If, according to God’s kingdom dynamics, the ways of God are antithetical to the ways of man, then God must consider evil to be good for man.

Evil did not just happen, God created it. He says:

“That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else. I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.” (Isaiah 45:6-7).

Evil is not of essence. Evil is created. The good God is the creator of evil. Therefore, evil is subject to good. Evil is subject to God’s divine purposes. Solomon says:

“The LORD has made all for Himself, yes, even the wicked for the day of doom.” (Proverbs 16:4).

Evil day

Jesus says evil is necessary in the life of a man: “Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:34).

This means the man who is not confronted with evil is at a disadvantage and cannot develop into a perfect man. God will not shortchange us in the amount of evil we will have to face but will make sure that we have just the right amount that we need.

Jesus’ principle about the necessity of evil is also linked to others that point to God’s safeguards in our lives. Paul says:

“No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

This means God, and not sin, is the determinant of providence. When Jesus’ disciples saw a man who had been blind from birth, they asked Jesus:

“Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered: “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.” (John 9:2-3).

In effect, we cannot draw any definitive conclusions about the righteousness of a man from anything that happens to him in this life. Bad things will happen to good people and good things will happen to bad people and vice-versa.

Jesus’ theology undermines the classical basis we have for thanksgiving. We usually give thanks because something good happens to us or because we escape something bad. But in this, we are mistaken. God does not favour us by saving us from calamity. Neither does He punish us by allowing us to suffer.

Both the disciples of Jesus and “the Jews” believed that the man was born blind because of some sin, either that of the man or his parents. But no! Jesus’ answer indicates that regardless of the circumstances that occur at birth or in any other situation, God does not interfere either to bless or curse.

There was some physiological reason why the man was born blind. But God does not discriminate, not even because of gross immorality, either to correct a condition or to cause it apart from the normal operation of the divine laws of nature. 

But Jesus, who intended to heal the man by a miracle (in this special case He did interfere), gave a reason for it: “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.” (John 9:3).

God is responsible

Inevitably, God is responsible for all the evil in the world. If God does not require evil, it would not exist. If He does not require evil, He would not create it. Thus, Amos asks rhetorically:

“Will a lion roar in the forest, when he has no prey? Will a young lion cry out of his den, if he has caught nothing? Will a bird fall into a snare on the earth, where there is no trap for it? Will a snare spring up from the earth, if it has caught nothing at all? If a trumpet is blown in a city, will not the people be afraid? If there is calamity in a city, will not the LORD have done it?” (Amos 3:4-6).

Indeed, God is behind everything. David says to God: “I was mute, I did not open my mouth, because it was You who did it. Remove Your plague from me; I am consumed by the blow of Your hand.” (Psalm 39:9-10).

Purpose of evil

Moses says to Israel: “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live.” (Deuteronomy 30:19).

It is God Himself, and not an enemy, that has set good and evil before us. He does this, not for our injury, but for our benefit.

Without evil, we would have no appreciation for good things. Without evil, there would be no salvation. Without sickness, there would be no healing.

Immediately after His baptism, the Holy Spirit handed over Jesus to Satan. Jesus had to overcome him by trusting in God and in His word. Thus, evil is meant to be overcome. It is like running a steeplechase or hurdles race. Evil constitute the obstacles in our way that must be surmounted.

An overcomer must have things to overcome. Evil is the mountain or hill before us. Jesus says: “He who overcomes will inherit all things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.” (Revelation 21:7).

But evil cannot be overcome with evil. Evil must be overcome with good. (Romans 12:21). Thereby, evil provides a testing ground for righteousness. Evil is designed to provoke righteousness.

Purifying agent

Jesus says: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” (Matthew 5:8). 

God uses the afflictions of the devil to purify our heart. This is what happened with Job. After undergoing the ordeal that God orchestrated, Job’s eyes were opened and, for the first time, he saw clearly “the invisible attributes of God.” (Romans 1:20). He said to God: “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. Therefore, I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:5-6).

Because evil is beneficial in measured doses, Jesus does not restrain Satan from prevailing against Peter. Instead, He tells him that the lessons learnt from the experience will enable him to strengthen his colleagues:

“The Lord said, ‘Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.” (Luke 22:31-32).

