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Writer's pictureWatch and Pray

Weekly round-up of news: 17 April

President Reuven (Ruvi) Rivlin this morning (Thursday) informed Chairman of ‘Blue and White’, Speaker of the Knesset Benny Gantz, that he is entrusting the Knesset with the task of forming a government. 'Unity talks bogged down by minutiae,' official says - Talks between Likud, Blue and White continue to stall after President Reuven Rivlin gives Knesset three weeks to task an MK with forming a government. If parliament fails, Rivlin has set Aug. 4 as the date for possible fourth general elections. Israel: God's Prophetic Clock - If you read Bible prophecy, you will discover that Israel is in some way connected in 100% of all prophecies about the future. Indeed, the eyes of the entire world are upon this tiny state of Israel because the Jews and Israel are the people and the land of destiny. Israel is God's program for what He is doing in the world. "In our times the biblical prophecies are being realized," Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu declared before world leaders gathering at the United Nations General Assembly in October 2013. He then goes on to explain some prophecies that are being realized in our times. You really need to keep your eye on Israel; God's end time alarm clock.


DM Naftali Bennett says PM Netanyahu isn't treating his party like partners, will sit in opposition if Netanyahu doesn't keep promises….. Bennett also emphasized that he believes the right-wing bloc is important, but Netanyahu's conditions and the fact that he broke his promise to Yamina leave the smaller party with no options other than to join the opposition….. In closed discussions, Bennett said that if Yamina receives one ministry and another two ministries rotated with a different party, the party will sit in the opposition.

Are you thanking the valiant soldiers in the war on the invisible enemy? Yes? Good. But are your thanking them in the right way? At the appropriate time? Using the state-sanctioned hashtag? No? Then you are a thoughtcriminal! Join James for this week's edition of #PropagandaWatch as we peel back the curtain on The Totally Spontaneous Health Worker Balcony Applause Phenomenon, and how the propagandists will use this programming in the long run. Please note that we should pray and support the health workers but as Christians we must be careful not to “hero” worship.

This is so much bigger than mere partisan politics, i.e., Democrat vs. Republican. Michael argues that this involves international intrigue, the WHO, George Soros, Bill Gates, the Trump phenomenon and the Vatican’s globalist Pope Francis. But how? Why? What’s the endgame? Is this the birth of the New World Order?

Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates says we find ourselves in uncharted territory with the coronavirus pandemic. “To get us back to the world that we had before the coronavirus is the vaccine and getting all that out to 7billion people” Bill Gates

First, it was former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown who called on world leaders to form a "temporary" global government in response to the coronavirus pandemic….. Bill Gates has emerged as a global "authority" in the wake of COVID-19, funding vaccines and advising governments on how to respond to the pandemic.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is supposed to protect Americans by regulating the telecom industry. You would think that military objections and warnings would stop them from forcing 5G installation (see 1, 2). Unfortunately, it’s still not enough. President Trump Signs Bill Meant to Make 5G More Secure - President Trump on Monday signed the Secure 5G and Beyond Act of 2020, an important step in getting the U.S. ready to roll out the fifth-generation wireless network securely. The bill, which was passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives earlier this year, requires Trump to create and implement a plan for adopting secure 5G technology in the U.S. and abroad. Its text states that Trump must consult with the heads of the FCC, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense and several other agencies and submit to Congress a strategy for rolling out secure 5G within 180 days. Crown Castle International: Bill Gates is Buying This Hot Tech Stock - According to the latest U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the pair purchased 5.33-million shares in Crown Castle International Corp. (Source: “Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,” U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, last accessed February 11, 2019.)….. Why did Melinda and Bill Gates add 5,332,900 shares of Crown Castle International Corp. (valued at $627.5 million at the time of writing) to their holding of 19 equities? It all has to do with Crown Castle’s communication infrastructure and the rollout of 5G technology.

The letter from Huawei vice president Victor Zhang, says that the company is helping to keep the UK connected during these difficult times and that: “…When we emerge from this crisis, we look forward to continuing to play our role as a key partner in improving the networks, benefiting the economy and ultimately everyone in the UK”….. Now the reason the company felt compelled to pen this missive, is because of the intense pressure that the UK government is coming under to ditch Huawei’s involvement in our future 5G Communications infrastructure roll out.

