Updated 22 September
God’s calendar is not the Gregorian calendar we use today but the Jewish religious calendar. By combining the two we see that this year the Feast of Trumpets (Hebrew Yom Teruah), which is to take place "on the first day of the seventh month" (Lev 23:24), will be 18 September 2020, starting at sunset. "You must observe a day of solemn rest, a memorial proclaimed with blast of trumpets" (Lev.23:24). The Lord mandates rest and the blast of trumpets (the shofar), which seems so simple that one is forced to ask why? What were the children of Israel to remember when the trumpets sounded?.....There are three important points made in Scripture about the Feasts. First, the Lord appointed specific days in each year as a reminder of events that had happened and as ‘dress rehearsals’ for events to come (Lev.23:1-2). The alignment and precision of these events, as shown in the Scriptures, is truly awesome. Suffice it to say that the Bible is its own 'evidence base' as is seen through the prediction and fulfilment of prophecies across the 66 books written over 3,500 years by at least 40 authors. Second, these Feasts are key anchors and ‘appointed times’. The Scriptures are clear that these are the ‘Lord's feasts’; they are not Jewish holidays introduced by custom and tradition. Third, Numbers 15:15-16 also makes it clear that these Scriptures apply to strangers living among the Jews; this is relevant to us as Romans 11 explains how as believers we are grafted into the commonwealth of Israel.
The peace deal1 signed at the White House this week by Israel and the United Arab Emirates (now also involving Bahrain, with talk of others joining the queue) is truly historic, and wonderfully welcome….. Particularly noteworthy is that the UAE-Israel agreement is known as the Abraham Accord, which raises another interesting connection, says Pearce. For the UAE was the scene last year of an interfaith agreement ‘in search of peace’ involving the Pope and a leading mullah. If this comes to anything, it will be a false peace, because it will not be built on the ‘Rock of Israel’ (Gen 49:24). As Jeremiah warned long ago, there are false prophets who cry ‘Peace, peace’ when there is no peace (Jer 6:14, 8:11). Yet the Bible clearly indicates that the land of Israel will be a source of great controversy in the last days (Zech 12-14), leading to a conflict involving all nations. All of which points to the ultimate solution of the Middle East question, and indeed of the world itself – the promised return to Jerusalem, in power and great glory, of our Lord Jesus Christ, whose perfect peace will extend from there to all the earth.
All over the globe, thousands upon thousands of Christians are being ruthlessly killed simply because of what they believe. But if you only rely on corporate-controlled media sources for your news, you literally never hear about this relentless persecution.
Authorities in China are closing the net on persecuted Church communities by offering cash rewards to anyone who snitches on “illegal religious activity venues”. In August, the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau of Gushi county, in the central province of Henan, urged citizens to submit photos, videos and recordings of “unapproved” meeting places in exchange for around 500 yuan (£55; $70; €60) for each tipoff. As a result of the campaign, a landlord of a “house church” (i.e. an unregistered congregation) refused to rent her property to Christians, leaving them without a place to worship for a second time. “She explained that she didn’t want to suffer consequences if our venue was discovered,” said a church member. The congregation belonged to a three-self (i.e. state-registered) church until it was shut last year as part of a continuing government crackdown against Christianity. Chinese Surveillance Of Christians A “Blueprint” For Persecution, No Time For Cowardice - Courage Can Be Costly
The mayor of a Kent borough has announced that his council's long-standing civic chaplaincy role will be discontinued. The decision means that Swale council, which has kept the post occupied for some 50 years, will no longer begin its main meetings with prayer. The new mayor, Cllr Paul Stephen, insisted that the chaplaincy post does not align with the council's policies on equality and diversity. He told Kent Online: "Following last year's elections the coalition passed an equality and diversity motion and as Mayor I have the option to employ the services of a chaplain to say prayers at full council meetings.
The travesty, surrounding the treatment of the Baptist Pastor, continues. The travesty is that leading LGBTQ media outlets, MSM, and others continue to wage war. Stephen Hick, Newquay Town Councillor and Cornwall Pride leader, has written a letter to the UK Government. He said in his letter to Home Secretary Priti Patel that Pastor Josh Williamson was a "hate preacher" and should be deported back to his native Australia. He has written "I believe his continued presence, preaching the hate that he does, presents a continuing harm to the same communities…..I am unaware of the previous ministry of this particular church, but a foreign preacher travelling to the UK to promote and potentially act upon extremist views should be treated with the utmost seriousness
Pastor Josh spoke to Premier Christian Radio about what happened. “I was just one of tens and tens of people commenting on social media that it was a good decision to cancel it,” he says. But it was his answer as to why it was a good decision that ran him into trouble with the LGBT crowd. “I simply answered that I don’t think sin should be celebrated,” but it was this that caused the controversy. A secular news channel, UK Column's reporter, Alex Thomson, contacted the Cornwall and Devon Police, who have sponsored the event, with number of questions. After unsatisfactory answers, he was finally told to contact the Cornwall Pride even though the questions related to the police policies and processes. Even the local "Christian" leaders have condemned the Pastor. The video is 1hr long but you can watch Alex's piece from 30:37 mark. I have since learned, from Alex's video, that the Pastor was frogmarched by the police while preaching in the streets of Scotland before his current position.
This week, the new 'rule of six' was implemented meaning people across the country are now limited in terms of their social engagements. While the laws differ slightly for those in Wales, Scotland, England and Northern Ireland - it's hoped the new guidance simplifies the situation. One area of confusion is how this impacts churches.
We all want to keep children safe, and there is much in the new Relationships and Sex Education Regulations that is good. However, the promotion of politically motivated LGBT inclusive teaching to children as young as 3 (despite what is being claimed, not mandated in the Regulations) is interfering with normal child development, and putting the nation’s young at clear risk of psychological and physical harm. Such teaching is aimed not at protecting children, but at their indoctrination into acceptance of culturally rebranded values that are opposed to traditional morality.
Parents who have been asleep at the wheel on their kids education will be getting a wake-up call this Fall as many will have an opportunity to take a closer look at what they have been learning.
At a time when much of the rest of the world is starting to wake up to the repression, mendacity, and dangers of the Chinese Communist Party regime, the Vatican is getting even deeper in bed with it. And at a time when that regime is intensifying repression of religion—including Catholics—in China, Pope Francis is renewing an accord with Beijing that has yielded no benefits yet save for President Xi Jinping and only disunity and suffering for the Catholic Church. Two years ago, the Vatican signed a provisional agreement with Beijing, valid for two years. It had been a long time coming, and I and others tried to warn of the dangers before the deal was done. When it was announced, I expressed concerns—but also tried to give a pope whom I admire the benefit of the doubt.
Pope Francis has repeatedly delivered mixed signals, often seeming to significantly depart from Church teaching regarding the pastoring of individuals afflicted with homosexuality and transgenderism. Pope Francis has again implicitly affirmed the notion that God purposefully makes people same-sex attracted and gender dysphoric, telling a group of Italian parents who affirm their children as LGBT that “God loves your children as they are.”
After studying and exposing the agendas of establishment elites for the past 14 years, I can say with some authority that by watching these people you quickly begin to understand the reality of evil. Anyone who dismisses the concept of evil as nothing more than a “social construct” or a matter of “perception” is suffering from either naivety or bias…. I have now watched portions of this film, including dramatic story scenes to get a fair sense of the total content as well as come clips of the notorious scenes that have enraged the public. And, I can say WITHOUT A DOUBT, this film is in fact child pornagraphy according to the Department of Justice's legal definition. A warning - I do NOT recommend watching this movie yourself, but if you do, be warned that the content is highly upsetting.If you heard from the mainstream media that the reaction to this film was “overblown” and part of a “right wing conspiracy”; then I'm here to tell you that you were lied to…..Arguments made by the predominantly social justice media have exposed where they really stand on the issue of evil, and they are all for it! Once again, the hard political left exposes its true nature when it comes to the defense of terrible content. There have been hints of this in previous campaigns by the media, such as left-wing outlet Salon and an article they published in defense of pedophilia written by a self-professed pedophile. Their argument? That pedophilia should be treated with more empathy as long as pedophiles do not act on their impulses. Salon later took down the article, but other media outlets argued that they should have left it published. Italian bishops’ newspaper defends Netflix film ‘Cuties’ accused of being ‘child porn’
Dictionary.com is offering a newsletter for "LGBTQIA Language This way, you'll be able to "keep up with the growing language of the LGBTQIA community, right in your inbox." Will we also be appraised of new letters being added to LGBTQIA? LGBT Movement Imposes 'Niephew,' 'Nibling' To Describe New Trans Identities - I'd never heard of these terms before today, and I suspect that most of you reading this never have, either. But as the LGBT movement plunges forward faster than the English language can evolve, we'll see more of this.
On Sept. 16, 162 Democrats, one Republican, and one Independent in the House of Representatives voted against an amendment to a bill that would designate antisemitism to be a form of discrimination included in the Equity and Inclusion Enforcement Act. Despite that opposition, the amendment passed, 255 to 164. Republicans proposed adding the six-line amendment, to combat antisemitism, to the Democrat-backed bill H.R.2574. The Equity and Inclusion Enforcement Act (H.R.2574) would permit private citizens to file lawsuits claiming disparate impact under the Civil Rights Act's Title VI, focusing specifically on education programs.
Lawyers petitioned the Trump administration to penalize the Zoom meeting platform and a San Francisco university for hosting an upcoming event with a Palestinian terrorist, a forum that they say violates American laws. San Francisco State University is scheduled to host next Wednesday an online event with Leila Khaled, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a U.S.-designated terrorist organization that has murdered Americans. Khaled is one of the PFLP's most notorious members, becoming the first woman to hijack an airplane in 1969 as part of a massive terror operation by the group. She attempted to hijack another plane the following year and has since become one of the Palestinian terror faction's most popular faces.
The answer, according to those who study extremism and have been watching the meteoric ascent of QAnon, is the former: QAnon is inherently anti-Semitic — and only growing more so. Researchers are still gathering data, but are seeing the trend pop up globally. The New York Times reported that there are 200,000 QAnon social media accounts on Germany’s far right, and that the conspiracy was part of what inspired a faction of German extremists to storm its parliament in August…..The QAnon theory has become increasingly popular and visible in recent months, in the United States and abroad. According to NBC, its Facebook groups boasted millions of members in early August. Republican candidates for Congress have supported it, and people wearing or carrying Q slogans have shown up to mainstream political rallies. Even as some Republican leaders have condemned the theory, Trump has declined to disavow it.
Radical groups – the radical left, the radical right, radical Muslims, and the radical African Americans who champion Louis Farrakhan – are spearheading efforts to erode the core principles that make our country exceptional. The Islamo-leftist alliance, in particular, is gaining momentum. While many Jewish and other civil rights organizations singularly focus on the far-right white nationalists as the main generators of extremism, the Islamo-leftist alliance parades in public as a social justice cause while infiltrating and undermining our communities and institutions. Collectively, these radical groups reject the Judeo-Christian values that have supported the foundation of our country and have protected all minority communities in America, including Jews. Proponents of the Islamo-leftist alliance seek to undermine the structures and institutions that keep our country open, democratic and healthy, including the family unit, businesses, communities, religious institutions, impartial media, law enforcement, the military and the courts. Increasing antisemitic attacks and the public display of hatred are trial runs for what is to come from these radical movements. For years, Jews have been at the receiving end of this hatred. If we are truly ready to overcome it, we must stop playing the victim and start fighting this head-on together with other Americans. The Danger of Antisemitism by Omission!
38 years ago, hours before the Jewish new year, word arrived of bloodshed by an Israeli ally in Beirut. A reporter set off to Lebanon to seek out the truth. None contended that Sharon or Eitan had known there would be a massacre. But they should have known. There had been massacres aplenty in the past. The soldiers believed that Israel bore moral responsibility because it had let the killers in through the front door and had not taken steps to prevent what happened……Failure to protect the civilian population of Beirut, which had come under Israeli control, amounted to “non-fulfillment of a duty with which the defense minister was charged.” The commission recommended Sharon’s dismissal. After initially balking, he resigned the defense portfolio but remained in the cabinet…..They had just experienced three months of horror (the Israeli incursion), said the editor. “Now the nightmare is finished. We will rebuild a nation, not a country. If we don’t then it will be hopeless. I think we will.” She did not sound confident. She spoke angrily about the Palestinians and the humiliation they had caused. “Lebanon has paid an awful bill for them. We have had eight years of war. This is the last episode and perhaps the worst one. This was the worst war in the world.” What did she think about Israel? Her answer surprised me “I admire Israel. They are a people who have suffered and made a country from nothing. But now I have bitterness. This bombing was exaggerated. If they were after the Palestinians, why did they bomb us?” Opinion among Lebanese was evenly divided, she said, between those who said that only Israel could have gotten the PLO out of Lebanon and those who said Israel had gone beyond what was humanely permissible. “I myself am divided,” she said. What she feared was that Israel would demand a peace treaty with Lebanon as its price for driving out the PLO. “We are surrounded by 100 million Arabs and are economically dependent on them. We can’t afford a break.” That prospect had been effectively nullified by Gemayel’s assassination.
With the opening of the UN General Assembly on September 15, the international body will mark 75 years since its founding. The celebrations will assuredly be accompanied by extensive Western media discourse on the need for the US to return to multilateralism and rely on international institutions for “legitimacy.” However, Western progressive discourse regarding the UN and other international institutions is based upon a myth: that such institutions reflect elevated ideals, objective standards, and a genuine commitment to human rights.
