One of the most hopeful signs is what is beginning to happen in the Church of England, the official church of which Queen Elizabeth II is the titular head. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, is a Spirit-filled Christian who speaks in tongues. Steven told me that recently he gave an altar call and prayed for each person who came forward for the baptism of Holy Spirit. This is virtually unheard of. Source
New anti-extremism powers to be included in Queen’s speech
David Cameron is expected to announce plans to crack down on extremism in the Queen’s speech, including powers to ban organisations, close down premises and gag individuals.
The legislation follows publication of the government’s counter-extremism strategy which also promised a full investigation into the application of sharia law in the UK. Source
President Obama: The TPP would let America, not China, lead the way on global trade
Barack Obama is president of the United States.
Over the past six years, America’s businesses have created more than 14 million new jobs. To keep this progress going, we need to pursue every avenue of economic growth. Today, some of our greatest economic opportunities abroad are in the Asia-Pacific region, which is on its way to becoming the most populous and lucrative market on the planet. Increasing trade in this area of the world would be a boon to American businesses and American workers, and it would give us a leg up on our economic competitors, including one we hear a lot about on the campaign trail these days: China.
Of course, China’s greatest economic opportunities also lie in its own neighborhood, which is why China is not wasting any time. As we speak, China is negotiating a trade deal that would carve up some of the fastest-growing markets in the world at our expense, putting American jobs, businesses and goods at risk. Source
Video: Obama on TPP: ‘Other countries should play by rules set by US & partners, not the other way round’
Calling on a greater power! EU bosses hope for Pope Francis blessing for ‘common Europe’
The bloc’s chief bureaucrats – European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, European Council president Donald Tusk and European Parliament president Martin Schulz – will tomorrow visit the Vatican City.
Pope Francis will be bestowed with the Charlemagne Prize by the trio, which is handed out each year for efforts towards European unity.
This is despite Pope Francis having previously hit out at the “aloof” and “bureaucratic” EU.
He also recently rebuked Brussels for its handling of Europe’s migrant crisis. Source
Trending Science: US biotech companies will attempt to regenerate the brains of dead people
Two biotech companies in the United States have been given the green light to see if it is possible to regenerate the brains of dead people.Bioquark Inc., in collaboration with Revita Life Sciences, has been given ethical permission by US health authorities to recruit 20 patients who have been declared clinically dead from a traumatic brain injury to test whether parts of their central nervous system (CNS) can be brought back to life.
Scientists working on the http://reanima.tech/portfolio-view/project-2/(ReAnima Project) will use a combination of therapies, which include injecting the brain with stem cells and a cocktail of amino acids, as well as deploying lasers and nerve stimulation techniques which have been shown to bring patients out of comas. The first trial will be a non-randomised, single group ‘proof of concept’ trial and will take place at Anupam Hospital in Rudrapur, Uttarakhand, India. Source
Hepatitis C deaths hit all-time high in United States
(CNN) Hepatitis C-related deaths reached an all-time high in 2014, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Wednesday, surpassing total combined deaths from 60 other infectious diseases including HIV, pneumococcal disease and tuberculosis. The increase occurred despite recent advances in medications that can cure most infections within three months.
“Not everyone is getting tested and diagnosed, people don’t get referred to care as fully as they should, and then they are not being placed on treatment,” said Dr. John Ward, director of CDC’s division of viral hepatitis. Source
Florida weighs whether to overturn death sentences for nearly 400 inmates
Florida has more death row inmates than nearly any other state in the country, and it remains a bastion of capital punishment as fewer executions are carried out nationwide. But after a frantic few months that saw Florida’s system of imposing death sentences struck down and rewritten, it remains an open question what will happen to the hundreds who remain on the state’s death row — and how much longer any of them will stay there.
On Thursday, the Florida Supreme Court heard arguments in a case that could lead to nearly 400 death-row prisoners receiving life sentences, a move experts say could be the country’s single biggest jettisoning of death sentences in decades.
“We’re looking at potentially the largest number of death sentences being vacated at a single time” since the early 1970s, said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. Source
Pentagon: Sexual assault cases in the military remain constant
Washington (CNN) The number of individuals reporting cases of sexual assault in the military dropped slightly in 2015, though the reporting rate stayed the same, according to the Pentagon.
A new Defense Department report released Thursday found that a total of 6,083 reports of sexual assault involving military service members were received during the year, 48 lower than the 6,131 in 2014. Source
San Andreas Fault ‘locked, loaded and ready to roll’ with big quake, expert says
Southern California’s section of the San Andreas Fault is “locked, loaded and ready to roll,” a leading earthquake scientist said Wednesday at the National Earthquake Conference in Long Beach.
The San Andreas Fault is one of California’s most dangerous, and is the state’s longest fault. Yet for Southern California, the last big earthquake to strike the southern San Andreas was in 1857, when a magnitude 7.9 earthquake ruptured an astonishing 185 miles between Monterey County and the San Gabriel Mountains near Los Angeles.
It has been quiet since then – too quiet, said Thomas Jordan, director of the Southern California Earthquake Center. Source
London may elect first Muslim mayor, after ugly, ‘dog-whistling’ campaign
London (CNN) Londoners will find out Friday if they have elected the first Muslim mayor of any major Western city, after an unusually bitter campaign in which race and religion have proven ugly flashpoints.
The race between Labour’s Sadiq Khan, son of a bus driver, and Conservative candidate Zac Goldsmith, son of a billionaire, has seen the latter accused of peddling “vile race politics” in his campaign against his rival.
Khan, a 45-year-old lawyer and member of Parliament, is the London-born son of Pakistani immigrants, and a practicing Muslim in a city where his co-religionists comprise about 12% of the population. Source