UPDATED 15 November 2020
Geshurite Fortress from King David’s era discovered in Golan Heights A fortified complex from the time of King David (Iron Age, eleventh to tenth centuries BCE) was exposed for the first time in archaeological excavations carried out by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) in Hispin in the Golan Heights. The archaeologists consider that the fort was built by the kingdom of Geshur, the ally of King David, in order to control the region.
If you kindly allow me to, I would like to draw your attention to what I would argue is the answer to the aforementioned "Now what?" question. First and foremost, if we're ever to have any hope of knowing the supernatural peace of God, our eyes must be fixed upon Jesus, and when we do, like Isaiah, we will see the Lord seated on the throne - not pacing back and forth, biting his nails in front of the throne. I sense that the Lord today would have me to very simply say that we would do well to get our eyes off of Trump, get our eyes off of this election, get our eyes off of this world, and refocus our eyes upon Jesus. Here's why. The reason is this. The eyes of the Lord are searching throughout the earth, to and fro, looking for Isaiah's whose eyes are on him, hearts fully devoted to him, so that He can sanctify them, put His words on their mouth so that they can proclaim while there's still time: Jesus!.... It's bad, it's really bad, and it's going to get really, really, bad. Wow, there you go again, Pastor. Doom and gloom. Okay. Fine. Doom and gloom. Death of a nation. Fight for your country! No, my kingdom is not of this world. I love America, but I don't love America more than I love Jesus.
While we could say this every week, we are truly living in unprecedented times. We are on the verge of witnessing the complete and utter breakdown of western society in the wake of a contentious election that appears to be rife with massive, coordinated fraud. And while the final outcome is officially "Undecided", we, as followers of Christ, must be steadfast in our faith and belief, knowing that God is weaving an intricate tapestry of events behind the scene that will bring Him glory. Being "Undecided" is never a good position. Jesus tells us that the lukewarm will be spit out of His mouth. Everyone must decide the essence of the person of Christ, as indecision is just as lethal as rejection.
John also shows a short clip of documentary, filmed 12 years ago, of Arab historians, journalists and a lawyer disputing the narrative that the first Qibla (for Muslims to pray and later they were directed to pray towards the Al Aqsa Mosque’), was in Jerusalem, even labelling it as a fairy tale/legend - mark 1:01. The Truth about Muslims’ ‘Jerusalem Day’ and the Al Aqsa Mosque
No matter what happens in the Political realm, I offer this short piece to remind my precious brothers and sisters in Messiah that we are all called to be Pilgrims. We are only passing through and will find no lasting home in this world, for we are being fitted and prepared for the next one…. I was told this morning that the “Lockdown” imposed upon the UK is so severe, church meetings are now forbidden. I know a good many precious and faith-filled believers there who will not bow down to such an unjust edict. I assure you all there, we are praying for you. It just might please God to call upon us to offer various degrees of sacrifice for the cause of Truth. Remember, we are Pilgrims, sojourners, and exiles. Our true home is in Heaven. We come from a long line of others who heard the heavenly call and who left all to follow the One who had no place in this Earth to lay his head (Luke 9:58).
Among all the questions, how we are walking with God is the most important
We all may have an opinion about what God has been saying and doing through the pandemic. I recall the time when every man would read his own choice of newspaper. Opinions would be formed and firmly adhered to based on the political line taken by the choice of newspaper. This seems quite naïve now, in that we understand the bias in all media. There are now even greater and more subtle forces at work influencing our judgements. Our opinions are often formed from the websites we read. Do Christians escape this influence on their thinking or do some, as with the daily newspapers, have their favourite points of reference and hold strongly to what a chosen group with supposed prophetic gifts have to say?.... The New Testament letters to believers are filled with a call to character more than any other thing. This pandemic brings many restorative possibilities if we read the circumstances through the right spiritual spectacles. Our need is to stop and consider and to ensure that we are walking close to the Lord.
False teachers and false movements abound. Some do lasting damage. Some false teachings are short-lived. But there is one deceptive “prayer” practice in particular that continues to infect the visible church…. The question may arise–how can credible Christian organizations justify and condone meditative practices that clearly resemble Eastern meditation? … Christian terminology surrounds theses practices. It only takes a few popular Christian leaders with national profiles to embrace a teaching that sounds Christian to bring about big changes in the church.
God offers no cheap discipleship program. In Luke chapter fourteen, the Lord gave three reasons why we cannot be His disciple. He warned His followers to “count the cost”….. Discernment only comes from God, and He will not give discernment to anyone who is not willing to pay the price to be His disciple.….. Count the cost before you go seeking discernment. Discernment put Noah and his family against the entire world. Discernment totally changed the lifestyle of Abraham. It caused Enoch to walk alone and Joseph to be hated by his brothers, sold as a slave, and spend many years in a dungeon. It put Moses on the backside of the desert and the three Hebrew children in the furnace. Discernment caused all of the disciples to be hated and Paul to be lied about, whipped, imprisoned, and forsaken by most Christians. This is why Christ took His disciples up on the mountain at the beginning of their ministry and explained the true cost of discipleship. He said being His disciples would take them on the narrow path and warned them ahead of time that “few there be that find it” (Matthew 7:14).
"Especially in middle-class and upper-middle-class Christianity, so many people buy into it just accidentally because it's so much a part of the air we breathe — this idea that we need to be independent and self-sufficient, and that just involves a moving down of marriage and family life in the order of our lives and in the circle of our affections," Yenor said….. Another force that has waged destruction against family life has been the feminist push to make women act more like men and ending all sexual taboos, he explained. Also threatening is the ideology of contemporary liberalism, he maintains, which he defines as the view that asserts the state should be neutral in moral conflicts. By being neutral, this allows everyone to exercise their personal autonomy and rights, yet this is unworkable. Global Anglican leaders call for fair Covid-19 vaccine roll-out to world’s vulnerable
Brunson said he feels a sense of “urgency” in this period of “increasing hostility toward people who identify as followers of Jesus Christ,” and believes “many people in the United States and the church especially were not prepared for current pressures” – despite the fact that Jesus Christ told His followers to expect to be hated and persecuted for believing in Him. “We as a church need to prepare for difficult times,” Brunson warned, saying “we’re always one generation away from losing our values and our culture.” To prepare, he advised that American Christians “first be aware that it can happen,” despite the relative lack of anti-Christian persecution in US history, and second to “focus on loving God,” because “we are more willing to suffer for one that we love.” “Are we going to be more afraid of the Twitter mob or of standing before God?” Brunson asked.
Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the Vatican’s former ambassador to the United States, penned a letter to US President Donald Trump prior to the election, warning him that the “global elite” are planning a ‘Great Reset’ that, if implemented, intends to undermine God and humanity. He warns that this "nefarious global elite" wants nothing more than to “subdue all of humanity, imposing coercive measures with which to drastically limit individual freedoms and those of entire populations.” Though sounding like a massive conspiracy theory, the 'Great Reset' is an actual global agenda devised by the World Economic Forum. Among its aims are to “to shape the system for the post-corona era” by “changing the traditional context for decision-making”. Many politicians and social commentators have found the stated aims of the WEF deeply disturbing, devoid of democratic principles and rooted in socialist values.
In a speech in parliament yesterday, Swayne said that government-imposed restrictions continue to impede on a number individual freedoms and expressed horror at the lack of meaningful protest from colleagues in the House or the public itself. "We have made the case against the regulations in this House and we have lost all the votes, and that is democracy," Swayne said. "However, liberal western democracy is more than rule by the majority. It certainly includes freedom of association, freedom of expression and freedom to worship." Swayne went on to assert that "one of the most worrying aspects of our response to the coronavirus has been the way people have simply shrugged as these freedoms have been dispensed with". "The Government have armed themselves with all the coercive powers of the state to tell us whom we may meet, when we may meet them, where we may meet them and what we must wear," he added, noting that "freedom of protest has been dispensed with, as has freedom of worship".
A pastor in London has decided to disregard England's government lockdown rules that forbid in-person church services. Pastor Regan King of The Angel Church in Islington insists he isn't a law breaker and wants to respect the guidelines, but has to prioritise his responsibility to God, his congregation and community. Corporate worship has been banned from 5th November to 2nd December. Places of worship may only open for individual prayer, funerals, broadcasting or filming an act of worship, childcare, public services and support groups….The church has provided 11,000 meals to those in need during the coronavirus pandemic and has helped the homeless and vulnerable in the community. Pastor King said he took into account the spiritual, emotional, physical and mental health needs of the community when he decided to keep the church doors open to the public on Sundays. "We're called to love God, and love our neighbour. So we have to consider when God's teaching and commands diverge from government, consistently the example in the Bible we see… we must obey God rather than men because his ways are fully righteous and just."You can't love someone in a way that someone tells you to that's not actually meeting their needs. You have to show them love in the way that they need to be loved. Many of these people need meals, they need some company, they are total
The UK’s chief scientific adviser has admitted to the Science and Technology committee that scientists working on the pandemic “haven’t got good evidence” to justify imposing the new lockdown measures on churches. Sir Patrick Vallance made the comment on Tuesday when asked by Conservative MP Mark Logan “what advice does SAGE give to Government in making decisions where evidence is weak, for example on the closing of places of worship?” Sir Patrick said, “you’re right we haven’t got good evidence on the exact value of each intervention on R. We produced a paper suggesting what that might be in different areas but really said look this is not a very exact science at all.”
We are now in the extraordinary and shocking position that it is unlawful to hold normal church services for the next four Sundays in England. There are some allowances for holding funerals, and for broadcasting an act of worship over the internet or to the media. Churches are also allowed to provide “essential voluntary services” such as food banks or other support for homeless or vulnerable people. Church buildings are allowed to open for individual private prayer. Meeting to pray with another person, however, could face criminal sanctions….. A month-long lockdown in Germany does not include closing churches because of constitutional concerns. This is because Germany’s top court ruled that banning religious services represents a major infringement on the right to religious freedom. In France too, a court ruled that the government could not issue a blanket ban on meeting at places of worship. Consequently, churches remain open….. Professor Chris Whitty, Chief Medical Officer for England admitted when questioned by MPs that he didn’t have any good data to support the decision to close churches. The government is therefore not able to offer any good reason for taking the extreme measure of criminalising gathering to worship or pray in a Covid-secure manner.
Churches have been deemed unsafe and have been banned from meeting for worship with threat of criminal sanction. Church is considered unsafe and a danger to communities. But as lockdown began, Health Secretary Matt Hancock clarified to the House of Commons that one ‘reasonable’ reason for leaving home is travelling abroad to commit suicide….. We are a nation who hates God. We have criminalised worship of the triune sovereign creator God of the universe, but it is reasonable to travel to commit suicide. Doctors with most relevant experience oppose assisted suicide and euthanasia - “The current laws on assisted suicide and euthanasia exist to protect those who are sick, elderly, depressed or disabled from feeling obliged to end their lives. They protect those who have no voice against exploitation and coercion and those who care for them who might come under pressure to conserve scarce resources. They do not need changing.”
A Christian charity leader has been given the first lockdown related compensation award from police after being manhandled and unlawfully prevented from preaching on the back of his truck. The incident, involving Dominic Muir, 44, a chief executive of registered Christian charities, Now Believe and Jesus Fields, took place in Blandford Forum town centre in Dorset on 22 April 2020. Following the incident, Dominic sought help from the Christian Legal Centre, who assisted him with a pre-action letter to the Chief Constable of Dorset police seeking compensation for the police assault. In response, Dorset Police have admitted the officer acted unlawfully and have paid £1250 in damages and costs.
The Law Commission says that the offence of stirring division could extend to private homes, meaning that conversations in the home could lead to police probes and potential imprisonment. In Scotland, the situation could be more worrying still. The SNP’s notorious Hate Crime and Public Order Bill could mean that children who repeat in the school playground their parents’ views in regard to, for example, transgender ideology, could see mum and dad investigated for ‘hate crime’.
Children who repeat their parents’ views in the school playground could see mum and dad investigated for ‘hate crime’, the General Secretary of the Scottish Police Federation has said.
Calum Steele warned the Justice Committee that private conversations rejecting transgender ideology could still see parents reported to the police under Scotland’s proposed hate crime Bill. Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf is refusing to include a “dwelling defence” in the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill, insisting that ‘hateful speech’ in the home deserves criminal sanction.
In the draft amendment submitted to parliament by Justice Minister Judit Varga, the national constitution would declare that “the mother is a woman, the father is a man,” Hungarian media report, while also outlawing gender reassignment for minors. In direct opposition to gender theory, the amended text states that “Hungary protects children’s right to an identity conforming to their birth gender and ensures education in accordance with the values based on Hungary’s constitutional identity and Christian culture.” “Human dignity,” states an explanatory memorandum, “also includes the right of every child to have an identity appropriate to his or her gender, including protection against mental or biological interference with his or her physical and mental integrity.” Schools Helping Students To Gender Transition Without Parental Knowledge - This just goes to show how politicized the issue of gender identity is. A small fringe of LGBT activists are pushing this agenda on the local level, and it's putting entire cities of children at risk. …… "I have been warning for years that one of the central efforts of the moral revolutionaries is to use the power and the structure of the public schools to separate children from their parents. In particular, to separate children from the moral authority and influence of their parents," Albert Mohler said.
Pharrell Released an Insanely Pedophillic Video and Nobody Talked About It Pharrell Williams unveiled his music video for “It Girl” on Sept. 30 and somehow nobody noticed that it was insanely creepy. Nobody, that is, until this Wednesday when the New Yorker pointed out that the video, a cartoon featuring overtly sexualized young girls, is actually a form of Japanese anime most commonly known as cartoons for a very specific audience: pedophiles….The video is in the style of "Lolicon," a form of Japanese anime named after the English phrase "Lolita complex," itself named after the most famous work about pedophilia in the Western canon. It's a largely underground art form that began in 1970 as a pornographic parody of Japan's popular manga. It took the vague sexuality hinted in manga's depictions of young female characters and made it way more explicit, but it was driven underground in 1989 after the Japanese press blamed a string of child murders on the killer's fascination with the art form…. Williams was clearly aware of this. The artist who animated "It Girl," a man who goes by the mysterious pseudonym Mr., is a legend in the lolicon community who acknowledges his own sexual preference. He took up the work as a way to ensure his fate would not be that of the 1989's serial murderer. "I'm releasing my fantasy world through my work, instead of acting it out in real life," he told Hint Mag in 2007.
EU countries that do not respect LGBTQI rights should face financial penalties, said Helena Dalli, the European commissioner for equality. Speaking to POLITICO ahead of the launch on Thursday of a Commission strategy to protect LGBTQI rights across the bloc, Dalli said that a mechanism designed to make national capitals adhere to the rule of law agreed as part of negotiations over the EU’s long-term budget should be used to uphold EU values on the issue. The so-called rule of law conditionality mechanism is politically linked to the debate over the bloc’s long-term budget and new coronavirus recovery fund. MEPs and some member countries had pushed hard for a mechanism to financially penalize EU governments that do not uphold the rule of law. It would enable the EU to cut capitals’ funding if they renege on rule-of-law commitments in a way that threatens the Union’s financial interests. It does not mention LGBTQI specifically, and it is unclear yet exactly how it would be interpreted. Both the rule of law mechanism and the budget package also have hurdles to pass before their final adoption. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has threatened to veto the deal over the rule-of-law mechanism.
Norway's parliament has voted to expand the protections that the LGBTQ community has enjoyed in that nation since 1981 by expanding the definition of "hate speech" that can land a person in prison. Reuters reported Norway already was among the "most liberal countries in Europe" on the issue, "allowing trans people to legally change gender without a medical diagnosis" and more. Now those found guilty of hate speech face a fine or up to a year in prison for private remarks, and a maximum of three years for public comments…… National Review's Madeleine Kearns explained the "increase" in "hate speech." "We're forever hearing about this supposed rise in 'LGBTQ+ hate crimes,' and it's no wonder, really — given that the definition of what constitutes a 'hate crime' keeps being expanded. The latest example is Norway, which has just amended its penal code, first passed in 1981, to outlaw even 'private remarks' that the ruling class considers offensive," she wrote. "LGBTQ+ ideology has been mainstreamed in every sphere of life imaginable. Still, radical gender activists will not be at rest until every private citizen repudiates biological truth and relinquishes his every doubt about their dogma."
Additionally, this month a new law that makes the lightest of smacks a criminal offence will also come into force. This comes on the back of the Named Person legislation that has been quashed by the Supreme Court but whose intention was to give all children a state guardian, from birth, to allow the state to monitor the wellbeing of every child in Scotland. Look further into the recesses of the Scottish Parliament and we find an ongoing review of child protection law and practices that Look further into the recesses of the Scottish Parliament and we find an ongoing review of child protection law and practices that explains the need for change based on, "our modern day understanding of emotional harm". explains the need for change based on, "our modern day understanding of emotional harm".
Many of these politicians actively indoctrinate young people, as teachers, volunteers, and even by writing LGBT books targeted at kids.
Many of these politicians actively indoctrinate young people, as teachers, volunteers, and even by writing LGBT books targeted at kids. Those already elected have been critical in enacting a recent wave of anti-Christian state policies, sponsoring or supporting bills that have eroded family rights and the right to life in several states over the last two years.
Based on presidential candidate Joe Biden's answer to a town hall question Thursday night on ABC, it is only fair to ask: "Sir, do you advocating sterilizing children who identify as transgender?" During the Q & A time, Biden responded to a woman who stated, "I'm the proud mom of two girls, 8 and 10. My youngest daughter is transgender." How, she asked, will the Biden administration protect her daughter from the Trump administration's "dangerous and discriminatory agenda and ensure that the lives and rights of LGBTQ people are protected under U.S. law?" While not all of Biden's response was totally lucid, his overall point was clear: he supports a child's right to identify as transgender. And, he stated plainly, "There should be zero discrimination." This may sound compassionate, especially in the eyes of the mother. But in the end, it is not compassionate at all. It is basically saying that a child this young has the right to make a life-altering, likely non-reversable decision, a decision that one day could be deeply regretted.
Last year, in fact, Biden was interviewed by her for the transgender lobby group's Transform the White House Project. During the interview, Biden told Keisling that people of faith--including Jews, Christians, and Muslims--need to get on board with the transgender agenda already. After all, he certainly has. Predictably, he also condemned Trump for "rolling back" transgender rights, stating that the "idea that someone can tell you that you can't be who you are in your heart and soul is just wrong."…. In 2012, the same year he boldly declared his support for marriage equality, Vice President Biden made clear that 'transgender equality is the civil rights issue of our time.' He understands what's at stake, and has built an unmatched record of ensuring our nation's laws and discourse value, reflect, and see the lives, dignity, and worth of all transgender people….. Biden has stated that the passage of the Equality Act would be a "top legislative priority," and also promised to ensure that adoption agencies could not refuse to place children with same-sex couples This presumably includes religious adoption agencies and foster care agencies. He has promised to enshrine in federal law recognition of "gender identity," and appoint radical pro-LGBT judges to America's courts. ("Non-binary" people also get several prominent mentions.) And then there is this section of The Biden Plan, which essentially advocates for the elimination of religious liberty….
Bill C-6 creates five Criminal Code offences related to 'conversion therapy.'
