“This poor man cried, and the Lord hearkened to him, and delivered him out of all his afflictions.”
(Psalm 34:6)
The Lord Hearkened To Him

FAITHWIRE

New Scientific Case Study Reveals Role of Prayer in Patient’s Miraculous Healing

Photo by Afar Ahmed/Unsplash

By Tré Goins-Phillips

Editor

March 28, 2019

A new report from a peer-reviewed medical journal has put an end to the age-old debate: prayer really does work.

At just one week old, a baby boy was rushed to the hospital. He was vomiting forcefully and struggling to properly digest formula. Before long, doctors diagnosed him with gastroparesis, a rare disease in which the stomach cannot correctly empty itself of its contents.

The young male — whose name has not been disclosed — underwent a series of procedures, all designed to treat his symptoms and maintain the status quo, according to a case report from Complementary Therapies in Medicine.

Surgeons performed on the baby both a pyloromyotomy, which loosens tightened muscles causing a blockage between the stomach and small intestine, and a jejunostomy, the creation of an opening through the skin at the front of the abdomen for a feeding tube.

He went on to live a relatively normal life, even playing sports.

The boy grew up in a Christian home; he had an active prayer life and participated in church activities every single week. He had safely assumed, though, his disease would just be part of his life — forever.

Things changed when he attended a prayer service

On Nov. 6, 2011, when he was 16 years old, the patient and his family attended a prayer service at a Pentecostal church led by a preacher the case study referred to as a “healing evangelist.”

The evangelist recounted his own miraculous healing after having his intestines severed in a serious accident when a massive truck fell on his abdomen.

While listening to the speaker’s testimony, the teenager recalled his own strange feelings. Here’s how he described his experience:

During the prayer, I felt an electric shock that started from my right shoulder traveling down through my stomach. That was the moment that I knew I had been touched by the Holy Spirit. Since I have been healed of my illness, I have had more energy than ever before, and have thoroughly enjoyed the new adventure of trying all different types of foods. I have entered into the medical field in search to help the sick and needy, and to give back the great care I received as a patient.

In the prior 16 years, the boy was dependent on feeding tubes and could not handle any form of oral feeding. But after that prayer service, everything changed for him.

“His intolerance to oral feedings was completely resolved” after the service, the case study reported.

The boy’s primary care physician described the incredible shift as “difficult to explain” and recommended removing the feeding tubes as long as he was still having no issues after three months.

Even doctors are dumbfounded by his healing

Now 23 years old, the patient’s tubes were taken out and he has had no recurring symptoms since the November 2011 prayer service.

Most interesting, perhaps, is the fact that before the teenager’s miraculous healing, both he and his parents were cessationists, meaning, while they believe God performed miracles in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, they were not convinced he did the same in this modern era.

It’s safe to say their perspectives have changed.

Though they can’t rule it out completely, doctors just couldn’t chalk the kid’s healing up to the so-called “placebo effect,” which was defined in the study as “the physical change that occurs as a result of what we believe a pill or a procedure will do.”

“The complete resolution of severe gastroparesis symptoms (i.e., dependence on feeding tubes) is not known to spontaneously occur, and studies of placebos have shown only partial resolution of symptoms at best,” the study’s authors explained.

This case study has left a lot of questions unanswered. It’s even presented new questions. But it has made one thing clear: prayer really does work.

“A noteworthy observation,” the researchers explained, “is that studies showing positive effects of prayer have typically involved intercessors who either professed … being ‘born again’ Christians (with a commitment to daily devotional prayer and active fellowship with their local church) or … faith in healing.”

MailOnline

The eyes really ARE the window to the soul: Scientists discover being with your spouse really DOES calm you down and that our pupils reveal stress levels in just 200 milliseconds

• Stress levels return to normal far quicker when with your partner than alone

• Researchers used the pupil's diameter as a gauge of a person's stress levels

• Infrared cameras studied its diameter and found the pupil reacts in 200 milliseconds to an individual's stress levels

By JOE PINKSTONE FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 14:57, 9 April 2019 | UPDATED: 14:57, 9 April 2019

A person's eyes can reveal a lot about them as a person, and scientists discovered they often have telltale signs indicating when a person is stressed and in the presence of a loved one.

Ultra-sensitive infrared cameras were trained on the pupils of various people and found it takes less than 200 milliseconds for stress to take its toll on the body.

But when people are with their beloved partner, their stress levels - and their pupil - return to normal far quicker than when they are alone.

Ultra-sensitive infrared cameras were trained on the pupils of various people and found it takes less than 200 milliseconds for stress to take its toll on the body. But when people are with their beloved partner, their stress levels - and their pupil - return to normal far quicker

Brigham Young University psychology professor Wendy Birmingham's lab took 40 participating couples and asked them to complete a challenging task on a computer.

Some of the couples were randomly assigned to work alone while the others sat near their spouse and held their hand.

The experiment stressed out participants in both groups but those surrounded by their better half calmed down significantly sooner.

This level-headed approach allowed them to work on the task at reduced stress levels.

'When we have a spouse next to us and with us, it really helps us navigate and get through the stress we have to deal with in life,' Professor Birmingham said.

An infrared camera was continuously assessing their pupils, tracking their diameter, the entire time.

Pupil size is widely regarded as a direct signal of the body's physiological stress response.

'The neat thing is that the pupils respond within 200 milliseconds to the onset of a stressor,' said Steven Luke, a study co-author and psychology professor at BYU.

'It can immediately measure how someone responds to stress and whether having social support can change that. It's not just a different technique, it's a different time scale.'

The research was published in the journal PLOS One.

(Two are better than one, seeing they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow. Ecclesiastes 4:9-10)

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WND

A time when revivals were better than circuses

Posted By Bill Federer On April 6, 2019

“The Greatest Show on Earth” was owned by P.T. Barnum, who died April 7, 1891. Selling millions of tickets, the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus had big draws including General Tom Thumb, a man only 25 inches tall, and elephant “Jumbo,” whose name entered the dictionary.

Barnum, who was received by President Lincoln and gave a command performance for Queen Victoria, stated: “Most persons, on the whole, are humbugged by believing too little, than by believing too much.”

Barnum said:

• Politeness and civility are the best capital ever invested in business.”

• “The best kind of charity is to help those who are willing to help themselves.”

• “The desire for wealth is nearly universal, and none can say it is not laudable, provided the possessor of it accepts its responsibilities, and uses it as a friend to humanity.”

As the circus was not open on Sundays, Barnum let his New York Great Roman Hippodrome be used by Dwight Lyman Moody for evangelistic campaigns. When Barnum’s show began traveling, D.L. Moody, with help from J.P. Morgan and Cornelius Vanderbilt, transformed the Hippodrome into a revival tabernacle.

Services began Feb. 7, 1876, with 7,000 people in the main hall, 4,000 in overflow, thousands outside, 500 ushers and 1,200 singers directed by Ira Sankey. Sunday attendance hit 25,000. It was perhaps Moody’s most important campaign, for in impacting New York, he impacted the nation.

