“Great is our Lord, and great is his strength; and his understanding is infinite.”
(Psalm 147:5)
Understanding Is Infinite

Hell is all pervasive

BY DENNIS RHODES

June 30, 2018

One of the biggest tares in the modern church , for the last 1500 years is the wrong translation of a few key words in Hebrew and Greek. I can already feel the oppression on my head from offended brothers and sisters as they pray “for” me! Never mind that, as a brother in Jesus Christ I will continue to share the good news in the hope that someone may hear.

It was St Augustine who reasoned that if we have been given eternal life then those who do not believe in Jesus must receive eternal death.

Is it as simple as that dualistic approach?

Believe it or not the Bible says very little about eternal life…and for that matter eternal death.

The hope of the saints living in Old Covenant times was to be raised up or resurrected in the end times so as to enjoy the Life of the Age to come.

The hope of those who believed in Jesus was and is the same….Our hope is not to die and go to a faraway place called heaven…The hope clearly revealed by the Jesus and His Apostles is to be resurrected to immortality reigning with Him in the Age to come.

When Augustine presented his reasonings that we must have eternal life and so Hell must also of necessity be forever, it was adopted by the church council of the day and later stamped as official church dogma by the Emperor Justinian. What better way to control the masses than through the threat of eternal torture and punishment in a literal burning fire?

The Scriptures simply do not teach such a thing. You think they do because there has been 1500 years of compounded teaching along these lines and anyone who dares say differently is thought of as a heretic. The simple meaning of a heretic is one who causes division so in a sense I fit that bill because I am presenting the majority of people with something that will bring down the whole stack of cards.

Hell is all about controlling you and the masses of those like you. Hell is all pervasive and all over everything a Christian does. Without Hell what would a Christian do?

There will be a resurrection of all those chosen and faithful saints who shall receive immortality for reigning with Jesus Christ upon this earth. They shall also be able to go into the heavens with this new immortal body. These shall be called priests of God and they shall teach and preach upon the earth to the nations during the 1000 year reign of Jesus on this earth.

Those who died before that resurrection but who were not counted worthy to attain to that resurrection shall stay sleeping in the grave until the second resurrection at the end of the Age. We are told that that age lasts for a 1000 years. At the end of it, then ALL who sleep in the graves shall hear the voice of the son of man and shall be raised up to stand before Him. At that time they shall see Him who they pierced and shall believe upon Him and confess Him as their Lord and Saviour.

All their sins are forgiven and washed in the blood sacrifice of Jesus. Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess Jesus as their Lord. Oh happy day!!

Then in the Ages to come they shall learn as we have been learning….they shall be put under authority and taught by the Holy Spirit….even as we have been. This is the Lake of Fire that burns age to age. The fire is the Holy Spirit as he deals with each one individually even as we have been immersed into His fire during our time. God chastens those whom He loves and He loves ALL PEOPLE. He chastens us all so that we may be sharers in His holiness and come to inherit as sons do.

The hope of the Gospel is that all shall be saved and all shall believe in Jesus until all His enemies are made His footstool…then God shall be all in all.

How big is your God? Will your God save all or will He only save a few?

Your view of all this has been influenced greatly by saints of old…even 1500 years ago.

Saint Augustine did not know Greek or Hebrew!!

Although Augustine had a good mind yet he never fully mastered the the Greek language, and he later had reason to regret this fact.

Contrary to the custom in Rome of his day, the classical schooling that Augustine received in colonial North Africa was conducted principally in Latin rather than in Greek. Augustine later wrote in his Confessions that his first Greek teacher was a brutal man who constantly beat his students. As a result, Augustine rebelled by vowing never to learn Greek.

“The after-effect of his having had in his childhood a teacher of Greek who was cruel to his students far outlasted the seventy-six years that Augustine spent on this earth. Because Augustine was such an influence on the thought and scholarship of the Church in the West during the Middle Ages, his dislike of Greek had lasting consequences. His low motivation towards the Greek language and his recourse to Greek texts less frequently than would otherwise have been the case unduly influenced subsequent Christian authors of the West.“source

Augustine wrongly thought that the Hebrew word Olam meant forever and the Greek word Aionian the same. Yet he himself did not know Hebrew or Greek so had to rely upon men like Jerome the author of the Latin Vulgate version adopted by the Roman Catholic Church. Yet a close look at their usage in Scripture plainly reveals that these words do not mean forever but an unknown length of TIME. Time and eternity are two different things altogether. Eternity is not a very long time. Eternity is nothing to do with time. Yet all these ideas have been hidden by Augustine and Jerome.

You may not have even heard of Augustine yet his thinking and doctrinal understanding has influenced you and all Christians since 500AD. A full 1000 years after Augustine’s views of eternal punishment became official church dogma the King James Version team of translators got together. They were a product of the same Augustinian thought which majored on Latin understanding and not Hebrew or even the Greek version of the Old Testament. Is it any wonder that these men translated time words such as Olam and Aionios and aionian to mean forever and eternal?

As a result of the wrong translation of these time words to mean forever the Bible does not declare the Good News as fully as it should. Thankfully though, God is beginning to bind the Tares into bundles to burn them at the end of the Age. One of those tares is the eternal punishment dogma which has ruled over the minds of dear Christians for centuries and driven them to strive in the flesh in all that they do. This has worked to stunt fruit bearing for unless we abide in Jesus we cannot bring forth fruit. Fear of Hell keeps the Church from being able to rest in Jesus for long.

OLD-THINKER NEWS

Out of the Ashes: Clash of Civilizations Could Summon New World Religion

April 24, 2019

By Daniel Taylor

Rockefeller-backed Federal Council of Churches pushed “World government”, “Universal system of money” and “Worldwide freedom of immigration” in 1942. The council was told by Dr. William Paton, co-secretary of the World Council of Churches, that “Collectivism is coming, whether we like it or not“

For those paying attention, there is a discernible pattern of social engineering that is directed at the major world religions, particularly Christianity.

This is undoubtedly a very complex issue, as there are numerous belief systems and nuanced views of millions of people. What we know is that globalist financed wars and revolutions have fueled illegal immigration and stoked flames of conflict all over the world.

It can be reasonably demonstrated that key globalist organizations are following a program for re-shaping the world’s religions utilizing a tried and true technique. It is a process called the Hegelian dialectic.

Here is a simplified outline of the dialectic as applied by globalist forces:

• Thesis (problem): Religions are bigoted, feed intolerance and fuel violence. “Extreme” examples from each group are held up for the world to see.

• Antithesis (reaction): “I don’t want to be politically incorrect”. Disassociation with demonized groups ensues.

• Synthesis (solution): A “middle ground” is found and a politically correct faith is formed under the banner of global government.

The establishment has encouraged and planted the seeds of “extremism” where it suits geopolitical agendas. The consequences of this manipulation are then pointed at in the ensuing dialectical battle as evidence of a just cause against against these ideas.

A little bit of history

Before we go further, it is important to point out that the establishment has a vested interest in shaping religion. This has been true for ages. Noted historian Alexis de Tocqueville warned us in 1835 when he wrote Democracy in America that the churches were already being usurped by power elites for their own agenda. He wrote,

“…sovereigns… are using the priests influence and turning it to their own exclusive profit. They are turning clergymen into functionaries and, often, servants, and they are using the clergy to reach the deepest recesses of the individual soul.”

This influence has continued to our modern times, but with what is perhaps a more sophisticated flair. The Rockefeller family, with their vast fortune garnered from the oil baron John D. Rockefeller Sr., played a major role in re-shaping the churches in modern America.

It comes as little surprise, given their long term goal of world government, that the Rockefeller family would approve of and support a societal outlook favorable to globalism. The use of religion is one method that, in Rockefeller’s eyes, looked to be a promising means of accomplishing this goal. Early programs such as the Interchurch World Movement focused on the maintenance of harmonious relations between people in America’s growing industrial society.

Later endeavors such as the World Council of Churches would trend towards being global in nature with goals moving beyond that of simply maintaining class stability in America to elimination of national sovereignty and world governance.

As documents show, multiple attempts have been made to urge the Christian churches to get behind programs for world governance. If the attempts were not initiated by the Rockefellers, significant financial support was provided to organizations sharing their vision for the world.

In the aftermath of the bloody conflict of World War I, the League of Nations was presented as a solution to the horrendous problems that the world had witnessed. During the same time period that the League of Nations was formed, John D. Rockefeller Jr. launched the Interchurch World Movement in 1919.

Rockefeller wrote in a letter regarding the Interchurch World Movement,

“I know of no better insurance for a businessman for the safety of his investments, the prosperity of the country and the future stability of our government than this movement affords…”

Harry Emerson Fosdick was the brother of John D. Rockefeller’s trusted lawyer Raymond B. Fosdick. He was deeply involved with the Interchurch World Movement. Harry was very close to the Rockefeller family and its inner workings, as he served on the board of the Rockefeller Foundation during World War II. The Riverside church in New York, where Fosdick served as pastor from 1926-1946, was built with money given by John D. Rockefeller Jr.

Interestingly, Fosdick held a belief that in the future a federation of the world would be created by a single man. Fosdick writes,

“Some day, I predict, a man will rise by whose hands a federation of the world will be so effected, and wars so stopped thereby, that his name will go down across the centuries associated with that great achievement, as Copernicus’ name is with the new astronomy, or Lincoln’s with the preservation of our union. That man will come. Some day he will arise.”

Just as the Interchurch World Movement was presented to the churches as a solution to problems facing the globe after the first world war, the Federal Council of Churches presented its own solution in the early 1940′s for a program “for a just and durable peace” upon the end of World War II. Not surprisingly, the Federal Council of Churches – which was merged with the National Council of Churches in 1950 – received significant funding from John D. Rockefeller Jr.

As reported by Time in 1942, the Federal Council of Churches spearheaded a program for world government. The council was told by Dr. William Paton, co-secretary of the World Council of Churchesthat “Collectivism is coming, whether we like it or not“. The council affirmed,

“…we must seek to… create a public opinion which will insure that the United States shall play its full and essential part in the creation of a moral way of international living.”

As reported, the project aimed at creating, among other things, a “world government of delegated powers,” an “international bank,” and “complete abandonment of U.S. isolationism.”

God Wars

One of the driving factors in the modern “God wars” is the global war on terror launched after 9/11. The September 11th, 2001 terror attacks on America impacted all aspects of society, including the churches. As Bryan Appleyard writes in the New Statesman, “For me, the events of 9/11 were certainly a catalyst, the new ingredient that turned the already bubbling mix of anti-religious feeling into an explosive concoction.”

At the onset of the war on terror, we were told that most high profile terror attacks were carried out by Muslim extremists. What we have not been told, however, is that these individuals and groups have had outside help from globalist factions.

In fact, the very ideological roots of some terror groups may be traced back to literature that the United States provided Afghan schoolchildren during the Cold War. As the Washington Post reported in 2002,

“In the twilight of the Cold War, the United States spent millions of dollars to supply Afghan schoolchildren with textbooks filled with violent images and militant Islamic teachings…”

Watch this clip as Zbigniew Brzezinski, serving as National Security Advisor, speaks to a group of Mujihadeen fighters in 1979:

“A different kind of religion”

In a 2012 article from the Christian post, research from political scientists at Harvard University is further proving that a fundamental change is happening to the faith of America.

Due to the association of the Republican party and its “bigotry” along with it’s “Christianity,” young people are turning away from the Christian faith. In turn, this group is likened to an “untapped market” that could be swayed to a “different kind of religion.”

