</center>

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WND

COULD 2017 BE A JUBILEE YEAR?

Exclusive: Joseph Farah shares uncanny prophecies of 13th-century rabbi

Published 11/18/2016

JERUSALEM – Several years ago, Ludwig Schneider, a German-language scholar, discovered an amazing prophecy dating back to 1217 by a scholarly and highly respected rabbi by the name of Judah Ben Samuel.

He was quite famous in his time as the initiator of the Chassidic Ashkenaz, a movement of Jewish mysticism in Germany. He founded a yeshiva in Regensburg and secured many pupils. Legend has it that, as a young man, he was an excellent bowman but knew little or nothing about daily prayers. But once he got serious about his faith, the legend goes, he performed many miracles. It is also reported that he was given a prophecy about the exact year of Israel’s rebirth as a nation and its redemption.

So renowned was his work, the Bishop of Salzburg asked him to serve as his personal seer.

Because most of his writings were published so long ago – before the invention of the printing press – and in German, few copies have survived. But Schneider has a copy of Judah Ben Samuel’s prophecy about the nation of Israel and the messianic era and has translated the highlights of it into English and other languages for the magazine Israel Today.

The prophecy involves the Jubilee Year cycle every 50 years. I should point out there’s much controversy about pinpointing Jubilee Years because they have not been observed in Israel since ancient times, while no one is 100 percent certain about when they should occur on the modern Hebrew calendar.

However, in the year Judah Ben Samuel died, 1217, he prophesied that the Ottoman Turks would rule over the holy city of Jerusalem for eight Jubilees. Now, keep in mind, he made this prediction 300 years before the Turks seized control of Jerusalem in 1517. In fact, the Ottoman Empire, as it would become to be known, did not even really exist yet in 1217.

According to Judah Ben Samuel, 1217 was a Jubilee Year. If he was right, that would also make 1517 a Jubilee Year.

Exactly 400 years after the Ottoman Turks took control of Jerusalem in 1517, they were driven out of the city and the Holy Land in 1917 by the Allied forces under the command of Gen. George Allenby – on Hanukkah, by the way.

But it gets more interesting still.

The rabbi also prophesied that during the ninth Jubilee, Jerusalem would be a “no-man’s land.” This is exactly what happened from 1917 to 1967, due to the fact that the Holy Land was placed under British Mandate in 1917 by the League of Nations and literally “belonged” to no nation. Even after Israel’s war of independence in 1948-49 Jerusalem was still divided by a strip of land running right through the heart of the city, with Jordan controlling the eastern part of the city and Israel controlling the western part. That strip of land was considered and even called “no-man’s land” by both the Israelis and the Jordanians.

It was not until the Six Day War in 1967 when the entire “west bank” of the holy land was conquered by the Israeli army that the whole city of Jerusalem passed back into the possession of Israel. So once again the prophecy made by the rabbi 750 years previously was fulfilled to the letter.

It certainly would be significant if indeed both 1917 and 1967 were Jubilee years, considering the significance of what happened in Jerusalem in those years. But it gets better.

The rabbi also prophesied that during the 10th Jubilee, Jerusalem would be under the control of the Jews and the Messianic “end times” would begin. The 10th Jubilee began in 1967 and will be concluded in – 2017.

What should we expect to happen in 2017? I will leave that to your imagination.

But one thing is certain: Judah Ben Samuel made some truly remarkable prophecies that came to pass.

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CHARISMAMAGAZINE

Are These Irreversible End-Times Signs Converging Right Now?

DR. DAVE WILLIAMS

5/17/2017

We live in the very first generation to see all the end-time signs converging. No other generation has witnessed such a massive stage-setting time as this. Jesus instructed His followers to look up when we see "these things," for this generation will not pass before the fulfillment of "all these things" (Luke 21:28, 32).

Sir Isaac Newton said, "About the Time of the End, a body of men will be raised up who will turn their attention to the Prophecies, and insist upon their literal interpretation, in the midst of much clamor and opposition." Best known for his scientific thought, Newton was also an avid researcher of biblical apocalyptic prophecy.

Something dramatic, global and irreversible lies just ahead. There is no way to avoid it. Every condition and marker we would expect to see in the last days are now in active play on the earth. The stage is set and the actors are in place, preparing to follow their script for what will shortly transpire.

God's people must be equipped, like the sons of Issachar, to understand the times (1 Chron. 12:32).

Approximately 27 percent of the Bible is prophecy. Prophecy is sort of like a jigsaw puzzle. You begin by getting all the border pieces in place before you start connecting the other pieces. When you assemble the border first, it's much easier to find, little by little, where the remaining pieces of the puzzle fit.

There is tremendous and uncanny interest in apocalyptic prophecy today among people of all backgrounds. People have a sense that the stage is being set for the final events of this age. Everyone is asking, "What will the future bring? How can we know for sure?"

Hollywood exploits our desire to know the future. The past decade has brought more apocalyptic films and stories to the public than at any other time in history. You can feel it—excitement is in the air, coupled with an eerie foreboding about the events just beginning to unfold.

Prophecy is a gift from God for all of humanity—a glimpse, and sometimes more than a glimpse, of what lies ahead, perhaps in our own lifetimes. When we ignore it, we turn our backs on the only sure record of the future that exists in our world today. What you believe about prophecy will dramatically affect your future, the way you live your life, and how you prepare for what is ahead.

"But know this first of all, that no prophecy of the Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation. For no prophecy at any time was produced by the will of man, but holy men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God" (2 Peter 1:20-21).

Are you ready? Our generation is racing toward the hour spoken of by the ancient biblical prophets called "the day of the Lord," (Joel 2:31; Acts 2:20) or "the hour of temptation which shall come upon the entire world." (Rev. 3:10).

Yet before the great and notable day of the Lord, God promised, "I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; then your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions. Even on the menservants and maidservants in those days I will pour out My Spirit. Then I will work wonders in the heavens and the earth" (Joel 2:28-30).

“Anyone who studies this stuff…the Illuminati, the Federal Reserve, the political side, the elite, Hollywood, all of it–anyone who goes really deep…finds God, the Bible and Jesus Christ. It’s all about Him. It’s a war on HIM.” John Todd

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PART 9: UNEARTHING The Lost World Of The CLOUDEATERS: Compelling Evidence of the Incursions of Giants, Their Extraordinary Technology, and IMMINENT RETURN

May 23, 2017 by SkyWatch Editor

By Thomas R. Horn

The Dragon, Watchers, and the Occult Connection

As thoroughly studied in the best-selling book, On the Path of the Immortals (Defender Publishing, 2015), biblical literalism depicts Leviathan as a real reptilian entity, a highly intelligent, immortal, divine creation in chaotic rebellion. When the underworld portal is opened, this sea serpent will briefly visit untold horror on the earth, only to face judgment when facing “the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven” (Matthew 26:64).

The Behemoth depicted by Job 40:15–24 (10–19) is also best understood as a preternatural creature possessing supernatural characteristics.[i]While connections to other ancient Near-Eastern dragons have been suggested, Behemoth seems to be a distinct entity paired with Leviathan. This dragon might very well manifest from the earth when the portal to the Abyss is opened (Revelation 9:1). However, you might be surprised to learn that not all flying serpents in Scripture are fallen:

Although many Christians probably recoil at the thought that God created serpentine divine beings, as we demonstrated in chapter 1 (“What Is This All About?”), Scripture does support the notion. It is also telling how the Watchers were described in explicitly reptilian terms[ii] by the ancient Hebrews, lending support to the idea that fallen ones may have matched the depiction of human sacrifice-demanding “fiery serpents” whose characteristics are partly human in appearance. With a proper understanding of the biblical Seraphim and Watchers, the Mesoamerican connection no longer seems so fanciful. The plumed serpent gods of the Aztecs, Mayans, and Incans share the same basic description as the biblical flying serpentine humanoids.