Bill C-6 creates five Criminal Code offences related to “conversion therapy” but fails to prohibit or even define abusive and coercive practices that Canadians would associate with the term “conversion therapy.” Instead, Bill C-6 will criminalize legitimate medical, psychological and spiritual supports for people concerning their sexuality, their gender identity, or both. While the Criminal Code should prohibit force, coercion, or abuse which attempts to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity, the Justice Centre is concerned that Bill C-6 is overbroad and dangerous, and will actually cause harm to adults, adolescents and children, including LGBTQ Canadians
Carys Moseley comments on how transgender activists have been refused permission to intervene in a legal case against the Tavistock gender clinic. Stonewall and Mermaids have been refused permission to intervene in a major legal case against the Tavistock gender clinic (home of the Gender Identity Development Service). The case is being brought by Susan Evans, a former psychiatric nurse and senior clinical lecturer at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. She is joined by Mrs A, the mother of an autistic teenage girl who has been referred to the Tavistock, and Kiera Bell, a young de-transitioned woman who was prescribed puberty blockers at the Tavistock as a teenager.
In a written statement to media outlets, A.M. expressed her concerns with the whole process while disputing the claims of trans activists that surgeries and hormones reduce suicide and gender dysphoria. “I am appalled by the lack of any clinical standards and medical protocols that permit doctors to give gender changing steroids and mastectomies to traumatized teenage girls caught up in a fad who wish they were boys,” she said. “I am shocked the government through TransCare BC supports such unscientific and very risky experimentation. There is little evidence the irreversible treatment lessens gender dysphoria or reduces the 19 times normal suicide rate,” she continued. “It is outrageous the SOGI 1 2 3 school program pushes these depressed and anxiety ridden girls to gender change clinics when what they need is psychiatric care. Worst of all the law lets it all be kept secret from parents. Why is the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia permitting this,” she added.
On 29 September 2020, BBC Northern Ireland broadcast a TV programme in the Spotlight series on the issue of ‘Gay Conversion Therapy’, which could have investigated this question and explored the issues science raises on the matter of human sexuality and helpful interventions for those seeking change. Disappointingly, the underlying theme of the programme was that a therapy ban was long overdue. The main argument presented was that this is reasonable on the say-so of two campaigning Belfast gay GPs, Dr Gareth Patterson and Dr Gary Adair-Gilliland. A veteran campaigner from the Royal College of Psychiatrists (Professor Michael King), several activists and a gay-affirming psychologist were also featured. The programme’s participants did not fairly represent the range of opinions that might reasonably be expected on this controversial subject. It was in fact advocacy rather than enquiry journalism.
A Christian Conservative councillor has been exonerated after defending herself against code of conduct allegations following her refusal to back a Pride event grant. Mary Douglas, who has been a Conservative councillor in Salisbury for 15 years, was removed from her portfolio role for skills and social mobility in November 2019 as a result of the stance she took against the use of public funds to support a Pride event.
Hillsong Pastor Brian Houston has announced that an investigation will be launched into its New York church given the recently exposed actions of Hillsong NYC Pastor Carl Lentz, who was fired for having an affair, among other issues. "We are launching an independent investigation into the inner workings of Hillsong NYC/ East Coast. We need a solid foundation for a fresh start and new beginning. The best is yet to come," Houston tweeted Thursday.
This week, the Inverness Courier, with the Daily Mail later piggybacking on the text and photograph (and omitting the reference to the originator of the news, the Fresh Start Foundation), reported concerns that Boleskine House, the old property of Aleister Crowley near the village of Foyers, could be turned into a Satanist ritual site as the result of a series of planning applications submitted to the local authority, Highland Council. After many objections to the planning applications in question were submitted, Highland Council was asked why wording in numerous of them had been censored in the Council's publication of the objections.
The latest witch renaissance coincides with a growing fascination with astrology, crystals, and tarot, which, like magic, practitioners consider ways to tap into unseen, unconventional sources of power—and which can be especially appealing for people who feel disenfranchised or who have grown weary of trying to enact change by working within the system. (Modern witchcraft has drawn more women than men, as well as many people of color and queer or transgender individuals; a “witch” can be any gender.) “The more frustrated people get, they do often turn to witchcraft, because they’re like, ‘Well, the usual channels are just not working, so let’s see what else is out there,’ ” Grossman told me. “Whenever there are events that really shake the foundations of society”—the American Civil War, turmoil in prerevolutionary Russia, the rise of Weimar Germany, England’s postwar reconstruction—“people absolutely turn towards the occult.” Trump must contend not only with the #Resistance but with the #MagicResistance, which shares guides to hexing corporations, spells to protect reproductive rights, and opportunities to join the 4,900 members of the #BindTrump Facebook group in casting spells to curb the president’s power.
Christian Persecution and Antisemitism
Under Buhari, who became Nigeria's president in 2015, the carnage of Christians has only accelerated. According to a March 8, 2020 report, titled, "Nigeria: A Killing Field of Defenseless Christians," Available statistics have shown that between 11,500 and 12,000 Christian deaths were recorded in the past 57 months or since June 2015 when the present central [Buhari-led] government of Nigeria came on board. Out of this figure, Jihadist Fulani herdsmen accounted for 7,400 Christian deaths, Boko Haram 4,000 and the 'Highway Bandits' 150-200." In just the first four months of 2020, Fulani herdsmen and other terrorists "hacked to death ... no fewer than 620 defenseless Christians," and engaged in the "wanton burning or destruction of their centers of worship and learning"… How have formerly simple and unarmed Fulani herdsmen managed to kill, since 2015, nearly twice as many Christians as the "professional" terrorists of Boko Haram -- and exponentially more Christians than under Buhari's (Christian) predecessor, President Goodluck Jonathan? "Because," according to numerous Christian leaders in Nigeria, "President Buhari is also of the Fulani ethnic group," to quote Nigerian bishop Matthew Ishaya Audu.
Two different terrorist groups in Africa have called on Muslims worldwide, but especially those in their areas to emulate the recent attacks that have taken place in France. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and Al-Shabaab both released messages praising the actions of Islamic terrorists in France who have killed multiple people in attacks on civilians there. AQIM is based out of Mali in West Africa and has been one of the largest and worst perpetrators of terrorist attacks on the continent. They have been able to conduct attacks in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger at least. In their statement, they say that “ Killing the one who insults the prophet is the right of every Muslim capable of applying it.” They also say that those who hear someone blaspheme Muhammad do not have to ask permission to kill, they should just do it if possible. Al-Shabaab, based out of Somalia, is one of the three largest and most violent terrorist groups in the world. They continue to hold sway over much of Southern Somalia despite fighting the government for nearly a decade.
A knife-wielding attacker shouting “Allahu Akbar” beheaded a woman and killed two other people in a suspected terrorist attack at a church in the French city of Nice today, 29 October, while a gunman was shot dead by police in a separate incident. Within hours of the Nice attack, police killed a man who had threatened passers-by with a handgun in Montfavet, near the southern French city of Avignon. He was also shouting “Allahu Akbar”, according to radio station Europe 1.
Islamic militants turned a village football pitch in northern Mozambique into an execution ground where they beheaded more than 50 people during three days of savage violence between Friday, 6 November and Sunday, 8 November. Villagers who tried to flee were caught and taken to the sports ground in Muatide village where they were decapitated and chopped to pieces in a series of ferocious attacks in Muslim-majority Cabo Delgado province.
Militants believed to be part of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) attacked civilians in the towns of Kisima and Oicha in Eastern DRC. During the first of these two attacks, the group killed seven people on Saturday, November 7, in the town of Kisima. According to the territorial administrator, Donat Kibwana, in an interview with the Agence France-Presse, “the attack took place at 11:00 pm and it was the ADF”. He continued that this was just the initial count and that it may rise as time passed. The second attack took place the very next day, Sunday, November 8 in the town of Oicha. This attack claimed the lives of at least six people. These two attacks followed just a week after another major attack took place in the town of Lisasa. Over 20 people were killed during that attack and at least one Catholic church was desecrated. This attack was also attributed to the ADF. Despite these ongoing attacks, the central government in DRC has been unable to protect their citizens in the eastern half of the country.
Survivors of a massacre at a school in the western Oromia region of Ethiopia reported that at least 54 ethnic Amhara, most of whom are thought to have been Christians, died, according to a body count made after gunmen opened fire on a gathering of about 200. Around 60 armed terrorists, identifying themselves as the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), swept into Gawa Quanqa village, Guliso District at around 5 p.m. on 1 November….
Recent reports shared with Barnabas indicate large supplies of Israeli-built weapons, including devastating “kamikaze drones” and Hermes Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), have been supplied to Azerbaijan and deployed against Christian civilians…..It is reported that some 90,000 Armenians, more than half the region’s population of around 144,000, have fled the conflict in Nargono-Karabakh to take refuge in Armenia since the latest fighting began in September.
Iranian intelligence agents raided 12 Christian homes in the city of Fardis, located near the capital city of Tehran, reports Article 18. Though none were arrested, many personal items were confiscated. Following these types of raids, it is typical for the intelligence agents to review the confiscated material and then summon the individuals for interrogation. At that point, the individual may be released with a warning, or (more commonly) judicial proceedings are initiated which are often of a national security nature. These charges carry long prison sentences and are meant to intimidate Christians from actively living their faith.
North Korea has set up “quarantine camps” for Covid-19 patients, where they are deprived of food and medicine, causing many to die of starvation, according to Christians working in the area. Tim Peters, who runs Seoul-based charity Helping Hands Korea, said sources in the north had given information on the camps that had been set up in cities near the border with China where inmates are provided with “absolutely minimal or no food or medicine”.
Newly released data from an ongoing Pew Research Center study shows that government restrictions on religion around the world have risen to a record level amid increases in government restrictions on religion in Asia and Pacific countries, most notably. The nonpartisan polling organization published on Tuesday results from its 11th annual study of restrictions on religion. The series of annual reports are part of the Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures project and analyze the extent that societies worldwide infringe on religious beliefs and practices.
Facial recognition cameras are being installed in churches in China by the communist party to monitor believers and ensure sermons follow rigid government guidelines. About 200 sophisticated cameras were installed in more than 50 three-self (i.e. state registered) church buildings in Poyang county, Jiangxi Province, from late July to September. Some venues have up to 14 cameras….. “If cameras capture an unknown face, the police come to determine who the person is,” said a three-self pastor. Another three-self church director said two of his congregants receiving social benefits stopped attending church because they were concerned that their payments might be stopped.
A further testimony of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) horrific treatment of Uighurs, and other non-atheist minorities, has emerged from an ethnic Kazakh ex-detainee who managed to escape a “re-education” centre in Xinjiang. Ethnic Kazakhs, who have fled the camps, have spoken out describing the CCP’s notorious internment camps, officially known as “centres of professional development”, as an “anti-religion exercise targeting non-atheists”.
US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo's September 30 - October 1 visit to the Vatican was a diplomatic profile in courage. Despite the Pope's refusal to meet the U.S. Secretary of State, Pompeo repeated his warning to the Holy See that if it goes ahead with plans to renew the 2018 Sino-Vatican Agreement, it will compromise the Catholic Church's moral authority. Pompeo also urged the Vatican to live up to its mission of defending human rights in China, where Catholics churches and shrines are being destroyed and priests imprisoned, and also urged the Pope to reconsider renewing the secret agreement with Beijing, which permits the Communist Party of China (CCP) to have a key role in appointing Catholic Bishops in China. The Vatican has refrained from any condemnatory comment on the CCP's persecution, incarceration, torture and forced labor of millions of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang Province, and has remained silent about Beijing's contravening its pact with Hong Kong to honor "one country, two systems" until 2047. China has violated the civil rights of Hong Kong's citizens.
A Sri Lankan pastor has been forced to stop his ministry in Bakamuna, Polonnaruwa District after being threatened and intimidated by police and Buddhist monks. Police visited the pastor on the morning of 18 October and ordered him to report immediately to the local police station.
In the last three years, more than 23 houses of worship in Indonesia were forcibly shut down or vandalized, according to the country’s human rights agency in a video conference. Last Friday, the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) pointed out that the discrimination faced by Indonesia’s religious minorities continues to exist, with many houses of worship being pressured to close by unfriendly Muslim neighbors or local authorities. The data from 2017 to 2019 are likely the tip of the iceberg as many such incidents are not formally reported to Komnas HAM, according to its chairman, Ahmad Taufan Damanik. Hardline Islamic Group Leader Returns to Indonesia - On November 10, the leader of a notorious Indonesian radical Islamic group who fled the country in 2017 to avoid a pornography charge, has returned home from his self-imposed exile.
The ADL slammed State Department plans to denounce popular NGOs, yet Amnesty, Human Rights Watch and Oxfam are all guilty of inciting hate against Israel. Incredibly, defenders of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Oxfam are saying that Washington’s desire to call them to account for their prejudicial attacks and efforts to undermine the right of Israel to exist is actually proof of the administration’s lack of concern for human rights. Using the sort of Orwellian “newspeak” that is the hallmark of the radical left, the groups are saying criticism of their prejudice is a boost to human-rights abusers. Even worse, the Anti-Defamation League, which still poses as the defender of the Jewish people against anti-Semitism, is coming to their defense, denouncing the administration for acting to “politicize the fight against anti-Semitism.” The Disappearance of Rami Aman & Amnesty International – Timeline - Amnesty International’s former research consultant Hind Khoudary denounces Rami Aman in a series of vituperative Facebook posts, denouncing Aman here, here and here. In another post (screenshot), she tagged three Hamas officials in order to call their attention to Rami Aman and his Zoom call….UN Watch’s social media posts on Facebook and Twitter are widely shared, and many people call on Amnesty to speak out and criticize Hind Khoudary for reporting Rami Aman to Hamas. See more posts here, here, here, and here.
Out of 193 countries that are members of the Special Political and Decolonisation Committee, 138 voted Wednesday in favour of seven resolutions involving Israel and the Palestinians. They denote Israel as an oppressive occupying power and agree to stand for greater aid for Palestinian refugees…. One of the resolutions, titled “Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem,” mentions the Al-Haram al-Sharif holy site without ever calling it the Temple Mount, as it is also known to Jews, who revere it as the site of ancient biblical Jewish temples…… The resolution contains no reference to Jews or Judaism but mentions the “significance of the holy sites, and the importance of the City of Jerusalem for the three monotheistic religions.” Only the United States, Canada, Australia, Israel and three Pacific Ocean island nations voted against the resolution. All European countries supported it except for Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Serbia and Belarus, which abstained. Another of the seven resolutions was co-sponsored by by the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad, whom the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights say is responsible for at least 100,000 civilian deaths in his country’s nine-year civil war. The resolution, titled “The occupied Syrian Golan,” does not mention that war but says it “deplores the violations by Israel of the Geneva Convention.” Muslims: Al-Aqsa Mosque Does Not Belong to Palestinians - The Palestinians are now saying that they are opposed not only to Jews visiting the holy site, but also to Muslims who believe in peace with Israel.
Following is an open letter from UN Watch’s Hillel Neuer to Human Rights Watch chief Ken Roth, which went viral on Facebook. Today you revealed you love peace like the harlot revealed her love for the baby whom she asked King Solomon to cut into two. You chose to use a Yiddish word—something you never do—purely to mock Jews celebrating the Israel-UAE peace accord. Otherwise, you never use Jewish words or ideas, or make any positive Jewish references at all. Your contemptuous actions, comments and attitude toward Jews, Judaism and the Jewish state over decades make one thing clear: you are ashamed of your Jewish identity. That is why, every single day, you devote your foul, fervid fury to depicting the Jewish state in Nazi-like terms.
The group’s annual assembly held a four-hour session in which 30 representatives of countries such as Syria, North Korea, and Iran blasted Israel for supposedly violating the health rights of Palestinians and Syrians….. The assembly then adopted a resolution condemning Israel and pledging to prepare a report on the Jewish state’s supposed misdeeds. Among the nations that attacked Israel at the session was Iran, which accused it of conducting an “inhuman blockade” of the Gaza Strip that had a “profound impact on the health sector.” Countries voting in favor of the resolution included, among others, France, India, Ireland and Spain. In the News: UN Watch Exposes UNHRC Election of Dictator States - On October 13, 2020, China, Cuba, Russia, Pakistan and other non-democracies won election to the UN Human Rights Council. UN Watch led the opposition campaign with a major report. Before and after the results came in, UN Watch exposed the election of tyrannies to the UN’s highest human rights body. UN Watch was quoted by the Washington Post, Associated Press, BBC News, Newsweek and other major media
A new 30-page report released by NGO Monitor indicates that in 2019, the European Union authorized more than 40 grants, totaling as much as 33 million euros (about $39 million), to NGOs in the Palestinian Authority and Israel that have terror-linked beneficiaries, glorify terror, promote anti-Semitism or are involved with politicized projects against the Jewish state. Funding to terror linked to various NGOs including the European Union and the United Nations
After Bernd Wollschlaeger learned the uncomfortable truth he converted to Judaism and joined the Israeli Defence Force. His father was a senior Nazi personally awarded the Iron Cross by Adolf Hitler – but Bernd Wollschlaeger converted to Judaism and served in the Israeli military. Now he has spoken about his incredible story for the first time. Growing up in Bamberg, in the German state of Bavaria, Bernd was taught the Holocaust was a lie and that his father, Arthur Wollschlaeger, was a war hero. Arthur came from a long line of warriors and was personally decorated by the Nazi dictator for his actions on the Eastern Front, where he served as a tank commander under General Heinz Guderian.
The 15,000 Muslims who crowded into the courtyards of the Temple Mount mosques on Oct. 30 became another news story about COVID-19. But the real story was much bigger: the enormous anti-France protest near the Al-Aqsa Mosque was organized by Hizb ut-Tahrir (the Islamic Liberation Party), about which the Israeli public has heard little if anything…… Members of the movement, which also operates in Britain, Australia, Indonesia, the United States and several Arab countries, aspire to replace every national government with a global Muslim rule. In their view, the governments in Egypt, Turkey and Jordan, as well as Fatah and even Hamas, are all national in nature, and therefore obstacles in the way of the dream of a worldwide caliphate.
On Tuesday, the paper’s lurid front page featured a photograph of Bourla with the notorious German SS officer Josef Mengele, who carried out brutal medical “experiments” on inmates at Auschwitz, standing behind him. A third image showed striped concentration camp uniforms alongside a headline that read, “Jewish veterinarian will stick a needle in us! Nightmarish forced admissions in ‘concentration camps’ like herds.” An accompanying article identified Bourla as a “Greek Jew” and accused him of engaging in financial speculation with an unproven vaccine at the expense of the Greek people. A further article published on Thursday morning repeated the accusations against Bourla, with a screeching headline claiming that the “Greek Jew” had “trousered millions” on behalf of the “Israeli Council.”
An inter-parliamentary task force convened its first meeting Tuesday to hear recommendations from panelists on how to combat online anti-Semitism.The group included members from across party lines in national legislatures from the United States, Australia, Canada, Israel, and the United Kingdom……. Several panelists and lawmakers encouraged the task force to push social media companies like Facebook and Twitter to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism. The classification includes demonization of Israel alongside more traditional forms of anti-Semitism, which critics say limits free speech. Twitter, Google Decline Attending Event Fighting Anti-Semitism - Twitter and Google declined to participate in next week’s U.S. State Department event, featuring U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, on countering anti-Semitism on the Internet and social media—the first event of its kind in the department’s history, U.S. Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Anti-Semitism Elan Carr told JNS on Thursday.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was called to testify in front of the Senate about his company’s bias against conservative posts but revealed that despite the welcome announcement two weeks ago that tweets denying the Holocaust would be banned, Holocaust denial was still alive and well on Twitter….. Gardner specifically asked Dorsey: “If somebody denied the Holocaust happened, it’s not misinformation?” “It’s misleading information,” Dorsey responded. “But we don’t have a policy against that type of misleading information.” “We believe it’s important for everyone to hear from global leaders, and we have policies around world leaders,” he added. “We want to make sure we are respecting their right to speak and to publish what they need.