“The reason this is important for clergy is these are not people who are lost completely to religion. It’s almost like they’re an untapped constituency, or untapped market, that could be brought back to a different kind of religion, or a religion that they thought was stripped of politics, Campbell argued”

As the church of Satan openly aligns itself with the extreme political left in America, more and more Americans are identifying as having no religion in polls.

Nearly half of pastors in America are afraid to speak out on moral or social issues out of fear of offending the wrong person.

Temple of Satan co-founder Lucien Greaves said recently,

“At this point there seems to be an inherent, intuitive grasp of what Satan can mean in a heroic context…”

Greaves states that Christian nationalists are undermining “liberal democracy” by “taking away people’s reproductive rights”.

The Christian church is splitting over support of LGBT politics.

The clash is here. The state of the globe and the ideologies that will drive it into the future depend on your choices and actions right now.

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DEFENDER OF THE FAITH

David Horowitz’s new book unveils the war to destroy Christian America -- and its dire implications for our republic.

April 26, 2019

Bruce Thornton

Reprinted from American Greatness.

Since World War II, the war against Christianity that began in the Enlightenment has intensified across the globe. Every day, 11 Christians are killed, three-quarters of them in Muslim majority countries. In western European nations, Christians are marginalized, ignored, and mocked even as Muslim sensibilities and illiberal practices are carefully protected. And in the United States, supposedly one of the most religious of the developed nations, Christians are widely despised in popular and high-brow culture, and demonized by Democratic politicians like Senator Dianne Feinstein (D.-Calif.), who during a confirmation hearing insulted a Catholic nominee for the U.S. Court of Appeals by scolding, “The dogma lives loudly within you,” recycling the old anti-Catholic smear that the nominee would be biased by her faith.

David Horowitz’s new book, Dark Agenda: The War to Destroy Christian America, is a meditation on this disturbing phenomenon and its dire implications for our republic.

Horowitz, a prolific author as well as the founder and namesake of the David Horowitz Freedom Center, is the most renowned bête noir of the Left and their progressive offspring. For more than 30 years of speaking, organizing, and writing he has been a scourge of their illiberal ideology and its totalitarian inclinations. An ex-radical leftist and Jewish agnostic, Horowitz defends Christianity because he understands the critical role it has played in the constitutional political order comprising unalienable rights and individual freedom. And as he explains, the serial assaults on Christianity have become a weapon for leftists to discredit all authorities beyond the state that pose a challenge to their bid for power.

Horowitz starts with the New Atheists of the 1990s such as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. Like most atheists, their works bespeak the mentality of what George Orwell called the “embittered atheist,” one who “does not so much disbelieve in God as personally dislike him.” This “unscientific animus,” as Horowitz calls it, explains the Left’s crude, irrational ad hominem insults of and contempt for Christians’ intelligence and motives, which is ironic considering how often the atheist “brights,” as many fancy themselves, are unhinged in their vitriol. One reason for this “hatred and loathing,” Horowitz says, is because “they have faith of their own”: their own status as the chosen and saved, and people’s “liberators––pioneers of a new human race.” It is no coincidence that the atheist creed is the same as the Marxist ideology driving the American Left, which believes that “science will usher in a utopian age of reason, enlightenment, and social justice.”

The atheist attack on faith, then, is one front in the progressive war against America’s constitutional political order. As Horowitz puts it,

It is a war against an imperiled nation––a war against this nation and its founding principles: the equality of individuals and individual freedom. For these principles are indisputably Christian in origin. They are under siege because they are insurmountable obstacles to radicals’ totalitarian ambition to create a new world in their image.

The progressive ideology ascendant today in the Democratic Party is “social justice,” like its Communist forbearer, a pseudo-religion that promises redemption not through God, but themselves. But as Horowitz points out, in fact they are repeating the primal sin of Adam and Eve, who believed Satan’s false promise that by rejecting God, they themselves would become gods. Contrary to the social and economic determinism of the Left, moreover, our free will to choose our innate vices and flaws instead of God accounts for the injustices and suffering that “social justice warriors” claim to battle. As determinists, however, the Left must delegitimize human agency and responsibility in order to eliminate the rival authority of religion, and justify the centralization and concentration of state power that progressives have pursued for nearly a century.

Horowitz argues cogently and with a wealth of examples that such attitudes are inimical to the Founders’ core beliefs.

First, humans are by nature flawed and vulnerable to the lust for power. Hence the Constitution’s dispersing, checking, and balancing of powers both to respect the factional diversity of the colonies, and to make it difficult for one faction to monopolize all powers. Second, they knew that these constitutional mechanisms for protecting freedom necessarily relied on faith in the creator who had bestowed on us unalienable personal rights like “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” that lie beyond the powers of government.

But with the European bloody wars of religion still fresh in their minds, they also understood that the denominational diversity of the American colonists meant that faith must be a protected activity of civil society. Hence the very first amendment in the Bill of Rights forbids a national state religion, the clause that has been corrupted into an unconstitutional “wall of separation” used today to banish Christianity from the public square and quarantine it in the realm of private life. But the amendment also “guarantees,” Horowitz writes, “all Americans the freedom to express and exercise their religious beliefs.” This Free Exercise Clause has been “the first casualty of the war against religion, and America,” for it stands in the way of the progressives’ need to delegitimize any authority over human life and action other than their own.

The bulk of Dark Agenda contains a history of several controversies that ultimately were settled by the Supreme Court rather than by Congress. Each directly and indirectly represented an attack on Christians and their rights enshrined in Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. This history also reveals the modus operandi of the Left and its penchant for ginning up “crises” and then relying on the unelected, unaccountable members of the Supreme Court to achieve their ideological aims.

The first is Engel v. Vitale in 1962, which banned prayer in public schools. The ACLU represented the five plaintiffs, one of whom was a founding member of its New York affiliate. Three courts had already rejected the complaint, the New York Supreme Court correctly noting that prayer in school was not a violation of the First Amendment, that no court in previous history had deemed it was, and that doing so “would be in defiance of all American history” and “would destroy a part of the essential foundation of American governmental structure.”

But the Supreme Court disagreed, arguing that it was a violation of the Establishment Clause because it did not recognize the belief of atheists. The pattern was set: a tendentious misreading of the Establishment Clause would over and over negate the Free Exercise Clause, justified not by legal and historical precedent, but by the ideological preferences of an activist faction. Subsequent decisions further chipped away at the presence of faith and Christian history in public schools. This purge created a vacuum that over the years has been filled with progressive and leftist ideology, leading to the intolerance and censorship dominating education today. As Horowitz writes,

As our freedoms are steadily diminished under the onslaught of “political correctness” and social justice fanatics, the true story of American freedom must be revised, rewritten, and censored by school officials, textbook publishers, and other tentacles of our “Ministry of Truth.”

Engel v. Vitale set the pattern for future attacks on the Christian foundations of the American order. Activists backed financially and legally by left-wing organizations would file suits that ultimately would be decided by the Supreme Court. Then the judgment would morph into a “constitutional right” that had never existed, or even been contemplated by the Founders. Thus was achieved a long-time progressive goal of revising the Constitution into a “living” document to be shaped by political ideology, and the creation of endless new “rights” to replace the natural rights bestowed by “Nature and Nature’s God.” The most powerful weapon for “fundamentally transforming America” had been forged.

Horowitz goes on to demonstrate this weapon’s success in subsequent decisions. Murray v. Curlett in 1963, a lawsuit brought by the unstable and troubled leftist firebrand Madalyn Murray O’Hair, founder and president of American Atheists. Her victory in the Supreme Court banned Bible readings and the recital of the Lord’s Prayer in public schools. The lone dissenter was Justice Stewart Potter, who wrote that the ruling was not enforcing neutrality toward religion, the tendentious interpretation of the Establishment Clause, but “the establishment of a religion of secularism,” which now, the Wall Street Journal added, was “the one belief to which the state’s power will extend its protection.”

Once again, as Horowitz writes, a “minority in America” relying on a minority that comprised the unelected, unaccountable Supreme Court “was able to impose its will on all Americans.” As a result, the critical mechanism of federalism, the check on the power of the Federal government by the sovereign people, their states and the powers delegated to those states, was weakened.

More Supreme Court decisions that undermined the Constitution’s protections of state and individual rights from overweening power followed. Griswold v. Connecticut in 1965 struck down state bans on contraception, weakening the Christian doctrines and beliefs of millions of Americans, especially Catholics. Nothing in the Constitution justified creating this new right of contraception. So the activist supporters of the plaintiff, Planned Parenthood, sold the Court on a new right, “the right to privacy.” The Court’s reasoning was torturous and vague, as it had to be to justify such a right. So they rifled through the Constitution’s “penumbras” and “emanations” and “spirit” of other amendments in the Bill of Rights, a process redolent of seances.

The ultimate point, however, of the attack on contraception laws was the realization of the Cultural Marxist goal of turning sexual license into a force for “liberation” from a “patriarchal oppression” that chained women to their reproductive function and subjection to men. Hence the institution of the family, as well as religion, came under attack. That goal was further realized in the series of decisions that legalized on-demand abortion, the most important being Roe v. Wade in 1973. As well as being a direct assault on millions of Americans’ religious beliefs, this decision became the most divisive national issue since the Civil War, and still today sparks intense conflict.

After Roe, for the secular Left, Horowitz writes, the Supreme Court became “an all-powerful instrument . . . with which it could impose its radical, anti-Christian agenda on an unwilling nation.” The goal was not just abortion, but also to remove one of the bulwarks against the totalitarian impulses of the progressive technocracy that wants to aggrandize authority over all Americans. And their purpose was and remains to impose undemocratically its vision of human nature and society without having to persuade their fellow citizens through the constitutional mechanisms of deliberation and election that allows all citizens to have their say, and to hold accountable those politicians who are supposed to reflect the people’s will.

These are just a few samples of Horowitz’s much more detailed analysis of how battles in the culture wars like gay marriage or the role of religion in public life are part of a larger conflict over the nature of America and American citizenship. Should we be free, as the Constitution intended, to participate in the decisions that affect our lives and our most cherished beliefs? And should disagreements over first principles be solved through political mechanisms like free and open debate and deliberation, and participation in free and open elections? Or, as the leftists and progressives believe, should we be clients who cede their autonomy to a technocratic regime of state agencies and functionaries who demand the power to determine how our lives should be lived and our profoundest beliefs should be expressed?

We know what side David Horowitz is on, for he has spent decades battling against the hubristic pretensions of progressives and leftists who believe they have the superior knowledge to assume control of their fellow citizens’ lives, and shape them to achieve the Left’s utopia of perfect justice and equality. Horowitz also knows the gruesome consequences of those fantasies: genocide and murder that follow when any group of flawed human beings who forget the lessons of history and tradition, and promise heaven on earth but produce only mountains of corpses.

As Horowitz concludes, the election of Donald Trump has for the moment slowed this decades-long process of dismantling the American order and its Christian foundations. Trump’s unabashed defense of American exceptionalism and his practical achievement in reforming the federal judiciary, have challenged the power before which too many Republicans have quaked. But at this moment a new movement of self-avowed socialists and identity-politics tribunes have intensified the conflict and elevated it to new levels of invective, contempt, and outright hatred of ordinary Americans.

The stakes are high, and we all must arm ourselves against a well-funded foe that dominates the schools, the culture, and the media. David Horowitz, a veteran of numerous battles against the Left, has written an excellent guide to the history and ideas that have brought us to this pass.

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RT

Aussie rugby star APOLOGIZES after sharing ‘I love Jesus’ message at Easter

Published time: 30 Apr, 2019 12:14

© Global Look Press / AFLO / Yoshio Tsunoda

Australian rugby star Samu Kerevi has apologized for “offending ” some fans after sharing an Easter message which quoted from the Bible, amid a backlash against Kerevi's international teammate Israel Folau over anti-gay comments.