Jesus then told all his disciples that the devil’s testing is divinely designed to identify those who will be given the crown of life:

“The devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.” (Revelation 2:10).

Testing tool

God also uses the devil’s testing as a tool of righteousness. This was Paul’s experience who was also handed over to the devil. He says: “One of Satan’s angels was sent to make me suffer terribly, so that I would not feel too proud.” (2 Corinthians 12:7). 

In similar fashion, Paul also hands over sinners to the devil for their good. He writes to the Corinthians about an adulterous man: “You must then hand that man over to Satan. His body will be destroyed, but his spirit will be saved when the Lord Jesus returns.” (1 Corinthians 5:5). 

He also writes to Timothy: “Two of them are Hymenaeus and Alexander. I have given these men over to the power of Satan, so they will learn not to oppose God.” (1 Timothy 1:20). 

Accordingly, Habakkuk, who had complained about God’s inclination to allow evil to flourish unrestrained, finally realises that God uses the devil and his evil works for good, disciplinary, and corrective purposes. He exclaims at last: “O LORD, you have appointed them for judgment; O Rock, you have marked them for correction.” (Habakkuk 1:12).

Even if God kills us, we will not die. He will raise us from the dead. Even when God brings calamity, it is for righteous reasons. As Daniel observes:

“The LORD has kept the disaster in mind, and brought it upon us; for the LORD our God is righteous in all the works which He does, though we have not obeyed His voice.” (Daniel 9:14).

“This is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you: God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all.“ )1 John 1:5)

In God, there is no duality of right and wrong, or good and evil. Everything that God is, and everything that God does, is good and right. It is only in man that we have an interplay of the negative and the positive.

Because God is good, evil can never destroy the good. Evil can only destroy evil. Because God is good, evil can never triumph over good. Therefore, God gives us this reassurance:

“Behold, I have created the smith that blows the coals in the fire, and that brings forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy. No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, says the LORD.” (Isaiah 54:16-17).

Since all things proceed from God. All things operate through Him. And all things will be reconciled in Him. Then, even evil will end up as good because God is goodness.

“For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever!” (Romans 11:36).

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A Spanish man stands accused of taking advantage of an overly-religious old woman by posing as her Lord and Savior and asking her to deposit money at His ‘Church of Heaven’.

Could you say ‘no’ to God? What if He called you directly to ask for a favor? Esperanza, an elderly woman from León, in northwestern Spain, could not refuse God when He called her on her telephone and told her to put her savings in His ‘Church of Heaven’, because it offered better interest than earthly ones. The woman never once suspected that she was being scammed, as she was convinced that she was a ‘chosen of the Virgin’ long before receiving the call, so getting a direct call from the Almighty didn’t really seem that strange. Over six years, Esperanza followed God’s instructions and deposited around 300,000 euros in a small drawer at a local convenience store, convinced the money would end up at a heavenly church.

The victim in this bizarre case suffers from religious mystical delusions. In 2013, she somehow became convinced that she was a saint chosen by the Virgin herself. It is believed that the scammer, the owner of a local shop who knew about the woman’s beliefs, took advantage of her extreme religiousness to fill their own pockets.

“I have been a saint since 2013,” Esperanza told reporters.  On a car trip I felt hands on my shoulders and when I got home they took me to the bathroom. There, on the mirror, it was written in letters of blood: ‘I am the Virgin, here I have shed all my blood. My daughter, you are a saint. Wipe it with this sponge.’

So when the elderly woman first received God’s phone call in 2013, she wasn’t that surprised. He told her to start depositing her money into a “checking account of God at the Bank of Heaven”. She was promised better interest than that offered by earthly banks, as well as the possibility to build herself a house in Heaven with the money saved. To Esperanza, that sounded like a good deal.

From 2013 to 2019, the elderly woman deposited all her savings in a small drawer at a local convenience store operated by a man who now stands accused of scamming her. She used up all her savings and took out two bank loans to please the Almighty. No one, not even her children knew about her deal with God, as the scammer allegedly threatened to kill her family if she told anyone. God is supposed to have unlimited power, so Esperanza heeded the warning. Her kids only found out about it when they learned that her saving account was empty.