Jewish groups asked Twitter why Khamenei’s tweet is allowed to remain on the platform.
“Holocaust denialism is #hate, pure & simple,” Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt tweeted. “If you had any doubts about the decency of Iran’s leadership, this tells you everything you need to know. Moreover, why is Khameni permitted to consistently espouse #antisemitism that clearly violates Twitter’s policy on #hate speech?”
The surge in recent years of hate crimes targeting Jews around the world can be at least partly attributed to the pervasiveness of social media, the editor-in-chief of The Algemeiner said during a Wednesday appearance on i24 News. “One of the things that could really be having an impact here is the rise of social media platforms that create an opportunity for various forms of haters to gather and organize and reinforce each other,” Dovid Efune told “Global Eye” host Benita Levin.
In the wake of celebrity foodie Alton Brown’s tweets this week that offensively referenced the Holocaust, one thing seems to have been ignored that suggests a larger problem has raised its ugly head: antisemitism in the culinary arena. Given the relative quiet from personalities in the food industry following Brown’s Twitter outburst, it’s likely that this issue isn’t solely relegated to one person. Some background: At 7:48 pm on Tuesday, November 10, Brown — host of the Food Network’s Good Eats and a sometime guest on the cable channel’s show Chopped — tweeted the following message: “Do you think the the [sic] camp uniforms will be striped, like the ones at Auschwitz or will plaid be in vogue?” Additionally, in response to another individual’s tweet, Brown tweeted “I have no gold fillings,” a clear reference to the fillings stolen by the Nazis from the bodies of murdered Jews during the Holocaust.
Britain’s opposition Labour Party suspended its former leader Jeremy Corbyn on Thursday for seeking to deflect blame away from himself after a report found that under his leadership the party was responsible for unlawful harassment and discrimination.
Corbyn‘s successor, Keir Starmer, apologized and said Labour was facing a “day of shame” after the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) found serious failings in how the party had dealt with allegations of antisemitism within its ranks.
Last week, at an international forum to combat antisemitism hosted by the US State Department, former Jewish UK Labour MP Luciana Berger said she was forced to resign from a party that was institutionally antisemitic. As a political figure, she said, she had been on the receiving end of thousands of antisemitic messages for months — with very little action having been undertaken by the party at that time….. The EHRC report was damning, concluding that there was a collective failure of leadership within the party. It found that Labour was responsible for three breaches of the Equity Act: It found that there was political interference in antisemitism complaints; that there was a failure to provide adequate training in handling antisemitism complaints; and that there was a reinforcement of antisemitic tropes by suggesting that these complaints were in fact fake smears meant to smear the party.
In a leaked investigation report, Goldsmith’s lecturer David Hirsh details a complaint by Cllr Joshua Garfield about a “culture of accepted antisemitism” in Newham Labour. He was asked to investigate by mayor Rokhsana Fiaz. The complaint was triggered by the exclusion of Cllr Garfield - the borough’s sole Jewish member - from the Newham Labour Facebook group by an administrator, Cllr John Gray, the report says. Cllr Garfield included a total of four examples of antisemitism published in the Facebook group in two complaints sent to the mayor, in January and February.
Luciana Berger, who quit the Labour Party due to anti-Semitism, told James O’Brien how she reacted to the anti-Semitism report. Former Labour MP Luciana Berger says the findings of the EHRC report into anti-Semitism reflect upon "the darkest period in Labour's history". Mrs Berger, who is herself Jewish, resigned from the Labour Party last year. Upon resigning, she said she was "embarrassed and ashamed to remain in the Labour Party". The damning EHRC report found that the Labour Party was responsible for unlawful acts of harassment and discrimination.
Len McCluskey has denied he used an antisemitic trope after suggesting Labour Party grandee Lord Peter Mandelson should “just go into a room and count his gold.” The Unite union's general secretary made his comments on BBC2’s Newsnight show after presenter Lewis Goodall told him he had interviewed Lord Mandelson who had been “nothing but full of praise for Keir Starmer”. Mr McCluskey responded: “I stopped listening to what Peter Mandelson said many, many years ago. I would suggest Peter just goes into a room and counts his gold. Not worrying about what’s happening in the Labour Party – leave that to those of us who are interested in ordinary working class people.”
In landmark 72-page judgement by General Pharmaceutical Council, anti-Israel pharmacist Nazim Ali's 'grossly offensive' comments are deemed not antisemitic. Ali is the managing partner of Chelsea Pharmacy in London, who also performs as a stand-up comedian, and at the annual anti-Israel event – which is held on the streets of London – he led pro-Palestinian protesters, shouting insults into a loudspeaker. Approaching a counter-protest, he said: “It’s in their genes. The Zionists are here to occupy Regent Street. It’s in their genes, it’s in their genetic code.” He also said: “European alleged Jews. Remember brothers and sisters, Zionists are not Jews.”
Warnock had signed on to a statement falsely accusing Israel of being an apartheid state, falsely describing Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas, as an “occupied” territory oppressed by Israel, and falsely claiming that “Jewish” people engage in “segregation.” The letter signed by Warnock also ranted that, “Israeli fear … begets hatred” and demanded an end to weapons sales to Israel. Warnock had defended pastor Jeremiah Wright’s bigotry, but now said he disavowed anti-Semitism. Despite Warnock’s hostility towards the Jewish state, he was backed by the Jewish Democratic Council of America over Matt Lieberman, Sen. Joseph Lieberman’s son. Soros’s Bend the Arc PAC aggressively supported Warnock as their man in Georgia.
A high-school principal who refused to teach about the Holocaust lest it disturbs Holocaust-denying parents was reinstated last week with $152,000 back pay even though he has yet to admit his error. It may be that the offense of the black principal was more easily overlooked since Holocaust denial is defined by left-wing social justice organizations as a tact of the radical right…… Latson replied that the school had a “variety of activities” relating to the subject but Holocaust education was not mandatory as “we all have the same rights but not the same beliefs.”
Middle East Peace
Negotiations between Israel and Lebanon were launched in September, as Israel and Lebanon reached an agreement to hold negotiations on their maritime border after a years-long impasse…. The Lebanese negotiators sought more maritime territory than the 860-square-kilometer triangle that had been under dispute with Israel for more than a decade, and their new demands encroach into Israeli gas fields, Lebanon’s Daily Star and Al Jazeera English reported. The disputed area starts from the countries’ border on the Mediterranean Sea, and is 5 -6 km. wide on average. The area would be about 2% of Israel’s economic waters. The US has tried to bring Israel and Lebanon to the negotiating table for the past decade, and more actively in the past three years.
The move is controversial in Sudan, once a staunch enemy of Israel, and has stirred opposition from some prominent political factions. "I always prefer to call it reconciliation instead of normalization," Burhan said in a televised interview. "So far, we have not concluded an agreement. We will sign with the other two parties, America and Israel, on the aspects of cooperation." Burhan leads a military-civilian sovereign council that took charge after the ouster of former president Omar al-Bashir last year following popular protests….. Sudan won the prospect of some relief last week when the United States confirmed it would lift Khartoum from its list of state sponsors of terrorism, a designation that had blocked international funding and debt relief. After Sudan deal, Netanyahu says Khartoum’s 3 No’s have become 3 Yes’s of peace - “In Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, in 1967 the Arab League adopted it’s three ‘No’s’: ‘No to peace with Israel, no to recognition of Israel and no to negotiations with Israel.'”
Sudan is the third Arab country to agree to normalize ties with Israel under the rubric of the Trump Administration’s Abraham Accords…..“First historic meeting with Sudan’s UN Mission and Ambassador Omer Siddig! To translate peace between our nations into action, we will begin cooperating in agriculture, water, and our common fight against coronavirus,” Erdan wrote in a Twitter post after the meeting.
The council’s governing board, senior imams committee and advisory committee unanimous voted on Monday to adopt the IHRA definition. This was followed by an overwhelming majority vote on the same day by the general council of imams and the council’s members worldwide. The council’s membership consists of more than 1,000 imams from all Islamic denominations and schools of thought, according to its website. The adoption of the IHRA definition took effect on Thursday. This makes the GIC the first Imams Council to do so, following Albania, which last week became the first Muslim-majority country to adopt the definition.
It is this inbuilt strength and will of the British people that we must use to our advantage, to promote cohesion and respect for our differences. The barbaric and gruesome acts of violence we have witnessed in France, Vienna, Afghanistan and Mozambique recently, can never be justified in the name of Islam or any religion and such cowardice further taints our peaceful religion, increasing hostility towards Muslims globally. We must all value and defend freedom of expression and belief but at the same time, respectfully help those who may not hold the same beliefs as us to understand the deep hurt we may feel when we perceive our faith to be undermined. As the late Rabbi Sacks eloquently said: “Freedom is won by making space for the people not like us.” Interfaith week reminds us that stepping away from division can be as simple as talking to your next-door neighbour, who may be a different religion, race, or ethnicity.
The Hampton Synagogue and the Synagogue in Bahrain joined together in historic solidarity to participate in the March of the Living’s “Let There Be Light” campaign where synagogues around the world illuminated their buildings to commemorate of Kristallnacht. The two synagogues kept their lights on during the evening of November 9 as a symbol of mutual commitment in the shared battle against contemporary anti-Semitism, racism, hatred and intolerance.
The two-page document states that “Arabs and Jews are both Semitic peoples that are threatened by hatred or intolerance toward Semitic peoples,” and that “all peoples of the Middle East should aspire to coexist in tolerance and mutual respect.”… In remarks before the signing, U.S. Deputy Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Anti-Semitism Ellie Cohanim noted, “There has been a Jewish community living in Bahrain since the 1880s, and the fact that the community has had an uninterrupted presence in the Kingdom since then sets Bahrain apart from the rest of the region. Bahrain’s Jews enjoy equality and the Kingdom of Bahrain truly serves as a model for the Middle East North Africa region of religious freedom and peaceful coexistence.”
A UK-based caterer has become the first of its kind to provide kosher meals in the Kingdom of Bahrain. After weeks of negotiations, caterer Arieh Wagner confirmed that his business would provide boxes of kosher meals in the sovereign state…. the service would support travellers, ex-pats and the small local Jewish community, an estimated 50 people out of 1.5m-strong population in Bahrain. “There was no way for them to get kosher meals, unless they took them in their suitcase,” he added.
Kam Global Strategies, an Israel-based international strategic communications and public relations agency, is proud to announce the addition of a United Arab Emirates and Gulf region division to its international media outreach services. “With the exciting fast-growing ties between Israel, the UAE and Bahrain, companies and organizations will need to communicate with their counterparts as well as with discerning readers in both countries. Kam Global Strategies has the expertise and a deep appreciation of cultural nuances to get messages heard internationally via traditional and social media and we have already begun operating,” said Laura Kam, President of Kam Global Strategies.
The UAE-Israel Business Council was established by business and public sector leaders from the UAE and Israel this past summer to help foster shared opportunities, economic cooperation and business partnerships between Emiratis and Israelis. It is connecting Israel’s dynamic technology and innovation ecosystem with the UAE’s unique strengths in finance, trade and logistics in order to continue to build one of the most economically powerful regions in the world. “Since the announcement of normalization and formation of the Council, we have experienced fast growth and we sought the assistance of Steinreich Communications due to their stellar reputation and close relationships with members of the media both regionally as well as internationally,” said UAE-Israel Business Council Co-Founder Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, who also serves as the deputy mayor of Jerusalem.
$10 billion munitions package to include Reaper drones as well as thousands of bombs and missiles, Washington Post reports. The Trump administration has formally informed the United States Congress of its intention to sell dozens of F-35 advanced fighter jets and other military hardware to the United Arab Emirates, the Washington Post reported Monday. The deal for the UAE to acquire the stealth F-35s has raised concerns in Israel that it would erode the country’s regional military edge, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu drawing criticism for allegedly authorizing it in the context of Israel’s normalization with Abu Dhabi.
By presenting the deal as a way to achieve a win-win solution, preventing Israel from annexing parts of the West Bank in July and Israel getting normalization in return, it was in the interest of peace, he said. “Annexation was going to cause a very negative reaction to Israel, put Jordan under pressure and force the US to defend what is a very unpopular decision in the region,” Otaiba said. “It was going to risk all the progress that we have been making in terms of opening up with Israel.”
Coronavirus
The Coronavirus Act was passed specifically to deal with Covid-19. This hefty document of 348 pages with 102 sections and 29 schedules was pushed through all its stages in a single day in each House as the lockdown was announced. In the time available, no serious scrutiny of its terms can have been possible. The Act was primarily concerned to enlarge the government’s powers to marshal the medical resources of the country and to authorise additional public expenditure….. The Health Secretary, Mr. Hancock, made a statement in the House of Commons the next day in which he said: 'these measures are not advice; they are rules.' All of this was bluff. Even on the widest view of the legislation, the government had no power to give such orders without making statutory regulations. No such regulations existed until 1 p.m. on 26 March, three days after the announcement. The Prime Minister had no power to give 'instructions' to the British people, and certainly no power to do so by a mere oral announcement at a Downing Street press conference. The police had no power to enforce them. Mr Hancock’s statement in the House of Commons was not correct. Until 26 March the government’s statements were not rules, but advice, which every citizen was at liberty to ignore. To complain about the gap of three days during which the government pretended that the rules were in effect when they were not, may strike some people as pedantic. The regulations were eventually made, albeit late. But it revealed a cavalier disregard for the limits of their legal powers which has continued to characterise the government’s behaviour……. Historically, fear has always been the most potent instrument of the authoritarian state. This is what we are witnessing today. But the fault is not just in our government. It is in ourselves. Fear provokes strident demands for abrasive action, much of which is unhelpful or damaging. It promotes intolerant conformism. It encourages abuse directed against any one who steps out of line, including many responsible opponents of this government’s measures and some notable scientists who have questioned their empirical basis. These are the authentic ingredients of a totalitarian society.…..They instinctively feel that the end justifies the means, the motto of every totalitarian government which has ever been. Speech: RSM In Conversation Live with Lord Jonathan Sumption
A How does government work? Who tells government where to stop?
By popular request, and to meet the need of the times, Alex Thomson is joined by Mike Robinson and David Scott to brief dissidents on the Constitution. The podcast will be of interest to overseas listeners too but primarily explores the English and Scots Constitutions, the common law, and the British constitutional legacy. This is not a series of history lectures. After a few initial episodes on key concepts (constitution, common law, rights, democracy, the rule of law, the nation state), we aim to go through the last thousand years of constitutional development with an eye for what has been hidden (how we have been governed in the past), then to explore how the state fits together (how we are governed now), and finally what plans there are for our future.
Governors show they don’t respect First Amendment freedoms when they end COVID-19 restrictions for other businesses before churches, he said. The state of Nevada limited churches to 50 attendees while allowing bars, casinos, restaurants and indoor amusement parks to remain open. Although a majority of the Supreme Court ruled in July that Nevada's governor could do so, Alito said the U.S. Constitution obviously didn’t support that ruling. “Deciding whether to allow this disparate treatment should not have been a very tough call,” he said. “You will see in the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment, which protects religious liberty, you will not find a ‘craps clause’ or a ‘blackjack clause’ or a ‘slot machine clause.’”Bottom of Form In this case and others like it, public officials have treated freedom of religion as a “second-class right,” Alito said. In other cases, the government wants nuns to buy contraception, forces Christian pharmacists to provide abortion drugs, and takes Christian bakers to court when they refuse to make cakes to celebrate same-sex marriage. During the COVID-19 pandemic, government attacks on religious freedom have become more common, Alito added.
British Health Secretary Matt Hancock has promised MPs votes "wherever possible" on England or UK-wide coronavirus rules before they come into force. But he warned that some urgent regulations could not be held up. It follows concern from Tory MPs over a lack of parliamentary scrutiny, while the Commons Speaker warned the government against treating Parliament with "contempt". MPs voted to extend the coronavirus powers by 330 votes to 24. But some Conservatives expressed frustration with the government. Sir Charles Walker, who sits on the 1922 Committee Executive, was fuming about MPs being given just 90 minutes to debate the renewal of Coronavirus measures this afternoon.
Nick Ferrari was horrified as he spoke to a nurse, 73, who was arrested and handcuffed as she attempted to take her 97-year-old mother out of a care home for lockdown. A 73-year-old woman, Ylenia Angeli, was arrested and restrained by police after she attempted to take her 97-year-old mother out of a care home for lockdown. Video footage shared on social media by her daughter and former Coronation Street actress Leandra Ashton appeared to capture part of the incident in a car park in Market Weighton in East Yorkshire on Tuesday. In the two clips an upset Ms Ashton claimed she and her mother, a former nurse, had taken her grandmother out of the home where she is "deteriorating", because they had not seen her for nine months. Ms Angeli told LBC: "I desperately want to care for my mother at home, which they are not allowing me to do. I am a trained nurse. I have a lot of experience in looking after the elderly. "What I see just breaks my heart and I know that people all around the country are feeling the same." Her daughter Leandra Ashton that during lockdown, her family are being "cut out" of the decision making process for their elderly relative.
This is the same police ‘service’ which can’t be bothered to investigate burglaries, assaults or thefts because of ‘lack of resources’, yet can rustle up a Grunwick-style response to a fitness club opening during lockdown. On Saturday, I wrote about Essex Plod sending 13 officers to close down a gym in Harlow. They were out again team-handed yesterday when members decided to stage an open-air exercise class outside the club. If you thought that was over the top, think again. Anything Essex can do, the Met can do better. They sent 30 — yes, thirty — coppers to shut a gym in Wood Green, North London, opening in contravention of the lockdown. Half of them looked as if they could do with a few of hours on a Peloton themselves.
Many more also speaking out like this police officer: "It is with a heavy heart that, on November 5th, after 10 years, I will be resigning as a Special Constable" https://twitter.com/jadenozzz/status/1324078666821849089
People must text their name, address and 1 of only 6 reasons to the 13033 number if they intend to do any of these 6 government permissible activities:
Visit to a pharmacy or visit to a doctor if necessary
Visit to a supermarket or stores for essential supplies
Visit to a bank if e-banking transactions are not possible
Visit to people needing assistance or escorting children to and from school
Attending a funeral, as per the conditions provided by the law, or visiting children in case of divorced parents. Physical exercise outdoors or up to two persons taking their pet for a walk while always observing a 1.5-metre distance. If an individual is unable to ask for permission through a SMS text, they will be required to carry a document provided by their employer detailing their shift schedule or another type of government issued document for trips not related to work. On top of that, citizens must carry a valid identification card or document with them.
Police in a central Canadian city are actively encouraging their citizens to make use of COVID-19 “snitch lines” to call out large private gatherings, and promise they will “intervene” as needed to fine those found violating the law. “In response to increasing cases of COVID-19, the Winnipeg Metro Region was moved to Critical Level (red). The Winnipeg Police Service has begun triaging calls from the public regarding gathering sizes in private residences and will dispatch resources to intervene as required,” reads the Winnipeg Police statement issued on November 4.
