USA - Fears that high-speed traders have been rigging the US stock market went mainstream last week thanks to allegations in a book by financial author Michael Lewis, but there may be a more serious threat to investors: the increasing amount of trading that happens outside of exchanges. Some former regulators and academics say so much trading is now happening away from exchanges that publicly quoted prices for stocks on exchanges may no longer properly reflect where the market is. And this problem could cost investors far more money than any shenanigans related to high frequency trading.
JERUSALEM, ISRAEL - The Knesset Interior Committee's Subcommittee on Temple Mount Issues, led by MK David Tzur, held its first meeting Monday. During the meeting, MKs discussed what rights, if any, Jews had on the Temple Mount. Speaking at the meeting, Temple Mount rights activist Rabbi Yehuda Glick, who is on a hunger strike because of a police order preventing him from visiting the Mount, said that “Jews on the Temple Mount are subject to being arrested for illegal assembly just for being there, to being victims of riots, and to being forced to flee because of unrest.”
ISRAEL - The Tel Aviv Municipality has approved an amendment to a municipal bylaw that, if ratified, would allow hundreds of neighborhood markets and kiosks and perhaps other types of businesses to operate on Shabbat on designated streets throughout the city. In addition, all types of businesses would be able to open on Shabbat in three locations: Tel Aviv Port, Jaffa Port and Hatahana D – the New Station compound.
USA - How long can America continue to burn up wealth? How long can this nation continue to consume far more wealth than it produces? The trade deficit is one of the biggest reasons for the steady decline of the US economy, but many Americans don’t even understand what it is. Basically, we are buying far more stuff from the rest of the world than they are buying from us. That means that far more money is constantly leaving the country than is coming into the country.
VATICAN - Any Roman Catholic prelate who missed the message from Pope Francis that he wanted “a church which is poor and for the poor” certainly had to pay attention last month when the Vatican forced the resignation of the bishop of Limburg, Germany, because of his taste for opulent housing worthy of the Holy Roman Empire.
UK - Parents should be issued with a checklist of “essential skills” to teach their children because large numbers of infants are starting school unable to speak properly or even use the toilet, according to the head of Ofsted. Sir Michael Wilshaw called for new “minimum requirements” to be introduced for all under-fives to make sure they are properly prepared for full-time education. He said it was necessary for parents to teach boys and girls how to act from a young age, insisting that the “family is the great educator” in a child’s life. Every parent should be issued with a simple checklist of skills children should master by the age of five, he said, including toilet training, behaviour boundaries, recognising their own name, putting on a coat and shoes and talking in sentences.
FRANCE - France's far-right National Front, coming off a historic electoral victory at home, is marching toward a new target: the European Parliament. Party chief Marine Le Pen is leading the charge for continent-wide elections next month like the general of a conquering army, and hoping to attract kindred parties around Europe in a broad alliance. As the extreme right rises across Europe, Le Pen wants to seize the momentum - raising the voice of her anti-immigration National Front and amplifying it through a broad parliamentary group. These parties, leveraging public frustration with the EU, want to weaken the bloc's power over European citizens from within Europe's premier legislative institution.
MIDDLE EAST - Turkey is not alone in supporting jihadis in the battles in Latakia’s northern countryside [in Syria]. Recent information revealed the existence of an airbridge between Jordan and Turkey, transporting jihadis after they are trained on Jordanian soil. Syria’s southern battlefront front has been moved to the north. Al-Akhbar received information suggesting an active and growing Jordanian role in the fight for Kasab and its surrounding territory. The information referred to an airbridge carrying hundreds of fighters from Marka airport in Amman to Antakya in the Iskenderun province in Turkey. According to a Syrian opposition source, more than a thousand jihadis were transported in the past three days and they immediately joined the fierce battles in Latakia’s northern countryside. The information “was confirmed by accurate Jordanian sources,” the Syrian opposition source maintained.
BRAZIL - It’s a story we all know — Christopher Columbus discovers America, his European buddies follow him, they meet the indigenous people living there, the indigenous people die from guns, smallpox and other unknown diseases, and the Europeans get gold, land, and so on. It’s still happening today in Brazil, where 238 indigenous tribes have been contacted in the last several decades, and where between 23 and 70 uncontacted tribes are still living. A just-published report that takes a look at what happens after the modern world comes into contact with indigenous peoples isn’t pretty: Of those contacted, three quarters went extinct. Those that survived saw mortality rates up over 80 percent. This is grim stuff.
USA - The United States has no intention of joining in a pre-emptive Israeli strike on Iran and expects the Islamic Republic to refrain from attacking US targets in the case of such an attack, senior Washington officials told their Iranian counterparts, according to a report in Yedioth Ahronoth on Monday.
UK - Militant atheists should “get over it” and accept that Britain is a Christian nation, a minister has said. Eric Pickles, the Communities Secretary, hit out at opponents of religion who try and “impose” their “politically correct intolerance”.
SOUTH EAST ASIA - Scientists have warned that the world’s banana crop, worth £26 billion and a crucial part of the diet of more than 400 million people, is facing “disaster” from virulent diseases immune to pesticides or other forms of control. Alarm at the most potent threat – a fungus known as Panama disease tropical race 4 (TR4) – has risen dramatically after it was announced in recent weeks that it has jumped from South-east Asia, where it has already devastated export crops, to Mozambique and Jordan. Scientists are particularly concerned about the impact of TR4 across the developing world, where an estimated 410 million people rely on the fruit for up to a third of their daily calories.
USA - In late February, four federal agents carrying side arms with a drug-sniffing dog descended on the Taos Ski Valley in what was called a “saturation patrol.” Authorities were working on tip-offs of possible drug selling and impaired driving in the ski resort’s parking lot and surrounding area. But the agents weren’t from the FBI, ATF or even the Drug Enforcement Administration. Rather, the agents represented the US Forest Service.
USA - On the heels of Russia's potential "holy grail" gas deal with China, the news of a Russia-Iran oil "barter" deal, it appears the US is starting to get very concerned about its almighty Petrodollar.
‘US has warned Russia, Iran against possible oil barter deal’
‘US says any such deal would trigger sanctions’
‘US has conveyed concerns to Iranian govt through all channels’
We suspect these sanctions would have more teeth than some travel bans, but, as we noted previously, it is just as likely to be another epic geopolitical debacle resulting from what was originally intended to be a demonstration of strength and instead is rapidly turning into a terminal confirmation of weakness.
UK - When future generations come to look back on the alarm over global warming that seized the world towards the end of the 20th century, much will puzzle them as to how such a scare could have arisen. They will wonder why there was such a panic over a 0.4 per cent rise in global temperatures between 1975 and 1998, when similar rises between 1860 and 1880 and 1910 and 1940 had given no cause for concern.
“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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