The suspect in this case still insists that he is innocent, but prosecutors allegedly have evidence of him taking advantage of Esperanza by posing as God and faking his voice during phone calls with the woman. His trial has recently started and the prosecution has asked for 8 years in prison for the defendant.

Oddity Central

Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has announced additional guidelines for Bureau De Change (BDC) operators in a bid to improve efficiency of the Nigerian foreign exchange market.

The decision comes two years after the apex bank banned the sale of dollars to BDCs amid efforts to stabilize the market. However, the latest directive does not state that the central bank will resume the sale of dollars to the BDCs.

The new operational mechanism, contained in a circular dated 17 August, stated that the spread on buying and selling by BDC operators will be within an allowable limit of -2.5 percent to +2.5 per cent of the Nigerian Foreign Exchange market window weighted average rate of the previous days.

In the circular, signed by O.S Nnaji, the Director of Exchange Department, the bank ordered a mandatory rendition by BDC operators of the statutory periodic reports (daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly) on the Financial Institution Form Rendition System (FIFX) which it said has been upgraded to meet individual operators requirements.

The apex bank warned that non-rendition of returns would attract sanctions which may include withdrawal of operating license with effect from the date of the circular.

“Where Operators do not have any transaction within the period, they are expected to render nil returns. Please be guided accordingly and ensure compliance,” the circular said.

Background

In August 2021, the CBN ended the sale of forex to Bureau De Change operators, saying the parallel market had become a conduit for illicit forex flows and graft.

The bank said it would no longer process applications for BDC licences in the country.

Weekly sales of foreign exchange by the CBN was thereafter designed to go through commercial banks, the suspended governor of CBN, Godwin Emefiele, said at the time.

“We are concerned that BDCs have allowed themselves to be used for graft,” Emefiele said.

He argued that international bodies, including some embassies and donor agencies, had been complicit in illegal forex transactions that hindered the flow of foreign exchange into the country.

The directive was issued a few days after the acting central bank governor, Folashodun Shonubi, met with President Bola Tinubu during which he blamed the high exchange rate of the dollar to the naira at BDCs on speculators. He said the government would put measures in place to check the activities of currency speculators.

“We do not believe that the changes going on in the parallel market are driven by pure economic demand and supply but are topped by speculative demand from people,” he told journalists after the meeting.

The bank chief said he briefed Tinubu on some of the plans to address the challenge.

“Some of the plans and strategies, which I’m not at liberty to share with you, means sooner rather than later, the speculators should be careful because we believe the things we’re doing when they come to fruition may result in significant losses to them.”

PT

Atedo Peterside, founder of Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc and Anap Foundation, says the “All Eyes On The Judiciary” slogan recently seen on billboards across the country is far from being offensive.

Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON) had ordered the removal of billboards with the messaging as sponsored by a group known as the Diaspora’s for Good Governance.

The advertisements were put up as the presidential election tribunal prepares to deliver its verdict on the petitions challenging the victory of President Bola Tinubu in the general election.

ARCON also dissolved its Advertising Standards Panel and suspended the director and deputy director of regulations for approving billboards targeted at the presidential election petition tribunal.

In a tweet on Friday, Peterside said the slogan should not have been offensive to a right-thinking person.

“For the record, methinks #AllEyesOnTheJudiciary is a neutral slogan that should ordinarily not offend a right-thinking and sincere person in a civilised society,” he said. 

“I can understand someone rejecting a negative slogan like let us turn our noses up at the judiciary’.

“Enough said.”

The Cable

West Africa's main regional bloc on Friday said it had agreed an undisclosed "D-Day" for a possible military intervention to restore democracy in Niger if diplomatic efforts fail, stressing that it would not hold endless dialogue with the defiant junta.

The comments came at the end of a two-day meeting of West African army chiefs in Ghana's capital Accra, where they have been hashing out the logistics and strategy for a possible use of force in Niger. Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has said such action would be a last resort.

"We are ready to go anytime the order is given," ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security Abdel-Fatau Musah said during the closing ceremony. "The D-Day is also decided, which we are not going to disclose."

