Displaying items by tag: USA

As temperatures reached 106F (41C) in Montana and Arizona, animals scorched their paws on blistering asphalt. Texas residents must limit cooking and cleaning to preserve the power grid in one of the most excruciating heat waves to hit the USA this early in the year. 40 million people are experiencing 100F (38C) temperatures, and 50 million are under excessive heat warnings. Across the south-west wildfires have spread, with lightning and gusty winds threatening to spark more. The extreme heat and drought complicate firefighters’ efforts to contain the blazes. Arizona’s large aerial firefighting tankers couldn’t fly due to high temperatures and diminished water supplies. Cooling and hydration stations have opened across the American west and the hottest months of the year are yet to come. Scientists say, ‘Climate change is a human engineered change; fire suppression is a human thing too. It is a result of our activities and decisions.’

President Joe Biden is launching a renewed effort to tackle crime in the US, as a series of major cities experience spikes in violent offences. Police departments define violent crime in slightly different ways, but the data usually includes murder, robbery, assault and rape. There were 25% more murders recorded in 2020 than the previous year. Major US cities have tended to follow the national trend in becoming safer since the 1990s, but some have recently seen a sharp rise in murders. Spikes in the biggest cities are a considerable concern to Biden's administration, with Chicago having the worst records for murders and a continuing upward trend in 2021. A rise in the number of shootings in many major cities runs parallel with the president's attempts to strengthen firearm regulations to combat gun violence. The administration hopes strong action now can stem the violence and prevent murders increasing further this summer.

The ongoing departure of American troops from Afghanistan has led to an upsurge in violence, great instability, and real fear for the future of the county. 

In the last week alone the fight between Afghan government troops and the Taliban has entered a more brutal phase as a reduction in airstrikes against the militants by withdrawing U.S. forces has largely shifted combat to ground engagements, many on the edges of densely populated urban areas after some recent Taliban advances. 

It is in this context that we share with you the following message from John D Robb – Co-Founder of International Prayer Connect.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Afghanistan needs our special prayers at this time. This nation, from which the 9/11 attacks and other terror plots were launched 20 years ago, could again fall into the hands of the Taliban, the Islamic radical group that ruled the country, creating great havoc and harm for both their people and our world.

Please see this call to prayer from a dear friend who has given decades of his life along with his team to serve the country and its long-suffering people.

Can we pray and agree together with the authority Jesus has given us in Matthew 18:18-20 that a divine reversal will take place? The Lord also said that by releasing even a mustard seed of real faith we can see mountains move and nothing will be impossible to us (Matthew 17:20).

From our concerned brother:

"In our last prayer-mail we informed you that the US and NATO decided to pull out all the troops by September. Many of us, especially the Afghan people were shocked by this decision and even worse that this is being done without any conditions required of the Taliban. It was clear before and has become now even more evident that the Afghan Army strongly needs help to defend their country. 
The Afghan government reports that after 1st May 30 additional districts fell into the hands of Taliban. They controlled already 73 districts and by now it has risen to 104. They have even conquered areas where they have not been strong before. In several instances cities or military bases have been surrounded by Taliban for up to three weeks and no help came, after which they were captured. 

Target killings, especially in the capital have risen. The vehicle of a close brother of one of our believers was blown up and he just escaped where all the other passengers burnt to death.

One of our local worker’s relatives returned from a wedding to their home when the Taliban stopped their bus, took six young people out and killed them in front of the eyes of all their relatives. While ten deminers were recently killed, probably by IS, today it was reported that five polio vaccinators were killed and four injured by the Taliban.

There have been power cuts in the capital as the Taliban blew up power lines. It has been reported that 28 antennas have been destroyed which makes communication extremely difficult.
 
Much more sad news can be added to those already mentioned. We would like to ask you to fervently pray for Afghanistan that God would step in and save this nation from being captured and governed again by the Taliban. We share the deep disappointment with our friends in the country about the way this country has been abandoned, and we look to God Almighty and pray that He will release His heavenly Hosts to save this nation.

Please pray with us for:

• The government as well as the army will stay united and for wisdom in all their decisions.
• Courage and strength for the Afghan army and police force and that they would successfully recapture all the lost territory.
• Protection of our foreign and local staff and local brothers and sisters throughout the country and for wisdom and discernment in making the right decisions. So far, our teams were able to carry on the work.
• That many Afghans will get to know the Lord in these times of desperation and uncertainty.

In the Bible are many examples how God is able to protect his people from overwhelming enemies that He has the power to rescue also this nation (Psalm 68)." 

May I, John, add the following? Let us pray that the US government and NATO authorities will reconsider their foolish decision and decide to leave at least a skeleton force to support the Afghans rather than abandon them. It makes no sense to have tens of thousands of troops in other places where international security is threatened and not here from where the 9/11 attacks were planned and carried out.

Thanks so much for keeping this challenging situation in your prayers of faith at this crucial time. Let's pray with His authority mingled with faith and watch to see what He does to bring deliverance.

Yours in Christ,

John D Robb – Co-Founder
International Prayer Connect

Prayer at the Heart of America, For the Heart of America is a national call to prayer taking place Friday, July 23rd, at the geographical center of the 48 contiguous states. This Prayer Gathering is the result of a vision birthed in the heart of Doug Small and his passion for a fresh awakening across the United States of America.