Early Mesoamericans who worshiped the feathered serpent included the Olmec, Mixtec, Zapotec, Toltec, and Aztec. As early as Olmec times (1400 B.C.), the feathered or plumed serpent is depicted throughout North, Middle, and South America. For example, the late Olmec or Toltec culture known as Teotihuacan prominently displayed the serpentine god on the sides of the pyramid located at the Temple of the Feathered Serpent.

The archaeological record shows that after the fall of Teotihuacan, the cult of the serpent spread to Xochicalco, Cacaxtla, and Cholula—the New World’s largest pyramid dedicated to Quetzalcoatl.[iii]

The Incas of Peru, the Aztecs of Mexico, and the Mayas of Yucatan all worshipped similar winged serpent gods. The Inca referred to these rebel Seraphim as Amaru; the Aztecs as Quetzalcoatl; and the Maya as Kukulkán. In Inca mythology, the amaru is a huge, double-headed, flying serpent that dwells underground.[iv] As a supernatural entity, the reptilian was believed to navigate portals between the netherworld of the dead to the natural world of the living.[v] While many have connected descriptions of Quetzalcoatl as a bearded man with similar descriptions of Viracocha, the latter is not represented as a winged, serpentine-human hybrid. However, in remarkable accord with Quetzalcoatl, the title Amaru Tupa was an honorific title denoting royalty.[vi] In fact, the Incan creator god Viracocha adopted “a stone image of an amaru”[vii] as his huauque, the “man-made double”[viii] representing the living king during his lifetime.

Quetzalcoatl is the Aztec name for the feathered-serpent deity and is one of the main gods of Mexico and northern Central America. In the Aztec civilization of central Mexico, the worship of Quetzalcoatl was ubiquitous. He was the flying reptile deity who reportedly said, “If ever my subjects were to see me, they would run away!”[ix] His winged reptilian adversary, Tezcatlipoca, was generally considered more powerful, as the god of night, sorcery, and destiny. During the twenty-day month of Toxcatl, a young man dressed up as Tezcatlipoca would be sacrificed.[x] Lesser known is that, like the Watcher angels in Genesis 6, Aztec tradition holds that their plumed serpent gods also created giants who were later destroyed in a worldwide flood:

According to Aztec myth, during the first age, or Sun, the gods Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca created a race of giants from ashes, giving them acorns for nourishment. But the giants so enraged the gods due to their wickedness that the gods decided to end the giants’ existence and sent the jaguars to destroy them. Only seven survived the onslaught of the savage beasts. Later, when the gods summoned forth the waters to flood the Earth and destroy the first race of humans, these seven giants, the Xelhua, climbed the mountains to seek refuge from the thrashing waters that were enveloping the planet. Five of the giants survived the torrent, and in the end they built the great tower of Cholula to commemorate their survival of the flood.[xi]

The Incans similarly believed that Viracocha’s first creation was a race of wicked giants that he destroyed in a deluge.[xii] While it is usually held that all of the Nephilim were drowned in the Flood, there are similar Jewish traditions of one giant’s survival, King Og of Bashan.[xiii] A tradition of his survival is preserved in the Talmud.[xiv] Whether one accepts this ancient rabbinic tradition or not, the obvious parallel to the Aztec account entailing a few surviving giants demands an explanation. We suggest both traditions reflect actual historical events. Even so, such high strangeness is not so summarily relegated to the past.

The Maya hold that Kukulkan, represented as a feathered serpent, came from heaven to earth. Accordingly, the quetzal bird representing heaven was chosen as his totem, and the serpent represents earth. Winged serpent iconography features prominently at Chichén Itzá, El Tajín, and throughout the Maya region. As discussed in the chapter 3, the Mayan cosmology has led to significant theological error in the New Age movement and was the impetus for most of the failed 2012 ascension predictions. The cumulative case that these plumed serpent deities are real immortal entities, fallen “fiery flying serpents,” or former seraphim, explains all of the mythological data in terms consistent with biblical theology.

The heinous practice of human sacrifice by the Aztecs,[xv] Mayans,[xvi] and Incans[xvii] is well enough attested to be uncontroversial. Some indigenous scholars defend the old ways on the grounds that, according to their cosmology, the gods did the same for the people. Some stories suggest vampirism, a practice associated with the fallen ones and their Nephilim progenies.[xviii] For example, in a creation myth found in the Florentine Codex, Quetzalcoatl offers his blood to give life to humanity. There are several other myths in which Mesoamerican gods offer their blood.[xix] What distinguishes this from the blood of Jesus in Christian theology is that it was a one-time offering by a willing participant who subsequently rose from the dead. In contrast, the Mesoamericans offered even their own flesh-and-blood children in various forms of ritualistic human sacrifice—a brutal idolatry that was good news to nobody. Identifying these bloodthirsty serpents as fallen “sons of God,” who defiantly court worship from humans and encourage various forms of extravagant ethical deviance, seems morally warranted from the original source documents of Mesoamerican religions.[xx]

It is nearly self-explanatory as to how such concepts of flying serpents could have extended from Mesoamerica to Native American tribes and apocalyptic beliefs. For instance, the “Cherokee Rattlesnake Prophecies” were written down by members of the Cherokee tribe during 1811–1812. These prophecies are similar to Mesoamerican apocalyptic belief and share the idea that sometime following the year 2012, a flying plumed serpent with human-hybrid features would return during a time of when the earth and heavens are shaken.

From my book Zenith 2016, a portion of the Rattlesnake Prophecy reads:

[Following] the year…2012 an alignment will take place both on the Cherokee calendar and in the heavens of the Rattlesnake Constellation.… It is the time of the double headed serpent stick. It is the time of the red of Orion and Jupiter against the white blue of Pleiades and Venus…the Cherokee Rattlesnake Constellation will take on a different configuration. The snake itself will remain, however; upon the Rattlesnake shall be added upon its head feathers, its eyes will open and glow, wings spring forth as a winged rattlesnake. It shall have hands and arms and in its hands shall be a bowl. The bowl will hold blood. Upon its tail of seven rattles shall be the glowing and movement of Pleiades. The Rattlesnake shall become a feathered rattlesnake or feathered serpent of Time/Untime.

While the Mayans and Cherokee were awaiting the return of their serpent deity, uninvited preternatural visitations were ongoing and still are. According to Chulin Pop, a contemporary Mayan, preternatural giants are still visiting the Watchers’ sins on the native peoples in the jungle. Ardy Sixkiller Clarke, a professor at Montana State University, recorded his testimony:

They [seven-to-eight-foot giants] come from the stars in their big silver plates and they stay here sometimes only for a night; sometimes for a week or more. They take the women and make them have their babies. They have four fingers and no thumbs. Any man who tries to defend his women is sick for days. They have great powers. They make you hear words, but they never speak. They have weapons that make rocks and things disappear.[xxi]

The transparent parallels between the ancient “sons of God,” who sinned “as Sodom and Gomorrah” by “giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh” (Jude 7), worldwide reports of alien abduction, and this contemporary Mayan’s account, suggests a complex interrelated phenomenon. As with the cultural rebellion against biblical morality, modern-day testimony reminiscent of the Watchers’ lustful deviance imply the days of Noah and Lord’s return are upon us (Matthew 24:37; Luke 16:26). Stephen Quayle suggested that Americans consider this little poem, “Quetzalcotal, are evil leaders in this land waiting for you to claim America again as Amaruca, the Land of the Serpent?”[xxii]

This title—Amaruca—is, according to some people, the title from which “America” is taken. It is related to Mesoamerican history, serpent-worship, and giants, and according to Freemasonry, connects the founding of the United States and its Capitol designers with “wisdom” derived from the fallen flying seraph. Also from my book Zenith 2016:

The story begins long before the Spaniards arrived on this continent and was chronicled in the hieroglyphic characters (and repeated in oral history) of the sacred, indigenous Maya narrative called the Popol Vuh. Sometime between 1701 and 1703, a Dominican priest named Father Francisco Ximénez transcribed and translated the Mayan work into Spanish. Later his text was taken from Guatemala to Europe by Abbott Brasseur de Bourbough where it was translated into French. Today the Popol Vuh rests in Chicago’s Newberry Library, but what makes the script interesting is its creation narrative, history, and cosmology, especially as it relates to the worship of the great “feathered serpent” creator deity known as Q’uq’umatz; a god considered by scholars to be roughly equivalent to the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl and the Yucatec Mayan Kukulkan. According to Freemasons like Manly P. Hall, no other ancient work sets forth so completely the initiatory rituals of the great school of philosophic mystery, which was so central to America’s Baconian dream of the New Atlantis, than the Popol Vuh. What’s more, Hall says, it is in this region where we find the true origin of America’s name and destiny.