Unprecedented Weather
Wildfires burning across the western states are staggering in size – in some cases expanding with such explosive force that they have burned more acreage within a few weeks than what might have previously burned all year. The flames this week belched up enough smoke and soot to temporarily blot out the sun and turn skies orange across the region. In Oregon, fires have burned more than 900,000 acres and leveled entire neighborhoods in what the state’s governor, Kate Brown, described as possibly “the greatest loss of human life and property due to wildfire in our state’s history”. Half a million people – about 10% of the state’s population – were under evacuation orders by Thursday afternoon. Parts of the state that rarely see fires burned with unusual ferocity; the regions south of Portland threatened by the Beechie Creek and Lionshead fires haven’t seen such an intensity of fire in 300 or 400 years, said Meg Krawchuk, a pyrogeographer at Oregon State University. California has seen six of the 20 largest wildfires in its history this year, which have burned a record 3.1m acres. The fires are also hitting before the traditional start of fire season in the fall. “We’re seeing an unprecedented year of fires,” said Frank Lake, a US Forest Service research ecologist US skies burn 'apocalyptic' red, heatwave in Siberia: Are 'unprecedented' climate events awaiting us? - Extreme events are now commonplace and growing across the globe. 2020 is Strange! (Worldwide Fire and Other events)
Four people have been arrested for arson for deliberately starting blazes along the West Coast including one man who livestreamed the encounter on social media as the death toll from the devastating wildfires climbed to 29 and Oregon officials warned they are preparing for a 'mass fatality event'. Two men in Washington state, one man in Oregon and one woman in California are facing arson charges for setting fires in areas that were already grappling with deadly blazes. At least 20 have now been killed in California, eight in Oregon and one in Washington state as thousands of firefighters struggle to bring the blazes under control and the governors of California and Oregon told residents to expect more fatalities in the coming days. Escaping The Oregon Wildfires! Fire within 100' of my house!!! - This video is a timeline showing the explosion of a wildfire that traveled miles and burned well over 100,000 acres but stopped 100' short of my house!
Severe Medistorm Cassilda forms near the coast of Libya Severe Medistorm Cassilda formed near Libya, Mediterranean Sea on September 15, 2020. This is the first severe medistorm of the 2020/21 Mediterranean medicane season which began on July 1. The storm was named by the Mediterranean Cyclone Center, an unofficial organization studying medicanes and eurocanes.
Hurricane Sally: Deadly storm leaves 550,000 without power in US Tropical Storm Sally has left more than half a million Americans without power as its torrential rains and storm surges lashed the US Gulf coast. Sally weakened after it made landfall as a Category 2 hurricane on Wednesday, but the slow-moving storm continues to batter Florida and Alabama. One person was killed and hundreds were rescued from flooded areas.
The busiest month of the Atlantic hurricane season is proving to be just that. As if one hurricane targeting the Gulf Coast of the United States and another moving directly over Bermuda on Monday wasn't enough for forecasters, two tropical storms also formed within hours of each other. The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami said Tropical Storm Vicky formed just a few hours after Teddy came together in the Atlantic Ocean on Monday morning.
Massive landslide at Irazu volcano prompts relocation of infrastructure, Costa Rica The government has started the process of relocating telecommunication towers in Costa Rica’s Irazu Volcano National Park due to an ongoing massive landslide, which started on August 26, 2020. Officials warned people to avoid the lower part of the mountain as rockslides are imminent, with around 25 million cubic m (880 million cubic feet) chunk of land detached so far.
Tropical Storm “Noul” strengthening ahead of landfall in central Vietnam, 548 000 people evacuating Tropical Storm “Noul” formed in the Philippine Sea on September 15, 2020, as the 11th named storm of the 2020 Pacific typhoon season.
Hundreds of thousands of migratory birds dead in one of the Southwest’s largest bird die-offs on record, U.S. Mystery ensues across New Mexico as hundreds of thousands of migratory birds have been found dead across the state in one of the Southwest’s largest bird die-offs in recent memory. Scientists are examining the reason behind the alarming event, looking at possible factors such as the wildfires on the West Coast, the cold snap in the Mountain West, or the drought in the Southwest.
Scientists create gene-edited animals as ‘surrogate sires’ to boost food production Scientists have created gene-edited pigs, goats and cattle to produce sperm with traits such as disease resistance and higher meat quality…genetically enhancing livestock to improve food production. The animals, created…using a gene-editing tool called CRISPR-Cas9, could be used as “surrogate sires”…blank slates…transplanted with stem cells that produce the desired sperm…
Christian "The Ice Age Farmer" Westbrook discusses the engineered and deliberate destruction of our food supply. Pretexts cited to shut down farms and cull livestock include the spread of "coronavirus" between humans on farms, transmission from animals to humans, as well as outright sabotage of food storehouses. He describes the move to tax and eliminate meat and replace it with fake, synthetic, lab-grown foodstuffs. Power elites seeks to track and trace all food through artificial intelligence and the blockchain. He suggests everyone begin to grow their own food.
To anyone who has breathed country air thick with aerosolised manure or learned how the global expansion of pasture for feed crops drives deforestation, it might seem obvious that capitalism is unable to sustainably manage animal life. Yet the meat industry struggles to handle human life too. Beyond Meat builds China presence with new production facility - Beyond Meat is increasing its presence in China, becoming the first foreign company specialising in plant-based meat to build production ...
Technology and Economy
Google recently teamed up with the Pentagon as part of the new, AI-driven “Predictive Health” program. Though only focused on “predictive cancer diagnoses” for now, Google and the military have apparent plans to expand the AI model for automating and predicting Covid-19 diagnoses….. At the beginning of September, Google Cloud announced that it had won a project from the Pentagon’s relatively new Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) to “prototype an AI-enabled digital pathology solution at select DoD [Department of Defense] facilities.” This prototype, per a Google Cloud press release, combines “augmented reality telescopes” with “AI-enabled” cancer detection tools that will allegedly improve the accuracy of “predictive cancer diagnoses.” It is the second DIU contract Google has won this year, with the first being related to combatting “cyber threats.”….. Further evidence that Google soon plans to offer AI-driven “predictive diagnoses” for Covid-19 came in August, when Google Cloud partnered with Harvard’s Global Health Institute to provide “Covid-19 Public Forecasts,” which “provide a projection of Covid-19 cases, deaths, and other metrics over the next 14 days for US counties and states.” The announcement of the Google-Harvard collaboration coincided with an announcement from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) would begin “harness[ing] AI for COVID-19 diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring.”
The most significant scientific discovery since gravity has been hiding in plain sight for nearly a decade and its destructive potential to humanity is so enormous that the biggest war machine on the planet immediately deployed its vast resources to possess and control it, financing its research and development through agencies like the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and HHS’ BARDA…… The revolutionary breakthrough came to a Canadian scientist named Derek Rossi in 2010 purely by accident. The now-retired Harvard professor claimed in an interview with the National Post that he found a way to “reprogram” the molecules that carry the genetic instructions for cell development in the human body, not to mention all biological lifeforms…… In July, a preliminary report funded by Fauci’s NIAID and the NIH on an mRNA Vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 was published in The New England Journal of Medicine, concluding that mRNA-1273 vaccine. provided by Moderna for the study, “induced anti–SARS-CoV-2 immune responses in all participants, and no trial-limiting safety concerns were identified,” and supported “further development of this vaccine.” A month earlier, the NIH had claimed a joint stake in Moderna’s mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, citing a contract signed in December, 2019, stipulating that the “mRNA coronavirus vaccine candidates [are] developed and jointly owned” by both parties. Moderna disputes the federal government’s position, stating that the company “has a broad owned and licensed IP estate” and is “not aware of any IP that would prevent us from commercializing our product candidates, including mRNA-1273.”
A suspect NGO claiming to combat child trafficking by providing surveillance tech to US police has allowed Amazon to continue supplying U.S. law enforcement with facial recognition software despite the tech giant’s moratorium on its sale to police. As calls for dramatic reforms of U.S. police departments have swept the country in recent months, several of Silicon Valley’s largest companies have tried to salvage their image by asserting that they will no longer sell their facial recognition software to police departments. Among these companies is Amazon, which decided to place a one-year pause on the sale of its software “Rekognition” to U.S. police departments in early June. At the time the moratorium was announced, The New York Times noted that “the announcement was a striking change for Amazon…” due to the fact that, “more than other big technology companies, Amazon has resisted calls to slow its deployment.” Amazon’s efforts to ensure the widespread adoption of its facial recognition software gained notoriety after a study found that Rekognition falsely tied 28 members of Congress, most of whom were politicians of color, to mugshots, causing critics to accuse Amazon’s product of both racial bias and inaccuracy.
When the Great Reset agenda was unveiled, one of the other leading proponents was IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva. She declared it of ‘paramount importance‘ that a future return to economic growth must encompass a ‘greener, smarter and fairer world‘. There is no need to wait, said Georgieva. The world must act now. One of the most important takeaways from Georgieva’s intervention was her admission that ‘the digital economy is the big winner of this crisis‘. We have seen this already through the exponential growth in central banks discussing the issuance of their own digital currencies and using Covid-19 as a reason to reinforce calls for a new global economic ‘architecture‘. In a speech to Italy’s National Consultation in June (Italy, Europe and the Global Recovery in 2021), Georgieva said that Covid-19 ‘may have accelerated the digital transformation by two or three years‘.
The initiative has its own website, he has conducted several seminars and conferences aimed at young people under the age of 35, which he calls "Order of Minors. The next conference is in November. The event will consist of workshops, artistic and plenary events with the best-known economists, experts in sustainable development and business people who are engaged today worldwide in a different economy and will reflect and work together with young people. Nobel laureates Muhammad Yunusand Amarthya Senhave already confirmed they willattend. Other participants include Bruno Frey, Tony Meloto, Carlo Petrini, Kate Raworth, Jeffrey Sachs, Vandana Shiva and Stefano Zamagni….The Vatican website quotes Pope Francis as saying: "The present economic system continues to increase inequalities at world level, raise poverty and destroy our common home, the earth. If we really want to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic, we also have to reflect on which kind of economic order we want to build. Pope Francis created in the Vatican a commission in order to reflect and give concrete input on these topics. Statement, ahead of the conference (26 to 28 March 2020): "The name of this event – Economy of Francesco.... I will appeal to some of our best economists and entrepreneurs who are already working on the global level to create an economy consistent with these ideals.... https://ofm.org/blog/letter-by-pope-francis-for-the-event-economy-of-francesco-in-assisi/ The prophecy of Franciscan economic thought In the above link he states the following: "In this framework, the proposal arising from the Franciscan economic school – developed in the Europe of the 13th-16th centuries – can offer a valuable contribution by presenting the development of its reflection on the ethical foundations and objectives of economic activity.....The cycle of lectures looking forward to the Assisi event, “The Economy of Francis” on March 26-28, 2020, aims at providing some conceptual frameworks and a series of ideas for reflection. It will address those engaged in a formative journey within the Order of Minors as well as those with different formative experiences, also dialoguing with those who are professionally involved in the world of economics and finance." At the recent World Economic Forum, the Pope said it might be 'time to consider a universal basic wage' in Easter letter. Over a dozen countries are implementing or experimenting with some form of temporary or permanent universal basic income in response to the economic devastation and massive unemployment in many places caused by the outbreak of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Spain, for example, is moving towards permanently establishing a universal basic income program specifically targeted to its poorest citizens and families in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020...sider-a-universal-basic-wage-in-easter-letter
Mastercard launches CBDC testing platform for central banks Mastercard has built a virtual testing platform to help central banks assess and explore national digital currencies. Central banks around the world are warming to the concept of creating their own digital currencies. A recent survey from the Bank for International Settlements found that 80% are working in some way on CBDCs, while 40% have moved beyond conceptual research to experimentation. Mastercard is looking to support these efforts with its new platform, which promises to enable the simulation of issuance, distribution and exchange of CBDCs between banks, financial service providers and consumers. The payments giant is inviting central banks, as well as commercial banks and tech and advisory firms, to assess CBDC tech designs, validate use cases and evaluate interoperability with existing payment rails.
China’s central bank is moving closer to a full roll-out of its sovereign digital currency, with tests having already been conducted in pilot cities, though the formal launch date for the nation’s new digital money remains unknown. Meanwhile, other major central banks are warming to the idea of digital currency, with the European Central Bank saying last week that it would begin exploring the pros and cons of pursuing its own. Sweden’s Riksbank has also been testing its e-krona for months. But China is well ahead, having been testing its digital currency for most of the last year….. It is hoped that the digital currency will facilitate the yuan’s use overseas, and accordingly lower its reliance on the US dollar.
How is surveillance evolving during the COVID-19 crisis? What are the economic incentives behind it? How stackable are these different sorts of surveillance? Is the pandemic putting the panopticon under our skin?
9/11, as we were told repeatedly in the days, weeks, and months after the attack, was the day that changed everything. And now a new event has come along to once again throw the world into chaos. But whereas the post-9/11 era introduced America to the concept of homeland security, the COVID-19 era is introducing the world to an altogether more abstract concept: biosecurity. This is the story of the COVID-911 security state.... The nightmarish police state that is coming into view on the back of this pandemic panic is not a temporary state of affairs, nor is it a haphazard set of measures thrown together on an ad hoc basis; it is the creation of a new form of governance. This new form of governance relies on the perceived sense of crisis—in this case, a public health crisis—to justify constant surveillance of the public and new powers to inhibit the travel of anyone deemed a health risk. Famed Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben has documented how this biosecurity state is being erected on the back of the panic that 9/11 and the war on terror helped induce in the public. “We might say that once terrorism was exhausted as a justification for exceptional measures, the invention of an epidemic could offer the ideal pretext for broadening such measures beyond any limitation. “The other factor, no less disquieting, is the state of fear, which in recent years has diffused into individual consciousnesses and which translates into a real need for states of collective panic, for which the epidemic once again offers the ideal pretext. “Therefore, in a perverse vicious circle, the limitation of freedom imposed by governments is accepted in the name of a desire for safety, which has been created by the same governments who now intervene to satisfy it.”
The leaders of two controversial pandemic simulations that took place just months before the Coronavirus crisis – Event 201 and Crimson Contagion – share a common history, the 2001 biowarfare simulation Dark Winter. Dark Winter not only predicted the 2001 anthrax attacks, but some of its participants had clear foreknowledge of those attacks…..That June 2001 exercise, known as “Dark Winter,” also predicted many aspects of government pandemic response that would later re-emerge in last October’s simulation “Event 201,” which predicted a global pandemic caused by a novel Coronavirus just months before the Covid-19 outbreak. In addition, the U.S. government would lead its own multi-part series of pandemic simulations, called “Crimson Contagion,” that would also predict aspects of the Covid-19 outbreak and government response.
