Federal Reserve tells banks: you're not prepared and you could cause another crisis

USA - US central bank tells lenders, including Barclays, that they risk plunging the world into a fresh financial crisis. US regulators have warned 11 giant banks which submitted unrealistic contingency plans in the event of bankruptcy that unprepared lenders could plunge the world into a new financial crisis. The Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) said the 11 titans, which include Barclays, must make better plans to restructure their firms in the event of failure.

Captured Hamas Urban Warfare Manual Encourages Human Shields

ISRAEL - The IDF has published excerpts from a captured Hamas combat manual on "Urban Warfare", showing how the Islamist terrorist group exploits civilian casualties - and the knowledge that the IDF will seek to avoid them - to its advantage. The IDF says the manual was captured in Shujaiya suburb of Gaza City, which was the scene of particularly heavy fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists.

French TV Shows More Evidence of Hamas Hiding Behind Civilians

MIDDLE EAST - As the dust settles amid a 72-hour ceasefire between Israel and terrorist groups in Gaza, more and more reports are emerging from Gaza backing the Israeli government's claims that Hamas is deliberately carrying out attacks from within densely-populated civilian areas. Earlier Tuesday an Indian TV report exposed terrorists setting up and launching a rocket just meters away from a hotel where members of the international media were staying, in the middle of a crowded residential area.

If California’s Drought Weren’t Scary Enough, Now It May Trigger Earthquakes

USA - California’s drought has reached epic proportions. Nearly 60 percent of the state is in exceptional drought — the most severe category — and farmers are depleting groundwater reserves at record rates as wildfires break out north and south. Now there’s something else to worry about: drought-triggered earthquakes.

Vladimir Putin signs historic $20 billion oil deal with Iran to bypass Western sanctions

RUSSIA - Vladimir Putin has attempted to sidestep Western sanctions on Russia’s energy sector by signing a $20 billion trade deal that could see his country become the largest importer of oil from Iran. The five-year accord will see Russia help Iran organise oil sales as well as “cooperate in the oil-gas industry, construction of power plants, grids, supply of machinery, consumer goods and agriculture products”, according to a statement by the Energy Ministry in Moscow. The deal could see Russia buying 500,000 barrels of Iranian oil a day, the Moscow-based Kommersant newspaper has previously reported. That would be about a fifth of Iran’s output in June and half its exports. The move is a win-win for both nations after they were hit with Western sanctions aimed at limiting their energy sectors.

 
Shadowy Terror Group ‘White Shroud’ Hits Back at ISIS

MIDDLE EAST - “The Islamist terror group ISIS’s big advantage is that it doesn’t fight conventionally. It’s held off the regular army of Bashar al-Assad and routed thousands of Iraqi troops. But now a group has emerged that turns ISIS’s tactics back against them. The group is called White Shroud. There’s very little known about the group, but Syrian citizen journalism website Tahrir Souri reported on the group’s existence on July 24. According to the report, White Shroud is based in Abu Kamal near the border with Iraq, and the organization is associated with Syria’s melange of rebel forces, not the Assad regime. It’s tactics include “secret assassinations, raids and surveillance” of ISIS targets, according to the report. The group uses improvised explosive devices, and stages attacks on ISIS gatherings at a distance with silenced sniper weapons. It also engages in kidnapping. Notably, these tactics are not dissimilar from those used by ISIS.”

 
Boko Haram crisis: Nigeria's female bombers strike

NIGERIA - Nigeria's militant Islamist group Boko Haram is accused of unleashing a new weapon of war - the female suicide bomber, fuelling concern that its insurgency has entered a more ruthless phase. Four of them - all teenage girls - carried out attacks in the biggest northern city, Kano, last week, leading to social media sites going viral with speculation - dismissed as unfounded by the government - that Boko Haram had turned some of the more than 200 schoolgirls abducted in April into human bombs. At the same time, government spokesman Mike Omeri said the security forces had arrested three people in neighbouring Katsina state - including two girls aged 10 and 18 - with explosive belts strapped around them.

