“And
this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the
Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will
raise him up at the last day.”
(John 6:40)
Raise
Him Up
***
JEWISHPRESS.com
Ambassador Friedman in Washington to Plan ‘Peace Deal of the Century’
By David Israel
June 11, 2018
US ambassador to Israel David Friedman has been called for urgent discussions on the Middle East peace plan at the White House and will therefore be absent from a conference of the American Jewish Committee in Jerusalem, Israel Hayom reported Sunday night.
Ambassador Friedman left a recorded greeting for the conference delegates, saying, “I’m sorry I cannot be with you this evening at the conference. By the time you see this greeting, I’ll be in Washington.”
Confirming that he was away to discuss President Trump’s peace plan, which the latter once described as the “peace deal of the century,” the ambassador said at the start of the video that he is in Washington “in consultations on the administration’s evolving peace plan. Wish us luck.”
Friedman’s trip to the White House confirms many recent reports that the Trump administration is about to present its peace plan soon. Israel Hayom cited a source in the White House who intimated that “the plan is not yet ready but has entered its final stages.”
On Sunday, in an op-ed in ha’aretz, President Trump’s Mideast Envoy Jason Greenblatt criticized PA negotiator Saeb Erekat for his outbursts against moving the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and declared: “We must all join together to reject such unhelpful rhetoric and false claims if we hope to achieve peace. For far too long, the United States has turned a deaf ear to such words, but ignoring hateful and false words has not brought peace and it will never bring peace.”
The embassy move, according to Greenblatt, “was not, as Dr. Erekat baselessly claimed, part of a US attempt to force an Israeli-written agreement on the Palestinians. To the contrary, as President Trump declared in his official proclamation last December, he recognizes that ‘the specific boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem are subject to final status negotiations between the parties,’ and he reaffirms that ‘the United States continues to support the status quo at the Temple Mount, also known as Haram al-Sharif.’”
***
RT
Nothing to see here! Israeli ministers approve ‘unconstitutional’ bill to ban filming of IDF actions
June 18, 2018
FILE PHOTO: Israeli soldiers in the West Bank city of Hebron © Mussa Qawasma / Reuters
A controversial bill that criminalizes filming IDF soldiers has been advanced by an Israeli government committee. The Israeli Attorney General, however, said it would not withstand a constitutional review in its current form.
The Ministerial Committee for Legislation, which determines the coalition government’s position on all pending bills, has green-lighted the legislation, which envisages penalties of up to five years in prison for anyone filming or publishing footage showing Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) with an aim to “harm [soldiers’] spirits.” (* See below.)It is to be debated in the parliament this week. However, Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit said he considers the bill to be “problematic” from a legal point of view, adding that he would not be able to defend it in court.
The legislation “presents serious legal problems,” Mendelblit said, in a letter he sent to the government committee, adding that it is unlikely to be upheld by the Supreme Court as it apparently contradicts Israel’s basic laws in its current form.
The legislation, which was proposed in April by right-wing politicians and backed by the Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, says the sentence could be doubled to as much as 10 years if a published footage “harms the state’s security.”"For many years Israel has witnessed a worrisome phenomenon in which IDF soldiers are being documented via video, stills photography and audio recordings by anti-Israeli and pro-Palestinian groups such as B’Tselem, the women of Machsom Watch, Breaking the Silence and various BDS groups,"explanatory notes to the legislation say, listing the groups that are apparently targeted by the bill.
Those behind the controversial legislation also accused the NGOs of spending “entire days” waiting for any action by the Israeli forces, which they could then “document in a biased way to slander the IDF.” “The time has come to end this practice of left-wing organizations and activists, backed by foreign entities, having a free hand to videotape IDF soldiers while they fulfill their duty,” Robert Ilatov, the head of the parliamentary right-wing faction that proposed the bill, told the Jerusalem Post.
Following the Attorney General’s concerns, the bill’s proponents eventually agreed to amend it. However, the bill must first be presented in the parliament in its current form and would then be amended only during the debate, Israeli media report.
According to the reports, the amended version of the bill is expected to ban “interfering with IDF activities and preventing soldiers from fulfilling their duties but would not put a blanket ban on documenting the Israeli soldiers’ actions. It would also envisage a penalty of three years instead of five for a breach of this law.
‘Tyrants restrict the rights of people … democracies do not’
The legislation has provoked angry reaction from various rights groups and activists who document the abuses committed by Israeli soldiers. The B’Tselem group particularly said that it will proceed with its work and “no stupid law could stop it.”
“If the government is embarrassed over the occupation, it should work to bring it to an end. In any case, visual footage of life under occupation will continue. This is a fact of life that no idiotic proposed bill will change,” the group said, according to the Israeli Haaretz newspaper.
The New Israel Fund, which funds B’Tselem, criticized the legislation as well. “In Israel, as elsewhere in the world, video footage of police and military activity has become an important tool for human rights groups and the media,” the fund’s CEO, Daniel Sokatch, told the Israeli media.
"It’s part of how citizens can blow the whistle on wrongdoing by authorities. We’ve seen that from Abu Ghraib to the case of Philando Castile. Tyrants restrict the rights of people to record what happens around them; democracies do not,” he added.
Videos showing Israeli soldiers gloating and cheering while shooting Palestinians have surfaced on social media on numerous occasions. One such clip shows an Israeli sniper shooting a motionless Palestinian to the sound of cheers, while another one portrayed a sniper openly using a Palestinian as “target practice.”
The bill, proposed amid world condemnation of Israeli violence at the Palestinian’s ‘Great March of Return’ protests –which saw 120 people killed– was earlier slammed by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). If IDF troops have nothing to hide, “there is no harm in documenting their actions against Palestinians,” the PLO statement read.