A second set of retention regulations made under powers conferred by section 24 of the Coronavirus Act 2020 was put before Parliament 10 September 2020, to come into force 1 October 2020. The Coronavirus (Retention of Fingerprints and DNA Profiles in the Interests of National Security) Regulations 2020
The UK government has announced "plans to enable the use of digital identity across the UK," stating its intention to "update existing laws and a new set of guiding principles for policy development." The announcement was condemned by civil liberties campaigners and digital identity advocates alike. The former have highlighted the previous opposition of many politicians currently in government to the scrapped national identity card scheme, a string of scandals and failures involving personal data in government departments and state agencies, and the possibilities for pervasive, intrusive surveillance offered by digital identity schemes in combination with other new technologies. IDnow Accelerates Innovation in Identity Verification in UK - UK demand for IDnow, a German identity verification startup, grows with BP, Macropay and UK government the latest to explore AI and video identity software. London and Munich, June, 9th 2020, IDnow, a fast growing European identity verification provider, is in talks with the UK government about creating “immunity passports” for people who have recovered from COVID-19. Remarkable coincidence (Tony Blair proposal for governments outlined): https://institute.global/policy/digital-identity-missing-piece-governments-exit-strategy / https://institute.global/tony-blair...-blair-how-mobilise-government-fight-covid-19
Singapore rolls out Covid tracing tokens Singapore is distributing thousands of devices that can track where a person has been and who they have interacted with. The small bluetooth device is meant for those who do not own smartphones and cannot use a contact tracing app that was previously rolled out by the Singapore government.
It sounds like an intriguing offer. For a period of three years some people get €1,200 a month for free. They only have to answer researchers' questions about how they're faring with this unconditional income. Interest in taking part in the experiment has been overwhelming. Within a week, more than 1.5 million volunteers have signaled their willingness to participate in a big study on unconditional basic income. The organizers are looking for a total of 1,500 participants, 120 of which will receive €1,200 ($1,420) per month for a period of three years.
Coronavirus
"Stasi operation in East Germany" Politicians and the public are forcing their anger on Twitter as the propaganda media is not reporting on the draconian rules. Some are labelling it as "Stasi". According to official archives held in Berlin, the East German secret police force – the Stasi – which operated for four decades from 1950, “acted with aggressive harshness and brutality… Its methods ranged from physical violence to arbitrary arrests, from kidnappings in the West to conducting show trials and having the courts impose draconian sentences.”
In its latter years, it “focused more on preventive surveillance and so-called ‘psychic demolition’. It used manipulation and targeted rumours in its attempts to systematically intimidate individuals or groups, to ruin their reputations, isolate or criminalize them.” It was, historically, the most feared instrument of the totalitarian regimes of pre-reform Eastern Europe, responsible for turning people against each other by encouraging them to report any behaviour believed to be antithetical to the aims of the state.
Number of demonstrations have taken place in London, Germany, Span, France, Italy, Poland, Netherland, Romania, and so on
Just as in the early part of the 20th century, we have a socialist/communist uprising as well as global pandemic that the public is growing increasingly frustrated with no matter the response. How the government treats each problem will determine our long term future.
We came across this website on Twitter, https://australianvoice.livejournal.com/. (Twitter link.) Its latest blog, which we’re republishing below, makes a very important connection between its OUTSOURCED police force and the Strong Cities Network, funded by globalists like Soros. In trying to understand why Australia, and Melbourne and the state of Victoria in particular, seem to be coming under the heavy, police-state hand for a very small number of COVID cases, we recently published a piece by Robert Bridge in which it was posited that, since Victoria has signed onto China’s Belt and Road Initiative – the only Australian state to have done so, somehow this police state treatment its citizens were receiving was connected to this fact. See Letters From Melbourne, a ‘Ghost Town Police State’ Under Brutal Covid Lockdown. As Bridge says, joining the BRI has put Victoria at odds with the Australian government in general, which has joined the Blue Dot Network, a western bulwark against China’s BRI in the region.
In a viral clip stirring political passions around the Internet on Wednesday, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich argued during a panel on Fox News' "Outnumbered" that "the number one problem in almost all the cities [hit by violent protests] is George Soros-elected, left-wing, anti-police pro-criminal district attorneys who refuse to keep people locked up." Melissa Francis, the co-host of the midday show, intervened to caution the conservative icon, "I'm not sure we need to bring George Soros into this." When Gingrich insisted that Soros "paid for" the prosecutors, Fox News contributor and former Obama State Department spokesperson Marie Harf stated bluntly, "No he didn't" and, echoing Francis, added, "George Soros doesn't need to be part of this conversation." "OK ... so it's verboten," replied Gingrich after a pause. The Soros Cover-Up by Newt Gingrich - It seems there is suddenly a movement in media to silence anyone who speaks out against George Soros—and, specifically, his funding of radical prosecutors seeking to change the criminal justice system by simply ignoring certain crimes…..Soros’s plan to elect these prosecutors has been well documented already—and it has nothing to do with his spiritual or ethnic background. The Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Politico, USA Today, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Associated Press, CBS, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel—even Fox News itself, among others, have all thoroughly reported on it.
During a press conference, Dr. Jacques Girard, who heads the Quebec City public health authority, drew attention to a case where patrons at a bar were ordered to wait until their COVID-19 tests came back, but disregarded the command and left the premises before the results came back positive. This led to them being deemed “uncooperative” and forcibly interned in a quarantine facility….. “Because we have had people isolated at home. And then, we saw the person was not at home. So, we went to their home, and then told them, we are isolating you where we want you to be,” said Girard. “Six other Quebec City bars “known to have been frequented by Kirouac regulars” are now being examined by public health officials,” reports the RAIR Foundation. “It should be noted that it is not being claimed that anyone is actually sick from the coronavirus. But the state has the power to force a citizen into isolation anyway.” As we previously highlighted, the government of New Zealand announced similar measures, saying that they will put all new coronavirus infectees and their close family members in “quarantine facilities.”
A 33-year-old woman is the first West Australian to be forced to wear an ankle bracelet after allegedly breaching quarantine by entertaining visitors. The woman was fitted with the monitoring device on Friday after police said they caught two men at her Perth home on Thursday during a routine check on her mandatory 14-day isolation. She had been allowed to enter the state from New South Wales on September 1, but was told to isolate herself for two weeks' coronavirus quarantine at a private Perth residence, WA Police said in a statement on Saturday.
The Victorian Labor government has introduced a bill to parliament that coupled with other measures is one of the most egregious attacks on civil liberties seen in war or peacetime.
The Bill would allow people to be detained indefinitely and give sweeping powers to untrained people to become “authorised officers” with sweeping powers to arrest and detain fellow Victorians. Called the COVID-19 Omnibus (Emergency Measures) Amendment Bill, it overrides all other laws and legislation with the exception of the Charter of Human Rights (which the government ignores as it is not binding), the State Constitution Act 1975 and the laws created by the Bill itself…… Put simply, this means you can be locked up and detained indefinitely at the whim of a designated officer. There is no provision whatsoever for a review of the detention. Ultimately a person may have to apply to the Supreme Court to grant an order of Habeas Corpus for release.
9 Sep 2020 - Even by the British prime minister's lofty standards, his reversals this week on the two dominant issues facing his country were breath-taking. Personally, I think the constant last-minute emergency announcements relating to Coronavirus, is being used by Boris to deflect the media’s attention away from Brexit and the government’s failures with the trace and track system, which is why is he has been blaming nursing homes for the elderly deaths; and blaming young people for the current lockdown. The government has now even published new guidelines for care homes to accept Covid-19 patients.
People in England who refuse to self-isolate when required to do so will face fines of up to £10,000 under an emergency “carrot and stick” plan to control the second wave of Covid-19 sweeping the country. With infections rising at rates last seen before the full lockdown in March, around four million people on low incomes and in receipt of benefits, who cannot work from home, will also be given special “stay home” payments of £500 to compensate for lost earnings over their two-week isolation periods.
Boris Johnson will unveil a major crackdown on normal life today in a bid to halt a second wave of coronavirus. The PM will drop 'back to work' drive, restrict socialising and impose a 10pm curfew on bars and restaurants. Pubs and other venues will only be allowed to serve seated customers in draconian measures from Thursday. Businesses and schools will be allowed to stay open, while coronavirus restriction…… The Covid-19 alert level was raised from three to four, meaning virus cases are either high or rising 'exponentially'; The number of confirmed cases rose by 4,368, up from 3,899 the previous day. There were 11 more deaths; More than 430,000 residents in South Wales were placed under local lockdowns following an increase in cases; Taxpayers face paying billions more to keep trains running after financial support for rail firms was extended by 18 months; Rules for areas in local lockdown are being relaxed so grandparents can look after their grandchildren; More than 30 leading doctors and academics criticised 'harmful' plans to impose blanket lockdown measures in an open letter to the Prime Minister.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is facing a fierce Conservative backlash over the contentious 'rule of six'. String of senior ministers opposed the measure at a meeting, with Rishi Sunak among those to speak out. Cabinet source said rule of six was opposed by every member of strategy committee apart from Hancock. Coronavirus: hunting exempt from 'rule of six' restrictions in England - It contains a list of sports and physical activities in which people can participate in groups of more than six. The list includes mainstream sports like football, rugby, cricket, and hockey as well as less popular sports such as curling, polo and shooting.
Care UK, one of the largest national operators, has already closed 48 of its 124 care homes to visitors, mostly because of positive tests or because it is awaiting test results. HC One, the largest UK operator, said it had recorded increasing numbers of infections among a small number of staff. Some 133 of its homes are now closed to visitors, and it is restricting visits where wider community infection is high…… Jayne Macrae, 51, was stopped from seeing her 73-year-old mother earlier this month when Tameside introduced wider social distancing restrictions. “It is cruel,” she said. “The staff come and go every day and yet we are not allowed even socially distanced garden visits.”
The council of Trafford in Greater Manchester sent the letter to the care sector. Care homes will need to be prepared to take people even if they have Covid-19. In some cases they may expected to take them in with only two hours to prepare. Experts said the Government had 'not learnt its lessons' from March and April
Operation Moonshot is the name of the UK government’s newly proposed covid-19 mass testing scheme. The plan, revealed by The BMJ,1 involves an expansion of testing from the current hundreds of thousands of tests each day to 10 million a day by early 2021…. a proposed three stage rollout….. UK will carry out between 200 000 to 800 000 tests a day between September and December 2020….. “buying large scale capabilities” from partners such as the drug company GSK to “build a large scale testing organisation.” ….weekly testing would be made available progressively to the whole population to allow people to go to high risk events by using a “digital passport” to show they have tested negative for the virus.However, under “potential partners for increasing laboratory capacity” the documents list only the company AstraZeneca. Under logistics and warehousing, the documents list potential partners as Boots, Sainsbury’s, DHL, Kuehne+Nagel, G4S, and Serco. Under workforce are listed universities, the Society of Microbiologists, and the British Society of Immunology…..
Know that when a fully committed, bought-and-paid-for globalist like Tony Blair says “we need to learn to live with the virus” – what he really means is that we must first submit to 24/7 tracking and 365 day-a-year bio surveillance. Only then can we ‘return to normal.’ This is the basic script being dictated by the Five Eyes Alliance nations and their multilateral NGO proxies at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, World Economic Forum in Davos, and the World Health Organization (WHO). Note that the UK government are already moving towards changing existing laws on ID requirements to make way for new digital ID systems and immunity passports. his will most likely be done by bypassing due process and any real law review by the House of Lords (which Blair effectively dismantled during his tenure as PM). Combine this with the blatant rush towards a cashless society which accelerated after a fake story was intentionally circulated via the World Health Organisation back in March 2020 and through the global mainstream media which falsely claimed that COVID19 infections were being spread by people using cash.
Since the Coronavirus Act 2020 was passed by Parliament, police and government handling of different public protests has thrown up moral and legal challenges. Now is a good time to review what has come to pass.
A federal judge on Monday ruled that some of Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf's restrictions implemented amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic were unconstitutional -- marking a win for businesses struggling to stay afloat amid the forced shutdown. U.S. District Judge William Stickman IV, who was appointed by President Trump, sided with plaintiffs that included hair salons, drive-in movie theaters, a farmer's market vendor, a horse trainer and several Republican officeholders in their lawsuit against Wolf, a Democrat, and his health secretary. The ruling found that Wolf's restrictions that required people to stay at home, placed size limits on gatherings and ordered "non-life-sustaining" businesses to shut down were unconstitutional.
Pennsylvania Lawmakers Considering Bill That Would Make Not Wearing A Mask A Misdemeanor State lawmakers are considering a bill that would make it a misdemeanor to go maskless in public. Supporters of Senate Bill 1287 says Pennsylvanians who don’t wear masks are recklessly endangering other people and not following the…state’s emergency order. Those opposed…say requiring masks infringes on a person’s rights and doesn’t account for people who cannot wear masks…for medical reasons.
Vaccine maker got $1 billion from taxpayers. Now it’s boosting drug prices One of the world’s largest drug companies has been aggressively raising prices even as it received hundreds of millions of dollars of U.S. government aid to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. AstraZeneca, which the Trump administration has celebrated for its vaccine work, boosted prices despite renewed promises by President Trump this summer to keep drug costs in check.
