Important Takeaways:
- India has confirmed its first case of a deadlier strain of mpox, which has raised alarm among health officials around the world over the rapid pace of its spread.
- The clade Ib strain of the virus was confirmed by health authorities in the southern state of Kerala after being detected last week in a 38-year-old man who had recently traveled to Dubai.
- Mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, is a viral disease that can spread easily between people and from infected animals. It can spread through close contact such as touching, kissing or sex, as well as through contaminated materials like sheets, clothing and needles, according to WHO.
- Symptoms include fever, rash, lesions, headache, muscle and back pain, low energy and enlarged lymph nodes.
- The virus is characterized by two genetic clades, I and II. A clade is a broad grouping of viruses that has evolved over decades. Clade II was responsible for a global outbreak that WHO also declared a global health emergency from July 2022 to May 2023. Clade Ib causes more severe disease.
- Authorities had identified 29 people who came into contact with the patient and they are now in self-quarantine, he said.
- Some 37 passengers on the flight from Dubai to Kerala and five other close contacts of the patient are being monitored, he added.
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Important Takeaways:
- Panama’s government announced on Thursday additional deportation flights for migrants apprehended in the Central American nation to Ecuador, India and China, in a bid to reduce the flow of mostly U.S.-bound migration.
- Financed by Washington, the deportation flights kicked off earlier this week with a first planeload of Colombian migrants.
- The flights come less than three months before November’s U.S. presidential election, where unlawful migration has emerged as a major issue.
- Mulino did not specify the legal status of the migrants who will be flown to Ecuador or the two Asian countries, or if they have criminal records.
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Important Takeaways:
- The Biden administration wants to train at least 200 activists to advocate for transgender rights in India as part of a program ostensibly designed to advance America’s “national interests,” according to a federal grant posting.
- President Joe Biden’s State Department plans to “train at least 200 LGBTQI+ community leaders … with preference given to trans and intersex community leaders”
- The grant opportunity argues that “improved health, education, economic strength, justice and equality” for transgender people in India will ultimately benefit the United States.
- The proposed program, titled “Empowering LGBTQI+ Community Leadership Across India,” (https://www.grants.gov/search-results-detail/353437) focuses on transgender and intersex Indians because, according to the State Department, they face both “more severe discrimination and social stigma compared to other groups within the LGBTQI+ spectrum” as well as “unique challenges” when it comes to “accessing education, healthcare, employment and legal recourse against discrimination.”
- To accomplish its goals, the program will utilize a “train the trainer” approach, using the 200 people it trains directly to reach a further 2,000 activists within one year.
- The State Department hopes to set off a “ripple effect” across India through this strategy.
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Important Takeaways:
- An underwater communication cable between India and Europe in the Red Sea managed by Seacom has been cut, the company confirmed in an interview with Bloomberg today.
- The cable runs in an area where the rebel group in Yemen called the Houthis have been targeting ships with drones and missiles. Other underwater cables, namely, Asia-Africa-Europe-1 (AAE-1), Europe India Gateway (EIG), and Tata Global Network (TGN) systems connecting Jeddah in Saudi Arabia to Djibouti have also cut off in the Red Sea, as per a report by the Israeli publication Globes.
- Of these, the AAE-1, provides internet to a wide range of countries including Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, and India; EIG provides internet to 12 countries including the United Kingdom, Portugal, Egypt, and India; and TGN systems links linking Mumbai in India with Marseille in France.
- The repairs of these cables are expected to take about eight weeks and exposes those making said repairs to potential attacks by the Houthis.
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Important Takeaways:
- Russia calls on BRICS to ditch dollar
- The statement was made at the Russia-China Financial Dialogue forum in Beijing on Monday, where Siluanov met with his Chinese counterpart, Lan Foan.
- The BRICS group of emerging economies – which currently incorporates Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – has been discussing ways to facilitate payments in local currencies between member countries. The bloc aims to reduce their reliance on the US dollar and the euro for accelerated growth.
- “We need to further develop financial cooperation within the BRICS countries. Here we see opportunities … to develop a payments system that would be independent of the infrastructure, which does not always fully fulfill the goals of individual countries,” Siluanov stated.
- “Therefore, the sustainable development of financial relations and settlements on the BRICS platform is important for us, and we believe that it is necessary to work out such issues, and today we will consider a number of them,” he added.
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Important Takeaways:
- Egypt, India abandon dollar completely
- Egypt and India, in a strategic alignment with the BRICS bloc’s de-dollarization efforts, have initiated discussions to eliminate the US dollar from their trade relations.