In The Secret Teachings of All Ages, Manly Hall writes:

This volume [Popol Vuh] alone is sufficient to establish incontestably the philosophical excellence of the red race.

“The Red ‘Children of the Sun,’” writes James Morgan Pryse, “do not worship the One God. For them that One God is absolutely impersonal, and all the Forces emanated from that One God are personal. This is the exact reverse of the popular western conception of a personal God and impersonal working forces in nature. Decide for yourself which of these beliefs is the more philosophical [Hall says sarcastically]. These Children of the Sun adore the Plumèd Serpent, who is the messenger of the Sun. He was the God Quetzalcoatl in Mexico, Gucumatz in Quiché; and in Peru he was called Amaru. From the latter name comes our word America. Amaruca is, literally translated, ‘Land of the Plumèd Serpent.’ The priests of this [flying dragon], from their chief centre in the Cordilleras, once ruled both Americas. All the Red men who have remained true to the ancient religion are still under their sway. One of their strong centres was in Guatemala, and of their Order was the author of the book called Popol Vuh. In the Quiché tongue Gucumatz is the exact equivalent of Quetzalcoatl in the Nahuatl language; quetzal, the bird of Paradise; coatl, serpent—‘the Serpent veiled in plumes of the paradise-bird’!”

The Popol Vuh was discovered by Father Ximinez in the seventeenth century. It was translated into French by Brasseur de Bourbourg and published in 1861. The only complete English translation is that by Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie, which ran through the early files of The Word magazine and which is used as the basis of this article. A portion of the Popol Vuh was translated into English, with extremely valuable commentaries, by James Morgan Pryse, but unfortunately his translation was never completed. The second book of the Popol Vuh is largely devoted to the initiatory rituals of the Quiché nation. These ceremonials are of first importance to students of Masonic symbolism and mystical philosophy, since they establish beyond doubt the existence of ancient and divinely instituted Mystery schools on the American Continent.[xxiii]

Thus from Hall we learn that Freemasons like him believe “ancient and divinely instituted” mystery religion important to students of Masonry came to Amaruca/America—the Land of the Plumèd Serpent—from knowledge that the Red Man received from the dragon himself. What Hall conceals is that, even to this day, in the secret societies, Lucifer is considered this benevolent serpent-god who has nothing more than the best intentions for man, while Jehovah is an evil entity who tries to keep mankind in the dark and punishes him if he seeks the truest wisdom. Since these ancient serpent legends include the Mesoamerican feathered serpent gods and can be looked upon as a historical testament of that Angel thrown down by God, “then perhaps The Land of the Plumèd Serpent may also be known as the Land of Lucifer,” concludes Ken Hudnall in The Occult Connection II: The Hidden Race.[xxiv]

[i] B. F. Batto, “Behemoth,” ed. Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and Pieter W. van der Horst, Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (Leiden; Boston; Köln; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999) 165.

[ii]As discussed in chapter 1, What Is This All About?—“4Q Amramb (4Q544),” Geza Vermes, The Dead Sea Scrolls in English, revised and extended 4th ed. (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1995) 312.(Previous ed.: London: Penguin, 1987).

[iii] William M. Ringle, Tomás Gallareta Negrón, and George J. Bey, “The Return of Quetzalcoatl,” Ancient Mesoamerica (London: Cambridge University Press, 1998) 183–232.

[iv] Paul R. Steele and Catherine J. Allen, “Amaru Tupa,” Handbook of Inca Mythology, Handbooks of World Mythology (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2004) 96.

[v] S. Smith, “Generative Landscapes: The Step Mountain Motif in Tiwanaku Iconography,” Ancient America, 12m (2011): 1–69.

[vi]Steele and Allen, 98.

[vii]Ibid., 96.

[viii]Steele and Allen, “Huauque,” 193.

[ix]“The Death of Quetzalcöätl,” Anales de Cuauhtitlan (Codex Chimalpopoca, sections 5 to 8) http://pages.ucsd.edu/~dkjordan/nahuatl/ReadingQuetzalcoatl.html (accessed January 28, 2015).

[x]Bernardino de Sahagún, Monographs of the School of American Research, vol. 14, “General History of the Things of New Spain: Florentine Codex” (Santa Fe, N.M.: School of American Research, 1950–1982) 79.

[xi]Patrick Chouinard (09-28-2013), Lost Race of the Giants: The Mystery of Their Culture, Influence, and Decline throughout the World (Inner Traditions/Bear & Company) 129–130.

[xii]Steele and Allen, “Viracocha,” 265.

[xiii] Howard Schwartz, Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism (Oxford: Oxford University, 2004) 461.

[xiv] Joseph Barclay, The Talmud (London: John Murray, 1878): 23; Heinrich Ewald and Georg Heinrich August von Ewald, The History of Israel (London: Longmans, Green, and Company, 1883) 228.

[xv]John M. Ingham, “Human Sacrifice at Tenochtitln,” Society for Comparative Studies in Society and History 26 (1984) 379–400.

[xvi] Gabrielle Vail, Christine Hernández, “Human Sacrifice in Late Postclassic Maya Iconography and Texts” in Vera Tiesler and Andrea Cucina, New Perspectives on Human Sacrifice and Ritual Body Treatment in Ancient Maya Society (New York: Springer, 2007) 120–164.

[xvii] Rebecca Morelle, “Inca Mummies: Child Sacrifice Victims Fed Drugs and Alcohol,” BBC News, http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-23496345 (accessed January 30, 2015).

[xviii]Louis Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998) 125.

[xix]Jacques Soustelle, La Vida Cotidiana de Los Aztecas En Vísperas de La Conquista, 2. ed., Sección de Obras de Antropología (México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1970) 102.

[xx]George L. Cowgill, “Ritual Sacrifice and the Feathered Serpent Pyramid at Teotihuacán, México,” Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, 1997, http://www.famsi.org/reports/96036/index.html (accessed January 30. 2015).

[xxi]Ardy Sixkiller Clarke, Sky People: Untold Stories of Alien Encounters in Mesoamerica (Pompton Plains, NJ: New Page, 2014) 172.

[xxii]Quayle, True Legends, 294.

[xxiii] Thomas Horn, Zenith 2016 (Crane, MO: Defender, 2013) 357–359.

[xxiv]Ken Hudnall, The Occult Connection II: The Hidden Race (Omega Press, 2004) 207.

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BREITBART

Report: Gunmen Massacre Coptic Christians in Egypt, Killing at Least 28

by BREITBART JERUSALEM 26 May 2017

CAIRO (AP) — Masked militants riding in three SUVs opened fire Friday on a bus packed with Coptic Christians, including many children, south of the Egyptian capital, killing at least 28 and wounding 25, the Interior Ministry said.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, the fourth to target Christians since December, but it bore the hallmarks of the Islamic State group.

Islamic militants have for years been waging an insurgency mostly centered in the restive northern part of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, although a growing number of attacks have recently also taken place on the mainland.