There are two main areas of scientific ‘expertise’ which the Johnson régime relies upon to decide how it will deal with the Covid–19 ‘pandemic’. The first is the team at Imperial College led by Neil Ferguson, which claims to be able to use its computer models to forecast the spread and impact of the disease. The second is the army of behavioural ‘scientists’ who have been ‘nudging’ us at every opportunity into making decisions which favour the preferred options set by global policy makers…… These, then, are the people driving the government’s response to Covid-19, alongside the more often discussed ‘A-Team’ at Imperial College. It should perhaps come as no surprise that the message from the UK Government for several weeks now has been that the behaviour of the public is key to any decisions regarding the lifting of the so-called lockdown. What might be more surprising to many is that the types of behavioural change being demanded of us by the Behavioural Insights ‘experts’ in response to a global ‘pandemic’ fit so nicely with the aims and objectives of those pushing for global change via the Millennium Development Goals.
British and American state intelligence agencies are “weaponizing truth” to quash vaccine hesitancy as both nations prepare for mass inoculations, in a recently announced “cyber war” to be commanded by AI-powered arbiters of truth against information sources that challenge official narratives….. In just the past week, the national-security states of the United States and United Kingdom have discreetly let it be known that the cyber tools and online tactics previously designed for use in the post-9/11 “war on terror” are now being repurposed for use against information sources promoting “vaccine hesitancy” and information related to Covid-19 that runs counter to their state narratives. A new cyber offensive was launched on Monday by the UK’s signal intelligence agency, Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), which seeks to target websites that publish content deemed to be “propaganda” that raises concerns regarding state-sponsored Covid-19 vaccine development and the multi-national pharmaceutical corporations involved. Similar efforts are underway in the United States, with the US military recently funding a CIA-backed firm—stuffed with former counterterrorism officials who were behind the occupation of Iraq and the rise of the so-called Islamic State—to develop an AI algorithm aimed specifically at new websites promoting “suspected” disinformation related to the Covid-19 crisis and the US military–led Covid-19 vaccination effort known as Operation Warp Speed. Both countries are preparing to silence independent journalists who raise legitimate concerns over pharmaceutical industry corruption or the extreme secrecy surrounding state-sponsored Covid-19 vaccination efforts, now that Pfizer’s vaccine candidate is slated to be approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by month’s end. Pfizer’s history of being fined billions for illegal marketing and for bribing government officials to help them cover up an illegal drug trial that killed eleven children (among other crimes) has gone unmentioned by most mass media outlets, which instead have celebrated the apparently imminent approval of the company’s Covid-19 vaccine without questioning the company’s history or that the mRNA technology used in the vaccine has sped through normal safety trial protocols and has never been approved for human use. Also unmentioned is that the head of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Patrizia Cavazzoni, is the former Pfizer vice president for product safety who covered up the connection of one of its products to birth defects.
Last year, a government commission called for the US to adopt an AI-driven mass surveillance system far beyond that used in any other country in order to ensure American hegemony in artificial intelligence. Now, many of the “obstacles” they had cited as preventing its implementation are rapidly being removed under the guise of combating the coronavirus crisis. Last year, a U.S. government body dedicated to examining how artificial intelligence can “address the national security and defense needs of the United States” discussed in detail the “structural” changes that the American economy and society must undergo in order to ensure a technological advantage over China, according to a recent document acquired through a FOIA request. This document suggests that the U.S. follow China’s lead and even surpass them in many aspects related to AI-driven technologies, particularly their use of mass surveillance. This perspective clearly clashes with the public rhetoric of prominent U.S. government officials and politicians on China, who have labeled the Chinese government’s technology investments and export of its surveillance systems and other technologies as a major “threat” to Americans’ “way of life.”
Behavioural experts advising the British government have suggested giving people who test negative for coronavirus wristbands that would allow them to travel and enter venues, while those who didn’t have the wristband would remain under lockdown. The Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) produced a PDF report in which it praised the example of Slovakia, where 97% of people who the government wanted to test complied. The figure was so high because health authorities told those who refused the test that they would continue to be subject to lockdown measures and curfews, while those who complied were given paper certificates allowing them to exercise their freedoms. A similar system is now being considered for Brits who would “get back some freedoms if they test negative” while having to wear paper wristbands “for easier recognition on whether they can enter venues.” Respondents to the idea dismissed it as “medical tyranny,” although vast numbers of people are likely to comply if it means returning to some semblance of normality. Presumably, the wristbands or something similar would also be used to denote those who have and have not taken the COVID vaccine when it arrives. This would then give airports, sports stadiums, bars, restaurants and public transport operators free reign to block anyone who doesn’t have the wristband. Coronavirus: People-tracking wristbands tested to enforce lockdown - Bulgaria is the latest country to test a wristband that can track people during the coronavirus pandemic. Up to 50 residents in Sofia will be given a device that can record their movements using GPS satellite location data. Several nations are testing similar wristbands to make sure people are obeying orders to stay at home. South Korea and Hong Kong have also been using electronic trackers to help enforce quarantine. The trial in Bulgaria will use Comarch LifeWristbands, developed in Poland. As well as confirming a person is staying at home, the device can monitor the wearer's heart rate and be used to call the emergency services. In South Korea, people found to be violating quarantine rules can be ordered to wear a tracking band.
Workplaces, Social Venues, May Ban Britons Without Vaccination Certificates A senior Conservative MP has said it is possible that once mass vaccination is underway workplaces and social venues may ban entry to those who do not have a certificate to prove they have been vaccinated against COVID-19. Earlier this week, drugs firms Pfizer and BioNTech revealed that their coronavirus vaccine was more than 90 per cent effective at preventing infection.
The assault on our liberty will not end with deployment and use of a vaccine. Moncef Slaoui, the chief adviser of the Trump administration's Operation Warp Speed, a "public-private partnership" in charge of producing and delivering a coronavirus vaccine, has said that those who receive a vaccine will be monitored by "incredibly precise ... tracking systems." Slaoui has also indicated that tech giants Google and Oracle will help the government keep tabs on the vaccinated individuals. So, the vaccine program will lead to an increase in government surveillance!.... Slaoui is just the latest "expert" to endorse forcing the American people to relinquish their few remaining scraps of privacy to stop coronavirus. Dr. Anthony Fauci and Bill Gates have urged development of a digital certificate for those vaccinated for coronavirus. People without the certificate would find their liberty severely restricted. Those who think that the new surveillance system will be limited to coronavirus should remember that Social Security numbers were only supposed to be used to administer the Social Security program. They should also consider that the PATRIOT Act's expansion of warrantless wiretapping was supposed to be limited to stopping terrorists. 'CommonPass': New COVID-19 Security Measures Will Make Health A Prerequisite For Travel
We're not going to take it any more. You can sleep with your wife but can't play tennis with her. You can shoot ducks, but can't feed them. Boffins scare us with graphs, then change them... Like Peter Finch’s deranged newsreader in the 1976 movie Network, Shelley Tasker is mad as hell and isn’t going to take it any more. As England was pitchforked into another debilitating lockdown, she set up an amplifier on the steps of Truro Cathedral, grabbed a microphone and began telling passers-by what’s ‘really going on’ in the NHS. Within minutes she had attracted a small crowd. Shelley has resigned in disgust from her job as a healthcare assistant at Treliske hospital and wants the world to know why. The idea that the NHS is overrun, she said, is a pack of lies. ‘I can tell you now that at the height of the pandemic I had no work because there were no patients. ‘On Friday in Treliske there were three people with Covid. We’ve closed down Cornwall because three people are in hospital.’ She also claimed that patients who died from flu were being registered dishonestly as Covid victims on death certificates. Cornwall Freedom Rally speech from Shelley Tasker whistle-blower publicly resigns.
Liverpool school will also be “barcoding” individuals, and “securing” them should they test positive - Liverpool-based Broadgreen International School is in the “privileged position” of running a pilot scheme with Public Health England that will:
Bring in the military to run Covid19 tests.
Test children without getting parental consent first.
Identify each individual with a “unique barcode”.
“Isolate” and “secure” anyone who tests positive.
Sir Charles Walker MP Amazing speech against Lockdown 2020 - "Something much darker in the shadows!"
Sir Charles Walker MP for Broxbourne in Hertfordshire gives an impassioned speech against the Lockdown measures and removal of UK civil liberties before the "Lockdown" vote which the Government subsequently won. This took place on the 4th of November 2020.
I expected debate and disagreement about our ideas, published as the Great Barrington Declaration…. But I was utterly unprepared for the onslaught of insults, personal criticism, intimidation and threats that met our proposal. The level of vitriol and hostility, not just from members of the public online but from journalists and academics, has horrified me…. So I was left stunned after being invited on to a mid-morning radio programme recently, only for a producer to warn me minutes before we went on air that I was not to mention the Great Barrington Declaration. The producer repeated the warning and indicated that this was an instruction from a senior broadcasting executive. I demanded an explanation and, with seconds to go, was told that the public wouldn’t be familiar with the meaning of the phrase ‘Great Barrington Declaration’. And this was not an isolated experience. A few days later, another national radio station approached my office to set up an interview, then withdrew the invitation. They felt, on reflection, that giving airtime to me would ‘not be in the national interest’. But the Great Barrington Declaration represents a heartfelt attempt by a group of academics with decades of experience in this field to limit the harm of lockdown. I cannot conceive how anyone can construe this as ‘against the national interest’. Moreover, matters certainly are not helped by outlets such as The Guardian, which has repeatedly published opinion pieces making factually incorrect and scientifically flawed statements, as well as borderline defamatory comments about me, while refusing to give our side of the debate an opportunity to present our view.
The Covid-19 data and statistics, that we are all now so familiar with, have been reported by the mainstream media (MSM) practically without scrutiny. There have been some notable exceptions; a few journalists who still understand their vital role to question power. Unfortunately, for the most part, questions have been most notable for their absence. Without a functioning mainstream media, and with government scientific advisors seemingly bought and paid for by pharmaceutical corporations, it has been left to independent journalists and researchers to question the Covid-19 narrative that we are all supposed to accept without hesitation. Few have worked harder than Mark Oakford. Mark has sent 1,392 freedom of information requests to local authorities, Clinical Commissioning Groups, NHS trusts, Police Forces, Education Authorities, Ministerial departments and more. Lockdown sceptic Ivor Cummins: Coronavirus deaths are 'lower than what is being put out' - A biochemical engineer has told talkRADIO that the number of deaths attributed to Covid-19 "is relatively lower than what’s being put out in the statistics.” Lockdown sceptic Ivor Cummins also told Julia Hartley-Brewer that "the full country lockdown in Ireland had no real effect.”
Elon Musk sowed doubts about the accuracy of coronavirus tests on Friday — just hours after tweeting that he took four rapid tests with conflicting results. The Tesla boss and fifth-richest man in the world had initially tweeted Thursday night that “Something extremely bogus is going on” regarding COVID-19 testing. “Two tests came back negative, two came back positive. Same machine, same test, same nurse.” Media outlets quickly jumped on Musk’s tweets with stories highlighting his positive diagnosis — provoking the prickly tech entrepreneur to protest. “Technically, I tested positive, then negative twice, then positive again, so ‘Elon Musk Tests Negative for Covid’ is an equally correct title,” he tweeted.
Imagine that a new disease emerged. It presented less risk of death than a lightning strike for school-age children (Ref i), but it was particularly nasty for the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions. A committee decided that draconian measures – the likes of which had never been experienced or studied – should be imposed on the entire population until a drug to ease the disease outcome arrived. If you then discovered that the majority of the committee members had financial interests in the drug being developed, how would you feel?
It’s worth reminding people that Gates is the founder, main donor and stakeholder of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP) and Grand Challenges in Global Health (GCGH). Grand Challenges, in Global Health awarded 44 grants - totaling over $450 million for research projects involving scientists in 33 countries – and funded an additional supporting project addressing ethical, social, and cultural issues across the initiative. The first decade of progress yielded diverse types of impact. The initiative has since been renamed Grand Challenges to reflect the fact that as new challenges have been added, its scope has expanded to encompass global development as well as global health. The UK’s and US’s (Dr Fauci) scientific and medical experts have links to the Bill Gates Foundation, WHO and the pharmaceutical industry.
As NYPost reports, the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has repeatedly clashed with President Trump and his administration, who have dismissed him as “a bit of an alarmist” amid the pandemic. Fauci said it was unfortunate that America’s scientists had been “lumped into politics” and that people were unwilling to follow their guidance because society was so “divisive.” In an interview Thursday, the coronavirus task force member and infectious disease expert pushed back on the notion that scientists were “authoritarian” for promoting strict lockdowns and social distancing measures... at the same time as telling Americans to lose their "independent spirit" and "do what you're told!" Fauci said the nation could avoid another round of economically devastating lockdowns if people simply washed their hands, wore a mask and remained socially distant... The two most dangerous men in the world? - The main purpose of this post is to engage you to watch the incredible July 28 video by Dave Cullen, titled “The Rising Resistance to the New Abnormal.” Only 34 minutes and 41 seconds long, it packs a big wallop directly related to the title of this article, including highly supportive video footage of Bill Gates that reveals how truly dangerous and weird this man, one of the world’s wealthiest, has become. He works and socializes a lot with Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has his own scary history of vaccine experimentation with little regard for what happens to the human subjects of his experiments. Stephen Mosher published a revealing article on LifeSite titled “How Dr. Fauci’s fraudulent pandemic advice put millions of Americans through hell.”
Now it appears that Big Pharma is in on the anti-Trump conspiracy. The president tweeted out his belief that Pfizer delayed announcing the effectiveness of their vaccine until after the election because “they didn’t have the courage to do it before.” Trump: “As I have long said, @Pfizer and the others would only announce a Vaccine after the Election, because they didn’t have the courage to do it before. Likewise, the @US_FDA should have announced it earlier, not for political purposes, but for saving lives!” It should be noted that researchers and some of the companies involved in producing the vaccine all gave a timeline of late October-early November for the end of the final-stage trials of the vaccine. Trump never claimed the vaccine would be “ready by Election Day.” That’s a lie. He said the vaccine would be a reality which is a far cry from being “ready.” Biden Informed Of Pfizer’s Vaccine News Before Government Health Officials / Fauci Showed Breakthrough Pfizer COVID Vaccine Results To Biden Before Trump, Azar Confirms
As 194 countries gather online for the World Health Organization’s annual assembly, which is slated this afternoon to hear the first progress report from its international inquiry into the origins and global response to the coronavirus pandemic, an independent human rights watchdog is calling on the panel’s co-chair, former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark, to recuse herself from the position on account of her numerous prior statements praising the WHO’s response, and due to her close ties with the Chinese government. Clark was appointed by the world’s top health agency to co-chair the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, an impartial inquiry that will probe the WHO’s handling of the coronavirus and the response of governments around the world. The panel is scheduled to present its progress report today, and the final report in May 2021.
President-elect Joe Biden has tapped renowned oncologist and bioethicist Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel to sit on his coronavirus task force, despite his controversial views on aging, The Forward has reported. The controversy stems from an article he wrote in the Atlantic in 2014, where he explained that he would prefer to die at the age of 75, as living past such an age “renders many of us, if not disabled, then faltering and declining, a state that may not be worse than death but is nonetheless deprived,” according to The Forward. Members on the Right, including White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, were quick to call out Biden for tapping Emanuel to the task force, voicing concerns that he does not view people over the age of 75 as worth saving.
Few will have heard of the ‘Great Reset’, but it already has the backing of the Davos elite. Among those involved are Prince Charles, the secretary general of the United Nations, the managing director of the IMF, the CEOs of Mastercard, BP, the president of Microsoft, an official from the People’s Bank of China, and other global players. And recent UK attendees of Davos are a diverse group. Tony Blair, Sir David Attenborough and Prince William, for example. Greenpeace, the WWF and trade unions regularly cosy up with big oil, bankers and officials from some of the most brutal regimes on the planet. The Great Reset calls on a vast global network – thousands of world leaders from business, politics and civil society. They all share variants of the Davos worldview. And they are supported by a vast income from corporate membership fees. Davos also has a youth wing – the Global Shapers Community. Over 9,655 ‘shapers’ work from 428 ‘hubs’ in 148 different countries.
Schwab is not, of course, a Nazi in the classic sense, being neither a nationalist nor an anti-semite, as testified by the $1 million Dan David Prize he was awarded by Israel in 2004. But 21st century fascism has found different political forms through which to continue its core project of reshaping humanity to suit capitalism through blatantly authoritarian means. This new fascism is today being advanced in the guise of global governance, biosecurity, the “New Normal”, the “New Deal for Nature” and the “Fourth Industrial Revolution”. Schwab, the octogenarian founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, sits at the centre of this matrix like a spider on a giant web. The original fascist project, in Italy and Germany, was all about a merger of state and business.
A motion by One Nation leader Pauline Hanson calling on the Australian government to boycott the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Great Reset agenda was blocked in the Senate on Nov. 11. Powerful international leaders want to take advantage of the current economic chaos to “remake nations across the planet, because desperate populations are now ‘more reception to big visions of change,'” Justin Haskins, the editor-in-chief of StoppingSocialism.com and the editorial director of The Heartland Institute, wrote in an op-ed for The Epoch Times in July. Hanson said the policies of the Great Reset would destroy Australia’s economy, “push socialist and neo-Marxist policies” onto Australians, and “pave the way for big controlling government, suppression of free speech, and reduced property rights.” The proposal was defeated 2 – 37 after the Liberals and the Nationals allied with Labor and the Greens. “It is an absolute travesty that the Australian Government has sided with the globalists of the World Economic Forum and their Great Reset agenda against the interests of everyday Australians,” Hanson told The Epoch Times in a statement….“This is a group of global lefty elites—billionaires, business executives, and celebrities—who think they know better than us how to run our own country,” she said…. “Among those who spoke at the event or expressed their support separately for the plan were Ma Jun, the chairman of the Green Finance Committee at the China Society for Finance and Banking and a member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the People’s Bank of China; António Guterres, the secretary-general of the United Nations; powerful union leaders; activists from groups such as Greenpeace International; CEOs and presidents of large corporations such as BP, MasterCard, and Microsoft; and officials from the International Monetary Fund.“ But the person who has most clearly articulated the vision of the Great Reset is Klaus Schwab, the head of the World Economic Forum and one of the Reset’s most ardent supporters,” Haskins wrote. “Every country, from the United States to China, must participate, and every industry, from oil and gas to tech, must be transformed,” Schwab wrote in an article published on WEF’s website. “In short, we need a ‘Great Reset’ of capitalism.” Sky News host Rowan Dean: ‘Great Reset’ in Davos at the forefront of a ‘great deception’ in the free world
Build Back Better means totalitarian rule by a global, technocratic elite – as constrictive and immiserating as life under fascism or communism. This hideous New World Order is the Great Reset. It sounds like a conspiracy theory but the people behind it are perfectly open about it. Why else would they dedicate a special issue of Time magazine to outlining their masterplan? One essay – titled ‘It’s 2023. Here’s How We Fixed the Global Economy’ – imagines a world where things all started getting better with the ousting of Donald Trump….. Jobs and high minimum wages will be guaranteed; shale gas will be replaced by solar; businesses — in return for massive bailouts from the government — will agree to be run more like communist worker co-operatives; car lanes on freeways will be replaced by cycle lanes; companies are no longer driven by profit by ‘public interest’ and goals like sustainability. Oh — and you needn’t worry about your mortgage repayments any more — because private property will be abolished. (And yes, they’re serious about abolishing ownership. Here’s their website boasting about their plans back in 2016.) “Welcome to the year 2030. Welcome to my city – or should I say, “our city”. I don’t own anything. I don’t own a car. I don’t own a house. I don’t own any appliances or any clothes. It might seem odd to you, but it makes perfect sense for us in this city. Everything you considered a product, has now become a service. We have access to transportation, accommodation, food and all the things we need in our daily lives. One by one all these things became free, so it ended up not making sense for us to own much.”