Kerevi, who is captain of The Queensland Reds and has won more than 20 caps for the Wallabies, shared a message at Easter on his Instagram account which read: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16."

“Thank You Jesus for dying on the cross for me. I love you Jesus,” he added, alongside a picture of himself appearing for the Reds.

The post came amid a row involving Wallabies teammate Folau, who is facing the sack over a social media post earlier in April in which he said that “hell awaits” gay people.

Some fans questioned Kerevi’s Easter post in light of the Folau controversy, with one writing: "I know a lot of gay kids and adults in our sport would love to hear a rugby leader like you say you love and respect them for who they are – are you willing to endorse that message?"

Another wrote: "I hope you don't support Israel's comments Samu."

Kerevi later took to Instagram Stories to apologize “to anyone that I have offended in giving praise to our God on a weekend that we take off to celebrate his Sacrifice for you and I.”

After the bizarre apology, he later posted a message clarifying that he was “not apologizing for my faith in Jesus Christ my saviour."

"I do not feel obliged to apologise because of a situation happening right now to a brother of mine,” he added, referring to Folau’s case.

Kerevi has won considerable support from fans despite the initial criticism from some, while fellow Wallabies international and Queensland Reds teammate Taniela Tupou – known as ‘The Tongan Thor’ – wrote on Facebook: “Might as well sack me and all the other Pacific Islands rugby players around the world because we have the same Christian beliefs.

“I will never apologise for my faith and what I believe in, religion has got nothing to do with rugby anyways.”

Folau, meanwhile, is set to learn his fate at a code of conduct hearing with a three-member Rugby Australia panel on May 4.

The star, capped 73 times by his country, faces the termination of his contract with both club and country, ahead of the World Cup in Japan later this year.

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TEXAS VALUES ACTION

TEXANS RESPOND TO LIBERAL #BANTHEBIBLE BILL EFFORTS

By James Wesolek

February 9, 2019

Austin, Texas – After Texas Values Action sounded the alarm on Democrat bills filed before the Texas Legislature that would effectively #BanTheBible, conservatives from across Texas and around the country have responded in force. Through our action center at NoBibleBan.com Texans have sent over 37,000 messages and phone calls to the Governor, Lt. Governor, State Senators, and State House members. These efforts have garnered attention from national news agencies and high profile bloggers. Conservative commentator Erick Erickson discussed the issue, The Federalist and Empower Texanspublished blog pieces about it, PJ Media, LifeSite News, CBN, One News Now, The Stream and many others also wrote about these highly controversial bills.

Despite this overwhelming support to stop #BanTheBible Bills, some are not getting the message. More #BanTheBible bills; such as HB 978 and HB 1190 were introduced shortly after Texas Values Action called attention to the first round of #BanTheBible bills. And just this week Carrolton, Texas passed a #BanTheBible ordinance.

Hiding under the disguise of “sexual orientation and gender identity” these bills would create new government power and protections which ban the free expression of Biblical beliefs, especially it’s teaching on marriage and sexuality. Numerous bills seek to ban religious beliefs and force people of faith to conform to the personal and political activities of others. Those who do not comply will face fines, possible jail time, or other criminal charges.

Jonathan Saenz, President of Texas Values, said “These ‘Ban the Bible’ bills at the Texas Legislature are an aggressive effort to create excessive government control over peoples’ lives. Creating more government control and threatening Christians with jail time or fines is putting personal politics over constitutional liberty.”

Ann Hettinger, State Director for CWALAC of Texas, said “Any inclusion of men in women’s private spaces is a gross violation of their privacy and safety. It is the job of every legislator to protect Texas women and we strongly oppose these ‘Ban the Bible’ bills.”

Many of the #BanTheBible bills before the Texas Legislature are authored by members of the new LGBT Caucus, which has claimed to unveil a “transformative” agenda. This agenda doesn’t seem to include any of the bi-partisan issues Gov. Abbott and State Leaders are ready to work on, like school finance or property tax reform. Instead, they bring divisive legislation to criminalize Christians and people of faith.

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Zero Hedge

Annihilation Of Christian Life And People: Where Is The Outrage In The West?

by Tyler Durden

April 29, 2019

Authored by Giulio Meotti via The Gatestone Institute,

• Islamic extremists have seen that the West has not mobilized to prevent them from repressing Christians, as if unconsciously there were a strange convergence between our silence and the ethnic cleansing project of the Islamic State, aimed at erasing Christians.

• "Religious liberty, the core value of western civilisation, is being destroyed across large parts of the world. Yet the West, myopically denying this religious war, is averting its gaze..." — Melanie Phillips, British journalist, The Times, November 17, 2014.

• The Duke of Cambridge, Prince William, just visited the Muslim survivors of the attack on the mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. Why does the same compassion not spur the British royal family to stop in Sri Lanka, their former colony, to meet the Christian survivors, before going back to England?

• The appeal of Asia Bibi's daughters to help her mother met a deaf West. The UK refused to offer asylum to this persecuted Pakistani Christian family.

Sri Lanka after the jihadist massacre of Christians is not just a terrible succession of crying mothers and little coffins. Unfortunately, it also tells us a lot about the discouraging state of the West. Pictured: The funeral of one of the victims of the April 21 Easter Sunday attack in Sri Lanka. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)

"Where is the solidarity for the Sri Lanka's Christians?" asked the British scholar Rakib Ehsan, a Muslim.

"The differences in tone and nature between the condemnations of the Christchurch and Sri Lanka terrorist attacks are striking. After Christchurch, there was no hesitation about stating the religious backgrounds of the victims and directing emotion and affection towards Muslim communities. Politicians took no issue with categorising the events in Christchurch as terrorism.

"In contrast, the words 'terrorism' and 'Christianity', along with their associated terms, have so far failed to feature in much of the reaction to the attacks in Sri Lanka.

"What is evident is not only a clear reluctance to specify the religious background of Christians who were killed in Sri Lanka, but also an absence of heartfelt solidarity with Christian communities across the world, which continue to suffer grave forms of persecution on the grounds of their faith."

Rakib Ehsan asked the right question. But it might be rewritten as: Where is the Western solidarity for the Sri Lanka's murdered Christians?

This is a drama in three acts. The first act consists of the Christians and other non-Muslim indigenous peoples being violated and murdered. The second act consists of Muslim extremists who create this genocide. And the third act consists of the indifferent West, which looks everywhere else.

The number of murdered victims in the April 21 Easter Sunday jihadist attacks in Sri Lanka is too terrible even to think about: 253 dead. (Now, well over 300.) Among the victims, 45 children were murdered. Their small faces and stories have begun to emerge. The Islamic terrorists knew there were many children in the three churches, and they deliberately targeted them with their bombs. Footage shows one of the bombers patting a young child on the head before he enters the St. Sebastian's Church in Negombo, where "everyone has lost someone".

The Fernando family had taken a photograph at the baptism of their third child, Seth. In Negombo they were all buried together. Father, mother and three children aged 6, 4, and 11 months. According to the New York Times:

"Fabiola Fernando, 6, was an elementary school student. In a photo posted to her mother's Facebook page, she showed off a gold medal, a small smile on her face. Leona Fernando, 4, the middle child in her family, was learning to read and was holding a copy of "Sleeping Beauty" in the picture. Seth Fernando, 11 months, was the newest addition to the Fernando family. He was buried alongside his parents and two sisters."

The silence of the Western intellectual world and the media is particularly deafening. The new humanitarian conscience seems to see only two groups: those who have the right to the compassion and protection of the international community, and those, such as Christians, unworthy of help or solidarity.

The deliberate murder of an 8-month-old baby, Matthew, in a Sri Lankan church apparently did not upset or chill the West, did not go viral on social media, did not to become a hashtag, did not to push the Europeans to crowd into their public squares, did not press the Islamic world to examine its conscience, did not to induce Western politicians and opinion-makers seriously to reflect on who killed that child, or on those who foment and finance the Islamist anti-Christian hatred.

Sudesh Kolonne was waiting outside St. Sebastian's Church when he heard the blast. He then ran inside and searched for his wife and daughter. It took him a half hour to find their bodies.

The attacks also killed three children of a Danish billionaire. Another woman losther daughter, son, husband, sister-in-law and two nieces. A British father had to make a choice over which of his two children to save. Another British family was destroyed. To add horror to horror, the pregnant wife of one of the terrorists, when police raided her home, detonated a suicide vest, killing her own children.

The Duke of Cambridge, Prince William, just visited the Muslim survivors of the attack on the mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, including children recovering in the hospitals. It was a gesture of humanity and compassion. Why does the same compassion not spur the British royal family to stop in Sri Lanka, their former colony, to meet the Christian survivors, before going back to England? Entire Christian families were decimated in the attack.

Where is the outrage in the West for the annihilation of Christian life and people? It feels as if there is no indignation, only silence, interrupted by bombs and "Allahu Akbar". The history books of the future will not condone this Western betrayal. If the West had taken seriously the persecutions of Christians, now the bell would not toll for the death of the Christian presence -- not only in historic lands of Christianity, but also for the West. Islamic extremists have seen that the West has not mobilized to prevent them from repressing Christians, as if unconsciously there were a strange convergence between our silence and the ethnic cleansing project of the Islamic State, aimed at erasing Christians.

The British author Melanie Phillips has called this persecution of Christians "our guilty secret."

"Religious liberty, the core value of western civilisation, is being destroyed across large parts of the world. Yet the West, myopically denying this religious war, is averting its gaze from the destruction of its foundational creed in the Middle East and the attempt to eradicate it elsewhere. It is therefore no surprise that, faced with jihadist barbarities abroad and cultural inroads at home, the free world is proving so ineffectual".

The jihadist attack in Sri Lanka was not only "the deadliest attack on Christians in South Asia in recent memory." It was also the largest massacre of Christian children. But no newspaper has launched a campaign to raise awareness of European public opinion, no pro-Christian solidarity movement has arisen, no Western leader appears to have visited a church in solidarity, no Western church leaders had the courage to point out the culprits by calling them by name, no Western mayors hung photographs of the 45 children torn to pieces, no public square was filled in thousands saying "Je suis chrétien".

A few years ago, at the height of the migrant crisis in Europe, a photograph conquered public opinion in the West. It was the famous picture of the three-year-old Syrian boy, Alan Kurdi, who drowned off the coast of Bodrum, Turkey. That little migrant moved the West. His image went viral. The New York Times called it "Aylan Kurdi's Europe".

"For historical reasons, Angela Merkel feared images of armed German police confronting civilians on our borders," wrote Robin Alexander, Die Welt's leading journalist, in his book, Die Getriebenen ("The Driven Ones"). If photographs of migrant children spurred Europe's leaders to open their borders, the photographs of murdered Christian children -- such as the 45 in Sri Lanka -- apparently left them indifferent.

The appeal of Asia Bibi's daughters to help her mother met a deaf West. The UK refused to offer asylum to this Pakistani Christian family and take persecuted Christians.

"It is with indifference that we witness a catastrophe of civilization with no precedent", wrote the French scholar historian Jean-François Colosimo, commenting on the destruction of Eastern Christianity. No religion, no community, is today more persecuted than Christians. Why, then, this silence by the West? Have we become so foreign to ourselves, to our roots and to our history, that we can contemplate this outbreak of jihadi violence without blinking an eye? Or are we so short-sighted that we hoped to buy "peace" with the Muslim extremists at the cost of abandoning those Christians? The same jihadi ideology that murdered Christian children in Sri Lanka, targeted European children in Nice, Manchester and Barcelona.