The assault happened while the bus was traveling on a side road in the desert leading to the remote monastery of Saint Samuel the Confessor in Maghagha, in Minya governorate, about 220 kilometers (140 miles) south of Cairo.

Security officials quoted witnesses as saying they saw between eight and 10 attackers, dressed in military uniforms and wearing masks. The victims were en route from the nearby province of Beni Suef to visit the monastery.

Khaled Mogahed, the Health Ministry spokesman, said the death toll stood at 26 but feared it could rise further. According to Copts United news portal, only three children survived the attack. It was not immediately known if most or all of the victims were children.

Arab TV stations showed images of a badly damaged bus along a roadside, many of its windows shattered. Ambulances were parked around it as bodies lay on the ground, covered with black plastic sheets.

President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi called for a meeting with top aides to discuss the attack.

In April, twin suicide bombings struck two churches north of Cairo on Palm Sunday, and in December, a suicide bombing targeted a Cairo church. The attacks left at least 75 dead and scores wounded. IS claimed responsibility and vowed more attacks.

Late last month, Pope Francis visited Egypt, in part to show his support for Christians in this Muslim majority Arab nation who have been increasingly targeted by Islamic militants. During the trip, Francis paid tribute to the victims of the December bombing at Cairo’s St. Peter’s church, located in close proximity to Cairo’s St. Mark’s cathedral, the seat of the Coptic Orthodox Church.

Following the pope’s visit, IS vowed to escalate attacks against Christians, urging Muslims to steer clear of Christian gatherings and Western embassies, saying they are targets for the group’s followers.

Egypt’s Copts, the Middle East’s largest Christian community, have repeatedly complained of discrimination, as well as outright attacks, at the hands of the country’s majority Muslim population. They account for about 10 percent of Egypt’s 93 million people.

They rallied el-Sissi, a general-turned-president, when he in 2013 ousted his Islamist predecessor Mohammed Morsi, who hails from the Muslim Brotherhood group. Attacks on Christian homes, businesses and churches subsequently surged, especially in the country’s south, the heartland of Egypt’s Christians.

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INDEPENDENT

Seven in 10 Brits support 'world government' to protect humanity from global catastrophes

'Whether it’s the spectre of nuclear conflict over North Korea or our planet tipping into catastrophic climate change, the need for effective global cooperation has never been greater'

Ian Johnston

24 May, 2017

Nearly seven out of 10 people in the UK support the creation of a form of world government that would be able to force countries to deal with major risks facing the world such as climate change and nuclear weapons, according to a major new survey.

And 62 per cent said they considered themselves to be “a global citizen” in addition to being British, which will likely disappoint Theresa May who told the last Conservative conference “if you believe you are a citizen of the world, you’re a citizen of nowhere”.

The ComRes survey, commissioned ahead of the G7 Summit in Sicily by the Global Challenges Foundation, interviewed 8,100 people in eight countries, Australia, Brazil, China, Germany, India, South Africa, the UK and US, which are collectively home to half the world’s population.

The Swedish foundation also issued a report, called Global Catastrophic Risks 2017, which detailed a diverse range of possible threats.

A giant asteroid hitting Earth, disease pandemics, a massive volcanic eruption, artificial intelligence turning against us, weapons of mass destruction and ecological collapse all made the list.

The report warned that if the bleakest scientific estimates of how bad global warming could get turned out to be correct there was “a high likelihood of human civilization coming to an end”.

So it was perhaps encouraging that, across all eight countries, the survey found significant support for taking action on global warming.

Some 88 per cent of respondents said they would be prepared to make changes that would affect their living standards to prevent catastrophic climate change in the future.

Mats Andersson, the foundation’s vice-chairman, urged the G7 to work together to address people’s fears.

“As world leaders gather for the G7 Summit, they should be aware that citizens across the planet are yearning for them to collaborate and work harder to find solutions for these critical threats to humanity,” he said.

“Whether it’s the spectre of nuclear conflict over North Korea or our planet tipping into catastrophic climate change, the need for effective global cooperation has never been greater.”

In the UK, some 71 per cent ranked the potential use of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) as one of the main dangers and 80 per cent agreed climate change could turn into a global catastrophe.

Sixty-two per cent felt the world had become more insecure in the last two years and 69 per cent said they would support the creation of a new “supranational organisation to make enforceable global decisions” about major threats.

A lower proportion, but still a majority (54 per cent), said they would be happy for the UK to give up some of its sovereignty to address the world’s most serious problems.

The countries most concerned about global insecurity were Brazil (80 per cent), Germany (71 per cent) and South Africa (70 per cent). Of the eight countries, China was the least concerned (41 per cent), followed by India (47 per cent).

Support for a supranational organisation was highest in India (84 per cent), China (78 per cent) and South Africa (76 per cent).

But this idea was popular across the board with the US on 67 per cent and Germany, which had the lowest figure, on 62 per cent.

Some 74 per cent of people in the US thought climate change could become a global catastrophe, the lowest level among the eight countries; Brazil and South Africa were the most concerned (both 91 per cent) followed by India (90 per cent) and China (86 per cent).

On the risk posed by nuclear weapons, the Global Catastrophic Risks report said since their first use against Japan in 1945 the world “has lived in the shadow of a war unlike any other in history”.

“Although the tension between nuclear states has diminished since the end of the Cold War and disarmament efforts have reduced arsenals, the prospect of a nuclear war remains present and might be closer today that it was a decade ago,” it said.

“Its immediate effect would be a catastrophic destruction of lives and cities and debilitation, illness and deaths from radiation, but another concern is the risk that the dust released from nuclear explosions could plunge the planet into a mini ice age, with dramatic ecological consequences, severe agricultural collapse and a large proportion of the world population dying in a famine.”

On climate change, it noted that discussions tended to focus on the prospect of an increase in the average global temperature of one to three degrees Celsius.

“These would have severe consequences with potentially devastating effects on the environment and human societies,” the report said.

“However there is also a non-negligible and less often considered ‘tail end’ risk that temperatures might rise even further, causing unprecedented loss of landmass and ecosystems.

“Even in mid-range scenarios, entire ecosystems would collapse, much agricultural land would be lost, as would most reliable freshwater sources, leading to large-scale suffering and instability.

“Major coastal cities – New York, Shanghai, Mumbai – would find themselves largely under water and the populations of low-lying coastal regions – currently more than a billion people – may need to be relocated.

“In high-end scenarios, the scale of destruction is beyond our capacity to mode with a high likelihood of human civilization coming to an end.”

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WND (We do not necessarily agree with everything that is written in this article. Ed)

JEWS WORLDWIDE IN STUNNING 'INGATHERING' IN ISRAEL

'That strikes me as a big deal when you consider how many times the Bible predicts this'

Published May 26, 2017

It’s perhaps the most rapid demographic shift in history. Some would even call it miraculous.

Within only a few generations, Jews scattered around the world have reassembled into a nation in their ancient biblical homeland of Israel. One Israeli in the new film “I Am Israel” marvels that there were only around 60,000 Jews in what is now Israel at the turn of the last century, compared to more than 6 million today.

As Breaking Israel News notes, the global population of Jews outside Israel has decreased from 1945 to today, while the number of Jews within Israel has dramatically increased. Today, 43 percent of the global Jewish population now resides in Israel. If current trends continue, the majority of the world’s Jewish population will soon reside in Israel.

“Another Bible prophecy is about to be fulfilled in Israel,” said Joseph Farah, founder of WND and the author of “The Restitution of All Things: Israel, Christians and the End of the Age.” “We’re reaching the tipping point at which the majority of the world’s Jews are actually living in Israel. That strikes me as a big deal when you consider how many times the Bible predicts this miraculous ingathering – something that has never happened with any other nation in the history of the world.”

