“In that day I will raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and will rebuild the ruins of it, and will set up the parts thereof that have been broken down, and will build it up as in the ancient days”.
(Amos 9:11)

In That Day

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There is a prophecy

THE CHRISTIAN JOURNAL

Google Bans Ads From Christian Publishing Company Because They Mention Jesus and The Bible

April 25, 2018

Concordia Publishing House has reported that Google explicitly stated to their organization that Jesus and the Bible are banned references in regards to advertisements.

Google cannot legally remove websites and or content deemed by the organization to be offensive on platforms they do not own; however, being that Google controls a vast majority of online searching operations, Google can control how often such content is seen by the public.

In a press release, Concordia Publishing House stated that; “Google informed CPH that the type of ad in question would not be allowed based on Google’s policy of religious belief in personalized content. As a Google AdWords Support representative explained, the disapproval resulted from the fact that the items in the ad and on the CPH website refer to Jesus and/or the Bible.”

Google informed Concordia Publishing House that it could remove the references to Jesus Christ and the Bible for reconsideration.

“Clearly, CPH does not agree with Google’s decision in this matter. If we are willing to remove references to our faith in our ads or website, then we will be allowed to use remarketing ads with Google. Simply stated, we are not willing to sacrifice our beliefs to comply with Google’s requirements,” Kintz also said.

The Concordia press release can be seen below;

Concordia Publishing House was informed on Monday that all CPH remarketing ads were “disabled due to a violation of Google’s policy for advertising based on interests and location.”

Remarketing ads reach out to individuals who have made a decision to visit a CPH webpage. Google defines this as showing “ads to people who’ve visited your website or used your mobile app. When people leave your website without buying anything, for example, remarketing helps you reconnect with them by showing relevant ads across their different devices.”
Upon receiving notification that the remarketing ads were disapproved, CPH staff contacted Google. In this conversation, CPH staff members were informed that remarketing ads based on religious beliefs were not allowed. After reviewing cph.org, cph.org/blog, and splashcanyon.cph.org, the Google representative indicated that content provided by CPH was beyond the scope of becoming compliant with Google.

CPH staff requested that a manager review the decision. This request was denied. The Google representative proceeded to inform CPH staff of changes that could be made to splashcanyon.org to bring it into compliance. These changes included removing specific faith-based content.

Following this conversation, CPH contacted Google again for additional clarification. This call resulted in Google agreeing to conduct a manual review of the CPH AdWords audiences that have been disabled. CPH was informed that this review could take several hours to complete.

Following this manual review, Google informed CPH that the type of ad in question would not be allowed based on Google’s policy of religious belief in personalized content. As a Google AdWords Support representative explained, the disapproval resulted from the fact that the items in the ad and on the CPH website refer to Jesus and/or the Bible. CPH was also informed that we could 1) remove all items that refer to Jesus or the Bible and proceed to use the remarketing ads or 2) use a different type of Google ad product. A follow-up email from AdWords Support reiterated the need to change or remove content. In part, the email said the following:

“Troubleshooter: Religious belief in personalized advertising
1. Read the policy above to learn what we don’t allow. Ensure that your ads, site, or app comply with Personalized advertising policies. Note that even if ads are not targeted using sensitive categories, some types of ad content are still prohibited.
2. Remove that content from your site or app. If your site or app has content that we don’t allow, remove all content that doesn’t comply with this policy or rename with matching synonym. You’ll then need to request a review before moving on to the next step of checking your audience lists.
3. Remove that content from your ad.
If your ad violates this policy, edit it to make it comply.”

CPH President and CEO Dr. Bruce G. Kintz stated, “Clearly, CPH does not agree with Google’s decision in this matter. If we are willing to remove references to our faith in our ads or website, then we will be allowed to use remarketing ads with Google. Simply stated, we are not willing to sacrifice our beliefs to comply with Google’s requirements. It’s no secret that society is becoming increasingly hostile to the Christian faith. This increasing hostility makes our mission of proclaiming that faith through the books, Bibles, and curriculum that we produce all the more important. We will continue to proclaim the faith because we know without a doubt that the Word of the Lord endures forever.”

It continues to be CPH’s mission to share God’s Word with all Christians who are seeking faithful resources to support their faith. CPH will not be deterred by Google’s actions in this instance but will seek all available avenues to connect people to Christ.

RT

‘Bible is way more hip than GQ’ – Magazine under fire for putting holy book on irrelevant list

April 23, 2018

© Godong / Getty Images

GQ magazine has felt the biblical wrath of Twitter after placing the Christian holy book on a list of over-rated literature. The magazine described the Bible as “self-contradictory, foolish, and even at times ill-intentioned.”

The foundational scripture of Christianity (which also receives some respect in Judaism and Islam) was placed 12th in the list, in-between ‘The Ambassadors’ by Henry James and ‘Franny and Zooey’ by J. D. Salinger. The list was compiled by GQ editors and names 20 “Great Books” that, in their opinion, have not aged well and 21 alternatives to read instead. The disparity is due to Mark Twain’s ‘Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ being picked as a text that should be struck from the canon by two editors.

The Bible, novelist and poet Jesse Ball explained, is “rated very highly by all the people who supposedly live by it but who in actuality have not read it.” He says that “those who have read it know there are some good parts, but overall it is certainly not the finest thing that man has ever produced.”

Ball’s suggested alternative is ‘The Notebook’ by Hungarian writer Agota Kristof, a book that he said would suit readers who believed the good parts of the Bible “were the nasty bits.”“The subtlety and cruelty of this story is like that famous sword stroke (from below the boat) that plunged upward through the bowels, the lungs, and the throat and into the brain of the rower,” he said.

As might be expected, the labeling of the Bible as not being a must-read didn’t go well with some people. Evangelist Franklin Graham suggested GQ editors should read the scripture again and accused the magazine of attempting a “surgical excision of books that serve to keep traditional values alive.”

A FOX News panel branded the GQ list “foolish and shame[ful]” and a “deconstruction of the Western civilization.”

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THE CHRISTIAN JOURNAL

Church Set to Hold ‘Beyoncé Mass’ and Teaches Mary Magdalene is ‘The Original Nasty Woman’

By Emily

April 18, 2018

A strange form of feminism has swept the nation and has even invaded sects of Christianity in the way of goddess worship. The Golden Gate City is home to Grace Cathedral, an Episcopal Church that touts a progressive theology.

On April 23rd the Cathedral is holding a “Beyoncé mass” in which they plan to sing her songs in worship before a service.

Their website promotes the event as “Beyoncé? At church? That’s right!”

“Come to The Vine SF to sing your Beyoncé favorites and discover how her art opens a window into the lives of the marginalized and forgotten — particularly black females. We’ll be hearing an incredible message from Rev. Yolanda Norton, Assistant Professor of Old Testament at San Francisco Theological Seminary. This special service was created in partnership with the Bible class at SFTS.”

Beyoncé’s racially charged music is entirely unrelated to the real purpose of Christian worship, and there are multiple occurrences of Beyoncé’s performances being filled with goddess worship.

The most recent one being Coachella 2018 where Beyoncé performed dressed as the Egyptian queen Nefertiti.

Beyonce Coachella Nefertiti

Rev. Jude Harmon, the founding pastor of the Vine and director of innovative ministry for Grace Cathedral, said that plans for the service were made long before Beyoncé’s Coachella appearance.

“I know there are people who will say using Beyoncé is just a cheap way of trying to get people in the church,” Harmon said. “But Jesus used very provocative images in the stories he would tell to incite people to ask hard questions about their own religious assumptions. He regularly provoked. We’re following in the way of Jesus.”

Along the same lines as Coachella, at the 59th Grammy Awards, Beyoncé presented herself as a mother goddess and “invoked multiracial goddesses–from the Yoruba orisha Oshun to Hindi goddess Kali to the Catholic Black Madonna–and heralded the divine beauty and aura of black motherhood.” Regardless of what was invoked during her performance, Beyoncé enshrined herself once again as an idol to be worshipped.

Harper’s Bazaar described the performance as a “spectacle of divine black motherhood, in a culture that values Judeo-Christian patriarchal gods, featured Beyoncé at her most subversive and transgressive in her feminist views.”

All of this leads us to question of what the Vine is worshipping, is it the ‘divine black motherhood’ Harper’s Bazaar speaks of?

The Beyoncé Mass is part of a three-part series the Vine is hosting at the Nob Hill church that started with a program on Mary Magdalene called “The Original Nasty Woman.”

The Vine disturbingly equates Mary Magdalene to Hillary Clinton saying “strong, smart women being insulted and marginalized by agents of patriarchy is as old as time.” The church claims that if Mary Magdalene were here today, she would be “wearing a pink hat and marching with all who wear that epithet, ‘nasty woman,’ as a badge of honor.”

This series isn’t the only feminist ideology surrounding this cathedral. Weekly, the church is transformed into a labyrinth on which the members do yoga in front of a statue of Mary with her arms open for an embrace, see the image below.

The Catholic church is known for turning Mary into an idol to be worshipped, but rarely do we see it taken as far as this Episcopal church has taken it. Their promotional for the Beyoncé Mass says it will focus on the marginalization of black females, the previous event in the series says that Mary Magdalene was the “original nasty woman,” and members of the church do yoga in front of a Mary statue. This deceptive technique is drawing people away from Jesus Christ and toward the mother goddess worship of other religions.

Beyoncé happened to be number one on our list of the top ten times feminists took it too far and turned it into all-out goddess worship. To see the full list, consider subscribing here!