D.L. Moody began his ministry in 1858 as a traveling shoe salesman who started a Sunday School mission for underprivileged children in Chicago. Classes were taught in an abandoned saloon. D.L. Moody stated: “It is a masterpiece of the devil to make us believe that children cannot understand religion. Would Christ have made a child the standard of faith if He had known that it was not capable of understanding His words?”

By 1860, the class had grown to over 1,000 attendees, with even President-elect Abraham Lincoln visiting Nov. 25, 1860, on his way to Washington, D.C.

During the Civil War, D.L. Moody ministered to soldiers on the battle lines, and served as president of the Y.M.C.A. (Young Men’s Christian Association) from 1865-1870. D.L. Moody built the Illinois Street Church in Chicago, but it was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

At the time, Chicago was the second biggest city in America, after New York City. The Great Chicago Fire destroyed an area four miles wide and a mile across, killing an estimated 300 people, destroying 17,000 buildings, and leaving 100,000 homeless.

D.L. Moody said: “We can stand affliction better than we can prosperity, for in prosperity we forget God.”

Moody rebuilt the church and renamed it the Chicago Avenue Church. It grew to an attendance of over 10,000, with 6,000 waiting outside.

D.L. Moody stated: “Moses spent 40 years thinking he was somebody; 40 years learning he was nobody; and 40 years discovering what God can do with a nobody.”

D.L. Moody preached to tens of thousands in England, meeting preacher Charles Spurgeon and Hudson Taylor, missionary to China. He supported the Israeli settlement of their homeland. He preached to hundreds of thousands across America, holding evangelistic meetings from Boston to New York, to San Francisco and Vancouver. Even President U.S. Grant and his cabinet attended one of his meetings on Jan. 19, 1876.

D.L. Moody commented

• “There are many of us that are willing to do great things for the Lord, but few of us are willing to do little things.”

• “God doesn’t seek for golden vessels … but He must have clean ones.”

• “The Bible will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from the Bible.”

• D.L. Moody started the Chicago Bible Institute, which was renamed the Moody Bible Institute after his death. R.A. Torrey succeeded Moody as its president.

• Dwight L. Moody remarked:

• “Treat the Lord Jesus Christ as a personal friend. His is not a creed, a mere doctrine, but it is He Himself we have.”

• “I know the Bible is inspired because it inspires me.”

• “Faith makes all things possible … love makes all things easy.”

• “Preparation for old age should begin not later than one’s teens. A life which is empty of purpose until 65 will not suddenly become filled on retirement.”

• “Death may be the King of terrors … but Jesus is the King of kings!”

The Chicago Avenue Church was renamed the Moody Church in 1906 and continues its international impact with notable leaders such as pastor emeritus Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer.

Brought to you by AmericanMinute.com.

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HAARETZ

Netanyahu Says Will Begin Annexing West Bank if He Wins Israel Election

Netanyahu tells Channel 12 three days before election that he will not 'evacuate any community' nor divide Jerusalem: 'A Palestinian state will endanger our existence'

April 7, 2019

ILE PHOTO: The Jewish settlement of Neve Yaakov in the northern area of east Jerusalem, April 1, 2019. Credit AFP

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Israel's Channel 12 News on Saturday evening that he will start extending Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank if re-elected prime minister in the election on April 9.

It remains unclear at this point whether Netanyahu was referring to all of the West Bank, or only parts of it.

"A Palestinian state will endanger our existence and I withstood huge pressure over the past eight years, no prime minister has withstood such pressure. We must control our destiny," the premier said.

After boasting that he was responsible for U.S. President Donald Trump's declaration recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, Netanyahu told the program "Meet the Press": "Will we move ahead to the next stage? Yes. I will extend sovereignty but I don't distinguish between the settlement blocs and the isolated ones, because each settlement is Israeli and I will not hand it over to Palestinian sovereignty."

"I will not divide Jerusalem, I will not evacuate any community and I will make sure we control the territory west of Jordan," Netanyahu told the show's host, Rina Matzliah.

Asked what will happen to the Bedouin community of Khan al-Ahmar, which Netanyahu has vowed to evacuate but has still not been and which has been at the center of international condemnations against the decision, Netanyahu promised that "it will happen, I promised and it will happen at the soonest opportunity."

The prime minister refused to say whether he would support term limits, saying there is still a lof of work he needs to do.

'No force in the world will stop us'

Other party heads were also interviewed on the same show. Benny Gantz said his Kahol Lavan "will be the biggest party" after Election Day. "There's no force in the world, even that of smaller parties who know the Netanyahu era is over" to prevent Kahol Lavan from heading Israel's next government, he said.

Gantz added chances of him joining a Netanyahu-led government are "non-existent," adding he was hoping to "discuss some fundamental issues" with Netanyahu, who "didn't take up the gauntlet." He also said "Israelis know very well where 13 years of Netanyahu brought them … The public will have its word."

Asked whether Kahol Lavan supports a two-state solution for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Gantz only said it "is for striving toward peace … We'll push for a diplomatic process." He added his party "wishes to keep Israel a Jewish and democratic state, and not a bi-national state."

Gantz also said the Labor Party "is a future partner in any constellation … it's an important partner." Responding to calls to eliminate his rotation agreement with Yair Lapid for prime minister, Gantz said he "is a senior, excellent partner, who will be an excellent prime minister."

Labor Party Chairman Avi Gabbay vowed to support Gantz for prime minister, saying he "is an excellent man, and we want him to succeed … [But] if it won't be the Labor's way, there'll be a right-wing coalition, no matter who leads it … Any voter who wants change, who doesn't want to see Netanyahu as prime minister, must vote Labor."

Hadash-Ta'al Chairman Ayman Odeh said "the prime minister lies just like he breathes and just like he incites" against Israel's Arab citizens.

Asked whether he would join Gantz if he is elected, Odeh answered: "I didn't say I'll be part of Gantz's coalition, we're not in his pocket. He'll have to come to us, talk to us and respect us. He said he respects the Arab public but not the Arab leadership; that is wild incitement."

Meretz chairwoman Tamar Zandberg said her party would back Gantz as prime minister, despite reports about his intentions to potentially form a national unity government with Netanyahu. “That is the reason supporters of the left must vote Meretz, so that Gantz will have to form a government with the left. If he turns to Likud, or Likud turn to him, supporters of the left are going to bang their head against to wall the next day.”

'I will not crown the left'

Hayamin Hehadash leader Naftali Bennett said he wouldn't enter a Gantz-led government "not even in a thousand years. Gantz is a leftist. He's a nice person but unfit to run the country."

Asked about removing Netanyahu's immunity should he be indicted in his corruption cases, Bennett said his position "would depend on the charges," adding that the press doesn't "really care about the rule of law, but wants to take down an incumbent prime minister. I will not crown the left … in the name of this immunity, because I'm a right-wing man."

Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon said his Kulanu party is "making it into the next Knesset big time," despite its poor performance in recent public opinion polls. Appealing to Likud voters, he added: "You have no reason to vote for Netanyahu, he's going to form the next government. If you want a compassionate right … I said I'll only be finance minister, I won't take any other position."

Avigdor Lieberman, former defense minister under Netanyahu and Yisrael Beiteinu leader, said he would support Netanyahu as prime minister after the election, but "there's a long way" before his party enters a Netanyahu-led coalition. "We won't accept surrendering to terror … and won't accept surrendering to what the ultra-Orthodox [parties] dictate," he said.

Former Yisrael Beiteinu MK Orli Levi-Abekasis, now leader of Gesher, said both Netanyahu and Gantz "don't take interest in public issues. They're fighting cockfights, there's not much difference between them."

Far-right Zehut's Moshe Feiglin said he "struggles to tell the difference between Netanyahu and Gantz," refusing to declare which candidate for prime minister would receive his backing.

Speaking about his conditions for entering the governing coalition, he added: "Without the finance portfolio I can't see us fulfilling" the party's libertarian platform," and if [we get] enough seats – we'll also ask for the education portfolio."

Asked about his past homophobic statements, Feiglin said: "I love members of the LGBT community just like any other person … The only dispute I have with them is whether the first priority when the state puts a child up for adoption should be by a man and a man or a man and a woman. I still think a child needs a mother and a father. Same goes for surrogacy, I'm backward like that."

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RT

Netanyahu wins record 5th term as Israel's PM as Gantz concedes

April 10, 2019

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara in Tel Aviv, April 10, 2019. © REUTERS/Ammar Awad

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has won a historic fifth term in office, fending off a tough challenge from opposition leader Benny Gantz, with support from right-wing parties. Gantz conceded on Wednesday.

Netanyahu’s Likud party tied with Gantz’s centrist Blue and White Alliance, gaining 35 seats each, but right-wing parties led the way with 66-55 seats — and nearly all of them said they would recommend Netanyahu to President Reuven Rivlin to form the next coalition government.

“We didn’t win in this round. We will make Likud’s life hell in the opposition,” said Yair Lapid, who was number 2 on the Blue and White Alliance ticket, during a televised statement.

Both Netanyahu and Gantz declared victory in the tightly contested election on Tuesday, with both camps claiming their win was “clear” — but the right-wing bloc managed to achieve the minimum 60 seats required to form a coalition in the Knesset, the 120-seat Israeli parliament.

Netanyahu’s victory comes as he is facing multiple corruption probes and after an election campaign which analysts told RT was focused less on policy issues and more on personality, with many Israelis feeling his 10-year tenure as PM was long enough and that it was time for change and a new face.

“The biggest issue is Netanyahu himself: whether Israelis are tired of Netanyahu, whether they’re put off by the stench of corruption that surrounds him, whether they want a change, or whether they prefer to stick with a safe pair of hands and a statesman that obviously enjoys good relations with many world leaders,” Northeastern University Professor Dov Waxman told RT. “There’s actually been very little debate – a striking lack of debate – over Israeli policies.”

Netanyahu embraced and courted support from some of Israel’s most extremist right-wing voices during the campaign, including one group known as the Jewish Power Party which aims to form a theocracy in Israel.

Speaking on Tuesday evening, before all votes had been counted, Netanyahu said his party had enjoyed a night of "tremendous victory" and confirmed he had already begun talks with the leaders of other right-wing parties, who he said were Likud's "natural partners."

Responding to the results, US President Donald Trump told reporters on Wednesday that Netanyahu’s victory was a good sign for “peace” in the region.

Trump was accused in recent weeks and months of trying to bolster Netanyahu ahead of the election by taking provocative pro-Israel stances on a number of highly contentious issues, including recognizing Israel’s “sovereignty”over the Syrian Golan Heights and designating Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as a “terrorist organization” on the eve of the election. Trump also caused controversy last year when he recognized divided Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved the US Embassy there from Tel Aviv — a move which many Palestinians and activists felt made any of Trump’s “peace” efforts in the region dead on arrival.

Pollsters on Tuesday said that Arab turnout in the election was dramatically reduced and was potentially at a historic low. It wasn’t clear exactly what contributed to such low turnout, but some speculated it could be a feeling that their votes “didn’t matter.”

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United With Israel

World’s Longest Salt Cave Discovered in Israel’s Biblical Mount Sodom

March 28, 2019

“Then the Lord rained brimstone and fire upon Sedom and Gomorrah…but [Lot’s] Wife looked back and she became a pillar of salt.” –Genesis 19

Following the biblical recounting of Lot’s Wife who was turned into a pillar of salt, Israel’s Dead Sea region is now famous for a second salt phenomenon: Malham Cave, the world’s longest salt cave.

For 13 years, this title was held by Iran’s Cave of the Three Nudes (3N) on Qeshm Island. Recently,

however, an international expedition led by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU)’s Cave Research Center, Israel Cave Explorers Cluba nd Bulgaria’s Sofia Speleo Club, along with 80 cavers from nine countries, has successfully mapped the Malham salt cave in the Dead Sea’s Mount Sedom which, at 10 kilometers long, now bears the title of world’s longest salt cave.

THE WASHINGTON STANDARD

Pope Francis Praises Multiculturalism: “Migrants Always Bring Riches”

April 9, 2019

Maybe he is referring to the hundreds of millions of dollars the Catholic Church receives for its refugee resettlement programs.

Pope Francis is the most pro-Islamic, subjugated Pope in modern history.

Yet, they still threaten to kill him, which is further proof that submission and accommodation to Islam is perceived as weakness and gives way to more demands, more conquest, more attacks in the cause of Islam.

“Pope Francis Praises Multiculturalism: ‘Migrants Always Bring Riches,’” by Thomas D. Williams, Breitbart, April 7, 2019 (thanks to Todd):

Pope Francis continued his immigration crusade this weekend, saying that migrants bring with them the wealth of a multicultural and multi-ethnic world.

“Let us thank God for a multi-ethnic and multicultural society,” the pope toldstudents and faculty of the San Carlo school of Milan gathered in the Vatican Saturday, “because dialogueamong cultures, persons, and ethnicities is richness.”

“We must not be afraid of the water of life, of this multiethnicity, of this multiculturalism,” Francis said, “and here I touch on a sore topic: don’t be afraid of migrants.”

“Migrants are those who always bring us riches. Europe itself was made by migrants! The barbarians, the Celts…,” he said. “All these came from the north and brought their cultures with them. Europe grew in this way, with the contrast of cultures.”

In his off-the-cuff address, the pope seemed to continue a discussion from last week in which he attacked U.S. President Donald Trump over his proposed border wall. Asked by a reporter what he thought of Trump’s wall, the pope warned that “builders of walls, whether they are of razor-wire or brick, will become prisoners of the walls they build. That’s history.”

We need bridges and “we feel pain when we see people who prefer to build walls,” he said….

