“For to you is paradise opened, the tree of life planted, the time to come is prepared, plenteousness is made ready, a city is built, and rest is allowed, goodness is perfected, wisdom being perfect beforehand. The root of evil is sealed up from you, weakness is done away from you, and [death] is hidden; hell and corruption are fled into forgetfulness: sorrows are passed away, and in the end is showed the treasure of immortality.”
(2 Esdras 8:52-54)
To You Is Paradise Opened

***

RT

Biggest split in modern Orthodox history: Russian Orthodox Church breaks ties with Constantinople

October 16, 2018

FILE PHOTO: An extraordinary meeting of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church is held in Moscow, on September 14, 2018. © Sputnik / Russian Orthodox Church

In the biggest rift in modern Orthodox history, the Russian Orthodox Church has cut all ties with the Constantinople Patriarchate, after it accepted a breakaway division of Ukrainian Orthodox Church as independent.

The Holy Synod, the governing body of the Russian Orthodox Church, has ruled that any further clerical relations with Constantinople are impossible, Metropolitan Hilarion, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church’s External Relations Department, told journalists, de facto announcing the breach of relations between the two churches.

“A decision about the full break of relations with the Constantinople Patriarchate has been taken at a Synod meeting” that is currently been held in the Belarusian capital of Minsk, Hilarion said, as cited by TASS.

The move comes days after the Synod of the Constantinople Patriarchate decided to eventually grant the so-called autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, thus making the clerical organization, which earlier enjoyed a broad autonomy within the Moscow Patriarchate, fully independent.

The Moscow Patriarchate also said that it would not abide by any decisions taken by Constantinople and related to the status of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. “All these decisions are unlawful and canonically void,” Hilarion said, adding that “the Russian Orthodox Church does not recognize these decisions and will not follow them.”

At the same time, the Russian Church expressed its hope that “a common sense will prevail” and Constantinople will change its decision. However, it still accused the Ecumenical Patriarch of initiating the “schism.”

The move taken by Moscow marks arguably the greatest split in the history of the Orthodox Church since the Great Schism of 1054, which separated Catholics and Orthodox Christians, as it involves a break of communion between the biggest existing Orthodox Church – the Moscow Patriarchate – and Constantinople Patriarch, who is widely regarded as a spiritual leader of world’s Orthodox Christians, even though his status is nothing like that of the Pope in the Roman Catholic Church.

Constantinople’s decision seems to be serving the interests of the Ukrainian leadership rather than the Orthodox Christians living there. While most Orthodox clerics in Ukraine still pledge loyalty to the head of the Russian church, Patriarch Kirill, and consider themselves to be part of the Russian Orthodox Church, Kiev actively supports a schismatic force, which has been unrecognized by any other Churches until now.

This religious movement led by the former Metropolitan of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, who is now called Patriarch Filaret in Ukraine, has sought to gain the status of an independent Orthodox Church, “equal” to the Moscow Patriarchate, since 1990s. Meanwhile, it did not hesitate to seize Moscow Patriarchate’s churches by force.

In its October decision, the Holy Synod of the Constantinople Patriarchate “canonically reinstated” Filaret and his followers “to their hierarchical or priestly rank” and restored their communion with the Church, thus effectively declaring that it does not see them as schismatic. This particular move also provoked angry reaction in the Moscow Patriarchate.

“A schism remains a schism. And the leaders of a schism remain as such,” Hilarion said, adding that “a Church that recognized schismatic [priests] and entered into communion with them … excluded itself from the canonical field of the Orthodox Church.”

He also named restitution of Filaret’s and his followers’ hierarchical or priestly ranks as one of the major reasons behind the Russian Orthodox Church Holy Synod’s decision to break all ties with Constantinople.

According to TASS, 40 churches have been forcefully seized by the Kiev Patriarchate between 2014 and 2016. In the first half of 2018 alone, Ukraine witnessed 10 new attacks on Russian Orthodox Churches. Now, as Constantinople is launched a procedure of granting independence to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, such attacks might further intensify, some experts warn.

***

WND

TURKEY RELEASES PASTOR ANDREW BRUNSON

White House pressured NATO ally with tariffs, sanctions

Art Moore

October 13, 2018

Andrew Brunson (Facebook)

A day after reports that the United States worked out a “secret deal” with Turkey, a Turkish court released American pastor Andrew Brunson on Friday.

The North Carolina Christian minister had been held since October 2016 on unsubstantiated charges of terrorism and espionage by the hardline regime of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Friday afternoon, President Trump told reporters after arriving in Cincinnati that there was no “deal” made with Turkey.

“We spoke to Turkey. He went through a system and we got him out,” Trump said.

“There was no deal made. There was no deal.”

Trump said Brunson was on his way to Germany, where he will be examined by a doctor at Ramstein Air Force Base, and is expected to arrive in Washington Saturday morning.

On Friday, the Second High Criminal Court in western Izmir province convicted Brunson of terror-related charges and sentenced him to three years, one month and 15 days in prison, according to the pro-government Daily Sabah of Istanbul. But the judge said Brunson will not spend anymore time in custody because of time served. Prosecutors had sought a 35-year sentence.

The Trump administration, contending the charges against the pastor are politically motivated, slapped tariffs and sanctions on its NATO ally. Turkey wanted to exchange Brunson for the Muslim cleric it accused of orchestrating the failed coup, Fetullah Gulen, who lives in Pennsylvania.

Jay Sekulow, who represents Brunson’s family and serves on President Trump’s personal legal team, said he is “grateful to the president, members of Congress and diplomatic leaders who continued to put pressure on Turkey to secure the freedom of Pastor Brunson.”

“The fact that he is now on a plane to the United States can only be viewed as a significant victory for Pastor Brunson and his family,” he said.

Brunson told the court on Friday that he is “an innocent man.”

“I love Jesus, I love Turkey,” he said.

President Trump tweeted: “My thoughts and prayers are with Pastor Brunson, and we hope to have him safely back home soon!”

Vice President Mike Pence tweeted: “Pastor Andrew Brunson is coming home! Thanks to the strong leadership of @POTUS Trump and the steadfast prayers of millions of Americans, this innocent man of faith will soon be home!”

Lauren Brunson, a sister of the pastor, told Fox News her family feels as if it’s been on a roller coaster.

“We’re overjoyed, but it still doesn’t quite seem real,” she said of the news of his release.

The Turkish government’s treatment of her brother, she said, has “been like a nightmare, waiting day after day to see what would happen.”

She thanked Trump, Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and others for their intervention.

“I really don’t believe we’d be here today without the administration that we have in place now, working so hard and so tirelessly to bring Andrew home,” she said.

“There wasn’t any evidence whatsoever” against him, Lauren Brunson said, “and as a family we are just glad it’s over.”

Graham expressed caution in an interview with Fox News, because Turkey previously reneged on a deal to free the pastor.

“I’m pleased Pastor Brunson is going to be released, but I’m not going to celebrate until he gets home,” the senator said.

Pence said in a speech in July there is “no credible evidence” against the pastor and warned of “significant sanctions on Turkey until Pastor Andrew Brunson is free.”

The administration then imposed sanctions on two senior Turkish officials, and President Trump authorized a doubling of steel and aluminum tariffs.

NBC News reported Thursday that two senior administration officials and another person briefed on the matter said a deal to free Brunson would include a commitment by the U.S. to ease economic pressure on Turkey.

WND reported last week Brunson’s lawyer petitioned Turkey’s highest court to release the pastor from house arrest.

In July, Turkey moved Brunson from prison to house arrest because of health issues. He faces a possible sentence of up to 35 years in prison if convicted.

NBC’s sources said an agreement on Brunson’s release was advanced in discussions last month between Turkish and U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and national security adviser John Bolton, during the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Pompeo said in a speech Wednesday to the Jewish Institute for National Security of America he was “very hopeful that before too long Pastor Brunson will, he and his wife will be able to return to the United States.”

‘Dark ties to terror groups’

Last week, Erdogan accused the Trump administration of using Brunson as a pretext for sanctions, charging the pastor has “dark ties to terror groups, Bloomberg reported.

“We are determined to fight this twisted attitude that has attempted to impose sanctions on our country by using a pastor who has dark ties to terror groups as the pretext,” Erdogan said.

At the U.N. General Assembly last month, Trump and Erdogan had a brief, informal meeting.

The U.S. continues to refuse Ankara’s demands that the cleric Gulen be extradited.

In his speech to parliament, however, Erdogan left open the door for reconciliation

“I believe the U.S. administration will correct its wrong view toward our country sooner or later,” he said. “We hope to solve the matters between us as soon as possible and develop ties with the U.S. in politics and the economy once again, in line with the spirit of being strategic partners.”

In August, as WND reported, the White House, explaining it doesn’t pay ransom for hostages, rejected an offer by Turkey to free Brunson in exchange for forgiveness of billions of dollars in U.S. fines on a Turkish bank.

***

THE TIMES OF ISRAEL

Evangelicals wield voting power across Latin America, including Brazil

Expert says Guatemala’s recent decision to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is due to the evangelism embraced by President Jimmy Morales

By TUPAC POINTU 6 October 2018, 5:07 pm

FILE -- In this photo taken on September 21, 2018 faithful pray at an evangelical church in Brasilia for the recovery of Brazilian right-wing presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro, who suffered a knife attack during a campaign rally (AFP PHOTO / EVARISTO SA)

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AFP) — Evangelical churches are flourishing across traditionally Catholic Latin America and as the religious movement grows, its influence — including in this weekend’s elections in Brazil — is transforming the region and swinging its politics to the right, analysts say.

Sharply opposed to abortion, same-sex marriage, the legalization of marijuana, and leftist ideology in general, the evangelical movement has boosted conservatives and helped unseat a slew of left-leaning governments across the region.

Powerful evangelical churches are now helping tip the balance in Brazil, where far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro is riding high in the polls ahead of Sunday’s presidential election first round.

“The recent elections in Chile, Costa Rica, Mexico, Colombia, Guatemala, and the upcoming one in Brazil reveal both greater electoral polarization and a shift to the political right,” says Andrew Chesnut, director of Catholic Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University.