Prayer At the Heart is a call to the family of faith, and the invitation is extended to everyone who believes that God is able to heal our land and that He is our hope for revival and restoration. Without question, our nation has turned its back on its Judeo-Christian heritage and foundation. The truth of God’s Word is being ignored and rejected. Our sin has increased, and the moral fiber of our nation has been defiled.

Biblically and historically, we discover that we must turn our face and faith toward God as a nation. The call is for the people of God who are called by His name, humble themselves and pray. Seek His face and turn from our wicked ways with the promise that He will hear our prayers, forgive our sins and heal our land.

‍We pray, Yes, Lord, have mercy upon America and send us a fresh awakening. You will want to join us in Lebanon, Kansas, Friday, July 23rd, as we make our appeal to heaven. Help us spread the word, and let’s make the journey to the heart of America as we pray at the heart of America.

IPC and a number of our partners across USA are partnering with this event.

More info and Sign Up at: https://www.prayerattheheart.com/

Before talking in Geneva relations between the USA and Russia were at rock bottom. After talking, both presidents praised their talks but have made little concrete progress at the first such meeting since 2018. Disagreements were stated, said Joe Biden, but not in a hyperbolic way, and he said Russia did not want a new cold war. Vladimir Putin said Mr Biden was an experienced statesman and the two ‘spoke the same language’. They agreed to begin a dialogue on nuclear arms control and said they would return ambassadors to each other's capitals. However, there was little sign of agreement on cyber-security, Ukraine, or the fate of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is currently serving a two-and-a-half-year sentence in a penal colony. Mr Biden said there would be ‘devastating consequences’ for Russia if Navalny died in prison. Mr Putin hinted at a possible deal on exchanging prisoners, saying he believed compromises could be found.

Boris Johnson and Joe Biden met on 10 June. Joe Biden has Irish roots, and many believe Britain should not underestimate the strength of his feelings against tinkering with the Northern Ireland Protocol if it puts the Good Friday agreement in jeopardy. Boris Johnson wants to ‘tinker’, putting the agreement at risk. He was seen by many Americans as Britain's equivalent of Donald Trump, and indeed he was lavish in his praise of the former president. But British PMs need to get on with whoever is America’s president. Boris, from a privileged background, needs to get on with Joe, who is from a poor working-class background. The one thing the two men do have in common is that they both are Catholics: one is a practising believer, the other needs more practice.

US president Joe Biden and Russian president Putin will meet in Geneva on 16 June. They first met in 2011, when vice-president Biden told Putin, ‘I don’t think you have a soul.’ They clashed again in 2014, when Biden was tasked with bolstering Ukraine in the wake of its protests and pressuring Russia to scale back military interference in eastern Ukraine. Putin then pushed back against Biden and the strain of US policy he represented. In 2016 Putin had his intelligence services interfere with the US presidential election, hoping Donald Trump, once elected, might reverse Obama’s administration stance on Russia. In the ensuing years, Putin’s minions likely passed information or misinformation to Biden’s son Hunter, which Trump’s supporters eagerly received and did their best to deploy in the 2020 campaign. With so much jagged history between them, the meeting will be awkward at a personal level.

New satellite images show vehicles, a fresh access road and excavation at an Iranian nuclear site that was covered up in March. This raised alarms as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) met in Vienna. The IAEA seeks to promote the safe, secure and peaceful use of nuclear technologies. During a crucial board meeting, the US accused Iran of violating the very nuclear deal that US negotiators are trying to reinstate. ‘Since this board last met, Iran has also exceeded constraints by enriching uranium to 60% U-235,’ the delegation said. The head of the UN nuclear watchdog issued a similar warning. ‘My expectations about this process, of course, were not met,’ the IAEA director said. ‘We have a country that has a very developed and ambitious nuclear programme, which is enriching uranium at very high levels, very close to weapons-grade.’

An international group of scientists has ditched ethical guidelines so that they can grow babies for forty days, for the sole purpose of killing them for research. The International Society for Stem Cell Research issued new guidelines that lift restrictions on certain types of unethical research that manipulate, alter, or destroy human embryos. It wants to remove a 14-day rule for research on human embryos, established in 1979, which stated scientists may only experiment on human embryos up to 14 days after fertilisation. This rule has been the current policy in the United States and generally a scientific standard throughout the world. The new guidelines have removed all restraint, creating the potential for ‘baby in a bottle’ experiments. It also wants to use three-parent human embryos (human embryo with DNA from three individuals), which is currently prohibited, and to allow creating a cell from animal and human cells, characteristic, or tissues.

US president Joe Biden and Russia's president Vladimir Putin will hold their first summit on 16 June in Geneva, setting the stage for a new chapter in their fraught relationship. The leaders will discuss the full range of pressing issues, seeking to restore predictability and stability to the US-Russia relationship. The Kremlin said that Putin and Biden would be discussing ‘issues of strategic stability,’ as well as ‘resolving regional conflicts’ and the Covid-19 pandemic. Biden, making his first international trip as president, will go to Geneva immediately after separate summits with his key Western allies in the G7, NATO, and the EU. To prepare the ground, US secretary of state Antony Blinken and veteran Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov met last week in Reykjavik. After their meeting, a Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said that repairing ties ‘will not be easy’, but he saw ‘a positive signal’.