Farah points to Scriptures such as Isaiah 11:11 and Jeremiah 16:14-16 that suggest the biggest miracles in Israel’s history, such as this vast ingathering of the Jews from all parts of the earth, are still to come. Farah, who along with his wife Elizabeth will be leading the 2017 WND Israel Tour in November 2017, has argued the rebirth of Israel and the prophesied ingathering of the Jews is God’s greatest miracle.

Isaiah 11:11 reads: “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.”

Jeremiah 16: 14-16 reads: “Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be said, the Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; But, the Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers. Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.”

Many Jews themselves are quick to realize the prophetic significance of the times in which they are living. Rabbi Hillel Weiss, spokesman for the nascent Sanhedrin, a group attempting to resurrect the ancient Jewish legal body, told Breaking Israel News his group believes Jews are in the prophesied “third inheritance” of the land. Some argue that according to Jewish tradition, this “inheritance” of the land will be permanent, the Jews will not be driven out again and the Third Temple will soon be constructed.

Mark Biltz, the man who discovered the “Blood Moons” phenomenon and the author of the new book “God’s Day Timer,” is excited about the biblical importance of current events.

“The ingathering of Jews back to Israel has great prophetic significance,” he told WND. “It’s all about sanctifying the Name of God. God’s name is sanctified by the regathering of Jews back to the Land. God made a promise to give them the land of Israel so if they are not there, to the nations He becomes either a liar or an impotent God who never was able to fulfill His promise.

“Believers in the God of Israel should definitely take heed to what the prophets of Israel said would come to pass!”

Biltz also believes the second coming of Jesus Christ will be sooner, rather than later. He cites Psalm 102: 15-16, which reads: “So the heathen shall fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth thy glory. When the Lord shall build up Zion, He shall appear in his glory.”

Verse 18 of Psalm 102 goes on to say, “This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord.”

Biltz argues “Zion” is another name for Jerusalem, which has been continuously “built up” since 1967. This historical development, combined with verse 18, gives reason to hope Jesus’ second coming is imminent.

“This is huge!” he exclaims. “Because in Hebrew it [‘the generation to come’] is better translated as ‘the terminal or last generation.’ This is telling us that the generation seeing Jerusalem built up will be the generation to see the Lord appear in His glory!”

Carl Gallups, a pastor and author of several books including his analysis of end times prophecy “When The Lion Roars,” urged Christians to realize the current nation-state of Israel is “prophecy in action,” not simply a secular political development. Israel, he claimed, is a living miracle.

“Certainly, the ingathering of Jews to the foretold revenant nation of Israel holds deep prophetic significance,” he told WND. “We are the first generation to see the return of Israel, and it has been there now for almost 70 years – another potentially important prophetic marker.

“I am always amazed by those who insist that the Israel that is currently in the Middle East is not the biblically prophesied Israel, but is merely a ‘fake’ Israel. The Bible nowhere foretells the appearance of a fake Israel in the last days. That would be a huge thing to be on the lookout for, yet not a single word of warning (in exegetical context) exists on that subject.”

Gallups argues there are specific predictions made about historical events that will affect the returned Israel in the last days – including events taking place today.

“It is said a returned Israel would eventually face a coalition of certain foretold nations that would rise up against it,” Gallups explained. “We are currently watching that coalition form right before our eyes. To deny it, is to deny the obvious – and the Word of God. A literally returned Israel is declared multiple times in the Scripture. And it is attested to be Yahweh’s definitive last days sign to the nations that His word is true and that His plan of the ages will be soon be accomplished. Again, those who deny Israel’s right to exist are lining themselves against the God of Heaven – and positioning themselves in direct alliance with Satan and the spirit of Antichrist.”

Gallups says he is “deeply attentive” to what Jews themselves are saying about prophetic matters. However, as Jews deny Jesus Christ (Yeshua) was the Messiah, he argues they have a blind spot in prophecy.

“Messiah has already come – and He is soon to return just as He promised,” the pastor said. “The Jews are still looking for the Messiah (making them very susceptible to a false messiah), and they are still looking primarily for a political and nationalistic deliverer.”

On the other hand, Gallups is deeply encouraged by increasing signs of the growth of Messianic Judaism, especially within Israel itself.

“This is now happening by the thousands,” Gallups said. “And much of it is happening right in the middle of the land of the resurrected Israel. That particular ingathering, I believe, is the most significant! I am thrilled to be alive during the days of the return of Israel, the ingathering of the Jewish people to that returned Israel, and the ingathering of those Jews who are turning to Jesus Christ. It is difficult to understand how so many Christians are still missing the profoundly prophetic days in which we are currently living.”

Joel Richardson, the scriptural teacher and filmmaker, host of “The Underground” and the New York Times bestselling author of several books including “The Islamic Antichrist” and the new “Mystery Babylon,” also said the current ingathering of the Jewish people to the land of Israel is prophetically significant. However, Richardson predicts the struggles of the Jewish people are not over.

“Unfortunately, the majority of Jews who return to the land today and over the past 50 years are not coming back in a spirit of repentance and contrition,” he said. “The Messianic Jewish community, although growing, is still a minute fraction of the total population of the state. More often, those returning are coming to escape the increasing anti-Semitism through the world. Although the Lord’s ultimate purpose is to bring His people back to Himself, the Scriptures are clear that this will not happen without another great national tragedy.”

Richardson claims such a tragedy is inevitable, however shocking such an assertion seems.

“Surely there cannot be another great tragedy beyond the Holocaust?” he asks rhetorically. “The Scriptures are very clear that indeed there is. The ultimate regathering that was prophesied by Moses and the Hebrew prophets is one that will be in complete repentance and belief. This will not happen until after the current state of Israel is brought to the end of herself. It will not happen until Jesus returns to deliver and save the remaining remnant of Israel from total extermination. Then, in their broadness, they will return to the Lord.

“After the unimaginable tragedy of the Holocaust, the collective sentiment that arose out of Israel was, ‘Never again!’ What this phrase means, is this: ‘Never again will we as a people be weak so as to allow ourselves to become the prey of the nations. We will pick ourselves up from this and become strong.’ The only cry that will bring true national restoration is, ‘Come let us return to the Lord. For He has wounded us, but He will heal us. For He has torn us, but He will restore us.’ This is pattern that He uses for all people to bring them to Himself. It is through brokenness and repentance, not through self-determination.”

BREAKINGISRAELNEWS

Major Demographic Shifts Indicate Israel Will Soon Redivide Into 12 Tribes

By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz

May 18, 2017

“And ye shall know that I am Hashem when I shall bring you into the land of Yisrael into the country which I lifted up My hand to give unto your fathers.” Ezekiel 20:42 (The Israel Bible™)

As Israel’s population increases, manifesting God’s promise to Abraham, the scales are tipping and very soon the majority of the world’s Jews will be living in Israel. Not only does this in itself fulfill prophecy, it will bring about the conditions that Jewish law states are the prophesied Third Inheritance of Israel, creating a new, end-of-days reality in the Holy Land.

When Abraham made a covenant with God, he was promised him that his offspring would be numerous as the stars.

“And He brought him forth abroad, and said: ‘Look now toward heaven, and count the stars, if thou be able to count them’; and He said unto him: ‘So shall thy seed be.’ Genesis 15:5

Technically, God’s promise has long been fulfilled, as most estimates place the number of visible stars by the naked eye in the night sky at approximately 9,000. However, this verse notes the blossoming of Abraham’s offspring as a sign of God’s covenant, a sign clearly making itself evident in the modern State of Israel.

In the census results released just before Israel Independence Day one month ago, Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics announced that Israel’s Jewish population is close to exceeding 6.5 million, far more than the nighttime stars. This figure is even more remarkable when considering that in 1947, the approximately 630,000 Jews living in the British Mandate represented less than 6 percent of the global Jewish population.