In Mexico, “even though he’s left of center, Lopez Obrador felt he had to make an alliance with a small conservative party founded by a Pentecostal pastor, to ensure his victory,” Chesnut says, referring to President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

Political fervor

Latin America has 40 percent of the world’s Roman Catholics, but evangelical churches that grew out of American Protestantism at the beginning of the 1900s are attracting more and more followers, and they are increasingly influential come election time.

According to a 2014 study by the Pew Investigation Center in the US, one in five Latin Americans are Protestant.

The figure rises to 41 percent in Honduras and Guatemala, where General Efrain Rios Montt became the world’s first Pentecostal head of state when he came to power in a 1982 military coup.

Most of the new churches are Pentecostal, a movement energized by expectation of the imminent second coming of Christ.

Pentecostal growth has been so strong in Brazil that the South American behemoth “now is home to the largest Pentecostal population on earth with more believers than even in the USA,” said Chesnut.

William Mauricio Beltran, a professor at Colombia’s National University, said evangelical churches had “managed to respond better to the needs of new generations of Latin Americans.

“Particularly in the context of accelerated social change, characterized by rapid urbanization and globalization, increasing uncertainty, and increasing social pluralization.”

Those “processes that have left large sectors of the population excluded, or with very few opportunities.”

For both Beltran and Chesnut, pedophile scandals in the Catholic Church — of the kind currently roiling the church in Chile — have helped push more Christians towards evangelical movements.

At the heart of political debate

Evangelism has played a key role in some of the biggest political upheavals in the region in recent years, said Gaspard Estrada, a specialist in Latin American politics at Paris’ Science Po university.

They include the impeachment of Brazil’s president Dilma Rousseff, the “No” vote in the Colombian referendum on the 2016 FARC peace deal, and Guatemala’s recent decision to move its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

“The themes that are dear to the evangelicals are increasingly present in public debate,” said Estrada.

He points out that the evangelism embraced by Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales weighed heavily on his decision to move the embassy.

According to evangelists, Jews should rebuild their biblical temple in Jerusalem, which is a key step in a series of events that will lead to a second coming of Jesus Christ on Earth.

“Evangelical pastors intervene much more in the daily lives of the faithful, they have no problem to call on people to vote for someone,” said Estrada.

Ahead of Brazil’s election on Sunday, the influential Universal Church of the Kingdom of God has come out strongly for Bolsonaro, the tough-on-crime former army captain who is favored to win.

Swing to the right

Even more than a swing to the right, the Evangelical surge “is a victory for alternativsm,” Estrada believes.

“Because of the corruption scandals, lack of leadership, and stalled growth, there is a radicalization of the electorate in Latin America. Voters are being pushed to extreme and alternative candidates,” Estrada said.

“This affirmation of the evangelical and conservative vote is a reaction to the progress of feminist voting and civil society.”

According to Beltran from Colombia’s National University, the churches have managed to mobilize into a political machine “whose role and power must be taken into account at each election.”

***

RT

Christian leader urges viewers to ‘cool down’ anti-Saudi rhetoric, and protect vital arms deals

October 18, 2018

Pat Robertson © AFP / Win McNameee

Article and video

***

RT

After nuclear holocaust, we’ll go to heaven as martyrs; attackers will die as sinners – Putin

October 18, 2018

A nuclear test in US. A public domain image provided by the US National Nuclear Security Administration

If any nation decides to attack Russia with nuclear weapons, it may end life on Earth; but unlike the aggressors, the Russians are sure to go to heaven, President Vladimir Putin has said.

“Any aggressor should know that retribution will be inevitable and he will be destroyed. And since we will be the victims of his aggression, we will be going to heaven as martyrs. They will simply drop dead, won’t even have time to repent,” Putin said during a session of the Valdai Club in Sochi.

He added that Russia’s nuclear forces are not tailored for a pre-emptive strike, and exist as a second-strike capability meant to deter an attack by a foreign nation.

The Russian nuclear doctrine allows for the use of this weapon in a conventional conflict, but only if Russia’s existence is at stake. This presumably gives the Russian military a loophole to use tactical nuclear weapons in the case of a large-scale invasion. The self-imposed restrictions are less harsh than a complete ‘no-first-use’ pledge, which was dropped by Moscow in 1993.

The US’ latest nuclear posture review says that Washington may use nuclear weapons in response to a non-nuclear attack on itself or its allies. It remains vague about the exact circumstances that may trigger such an action. This gave rise to speculation that even a cyberattack may permit a nuclear response. Meanwhile, a call for the creation of small-yield submarine-launched missiles and nuclear-capable sea-launched cruise missiles have only added to concerns that the US is stocking up for some kind of large-scale conflict.

***

RT

Pakistanis rally to demand death for Christian woman facing execution for blasphemy

October 14, 2018

Protesters are pictured in Lahore, Pakistan, on October 12, 2018. © AFP / Arif Ali

Several thousand protesters hit the streets of Pakistan calling for the Christian woman accused of insulting Islam be put to death. Asia Bibi would become the first person executed for blasphemy if her appeal fails.

The Pakistani city of Lahore was the center of Friday’s protests, which were organized by the anti-blasphemy party Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP). Demonstrations also took place in a number of other cities across the country, including Karachi and Rawalpindi.

The rallies came after Pakistan's Supreme Court heard the final appeal of Bibi, a Christian laborer accused of blasphemy against the Prophet Mohammed in 2009 by Muslim women she was working with in a field.

According to Bibi's autobiography ‘Blasphemy: A Memoir: Sentenced to Death Over a Cup of Water’ the incident began when she went to retrieve a cup of water from a well during a hot day of fruit picking.

When a Muslim woman nearby saw her doing so she shouted, “Don't drink that water, it's haram (forbidden)!” She then turned to the other women in the field, telling them that Bibi had dirtied the water in the well by drinking from their cup.

“Now the water is unclear and we can't drink it! Because of her!” the woman said. Several women called Bibi a “filthy Christian” and told her to convert to Islam.

“I’m not going to convert. I believe in my religion and in Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for the sins of mankind. What did your Prophet Mohammed ever do to save mankind? And why should it be me that converts instead of you?”Bibi said.

At that point, one woman spat on her while another shoved her. Days later, she was accused of blasphemy.

Friday’s protests came despite the court saying it had reached a judgment at a hearing on Monday, but that it would not be released immediately for “reasons to be recorded later.” It also said that it had ruled on a petition that would put Bibi on the no-fly list if released, but did not publish that judgment either.

Bibi's case has prompted international calls for her release, with Pope Benedict XVI joining in the calls in 2010. Pope Francis met with Bibi's daughter in 2015.

Although Pakistan's law takes the accusation of blasphemy very seriously and people have been sentenced to death, no one has ever actually been executed.

***

SPUTNIK

Diets Instead of Religion: 'Extremist' Sweden Finds New "God"

October 18, 2018

In the absence of tradition, following a certain diet can fulfill the void left by atheism and cosmopolitanism, helping its adherents feel a sense of meaning in life, researchers say.

In secularized nations, like Sweden and its Scandinavian peers, fixed dietary rules have become a substitute for religion with an increasing number of followers, researchers told Swedish national broadcaster SVT.

Susanne Wigorts Yngvesson, a professor of ethics at the Stockholm University of Technology, sees similarities between the willingness to follow a strict pattern of dietary rules and religion.

"In the Christian mythos, you speak of submission as a kind of freedom. By renouncing something, sacrificing yourself and enduring suffering, you feel you're doing something good," Yngvesson told SVT.

While requesting customized special food in a restaurant or a private party, where various people congregate, is becoming increasingly common and acceptable, Yngvesson sees similar driving forces between following a diet and professing a belief.

"The diet can invoke a sense of meaning in life, so that you see yourself as part of a context, and feel one with a meaningful community," Yngvesson explained.

Richard Tellström, an ethnologist working for Stockholm University and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, went so far as to call diets such as veganism or low-carb LCHF diet "cultural deviations." At the same time, he admitted that "extremist" Sweden is the perfect country for their followers and adherents.

"Sweden is an extremist country," Tellström told SVT. "Here, traditions, religion and group community are significantly less important than they are in most other countries. We have very extreme values, very secular and based on common sense.

Whereas in other countries with more traditional food culture, it is much more difficult to disengage oneself from the family or one's peers in terms of diet, in Sweden attempts to achieve happiness through various dietary deviations and eccentricities don't raise any eyebrows, he noted.

But even in very secular countries, like Sweden, man retains a longing for something greater, something that gives meaning to life, both scientists argued, claiming that the diet can fulfill that function for many people.

Fittingly, SVT alone has run about a dozen of articles and features about various diets ranging from "environment-friendly" vegetarianism to the "health-improving" 5:2 diet and the healthy eating plate diet in the past week alone.

Incidentally, similar ideas have been recently expressed in Denmark, where philosopher and West Jutland Folk High School principal Anders Fogh Jensen penned an opinion piece in which he claimed the cult of health to have become a "substitute religion for a people who have lost spirituality."

"Our entire mindset has been hijacked by the health paradigm, which now does not allow us to think beyond the increasingly narrowing framework of what is right and important," Fogh Jensen wrote in the daily newspaper Berlingske, stressing that the regulations of modern life don't contain any meaningful horizons that extend beyond life itself.

Scandinavia is one of the world's most secular and irreligious regions, with only one in10 Swedes believing that religion plays an important role in daily life. This tendency extends even to worshippers themselves. One poll surprisingly found that only 15 percent of the Church of Sweden members actually believe in Jesus.

***

QUARTZY

SOMETHING'S BREWING

THE US WITCH POPULATION HAS SEEN AN ASTRONOMICAL RISE

By Sangeeta Singh-Kurtz & Dan Kopf

Spirituality is now firmly placed in mainstream culture. The growing interest in astrology driven by millennials, as well as the popularity of crystals and tarot cards via the ballooning wellness industry, have brought mysticism from the fringes, and right into your Instagram feed.

However, as the cosmetics giant Sephora recently found out, mysticism and its more formal manifestation, witch culture, are not topics to be taken lightly. When the company tried to commodify and condense witch-related practices into a “Starter Witch Kit,” they managed to piss off a bunch of actual witches, forcing the kit’s manufacturer to apologize and pull the product.
The kit was clearly aimed at dabblers in witchcraft, rather than those who actually practice it, which was perhaps part of the miscalculation. Data on the existing population of self-identified practicing witches suggests that a robust—and growing—witch community exists.