In my last article I referred to how since fears of Covid-19 in the UK took root in March, cash usage has fallen dramatically. Whilst the drop off has been substantial, the trend of cash payments being in decline is long established. Based on early evidence, the coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated this decline…. At the end of March the chief executive of Link, John Howells, addressed the drop off in cash demand in an article by This is Money. It reported that because of Covid-19, Link were now anticipating that cash transactions could drop to just 10% of all payments by August 2020. This is all the more sobering when you consider that cash use had previously not been expected to drop to 10% until 2025. According to Howells, ‘cash use is not going to come back again and resume its slow decline‘. In other words, the collapse in cash levels will become ‘the new normal‘. The severity of the situation should now be obvious to everyone.

As these COVID-19 lockdowns drag out, more and more individuals and businesses are going cashless (for convenience and in a so-called effort to avoid spreading coronavirus germs), engaging in online commerce or using digital forms of currency (bank cards, digital wallets, etc.). As a result, physical cash is no longer king. Yet there are other, more devious, reasons for this re-engineering of society away from physical cash: a cashless society—easily monitored, controlled, manipulated, weaponized and locked down—would play right into the hands of the government (and its corporate partners).

Some Chinese provinces have issued guidances forbidding online church services and preaching, a vital way for churches to reach congregants amid both persecution and the spread of the virus. Online activities by individual Christians are also heavily monitored and some pastors have warned apps such as WeChat are giving the authorities a database of individuals to crack down on…… In India, cultural discrimination against Christians is endangering Christian healthcare workers. Reports are surfacing that government officials are choosing to send Christian nurses to care for contagious coronavirus patients because Christians are considered "expendable" in India.

International Christian Concern (ICC) reports Pakistani Christians were denied food aid amid the COVID-19 crisis in the fourth incident ICC has documented since Pakistan was placed on lockdown by authorities seeking to combat the pandemic. According to a video post on Facebook, Christians were denied food aid on April 2 in a village situated on the Raiwind road, near Lahore. A local pastor confirmed the incident to ICC. In the Facebook video, a young Christian man claims that a local mosque committee distributed food on April 2, however, village Christians were told to leave the mosque compound because the food aid was meant for only Muslims.

The media narratives that have emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic are varied. Some, like the lack of supplies for medical personnel and first responders, are important. Others, like the stories about churches and their defiant pastors who refuse to comply with physical-distancing and stay-at-home orders, are mostly selective and overblown…… The most important thing to remember, as Kristin Waggoner stated emphatically during the podcast, is that First Amendment rights cannot be suspended permanently. This is why the threat from New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to permanently close some churches even after the crisis is manifestly absurd.

"The number is down because we brought the number down," he told the press. "God did not do that. Faith did not do that. Destiny did not do that. A lot of pain and suffering did that...That's how it works. It's math. And if you don't continue to do that, you're going to see that number go back up. And that will be a tragedy if that number goes back up." That's a pretty bold statement coming from a governor presiding over a pandemic that is currently leveling thousands and filling a mass grave as things begin to slightly improve: "God did not do that."

The Chinese embassy in Sri Lanka is drawing flak for its unparliamentary language and undiplomatic actions. The Embassy's twitter account was temporarily suspended. Meanwhile, The Chinese embassy in India has slammed 'certain Indian media' - claiming that they are ignoring facts officially released by Beijing. WION's Palki Sharma gets you a report. 2 Videos that expose Chinese propaganda - Every time China is blamed for the Coronavirus crisis, Beijing tends to hide behind the excuses of misinformation about its response and racism against its citizens. WION's Palki Sharma gets you 2 videos that expose China's duplicity.

As China continues diplomatic efforts to quell a recent surge in protests by African governments and the African Union, AU, there is a new round of outrage on social media after a new visibly racist video was posted on Twitter on Friday…. Meanwhile, opposition voices in the southern Africa region have written to South African president Cyril Ramaphosa who doubles as Chairperson of the AU to call for an investigation into mistreatment of Africans in China. “As Africans we are appalled by the reports of poor treatment of African nationals who are residing in China. We call for all Africans to be treated with dignity and as equal to all other residents of China,” the statement signed by five regional oppostion leaders stated.