The COVID-19 pandemic was manufactured by the world’s elites as part of a plan to globally advance “transhumanism” — literally, the fusion of human beings with technology in an attempt to alter human nature itself and create a superhuman being and an “earthly paradise,” according to a Peruvian academic and expert in technology. This dystopian nightmare scenario is no longer the stuff of science fiction, but an integral part of the proposed post-pandemic “Great Reset,” Dr. Miklos Lukacs de Pereny said at the recent summit on COVID-19.
The pharmaceutical company Pfizer says that its coronavirus vaccine is “90% effective in preventing COVID-19.” “Emergency authorization” is “expected from the Food and Drug Administration within weeks,” Business Insider reported Tuesday. The vaccine requires two doses three weeks apart. “A double-dose vaccine requires twice as many vials, syringes, refrigerators, and clinic visits at a time when such resources are already limited,” Businesss Insider noted, fretting about the “possibility that not everyone will return to a doctor's office for the critical second dose.”
'Mandatory vaccination puts the public health into the hands of convicted criminals in the pharmaceutical industry, while putting the financial and personal liability on the taxpayer,' Dr. Leland Stillman pointed out during the recent Truth Over Fear Summit.
A mandatory Covid-19 vaccine is “madness” in light of irrefutable evidence about how vaccines work and the record of criminal convictions against the pharmaceutical giants that develop them, according to Dr. Leland Stillman. No vaccine is effective, all carry risks, including death and disability, and “the vast majority of patients who develop any viral illness have a mild, self-limited course” while “only a minority are affected by severe disability or death,” the 32-year-old American doctor said during a recent virtual summit on the pandemic. Moreover, vaccine manufacturers have no liability for their products, pharmaceutical corporations “are regularly convicted on criminal charges of misleading the public and abusing their trust,” and the vaccine industry is “rife” with conflicts of interest between government and industry, Stillman said. Israel: Health Ministry may recommend mandatory coronavirus vaccine law
Chicago mayor and "woke" intellectual giant Lori Lightfoot, who has let her city go to complete hell in a handbasket over the course of the last 6 months, has defended her call for Chicago residents to cancel their "traditional" Thanksgiving plans in a display that the arrogance of liberal politicians knows no bounds…. Her decision comes not even a week after she was seen amidst a large crowd on Chicago streets partying on the heels of a Joe Biden Presidential victory…. She was asked about the hypocrisy of shutting down her city days after rallying large crowds by MSNBC's Steph Ruhle last week. Ruhle asked: "One of the reasons people feel frustrated or skeptical is they are getting a lot of mixed messages. What do you say to those who are criticizing you were less than a week ago you went out and stood before a massive crowd who was celebrating Joe Biden’s victory and now you’re saying your city has to shut down? How do you have one and not the other?"
Despite her assurances that Capitol Hill physicians had signed off, and that the dinner would follow a laundry list of COVID-19 social distancing restrictions, Nancy Pelosi ended up cancelling a dinner for new incoming Democratic House members, offering a hasty apology to outraged liberal allies. After several conservative blogs and media outlets pointed out the hypocrisy of Pelosi's explanation (which happened to coincide with a similar incident involving Gavin Newsom and a staffer's birthday party), Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill announced Friday night that the dinner had been canceled. Of course, the cancellation came only after the backlash; when reporters first questioned Pelosi and her staff about the dinner, she offered a laundry list of excuses. Instead of holding the dinner in-person, House members would receive "take out" meals and simply head back to wherever they're staying while they're in town for orientation, Hammill said.
No other US industry has been more severely impacted by the virus pandemic than travel and tourism. The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) published a report this week, protecting a “staggering 9.2 million jobs could be lost in the US Travel & Tourism sector in 2020 if barriers to global travel remain in place.” WTTC’s economic modeling is the latest reminder of the deep economic scarring that could be materializing due to the virus pandemic that continues to batter the economy. According to the report, 7.2 million jobs in the US have already been impacted. If restrictions on international travel aren’t lifted, and further stimulus isn’t seen, 9.2 million jobs, more than half of all jobs in the sector, could be lost. Over 20 Million Americans Remain On Jobless Benefits - By Tyler Durden 709,000 Americans filed for first-time unemployment benefits last week, better than the expected 731k and and a big drop from the prior…
According to The Hill, The Senate’s version of the fiscal 2021 Pentagon spending bill was released Tuesday along with 11 other annual appropriations bills. Both Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have said they want to pass an omnibus spending bill, and they will likely agree on the military budget, as Democrats overwhelmingly vote in favor of military spending when they have the opportunity, just as Republicans do. In July, the House passed a $694.6 billion bill for Pentagon spending in July. The Senate version released this week includes $627.2 billion for the base defense budget and $68.7 billion for a war fund known as the Overseas Contingency Operations account, and also includes a 3% pay raise for troops. However, the final Senate version of the bill left out a few causes that were championed by progressive Democrats, including the renaming of military bases that are named after Confederate leaders, and measures that were intended to block defense funds from being used on the border wall
Amazon is trying to fend off a wave of criticism in France as small and large businesses, opposition politicians and members of the government accuse the company of unfairly benefiting from lockdown restrictions. Frédéric Duval, Amazon's country manager for France, went on a media tour Thursday, telling multiple outlets the company was subject to “fantasies” about its allegedly dominant position in e-commerce. The tour comes after a chorus of attacks from ministers and opposition figures who said that Amazon could benefit from rules banning the selling of "non-essential" items such as books and makeup products in physical stores.
The world’s biggest technology companies – Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google – have reported largely blowout quarterly results, demonstrating their resilience to the disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Combined, the four companies reported a quarterly net profit of $38 billion at a time when many traditional industries have seen revenues slump, redundancies made and businesses closed down. Against this backdrop, Big Tech profits this year looks set to widen the wealth gap between them and non-technology companies.
Those gains are now under threat, no thanks to the coronavirus, and the economic carnage it has unleashed. This year, the World Bank estimates that 100m are falling back into extreme poverty. Even Sub-Saharan Africa, which for the past 25 years has enjoyed positive economic growth, will enter negative territory in 2020. The only economy expected to grow this year is China, which implemented harsh lockdown measures when Beijing realized the coronavirus was quickly spreading beyond Wuhan to neighbouring provinces. The gap between rich and poor is growing too in the United States. Two new studies estimate that 6-8m people have been pushed into poverty over the last few months as federal funding relief dried up. Millions of Americans can’t afford to pay their electric bills or are skipping meals to save cash. 40% of those who lost work to covid-19 don’t even have a month worth of savings. But here’s the thing. Whereas previous recessions were fairly even in terms of who was affected, in this recession, the top 25% has bounced back completely, while the bottom 2% has been smacked hard. The reason is simple: working from home. Bankers, lawyers, accountants, academics, and scores of other white-collar workers, have been able to work remotely. The work environment may have changed, but they got to keep their jobs. Those employed in restaurants, hotels, shopping malls, etc. haven’t been so lucky. Their jobs have disappeared, and won’t be coming back anytime soon, especially now that we’re in the second wave.
Three-hundred-fifty years ago, John Graunt attempted to give Londoners an accurate assessment of fatality rates of diseases in the community so people could understand their risk level. Until COVID-19, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) fulfilled the same role. Then the CDC abandoned tradition and sensibility and treated COVID differently than every other disease. For a death to be considered a COVID death, COVID no longer needed to be the immediate or underlying cause of death. Now, a death is considered a COVID death even if COVID was only a contributing condition….. Although CDC records are far from comprehensive, they do provide some explanation: So far in 2020, the CDC data shows there have been about 32,000 excess Alzheimer’s deaths and 12,000 excess diabetes deaths…. 3,000 medical expert authors and signers of the Great Barrington Declaration point out, the deaths and diseases the lockdowns are creating will continue for years. The excess deaths toll from the effects of lockdowns will continue to accrue even as COVID dissipates. In total, for every COVID death, we could ultimately tally another death from our reaction to COVID. Why is this happening? Why have we treated COVID like no other disease in history?
The number of suicides in Japan rose in October for the fourth month in a row to the highest level in more than five years, data showed Tuesday, a trend activists have blamed on the economic impact of the coronavirus, on women in particular. According to preliminary police data, the total number of suicides for October was 2,153, an increase of more than 300 from the previous month and the highest monthly tally since May 2015. Of October’s cases, 851 were women, a rise of 82.6% over the same month in 2019. The number of suicides by men rose 21.3%. Cases of suicide had been falling steadily until July but then the economic impact of the novel coronavirus outbreak hit home and the numbers started rising, activists say.
Coronavirus: Suicide rate rises among schoolchildren and women during pandemic in Japan - The number of school-aged children taking their own life more than doubled in the same period, Bloomberg reports. Sociologists have warned many times of the impact of the pandemic on mental health as restrictions on social interaction have left people isolated and the economic shock has led to thousands upon thousands of job losses, with more to come. A global study by Care International found 27 per cent of women had reported an increase in problems linked to mental illness, compared with only 10 per cent of men. California doctors say they have seen MORE suicides than coronavirus deaths during lockdown - The medics at John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek near San Francisco have witnessed a year's worth of suicide attempts in just a matter of weeks because of the strain of lockdown.
Disruptions to daily life during the pandemic lockdowns, anxiety about contracting COVID-19, and social isolation are all taking a toll on children's mental health, a report released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests. The report, based on information from a subset of hospitals in 47 states, "provides timely surveillance data concerning children's mental health in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic." As pandemic mitigation techniques were implemented to varying degrees of tyranny depending on the governor's political orientation, the average weekly numbers of children's emergency department visits for mental health-related reasons soared. Compared with 2019, the proportion of mental health–related visits for children aged 5–11 and 12–17 years increased approximately 24%. and 31%, respectively.
A mental health charity is calling on the UK Government to back more funding for mental health charities helping UK workers as depression and suicide rates rise across the country due to COVID-19. A recent report by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has revealed rates of depression have doubled during the COVID-19 pandemic, with almost one in five adults (19.2%) experiencing some form of depression during June – up from around one in 10 (9.7%) last year. London Ambulance also recently shared information that the number of suicide and attempted suicide incidents are increasing, with crews now attending an average of 37 suicides or attempted suicides per day, compared to 22 in 2019 and 17 five years ago.
What really makes angry is sites like these that want to Factcheck as though it is fake news:
"Nadine Dorries and Matt Hancock are simply not telling the truth... they tell us the Covid deaths every day. Why can't they tell us the number of people committing suicide? It is a national scandal that will emerge"
Lockdowns are in force, masks are mandatory and pubs and churches are shut. And it looks as if we are in this suspended state until either a vaccine arrives and many of us gain immunity at some point next year, or we come to our senses, the lockdowns end and we are let back out again…… There is opposition to the state-led lockdown – albeit limited to a vocal minority of academics, medics, journalists, politicians and newly emergent groups. And there is increasing criticism not just of the lockdowns, but also of some of the more regressive trends that it has brought to the surface. Hence groups like Save our Statues, the Free Speech Union, the Reform Party and Reclaim have emerged in recent months. That many of these groups are on the right shows how the left is no longer interested in seeking common cause with the working man and woman, or in defending their liberties
The damage from the first lockdown has barely been comprehended. A second is pure insanity. An astonishing 516 MPs, a majority of 477, voted to place everyone in England under house arrest for 28 days. Not a single Labour MP voted against the destruction of their constituents’ jobs and income. Not a single Liberal Democrat MP opposed the bonfire of civil liberties. The Conservatives, with a few notable exceptions, sought only to conserve the ‘New Normal’ of permanent lockdown….. The first lockdown caused an unprecedented health crisis….. the government’s message of ‘stay at home’ to ‘protect the NHS’ discouraged people from seeking treatment. Primary care attendance has still not returned to normal levels. A&E attendance fell to record lows, as did hospital occupancy more broadly. Around the peak of the first wave, the NHS had four times as many empty acute beds as would have been normal for that time of year….. Cancer referrals fell dramatically. In April 2019, 200,000 patients were referred by GPs to consultants for suspected cancer. By April 2020, this had dropped to just below 80,000. New research suggests that a delay in treatment of four weeks increases a patient’s chance of dying by 10 per cent. Tragically, more children have died from delayed medical care than from Covid-19.
Post Brexit
EU officials say there is not much time before ratification by the end of the year becomes almost impossible. Missing deadlines has become a tradition in EU-U.K. negotiations. But this time, Brussels is getting increasingly nervous about the ticking clock. Brexit talks are set to stretch into next week after insufficient progress was made in negotiations in London this week, thereby passing the deadline of mid-November. Officials expect talks to continue Friday, pause over the weekend and then resume in Brussels next week. The next informal deadline suggested by EU officials is the videoconference of European leaders next Thursday. If a deal is not been reached by then, Brussels will put forward the contingency legislation it has prepared to prevent a cliff-edge scenario in the event of a no-deal, one EU official said.
David Ellis speaks to defence policy analyst and Brexit campaigner David Banks on the "EU Boobytrap" which will see the UK still tied to the EU following Brexit on the issue of defence procurement and operational cooperation. David Ellis Report: Strategic Vision - David Ellis discusses Britain's future strategic vision with former Commander Joint Forces Command General Sir Richard Barrons.
David Ellis is speaking to Admiral Lord West, former head of the Royal Navy, and security minister with the Gordon Brown government. They discuss the relationship between defence industry, the military, procurement and veterans affairs.
Brexit Party chairman Richard Tice has said he has a “hunch” that a post-Brexit trade deal will be reached with the EU, as Boris Johnson’s deadline arrives. Speaking with talkRADIO’s Julia Hartley-Brewer, the former MEP said: “Today is the day…is Boris going to keep his promise?” He added that firms "will make it work” if negotiators do not come to an agreement: “Brexit is just a pimple on the nose of the challenges that businesses and residents in the UK face today.”
By voting down key clauses of the government’s Internal Market Bill, the Lords confirmed that it is an archaic excrescence which has no place in a 21st-century democracy…… The Internal Market Bill’s clause 42 would give the government power to alter the EU Withdrawal Agreement provisions on the Northern Ireland protocol. On Monday, the Lords voted to remove it by 433 votes to 165, a vote described as a ‘crushing’ defeat in the media and celebrated by Remainers and deluded leftists across social media. But what other outcome would they expect from a collection of more than 800 unelected peers, with an inbuilt anti-Tory, anti-Brexit majority? The ‘Bollocks to Brexit’ party, aka the Liberal Democrats, might have only 11 elected MPs, but why worry when they have no fewer than 89 appointed peers swanning about in the Lords? Patrician judges don’t care much for democracy - Lord Kerr is the latest former Supreme Court judge to cheer on the rise of judicial power in politics. Enough with these Brexit-bashing bishops - Every wing of the establishment has tried to undermine the public’s decision to leave the EU.
The Remainer media are still publicising flawed and highly negative predictions for the economic impact of Brexit. Unfortunately, this is likely to continue long after we have left the EU’s customs union and single market…. The omens are mixed. Lionel Barber, former editor of the Financial Times ludicrously claimed that the FT had an open mind about Brexit during his editorship. On the other hand, parts of the media keep alive the various prophesies of economic doom originally published by the Treasury, the London School of Economics and others…..Brussels has insisted throughout the talks that the UK has more to lose from no-deal than the EU This is their view despite the fact that the EU exports close to £100 billion more of goods to the UK than the UK exports to the EU. Excluding Ireland, the figure is almost £110 billion. Germany alone exports £78 billion to the UK (while importing £58 billion from the UK). The EU has of course been supported in this perverse view by the Treasury and other UK forecasters. They have undermined the UK’s hand in the negotiations. If like us, you believe that the forecasts are flawed then the role of the Treasury and others has been outrageous.
An Australian view of the UK-EU trade negotiations, by Peter Anderson
When journalists reported of the sequence of events between 15th and 16th, the principal qualifying reference to Johnson’s decision was not to say that he had called the EU’s bluff by ceasing to continue negotiations, but to report that Johnson ‘did not make his decision on 15th as had been promised‘ and that it was part of a tacitly agreed choreography! It has been interesting to note that, throughout the Brexit drama of the past 12 months, even Daily Telegraph journalists seem to have presented their commentaries and observations through an EU lens. [ed. adds that the DT’s former pro-remain Brussels correspondent, Peter Foster, has now moved to what for him are more congenial surroundings at the Financial Times]…..Discussions of fishing in UK waters is a reminder of former Prime Minister Edward Heath’s decision to pass full control to the EU 45 years ago, with the consequent devastation of UK fishing communities. This was achieved by the EEC (later morphed into the EU as a political union) by ensuring that fishing was sequenced for discussion at the end of those negotiations in a situation where PM Heath had disclosed his full hand and made it clear he was anxious to join.
Director of Communications Lee Cain quits after backlash following reports he was in line for a promotion. Boris Johnson’s director of communications resigned Wednesday evening following a Downing Street row over who becomes the prime minister’s next chief of staff. Lee Cain, current director of communications, had earlier been reported by the Times and the Daily Mail to have been offered a promotion to the chief of staff role. The news sparked an immediate backlash from ministers and government aides who saw it as an attempted power grab by the Vote Leave faction around Johnson….. The row could set up another problem as Downing Street prepares to launch a daily press briefing fronted by former journalist Allegra Stratton, who was drafted in to head up press for Chancellor Rishi Sunak in April. Stratton was said not to be Cain’s first choice for the role….. The BBC and the Times meanwhile reported that the PM’s fiancée, Carrie Symonds, was unhappy about the plan to appoint Cain.
It was claimed last night that Mr Johnson had accused the pair of Vote Leave campaign veterans of briefing against his fiancée. In a tense 45-minute meeting he is reported to have shown them incriminating text messages which had been forwarded to his fiancée. The explosive claims were denied by No10. It is understood that Mr Cummings and Mr Cain will be on gardening leave until mid-December. Mr Cummings may continue to work from home to tie up loose ends, but neither man is expected back at No 10……Although a serving MP, he is a friend of Ms Symonds and is reportedly spearheading a shift from the aggressive campaigning politics practiced by Mr Cumming's Vote Leave faction to a more cohesive No10 operation.
Deputy leader writer at The Sun Olivia Utley says the in-fighting at Number 10 is “a soap opera which is fun if you’re bored of coronavirus news, but not great for the country.” During a crucial week for Brexit negotiations, Olivia says "everyone's just throwing their toys out of the pram", adding that Downing Street director of communications Lee Cain does not get on with Carrie Symonds. Lee Cain, had recently resigned amid reports of internal tensions in Downing Street. He will leave next month, despite being offered a promotion to chief of staff. Expressing concern at potential chaos, Olivia told Mike Graham "the Prime Minister can't concentrate on what he's supposed to be doing. It's quite likely we will just have a very messy Brexit.