By the numbers: witches, Wiccans, and Pagans

Though the data is sparse, what we do know is that the practice of witchcraft has seen major growth in recent decades. As the witch aesthetic has risen, so has the number of people who identify as witches.

The best source of data on the number of witches in the US comes from assessments of the Wicca population. Not all people who practice witchcraft consider themselves Wicca, but the religion makes up a significant subset, as Alden Wicker noted for Quartz in 2016.

Wicca is a largely Western religious movement that dates back to the mid-20th century in the US and UK. According to the site wicca.com, it’s a belief system informed by “pre-Christian traditions originating in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales,” that promotes “free thought and will of the individual, and encourages learning and an understanding of the earth and nature.

Birgitte Necessary, who describes herself as a Green Witch from Washington State, defines the religion similarly, explaining it as “a deep adherence to nature and natural law, an attention to the cycles of the earth and the lives within it.” As a Green Witch, Necessary adds that her practices mostly revolve around the plant kingdom and herbal healing.

While the US government does not regularly collect detailed religious data, because of concerns that it may violate the separation of church and state, several organizations have tried to fill the data gap. From 1990 to 2008, Trinity College in Connecticut ran three large, detailed religion surveys. Those have shown that Wicca grew tremendously over this period. From an estimated 8,000 Wiccans in 1990, they found there were about 340,000 practitioners in 2008. They also estimated there were around 340,000 Pagans in 2008.

Although Trinity College hasn’t run a survey since 2008, the Pew Research Center picked up the baton in 2014. It found that 0.4% of Americans, or around 1 to 1.5 million people, identify as Wicca or Pagan—which suggests continued robust growth for the communities.

Data on Wicca identification is even sparser in the UK, the other country with a significant Wicca population. A 2011 government census found that there are 12,000 Wiccans in England and Wales, but previous surveys didn’t collect data on the group.

The rise of witchcraft

Witchcraft had a long and complicated history before the wellness and beauty industries became recently obsessed with it. Witches have been a fixture in the popular imagination for centuries: And from Snow White to The Crucible to Melisandre in Game of Thrones, beauty, sexuality, and the quest for eternal youth have been baked into our perception of witches.

That perception is also, of course, tied to a bloody history of persecution of witchcraft’s practitioners, and the term “witch” itself has been used as a multipurpose misogynist slur. It’s perhaps that centuries-long perception that has led modern-day witches to reclaim the term, and even coalesce into a political movement.

Some modern witches, such as Courtney Brooke, place themselves in a subset of witches that adhere to a feminist dogma and identify specifically as “feminist witches”:

The mainstreaming of mysticism makes sense when you consider how it overlaps with the interests of the millennial women. As Wicker noted, witchcraft is the perfect religion for liberal millennials who are already involved in yoga and meditation, mindfulness, and new-age spirituality. With that foundation, they might show up for pagan holidays or new moon gatherings, or begin to explore the more serious spiritual concepts at the root of these practices.

This is all aided by the rise of witches on social media (just check out the extremely popular #witchesofinstagram hashtag on Instagram), and a certain kind of Instagrammable witchiness has been identified by market trend-spotters as “mysticore.”

The Hoodwitch, for example, is a bona fide witch influencer, with 329K Instagram followers, who practices “everyday magic for the modern mystic,” and appears at events like LA’s BeautyCon to do tarot readings:

The numbers on Wicca and Paganism may well undercount the total number of witches. Indeed, as Necessary notes, some witches reject Wicca in its current form as “a new age less-than-perfect reinvention of witchcraft.”

But whatever the exact number is, it’s clear that witches are among us—and the current trajectory suggests that their population will continue to grow.

***

RT

Brooklyn ‘witches’ want to stop Justice Kavanaugh with ‘occult magic’

October 13, 2018

© Reuters / Mike Blake

After unproven rape allegations and street protests failed, a group of self-described ‘witches’ plan on stopping Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh the only way they know how: with magic spells and witchcraft. Really.

Catland, a bookstore in Brooklyn that describes itself as “Brooklyn's premiere occult bookshop & spiritual community space" is charging would-be witches $10 to come along on October 20 and put a “hex” on Justice Kavanaugh.

“Please join us for a public hex on Brett Kavanaugh, upon all rapists and the patriarchy at large which emboldens, rewards and protects them,” reads the event page on Facebook. Witchcraft, it says, is “often the only weapon, the only means of exacting justice available to those of us who have been wronged by men just like him.”

Kavanaugh isn’t the only target, and patrons are advised to “bring your rage and and all of the axes you've got to grind.” Half of the proceeds on the night will be donated to Planned Parenthood and the Ali Forney Center, an LGBT youth charity.

If the event page is to be believed, there won’t be room to park your broomstick. 976 people say they’re attending, and another 10,000 marked themselves as ‘interested.’ The event might seem like Sacha Baron Cohen-style satire, but Catland is deadly serious. Among other events hosted there this month are ‘Magic Spells with the Tarot,’ ‘Yoga for Witches,’ ‘Plant Magik 101,’ and ‘Ask A Witch: A Panel Discussion.’

This strange overlap between feminism and witchcraft is no isolated curiosity. Uber-liberal feminist site Broadly - owned by Vice - regularly publishes articles like ‘How the Socialist Feminists of WITCH Use Magic to Fight Capitalism,’ and ‘Sex Magic: How to Cast Spells with Your Orgasms.’ In the UK, former Labour Party equality adviser Munroe Bergdorf is a transgender woman who says she practises voodoo, keeps “healing crystals” in her bedroom, and embraces witchcraft as it’s “female-centered.”

Despite the surging popularity among young liberal women of all things occult, Kavanaugh was still confirmed as Justice of the Supreme Court earlier this month. Kavanaugh began his lifetime appointment on Monday, while a small group of protesters gathered outside the Supreme Court.

It is still unclear whether Kavanaugh has consulted with any senior wizards of the patriarchy to counter the incoming feminist hex.

RT

‘Modern exorcist’ holds ritual to shield Kavanaugh from coordinated hexing by witches & sorcerers

October18, 2018

© Reuters / Alessandro Bianchi

After a Brooklyn occult shop made headlines with a public hexing of controversial Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanagh, exorcist Father Gary Thomas has stepped up to defend the judge’s spiritual flank with a well-timed mass.

When he heard the self-styled witches’ coven was planning to put a curse on Kavanaugh, Thomas – a bona fide Rome-trained Catholic exorcist who was profiled in The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist, film and book – stepped up to defend the judge from the forces of evil.

Father Thomas takes exorcism very seriously, and so do “a load of exorcists” to whom he sent the headline about the upcoming hex. “Their reaction was similar to mine. That shows this is not something that is make believe.”

As the official exorcist for the Diocese of San Jose, Father Thomas has been casting out demons for 12 years. During that time, he says, he’s seen the forces of evil becoming “more confident that the general public will be more accepting of the demonic,” blaming freedom of speech and freedom of religion. “Conjuring up personified evil does not fall under free speech,” he added.

Catholics less nostalgic for the Inquisition have also rushed to defend the embattled judge. One anonymous apostolate manager told the National Catholic Register news of the impending spiritual attack led her to fast and pray the Rosary for three days, and the fasting-praying combo seems to be catching on among other concerned Catholics concerned for Kavanaugh’s eternal soul.

The Brooklyn witches made headlines last week with their plans to stage an “act of resistance” at occult bookstore Catland, charging $10-a-head to attend the hexing. Rather than limit the event to Kavanaugh-haters, the EventBrite description explains the hex will target “all rapists” and invites attendees to “bring your rage and all of the axes you’ve got to grind.”

Event organizer Dakota Bracciale promised USA Today the ritual would include effigies, graveyard dirt, coffin nails, and a spell. Bracciale, who co-owns Catland, has already hosted three hexes on President Trump, who doesn’t seem to be the worse for wear – yet.

MailOnline

Rise of the super-rich master race: Stephen Hawking's last essay predicted a new race of 'superhumans' that could destroy the rest of humanity after wealthy people start manipulating their children's DNA

• Scientist predicted genetic engineering will lead to a world of 'superhumans'

• Warned about the dangers of manipulating DNA in a series of articles and essays

• They will be published in posthumous book Brief Answers to the Big Questions

By BHVISHYA PATEL FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 09:02, 14 October 2018 | UPDATED: 11:35, 14 October 2018

Professor Stephen Hawking envisioned a world of 'superhumans' in his final prediction before he died seven months ago.

The celebrated physicist suggested that genetic engineering would create a new race of humans that could destroy the rest of humanity.

A collection of articles and essays left by Hawking's warning about the dangers of manipulating DNA will now be published in a posthumous book

Brief Answers to the Big Questions will share the scientist's fears of a new race and the problems humanity could face if those with wealth are given the opportunity to alter their children's DNA.

The new race could potentially exhibit greater intelligence, longevity and be resistant to disease.

He wrote: 'I am sure that during this century people will discover how to modify both intelligence and instincts such as aggression.

'Laws will probably be passed against genetic engineering with humans. But some people won't be able to resist the temptation to improve human characteristics, such as memory, resistance to disease and length of life.'

In his book, the scientist who died in March at the age of 76, paints a worrying picture of breakthroughs in genetics and the new human race.

While the physicist and author of A Brief History of Time may have sparked controversy in his predictions, the scientist was only suggesting the dangers genetic engineering could pose and his fears for 'unimproved humans'.

In a step that could be reminiscent of the selective breeding seen in the eugenics movement his book refers to Crispr, a system that allows scientists to modify harmful genes and add new ones.

The revolutionary technique invented just six years ago allows scientists to target and cut any kind of genetic material.

***

An original French billboard poster for Frankenstein by artist Jacques Faria (1931). Public Domain

***

WND

GERMAN 'ANTI-RACISM' DEMONSTRATORS URGE DESTRUCTION OF ISRAEL

More then 200,000 gather in Berlin

October 17, 2018

More than 200,000 marched in Berlin on Saturday (andiweiland/Flickr)

An “anti-racism” march that drew more than 200,000 people in Berlin featured speakers who called for the destruction of the Jewish state.

The Jerusalem Post reported two speakers at the event Saturday called for the “liberation of all of Palestine 48,” a reference to the founding of the Jewish state in 1948 that is widely considered a euphemism to cleanse Israel of Jews.

The Post said demonstrators held aloft signs in support of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which has been designated by the European Union and the United States as a terrorist group.

