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desiringGod

Worthless Penny, Priceless Worship
A Story from the African Church

December 27, 2016

Article by Nik Ripken

Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. And he said, “Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.” —Luke 21:1–4

Missionaries are not immune to pity parties, and I was having a big one.

It was so hot where we lived in South Africa that before bed, we would moisten our sheets, take a shower, and jump into bed a little wet so that we could be cool for a few hours. The dust was so prevalent that it could find its way into a sealed jar! We cooked our food outside so as not to make the house even more unbearable.

We had a generator in a nearby building to pump water up into our storage tank and to have electricity for a few hours in the mornings and evenings. We had to drive hours through the mountains from our small town to a city where we could buy groceries and eat out in one of the city’s two restaurants.

We were such an oddity that people would walk from outlying villages into our small town just to see the white people. For the first fourteen months, we had people constantly in our house sharing both lunch and evening meals. We had a 1960s telephone that we had to crank the handle in order to “book” any calls we wanted to make through the local post office. Those who booked the calls became very fond of my wife’s sandwiches, cookies, and other treats.

We were weary, hot, sleep-deprived, tired of company, out of groceries, and daily I was complaining to God about all that we had to sacrifice in order to take the gospel to this particular end of the earth. Our boys thought we were on a great adventure, but I tired of this relentless camp-out and could easily list what we had given up to serve in this place. I envied my wife’s smile as she greeted the endless stream of guests in our home and around our table.

Thankfully our next weekend of ministry was a six-hour trip into the mountains bordering South Africa and Lesotho. A home had been arranged to host us. Beds had been borrowed so that we would not have to sleep on the floor, and we were looking forward to the higher elevation with mild days and cool nights.

Small Gift, Large Amount

Typical Christian worship in these small, rural churches was at least a four-hour affair. They were so thrilled to meet us, especially our boys. Our three sons had their white skin pinched and their blonde hair rubbed repeatedly by village children. I sometimes envied our sons their freedom to run through the village with other kids as we sat for hours as honored guests in every church or home we visited.

After hours of worship one day, I was happy to announce that our mission board back home in the States had granted the churches of our host country $10,000 to provide Bibles, train leaders, and start Bible studies in homes. Our sponsoring churches would not feel the loss of this amount of money, and perhaps that contributed to my slightly cavalier presentation.

But I have no excuse. I should have known better. We knew that most of our audience made only one dollar per day — if they had a paying job. For them, $10,000 was a staggering amount of money. And in the context of apartheid, this sum was overshadowed by the fact that white Christians cared enough to give black Christians a significant gift. Given this context, $10,000 seemed like a massively sacrificial gift. Because I had placed my cultural awareness in neutral, I was not prepared for what happened following my almost throwaway announcement.

A spontaneous offering broke out — and it lasted over three hours.

The whole church began to clap and sing, with the women making a trilling sound with their tongues (called “ululation”) that I have been unable to emulate for 32 years. They began to dance in groups of four to six. With mesmerizing grace, they would dance toward the handmade altar-table at the front of the church. They would sway together in rhythm, two steps forward and one step back, slowly making their way toward the front. Moving in harmony before the offering table, hiding money in their hands, they would mimic placing their money on the table and pull it away until, at a moment known only to them, they’d slap their money on the table. It was worship at its best. There was a joy of giving that was immeasurable.

Kids began to beg money from adults. They would take whatever change they received, run to the tiny store next door, and exchange their money for even smaller coins, so that they could dance to the altar with their coins multiple times.

Worthless Gift, Inestimable Value

Caught up in the exuberance of the moment, I noticed an old woman sitting by herself, seemingly unaffected by the joy of giving that surrounded her. After nearly two hours of spontaneous offering, this woman finally stood up and started making her way to the front of the church. She was aged, with wrinkled flesh, arthritic fingers, and a look of deep concern and determination on her face. She was too crippled to dance and too focused to sing.

As she limped toward the altar, she reached into the front of her blouse and took out a knotted handkerchief. With crooked fingers and teeth, she slowly unknotted her handkerchief to reveal a small coin. When she reached the altar-table, she slowly laid her coin on the rough wood. She stood by herself for a moment and seemed to caress the coin before slowly walking back to her bench.

After hours of spontaneous offering, I went up to the front of the church with one of the leaders. I picked up the coin she had given. I had never seen such a copper coin in the seven years we’d lived in South Africa. I gave it to the leader, telling him who had given it, and asked him if he knew what it was. He stared at me before taking the coin and walking back where the old woman was still sitting. After about ten minutes, he returned with her story.