One of the obvious outcomes of the government and media’s ‘pandemic’ narrative is advancing the idea that normal testing for efficacy and safety must be dispensed with due to the urgency of the situation. Their narrative is based on the belief that the ‘pandemic’ is so severe that the public simply ‘cannot wait’ to properly test and develop this new COVID-19 vaccine, and that it provides the only path towards herd immunity – and a return to ‘normal’ life as we once knew it. This global vaccine initiative is being heavily promoted by Bill Gates, the transnational pharmaceutical industry and the corporate media. However, this tenuous narrative is based on an entirely fabricated premise – driven by the a supposed need for endless mass-testing, resulting in the predictable “Case-demic” which has followed. EU to finance 88M coronavirus vaccine doses for poor countries
It has finally been revealed that the participant in AstraZeneca’s Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine trial who suffered a “serious adverse event,” causing a global shutdown of the company’s entire phase-three trial, developed a spinal inflammatory disorder known as transverse myelitis. The participant who triggered a global shutdown of AstraZeneca’s Phase 3 Covid-19 vaccine trials was a woman in the United Kingdom who experienced neurological symptoms consistent with a rare but serious spinal inflammatory disorder called transverse myelitis, the drug maker’s chief executive, Pascal Soriot, said during a private conference call with investors on Wednesday morning. The woman’s diagnosis has not been confirmed yet, but she is improving and will likely be discharged from the hospital as early as Wednesday, Soriot said. The board tasked with overseeing the data and safety components of the AstraZeneca clinical trials confirmed that the participant was injected with the company’s Covid-19 vaccine and not a placebo, Soriot said on the conference call, which was set up by the investment bank J.P. Morgan Soriot also confirmed that the clinical trial was halted once previously in July after a participant experienced neurological symptoms. Upon further examination, that participant was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, deemed to be unrelated to the Covid-19 vaccine treatment, he said. UN Forced to Admit Gates-funded Vaccine is Causing Polio Outbreak in Africa
According to Associated Press "Last week, WHO and partners declared that the African continent was free of the wild polio virus, calling it “an incredible and emotional day.” On Monday, WHO warned that the risk of further spread of the vaccine-derived polio across central Africa and the Horn of Africa was “high,” noting the large-scale population movements in the region. More than a dozen African countries are currently battling outbreaks of polio caused by the virus, including Angola, Congo, Nigeria and Zambia." After spending some $16 billion over 30 years to eradicate polio, international health bodies have ‘accidentally’ reintroduced the disease to in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and also Iran, as the central Asia region was hit by a virulent strain of polio spawned by the a pharmaceutical vaccine. Also, in 2019, the government of Ethiopia ordered the destruction of 57,000 vials of type 2 oral polio vaccine (mOPV2) following a similar outbreak of vaccine-induced polio. The same incident has happened in India and Philippines as well. Bill Gates and the Depopulation Agenda. Robert F. Kennedy Junior Calls for an Investigation / https://www.usnews.com/news/health-...es-declares-new-polio-outbreak-after-19-years
A gradual rollout would give preference to vulnerable populations and health workers The Department of Defense and federal health agencies have outlined plans for a coronavirus vaccine, which include having them available for free for all Americans. The plans came in the form of a report to Congress and a “playbook” for states and local governments, The Associated Press reported. The agencies are looking at January for a potential beginning of a vaccination campaign, although it remains possible that this could come later this year. “We are working closely with our state and local public health partners ... to ensure that Americans can receive the vaccine as soon as possible and vaccinate with confidence,” Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement. Vaccinations would start gradually among some segments of the population – such as health workers, other essential workers, and the more vulnerable – before eventually ramping up for distribution to all who want it. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s playbook, the vaccination campaign will be “much larger in scope and complexity than seasonal influenza or other previous outbreak-related vaccination responses.
University Says False Positives Inflated COVID Numbers 600% Among Group of Athletes
A rash of false-positive coronavirus tests has led the University of Arizona to issue an apology to student-athletes who it claimed had the virus but did not. The university reported Thursday that 13 student-athletes had tested positive for COVID-19 — a single-day record for the school. Three days later, however, Arizona athletics said in a statement that the actual number of positive tests was just two. That means the initial numbers inflated the total by more than 600 percent.
COVID CRIMINALS: Nashville officials buried numbers showing very low infections in order to gaslight the public over need to keep bars and restaurants shut down Today we are calling for the arrest and prosecution of top government officials in Nashville, TN, who have now been caught red-handed covering up the very low numbers of infections at restaurants and bars in order to gaslight the public and justify draconian business closures and lockdowns.
Over the weekend the Centers for Disease Control dropped a bombshell report on coronavirus/COVID deaths: of the approximately 165,000 "COVID deaths", less than ten thousand died from COVID. The rest - a vast majority - had on average 2.6 serious additional diseases, with the addition in most cases of extreme advanced age.
…new research from the University of Oxford’s Center for Evidence-Based Medicine and the University of the West of England has found that the swab-based technique used for most COVID-19 testing is at risk of returning "false positives" since copies of the virus's RNA detected by the tests might simply be dead, inactive material from a weeks-old infection. Although patients infected with COVID-19 are typically only infectious for a week or less, tests can be triggered by virus genetic material left over from a weeks-old infection…. Professor Carl Heneghan, one of the authors of the study, said there was a risk that a surge in testing across the UK was increasing the risk of this sample contamination occurring and it may explain why the number of Covid-19 cases is rising but the number of deaths is static. "Evidence is mounting that a good proportion of ‘new’ mild cases and people re-testing positives after quarantine or discharge from hospital are not infectious, but are simply clearing harmless virus particles which their immune system has efficiently dealt with," he told the Spectator. New York Times: Your Coronavirus Test Is Positive. Maybe It Shouldn't Be.
Maine 'superspreader' wedding linked to 170 Covid cases and seven deaths - More than 100 people gathered for August event in Millinocket……. ‘It is spreading in the community with remarkable force’. None of those who died actually attended the wedding and reception. The first of the deaths was reported in Millinocket, where no one has tested positive for several weeks, the town manager said on Wednesday. Martin Cohen, author, on Twitter responding to the Guardian article: “Paragraph six: “None of those who died actually attended the wedding and reception” https://theguardian.com/p/ep39g/stw UH HUH Kinda looks like propaganda, nor reporting.”
PM set to impose measures across country as experts say death toll could be as high as in first spike unless behaviour changes. Britain is entering a second wave of coronavirus, Boris Johnson has said as scientists expressed fears the death toll could be as high as in the first spike without a rapid change in public behaviour. The prime minister is prepared to impose sweeping nationwide measures to curb the spread of Covid-19, it is understood. About 13.5 million people in the UK – one in five – are already facing local lockdowns after the government introduced new measures in parts of the north-west, Yorkshire and the Midlands.
If that sounds like an exaggeration, just ask yourself how you’d have felt a year ago — or even six months ago — if you’d been told a British government was planning to institute a 10pm curfew, ban gatherings of more than six people, impose daily immunity tests before you were allowed to go about your business, employ Stasi-like volunteer ‘marshals’ to ensure public compliance and warning that it might even have to cancel Christmas? Lord Sumption : UK September lockdown not enforceable + Internal market bill. "When tyrannies take over it is because people volunteer their liberty voluntarily.” A bold pronouncement, but what we have come to expect from Lord Sumption, former Supreme Court judge, in his campaign to defend civil liberties under lockdown: https://thecritic.co.uk/liberty-in-lockdown/ Lord Sumption: Boris Johnson’s ‘Rule of Six is Pointless, Arbitrary and Unnecessary’ - “This one size fits all approach is deeply destructive.”
Group of concerned lawyers dedicated to separating the Law from the Fiction, particularly in relation to the current Coronavirus lockdown. Every set of Coronavirus regulations opens with a statement that they are a proportionate “response to the serious and imminent threat to public health which is posed by the incidence and spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in England”. But this has been dangerous shorthand. It misses out key words from Section 45(C) of the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984 from where the regulations take their power. Section 45(C) refers to “incidence or spread of infection or contamination” from the virus. https://www.laworfiction.com/
But that is what is happening now. To varying degrees, political elites, screamed on by the media, have responded to the threat posed by this virus as if it is world-ending. As if it demands the complete reorganisation of social and economic life around the supreme principle of safety. As if there is no way back. They treat it not as a nasty virus that poses a significant but manageable health risk to certain sections of the populace. No, they treat it as a god-like judgement on the old structures of social life, now deemed, in the jargon of the day, unsafe and unsustainable. This is what is unprecedented. Not the novel virus itself. But the panicked, fear-laden and, in some quarters, gleefully apocalyptic response.
The Covid hysteria is getting worse ... we continue to be fed a steady diet of Covid hysteria, which amounts to government-sponsored terrorism….. For months now, Boris and his Sage henchmen have warned frenetically about the likelihood of a second wave. The sudden backtracking on opening up the economy — Monday’s arbitrary, scientifically baseless ‘rule of six’, limiting all gatherings to half a dozen; the threat of a nationwide curfew — gives every indication that the UK government is preparing for a second wave. These folks could profit politically from a second wave, if only because they’ve predicted it for so long, and another full lockdown would seem to justify the first one. The most expedient way to cover up a mistake is to keep making it…… On encountering Chris Whitty’s baleful announcement that the UK is ‘on the edge of losing control’ of the virus, I can’t have been alone in spewing coffee all over a new iPad. Our betters have never controlled the virus. They’ve just controlled us. They’re not planning to stop controlling us. This government is starting to behave as if it wants a second wave, ideally even worse than the first, and a second lockdown, ideally even worse than the first as well. Otherwise, we wake up one day and realise: oh, excess deaths for 2020 weren’t all that high compared to previous years with especially bad flu. Most of us are still here. And the country is in shambles. The finger-pointing could grow unpleasant.
This is the key finding of a new study, which has confirmed what we already knew: the risk posed to children by Covid-19 is miniscule….. Of the children the British Medical Journal (BMJ) report considered, six tragically died in hospital with Covid. Importantly, all of those had underlying health problems. This is equivalent to one per cent of child hospital admissions for coronavirus – a ‘strikingly low’ figure when compared to the 27 per cent figure for other age groups. Professor Richard Ennos
Misguided attempts to eliminate the virus will merely prolong the pain of lockdown. Whatever happened to just ‘flattening the curve’? Governments promised they were only instituting temporary restrictions to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed with Covid patients. These measures have already well exceeded their remits. Formerly free, democratic countries have had to endure unprecedented restrictions on daily life, with most countries still living under some form of lockdown, social-distancing policies and mandatory mask-rules some six months after Covid reached their shores.
Hospitalisations and deaths have been falling since April. But lockdown is still taking its toll. Then things began to change. Sweden’s more liberal approach showed that Covid-19 could be controlled at a fraction of the cost. The death rate per 100,000 people in Sweden is now lower than in Spain and Italy, which introduced far more draconian measures. And Norway’s health chief, where full lockdown was imposed, has since said it should have followed Sweden’s lead. Proponents of lockdown largely ignore the costs it has imposed on society. Instead, they fixate on the daily numbers of Covid cases. This is despite the fact that testing is unreliable and many more people are now being tested than at the height of the pandemic, leading to serious distortions in the data. Back in June, while Sweden was falsely accused of having a ‘resurgence’ of Covid, Anders Tegnell, in charge of the Swedish policy, warned that the data was being ‘totally misinterpreted.’
Surging coronavirus figures across Europe should serve as "a wake-up call", the World Health Organization's regional director has said. Hans Kluge said in the past two weeks the number of new cases had doubled in more than half of European member states. "We have a very serious situation unfolding before us," he said. He was speaking as the number of confirmed infections worldwide crept towards the 30 million mark. More than 942,000 people have died since the coronavirus emerged in China late last year. Speaking in Copenhagen on Thursday, Mr Kluge said 300,000 new infections were reported across Europe last week alone and weekly cases had exceeded those reported during the first peak in March. "Although these numbers reflect more comprehensive testing, it also shows alarming rates of transmission across the region," he told reporters. Mr Kluge said the figures "should serve as a wake-up call for all of us".
The Public Prosecution Service (OM) has issued a fine to Justice and Security Minister Ferd Grapperhaus for violating social distancing rules at his own wedding. The event sparked controversy after a freelance photographer captured images of the wedding party gathered for a group picture, Grapperhaus shaking hands with a guest, and his arm around his new mother-in-law…… Eventually, the Cabinet conceded to demands from Parliament to lower the amount of the social distancing fine to 99 euros. The reduction would also mean that the violation would no longer show up on an offender's criminal record.
Journalist and podcaster Rico Brouwer joins us from the Netherlands to discuss the lockdown protests in Berlin and The Hague and the undemocratic conduct of both the government and media. He also gives us an update on what is happening with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's extradition hearing which has recently resumed and is looking to be pretty much a kangaroo court.
The government has asked families to snitch on their neighbours if they see them breaking the regulations. Police can fine people up to £3,200 if they disobey the policy. The UK Home Secretary said "two families bumping into each other on the street would be breaking the 'Rule of Six' law against 'mingling', warns Priti Patel - as she vows to snitch on her own neighbours if they flout the curbs. Minister of State for Crime, Policing and the Fire Service, Kit Malthouse: “During lockdown we did see a surge in reports coming through to police,” he said. “If people are concerned, if they do think there’s been a contravention, then that option is open to them.” and that It’s open to neighbours to do exactly that through the non-emergency number and if they are concerned and do see that kind of thing, then absolutely they should, yes.” It was reported in April that UK police received 194,000 calls from lockdown ‘snitches’.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock, they pointed out, has had the job for only two years; chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty was appointed in 2019; Boris Johnson was elected last year; and the Joint Biosecurity Centre - created to fight the Covid-19 pandemic - is run by a spy. Professor Heneghan and Professor Jefferson warned the government's new move to limit gatherings - which came into force today - was 'disturbing' and had 'no scientific evidence to back it up'. They argued that it may instead end up having 'major consequences'
The government has announced that a new band of ‘Covid marshals’ will patrol Britain’s streets and ensure that no one is breaking social-distancing rules. They will remind people to keep a two-metre distance, enforce one-way pavements and break up groups of more than six.
By decree of an anonymous university “supercomputer,” Victoria’s Dan Andrews has opted to extend stage 4 lockdowns. This is once again stalling the economic recovery of the region and plundering the wealth and liberty of millions across the state.
The Freemasons Foundation Victoria is listed first on The Victoria Police Blue Ribbon Foundation website as one of their 'major partners.'…. “The Victoria Police Blue Ribbon Foundation perpetuates the memory of members of the Victoria Police who have died in the line of duty through the support of worthwhile community projects within Victoria,” their website explains. The Freemasons Foundation Victoria is likewise listed first on The Victoria Police Blue Ribbon Foundation website as one of their “major partners.”
Last week’s arrest of Zoe Buhler by Australian police, the video of which swept the world, should terrify every person who believes in liberal democracy…..Buhler, a 28-year-old pregnant mother, was arrested at her home near Ballarat, Victoria, on Wednesday. She was handcuffed in front of her family, had her computer and phones confiscated, and was led out of her house by the police. What had she done that was deserving of such heavy-handed treatment? What had she done that made it worth subjecting her family to the sight of seeing her in handcuffs? Very little. She had attempted, through a posting on Facebook, to organise a peaceful anti-lockdown gathering in Ballarat – a town with just four active cases of coronavirus…… As a result, Buhler is due to appear in court in January next year. She could be jailed for up to 15 years….The reaction of Australian politicians to Buhler’s arrest is even more worrying. Assistant commissioner Luke Cornelius, one of Victoria’s most senior police officers, said he was ‘absolutely satisfied’ with the arrest. The only thing he regretted was the video, and the ‘optics’ of the arrest of a pregnant woman, which he said were ‘terrible’. So there you have it: the only thing Cornelius regrets about the arrest was that the public saw it.