PFLP terrorists murdered four rabbis in a synagogue in Jerusalem in 2014.

The speakers made their genocidal calls under the Germany-based International Alliance, which as a result of an investigative series by the Post had its PayPal account closed. A German bank also shut down the organization’s account.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party in Berlin voiced opposition to the demonstration.

The Post said the Central Council of Muslims, an umbrella organization for groups with ties to the fascist Turkish Grey Wolves and anti-Western Islamic entities, participated in the march

LifeNews.com

Children’s Hospital Says It Will Euthanize Kids Without Parental Consent

ALEX SCHADENBERG OCT 12, 2018

A recent report from the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto states that they are not only ready to do euthanasia on children but their policy states that a child should be able to die by euthanasia without the consent or knowledge of the parents.

According to an article by Sharon Kirkey for Sun Media, the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto published their policy on euthanasia and assisted suicide as a report in the recent Journal of Medical Ethics. According to Kirkey:

The Sick Kids’ working group says the hospital has willing doctors who could “safely and effectively” perform euthanasia for terminally ill youth 18 and older who meet the criteria as set out in federal law, and that it would be “antithetical” to its philosophy of care to have to transfer these patients to a strange and unfamiliar adult hospital. But it is a suggestion that euthanasia might one day take place without the involvement of parents that has provoked fresh controversy in the assisted-death debate.

Who does the Hospital for Sick Children believe that euthanasia can be safe and effective for?

Kirkey explains that the ethicists at the Children’s Hospital believe that there is no difference between killing someone and letting them die. Clearly there is a difference between allowing a natural death and actually causing the death of a person. By blurring clear distinctions ethicists minimize the ethical problems associated with doctors killing their patients. Kirkey reports:

The working group said it wasn’t convinced that there is a meaningful difference for the patient “between being consensually assisted in dying (in the case of MAID) and being consensually allowed to die (in the case of refusing life-sustaining interventions).”

Kirkey explains that most Canadian provinces allow mature minors to make decisions about their own care, including withdrawing or withholding life support. She explains that in Ontario a minor can provide consent for treatment or withdrawal of treatment if they understand the “reasonably foreseeable consequences” of their decision. The Sick Kids’ hospital stated that they encourage minors to involve their families in medical decisions.

Kirkey explains that the Hospitals for Sick Children is suggesting that children could decide to die by euthanasia without the consent of the parents:

The draft policy argues the same rules should apply to MAID since there is no meaningful ethical or practical distinction from the patient’s perspective between assisted dying and other procedures that result in the end of a life, such as palliative sedation (where people sleep until they die) or withdrawing or withholding life-sustaining treatments.

Kirkey explains that the Sick Kids Hospital paper came out just ahead of the report by The Canadian Council of Academies that will make recommendations in December concerning the extension of euthanasia to mature minors. The same group is examining the extension of euthanasia to cases of mental illness alone, as well as incompetent people who requested euthanasia within an “advance directive”.

LifeNews.com Note: Alex Schadenberg is the executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition and you can read his blog here.

All News Pipeline

Stay Alert With Extreme Prejudice! The 'World In 2019' Economist Magazine Cover Hints At The Arrival Of The 'End Game'

- Globalist Mouthpiece's 33rd Edition Is Midnight Black!

By Stefan Stanford

October 14, 2018

Close to the end of the year each year going back decades, The Economist magazine puts out an issue in which they take a look at the coming year and 2018 is no exception. As we had reported on ANP back on July 11th of 2017, back in 1988, The Economist put out a story in which the cover photo featured the mythical 'phoenix' rising out of the ashes of burning dollar bills and other paper/fiat money, wearing a gold medallion with the year '2018' on it with their title, "Get Ready For A World Currency".
Reporting in their story that 30 years from then, Americans, Europeans, the Japanese and people from other 'rich countries' would probably be paying for their shopping with the same currency, what they called 'The Phoenix', their story argued that in 'The New World Economy' (yes, they use that exact phrase but NO, there is no such thing as a 'new world order'!) 'the phoenix zone' would impose tight constraints on national governments. There would be no such thing, for instance, as a national monetary policy.
Closing their 1988 story with "pencil in the phoenix for around 2018, and welcome it when it comes", it's clear by looking at the events of the last two years that the globalists plans for 'the phoenix' were severely derailed with the arrival of President Trump in office in January of 2017 though they've been fighting him and his #MAGA agenda tooth and nail every step of the way since then.
And while issues of The Economist since have featured many brightly colored images containing clearly hidden messages as seen in the photographs of some of their recent covers we've embedded further below, their newly released "The World In 2019" issue seen at the top of this story is stunning in comparison: Midnight black. What is The Economist, clearly a mouthpiece for the globalists, attempting to tell us with this new issue? The 1988 'Get Ready For The Phoenix' issue is right next to it below in comparison.

Close to the end of the year each year going back decades, The Economist magazine puts out an issue in which they take a look at the coming year and 2018 is no exception. As we had reported on ANP back on July 11th of 2017, back in 1988, The Economist put out a story in which the cover photo featured the mythical 'phoenix' rising out of the ashes of burning dollar bills and other paper/fiat money, wearing a gold medallion with the year '2018' on it with their title, "Get Ready For A World Currency".
Reporting in their story that 30 years from then, Americans, Europeans, the Japanese and people from other 'rich countries' would probably be paying for their shopping with the same currency, what they called 'The Phoenix', their story argued that in 'The New World Economy' (yes, they use that exact phrase but NO, there is no such thing as a 'new world order'!) 'the phoenix zone' would impose tight constraints on national governments. There would be no such thing, for instance, as a national monetary policy.
Closing their 1988 story with "pencil in the phoenix for around 2018, and welcome it when it comes", it's clear by looking at the events of the last two years that the globalists plans for 'the phoenix' were severely derailed with the arrival of President Trump in office in January of 2017 though they've been fighting him and his #MAGA agenda tooth and nail every step of the way since then.
And while issues of The Economist since have featured many brightly colored images containing clearly hidden messages as seen in the photographs of some of their recent covers we've embedded further below, their newly released "The World In 2019" issue seen at the top of this story is stunning in comparison: Midnight black. What is The Economist, clearly a mouthpiece for the globalists, attempting to tell us with this new issue? The 1988 'Get Ready For The Phoenix' issue is right next to it below in comparison.

So why the all black cover for 2019? Disclose TV asks of the all black issue: Are the"lights about to go out?" Also pointing out that its interesting to know that this is the 33rd edition of their publication and that the very year they predicted the end of fiat money, they'd put a cover like this out, Disclose TV asks if we're about to witness the globalists 'end game' with America having clearly been transformed over Obama's 8 years in office into what the globalists hoped to be a totalitarian, socialist nation.
As we had reported back on July 11th of this year in our story titled "Remember! In 1988, Globalist Mouthpiece Predicted A Global Currency By 2018 And Warned Implementing The New System Would Unleash Massive Chaos And Civil Unrest", Brandon Smith over at Alt-Market.com published a story warning that while President Trump was busy trying to 'make America great again', the 'globalists' who long ago 'hijacked' America still have very real concrete plans to complete the centralization of economic and political power into the hands of a select few people around the world.
As Smith reported then, at the core of globalism "is the desire for total power, built upon full blown narcissism and sociopathy leading to naive notions that godhood, for them, is attainable". And as Smith also pointed out in his story, having obtained the money and power which they've already obtained, the globalists were absolutely in the position to trigger 'economic travesty'. And history has proven they like to reveal their plans to the world before they're fully implemented as they did back in 1988 with their 'Phoenix' issue.
With Hillary Clinton recently confirming Smith's warnings in her "it's my way or hit the highway" babbling in which she declared that Democrats can no longer remain 'civil' (read 'peaceful') towards those who they believe are attempting to destroy their world, the massive chaos and civil unrest that the Economist warned would come with the unveiling of a new global financial system has arrived in America, anyways. And as antifa recently warned, "this is only the beginning".

While the images on the 2018 issue featured a cartoonish drawing of the likeness of President Donald Trump right next to the Statue of Liberty, the 2017 issue featured tarot cards with President Trump sitting upon the planet Earth on the 'Judgement' card along with 'The Tower', 'The World' and the 'Death' card.
And with both of those issues much more 'dark' than the previous two below from 2016 and 2015 which show global leaders joining together, including Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Vladimir Putin, Angela Merkel and others, joining arms with brightness and color all around them, the 2018 all black issue is the latest stark departure from their earlier themes of lightness, with each year since President Trump was voted into office increasingly darker. So what do the globalists who create The Economist know that we don't know?
In the only video below, Bix Weir talks with us about The Economist's "The World In 2019" all black issue while also bringing up their 1988 issue in which they predicted the arrival of 'the phoenix' by 2018. Yet with 'the phoenix' still nowhere in sight and much of the financial world in shambles, Weir asks if we're about to witness the globalists end game being forced upon the world, whether we like it or not, via an engineered financial catastrophe that changes the entire game.
Mentioning "you can't make this stuff up" of the all black cover which goes completely against all the other Economist covers that have had 'conspiracy theorists' searching for hidden meanings going back years, Weir tells us he truly believes that despite President Trump being in office, he believes that the globalists will switch over to their global currency sooner rather than later, even if that means bringing the entire current system to a sudden and profound crashing end.