All to Jesus

What she had given was a British halfpenny. It was her life’s savings and retirement fund. It was all that she had. What she did not know was that this coin was taken out of circulation in 1967. It had no value. It could buy nothing. Knotted in a handkerchief, stored in the front of her blouse, this coin had measured her hope for the future.

Still she gave it all to Jesus.

With the leaders’ blessing, I took that halfpenny, after placing a significant offering in her honor on that scarred table, and I’ve kept that coin for almost thirty years as a reminder. After hearing her story, we wanted so much to empty our pockets to help this old lady for her retirement. The local leader asked us to leave her alone. “Don’t you cheat her out of giving everything she has to Jesus. Don’t cheapen her sacrifice. She belongs to us and we will care for her. We will tell her story of sacrifice, and it will live for generations in this village.”

Ten thousand dollars was a generous gift from believers in America. Yet a worthless, British halfpenny taught me about sacrifice and giving all to Jesus, trusting him for the days to come. I can still see that old woman in my mind’s eye today. I recall the way she limped, and the difficulty she had unknotting her handkerchief. I remember the shock I felt after learning about her sacrifice — and her trust in God for all tomorrow would hold.

I’ve often heard “You can’t out-give God.” I’m not even going to try. I can’t out-give that old woman in the mountains of South Africa and Lesotho.

Dear Friends,

Greetings! It has been almost one and a half years since we sent out a very similar request.

We want to inform our readers a little bit about what goes into the making of this web site each week.

To begin, depending upon the amount of material being processed, each week it will take from twenty-five to forty hours by the time People of the Keys is updated each Friday or Saturday, depending on which part of the world you are reading and downloading the material from on the site.

Generally, we present between ten to twenty articles each week, sometimes more, occasionaly less. For those who are familiar with the website you will have noticed that we open with articles that pertain to, for want of a better word, “religious topics”, especially articles that deal with prophetic and end time events as related in the Bible and our understanding of how these events corralate with Bible prophecy.

The person who compiles these articles has studied Bible prophecy for over forty-five years and continues to stay in touch with all the latest activities of the worlds leading Bible prophecy experts, meeting with many of them personally. He has also written several original publications including the one that was the basis for the documentary “The Coming Temple”. The documentary included interviews with the world's foremost authorities on the subject and has had almost 70,000 views on two locations on Youtube.

It has also been shown in numerous private screenings, espically in Israel, and is presently being translated into the Slovak language. There is also soon to be a push to get the documentary to the Christian community in South Africa.

Following the introductory “religious articles” we generally post articles more of a political nature, but again, normally showing how current events are related to Biblical prophecy.

A example of this is the ongoing war in Syria involving Russia, Iran, Israel, Turkey, etc. all of which figure in end time events and the eventual battle of Armageddon.

The third general area of articles we cover each week could be human interest, or possibly lighter articles, and we generally try to end with something relevant about nutrition or health matters.

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Toward the end of the week, generally on Thursday, a list of the individual articles is made and put into the order we would like them to appear on People of the Keys.

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On Friday, we upload the completed document, and add any relevant articles from the morning of Friday. We put the document in html format to the site and upload the photos.

The photos are then inserted into the article from which they were originally taken. We try to make every article appear as close as it did in its original format.

All the articles, photos, videos, and music are then proof read two more times for errors. Occasionally, an error still gets through but then again we have had to correct misspelling in several major newspapers.

We then set the time for the new material to appear online. We have at this point still not given the weeks presentation a name, because the introduction has not yet been completed and proof read. We pray for an appropriate introductory verse that will represent the weeks introduction and take the title from the verse.

The title and closing is then inserted into the document, and given its name.

We also make sure a new Activated magazine is added each month and continue to maintain the “Studies” and “Letters” sections.

The web site itself is maintained by an individual who lives in a different country from the editor of People of the Keys. He has a full time secular job as a top programmer with a large printing firm and donates his time to maintain the People of the Keys web site.

Why are we relating all this to you?

If you value this web site and find it useful to you and others, we need your help to continue on. It is very much our burden and desire to continue to bring you People of the Keys. Everyone involved with People of the Keys is a volunteer who donates the time they put into its production.

We should mention here that we are very thankful for those of you who have helped in the past, some we know to their own hurt. God bless you!

What we need are people who will pledge on a regular monthly basis or even help with a one time donation. We understand completely that some are in situations or countries that make this difficult.

Our budget is very low for all that is involved.

Will you help us? It has been almost one and a half years since we made a similar appeal.

We have a Paypal account on People of the Keys web site or if you would like to recommend some other method that would be easier for you we would be happy to look at alternative methods for receiving donations.

Thanks for taking the time to read this introduction and explanation of all that we do here. Keep us in your prayers ...we need them. God bless you.