He said a peaceful resolution remained the bloc's preferred option.

"As we speak we are still readying (a) mediation mission into the country, so we have not shut any door... (but) we are not going to engage in endless dialogue."

There was no immediate response from the junta.

Military officers deposed Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum on July 26 and have defied calls from the United Nations, ECOWAS and others to reinstate him, prompting the bloc to order a standby force to be assembled.

"We've already agreed and fine-tuned what will be required for the intervention," Musah said, declining to share how many troops would be deployed and other strategic details.

Most of its 15 member states are prepared to contribute to the joint force excepting those also under military rule - Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea - and Cape Verde, according to the bloc.

ECOWAS has taken a harder stance on the Niger coup, the wider region's seventh in three years, than it did on previous ones. The credibility of the bloc is at stake because it had said it would tolerate no further such overthrows.

"The decision is that the coup in Niger is one coup too many for the region, and we are putting a stop to it at this time, we are drawing the line in the sand," Musah said.

Any intervention would spell further turmoil for West Africa's impoverished Sahel region, which is already battling a decade-old Islamist insurgency and a deepening hunger crisis.

Niger also has strategic importance beyond West Africa because of its uranium and oil reserves and role as a hub for foreign troops involved in the fight against the insurgents linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State.

Meanwhile, diplomatic efforts continue. The United Nations special envoy for West Africa and the Sahel, Leonardo Santos Simao, met with the junta's Prime Minister Ali Mahamane Lamine Zeine on Friday.

Simao said in comments broadcast on Niger's state television that he wanted to listen to the junta's point of view "to study together a way for the country to return as quickly as possible to constitutional normality and legality too. We are convinced that it is always possible with dialogue."

Reuters

A middle-aged woman, simply identified as Mrs Rebecca Gbaje, broke down in tears after a wheel barrow pusher disappeared with the food stuffs she bought at Kwaita village market in Kwali Area Council of the FCT.

Our reporter, who was at the market, observed as some customers and traders gathered to sympathize with the woman, while some sympathisers walked round the market in search of the barrow pusher.

The woman, while narrating to sympathisers who stood to console her amid tears, said she bought the food items that comprised of Mudus of rice, beans, maize and other ingredients and engaged the barrow pusher to help her take the items to the road side.

She said after the barrow pusher started moving to the road with the items, she stopped over to buy fish and asked him to wait for her.

“After buying the fish, I turned back but could not see the barrow pusher again,” she said.

Gbaje said she came from Fogbe village to Kwaita market to buy the food stuffs, amounting to N23,300.

City & Crime reports that some traders contributted money for the woman, who refused to stop crying, to buy some other food stuffs.

Daily Trust

Some residents of Taraba have started stealing farm pŕoduce to feed their families.

Reports from some communities across the state revealed that incidents of stealing of raw Cassava, Yam and Maize were recorded in recent weeks.

A lady, who owned a cassava  farm in one of the villages in Ardo-Kola local government area of the state, said she caught her neighbours harvesting cassava in her farm severally.

The lady farmer, Lami John, told our reporter that the first person she caught in her farm confessed that he stole cassava from her farm not to sell but to feed his family.

“I told him to go and l did not report the matter to our ward head because l know him as an honest person,” she said.

Lami stated further that she recorded more of such cases in her farm and all those she caught were her neighbours and actually stole the cassava to feed their families.

Further findings revealed that theft of Yam and Maize in the farms is now rampant in villages across the state.

Another farmer, Ibrahim Suleiman, told Daily Trust that he caught his neighbours stealing Maize in his farm four times but did not report the matter to the police or to their ward head.

He said he knew that those he caught were never identified with any criminal acts in the village but probably  the hard time might be the factor behind their action.

According to him,  theft  of farm produce is now being carried out during the day time and those caught confessed that poverty and lack of food at home  pushed them to steal from the farm.

Daily Trust

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Putin visits Ukraine military operation headquarters

Russian President Vladimir Putin met the head of the General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, and other high-ranking military commanders during an unannounced visit to the headquarters of Russia’s Southern Military District, the Kremlin said on Saturday morning.