And while ANP refuses to put exact dates on potential future events that are out of our control, the fact that the Economist has so drastically departed from their earlier themes of brightness and color for pitch black in the year they were forecasting a global currency arriving hints that Weir make be correct in his warnings.
And with America now closing in upon one of the most important elections in our history and 'the mob' already melting down into fits of rage and hysteria as Susan Duclos reported in this ANP story in which she warned we're past the point of no return, the note Steve Quayle left while linking to Susan's story on his website will be repeated here for emphasis: "Have you all considered the ramifications of the point of no return and what that will look like? Prepare to defend yourselves". Is civil war ahead?
Yet with America seemingly more divided than at any point in our history dating back to the first Civil War, we were recently contacted by an ANP reader who has allowed us to reprint part of her very wise email below. Asking ANP readers to 'stay alert with extreme prejudice', we're also told that she believes that something utterly nasty is seething just below the surface.
In my life experience there is the seen (physical) and the unseen (spiritual). I am very cautious about giving my perceptions as possible fact, but I have noticed very disturbing patterns lately concerning the 'shakedown' and extremes happening in the U.S. What I have seen/participated in the last year has been almost brutal.
I guess the end point is I'm saying for the believers at ANP to 'stay alert with extreme prejudice'. I don't encourage fear but I know that something utterly nasty is being held in check and the cult like behavior is not even close to what's seething underneath the dog and pony show. I have known some of the enemy's hidden actions now and it either makes you bitter or makes you go closer to God.
If any of the believers at ANP can fast at least once a week or more they should do so starting now, this could get very ugly for the remnant very quickly. America is one of the last countries that hasn't come under persecution yet but anyone with eyes can see the tide coming in to cover everything. There is always hope in Jesus Christ.
And while some might feel overwhelmed by all of the doom and gloom we're witnessing across America as huge chunks of our population slip further into insanity, we should never, ever be fearful or give up hope that things will get better in America if we continue to work hard, give our lives over to Jesus and pray. To echo our readers final sentence, there is ALWAYS hope in Jesus Christ.

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AMMC

MailOnline

Relatives of THOUSANDS reported missing in Hurricane Michael start desperate search for their loved ones as rescuers pick through the ruins to pull out bodies - with the death toll now at 18 and expected to rise

• Hurricane Michael, a Category 4 storm, barreled into Florida with winds of up to 155mph on Wednesday

• Michael was downgraded to a Category 1 as it swept north through the Carolinas and Virginia

• Michael shattered buildings, brought down power lines and ripped trees as it crashed ashore and caused deep seawater flooding

• At least 17 people have been killed in separate incidents, including an 11-year-old

• Search teams have also found bodies among the rubble of the buildings as thousands are still missing

• More than 500,000 homes and businesses in Florida, Georgia and Alabama have been left without power

By HANNAH PARRY FOR DAILYMAIL.COM and ASSOCIATED PRESS

PUBLISHED: 00:19, 13 October 2018 | UPDATED: 22:32, 13 October 2018

Article and photos

Washington Post

‘We’re back to frontier days’

By Patricia Sullivan, Luz Lazo, Frances Stead Sellers and Joel Achenbach Washington Post

October 13, 2018

DRY CREEK, Fla.–Up a red dirt road in the center of the Florida Panhandle, past fields of ripening cotton, the piney woods looks like pick-up sticks. Some trees are bent like praying mantises, and the few power poles still standing lean at precarious angles, their wires doing loop-the-loops around outstretched limbs.

Until Saturday, when neighbors broke through with chain saws and an excavator, the Lipford home, sitting on 160 acres the family has owned since the Civil War, was cut off from civilization. The only way into the property was on an all-terrain vehicle crossing the waterlogged pastures and over bridges built of wooden pallets.

“We’re back to frontier days,” said Jean Lipford, 50. Since Hurricane Michael struck this town on Wednesday, she has been washing clothes in a bucket and bathing in the creek where her husband made a dam with small stones. Her daughter Whitney, 23, has been wielding a chain saw, returning to the house every two hours to breast-feed her 6-week-old son.

“I want power and water. The rest of it we can deal with,” Lipford said.

After smashing Panama City and obliterating Mexico Beach, the eye of the storm swept north-northeast like a scythe, delivering misery to one of the poorest regions of Florida and neighboring Alabama and Georgia. A large percentage of people live in mobile homes and other vulnerable structures. The destruction extends far inland. Michael retained hurricane strength all the way through Georgia’s pecan groves and cotton fields.

More than 250,000 customers across Florida were still without power on Saturday. Sixteen shelters housed 1,800 people.

Search-and-rescue operations continue, not only in Mexico Beach, which was bulldozed by a storm surge that may have reached 14 feet, but also in the backcountry, where residents are fending for themselves and in some cases fearing they’ve been forgotten by the outside world.

Deborah Bayer rode out Hurricane Michael clutching her Bible in the bathroom of her mobile home in Lynn Haven, a small city just north of Panama Beach. The sky darkened, the power went out, the wind howled and she felt the whole structure shift on its foundation. A tree crashed onto the roof.

“It was a fun ride. I just sat there reading my Bible, had some candles on. I just hunker down waiting for it to pass over,” recalled Bayer, 47, who lives in a trailer park.

She and other residents had been told by elected officials to evacuate in advance of the hurricane. But how? To where? She’s a minimum-wage worker at a call center. She couldn’t afford a hotel room. And the storm came so quickly, there wasn’t enough time to prepare for a multiday stay in a faraway shelter.

In Bristol, a tiny town in Florida’s smallest county, Liberty, where the biggest road has two lanes and half the land is in a national forest, Emergency Management Director Rhonda Lewis found herself cut off from the rest of the world. No power, no landlines or cellphone connections, no Internet. A satellite phone wouldn’t work. It kept saying “searching … searching … searching,” Lewis said.

Not until Thursday night did she manage to find a man with a ham radio in next-door Calhoun County and bring him back to Bristol, where she could send out calls for help.

“Rebuilding is going to be an issue. Because they are so poor. Many of the homes, they had no insurance,” Lewis said.

Lines have formed at the Ace Hardware store where people have been picking up emergency supplies. The Red Cross has arrived.

On Friday, Tiffany Garling, executive director of the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce–where Dry Creek is located–got a full night’s sleep for the first time since Sunday, when she went to work in the county’s Emergency Operations Center. She doesn’t know how many people are still cut off in this largely rural county, where peanuts and cotton are the main agricultural commodities.

“I have no idea. That’s the scary thing. There is no way to estimate,” she said.

The process of clearing roads is laborious, with highways needing attention before the state roads, county roads or individual streets–many of which are blocked with giant oaks that require heavy equipment to move, not just a chain saw.

Garling believes the county is 100 percent without power in residential areas.

“Our problems are different than the city,” she said. Without power, people can’t get water from their wells.

Hayes Baggett, the police chief in nearby Marianna, said that inland communities never get as much attention as the white-sand-beach towns. But people are pulling together, he said. There had been a few curfew violations and a little thievery, but no widespread looting.

Even in parts of Panama City, assistance seemed a long way off. A community with garden-style apartments, the Gardner Dickinson Memorial Homes, known as the 11th Street projects, was unrecognizable after the storm. The parking lot was flooded. Several apartments were roofless; furniture was destroyed. Families slept on their cars and benches.

Across the way, a gas leak had residents worried about a possible explosion.

“This isn’t no laughing matter. Nobody came to assist us. No nothing,” said Samantha Gardner, 33. Her 6-year-old boy had two asthma attacks Wednesday night, she said, and calls to the police for help went unanswered.

“He needs a machine. We got no power. We don’t have no water. We don’t have no nothing,” she said.

Across town, Patty Butler, 52, cried as she walked her dog in her neighborhood. Their shopping center, home to a grocery outlet, print shop and a tamale shop, was destroyed. The roof gone. Windows shuttered, storefronts broken.

“It’s horrible,” she said. “They have the best tamales you will ever eat,” she said, looking at the destroyed building. Butler’s home was mostly spared, trees around it were all down and her boat flipped.

“We got a little hole in the roof and all of our fencing is gone, but we can live with that. Other people have lost everything, everything. I am so blessed. God is good, He was there with us the whole time.”

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RT

‘Sawed while still alive’? Gruesome ‘taped’ details of Khashoggi’s alleged murder cause media stir

October 17, 2018

Jamal Khashoggi © AFP / Mohammed Al-Shaikh

After a Turkish daily said it obtained a recording from the Saudi consulate in Istanbul related to journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a London-based outlet published an ultra-graphic description of his alleged murder and dismemberment.

A three-minute audio recording of Khashoggi’s said to reveal what happened to him at the Saudi consulate has been leaked to the Turkish daily Sabah, but the paper has yet to release it. It is said to have been recorded by the journalist’s Apple Watch.

But the London-based Middle East Eye claims to know what’s on the tape citing a source. It alleges the journalist was dragged into a study, where he was dismembered with a bone saw while he was still alive. The source also cites alleged witnesses hearing harrowing screams which only stopped, according to the claims, when the journalist was drugged with an unknown substance.

Salah Muhammad al-Tubaigy, the head of forensic evidence in the Saudi general security department, was singled out, as he can reportedly be heard in the recording urging his colleagues to listen to music while dismembering Khashoggi’s body with a bone saw.

The task took some “seven minutes” to complete. Sabah claimed that the Saudi officials then tried to delete the recordings first by trying to guess Khashoggi’s PIN on the watch, then using the journalist’s finger. This detail has raised suspicions since Apple Watches do not have a fingerprint-enabled unlock mechanism.

And while it’s true that an Apple Watch can theoretically sync with a nearby iPhone if the devices share a Bluetooth connection, Sabah did not elaborate on how the alleged recordings found their way out of the Saudi consulate.

This recording is said to be reviewed by the Turkish investigators, who have so far neither confirmed nor denied its existence. Khashoggi’s fiancée, who was waiting outside the consulate and could potentially have received the haunting audio files, has made no mention of any recordings.

Khashoggi was last seen entering the Saudi consulate on October 2, on an administrative errand to get documents to allow for him to get married.

Tubaigy is one of five suspects so far identified by Turkish police as part of their investigation into the disappearance and killing. The others are said to have links to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman.

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PRESSTV

UN warns 12mn Yemenis may face worst famine in 100 years

October 16, 2018

In this file photo taken on September 8, 2018, a Yemeni child suffering from malnutrition receives treatment at a hospital in the northern district of Abs, in Yemen. (Photo by AFP)

The UN’s food agency has urged Saudi Arabia and its allies to stop their devastating war on Yemen, saying the conflict has put millions of Yemeni people on the brink of the worst famine in 100 years.

Two in five of the Yemeni population, around 12 million people, are expected to face the worst famine in 100 years in coming months due to the escalating war and a deepening economic crisis, the World Food Program (WFP) said Monday.

As the war rages, especially around the major port city of Hudaydah, and the economic situation deteriorates, the WFP said it feared millions struggling to make ends meet in the poorest Arab country would succumb to severe hunger and disease.

"If this situation persists, we could see an additional 3.5 million severely insecure Yemenis... who urgently require regular food assistance to prevent them from slipping into famine-like conditions," WFP spokesman Herve Verhoosel noted.