Sri Lanka after the massacre is not just a terrible succession of crying mothers and little coffins. Unfortunately, it also tells us a lot about the discouraging state of the West.

BREITBART

Campus Lecturer Tim Wise: Christians Should Be ‘Locked Up’

by TOM CICCOTTA

April 29, 2019

Anti-racism activist Tim Wise, who is scheduled to speak at an upcoming diversity conference at Harvard University, once argued that Christians should be locked up.

Wise is scheduled to give the keynote address at the upcoming “Decade of Dialogue” event at Harvard University. The College Fix pointed out this week the irony in Wise, a straight white man, giving the keynote address at a conference on diversity. But it is perhaps more significant to note that Wise has made several disparaging remarks about Christians in his career as an activist and writer.

In a tweet from 2017, Wise called Christians “Jeezoids.” In 2012, he tweeted that “people who believe in a God of hell/ damnation deserve to be mocked viciously and run out of public square.”

In a Facebook post in 2015, Tim Wise argued that Christians should be locked up for basing their morality on a “fairy tale.” The post was written in reference to comments Michele Bachmann had made against the legalization of gay marriage.

If you are basing your morality on a fairy tale written thousands of years ago, you deserve to be locked up…detained for your utter inability to deal with reality…NO, we are not obligated to indulge your irrationality in the name of your religious freedom…but we will provide you a very comfortable room, against which walls you may hurl yourself hourly if your choose. Knock yourself out….seriously, knock yourself out, completely, for weeks at a time…I’m sorta kidding but not by much.

Wise has spoken on over 600 college campuses about racial issues such as white privilege.

BREITBART

Vatican Proposes European Union as Example of ‘a Supranational State’

by THOMAS D. WILLIAMS, PH.D.

April 26, 2019

The European Union (EU) is “an example of what could become a supranational state,” according to the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences in the lead-up to a major conference against nationalism.

In its full-court press for globalism and international migration, the Vatican insists on describing nationalism in exclusively negative terms, opening its “Concept Note” for its May 1-3 conference by saying that the world “is facing today a growing threat of nationalist revival,” which “leads to mutual rejection and enduring conflicts.”

The Pontifical Academy has apparently decided ahead of its conference that nationalism will be treated as the enemy, rather than looking at both sides of the issue and the root causes of growing interest in national sovereignty. Facile recourse to accusations of xenophobia and racism is always easier than honest debate.

“Some political leaders use [sic] to play with the national feeling of their people and build a hostile image of the other,” the text reads. “This very common tendency continues to cause conflicts among nations.”

“We witness a worrying tendency of nations or nation states to close themselves, insisting on their supposed interests,” it states. “Globalization and migrations inspire the fear that nations could lose their cultural identity and their political independence.”

In its discussions, the Pontifical Academy would benefit from an open debate of these very real concerns. Is it not possible that renewed nationalism in Europe is the fruit of a heavy-handed approach by Brussels that actually has threatened the cultural identity and political independence of EU member states?

“In the present stage of its development, humanity disposes of all possible technical means to organize itself in a cooperative and peaceful way,” the text declares, in thinly veiled code for a shift toward supranational governance. “Yet the minds are still shaped by stereotypes of exclusion of the ‘other.’”

“Challenges like ecology, particularly climate change, human trafficking, energy, defence, regulation of the globalized economy cannot be dealt with by competing sovereign national states alone,” the document reads. “The European Union is an example of what could become a supranational state with precise and limited sovereignty in matters of European common good.”

Our conference wants to understand in detail “why in the last years there has been a backlash against internationalism and a resurgence of nationalism,” the text states.

A good place to start would be a realistic look at the damage done by mass migration, concerns over the EU’s political overreach, and the attempted imposition of anti-Christian globalist groupthink by the United Nations.

The core Catholic social principle of subsidiarity, which limits the interference of higher levels of social organization in favor of local self-government, would be especially helpful in these discussions.

As Pope Pius XI famously wrote, it is “a grave evil and disturbance of right order to assign to a greater and higher association what lesser and subordinate organizations can do.”

This goes for nation-states as well.

***

LIFE SITE

Prominent clergy, scholars accuse Pope Francis of heresy in open letter

Maike Hickson

April 30, 2019

May 2, 2019 update: 20 additional names have been added to list of signers of the open letter, bringing total up to 51.

May 1, 2019 update: 12 more names have been added to list of signers of the open letter, bringing total up to 31.

April 30, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – Prominent clergymen and scholars including Fr. Aidan Nichols, one of the best-known theologians in the English-speaking world, have issued an open letter accusing Pope Francis of committing heresy. They ask the bishops of the Catholic Church, to whom the open letter is addressed, to "take the steps necessary to deal with the grave situation" of a pope committing this crime.

The authors base their charge of heresy on the manifold manifestations of Pope Francis' embrace of positions contrary to the faith and his dubious support of prelates who in their lives have shown themselves to have a clear disrespect for the Church's faith and morals.

"We take this measure as a last resort to respond to the accumulating harm caused by Pope Francis's words and actions over several years, which have given rise to one of the worst crises in the history of the Catholic Church," the authors state. The open letter is available in Dutch, Italian, German, French, and Spanish.

Among the signatories are well-respected scholars such as Father Thomas Crean, Fr. John Hunwicke, Professor John Rist, Dr. Anna Silvas, Professor Claudio Pierantoni, Dr. Peter Kwasniewski, and Dr. John Lamont. The text is dated "Easter Week" and appears on the traditional Feast Day of St. Catherine of Siena, a saint who counseled and admonished several popes in her time.

The 20-page document is a follow-up to the 2017 Filial Correction of Pope Francis that was signed originally by 62 scholars and which stated that the Pope has “effectively upheld 7 heretical positions about marriage, the moral life, and the reception of the sacraments, and has caused these heretical opinions to spread in the Catholic Church,” especially in light of his 2016 exhortation Amoris Laetitia.

The authors of the open letter state in a summary of their letter that it has now become clear that Pope Francis is aware of his own positions contrary to the faith and that the time has come to go a "stage further" by claiming that Pope Francis is "guilty of the crime of heresy.”

"We limit ourselves to accusing him of heresy on occasions where he has publicly denied truths of the faith, and then consistently acted in a way that demonstrates that he disbelieves these truths that he has publicly denied," the authors state.

They clarify that they are not claiming Pope Francis has "denied truths of the faith in pronouncements that satisfy the conditions for an infallible papal teaching."

"We assert that this would be impossible, since it would be incompatible with the guidance given to the Church by the Holy Spirit," they state.

In light of this situation, the authors call upon the bishops of the Church to take action since a "heretical papacy may not be tolerated or dissimulated to avoid a worse evil.”

For this reason, the authors “respectfully request the bishops of the Church to investigate the accusations contained in the letter, so that if they judge them to be well founded they may free the Church from her present distress, in accordance with the hallowed adage, Salus animarum prima lex (‘the salvation of souls is the highest law’). The bishops can do this, the writers suggest, “by admonishing Pope Francis to reject these heresies, and if he should persistently refuse, by declaring that he has freely deprived himself of the papacy.”

The authors first present in detail – and with theological references to substantiate their claims – the different positions against the faith Pope Francis has shown himself to hold, propagate, or support, including “seven propositions contradicting divinely revealed truth.”

One of the heresies the authors accuse Pope Francis of committing is expressed in the following proposition: “A Christian believer can have full knowledge of a divine law and voluntarily choose to break it in a serious matter, but not be in a state of mortal sin as a result of this action.” Many of these heretical statements touch on questions of marriage and the family and are to be found in Amoris Laetitia, but there is also a new claim made by Pope Francis in 2019 – namely, that the “diversity of religions” is “willed by God” – that is listed in the open letter.

In one section of the open letter, the authors list the many prelates as well as lay people, who, despite openly dissenting from Catholic doctrine and morals — either by word or by deed — have been by Pope Francis either publicly praised (such as Emma Bonino) or raised to influential positions (such as Cardinal Oscar Rodrigez Maradiaga). On this list are names such as Cardinal Blase Cupich, Cardinal Godfried Danneels, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta, and Bishop Juan Barros.

The fact that Pope Francis never responded to the dubia (questions) concerning Amoris Laetitia published by Cardinals Carlo Caffarra, Joachim Meisner, Walter Brandmüller, and Raymond Burke is mentioned. Moreover, the authors point out that Pope Francis has changed the members of the Pontifical Academy for Life to such an extent that orthodox Catholic experts have been replaced by heterodox experts, such as Father Maurizio Chiodi.

Addressing the bishops of the world – among whom are to be found all the present 222 cardinals – the authors of the open letter express their gratitude toward those bishops who have defended Catholic doctrine by their own personal witnesses.

“We recognise with gratitude that some among you have reaffirmed the truths contrary to the heresies which we have listed, or else have warned of serious dangers threatening the Church in this pontificate,” they state. Here, the dubia cardinals, but also Cardinal Willem Eijk, are mentioned. The authors also thank Cardinal Gerhard Müller for his Manifesto of Faith.

The authors believe, however, that at this time in history, six years into the Francis pontificate, more is needed, namely a more direct and authoritative approach. They recognize their own limits when they tell the bishops: “Despite the evidence that we have put forward in this letter, we recognise that it does not belong to us to declare the pope guilty of the delict of heresy in a way that would have canonical consequences for Catholics."

"We therefore appeal to you as our spiritual fathers, vicars of Christ within your own jurisdictions and not vicars of the Roman pontiff, publicly to admonish Pope Francis to abjure the heresies that he has professed. Even prescinding from the question of his personal adherence to these heretical beliefs, the Pope's behaviour in regard to the seven propositions contradicting divinely revealed truth, mentioned at the beginning of this Letter, justifies the accusation of the delict of heresy. It is beyond a doubt that he promotes and spreads heretical views on these points. Promoting and spreading heresy provides sufficient grounds in itself for an accusation of the delict of heresy. There is, therefore, superabundant reason for the bishops to take the accusation of heresy seriously and to try to remedy the situation,” they state.

The authors make it clear that it is up to the bishops to take action and that they do not need a majority among the bishops to do so.

"Since Pope Francis has manifested heresy by his actions as well as by his words, any abjuration must involve repudiating and reversing these actions, including his nomination of bishops and cardinals who have supported these heresies by their words or actions. Such an admonition is a duty of fraternal charity to the Pope, as well as a duty to the Church," they state.

"If – which God forbid! – Pope Francis does not bear the fruit of true repentance in response to these admonitions, we request that you carry out your duty of office to declare that he has committed the canonical delict of heresy and that he must suffer the canonical consequences of this crime,” they add.

Thus, the authors state, “these actions do not need to be taken by all the bishops of the Catholic Church, or even by a majority of them. A substantial and representative part of the faithful bishops of the Church would have the power to take these actions.”

THE TIMES OF ISRAEL

NY Times prints Netanyahu-Trump cartoon with ‘anti-Semitic tropes,’ retracts it

Image included in paper’s international edition shows Israeli PM as a dog guiding a skullcap-wearing US president; paper says it was ‘offensive, an error of judgment’

By TOI STAFF27 April 2019, 8:05 pm

A caricature of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump published in The New York Times' international edition on April 25, 2019, which the paper later acknowledged "included anti-Semitic tropes." (Courtesy)

The New York Times on Saturday acknowledged publishing a caricature in its international edition that it said “included anti-Semitic tropes” and called its use an “error of judgment.” The paper did not explicitly apologize for carrying the cartoon.