The head of state received classified briefings from Gerasimov and other senior commanding officers involved in the ongoing military operation in Ukraine, the brief statement said.

Russian state media shared a video of the rare visit, which shows the head of the General Staff greeting Putin at the headquarters ahead of the closed-door meeting. However, it remains unclear when exactly the meeting took place.

Last week, Putin convened a meeting with members of Russia’s Security Council and on Monday addressed the Army-2023 expo outside Moscow. In a video message to the congress, Putin lauded the expo's contribution to multifaceted relations between Russia and other nations, emphasizing that Moscow “is open to deepening equal technological partnership and military-technical cooperation with other countries.”

The city of Rostov-on-Don hosts the headquarters of the Southern Military District, currently primarily responsible for the military operation in Ukraine. In June, the forces of Wagner private military company briefly captured the headquarters armed with heavy weapons, but faced little resistance, as officials negotiated a peaceful resolution to the short-lived mutiny attempt.

The southwestern Rostov Region borders the frontline Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, and has repeatedly come under Ukrainian drone and artillery attack over the past year and a half.

In July, the port city of Taganrog, some 60 kilometers from Rostov, was hit by a repurposed anti-aircraft S-200 missile, injuring over a dozen civilians and inflicting material damage.

** Kiev taking huge armored vehicle losses – Bild

As Ukraine struggles to breach Russian lines during its counteroffensive, the attacks are taking a heavy toll on its armored formations, with vehicle losses numbering in the dozens in just one sector of the front, Bild reported on Thursday, citing video materials reviewed by its journalists.

According to the report, while Kiev managed to capture the village of Staromayorskoye in the southwestern part of Russia’s Donetsk Region after more than a week of fighting, the success came “at a high price” in terms of destroyed armor. The Russian Defense Ministry has not confirmed this information, but did report numerous artillery strikes by Moscow’s forces in the area.

Citing Russian drone footage, Bild claimed that during the battle for Staromayorskoye, Kiev’s forces lost at least 31 armored personnel vehicles, including 23 mine-protected NATO-supplied vehicles. The wrecks of the destroyed vehicles still remain on the battlefield although some damaged armor has been salvaged, the outlet added.

Bild described the results as “a success from the Russian point of view,”explaining that Moscow aims to destroy as many Western-supplied armored vehicles as possible.

“Moscow's army knows that replacing and repairing vehicles is much more difficult for Ukraine than it is for Russia,” the article said, noting that while many damaged vehicles can be restored, they have to be transported to repair bases hundreds of kilometers away from the frontline.

Ukraine launched a major counteroffensive against Russia in early June, but has so far failed to gain any ground, according to Moscow. The Russian Defense Ministry has estimated that since the start of the push, Ukraine has lost more than 43,000 troops as well as over 4,900 pieces of heavy weaponry. 

In mid-July, Business Insider reported that Kiev had lost one-third of its US-supplied Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, while around the same time The New York Times claimed, citing Western officials, that Ukraine’s counteroffensive had cost it 20% of the weapons it sent to the battlefield in the first two weeks of its counteroffensive.

Amid these apparent difficulties – which Ukraine has attributed to delays receiving Western assistance – The Washington Post reported on Friday that US intelligence officials strongly doubted that Kiev would make headway in the southern sector of the front closer to the Crimean Peninsula. Meanwhile, an earlier Newsweek report suggested a growing rift among top Ukrainian officials, with some purportedly pushing to call off the counteroffensive. 

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Troop deaths, injuries in Ukraine war nearing 500,000 - NYT citing US officials

The number of Ukrainian and Russian troops killed or wounded since the war in Ukraine began in February 2022 is nearing 500,000, the New York Times reported on Friday, citing unnamed U.S. officials.

The officials cautioned that casualty figures remained difficult to estimate because Moscow is believed to routinely undercount its war dead and injured, and Kyiv does not disclose official figures, the newspaper said.

Russia's military casualties are approaching 300,000, including as many as 120,000 deaths and 170,000 to 180,000 injuries, the newspaper reported. Ukrainian deaths were close to 70,000, with 100,000 to 120,000 wounded, it added.