(This is very close to the same reason given that caused Jeremiah the prophet to be cast into a pit in the prison to die: “And Saphanias the son of Nathan, and Godolias the son of Paschor, and Joachal the son of Semelias, heard the words which Jeremias spoke to the people, saying,
Thus saith the Lord; He that remains in this city shall die by the sword, and by the famine: but he that goes out to the Chaldeans shall live; and his soul shall be given him for a found treasure, and he shall live. For thus saith the Lord; This city shall certainly be delivered into the hands of the host of the king of Babylon, and they shall take it. And they said to the king, Let that man, we pray thee, be slain, for he weakens the hands of the fighting men that are left in the city, and the hands of all the people, speaking to them according to these words: for this man does not prophesy peace to this people, but evil. Then the king said, Behold, he is in your hands. For the king could not resist them. And they cast him into the dungeon of Melchias the king’s son, which was in the court of the prison; and they let him down into the pit: and there was no water in the pit, but mire: and he was in the mire” Jeremiah 45:1-6 Septuagint, Jeremiah 38:1-6 KJV)
***
RT
‘Occupied’ East Jerusalem: Prince William infuriates Israel with statement on royal visit
June 23, 2018
© Hannah Mckay / Reuters
Prince William has angered Israel’s Jerusalem Affairs Minister Zeev Elkin by referring to East Jerusalem as part of the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), in a statement detailing his upcoming trip to the Middle East.
In a facebook post, Israel’s Elkin was enraged by the Prince’s OPT reference, claiming Jerusalem was “unified” and “has been the capital of Israel for over 3,000 years.”
Elkin wrote: “It’s regrettable that Britain chose to politicise the Royal visit. Unified Jerusalem has been the capital of Israel for over 3,000 years and no twisted wording of the official press release will change the reality. I’m expecting the prince’s staff to fix this distortion.”
The Duke of Cambridge is due to arrive in the region on June 25 to embark on a tour of Jordan, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. As part of that tour, the prince will visit the occupied Old City of Jerusalem.
Kensington Palace has released a statement detailing that the prince would be meeting Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, as well as visiting refugee communities; enabling him to enjoy the company of young Palestinians and “celebrate Palestinian culture, music and food.”
It’s details of the prince’s second day that has infuriated Elkin. The statement goes on to say: "The next day’s programme in the Occupied Palestinian Territories will begin with a short briefing on the history and geography of Jerusalem's Old City from a viewing point at the Mount of Olives."
The Old City is located in East Jerusalem which has been considered occupied since 1967 under international law. Furthermore, the UN Security Council considers “all legislative and administrative measures and actions taken by Israel, including expropriation of land and properties thereon, which tend to change the legal status of Jerusalem are invalid and cannot change that status.”
Official details have not yet been released on what religious sites will be included in the prince’s trip but, according to Israeli news website Ynet News, an informed source has said that William would visit Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Church of Saint John the Baptist and Al-Buraq (Western) Wall.
***
CHRISTIAN HEADLINES
Scripture Affirmed: 90 Percent Of Animals Formed Recently Alongside Humans, New Study Shows
Michael Foust | ChristianHeadlines.com Contributor | Friday, June 8, 2018
A new genetic study showing that 90 percent of animals appeared on the Earth simultaneously and at the same time as humans affirms the biblical account of creation, says Ken Ham, founder and president of Answers in Genesis.
The study, published in the journal Human Evolution, examined the “DNA barcodes” from 100,000 animal species and showed that “nine out of 10 species on Earth today, including humans, came into being 100,000 to 200,000 years ago,” according to Phys.org.
The study’s conclusion goes against evolutionary theory.
“This conclusion is very surprising, and I fought against it as hard as I could,” researcher David Thaler of the University of Basel in Switzerland told AFP.
As Phys.org reported, the findings are “sure to jostle, if not overturn, more than one settled idea about how evolution unfolds.”
The research raised the possibility that a catastrophic event wiped out most of the life on Earth 100,000 to 200,000 years ago.
But Ham said the research affirms what Scripture says about life’s origins. Creationists believe the catastrophic event was the flood.
“Evolution doesn’t expect the vast majority of our species to have arrived at the same time, nor does it expect species to have these clear genetic boundaries,” he said. “But this is what we’d expect in a biblical worldview -- indeed it’s what creationists have been saying all along, although their timeframe of 100,000–200,000 years is inflated, due to evolutionary assumptions.”
Nathaniel Jeanson, who hold a Ph.D. from Harvard and is a research biologist at Answers in Genesis, added that “there's a great danger to the evolutionary model in this study in ways they don't quite realize yet.”
“The study suggests many, many species formed contemporaneously with modern human origins,” Jeanson said. “We know from mitochondrial DNA clocks that modern humans formed within the last 6,000 years. Therefore, this study implies that many, many species formed within the last 6,000 years.”
***
LIFE SITE
Canada’s top court rules against Christian law school: LGBT ‘rights’ trump religious freedom
June 15, 2018
OTTAWA, June 15, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) –
In a pair of 7-2 rulings the court ruled that it was "proportionate and reasonable" for the law societies of British Columbia and Ontario to refuse accreditation to future Trinity Western University students because the proposed Christian law school’s "community covenant" would discriminate against LGBTQ people.
"In our respectful view, the [law societies] decision not to accredit Trinity Western University's proposed law school represents a proportionate balance between the limitation on the Charter right at issue and the statutory objectives the [law societies] sought to pursue," the ruling stated.
The ruling means that future grads from Trinity Western University's law school — if the school, in fact, opens — will not be able to practice law in Ontario and B.C.
TWU, a private Christian college associated with the Evangelical Free Church, requires students to sign a commitment to refrain from any sexual activity “that violates the sacredness of marriage between a man and a woman.”
A majority of five judges, Rosalie Abella, Michael Moldaver, Andromache Karakatsanis, Richard Wagner and Clement Gascon ruled the law societies’ decisions were reasonable.
