STAYING AWAKE!

Another week when the news from around the world is even yet more alarming, with more significant news items than ever before. So much so that news items are being reported less and less and you can trawl through newspapers or news magazines one after the other without finding reports that you know should be there, but they aren’t! Is it that the newspaper editors being so much closer to raw news than the average citizen is are much more aware of how precarious normal life now is around the world. However, we of What Next Media, the media arm of the Church of God have been forewarned. You can be as well. Jesus Christ spelled it all out for us in the gospels. He spoke of what world conditions would be like just before his return, that they would be at a level and intensity not known before. He warned of wars and rumours of war, with nation rising against nation; famine including drought, disease epidemics, earthquakes. He warned of false prophets preaching about Christ and deceiving many people. He said that the gospel would be preached in all the world as a witness to all nations. All of these things he warned us of are now a reality. He made the point very clearly that the world would come to the point that all life would be eradicated but for his return. Can you doubt that everything Jesus Christ warned us about is now possible and in most cases is a reality! None of the events he spoke of could have been possible in a worldwide context until now.

He couldn’t have spelled everything out more clearly. He gave the example of the fig tree and said that when we saw green shoots appearing we could know with absolute certainty that summer wasn’t far off. We don’t think for a moment that we are about to have snow! In the same way he says that when we see the events all happening as he said then we can be sure everything is rapidly moving to a conclusion and then a new world.

CHINA

BBC News 19thJuly – World Service and on digital TV -- Heaviest rainfall for many years has caused tremendous flooding throughout Hubei province which is in the north of China and home to the Three Gorges dam, the world’s largest dam. Many thousands have been made homeless and over 100 people have died and the dam itself is dealing with such a degree of water that it is threatened. If the dam should fail to cope with the enormous amount of water it will be catastrophic for China.

The Independent – 21st July – The Three Gorges Dam in Hubei Province had its biggest test yesterday as it contended with the fastest flow of water ever recorded, at 70,000 cubic metres a second. The worst flooding for more than a decade has claimed at least 146 lives in China since the start of the month, and the two year old dam – the world’s largest – is being used to minimise further devastation. The Three Gorges project was controversial because it forced 1.4 million people to be relocated.
Our comment: Seeing the graphic pictures on BBC television on 20th July brought up the thought of how could the dam possibly hold back the size and strength of the flooding. However, what is indeed amazing is how little reporting this rainfall and flooding has received.

EARTHQUAKES

BBC World Service -- 20th July – reported a 5.8 earthquake in Southern Iran. United States Geological Service reported this one and also another of 6.3 on 20th July in Papua New Guinea. Neither of these were reported in the press of which we have note.
Our comment: It is possible that there are now so many earthquakes that it just isn’t practicable for the news media to report them unless they are up in the 8.0 or 9.0 and higher range.

FLASHPOINTS

The Guardian – 15th July -- World briefing. As flashpoints multiply, a devastating Israeli conflict with Iran becomes ever more likely. The possibility that Iran may spring a surprise or two is heightened by growing domestic unrest. Barack Obama expressed confidence last week that Israel would not attack Iran without first consulting him. “The relationship between the US and Israel is sufficiently strong that neither of us try to surprise each other,” Obama told Israel’s Channel 2 television. But he left a lot unsaid. He did not say he would try to block Israeli air strikes on Iran’s nuclear plants – only that he expected to hear about them in advance. And he did not say Washington would refuse to assist or participate in any such attack. The US preferred a diplomatic solution, he said. But then came the familiar mantra: “ I assure you I have not taken options off the table.” Conversely, nothing Obama said could remove the possibility that dangerous surprises may be in store for Israel and the US from Iran. The depth and breadth of the confrontation with Tehran on numerous fronts – political, commercial, geographical and physical – is growing exponentially. The situation grows less predictable by the day. It would not take much to spark a full-blown crisis.
Our comment: Added to which Britain is looking a recession in the face and the United States is on the edge of a “double dip”!

OIL

The Guardian – 12th July – Lloyd’s adds voice to ‘peak oil’ warnings. One of the city’s most respected institutions has warned of “catastrophic consequences” for businesses that fail to prepare for a world of increasing oil scarcity and a lower carbon economy. The Lloyd’s insurance market and the highly regarded Institute of Strategic Studies (ISS, known as Chatham House) says Britain needs to be ready for “peak oil “ and disrupted energy supplies at a time of soaring fuel demand in China and India, constraints on production caused by the BP oil spill and political moves to cut CO2 to halt global warming. …. The report predicts the world is heading for a global oil supply crunch and high prices owing to insufficient investment in oil production and a rebound in global demand following recession. …. an earlier Chatham House conference showed that “lack of oil by 2013 could force the price of crude above $200 (£130) a barrel. It also quotes a US department of energy report highlighting the economic chaos that would result, recommending a crash programme to overhaul the transport system. “Even before we reach peak oil” says the Lloyd’s report, “we could witness an oil supply crunch because of increased Asian demand.”
Our comment: China is doing all it can to tie up as much of the world oil supply as it can and India is not far behind.

ECONOMICS

The Guardian – 14th July – Osborne (Britain’s finance minister) must hold his VAT hike to avert the double dip. …. to those who read business pages, one story dominates all others: the black thundercloud of double-dip recession hovering over Britain While politics is consumed by the minutiae of cuts in government programmes, the wider economy howls for attention. On Monday the Office for National Statistics confirmed that the recession of 2008-9 was the worst in half a century, sucking £22bn out of the economy and costing hundreds of thousands of jobs. The UK slumped 6.4% in output in 18 months, far worse than the eurozone’s 5.3% and the US’s 3.8%.
The Independent – 21st July – Tough medicine needed as UK’s debt pile grows, warns Osborne. Britain’s public finances took a turn for the worse in June as public borrowing surged to a record £20.9 bn, at least according to the public-sector net cash requirement, which counts payments when they are actually made. The bleak figures were released as the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) warned that the strong growth shown by manufacturers in recent months is going to slow down.
The Guardian – 13th July – No pleasing the ratings agencies. Standard and Poor’s (one of the agencies) keeps Britain on downgrade-watch despite austerity budget, as rosy forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility are again called into doubt. The credit rating agency provided a double blow to the chancellor when it said the economy was unlikely to grow at the pace forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility and expressed doubts about the coalition’s willingness to stick to the drastic cuts in public spending planned for the rest of this parliament. While confirming the UK’s prized triple-A rating, S&P said there was at least a one-in-three chance of it being downgraded. Britain was put on negative watch in May last year when the scale of the deterioration in public finances caused by the recession alarmed rating agencies.

Our comment: Britain stands every chance of losing the triple-A rating which will mean it will be that much harder to obtain international loans until we have shown ourselves able to pay back loans we’ve already contracted. The news is that the Republic of Ireland has just lost its triple-A rating. As we said a moment ago so much now seems to be avoided by the media. We are finding newspaper after newspaper is carrying more and more of the inconsequential than ever before. This includes such highly rated papers as the Sunday Times, The Observer, The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail – BBC radio and television is similarly infected. Even the International Herald Tribune has gone through a ‘dumbing down’! Only the BBC World Service still seems able to present significant news items and analyses.

SOME CLOSING BRIEF NEWS ITEMS

The Times – 20th July -- $40bn but home is still a cave. … Afghans are living in abject poverty.

The Times – 20th July – Britain is getting ready to leave Afghanistan. We are only waiting for the Americans to make the first move.

The Independent -- 12th July -- Population explosion scrutinised as scientist urges politicians to act.