It’s Tuesday, February 27th, AD 2024. This is The Worldview heard at www.TheWorldview.com. I’m Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com)
By Kevin Swanson
Christian Armenians displaced from Artsakh
Until October 2023, more than 100,000 ethnic Armenian Christians lived in Nagorno- Karabakh, also known as the Republic of Artsakh, a breakaway enclave internationally recognized as a part of Azerbaijan, but populated by ethnic Armenians, reports International Christian Concern.
Artsakh lies between Azerbaijan and Armenia, with the two nations fighting three wars over the past three decades over the enclave. The end of the Artsakh this year started with a nine-month blockade by Azerbaijan of Artsakh, followed by an overwhelming lightning military operation by Azerbaijan.
In the days following Azerbaijan’s takeover of the enclave, more than 100,000 Armenians, including over 40,000 children, fled Artsakh into Armenia. By October 1, Artsakh was virtually emptied of Armenians.
The Artsakh refugees shared that the reason they left was because they feared being massacred by the Azerbaijani military if they stayed under their control. The families are struggling with the trauma of such rapid displacement and the loss of their nation, their land, homes, farms and everything they left behind.
There is a deep sense of the history of the Armenian genocide repeating itself, which happened more than a century ago and killed and displaced millions of Armenians. At that time, the Ottoman Empire declared a holy war against the empire’s Christians and sought to kill, or displace from their lands, its Christian populations and perhaps most significantly, Armenian Christians.
America’s mental fragility
America’s mental state is still in decline.
Anti-depressant use for young people, between the ages of 12 and 25, spiked another 66.3% between 2016 and 2022. Apparently, the COVID years, and increased access to psychotropic drugs through telehealth appointments by Zoom have contributed to the rise.
The study published by the American Academy of Pediatrics found that the monthly antidepressant dispensing rate increased 63.5% faster from March 2020 onwards compared with beforehand
In 1990, approximately 3% of Americans were on anti-depressants. Today, 24.5% of college students are on anti-depressants, and 29% are on some form of psychotropic medication.
Jeremiah 51:6-8 warns of the troubles in Babylon. “Flee from the midst of Babylon, and every one save his life! Do not be cut off in her iniquity, for this is the time of the Lord’s vengeance; He shall recompense her. Babylon was a golden cup in the Lord’s hand, that made all the Earth drunk. The nations drank her wine. Therefore, the nations are deranged. Babylon has suddenly fallen and been destroyed. Wail for her! Take balm for her pain; Perhaps she may be healed.”
More young men want children than young women
Here’s another interesting survey from Pew Research.
Among 18 to 34-year-olds, 57% of young men would like to be a parent someday — but now, only 45% of young women would say the same thing.
British officials look to register homeschoolers
Homeschooling around the world has not seen much of an increase in state scrutiny and regulation over the last decade, but this may be about to change.
England’s Labor Party is pushing for tightened government oversight of the nation’s growing homeschool population, including a national registry, and state monitoring.
The UK has about 100,000 homeschooled children.
South Africa requires homeschoolers to register, avoid spanking, and submit to kid testing
In related news, South Africa’s Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill also represents an enormous power grab on the part of the statists in that country.
The BBC reports that parents could be jailed for up to 12 months if their children are truant. The bill also bans all corporal punishment, mandates independent assessments of the children, and requires parents to register their homeschooled children with the National Department of Education.
The ruling party, the African National Congress, supports the bill, while a smaller opposition, the Democratic Alliance, opposes the anti-homeschooling bill, stating that it “disempowers schools, parents, and communities — and fails to address a single one of the systemic challenges that impede quality education.”
Estimates put the number of homeschooled children in South Africa as high as 300,000.
Why the Japanese yen has lost 50% of value
After an extended slump, the Japanese Nikkei index is finally back up to where it was 34 years ago.
However, much of the recent improvement is due to $7 trillion of money printing over 12 years, on the part of the Japanese central bank. Also, the yen has lost 50% of its value to the dollar since 1990.
The nations of the world now officially in recession include Japan, the United Kingdom, Finland, and Ireland.
China’s struggling economy
In addition, China’s economy is not doing well either.
More than 25% of Chinese aged 16-24 were unemployed in June of last year. The international monetary fund is calling the China’s real estate collapse “historic” — the worst in at least 30 years.
For the last two years, China has experienced zero or lower GDP expansion than any year since 1977.
Amos 4:6 places God as sovereign over economies. Listen to this: “I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, And lack of bread in all your places; Yet you have not returned to Me,’ says the Lord.”
The protests of Belgian farmers
Belgian farmers clogged the highways, and surrounded the European Union building in Brussels with 900 tractors on Monday morning.
They protest bureaucracy, climate-related rules, imports from Ukraine, and other issues. According to Voice of America, farmers have demonstrated in France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Italy, and Greece over the last few weeks.
April 8th is next solar eclipse
And finally, mark it down on your calendar.
The next total solar eclipse, visible in the United States and Canada, will occur on Monday, April 8th. And this time it will extend for four minutes and 27 seconds.
The totality of the eclipse will begin in Texas around 1:27pm, move up through Oklahoma, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, and end in Maine.
Close
And that’s The Worldview on this Tuesday, February 27th in the year of our Lord 2024. Subscribe by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com. Or get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I’m Adam McManus. I’m Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.
Extra print
Illegals in Texas committing lots of crime
The libertarian Cato institute has released a study of crime in Texas, indicating that the criminal conviction rate for illegal immigrants was 782 per 100,000. That compares to a conviction rate of 535 per 100,000 legal immigrants, and 1,422 per 100,000 native-born Americans.
The data was based on a study performed on Texas crime, given that Texas is the only state that records and keeps the immigration statuses of those arrested.