Then-Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin and Justice Malcolm Rowe agreed but for different reasons, set out in separate opinions.
“Freedom of religion protects the rights of religious adherents to hold and express beliefs through both individual and communal practices. Where a religious practice impacts others, however, this can be taken into account at the balancing stage. In this case, the effect of the mandatory Covenant is to restrict the conduct of others,” McLachlin wrote in her opinion on the appeal by the Law Society of British Columbia.
“The LSBC’s decision prevents the risk of significant harm to LGBTQ people who feel they have no choice but to attend TWU’s proposed law school. These individuals would have to deny who they are for three years to receive a legal education. Being required by someone else’s religious beliefs to behave contrary to one’s sexual identity is degrading and disrespectful.”
Justices Brown and Côté dissented, writing that the majority “betrays the promise of our Constitution that rights limitations must be demonstrably justified.”
"Under the LSBC’s governing statute, the only proper purpose of a law faculty approval decision is to ensure the fitness of individual graduates to become members of the legal profession. The LSBC’s decision denying approval to TWU’s proposed law school has a profound impact on the s. 2 (a) rights of the TWU community,” they wrote.
“Even if the LSBC’s statutory ‘public interest’ mandate were to be interpreted such that it had the authority to take considerations other than fitness into account, approving the proposed law school is not contrary to the public interest objectives of maintaining equal access and diversity in the legal profession. Nor does it condone discrimination against LGBTQ persons. In our view, then, the only decision reflecting a proportionate balancing between Charter rights and the LSBC’s statutory objectives would be to approve TWU’s proposed law school.”
Observers predicted the top court’s highly anticipated Trinity Western University decision would have far-reaching implications for faith-based institutions and their participation in society.
The Supreme Court heard two appeals, one brought by TWU and the other by the Law Society of British Columbia, as well as arguments from a staggering 32 interveners, represented by 56 lawyers, last November 30 and December 1.
Then-Chief Justice Beverly McLachlin made an unprecedented decision in August to allow all 26 LGBTQ interveners, overruling a previous decision by Justice Richard Wagner to pare the number down to fit a traditional one-day hearing.
Underscoring the political nature of the case, McLachlin did so after LGBTQ activists took to Twitter to complain. The Court subsequently took the rare step of issuing a press release explaining the decision.
Friday’s rulings end a legal odyssey that began when TWU applied in 2012 to open a law school, but was preemptively challenged by the law societies in British Columbia, Ontario, and Nova Scotia.
They refused to grant accreditation to TWU graduates on the grounds that the Covenant violated Charter equality provisions by discriminating against homosexual, bisexual, and transgendered persons, as well as those with a different sexual moral code.
In the case of BC, the decision was based on a binding referendum the law society held in 2014 after members demanded it rescind a decision to accept TWU graduates.
TWU fought the ruling in all provinces, arguing the Charter protects its freedom of religion.
It won in Nova Scotia and B.C., but lost in Ontario, when Ontario Court of Appeal ruled in June 2016 TWU’s covenant “is deeply discriminatory to the LGBTQ community.”
Both TWU and B.C.’s law society appealed to the top court.
Interveners in the case included Ontario’s Liberal government, which compared Trinity’s covenant to treating LGBTQ persons as Ontario treated Jews 200 years ago by banning non-Christians from the legal profession.
Other groups intervening against TWU included West Coast LEAF; Start Proud; Egale Canada Human Rights Trust; British Columbia Humanist Association; Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Trans People of the University of Toronto; and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.
Among groups intervening for TWU were the Catholic Civil Rights League, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, Association for Reformed Political Action, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver, and the National Coalition of Catholic Trustees Association.
TWU fought and won a similar legal battle in 2001, when the Supreme Court of Canada ruled the B.C. College of Teachers could not deny accreditation to TWU education graduates because of the community covenant.
WND
CRITICIZE 'CHILD ABUSE' ON FACEBOOK, GET BANNED FOR 'HATE SPEECH'
Controversial video shows adult indoctrinating 5-year-olds to identify as 'gay allies'
June17, 2018
Jessi Cruickshank celebrates “gay” pride with children (CBC)
Posting a video on Facebook in which an adult is seen enthusiastically indoctrinating very young children in the wonders of being homosexual, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, a “gay icon,” or at the very least a “gay ally,” is just fine.
But criticizing the video on Facebook, however mildly, is “hate speech.”
That’s the bizarre message the social-media giant delivered to Robert A.J. Gagnon, Ph.D., associate professor of New Testament at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, who was blocked from Facebook for 24 hours for supposedly engaging in “hate speech” when he briefly criticized the shocking video.
First, the video:
In it, pro-homosexual Canadian television host Jessi Cruickshank promotes to young children “sexual diversity,” “coming out of the closet,” the importance of kids being “gay allies,” and even explains how she had questions about her own sexuality as a child when she watched, over and over, a nude Jodie Foster cavort onscreen.
The video was made by CBC Life, a taxpayer-funded subsidiary of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
It shows children in a room decorated birthday party-style with gay pride flags and rainbow balloons. Cruickshank begins, “Happy pride, everybody!”
Gagnon’s comments?
“This clip is about celebrating sexual perversity, not ‘sexual diversity.’ Brought to you by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Canadian equivalent to our PBS, paid for by tax dollars. No indoctrination or recruitment going on here (or on PBS), right? Any resemblance to Orwell’s Big Brother (or Kim Jong Un) is purely coincidental? It is a measure of how corrupt things have become that this woman is not vilified throughout Canada and legislators are not threatening to remove funding from the CBC. By the end the woman is talking to little children about [Jodie] Foster helping her to question her own sexuality as a child and about Foster’s nudity in a film.”
That, Facebook’s judge and jury decided, deserved a suspension.
***
WND
INTERNET CHAOS 1 STEP CLOSER?