(Neferneferuaten Nefertiti (/ˌnɛfərˈtiːti/[3]) (c. 1370 – c. 1330 BC) was an Egyptian queen and the Great Royal Wife(chief consort) of Akhenaten, an Egyptian Pharaoh. Nefertiti and her husband were known for a religious revolution, in which they worshiped one god only, Aten, or the sun disc. With her husband, she reigned at what was arguably the wealthiest period of Ancient Egyptian history. Wikipedia)

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WND

SHAKESPEARE: BIGGEST IMPACT ON ENGLISH OUTSIDE OF BIBLE

Bill Federer recounts works, faith of world's most famous wordsmith

Bill Federer

April 22, 2018

Miguel de Cervantes influenced the Spanish language in the same way William Shakespeare influenced the English language.

Born in 1547, Miguel de Cervantes fought the Muslim Ottoman Turks at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, where he was wounded and lost the use of his left hand. Four years after the battle, Cervantes was captured by Muslim Barbary pirates on his return home. Cervantes spent five years in captivity as a slave in Algiers before being ransomed by the Catholic Trinitarian Order and returned to Madrid, Spain.

In 1605, he published his book, “Don Quixote de La Mancha,” which is considered the first modern European novel. In a semi-autobiographical chapter, Cervantes described being held captive: “They put a chain on me. … I passed my life in that bano with several other gentlemen and persons of quality marked out as held to ransom; but though at times, or rather almost always, we suffered from hunger and scanty clothing, nothing distressed us so much as hearing and seeing at every turn the unexampled and unheard-of cruelties my master inflicted upon the Christians. Every day he hanged a man, impaled one, cut off the ears of another; and all with so little provocation, or so entirely without any, that the Turks acknowledged he did it merely for the sake of doing it, and because he was by nature murderously disposed towards the whole human race.”

In “Don Quixote de La Mancha” (First Part, ch. 39-40, 1605), Cervantes described how Muslim Turks raided Christian areas of the Mediterranean. If captured, they would testify that they intended to become Christian, but upon release, they reverted back to being raiders: “Some obtain these testimonials with good intentions, others put them to a cunning use; for when they go to pillage on Christian territory, if they chance to be cast away, or taken prisoners, they produce their certificates and say that from these papers may be seen the object they came for, which was to remain on Christian ground, and that it was to this end they joined the Turks in their foray. In this way they escape the consequences of the first outburst and make their peace with the Church before it does them any harm, and then when they have the chance they return to Barbary to become what they were before.”

Miguel de Cervantes died on the same day William Shakespeare died, April 23, 1616, though some claim a day earlier. In fact it was at least eleven days earlier, as Catholic Spain used the Gregorian Calendar and Anglican England still used the old Julian Calendar.

William Shakespeare was born April 23, 1564. His 38 plays impacted world literature. William Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, had three children, moved to London, and became shareholding director of Globe Theater.

He wrote such classics as:

• “Hamlet”

• “Macbeth”

• “Othello”

• “King Lear”

• “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”

In 1584, Sir Walter Raleigh founded the Roanoke settlement in a colony he named “Virginia” in honor of the virgin Queen Elizabeth I. In 1588, the Spanish Armada attempted to invade England, but was destroyed in a hurricane. In 1590, when supply ships finally returned to Roanoke, they found the settlement abandoned, resulting to it being referred to as “The Lost Colony.”

In 1591, Shakespeare introduced his play, “King Henry the Sixth,” portraying England’s monarch who ruled 1422 to 1461; and 1470 to 1471; who also was the disputed King of France from 1422 to 1453. In the play, Shakespeare wrote in Part II, act II, scene i, line 34: “Blessed are the peacemakers on earth.”

In “King Henry the Sixth,” Part II, act II, scene i, line 66, Shakespeare wrote: “Now, God be praised, that to the believing souls, gives light in darkness, comfort in despair!”

In scene iii, line 55, he exclaimed: “God defend the right!”

In Part III, act V, scene v, line 7, Shakespeare penned: “So part we sadly in this troublous world,
To meet with joy in sweet Jerusalem.”

In 1592-93, William Shakespeare wrote the play “King Richard the Third,” portraying the life of England’s monarch who ruled 1483-1485. In the play, Shakespeare wrote in act I, scene iv:

O, I have passed a miserable night,
So full of ugly sights, of ghastly dreams,
That, as I am a Christian faithful man,
I would not spend another such a night,
Though ’twere to but a world of happy days.

Shakespeare wrote in “King Richard the Third,” act I, scene 4:

Before I be convict by course of law,
To threaten me with death is most unlawful.
I charge you, as you hope for any goodness,
By Christ’s dear blood shed for our grievous sins
That you depart and lay no hands on me.

In 1595-96, Shakespeare wrote the play “King Richard the Second,” England’s king from 1377 to 1399. In act IV, scene i, line 97, Shakespeare wrote:

Many a time hath banished Norfolk fought
For Jesus Christ in glorious Christian field,
Streaming the ensign of the Christian Cross,
And there at Venice, gave His body to that pleasant country’s earth,
And his pure soul unto his captain Christ,
Under whose colors he had fought so long.

In “King Richard the Second,” act IV, scene i, line 170, Shakespeare wrote:

So Judas did to Christ: but He, in twelve,
Found truth in all but one; I, in twelve thousand, none.
God save the king! Will no man say, amen?

In “King Richard the Second,” act IV, scene i, line 239, Shakespeare wrote:

Some of you with Pilate wash your hands,
Showing an outward pity.

In the play “The Merchant of Venice,” act I, scene ii, line 59, Shakespeare penned: “God made him, and therefore let him pass for a man.”

In “The Merchant of Venice,” act I, scene iii, line 99, Shakespeare wrote:

Mark you this, Bassanio:
The devil can cite Scripture for his own purpose.
An evil soul, producing holy witness,
Is like a villain with a smiling cheek,
A goodly apple rotten at the heart.

In “The Merchant of Venice,” act IV, scene i, line 184, Shakespeare wrote:

The quality of mercy is not strained,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blessed;
It blessed him that gives and him that takes:

Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His scepter shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings,

But mercy is above this sceptered sway,
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself,
And earthly power doth then show likest God’s
When mercy seasons justice.

Therefore … Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That in the course of justice, none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy,
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy.

In 1598, Shakespeare wrote “King Henry the Fourth,” portraying the King who ruled England from 1399 to 1413. In part I, act i, scene 1, line 18, Shakespeare wrote:

Therefore friends,
As far as to the sepulchre of Christ,
Whose soldier now, under whose blessed cross
We are impressed and engaged to fight …
To chase these pagans in those holy fields.
Over whose acres walk’d those blessed feet,
Which fourteen hundred years ago were nail’d
For our advantage on the bitter cross.

Engraved in the Library of Congress’ Jefferson Building in the North Corridor is a quote from Shakespeare’s play Henry IV, pt. ii, Act iv., Sc. 7: “Ignorance is the curse of God, knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to Heaven.”

In 1598-1600, Shakespeare wrote “King Henry the Fifth,” about the King of England who ruled from 1413-1422. In act III, scene vi, line 181, William Shakespeare wrote: “We are in God’s hand.”

In “King Henry the Fifth,” act IV, scene i, line 309, Shakespeare wrote:

O God of battles! steel my soldiers’ hearts;
Possess them not with fear; take from them now
The sense of reckoning, if the opposed numbers
Pluck their hearts from them.

In his longest play, “The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark,” 1600-01, act I, scene I, Shakespeare wrote:

Some say – that ever ‘gainst that season comes
Wherein our Saviour’s birth is celebrated
The bird of dawning singeth all night long.

In “Hamlet,” act III, scene i, line 150, Shakespeare wrote:

I have heard of your paintings too, well enough;
God has given you one face, and you make yourselves another.

In “Hamlet,” act III, iv, line 149, Shakespeare wrote:

Confess yourself to heaven;
Repent what’s past; avoid what is to come.

In “Hamlet,” act V, scene i, line 84, Shakespeare wrote: “A politician … one that would circumvent God.”

In “Hamlet,” act v, scene ii, Shakespeare wrote:

Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet prince,
And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!

William Shakespeare wrote in “Othello,” 1604-05, act I, scene i, line 108: “You are one of those that will not serve God if the devil bid you.”

In “Othello,” act II, scene iii, line 106, Shakespeare wrote:

Well, God’s above all;
and there be souls must be saved,
and there be souls must not be saved.

In “Othello,” act II, scene iii, line 293, Shakespeare wrote:

O God! that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains;
that we should, with joy, pleasance, revel, and applause, transform ourselves into beasts.

In 1607, the Jamestown Colony was founded in Virginia. In 1609, the English ship Sea Venture was sailing on the third supply mission to Jamestown, but was caught in a hurricane and shipwrecked on the island of Bermuda for nine months. This is thought to inspired Shakespeare’s play “The Tempest” (1610-1611).

In 1613, William Shakespeare wrote his play “King Henry the Eighth,” about the ruler of England from 1509 to 1547. In act III, scene ii, line 456, Shakespeare wrote: “Had I but served my God with half the zeal I served my king, he would not in mine age Have left me naked to mine enemies.”

William Shakespeare remarked:

God’s goodness hath been great to thee;
Let never day nor night unhallowed pass,
But still remember what the Lord hath done.

With the rise of Puritanism in England, theaters were considered dens of immorality. For a time, pressure was put on Shakespeare not to mention God in his plays, as it was considered taking God’s name in vain. This led to a period where Shakespeare referred to mythology, Greek gods, or the fates, such as in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” 1595-1596.

Upon seeing “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” on Sept. 29, 1662, member of Parliament Samuel Pepys described it as “the most insipid, ridiculous play that ever I saw.”

Puritans eventually succeeded in forcing the Globe Theater to close in 1642, and in 1648, pulled it down to the ground. After the Puritan era of Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protector, King Charles II was restored to the English throne in 1660, and theaters were once again reopened, though Shakespeare’s Globe Theater was not rebuilt until 1997.