He also said that the WFP is scaling up its emergency food and nutrition aid to reach 8 million Yemenis every month.

Verhoosel regretted that the Saudi-led coalition’s siege on Yemen, particularly its Hudaydah port, is preventing WFP workers from reaching its 51,000 tons of wheat stocks at the Red Sea Mills facility. The WFP official says the stocks are enough to feed 3.7 million people in northern and central Yemen for one month.

Yemen traditionally imports 90 percent of its food.

Over the past few months, Hudaydah, through which flows almost 80 percent of Yemen’s imports, has witnessed deadly ground and aerial attacks by the Riyadh regime and its allies.

Backed by Saudi airstrikes, Emirati forces and elements loyal to former Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi launched the Hudaydah offensive on June 13 despite international warnings that it would compound the impoverished nation’s humanitarian crisis.

Saudi Arabia claims that the Houthi Ansarullah movement is using Hudaydah for weapons delivery, an allegation rejected by the fighters.

Riyadh and its allies launched a brutal war, code-named Operation Decisive Storm, against Yemen in March 2015 in an attempt to reinstall Hadi, a staunch ally of Riyadh, and crush the Houthis.

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RT

Venezuela drops US dollar, will use euro for international transactions

October 16, 2018

©Global Look Press/ imago stock&people

Venezuela is abandoning the US dollar, with all future transactions on the Venezuelan exchange market to be made in euro, Tareck El Aissami, the country's Vice President for Economy, announced.

The sanctions, recently introduced by Washington against Caracas, “block the possibility of continuing to trade using the US dollar on the Venezuelan exchange market," El Aissami said, adding that the American restrictions were “illegal and against international law.”

The American “financial blockade” of Venezuela affects both the country’s public and private sectors, including pharmacy and agriculture, and shows “just how far the imperialism can go in its madness,” the vice president said.

Venezuela’s floating exchange rate system, Dicom, “will be operating in euro, yuan or any other convertible currency and will allow the foreign exchange market to use any other convertible currency," El Aissami said.

The vice president added that all private banks in Venezuela are obliged to participate in the Dicom bidding system.

The government is going to sell 2 billion euros between November and December to allow the public to purchase the European currency “at a real, non-speculative rate,” he said.

Washington isn’t hiding its desire to see Venezuela’s socialist President, Nicolas Maduro, whom it’s accusing of a crackdown on the country’s opposition, removed from power. Trump administration even spoke of the possibility of the so-called “humanitarian intervention” into the country.

Last year, the US imposed sanctions prohibiting trading new debt and equity issued by the Venezuelan government and state oil company, PDVSA. The Department of Treasury also introduced several rounds of restrictions againt Venezuelan top government officials. Maduro was among those blacklisted and called it “an honor.”

The US pressure has contributed to the severe social and economic crisis in Venezuela in recent years as it was hit by hyperinflation, the devaluation of the national currency and a shortage of basic necessities.

The harsh situation forced more than 2.3 million to people leave the country this summer in search of better life in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Brazil, according to the UN.

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cnbc

Sears files for bankruptcy, and Eddie Lampert steps down as CEO

Lauren Hirsch | Lauren Thomas

October 14, 2018

Sears Holdings filed for bankruptcy protection early Monday after years of staying afloat through financial maneuvering and relying on billions of CEO Eddie Lampert's own money. Lampert, who has served as CEO for the past five years, will step down from that post, effective immediately, but remain chairman.

The 125-year-old retailer, once the nation's largest, said Monday it was appointing Mohsin Meghji, managing partner of M-III Partners, as its chief restructuring officer.

As part of the bankruptcy, Sears will shutter 142 stores toward the end of the year. It expects to begin liquidation sales shortly.

The bankruptcy filing comes more than a decade after Lampert merged Sears and Kmart, hoping that forging together the two struggling discounters would create a more formidable competitor.

Over the years, Lampert shed Sears assets and spun out real estate to pay down the debt. The company still has roughly 700 stores, which have at times been barren, unstocked by vendors who have lost their trust. Many of the stores have never been visited by younger generations of shoppers.

Lampert, who has a controlling ownership stake in Sears, personally holds some 31 percent of its shares outstanding, according to FactSet. His hedge fund ESL Investments owns about 19 percent.

But even with the bankruptcy filing, Lampert continues to invest in Sears. The retailer said Monday morning ESL is negotiating a $300 million debtor-in-possession loan to support it through its bankruptcy. That loan comes on top of an additional $300 million it has secured from investment banks.

"ESL invested time and money in Sears because we believe the company has a future," ESL and Lampert said in a statement Monday.

Lampert also expressed regret he couldn't get the necessary parties to agree to his last efforts to stave off bankruptcy.

Sears' creditors refused to agree on an out-of-court restructuring proposal that ESL put forward in September. They had little assurance by way of collateral or strategy, after years in which Sears' only shot at survival came by selling off parts of its business.

The board was in a perilous position. Its special committee had been tasked with approving Lampert's latest plan, a bid to buy his storied Kenmore appliance business and other brands.

Approving Lampert's offer would have helped Sears make its payment. But that would also thrust the board into the spotlight, potentially opening them to the threat of litigation from shareholders who might allege Lampert has stripped the business bare.

Homes to Hardware

That business was once a giant — the first "everything store" stocking everything from jewelry to clothing, from hardware to prefabricated homes.

It started with Richard Sears, who launched the Sears Watch Co. In 1886 to sell watches by mail. The company later evolved into Sears, Roebuck and Co., which expanded its offerings through a catalog. The convenience brought its products to America's most rural locations.

In 1925, Sears morphed a mail-order plant on Chicago's West Side into its first retail store. By the end

of the year. Sears opened seven more stores. Eventually, Sears became the largest U.S. retailer, and its house brands like Kenmore and Craftsman earned spots as staples in homes across the country. Generations of children marked the holidays by paging through its holiday catalog, known as the "Wishbook," wondering if they would receive any of the toys inside.

As Sears success grew, so did its empire. It moved into Chicago's iconic Sears Tower, and for a time, owned financial services businesses like Dean Witter and Coldwell Banker Real Estate Group.

But big box retailer Walmart muscled in on Sears to become the biggest U.S. retailer in 1990. Sears' efforts to attract female shoppers by showing them the "softer side of Sears" and move into new businesses lines left it without an identity.

Those challenges didn't stop Lampert, the hedge fund manager who had already impressed Wall Street with his acumen when he seemingly turned around Kmart, which he bought in 2004. He acquired and combined Sears with Kmart in 2005, arguing that two ailing retailers were stronger together than apart. The financial guru saw valuable real estate, customers he could parlay from one store to the other and ample costs to cut.

The retail giant he created had a market capitalization north of $20 billion in 2006. The media began to wonder whether he was the "next Warren Buffett." Lampert could have sold off his investments then, but stayed on, steadfast in his vision of the combined retailers.

Meanwhile, Walmart and Target kept opening stores, as did Lowe'sand Home Depot. Walmart touted its "everyday low prices," while Target served up "cheap chic." Lowe's and Home Depot provided a wider array of home improvement products for all kinds of projects, making it tough for Kenmore and Craftsman to compete.

Then, came a double blow.

Consumer spending slowed during the Great Recession, especially for big-ticket items like washers and dryers. Cash-strapped shoppers began using the internet to hunt down the best deals. Gradually, they began to spend more online and avoid the mall, fueling Amazon's rise. Sears' 140,000-square-foot stores began to seem monstrous as foot traffic declined.

Profits stop flowing

Walmart and others began to invest in their businesses to compete with Amazon, but Sears never had that chance. It simply didn't have the funds.

Sears' last profitable year was in 2010. A thinning cash flow has left little money to put back into the company itself, letting it become more irrelevant. For the past five years, the ratio of Sears' capital expenditures to sales has been less than 1 percent. That's even as its sales have more than halved in the same time period.

Sears has been in survival mode for more than a decade. Unable to rely on the Sears' business to pay the bills, Lampert instead sold or spun off many of its most valuable stores and brands.

Since its merger with Kmart, Sears has spun off its Lands' End clothing brand, sold the Craftsman tool brand to Stanley Black & Decker and closed hundreds of stores. It spun out 250 of its best properties into real estate investment trust offshoot known as Seritage.

Its key vendors, wary of Sears' future, demanded tighter payment terms. Some, like Whirlpool, stopped shipping all-together.

It has been grappling with a pension of roughly 100,000 retirees that, as of January, was underfunded by $1.5 billion, according FactSet.

It became a guessing game among analysts and onlookers whether each of Sears' last five holiday seasons would be its last. But Lampert kept surprising them, extending a lifeline in the form of loans from his hedge fund or finding them elsewhere each time bankruptcy looked inevitable.

Lampert, though, sounded the alarm in a Sept. 13 blog post. He pleaded for Sears' creditor's to agree to restructure, calling out the risks should they drag their feet.

"We continue to believe that it is in the best interests of all our stakeholders to accomplish this as a going concern, rather than alternatives that could result in significant reductions in value," he wrote.

By early October, it became evident that Sears' last Christmas before bankruptcy had already passed. Sears began to raise emergency financing to support the business through coming filing.

Now, the question will be whether Sears will be able to come out of bankruptcy. Retailers don't have a great track record of emerging. Several of late, like Toys R Us and department store Bon-Ton, have been forced to liquidate. It is difficult to make changes needed, like investing in e-commerce, stores and a company's brand, while still catering to creditors' demands.

***

RT

Putin discusses free-trade zone with Sisi as Russia’s trade with Egypt surges 62%

October 17, 2018

A cargo ship is seen crossing through the New Suez Canal, Egypt © Reuters

Economic ties between Russia and Egypt are developing successfully, according to President Vladimir Putin. He met with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fatah el-Sisi in Sochi on Wednesday.

The Russian president noted sharp 62-percent growth in trade turnover between the countries, adding that “in the first six months of this year the volume of trade increased 28 percent.” Putin attributed this to diversification of bilateral ties, which include “agriculture, industry, equipment and vehicles.”

The president also mentioned “a large contract worth €1 billion to supply passenger cars to Egypt together with Hungarian partners.”

He said Moscow supports the idea of creating a free-trade zone between Egypt and the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), which would “open up additional opportunities for expanding economic cooperation and trade turnover.”

Putin and Sisi discussed the construction of Russia’s industrial zone in the Suez Canal area. According to Putin, around $7 billion worth of investments will be attracted to the zone.

