GREECE - Greek Prime Minister Alexi Tsipras is facing open rebellion in his ruling Syriza party over Greece's future in the eurozone, raising the spectre of snap elections being called as early as this month. The extreme “Left Platform” faction of Syriza, who make up a third of the party’s membership, have promised to defy creditor powers, and called for a reinstitution of the drachma, as the government enters its fifth month of arduous bail-out negotiations. Syriza member Stathis Kouvelakis, who has led the insurrection, has vowed to end his country’s ritual “humiliation” at the hands of the International Monetary Fund, European Commission, and European Central Bank.
UK - Support is growing within the Church of England to rewrite its official liturgy to refer to God as female following the selection of the first women bishops. Growing numbers of priests already insert words such as “she” and “mother” informally into traditional service texts as part of a move to make the language of worship more inclusive, it has been claimed. But calls for a full overhaul of liturgy to recognise the equal status of women have already been discussed informally at a senior level.
ISRAEL - Facing diplomatic pressure over his anti-Palestinian state rhetoric, Israel’s PM made a surprise commitment to a two-state solution, demanding that Palestinians stop their “campaign to delegitimise Israel” and start negotiations “without preconditions.”
UNITED NATIONS - There has been a lot of talk about things that are going to happen in September, but something that has been almost totally overlooked is the fact that the UN Security Council is likely to be voting on a UN resolution which will establish a Palestinian state at that time.
ISRAEL - Clock running out as Iran marches to nuclear arsenal with “legitimization” of deal, which is part of Obama's “wrong ideology.” While negotiations between Iran and world powers have reached an interim agreement ahead of a June 30 deadline for a final deal, Bolton predicts that the Iran negotiations are "doomed to failure."
IRAQ - Iraq has admitted that ISIS jihadists captured huge caches of US-made weapons, including thousands of Humvees seized from Iraqi forces retreating from Mosul last year. The spoils of war have since then been used by ISIS to gain ground in Iraq and Syria. “In the collapse of Mosul, we lost a lot of weapons,” Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said in an interview with Iraqiya state TV. “We lost 2,300 Humvees in Mosul alone.” The number of potential heavy and light weapons abandoned by Iraq’s army remains unknown but over the past decade the US sold thousands of the armed vehicles to the Iraqis, in addition to tanks and other military hardware.
UK - Tens of thousands of teenage girls have fallen seriously ill and even been left wheelchair-bound after taking the routine cervical cancer vaccination. The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency announced that 8,228 young girls had suffered debilitating side effects from the HPV injection.
USA - A recently declassified memo of the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) reveals that the West had supported the creation of the "Islamic State" (IS). Using jihadist forces has been a Western tradition for decades, as the Afghanistan war in the 1980s and an analysis of the Western power struggle with Iran (especially since 2003) show.
ISRAEL - Other than breathing, it appears all Jewish rights on Temple Mount have been taken away, and Rabbi Chaim Richman, International Director of the Temple Institute, is exasperated. Jews who belong to the growing stream of Temple Mount adherents are used to being mistreated by the police and harassed by Muslims there, but Sunday's instruction by a policeman to a Jewish visitor has surprised even the seasoned pilgrims.
PHILIPPINES - As the rising power seeks to extend its rule across the South China Sea, Donald Kirk reports from Subic Bay in the Philippines, where the United States is preparing to help countries in the region challenge their dominant neighbour. The dock was once a bulwark of American power in the South China Sea after US forces seized the base from the Spanish in 1899.
MIDDLE EAST - As the bloc’s 12 oil ministers meet in Vienna, the march of ISIL jihadists in the Middle East is putting Iran and Saudi Arabia on a collision course with explosive consequences. A year on from the start of the siege and a shaky alliance of the Middle East’s major Arab powers, with the limited support of the reluctant US government, has failed to contain the expansion of ISIL.
MIDDLE EAST - Islamic State fighters advanced against rival insurgents in northern Syria on Sunday, capturing areas close to a border crossing with Turkey, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The fighters captured the town of Soran Azaz and two nearby villages after clashes with other rebels, the Observatory said. This meant the group could now move along a road leading north to the Bab al-Salam border crossing between the Syrian province of Aleppo and the Turkish province of Kilis.
The next stop would be Syria's Azaz city, 10 km (6 miles) further north, giving Islamic State a gateway to the border crossing close by, the Observatory added. Islamic State has seized tracts of territory across Syria and Iraq. It had advanced rapidly in other parts of Syria in recent weeks, capturing the central city of Palmyra and the last border crossing between Syria and Iraq in the east.
EUROPE - The global asset boom is an accident waiting to happen as the US prepares to tighten monetary policy and the Greek crisis escalates, the European Central Bank has warned. The ECB’s financial stability report described a “fragile equilibrium” in world markets, with a host of underlying risks and the looming threat of an “abrupt reversal” if anything goes wrong.
UK - The foreign policy guru and author of "Superpower" speaks with Peter Foster about American retrenchment, the rise of China and what it means for Britain's future. After six decades serving as the global policeman, the United States is now signalling its retreat from the world. With the Middle East engulfed by the flames of sectarian conflict, Europe’s borders menaced by the threat of war and China starting to flex its muscles in Asia-Pacific, it is clear the world has entered a new period of volatility. That uncertainty begs tough questions for Britain: how should we respond to this new American pragmatism? And as our traditional ally turns inward, what should that mean for British foreign policy?
IRAN - A North Korean delegation that traveled to Iran in April for secret meetings about nuclear technology spent much of its time working with an Iranian agency responsible for weaponizing the country’s nuclear program, according to an exiled Iranian opposition group.
“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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