While the Jewish population in Israel has increased more than tenfold in 70 years, the global population of Jews outside of Israel has actually decreased from 10.5 million in 1945 to approximately 9 million today. Israeli Jews now represent over 43 percent of the global Jewish population, and that number is growing. Very soon, the balance will shift, and the majority of the Jews in the world will be found inside the borders of Israel.

This statistic not only emphasizes the growing importance of Israel, but also denotes a major turning point in the Messianic process. Rabbi Hillel Weiss, the spokesman for the nascent Sanhedrin, explained the prophetic and practical implications of the demographic changes.

“In July, the Sanhedrin ruled that the conditions exist to establish that Israel is now in the prophesied third inheritance of the land, the first being by Joshua, the second after the Babylonian exile,” Rabbi Weiss told Breaking Israel News.

The third inheritance refers to the prophesied return of the Jews from the exile that followed the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in 70 CE. Jewish tradition holds that this return will usher in the building of the Third Temple, the return of the Davidic Dynasty, and the messianic era.

Unlike the returns from the previous exiles, the third return is supposed to be final. There is much debate among the Jews as to whether the modern State of Israel represents the fulfillment of this prophecy. The Sanhedrin’s previous ruling was that we are currently in that third return, but the majority of Jews are not yet in Israel. When that eventually happens, it will mean a major shift in the observance of Jewish law.

“For this reason, the Sanhedrin initiated the Biblically mandated commandment of counting the Jubilee,” Rabbi Weiss said. “But when the situation changes and most of the Jews are in Israel, as the statistics seem to indicate will happen shortly, many more aspects of Judaism will change.

“Possibly the biggest change will be the redistribution of land and the return of Jewish tribal identity,”explained Rabbi Weiss.“When most of the Jews live in Israel we will be required to divide the land into tribal territories.”

He cited Ezekiel to illustrate that this is a necessary part of the prophesied redemption.

And it shall come to pass that ye shall divide it by lot for an inheritance unto you and to the strangers that sojourn among you Ezekiel 47:21-22

This may seem an impossible task since most Jews have lost the tradition of identifying them as part of a specific tribe. Rabbi Weiss explained that not only is this possible without divine help, but it will be a legal requirement incumbent upon the rabbis to assign tribal territories, as was done in the time of Joshua.

“We are required to have twelve tribes,” Rabbi Weiss said. “The land will be divided according to the Biblical territories. Every Jew living in that territory will receive an inheritance and be considered as if he is from that tribe.”

“You may have noticed that the books you really love are bound together by a secret thread. You know very well what is the common quality that makes you love them, though you cannot put it into words: but most of your friends do not see it at all, and often wonder why, liking this, you should also like that. Again, you have stood before some landscape, which seems to embody what you have been looking for all your life; and then turned to the friend at your side who appears to be seeing what you saw — but at the first words a gulf yawns between you, and you realise that this landscape means something totally different to him, that he is pursuing an alien vision and cares nothing for the ineffable suggestion by which you are transported. Even in your hobbies, has there not always been some secret attraction which the others are curiously ignorant of — something, not to be identified with, but always on the verge of breaking through, the smell of cut wood in the workshop or the clap-clap of water against the boat’s side? Are not all lifelong friendships born at the moment when at last you meet another human being who has some inkling (but faint and uncertain even in the best) of that something which you were born desiring, and which, beneath the flux of other desires and in all the momentary silences between the louder passions, night and day, year by year, from childhood to old age, you are looking for, watching for, listening for? You have never had it. All the things that have ever deeply possessed your soul have been but hints of it — tantalising glimpses, promises never quite fulfilled, echoes that died away just as they caught your ear. But if it should really become manifest — if there ever came an echo that did not die away but swelled into the sound itself — you would know it. Beyond all possibility of doubt you would say “Here at last is the thing I was made for”. We cannot tell each other about it. It is the secret signature of each soul, the incommunicable and unappeasable want, the thing we desired before we met our wives or made our friends or chose our work, and which we shall still desire on our deathbeds, when the mind no longer knows wife or friend or work. While we are, this is. If we lose this, we lose all.”

– C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

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WND

MANCHESTER ATTACK DESCRIBED AS EXTREME 'WAKE UP'

'Stealth Jihad' author says if violence doesn't do it, 'I don't know what it will take'

Published 24 May, 2017

It’s happened again. Another terrorist who traces his roots to a Muslim nation committed a horrific act of violence against innocent civilians in a Western country.

This time it was a suicide bombing that killed 22 people and injured dozens more at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England. The suspected bomber, 22-year-old Salman Abedi, was the son of two Libyan refugees, according to the London Telegraph.

Leo Hohmann, a WND reporter and editor who has extensively covered Islam and immigration, wonders when Western countries will finally realize they need to reevaluate their legal immigration systems, particularly regarding Muslim countries.

“We’re inviting the enemy into our own camp and then asking all the wrong questions when they do bad things – when they rape us, when they kill us, when they target our little girls now at rock concerts,” Hohmann said. “We ask questions like, how can we beef up our security? How can we change the mindset of these monsters? How can we stop them from doing these unspeakable, horrific things to us, to our families, to our friends?”

Hohmann, author of “Stealth Invasion: Muslim Conquest Through Immigration and the Resettlement Jihad,” noted a Muslim shooter targeted a homosexual nightclub in Orlando last June, and the establishment media asked only how the U.S. could prevent bad guys from getting their hands on guns.

The Manchester bombing victimized many girls and young women, who make up the bulk of Ariana Grande’s fan base. In fact, one of the first victims to be identified was an 8-year-old girl attending the concert with her mother and older sister. The New York Times reported at least 12 children under the age of 16 were among the wounded hospitalized after the attack.

Hohmann pointed out it’s hardly the first time a Muslim attacker has targeted young girls. Dozens of cities across the U.K., most notably Rotherham, have been quietly terrorized by Muslim sex-grooming gangs over the past 20 years. And Hohmann himself blew open the story of an alleged sexual assault by Muslim refugee boys against a 5-year-old special-needs girl in Twin Falls, Idaho.

“What will it take for us to start asking the right questions?” Hohmann wondered. “How do we stop them from coming here? How do we require those who are already here to assimilate and accept our core values of respect for life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness, for people to live as we would expect them to in a free society? If this doesn’t wake people up now that they’re coming for our little girls, I don’t know what it will take.”

He said some people ask the right questions, such as Britain’s Tommy Robinson and Katie Hopkins, but they have both been investigated and/or harassed by the police for their forceful statements against Islamic extremism.

“Rather than ask the right questions, we would rather go after those who do stand up to the violence and do stand up to the raping and brand them as bigots and haters and racists,” Hohmann noted sadly. “This is the MO of the left, whether it be in England, Sweden, Germany or the U.S. It’s all the same.”

It may be that certain elements of the left actually welcome Islamic terror because it serves their larger purposes, according to Hohmann.

“We talk a lot about moderate Muslims, and I’m sure they do exist, but the question is, are they even relevant?” he asked. “It’s the violent ones that are being used by globalists to break down our society, create chaos and fear in the public.”

When people see bombs exploding in concert halls and soccer stadiums and severed body parts flying through the air, it leaves them emotionally scarred for life, Hohmann said.

“That is how you instill fear in a population, not only being there and seeing that but just listening to people who were there and saw that is enough to send shivers down the spine of any person who has life flowing through their veins,” he said.

“Any parent who has ever had a child go to a concert, go to a soccer game, a shopping mall – we can’t be with our children 24/7, so it instills fear, and this is what globalists want. Why? Because then they have us to the point where we beg them for more government control.

“The last thing the globalists want to do is impose a dictatorship upon any country. That has been tried many times and it always fails. But if you can get a population to ask for a dictatorship, to protect them and provide basic security in times of chaos and times of extraordinary fear, that’s a hundred times better if you’re someone like a George Soros or one of these megalomaniacs who seeks complete control over populations.”

He noted London and all the major cities in England are known for being the most surveilled cities in the world.