The image included in Thursday’s international print edition showed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a guide dog wearing a Star of David on his collar, leading a blind US President Donald Trump, seen wearing a skullcap.

In a post to its Twitter page, the Times’ opinion section wrote that the cartoon “included anti-Semitic tropes… The image was offensive, and it was an error of judgment to publish it.

“It was provided by The New York Times News Service and Syndicate, which has since deleted it.”

Israel’s Channel 13 news reported Saturday night that Danny Dayan, Israel’s consul-general in New York, had protested to the newspaper about the cartoon.

***

PRESSTV

Saudi crown prince offered Abbas $10 billion to accept Trump's plan: Report

May 1, 2019

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (L) welcomes Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on December 21, 2017. (Photo by Reuters)

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has reportedly offered Palestinian Authority (PA) chief Mahmoud Abbas 10 billion dollars in return for accepting US President Donald Trump’s controversial proposal for peace between the Israelis and Palestinians, dubbed “the deal of the century.”

The Lebanese daily Arabic-language newspaper al-Akhbar reported on Tuesday that Abbas turned down the offer, saying supporting the deal would be “the end of his political life.”

Al-Akhbar cited leaked diplomatic reports based on conversations between the two Arab politicians, noting that the reports -- written by Jordanian envoy to Ramallah, Khaled al-Shawabkeh – were based on briefings with a number of Palestinian officials.

According to the Lebanese newspaper, bin Salman briefed Abbas on the contents of the American proposals during the latter’s visit to Saudi Arabia in December 2017, and asked the Palestinian leader how much his delegation's annual budget was.

“I’m not a prince to have my own entourage,” Abbas replied.

“How much money does the Palestinian Authority, its ministers and employees need?” bin Salman then questioned.

Abbas said that the Palestinians need $1 billion each year, to which the Saudi de facto ruler was said to have responded, “I will give you $10 billion over 10 years if you accept the deal of the century.”

Abbas, however, said no, because if he did, it would “mean the end of my political life.”

Bin Salman also told Abbas that Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries would help them expand their control over Areas B and C in the occupied West Bank, and provide financial support for projects to boost their economy.

“Saudi Arabia will support the Palestinian Authority with more than $4 billion,” the Saudi crown prince reportedly said.

The Palestinian Authority chief highlighted that political realities prevent him from taking the so-called US peace plan, emphasizing that he could not make concessions regarding Israeli settlements, the so-called two-state solution and Jerusalem al-Quds.

Abbas underscored that the Americans would not provide any written proposals, but would adopt a tactic similar to the 1917 Balfour Declaration that led to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands.

Trump’s so-called “peace plan” has been dismissed by Palestinian authorities ahead of its unveiling at the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan and the formation of the new Israeli cabinet, most likely in June.

Speaking in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah on April 16, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh lashed out at Trump’s initiative, asserting that it was “born dead.”

Shtayyeh noted that negotiations with the US were useless in the wake of the country’s relocation of its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem al-Quds, which Palestinians consider the capital city of their future state.

***

THE Gold Telegraph

Countries Around The World are Bringing Gold Home

BY VIRGINIA FIDLER

April 28, 2019

European Central Bank’s President Mario Draghi recently announced that the ECB would be required to approve any management of gold reserves within the euro zone countries. The statement was specifically directed at two Italian members.

Why was Italy singled out? According to the Wall Street Journal, Italian citizens are preparing to take control of Italy’s gold reserves. During the past few years, a multitude of small investors lost billions of dollars due to the failure of several Italian banks. The Bank of Italy is seen as an elitist, inefficient entity indifferent to the needs of ordinary people. Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio is leading the attack against Italy’s central bank, along with the “5 Star Movement” and the nationalist “League,” all of whom blame the countries financial woes on the incompetence of the central bank.

The 5 Star Movement is asking Italy’s Parliament to approve measures that would allow private banks to sell their share in The Bank of Italy at 1930’s prices. Taking it a step further, they are also demanding that ownership of the Bank of Italy’s 2,451.8 tons of gold be taken over by the country’s citizens and spent on populist policies. The current value of these gold reserves is $102 billion.

If these laws are passed, investors would be able to sell gold and greatly deplete the central bank’s reserves. As Giorgia Meloni of the Brothers of Italy states, “The gold belongs to the Italians, not the bankers.”

Italy’s lawmakers hold a different view and are warning against any action that will upend the sovereignty of the central bank’s policies. Such expropriation of government gold would not be tolerated.

But the 5 Star Movement and the League are determined to return ownership of the country’s gold to the public. Approximately 60 percent of lawmakers support the movement, guarantying the law will be enacted. There is also rumbling about nationalizing the Central Bank of Italy entirely.

In the realm of global commerce, gold has become a most potent weapon.

Italy is not the only country embracing gold. Romania has plans to repatriate gold reserves currently being held by the Bank of England. Romania currently has around 103.7 tons of gold, valued at $3.84 billion. Sixty-five percent of the yellow metal is being kept in storage at the Bank of England. According to a new law, only 5 percent of the country’s gold may be stored abroad. The rest will be repatriated. While the current leadership approves of the repatriation, the National Bank of Romania does not. Mugur Isarescu, director of the central bank, insists that the gold is for economic emergencies and should remain where it is.

Another European country, Germany, has quietly called back 674 tons of gold from France and the U.S. Federal Reserve to its central bank, the Bundesbank. Ninety-eight percent of Germany’s gold was stored abroad during the height of the Cold War to keep it out of the reach of Russia. With the weakening of the Euro, Germany wants the gold closer to home. The Bundesbank now has half of the country’s gold in safe storage.

Following the trend to keep gold close to home, the National Bank of Hungary will be recalling 100,000 ounces of gold from the Bank of England. Hungary has traditionally kept its gold reserves low, with only 50 tons being held in 1989. The global 2008 financial crisis had Hungary rethinking its approach to gold. Now, it wants its gold reserves home for safekeeping in the event of a geopolitical crisis.

Gold is seen by central banks as a way to maintain financial trust during economic upheaval. The move by global central banks to repatriate their gold may be a sign that an economic crisis could be looming in the near future.

***

RT

Maduro congratulates military on 'defeating' coup attempt as Guaido calls for more protests

Published time: 1 May, 2019 01:26

Edited time: 1 May, 2019 02:16

© RT

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has congratulated the country's military for "defeating" the plotters of a coup following a day of violence on Tuesday.

Addressing the nation following a sustained attempt by Juan Guaido and the opposition to oust him from power, the country's elected leader has thanked the armed forces for defeating a "small group that tried to fill the country with violence".

Confirming that his government has faced several "modalities" of a coup d'état, Maduro pinned Tuesday's violence on the US, who the president believes masterminded the failed attempt to overthrow his government.

"The self-proclaimed, Juan Guaido, and Leopoldo López personally led the coup d'état," Maduro said.

The president also announced the appointment of "three special prosecutors" to examine "criminal" actions by the opposition, noting that "we have colonels wounded by bullets and in intensive care," following the violence instigated by dissidents.

Those military officers who answered Guaido's calls for regime change in the country, Maduro noted, were lured by the opposition "under false pretenses", but once they came to their senses they "left the coup leaders alone" and surrendered.

In the televised address, Maduro also made public the appointment of Gustavo Gonzalez Lopez as the head of the Sebin intelligence agency.

He also revealed that five military personnel had received injuries during Tuesday's protests.

The Venezuelan leader also refuted opposition claims that the military base of La Carlota, in the east of Caracas, was captured, stressing that the facility "was never taken."

Maduro defended the use of force, saying the opposition planned to turn the country into a "civil war." The president also vowed Venezuela would stay on course for a Bolivarian revolution and to fight the interventionist Monroe doctrine promulgated by the US.

Just before Maduro addressed the nation, Venezuela's opposition leader Juan Guaido called on his followers to continue the coup attempt, which began on Tuesday morning. The US-backed politician also called on the military to "keep advancing" in its efforts to oust Maduro from office.

While the opposition leader claimed that more officers were ready to desert, Maduro stated that 80 percent of troops involved in the mutiny attempt had abandoned Guaido, with only a small group of about 20 officers “handing over their souls to the coup-mongering far right.”

***

RT

Coup fizzles? Guaido’s mentor takes refuge in Chilean embassy as 25 military seek asylum in Brazil’s

Published time: 30 Apr, 2019 20:27

Edited time: 1 May, 2019 01:15

©Reuters / Stringer

Venezuelan opposition figure Leopoldo Lopez has sought refuge in Chile’s embassy in Caracas, while at least 25 pro-Juan Guaido troops asked Brazil for refuge. The news all but points to the failure of the US-backed coup attempt.

Lopez had been under house arrest since 2017, but was seen at the side of Guaido – who had declared himself “interim president” of Venezuela in January – on Tuesday morning, as supporters of the US-backed opposition sought to take control of Caracas by force. At least 50 people were injured and 11 arrested during the unrest on Tuesday.

By the afternoon, however, Chilean Foreign Minister Roberto Ampuero tweeted that Lopez, his wife Lilian Tintori, and their daughter were “guests” of the Chilean diplomatic mission in Caracas, adding that “Chile reaffirms commitment to Venezuelan democrats.”

Later on Tuesday, Lopez and his wife moved to the Spanish embassy, according to Ampuero, who tweeted that it was a “personal decision” on the part of the pair, who are of Spanish descent.

Meanwhile, at least 25 armed Guaido supporters have sought refuge in the Brazilian embassy in Caracas, Brazilian media reported. There were no officers among them, according to reports.

The flight of Lopez and his family suggests that Guaido’s effort to win over the Venezuelan military and police – with verbal support from Washington – may have failed, as the majority of the security forces apparently remained loyal to President Nicolas Maduro.

Lopez founded Voluntad Popular, the party Guaido represents in the National Assembly. The legislative body was last elected in 2015, and Maduro’s government considers it defunct following the 2017 Constituent Assembly election.

During the 2014 protests in Venezuela, Lopez was arrested and charged with arson, conspiracy, murder and terrorism. Some of the charges were dropped, but he was found guilty of inciting violence in September 2015 and sentenced to almost 14 years in prison. He was placed under house arrest in July 2017, until he reappeared in public on Tuesday morning.

***

***

Zero Hedge

With Assad Victorious, US Oil Sanctions Now Strangle Entire Syrian Population

***

Zero Hedge

US-Led Bombing Campaign in Syria Left Raqqa "Most Destroyed City in Modern Times": Study

by Tyler Durden

April 27, 2019

Authored by Julia Conley via Common Dreams

An "unprecedented" new study released on Thursday revealed that the U.S.-led bombing campaign on Raqqa, Syria in 2017 — which one military commander at the time claimed was the "most precise air campaign in history" — killed an estimated 1,600 innocent civilians while leveling the city on a scale unparalleled in recent decades.

The research collated almost two years of investigations into the assault on Raqqa, the groups said in a statement, and "gives a brutally vivid account" of the enormous number of civilian lives lost as "a direct result" of thousands of coalition air strikes and tens of thousands of US artillery strikes in Raqqa from June to October 2017.

The report—"Rhetoric vs. Reality: How the 'Most Precise Air Campaign in History' Left Raqqa the Most Destroyed City in Modern Times"—is detailed on the interactive website created by investigative news organization Airwars and the human rights group Amnesty International-USA which carried out what they call the "most comprehensive investigation into civilian deaths in a modern conflict."

The findings confirm that the U.S.-led coalition has admitted to just a fraction of the civilian carnage it has caused in Syria, even as it has boasted of the care it's taken in avoiding such casualties and the precision of the Raqqa offensive.