Key figures in the UK government are split over how much to move in order to secure a Brexit deal. As the Brexit game of chicken nears the end game, some of Boris Johnson's top team think it's time to strike a deal. Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove are among a group of senior government figures now urging caution over a looming no-deal scenario which many observers say could be disastrous for the U.K. economy, according to government officials. And while officials say that the resignation of two senior advisers in recent days — including the prime minister’s closest aide Dominic Cummings — had nothing to do with Brexit, it may have given Johnson more room for maneuver. Both Cummings and communications chief Lee Cain were part of the Vote Leave team that won the referendum and propelled Johnson’s rise to power. They have also been key figures in a powerful Downing Street faction that has often urged an uncompromising response to demands from Brussels for more movement in the talks from the U.K. government. EU Predict Boris Brexit U-TURN and Cummings OUT By Christmas As Brexiteers Leave Downing Street
Joe Biden isn’t even in the White House and he’s already throwing his imperial weight around. He and his transition team have their eye on a disobedient little country, a rebellious, uppity nation that must be firmly put back in its place. Only it isn’t a failing state in the Middle East or a conflict-ridden country in the Horn of Africa – the usual tragic targets of the American Empire – that Biden and Co want to reprimand. No, it’s us; it’s Britain….. He has long made plain his opposition to Brexit and his view that we the dimwitted masses of Blighty only voted for it because we are so ‘susceptible to demagogues and charlatans’. And now, as he makes moves to take over the White House, he plans to do something about it. He plans to use America’s economic and political clout to weaken Brexit and strengthen the European Union. He doesn’t mince his words, our new imperial overlord. He said a few months ago that a trade deal between the UK and the US is ‘contingent’ upon there being ‘no hard border in Ireland. Period.’ Period. Full stop. No discussion, no debate. Of course, ‘no hard border in Ireland’ is code for ‘Britain sticking to the Withdrawal Agreement’, which stipulates that Northern Ireland will remain beholden to certain EU customs and trade rules even after the transition period has ended. To put this more plainly, Biden is saying that Britain must agree to the virtual annexation of part of its territory by a foreign power – the EU – or else it will be punished by America and deprived of a good trade deal.
Unprecedented Weather
The evidence of the influence of climate crisis is not so much in the record-breaking 30 tropical storms in the Atlantic so far this year, but the strength, rapid intensification and total rainfall of these weather systems…..Central America has been one of the regions most affected by climate crisis to date, first with Hurricane Mitch, and in recent years with more extreme weather patterns, particularly in what’s known as the dry corridor, which extends from northern Costa Rica all the way to southern Mexico.
A powerful earthquake has struck off Turkey's Aegean coast and north of the Greek island of Samos, destroying homes and killing at least 22 people. The 7.0 magnitude tremor was centred off Turkey's Izmir province, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said. Turkey put the magnitude lower, at 6.6, saying 20 people had died and 786 were injured in the province of Izmir. On Samos, two teenagers were killed. The shallow tremor triggered a mini-tsunami that flooded Izmir and Samos. The authorities in Izmir, the provincial capital, are now setting up a tent area to house about 2,000 people overnight, amid fears that more buildings could collapse.
We’ve never seen this many named storms in a single year before. Subtropical Storm Theta just set another record for 2020. But Theta will go down in the history books anyway, because its formation means that 2020 has broken the record for most named storms of any year in recorded history.
Iota expected to strike Central America as a major hurricane Tropical Storm “Iota” formed in the Central Caribbean at 21:00 UTC on November 13, 2020, as the 30th named storm of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season. Iota is expected to strengthen into a major hurricane before it makes landfall in Central America. The same region that saw major floods and landslides caused by Hurricane “Eta” — in which nearly 300 people lost their lives — will experience another round of heavy rain and strong winds. Landfall is expected early Tuesday, November 17. The time to prepare is now.
Typhoon Vamco: Thousands evacuate as storm heads for Vietnam A powerful storm that killed dozens of people in the Philippines is now heading towards Vietnam, forcing tens of thousands to leave their homes. Typhoon Vamco is expected to make landfall in eastern Vietnam on Sunday. Airports and beaches have been closed and fishermen told to return to land as the country braces for winds of up to 100km/h (60m/h).
Drought Plaguing Much of US A report by the U.S. Drought Monitor on Thursday revealed what anyone living in California or the Southwest already know: We need rain. Badly. “Abnormal dryness and drought are currently affecting over 120 million people across the United States including Puerto Rico — about 38.9% of the population,” the National Centers for Environmental Information, of which the U.S. Drought Monitor is a part, said in its latest report. The drought is particularly intense in the Four Corners region where Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah intersect.
Tropical Storm “Eta” brings deadly floods to Florida and North Carolina, U.S. Tropical Storm “Eta” made its second landfall in Florida and overall fourth landfall at 09:20 UTC (04:20 LT) on Thursday morning, November 12, 2020, with winds of 85 km/h (50 mph), causing torn off trees and roofs, widespread flooding, at least one casualty, and power outage that affected 11 000 customers. Hours after pounding the state, it spread heavy rains and gusty winds around the Carolinas, resulting in record-breaking floods in Charlotte, multiple rescues, at least one collapsed bridge, and at least 6 fatalities. The overall death toll is now approaching 300. At least seven people die in North Carolina flash floods
GeoNet raises Alert Level and Aviation Color Code for White Island volcano, New Zealand Small amounts of volcanic ash are being carried in the stream and gas plume at White Island/Whakaari volcano in New Zealand and deposited on the island’s webcams, GeoNet reported November 13, 2020. As a result, the Volcanic Alert Level has been raised to Level 2 and the Aviation Color Code to Yellow.
Typhoon Vamco: Thousands evacuate as storm heads for Vietnam A powerful storm that killed dozens of people in the Philippines is now heading towards Vietnam, forcing tens of thousands to leave their homes. Typhoon Vamco is expected to make landfall in eastern Vietnam on Sunday. Airports and beaches have been closed and fishermen told to return to land as the country braces for winds of up to 100km/h (60m/h).
Huge 6.5 magnitude earthquake rocks Nevada as area hit by biggest quake in 66 years A huge 6.5 magnitude earthquake hit a remote area of Nevada on Friday 13th November, the largest quake the area has felt in 66 years. The quake, which was 4.7. miles deep, was initially reported as 5.5 on the richter scale, but the US Geological Survey has since revised the rumble to 6.5. A spokesman for USGS told CNN the earthquake was “widely felt” and shocked locals…
Typhoon “Vamco” strikes the Philippines, leaving a massive trail of destruction Typhoon “Vamco” — known locally as the Ulysses — struck the Philippines on November 11, 2020, with maximum sustained winds of 155 km/h (96 mph) and gusts to 205 km/h (127 mph). This is the 21st named storm to hit the country this year and the 4th in the past month– after Molave, Etau, and Goni (super typhoon). It is also the 22nd named storm of the 2020 Pacific typhoon season and the 10th typhoon.
Geopolitics and Cultural News
Six-month-old Joseph, from Guinea, was among more than 100 migrants in capsized dinghy
A six-month-old boy who survived a shipwreck has died onboard a rescue boat in the central Mediterranean. The child, named Joseph and originally from Guinea, was saved by rescuers from the Spanish non-governmental organisation Open Arms late on Wednesday morning after the dinghy in which he was travelling with more than 100 migrants capsized off Libya’s coast. At least five other asylum seekers died as a result of the incident. ‘‘Despite the enormous commitment of our medical team, a six-month-old baby has just died. We requested an urgent evacuation for him and other people in serious conditions, but he didn’t make it. How much pain and sorrow!” Open Arms wrote on Twitter…..On Tuesday, another child, whose age is unknown, was among 13 people who died in a separate shipwreck off Libya’s coast. Eleven survivors were taken back to Libya.
‘‘Change is necessary now, more than ever, to guarantee effective rescue at sea and prevent new tragedies,’’ said Flavio Di Giacomo, a spokesperson for the UN Migration Agency, IOM.
In 2020 alone, “over 10,300 migrants have been intercepted at sea and sent back to dangerous Libya,” Di Giacomo said.
President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that a future military alliance with China can’t be ruled out but is not needed right now, the Associated Press reported. Speaking at the Valdai Discussion Club, Putin said that Russia has stepped up military cooperation with China through joint military exercises and the sharing of sensitive Russian military technologies…. China and Germany are headed for political and economic superpower status while the role of the United States, as well as Britain and France, has waned, Putin said. Putin’s comments on sharing sensitive technology with China come amid a wave of criminal prosecutions against Russian scientists accused of passing state secrets to China in recent years. How Cozy Is Russia and China’s Military Relationship?
Russia landed attack helicopters and troops at a sprawling air base in northern Syria vacated by U.S. forces, the Russian Defence Ministry's Zvezda TV channel said on Friday. Armed Russian military police were shown in footage aired on Zvezda flying into the Syrian air base in northern Aleppo province near the border with Turkey and fanning out to secure the area….. The move comes after U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly ordered the withdrawal of U.S. troops from parts of Syria last month….. Russia and Turkey are carrying out joint patrols along Syria's border with Turkey as part of a deal struck between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan.
“What Syria withdrawal? There was never a Syria withdrawal,” Jeffrey said. “When the situation in northeast Syria had been fairly stable after we defeated ISIS, [Trump] was inclined to pull out. In each case, we then decided to come up with five better arguments for why we needed to stay, and we succeeded both times. That’s the story.” While Trump eventually approved stationing between 200 and 400 U.S. troops in Syria to assist the U.S.’s Kurdish allies, officials estimate there are at least 900 troops there today. Jeffrey, who previously served as deputy national security adviser under George W. Bush, signed a 2016 “NeverTrump” letter, along with dozens of other national security and foreign policy officials who worked under Bush, pledging he would never vote for the then-Republican presidential nominee.
George Soros Looms Large Over Biden Transition Biden's "Agency Review Teams," which include lists of individuals "responsible for understanding the operations" of each government agency, will prepare "President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris … to hit the ground running on Day One." Soros is well represented on those lists.
Sarah Cross, an advocacy director at Soros's Open Society Foundations, received a seat on Biden's State Department transition team. Michael Pan, a special adviser in the executive office of the Open Society Foundations, will join the United States Mission to the United Nations team. Diane Thompson, who is listed as "self-employed" and a member of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau team, is a current Leadership in Government Fellow at the Open Society Foundations.
Soros poured more than $70 million into election activity backing Biden's candidacy this past cycle, more than three times his previous high of $22 million in the 2016 election cycle. Soros and the Democracy Alliance donor club previously enjoyed close access to the Obama administration; under a Biden administration, that access will likely return. Other members of Biden's transition team work for groups that receive heavy funding from the billionaire. Sharon Burke and Viv Graubard, both at the New America think tank, will join Biden's Department of Defense and Department of Labor teams. Soros's Open Society Foundations gave New America more than $1 million last year, according to the group's disclosures. Soros's son, Jonathan, sits on New America's board emeriti…. Finally, three people from the Center for Strategic and International Studies and two from the Roosevelt Institute received seats on Biden's team. Both groups recently received hundreds of thousands from Soros's nonprofits. The Democracy Alliance, a network of millionaire and billionaire donors of which Soros is a cofounder, mapped out a $275 million spending blitz against President Donald Trump for the 2020 elections, according to confidential documents previously obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. Vox described the Democracy Alliance as the "closest thing that exists to a ‘left-wing conspiracy'" in the United States.
Earlier this week Joe Biden released a list of transition teams for the various departments in his future White House. The Pentagon transition team for Biden consists of 23 people, many of whom hail from hawkish think tanks. The team is led by Kathleen Hicks, who worked in the Pentagon under the Obama administration. Hicks most recent employer is the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a think tank that receives contributions from arms makers like Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Raytheon, to name a few.
Former National Security Advisor Gen. H.R. McMaster for the Trump administration said in an interview with Fox News Thursday that President-elect Joe Biden should not rejoin the 2015 Iran nuclear deal upon taking office in on January 20. McMaster said to Fox host Bret Baier that then-Secretary of State John Kerry was wrong and did not consider the "hostile ideology" of the Iranian regime, in addition to its involvement in regional proxy wars and aggression against the United States. "These big payoffs to Iran when the deal was signed, as well as the relief of sanctions ... what did they do with that money?" McMaster asked. "They applied that money to intensify sectarian violence across the region in an effort to put a proxy army on the border of Israel," he noted, reflecting the position to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "It would be a really big mistake to turn the clock back to 2016 and resurrect the nuclear deal," McMaster added.
"The Iran nuclear deal was a political disaster masquerading as a diplomatic triumph." Biden plans to reshape Mideast alliances - President-elect has a very different agenda for region, experts say.
Iran’s regime thinks the next US administration will “surrender” to them and return to the Iran deal, according to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. In a speech on Thursday about the Islamic Republic’s successes in improving its water infrastructure, he slammed the US. “The gentleman in the White House ruthlessly increased sanctions,” Rouhani said, referring to US President Donald Trump. This was an “economic war” that harmed Iran during the COVID-19 crisis, he said.
US President-elect Joe Biden’s presidency will erase many of the gains the Israeli Right made over the last four years with regard to Israeli sovereignty over Area C of the West Bank – and reintroduces the concept of a two-state solution to the Israeli Palestinian conflict at the pre-1967 lines.
It is no accident that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took time during his speech in the Knesset Tuesday about the normalization deal with Bahrain, to speak against the pre-1967 lines.
Biden has long considered West Bank settlements to be a stumbling block to peace. In that way, he is consistent with both his Republican and Democratic predecessors – save for US President Donald Trump.
Joe Biden, former vice president and the Democratic candidate for the presidential election, addressed the 15th-anniversary event of the Muslim Advocates, the association of Muslim lawyers, last Wednesday. In his address, he promised to introduce Muslims into every level of his administration…. "As president I'll work with you to rip the poison of hate from our society, to honor your contributions and seek your ideas. My administration will look like America, with Muslim Americans serving at every level," said Biden….. Biden has been courting Muslim voters during his entire campaign. In July, he gave a virtual speech to Emgage Action, a Muslim advocacy group.
During the address, he quoted a section of the Koran which, though it sounded benign, had significance recognized by Muslims alluding to jihad, a holy war against non-Muslims.
The day before the US presidential election, the progressive Israel Democracy Institute published the results of a poll of Israeli Jews asked whether they believed President Donald Trump or former Vice President Joe Biden would be better for Israel. Some 70% named Trump, 13% chose Biden and 17% said they didn't know…. Biden has committed himself to restore the Palestinians to center stage and to reinstate US funding to the Palestinian Authority. Following the passage of the Taylor Force Act which bars the US from funding the Palestinian Authority so long as it pays salaries to terrorists, Trump ended US financial support for the PA because it refused to stop funneling hundreds of millions of dollars to terrorists. Likewise, PA funding of terrorists caused Trump to close the PLO's representative office in Washington, DC which Biden has committed to reopening. Biden also committed himself to reinstating US humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. Such a move will be a boon for the Hamas terrorist regime which now relies on cash payments from Qatar. The Obama administration's endpoint insofar as the Palestinians were concerned was the lame-duck passage of UN Security Council Resolution 2234 in December 2016. While Obama and his advisers insisted that they had nothing to do with the resolution but simply didn't feel right vetoing it, as we have learned over the past four years, 2234 was initiated by Obama and his UN ambassador Samantha Power. They pushed it obsessively attaching the highest priority to harming Israel as much as possible before they left office.
Addressing country's Shura Council, Saudi Arabia's King Salman calls on world powers to take a "decisive stance" against Iran's efforts to build up its nuclear and ballistic missiles program. Salman further lashes Islamic Republic for meddling in other countries' affairs, fostering terrorism, and "fanning the flames of sectarianism."…. Saudi Arabia, a regional powerhouse and a major US ally in the Middle East, is locked in a confrontation with Iran, facing off with the Islamic Republic in a number of proxy conflicts….. While US-Saudi ties have largely flourished under US President Donald Trump, the presumptive President-elect Joe Biden said he would "re-evaluate" his country's relations with the oil-rich kingdom.
The nuclear deal signed in 2015 with the United States, Germany, France, Britain, China and Russia, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, allows Iran only to keep a stockpile of 202.8 kilograms (447 pounds). The IAEA reported that Iran has also been continuing to enrich uranium to a purity of up to 4.5%, higher than the 3.67% allowed under the deal. Iran has openly announced all violations of the nuclear deal in advance, which have followed the decision by the US to pull out unilaterally in 2018.
The jihad against Europe by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is probably based on both ideology and opportunism. Fierce anti-Western rhetoric is an ideological sine qua non for Turkish political Islam; it is also a secure vote-catcher targeting conservative and nationalist masses.
Erdoğan's jihadism is not seasonal or a newfound system of political ideas. It is also not a reflection of peaceful sufism. Erdoğan comes from the ranks of Turkey's militant political Islamism that emerged in late 1960s under the leadership of the ideologue, Necmettin Erbakan, Turkey's first Islamist prime minister and Erdoğan's mentor. In Erbakan's rhetoric universal politics is simply about a struggle between the righteous (Islam) and a coalition of Zionists and racist imperialists -- all else is just details. In his thinking, the Zionists support Turkey's membership in the European Union in order to "get Turkish Muslims to melt in a pot of Christianity.
On August 26, 2020, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan gave a speech at Manzikert National Park in Turkey at an event celebrating the 949th anniversary of the Battle of Manzikert. He said that for Turkey, conquest is not occupation or looting. Rather, he said that it removes oppression and brings Allah's justice to the conquered region. He said that Turkey will claim its right in the Mediterranean, Aegean, and Black seas, that it will do whatever is necessary politically or militarily, that it will never cede any of its territory, and that its patience, capabilities, or courage are not to be tested. He added: "If there is anyone who wants to stand against us and pay the price, let them come."
Arabs states draw closer to Israel to counter non-Arab powers Turkey, Iran The decision by three Arab states to make peace with Israel can be credited both to efforts by the Trump administration and the recognition by these Sunni states that their security would improve against the ongoing threats they face from Turkey and Iran. Iran and its proxies interfere with Arab states while promoting their Shi’ite revolutionary ideology; likewise, Turkey pushes its Sunni revolutionary ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood throughout the region.
Turkey looks to form it’s own Intergovernmental Military Alliance competing with NATO the article described a new militaristic vision of pan-Turkish nationalism which due to geographic realities could never materialize as a contiguous national entity. Gursoy had an answer ready in which he suggested that the pan-Turan army be patterned after the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). This comparison is ironic as Turkey is, in fact, a member state of NATO. A pan-Turan army may be closer than most people think as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is working hard to bring this about.
Austrian investigators have identified 21 suspected accomplices of an Islamist gunman who went on a deadly rampage in Vienna last week, officials said Friday. On November 2, the assailant, named as dual Austrian-Macedonian national Kujtim Fejzulai, shot dead four people and injured more than 20 others in the city center before he was killed by police. Michael Lohnegger, the police official leading the investigation, told a press conference that the 20-year-old was the sole perpetrator of the shooting spree. But he added that it was not yet possible to say "to what extent accomplices provided support before the act."
EU interior ministers met Friday to decide how to tackle attacks following a series of killings in Austria and France in recent weeks by lone-wolf attackers with links to Islamist groups.
