Important Takeaways:
- New wars, old wars, famine, panic everywhere. So much for a quiet August
- From Bangladesh to Venezuela, one calamity rapidly overtakes another, but common denominators include poverty, corruption and lack of hope
- [Bangladesh] Last week’s revolution in Bangladesh captured the tone. Recalling the 1986 “people power” overthrow of Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines, Sheikh Hasina, a pro-democracy prime minister turned late-life autocrat, did not merely lose her job. She nearly lost her head, legging it into last-minute exile. Bangladesh, in turmoil and beset by score-settling, must piece itself back together. It won’t be easy.
- [Venezuela] …the uproar following Venezuela’s election travesty. President Nicolás Maduro, no Chávez he, thought it was in the bag. Then the actual votes started coming in. Appalled, he belatedly realized he was losing. Publication of results was abruptly suspended, Maduro claimed a bogus victory, and the familiar lies, crackdowns and violence began.
- Except, this time, like Bangladesh, repression hasn’t worked. Vote tallies have not been released, so no one believes him. The US and Europe say that opposition candidate Edmundo González won. Even friendly leftwing governments in Brazil, Colombia and Mexico are jibbing. Hundreds have been arrested, dozens have died. Yet Maduro won’t budge, and so the crisis deepens.
- [Africa] Poverty, lack of opportunity and official corruption roil the global street. In Kenya, young anti-government demonstrators sparked copycat generation Z protests in Nigeria and Uganda. About 70% of Africa’s fast-expanding population is under 30. Youthful insurrection is not confined to a single calendar month. It’s ongoing.
- In the Middle East, matters go from bad to seriously worse, fueling fears of region-wide war. Iran’s response to the assassination of Hamas’s leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran is awaited with trepidation. It’s an old story. Western countries conduct emergency evacuations. Israel, backed by the US, prepares to strike back.
- [Ukraine] The conflict dramatically intensified this month after a large Ukrainian force invaded Russia right back.
- Sudan’s civil war is a catastrophe with dire implications for the whole Sahel region, terrorism and migration – yet few seem to notice, let alone care.
- At the opposite end of the spectrum, the wealthy wolves of Wall Street and other financial centers were busy making their own contribution to international insecurity with an irresponsible, rollercoaster display of record stock market instability. Yet jobbers’ jitters surely reflect the fears and uncertainties of a world running clean out of control.
- Speaking of control, the “indispensable” country that much of the world looks to in times of trouble spent August hopelessly distracted by domestic political tumult. Don’t expect the US to sort things out, unless Joe Biden produces a parting rabbit. Harris v Trump is shaping up to be the knock-down, scratch-your-eyes-out, photo-finish fight of the century.
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Important Takeaways:
- A “perfect storm” of factors has created a global food crisis that just continues to intensify
- Right now, we are literally teetering on the brink of such a disaster.
- According to the UN’s World Food Program, we are dealing with “a hunger crisis of unprecedented proportions” right now…
- Conflict, economic shocks, climate change and soaring prices for food and fertilizer are all combining in a perfect storm to create a hunger crisis of unprecedented proportions. Right now, in some of the hungriest places around the world, there just isn’t enough food to feed the population.
- According to an article that was posted by the New York Times, the number of countries that are “at risk of famine” just continues to grow…
- The list of countries at risk of famine now includes Afghanistan, Syria and Mali. Humanitarian observers also worry that North Korea may be nearing a famine.
- About 90 million people are facing severe hunger in Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Yemen. These countries, unfortunately, have their own histories of severe food shortages, but the world has never witnessed all of these countries descending toward mass starvation at the same time.
- Here in the United States, there is still enough food to go around, but supplies of food have been getting tighter.
- According to the Farm Bureau, the U.S. actually lost more than 140,000 farms during one recent five-year period…
- Between 2017 and 2022, the number of farms in the U.S. declined by 141,733 or 7%, according to USDA’s 2022 Census of Agriculture, released on Feb. 13. Acres operated by farm operations during the same timeframe declined by 20.1 million (2.2%), a loss equivalent to an area about the size of Maine.