According to the report:

US, UK and French forces also launched thousands of air strikes into civilian neighborhoods, scores of which resulted in mass civilian casualties.

In one tragic incident, a Coalition air strike destroyed an entire five-story residential building near Maari school in the central Harat al-Badu neighborhood in the early evening of 25 September 2017. Four families were sheltering in the basement at the time. Almost all of them – at least 32 civilians, including 20 children – were killed. A week later, a further 27 civilians – including many relatives of those killed in the earlier strike – were also killed when an air strike destroyed a nearby building.

"I saw my son die, burnt in the rubble in front of me," Ayet Mohammed Jasem, one of the few survivors of the later attack, told the investigators. "I've lost everyone who was dear to me. My four children, my husband, my mother, my sister, my whole family. Wasn't the goal to free the civilians? They were supposed to save us, to save our children."

At the time of 2017 assault on Raqqa it was U.S. Lieutenant General Stephen J. Townswend, commander of the coalition, who said, "I challenge anyone to find a more precise air campaign in the history of warfare…The Coalition's goal is always for zero human casualties."

But the researchers argue the evidence belies those claims and, as part of the report, both groups demanded accountability for what was done to the city and its people.

"The coalition needs to fully investigate what went wrong at Raqqa and learn from those lessons, to prevent inflicting such tremendous suffering on civilians caught in future military operations," said Chris Woods, director of Airwars, in a statement.

Donatella Rovera, a crisis investigator for Amnesty, shared some of what she found in Raqqa in a video the group released along with the report.

"When I first came to Raqqa after the war, I knew that relentless American, British, and French bombardment killed civilians and destroyed much of the city," Rovera said.

"What I came to discover was that little or no protection was afforded to the thousands of civilians who were trapped in the city," she added. "Raqqa is the most destroyed city in modern times in terms of percentage. There is no part of Raqqa which has been left untouched."

During their investigation, the groups also listened to the stories of survivors like nine year old Fatima Hussein Ahmad who lost her mother, Aziza, and three siblings in artillery strikes on their neighborhood, as well sustaining injuries that required the amputation of her right leg. "I was thrown over there by the explosion," she told Amnesty during an interview from a burnt out home near where the attack took place. Almost two years later, she still cannot walk and uses a wheelchair donated by an NGO to get around. She told the researchers her only wish is to go back to school.

The interactive website contains a whole section of stories from the ground, including one of 32 people, 20 children among them, who were killed in an air strike near a school and another where civilians were targeted as they crossed a river with no way to escape.

The U.S. has claimed to have unleashed 30,000 rounds of artillery on the city during the offensive, while the U.K. and France helped to carry out thousands of air strikes. The U.S. strikes represent the equivalent of one strike every six minutes for four months.

"Many of the air bombardments were inaccurate and tens of thousands of artillery strikes were indiscriminate, so it is no surprise they killed and injured many hundreds of civilians,” said Rovera.

"Coalition forces razed Raqqa, but they cannot erase the truth," she added. "Amnesty International and Airwars call upon the Coalition forces to end their denial about the shocking scale of civilian deaths and destruction caused by their offensive."

Civilians — who for four years had been essentially held captive in Raqqa by ISIS as the armed group set up checkpoints restricting movement, planted land mines in exit routes, and used residents as human shields — suffered fresh brutality from the U.S. and its allies as they claimed to be "liberating" the city.

The two groups interviewed about 400 survivors and surveyed 200 attack sites throughout the city, examining the ruins of residential buildings and neighborhoods.

Analyzing social media posts, satellite images, and other material, Amnesty and Airwars have identified the shellings that destroyed about 11,000 buildings and the names of more than 1,000 victims.

But even with access to the groups' meticulous research, which they have shared with the coalition, military leaders have admitted to only 159 civilian deaths during the Raqqa campaign — 10 percent of the number determined by Airwars and Amnesty —despite the fact that the coalition does not carry out its own investigations.

The report comes ahead of an expected report from the Trump administration regarding civilian casualties that resulted from the coalition's strikes.

"We hope to finally see an honest assessment of the devastating impact that U.S. lethal strikes have had on the civilians in Raqqa," said Daphne Eviatar, director of Amnesty's Security with Human Rights program. "The public deserves to know how many civilian casualties our government is responsible for, and the survivors deserve acknowledgement, reparations, where appropriate, and meaningful assistance to rebuild their lives."

***

RT

Trump announces US withdrawing from UN Arms Trade Treaty

Published time: 26 Apr, 2019 16:51

Edited time: 26 Apr, 2019 17:28

US President Donald Trump holds up an executive order withdrawing the US signature on the international arms trade treaty (ATT), April 26, 2019 © Reuters/Leah Millis

US President Donald Trump has announced his administration will stop ratification of the UN Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) and withdraw from it, calling it “badly misguided” and a threat to American freedoms.

The UN will soon receive “formal notice that America is rejecting this treaty,” Trump said on Friday, speaking at the National Rifle Association (NRA) convention in Indianapolis, Indiana.

“I will sign right now, in front of a lot of witnesses, a message asking the Senate to discontinue the treaty ratification process, and to return the now-rejected treaty to me, to the Oval Office, where I will dispose of it.”

The ATT is a multilateral arms control agreement that regulates the international weapons trade. It was signed by US President Barack Obama in 2013, but never ratified by the Senate to become US law.

Conservative groups such as the NRA have voiced opposition to the treaty for years, arguing that its regulations seek to bypass the Second Amendment to the Constitution and impose domestic gun bans in the US.

The ATT’s stated goal is to “reduce human suffering caused by illegal and irresponsible arms transfers” and promote “accountability and transparency by state parties concerning transfers of conventional arms.”

While its proponents say the ATT does not impact a signatory state’s domestic gun control laws or firearms ownership policies, it does require members to “establish and maintain a national control system,” run by “competent national authorities.”

Some 130 countries have signed the treaty, and it is currently force in 100 of them, according to the UN.

***

RT

America's crippling debt: Every man, woman & child owes Uncle Sam $220,000

Published time: 26 Apr, 2019 09:37

Edited time: 26 Apr, 2019 10:12

© Getty Images

The spiraling US government debt is apparently much higher than the official figure of $22 trillion. The indebtedness of the American financial system has now reached $72 trillion, according to the numbers compiled by the US Fed.

The higher debt estimate includes corporate borrowings, consumer loans along with debts being added by state and local governments.

Over the past 40 years, the US Treasury has been borrowing at a rocketing rate with the state debt soaring from less than five trillion dollars during Ronald Reagan’s presidency, to $29 trillion when George W. Bush took the helm. The figure nearly doubled prior to the last financial crisis, having reached $54 trillion. Since then, the sovereign debt of the world’s biggest economy has increased by another $18 trillion.

The current US population stands at 328,675,066 according to the World Population Review. Simple calculations show that an average American owes some $220,000, while the share of a family of four is fluctuating around $880,000.

Last month, the US officially hit the debt ceiling with its limit expired on March 1. The Treasury Department will now have to take extraordinary steps to prevent the country from breaching the next debt ceiling by late September or early October.

***

***

POLITICO

The Navy isn’t endorsing the idea that its sailors have encountered alien spacecraft — but it also does not want to dismiss strange aerial sightings by credible military personnel. | Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images

U.S. Navy drafting new guidelines for reporting UFOs

The service says it has also 'provided a series of briefings by senior Naval Intelligence officials as well as aviators who reported hazards to aviation safety.'

By BRYAN BENDER

April 23, 2019

The U.S. Navy is drafting new guidelines for pilots and other personnel to report encounters with "unidentified aircraft," a significant new step in creating a formal process to collect and analyze the unexplained sightings — and destigmatize them.

The previously unreported move is in response to a series of sightings of unknown, highly advanced aircraft intruding on Navy strike groups and other sensitive military formations and facilities, the service says.

"There have been a number of reports of unauthorized and/or unidentified aircraft entering various military-controlled ranges and designated air space in recent years," the Navy said in a statement in response to questions from POLITICO. "For safety and security concerns, the Navy and the [U.S. Air Force] takes these reports very seriously and investigates each and every report.

"As part of this effort," it added, "the Navy is updating and formalizing the process by which reports of any such suspected incursions can be made to the cognizant authorities. A new message to the fleet that will detail the steps for reporting is in draft."

To be clear, the Navy isn’t endorsing the idea that its sailors have encountered alien spacecraft. But it is acknowledging there have been enough strange aerial sightings by credible and highly trained military personnel that they need to be recorded in the official record and studied — rather than dismissed as some kooky phenomena from the realm of science-fiction.

Chris Mellon, a former Pentagon intelligence official and ex-staffer on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said establishing a more formal means of reporting what the military now calls "unexplained aerial phenomena" — rather than "unidentified flying objects" — would be a “sea change.”

“Right now, we have situation in which UFOs and UAPs are treated as anomalies to be ignored rather than anomalies to be explored,” he said. “We have systems that exclude that information and dump it.”

For example, Mellon said “in a lot of cases [military personnel] don’t know what to do with that information — like satellite data or a radar that sees something going Mach 3. They will dump [the data] because that is not a traditional aircraft or missile.”

The development comes amid growing interest from members of Congress following revelations by POLITICO and the New York Times in late 2017 that the Pentagon established a dedicated office inside the Defense Intelligence Agency to study UAPs at the urging of several senators who secretly set aside appropriations for the effort.

That office spent some $25 million conducting a series of technical studies and evaluating numerous unexplained incursions, including one that lasted several days involving the USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group in 2004. In that case, Navy fighter jets were outmaneuvered by unidentified aircraft that flew in ways that appeared to defy the laws of known physics.

Raytheon, a leading defense contractor, used the reports and official Defense Department video of the sightings off the coast of California to hail one of its radar systems for capturing the phenomena.

The Pentagon's UFO research office, known as the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, was officially wound down in 2012 when the congressional earmark ran out.

But more lawmakers are now asking questions, the Navy also reports.

"In response to requests for information from Congressional members and staff, Navy officials have provided a series of briefings by senior Naval Intelligence officials as well as aviators who reported hazards to aviation safety," the service said in its statement to POLITICO.

The Navy declined to identify who has been briefed, nor would it provide more details on the guidelines for reporting that are being drafted for the fleet. The Air Force did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Advocates for treating such sightings as a potential national security threat have long criticized military leaders for giving the phenomenon relatively little attention and for encouraging a culture in which personnel feel that speaking up about it could hurt their career.

Luis Elizondo, the former Pentagon official who ran the so-called AATIP office, complained after he retired from government service that the Pentagon's approach to these unidentified aircraft has been far too blasé.

"If you are in a busy airport and see something you are supposed to say something," Elizondo said. "With our own military members it is kind of the opposite: 'If you do see something, don't say something.'"

He added that because these mysterious aircraft "don't have a tail number or a flag — in some cases not even a tail — it's crickets. What happens in five years if it turns out these are extremely advanced Russian aircraft?"

Elizondo will be featured in an upcoming documentary series about the Pentagon UFO research he oversaw. He said the six-part series will reveal more recent sightings of UAPs by dozens of military pilots.

Both Elizondo and Mellon are involved with the To The Stars Academy of Arts and Sciences, which supports research into explaining the technical advances these reported UAPs demonstrate.

YAHOO! NEWS

In new S. Africa, some in 'Coloured' community nostalgic for apartheid

Beatrice DEBUT AFP•

April 25, 2019

Eldorado Park (South Africa) (AFP) - "It is all about the blacks. The 'Rainbow Nation' is a big lie!" complained Dalene Raiters, a South African mother from the "Coloured" community.

"We are not black enough," added her sister who has also been unemployed for years.