“Today there is the temptation to make a culture of walls, to erect walls, walls in the heart, walls in the earth to prevent an encounter with other cultures, with other people,” the pope said. “And whoever erects a wall, whoever builds a wall will end up as a slave inside the walls he built, without horizons. Because he lacks this otherness.”…

“If I have a racist heart, I have to examine why and convert,” Francis said. “Migrants must be received, accompanied, integrated. Let them receive our values and let us receive theirs, an exchange of values.”

“This is the beauty of human generosity,” he concluded. “We grow richer by welcoming others. Richer in culture, richer in growth.”

“But building walls is useless,” he said.

What we need is “an open culture that allows us to look at the foreigner, the migrant, the member of another culture like a subject worth listening to, considering, and appreciating,” he said.

(I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven.

And {it} had a wall great and high, [and] had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, {guards?} And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred [and] forty [and] four cubits, {216 feet or 65.8 meters}.

And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither [whatsoever] worketh abomination, or [maketh] a lie. For without [are] dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. Revelation 21:2,12,17,27, Revelation 2215)

RT

‘Beyond fanaticism’: Crosses in Italian cemetery covered to avoid offending other religions

April 10, 2019

FILE PHOTO: The church at Pieve di Cento © Wikipedia

A small Italian town has taken to covering crucifixes in the local cemetery and chapel, apparently so as not to offend people of other faiths, Il Giornale reported. Political outrage has ensued.

Pieve di Cento is a town of around 7,000 people, located just north of Bologna in Northern Italy. Although Bologna and the surrounding region is home to a small but growing number of Muslims, the Catholic Church still reigns supreme, with nine out of ten residents calling themselves Catholics.

Locals were surprised, then, when someone at a cemetery in Pieve di Cento erected black sheets to hide crucifixes on the graves, Il Giornale reported on Monday. The sheets went up as part of renovations at the chapel, in case any workers of different faiths were offended. Inside the chapel itself, blackout curtains on motorized rails obscure the crosses when work is being carried out.

Right-wing and Catholic politicians were quick to denounce the move. Forza Italia (Forward Italy) deputy Galeazzo Bignami said that “If the administrators are ashamed of our tradition and our culture, they should go and hide themselves and not just behind a motorized tent.”

Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) leader and immigration hardliner Giorgia Meloni blamed the local council for the cover-up “With the excuse of respect for others, they lack respect for our Catholic culture and our traditions,” she said. “Now the Left is beyond fanaticism. This is ideological delirium.”

Although it is unclear who exactly gave the order to cover the religious symbols, leftist politics dominates Bologna, and the city is nicknamed ‘La Rossa’ (the red one), partly because of its historical association with communism.

In recent years, the government in Italy has often faced criticism for its handling of religious and cultural disputes. Plans to build a so-called ‘supermosque’ in Bologna a decade ago were scuppered by Lega Nord (Northern League) party members, some of whom desecrated the building site by walking through its foundations holding pork in an attempt to desanctify it. The city allowed construction to begin, then allowed the pork protest to take place legally, then rescinded the building permit again after a renewed outcry from Catholic groups.

In 2016, then-Prime Minister Matteo Renzi caused a public outcry when he had a series of nude statues at the Capitoline Museum in Rome covered before Iranian President Hassan Rouhani arrived for a state visit.

Italy’s current government, a coalition of the Lega Nord and anti-establishment Movimento 5 Stelle (Five Star Movement), has taken a dim view of challenges to Italy’s Catholic heritage. League leader and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini proposed a bill in 2018 that would require a crucifix to be displayed in all public buildings, including train stations, universities, and airports.

“The removal of the religious symbols that characterize our community means challenging the principles on which our identity is based,” Salvini’s bill reads. “Respecting minorities does not mean renouncing the symbols of our history, culture and tradition.”

Several high-ranking Catholic figures, including an adviser to Pope Francis, criticized the move, and blasted Salvini for politicizing symbol of “love to the enemy and unconditional welcome.”

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Shepherds Heart

Health & Beauty Products

NASA's Project AZURE Produces an Alien Invasion Aurora

POSTED : CELESTE B., DATE : April 6, 2019

"Strangest Aurora Ever"

Lying Signs and Wonders

NASA has an AZURE project called Sounding Rockets that dumps some pretty nasty chemicals into the vertical circulation within the auroral zone which is the key element in the re-distribution of energy, momentum, and chemical constituents in response to forcing. The name of the sounding rocket mission is AZURE--short for Auroral Zone Upwelling Rocket Experiment. The result is a peculiar and unnatural phenomena light show in the sky.

Last night, April 5th in Norway at Andøya Space Center launched two sounding rockets into a minor geomagnetic storm. The results were an alien sky after the rockets dumped chemical powders into the storm.

"Residents for hundreds of miles were taken by surprise by these strange lights, which prompted calls to the police and 'The aliens are coming!' hysteria!" says Chris Nation who runs the Aurora Addicts guiding service.

Researchers ignited a stream of solar wind buffeting Earth's magnetic field. "It looked like an invasion of UFOs," says Chad Blakley.

"Soon the glowing blobs evolved into more complicated structures--like two giant squid dancing in the northern sky with an impressive aurora display as its backdrop," describes Blakley. "These images are by far the most exciting I've ever seen it record."

Two rockets released a payload of chemical tracers: trimethyl aluminum (TMA) and a barium/strontium mixture. These mixtures create colorful clouds that allow researchers to visually track the flow of neutral and charged particles, respectively. According to NASA, supposedly the chemical pose no danger to humans. Inquiring minds are not satisfied with NASA's positive spin so if you want the back story of this program and the side-effects of the chemicals they are dumping into the sky check out HODOR: A Time to Dye, when I brought this program to your attention.

As we are beginning to see, with a handful of chemicals, one can make Lying Signs and Wonders, fire from the sky, pollute the atmosphere, bring untold global human side-effects, and fabricate an alien invasion- all rolled into one event.

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EXPRESS

Scientists develop clairvoyant machine capable of PREDICTING FUTURE

SCIENTISTS have developed a machine capable of predicting the future in a development which could prove to be pivotal in the rapidly advancing field of artificial intelligence.

April 10, 2019

Artificial intelligence: The new machine can predict the future (Image: Sergei Slussarenko)

The prototype device - which was created as part of a joint venture involving researchers from Australia’s Griffith University and Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University - consists of a photonic quantum information processor capable of mapping out all potential future outcomes of a decision process. Mile Gu of Nanyang, who spearheaded the development of the quantumalgorithm which underpins the device, said: “When we think about the future, we are confronted by a vast array of possibilities. “These possibilities grow exponentially as we go deeper into the future.

“For instance, even if we have only two possibilities to choose from each minute, in less than half an hour there are 14 million possible futures.
“In less than a day, the number exceeds the number of atoms in the universe.”
The device constructed by the team works on a much smaller scale, holding just 16 possible futures in simultaneous superposition, weighted by their probability of occurrence.
However, in theory the algorithm which governs them can “scale up” without upper limit.