Discover more of Bill Federer’s eye-opening books and videos in the WND Superstore!

Nine years after the founding of Jamestown, William Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616. Only 52 years old at his death, William Shakespeare wrote in his will: “In the name of God, Amen! I, William Shakespeare, of Stratford-upon-Avon, in the county of Warr., gent., in perfect health and memory, God be praised, do make and ordain this my last will and testament in manner and form following, that is to say, First, I commend my soul into the hands of God, my Creator, hoping and assuredly believing, through the only merits of Jesus Christ, my Saviour, to be made partaker of life everlasting, and my body to the earth whereof it is made.”

Carved on Shakespeare’s tomb in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-on-Avon, England, is:

Good Friend For Jesus Sake Forbeare,
To Digg The Dust Enclosed Heare.
Blese Be Ye Man Spares Thes Stones,
And Curst Be He Moves My Bones.

Woodrow Wilson stated at the tercentenary celebration of the translation of the Bible into the English language, May 7, 1911: “How like to the Scripture is all great literature! What is it that entrances us when we read or witness a play of Shakespeare? It is the consciousness that this man, this all-observing mind, saw men of every cast and kind as they were in their habits, as they lived. And as passage succeeds passage we seem to see the characters of ourselves and our friends portrayed by this ancient writer, and a play of Shakespeare is just as modern to-day as upon the day it was penned and first enacted. And the Bible is without age or date or time. It is a picture of the human heart displayed for all ages and for all sorts and conditions of men.”

Victor Hugo wrote in his preface to Cromwell, 1827: “Lastly, this threefold poetry flows from three great sources – The Bible, Homer, Shakespeare. … The Bible before the Iliad, the Iliad before Shakespeare.”

Victor Hugo stated: “England has two books, the Bible and Shakespeare. England made Shakespeare, but the Bible made England.”

U.S. District Court decision Crockett v. Sorenson (W.D. Va. 1983) stated: “The First Amendment was never intended to insulate our public institutions from any mention of God, the Bible or religion. … Some of the better known works which rely heavily on allusions from the Bible include … the plays of Shakespeare, especially Measure for Measure. … Secular education imposes immediate demands that the student have a good knowledge of the Bible. … A basic background in the Bible is essential to fully appreciate and understand both Western culture and current events.”

Brought to you by AmericanMinute.com.

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RT

Bavaria orders Christian crosses to be displayed on govt buildings

April 24, 2018

Cross on the wall of a Munich courtroom during a trial of a suspected Islamic State member in January 2015 © Michaela Rehle / Reuters

Germany’s Bavaria has ordered Christian crosses to be placed over the entrances of government buildings to reflect its “cultural identity” as the state continues its feud with Berlin over multiculturalism and open-door policies.

The crosses should not be seen as “the sign of a religion,” according to Bavarian Minister President Markus Söder, but as a way to reflect the conservative state’s “cultural identity and Christian-western influence.”

Bavaria has already made displaying crosses compulsory in public schools and courtrooms. The new rule will reportedly not be applied to municipal and federal government buildings.

The governing Christian Social Union, which is the Bavarian sister party of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, is trying to stave off competition from the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which has run anti-Muslim campaigns that have played well with many German voters that are unhappy with Merkel’s open border approach to the refugee crisis. The AfD was up 12 percent in the most recent election in the southern region.

Merkel recently agreed to take in 10,000 more migrants that have been selected by the United Nations’ refugee agency (UNHCR). The chancellor said the new refugees would be part of a resettlement programme in Germany, but did not confirm which countries the refugees were coming from or where they would be settled in Germany.

Horst Seehofer, Germany’s federal interior minister and the former head of Bavaria, has been a thorn in Merkel’s side when it comes to migration and worsening relations with Russia.

Seehofer has called on Germany to lift economic sanctions on Russia and said that he believed the Group of Seven (G7) industrialized countries should be reopened to include Russia. “I’m arguing for realpolitik not saber-rattling,” he told a German newspaper last year.

Seehofer visited Moscow last March with a delegation aiming to revive business links that had been damaged by EU sanctions imposed on Russia. “Many trouble spots in the world will not be resolved without Moscow,” he said at the time.

Following the reelection of Viktor Orban as Hungarian prime minister earlier this month, Seehofer warned Brussels against the "arrogance and paternalism” the EU had been showing to member states like Hungary.

Söder, who is considered to be equally, if not more, conservative than Seehofer when it comes to traditional values, has been previously quoted as saying: “one thing is clear for the CSU: Crucifixes belong in classrooms, headscarves don’t.”

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WND

CONGRESS SET TO SANCTION TURKEY OVER JAILED U.S. PASTOR

Lawmakers will 'forcibly respond' if Andrew Brunson not released

Art Moore

April 22, 2018

Andrew Brunson

Congress is prepared to sanction Turkey if the NATO ally does not release an American missionary jailed since October 2016 on what Washington contends are trumped-up charges

Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., explained in a Fox News interview Friday that Andrew Brunson had been doing humanitarian work in the country for 23 years, renewing his visa periodically with no problems. But in October 2016, he was swept up in a crackdown by the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after a failed coup attempt.

“We need to forcibly respond,” the senator said.

Lankford told Fox News U.S. officials believe Brunson was caught in the crackdown by accident, but now Turkey has accused him of aiding the coup attempt, without any evidence, apparently to gain “some sort of leverage against the United States.”

“What we need to do is impose sanctions against the individual judges, the individual prosecutors, against the individuals and Ankara’s government that are actually holding an American with trumped up charges – for a year with no charges at all,” the senator said.

Lankford said he met with Turkey’s minister of justice in 2016, who had filed no charges at that point. The government took more than a year to press charges.

Brunson, 50, appeared in court on Monday in the first phase of his trial in the Aegean Sea town of Aliaga. In attendance were Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, who represents Brunson’s home state of North Carolina, and Sam Brownback, the former Kansas senator and governor, and the current U.S. ambassador at large for religious freedom. The next court date is May 7.

Brunson is accused of aiding a group led by Fethullah Gulen, an exiled Muslim preacher who Turkish authorities allege was behind the failed 2016 coup. Gulen now lives in Pennsylvania, and it’s believed Erdogan ordered Brunson jailed to use him as a bargaining chip to secure Gulen’s extradition.

Lankford insisted the charge is absurd, arguing Gulen and Brunson “are completely unconnected.”

“Why a Christian pastor would be connected to a Muslim mystic, I have no idea, and this pastor has no idea,” he said.

Brunson explained why he has lived in Turkey for a quarter of a century.

“I’ve never done something against Turkey. I love Turkey. I’ve been praying for Turkey for 25 years. I want truth to come out,” he said, according to Reuters. “I do not accept the charges mentioned in the indictment. I was never involved in any illegal activities.”

Brunson in ‘extremely grim prison’

Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, said that after the hearing, instead of being returned to the prison where he had been held most recently, the judge ordered Brunson to be taken to “an overcrowded and extremely grim prison” where he was held initially.

The next three weeks prior to the May 7 court date, said Sekulow, who is advocating for Brunson’s release, are critical for the pastor.

Sekulow said Brunson is “on trial because of his Christian faith, noting the 62-page indictment accuses him of “Christianization,” calling it an act of terror.

If convicted, Brunson faces a 35-year prison sentence.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said after Monday’s hearing that the U.S. government “has seen no credible evidence that Mr. Brunson is guilty of a crime and are convinced that he is innocent.”

“We hope that the judicial system in Turkey will resolve his case in a timely, fair and transparent manner,” she said.

Tillis spoke with reporters after the hearing.

“We are very disappointed. If anything, I think the information that has been presented today creates a more compelling reason why he is innocent,” he said, reported Agence France-Presse.

Tillis also went to Turkey in March to meet with Brunson after hearing the pastor was “really concerned that maybe the American people would look at the indictment and believe it and forget him.”

“It was important for me to go over there, face-to-face visit him in prison and tell him that that’s not going to happen,” Tillis told the Charlotte Observer.

Relations between the U.S. and Turkey have been on edge over American backing for a Kurdish militia in Syria that Turkey has declared to be a terrorist group.

President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence have called attention to Brunson’s plight.

Spoke to Pastor Brunson’s wife this week. Assured her of our prayers & @POTUS & I are monitoring his trial in Turkey. Pastor Brunson is a good & godly man who should be reunited w/ his family, friends & congregation. It’s time the Turkish govt release him. #FreeAndrewBrunson https://t.co/1KD04rveTE

— Vice President Mike Pence (@VP) April 18, 2018

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CHARISMANEWS

How Archaeology Is Thwarting Those Who Want to Rewrite History

Ron Allen

April 13, 2018

The spring 2018 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review announced the retirement of its founder, Hershel Shanks, after 43 years of service.

Mr. Shanks is an example of the impact a dedicated layman can make on the scientific, historic and religious world. Trained as a Harvard lawyer, he fell in love with biblical archaeology on a sabbatical to Jerusalem in 1973. It was Shanks who led the crusade to get the Dead Sea scrolls released by the scholars who had kept them under wraps for 50 years. He also covered the major archaeological controversies where the religious and political fault lines of the Holy Land are played out.

One of the major fault lines comes between the religious and the secular world views of scholars. The secular scholars are constantly attacking the work of earlier Christian and Jewish archaeologists, with a "minimalist" school which argues that such biblical figures as David are mythological. Another line of attack comes from Palestinians who, for political reasons, want to deny Jewish history and try to prevent archaeologists from digging up the Jewish past. There is also an occasional conflict between Jewish and Christian acceptance of findings.