"We are not part of this country. We were marginalised during the apartheid and even now," lamented Dalene, getting into her stride about the discrimination of which she insists she is a victim.

"Our people live like mushrooms. Four generations under the same roof," said Elizabeth Raiters, seated in the living room of the family home in the majority "Coloured" township of Eldorado Park, an outlying suburb of Johannesburg.

In total, nine people -- soon to be 10 with a baby due -- live in the property, which has a small bedroom and a hut in the yard.

Elizabeth applied for social housing to ease the squeeze -- but that was 17 years ago, and failed. She is convinced it is because of the colour of her skin.

Apartheid legally divided South Africans into groups of whites, blacks, Indians and "Coloured," a term meaning people deemed to be of mixed race.

The remnants of system were swept away a quarter-century ago, and today the notion of race remains as discredited as is segregation.

Yet the term "Coloured" is still widely used today -- and complaints of exclusion are common.

"We are constantly in the middle," complained Elizabeth, a woman with a small frame and hair held back with a headband.

The "Coloured" community itself also comprises several ethnic groups, notably including the San (bushmen) and Nama -- both indigenous to southern Africa.

They are often referred to as the country's "first nation," according to Keith Duarte, a representative of the community living in Eldorado Park.

In 1994, when the ruling African National Congress (ANC), spearhead of the anti-apartheid fight, was propelled to power, "we all felt that the ANC would represent us, would be inclusive," he said.

"It was the biggest mistake ever... We need to be treated equally," he insisted.

- 'The forgotten sheep' -

In the down-at-heel Eldorado Park township, where the traffic lights sometimes show amber and red at the same time, the small brick homes offer an illusion of comfort.

Behind each home there are courtyards which host cabins made of whatever was available that are home to entire families.

To enter the home of Chesney Van Wyk -- a hut with just three square metres (30 square feet) of floor space -- one does not have to push the door, but instead lift it with two hands. It has neither a handle nor a hinge.

Van Wyk and his partner, who share a small mattress, use a small peach tree behind the door as a bag rack. The shack, made with plastic-covered cardboard, floods whenever it rains.

Chesney makes ends meet thanks to the small jobs the neighbours give him.

But today he was focussed on another task.

Along with dozens of other nearby residents toting picks and shovels, Van Wyk cleared a vacant plot of land before marking out locations for their future homes with branches.

"We are claiming this land. We know it is illegal but every time we apply for a (social) house, we need to fill up some documents and they never get back to us," he said.

"For us it's like we are the forgotten sheep."

During apartheid, "we were not white enough, and now we are not black enough," he added.

- 'I prefer apartheid' -

"They say we are nothing. We are bastards. We are not white, nor black," said Violet Bouwers, a woman in her fifties who was also helping to clear land.

Local youths have limited job opportunities and many have turned to drugs.

In the township, a hit of highly-addictive crystal meth sells for 50 rands ($3.20).

The drug has ravaged many lives.

In April three mothers made criminal complaints against their addicted children for attempted murder and domestic violence, said Dereleen James of the Yellow Ribbon Foundation which fights drug abuse.

One mother recently killed her addicted son.

"She could not handle it anymore," said James, before commencing a lengthy pursuit in her car for a young addict whose mother requested he be detained.

Patients young and old insist they are in their dire situation because of their skin colour.

There are several drug rehabilitation centres in the township where many people see themselves as victims of an unfair system.

If one goes by official figures, this picture of marginalisation is somewhat different.

Household income among the "Coloured" community is twice as high as the black majority who make up 81 percent of the population.

Unemployment stands at 30.5 percent among the black labour force while it is 23 percent for the "Coloured" community.

"Coloured people have always been marginalised under colonial and apartheid rule," said Jamil Khan, a researcher at the University of the Witwatersrand's Centre for Diversity Studies in Johannesburg.

"Post-apartheid South Africa has not addressed that legacy substantially and aggressively enough."

The sense of injustice has persisted to the point that several community members lament the fall of apartheid under which "Coloured" people had neither the freedom to move around nor vote.

"The blacks have all the opportunities," complained pastor's wife Janice Jacobs, 49.

"We were much more comfortable during the apartheid. They would provide us a school pack with all the stationery. We had nurses in the schools. There was order and discipline. If you set a place alight, you would end up in jail.

"The apartheid government used to look after education, health, housing. (This) government does not look after us. I prefer apartheid."

The Science Times

African Teen Builds Windmills from Junk and Supplies His Village with Electricity

Chardynne Joy H. ConcioApr 25, 2019 09:19 AM EDT

His native Malawi had gone through one of its worst droughts seven years ago, killing thousands. His family and others were surviving on one meal a day. The red soil in his Masitala hometown was parched, leaving his father, a farmer, without any income. But amid all the shortages, one thing was still abundant. Wind. "I wanted to do something to help and change things," he said. "Then I said to myself, 'If they can make electricity out of wind, I can try, too."

Kamkwamba was kicked out of school when he couldn't pay 80 dollars in school fees, and he spent his days at the library, where a book with photographs of windmills caught his eye. "I thought, this thing exists in this book, it means someone else managed to build this machine," he said.

Armed with the book, the then-14-year-old taught himself to build windmills. He scoured through junkyards for items, including bicycle parts, plastic pipes, tractor fans and car batteries. For the tower, he collected wood from blue-gum trees.

"Everyone laughed at me when I told them I was building a windmill. They thought I was crazy," he said. "Then I started telling them I was just playing with the parts. That sounded more normal."

That was 2002. Now, he has five windmills, the tallest at 37 feet. He built one at an area school that he used to teach classes on windmill-building. The windmills generate electricity and pump water in his hometown, north of the capital, Lilongwe. Neighbors regularly trek across the dusty footpaths to his house to charge their cellphones. Others stop by to listen to Malawian reggae music blaring from a radio.

However, some villagers would surround him to snicker and point, Kamkwamba said. Ignoring them, he would quietly bolt pieces using a screwdriver made of a heated nail attached to a corncob. The heat- from both the crowd and the melted, flattened pipes he used as blades-did not deter him. Three months later, his first windmill churned to life as relief swept over him. As the blades whirled, a bulb attached to the windmill flickered on. "I wanted to finish it just to prove them wrong," he said. "I knew people would then stop thinking I was crazy."

His story has turned him into a globetrotter. Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, an avid advocate of green living, has applauded his work. Kamkwamba is invited to events worldwide to share his experience with entrepreneurs. During a recent trip to Palm Springs, California, he saw a real windmill for the first time-lofty and majestic-a far cry from the wobbly, wooden structures that spin in his backyard.

Kamkwamba, now 22, is a student at the African Leadership Academy, an elite South African school for young leaders. Donors pay for his education.

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CNBC

Disney’s ‘Avengers: Endgame’ shatters box office records with $1.2 billion global debut

Sarah Whitten

• In just five days, “Avengers: Endgame” hauled in more than $1.2 billion at the global box office.

• In the U.S., the Marvel superhero flick took in a record-breaking estimated $350 million during its opening weekend, shattering expectations.

• Internationally, “Endgame” has grossed an estimated $859 million, breaking the highest opening weekend haul of any film released internationally.

Source: Marvel

“Avengers: Endgame” has done the impossible.

In just five days, the Marvel film hauled in more than $1.2 billion at the global box office.

This shatters the previous record for the highest weekend total of $641 million set by “Avengers: Infinity War” last year. This has never happened before and marks the fastest a film has ever reached the billion dollar mark.

“Infinity War” was the previous record holder with 11 days.

In the U.S., the Marvel superhero flick took in a record-breaking estimated $350 million during its opening weekend, shattering expectations. The previous domestic record was held by “Avengers: Infinity War,” which opened last year to $257.6 million.

Disney bumped up its estimates for the film’s full weekend Saturday after a record opening day debut, saying it expected the film to gross between $310 million and $340 million in the U.S.

Industry predictions ahead of “Endgame’s” opening had originally pegged the film’s debut between $260 million and $285 million. However, on Saturday, analysts revised their estimates to be even higher than Disney’s, suggesting the film could haul in $360 million or more before Monday.

Internationally, “Endgame” has grossed an estimated $859 million, breaking the highest opening weekend haul of any film released internationally in the history of cinema. “The Fate of the Furious,” the previous record holder, had earned $443 million during its opening weekend in 2017.

“Kevin Feige and the Marvel Studios team have continued to challenge notions of what is possible at the movie theatre both in terms of storytelling and at the box office,” Alan Horn, chairman of The Walt Disney Studios, said in a statement Sunday.

Only days ago, it seemed impossible that “Avengers: Endgame” could haul in even close to $300 million domestically during its opening weekend.

Theater owners have contracts with other studios to show their films during the weekend and “Endgame’s” running time — three hours two minutes — makes it difficult to screen the film more than three times in a 12- hour period.

Additionally, no film has averaged more than $59,900 per theater before, a feat reached by “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” in 2015. The film played in 4,100 locations during its debut and hauled in a total of $247.9 million in its first weekend.

“Infinity War,” which was the previous record holder for highest weekend box office gross in the U.S., showed in around 4,470 theaters when it was released last year and hauled in an average of $57,000 per theater, according to data from Comscore.

Opening in 4,662 theaters, it was expected that “Endgame” would follow a similar pattern, earning between $60,000 and $65,000 per theater. Instead, it earned an average of $75,075 per theater.

The film, the 22nd installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is the long-awaited culmination of more than a decade of storytelling. Ahead of its release this weekend, advanced ticket sales on Fandango had led to more than 8,000 sold out showings of the film and theater owners were eagerly adding more screenings, some at odd hours, to meet the demand.

In its opening day in North America, “Endgame” took in $156.7 million, including $60 million from Thursday night previews.This was a 32% increase compared to the previous record holder “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” which opened at $119 million in 2015.

Initially, it was believed that only a few dozen theaters had opted to do round-the-clock showings of the film. However, it has become clear that more theater owners decided to go against the norm and offer screenings at off hours.

“Theaters created a situation for the film to earn the maximum dollars, by literally expanding the supply to meet demand,” Paul Dergarabedian, senior analyst at Comscore, said Saturday.

Showings at AMC and Alamo Drafthouse theaters, including ones at 4 a.m. and 7 a.m., have sold out or been very close to selling out.

“At Marcus Theatres, we went all in on this title adding more show times based on demand prior to Thursday’s opening,” Greg Marcus, CEO of the Marcus Corporation, said. “Presales for the opening broke all records for presales we had for any other title.”

Marcus said that depending on the size of the theater, each of his company’s 90 locations had between 60% and 80% of screens dedicated to showing “Endgame.”

“Though ‘Endgame’ is far from an end for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, these first 22 films constitute a sprawling achievement, and this weekend’s monumental success is a testament to the world they’ve envisioned, the talent involved, and their collective passion, matched by the irrepressible enthusiasm of fans around the world,” Horn said.

NBC NEWS

FDA expands blood pressure drug recall for fifth time this year

Not all versions of the widely used medications are contaminated, but ongoing recalls may cause shortages, an FDA spokesperson said.

By Shamard Charles, M.D.

April 26, 2019

The Food and Drug Administration announced Wednesday that it will expand its recall of blood pressure medicines to include four lots of losartan after they were found to contain a cancer-causing chemical.

This is the fifth recall in 2019; over the past year, dozens of batches of medications used to treat hypertension have been recalled over contamination fears.

According to the FDA, Legacy Pharmaceutical Packaging has recalled four lots of losartan because the batch contained trace amounts of the nitrosamine, NMBA, which has been linked to increased risk for bladder cancers. In January, several generic valsartan products sold in the United States were found to be contaminated with NDMA, another nitrosamine chemical associated with higher risk of colorectal and uterine cancers.