People of the Keys

PS: Below is a screen shot of what went in to making last weeks publication. This does not include material that was viewed but not downloaded. It is listed by types of files. Not everything listed was used.

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BREAKINGISRAELNEWS

Arch of Ba’al, With Shadowy Ties to New World Order, May Be Messiah’s End-of-Days Gateway: Rabbi

By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz

May 29, 2017

“For he built again the high places which Chizkiyahu his father had destroyed; and he reared up altars for Baal.” II Kings 21:3 (The Israel Bible™)

A pagan arch erected in Italy one month before the meeting of the world’s most powerful leaders in the same country may be the portal whose opening could usher in the age of the Messiah – or a sinister World Order, a prominent rabbi has claimed.

The rabbi believes that the two events – the unveiling last month of a replica of the Palmyra Arch, a symbol of paganism and idol worship, and the recent G7 summit, representing the coming together of world powers – are deeply and troublingly connected.

“This arch brings together all the necessary elements for the New World Order,” explained Rabbi Daniel Assur, a member of the nascent Sanhedrin, to Breaking Israel News. “If you look at where this arch has appeared, it is clearly a pattern moving towards a specific goal: Messiah. The question is, whose Messiah will it be?”

The structure is a reproduction of a Roman victory arch built in Palmyra, Syria at the end of the second century CE. Originally it stood in front of a Roman temple where pagans worshiped the Mesopotamian god, Bel, also known as Ba’al, in a form of idol worship that figures prominently in the Bible. The original arch was destroyed by the Islamic State (ISIS) in 2015, but one year later, the Institute for Digital Archaeology used 3-D printing technology to reproduce a 20-foot full-scale replica.

The reproduction, which has traveled around the world to grace a number of events – each related to a concentration of global world power – was erected in Florence, Italy, one month ago as part of the first-ever Cultural Summit of the G7. This meeting was a prelude to the annual summit that brings together the leaders of the world’s seven major advanced economies. The seven entities, representing more than 64 percent of the net global wealth, came together last Friday in Taormina, Italy.

Rabbi Assur explained that this connection to Ba’al was essential to the New World Order, and was therefore necessary to elements in the G7 seeking world domination.

“The New World Order is not a secular, atheist movement,” explained Rabbi Assur. “They combine worship of Ba’al with worship of the Egyptian god, Isis, and also the true name of God. They need to bring together all of these elements.”

Rabbi Assur added that changes within Christianity, specifically Catholicism, are part of the battle against the New World Order. This was one of his motives for participating in the Sanhedrin’s trial against Pope Francis in 2015.

“The culture of paganic Rome is taking over Christianity,” he argued. “Christianity must be taken back from Roman culture, which is paganism.”

The arch, originally reconstructed for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Heritage week in England, also relates to the New World Order’s designs on the Holy Temple and the name of the Jewish God, the rabbi said.

“UNESCO, as part of the New World Order, has to usurp the true name of God,” Rabbi Assur explained. “It is towards this end that UNESCO is working towards changing the name and history of the Temple Mount, in order to control the original name of the Jewish God. That is why they made the most absurd claims about the holy places in Israel, but the power of the New World Order is real, so they were successful, despite their obvious lies.”

Rabbi Assur said that the arch’s role in bringing the Messiah was explicitly described in the Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin (78a).

The disciples of Rabbi Yossi the son of Kisma questioned him, asking when the son of David (the Messiah) will appear. And he answered: I am afraid you will request from me a sign as well. And they assured him that they would not. He then said to them: When this gate will fall, be rebuilt and fall again, be rebuilt again and fall again. And before it will be rebuilt for the third time the Messiah will appear.

Revered Jewish scholar Rashi, a medieval rabbi who authored a canonical commentary on the Torah, wrote that the arch mentioned by Rabbi Yossi was “a Roman arch in a Roman city”.

Rabbi Assur explained that when the Talmud describes the gate falling, it is not referring to an intentional act of deconstruction, but to the powers of evil triumphing over those who serve the true God, symbolized by the Arch of Palmyra.

“There is no question that the arch is the portal for a new world that the Talmud is speaking about. If the New World Order succeeds, then they will rule, God forbid,” Rabbi Assur said. “But if the Moshiach ben David (Messiah from the House of David) comes through the portal, he will rule over them, over the New World Order.”

The first modern reappearance of the Arch of Palmyra was in London’s Trafalgar Square in April 2016, when it was rected for(UNESCO) World Heritage Week. The unveiling coincided with the beginning of a 13-day period known in the occult as “the Blood Sacrifice to the Beast”, the most important holiday for those who worship the god Ba’al, celebrated with child sacrifice and bisexual orgies.

In February, the arch was assembled again as the centerpiece for the World Government Summit in Dubai, an international meeting of global leaders to discuss policy.