While the BAR, as it is affectionately known, is a secular, not religious, publication, they do try to fairly present the issues. They gleefully reported an artifact which substantiated the existence of the "House of David," to the chagrin of the minimalists. In their January/February 2014 issue, they published an article which proves that the site of David's palace in Jerusalem has been found. Some years back the BAR demolished Palestinian political arguments by proving that the very name of "Palestine" was derived from the Greek word for "wrestler", which translates into the national Hebrew name of "Israel" (He wrestles with God). In their January/February 2016 issue they exposed a New York Times article which falsely cast doubt on the historicity of the Jewish temples, a favorite technique of Palestinian propaganda. In the May/June 2017 issue, eminent archaeologist William G. Dever exposed the fallacies of the "minimalist" view in his article, entitled "Whom Do You Believe—the Bible or Archaeology?".

Our prayer is that secular, political and religious attacks on biblical archaeology will not be allowed to obscure the truth of God's Word. We thank Hershel Shanks for his leadership and pray that BAR and Biblical archaeologists will continue fearlessly stand up to those who want to rewrite history to suit their agendas.

And we thank the Lord that He has left us plenty of evidence to confirm the veracity of the Bible as the solid rock on which our faith can rely.

***

SPUTNIK

Natalie Portman Sets Twitter Ablaze With Stand Against “Recent Events” in Israel

April 20, 2018

After the Oscar-winning actress and one of the most committed daughters of Israel refused to fetch the “Jewish Nobel Prize,” worth $2 million in Israel, due to her distress over the “recent events”, local MP demands more distress for her. Major storm on Twitter follows her decision.

MP Oren Hazan, representing the center-right Likud party in the Knesset, demanded that the Hollywood star Natalie Portman be stripped of her Israeli citizenship after she blew off the ceremony of the Genesis Prize, dubbed the “Jewish Nobel.”

“Portman has no problems exploiting her Jewish roots to promote her career as well as expressing her pride for deferring from service [in Jewish Army]. And there are respected people who thought that she deserves the award, named the 'Jewish Nobel Prize.' But this is 'The End' title: Minister [Aryeh] Deri should take away her Israeli citizenship,” Hazan posted on Twitter.

The American actress, who was born in Israel with the name Hershlag and has been known for her commitment to her Jewish heritage, initially agreed to come to Israel this June to get $2 million for being “an inspiration to the next generation of Jews” for her professional achievements; later, however, she backed out of it.

The statement of Portman’s publicist, distributed by the organizing foundation, reads that “[r]ecent events in Israel have been extremely distressing to her and she does not feel comfortable participating in any public events in Israel,” and “she cannot in good conscience move forward with the ceremony.”

The announcement doesn’t specify what exactly made Portman change her mind. But her decision followed the latest violent clashes on the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli defense forces opened fire on Palestinian protesters, killing several. The move was condemned by the UN and the EU as disproportionally violent.

After Portman’s refusal, the Genesis Prize Foundation decided to cancel the ceremony, stating that the organizers “fear that Ms. Portman’s decision will cause our philanthropic initiative to be politicized, something we have worked hard for the past five years to avoid.” However, it remains unclear if the actress would still get the 2 million dollar prize.

While the Foundation said it was “very saddened” with Portman’s decision, Culture Minister Miri Regev also expressed her regret. According to the newspaper Times of Israel, she said that that the Hollywood star had “fallen like ripe fruit into the hands of BDS [the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions] campaign supporters, whose goal is to isolate the Jewish state.” “Natalie, a Jewish actress who was born in Israel, joins those who relate to the story of the success and the wondrous rebirth of Israel as a story of darkness,” she said.

The range of emotions on Twitter also varies from full support to anger and disappointment.

Some praise her move as a brave act.

Some slammed her for “caving in to political correctness” and expressed disappointment.

​Others found her not decisive enough.

Incidentally, the award money was doubled specifically for Portman this year. The Genesis Prize, which is to “honor individuals who serve as an inspiration to the next generation of Jews through their outstanding professional achievement along with their commitment to Jewish values and the Jewish people,” usually equals $1 million. Those who get the prize may donate it to the charities of their choice. It was established by Russian businessmen with Jewish roots, including the banker Mikhail Friedman. The list of recipients of $1 million prize includes artist Anish Kapoor, violinist Itzhak Perlman, former Mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg and Hollywood star Michael Douglas.

***

AMMC

Zero Hedge

Iran Officially Switches From Dollar To Euro

Tyler Durden

April, 22, 2018

Just two weeks after "panic" hit the streets of Tehran as the Iranian government attempted to 'fix' the freefall of the Rial against the USDollar...

Middle East Monitor reports that Iran’s feud with the US is set to get worse after Tehran announced this week that it will start reporting foreign currency amounts in euros rather than US dollars, as part of the country’s effort to reduce its reliance on the American currency due to political tension with Washington.

Central bank governor Valiollah Seif said last week that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had welcomed his suggestion of replacing the dollar with the euro in foreign trade, as the “dollar has no place in our transactions today”.

Iran does hardly any trade with the US due to decades of economic sanctions. It’s most important trading partner is the UAE, which accounts for around 24 per cent of all Iranian imports and exports. China is not far behind with 22 per cent, followed by Turkey, India and the EU, all of which account for around six per cent of Iran’s trade.

Iran’s leaders have been threatening for some time to ditch the dollar for a different currency. The shift towards euro took on added urgency after the appointment of Donald Trump and his decision to include Iran on a list of mainly Muslim majority countries banned from entering the US.

Trump has also threatened to exit a 2015 nuclear deal Iran made with world powers. The next major test for the deal is 12 May when Trump will be required to re-endorse the deal, which he has derided as “the worst deal ever”.

The move is seen by Iranian officials as a logical and necessary step. The threat of further US sanctions has destabilised Iran’s foreign exchange market in recent months. Bank transactions involving the dollar are already difficult for Iran; sanctions have made US banks unwilling to do business with Tehran; foreign firms can be exposed to sanctions if they do Iranian deals in dollars, even if the operations involve non-US branches.

According to Reuters, Ali Khamenei, who has welcomed the decision to replace the dollar, blamed foreign enemies for the “recent issues in the currency market” and asked Iran’s intelligence services to defuse the plots against the Islamic Republic.

***

RT

Iran will ‘pay a price like few countries have ever paid’ if US is threatened - Trump

April 24, 2018

© Chris Kleponis / Global Look Press

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Iran “will pay a price like few countries have ever paid” if the Middle Eastern nation threatens the US in any way.

The president was speaking at a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron on the second day of Macron’s state visit to Washington.

Trump made his comments while speaking about the impending May 12 deadline to renew the Iran nuclear deal. If Trump does not sign a sanctions waiver by May 12 the deal is void and US sanctions on Iran resume.

“We're going to see what happens on the 12th but Iran threatens us in any way they will pay a price like few countries have ever paid," he warned.

"It will be possible to do a new deal with solid foundations because this is a deal with decayed foundations, it's a bad deal, it's a bad structure, it's falling down and it should have never ever been made," he continued.

Trump has been bitterly opposed to the Iran deal - which restricts Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief - since the Obama administration signed the deal in 2015. Macron has been a proponent of the deal, and told Fox News on Sunday that while the deal is not perfect, “it’s better than the sort of North Korean type of situation.”

'No open season to the Mediterranean' for Iran

Trump turned up the heat on Iran from the beginning of the conference.

“No matter where you go in the Middle East, you see the fingerprints of Iran behind problems,” he said. The president added that other Middle Eastern countries must step in “to prevent Iran from profiting off the success of our anti-ISIS effort.”

About US troops leaving Syria he said that the US wanted to "leave a long and lasting footprint".

"With that being said, Emmanuel and myself have discussed the fact that we don’t want to give Iran open season to the Mediterranean, especially since we really control it to a large extent," he said apparently referring to Iran's access to Syrian ports.

"But with that being said, I do want to come home, but I want to come home also with having accomplished what we have to accomplish."

Macron made a surprising turnaround voicing his willingness to make a new deal.

“We’ve converged on a common reading on what is happening in Syria, Yemen and Iraq,” he said referring to Iranian influence.

"It's about respecting the sovereignty of the states in the region,” he claimed. "It's not about tearing apart an agreement but building something new that will cover all of our concerns."

A senior Iranian official said on Tuesday that Iran might withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) if Trump scraps the Iran deal. Iran has been party to the treaty - which aims to limit the spread of nuclear weapons technology - since 1970.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani also warned Trump to stay in the deal or face “severe consequences.”

Trump is no stranger to bellicose comments like the ones he made on Tuesday. Last August, he said that North Korean threats to the US would be “met with fire and fury and frankly power the likes of which the world has never seen before."

***

Zero Hedge

IRANIAN NAVAL COMMANDER THREATENS TO SINK US SHIPS, CREATE “CATASTROPHIC SITUATION” IF TRUMP KILLS DEAL

“When will they figure this out? When it is too late.”

April 26, 2018

President Donald Trump offered some of his most bellicose rhetoric yet about Iran on Tuesday when he said Iran would have “bigger problems than they have ever had before” if the country’s leadership dared to restart its nuclear program following a US pull-out of the JCPOA (otherwise known as the Iran deal), per the Times of Israel.

And today, a top Iranian general hit back at Trump with an aggressive threat to sink US Navy ships, while warning that the US would find itself in a “catastrophic situation” if it withdraws from the deal and reimposes economic sanctions.

“The actual information that the Americans have about us is much less than what they think they have. When will they figure this out? When it is too late,” the Revolutionary Guard Corps’s navy commander, Admiral Ali Fadavim, told Iranian television on Saturday.

“They will definitely figure it out when their ships are sunk, or when they find themselves in a catastrophic situation,” Fadavi threatened in an interview with IRINN TV, according to a translation by the Middle East Media Research Institute.