From the moment the virus arrived in Israel, the PA's Health Ministry began cooperating in an unprecedented manner with its Israeli counterpart. The Palestinians followed Israel's lead on virtually all aspects of the coronavirus fight. Palestinian medical teams received training in Israeli hospitals. Israel provided the PA with testing kits, protective gear, respirators and other vital equipment for fighting the pandemic. Even the Hamas regime in Gaza viewed Israel as the authority for dealing with the virus…… Both the PLO-controlled Palestinian Authority in Judea and Samaria and the Hamas regime in Gaza are fully capable of taking advantage of Israel's help in fighting the pandemic while simultaneously using the pandemic as a means to harm Israel….. At a press conference in Ramallah in late March, Shtayyeh propagated multiple blood libels against Israel. Against IDF soldiers, Shtayyeh alleged, "We have heard testimony that some soldiers are trying to spread the virus through the door handles of cars. It is a case of racism and hatred by people who hope for the death of the other. We will add this to the list of crimes they've committed."

In the meantime, Trump declared that the United States would undertake a 60-to-90 day investigation into why the "China-centric" WHO had caused "so much death" by "severely mismanaging and covering up" the coronavirus' spread, including by making the "disastrous" decision to oppose travel restrictions on China. The United States is the WHO's largest single donor, and the State Department had previously planned to provide the agency $893 million in the current two-year funding period. Trump said the United States contributes roughly $400 to $500 million per year to WHO, while China offers only about $40 million. The money saved will go to areas that "most need it," Trump asserted.

A glaring spotlight has been cast on U.S. intelligence operations in China in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and how exactly the novel pathogen originated in the city of Wuhan. While China's official narrative is that the disease was born out of a wet market in the city, sources within the U.S. intelligence community are now examining the theory that the origin of the pandemic stemmed from a laboratory — not out of malicious intent, but from an accident while undertaking dangerous virus research to keep up with the United States. Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Fox News' Jennifer Griffin U.S. intel is investigating the origins. Intelligence experts stress that the attempt to usurp the U.S. as the global superpower is at the heart of their brutal dismantling of intelligence operations within the country. But American intel has been working from a disadvantage ever since several operatives' covers were blown over the last decade, leading to a purge by Beijing.

Epoch Times senior investigative reporter Joshua Philipp explores the known facts surrounding the CCP virus and the global pandemic it caused. Editor's note: “As a leading voice in covering China for the past 20 years, we understand very well the CCP's deceptive nature and its cover-ups. With this outbreak, we saw a case of history repeating—in 2003, we exposed the CCP's cover-up of the SARS epidemic in China, far ahead of other media. In this documentary, we seek to present viewers with the known scientific data and facts surrounding the origin of the virus—which continues to be a mystery. We don't draw any conclusions. But we point out that serious questions remain about the CCP's handling of the virus outbreak and its true impact within China and around the world.!

A new documentary film by Epoch Times in collaboration with NTD (New Tang Dynasty Television), both based in New York, details additional concerning – and potentially horrifying – facts that the Wuhan coronavirus is a biological experiment that either escaped or was deliberately released (see at end of article). This comes as UK ministers are expressing doubt that the coronavirus originated from Wuhan’s Hunan Seafood market and rather insist that there is credible evidence it came from Wuhan’s lab, which also had U.S. funding….. It has also emerged that Wuhan’s Virology Institute was funded for 3.7 million by the NIH (National Institutes of Health) headed by none other than Anthony Fauci. Results of the research were published in November 2017 under the headline: “Discovery of a rich gene pool of bat SARS-related coronaviruses provides new insights into the origin of SARS coronavirus.”

As far back as late November, U.S. intelligence officials were warning that a contagion was sweeping through China’s Wuhan region, changing the patterns of life and business and posing a threat to the population, according to four sources briefed on the secret reporting…. detailed in a November intelligence report by the military's National Center for Medical Intelligence (NCMI), according to two officials familiar with the document’s contents. The report was the result of analysis of wire and computer intercepts, coupled with satellite images. It raised alarms because an out-of-control disease would pose a serious threat to U.S. forces in Asia -- forces that depend on the NCMI’s work. And it paints a picture of an American government that could have ramped up mitigation and containment efforts far earlier to prepare for a crisis poised to come home.