 
Shock as Italy stumbles into fourth recession

ITALY - The Italian economy is now officially in recession for a fourth time in six years, with GDP falling by 0.2 percent in the second quarter of this year. The fall has taken analysts by surprise, as a poll of economists had predicted that we would see Italian growth statistics show an increase of 0.1 percent in the second quarter. The second quarter decline is an acceleration from a 0.1 percent drop in GDP seen during the first three months of the year. Today’s data serves to “underscore the fragile and sluggish nature of Italy’s recovery,” said RBC Capital Markets’ Timo del Carpio. Six years after the financial crisis, Italian real GDP is still 9.1 percent short of its pre-crisis peak.

 
Russia 'considers banning BBC website'

RUSSIA - Russian regulators have threatened to close down the BBC's local website over its refusal to take down an interview with an activist who the government considers to be "extremist". According to a report in the Izvestia newspaper, telecommunications authority Roskomnadzor has instructed the BBC Russian Service to remove a piece featuring artist Artem Loskutov, who wants Siberia to separate from Russia. The regulator has ordered the BBC to remove the article because it “appeals to riots, extremist activities or participation in mass public activities conducted in violation of the legal order”. “We can fully block the BBC Russian service website on the territory of our country," a source told Izvestia. "In fact, not only we can, but we have to do it, because the Prosecutor General’s Office has assigned Roskomnadzor to block the access to the sites and resources publishing information of that kind."

 
We’re Ready to Rebuild the Temple

ISRAEL - Despite the tragic war Israel is currently entangled in, our generation has been blessed with the fulfillment of numerous Biblical promises. We have seen the rebirth of the State of Israel and continue to witness the Ingathering of the Exiles from the four corners of the world. For the first time in centuries Jerusalem is in Jewish hands, yet once a year, on the 9th day of the Hebrew month of Av, Jews fast, cry and mourn for the destruction of our Holy Temple. How can we ignore all these great blessings and why do we mourn for a building that was destroyed 2,000 years ago?

Terrorist armies fight smarter and deadlier than ever

USA - Military transformations can be hard to detect. They generally occur over decades, sometimes over generations. Soldiers are usually the first to recognize them, but for the perceptive, the signs of a sea change developing on today’s battlefields are there. Look carefully at media images of ground fighting across the Middle East, and you will notice that the bad guys are fighting differently than they have in the past. In the immediate aftermath of the attacks of September 11, 2001, the West confronted terrorists who acted like, well, terrorists. In Iraq and Afghanistan, al-Qaeda and other militant groups relied on ambushes, roadside bombings, sniper fire and the occasional “fire and run” mortar or rocket attack to inflict casualties on US forces.

Robots Could Be More Dangerous Than Nukes

USA - Elon Musk, the Tesla and Space-X founder who is occasionally compared to comic book hero Tony Stark, is worried about a new villain that could threaten humanity — specifically the potential creation of an artificial intelligence that is radically smarter than humans, with catastrophic results:

Hungarian mayor hosts event burning effigies of Israeli leaders

HUNGARY - The mayor of a town in eastern Hungary has held an event hanging effigies of the prime minister and former president of Israel to protest the war in Gaza. Mihaly Zoltan Orosz, who has been mayor of Erpatak since 2005, told The Associated Press Monday that the "Jewish terror state" is trying to obliterate the Palestinians and said he opposed "the efforts of Freemason Jews to rule the world." Hungary's foreign ministry condemned the mayor's actions, saying he was using innocent victims of the war "to spread hate-inducing propaganda."

 
It’s nearly impossible to get Ebola in New York. So why is everyone freaking out?

USA - A man recently returned from West Africa is in the isolation unit at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, after heading to the hospital with possible symptoms of the Ebola virus, the disease that has killed nearly 900 people in West Africa. Though hospital officials now say that it’s unlikely the man has Ebola, they haven’t yet confirmed his diagnosis.

Hacker says to show passenger jets at risk of cyber attack

USA - Cyber security researcher Ruben Santamarta says he has figured out how to hack the satellite communications equipment on passenger jets through their WiFi and inflight entertainment systems - a claim that, if confirmed, could prompt a review of aircraft security.

“Just what is an APOSTLE?”
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!

Read online or contact email to request a copy

Listen to Me, You who know righteousness, You people in whose heart is My Law: …I have put My words in your mouth, I have covered you with the shadow of My hand, That I may plant the heavens, Lay the foundations of the earth, and say to Zion, “you are My people” (Isaiah 51:7,16)