“They have cameras literally on every corner,” he said. “What good did it do the people of Manchester last night? I’m sure some camera caught this Islamic terrorist with footage that will show him doing his act of jihad, but it sure didn’t save the lives of those 22 women and girls, some who were as young as eight years old who lost their lives. Yet we will ask for more cameras and more tracking devices. What, so we can watch these atrocities play out in real time?”

The U.K.’s Evening Standard reported security services knew about Abedi before he carried out the bombing, but they did not believe he posed an immediate threat. Hohmann seethes whenever he hears that all-too-familiar refrain after an attack.

“This is a broken record, every single time over the last year or two when we’ve had a major terrorist attack or minor terrorist attack it seems like the first thing out of the government’s mouth after the name is released is, ‘Yeah, we knew this man,'” Hohmann said. “But they did nothing to stop him because they were more concerned about the civil rights and civil liberties of the Muslim than the safety and security of the women and children!

“How many more lives are we going to offer up on the altar of this globalist multicultural utopian vision that the left so fancifully describes to us every time they gush about how wonderful refugee resettlement is, how wonderful illegal immigration is? How many more lives? How much more blood needs to be spilled?”

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INDEPENDENT

Jeremy Corbyn to blame terrorist attacks such as Manchester bombing on UK foreign policy

Intelligence experts have linked ‘wars our government has supported or fought in other countries and terrorism here at home’, Labour leader will claim

Rob Merrick

25 May, 2017

The Labour leader has opposed military action in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria PA

Jeremy Corbyn is to take the hugely controversial step of blaming Britain’s foreign wars for terror attacks such as the Manchester suicide bombing.

The Labour leader will claim a link between “wars our government has supported or fought in other countries and terrorism here at home”, as he relaunches his party’s election campaign on Friday after the three-day pause.

Mr Corbyn will stress that his assessment is shared by the intelligence and security services and “in no way reduces the guilt of those who attack our children”.

“Those terrorists will forever be reviled and held to account for their actions,” he will say.

But, vowing to “change what we do abroad”, he will add: “An informed understanding of the causes of terrorism is an essential part of an effective response that will protect the security of our people, that fights rather than fuels terrorism.

“We must be brave enough to admit the ‘war on terror’ is simply not working. We need a smarter way to reduce the threat from countries that nurture terrorists and generate terrorism.”

In the speech, the Labour leader will also link the Manchester atrocity to Theresa May’s failure to ensure “the police have the resources they need”.

“Austerity has to stop at the A&E ward and at the police station door. We cannot be protected and cared for on the cheap,” he will say.

“There will be more police on the streets under a Labour government. And, if the security services need more resources to keep track of those who wish to murder and maim, then they should get them.”

He will also claim, again controversially: “No government can prevent every terrorist attack. If an individual is determined enough and callous enough sometimes they will get through.”

But it is Mr Corbyn’s determination to link the 22 deaths in Manchester with Britain’s involvement in the war on terror that is certain to trigger a furious backlash – including from many Labour candidates.

In the speech, he is not expected to name any specific wars, having – as a backbencher – opposed the conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and against Isis, in Iraq and Syria.

At the Iraq Inquiry in 2010, Baroness Manningham-Buller, the former head of MI5, said the invasion had “substantially” increased the terrorist threat to the UK, by radicalising young people.

However, The Independent understands that Mr Corbyn wishes to draw attention to his March 2011 vote against the Libya bombing – when he was one of just 13 MPs to oppose David Cameron.

After the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi, Libya descended into bloody chaos, with two rival governments and the growing menace of jihadi extremism.

Libyans in the UK, including in Manchester, have spoken of their fear that the growing Islamist radicalisation in their home country was also taking root among refugees who moved here.

And intelligence briefings have suggested Salman Abedi, the Manchester suicide bomber, moved to Libya, before returning to Britain as recently as last week.

But, strikingly, Mr Corbyn will deliver his speech just days after the tragedy and while the police and intelligence services continue to conduct an investigation it is expected to take many months.

His pledge to change foreign policy suggests he would end involvement in air strikes against Isis in Iraq and Syria, where 1,250 British military personnel are stationed.

The contrast with Ms May could not be starker, after she backed Nato becoming a formal member of the coalition fighting in the region.

Mr Corbyn’s speech comes after Ukip claimed the Prime Minister shared the blame for the Manchester attack because she failed to prevent Abedi from returning to Britain.

“It is also a dereliction of duty to allow jihadis to return to this country, including it seems, Monday night’s terrorist,” said Ukip leader Paul Nuttall.

Suzanne Evans, Ukip’s deputy chair, added that Ms May “must bear some responsibility” for the deadly attack, because she forced through police cuts and failed to cut immigration.

Speaking in central London, Mr Corbyn will call for “the solidarity, humanity and compassion that we have seen on the streets of Manchester this week to be the values that guide our government”.

Britain must ensure “we never surrender the freedoms we have won and that terrorists are so determined to take away”, he will add.

The election campaign will get back up to full speed on Friday, after the cross-party agreement to put activities on hold as a mark of respect.

Even without Mr Corbyn’s speech, attention was likely to focus on the stance of the party leaders on security issues, police funding and the terrorist threat.

It may mean less scrutiny of plans for the NHS and social care, just four days after Ms May’s embarrassing U-turn over a cap on care costs and the collapse of her manifesto proposals.

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VT

Syria announces Operation Grand Dawn in the eastern desert against ISIS

By Jim W. Dean, Managing Editor on May 25, 2017

On Thursday, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and its allies announced start of the Operation “Grand Dawn” aimed at liberating the eastern Syrian desert from militants. The “Grand Dawn” operation will reportedly become the biggest operation against ISIS in Syria.

The SAA has already damaged the offensive capabilities of ISIS in central and southern Syria, and prevented the US-led coalition from threatening the capital Damascus.

According to the Hezbolalh media wing in Syria, the SAA and its allies have so far managed to capture more than 1,300 square kilometers in the area between Palmyra city and the eastern Qalamoun area.

The SAA and its allies continued advancing and managed to take full control of the strategic Palmyra-Damascus highway. The SAA liberated the Abu Dali mountain, Thaniat al-Manqora, Kasarat al-Manqora, Thaniat Wadha, Al-Anibah triangle and Kan Atiba.

In the course of its advance, the SAA captured the villages of Sawanah and Khanifis. According to unconfirmed reports, the SAA also managed to capture the village of Olayana south of Palmyra after the withdrawal of the Syrian Free Army (FSA) from it.

Through this great advance, the SAA has eliminated ISIS forces between the southern Palmyra countryside and eastern Qalamoun. Moreover, it has besieged Jaish al-Islam militants in eastern Qalamoun ,as well as foiled a possible Free Syrian Army advance towards Damascus.

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MailOnline

Nearly seven million migrants are 'waiting to cross into Europe': Leaked report warns of new crisis but Brussels insists the situation is under control

• Millions of asylum seekers are waiting to cross into Europe, leaked report says

• Confidential report says there 2.5million waiting in war-torn North Africa

• Surge has led to 1,200 deaths so far this year as gangs use ruthless tactics

By MARIO LEDWITH FOR THE DAILY MAIL

PUBLISHED: 21:45, 23 May 2017 | UPDATED: 08:54, 24 May 2017

More than six million asylum seekers are waiting to cross into Europe, a leaked intelligence report warns.

There has been a huge increase in the number of migrants hoping to reach EU countries, it says – contradicting claims from Brussels that the situation is under control.

The confidential report, leaked to German newspaper Bild, claims 6.6million migrants are waiting in countries around the Mediterranean sea to cross into Europe, including 2.5million in war-torn North Africa.

Risking their lives: Migrants trying to reach Italy await rescue from a sinking boat in April 2016

This year has already seen record numbers of African migrants making the perilous journey across the Mediterranean, with Italy the frontline of the crisis.