On Wednesday, a non-proliferation envoy confirmed that the US isn’t seeking to renegotiate the JCPOA. Instead, the White House would like to pursue a separate agreement like the one French President Emmanuel Macron proposed during a press conference with Trump. And apparently, Macron’s proposal took his European partners by surprise.

Admiral Fadavim’s remarks followed a similarly stern warning from Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

“I am telling those in the White House that if they do not live up to their commitments, the Iranian government will react firmly,” Rouhani said.

“If anyone betrays the deal, they should know that they would face severe consequences,” he added.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif also reiterated over the weekend his warning that Tehran was ready to swiftly resume uranium enrichment if the US ditches the accord.

Meanwhile, Ali Shamkhani, the Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, warned that Iran would consider withdrawing from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty if the US reimposes sanctions.

Of course, by leaving both the Iran deal and the NPT, Iran would only lend credence to its adversaries’ claims that the Islamic Republic is seeking to build a nuclear weapon – an accusation Iran has long denied. The White House has set a self-imposed deadline of May 12 for deciding whether to pull out of the deal.

RT

Russia ‘won’t allow’ another US military action in Syria based on false flag – OPCW envoy

April 26, 2018

© Ruptly

Russia’s envoy to the OPCW said it was crucial to avoid new false-flag attacks in Syria and that Moscow “won’t allow” US military action there, as he described details of Russian findings on the site of the alleged Douma incident.

New false-flag operations against Damascus are “possible, since our American partners are once again threatening to take military action against Syria, but we will not allow that,” Russia’s permanent representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Aleksandr Shulgin, said during a press conference in The Hague on Thursday.

The meeting was called by Russia’s OPCW mission and featured witnesses of the April 7 alleged chemical incident in the city of Douma. It highlighted the findings of Russian military experts, who were among the first to reach the site of the purported attack and locate the “munitions” that supposedly hit the residential buildings.

“Russian experts performed a detailed analysis of the information on the ground,” Major-General Igor Kirillov, the head of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection (RKhBZ) Troops, said. “Two gas cylinders, allegedly dropped by the government forces from helicopters, were found in two apartments.”

The cylinders and the damage they supposedly caused did not fit the tale of an airstrike entirely, Kirillov said. One of the cylinders lacked any makeshift upgrades, such as fins, to make it usable as an aerial munition, and, surprisingly, it was not even deformed.

“An empty gas cylinder found at the top floor. The apartment was partially destroyed earlier by an aerial bomb explosion, parts of roof and outer wall were missing,” Kirillov stated. “Other walls were sprayed with shrapnel. It’s quite peculiar that the cylinder was not deformed, which doesn’t fit its purported fall from a big altitude on concrete floor.”

The other cylinder, while fitted with some crude fins, also remained in nearly pristine condition despite its “fall.” The device miraculously did little to no damage to the room it supposedly hit, besides a large hole in the ceiling, which, however, was unlikely made by the object, according to military specialists.

“The cylinder has partially retained impermeability and is almost undamaged, which is impossible after a fall from some 2,000 meters, the usual altitude used by the Syrian army helicopters,” Kirillov said. “A tail part of an unguided rocket has been uncovered on the roof near the gap in the ceiling. The munition was likely to make the hole, but we cannot rule out an artificial nature of the damage made to the roof, since we discovered a pinch bar at the stairwell of the building.”

The cylinder was likely hauled by the “authors of the staged video” from outside, the official stated, as “multiple chips and dragging marks at the stairwell” indicated. An apartment below was being used by its owner to breed chickens, and all the livestock miraculously “made through the so-called chemical attack alive,” according to Kirillov.

“Moreover, the RKhBZ troops have uncovered a booby-trapped chemical laboratory and chemical stockpile in the city of Douma, which was liberated from the militants. They’ve been presumably used by the terrorists to manufacture toxic substances,” the official said, adding that a chlorine-filled canister that was very similar to the purported munitions used during the Douma incident was recovered from the militant-run warehouse. OPCW-controlled substances, which can be used to produce mustard gas, have been also found there.

The Douma incident was featured in videos released by the controversial White Helmets group and spread through militant-linked social media accounts. It was seemingly taken at face value by the US and its allies, who promptly pinned the blame on Damascus and launched a massive missile strike on the country in “retaliation” on April 14. The attack came hours before the OPCW experts were set to embark on their fact-finding mission in Douma.

The experts have already visited the site of the purported incident. Shulgin, meanwhile, called on the OPCW to visit the chemical laboratories left behind by the militants to see for themselves who is actually behind the use of chemical arms in Syria.

“We urge the OPCW technical secretariat and experts to make use of their time in Syria and examine the undercover underground chemical laboratories of the militants, the terrorists, who used them, as we believe, to produce chemical munitions, including those used for all kinds of false flag attacks,” Shulgin stressed.

***

HAL Turner Radio Show

Mattis: Expect War Between Iran and Israel soon - starting in Syria

April 26, 2018

A military confrontation between Israel and Iran in Syria is becoming increasing likely, US Defense Secretary James Mattis warned on Thursday as his Israeli counterpart was visiting Washington to discuss the threat.

Secretary Mattis delivered his warning of yet another military conflict in the Middle East at a hearing in Congress. Asked if Israel and Iran were edging toward military confrontation, he said: “I can see how it might start, but I am not sure when or where.”

"I think that it's very likely in Syria because Iran continues to do its proxy work there through Hezbollah.”

He accused Iran of not only expanding and strengthening its presence in Syria but also “bringing advanced weapons for Hezbollah through Syria”.

Israel, he said “will not wait to see those missiles in the air and we hope Iran would pull back”.

The Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who met US national security adviser John Bolton and Secretary Mattis on Thursday, also warned of a confrontation with Iran.

"Any site in which we see an Iranian attempt to achieve a military foothold in Syria will be struck. We won't let that happen, regardless of the price," he told the Arabic news website Elaph.

Israel said it carried out air strikes

SPUTNIK

US to Build World's Largest Consulate Facility in Iraqi Kurdistan - Reports

April 23, 2018

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - US Ambassador to Iraq Douglas Silliman and Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani led the groundbreaking ceremony for the world's largest US consulate in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, local media reported Monday.

As of now, the United States rents buildings from local residents and business owners in Erbil's district of Ainkawa to house its consulate, which opened in February 2007 and was upgraded to a consulate general in 2011, the Rudaw news agency reported.

"The new consulate building demonstrates that the United States will stand with the people of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, as they build a future that will be brighter than the past," Silliman said at the ceremony, as quoted by the media outlet.

The ambassador also called for strengthening US-Kurdish business relations.

Barzani, in turn, thanked Silliman and congratulated him on the decision to start construction.

"We see it as a significant and valuable step, and hope that it will be finished successfully at its schedule time," he said.

​Barzani also stressed that the development of relations between the United States and the Kurdistan Region lay "in the framework of the diplomatic relations it has with Iraqi federal government."

The estimated cost of the new US consulate building is $600 million. It will be built on 200,000 square meters (2,152,782 square feet) of land on Erbil-Shaqlawa highway.

(Why would the US want to build the world's largest consulate in Iraqi Kurdistan? Look at the map below. Iraqi Kurdistan borders western Iran, which the US is planning to invade.)

Zero Hedge

GERMANY’S LARGEST PUBLIC TV NEWS BROADCASTER: SYRIA CHEMICAL ATTACK “MOST LIKELY STAGED”

It appears that all local Syrians encountered by the German public broadcast reporter were immediately dismissive of the widespread allegation

APRIL 22, 2018

A senior correspondent for German state media broadcast ZDF heutestunned his European audience during a report from on the ground in Syria when he gave a straightforward and honest account of his findings while investigating what happened in Douma. The veteran reporter, Uli Gack, interviewed multiple eyewitnesses of the April 7 alleged chemical attack and concluded of the testimonials, “the Douma chemical attack is most likely staged, a great many people here seem very convinced.”

It appears that all local Syrians encountered by the German public broadcast reporter were immediately dismissive of the widespread allegation that the Syrian government gassed civilians, which the US, UK, France, and Israel used a pretext for launching missile strikes on Damascus.

ZDF heute: The world continues to puzzle over whether the banned chemical weapons were used in Douma. ZDF correspondent Uli Gack is in Syria for us: “you were in a large refugee camp today and talked to a lot of people – what did you hear about the attack there?” Gack responded, “the Douma chemical attack is most likely staged, a great many people here seem very convinced.”

The German ZDF report is consistent with veteran British journalist Robert Fisk’s investigation upon being the first Western journalist to gain access to the site in Douma. Fisk reported early this week, “There are the many people I talked to amid the ruins of the town who said they had ‘never believed in’ gas stories–which were usually put about, they claimed, by the armed Islamist groups.”

ZDF (Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen) is one of Germany’s largest and oldest state-owned channels, which is funded in part through citizens paying a household licensing fee, and Heute is perhaps the most visible public news program in all of Germany.

According to the live report, some witnesses told ZDF that Islamist rebels killed victims with chlorine, filmed the scenes, then claimed an ‘Assad chemical attack’. Though interviewing “a great many people [who] seem convinced” that a chemical attack did not actually happen, the reporter did not attempt to censor what he consistently heard from locals who were said to be in the area when the events occurred.

Increasingly, it appears that mainstream media gate-keepers are losing it over the fact that so many highly visible and respected reporters and broadcasters have featured reports this week which publicly question the Syrian chemical attack narrative and US coalition missile strikes that followed.

One writer for the Guardian and Daily Beast who is a well-known pro regime-change advocate, for example, laments that “disinformation has taken hold” on Syria. In a series of tweets following Robert Fisk’s bombshell report for the Independent, Emma Beals, who often simply parrots whatever her ‘rebel’ sources tell her reacted to the recent profusion of high profile pundits questioning the established narrative on major British platforms.