- And the size of the U.S. cattle herd is now the smallest that it has been in 73 years…
- Not many ranchers active today will remember the last time the U.S. cattle industry was this small. On January 1, 2024, the All Cattle and Calves inventory was 87.15 million head, the smallest total inventory since 1951. The All Cattle and Calves inventory is 1.9 percent smaller year over year and is the fifth consecutive year of declining cattle inventories, a total decrease of 7.65 million head or 8.1 percent since the most recent peak in 2019. The 2023 calf crop was 33.6 million head, down 2.5 percent year over year and the smallest calf crop since 2014.
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Revelations 18:23:’For the merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.’
Important Takeaways:
- Russia’s war in Ukraine sparked a historic food crisis. It’s not over
- Grain is once again leaving Ukrainian ports. The price of fertilizer is falling sharply. Billions of dollars in aid has been mobilized.
- Yet the world is still in the grips of the worst food crisis in modern history, as Russia’s war in Ukraine shakes global agricultural systems already grappling with the effects of extreme weather and the pandemic. Market conditions may have improved in recent months, but experts do not expect imminent relief.
- That means more pain for vulnerable communities already struggling with hunger. It also boosts the risk of starvation and famine in countries such as Somalia, which is contending with what the United Nations describes as a “catastrophic” food emergency.
- All the major causes of the food crisis are still with us
Read the original article by clicking here.
Revelations 18:23:’For the merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.’
Important Takeaways:
- Russia’s war in Ukraine sparked a historic food crisis. It’s not over
- Grain is once again leaving Ukrainian ports. The price of fertilizer is falling sharply. Billions of dollars in aid has been mobilized.
- Yet the world is still in the grips of the worst food crisis in modern history, as Russia’s war in Ukraine shakes global agricultural systems already grappling with the effects of extreme weather and the pandemic.
- That means more pain for vulnerable communities already struggling with hunger. It also boosts the risk of starvation and famine in countries such as Somalia, which is contending with what the United Nations describes as a “catastrophic” food emergency.
- “The ranks of the food insecure are growing faster than our ability to provide humanitarian assistance”
Read the original article by clicking here.
Revelations 18:23:’For the merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.’
Important Takeaways:
- Africa’s food crisis is the biggest yet – five reasons why
- Across Africa, from east to west, people are experiencing a food crisis that is bigger and more complex than the continent has ever seen, say diplomats and humanitarian workers.
- One in five Africans – a record 278 million people – were already facing hunger in 2021, according to data from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). It says the situation has worsened.
- Half a million children’s lives are at risk from a looming famine in Somalia, according to the United Nations
- “Sometimes mothers bring us dead children,” said Farhia Moahmud Jama, head nurse at the pediatric emergency unit. “And they don’t know they’re dead.”
- “Maybe the whole world is hungry and donors are bankrupt, I don’t know,” she said. “But we’re calling out for help, and we do not see relief.”
Read the original article by clicking here.
2 Peter 3:3-4 says, “In the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.’”
Important Takeaways:
- Christians, This Is Not A Drill… Examining Our World Through The Lens Of Matthew 24
- 2 Peter 3:3-4 says, “In the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.’”
- Critics of end-time prophecy say: Wars and rumors of war? Nothing new there, they say. Famines? They were worse in the past. Plagues and pandemics? We had a bad one for a couple of years, but the world has had worse
- The signs are there.
- War threatens every part of the earth
- Famine — This summer, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that present food shortages could trigger a global “catastrophe.”
- Pandemics and plagues — The Covid pandemic still rages, and others threaten.
- Lawlessness —Principal investigator Anita Raj said, “Californians are experiencing violence at epidemic proportions.” California is just one example. The epidemic of lawlessness knows no regional or national boundaries. It is global in scope.
- Deception — Fake news is not new. But it has never before been possible on the scale we see today.
- The signs are all coming together right now. Keep your eyes on Jesus.
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Rev 6:6 NAS “And I heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not damage the oil and the wine.”