Lead author Farzad Ghafari of Griffith University said: “Our approach is to synthesise a quantum superposition of all possible futures for each bias.
“By interfering these superpositions with each other, we can completely avoid looking at each possible future individually.
“In fact, many current artificial intelligence algorithms learn by seeing how small changes in their behaviour can lead to different future outcomes, so our techniques may enable quantum enhanced AIs to learn the effect of their actions much more efficiently.”
Co-author Jayne Thompson said the team had taken inspiration from the late Nobel laureate physicist Richard Feynman.

She explained: “When Feynman started studying quantum physics, he realised that when a particle travels from point A to point B, it does not necessarily follow a single path.”
“Instead, it simultaneously transverses all possible paths connecting the points.
“Our work extends this phenomenon and harnesses it for modelling statistical futures.”
Co-author Professor Geoff Pryde said the achievements were comparable with those of analogue computing researchers half a century ago.

He added: “This is what makes the field so exciting. It is very much reminiscent of classical computers in the 1960s.
“Just as few could imagine the many uses of classical computers in the 1960s, we are still very much in the dark about what quantum computers can do.
“Each discovery of a new application provides further impetus for their technological development.”
The research is published in the Nature Communications journal.

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NEW YORK POST

Scientologists consider Tom Cruise to be a ‘deity’

Emily Smith

March 27, 2019

Tom Cruise and his daughter Isabella Cruisecontinue to move up in Scientology, both taking more powerful positions in the secretive church — where the lower ranks are apparently ordered to see the actor’s movies multiple times.

Cruise is said to be “considered a deity within Scientology.” Former church member Leah Remini has said, “He is second to David Miscavige — the savior of the free world.” Cruise was seen March 9 at the front of a celebration of the holiest day of the Scientology calendar — L. Ron Hubbard’s March 13 birthday — at the church’s spiritual mecca in Clearwater, Fla., according to journalist Tony Ortega’s blog the Underground Bunker.

It was just reported that lower-ranking Scientologists are bused out to see Cruise movies, often multiple times, by their leaders, who buy thousands of tickets for his “Mission: Impossible” and “Jack Reacher” franchises to boost the actor’s box office. Ex-Scientologist Bree Mood — who left the church a few months ago — said in an interview: “Tom Cruise was a god in the lower ranks . . . every time a Tom Cruise movie came out they’d buy all his tickets. It could be 500, 1,000, up to 2,500 people. I’m not kidding.”

Now the actor’s adopted daughter with Nicole Kidman, Isabella, 26, has for the first time stepped out publicly for Scientology, as the face of a March 19 recruiting email, in which she extols her experience of completing an “auditing” internship at Scientology London. Auditing is a form of therapy where a low-level person, called a “pre-clear,” holds onto electrodes that direct electricity through the body, moving a needle on a machine called an E-meter that supposedly registers harmful energy related to painful experiences. The auditor — a more senior Scientology member — asks the “pre-clear” questions to help them reach “new realizations about existence.”

Isabella, who previously shunned the spotlight, gushed of her auditor training, “This IS what I had been searching for. The missing piece. Suddenly everything began to make sense . . . I became that annoying girl in the org who would just talk endlessly about how incredible training is . . . now I KNOW. We all need to do this . . . This is a gift to yourself and so many others . . . If you are going to make it as a being for the long run you NEED this.”

Scientologists believe we have all lived many past lives and are actually millions of years old. A link at the end of Isabella’s message takes readers to an auditing recruitment page.

***

STRANGE SOUNDS

We have never seen catastrophic flooding like this, and the NOAA is now telling us that there will be more major flooding until May and even July 2019

April 8, 2019

On Thursday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warned that “historic, widespread flooding” would “continue through July”. More than 90 percent of the upper Midwest and Great Plains is currently covered by an average of 10.7 inches of snow, and all of that snow is starting to melt. That means that we are going to transition from one of the worst winters in modern history to a flood season that has already taken an apocalyptic turn for farmers all across America.

At this moment, millions of acres of farmland are already underwater. Thousands of farmers are not going to be able to plant crops this year, and thousands of other farmers that have been financially ruined by the floods will never return to farming again.

This is already the worst agricultural disaster in modern American history, and it is going to get a whole lot worse.

• Millions of bushels of wheat, corn and soybeans have been destroyed by flood waters

• Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of livestock have been lost, and all of us will soon be feeling a lot more pain at the grocery store.

And this would be a complete and utter national nightmare even if the flooding was all over, but the NOAA just told us that we should expect more catastrophic flooding for the next three-four months (until July).

In fact, the NOAA is using the words “unprecedented flood season” to describe what is coming, and they are warning that “more than 200 million people” are at risk…

Forecasters warned the floods would likely to continue through July, and could worsen in the coming weeks.

Of all the natural disasters that we have seen in recent years, this is the biggest, and U.S. food production is going to be dramatically affected because many farmers will not be able to grow crops at all in 2019.

Many of America’s farmers will bravely keep going after this disaster, but for many others a financial breaking point has arrived. Farm bankruptcies had already surged to the highest level since the last recession prior to all of this flooding, and now this crisis will end up driving many of them away from the profession for good.

In the end, it is going to be a while before we know the full extent of the damage to America’s farms and our food supply, but all of the experts agree that it will be unprecedented.

US spring floods outlook up to May 2019. NOAA says floods will be around until July 2019. Map by NOAA

Food prices are about to start soaring in a major way. Food prices are already high, but the truth is that this is as low as they are going to get. Much less food will be produced in our heartland this year, and that will mean skyrocketing prices at our grocery stores.

The damage continues on downstream for people, livestock, homes and businesses. Please keep them all in your prayers.

***

RT

Julian Assange arrested after Ecuador tears up asylum deal

Published time: 11 Apr, 2019 09:3 Edited time: 11 Apr, 2019 11:37

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been dragged out of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London where he has spent the last seven years. That's after Ecuador's president Moreno withdrew asylum.

That's only a day after WikiLeaks Editor-in-Chief Kristinn Hrafnsson claimed that an extensive spying operation was conducted against Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy. During an explosive media conference Hrafnsson alleged that the operation was designed to get Assange extradited.

Assange's relationship with Ecuadorian officials appeared increasingly strained since the current president came to power in the Latin American country in 2017. His internet connection was cut off in March of last year, with officials saying the move was to stop Assange from "interfering in the affairs of other sovereign states."

The whistleblower garnered massive international attention in 2010 when WikiLeaks released classified US military footage, entitled 'Collateral Murder', of a US Apache helicopter gunship opening fire on a number of people, killing 12 including two Reuters staff, and injuring two children.

The footage, as well as US war logs from Iraq and Afghanistan and more than 200,000 diplomatic cables, were leaked to the site by US Army soldier Chelsea Manning. She was tried by a US tribunal and sentenced to 35 years in jail for disclosing the materials.

Manning was pardoned by outgoing President Barack Obama in 2017 after spending seven years in US custody. She is currently being held again in a US jail for refusing to testify before a secret grand jury in a case apparently related to WikiLeaks.