EU committee adopts provision that is viewed as ban on links
June 20, 2018
Is chaos on the internet one step closer?
Analysts are suggesting that’s a fair summation after the European Union’s committee on legal affairs voted Wednesday in favor of a new Copyright Directive that, while mostly updating technical language, does include a provision critics consider a virtual ban on web links.
Also, a provision to create massive new levels of liability for websites.
Only a day ago, WND reported on warnings from tech websites regarding the proposals.
While the result of the vote, and its impact in the United States, remains uncertain at this point, it raised alarms from The Next Webover the “extremely controversial Copyright Reform.”
There, contributor Mar Masson Maack warned that the EU demands could include upload filters, ancillary copyright and restrictions on text and data mining.
“It’s not certain how the vote will go as members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are still split on key articles of the reform, but whatever the conclusion will be, it’s certain that it’ll greatly affect the future of the internet in the EU and beyond. The result will form the EU Parliament’s stance on copyright and will have huge implications for the final stage of the law making process,” Mack wrote.
The blog continued, “The most contested parts of the Copyright Reform are – and always have been – articles 11 and 13; the former concerns ancillary copyright and link tax, while the latter deals with uploading filters and censorship machines.”
At the Verge, a report Wednesday said the EU took “the first step in passing new copyright legislation that critics say will tear the internet apart.”
It cited concern over Article 11, “a ‘link tax,’ which would force online platforms like Facebook and Google to buy licenses from media companies before linking to their stories; and Article 13, an ‘upload filter,’ which would require that everything uploaded online in the EU is checked for copyright infringement.”
The report said, “EU lawmakers critical of the legislation say these articles may have been proposed with good intentions – like protecting copyright owners – but are vaguely worded and ripe for abuse.”
MEP Julie Reda said the fight actually is not over, because the radical ideas have to be approved by the European Parliament later. A vote schedule hasn’t been announced yet.
The Verge reported Joe McNamee, of the digital rights group EDRi, said the result was disappointing, but the opposition is growing.
“I was told that the volume of calls, emails, and texts everyone in the Parliament has been getting has led people not in the [JURI] committee to start getting worried,” he said. “This momentum is pushing down the likely majority [in the European Parliament] every day.”
Concluded the Verge, “If the legislation is passed in its current form, it would have a devastating effect. Article 13, for example, would require the creation of an automatic filter for all online content uploaded in the EU, checking it against a database of copyright licenses. The system would be costly to create, impossible to keep up-to-date, and easily gamed by copyright trolls.”
Matt Drudge, the king of news aggregators, comment several years ago during an interview that should that standard be adopted, it would be all over for his operations.
At the time, he warned it could be that “they’re going to make it so you can’t even use headlines.”
Similar legislation already has failed in Spain and Germany, but Raegan MacDonald, EU principal at Mozilla, which has a browser presence online, said there remains a ton of confusion.
“I think there would be a whole lot of confusion. I think there’ll probably be a lot of negative implications that we haven’t even thought of right now because the system is so confusing and so ill thought out. There’s no upside to it. I think we’ll see a lot of damaging effects there,” she said in the Next Web article.
It said, “Article 11 was presented as a way to help publishers fight back against tech giants and news aggregators, basically forcing companies like Google and Facebook to pay publishers for the content that draws people to their platform. This might seem like lofty goals, but MacDonald believes that copyright is being used in a proxy battle over the internet and that European politicians don’t truly understand what copyright is about.”
INDEPENDENT
EU COMMITTEE APPROVES NEW RULES THAT COULD 'DESTROY THE INTERNET AS WE KNOW IT'
Andrew Griffin
An EU committee has approved two new copyright rules that campaigners warn could destroy the internet as we know it.
The two controversial new rules – known as Article 11 and Article 13 – introduce wide-ranging new changes to the way the web works.
Article 13 has been criticised by campaigners who claim that it could force internet companies to "ban memes". It requires that all websites check posts against a database of copyrighted work, and remove those that are flagged.
That could mean memes – which often use images taken from films or TV shows – could be removed by websites. The system is also likely to go wrong, campaigners say, pointing to previous examples where automated systems at YouTube have taken down a variety of entirely innocent posts.
Smaller sites might not even be able to maintain such a complicated infrastructure for scanning through posts, and therefore might not be able to continue to function, activists claim. Some companies and sites have already had to shut down as a result of the EU's new GDPR data rules.
It has been opposed by a whole host of internet experts, many of them involved with the creation of the central technologies and services of the internet. An open letter published last week was signed by more than 70 experts, including web creator Tim Berners-Lee, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales and internet pioneer Vint Cerf.
"By requiring Internet platforms to perform automatic filtering all of the content that their users upload, Article 13 takes an unprecedented step towards the transformation of the Internet, from an open platform for sharing and innovation, into a tool for the automated surveillance and control of its users," that letter read.
The authors note that copyright is an important part of law, which exists to encourage creators to ensure their work is put out into the world. But the automatic systems being considered by the EU are not the right ways of controlling that, they argue.
"We support the consideration of measures that would improve the ability for creators to receive fair remuneration for the use of their works online," the letter reads. "But we cannot support Article 13, which would mandate Internet platforms to embed an automated infrastructure for monitoring and censorship deep into their networks."
Copyright law does include exceptions for specific use of some material, such as parodies. But those protections are different in each EU country, and automated blocking systems are unlikely to be able to spot them anyway – leading to suggestions that many memes will be taken down simply because it is safest to "err on the side of blocking", according to German MEP Julia Reda.
Article 11 introduces a "link tax", requiring that internet companies get permission from publishers to use a snippet of their work. On websites like Google and Twitter, for instance, a small part of the article is usually shown before someone clicks into it entirely – but, under the new rule, those technology companies would have get permission and perhaps even pay to use that excerpt.