Adhanom, who goes by the name Tedros, is an Ethiopian microbiologist who, with the help of China, began a five-year term as head of the WHO in July 2017. He has been accused of misrepresenting the severity and spread of the coronavirus in an attempt to pander to China. The historical record shows that Tedros, the first African and the first non-physician to lead the WHO, has a long history of covering up epidemics and human rights abuses in Ethiopia, where he served as the minister of health and minister of foreign affairs.

Sky News host Paul Murray says US President Donald Trump has decided to "absolutely give it to the press corps" during his daily national coronavirus briefing. Mr Murray said President Trump had shown a video which "really got under their skin," which had portrayed "how the media were just as bad as everyone else in America in terms of not quite ringing the bell". It comes as the president has faced criticism for his response to the spread of the deadly coronavirus pandemic throughout the nation and not taking measures earlier to mitigate the threat.

Macron sat down for an interview with the Financial Times on Thursday. The French president called such ideas “naïve,” and said that China’s authoritarian regime has suppressed too much information for anyone to accurately assess Beijing’s response to the pandemic. Macron blistered at the idea that anyone would attempt to draw a comparison between freely elected governments in the West where much information is available against the notoriously secretive Chinese Communist Party that runs China’s regime.

It's a story that spans decades, exposes corrupt Chinese politicians and shows the lengths Bloomberg L.P. will go to protect its profit. It begins in China in 2012, when a team of hard-nosed journalists at Bloomberg News started investigating the ties between the Communist Party and the country's wealthiest citizens. Their reporting hit a little too close to home and the higher-ups at Bloomberg News killed it, firing the reporter who questioned the decision and attempted to silence his wife by pressuring her for years to sign a non-disclosure agreement.

The small group of volunteers at a Ford factory in Plymouth, Michigan, are trying out watch-like wearables that vibrate when employees come within six feet of each other, said Kelli Felker, a company spokeswoman. The aim is to keep workers from breaching the distance that health experts recommend to avoid spreading the coronavirus. The social-distancing device could be part of a broader array of new safety protocols Ford deploys as it resumes production as early as next month after at least a roughly six-week shutdown. The automaker is also expected to subject all workers entering a facility to a thermal-imaging scan to detect a fever. And it will provide staff with masks and, in some cases, plastic face shields, Felker said. The company is devising the measures along with the United Auto Workers union.

Activated on March 16, Joint Task Force National Capital Region (JTF-NCR) is chartered to "defend" Washington on land, in the air, and even on its waterfronts. The special task force, the only one of its kind in the country, demonstrates how there are two sides of government preparedness. The public face, and even the day-to-day work of most men and women assigned to JTF-NCR, is the same as it is everywhere else in the country—medical support, delivering supplies, manning health-check stations….. Ever since National Guards started to activate countrywide, Pentagon officials have insisted that men and women in uniform are not conducting secret missions and that they will not administer or enforce "stay at home" quarantines. The Pentagon has also rejected reports, including articles in Newsweek, about martial law or other extreme contingency plans, arguing that the Guard remains under strict control of state governors, while federal troops support civil agencies like FEMA.

Four weeks into a 35-day lockdown poor communities are facing food shortages as incomes for mostly informal workers have dried up. Imposed from March 27, the lockdown has placed already cash-strapped citizens under further strain. The numbers of people lining up for food at the self-funded scheme run by Fredericks and other volunteers are growing by the day…… Hundreds of angry people fought running battles with the police, hurling rocks and setting up street barricades with burning tyres in Mitchells Plain over undelivered food parcels on Tuesday. Police fired rubber bullets and teargas to disperse them.

The French navy is investigating how the coronavirus infected more than 1,000 sailors aboard the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, amid growing pressure on government leaders to explain how it could have happened. The ship, France's biggest carrier and the flagship of its navy, is undergoing a lengthy disinfection process.….. An investigation to retrace the paths of the personnel is in progress. Lavault noted that the aircraft carrier made a call in the French port of Brest, on the Atlantic Ocean, had been in the North Sea as part of a “naval diplomacy” mission with NATO partners, and had stopped in Cyprus during an operation in the eastern Mediterranean Sea to join in the fight against the Islamic State group….. The defense minister defended the decision to allow the ship to stop in Brest in mid-March, even though France had already ordered all schools closed to fight the virus and the government was preparing confinement measures. Hours after the ship left, President Emmanuel Macron announced a nationwide lockdown, among the strictest in Europe.