Assange's seven-year stay at the Ecuadorian Embassy was motivated by his concern that he may face similarly harsh and arguably unfair prosecution by the US for his role in publishing troves of classified US documents over the years.

His legal troubles stem from an accusation by two women in Sweden, with both claiming they had a sexual encounter with Assange that was not fully consensual. The whistleblower said the allegations were false. Nevertheless, they yielded to the Swedish authorities who sought his extradition from the UK on "suspicion of rape, three cases of sexual abuse and unlawful compulsion."

In December 2010, he was arrested in the UK under a European Arrest Warrant and spent time in Wandsworth Prison before being released on bail and put under house arrest.

During that time, Assange hosted a show on RT known as 'World Tomorrow or The Julian Assange Show', in which he interviewed several world influencers in controversial and thought-provoking episodes.

His attempt to fight extradition ultimately failed. In 2012, he skipped bail and fled to the Ecuadorian Embassy, which extended him protection from arrest by the British authorities. Quito gave him political asylum and later Ecuadorian citizenship.

Assange spent the following years stranded at the diplomatic compound, only making sporadic appearances at the embassy window and in interviews conducted inside. His health has reportedly deteriorated over the years, while treatment options are limited due to his inability to leave the Knightsbridge building.

In 2016, a UN expert panel ruled that what was happening to Assange amounted to arbitrary detention by the British authorities. London nevertheless refused to revoke his arrest warrant for skipping bail. Sweden dropped the investigation against Assange in 2017, although Swedish prosecutors indicated it may be resumed if Assange "makes himself available."

Assange argued that his avoidance of European law enforcement was necessary to protect him from extradition to the US, where then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions said that arresting him is a "priority." WikiLeaks was branded a "non-state hostile intelligence service" by then-CIA head Mike Pompeo in 2017.

The US government has been tight-lipped on whether Assange would face indictment over the dissemination of classified material. In November 2018, the existence of a secret indictment targeting Assange was seemingly unintentionally confirmed in a US court filing for an unrelated case.

Last year, a UK tribunal refused to release key details on communications between British and Swedish authorities that could have revealed any dealings between the UK, Sweden, the US, and Ecuador in the long-running Assange debacle. La Repubblica journalist Stefania Maurizi had her appeal to obtain documents held by the Crown Prosecution Service dismissed on December 12.

WikiLeaks is responsible for publishing thousands of documents with sensitive information from many countries. Those include the 2003 Standard Operating Procedures manual for Guantanamo Bay, the controversial detention center in Cuba. The agency has also released documents on Scientology, one tranche referred to as "secret bibles" from the religion founded by L. Ron Hubbard.

**

CultureWatch

Trans-Reality and State-Mandated Lying

Bill Muehlenberg

Apr 5, 2019

We are being forced to lie. We are being forced to bear false witness. We are being forced to renounce reality. We are being forced to reject truth. We are being forced to deny our conscience. Just who is doing this? Our leaders, our governments, our media, our elites, our “experts” and our authorities.

All have demanded that we renounce the use of our minds, pretend there is no such thing as reality, and lie repeatedly in order to make deluded and confused people feel good about themselves. I refer of course to the global trans jackboot coming down on anyone and everyone who dares to speak truth in this area.

If you call a man who pretends he is a woman a man, you WILL now be punished. I have documented countless cases of this happening, and it gets worse each passing day. Just a week ago I wrote about one brave Canadian man who refused to submit to the lies, deception and tyranny of the trans militants.

For that he is being forced to cough up $55,000! Can you believe it? See my write-up here: billmuehlenberg.com/2019/03/30/transtopia-you-will-deny-reality-or-face-the-consequences/

Of course this poor guy is just one of many who have fallen afoul of the trans mafia and their war against reality, biology, truth and sanity. I have documented many cases of people being punished simply for speaking truth, for staying true to their conscience, and refusing to bow down to the news trans overlords.

Consider just a small sampling of some other cases of those being punished for refusing to bow to this new madness:

I called a trans boy a girl by mistake… and it may cost me my job as a teacher: Maths tutor suspended after praising pupil using the wrong gender
November 12, 2017
-Joshua Sutcliffe said ‘well done girls’ to the teenager after seeing them working
-He apologised when corrected by the pupil but their parents then complained
-He has been summoned to a formal hearing to face charges for ‘misgendering’

College student is kicked out of religion class for saying there are only two genders
March 13, 2018
A college student from Indiana University of Pennsylvania was banned from Christianity class for saying there are only two genders.

Indiana Teacher Forced to Resign Over Refusal to Use Transgender Pronouns
June 6, 2018
After teaching orchestra in Brownsburg Community Schools for four years, 28-year-old John Kluge is being forced to resign. The reason? He refuses to call transgender students by their preferred names, versus the names they were given at birth. “I really do care for all of my students,” Kluge said, “which is why I don’t want to be compelled to speak in such a way that I believe I’ll be encouraging them in something that’s dangerous.”

Student editor who retweeted article pointing out that ‘women don’t have penises’ is fired from university journal
September 21, 2018

Christian student’s stance sparks protests at UC Berkeley
November 13, 2018
More than a thousand of Isabella Chow’s University of California Berkeley classmates are demanding she resign as a student senator after she abstained from a vote [on transgenderism] she said contradicted her Christian values.

Young mother is barred from her local pub for wearing a T-shirt saying ‘Woman: human female’ after a complaint that it discriminated against transgender people
January 7, 2019

D.C. restaurant fined $7,000 after asking transgender woman for ID before letting her use bathroom
January 17, 2019
A D.C. restaurant will pay $7,000 as part of a settlement after an employee tried to stop a transgender woman from using a women’s restroom last summer, D.C.’s attorney general said this week.

Gamer reportedly banned from Twitch for claiming there are only two genders
February 7, 2019
A popular online gamer who regularly broadcasts on streaming platform Twitch claims she has been permanently banned from the platform for stating her “beliefs” that “there are only two genders”.

Mother, 38, is arrested in front of her children and locked in a cell for seven HOURS after calling a transgender woman a man on Twitter
February 10, 2019
Police officers detained Kate Scottow, 38, at her home in Hitchin, Hertfordshire.

I could do this all day folks. The cases of those being punished for clinging to truth and reality are mounting and getting worse and worse. Losing your job, being fined, even being arrested for speaking biological truth! This is utter madness.

And poor Bill Whatcott was slugged with a $55,000 fine for simply stating truth. These are very scary times indeed folks. When the state gets in the business of going after and punishing people who think truth and reality are important, you know we are in a very bad way indeed.

This is simply diabolical. In the old days you could lose your job, be fined, or jailed for things like rape, arson, murder and theft. Today simply being true to the real world will result in you being punished. Wow. And as bad as all this is getting, now more than ever we need people to resist – to say no to this fascist Big Brother agenda.

We must always speak truth, regardless of the consequences. We cannot let the other side intimidate us and bully us into silence, into living a lie, into denying the real world. We must resist the thought police and the trans totalitarians, regardless of the cost. If we don’t, we really have lost it all.