The NYT quoted the officials as saying the casualty count had picked up after Ukraine launched a counter-attack earlier this year.

Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, commenting on the NYT article, said only the General Staff could disclose such figures.

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"We have adopted a model that only the General Staff has the right to voice the figures on the wounded, the disabled, people who lost limbs, and the missing, and, of course, the number of people who died in this war," he said in a live broadcast on the Youtube channel of journalist Yulia Latynina on Friday.

The Ukrainian military on Thursday claimed gains in its counter-offensive against Russian forces on the southeastern front. Kyiv said its forces had liberated a village, the first such success since July 27, signaling the challenge it faces in advancing through heavily mined Russian defensive lines without powerful air support.

There was no immediate response from Ukrainian officials to Reuters requests for comment. Russia made no immediate comment on the report.

** Ukrainian forces could fail to retake strategic city of Melitopol -US official

Ukrainian forces do not appear likely to reach and retake the Russian-occupied strategic southeastern city of Melitopol during their counteroffensive aimed at winning back territory from Moscow's army, a U.S. official said on Friday.

The Ukrainian military on Thursday said it had made gains on the southeastern front, pushing forward from a newly-liberated village, Urozhaine, in an attempted drive towards the Sea of Azov.

Melitopol, which had a pre-war population of about 150,000, has been under Russian control since March 2022 and has roads and railways used by Russian troops to transport supplies to areas they occupy.

Urozhaine in Donetsk region was the first village the Kyiv government said it had retaken since July 27, signaling the challenge it faces in advancing through heavily mined Russian defensive lines without powerful air support.

The U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, was citing an intelligence report on Melitopol but the prediction is largely in line with Washington's view that the counteroffensive is going slower than expected.

The official added that despite the report and limited progress towards Melitopol, Washington believed it was still possible to change the gloomy outlook.

The assessment on Melitopol was first reported by the Washington Post.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Friday declined to comment but said there had been a number of analyses about the war in Ukraine since Russia invaded in February 2022 and many of them had changed as it unfolded.

Russia controls nearly a fifth of Ukraine, including the peninsula of Crimea, most of Luhansk region and large tracts of the regions of Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.

RT/Reuters

After arguing with his mother about overdue homework, a 10-year-old boy in China ran away from home and straight to the local police station to complain and beg to be put into an orphanage.

Chinese media recently reported a bizarre incident that took place in Chongqing. CCTV footage shows a young boy storming into the Huixing Police Station in Yubei and being approached by two policemen. They start chatting and the 10-year-old boy tells them that he had been reprimanded by his mother for not completing his homework, so he left the family home to join an orphanage. After a bit of convincing work by the officers, the boy gave them his parents’ contact information, so the police contacted his mother who confirmed their argument about the overdue homework. However, she never imagined that her son would run away from home to join an orphanage because of it.

“My mom scolded me every day for not doing my homework and left the house,” the 10-year-old complained. “She just nags me to study every day. I’d rather go to an orphanage.”

After calming the boy down, the police called his father to pick him up, and even though he was reluctant to return home, they manged to persuade him that it was the right choice, much better than going to an orphanage, that’s for sure.

The news and CCTV footage went viral in China last week, where people were shocked by the boy’s reaction. Some saw it as a sign of a lazy generation of spoiled children, while others simply applauded the way the police calmed the boy down and ultimately solved the problem.

Oddity Central

Although it’s common knowledge that drinking too much is unhealthy, research sometimes conflicts about where the dividing line is between permissible and risky alcohol consumption — and whether drinking a small amount could come with any health benefits.

In the last few months alone, two large studies have further complicated the picture: A March analysis found that moderate drinkers do not have a lower risk of death than lifetime nondrinkers, while a June study found that heart health benefits associated with moderate alcohol consumption could be linked to the way it can reduce stress activity in the brain.

Meanwhile, a study published last month showed that deaths related to excessive drinking are rising in the United States, especially among women.

So how harmful is a weekly or even nightly glass of wine? NBC News spoke to eight nutritionists and doctors about the risks and supposed benefits of alcohol. They generally agreed that abstaining is healthiest, but that for most people, a modest level of drinking doesn’t carry significant risk.

