Displaying items by tag: Global

It was International Women's Day this week to draw attention to how slavery disproportionately affects women and girls and is a huge violation of human rights. One of the many missions working to establish a world where women can know their full potential is the Nomi Network. They categorize modern slavery as bonded labour, domestic servitude, commercial sexual exploitation, and child labour. Poverty and economic marginalisation make women and girls vulnerable to exploitation. Nomi Network creates pathways to safe employment and economic stability, empowering women and girls to break cycles of slavery in their families and communities by:- Training women in life skills and technical skills. Connecting women to jobs with private sector employers and promoting fair labour standards. Creating transparent supply chains with responsible sourcing with ethically-made products. Raising public awareness of human trafficking. The organisation is named after Nomi, an 8-year-old Cambodian who was trafficked by her stepfather and suffered unthinkable abuse. Nomi Network provides a future for thousands of other women and girls like her.

This week, a US judge ordered Swiss mining and commodity giant Glencore to pay US$700 million in a long-running corruption probe. Last year, Glencore pleaded guilty to channelling at least US$100 million in bribes to public officials globally - from Brazil to the DRC, and Nigeria to Venezuela. Glencore negotiated with Brazil, the UK and America to pay up to US$1.1 billion. This week’s sentence confirms the US portion of the coordinated settlement. But it doesn’t address the full scope. There are more populations and individuals who suffered harm from Glencore’s scheme. Pray for a more comprehensive effort to identify and adequately compensate all those affected, particularly the most vulnerable. Meanwhile Indonesia wants guarantees from the UK that they will receive a portion of any future financial settlement resulting from a corruption inquiry into an aircraft manufacturer after Jakarta was excluded from an agreement made with Airbus, even though Indonesia assisted with the investigation.

Beginning at sundown on 22nd March over a billion Muslims around the world will abstain from eating, drinking, smoking, and sex from dawn to sunset during the holy month of Ramadan. Fasting is one of the Five Pillars of Islam and one of the highest forms of Islamic worship. Abstinence from earthly pleasures and curbing evil intentions and desires is their act of obedience and submission to God and an atonement for sins, errors, and mistakes. Fasting is an act of faith and worship to  increase their spiritual piety. Fasting together as a worldwide community (Ummah) affirms the brotherhood and equality of man before God. Throughout the day many go out of their way to help the needy, both financially and emotionally. Believing that a reward earned during this month is multiplied 70 times and more. For this reason, Ramadan is also known as the month of charity and generosity.

Finance ministers of the world's largest economies failed to agree on a closing statement after China refused to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine or accept parts of G20’s statement deploring Russia's aggression ‘in the strongest terms’. Moscow said ‘anti-Russian’ countries had ‘destabilised’ the G20 after China’s plan was viewed as pro-Russian. President Zelenskiy will meet China’s president to discuss China’s cease-fire proposal, saying a meeting would be ‘important for world security.’ China's 12-point ‘political settlement’ plan does not require Russia to leave Ukraine and was met with scepticism from Ukraine’s allies. Emmanuel Macron called on Beijing to ‘help us pressure Russia’ to end the war as peace was only possible if ‘Russian aggression stopped, troops withdraw and territorial sovereignty of Ukraine and its people is respected’. Joe Biden said, ‘China as a peacemaker in Ukraine is not rational. Putin's applauding it, so how could it be any good? I've seen nothing in the plan that would benefit anyone other than Russia, if China's plan were followed.’ See also

Researchers, including those from the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia, say that lightning-ignited wildfires produce large emissions of carbon, nitrogen oxides and other gases, playing a key role in the climate crisis. Previous studies already found that the global occurrence of lightning flashes may increase due to global heating over land and in the oceanic region of south-eastern Asia. A warming planet could lead to more ‘hot lightning’ strikes in many parts of the world. Hot lightning bolts are much more likely to spark wildfires and the climate crisis could lead to more wildfire-inducing ‘hot lightning’. Lightning strikes of all kinds could increase by 30% by 2100, researchers say,and a new model suggests major ice sheet collapse will happen before the Paris Climate Agreement temperatures are reached.

Scammers are using Turkey and Syria’s earthquakes to trick people into donating to fake causes. These scams claim to raise money for survivors, but instead they channel donations away from real charities into their own PayPal accounts. One of over a hundred recently created fundraisers for Turkey is TurkeyRelief, which joined Twitter and touts for donations. Its PayPal account has received US$900, but that includes $500 from the page’s creator, who donated to their own cause to make them appear authentic. On TikTok Live, content creators make money by receiving digital gifts. TikTok livestreams show photos with sound effects and ask for donations. One video shows a distressed child running from an explosion. Their plea for TikTok gifts is ‘Please help achieve this goal’. But the photo of the child is not from Turkey. The same image was on Twitter in 2018 with the caption ‘Stop African Genocide’.

Antarctic glaciers may be more sensitive to sea temperature changes than was thought. A  programme put sensors and an underwater robot beneath the Thwaites glacier, one of the worlds fastest-changing glaciers, the size of Britain. If it melted completely, it would raise global sea levels half a metre. The joint survey, part of the largest investigations ever undertaken anywhere on the White Continent , suggests even low amounts of melting can push a glacier further towards vanishing. Thwaites has been nicknamed Doomsday Glacier. From 6 to 20 November 2022, COP27 held high-level and side events, key negotiations, and press conferences, hosting more than a hundred heads of state, over 35,000 participants and numerous pavilions showcasing climate action around the world and across different sectors. Pray that new discoveries around earth science will be a strong wake-up call to all those participants.

The president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development has called for global leaders to invest more in rural communities and small-scale farmers, who produce one-third of the world’s food. The representatives of 177 states were asked, ‘Think how much more rural people could contribute to global food security, peace and stability if they had the resources to improve their farms and prosper, not just survive.’ Barbados’s prime minister said, ‘It is time for the world to recognise that we need to invest right now in securing food and nutrition for citizens across the planet, especially poor people, and invest in smallholder agriculture and diversified local production. Investing in food systems transformation will end the world’s hunger and nutrition crisis.’ Climate change, conflict and global inflation are creating a food crisis of epic proportions, as progress in achieving Zero Hunger moves backwards. Over one in ten people are hungry, and over 3 billion cannot afford a healthy diet.

Proverbs 29:2 says, ‘When the righteous increase, the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule, the people groan.’ As 2023 unfolds forty different nations will be nominating new leaders or restoring 2022 leaders. We can pray for voters to make wise choices. Where there has been bribery and corruption previously, pray for honest and fair elections in 2023 to ensure that integrity and policymaking is for the good of all. Pray for leaders and their advisors to be level-headed as they handle the strains of public office. Ask God to raise up people who will make good and just decisions, and for Christians in leadership to bring salt and light into all they do and say. Where there is unrest, ask God to raise up peacemakers. Where there is Christian persecution, pray for freedom from coercion and harassment. For a list of countries and their election dates, go to Elections 2023.

It has been another year of remarkable progress in Bible translation activity. Many areas of the work have seen significant acceleration. We see the favour and hand of God on translation projects and teams, enabling them to help create a world where everyone can know Jesus through the Bible. The number of language programmes that Bible translation teams are working on has seen its biggest leap on record, with new programmes starting at a rate of one per day. Also, Bibles and New Testaments have been launched at a rate of almost one per week. There is so much to be thankful for and be encouraged by. More people have God’s word in their language. More languages have a Bible than ever before. More languages have a New Testament than ever before. All this means that God’s word is available to millions of people in their own languages for the first time.