- This bold move is a part of a growing trend among BRICS nations to reduce dependence on the US dollar in international trade, and it signifies a significant shift in the global economic landscape
- The inclusion of six new countries, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Argentina, into the BRICS bloc, reflects a growing discontent with the current global financial system.
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Plagues – A highly infectious, usually fatal, epidemic disease; a pestilence.
1. A virulent, infectious disease that is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis (syn. Pasteurella pestis) and is transmitted primarily by the bite of fleas from an infected rodent, especially a rat. In humans it occurs in bubonic form, marked by lymph node enlargement, and in pneumonic form, marked by infection of the lungs, and can progress to septicemia.
2. A widespread affliction or calamity seen as divine retribution.
Important Takeaways:
- A Virus That Has A Death Rate Of 40 To 75 Percent Is Infecting And Killing People In India
- The following comes from the official website of the World Health Organization…
- Nipah virus (NiV) is a zoonotic virus (it is transmitted from animals to humans) and can also be transmitted through contaminated food or directly between people. In infected people, it causes a range of illnesses from asymptomatic (subclinical) infection to acute respiratory illness and fatal encephalitis. The virus can also cause severe disease in animals such as pigs, resulting in significant economic losses for farmers.
- Symptoms typically appear in 4-14 days following exposure to the virus. The illness initially presents as 3-14 days of fever and headache, and often includes signs of respiratory illness, such as cough, sore throat, and difficulty breathing. A phase of brain swelling (encephalitis) may follow, where symptoms can include drowsiness, disorientation, and mental confusion, which can rapidly progress to coma within 24-48 hours.
- So you could potentially spread this to hundreds of other people before you even realize that you are sick.
- In fact, the CDC says that the death rate for the Nipah virus falls within a range of 40 to 75 percent…
- The WHO has actually identified it as a “priority pathogen”…
- The WHO has designated Nipah a priority pathogen for urgent research and development, one of just 10 diseases the agency lists as having the potential to seed the next pandemic for which we have few to no countermeasures.
- There is no cure for the Nipah virus, and so let us hope that this outbreak fizzles out very quickly.
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Revelations 13:16-18 “Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.”
Important Takeaways:
- India’s rice export ban triggers panic buying at US supermarkets – sparking costs of 20-pound bag to soar from $16 to almost $50
- India ordered a halt to its largest rice export to calm domestic prices
- Rice is a staple for more than 3 billion people, and nearly 90 percent of the water-intensive crop is produced in Asia, where the El Nino weather pattern usually brings lower rainfall.
- But heavy rain in the north of India over the last few weeks has damaged newly-planted crops in Punjab and Haryana states.
- Paddy fields have been submerged for over a week, destroying seedlings, and forcing farmers to wait before they can replant the rice seeds.
- Videos and reports shared on social media show shoppers panic-buying in Texas, Michigan, New Jersey Alabama, Ohio, Illinois and California
- The south Asian country accounts for 40 percent of world rice exports
- Some stores have hiked the price of a 20-pound bag to $46.99 and have started money-making schemes to capitalize on the panic, according to Business Line.
- ‘A few desi grocery shops came up with innovative ideas to force customers to spend a minimum of $35-$50 on other items to purchase a single rice bag, which is outrageous,’ a shopper told the outlet.
- Rice prices in the US have shot up by around 11 percent on average, according to PBS Frontline.
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Matthew 24:7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.
Important Takeaways:
- Flash floods and landslides caused by heavy monsoon rains have killed at least 22 people in the Himalayan region of northern India, authorities said Monday. Several cities and towns across the region, including the sprawling Indian capital Delhi, saw heavy rainfall submerge roads and inundate houses over the weekend, bringing normal life to a standstill.
- Delhi got a punishing six inches of rain on Saturday alone, the highest single-day downpour in 40 years. A 58-year-old woman died when the ceiling of her house collapsed amid the deluge in Delhi’s Karol Bagh area.
- Himachal Pradesh has been the hardest-hit Indian state, with flash floods and landslides causing widespread devastation. Several houses and at least two key bridges in one area were swept away by the floods. At least five people were confirmed dead in the state as more than a dozen flash floods and 14 major landslides blocked over 700 roads.
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Revelations 6:3-4 “when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.
Important Takeaways:
- Indian, Chinese troops clash at border in fresh faceoff
- India’s defense minister said Friday’s encounter along the Tawang sector of eastern Arunachal Pradesh state started when Chinese troops “encroached into Indian territory.”
- For decades, India and China have fiercely contested the Line of Actual Control, a loose demarcation that separates Chinese and Indian held territories from Ladakh in the west to India’s eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, which China claims in its entirety.
- …tensions between the two Asian giants remain.
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