The notion that drinking may somehow improve health, they said, is misguided.

“There’s no absolute safe level of drinking,” said Tim Stockwell, former director of the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research. “We usually underestimate the risks from alcohol because we’re so familiar with it.”

What to make of studies suggesting health benefits of drinking

Perhaps the most common myth about the benefits of alcohol is the idea that an occasional glass of red wine boosts heart health.

Over the last few decades, several studies have found a link between moderate alcohol consumption and reduced risk of heart disease. However, experts said such research does not necessarily account for the possibility that light drinking can be associated with other healthy lifestyle factors, like being active and eating a balanced diet, or that participants who don’t drink may have experienced negative health effects of alcohol before deciding to go sober.

Dr. Krishna Aragam, a cardiologist and researcher at the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, said some past research has found that light to moderate drinkers may be more likely to have lower body mass index, eat more vegetables and engage in more physical activity than people who do not drink at all.

“There is a general theory that maybe people who can impose moderation with regards to how much alcohol they consume are also more able to impose moderation broadly in other aspects of their life,” Aragam said.

Aragam co-authored a 2022 study that also found a trend of healthy lifestyle habits among light to moderate drinkers, but concluded nonetheless that any level of alcohol consumption increased the risk of cardiovascular disease. The risk increased exponentially with heavier drinking, defined as more than eight drinks per week.

When it comes to the red wine myth, Dr. Zhaoping Li, division chief of clinical nutrition at UCLA Health, pointed out that the antioxidant thought to benefit the heart is also found in the skins of red grapes.

“I never would recommend to someone, ‘Go ahead and drink wine, even if you don’t like it, because you’re going to be less likely to have a heart attack,’” Li said.

How much alcohol is unhealthy?

The long-term health risks of drinking include liver and heart disease, a weakened immune system and several types of cancer. Studies have also shown that drinking large quantities of alcohol in one sitting or even a single drink a day can raise blood pressure.

U.S. dietary guidelines define a moderate, low-health-risk alcohol intake as one drink or less per day for women and two or less for men. (That does not apply, however, to people who are pregnant, have medical conditions that can be worsened by drinking or take medications that interact with alcohol.) The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also provides a screening tool to help people assess their level of alcohol consumption based on individual health factors.

But Canada’s revised guidelines on alcohol, released in January, advise far less drinking: They list two drinks per week as a moderate, low-risk level.

Li said she generally tells people not to drink more than two or three times per week.

“Let’s say I’m going to drink alcohol, I know it’s going to come with calories and energy,” Li said. “So for dinner, I will drink the wine, I’ll have vegetables and fish, but I’m not going to have bread and other things that come with energy.”

When should you cut down on drinking?

Estimates suggest that more than 140,000 people die from alcohol-related causes annually, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Alcohol-related deaths have climbed nationally in the past few years: The U.S. saw a 25% spike in deaths during the first year of the pandemic, a trend that particularly affected middle-aged adults.

Katherine Keyes, professor of epidemiology at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, said her research has shown that adolescents drink less than they did a few decades ago, while drinking rates have risen among young and middle-aged adults.

For people who drink several times a week and do not have alcohol dependency, even slightly reducing intake can have significant health benefits, Keyes added.

“It’s not that ‘OK, you think you’re drinking too much, now you can’t drink at all’ — that health advice turns a lot of people off,” Keyes said. “Thinking about drinking as a continuum, not a binary, is an approach that we think will be really useful for improving population health.”

Emma Laing, director of dietetics at the University of Georgia College of Family and Consumer Sciences, said she decided to be sober in 2020, after considering the health consequences of alcohol and a history of breast cancer in her family.

For people trying to cut down on drinking, Laing said she recommends balancing alcohol with nonalcoholic drinks, drinking slowly and consuming a meal before drinking. She often brings her own nonalcoholic beer or wine to social gatherings, Laing said, and most bartenders are happy to make a mocktail.

“Sometimes the toughest part about living a sober life or taking an alcohol break comes from peer pressure among those around you — even strangers — who question why you are abstaining from alcohol,” Laing said. “I have found that having a nonalcoholic alternative in my hand will reduce this type of societal pressure.”

NBC News