A letter signed by 169 academics argued that the new rule "would likely impede the free flow of information that is of vital importance to democracy".
Though the new rules have been approved by the EU's JURI commission, they will not go into effect until they are passed by the European Parliament. Campaigners urged MEPs to reject the regulations.
“Article 13 must go. The EU Parliament will have another chance to remove this dreadful law," said Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group.
“The EU Parliament’s duty is to defend citizens from unfair and unjust laws. MEPs must reject this law, which would create a Robo-copyright regime intended to zap any image, text, meme or video that appears to include copyright material, even when it is entirely legal material.”
***
RT
US leaves 'hypocritical and self-serving' UN Human Rights Council
June 20, 2018
Activists from the Border Network for Human Rights protest US immigration policies in El Paso, Texas, June 19, 2018. © Mike Blake / Reuters
Washington has decided to walk out of the UN Human Rights Council, accusing the body of hypocrisy. The US has long cited concerns about the body’s “anti-Israel bias.”
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and US envoy to the UN Nikki Haley announced the decision at a press conference Tuesday afternoon.
“The US is officially withdrawing from the UN Human Rights Council,” Haley said, calling it a “hypocritical and self-serving organization that makes a mockery of human rights.”
“American participation is the last shred of credibility the council has,” Haley argued. “That is precisely why we must leave.”
“The Human Rights Council is a poor defender of human rights. Worse than that, it has become an exercise in shameless hypocrisy,” Pompeo said, blasting the council for passing more resolutions against Israel than against the rest of the world combined.
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu thanked the US for the “courageous decision” to leave the body, which he called a “biased, hostile, anti-Israel organization that has betrayed its mission of protecting human rights.”
“The US decision to leave this prejudiced body is an unequivocal statement that enough is enough,” Netanyahu said. “Israel welcomes the American announcement.”
Moscow has denounced the decision, accusing the US of hypocrisy.
“Apparently, the US wanted to turn the council into a complacent mechanism that would promote its interests and punish those who disagree,” the Russian mission at the UN said, adding that the US' attempts to justify its walkout by the council’s politicization are plain cynical.
The council is “the key international platform” for cooperation in the sphere of human rights, and is designed to cater to the interests of all the member-states, “not to that of one country or a group of countries,” the mission said. “Unfortunately, our colleagues in Washington don’t understand this or don’t want to accept this.”
This is the first time a member of the council would leave the body voluntarily. The US was halfway through its three-year term on the 47-member panel.
On Monday, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein criticized Washington over the “unconscionable”policy of separating children of immigrants who cross the border illegally and holding them in detention centers.
“I call on the United States to immediately end the practice of forcible separation of these children,” al-Hussein said.
While the timing of the US exit from the UN body coincides with this criticism, Washington’s objections to the Human Rights Council over the years have mostly been in regard to Israel. Ambassador Haley has accused the council of a “relentless, pathological campaign” against Israel, and said the US would leave unless the body gets rid of its “chronic anti-Israel bias.”
Shortly after its establishment in 2006, the council voted to make a review of alleged human rights abuses by Israel a permanent feature of every session, known as Agenda Item 7. Likewise, the body’s special rapporteur on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the only expert whose mandate is not time-limited.
The George W. Bush administration boycotted the council at its inception, but the Obama administration decided to “re-engage” with the body in 2009. Even so, in 2011 Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accused the council of “structural bias” against Israel.
Domestically, some critics of President Donald Trump are citing the move as proof his administration does not believe in human rights and rule of law.
The decision “sends a clear message that the Trump administration does not intend to lead the world when it comes to human rights,” said Senator Chris Coons (D-Delaware), who serves on the Foreign Relations Committee.
Leaving the council is unlikely any immediate practical implications for US diplomacy, aside from allowing the UN body to continue condemnations of Israel without much in the way of opposition. Last month, when the council voted to investigate the killing of over 100 Palestinians in protests along the Israel-Gaza border and accused Israel of excessive force, only the US and Australia voted against.
**
Reuters
Hungary approves "STOP Soros" law, defying EU, rights groups
Wednesday, 20 June 2018 19:53 GMT
New law aims to punish NGOs helping illegal immigrants
* Rights groups say it contravenes European law
* PM Orban cultivates tough anti-immigrant image
* Hungary is home to very few refugees
* Germany regrets Hungary decision to press ahead (Adds German reaction)
By Marton Dunai
BUDAPEST, June 20 (Reuters) - Hungary's parliament on Wednesday approved a package of bills that criminalises some help given to illegal immigrants, defying the European Union and human rights groups.
The legislation narrows the scope for action by non-governmental organisations (NGOs), making their workers liable for jail terms for helping migrants to seek asylum when they are not entitled to it.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban has led eastern European opposition to EU quotas that aim to distribute asylum seekers around the bloc, criticising the open-door policy that German Chancellor Angela Merkel proclaimed at the height of the European migrant crisis in 2015.
Orban's right-wing Fidesz party tightened its grip on parliament in April elections after campaigning on an anti-immigration platform. Fidesz also demonised Hungarian-born U.S. billionaire George Soros and the liberal NGOs he backs, naming the new legislation the "STOP Soros" law.
Orban accuses Soros of encouraging mass immigration to undermine Europe, a charge he denies.
"The Hungarian people rightfully expect the government to use all means necessary to combat illegal immigration and the activities that aid it," Interior Minister Sandor Pinter wrote in a justification attached to the draft legislation.
"The STOP Soros package of bills serves that goal, making the organisation of illegal immigration a criminal offence. We want to use the bills to stop Hungary from becoming a country of immigrants," he said.
Parliament, where Fidesz has a two-thirds majority, also passed on Wednesday a constitutional amendment stating that an "alien population" cannot be settled in Hungary - a swipe at Brussels over its quota plan.