In my recent piece on Whatcott I quoted from Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. A brand-new article, “Conservatives Shouldn’t Use Transgender Pronouns,” also quotes from it, as the writer rightly urges us not to bow down to the trans dictatorship. The piece by Graham Hillard begins:

One of the most disturbing passages in 1984 has nothing to do with telescreens, Newspeak, or rats. Rather, it is the assertion by Winston Smith’s torturer that he could “float off this floor like a soap bubble” if he wished to do so. Such a claim, the reader understands, is neither hyperbole nor metaphor but an earnest expression of the belief that reality is contingent on human perception. Winston could be forced, if necessary, to affirm his torturer’s proposition. His acquiescence would render it “true” in the only remaining sense of that word.

He concludes:

It is not the case that every transgender individual will choose to endure surgery. Yet it is the case that transgenderism is socially contagious, that it is advancing with astonishing rapidity, and that surgical interventions will surely proliferate as a result. Conservatives are not to blame for the fact that 12 percent of Millennials now identify as “transgender or gender non-conforming,” according to a recent GLAAD survey. We are to blame, however, if our conciliatory language impairs our ability to declare that this is wrong. It is not real. We have to stop it. If the transgender man or woman really is “held” or “trapped” or “born” in the wrong body, let us say so and accept the cultural and medical consequences. But if the central transgender assertion is a lie — if it derives from the same fantasy that says a man can float like a soap bubble — then God forgive us if we utter a word in its favor.

To be sure, conservatives will pay a price for their stubbornness. A transgender movement that holds public opinion in its grasp may well increase the legal pressure on nonconformists should that grip begin to loosen. Jobs may be lost or friendships ruined. Our own children may one day condemn us. What is at stake, however, is the irreplaceable right to say of one thing, “true,” and of another, “false” — to define the basic realities from which our politics proceed. A man is a man. A woman is a woman. Let us not pretend otherwise.

When Big Brother arrives in the 21st century, he will appear not on posters but in grammar handbooks, HR manuals, and social media. Not as a tormentor but as a disappointed neighbor or friend.

No matter. We still mustn’t submit to him.

Now is the time to stand against this Orwellian madness and declare our allegiance to truth, to reality, and to biology. If that makes us bigots and haters, well, then so be it. About the only thing worse than all this Big Brother activism targeting us is the sad fact that so many of us have been warning about this for decades now.

We TOLD you this would happen. We warned, we pleaded, we sounded the alarm. But most of our warnings fell on deaf ears sadly. And now we are paying the price – big time. As my good friend Mark rightly put it on the social media:

One of the reasons I hold to the socio-political views I do, is because they accurately explain the past, describe the present, and most important of all, predict the future with a high degree of reliability. (I have not always done so, but a measure of maturity is the ability to say, ‘I was wrong’, and change the way you think.) One of the key marks of leftism, is it pays no attention to historical applications of its principles, with adherents preferring to believe if you only feel or emote the right intentions, the outcome will take care of itself.

Well, no. You could never draw up a model for any invention if you thought like that. It’s not how reality works. What is happening now in some places around the world is chilling. The idea you can be held to *legal account for simply stating one of the most basic facts about being human was an inevitable outcome from letting people with no rational or moral foundation continuously inject their warped ideas into government authority. As Michael Brown states, “We told you this was coming.”

***

RT

Trump pumps new poison into US confrontation with Iran (by George Galloway)

April 9, 2019

George Galloway was a member of the British Parliament for nearly 30 years. He presents TV and radio shows (including on RT). He is a film-maker, writer and a renowned orator.

FILE PHOTO: Members of the Iranian revolutionary guard, September 22, 2011 © Reuters / Stringer

The US action against Iran’s Revolutionary Guard is a dangerous escalation which can only endanger a fragile world peace and widen the breach between the Trump administration and many of its closest allies, principally the EU.

On Monday, the US designated Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) as a “terrorist organization”.

It is the equivalent of declaring the US Marine Corps a terrorist organization, though with much less justification given that Iran hasn’t invaded another country for centuries. Washington’s description of Iran as “expansionist” is enough to make a horse laugh given the world-wide projection of US bases and military hardware around the world – and around Iran.

It is the first time ever that a US government has designated a part of a foreign government as a “terrorist organization”. Anyone doing business with Iran will have no way of knowing if they are “bankrolling terrorism” by doing so, and that of course is the point.

Taken in the context of the stand-off between the US and Venezuela, the disturbing nuclear cooperation between the US and Saudi Arabia, the ever-closer relationship between the Trumps and Israel, the ongoing crisis in US-Russia relations, and the escalation against Iran shows a mighty American over-stretch which can only lead to tears – and blood.

Any one of these dangerous confrontations would be risky, any two terrifyingly so. All of them taken together would tax the ability of any empire even in its pomp. For the American empire, well past its height, beset by looming economic problems and utterly riven by internal political division, it looks an impossibility, though many and much might be destroyed in the attempt.

The 2003 invasion of Iraq was for oil, to be sure, and for Israel also. But its principal goal was to demonstrate the hegemony of the American Empire. A declaration that this was a new American century. The result proved the exact opposite, and that before the renaissance of Russia under Putin and the long awaited arrival of China on the world stage packing a military and political punch commensurate with its economic importance.

The ill-clad, ill-equipped (and warring) militias in Iraq soon made the country ungovernable and US withdrawal from the streets inevitable.

The result – as anyone with knowledge could have predicted – has been the Finlandisation of Iraq, increasingly closely coordinating with Iran next door. Destroying the Arab Sunni power in Baghdad could only lead to the strengthening of Shia Iranian power there. And so it has.

Iran is now too big and powerful for the US to fight – short of using nuclear weapons. The Revolutionary Guard is as intrinsic to the Islamic Republic as any other organ of the state, bar none. In fact, without the IRGC, there is no Islamic Republic. The Guard is not just a fearsomely strong military force, its political and economic reach in the state also renders it internally untouchable. No Iranian government would, or could, move to trim its strength.

Thus, Washington actually declared war on Iran this week. A threat to the IRGC is an existential threat to the state and will be treated as such by the Iranians.

Iran has the ability to hurt US interests throughout the region – in Iraq, in Yemen, in Syria, in Lebanon and, please note Mr Trump, in Saudi Arabia itself. Not to mention that without the Straits of Hormuz, there is no Western economy. Its closure would bring most economic activity to a shuddering halt, moving the oil price into undreamt of heights.

The new sanctions, a prelude to a new phase for sure, will radicalize the politics of Iran, marginalize the moderates in its government, and unite the vast majority of Iranians behind their government and the IRGC. Europeans will refuse to go along with it. If the US seeks to punish them for doing so, it will further antagonize European allies, weakening NATO, and reduce support for other American foreign policies. It is all a far-cry from the America-First campaign cry of Trump’s election. Allowing a Bernie Sanders presidential run, a target-rich environment.