Important Takeaways:
5 Major Trends To Watch For During The Second Half Of 2022
- 1 Economic Shaking
- Based on the latest reading from the Atlanta Fed’s GDP Now model, it appears that the U.S. economy has already plunged into a recession. I expect the U.S. economy to continue to deteriorate as we move toward the end of 2022 but I am actually far more concerned about economic conditions in Europe.
- Once the EUR/USD drops below parity, I think that the dominoes in Europe are going to start falling fairly rapidly.
- 2 Widespread Famines
- The head of the UN has publicly warned us that we are moving into an “unprecedented global hunger crisis”, and people are already starting to drop dead from starvation in some parts of eastern Africa.
- There simply is not going to be enough food for everyone, and that is going to cause enormous societal stress all over the globe in late 2022 and beyond.
- 3 More War
- The conflict in Ukraine has become extremely bitter and extremely bloody. Unfortunately, it appears that it is not going to end any time soon.
- I believe that China is planning on invading Taiwan while Joe Biden is still in office.
- The IAEA is now telling us that Iran “possesses enough fissile material to construct a nuclear bomb”, and that is a threshold that Israel always said that they would never allow the Iranians to cross.
- 4 Pestilences
- We already have COVID.
- We are also dealing with a nightmarish bird flu pandemic which has killed tens of millions of our chickens and our turkeys.
- On top of everything else, the number of Monkeypox cases continues to rise at an exponential rate.
- We have entered an era when mad scientists all over the globe are monkeying around with the deadliest bugs that mankind has ever known.
- 5 Geophysical Shaking
- There have been unusual earthquakes in diverse places such as South Carolina, and the sun has been behaving strangely in recent days, but overall things have been relatively quiet.
- Unfortunately, I expect that to change.
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Rev 6:6 NAS “And I heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not damage the oil and the wine.”
Important Takeaways:
- Global Food Shortage: U.N. Chief Guterres Warns of Looming ‘Catastrophe’
- Guterres pointed to the conflict in Ukraine as exacerbating disruptions caused by “climate change, the coronavirus pandemic and inequality” to produce an “unprecedented global hunger crisis” already affecting hundreds of millions of people.
- “There is a real risk that multiple famines will be declared in 2022,” he said in a video message to officials from dozens of countries gathered in Berlin. “And 2023 could be even worse.”
- Guterres noted harvests across Asia, Africa and the Americas will dive as farmers struggle to cope with rising fertilizer and energy prices, AP reports.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Rev 6:6 NAS “And I heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not damage the oil and the wine.”
Important Takeaways:
- ‘Stock Up on Foods’: Experts, Ministers Urge People to Prepare for Global Famine
- As prices continue to rise on everything from gas to groceries, experts warn that food is going to be harder to come by in the months ahead, including in America. Some say that the church can lead the way in helping people through the tough times.
- According to Bread for the World, over 13.8 million people in the U.S. already suffer from food insecurity.
- Right now, about 65% of the 200 food banks in the Feeding America Network are seeing a greater demand for food assistance.
- The biblical story of Joseph is an example of how the church should respond to the crisis while preparing to help others.
- Spiritual preparation is also vital.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Rev 6:6 NAS “And I heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not damage the oil and the wine.”
Important Takeaways:
- IMF Warns of ‘Unrest’ amid Looming Global Food Crisis
- “This crisis unfolds even as the global economy has not yet fully recovered from the pandemic,” the post penned by the group’s research department director, Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas.
- “Even before the war, inflation in many countries had been rising due to supply-demand imbalances and policy support during the pandemic, prompting a tightening of monetary policy,” the piece continues.
- “Furthermore, increases in food and fuel prices may also significantly increase the prospect of social unrest in poorer countries,” it goes on to read.
- “Failure to provide this year a few extra billion dollars means you’re going to have famine, destabilization, and mass migration,” said ex-Republican Governor David Beasley, who now serves as the head of the World Food Bank.
- “If you think we’ve got Hell on earth now, you just get ready,” the senior official continued.
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