About the cricket parasites: That is so gross! Who would think that such a giant worm could come out of an insect! Japanese government tells young people to drink more booze: The Japanese have been drinking much less on average, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Whereas in 1995, a person would on average consume roughly 26 gallons a year, that amount fell to 19.8 gallons in 2020. Since 1.7% of Japan's tax revenue derives from taxes on alcohol, this drop in alcohol consumption is regarded by the country's National Tax Agency as a problem. Less drinking means less revenue — a fact the NTA finds hard to swallow with the country facing a $348 billion deficit. The Japan Times reported that Japan's liquor tax revenue experienced a historic drop in 2020, falling by nearly $812 million. The pandemic's impact on restaurants and bars that would otherwise have served alcohol is said to be partly to blame. The NTA also believes social factors to have been responsible. Those who began to work from home are believed to have begun questioning "whether they need to continue the habit of drinking with colleagues to deepen communication." In an effort to rejuvenate this revenue stream, the Japanese government has recently launched a campaign to get more young people drinking more alcohol. Part of this initiative involves a nationwide competition inviting persons ages 20-39 to provide ideas for ways to prompt people to drink. https://www.theblaze.com/news/japanese-government-wants-young-people-to-drink-more China to send troops to Russia for 'Vostok' exercise: BEIJING, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Chinese troops will travel to Russia to take part in joint military exercises led by the host and including India, Belarus, Mongolia, Tajikistan, and other countries, China's defense ministry said on Wednesday. China's defense ministry said its participation in the exercises was part of an ongoing bilateral annual cooperation agreement with Russia. Under Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, Beijing and Moscow have grown increasingly close. Canada is getting real comfortable with killing its disabled: Only months after Ottawa greenlit one of the world’s most liberal euthanasia regimes, a series of controversial state-sanctioned deaths have attracted growing international criticism that the Canadian health system now seems to be actively killing its disabled patients. This week, a feature by the Associated Press quoted secretly recorded audio from a London, Ont. hospital that appeared to show a medical ethicist raising the subject of euthanasia with a disabled patient, Roger Foley, after reminding him that he was costing the system “north of $1,500 a day.” Foley told the AP that he had never previously expressed a desire for medically assisted death, and began recording the staff after they kept mentioning it to see if he had “an interest.” The AP story also quoted Tim Stainton, director of UBC’s Canadian Institute for Inclusion and Citizenship, who called medical assistance in dying “probably the biggest existential threat to disabled people since the Nazis’ program in Germany in the 1930s.” Within the numbers are a small but growing number of high-profile cases in which Canadians with treatable illnesses appear to have instead been prescribed death by lethal injection. There was “Sophia,” a 51-year-old Toronto woman with severe chemical sensitivities who took MAID after she was unable to find an affordable home free of the smell of smoke or chemical cleaners. “Denise,” a 31-year-old Toronto woman, similarly pursued euthanasia as a result of what she called “abject poverty” preventing her from securing appropriate accommodation for a variety of chronic conditions. Canada has now become an international poster child for how quickly the legalization of euthanasia can go off the rails. From NTEB We invite you to join us as we dramatically expand our Free Bible Program with the launch of the ‘Bibles Behind Bars’ website this week! Just this week, we officially launched the ‘Bibles Behind Bars’ website with all sorts of information about what we do, how people can support it, and most importantly, a place for chaplains and preachers who run jail and prison ministries to send us a message letting us know what their needs for Bibles are. This is happened so fast, it literally made my head spin, but how very exciting it is to see the Lord expanding our outreach to get something done for His name in these last days. “The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it.” Psalm 68:11 Here are just a few of the facilities we have sent King James Bibles to in the past few weeks: Lopez State Jail in Edinburg, TX If you are a chaplain, pastor or preacher who goes to the jails to preach the gospel and need Bibles, please go onto Bibles Behind Bars and sent us a request. Everyone else, please pray for this exciting new phase of our NTEB outreach, and if the Lord puts on your heart to donate to this effort so we don’t ever have to turn down a request for Bibles, please donate and be as generous as you can be. Thank you so very much for your prayers and support of this incredibly vital program. - Fair Use -
St. Lucie County Jail in Fort Pierce, FL
Darrell B. Hester Juvenile Detention Center in San Benito, Tx
South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall, Tx
John B. Connally Jail Unit in Kennedy, TX
J H Lilley Correctional Center in Boley, OK
Adair County Regional Jail in at Larue County, KY (pending)