Faced with arguably the greatest challenge Europe has faced since the end of the Second World War, the EU's failure to help coordinate the actions of the 27-nation bloc in tackling Covid-19 has once again brought the organisation's institutional failings into sharp focus. Not only has the Brussels bureaucracy been unable to provide vital medical assistance to stricken countries in the form of badly-needed protective clothing and key equipment, such as ventilators. The EU has also completely failed in its efforts to provide financial support for those countries, such as Italy and Spain, that have been worst affected by the crisis. The EU's inability or unwillingness to respond should raise fresh questions about the EU's long-term future.

Senior MEP Guy Verhofstadt has savaged European Commission chief Ursula Von der Leyen and EU Council President Charles Michel amid signs of a union in crisis. Verhofstadt questioned the bloc's slow response to the coronavirus pandemic. During a heated session of the European Parliament, Mr Verhofstadt questioned what the leading EU boss "was waiting for" in putting together a huge recovery plan for the bloc. By the time he was granted time to ask his question, Mrs Von der Leyen had already left the plenary room of the Parliament, much to Mr Verhofstadt's frustration. EU apologies to Italy: Brussels "not there" when country needed help, says Ursula von der Leyen - Sorry we let you down - The EU issues, what it describes as a heartfelt apology to Italy for a lack of COVID-19 assistance.

Prosecutors said the men joined ISIS in January 2019 and were instructed to form a cell in Germany. They reportedly first planned to carry out an attack in Tajikistan but later shifted their target to Germany, including U.S. Air Force bases in the country and a person they deemed critical of Islam. Throughout, they are alleged to have been in contact with two high-ranking ISIS figures in Syria and Afghanistan. Prosecutors said the group had already obtained firearms and ammunition to carry out their attacks, while Ravsan B. had ordered materials to build an explosive device.

Despite Erdoğan’s clumsy tactics in Syria, his long-term strategic view is coherent. He has been steadily working to build up a bloc of influence with other authoritarian regimes, partnering with political Islam to galvanize populations in target countries and spheres of influence. Shiite and Sunni Islamists, despite their different ideologies, have a history of cooperation on both geostrategic and local political levels. In the US and Europe, Iran-backed and Turkey/Qatar/Muslim Brotherhood-backed organizations often support left-wing political candidates and agitate for the same political campaigns. The late Muhammad Morsi’s short-lived Muslim Brotherhood regime in Egypt worked with Iran’s then-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Quds commander Qassem Soleimani to develop an IRGC-style independent intelligence network. Ayatollah Khomeini had some of Muslim Brotherhood ideologue Sayyid Qutb’s texts translated and popularized inside Iran. Both Khomeinist revolutionaries and Muslim Brotherhood dogma were influenced by Bolshevik, Nazi, and other revolutionary ideologies and methods as well as their focus on international influence and outreach.

A Hamas move to Turkey would mean the terrorist group would continue masterminding and carrying out terrorist attacks against Israel -- but this time, under the protective eyes of the Erdogan administration…… Erdogan's reported willingness to host the Hamas leadership most likely comes from his longstanding support for the Muslim Brotherhood. Erdogan's ties to the Muslim Brotherhood go back to the 1970s, when he was one of the trusted political pupils of Necmettin Erbakan, the father of Islamism in Turkey. Lorenzo Vidino, director of George Washington University's Program on Extremism, pointed out that since the July 2013 overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsi as president of Egypt, Erdogan has sought to provide a safe haven for "persecuted" members of the movement.

Pam Northam, wife of embattled governor of Virginia, Ralph Northam, apologized on Wednesday after she allegedly gave out raw cotton during a tour of the governor’s mansion and asked black children to imagine being slaves who were forced to pick cotton………. The controversy comes amid widespread calls for Governor Northam's resignation, sparked by an image in his medical school yearbook that showed two people, one in a Ku Klux Klan robe and another in blackface, under the governor's name. The Democratic governor said he considered resigning in the wake of the blackface scandal, but said he's "not going anywhere." Northam initially apologized for the photo, but later denied being in the picture…… Gov. Northam said in a statement earlier this month. "I am deeply sorry for the decision I made to appear as I did in this photo and for the hurt that decision caused then and now."

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