Beals wrote:

My educated and informed friends are emailing me en masse asking me about what’s going on in Syria because “it’s so hard to work out the truth.” Having spent years busting a gut to dig it out, it’s heartbreaking to see the extent to which disinformation has taken hold.

Beals advocates what we recently described as the highly simplistic “Disney version” of events in Syria:

Syrian War for Dummies: Disney Version–

Once upon a time, a country called Syria was ruled by a ruthless dictator named Bashar Al-Assad. He was a cruel man who gassed his own people. His actions caused a civil war in Syria. America and Europe tried their best to stop the devastating civil war, and even generously accepted many Syrian refugees. Eventually America went to Syria, defeated ISIS, and is now trying to restore stability.

This above version is quite popular among many Americans and Europeans and the Western mainstream media.

Meanwhile, almost simultaneous to German TV’s ZDF heute report from Syria, lawyers of the Bundestag (German federal parliament) issued a legal brief on the US-led strike on Syria. The government lawyers’ report was requested by the left-wing party Die Linke in response to the US coalition missile strikes which primarily targeted facilities in and around Damascus.

“The deployment of military force against a state to punish it for breaking an international convention is a violation of the international law prohibiting violence,” reads the report, as cited by the German Press agency DPA and translated by Sputnik.

The legal report further concluded that the US-led attack on Syria – which skirted the UN – but which was supported by the German government (though without German military participation) was based in chemical attack claims that the legal team deemed “not convincing”.

***

ZeroHedge

Turkey Will Repatriate All Gold From The US In Attempt To Ditch The Dollar

by Tyler Durden

April 20, 2018

After Venezuela, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands prudently repatriated a substantial portion (if not all) of their physical gold held at the NY Fed or other western central banks in recent years, this morning Turkey also announced that it has decided to repatriate all its gold stored in the US Federal Reserve and deliver it to the Istanbul Stock Exchange, according to reports in Turkey's Yeni Safak. It won't be the first time Turkey has asked the NY Fed to ship the country's gold back: in recent years, Turkey repatriated 220 tons of gold from abroad, of which 28.7 tons was brought back from the US last year.

According to the latest IMF data, Turkey’s gold reserves are estimated at 591 tons, worth just over $23 billion. This makes Ankara the 11th largest gold holder, behind the Netherlands and ahead of India.

Turkey's gold repatriation come at a sensitive time for Turkey's currency, the lira, which has been pounded, and plunged to all time lows against both the dollar and the euro despite runaway, double-digit inflation in Turkey, as the central bank is seemingly afraid of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and refuses to raise rates.

Meanwhile, Erdogan has taken a tough stance against the US currency, criticized dollar loans and saying that international loans should be given in gold instead.

"Why do we make all loans in dollars? Let’s use another currency. I suggest that the loans should be made based on gold,” Erdoğan said during a speech at the Global Entrepreneurship Congress in Istanbul on April 16, according to Hurriyet.

In what some saw an appeal for a gold standard by the Turkish president, Erdogan added that “with the dollar the world is always under exchange rate pressure. We should save states and nations from this exchange rate pressure. Gold has never been a tool of oppression throughout history."

Well, now that Turkey will soon have all of its gold on the ground, Erdogan will be able to launch a gold-backed currency if he so desires. Unfortunately, all signs point to the gold being repatriated only so it can be raided, pillaged and promptly deposited in offshore vaults by members of the ruling oligarchy.

As noted above, Turkey has been one of several countries which have moved their gold from the world's biggest, and most secure gold vault, that located 95 feet below sea level at 33 Liberty Street in Manhattan, also known as the New York Fed.

The repatriation wave began in 2012, when Venezuela announced it was withdrawing all of its 160 tons of gold at the NY Fed, valued at around $9 billion. Germany’s Bundesbank then demanded 300 tons be returned, with the Fed saying it would take seven years to do so; a scrambling Germany was able to complete the process 3 years ahead of schedule. The Netherlands has also repatriated 122.5 tons of gold.

As a result, according to the latest Fed data, the amount of physical gold stored at the NY Fed has dropped to the lowest on record, or 7.819 thousand tons, following a withdrawal scramble that started in 2014 and continued until the end of 2016. After a 15 month hiatus, withdrawals resumed in 2018, with 15.5 tons of gold repatriated in January and February.

“The central banks started the repatriation already a few years ago, meaning before we had Brexit, Catalonia, Trump, AFD or the rising tensions between the Politburo in Brussels and the nations of Eastern Europe,” said Claudio Grass of Precious Metal Advisory in Switzerland.

According to him, the world is becoming less centralized. “If we follow this trend, it should be obvious that the next step should be an even bigger break up into smaller units than the nation state. With such geopolitical fragmentation comes also the decentralization of power."

***

RT

Death knell tolls for the euro as more European nations repatriate gold – expert to RT

April 24, 2018

© Michael Buholzer / Reuters

The latest trend among European countries of bringing home their gold reserves has been raising concerns in Brussels. RT talked to Claudio Grass of Precious Metal Advisory Switzerland to understand what’s behind that trend.

According to Grass, the process means disintegration, which usually comes with instability, unrest, more government intervention and control.

“The central banks started the repatriation already a few years ago, meaning before we had Brexit, Catalonia, Trump, AFD or the rising tensions between the Politburo in Brussels and the nations of Eastern Europe,” he said.

Grass explained that these are all symptoms that are evident today and “therefore the central banks might have seen this coming long before the public realized it.”

He said it is fair to say that the world is moving away from a centralized system.

“If we follow this trend, it should be obvious that the next step should be an even bigger break up into smaller units than the nation states. With such geopolitical fragmentation comes also the decentralization of power.”

Analysts have pointed out that EU countries see gold as insurance in case they end up returning to their national currencies. According to Grass, only a fool believes you can create wealth out of nothing, and use that as a basis for a sustainable system.

“Our system is based on 7 percent paper notes and 93 percent digital units backed up by nothing other than central bank promises to pay back the debt in the future through inflation and taxation.”

He explained that in the Western world, the government is forcing people to give up between 35 and 65 percent of their income and to put it into mandatory vehicles such as pension funds, retirement insurance, taxes, and so on.

“If you take away 100 percent of a person’s fruits of labor it is defined as slavery… So there is still some room but it doesn’t look good either.”

Grass added that with the “accelerating disintegration of the Eurozone and more nationalistic and right-wing parties popping up that have a clear policy, that is going against the EU.”

“It is just a matter of time before the Euro, the most artificial currency ever, is going to collapse,” he concluded.

***

ASIA TIMES

Why Europe is afraid of the New Silk Roads

Many EU countries are concerned about one-way traffic along the new trade routes Beijing is trying to set up to Europe

Pepe Escobar

April 25, 2018

French President Emmanuel Macron (L) and Chinese President Xi Jinping attend a press conference in Beijing on January 9, 2018. Photo: AFP/Ludovic Marin

It came out as a sort of minor scandal – considering the ’24/7 post-truth news cycle.’ Of the 28 EU ambassadors in Beijing, 27, with the exception of Hungary’s, signed an internal report criticizing the New Silk Roads as a non-transparent threat to free trade, allegedly favoring unfair competition by Chinese conglomerates.

The report was first leaked to respected German business newspaper Handelsblatt. EU diplomats in Brussels confirmed its existence to Asia Times. Then the Chinese Foreign Ministry calmed the turbulence, saying that Brussels had explained what this was all about.

In fact, it’s all about nuances. Anyone familiar with how dysfunctional Eurocrat Brussels is knows there’s no EU common policy towards China – or Russia for that matter.

The internal report does mention how China, via the New Silk Roads, or Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), is “pursuing domestic political goals like the reduction of surplus capacity, the creation of new export markets and safeguarding access to raw materials.”

That’s a self-evident Chinese rationale inbuilt in BRI from the start – and Beijing never denied it. After all, the concept itself was first floated inside the Ministry of Commerce, way before the official announcements by President Xi Jinping in Astana and Jakarta in 2013.

Perceptions of the BRI vary across myriad latitudes. Central and Eastern Europe are mostly enthusiastic – as BRI is synonymous with badly needed infrastructure projects. So are Greece and Italy, as Asia Times reported. Northern ports such as Hamburg and Rotterdam are actually configured as BRI terminals. Spain is very much interested in the days when the Yiwu to Madrid cargo train will move to high-speed rail.

Essentially, it all boils down to companies from specific EU nations deciding their degree of integration with what Raymond Yeung, ANZ’s chief economist for greater China, describes as “the biggest economic experiment in modern history.”

Watch those Chinese engineers

The case of France is emblematic. President Emmanuel Macron – now on a massive geopolitical PR offensive to crown himself the unofficial King of Europe – actually praised the BRI when he visited China earlier this year.

But nuance, once again, applies: “After all, the ancient Silk Roads were never only Chinese,” Macron said in Xian at the Daming Palace, the residence of the Ancient Silk Road stalwart Tang dynasty for more than two centuries. “These roads”, added Macron, “cannot be those of a new hegemony, which would transform those that they cross into vassals.”

So Macron was already prepositioning himself to steer EU-China relations away and beyond the number one EU grievance; how the Chinese play the foreign trade/investment game.

Macron has been very vocal in prodding the European Commission bureaucracy to toughen anti-dumping rules against Chinese steel imports and forcing EU-wide screening of takeovers in strategic sectors, especially from China.

In parallel, virtually every EU nation – not only France – wants more access to the Chinese market. As much as Macron has touted an optimistic mantra – “Europe is back” – in terms of EU competitiveness, that barely masks the primordial European fear; the fact that it’s China that may be getting too competitive.