Germany's Europe minister Michael Roth expressed regret that Hungary had not waited for the Venice Commission, an expert body, to issue a report on the issue along with the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
"We share the concerns of the Venice Commission regarding the criminalisation of the activities of non-governmental organisations in the area of refugee aid," he said.
TOUGH STANCE IS VOTE-WINNER
Immigration has become a major concern for voters across the EU, helping to propel anti-migrant parties into power in Italy and Austria and threatening to fracture Merkel's three-month-old coalition in Germany.
Orban has played on Hungarians' memories of large numbers of mostly Muslim migrants fleeing war and poverty who surged into the country in the summer of 2015.
Most moved on to wealthier western European countries, but Orban has branded the migrants a threat to Europe's Christian civilisation and built a border fence along Hungary's southern borders to deter more from coming.
Hungarian statistics show 3,555 refugees living in Hungary, a country of 10 million, as of April. Only 342 people were registered as asylum seekers in the first four months of this year, mostly from the Middle East, and 279 were approved.
The Hungarian Helsinki Committee, a rights group, said on Wednesday the narrowing definition of who counts as a refugee essentially means nobody entering Hungary by land would be entitled to such treatment.
"Instead of giving protection against persecution, the Hungarian government has decided to join the ranks of the persecutors," Helsinki Committee Co-Chair Marta Pardavi said.
The Orban government expects possible legal action by the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, over the new law.
The Venice Commission had asked Hungary to refrain from approving the new law until its report is published.
Orban has also tightened state control over the media, major business sectors and the courts since taking power in 2010.
Parliament also agreed on Wednesday to set up a new judicial branch for administrative cases that critics say may increase political influence over judges. Another change narrowed the right to free expression and assembly. (Reporting by Marton Dunai Editing by Gareth Jones and David Stamp)
***
Zero Hedge
THESE EUROPEAN COUNTRIES REFUSE TO ACCEPT THE UNCHECKED MIGRANT INFLUX
Growing defiance by member states against EU’s open-door migrant policy
JUNE 17, 2018
Much has been written about the unchecked influx of migrants into Europe recently. As the EU promotes the warm, fuzzy, “inclusive” policies that are overwhelming countries with immigrants, some of those countries are bluntly starting to say, “no more.”
At the same time, other countries seem to be quietly preparing for…something… without being quite so forthcoming about the event for which they are readying themselves.
Millions of refugees and asylum seekers, primarily from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Somalia are flowing into Europe, largely unchecked. This is because of a welcoming “open door” policy promoted by German Chancellor Angela Merkel back in 2015. Despite the backlash from Europeans,Merkel says she has “no regrets.”
But some overwhelmed countries have decided that enough is enough. They cite the refugees’ refusal to assimilate, increasing crime statistics (particularly against women), and no-go zones in which the migrants have banded together and created areas in which Europeans are not welcome.
The European Union is so displeased about this that they’ve taken 3 of their member countries to court for refusing to “share the burden of hosting migrants.”
I don’t have a crystal ball, but I wonder if we could see this disagreement becoming a catalyst for the dissolution of the European Union.
Austria:
Austria is currently conducting exercises at their borders in preparation for a wave of 80,000 migrants expected to attempt to cross through soon. Zero Hedge reports:
“Just a few weeks after the opening of a new “Balkan route” of travel through Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia and Croatia, Austrian forces will conduct border-security exercises on June 25 in the border town of Spielfeld in preparation for a wave of 80,000 migrants expected to travel through the route to Western and Central Europe, reports Kronen Zeitung, Austria’s most widely-circulated newspaper.
Taking part in the exercise will be between 600 and 1,000 members of the riot police, “Puma” border squad and Federal Army will participate in the exercise…
…”We must also be prepared for the case that in a sudden large migratory flow, the border protection measures in these friendly countries no longer help,” said Interior Minister Herbert Kickl, adding “We also show that we are serious. There will be no registration and wave-taking with us, but a real defensive attitude.”
Slovenia:
Austria’s neighbor, Slovenia, has also taken steps to staunch the flow of migrants. Back in 2015, they began building a razor-wire fence along their border with Croatia after Hungary closed its borders and 180,000 migrants were redirected through the country of only 2 million people.
“Slovenia began erecting a razor-wire fence at its border with Croatia on Wednesday to stem the inflow of migrants, as winter closes in and countries to the north tighten their own border controls.
A convoy of army trucks carrying barbed wire and construction equipment arrived in the border town of Veliki Obrez at dawn on Wednesday. Soldiers rolled out the wire along the Slovenian bank of the Sotla River, which forms part of the 400-mile border with Croatia…
…Though the new fence threatens to block the route again just as winter is approaching, migrants have largely been able to find their way around such obstacles.
Hungary:
Hungary has been adamant since the beginning that they would not be taking in refugees and migrants. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has defended his country’s refusal. He said:
“…the European Union’s migration policies threaten the “sovereignty and cultural identity” of Hungary, in an interview published Monday.
“We don’t see these people as Muslim refugees. We see them as Muslim invaders,” he told the German daily Bild newspaper…
…Orban also rejected the idea that Hungary should be open to accepting people from majority-Muslim countries, saying his country “doesn’t want to be forced.”
“We believe that a large number of Muslims inevitably leads to parallel societies, because Christian and Muslim society will never unite,” Orban told the paper.
“Multiculturalism is only an illusion,” he added.
Poland:
Poland has also refused to take in migrants under the 2015 EU ruling, right alongside Hungary.
“In agreeing to take in refugees, the [previous government] put a ticking bomb under us,” Interior Minister Mariusz Błaszczak told reporters in Brussels. “We’re defusing that bomb.”
…The reason given is that Muslim migrants could be a problem for Poland’s homogenous society.
Kaczyński reiterated his antipathy toward refugees in an interview with the Gazeta Polska Codziennie newspaper published Monday, warning that Poland “would have to completely change our culture and radically lower the level of safety in our country.” He also said that Poland “would have to use some repression” to prevent “a wave of aggression, especially toward women” on the part of asylum seekers.