How Australia's gone from being the envy of the world by flattening the curve at the height of the pandemic to a global embarrassment as power-hungry premiers destroy livelihoods and tear families apart - and why all we can do is watch - Australia has recorded 26,465 coronavirus infections with only 781 deaths and some states have single-digit active cases. But 932,000 jobs have been lost and the federal government is spending $164billion to prop up the economy…..Words not normally associated with Australian government - fascist, authoritarian, totalitarian - are now commonly uttered and Andrews is being called 'Chairman' or 'Dictator' Dan of the People's Republic of Victoria.
Weekend demonstrations have flared up in Australia over the last month, as Aussies have vented their frustrations and attempted to take back control of their communities after a surge in virus cases prompted the government to re-implement some of the world’s most draconian social-distancing measures. And if there is one thing that terrifies increasingly tyrannical governments, it’s a loss of control of the narrative, which is why the Australian government is getting a jump start on curbing any so-called “conspiracy theorists” daring to spread information that questions the fear-mongering being used to keep Aussie citizens under lock and key. A new bill is expected to be debated by the Victorian government in the State Parliament this week. It gives local authorities the power to detain “conspiracy theorists” and people who refuse to self-isolate, reported Caldron Pool. If passed, the COVID-19 Omnibus (Emergency Measures) allows the government to detain anyone labeled as a “high risk” or likely to spread COVID-19 negligently.
But never in my wildest dreams did I think that I was voting for what amounts to the most socialist (as in big government, big spending, public sector thrives while private sector withers) government in Australia’s history. Nor did it cross my mind that this government would make more inroads into Australians’ civil liberties and freedoms than even the wartime governments of the last century. What has happened is astounding and it has happened because the preponderance of people have been terrified into meekly giving up the basic freedoms that come with living in a democratic society. And ‘by terrified’ I mean that much of the press has turned itself into an unquestioning arm of the fear porn industry – breathlessly reporting each new case (rather than the death rate), never giving context (as in more people died of the flu and car accidents in most past years, and by massive margins), indulging in the report-your-neighbour thinking of the sort that flourished in the former Soviet Union. Once it was distance, but a new tyranny has emerged in coronavirus era
Premier Andrews said he made the agreement to increase Chinese participation in Victorian building projects, manufacturing and trade in order to boost jobs. But the non-legally binding sign-on to China's Belt and Road initiative has prompted concerns about foreign influence…… In October 2019, Mr Andrews reached a 'framework agreement' with China that vowed to make a roadmap for cooperation on specific initiatives. So far the roadmap has not been published. Critics say the BRI is a tool to expand influence and power across the globe. Federal Liberal MP Andrew Hastie told Daily Mail Australia that Mr Andrews had 'gone off the reservation by conducting his own foreign policy with China'. 'Unbearable consequences': China issues barbed warning to 'reckless and hypocritical' Australia as tensions increase - accusing Scott Morrison of 'disregarding basic facts' - The high-level talks between President Donald Trump's top diplomats and Australia's foreign and defence ministers was seen as a turning point in the relationship between China and the west. A joint statement by Foreign Minister Marise Payne, Defence Minister Linda Reynolds and US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, called out China for its growing aggression. A joint statement blasted the communist party for human right abuses against its Uyghur population, the erosion of democratic freedoms in Hong Kong and their 'unlawful' claims over territory in the South China Sea. Daniel Andrews' eyes wide shut on Chinese spy threat
Daniel Andrews and China
Upon his election, Andrews fast-tracked Victoria's ties with the PRC. Firstly, he led a group of prominent Victorians to China on his first overseas trip, and promised to send his entire cabinet there during his first term. Eyeing the enormous opportunities with tourism, education and investment, his government signed a Memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Chinese government under the Belt and Road Initiative in October 2018, but kept its details secret until he released it five weeks later. The MoU involves cooperation on facilities connectivity, unimpeded trade, finance, people-to-people bond[s], and the "Digital Silkroad". Cooperation will be in the form of "dialogue, joint research, pilot programs, knowledge sharing and capacity building". Andrews said that the MoU "does not bind Victoria to be involved in any specific project or initiative" and "the government will consider both the Victorian and national interest before agreeing to be involved in any specific activity".
You’d be hard pressed to find two more deceptive sentences than those in the Victorian Government’s response to questions about its secret deal with China…..Why any democratic government would sign a deal and then hide it from the people who elected it on the demand of a one party state is a mystery. It’s also a disgrace. Equally disgraceful is the tissue of deceit the Victorian Government managed to weave into just 37 words when asked for the simplest trace of transparency. Australia needs to stop its trade 'dependency' on China - China is Australia's largest two-way trading partner in terms of goods and services, accounting for 26 per cent of the nation's trade according to figures released by the Department of Foreign Affairs. Prior to coronavirus crisis, two-way trade reached a record $235 billion in 2018–19, which is up over 20 per cent from the previous year.
A defund WHO movement began when United States President Donald Trump announced that his administration will stop its funding of WHO after Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus showed eagerness to accept and spread Communist China’s false Coronavirus propaganda. During the peak of the “spread of Coronavirus,” WHO is continuing to use contributions made with taxpayer funds to:
Create and support a curriculum for comprehensive sexuality standards, which teaches "masturbation” to children from ages 0 to 4.
Promote abortion as a human right
Lobby countries to legalize abortion.
Partner with Planned Parenthood and other abortion activists
Support the legalization of prostitution
Force doctors to perform sex reassignment surgery on children
After publishing guidance warning about the serious risks of "airborne" infection associated with SARS-CoV-2, the CDC just seriously harmed its own credibility by acknowledging Monday that it had posted the new guidance "in error", following a pressure campaign from the WHO. Scientists have been gathering evidence that the novel coronavirus plaguing the world spreads via aerosol particles practically since it first emerged, and back in July, a group of 200 scientists sent a letter to the WHO urging the international public health agency to change its guidance on the spread of the disease. The problem scientists argued is that the WHO hasn't updated its views to incorporate new research showing that aerosol spread is a much greater threat than touching contaminated surfaces, or via large droplets spread by close contact between individuals. Yet, the WHO has refused these overtures, and this week it successfully convinced the CDC to do the same. After the WHO announced earlier that it had reached out to the CDC over the guidance change, the agency informed American media outlets that a "draft version" of the guidance had been "posted in error".
In 2010 a report was published by the British Medical Journal and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. Though many issues were raised by the Report, it was reported that key scientists advising the World Health Organization on planning for an influenza pandemic had done paid work for pharmaceutical firms that stood to gain from the guidance they were preparing. These conflicts of interest have never been publicly disclosed by WHO, and WHO has dismissed inquiries into its handling of the A/H1N1 pandemic as “conspiracy theories.” Hmmm...that sounds familiar! Again, in 2010, an inquiry was launched by the EU Parliament on the "falsified pandemic that was declared by WHO in June 2009 on the advice of its group of academic experts, SAGE, and many of who members have been documented to have intense financial ties to the same pharmaceuticals...." https://healthcare-in-europe.com/en...ment-to-investigate-who-pandemic-scandal.html https://off-guardian.org/2020/08/31/watch-the-jab-how-the-who-faked-a-pandemic-to-sell-vaccines/
https://www.corbettreport.com/what-is-the-who-questions-for-corbett-066/ https://childrenshealthdefense.org/...ies-therapeutics-now-or-vaccines-later-video/
The Chinese government intentionally manufactured and released the COVID-19 virus that led to mass shutdowns and deaths across the world, a top virologist and whistleblower told Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Tuesday. Carlson specifically asked Dr. Li-Meng Yan whether she believed the Chinese Communist Party released the virus "on purpose." "Yes, of course, it's intentionally," she responded on "Tucker Carlson Tonight." Yan said more evidence would be released but pointed to her own high-ranking position at a World Health Organization reference lab as a reason to trust her allegation. "I work[ed] in the WHO reference lab, which is the top coronavirus lab in the world, in the University of Hong Kong. And the thing is I get deeply into such investigation in secret from the early beginning of this outbreak. I had my intelligence because I also get my own unit network in China, involved [in] the hospital ... also I work with the top corona[virus] virologist in the world," she said. Personally, I’m suspicious of this lady…I don’t know why but I will not be surprised if her story turns out to be false….to fool the right-wing news media or some other nefarious agenda…time will tell
Second defector’s knowledge of Chinese bioweapons reaches U.S. U.S. intelligence agencies recently increased their knowledge of China’s covert biological weapons program with the help of a defector from the People’s Liberation Army…The defector escaped from China and traveled to Europe, where he is under the protection of a European government security service, according to the sources.
Post-Brexit: UK-EU Trade Deal
The UK has secured a free trade agreement with Japan, which is the UK’s first major trade deal as an independent trading nation and will increase trade with Japan by an estimated £15.2 billion. The UK-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement was agreed in principle by International Trade Secretary Liz Truss and Japan’s Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu on a video call this morning (Friday 11 September). Yoshihide Suga elected Japan's new prime minister succeeding Shinzo Abe - Japan's parliament has elected Yoshihide Suga as the country's new prime minister, following the surprise resignation of Shinzo Abe. After winning the leadership of the governing party earlier this week, Wednesday's vote confirms the former chief cabinet secretary's new position. A close ally of Mr Abe, the new prime minister is expected to continue his predecessor's policies.
The saga of the UK leaving the European Union, I wrote about this in 2019, continues. I have to say that I don’t believe, as Boris and Brexiters celebrated in January, that we have left the EU fully, and the recognition by Boris to now submit a Bill to Parliament, in order to override the Withdrawal, is encouraging, though late in the day. Relevant articles:
NIGEL Farage has been "proven right", according to a former Brexit Party MEP, as he urged Boris Johnson to "tear up" the withdrawal agreement with the European Union. Brexit negotiations were thrown into chaos after reports suggested Boris Johnson’s government was planning new legislation which risked overriding parts of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement. Ben Habib: Ditch The Withdrawal Agreement
In a series of messages on Twitter, the PM's chief Brexit negotiator, David Frost suggested under the EU's proposed arrangements, British firms risked not being able to export food from the mainland to Northern Ireland either. The EU has confirmed it could bring in a blockade of food goods travelling between Northern Ireland and Great Britain under the current terms of the Withdrawal Agreement, says Downing Street.
The president of the European Union’s executive arm said Wednesday that the United Kingdom cannot unilaterally change the bilateral Brexit agreement without destroying global trust in the country. Insisting that chances for a future trade deal were slipping away by the day, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told EU lawmakers that plans by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to renege on parts of the U.K.-EU withdrawal agreement dimmed those hopes even further. What’s more, von der Leyen asserted, Britain is throwing its good name to the wind by not respecting a deal it signed in December.
How many times have we heard that the Withdrawal Agreement Treaty between the UK and the EU cannot be changed? It remains locked shut says the EU. Well, believe it or not, the EU came forward in May and June with a set of proposed amendments to the Agreement and the UK okayed a few of them through the Joint Committee that Michael Gove co-chairs with the EU Commission vice president Maros Sefcovic. And this came about from a meeting of the EU Council that decided on the 10 June 2020 to get their side to put these proposals through the Joint Committee….But the unamended version is still the one displayed on the .gov website. But the UK also, as far as the House of Commons European Scrutiny Committee is aware, refused to agree a dozen or so other changes. And these changes all involved the Irish Border Protocol. Part of those changes proposed by the EU was to add eight more pieces of legislation that would apply to Northern Ireland only after the end of the Brexit Implementation Period.
This is all quite stupefying. These “contradictory” ambiguities weren’t “unforeseen” at all. When the withdrawal agreement and its Northern Ireland protocol were agreed last October, it was obvious that this would leave the UK in permanent thrall to the EU after Brexit. Indeed, at the time I was astounded that Boris had merely put lipstick on the pig – having achieved only a few improvements to Theresa May’s remain-by-stealth withdrawal bill that brought her down – and yet was being hailed as the saviour of Brexit. I wrote then: It’s basically a tweaked version of the May deal, which MPs on both sides of the Brexit divide said was so bad it would leave Britain worse off than being in the EU. We were told repeatedly that the May deal was indeed so terrible it could not be renegotiated. It was more dead even than Monty Python’s deceased parrot. Yet Boris Johnson has renegotiated that deal. He has indeed achieved the impossible. He has produced the May deal mark four. He has put lipstick on the dead parrot. As for protecting Northern Ireland, Nigel Dodds of the Democratic Unionist Party pointed out at the time that the withdrawal agreement “drives a coach and horses through the Belfast agreement” and “it was once said that no British Prime Minister could ever agree to such terms”. Yes, it’s true that the withdrawal agreement fatally undermines British sovereignty. Yes, it’s true it would keep the UK in thrall to the EU in perpetuity. Yes, it’s true that it puts a border down the Irish Sea and sells out Northern Ireland by effectively abandoning it to EU-unification within the island of Ireland.
Sir Bill Cash lashed out at the European Union for wanting a level playing field. He said: "There has never been a level playing field in the EU. Their cardinal objective in these negotiations from the outset has included preventing us from being able to compete fairly. This is not good faith. "Under the protocol they would even control our legal tax freedom but crate free ports and enterprise zoones. "All of this would massively undermine our businesses and jobs and therefore our voters. "Consider the wide legal sphere and legal state aid regulation, it is concerned not only with subsidies but also tax reliefs."
Former Tory leader Michael Howard, himself a Brexiter, promised a “rough passage” for the bill when it reaches the upper chamber and said his fellow Lords -- who have the power to delay the legislation by as much as a year -- are “highly likely” to block it as a point of principle. “It invites Parliament to use its sovereignty to break international law and I don’t think Parliament should be asked to do that,” Howard said in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Anna Edwards. “On this issue, that’s so fundamental and such an issue of principle, the Lords may well insist on blocking the bill.” On Wednesday, Johnson agreed to give the House of Commons a veto over whether the government can exercise its proposed powers to override parts of the Brexit divorce treaty after meeting Conservative MPs who were threatening to rebel against him. Howard spurned those concessions, and said he expects the Lords, where the government doesn’t have a majority, will reject the bill by a large margin.
