IRAN - President Xi Jinping's visit will take place on January 23rd and at the invitation of the Iranian government. During his two-day trip, the Chinese President will confer with his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani on ways to further expand bilateral relations and review joint ventures, especially in economy and energy sectors.
UKRAINE - Highly destructive malware that infected at least three regional power authorities in Ukraine led to a power failure that left hundreds of thousands of homes without electricity last week, researchers said. The outage left about half of the homes in the Ivano-Frankivsk region of Ukraine without electricity, Ukrainian news service TSN reported in an article posted a day after the December 23 failure. The report went on to say that the outage was the result of malware that disconnected electrical substations. On Monday, researchers from security firm iSIGHT Partners said they had obtained samples of the malicious code that infected at least three regional operators. They said the malware led to "destructive events" that in turn caused the blackout. If confirmed it would be the first known instance of someone using malware to generate a power outage.
IRAN - Iran unveiled a new underground missile depot on Tuesday with state television showing Emad precision-guided missiles in store which the United States says can take a nuclear warhead and violate a 2010 UN Security Council resolution.
VIETNAM - In its biggest military re-armament program since the end of the Vietnam War, the country’s leadership is accelerating a decade-long drive to modernise its armed forces. A Reuters report, “Vietnam builds military muscle to face China,” published on December 18, said Hanoi was seeking to “deter” China as tensions rise over disputes in the South China Sea. If that fails, Vietnam is rapidly preparing “to be able to defend itself on all fronts” the article claimed. Senior officers and other highly placed sources in Hanoi told Reuters that Vietnam’s strategy has “moved beyond contingency planning” into full-scale preparation for war. Key army units, including the elite Division 308 which guards the mountainous north, have been placed on “high combat readiness,” to fend off any sudden attack.
USA - Americans named government as the top problem facing the country in 2015, choosing that issue over the economy, unemployment, immigration, and other issues, according to survey results released Monday. An average of 16 percent of Americans in 2015 said some aspect of government — including President Obama, Congress or political conflict — was the country’s top problem, according to Gallup.
USA - Donald Trump has taken the mainstream media by storm, blowing conventional political strategies up. He almost appears to be having fun on the campaign trail, spouting off whatever he wants and apologizing to no one.
USA - Meteorologists say the current El Nino has stormed its way into the record books, tying 1997-1998 as the strongest recorded. Halpert said what really matters is what El Nino does during January, when its impact peaks. Weather Underground meteorology director Jeff Masters said "Darth Nino may finally have California in its sights," as a series of storms may dent record drought.
USA - For anyone who still has doubts, the European Union was not really motivated by the twin desires of ending warfare on the continent of Europe and promoting economic growth by making it easier for European countries to trade with each other. This was the story you were spoon-fed. It was actually the creation of America. Read on.
NORTH KOREA - North Korea has announced it has successfully tested a miniaturized hydrogen bomb following an “artificial seismic event” that has likely become the country’s fourth known nuclear test. In a “special and important” announcement at noon, North Korean TV claimed that the country has successfully conducted a hydrogen bomb test at 10:00am local time. The announcement followed the USGS detection of a 5.1 magnitude earthquake in the vicinity of a known Pyongyang nuclear site.
EUROPE - The hollowing out of the transatlantic alliance is the biggest risk facing the world in 2016 and will lead to a year of unprecedented global instability, according to one of the world’s leading foreign policy experts.
SAUDI ARABIA - Saudi Arabia just doesn’t know when to quit. The kingdom’s plan to deliberately suppress crude prices in an effort to bankrupt the US shale space and preserve market share has cost Riyadh dearly over the past 12 months.
SAUDI ARABIA - Saudi Arabia has perpetrated a mass execution that puts ISIS’s beach beheadings to shame. Forty-seven heads rolled on Saturday. One of them belonged to Nimr al-Nimr, a revered Shi’ite cleric who had been sentenced to death for sermons in which he criticized the government (especially for its persecution of the country’s Shi’ite minority). His brother has been sentenced to be crucified.
CHINA - Authorities buy shares, inject liquidity and extend selling ban in the wake of renewed stock turmoil. Chinese authorities have escalated their market intervention in a bid to prop up stocks after $590 billion was wiped off shares on Monday. Beijing's state-owned financial institutions hoovered up shares, and regulators extended a selling ban on major companies, to quell investor fears after a tumultuous start to 2016 trading. The measures came after Chinese stocks saw the worst ever start to the year, with shares in the blue-chip CSI300 falling by 7 percent on Monday. This triggered an automatic "circuit breaker" mechanism, where trading was halted in a bid to dampen volatility.
EUROPE - It gets more difficult, year after year, to be hopeful about the future; about what is to come. As the illusion that we can only experience our daily realities passively sets in, we lose touch with the historical truth that each individual can change the world; that fights to make it a better place are not lost in the fray.
MIDDLE EAST - As you read the latest headlines, you might draw this historical parallel: suppose Pope Leo X in the 16th century had executed Martin Luther for nailing his 95 Theses to that church door in Wittenberg, Germany - after Luther had become a well-known figure in Europe. The "Wars of Religion" in the 16th and 17th century might have ignited at a much earlier date.
“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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