The BRI, for Beijing, is all about geopolitical but most of all geo-economic projection – including the promotion of new global standards and norms that may not be exactly those practiced by the EU. And that brings us to the heart of the matter, not enounced by the leaked internal report; the intersection between BRI and Made in China: 2025.

Beijing is aiming to become a global high-tech leader in less than seven years. Made in China: 2025 identified 10 sectors – including AI, robotics, aerospace, green cars and shipping and shipbuilding – as priorities.

China-Germany bilateral trade, at 187 billion euros last year, is way bigger than China-France and China-UK, at 70 billion euros each. And yes, Berlin is worried. Made in China: 2025 represents a significant “threat” to top quality German companies producing high-end manufacturing goods.

Those days may be over when China bought astonishing amounts of German machinery – plus the inevitable BMWs and Audis. The new normal points to an army of Chinese companies moving up the value-added chain at breakneck speed.

As Bauer CEO Thomas Bauer told Reuters: “(Rivalry with China) will not be a contest against copiers. It will be one against innovative engineers.”

Navigating the blue economy

The report Blue China; Navigating the Maritime Silk Road to Europe usefully expands the scope of the debate, pointing to how the development of the Maritime Silk Road may be even more crucial than overland connectivity corridors.

The report acknowledges how the Maritime Silk Road already affects the EU in terms of maritime trade and shipbuilding, and asks some questions about the increasing global presence of the PLA Navy. It recommends that the EU “should emulate China’s blue economy as an engine of growth and wealth, and encourage innovation to respond to well-funded Chinese industrial and R&D policies.”

The “blue economy” features heavily in Made in China: 2025 – especially in terms of innovation in port infrastructure and shipping. The rationale, from Beijing’s point of view, is always about maritime trade cost cutting – but that, of course, will always depend on whether oil prices will keep going up, as OPEC and Russia are keen.

As it stands, the EU bureaucracy has to be fearful, sensing the possibility of being squeezed between high-tech China and Trump’s America First. And that does not even factor in the inevitable geo-strategic clash between the BRI and the “free and open Indo-Pacific” to be managed, in theory, by the US, Japan, India and Australia; more of a glamorized South China Sea patrol than a vast project of Eurasian economic integration.

There will be an EU-China summit in July and then a German-China summit later in the year. Non-transparent sparks are bound to fly.

The New York Times

India has collected biometric data on most of its 1.3 billion residents, to be used in a nationwide identity system called Aadhaar, meaning “foundation.” The New York Times

By Vindu Goel

April 7, 2018

NEW DELHI — Seeking to build an identification system of unprecedented scope, India is scanning the fingerprints, eyes and faces of its 1.3 billion residents and connecting the data to everything from welfare benefits to mobile phones.

Civil libertarians are horrified, viewing the program, called Aadhaar, as Orwell’s Big Brother brought to life. To the government, it’s more like “big brother,” a term of endearment used by many Indians to address a stranger when asking for help.

For other countries, the technology could provide a model for how to track their residents. And for India’s top court, the ID system presents unique legal issues that will define what the constitutional right to privacy means in the digital age.

To Adita Jha, Aadhaar was simply a hassle. The 30-year-old environmental consultant in Delhi waited in line three times to sit in front of a computer that photographed her face, captured her fingerprints and snapped images of her irises. Three times, the data failed to upload. The fourth attempt finally worked, and she has now been added to the 1.1 billion Indians already included in the program.

“No one has approached that scale and that ambition,” said Jacqueline Bhabha, a professor and research director of Harvard’s FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, who has studied biometric ID systems around the world. “It has been hailed, and justifiably so, as an extraordinary triumph to get everyone registered.”

Critics fear that the government will gain unprecedented insight into the lives of all Indians.

In response, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other champions of the program say that Aadhaar is India’s ticket to the future, a universal, easy-to-use ID that will reduce this country’s endemic corruption and help bring even the most illiterate into the digital age.

The Modi government has also ordered Indians to link their IDs to their cellphone and bank accounts. States have added their own twists, like using the data to map where people live. Some employers use the ID for background checks on job applicants.

“Aadhaar has added great strength to India’s development,” Mr. Modi said in a January speech to military cadets. Officials estimate that taxpayers have saved at least $9.4 billion from Aadhaar by weeding out “ghosts” and other improper beneficiaries of government services.

Opponents have filed at least 30 cases against the program in India’s Supreme Court. They argue that Aadhaar violates India’s Constitution — and, in particular, a unanimous court decision last year that declared for the first time that Indians had a fundamental right to privacy.

Rahul Narayan, one of the lawyers challenging the system, said the government was essentially building one giant database on its citizens. “There has been a sort of mission creep to it all along,” he said.

The court has been holding extensive hearings and is expected to make a ruling in the spring.

The government argues that the universal ID is vital in a country where hundreds of millions of people do not have widely accepted identification documents.

“The people themselves are the biggest beneficiaries,” said Ajay B. Pandey, the Minnesota-trained engineer who leads the Unique Identification Authority of India, the government agency that oversees the system. “This identity cannot be refused.”

Businesses are also using the technology to streamline transactions.

Banks once sent employees to the homes of account applicants to verify their addresses. Now, accounts can be opened online and finished with a fingerprint scan at a branch or other authorized outlet. Reliance Jio, a telecom provider, relies on an Aadhaar fingerprint scan to conduct the government-mandated ID check for purchases of cellphone SIM cards. That allows clerks to activate service immediately instead of forcing buyers to wait a day or two.

But the Aadhar system has also raised practical and legal issues.

Although the system’s core fingerprint, iris and face database appears to have remained secure, at least 210 government websites have leaked other personal data — such as name, birth date, address, parents’ names, bank account number and Aadhaar number — for millions of Indians. Some of that data is still available with a simple Google search.

As Aadhaar has become mandatory for government benefits, parts of rural India have struggled with the internet connections necessary to make Aadhaar work. After a lifetime of manual labor, many Indians also have no readable prints, making authentication difficult. One recent study found that 20 percent of the households in Jharkand state had failed to get their food rations under Aadhaar-based verification — five times the failure rate of ration cards.

“This is the population that is being passed off as ghosts and bogus by the government,” said Reetika Khera, an associate professor of economics at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, who co-wrote the study.

Seeing these problems, some local governments have scaled back the use of Aadhaar for public benefits. In February, the government for the Delhi region announced that it would stop using Aadhaar to deliver food benefits.

Dr. Pandey said that some problems were inevitable but that his agency was trying to fix them. The government is patching security holes and recently added face recognition as an alternative to fingerprint or iris scans to make it easier to verify identities.

Fears that the Indian government could use Aadhaar to turn the country into a surveillance state, he said, are overblown. “There is no central authority that has all the information,” he said.

Before Aadhaar, he said, hundreds of millions of Indians could not easily prove who they were.

“If you are not able to prove your identity, you are disenfranchised,” he said. “You have no existence.”

against Iranian and Syrian targets in Syria in February after one its F16 fighter jets was downed near the Syrian border.

RT

Historic meeting between North & South Korea leaders kicks off

April 27, 2018

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un shakes hands with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, April 27, 2018 © Host Broadcaster via Reuters

The much-awaited summit between Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in has begun in the "truce village" of Panmunjom. It is the first time the leaders of the two nations sat down for talks in over a decade.

The first inter-Korean summit since 2007, when Kim's late father Kim Il-sung met then-South Korean leader Roh Moo-hyun, is drawing all the eyes, coming ahead of the highly anticipated meeting between Kim and US President Donald Trump.

North Korea's nuclear program, whose rapid advancement triggered belligerent threats from the US President, ramping up tensions in the peninsula to the boiling point in late 2017, is expected to dominate the Friday meeting, which is taking place less than a week after Pyongyang announced a freeze of all nuclear and missile exercises and a closure of a major test site.

The meeting is also of a high symbolic value. By crossing the South Korean border on foot to be greeted by Moon on the other side, Kim makes history, becoming the first North Korean leader to set foot on South Korean soil since the war between the two ended in 1953.

Kim and Moon shook hands at the demarcation line, smiling as they posed for photos. At one moment, the two leaders briefly stepped into the North Korean territory before coming back to the southern part of the border, where they were welcome by Korea’s National Guard.

Before a meeting behind closed doors began, Kim left a note in the guest book of the “peace house.” “A new history starts now. An age of piece from the starting point of history,” it reads.

The summit caps several months of swiftly mounting tension followed by a cautious thaw. September 2017 saw North Korea's sixth and the most powerful nuclear test so far, as well as the test launch of a new type of long-range ballistic missile which it claimed can reach the US.

In response, South Korea and the US held a number of military drills on North Korea's shores. Trump threatened Pyongyang with "fire and fury" in August and later derided Kim as "a rocket man on a suicide mission." The war of words, as well as the shows of force, have since subsided, and Trump has swung to hailing "big progress" in North's denuclearization and calling Kim "very honorable and very open."

Friday's inter-Korean talks come in two rounds. After the first session, which kicked off at 10:30 local time [1:30 GMT], the two leaders are set to take lunch separately and then plant a pine tree on the border to serve as a "symbol of peace and prosperity."Making the move even more symbolic is the fact that the tree is planted with a mix of soil from the both countries' mountains and water from their rivers. The sapling itself dates back to 1953, the year when the armistice agreement was struck between the South and North.

Following the ceremony, Kim and Moon will resume talks, at the end of which they will sign a pact and make an announcement, according to the South's presidential chief of staff, Im Jong-seok, who revealed the details of the summit to the media.

As symbolically significant as the talks between the two Korean leaders are, Kim's next high-level meeting is seen as both much more important and much less predictable. Kim is set to hold talks with Donald Trump in either May or June. Trump repeatedly said that he was "looking forward" to meeting the North Korean leader, but warned that he might walk away from the talks if they do not live up to his expectations.