But since getting the UK Internal Market Bill comfortable through the Commons, Boris must have taken a look at the potential number of rebels on his own side and decided to send out signals that he will cave to their demands. And those demands are that we allow the EU to walk all over us again. The main Tory rebel amendment, put forward by Sir Bob Neill, would require the Government to table a motion to get the OK from the House of Commons before he took action to counter any overly aggressive move by Brussels to blockade Northern Ireland. And you could bet that would require Boris to have spent weeks if not months exhausting all other avenues while Brussels delights itself in dismantling the UK.
Blair, Major and other powerful figures want to keep us beholden to Brussels.
Consider the intervention of John Major and Tony Blair at the weekend. These arch Remainers, who for four years have abused their positions as former PMs to pronounce endlessly about how awful and dangerous Brexit will be, are back. This time with a joint byline in the The Sunday Times. They castigate the government for introducing legislation – the Internal Market Bill – that could potentially be used to override some of the stipulations of the Withdrawal Agreement. Which, lest anyone forget (how could we when we are reminded of this fact ceaselessly by the mostly Remoaner media?), is a legally binding international treaty. The government is behaving in a ‘shocking’ way, Major and Blair say. Reason has been ‘cast aside’, replaced with ‘cavalier bombast’, and the new bill is ‘irresponsible’, ‘wrong’ and ‘dangerous’.
Human rights lawyer Amal Clooney has quit her role as Britain’s special envoy on media freedom in protest at the country’s intention to breach international law over Brexit-related legislation. The British government has drafted a bill which it acknowledges would violate its international legal obligations and undercut parts of the divorce deal it signed before Britain formally left the European Union in January.
This afternoon, leading human-rights lawyer Amal Clooney (and wife of George) handed in her resignation to the government. Clooney has been a UK special envoy for media freedom since July last year, when she promised to use her position to stick up for embattled and persecuted journalists around the world….. In 2011, the human-rights lawyer accepted a gig as a legal advisor to none other than the King of Bahrain, as part of an inquiry in the country’s brutal crackdown on Arab spring protestors, which led to 46 deaths and 559 allegations of torture. The Bahrain Commission was set up by the king in the aftermath of the protests, and while it was praised for its candour about the crackdown, it didn’t exactly put an end to human rights abuses…. Which somewhat puts in perspective the UK government’s own ‘breaking’ of international law…
Middle East Peace Process
We're living in extraordinary and unprecedented times, we now have the Arab League, consisting of 22 nations, refused a motion, put forward by the Palestinian Authority, to condemn the UAE-Israel normalisation. That's right. Muslim nations have sided with Israel instead of their Muslim brothers, the Palestinians. Extraordinary. We also have Serbia and Kosovo to open Jerusalem embassies, however it is subject to whether Israel recognises Kosovo. Malawi is also planning to launch a diplomatic office in Israel. Kosovo and Malawi are Muslim-majority nations. Interestingly, Malawi has an MP who is the son of a Holocaust survivor, David Bisnowaty. Why Oman’s support for Bahrain-Israel deal is important for the Gulf - It would be wrong to interpret these statements as merely happenstance or random.
Jared Kushner, senior advisor to President Trump, believes that it is possible all 22 Arab states will make peace with Israel. Will the Abraham Accord begin the process that leads to 'peace with many' in fulfillment of Daniel 9:27?
On Friday 11 September 2020 it was announced that the Kingdom of Bahrain would establish diplomatic relations with Israel, making it the fourth Arab country to do so following the UAE in August 2020, Jordan in 1994 and Egypt in 1979. The full details are not yet publicly known but it is likely that the details will be similar to some extent to those of the “Abraham Accord” agreed by Israel and the UAE just last month….. The agreement will likely also provide opportunities for collaboration, particularly in respect of healthcare and technology, as well as oil and tourism. The agreement will likely permit businesses in Bahrain to enter into direct commercial agreement with counterparts in Israel to exchange, import, trade in and possess Israeli products in Bahrain. As for the tourism sector, the BBC reported that, immediately following the announcement of the Abraham Accord, the most searched for words in the UAE were “hotels in Israel”. Similar interest from tourists is expected between Bahrain and Israel.
Tuesday’s historic White House ceremony was the culmination of a rare diplomatic success story. Just one month after the shock announcement that the United Arab Emirates and Israel had agreed to normalize relations and establish diplomatic ties, here they were on the White House lawn signing the deal. And with Bahrain, another Arab Gulf country had joined the Israel-Arab renaissance, brokered by US President Donald Trump and his administration. “After decades of division and conflict, we mark the dawn of a new Middle East,” said Trump. “This day is a pivot of history. It heralds a new dawn of peace,” echoed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “We are witnessing today a new trend that will create a better path for the Middle East,” UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed agreed.
UN chief urges Israelis and Palestinians to negotiate now UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged Israel and the Palestinians on Wednesday to seize the opportunity for negotiations following the diplomatic agreements between Israel and two Gulf Arab states that resulted in the suspension of any Israeli annexation of territory that the Palestinians want for a future state.
In his monthly briefing, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nikolay Mladenov said the Secretary-General had welcomed the agreement reached between Israel and the United Arab Emirates that normalizes relations between the two countries and stops Israel’s plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank. “I hope it will inspire leaders on all sides to re-engage constructively in meaningful negotiations to resolve the Israeli Palestinian conflict,” he said, stressing that Israel’s commitment to suspend annexation removes an immediate threat to regional stability. To be sure, annexation would constitute a “most serious” violation of international law, he said, close the door to a renewal of negotiations and destroy the prospect of a viable Palestinian State and the two-State solution.
The EU and Israel are in talks to reinstate the body strengthening their bilateral ties, after the government suspended plans to extend Israeli sovereignty to parts of Judea and Samaria, The Jerusalem Post has learned. The readout from Brussels on a pre-Rosh Hashanah call between EU High Commissioner for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell and Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi on Friday states simply that “both agreed on a shared, mutual interest in intensifying bilateral cooperation,” but a Foreign Ministry source confirmed that they discussed the reestablishment of the EU-Israel Association Council….The Association Council has not met since 2013, as a form of protest by the EU, starting after Operation Protective Edge in 2014, against Israeli settlements and policies towards the Palestinians…..In the past, large numbers of member states have called for greater progress on the Middle East Peace Process before moving towards closer ties with Israel. Some also sought for there to be parallel incentives for the Palestinians and Israel, such as promising the Palestinians a quick start to negotiate an EU-Palestine association agreement to be implemented upon statehood. These arguments came up in 2017, when then-high representative Federica Mogherini sought to reconvene the Association Council, but France, Sweden, Ireland, the UK, Luxembourg and others thought Israel did not meet their standards.
US President Donald Trump said Friday, after meeting with the son of Kuwait’s ruling emir, that the country will likely normalize relations with Israel in the near future, following the diplomatic move made by the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain on Tuesday….. . Trump reiterated his claim that a number of Arab states were eager to ink deals with Israel following the historic accords with the UAE and Bahrain. “I have, I would say, seven or eight countries that want to be a part of it,” Trump said. “Nobody thought this would happen and not only is it happening, it’s happening rather easily.” Israel’s envoy to US: At least 2 more Arab states will normalize ties by January - Ron Dermer, ahead of his departure, says highlight of 7-year tenure in Washington was PM’s Congressional address bashing Obama-brokered Iran deal
The latest details pointed to Kuwait, according to posts on social media and Arabic news outlets. The country, at the top end of the Gulf, is of great strategic and military importance to the US. It was at the center of global attention in the late 1980s, but after the 1990 invasion by Saddam Hussein was ended, the country preferred to adopt a lower profile. Although it is close to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, it has been more hostile to Israel over the years. It also has a difficult history with the Palestinians, having expelled hundreds of thousands after the country was liberated from Hussein’s clutches in 1991. Kuwait is a key US partner in the region but it has a lower international profile than the UAE and Qatar. It tries to be more neutral in disputes, but it is concerned about Iran’s activities…… Qatar is also working with America on strategic dialogue and a closer alliance. The US has an airbase in Qatar, and reports this week indicated that Washington was also working with Doha regarding possible discussions with Israel. Qatar has indicated it could move forward when the time was right – and after some Israeli concessions on the peace process. Qatar, who Once Backed Hamas, Now Looking into Normalization with Israel
In an interview with Arabic-language television, Sejaan Azzi says Jerusalem has no plans to take over Lebanese land, cites normalization with UAE as proof of its good intentions….. ”I truly believe, and please trust that I am being honest, that Israel is not plotting to occupy Lebanon, or to expand its own territory by annexing parts of Lebanon,” Sejaan Azzi, a former labor minister, said in an interview with Lebanese news outlet NBN, translated Wednesday by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI.) How Lebanon May Be Forced to Make Peace With Israel - COVID-19, economic crises, the Beirut blast, public anger at Hezbollah, a pipeline and a railway, the UAE and Bahrain are all pushing Lebanon towards the unthinkable.
Saudi Arabia looks to be ushering in this era of normalization by enabling its Gulf partners to move first, one at a time, like pieces on a chess board, and monitoring the reaction. First the UAE. Then Bahrain. Riyadh also knows that Oman hosted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2018, and Riyadh has enabled Israeli overflights. Sudan, where the pro-Turkish Muslim Brotherhood leader was pushed out in 2019, has also appeared more open to Israel. In addition, MBS has hosted US evangelical leaders in 2018 and 2019, a sign of its growing interest not only in hearing out this group but also their views on Israel. The question for Riyadh is when it thinks normalization could come. Could it come before the US election, a gamble on Trump succeeding. Or does it prefer to wait and see?
While Jordan had strongly objected to any change in the makeup of the Waqf, in recent months their stance changed after Turkey became involved in east Jerusalem and the Temple Mount Back in June, Israel Hayom, reported that Saudi Arabia and Israel are conducting negotiations to allow Saudi representatives to join the Jerusalem Waqf Islamic religious trust that controls the Temple Mount and Al-Aqsa, according to a report Monday by ."These are sensitive and secret discussions conducted with ambiguity and low intensity with a small team of diplomats and senior security officials from Israel, the US and Saudi Arabia as park of negotiations to progress the Deal of the Century," said senior Saudi diplomats to Israel Hayom.
Report says Khartoum asking for billions in economic assistance in return for agreement with Jerusalem; if demands met, announcement could come within days. Sudanese officials are holding a “decisive” meeting with counterparts from the US and UAE over signing a normalization deal with Israel, the Walla news site reported Sunday. Sudan has been among a number of countries touted as possibly inking a deal with Israel, following the diplomatic move made by the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain on Tuesday…..Sudan is reportedly asking for oil and wheat shipments worth $1.2 billion to cope with recent devastating floods, a $2 billion grant to deal with Sudan’s economic crisis and a commitment of economic support from the US and the UAE over the next three years. According to the report, the US is being represented at the talks by White House National Security Council’s senior director for the Gulf and North Africa, Gen. Miguel Correa. The UAE is being represented by national security adviser Tahnoon Bin Zayed.
As part of the wave of peace washing over the Middle East, a leasing Iraqi politician is calling for establishing normalization with Israel, leading the Biblically minded to ask, “Is this Babylon reloaded or the repentance of Ishmael?” The Baghdad Post reported on Saturday that in the wake of the pending normalization agreement between Israel and the UAE and Bahrain, Iraqi Sunni politician and the leader of the Ummah Party, Mithal al-Alusi, called for the normalization of ties between Iraq and Israel.
With Israel set to sign a peace treaty with the UAE and a “declaration of peace” with Bahrain at the White House Tuesday, a report by Bloomberg claims that the treaty between Israel and the UAE will be implemented incrementally, over three phases, according to sources briefed on the details of the agreement. According to the report, the two countries will not exchange ambassadors immediately, but will begin with economic cooperation, followed by security and intel cooperation, and in the final stage, full diplomatic relations. The deal was constructed in such a way at the request of the UAE, which sought to ensure both that Israel does not apply sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria in the near future, and to keep pressure on the US to complete the planned sale of F-35 stealth fighters, which Israel has objected to. Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan: “I thank Netanyahu for choosing to stop annexation of Palestinian land.” Netanyahu promised settlement freeze for UAE, Bahrain deals - Meretz head
The UAE ambassador to the US said Sunday that he is not concerned about annexation returning to the national agenda in Israel, given the overwhelming support in the Jewish state for the normalization agreement with his country, which came at the expense of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s controversial plan to declare Israeli sovereignty over large parts of the West Bank. “I saw something in Israel that I rarely see: 80 percent of Israel, a week after the announcement, supported this deal over annexation,” said Yousef al-Otaiba, citing a Channel 12 poll during an episode of the Podbridge podcast he produces in cooperation with the UAE embassy in Washington. Eighty percent of Israel doesn’t agree on anything together, so that tells me this is something they want more than annexation, and that’s why I’m not worried,” he said.
Ahead of the signing ceremony, Bank Leumi said it had signed two cooperation memorandums of understanding with UAE’s First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) and the Emirates NBD bank of Dubai….A day later DP World said it would partner with an Israeli firm in a bid to take over the country’s Haifa port, the largest shipping hub for the nation. DP World said in a statement at the time that it had signed memorandums of understanding with DoverTower, a company owned by Shlomi Fogel, the co-owner of Israel Shipyards and the Port of Eilat. UAE- DP World, Israeli firm to bid for Haifa Port - Haifa Port will need to be upgraded to compete with a modern one being built in the area by China''s Shanghai International Port Group……Shlomi Fogel said DP World will collaborate with Israel Shipyards on the joint venture that will participate in the tender for the Haifa privatisation.
The Jewish and Zionist officials who gathered on the White House lawn this week for the signing of the Israel-UAE-Bahrain agreement seem to have heard only words of peace and friendship from the podium. But the Arab leaders who spoke at the ceremony said something very different. You would think that Foreign Minister al-Nahyan would likewise have thanked Netanyahu for his hard work in striving for peace……Nope. Instead, the foreign minister thanked Netanyahu “for halting the annexation of the Palestinian territories.” Ouch! Not only did al-Nahyan not express appropriate gratitude to the Israeli leader for pursuing peace; he bluntly declared that all of Judea and Samaria, even the areas that are inhabited solely by Jews, are “Palestinian Territories.”….No—a first step toward reducing Israel to the indefensible pre-1967 armistice lines…. a Palestinian state that would leave Israel just nine miles wide in the area around Kalkilya…..Remember what Abba Eban called those pre-1967 lines? “Auschwitz lines.” Because they were so narrow that Israel would be in danger of complete annihilation. Pro-Israel in America groups used to quote that label all the time. Not so much anymore….. Arab leaders then would make peace on the same basis that all normal, reasonable countries make peace— “peace for peace.” Not you-go-back-to-Auschwitz-lines for peace. Not you-give-up-your-rights-to-your-eternal homeland for peace. Just plain old peace for plain old peace.