Błaszczak warned that EU pressure on Poland to accept refugees “is a straight road to a social catastrophe, with the result that in a few years Warsaw could look like Brussels.”
Czech Republic:
There’s strong anti-migrant sentiment in the Czech Republic. So strong, in fact, that a recent poll showed that 94% of Czechs wanted to deport ALL the refugees.
According to an opinion poll, conducted by the Focus agency, 78 percent respondents demand that the guarding of Czech borders should be re-introduced, even if this means limiting the free movement of European citizens. 87 percent of respondents have said that the refugee crisis is a large problem for the Czech Republic. 94 percent of Czech respondents are convinced that the European Union should be deporting all refugees.
Although they were given a quota of 1600 refugees that they were required to take in by the EU last year, they refused to accept more than 12.
Italy and Malta:
Italy recently made news when they turned away a ship carrying 629 refugees. Italy’s newly elected interior minister Matteo Salvini kept his campaign promises and denied permission for the humanitarian ship Aquarius to dock at an Italian port. Malta also refused to take in the ship, despite the fact that they had run out of food.
“The UN had called on Malta and Italy to immediately allow the boat to dock, describing the situation as “an urgent humanitarian imperative”.
The EU and the bloc’s biggest member state Germany made similar pleas.
“The priority of both the Italian and Maltese authorities should be ensuring these people receive the care they need,” European Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas told reporters, calling for a “swift resolution”.
But Salvini refused to back down.
“Saving lives is a duty, turning Italy into a huge refugee camp is not. Italy is done bending over backwards and obeying, this time THERE IS SOMEONE WHO SAYS NO,” he wrote on Twitter followed by the hashtag #closethedoors.
Spain agreed to accept the ship, and Malta provided them with food and water to make the journey, still holding fast that they could not dock.
Denmark:
While not flat-out refusing entrance to refugees, Denmark began publicly discouraging would-be immigrants in 2015.
The Danish government responded to the growing humanitarian crisis with a barely veiled warning to migrants in Lebanon not to come to the prosperous Nordic country.
Danish newspaper advertisements highlighted the stringent regulations and constraints that await migrants: It can take five years to attain permanent residency; there are tough requirements on learning Danish; those who are granted temporary residency permits will not have the right to bring over family members in the first year after they arrive; and recent changes in the country have slashed welfare benefits for them by 50 percent.
Their government website says:
Denmark receives fewer asylum seekers per capita than our neighbour countries and other European countries that are comparable to Denmark, and we also grant asylum to fewer of them, if you compare each country of orgin separately….
…The fact that a country receives many asylum seekers is also linked to the country’s geographical location and how consistently the country takes fingerprints and registers arrivals (e.g. Italy, Greece, Malta and Hungary) and does not necessarily reflect where the asylum seekers wish to claim asylum.
Greece:
By nature of geography, Greece has ended up with an overwhelming number of asylum seekers. It was supposed to be a situation in which the migrants were accepted into Greece, processed, and then sent elsewhere across the EU based on “quotas.”
But a lot of the migrants actually refused to leave, leading to hard feelings among Greeks who are still struggling after the economic collapse of their country. In case you’re wondering why they had hard feelings, here’s a glimpse into the workings of the mind of the mayor of the Greek city of Livadia, Giota Poulou:
Citizens of Livadia and elsewhere in Greece were “living in the limits of poverty”. It was “inconceivable” for them to see that refugees would have heating in their houses, when some of them did not have heating themselves.
“We told them we wanted to host the refugees based on solidarity and to offer them humane living conditions,” Poulou says.
But after 3 years of shouldering more than their fair share of the burden, Greece has finally stood up, refusing to take back refugees that Germany wanted to return to them.
Slovakia:
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico refused to accept the EU’s quotas back in 2015, stating that the refugees didn’t want to go there anyway.
“Migrants arriving in Europe do not want to stay in Slovakia. They don’t have a base for their religion here, their relatives, they would run away anyway. Therefore I think the quotas are irrational,” he said.
And they’ve maintained their stance, backing Italy’s recent refusal to admit the boatload of asylum seekers.
How is this going to end?
I’m not completely unsympathetic to the plight of those who want to leave countries in the Middle East and North Africa that have been bombed and droned beyond recognition. NATO has been “freeing” the heck out of them for decades, and as these viral photos show, there isn’t much left for people there. We have to accept the fact that interventionist foreign policies have had a large hand in creating this problem.
This being said, it’s lunacy to accept an influx of migrants who have no intention of assimilating into the culture of their host countries. It’s sheer madness to call it “racist” to prosecute immigrants for raping the women of your country due to cultural differences. It is the height of stupidity to allow outsiders to take over “zones” of your home country in which your police cannot maintain order.
This doesn’t mean asylum seekers should be abused and treated like animals. That leaves us at risk of losing our own humanity. But, it means that the world needs to employ some common sense and prevent this situation from worsening.
France has a new zero-tolerance policy “for the illegal occupation of public space” and although they haven’t squelched migration, they certainly seem to be paying more attention after a barrage of terrorist attacks that have been largely the work of Islamic migrants.
And while Sweden hasn’t outright said they’re putting a stop to things, recent events make me wonder if that’s what is coming. The sad thing is, like the Trojan war, they’ve reached the crisis point at which they’re going to be forced to defend their countries from the inside.
That’s not multiculturalism.
That’s suicide.
***
EXPRESS
Hawaii volcano eruption UPDATE: Kilauea summit collapse ‘LARGEST in history’ USGS reveals
HAWAII volcano Kilauea has undergone the single “largest scale collapse” witnessed in recent history, volcanologists at the United States Geological Survey (USGS) revealed.
