CHINA - A Chinese auto glass tycoon has caused a stir by shifting part of his empire to the United States and setting up a factory in Ohio, citing high taxes and soaring labour costs at home. Cao Dewang's $600-million investment comes after Donald Trump threatened to declare Beijing a currency manipulator and slap 45 percent punitive tariffs on Chinese imports to protect American jobs. The 70-year-old tycoon's decision to open a glass factory in the eastern American state of Ohio in October - a rare case of jobs being exported from China to the US - triggered an outpouring of criticism on social media.
MIDDLE EAST - The Islamic State published the names and addresses of thousands of churches in the United States and called on its adherents to attack them during the holiday season, according to a message posted late-night Wednesday in the group’s “Secrets of Jihadis” social media group.
USA - Earth is being blasted by a flare soaring from a hole in the sun’s atmosphere – and it’s bringing huge geomagnetic storms with it. The super-fast stream of solar wind hit the Earth’s magnetic field just in time for the winter solstice on Wednesday. And it’s whipped up a “moderately” strong geomagnetic storm that could last for several days, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Geomagnetic storms are behind the awe-inspiring natural phenomenon the Northern Lights. But they can prove devastating to human civilisation as we know it, experts have warned.
USA - A Texas court is expected to make a decision before New Year’s Day on one of President Obama’s newest transgender mandates, which would require doctors to provide transgender treatment for kids who desire it. That treatment would be required under Obama’s federal rule even if the physician is convinced it would harm the child. The case was brought by the Becket Fund on behalf of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations, the Franciscan Alliance and the states of Texas, Kansas, Kentucky, Nebraska and Wisconsin. The new rule is to apply to more than 900,000 physicians – nearly every doctor in the US.
GERMANY - It is no secret that Islamists consider the Germans as a bunch of cowards. “You love life, we love death”, they continue to repeat. Because wherever they look, the combatants of Allah see only people and governments only too ready to capitulate.
USA - Thanks to the election of Donald Trump, most Christians in America are feeling really good about the future, but it is another story entirely in much of the rest of the world. A Christian persecution watchdog group called Aid to the Church in Need released its “Religious Freedom in the World” report for 2016 a few weeks ago, and their conclusion was that the persecution of Christians globally is becoming much worse.
INDIA - India’s economy has reportedly overtaken the United Kingdom’s for the first time in over 100 years, now standing as the world’s sixth-largest economy by GDP after the United States, China, Japan, Germany, and France. The milestone is a symbol of India’s rapid economic growth and, conversely, the UK’s post-Brexit slump. Economically, it’s been a banner year for India. In February, it surpassed China as the world’s fastest-growing economy. And in October, the International Monetary Fund predicted India would retain that title for the foreseeable future; its GDP is projected to increase by 7.6 percent through 2017.
USA - Gallup’s US Economic Confidence Index has never been higher than it is today. The “Trumphoria” that has gripped the nation ever since Donald Trump’s miraculous victory on election night shows no signs of letting up. Tens of millions of Americans that were deeply troubled by Barack Obama’s policies over the last eight years are feeling optimistic about the future for the first time in a very long time. And it is hard to blame them, because what we have already seen happen since November 8th is nothing short of extraordinary.
ITALY - The lender at the centre of Italy’s banking crisis was on the brink of a state rescue this evening as the government braced to spend as much as €20 billion to prop up the country’s stricken financial system. Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the world’s oldest surviving lender and Italy’s third biggest, has been racing to pull off a complex deal this week to raise €5 billion from investors. However, its attempt to drum up support from the private sector looked to have failed today, making it almost certain that Rome will step-in to bailout the Tuscan bank. That sparked a plunge in Monte dei Paschi’s shares of as much as 19 percent to a record low of €15, and led to its stock being suspended during morning trade. The prices on some of its bonds also hit their lowest ever levels.
EUROPE - A slumbering Campi Flegrei volcano under the Italian city of Naples shows signs of "reawakening" and may be nearing a critical pressure point, according to a study published Tuesday. Italian and French scientists have for the first time identified a threshold beyond which rising magma under the Earth's surface could trigger the release of fluids and gases at a 10-fold increased rate. This would cause the injection of high-temperature steam into surrounding rocks, said lead author Giovanni Chiodini, a researcher at Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in Bologna. "Hydrothermal rocks, if heated, can ultimately lose their mechanical resistance, causing an acceleration towards critical conditions," he told AFP by email.
GERMANY - A senior financial analyst has claimed that if Deutsche Bank is allowed to fail it will collapse the entire European banking system. Ewen Cameron Watt, a senior director at investment managers Blackrock Investment Institute, told CNBC: "If Deutsche Bank doesn't make it, forget European banks as a whole.”
GERMANY - German far-right blames Angela Merkel’s open-door migrant policy for Berlin truck attack. Germany is facing the biggest rise in right-wing support since the 1930s. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is facing a backlash after 12 people were killed when an attacker ploughed through innocent revellers at a Christmas market in a truck.
GERMANY - Angela Merkel’s open door refugee and migrant policy has been described as stupid and reckless by a Sky News guest in the wake of the Berlin terror attack. At least 12 people have been confirmed dead with at least 50 more injured after a truck ploughed into a busy Christmas market on Monday night.
TURKEY - A trim and well-dressed man, dapper in a black suit, flashes a badge to enter the most genteel of events — an exhibition of photographs — pulls out a pistol and guns down an ambassador, right in the middle of the diplomatic quarter of the Turkish capital, Ankara.
GERMANY - The interior minister of the German state of Saarland said on Tuesday Germany is in a state of war after a man drove a truck into a crowd at a Berlin Christmas market, killing 12 people and injuring 48, in a suspected terrorist attack. "We must say that we are in a state of war, although some people, who always only want to see good, do not want to see this," the minister, Klaus Bouillon, told German broadcaster SR.
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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