The Israel-UAE pact: Sacrificing substance for ceremony? - Dr. Martin Sherman
The cardinal question that must be addressed, therefore, is this: Is the “quid” worth the “quo”. In an ideal world, devoid of political constraints and international pressures, the answer is clear. Even without broaching the topic of whether the deal was contingent on the supply of ultra-modern F-35 combat planes to the UAE, and how significant this would be relative to the modernization of the Egyptian military in the wake of the 1979 peace agreement: Sovereignty is significantly more important than a possibly ephemeral deal with the Emirates.
Israel’s national imperative: ‘Keep your powder dry’- Dr. Martin Sherman
…perhaps a sobering example is the chilling case of the 1929 Hebron massacre, in which the Jewish residents of the town were viciously attacked and brutally murdered by Arabs, who had long been their friendly neighbors but at the call of their leaders, mercilessly turned on them. Accordingly, Israeli policy-makers would do well to heed the dour words of Tzipi Schissel, curator of the Hebron History museum: “…it’s impossible to understand the reality we face today, without knowing the history of Hebron.”
Jared Kushner has been reported as saying “What we did with our plan was we were trying to save the two-state solution, because… if we kept going with the status quo… ultimately, Israel would have eaten up all the land in the West Bank,” Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser specified. The comments mark some of the most specific the Trump administration has made at odds with Israel’s expanding settlement enterprise.
US National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien said the Trump administration is committed to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “We want to see the Palestinians in their own state with their own government, hopefully a democratic government, and one that thrives economically alongside Israel,” O’Brien told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt in an interview broadcast Thursday. John Haller Prophecy Update: "When the Surreal Is Really the Real' – watch John’s in-depth analysis of the Middle East and the Peace (Nominalisation) Deal
On September 4, 2020, President Donald Trump hosted Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo PM Avdullah Hoti at the White House to sign an economic normalization agreement that will lead to the establishment of air, rail, and motorway links between Serbia’s capital, Belgrade, and Kosovo’s capital, Pristina. Twenty-one years ago, Serbia and Kosovo engaged in a bloody war after Serbia cracked down on ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, a conflict that ended in NATO action against Serbia and Kosovo’s declaration of independence in 2008. How Israel justifies sudden recognition of Kosovo that has riled Serbia - For more than a decade, Israel bucked a Western trend and refused to recognize the Republic of Kosovo. The US, Canada, Australia and most of Europe recognized Pristina’s 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia, but Jerusalem didn’t — mainly because it didn’t want to support a separatist move by an ethnic majority, fearing such support could backfire should Palestinians attempt something similar.
Other News
From 9/11 To COVID-19: Nineteen Years Of Permanent “Emergency” In many ways, the current hysteria is even worse than that of the early years of the twenty-first century. It affects the everyday lives of countless Americans in ways the 9/11 panic did not. But the current crisis is nonetheless very much a continuation of the attitudes and paranoia that surged nineteen years ago. Then, as now, the public was repeatedly instructed to trust the experts and not question government officials in any way. The experts, of course, were wrong. Moreover, many were simply lying. There were no WMDs, and Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11. But millions of Americans believed the experts, and thus believed the lies. And now we see the same thing today. We’re repeatedly ordered to trust the official arbiters of scientific truth. Never mind the fact, however, than many other experts have dissented on a wide variety of topics, from the lethality of covid-19 to the wisdom of lockdowns.
The problem seen is "just the tip of the iceberg", with those not being able to get to the hospital in a much worse situation. The "distressing" situation in Yemen is a result of choices made by "powerful countries and powerful people", according to a UN official. Sir Mark Lowcock told Sky News "choices have been made to abandon these people". He added that deciding not to fund the relief operation has been "one of the worst choices" made this year…… Mr Hadi's government is supported by powerful countries, headed by Saudi Arabia, but also backed by the US, Britain and the United Arab Emirates. The crisis has worsened due to coronavirus, with the UN saying more than 20 million people require urgent humanitarian assistance because of the ongoing conflict - almost half of them children.
Friends and foes alike no longer know where the United States stands. As Washington overpromises and underdelivers, regional powers are seeking solutions on their own – both through violence and diplomacy. Only time will tell how much of the U.S.’s transactional unilateralism, contempt for traditional allies, and dalliance with traditional rivals will endure – and how much will vanish with Donald Trump’s presidency. Still, it would be hard to deny that something is afoot. The understandings and balance of power on which the global order had once been predicated – imperfect, unfair, and problematic as they were – are no longer operative. Washington is both eager to retain the benefits of its leadership and unwilling to shoulder the burdens of carrying it. As a consequence, it is guilty of the cardinal sin of any great power: allowing the gap between ends and means to grow. These days, neither friend nor foe knows quite where America stands.
India has engaged in new clashes across its long-disputed border with Pakistan, while it remains locked in another standoff on its border with China, one that threatens to erupt into a new regional conflict in Asia…….. Deep economic and security ties between the People's Republic and the Islamic Republic have boosted what China refers to as its "all-weather strategic cooperative partnership" with Pakistan. At the same time, a series of bloody clashes between Chinese and Indian troops in the Himalayan highlands means Beijing and New Delhi's relations have been put to their biggest test in decades. India's past with China may not be as bloody as its history with Pakistan, with which it fought four deadly wars since their 1948 partition. India and China too, however, fought over disputed territory in 1962 and this bitter experience threatened to repeat this year, with both sides cheered on my nationalist tides at home.
The United States will pull thousands of troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan by November, the top American commander for the Middle East said Wednesday, as President Donald Trump tries to make good on his campaign promise to get America out of “endless wars.” During a visit to Iraq, Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command, said the reduction in Iraq — from about 5,200 troops to about 3,000 — reflects the Trump administration’s confidence in the ability of U.S.-trained Iraqi security forces to handle the militant threat from the Islamic State group. Later, McKenzie said troop levels in Afghanistan would drop to 4,500 by November. He made the statement in a telephone call with a small group of reporters, according to officials at his Central Command office.
The premise, as laid out in the party platform, started with the proposition that international order created peace and prosperity for Americans. That "peace through strength" meant a formidable military presence around the globe, an asset to us and a deterrent to our enemies. That fair trade was a motivation to overcome differences….. At times, Trump has taken damaging action in line with this posture, such as his confounding decision in a fit of pique in July to pull nearly 12,000 troops out of Germany — and, in the process, to weaken our deterrent against Russia, make it more difficult for our troops to move quickly to global hot spots and complicate care for our wounded service members at the Landstuhl hospital in Germany. Tucker: President Trump wants US troops out of the Middle East - "Beware the Military Industrial Complex"-General Dwight D.Eisenhower. U.S. to pull 12,000 troops from Germany after Trump calls country 'delinquent'- "They're there to protect Europe. They're there to protect Germany, right? And Germany is supposed to pay for it. Germany's not paying for it. We don't want to be the suckers anymore," Trump told reporters Wednesday morning. "So we're reducing the force because they're not paying their bills. It's very simple, they're delinquent."…… “Let’s be clear: I think Germany is the wealthiest country in Europe, Germany can and should pay more to its defense. It should certainly meet the 2 percent standard and I would argue go above and beyond that,” Esper said, noting that the plan has already received "very positive feedback" from several European countries. Trump lashes Germany over gas pipeline deal, calls it Russia's 'captive' - “When Germany makes a massive oil and gas deal with Russia,” Trump said to Stoltenberg. “We’re supposed to be guarding against Russia and Germany goes out and pays billions and billions of dollars a year to Russia. “We’re protecting Germany, we’re protecting France, we’re protecting all of these countries. And then numerous of the countries go out and make a pipeline deal with Russia where they’re paying billions of dollars into the coffers of Russia. “So we’re supposed to protect you against Russia and you pay billions of dollars to Russia and I think that’s very inappropriate,” Trump said at the residence of the U.S. ambassador in Brussels.
A group of “bipartisan” neoconservative Republicans and establishment Democrats have been “simulating” multiple catastrophic scenarios for the 2020 election, including a simulation where a clear victory by the incumbent provokes “unprecedented” measures, which the Biden campaign could take to foil a new Trump inauguration…… Per several media reports on the group, called the Transition Integrity Project (TIP), they justify these exercises as specifically preparing for a scenario where President Trump loses the 2020 election and refuses to leave office, potentially resulting in a constitutional crisis. However, according to TIP’s own documents, even their simulations involving a “clear win” for Trump in the upcoming election resulted in a constitutional crisis, as they predicted that the Biden campaign would make bold moves aimed at securing the presidency, regardless of the election result. This is particularly troubling given that TIP has considerable ties to the Obama administration, where Biden served as Vice President, as well as several groups that are adamantly pro-Biden in addition to the Biden campaign itself. Indeed, the fact that a group of openly pro-Biden Washington insiders and former government officials have gamed out scenarios for possible election outcomes and their aftermath, all of which either ended with Biden becoming president or a constitutional crisis, suggest that powerful forces influencing the Biden campaign are pushing the former Vice President to refuse to concede the election even if he loses. Saagar Enjeti: The Very Worst People On EARTH Want Biden To Win - Saagar Enjeti explains the reasoning behind Republican support for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in the 2020 election. Trump Military Story FALLS APART As War Machine Strikes BACK Over Afghanistan Plans - Saagar Enjeti breaks down the recent controversy plaguing Donald Trump.
Jesuit Magazine, pro Pope Francis, Biden, Globalisation, climate change, socialism
….This new approach and name reflected Benedict XVI’s articulation of the church’s mission in political life: “It is not the church’s responsibility to make this teaching prevail in political life. Rather the church wishes to help form consciences in political life, and to stimulate greater insight into the authentic requirements of justice as well as greater readiness to act accordingly. (“Deus Caritas Est,” No. 28) The final document, “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” was approved by a vote of 221 to 4. This is the statement that has been essentially reissued in 2011, 2015 and most recently in 2019 with brief, new introductory notes…. On the evil of abortion, Mr. Biden, who started out in politics as a pro-life Democrat, has now under pressure embraced his party’s extreme abortion agenda, with federal funding for abortion and no restrictions. Donald Trump has moved in the other direction, from a “very pro-choice” position to committing to appoint judges who will overturn Roe v. Wade, oppose abortion in legislation and executive orders and establish conscience protections for religious objections to abortion, contraception and same-sex marriage…… I believe Mr. Biden has the “character [and] integrity” to lead our nation and is “more likely to pursue other authentic human goods.” ONE-TERMING TRUMP: W.H.O.'s Behind the Mask? - With the election just two months out, Michael J. Matt takes a look at good news and bad (Catholic media that is anti-Biden, globalisation, WHO, Pope Francis, abortion)
The US has ramped up its military presence in Syria after a number of skirmishes with Russian forces intensified tensions in the country…..Over the years, there have been frequent interactions between US and Russian forces in Syria. But in recent weeks, incidents in north-east Syria have become increasingly belligerent. At the end of August, seven American soldiers were injured in a collision with a Russian vehicle. The Russian and US governments blamed each other for the collision, which was filmed and posted to Twitter.
Iran-backed paramilitary fighters were among those killed in the attack….. The Britain-based monitor said the strikes hit Syrian army positions south of Damascus as well as positions belonging to Iran-backed paramilitaries, including fighters of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement, in the southern province of Daraa…… Israel has carried out hundreds of raids in Syria since the civil war broke out in 2011, targeting Iranian and Hezbollah forces as well as government troops. The Israeli army rarely acknowledges individual strikes but said that on August 3 it had used fighter jets, attack helicopters, and other warplanes to hit Syrian military targets in southern Syria.
The reality is, should the EU get its way, contrary to its claims to try and uphold the Good Friday Agreement, its demands would harm future prospects for peace and stability in Northern Ireland by undermining and destabilising the union. Where does Hizballah get the weapons and explosives it is reportedly providing to the New IRA? Iran. The EU has been at the forefront of supplying funds to Iran, including cash used for its terrorist proxies across the Middle East and beyond…. The EU falsely claims to uphold peace in Ireland while itself facilitating the greatest threat to that peace…..The Iranian terror proxy, Lebanese Hizballah, was a compelling intersectionality partner for Sinn Fein-IRA after its creation by the ayatollahs in Tehran in the early 1980s. Iran reportedly supplied millions of dollars in funding to the Provisional IRA in the 1980s and 1990s. And according to British intelligence, IRA bomb-making technology, passed to Hizballah, was used in attacks that killed British troops in Iraq. This week it emerged in the media that links now exist between New IRA and Hizballah. New IRA is the largest IRA splinter group, intent on continuing the terrorist campaign. It has carried out significant violence since the Provisional IRA halted terrorist action under the Good Friday Agreement. New IRA's plethora of attacks and attempted attacks go under-reported in the British media, although the group seized public attention after murdering journalist Lyra McKee in Londonderry last year.
Why China's Xi Jinping is the World’s Most Dangerous Man It’s all too easy to blame Donald Trump for the upheaval in current affairs. The U.S. president’s trade wars and hostility toward multilateral institutions are highly visible challenges to the international order that has prevailed since the end of World War II. Merkel looks east as ties fray between Germany and US - Berlin’s priorities vis-à-vis China have also had a profound impact on the EU’s own approach. Even as Ursula von der Leyen hasn’t shied away from criticizing China since becoming Commission president, she has been careful not to veer too far from Berlin’s line…. “It is not possible to shape the world of tomorrow without a strong EU-China relationship,” she said last month after a videoconference with Chinese leaders.