MailOnline

Brexit delayed to Halloween: EU leaders agree a 'flextension' until October 31 that lets Britain out if May's deal ever passes as she vows to press on - while Tusk pleads with MPs 'do not waste this time'

• EU leaders had been leaning towards a long Brexit delay, dashing Mrs May's hopes of leaving by summer

• But France's Macron dug in for a shorter delay - but after a row with EU colleagues he was slapped down

• The October 31 delay - Halloween - is a compromise between the two sides, with a review taking place in June

• Mrs May insists it is still possible to leave before May 23 and avoid taking part in European Elections

• Donald Tusk told reporters: 'It is still enough to find the best possible solution. Please don't waste this time'

• Leo Varadkar said UK must take part in May European elections or be ejected without a deal on June 1

By DAVID WILCOCK, WHITEHALL CORRESPONDENT and MARTIN ROBINSON CHIEF REPORTER and TIM SCULTHORPE, DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 09:10, 10 April 2019 | UPDATED: 07:39, 11 April 2019

Mrs May told reporters after the gruelling late-night summit that she still believed the UK could leave the EU by June and gave no indication that she planned to resign as the EU imposed a Halloween Brexit delay

Article

Children’s Health Defense

NYC Mandatory Measles Vaccination Violates NY State Law, CHD Challenges Legality.

APRIL 10, 2019

Yesterday, 60 New York vaccine safety advocates and religious leaders visited the office of Assembly member Jeffrey Dinowitz, author of A2371, a bill that would eliminate religious vaccine exemptions state wide.

CHD PRESS RELEASE, NEW YORK, April 10, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — The New York City Commissioner of Health declared a public health emergency yesterday, ordering all people who live, work or reside in four Brooklyn zip codes to be vaccinated with the Measles-Mumps-Rubella vaccine declared to be “effective and safe.” Non-compliance with the order is a misdemeanor subject to criminal and civil fines, including imprisonment. Mayor Bill de Blasio warned that residents have 48 hours to get the vaccine or face a $1,000 fine. Only those with documented immunity, medical contraindications or infants under six months are exempt from the vaccine mandate.

This order primarily affects Orthodox and Hasidic Jews living in the Williamsburg area of Brooklyn who do not vaccinate because it violates their core religious beliefs. The MMR vaccine is manufactured using WI-38 human diploid lung fibroblasts obtained from aborted fetal tissue. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said in response that is was “legally questionable” whether people can be forced to get vaccinated if it violates their religious beliefs.

Children’s Health Defense (CHD) is supporting a legal challenge to this dangerous, unprecedented overreach. While the City has unquestionable authority to control disease outbreaks, it may not violate the bedrock principle of prior, free and informed consent to all medical interventions, including vaccines. This is a fundamental human right. The City may quarantine, isolate, trace contacts and strongly urge vaccination, but it may not impose such a draconian mandate without demonstrating necessity, reasonableness, proportionality, harm avoidance, non-discrimination, due process and equal protection. The Commissioner has failed to do this; the City’s actions violate New York State law.

“I am shocked that Mayor De Blasio would resort to such police state techniques to control an outbreak of measles. I don’t believe the City’s actions will withstand legal scrutiny,” said CHD Board Member Mary Holland, JD. The City is requiring that people receive Merck’s MMR vaccine, even though the outbreak is only for measles. The MMR II product insert acknowledges that death is a potential side effect from the vaccine, along with a long raft of other potential permanent injuries. A review of claims submitted to the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program of identified 48 cases of encephalopathy following MMR vaccine. Of those, eight children died, and the remainder had mental regression and retardation, chronic seizures, motor and sensory deficits, and movement disorders. The authors, all associated with the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program concluded that a causal relationship between measles vaccine and encephalopathy may exist as a rare complication of measles immunization.

Robin Stavola, a member of CHD, commented on the order saying “I regret every day of my life that I was not given full informed consent about the MMR vaccination as my healthy and beautiful daughter, Holly, suffered for days before dying at 5 years old from encephalopathy as a result of her MMR vaccine required before entering school.” Her family cautions that the order has the potential to create long-term adverse health consequences that may be worse than what it purportedly prevents.

“This case goes beyond a dispute over religious freedom,” said CHD Chairman Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “Thanks to the Merck federal whistleblower litigation, we now know that Merck’s MMR should have never been approved, much less mandated. To get its license Merck allegedly ordered its scientists to falsify efficacy data to fraudulently conceal the fact that the mumps component quickly wanes, triggering dangerous outbreaks in older populations where it can cause sterility in men and women. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 150 outbreaks resulting in 9,200 cases of mumps in fully vaccinated adults, dwarfing the recent measles outbreaks. We are confident that no American court will allow government bureaucrats to force American citizens to take risky pharmaceutical products against their will.”

Children’s Health Defense looks forward to the opportunity to have a neutral arbitrator scrutinize the legitimacy of the City’s order.

Concerned citizens are encouraged to donate to Children’s Health Defense legal efforts.

FOX NEWS

Nurse adopts girl who had no visitors during hospital stay

By Alexandria Hein | Fox News

April 6, 2019

A Massachusetts director of nursing who at the end of each workday took to visiting an infant who had landed in her hospital is now the girl’s mother after she had volunteered to foster her when the state gained custody of her in October 2016. Liz Smith’s daughter, Gisele, was born at 29 weeks gestation in July 2016, and was diagnosed with neonatal abstinence syndrome due to her birth mother’s drug use during pregnancy.

According to Franciscan Children’s blog, Gisele, who was born weighing just under 2 pounds, spent three months in the NICU on ventilator support before she was transferred to Franciscan Children’s, and had developed an oral aversion. The infant had allegedly no visitors during her time at Franciscan Children’s, except for 45-year-old Smith, who herself had recently learned that she was not a good candidate for IVF.

With support from family and friends, Smith decided to foster Gisele, who was then 9 months old, with the hope of helping her thrive outside the hospital walls. At first, Gisele’s birth parents had supervised weekly visitations, but according to the blog those soon became infrequent and the goal went from reunification to adoption.

“When I got the call that the parents’ rights were terminated, I imagined that it would be a day of relief,” Smith, who had fallen in love with the little girl, told the blog. “And it was a day I was really sad. I was really happy. But I was really sad for them. I was gaining her but they were losing her. And to try to battle addiction and being a mom, that’s impossible.”

So two years after Gisele first landed in state custody, Smith legally became her mom.

Smith said that when the judge walked in in their adoption day, Oct. 18, 2018, he said: “When a judge walks in the room, everyone stands out of respect. But today I stand in respect for you, Liz because you deserve the respect from this room. A birthing day is a miracle. But adopting a child from miles away is destiny. That’s what brought you two together.”

Developmentally, Gisele has thrived under Smith’s care. While she still receives her nutrition through a feeding tube, Smith has helped her start eating a few solid foods as well like pizza and avocados.

“Since the moment I met her, there was something behind her striking blue eyes capturing my attention,” Smith told the Washington Post. “I felt that I needed to love this child and keep her safe.”

***

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

“Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, [and] to keep himself unspotted from the world.”
(James 1:27)