New events

North Africa

Algeria: ‘North Africa’s steadiest country is quietly unraveling’: low energy prices, austerity
Chad: Fighting Boko Haram in Chad: Beyond Military Measures
Egypt: ‘Looming crisis: much decreased fresh-water supply to Nile delta’
… ‘multi-year study places the country’s major breadbasket at serious risk’
… ‘a possible thaw in relations with Iran?’
Libya: Fighting between factions intensifies. All about power and oil.
Tunisia: A moderately deep dive into successes & challenges in education in Tunisia

West Africa

Reuters: West African urban polls find clean water top priority
… rapid urbanization causing many problems; formerly rural communities becoming urban
New report on the culture of cybercrime in West Africa:
… Yahoo Boys and Next Level Cybercriminals
Maternal Mortality highest in West Africa: and using technology to reduce it
… 1 in 30 Nigerian mothers die in childbirth; better than it used to be, but…
Benin: ‘Suspected assassins kill Benin pastor, woman’: no motive yet
Burkina Faso: a new & (maybe) frightening biological experiment, if locals agree
… releasing mosquitoes to eradicate another species heavy with the burden of malaria

East Africa/Horn:

BBC: ‘Countless lives at stake’ warn NGOs as hunger in east Africa prompts major appeal
… 16 mln face hunger: drought acute in Somalia, S/SE Ethiopia, N/Coastal Kenya, S Sudan.
… and, Dipole: the ‘Indian Niño’ that has brought devastating drought to East Africa
… ReliefWeb update: East Africa Food Crisis worsens: 22 million in urgent need of food
Djibouti: China to deploy 100,000 marines for the first time, to Pakistan and Djibouti
Ethiopia: South Sudan-Ethiopia road opens up trade route, access for Sudan to Djibouti
… and, relaxes some state of emergency restrictions: stop-and-search, some curfews
Somalia: A country devastated by drought, famine, and conflict.
… Somalia pirates: anger fuels return of ship attacks: over foreigners fishing permits
S Sudan: UN report: govt buying arms with money while millions face starvation
… why the famine in South Sudan keeps getting worse: civil war forces out aid
… PBS video: In South Sudan’s deadline famine, ‘anything we can find we will try to eat’
… and, govt has begun relocating people over their ethnicity: ‘population engineering’

Central Asia

Kazakhstan: Soviet-era nuclear testing is still making people sick in Kazakhstan
… and, can be a transit hub between Southeast Asia and Europe: free trade zones
Tajikistan: Fighters: ‘Tajikistan’s deadly export’: new report by Hague-based ICCT
Turkmenistan: Gas Gloom: worst economic crisis in 25 years due to dependency on gas sales
Uzbekistan: Not Karimov’s Uzbekistan anymore? Some encouraging signs of freedoms.

West Asia/Gulf

Azerbaijan: CBN: Evangelical hopes to convert Muslim population to Christianity.
… Also in IBT. And, Azerbaijan’s ambiguous Bible breakthrough.
Iraq: Some Christians returning to Iraq, but many are not.
.. Broken crosses and desecrated churches: what remains of Christians in Iraq.
Saudi Arabia: signs US$65 billion in deals at start of visit to Beijing.
… Iran pilgrims to join this year’s hajj.
… Saudi oil moves to stabilize oil prices above $50/barrel: good for their economy.
… Restarting oil shipments to Egypt; frosty relations thawing?
… is Whatsapp working in Saudi Arabia? Maybe, maybe not.
Turkey: Five myths about Turkey. US Christian expats impacted by post-coup roundup.
Yemen: Could also be on the brink of famine.

South Asia

Afghanistan: US has spent more on rebuilding Afghanistan than it spent on Europe
Bangladesh: Report of ‘20,000 Muslims’ converting in the past year. (0.01% of pop.)
… and, The fading legacy of Christian literature in Bangladesh.
Iran: After Khamenei: Iran’s coming succession struggle
India: Oped in Indian Express: Census, Christians, Conversions
… ‘why is the Christian population growth rate the same as that of the average Indian’
… a hostile piece and the figures may be exaggerated but they are based on census figures
… and this piece suggests Kerala’s Christians may be underreported (hostile, pro-Hindu)
… and, BJP sweeps Uttar Pradesh: Indian media failed to notice one of the biggest waves
… ‘Modi’s victory and the BJP’s Future: will Modi remake the party?’ (FA)
… and, Compassion: Why we’re leaving India, but still have hope.
Nepal: This from December: Christianity’s rise tests Nepal’s new secularism
Pakistan: to launch first census since 1998. Researchers rejoice.