EU and China held a virtual Conference. On the agenda - climate change, trade, the economy – and Covid-19, which has soured relations significantly. The meeting was a follow-up to the 22nd EU-China summit that took place on 22 June and was chaired by President Michel on the EU side and President Xi on the Chinese side. Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, and, for the Council presidency, German Chancellor Angela Merkel also participated. The European Union and China are two of the biggest traders in the world. Since 2013, they have been negotiating to provide investors with long-term access to their markets as part of the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment. Prior to reaching any deal, the EU wants to ensure that China "respects intellectual property rights and meets its obligations as a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO)" as "transparency, predictability and legal certainty of the investment environment" have been set as prerequisites….The EU also expressed readiness to continue to discuss the Strategic Agenda for Cooperation 2025, which can only be concluded once significant progress has been made in the negotiations on the Comprehensive Investment Agreement.
Forget China’s Belt and Road initiative. When it comes to influencing European politics, Beijing’s real leverage doesn’t come from high-profile investments in small countries like Greece or Hungary. It comes from European investments in China — specifically Germany’s desire not to upset its lucrative economic relationship with one of the world’s largest export markets….EU officials said one reason Germany — and indeed the EU — had been particularly reluctant to speak out when Beijing imposed its national security law on Hong Kong in June this year was because leaders still hoped to secure an investment deal with China by year's end.…… Even as talks stall with China, criticism is growing about a perceived double standard: While Germany has halted the ratification of a trade agreement with the South American Mercosur bloc, citing Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's deforestation policies, Berlin has sought to shield the deal with China, insisting trade should be kept separate from human rights…..Jordi Cañas, an MEP from the liberal Renew Europe group who leads the file on the Mercosur deal, has openly complained about the discrepancy and said it came down to the fact that citizens seemed to care more about Brazil's rainforest than about people suffering from human rights violations in Hong Kong or Xinjiang…."In short, a deal with China has no political cost, whereas Mercosur does," he said.
Before European leaders agree to a landmark investment accord with Beijing, they want to know what kind of China they’d be striking a deal with. Is it the internationalist, multilateralist country trumpeted by Beijing’s top diplomats abroad? Or is it the one centered around a more Marxist vision, as presented by President Xi Jinping at home? Suspicions are growing among EU leaders that it’s the latter. After talks with Xi on Monday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen vented frustration with Beijing’s reluctance to open up its economy. The EU, she complained, still needed convincing that it was “worth having an investment agreement.”
Hunter Biden’s business dealings in China served the “strategic interests” of the country’s communist government and military — and may have imperiled American national security, claims a new documentary exclusively previewed by The Post. “Riding the Dragon: The Bidens’ Chinese Secrets” highlights several deals that Hunter Biden was involved in as a board member of the Beijing-based BHR Partners investment firm. David Bossie: Biden wrong on China his entire career – let's look at the record - Let Biden’s naivety sink in and juxtapose it with President Trump’s actions on China – which show he’s been right from the beginning.
Republican Sens. Marco Rubio, Thom Tillis, Roger Wicker, Rick Scott, Dan Sullivan, and John Cornyn sent a letter to the Trump administration on Wednesday highlighting their concerns over the proposed deal between Oracle and TikTok’s parent company, Bytedance, which would allow the Chinese company to retain ownership of TikTok…..Former Facebook Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos slammed the proposal tweeting, “A deal where Oracle takes over hosting without source code and significant operational changes would not address any of the legitimate concerns about TikTok, and the White House accepting such a deal would demonstrate that this exercise was pure grift.”
WeChat and TikTok avoided the ban by the US Commerce Department at the 11th hour – the ban was supposed to go into effect on Sunday, however US Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler blocked it, saying it raises serious questions about the first amendment (which guarantees freedom of speech). WeChat was looking at a complete disruption of its US operations while TikTok was given a grace period as owner ByteDance keeps negotiating with US companies for a deal that would satisfy the national security concerns which are cited as the main reason for the ban. Such a deal looked dead in the water on Friday, but it suddenly bounced back to life. President Trump has approved a deal that would see the creation of a new company, TikTok Global, which will be a collaboration between current owner ByteDance and two US companies – Oracle (which would have a 12.5% stake) and Walmart (7.5% stake). This would leave the Chinese company with 80% of the shares. WeChat's surveillance of international users boosts censorship in China, researchers say - Citizen Lab says images, documents sent between international users train censorship algorithm…..WeChat is available in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. Apple declined to comment on the findings, while Google did not respond to multiple requests for comment. China social media: WeChat and the Surveillance State - China's WeChat is a site for social interaction, a form of currency, a dating app, a tool for sporting teams and deliverer of news: Twitter, Facebook, Googlemaps, Tinder and Apple Pay all rolled into one. But it is also an ever more powerful weapon of social control for the Chinese government…. It is hard to imagine a life here without it. When you meet somebody in a work context they don't given you a name card any more, they share their WeChat; if you play for a football team training details are on WeChat; children's school arrangements, WeChat; Tinder-style dates, WeChat; movie tickets, WeChat; news stream, WeChat; restaurant locations, WeChat; paying for absolutely everything from a bowl of noodles to clothes to a dining room table… WeChat. People wouldn't be able to speak to their friends or family without it.
Senior MEP Guy Verhofstadt lost his cool as he addressed his colleagues and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in the European Parliament. The Belgian MEP lashed out against the European Union institutions failing to act against those who threaten the prosperity of the Union, lack of action on Hong Kong, Belarus, Turkey, Immigration.
Since the blast, French President Emmanuel Macron has visited Lebanon twice and has met with different parties, including Hezbollah members of parliament. Now a deadline looms and it’s unclear if France can achieve its goal in Lebanon…… France wants reform in Lebanon. It is not against the system entirely, since it appears to accept that the massive extralegal terrorist group Hezbollah will inevitably play a role, but it wants the old elites to step aside or give technocrats a chance. It knows that Lebanon needs some $93 billion in bailouts and that the port explosion has only made things worse.
The end result then for Assad is to try to figure out which country will buy up the country, the Russians or Iranians. Iran wants to be part of China’s new silk road of economic success and is holding discussions with India and Turkey….Russia is also launching an initiative to encourage Cyprus and Northern Cyprus to hold talks. … This comes as the US and France are angling for arms and defense deals and agreements with Cyprus, which is part of the EU….Russia claims to want to reduce tensions in the eastern Mediterranean that have pitted an aggressive Turkey against Egypt, Greece, Cyprus, Israel, the EU, France and others. Greece, Israel, Cyprus sign EastMed gas pipeline deal (Jan 2020) - Greece, Cyprus and Israel on Thursday signed a deal to build a 1,900 km (1,180 mile) subsea pipeline to carry natural gas from the eastern Mediterranean’s rapidly developing gas fields to Europe.... Russia, Turkey to Explore for Mediterranean Offshore Oil (2019) - Russian oil companies can roll out exploration in the offshore Mediterranean in cooperation with Turkey, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Friday in an interview with Anadolu news agency. “Russian companies have successfully implemented energy projects in the Mediterranean Sea. For example, Rosneft is working at Zohr in Egypt. If these projects benefit all the parties from the commercial point of view, Russian companies can decide on cooperation with Turkey in the East Mediterranean,” Novak noted.
Tensions between Turkey and the Gulf nations grew after Ankara expressed its strong support for Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt after Mubarak was overthrown. The monarchies in the Gulf view Islamic democracy as an existential threat to their style of rule. The imprisonment of Morsi, the civil war in Libya, and the discovery of gas deposits in the Eastern Mediterranean have worked in favor of Israel and its strategic value. The recent normalization of relations between Israel, the UAE, and Bahrein could finalize an anti-Turkey coalition that will define politics in the region for decades. Already an impressive coalition consisting of France, Greece, Cyprus, Egypt, the UAE, and Israel is confronting Turkey’s saber-rattling. Besides security cooperation, these countries are also working on strengthening political and economic ties. On 16 January the East Med Gas Forum was established in Cairo with the members being Egypt, Cyprus, Greece, Israel, Italy, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority. Also, Israel, Greece, and Cyprus are working on the EastMed pipeline to connect customers in Europe with gas deposits in the Levantine Basin. A New Middle East Mega-War Is Unfolding Right Before Our Eyes (2019) - The Chinese, who work closely with the Russians, are ready to invest in regional recovery and rebuilding. In principle, Beijing considers Iran to be “the strategic partner” in the greater Middle East and “a key pivot to China’s BRI [Belt and Road Initiative] in the region.”
There's growing pressure on Germany to rethink its support for the Russia-backed Nord Stream 2 pipeline project, but that could open Berlin to legal, financial and political problems.
Germany has long argued that the 1,230-kilometer pipeline that is supposed to send an extra 55 billion cubic meters of Russian gas a year under the Baltic Sea is a commercial venture, not a political one.
Maduro security forces committed humanitarian crimes in Venezuela: U.N. council Venezuelan socialist President Nicolas Maduro, his allies and security forces are guilty of “egregious” human rights violations, including arbitrary killings, torture and sexual violence, experts appointed by the United Nations’ top human rights agency concluded in a scathing review Wednesday.
US President Donald Trump said Monday that his 2017 decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem and recognize the city as the capital of Israel was done for evangelical Christians.
“And we moved the capital of Israel to Jerusalem,” Trump said at a rally held at an airport in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, apparently referring to his decision to move the embassy from Tel Aviv. “That’s for the evangelicals.” My Reaction: This is insulting to the Israelis and their government, after months of saying the opposite.
The Trump administration is set to clash with the United Nations Security Council this weekend over its drive to snap back sanctions on Iran. The US wants to ensure that an arms embargo against Tehran remains in place past its October 18 expiration date. “UN sanctions on Iran will come back into place this weekend at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Saturday,” US special envoy on Iran Elliott Abrams told reporters on Wednesday. Last month, the US triggered a mechanism by which Security Council sanctions against Iran would snap back to where they were in 2015, when they were removed under Resolution 2231 as part of the Iran deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA.
Iran and Turkey ostensibly back different sides in Syria, but in recent years they have grown closer due to joint opposition to the US and also Israel. Iran and Turkey both back Hamas, for instance…..The Iran-Turkey emerging warm relationship runs counter to the ideas that have been put forward by commentators, think tanks, experts and strategists that have divided the Middle East into sectarian camps of “Sunni” and “Shi’ite.”....
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan wants to take his country back to what he perceives as the glory days of the Ottoman Empire and with an increasing US pullout from the region - he is flexing his muscles.
Turkey and Iran are engaging in new operations in Africa – reports Call it a new ‘Great Game’ or war for hearts and minds, or just influence peddling, but Iran and Turkey are now engaged in greater efforts to expand their role in Africa. This comes as Russia and China are…extending networks on the continent. It is important to understand that this is in the context of the US…reducing its global role and…around 60 years after European colonialism was rolled back.
A new propaganda video has been released by the Turkish government, which demonstrates the neo-Ottoman desires of Tayyip Erdogan, who imagines himself a caliph from… Kızıl Elma and Manzikert to Mecca, the Balkans and Gibraltar. The video combines Ottoman and new Turkey with Erdogan as the successor to the Ottoman. It's a stunning video that captures military capability, national pride & religious vigor. Erdogan's delusional ambition and his hatred for Israel and Christians, is what probably drives him to align with Russia and Iran in the Gog and Magog war.
The Frontier Alliance International (FAI) mission, President Dalton Thomas, said Erdogan is openly calling for the re-establishment of the Islamic State. "The President of Turkey is openly calling for the re-establishment of the Islamic State, the restoration of its ancient borders and the conquest of Jerusalem. When the world wakes up from the corona hangover, we will face the resurrected Caliphate," Thomas tweeted. Thomas said the FAI has been very critical of both the Obama administration and the Trump administration for the empowering and tolerance of Turkish expansionistic ambitions in the middle east that for all intents and purposes is jihad. "There are people in very influential positions in the US state department who are very loyal to Turkish regional ambitions in the middle east for their own personal gain. This is a significant problem," he said. "We have been very critical of both the Obama administration and now the Trump administration for their empowering and tolerance of Turkish expansionistic ambitions in the middle east that for all intents and purposes is jihad," he added. (ANI) Turkey’s Erdogan hosts large Hamas delegation with wanted terrorist - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hosted a large Hamas delegation on Saturday on the eve of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s visit to Israel - The meeting was the latest in a series of high-profile Hamas meetings in Turkey that have all been pushed by Erdogan and his team. Ankara is a supporter of Hamas, which has been accused of plotting attacks on Israel in Turkey. The country has given Hamas members citizenship, according to media accounts in the United Kingdom.
In 2014, the UAE published a list of 82 designated terrorist groups. Nestled between al-Qaida and ISIS was the Council on American Islamic Relations, or CAIR, a group with deep ties to the Democratic Party. The UAE designation was not a slander. As former US prosecutor Andrew McCarthy chronicled in his 2010 book, The Grand Jihad: How Islam and the Left Sabotage America, CAIR was founded in 1994 as a front organization for the Muslim Brotherhood and its Palestinian branch Hamas. In conjunction with other Hamas/Muslim Brotherhood front groups and fundraising arms, CAIR’s job was to promote political Islam. Its operations, based in Washington, were to focus on political influence. To achieve this end, it presented itself as a civil rights organization…. Like the Clinton administration before it, the George W. Bush administration was eager to develop outreach with Muslim Americans and CAIR was a beneficiary of that outreach. But in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the Bush administration gradually began changing its position. In 2008, following the HLF trial, the FBI cut off its ties with CAIR. Barack Obama reversed course. From the outset of his presidency, Obama shifted US foreign policy towards Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood. At his June 4, 2009 speech at the University of Cairo where he called for a reordering of US ties with the Islamic world, Obama courted the Muslim Brotherhood. Ignoring then Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak’s explicit request, Obama invited representatives of the Muslim Brotherhood to attend his speech. Back home, among other things, Obama embraced CAIR. According to terror researcher Patrick Poole, after the HLF verdict, in 2008 federal prosecutors in Dallas intended to indict CAIR for its role in terror funding. Shortly after entering office, then-attorney general Eric Holder ordered the Dallas prosecutors to end legal action against the group. Senior administration officials held regular meetings with CAIR officials. According to White House visitor logs, CAIR officials visited the White House 20 times during Obama’s first term.
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The various external links to news outlets do not imply a recommendation for all the content found on these sites and do not necessarily represent my views. In particular, I have been using Catholic news sites, many who are critical of Vatican II and Pope Francis. I do not support the Catholic ideology and all that it represents. But I use these media platforms to gain better coverage of current events in relation to end-time biblical events.
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