drought that has reduced water levels in key reservoirs needed to run hydroelectric power generators. The four-hour formal outages began on Thursday. But many residents scoffed at the announcement, wryly noting that they have been suffering far more extended blackouts during the last week. Crumbling infrastructure and lack of investments have hit Venezuela’s power supply for years. Now, the situation has been exacerbated by dwindling rains. In the worst-hit western cities, business has all but ground to a halt at a time when the OPEC nation of 30 million is already suffering hyperinflation and a profound recession.
UK - Banks have been warned that British homeowners' giant mortgages may be affordable now, but could get them into trouble as interest rates rise. The Bank of England is keeping a close eye on lenders' attitudes to risk, as more mortgages than ever before are being given at a value of more than four times the borrower's income. Officials have put a limit on the proportion of loans banks can give at above 4.5-times income. But increasing numbers of mortgages are being offered at just below that cap.
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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