Ministers from the 27 EU governments held talks by video call on the fifth anniversary of the Paris attacks, when gunmen went on the rampage in the French capital killing 130 people….. Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has said that "political Islam, radicalization" in Europe has become "the poison, the breeding ground for terrorism." French President Emmanuel Macron's government is planning a law to fight "separatism" aimed at rooting out those espousing radical Islam in France.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has warned that the fight against terrorism is "not about an altercation between Islam and, for example, Christianity."
France has so far resisted a broad rollout of surveillance technology in public spaces. That could be about to change. After a series of bloody attacks, right-wing politicians and a minister in President Emmanuel Macron's government have called for increased use of surveillance technology, breaking with privacy advocates in the name of tracking would-be assailants and preventing further violence.
Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, the transport minister, said in the wake of a schoolteacher's beheading on October 16 that he was "largely in favor" of using artificial intelligence to fight terrorism on public transport networks if individuals' privacy rights were respected. "The idea is to use artificial intelligence to track suspicious behavior, and it's already being done in several countries," Djebbari told a national radio station on Sunday. The comment seemed to go against recommendations from France's privacy regulator, the CNIL, which has blocked attempts to deploy facial recognition cameras in public spaces as being "neither necessary, nor proportionate" to their aims of boosting security.
"Political Islamic organizations are the reason for perpetuating terrorism and hatred. These organizations are banned in most of the Islamic countries, while Europe, especially Britain, embraces them and allows them to operate freely. Europeans can only blame themselves." — Mohammed al-Sheikh, Saudi writer, Twitter, October 29, 2020. "There is no doubt that France's previous policies, lenient with [Muslim] extremists, contributed to the current wave of terrorism, as well as legislation that guarantees the right to asylum and immigration to every expatriate on its soil." — Hailah al-Mashouh, Saudi columnist and political analyst, Elaph, November 5, 2020. The group [Muslim World League] warned that Islamists have succeeded in implementing their political projects in non-Muslim countries under the umbrella of training mosque preachers and funding Islamic charities. We are now seeing a large number of Arabs and Muslims warning about the clear and present danger Islamism poses to many different societies. These individuals are demonstrating courage and conviction in taking this public stance. Their advice, that Western states must eradicate Islamist organizations in Europe, is vitally important.
Around the world, hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children with mental health conditions have been shackled—chained or locked in confined spaces—at least once in their lives.
Many are held in overcrowded, filthy rooms, sheds, cages, or animal shelters and are forced to eat, sleep, urinate, and defecate in the same tiny area. This inhumane practice—called “shackling”—exists due to inadequate support and mental health services as well as widespread beliefs that stigmatize people with psychosocial disabilities…… Human Rights Watch found evidence of shackling across 60 countries across Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas. This report includes field research and testimonies collected by 16 Human Rights Watch researchers working in their own countries, including Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Ghana, Indonesia, Kenya, Liberia, Mexico, Mozambique, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Palestine, Russia, the self-declared independent state of Somaliland, South Sudan, and Yemen.
White House national security adviser Robert O'Brien on Wednesday criticized China over the ouster of opposition leaders in Hong Kong and raised the specter of additional sanctions.
China earlier Wednesday passed a resolution saying any lawmaker supporting Hong Kong's independence or threatening national security should be disqualified, leading to the dismissal of four Hong Kong legislators. "Beijing's recent actions disqualifying pro-democracy legislators from Hong Kong's Legislative Council leave no doubt that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has flagrantly violated its international commitments under the Sino-British Joint Declaration and its promises to the people of Hong Kong, including those under the Basic Law," O'Brien said in a statement. O'Brien called the mantra of "one country, two systems" a "fig leaf covering for the CCP's expanding one-party dictatorship in Hong Kong," and he pledged the U.S. would use sanctions and other tools to respond.
Asian trade mega-pact set to be signed this weekend Asian leaders are due to sign a mammoth trade deal this weekend that has been nearly a decade in the making. It includes the ten members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), plus China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. The members make up nearly a third of the world’s population and account for 29% of global gross domestic product.
The US government has issued a directive to prohibit US investments into Chinese firms that are deemed to be owned or controlled by China’s military, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
An executive order by the White House on 12 November said the move is intended to address China’s ‘civil-military fusion’ strategy to leverage commercial technologies and investments for military gains. The executive order – applicable from January 2021 – bans purchases by US investors of publicly traded securities issued by Chinese companies linked to the PLA or China’s military-industrial complex. It also prohibits US investments in derivatives “designed to provide investment exposure to such securities” owned by such Chinese firms.
The Navy and Marine Corps' top civilian leader says China poses a greater threat to the U.S. than many Americans may realize….. "I think [China] is probably the greatest threat to our country that Americans, writ large, do not understand," Braithwaite said on Wednesday during an event hosted by the Navy Memorial. "... I literally believe with all my heart and soul -- and I can't stress this any more -- what we are seeing emerging is a threat beyond any comparison ever in the history of our country."….. "Adversaries in the past didn't have the economic wherewithal, the financial capability, to build what China's building today," he said. China made it a goal to become the world's leading nation by 2049. The country has invested heavily in its military, building new ships and islands in the South China Sea….
Joe Biden’s Greatest Legacy On China Is Selling It American Industry - As Barack Obama’s ‘point man’ on China, Joe Biden’s most lasting legacy might be how he presided over the selling out of American industry to a deliberate and patient China. WaPo Pretends A China That Tortures Dissidents And Never Has Free Elections Can Legitimately Criticize The U.S. Election- The Post gives the distinct impression that the Chinese Communist Party’s claims, some of which reinforce the progressive predilections of the Post and its readers, are legitimate.
Beijing’s imposition of new rules disqualifying opposition legislators in Hong Kong constitutes a breach of legally binding international commitments, the UK foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, has said. Raab said the move represented a “clear breach” of the Sino-British joint declaration, which was supposed to guarantee Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy under Chinese rule. In a statement, Raab said the UK would work with allies to hold the Chinese government to its obligations under international law. “China has once again broken its promises and undermined Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy,” said Raab. “The UK will stand up for the people of Hong Kong, and call out violations of their rights and freedoms. With our international partners, we will hold China to the obligations it freely assumed under international law.”
China calls Taiwan the most sensitive and important issue in its ties with the United States, and has been angered by the Trump administration’s stepped up support for the Chinese-claimed yet democratically ruled island, such as arms sales. Speaking in a U.S. radio interview on Thursday, Pompeo said: “Taiwan has not been a part of China”. “That was recognised with the work that the Reagan administration did to lay out the policies that the United States has adhered to now for three-and-a-half decades,” he said. The United States is bound by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself, and officially only acknowledges the Chinese position that Taiwan is part of it, rather than explicitly recognising China’s claims.
The World Health Organisation has removed social media filters which were censoring the words “Taiwan” and “China” from its Facebook page after an online backlash, but said the blocks were because of an “onslaught” of cyber attacks. The about-face comes amid intense criticism over China’s continued blocking of Taiwan – which has gone more than 215 days without a local case of Covid-19 – from participation in meetings of the WHO’s decision-making body, the World Health Assembly..... Taiwan’s foreign ministry said the block ran contrary to the neutrality the WHO should be upholding, and expressed its “strong regret and dissatisfaction”, but a spokesman for the WHO said the moves were a “practical measure” which didn’t reflect a value judgement or policy……. The WHO’s history with Taiwan has been controversial, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic. China, which considers Taiwan a rogue province and its government to be separatists, has blocked its admission to the WHA despite an increase in international support for their inclusion. Intense lobbying for Taiwan’s inclusion preceded a WHA meeting last week but it remained excluded. The WHO maintains any inclusion is a matter for WHA member states to vote on.
The cease-fire talks lasted 11 hours, dragging past 2 a.m. in Moscow — what Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called "an all-nighter." But what started as a triumph for the Kremlin last week — getting Armenia and Azerbaijan to discuss ending renewed fighting in the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave — turned into a muddle as clashes flared within hours of the deal….. It also revealed the limits of Russia’s ability to shape events in what the Kremlin considers its backyard: the former Soviet republics and regions from Central Asia, through the Caucasus and into Eastern Europe. Each point of the map these days offers another test for Moscow. To the south, the three-decade-old conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan has reignited. To the west, protests calling for Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko’s ouster are well into their second month. And to the east, Kyrgyzstan is facing its third political crisis in 15 years after recent parliamentary election results were annulled.
"The signed trilateral statement will become a (crucial) point in the settlement of the conflict," Aliyev said in a televised online meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin said Russian peacekeepers would be deployed along the frontline in Nagorno-Karabakh and the corridor between the region and Armenia. Arayik Harutyunyan, the leader of the Nagorno-Karabakh region, said on Facebook that he gave agreement "to end the war as soon as possible." The declaration has followed six weeks of heavy fighting and advancement by the Azerbaijan's forces. Baku said on Monday it had seized dozens more settlements in Nagorno-Karabakh, a day after proclaiming victory in the battle for the enclave's strategically positioned second-largest city.
Grief and frustration spilled into the streets of the capital Yerevan following the shock announcement in the early hours of Tuesday, that a peace deal had been signed to end conflict in the breakaway enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, including territorial concessions that favour Azerbaijan and at least five years of a Russian peacekeeping presence….. People from all walks of life turned out, from ethnic Armenians who had fled to Yerevan from Nagorno-Karabakh amid the violence, to a famous singer, Sofi Mkheyan; the crowds were united by anger and the feeling of betrayal.
Large numbers of riot police prevented a repeat of Tuesday’s demonstrations and many arrests were made.
Turkey and Russia played a big role in the conflict. Russia traditionally backs Armenia, but in this conflict took a standoffish approach to the dismay of Yerevan. Turkey has always been close to Azerbaijan and has been in a protracted geopolitical competition with Russia over places like Syria, Libya, and to a certain extent Ukraine in recent years…… For historical reasons Iran sees itself as entitled to a special status in the South Caucasus. Both Armenia and Azerbaijan were once part of the Persian empire. Today, Armenia and Iran enjoy cozy relations. Azerbaijan is one of the predominately Shiite areas in the Muslim world that Iran has not been able to place under its influence. While relations between Baku and Tehran remain cordial on the surface, there is an underlying tension between the two. During the war in Nagorno-Karabakh in the 1990s, Iran sided with Armenia as a way to marginalize Azerbaijan’s role in the region. There are three reasons why Iran is a big loser in this conflict.
Bolivia erupted in violence in October 2019, when long-time President Morales was seeking a fourth term — despite the fact that he was not technically eligible to do so. The country's high court gave him the green light to run, even as he had lost a referendum asking Bolivians if the constitution could be amended to add a fourth term. As results announced on election night were reversed two days later, handing a narrow victory to Morales, chaos erupted nationwide. The results' delay triggered violence that cost at least 30 lives, sparked food shortages, and led police and military leaders to force the former president into exile. New Bolivia president puts re-establishing ties with Iran top of his agenda - The newly elected president of Bolivia said on Sunday that re-establishing ties with Iran was at the top of his agenda. Socialist President Luis Arce added he also wanted to re-connect with Venezuela, which already boasts economic ties with Iran.
On Thursday, November 5, Tanzania swore in incumbent President John Magufuli for a second term. The inauguration occurred amid a background of continuing challenges from the opposition party, which alleges voting irregularities during the October 28 vote—a claim supported by several other nations, including the United States. Preelection claims of both media suppression and social media blackouts were also widespread, though the election itself was conducted peacefully…. On Tuesday, November 3, Côte d’Ivoire’s electoral commission announced that incumbent President Alasanne Ouattara was reelected to a third term with 94.3 percent of the vote. The result was expected, as opposition candidates Pascal Affi N’Guessan and Henri Konan Bedie had called for their supporters to boycott last weekend’s vote. Disputes over Ouattara’s eligibility after the unexpected death of the original intended candidate led to violence and deaths earlier this year..... Members of the East African Community (EAC), which in addition to Kenya includes Burundi, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda, have argued that the bilateral U.K.-Kenya trade deal could undermine established trade relationships in East Africa because the EAC operates under a common external tariff, but this common external tariff would not apply to this new deal. In a meeting of the EAC’s trade council in September, Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda argued that the EAC should negotiate with the U.K. as a bloc rather than bilaterally.
Regional and domestic pressures are mounting on Eritrea’s government while Somalia is trying to break out of a three-decade cycle of instability. Egypt, the historic powerbroker in the Red Sea, no longer enjoys that convening authority to set the terms for African and Gulf cooperation. The eastern bank of the Red Sea also faces instability and complex transitions. It is a region at a critical point of change. Among the key issues are: the war in Yemen, Gulf rivalries, economic downturns triggered mainly by crashing oil prices, and shifting positions on the recognition of Israel….. Littoral states, regional actors, and international powers all have interests to protect and ensure free passage through one of the world’s most critical trade routes. Yet it is also one of the world’s most volatile regions. The articles reflect perspectives from leading analysts and policy makers from both banks of the Red Sea. Many states in the wider Horn of Africa are in transition, facing heavy political challenges if not open rebellions…..There are current and future interests at stake by African and Gulf states, but also global players such as the United States, China, Japan, India, Turkey, France, South Africa, and the European Union. All should be invested in establishing viable mechanisms for cooperation and crisis management in the Red Sea.
The foreign ministers of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan met Wednesday in Washington with President Donald Trump and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to discuss the Grand Ethiopia Renaissance Dam (GERD) on Ethiopia's Blue Nile. The massive hydropower dam project has been the focus of an escalating feud between Addis Ababa and Cairo over water resources….. "Any armed or proxy conflict between these nations over the GERD would have a profoundly destabilizing effect on a region that is already facing ethnic unrest, political transition, and a rising threat from jihadi extremist groups," Bruton said.
Amnesty International on Thursday confirmed reports of a "massacre" of civilians in northern Ethiopia's Tigray region. "Scores, and likely hundreds, of people were stabbed or hacked to death in Mai-Kadra town in the South West Zone of Ethiopia's Tigray Region on the night of November 9," the rights group said in a report. Sam Dubberley, who is with Amnesty International's Crisis Response Team, told DW: "We spent a good amount of time going through these videos, going through these photographs, making sure that they were they were taken recently, making sure that they weren't from previous events from the region to really verify and to make sure we know what had happened." Citing witnesses interviewed and "verified" photo, video and satellite imagery, the human rights group said bodies had been "strewn" across the town. Fighting between the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) party and the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has been ongoing for a week now.
Morocco announced Friday that its troops had launched an operation in no man's land on the southern border of the Western Sahara to end "provocations" by the pro-independence Polisario Front. Rabat said its troops would "put a stop to the blockade" of trucks travelling between Moroccan-controlled areas of the disputed territory and neighbouring Mauritania, and "restore free circulation of civilian and commercial traffic." In response, the Polisario Front said the three-decade-old ceasefire in the disrupted Western Sahara was over…."Sahrawi troops are engaged in legitimate self-defence and are responding to the Moroccan troops," said Ould Salek, who serves as foreign minister of the Polisario-declared Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic
The case against Magashule relates to a 255 million-rand asbestos audit contract that was awarded in the Free State, according to the police’s special investigating unit. Magashule, who was the province’s premier at the time, is being charged with seven other people, and at least three more are expected to be added to the charge sheet, the NPA said. Magashule allegedly received various payments from murdered businessman Ignatius Mpambani, the owner of one of two companies awarded the asbestos contract, the NPA said. He also allegedly failed to report corrupt transactions, it said.
Angolan police used live bullets, teargas, and dogs to disperse a peaceful anti-government protest, killing one protester, in the capital, Luanda, on November 11, 2020, Human Rights Watch said today. Police severely beat the well-known activists Nito Alves and Laurinda Goveia, who are both in critical condition, and arbitrarily arrested a third activist, Luaty Beirao. Footage posted on social media shows people running through Luanda’s streets, seeking places to hide as police indiscriminately fired live bullets and teargas at them. Officers also beat protesters with batons, threw them inside police vans, and drove them away to unknown locations, witnesses told Human Rights Watch. “The police shooting at peaceful protesters is outrageous as well as criminal,” said Zenaida Machado, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The government should thoroughly investigate the police use of unnecessary lethal force and hold those responsible to account.”
Nigerian authorities appear to have used coercive financial measures to suppress protests against police brutality and independent media reporting, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities should urgently lift arbitrary restrictions, including unblocking bank accounts of protest supporters, dismissing or reimbursing arbitrary fines, and investigating and appropriately disciplining officials responsible for any abuse of authority. Days after nationwide protests over an abusive police unit began on October 8, 2020, people interviewed told Human Rights Watch, the Central Bank of Nigeria instructed private banks to freeze several organizations’ and individuals’ accounts to stop the flow of funds supporting the protests. The National Broadcasting Commission, the state-run television and radio regulator, has fined three independent television stations that reported on the violent security force response to protests, using footage posted on social media that the commission claims were unverified and contributed to the violence.
Congolese authorities have not arrested a rebel commander wanted for multiple crimes under a June 2019 warrant even as his forces have continued to carry out summary killings, rapes and sexual slavery, extortion, and forced recruitment of children. Congolese judicial authorities on June 7, 2019 issued the warrant for the militia leader, Guidon Shimiray Mwissa (known as Guidon), for participating in an insurrection, recruiting child soldiers, and committing the crime against humanity of rape in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The authorities also have not provided survivors of sexual violence adequate assistance. Congolese authorities should enforce the arrest warrant and bring to justice Congolese army officers found to have assisted him.
The way Peru’s Congress removed President Martín Vizcarra from office on November 9, 2020, and the immediate consequences for the independence of the constitutional court, pose a serious threat to the rule of law in the country, Human Rights Watch said today. The Organization of American States (OAS) should urgently convene a meeting of its Permanent Council and closely monitor the situation. The Peruvian Congress ousted President Vizcarra under questionable legal authority, claiming that he lacked “moral capacity” because of corruption allegations against him that prosecutors are investigating. Dozens of lawmakers in Congress, themselves under investigation for various offenses, had attempted but failed to oust him on other grounds in September. Vizcarra had pushed forward various anti-corruption initiatives that affected members of Congress. Manuel Merino, the head of Congress, was sworn in as president on November 10 amid massive protests and reports that the police used excessive force in response. Two killed as huge pro-democracy protests continue in Peru - Two protesters have been killed in massive pro-democracy demonstrations in Peru….. Protests have mounted demanding the resignation of Manuel Merino, the former speaker of congress who was sworn in as president on Tuesday, with tens of thousands of people filling the streets of Lima and dozens of towns and cities.
The election is not over. President Trump may wish to put down the golf clubs and get back to rallying his supporters. As predicted and explained in "How to Steal an Election" – Parts I, II and III – the Left has manufactured an Election "season" (as opposed to "Day" as required by 2 U.S.C. §7), and the "journalists" of the news media have begun the relentless drumbeat of proclaiming "President-elect Biden." That is make-believe. The media does not determine the outcome of the election. Governors of states will send electors to Washington DC in early December. That is the Electoral College, and their vote will decide the presidential election. So, the string of reports and stories and projections and suppositions about the new Biden administration is all part of an information operation to psychologically condition the public to accept Biden/Harris as a fait accompli. It does not help that President Trump has gone golfing at one of his clubs in Sterling, Virginia for the past two days. That is not a confidence-builder for the campaign staffers and party operatives out in the states he needs to legally challenge and flip. Rudy Giuliani is in Philadelphia, screaming. The president is golfing. You cannot make someone want the presidency. Giuliani Revealed Evidence in Election Fraud Cases in Michigan and Pennsylvania
Dominion Voting Systems: Firm at center of election fraud claims has ties to globalist World Economic Forum and Soros enterprise Most Americans have no idea that, in the vast majority of states where electronic voting machines are used, final ballot tabulations are not handled by their state and local governments, and haven’t been for years. Whether your vote for Donald Trump actually made it through that transmission process without being changed to a vote for Joe Biden is now an open question.