The surge has led to more than 1,200 deaths so far this year as smuggling gangs, largely operating in lawless Libya, resort to increasingly ruthless tactics. Charities have warned there could be even higher numbers making the crossing in the coming months.

The report, which is yet to be verified, warns the number waiting to cross into Europe has risen by 650,000 since the end of January alone – an increase of 12 per cent.

One million are living in Libya, it says, while around 3.3million of the total are currently in Turkey.

That figure has previously been disclosed by authorities. Of these, nearly 3 million are Syrians, including more than 1.3 million children, while the other 310,000 are mostly from Iraq and Afghanistan, according to UNICEF.

The number of those waiting in Turkey has remained relatively stable for 18 months but continues to put a strain on the country.

EU leaders have boasted that a controversial deal with Turkey which bolstered the country’s coastguard and saw sprawling migrant camps set up there has largely stemmed the flow of migrants making their way into Europe.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel reportedly plans to request similar deals with North African countries in a manifesto ahead of September’s election, according to Bild.

It will include plans for those who are rescued from drowning while attempting the crossing to be returned to the country from which they set out.

According to the report, another 1million are waiting in Egypt, 430,000 in Algeria, 160,000 in Tunisia, and 50,000 in Morocco. Others are waiting in transit countries along the route, with up to 720,000 in Jordan.

Mrs Merkel’s open-door migration policy led to a wave of criticism in 2015. While she has recently enjoyed success in the polls, another migrant surge could prove politically challenging.

Last year huge numbers of asylum seekers tried to reach Italy, with many losing their lives as boats

sank along the way. This year the number attempting the crossing has already surged by 42 per cent – 44,222 compared to 31,205.

There have been disturbing claims that the mafia in Sicily – where many migrants arrive – are siphoning huge sums of public money allocated to address the issue.

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EXPRESS

Spain in CRISIS as Catalonia says it will declare independence WITHOUT referendum

CATALONIA’s government has reportedly drafted a secret independence bill to break away from Spain, regardless of whether or not the country holds a referendum.

By SOFIA PETKAR AND MARIA ORTEGA

May 22, 2017

The pro-independence Catalan government, known as the Generalitat, is currently locked in a battle with Madrid over its demands for an independence vote.

According to reports in Spain’s El Pais, the Generalitat’s bill indicates its intention to move towards independence even if the Spanish government forbids it from holding a referendum.

Catalan's ruling coalition promised a vote on the matter would be held no later than September this year.

Similar to Scotland’s independence referendum ballot, the ballot paper would hold just one question: “Should Catalonia be an independent state from Spain?”.

Reports suggest there will be no minimum participation threshold, and the result would be binding, coming into force within 48 hours after adoption.

According to El Pais, the document defines the status of the Catalan citizens, the procedure of obtaining citizenship, as well as which Spanish laws would remain in force after the region's secession.

The draft suggests Catalan citizenship would be granted to every Spanish citizen residing in a Catalan municipality for at least one year, or can prove a minimum of two continuous years of residency in the region in the past.

In both cases, the applicant will not have to relinquish their Spanish citizenship.

The Catalan draft law also envisages establishing a republic, taking immediate control of the judiciary in the region and seizing state property in Catalonia.

Spain’s constitution does not allow for secession, and relations between the two governments have soured greatly over the issue in recent years.

Earlier this year, a federal court barred former Catalan President Artur Mas and two other former officials from public office for holding a symbolic independence referendum in 2014.

The trio were also fined thousands of euros.

However, the results revealed a staggering 80 per cent majority backed independence.

Following the leaking of the secretly drafted bill, Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy accused Catalonia’s President Carles Puigdemont of blackmailing the state.

Mr Rajoy said the alleged plan was "intolerable," labelling it the most serious incident he had seen in his career.

He went on to demand that Mr Puigdemont present his secession proposal before Parliament and explain why is "threatening and blackmailing the state."

Mr Rajoy, Spain’s conservative prime minister, has said in the past that while he is willing to negotiate possible alterations to the relationship between the national and Catalan administrations, he will not discuss changes to Spain's constitution.

Catalonia, whose capital is Barcelona, represents a fifth of Spain's GDP, and is one of Spain’s richest and most highly industrialised regions.

Like other regions in Spain, Catalonia already has the power to run its educational and healthcare systems, as well as limited freedoms in the area of taxation.

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RT

Roads & pensions swept up in Puerto Rico’s $123bn bankruptcy

Published time: 22 May, 2017

Puerto Rico’s bankruptcy process has spread to the territory’s pension system and highway authority, bringing the amount involved to over $120 billion and far exceeding the previous municipal bankruptcy record.

The Employees Retirement System (ERS) and the Highways and Transportation Authority (HTA) were added to the proceedings already involving the territory’s government and the island’s sales tax financing corporation (COFINA).

Puerto Rico and its agencies are roughly $74 billion in debt. While there are conflicting estimates about the gap between the ERS assets and promises, Puerto Rico officials estimated the pension fund’s unfunded liabilities at around $45 billion, with another $3 billion owed to bond-holders. The highway agency is another $6.3 billion in debt, $1.8 billion of which is owed to Puerto Rico’s industrial development bank which is itself insolvent.

The amounts involved are far greater than the previous record for municipal bankruptcy in the US, set by the $18 billion Chapter 9 claim by Detroit, Michigan in 2013.

Unlike Detroit, however, Puerto Rico is restructuring its debt under a special law enacted by President Barack Obama in 2016, known as PROMESA (Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act), which appointed a special oversight board to help the island territory cope with its debt burden.

“This is part of a court-supervised process within a framework that provides for an orderly restructuring of the debt of each entity and allows as much creditor consensus as possible," said a spokesman for Puerto Rico's fiscal agency FAFAA, according to the Wall Street Journal.

US District Judge Laura Swain Taylor is presiding over the process.

The oversight body has signaled that it wants more of the restructuring burden to fall on creditors, according to the Journal, proposing a 10 percent cut in pension benefits. The island’s creditors are also fighting each other over priority in getting repaid while the island’s officials are seeking greater financial flexibility.

Recent data shows unemployment on the island above 12 percent. With 45 percent of the population living in poverty, hundreds of Puerto Ricans are moving to the US mainland every day.

Acquired from Spain in 1898, Puerto Rico is an unincorporated US territory in the Caribbean Sea, with a population of roughly 3.5 million. All Puerto Ricans are considered natural born US citizens, but they cannot vote in the presidential elections and the territory does not have representation in Congress. A referendum scheduled for June 2017 will offer the residents a choice between statehood, independence and current status.

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NaturalBlaze

Remarkable Beach Cleanup Removes 5.3 Million Kg Of Trash, Transforms Coastline

May 24, 2017

By Anna Hunt

This is one of the most dramatic beach makeovers, ever. Over a span of 85 weeks, resident volunteers in north western Mumbai, India, transformed Versova beach from one of the most littered to absolutely stunning. The beach cleanup removed 5.3 million kilograms of trash, which is over half of the daily garbage generated by Mumbai.

Versova beach before cleanup – Mumbai, India

Versova beach after cleanup – Mumbai, India

Largest Beach Cleanup Movement in History

Local attorney Afroz Shah started this remarkable beach cleanup effort in October, 2015. He received much support from Versova residents, students, businesses, and civic employees. In addition, the movement gained the attention of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

What became the Versova Resident Volunteers group collected over 5 million kilograms of trash, including plastic, glass and other debris. In addition to their work on the beach, volunteers cleaned up many creeks that feed into the ocean. As a result of his leadership in this cleanup effort, Shah received the UN’s top environmental award, Champions of the Earth.

After 85 weeks of collaboration and hard work on the part of thousands of volunteers, Shah was able to Tweet the successful completion of Versova’s remarkable beach cleanup.

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Almondtree Productions

“Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.”

(Proverbs 3:7-8)