East Asia

China: seeks international law for state control of Internet
… enhance state control in order to ‘fight cyberattacks and cyberterrorism’
… Why China’s internet use has overtaken the West: and what it means for the rest
… and, China outpaces India in Internet access, smartphone ownership.
… First transpacific Internet data cable majority-owned by a Chinese company
… new rules on employment for graduates from foreign countries w/o working experience
… The polite fiction that there is only one China is coming under pressure
… 9 youngest self-made female billionaires in the world are Chinese
… Google another step closer to being unblocked?
… World’s largest alien finder now open to tourists in rural Guizhou
… five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope.
… Baidu launches SwiftScribe, an app that transcribes audio with AI.
… What Christianity in China is like.
N Korea: as long as they avoid evangelism, PRK’s NGOs have considerable room to work

Southeast Asia

Cambodia: The ‘Chinazation’ of Cambodia
… Cambodia, Catholicism and Cauliflower: ups, downs of life in a Vietnamese community
… SCMP: The former Khmer Rouge cadres who turned to God for salvation
… ‘in Pailin.. Christianity is offering the redemption that Buddhism’s karma cannot’
Myanmar: ReliefWeb: Hidden Plight: Christian minorities in Burma (Dec. 2016). PDF.
Thailand: The Christians held in Thailand after fleeing Pakistan. Also CT.
Vietnam: Considers changing two-child policy.

New Data

Mission Motives Infographic: why North Americans serve and stay cross-culturally.
UN official: world faces largest humanitarian crisis since 1945.
Infographic: the state of Internet security, 2016.
Economist Chart: Asian countries are eating more wheat.

Longer reads

Lausanne Global Analysis: Surfing the third wave of missions in India
… Andrews, Jonathan. Violence and discrimination against Middle East Christians.
… Georges, Jayson. The Good News for Honor-Shame cultures.
UNICEF Report: A deadly journey for children: the central Mediterranean migration route
Video: Dr. Aila Tasse on Jesus’ movement leadership principles
China: Should Christians join the Communist Party? It’s complicated. Here’s one opinion.
The missing piece in American missions: minority representation
… also often missing in mobilization efforts, too.
Lessons from a missions hero: what Lilias Trotter can teach us today
Beinart, Peter. USA: “Breaking faith: the culture war over religious morality has faded.”
… “in its place is something much worse.”

Pioneer Mission Startups, Strategy

Google’s Nine Principles of Innovation ‘can be used by anyone’

UPG Profiles, Travelogues, Stories

Slideshow: refugees and their most precious possessions, from teddy bears to Bibles
Photos: Holi celebrations welcome spring with brilliant colors: Hindu festival.
IRIN: Face to Face with the Eritrean exodus into Ethiopia
In pictures: Drought brings savage halt to nomadic way of life in Somalia
New book: Azerbaijan through the eyes of a Kazakhstani woman
Photos, video: In the wilds of Mongolia: horses, sand dunes…
Thailand: How life is changing for the Karen tribe. Among other things, conversions…

Futuristics/Technology

#AI is transforming the workplace: from who gets hired to how they’re evaluated
#Censorship: Google increases efforts to filter out offensive, upsetting, inaccurate content
… how quality raters impact search results; vs. religion
… China blocks Pinterest.
#Energy: The second shale revolution. Oil prices falling again
#Energy: Google’s new tool says nearly 80% of roofs are sunny enough for solar panels
#Housing: 5th grade girl builds portable, solar powered tiny house via Youtube tutorials
#Malware found preinstalled on Android phones
#Medicine: Scientists grow human skin on robots to develop grafts for artificial muscles
#Robots: Amazon will kill more American jobs than China did
#Robots: Why giving feelings to artificial beings could backfire: the ‘uncanny valley’
#Surveillance: USA: can border agents search your electronic devices? It’s complicated.
… some of us may need to pay attention to this bit.
… also: American Citizens: US border agents can search your cell phone
… and, Telegram was the app where Iranians talked politics. Then the govt caught on.
… You’ll never shop alone again: tracking buying habits. Russian corp. mentioned at end.
PDF: Immigrants and billion dollar startups in America.
… that immigrant student might be the next big startup founder.
Almost 48 million Twitter accounts (up to 15% of active accounts) are bots
Web browsers, not apps, are Internet gatekeepers for the ‘next billion.’ …maybe.
#Security: Yahoo might have been breached by a high-ranking employee phished.
… social engineering is one of the biggest ways to breach security.
… 33 million records leaked from Dunn & Bradstreet database: includes email, more

Quotable

  “The secret of speed is not to hurry.” ~John Flanagan
  “Optimism compounds better than cynicism.” ~Paul Graham

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