After three reported instances where votes were moved from Republicans to Democrats and another instance where votes disappeared, there is now much concern with the Dominion voting machines and applications used in multiple states in the 2020 election. We’ve now reported three instances in the 2020 election where votes were removed from Republicans and given to Democrat candidates, including 20,000 votes in Pennsylvania which led to a 40,000 vote swing for Biden. We also noted at least one instance where the total number of votes counted were decreased by 373,000 in Virginia. All of these instances occurred in states where the Dominion voting machines are in place. Lawyer Sidney Powell With Lou Dobbs: Release The Kraken / Compilation of voter fraud videos
According to Wikipedia: "Blum's wife, Senator Dianne Feinstein, has received scrutiny due to her husband's government contracts and extensive business dealings with China and her past votes on trade issues with the country. Blum has denied any wrongdoing. URS Corp, which Blum had a substantial stake in, bought EG&G, a leading provider of technical services and management to the United States military, from The Carlyle Group in 2002; EG&G subsequently won a $600 million defense contract. Blum and his wife have also received significant scrutiny and criticism due to his 75% stake in contractor Tutor Perini which received hundreds of millions to billions of dollars in military contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan during the US occupation of those countries. Critics have argued that business contracts with the US government awarded to a company controlled by Blum raise a potential conflict-of-interest issue with the voting and policy activities of his wife. In 2009, Feinstein introduced legislation to provide $25 billion in taxpayer money to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, a government agency that had recently awarded her husband's real estate firm, CB Richard Ellis, what The Washington Times called "a lucrative contract to sell foreclosed properties at compensation rates higher than the industry norms." The United States Postal Service has entered into an exclusive contract with CB Richard Ellis to sell buildings that currently house post offices. In 2020, Blum was discovered to have written letters on behalf of unqualified applicants to various UC campus chancellors. The applicants were admitted through student athletics programs, even though, according to a state audit “they possessed little athletic talent.” The audit described Blum's actions as "particularly problematic" as University Regents should not be influencing admissions decisions." In 2007 the Metro Newspapers carried out an investigation: "Billions in Military Contracts to Husband’s Firms Were Approved by Sen. Feinstein’s Committee" Snopes and MSN had a heyday "debunking" Ms. Powell's "undocumented assertion" by claiming the only software company Mr. Feinstein has invested in is AVID, a graphic and video software. No connection, they claimed, with Dominion. Nothing to do with the election. Nothing to see here. Move along. Fact-check by APNews deny any connection except that AVID wrote in a statement on Twitter on Saturday. “Further, while Blum Capital was an investor in our company, it has no holdings today.” Dominion did not respond to requests for comment on these claims. It’s privately held and does not disclose its financials. But in an April letter responding to a request by the House Committee on Administration, Dominion CEO John Poulos said Dominion is 75.2% owned by the New York-based private equity firm Staple Street Capital and that he, a Canadian citizen, holds a 12% stake. No other investor owns more than a 5% stake, he said. Staple Street Capital did not return emails and phone calls for this story. Dominion did donate between $25,001 and $50,000 to the Clinton Foundation in 2014, according to reporting by the Washington Post, but its lobbyists have also donated to Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. https://apnews.com/article/election...dia-michigan-43bdaa186e3b8d9d897cae3bd0c6cdc0
The Lincoln Project, a group of prominent “Never Trump” Republicans who organized a media blitz against their party in the last two election cycles, is shifting its focus to the lawyers representing President Trump in his legal challenge of the 2020 election outcome. The effort will involve TV and digital ads as well as heavy publicity through social media accounts, Lincoln Project co-founding member Rick Wilson told the Washington Post. The social media effort is already underway, but Wilson said TV ads were in production too. He expects the cost to be about $500,000. In a series of tweets that began Tuesday, the group wrote, “The law firms architecting Donald Trump’s unwarranted and dangerous attacks on our democracy are @JonesDay & @PorterWright.” “Their employees should resign in protest,” the first tweet continued. “Employees of @JonesDay & @PorterWright, do you believe your law firms should be attempting to overturn the will of the American people?” read the second tweet, sent less than 10 minutes later. The post also included links to both law firms’ LinkedIn pages — where lists of employees with connected profiles were publicly available. Lincoln Project urges 2.7m followers to bombard law firms
The supposedly enlightened Left is calling Donald Trump "evil" and a "liar" and rejoicing over his apparent election loss, while praising PLO man Saeb Erekat. This only proves that neither Israel nor peace is their top priority….. Trump did not condemn us day and night over people in Jerusalem decided to turn balconies into extra rooms, did not skip us when visiting the Middle East, and did not leak our military secrets to media. He also didn't author resolutions against us in the UN Security Council and never went over our heads to sign a deal that paved Iran's way to a nuclear bomb. Exactly the opposite: Trump embraced Israel and the Jewish people like no other American president ever has. He led a fierce battle against anti-Semitism, and of course recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, brought Iran to the mat, led Israel to three peace agreements, and decreed that no person would be evacuated from his home under any future peace agreement – and these are only a few steps about which there is Jewish and Israeli consensus.
By the way, why does nobody mind anymore if a "Catholic" is elected president? Maybe it's because the most radical politicians in America--from Pelosi and Newsome on the West Coast the Cuomo and Fauci on the East--are "Catholics". Next up, Michael takes a look at the weird George Soros' 2018 prediction that Trump would "disappear" in 2020. Kind of makes you wonder what the old guy knew?
Things are not going back to business as usual. They aren't meant to. That's the point.
Instead, we're about to get:
A protracted legal battle over the integrity of the election.
Literal blacklists that will be used to financially boycott and socially ostracize ex-Trump staffers and campaign workers (and, inevitably, supporters).
The continuation of Trump's Operation Warp Speed and a new push to put the country in Lock Step with the Great Reset agenda in order to survive The Darkest Winter.
Let's start with Rosa Brooks and Nils Gilman. Brooks is a Georgetown law professor who has publicly advocated a military coup as one method of "getting rid of" Trump and Gilman is an historian at the globalist Berggruen Institute who once called for the execution of a lecturer and research fellow at Hillsdale College. Back in 2019, these completely neutral political observers took it upon themselves to organize something called the Transition Integrity Project (TIP), bringing together a "bipartisan" group of politicos to simulate four different scenarios "aimed at identifying potential risks to the integrity of the 2020 election and transition process."
CNN anchor likens four years of Trump assault on ‘fact, knowledge, history and truth’ to ‘Night of Broken Glass’ pogrom against Jews throughout Nazi Germany…. ”This week 82 years ago, Kristallnacht happened,” Amanpour said in the monologue. “It was the Nazis’ warning shot across the bow of our human civilization that led to genocide against a whole identity, and in that tower of burning books, it led to an attack on fact, knowledge, history and truth. After four years of a modern-day assault on those same values by Donald Trump, the Biden-Harris team pledges a return to norms, including the truth.”
Former Vice President Joe Biden's transition team is reportedly considering installing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as his administration's ambassador to the United Nations.
The Washington Post reported on Thursday that a person familiar with the matter said Clinton was "being discussed" as a potential pick because it would purportedly raise the prestige and standing of the U.S. after President Trump's time in office. News of Clinton's potential nomination came as Biden attempted to alter world leaders' perceptions of the U.S. in foreign relations. "I'm letting them know that America is back. We're going to be back in the game," he said.
Will a new US administration possibly under Joe Biden help revive the Muslim Brotherhood, which is considered a terrorist organization by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Syria? Why is the Muslim Brotherhood rejoicing over the "victory" of Biden? Some Arabs say they are worried when they see the Muslim Brotherhood celebrating the results of the US presidential election. These Arabs fear that the Muslim Brotherhood, backed by Qatar and Turkey, is preparing to make a comeback under a potential Biden administration. The message Arabs are sending to the new US administration is: Do not repeat the mistakes of former President Barack Obama, whose administration sided with then Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, a Muslim Brotherhood member. The Arabs also want to remind a potentially new US administration that the Islamists and their supporters are inveterate liars who care only about their own interests.
In New Memoir, Obama Accuses Netanyahu of Engaging in ‘Orchestrated’ Push Against His Administration
In his own words, former US President Barack Obama regarded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a “smart, canny, tough…gifted communicator” who engaged in an “orchestrated” push against his administration. The disclosure is contained in Obama’s presidential memoir, “A Promised Land,” which will be published on Tuesday….. In excerpts of the book released in advance, Obama wrote that Netanyahu’s “vision of himself as the chief defender of the Jewish people against calamity allowed him to justify almost anything that would keep him in power.”
On the subject of AIPAC, the US pro-Israel lobbying group, Obama claimed that its positions moved rightward in accordance with a political shift in Israel, “even when Israel took actions that were contrary to US policy.”
The European defense giant inked a deal with the German Luftwaffe, or Air Force, this week after the country’s parliament, the Bundestag, approved the budget earlier this month. The Luftwaffe stands to get 30 single-seater and eight twin-seater planes, Airbus said in a statement.
Four of those aircraft will serve as test beds for future technology, as the company positions the Eurofighter as the bridge to the next-generation Future Combat Air System, a German-French-Spanish collaboration, according to the service.
Saeb Erekat spoke honeyed words of peace to those in the West determined to ignore ineradicable Palestinian anti-Semitism and Israel-rejectionism. Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks chose to enlighten, inspire and console….What a contrast with the other high-profile death this week. On Tuesday, Saeb Erekat died of complications from COVID-19 at Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem. Erekat was the Palestinians’ veteran chief negotiator. When he became seriously ill, he chose to go to Hadassah Medical Center-Ein Kerem, where he knew that Israeli doctors would try everything they could to save his life. This was despite the Palestinian Authority blocking Palestinians from Israeli hospital care after suspending ties with the Jewish state. It blocked medical aid for the Palestinians sent by the United Arab Emirates simply because it had arrived on a direct flight to Israel. More viciously, the P.A. also spread the blood libel that Israel was intentionally infecting Palestinians with the virus in order to kill them. Erekat himself claimed that the Israelis were “spitting on Palestinian cars and property in order to transfer the corona disease” to fulfill “the wild desire to get rid of the Palestinian people in any way.” Palestinians Call for Boycotting Israel, Then Ask Israel To Save Their Lives
Police expose global child abuse ring centered in Australia A tip from U.S. authorities has exposed a major child sex abuse ring in Australia with links to the United States, Canada, Asia, Europe and New Zealand, police said on Wednesday…. A childcare worker and a children’s soccer coach were among 16 men arrested in the Australian states of New South Wates, Queensland and Western Australia in recent months on 828 charges of sexually abusing children, producing and distributing child abuse material and bestiality, Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner Justine Gough said. Investigators identified 46 victims in Australia aged 16 months to 15 years.
The child was rescued last week after being found in a car which was forced to stop by armed police on the M1 near Milton Keynes. Officers from North Wales Police responded to reports of a knifepoint abduction of a young child in Anglesey at 4pm on November 4…. Dr Anke Hill, 51, of Cae Glasin Llanfaethlu, Jane Going-Hill, 59, of Pump Street in Holyhead and her partner Robert Frith, 65, of Ty’n Parc in Holyhead have also been charged with kidnap.
Teenagers attending school near England’s first official red-light district say they have been repeatedly propositioned for sex. Pupils have told teachers they do not feel safe passing through the so-called ‘Managed Approach’ area in the Holbeck district of Leeds – where so-called ‘sex workers’ are allowed to operate without fear of arrest. Children say they regularly see curb-crawlers, drug taking, used condoms and discarded needles on their walk to school. Plans are underway to open up more such red-light districts across the country.
One of the many tragic stories revealed in the Vatican’s recently released McCarrick Report is how Theodore McCarrick, as the Archbishop of Newark (1986-2000) — who was known to have shared his bed with seminarians — convinced St. John Paul II to make him the Archbishop of Washington, DC anyway…… Rumors about McCarrick and his habit of having shared his bed with friends and seminarians had reached the Polish pontiff’s ears by the late 1990s.In 1994, the papal nuncio to Washington, Archbishop Agostino Cacciavillan was told of allegations about McCarrick’s conduct , after consulting bishops, he determined were groundless. In 1997, a psychiatrist reported allegations of McCarrick’s abuse of a young seminarian* to the Congregation for Bishops in Rome. But these, too, were considered unconvincing. Then, in 1999, Cardinal John O’Connor of New York wrote to Cacciavillan’s successor Gabriel Montalvo to reveal what he had heard. Earlier in the 1990s, O’Connor had received subliterate anonymous letters accusing McCarrick of pedophilia and incest, which he believed were scurrilous.
The McCarrick Report reveals a substantial degree of tolerance towards homosexual conduct by the clergy, which is punished only if minors are the persons abused. This report also ignores the fact that the McCarrick case is only the tip of the iceberg of a power system controlled by the gay lobby…. Moreover, this network didn’t work for McCarrick alone. In fact, there are some elements that seem to indicate that it has become even stronger. Let us recall the Chilean case in 2018, with Pope Francis who had to face the truth of evidence after having discredited the victims who accused bishops and priests of being abusers. Then there is the mysterious shelter in the Vatican offered to the Argentinean bishop Zanchetta. Let’s not forget the accusations that pursue the cardinal from Honduras, Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, who is the coordinator of the working group of cardinals that assists Pope Francis for the reform of the Curia (“It’s all slander”, said the Pope last year), and whose auxiliary bishop Juan José Pineda had to resign in July 2018 because of episodes of sexual abuse in the seminary. Nor can we forget the “rumors” from his home region of Apulia that accompany the swift ascent of the recently appointed cardinal Marcello Semeraro, who turned his current diocese of Albano into the Italian capital of LGBT Christians. Coming back to McCarrick, let’s recall that various American bishops were appointed thanks to the former cardinal’s sponsorship.
A new report about a disgraced former cardinal had the potential to implicate three separate papacies in scandal. On Tuesday the Vatican released a massive report investigating how Theodore E. McCarrick, a disgraced former cardinal and archbishop of Washington, rose to the heights of the Catholic Church, despite leaders receiving reports that he had sexually abused minors and adult seminarians over the course of decades. Pope John Paul II knew of allegations of Mr. McCarrick’s sexual misconduct. Pope Benedict XVI ousted Mr. McCarrick as archbishop of Washington but declined to investigate him. Pope Francis covered up McCarrick abuse, former US nuncio testifies (OFFICIAL TEXT) (2018) - In an explosive testimony, Archbishop Viganò reveals Francis repealed sanctions on McCarrick imposed by Pope Benedict.
From the public statements of James Grein, it is clear that the beginning of McCarrick's climb — he was then a young, newly ordained priest — coincided with that visit to Switzerland, to a monastery that was later the site of the meetings of the conspirators of the so-called "St. Gallen mafia." According to the declarations of the deceased Cdl. Godfried Danneels, that group of prelates decided to support the election of Bergoglio both after the death of John Paul II as well as during the conclave that followed the controversial resignation of Benedict XVI. I wonder what sort of reliability a judicial body can have that has such an obvious conflict of interest due to its past relationship with the accused. How can Bergoglio and the Secretariat of State that depends on him pretend to appear impartial when McCarrick went to the Vatican with an abnormal frequency; when in June 2013 he was tasked [by Bergoglio] with making a diplomatic trip to China? And how can one not think that their repeated attempts at cover-up and denial of their responsibility are the cause of the systematic effort to discredit me as a witness, in order not to bring to light the complicity and connivances that exist between them and McCarrick himself?..... It was deliberately ignored that what permitted McCarrick's irresistible rise is a system of power also known as the gay lobby, which favors the appointment and career of bishops with certain characteristics. Lawsuit alleges 'the boss' ran a sex ring - Theodore McCarrick ran a homosexual sex ring of teenage boys from his beach house in Sea Girt, New Jersey.
“Homosexuals have a right to be a part of the family. They’re children of God and have a right to a family. Nobody should be thrown out or be made miserable because of it. What we have to create is a civil union law. That way they are legally covered. I stood up for that.” That’s a quote from Pope Francis. Pope Francis — the Bishop of Rome, the Vicar of Christ, the Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church. And not only has he come out in support of civil unions for same-sex couples: he has also confirmed old rumors that he did so in his native Argentina as early as 2010. For at least a decade, Francis has quietly but actively dissented from Church teaching on human sexuality.
An Inquiry into the abuse of children by Catholic clergy and lay people in England and Wales has found the Church prioritised its reputation over the welfare of children and that Cardinal Vincent Nichols was reluctant to take responsibility….. Between 1970 and 2015, there were 931 allegations or concerns of child sexual abuse made by 1,753 individuals against clergy, members of religious institutes and lay workers (paid and voluntary). These complaints involved more than 3,000 instances of alleged abuse made against 936 alleged perpetrators. Some of the most researched cases were in the Archdiocese of Birmingham, while others were at Ealing Abbey and St Benedict's school in Ealing. UK investigation 'calls out the blatant hypocrisy of Pope Francis' - Speaking to Church Militant, Richard Scorer, specialist abuse lawyer at Slater and Gordon who represents 32 survivors in IICSA, said: "The report is utterly excoriating about the Holy See and calls out the blatant hypocrisy of Pope Francis in claiming to tackle clerical sex abuse whilst at the same time seeking to frustrate the work of the inquiry."
In July 2018, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse was told that members of the Establishment, including the Prince of Wales, Lord Carey and a senior member of the judiciary, had rallied to the Ball’s support. William Chapman, representing victims said: “The story of Peter Ball is the story of the Establishment at work in modern times. It is the story of how the Establishment minimised the nature of Peter Ball’s misdeeds … and silenced and harassed those who tried to complain”…. Richard Scorer, a specialist abuse lawyer representing 21 victims of abuse, told the inquiry that the Church’s safeguarding measures were inadequate. He said there was still no clear obligation on the Church to report allegations of abuse to the statutory authorities. He called on the inquiry to make the Church properly accountable externally. He said an independent body should be set up to investigate individual allegations of abuse, and that this body should have the power to override bishops “unwilling to comply with their responsibilities”.
A sexual assault trial for the Vatican’s former ambassador to France went ahead without him Tuesday after he produced a doctor’s note saying it was too dangerous for him to travel from Rome to Paris in the midst of France’s resurgent coronavirus epidemic. Lawyers for the accusers of retired Archbishop Luigi Ventura asked that the trial be pushed back because he wasn’t present. But the court ruled against a postponement and then heard detailed testimony from multiple men that Ventura groped their buttocks in public settings.
The Chancellor of Austria believes that Europe will roll up its sleeves and begin to fight political Islam. "I expect an end to the misunderstood tolerance and finally an awareness, in all European countries, of how dangerous the ideology of political Islam is for our freedom and for the European way of life,” Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, 33, told German newspaper Die Welt. “The European Union must fight against Islamist terrorism, but especially against its political foundation behind it, namely political Islam, with all determination and unity."