By SEBASTIAN KETTLEY
June 21, 2018
Kilauea’s volatile crater has lost around 250 million cubic metres of volume since eruptions began on May 3 this year.
The subsiding Halemaumau crater summit has lost the equivalent of 100,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
Kilauea’s draining magma chambers are fuelling the summit collapse, the USGS warned on Tuesday, June 19.
Two aerial photographs snapped by USGS scientists reveal the extent of the widening crater in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.
The USGS said: “These two photos taken on yesterday's helicopter overflight of the summit show the size of the growing Halemaumau Crater – seeing Hawaii Volcano Observatory and Jaggar Museum in the view helps to put the crater size in context.
“A preliminary estimate of summit volume loss is around 250 million cubic meters.
“At 5.05am HST, another gas and ash emission from a small subsurface explosion occurred at Kilauea's summit, producing a plume that was blown downwind at about 5,000 ft above sea level.
“Inward slumping of the rim and walls of Halemaumau continues in response to ongoing subsidence at the summit.”
Hawaii volcano: The Kilauea summit is rapidly losing volume as eruption continues
Hawaii volcano: The crater collapse is the largest scale collapse in recent history
The crater has at least doubled in size since may this year, the USGS said.
The molten rock which has drained from the Halemaumau lava lake and Kilauea’s underground chambers has pushed into the Lower East Rift Zone.
The lava broke out in Leilani Estates where dangerous lava flows wreaked havoc in residential areas.
More than 570 homes have been lost to the oozing lava and a strong channel of molten rock now flows from a volcanic fissure in Leilani.
The USGS recorded lava flow speeds of 17mph on Wednesday morning.
When asked about the likelihood of the Kilauea crater filling up with lava again, the geological agency said it might take many years for lava eruptions to return to the summit.
The USGS said: “A lava lake occupied nearly the entirety of Halemaumau Crater before the 1924 eruption – the crater was half the size it was prior to May 2018.
“The lava lake drained in 1924 as magma intruded into the Lower East Rift Zone, and the crater collapsed and grew.
“However, this is the largest scale collapse of Halemaumau that we've witnessed in historic time.
“Yes, it will refill with lava – Kilauea is in a very young stage of its life and it's still building itself.
“Eruptions of lava will return to the summit, but it may take many years.”
As of Wednesday, June 20, two distinct lava flows are entering the Pacific Ocean in the Kapoho area.
***
MailOnline
Ditch the statins and EAT your way back to good heart health, experts controversially claim
Dr Aseem Malhotra and Professor Dame Sue Bailey are behind the move
They demanded GPs to be confronted about their willingness to dish out drugs
The experts warned that 'good health rarely comes out of a medicine bottle'
Dr Malhota and Dame Sue claimed the move would save millions of lives
By STEPHEN MATTHEWS FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 10:24, 18 June 2018 | UPDATED: 21:43, 18 June 2018
Millions of Britons should ditch their medication and instead eat their way back to good heart health, experts have controversially claimed.
Cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra and Professor Dame Sue Bailey, chairwoman of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, are behind the move.
They demanded scores of GPs should be confronted about their willingness to dish out drugs, such as statins - and called for the public to ignore official nutritional advice.
The pair warned 'good health rarely comes out of a medicine bottle' as they called for Britons to drastically change their diets to include less potatoes, rice and bread.
Dr Malhota and Dame Sue even claimed the move would end the country's reliance on pills, save millions of lives from heart disease and diabetes and the cash-strapped NHS billions of pounds.
Cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra and Professor Dame Sue Bailey, chairwoman of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, are behind the move to get patients to ditch drugs, such as statins
Dr Malhotra used the example of former pilot Tony Royle who ditched his pills and ignored official dietary advice to lose 3st (42lbs) in five months.
Writing in the Pharmaceutical Journal, he said: 'Here was a man who suffered a heart attack after following what we now know to be unscientific government dietary advice.
'But [he] made an informed decision to dramatically change his diet and stop the cocktail of drugs he was prescribed after suffering debilitating side-effects.
'Now his health has never been better. We have to keep reminding ourselves that good health rarely comes out of a medicine bottle.'
Question medical knowledge
Dr Malhotra and Dame Sue are both part of Choosing Wisely, a global initiative that is aimed at helping patients question medical knowledge.
Statins: The facts
Up to six million adults in Britain currently take statins to lower their cholesterol levels and thereby reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
But many doctors and patients are worried about their long-term harms and they have been linked to diabetes, muscular pain and memory loss.
Supporters on the other hand, including the health watchdog Nice, say the pills should be prescribed more widely to prevent thousands of early deaths.
An array of evidence has already shown statins to be very effective at preventing heart attacks and strokes in patients who have already had one.
Official dietary advice
Public Health England recommend adults get 35 per cent of their energy intake from fat and 50 per cent from carbohydrates, such as bread, pasta and sugar.
It also says no more than 11 per cent should come from saturated fat, which is found in cheese, butter and cream.
Dr Malhotra, who for years has fought against the advice that fat should be cut, argued this decision is responsible for the obesity crisis.
He is an advocate of the fat-packed Mediterranean diet, which is credited for helping people to lose weight and protect against heart disease.
Pill poppers
The comments come after official figures revealed in March that a record number of prescriptions were dished out by the NHS last year.
More than 1.1 billion drugs were dispensed by pharmacists across England in 2017 - the most since charts began 10 years ago.
Statins were the most common prescription across England - with more than 72.6 million prescribed, in total.
Experts believe the rise is being fuelled by the pharmaceutical industry, which is exaggerating the benefits of certain drugs.
But it is also due to the ageing population and the fact that many more patients are developing lifestyle-related illnesses.
***
Until
next week...keep on believing.
Almondtree Productions
“Keep
thine heart with the utmost care; for out of these are the issues of
life.”
(Proverbs 4:23)