The decision to build a Russian industrial zone in Egypt was agreed in 2014. The industrial park will have a friendlier tax regime for resident Russian firms. It is expected to provide tens of thousands of jobs, and the companies expect revenues to reach more than $11 billion. The tax rate for businesses in the project and personal income tax will be 10 percent. Sales tax will be abolished.

Four years ago, Cairo announced the modernization of the Suez Canal, which is one of the world’s major transportation routes. The new Suez Canal will include a vast range of services, as well as several industrial parks, including Russian, Chinese and Italian areas.

SPUTNIK

Danish Bill Proposes 12 Years in Prison for 'Pro-Russia' Opinion

October 13, 2018

Danish lawmakers have gone on the offensive against interference in public debate, sparking criticism that a new proposal, which could entail criminal liability for expressing opinions similar to those of Moscow, may become a step toward silencing public debate.

According to a bill brought forward in local parliament, Danes could face a jail term if they voice dissent over the government's position on Russia.

The proposal, which is said to be meant to "strengthen efforts against illegal influence from foreign intelligence services," would introduce criminal penalties for perceived "meddling" in public debates and attempts to influence decision-making. Crimes committed during an election campaign would entail a maximum prison term of 12 years.

Berlingske, the country's oldest newspaper, has bashed the bill, claiming that it would narrow the scale of political conversation in Denmark.

Berlingske's Flemming Rose argues that the law could be stretched to the point where a Danish director is targeted for changing a burnt-out light bulb following the advice of a foreign intelligence agent.

He also warns that a Danish subject could face punishment for sharing an opinion in the local media that anti-Russia sanctions damage the country or attempting to publicly downplay concerns over the Russia-led Nord Stream 2 pipeline project (Denmark has so far failed to give its approval of the pipeline passing through its territorial waters).

The bill is understood to mean an attempt to influence public opinion in Denmark and concrete decisions in both the private and public sectors as it targets legitimate opinions that can be taken to be propaganda.

This comes at a time when Russia is facing a flurry of accusations from Western countries that it had hacked doping agencies and other international organizations in a bid to influence public opinion. Russia has vehemently dismissed the allegations as "spy mania."

RT

Merkel's sister party CSU suffers worst election result since 1950 in Bavaria

October 14, 2018

Members of Germany's CSU party react after the announcement of the first exit polls in the Bavarian state elections. © Michael Dalder / Reuters

Germany’s political landscape is crumbling as Merkel’s sister party, the CSU, has only received 37.3% of the votes in Bavaria, preliminary results show. Meanwhile, the right-wing AfD has entered parliament for the first time.

Voters in Bavaria headed to the polls to decide on the composition of the 180-member parliament on Sunday. The Christian Social Union (CSU) – sister party to Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) – gained 37.3 percent in Germany’s largest and second most populous state, according to an exit poll for broadcaster ARD.

It represents the worst election result since 1950, and a loss of its absolute majority for only the second time since 1962. It means the CSU will now have to form a coalition

CSU General Secretary Markus Blume has called it a "bitter day for the CSU," while declining to comment on possible coalitions.

Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder of the CSU also said it is "not an easy day." However, he called his party "the strongest party" and added that the most important task is to keep the country stable and governable.

The election can be seen as a blow to Merkel, since her party is not present in Bavaria at all, with the CSU effectively being the Chancellor’s ‘hand’ there. CSU, in turn, is not present in any other federal state.

Die Linke member Bijan Tavassoli told RT that the result sends a clear message of what the people want - and it isn't Angela Merkel.

"Even though Angela Merkel was not on the ballot tonight, she was on the ballot. And the vote was a clear vote to end the era of Merkel."

The last time Merkel’s allies failed to hold an absolute majority in parliament was in 2008, when the CSU received about 43 percent of the vote and had to enter a coalition with liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP).

The results are a major drop from the last election in 2013, which saw the CSU win an absolute majority, gaining nine seats in the local parliament, known in Bavaria as the Landtag.

The CSU loss and AFD gain are part of a wider trend happening across Germany, as Merkel has been losing support nationwide. With the breakthrough in Bavaria, the right-wing AfD is now present in 15 out of 16 federal states.

Ahead of the election, AfD MP Petr Bystron told RT that the ruling coalition “is massively losing its people,” while the AfD has “a big part of their electorate.”

Preliminary results also show that the Greens placed second with 17.8% and the Free Voters came in third at 11.6%. Trailing behind was the AfD with 10.7% and the Social Democrats with 9.5%. In dead last were the FDP with 5% and the Left Party with 3.5%.

AfD leaders cheer at an election party in Mamming, southern Germany, on October 14, 2018. © AFP / Armin Weigel

The Sunday outcome also could be an early forecast of the upcoming October 28 election in neighboring Hessen, where conservative Volker Bouffier aims to defend the 19 year hold of Merkel's CDU on the governor's office.

***

BREITBART

Poland, Austria to Quit UN Migration Compact: ‘We Want Poles to Be Safe in Their Own Country’

Virginia Hale

October 12, 2018

Austria may join the U.S. and Hungary in withdrawing from the United Nations (UN) migration pact, Sebastian Kurz has said, following news that Poland is preparing to quit the agreement over security concerns.

At a press conference Wednesday, the Austrian leader cited concern over sovereignty relating to the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, which claims that huge movements of people across borders are “inevitable, necessary, and desirable”.

“We view some of the points in this agreement very critically. We will therefore do everything to maintain the sovereignty of our country and ensure that we as the Republic of Austria can decide for ourselves on migration issues,” Reuters reported the Chancellor as saying.

Speaking after a cabinet meeting, Kurz told journalists that the Danish government has expressed similar concerns over the agreement, which was previously signed by all UN member nations except the U.S., which withdrew last year.

Vice-chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache, from the populist Freedom Party, added that the government is looking into the legal implications of the document.

Hungarian Prime Minister: UN Migration Compact ‘Looks Like It Was Copied from the Soros Plan’ for Mass Migration https://t.co/2GF6VZKfTf

— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) February 6, 2018

“It cannot … be that any formulations are adopted that could perhaps or possibly be interpreted to mean that migration can be a human right. That can and must not be the case,” he said.

Earlier this week, Poland’s Interior Minister Joachim Brudzinski said he was recommending that Warsaw quit the globalist compact, stating that “the draft of the agreement does not contain adequately strong guarantees of [nations’] sovereign right to decide who comes into their territory and [nor does it] distinguish legal and illegal migration”.

“We want Poles to be safe in their country,” the minister said, emphasising that citizens’ security is the government’s foremost priority.

“Hungary is also critical of the Global Compact (GCM) agreement,” notes the statement, referring to the country’s decision to withdraw from the “dangerous” globalist agreement.

As Breitbart London reported in July, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said the compact was “entirely against Hungary’s security interests”, telling a news conference that the “extreme, biased” compact was likely to inspire millions more people to migrate from the third world.

“Its main premise is that migration is a good and inevitable phenomenon … We consider migration a bad process, which has extremely serious security implications,” he said.

The Telegraph

Italy risks clash with Britain and EU as it threatens to veto renewal of Russia sanctions

During a visit to Moscow, Matteo Salvini said that Rome might block the renewal of sanctions that have been in place since 2014 CREDIT: VLADIMIR GERDO/ TASS

By Nick Squires, in rome

October 17, 2018

Italy put itself on a collision course with Britain and much of the EU on Wednesday after threatening to veto the renewal of sanctions against Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

During a visit to Moscow, Matteo Salvini, Italy’s staunchly pro-Moscow deputy prime minister, said that Rome might block the renewal of sanctions that have been in place since 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea.

The sanctions, which include the freezing of assets of individuals, an embargo on the export of weapons and financial restrictions, are due to expire in January.

Mr Salvini described sanctions against Russia “economic, social and cultural madness” and “an absurdity” that had cost Italian businesses “billions of euros”.

“If we are asked to confirm (the sanctions), we will say no,” Mr Salvini told a conference of business leaders in Moscow.

Asked if the coalition government, which came to power in June, might veto the renewal of EU sanctions, Mr Salvini said: “We can only use the trump card of the veto once in Europe.”

That was a reference to the Italian government’s numerous battles with Brussels, from demanding more help with migrants and refugees, to pushing through a controversial budget that revolves around lavish spending on social welfare and generous tax breaks which will cost debt-laden Italy billions of euros.

‘There is the question of the budget, the question of migration,” Mr Salvini said.

“We are counting on the fact that they are intelligent enough in Brussels to understand that they have gone over the top and that you have to return to good relations between the EU, Italy and Russia.”

Italy has been opposed to sanctions against Moscow for years, arguing that they hurt Italian businesses which export hundreds of millions of euros’ worth of luxury goods, furniture, fashion, food and wine to Russians.

Mr Salvini, who is the head of the hard-Right Northern League as well as deputy prime minister and interior minister, is particularly pro-Moscow.

He said sanctions against Russia had resulted in “hundreds of millions of citizens and small and medium businessmen” paying a heavy price economically.

Underlining his affection for President Putin’s Russia, he said: “I feel at home in Russia in a way that I don’t in other European countries.”

In an apparent reference to NATO exercises in countries close to Russia, such as Poland and the Baltic republics, he said: “The problems of 2018 are to be solved sitting at a table – not with tanks at the borders.”

Mr Salvini, who has doubled his party’s support in the last few months with his stridently anti-migrant rhetoric, has previously said that the coalition is “not scared” of using its veto powers at Brussels in order to push the EU into lifting sanctions.

Giuseppe Conte, Italy’s prime minister, who is due to travel to Moscow next week to meet President Putin, has also criticised EU sanctions. He said they “damaged our companies, as well as Russian society.”

Italy’s soft line towards Russia entails the risk of it being isolated within the EU because Britain and other countries are pushing for punitive measures against Russia for its aggression in eastern Ukraine, alleged interference in elections – most recently in Macedonia - and poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury in March.

Italy is the only member of the EU that openly resists a new regime of sanctions against Moscow, according to a confidential document seen by Reuters.

Italy’s attempt to weaken measures against Moscow are likely to be opposed by Britain and several Eastern European countries, which want to keep up the pressure on Mr Putin.

