| Tomorrow's World

A World on the Brink



Presiding Evangelist Gerald Weston

Is the COVID-19 pandemic a wake-up call? How can you survive the stress and make sense of what is happening in our world today? And who can you turn to for answers?

Is There a "Life Hack" for COVID-19?



For the uninitiated, “hack,” in modern vernacular, means “shortcut.” It’s emerged from our fascination with all things computer-related. Of course, there is a more specific definition. According to Kaspersky Labs, “Computer hacking is the act of identifying and exploiting system and network vulnerabilities in order to obtain unauthorized access to those systems” (“Top 10 Most Notorious Hackers of All Time,” Kapersky.com).

COVID-19 and Redeeming the Time



Every spring break, I take the time to work on a home-improvement project. This year, it was renovating my bathroom. Since I work for the school system, spring break is a great time to do these projects, because I don’t have to go to work and my kid spends the week at his grandmother’s house. However, something strange occurred that threw a wrench in that plan this year: COVID-19. With everything shutting down and the economy uncertain, we agreed that the expense of renovating our already-functional bathroom was a little frivolous and possibly irresponsible.

Chernobyl Nuclear Fallout



Decades after the worst nuclear disaster in history, the now-shuttered nuclear power plant in Chernobyl, Ukraine, is in the news again. Thirty-four years ago, the plant’s reactor number 4 melted down. Since that time, the surrounding radioactive towns have been almost vacant, and the site has become a tourist attraction. In the last few weeks, a major forest fire burned very close to the now closed but still hot nuclear reactor (BBC, April 13, 2020).

Will Coronavirus Reshape the Middle East?



Oil prices are plummeting, and for Middle Eastern nations that rely on oil revenues to support their economies, this is very bad news. Iraq’s 2020 budget assumes that oil’s average price for the year will be $56 (U.S. dollars) per barrel (The Spectator, April 4, 2020), yet oil has dropped to less than $20 per barrel (as of this writing) and continues to show weakness.

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