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RT

Qatar govt. must send troops to Syria or lose US support and be toppled – Saudi FM

April 25, 2018

U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis (C) is greeted by military dignitaries as he arrives at Al Udeid Air Base in Doha, Qatar April 21, 2017. © Jonathan Ernst / Reuters

Riyadh appears to be trying to bully regional rival and fellow US ally Qatar into going to war in Syria, with the Saudi foreign minister citing the US leader's call for "wealthy" nations to stump up and send boots to the ground.

In his interpretation of US President Donald Trump's appeal to the affluent states in the region, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Jubeir issued a thinly veiled threat to Doha, arguing the Qatari government will not last a week after the US cuts off its military support.

Qatar must "send its military forces (to Syria), before the US president cancels US protection of Qatar, which consists of the presence of a US military base on its territory," Jubeir said on Wednesday, as cited by the ministry's media center.

Should the US withdraw some 10,000 servicemen currently stationed at Al-Udeid air base near Doha, the government "would fall there in less than a week," Jubeir argued.

The Saudi top diplomat was referring to the remark Trump made during a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday.

Reiterating his pledge to pull US forces out of Syria "as soon as possible," Trump pointed to "countries that are in the area, some of which are immensely wealthy" that should pick up the baton in Syria after the US withdraws.

"They wouldn't last a week. We're protecting them," the US leader said, urging for those who enjoy America's goodwill to "step up and pay for what's happening."

Al-Udeid is currently the largest US military base in the Middle East, and since the launch of the US-led coalition campaign against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) it has gained importance for the US military. Qatar's own army is one of the smallest in the region, with some 12,000 active military personnel, according to the GlobalFirepower.com.

In January, the Qatari Defense Minister outlined a far-reaching expansion of US military presence in the country and a potential US Navy deployment after it completes renovations of its naval ports. He also expressed hope that the base will one day become permanent. "Colleagues in the US Department of Defense are reluctant to mention the word permanent, but we are working from our side to make it permanent," he said.

During his press conference with Macron, Trump implied that the US has already persuaded its allies in the region to splash on the costly Syria campaign and deploy troops there.

"We've spoken to them. They will pay for it. The United States will not continue to pay. And they will also put soldiers on the ground, which they're not doing," Trump said.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Washington reached out to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, asking them to fork out billions of dollars for Syria's redevelopment and also to send troops.

While Trump has been courting Saudi Arabia, choosing the conservative Gulf Kingdom as the first stop on his maiden foreign trip as the US president and striking arms deals worth billions of dollars with Riyadh, Qatar remains a stern US ally as well, despite its lingering beef with the Saudis.

Qatar and Saudi Arabia have been embroiled in ongoing diplomatic strife since June last year, when Saudi Arabia, as well as the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Yemen, cut ties with the country over claims that it supports terrorism.

Immediately after, Trump fueled the row with an unlikely intervention, calling Qatar a "high-level sponsor of terrorism" and claiming credit for inciting the crisis. While the dispute is still not settled, the tensions between the Saudi-led block and Qatar appeared to have calmed down recently. Earlier this month, the Qatari military took part in joint Gulf Shield exercises that ended in Saudi Arabia on April 16 and saw 23 countries participating.

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STRANGE SOUNDS

Island of no return: Vanuatu evacuates entire population of volcanic Ambae – Thousands permanently resettled as Manaro volcano spews ash 30cm deep

April 19, 2018

Thousands of south Pacific islanders at the mercy of an active volcano will be permanently relocated by the end of May, the Vanuatu government has said. Ash as deep as 30cm has already settled on many parts of the island, and people are experiencing breathing difficulties, skin reactions and illnesses such as chest infections as they waited to leave. Islanders are frightened and can not wait to get away.

Full article and photos here:

STRANGE SOUNDS

Intense auroras shoot out in the sky like lava during a volcanic eruption as solar storm slams Earth

April 24, 2018

These pictures were captured at latitude 64, in Chukotka in the Far East region of Russia on April 21, 2018 as a consequence of an intense interplanetary shock wave. And the photographs tell more about the power of this G2 geomagnetic storm. Look by yourself, the filamentous auroras seem to shoot out in the sky like lava being ejected during a volcanic eruption. WOW!

Photos

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The Organic Prepper (US fruit and vegetables. Ed)

EWG’s 2018 Dirty Dozen and Clean 15 Lists (and Why “Experts” Are Telling Us to Ignore Them)

It’s that time of the year again! EWG has announced it’s annual “Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen” list of the foods that are the most contaminated with pesticides. Meanwhile, nutrition “experts” are telling consumers that the list isn’t important and that we should completely ignore the shopper’s guide.

Why is this list so important?

“It is vitally important that everyone eats plenty of produce, but it is also wise to avoid dietary exposure to toxic pesticides, from conception through childhood,” said Sonya Lunder, senior analyst with EWG. “With EWG’s guide, consumers can fill their fridges and fruit bowls with plenty of healthy conventional and organic produce that isn’t contaminated with multiple pesticide residues.”

Studies suggest that consuming pesticide-laden food can result in many different health issues.

After countless studies, pesticides have been linked to cancer, Alzheimer’s Disease, ADHD, and even birth defects. Pesticides also have the potential to harm the nervous system, the reproductive system, and the endocrine system. Pesticides can even be very harmful to fetuses because the chemicals can pass from the mother during pregnancy or if a woman nurses her child. Although one piece of fruit with pesticides won’t kill you, if they build up in your body, they can be potentially detrimental to your health and should be avoided as much as possible.

Since most of us can’t afford a diet of organic, locally-grown pesticide-free food, the Environmental Working Group came up with an annual list that can help you decide what to buy conventional and what to buy organic. Here were some of their most important findings this year:

• More than one-third of strawberry samples analyzed in 2016 contained 10 or more pesticide residues and breakdown products.

• More than 98 percent of samples of strawberries, peaches, potatoes, nectarines, cherries and apples tested positive for residue of at least one pesticide.

• Spinach samples had, on average, almost twice as much pesticide residue by weight compared to any other crop.

• Avocados and sweet corn were the cleanest. Less than 1 percent of samples showed any detectable pesticides.

• More than 80 percent of pineapples, papayas, asparagus, onions and cabbages had no pesticide residues.

• No single fruit sample from the Clean Fifteen tested positive for more than four pesticides.

Read on for the EWG’s lists.

The Dirty Dozen: These are the most contaminated foods

When you go shopping, you should look for the organic version of these foods. The conventional varieties have the highest levels of pesticides that you’ll find.

1. Strawberries

2. Spinich

3. Nectarines

4. Apples

5. Grapes

6. Peaches

7. Cheries

8. Pears

9. Tomatos

10. Celery

11. Pototos

12. Sweet bell peppers

The Clean 15: These are the less contaminated foods

The Clean 15 list suggests the produce that is least likely to contain pesticide residue. However, if you’re avoiding GMOs, it’s important to note that this list does not take genetic modification into account – this is only about pesticides.

1. Avocados

2. Sweet corn

3. Pinapple

4. Cabbage

5. Onions

6. Frozen

7. Papaya

8. Asparagus

9. Mangos

10. Eggplant

11. Honeydew melon

12. Kiwi

13. Cantalope

14. Cauliflower

15. Broccoli

But many “experts” are saying we should ignore the Dirty Dozen list.

Sadly, many people touted as nutrition experts say that the lists aren’t relevant.

Here’s what some of them had to say.

“Pro-choice” nutritionist Toby Amidor wrote:

These “shoppers’ guides” are a disservice to consumers and confusing because they are not based upon sound science and are often in direct conflict…Among the key findings, misleading messaging which inaccurately describes certain fruits and vegetables as having “higher” pesticide residues results in low-income shoppers reporting that they would be less likely to purchase any fruits and vegetables – organic or conventional. There is a plethora of research which shows eating any form of fruit and vegetables provides more health benefits than skipping them altogether.

Carl K. Winter, PhD, food toxicologist and vice chair of food science and technology at the University of California Davis:

[Winter] says the amounts of pesticides found on produce are ”tiny”…Based on the report, he says, “I worry that people are becoming concerned when they should not be.” (source)

The Alliance for Food and Farming (AFF) says that the EWG’s conclusions are “unsupportable”:

A University of California toxicology analysis found that a child could eat hundreds to thousands of servings of a fruit or vegetable in a day and still not have any effects from pesticide residues. This shows how minute residues are, if present at all.

According to the FDA, washing produce under running tap water can reduce and often eliminate pesticide residues, if they are present at all.

Scientists and health experts have urged consumers not to rely on this type of list to make produce shopping choices since these lists are not science-based and often provide contrasting recommendations.

Teresa Thorne, director of the Alliance for Food and Farming, an industry group representing farmers who grow both organic and conventional fruits and vegetables:

[Thorne] says ”the report is not science-based.” She points out that much of the research finding benefits to a diet rich in fruits and vegetables has been done on conventionally grown produce, not organic.

I think the potential bias with the “Alliance for Food and Farmers” is obvious.

So what’s a shopper to do?

First of all, we each have to try and provide the best nutrition possible for our families while remaining within our budgets. (I wrote a popular article on making these decisions that you can find right here.) However, I sincerely believe that avoiding pesticides as much as possible is extremely important. I use the Dirty Dozen and Clean 15 guide for my own family when making choices about what to purchase at the grocery store.

Pesticides are, by their very nature, poison. Why on earth would I deliberately feed them to my children? Pesticides aren’t the only concern out there in Groceryland, so I recommend avoiding them whenever possible.

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Until next week...keep on believing.
Almondtree Productions

“Keep me as the apple of the eye from those that resist thy right hand: thou shalt screen me by the covering of thy wings.”
(Psalm 17:8)