USA - The criminalization of homelessness has been on the rise since early 2009 in a number of cities across the country. A recent study by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty examines the state of citywide bans targeting the homeless population in 187 cities across the country. These bans cover a number of public behaviors limiting the homeless’s capacity for daily survival. Citywide behavioral bans prohibit sleeping in public, begging in public, loitering, sitting or lying down in public spaces, food sharing, and sleeping in vehicles, among other behaviors. “Many cities have chosen to criminally punish people living on the street for doing what any human being must do to survive,” the report states.
IRAQ - Using its own version of "soft" and "hard" power, the Islamic State is crushing resistance across northern Iraq so successfully that its promise to march on Baghdad may no longer be unrealistic bravado. While conventional states try to win hearts and minds abroad before necessarily resorting to military force, the jihadist group is also achieving its aims by psychological means - backed up by a reputation for extreme violence.
UK - Britain, as the rest of the world, is facing a water crisis, leading some experts to predict that by the end of the decade H2O will be traded on financial markets like other finite commodities such as crude oil, or iron ore. Although the Environment Agency says the past six months have been the wettest on record, summer hosepipe bans remain a possibility, partly because of historic inconsistencies in infrastructure investment. However, changing weather patterns and rising demand for water resources spell a potentially more nightmarish scenario within the next 20 years.
UK - The Serious Fraud Office is poised to launch the first criminal investigation into alleged rigging of the £3 trillion-a-day foreign exchange markets at leading City banks. The financial watchdog is expected to announce the move as early as this week, according to reports, raising the spectre of further multimillion-pound fines for Britain’s biggest banks over their behaviour during and after the financial crisis. Investigators are expected to examine whether individual traders personally benefited by manipulating benchmark forex prices. It is claimed that traders colluded via online chatrooms in groups with names such as the Bandits’ Club, the Dream Team and the Cartel. The UK’s so-called Big Four banks – Lloyds, Barclays, HSBC and RBS – are also under pressure from the Competition and Markets Authority, which is expected to fire the starting gun on a full-blown competition inquiry into the banking sector on Friday.
UK - It is well-documented that governments use information to blackmail and control people. The Express reported last month: British security services infiltrated and funded the notorious Paedophile Information Exchange in a covert operation to identify and possibly blackmail establishment figures, a Home Office whistleblower alleges.
ISRAEL - The Israeli military has tweeted a doctored picture of the Houses of Parliament under assault from a barrage of rockets and asking: “What if they were attacking your home?” The photo-shopped image, which was published today on the official Twitter feed of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), showed four rockets flying north over the Thames and about to crash into the Palace of Westminster.
VATICAN - Over the past 24 hours, senior representatives of the Catholic church have delivered some mixed messages about Islam. The leaders of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue issued a statement urging the two faiths to work together to ease human suffering, especially in war zones.
VATICAN - To most of the world, Pope Francis is the pope of the poor, foe of unrestrained free-market capitalism, reformer engaged in shaking up the Roman Curia, ecclesiological innovator committed to consultation, collegiality and decentralization in the governance of the Church. Francis is all that, but he’s also more — something his image as a social activist and agent of structural change might not lead you to expect.
VATICAN - Some people talk about Pope Francis — some in admiration, some not — as though he is not a Catholic at all, but a liberal interloper determined to dismantle some of the key moral teachings of the church. A disconsolate conservative rump regards him as a dangerous showman, indifferent to the consequences of unwarranted loose talking, prepared to sell out on the truth for an easy popularity. More than a few in the church are confused, but remain loyal and obedient because the pope is given to them by the Holy Spirit. There are others who see him as the pontiff with the cunning plan, the purveyor of a constructive ambiguity designed to throw the enemies of the church off guard.
USA - Michael Rivero writes: "Look for what should be there and is not. WHY would the separatists shoot down a civilian passenger jet, knowing it would turn world opinion against them? WHO BENEFITS? Who gets what they want? Poroshenko wants the US to come into the war. The US wants to get into the war. Neither Russia nor the separatists want the US to enter the war so why would they roll out the red carpet with such a stunt?"
GERMANY - It is finally happening in full view, in unmistakable manner, in a way that the awake, the aware, and the conscious can perceive in alarming stunning terms. The central force of Europe, the industrial juggernaut, the stable core, has begun to pivot East. The Germans have had enough, fed up with destructive US activities of all kinds. For the last few months, they have been laying out their indictment, their justification, their reasons to abandon the corrupt US-UK crowd. Germany will break from US/UK and its US Dollar fiat currency regime over four primary thorny issues.
PORTUGAL - Holding company of Portugal's second-largest bank says it can't meet its obligations. The Espirito Santo family’s holding company, which owns a stake in Portugal’s second-largest bank, has filed for creditor protection, saying it can’t meet its obligations. Espirito Santo International, which partially owns Banco Espirito Santo (BES), said in a statement on Friday night that “due to a significant part of its debt maturing” it has applied to be placed under “controlled management” under Luxembourg law, where it is based. Espirito Santo International’s move on Friday night, after markets had closed, came just hours after Portuguese prosecutors said they were investigating the family’s web of businesses.
MIDDLE EAST - Riots broke out at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on July 18 at the end of morning prayers, and 12 protesters were arrested. Masked youths threw rocks at police on the site and were met with crowd control measures. Protests also broke out in Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and Ramallah in the West Bank in support of the Palestinian people and in opposition to Israel’s ground operation in Gaza. In Jordan, protesters in the cities of Al Karak and Irbid demanded that the border crossings between Egypt and Gaza be opened for the evacuation of the wounded and transport of aid materials. In Egypt, several protests were organized in Cairo, Giza and Suez by the supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood. They condemned Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip and blamed the Arab regimes for incompetence in defending the Palestinian people.
UK - Children were taught that all Christians are liars and attempts were made to introduce Sharia law in classrooms as part of an alleged 'Trojan Horse' takeover plot of Birmingham schools, an inquiry has found. The inquiry commissioned by Birmingham City Council found evidence of religious extremism in 13 schools as school governors and teachers tried to promote and enforce radical Islamic values.
USA - The basic necessities in life just keep getting more expensive. On Tuesday, Hershey announced that the price of all of their chocolate bars is going to go up by about 8 percent. That is particularly distressing to me, because I am known to love chocolate. But if it was just chocolate that was becoming significantly more expensive perhaps that would be okay. Last month, it was coffee. J.M. Smucker, one of the largest coffee producers in the United States, announced that it planned to raise coffee prices by about 9 percent. And Starbucks has announced a bunch of price increases across the board on their coffee products. Of course we could all survive without chocolate and coffee, but as you will see below just about every food category is becoming more expensive.
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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