Zero Hedge

Juncker Warns 'The EU Cannot Survive Without Italy'

By Tyler Durden

October 16, 2018

Ignoring warnings from the European Commission, the ECB and the European Commission (as well as practically every other supranational organization in Europe), the populist-led Italian government managed to submit their draft budget to the Commission before a midnight deadline - an outcome that was cheered by BTP traders, who bought back into Italian bonds, once again compressing the spread to bunds, which has blown out in recent months.

But rather than representing a deescalation of tensions between Italy and Brussels, the game of fiscal chicken in which both sides are presently engaged is instead entering its most acute phase, as Brussels now has two weeks to review the budget proposal before it can either accept the plan, or send it back with requests for revisions. And anybody who has been paying even passing attention to the populist government's denigration of EU budgetary guidelines over the past few months should already understand that Brussels won't just sit back and accept the budget for what it is.

In fact, European Commissioner Jean-Claude Juncker hinted as much Tuesday morning when he told Italian reporters that accepting the budget would be tantamount to inviting an widespread revolt against the EU, per Italian newswire ANSA and the FT. Juncker also blasted Italy for abandoning the fiscal commitments it made when it joined the EU. However, though they have wavered from time to time, the Italians haven't kept their intentions to press for a budget deficit equivalent to 2.4% of GDP a secret. Even Giovanni Tria, Italy's economy minister, defended the draft budget, saying the deficit "would be considered normal in all Western democracies, not explosive."

Undeterred by the fact that there's absolutely no political will in the Italian government to back down from their budget stance, despite threats from the ECB to provoke a Greece-style banking crisis if the Italians don't yield to EU rules.

"There is a gap between what was promised and what is being presented today," said Mr Juncker.

"We are going to have a virtuous debate with our Italian friends who know that their level of public debt is too high and that the draft budget does not fully respect the recommendations of the eurozone ministers."

"If we accepted the slip, some European countries would cover us with insults and tirades with the accusation we are being too flexible with Italy," Juncker told Italian media.

Meanwhile, Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, one of two party chiefs who are effectively running the country, said during a news conference that this budget "doesn’t accomplish miracles, it doesn’t multiply fish and bread, but it opens opportunities to work for hundreds of thousands of youths," Salvini said in Monday evening news conference flanked by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, Di Maio, and Finance Minister Giovanni Tria. "After 137 days of governing, I think we can be satisfied with what we’ve done."

In reference to the festering acrimony between EU bureaucrats and populist Italian leaders, who have even threatened to sue Juncker for jawboning Italian bond yields, the European Commissioner said speculation that he's somehow "against Italians" is "rubbish".

"They attack me, insult me but do not ask questions. Let’s stop saying that I am against Italy. It’s rubbish, it’s a lie," said Mr Juncker.

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte is set to address EU leaders at a summit in Brussels on Thursday, despite fears that he might hijack the summit's agenda, which leaders have hoped would focus on finalizing a draft Brexit deal. But while some EU leaders have pushed to give Italy a pass, fearful of provoking an EU "showdown," Juncker has continued to insist that the EU must abide by its rules. Conte and Tria are expected to address Italian lawmakers Tuesday afternoon Rome time.

Officials are fearful the mini eurozone summit could become a flashpoint between Rome and the EU if hawkish governments such as the Netherlands demand Mr Conte stick to Rome’s budget commitments. A senior EU official warned against an EU showdown.

"There are clear procedures on assessment of national budgets," said the official who urged "mutual respect" on all national spending plans. “It is not the role of other member state leaders to make any assessment of the budgets. The ball is in the court of the commission."

Mr Juncker insisted the assessment would be made without any “prejudice” against Italy’s Eurosceptic coalition government, made up of the rightwing League and anti-establishment Five Star parties.

"Europe operates according to pre-established rules. Incoming governments must respect the word of those who preceded them," he said.

As speculation about an 'Italeave' scenario has continued to fester as the budget showdown has dragged on, one reporter asked Juncker if he felt that European Union could survive an Italian exit. Citing polling data showing that most Italians favor remaining in the EU, Juncker insisted that the EU wouldn't survive the departure of its third-largest economy - and that Italy wouldn't survive an exit from the EU.

"Europe needs Italy and Italy needs Europe," Juncker said, answering "No" when asked if Europe could survive an Italian exit.

But will this in any way shift Brussels' evaluation of the Italian budget? We think not. Still, we imagine markets will be 'disappointed' when Brussels sends the draft back covered in red ink.

***

RT

Hungary raises gold reserves tenfold on safety concerns

October 16, 2018

© Reuters / Leonhard Foeger

Hungary’s central bank has announced the country has boosted its gold reserves tenfold to 31.5 tons. The regulator says it wants to improve the security of the nation’s wealth and to reduce risks.

According to the bank’s governor, Gyorgy Matolcsy, the decision was of “economic and national strategic importance” and has been made after Prime Minister Viktor Orban requested a year ago that the bank assess its gold strategy.

Matolcsy has also recalled Hungary’s heritage as one of the world’s largest gold producers in the Middle Ages.

Gold now accounts for 4.4 percent of Hungary’s national bank’s reserves, according to the bank’s vice-president Marton Nagy.

The purchase of the precious metal takes Hungary’s holdings to the highest in almost three decades, but the country is still a relatively small bullion holder. It ranks outside the top 50 globally, according to World Gold Council data.

“It’s a strange move, a big increase, and it seems quite high,” Timothy Ash of Bluebay Asset Management told the Financial Times.

He said that “people are struggling to understand the logic behind it,” adding that at a time when Budapest was having “challenging” relations with Brussels, the move could be viewed as an assertion of independence.

Last month, Poland raised its gold holdings to the highest level (about 117 tons) in at least 35 years.

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RT

‘Disappointed’ US wants Macedonia to approve name change despite failed referendum

October 16, 2018
Opponents of the Macedonia name change referendum, September 30, 2018 © Marko Djurica / Reuters

The US State Department has urged the opposition in Macedonia to vote in favor of the name change deal despite the failed referendum, while the government in Skopje is threatening those that don’t with terrorism prosecutions.

In a letter dated Tuesday, assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian affairs Wess Mitchell says that Washington is “disappointed” in the position of the leading opposition party, VMRO-DPMNE.

“We urge you to set aside partisan interests to advance our shared strategic interests and secure a brighter future for your citizens among the European family of nations,” Mitchell says in the letter, whose authenticity was confirmed by the US embassy in Skopje.

Despite the best efforts of the government and its US and EU backers, the September 30 referendum on the name change failed, with less than 40 percent of the electorate casting their ballots. Even the carefully worded question, focusing on the promised brighter future in the EU and NATO, was not enough to overcome the organized boycott.

Mitchell now urged the opposition party’s leadership to “create space” for its members to reconsider their position “free from threats of violence, retribution, or other forms of coercion.”

Such threats, however, appear to be coming solely from the US-backed government of Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, who struck the deal with Greece to change the country’s name to North Macedonia back in June. Antonio Miloshoski, a VMRO member of parliament, was subpoenaed as a suspect by the country’s special prosecutor on Tuesday, local media reported. A hearing featuring a “protected witness” was closed to the press, but US and OSCE diplomats were allowed in the courtroom, local media reported.

Several party MPs are being held under house arrest over an incident in April 2017, when VMRO sympathizers stormed the parliament in rage over Zaev appointing an ethnic Albanian nationalist as speaker.

Miloshoski claims that Zaev has offered to grant amnesty to those charged with terrorism over the April 27 incident if they vote his way on amending the Constitution, and that this is “proof that he has instrumentalized the judiciary and the prosecutor’s office for political purposes.”

Further fueling speculation that the government is pressuring VMRO members on the name change vote, one MP was released from house arrest on bail.

Despite the failed referendum, Zaev’s government is struggling to get a two-thirds majority in the 120-member Sobranie required to amend the constitution and rename the country North Macedonia. Under the terms of the deal with Greece, this would remove Athens’ veto on the former Yugoslav republic’s applications to the EU and NATO.

Opponents of the name change have meanwhile criticized Mitchell’s letter as yet another example of the ongoing US meddling into Macedonian affairs, urging the West to respect the will of the people.

If the Sobranie fails to adopt the name change, Zaev has said he would immediately call a new election, presumably in hope that the new legislature would be more to his liking.

***

Yahoo

Earth Hint at New Physics

Avery Thompson

September 28, 2018

From Popular Mechanics

High above Antarctica, far from any human interference, stands an antenna designed to find high-energy exotic particles from space as they crash into the Earth’s atmosphere. Recently, the antenna has picked up a couple of particles coming from the other direction-out of the ground. It's a discovery that just might change physics forever.

NASA’s Antarctic Impulse Transient Antenna experiment was built to find exotic particles like neutrinos falling from the sky. Such particles rarely make it past the upper atmosphere, so scientists loft the sensitive electronic equipment into the sky via high-altitude balloon. But when scientists spotted high-energy particles coming from below, that meant those particles must have traveled through the entire earth.

That's weird. There are some exotic particles like neutrinos that aren’t fazed by ordinary matter. They pass through everything, including the entire planet. In fact, billions of neutrinos from the Sun are passing through your body right now and you don’t feel a thing. The catch is that only low-energy neutrino particles can move very far through other kinds of matter. High-energy particles, on the other hand, are too energetic to make it through the atmosphere (much less the entire) without colliding into something.

NASA's flying antenna detected two separate instances of high-energy particles passing through the Earth, which shouldn’t be possible. In fact, a new paper calculates that if those observed particles were neutrinos, they would each have less than a one-in-a-million chance of making it all the way through the Earth. And yet, scientists spotted two of them.

One possible explanation, perhaps the only one that makes sense, is a new type of particle scientists have never seen before. But a new particle means new physics, which is a pretty big deal. New physics don’t show up every day, so scientists are taking their time here. Currently, researchers are speculating about what these new particles could be, trying to fit what little data they have to predictions of theoretical exotic particles.

Those scientists will need more detections before they come up with a solid conclusion. For now, we’ll just have to wait for the NASA team in Antarctica to launch their balloon again so we can spot more strange particles coming out of the Earth.

Source: LiveScience

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

“Thou shalt have no other gods beside me. 4 Thou shalt not make to thyself an idol, nor likeness of anything, whatever things are in the heaven above, and whatever are in the earth beneath, and whatever are in the waters under the earth.”
(Exodus 20:3-4)