“We know that the discovery of these genotoxic impurities, called nitrosamines, is alarming to patients who expect their products to be free from these types of impurities,” said Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, in a statement. “While we’ve concluded through our risk assessments that the maximum possible exposure to nitrosamines in ARB medicines appears to be small, their presence in drug products is not acceptable.”

The pharmaceutical company has not received any reports of adverse events related to this recall and believes that the cancer risk posed by the contaminated pills is low.

The latest recall comes after Torrent Pharmaceuticals expanded its recall of losartan potassium and losartan potassium/hydrochlorothiazide tablets last week, after finding trace amount of N-methylnitrosobutyric acid, another contaminant linked to cancer.

The FDA advises patients who take these drugs — even the ones that have been recalled — to continue taking them but to talk to their doctor or pharmacist immediately about alternative treatment.

NOT ALL MEDICATIONS AFFECTED

The FDA says losartan isn't currently in shortage but acknowledged that other blood pressure medications are and that more recalls may soon lead to shortages.

“Currently, valsartan, olmesartan and eprosartan products are in shortage, and we know that other types of products have the potential to fall into shortage soon,” an FDA spokesman told NBC News.

“It is important to know that not all ARB products contain impurities, so pharmacists may be able to provide a refill of medication from batches that that are not affected by the recall, or doctors may prescribe a different medication that treats the same indications,” he added.

The FDA has taken a proactive approach in addressing how manufacturers should ensure safety of their products by urging manufacturers to be vigilant in their assessment of the supplies used to make the popular drugs, to ensure that they are nitrosamine-free.

The agency sent manufacturers a letter April 4 to inform them about factors that can contribute to the formation of nitrosamine impurities during manufacturing and reiterated steps they should take to ensure these impurities are not present in any of their blood pressure medications in the future.

An FDA spokeswoman told NBC News that the agency could not predict how long the recalls would continue.

Losartan is a prescription medication used to treat high blood pressure and congestive heart failure.

Nearly 60 million prescriptions were written for losartan in 2016 — the ninth most prescribed drug in the U.S. — and nearly 14 million for valsartan or a drug that includes it. Another 3.6 million prescriptions were written for irbesartan that year.

The alarming number of recalls has gained the attention of the federal government. In February, the House Energy and Commerce Committee wrote to former commissioner FDA Scott Gottlieb to inquire about inspections at overseas drug packaging plants. At least a dozen cardiovascular drugs have been recalled recently, including types of amlopidine, irbesartan, and valsartan

Dr. Rath Health Foundation

The History of the Pharma Cartel

May 10, 2007

1911, May 15

The Supreme Court of the U.S. finds John Rockefeller and his Trust guilty of corruption, illegal business practices and racketeering. As a result of this decision, the entire Rockefeller Standard Oil-Trust, the world’s largest corporation of its time, was sentenced to be dismantled. But Rockefeller was already above the Supreme Court and did not care about this decision.

1913

In order to disperse public and political pressure on him and other robber-barons, Rockefeller uses a trick called “philanthropy”, whereby the illegal gains from his robber-practices in the oil business are used to launch the Rockefeller Foundation. This tax haven was used to strategically take over the health care sector in the U.S..

The Rockefeller Foundation was the front organization for a new global business venture of Rockefeller and his accomplices. This new venture was called the pharmaceutical investment business. Donations from the Rockefeller Foundation went only to medical schools and hospitals. These institutions had become missionaries of a new breed of companies: the manufacturers of patented, synthetic drugs.

This was also the time when the first vitamins were discovered. It soon became clear however that these natural molecules had live-saving health benefits and that they were able to prevent many chronic health conditions. The first books appeared with research, subsequently abandoned, about the health benefits of vitamins. These newly discovered molecules had only one disadvantage: they were non-patentable.

Thus, in its first years of existence, the pharmaceutical investment business already faced a mortal threat: vitamins and other micronutrients promoted as public health programs would prohibit the development of any sizable investment business based on patented drugs. The elimination of this unwanted competition from natural micronutrients therefore became a question of life and death for the pharmaceutical business.

1918

The Rockefeller Foundation uses the Spanish flu epidemic – and the media (that it already controlled by this time) – to start a witch-hunt on all forms of medicine that were not covered by its patents.

Within the next 15 years, all medical schools in the U.S., most hospitals and the American Medical Association all essentially became pawns on the chessboard of Rockefeller’s strategy to subjugate the entire health care sector under the monopoly of his pharmaceutical investment business.

Disguised as a “Mother Theresa”, the Rockefeller Foundation was also used to conquer foreign countries and entire continents for the pharmaceutical investment business – just as Rockefeller himself had done a few decades previously with his petrochemical investment business.

1925

On the other side of the Atlantic, in Germany, the first chemical / pharmaceutical cartel is founded in order to compete with Rockefeller’s quest for control of the global drug market. Lead by the German multinationals Bayer, BASF and Hoechst, the I.G. Farben cartel was founded with a total number of employees surpassing 80,000. The race for global control was on.

1929, November 29

The Rockefeller cartel (U.S.A.) and the I.G. Farben cartel (Germany) decided to divide the entire globe into interest spheres – the very same crime Rockefeller had been sentenced for 18 years earlier, when his trust had divided up the U.S. into “interest zones”.

1932 / 33

The I.G. Farben cartel, equally insatiable, decides no longer to be bound by the 1929 constraints. They support an uprising German politician, who promises I.G. Farben to militarily conquer the world for them. With millions of dollars in election campaign donations, this politician seized power in Germany, turned the German democracy into a dictatorship and kept his promise to launch his conquest war, a war that soon became known as WWII.

In each and every country Hitler’s wehrmacht invaded, the first act was to rob the chemical, petrochemical and pharmaceutical industries and assign them – free of charge – to the I.G. Farben empire.

1942 – 45

In order to cement its global leadership with patented drugs, the I.G. Farben cartel tests its patented pharmaceutical substances on concentration camp inmates in Auschwitz, Dachau and many other sites. The fees for conducting these inhumane studies were transferred directly from the bank accounts of Bayer, Hoechst and BASF to the bank accounts of the SS, who operated the concentration camps.

1945

I.G. Farben’s plan to take control of the global oil and drug markets has failed. The U.S. and the other allied forces won WWII. Nevertheless, many U.S. and allied soldiers had lost their lives during the conflict, and the allies’ reward was little compared to the rewards of others. The corporate shares of the losers, I.G. Farben, went to the Rockefeller trust (U.S.A.) and Rothschild / J.P. Morgan (U.K.).

1947

In the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal, 24 managers from Bayer, BASF, Hoechst and other executives of the I.G. Farben cartel were tried for crimes against humanity. These crimes included: leading wars of aggression, instituting slavery and committing mass murder. In his final pleading, U.S.-Chief Prosecutor Telford Taylor summarized the crimes committed by these corporate criminals with the following words: “Without I.G. Farben, the second World War would not have been possible”.

Amazingly, the real culprits for the death of 60 Million people in World War II – the I.G. Farben executives – received the mildest verdicts. Even those executives directly responsible for the crimes in I.G. Auschwitz only received a maximum of twelve years in jail. Surprised? You shouldn’t be.

By 1944 Nelson Rockefeller had already entered the executive branch of the U.S. government. He started off as Under-Secretary of State and ended up a few years later as Special Adviser of President Truman for Special Affairs. In other words, at critical junctures of the 20th century, the Rockefeller interests took direct charge. They decided the post war shape of the world and the distribution of its wealth.

As such, under the influence of the U.S. State Department, the verdicts in Nuremberg against the I.G. Farben managers can easily be explained. In return for taking over the corporate shares of I.G. Farben, and thereby global control of the oil and drug business, Nelson Rockefeller made sure that the real culprits of World War II were not hanged. In fact, and as we shall see, they were needed.

1949

The Federal Republic of Germany was founded. This was the first time in history that the constitution and society of an industrialized nation could be planned and modeled as a fortress of the pharmaceutical investment business – a transatlantic outpost of the Rockefeller interests.

Within only a few years, the I.G. Farben managers sentenced in Nuremberg were released from jail and put back into their previous positions as stakeholders of the Rockefeller interests. Fritz Ter Meer, for example, sentenced to twelve years in jail for his crimes in Auschwitz, was back as chairman of the board of Germany’s largest pharmaceutical multinational, Bayer, by 1963!

1945 – 49

The role of the Rockefeller brothers was not limited to their taking over the global monopolies of the oil and drug businesses. They also needed to create the political framework for these businesses to thrive. Under their influence, therefore, the United Nations was founded in 1945, in San Francisco. To seize political control of the post war world, three countries – leading drug export nations – had all the say, and 200 other nations were rendered mere spectators.

Founded as organizations to allegedly serve the wellbeing of the people of the world, the UN’s subsidiary organizations, such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and World Trade Organization (WTO), soon turned out to be nothing more than the political arms of the global oil and drug interests.

1963

On behalf of the Rockefeller interests, the government of the pharmaceutical banana republic Germany spearheaded one of the most infamous efforts ever made within the United Nations. Under the pretense of consumer protection, it launched a four-decade-long crusade to outlaw vitamin therapies and other natural, non-patentable health approaches in all member countries of the United Nations. The goal was to simply ban any and all competition for the multi-billion dollar business with patented drugs. The plan was simple: copy for the entire world what had already been accomplished in America in the 1920s – a monopoly on health care for the investment business with patented drugs.

Since the marketplace for the pharmaceutical investment business depends upon the continued existence of diseases, the drugs it developed were not intended to prevent, cure or eradicate disease. Thus, the goal of the global strategy was to monopolize health for billions of people, with pills that nearly cover symptoms but hardly ever address the root cause of disease. The deprivation of billions of people from having access to life saving information about the health benefits of natural health approaches, whilst at the same time establishing a monopoly with largely ineffective and frequently toxic patented drugs, caused disease and death in genocidal proportions.

This epidemic of unnecessary disability and death by the pharmaceutical business with disease is unparalleled in history.

Linus Pauling and other eminent scientists deserve credit for having kept open the door of knowledge about the health benefits of vitamins and other effective natural health approaches. If it were not for them we would already be living in a health prison today, guarded by the gatekeepers of the pharmaceutical business with disease in medicine, politics and the media.

Linus Pauling should also be credited for having identified the significance of Dr. Rath’s early research in vitamins and cardiovascular disease, and for having invited Dr. Rath to join him during his last years to continue his life’s work.

1990 – 92

These years will go down in history as the beginning of the end of the pharmaceutical business with disease. In a series of scientific publications, in some of which Dr. Rath invited Linus Pauling to join him as co-author, Dr. Rath identified micronutrient deficiency as the primary cause of diseases. These diseases include heart attacks, high blood pressure, diabetic circulatory problems, cancer and even immune deficiency diseases, including AIDS.

Like a Sherlock Holmes of science, Dr. Rath traced the real cause of these diseases, and found that they had been deliberately nebulized or even hidden away from millions of people for one purpose only: to feed the insatiable greed of the pharmaceutical business with disease.

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

“The knowledge of thee is too wonderful for me; it is very difficult, I cannot attain to it. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? and whither shall I flee from my presence? If I should go up to heaven, thou art there: if I should go down to hell, thou art present. If I should spread my wings to fly straight forward, and sojourn at the extremity of the sea, it would be vain, for even there thy hand would guide me, and thy right hand would hold me. When I said, Surely the darkness will cover me; even the night was light in my luxury. For darkness will not be darkness with thee; but night will be light as day: as its darkness, so shall its light be to thee.”
(Psalm 139:6-12)