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LIFE SITE

Priest: Pope’s ambiguity a ‘true blessing’ because it draws false Church out of shadows

by Pete Baklinski

ROME, May 24, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) -- Pope Francis’ influence in the Catholic Church has been a “great and true blessing” since his ambiguous teachings have drawn the “anti-Church” out of the shadows into clear view for all the faithful to see, a priest told a gathering of pro-life and pro-family leaders in Rome last week.

“The advent of Pope Francis has, in the divine order of things, proved a great and true blessing,” Fr. Linus Clovis of Family Life International said in his talk at the Rome Life Forum on May 18.

“A hidden conflict has been raging in the Church for over one hundred years…Under Francis, the first Jesuit pope, the first pope from the Americas and the first pope whose priestly ordination was in the New Rite, it is now full blown, with the potential of rendering the Church smaller but more faithful,” he added.

Clovis said that St. John Paul II’s 1976 prophetic warning about the rise of an “anti-Church” that would preach an “anti-Gospel” is being fulfilled today by leaders within the Catholic Church, even at the highest levels.

The anti-Gospel of the anti-Church is often “indistinguishable from secular ideology, which has overturned both the natural law and the Ten Commandments,” he said.

“This anti-Gospel, which seeks to elevate the individual’s will to consume, to pleasure and to power over the will of God, was rejected by Christ when tempted in the wilderness. Disguised as ‘human rights,’ it has reappeared, in all its luciferian hubris, to promulgate a narcissistic, hedonistic attitude that rejects any constraint except that imposed by man-made laws,” he added.

Clovis said that while the rise of the anti-Church has been happening slowly but steadily over the past decades, its emergence has been especially noticeable in the last few years.

“For the past half-century, there has been a growing crisis in the Church, arising as much from a lack of clear and unambiguous teaching, as from the climate of dissent among priests, religious and laity. Within the contemporary Church, the crisis has been brought to fever pitch, if not breaking point, by the rejection of Our Lord’s yes/no paradigm and the undermining of established doctrinal positions by protean pastoral practises,” he said.

The priest noted that there is a sense among faithful Catholics that “things ecclesiastic and catholic are falling apart and a pastoral anarchy has been loosed upon the Church.” He said that a “hidden exercise of power” is currently at work within the Church that is fueling such anarchy.

“[It] can reform the marriage annulment process without the customary consultation of the appropriate Roman dicasteries; issue a broad and scathing rebuke of the Roman Curia in a Christmas address; purge a dicastery’s membership, which effectively vitiate the influence of its Prefect who had stood firmly against innovations injurious both to the teachings on marriage and to the tenets of the liturgy; cripple the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate; and shut down the Melbourne campus of the John Paul II Institute,” he said.

The priest warned how the anti-Church will try to deceive the faithful by passing itself off as the true Church.

“It is self-evident that the Catholic Church and the anti-Church currently co-exist in the same sacramental, liturgical and juridical space. The latter, having grown stronger, is now attempting to pass itself off as the true Church, all the better to induct, or coerce, the faithful into becoming adherents, promoters and defenders of a secular ideology,” he said.

“Should the anti-Church succeed in commandeering all the space of the true Church, the rights of man will supplant the rights of God through the desecration of the sacraments, the sacrilege of the sanctuary, and the abuse of apostolic power,” he added.

The faithful will know the anti-Church by its fruits, he said. It will allow politicians who “vote for abortion and same-sex ‘marriage’” to receive Holy Communion. It will likewise admit to the sacraments husbands and wives who have “abandoned their spouses and children and entered into adulterous relationships.” In the anti-Church, priests and theologians who “publicly reject Catholic doctrines and morals will be at liberty to exercise ministry and to spread dissent, while faithful Catholics will be marginalised, maligned and discredited at every turn.”

In the anti-Church, he said, it will appear as if it had succeeded in “dethroning God as Creator, Saviour and Sanctifier and replacing Him with man the self-creator, the self-saviour and the self-sanctifier.”

Clovis said that Francis’ most recent Exhortation Amoris Laetitia is an example of a force at work within the Church today that helps establish the dividing line between the anti-Church and the true Church of Jesus Christ. It has emboldened the anti-Church to come out of the shadows.

“The Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia is the catalyst that has divided not only bishops and Episcopal Conferences from each other but, priests from their bishops and from each other, and the laity, anxious and confused,” he said.

“As a Trojan horse, Amoris Laetitia spells spiritual ruin for the entire Church. As a gauntlet thrown down it calls for courage in overcoming fear. In either case, it is now poised to separate the anti-Church of which St. John Paul II spoke from the Church that Christ founded. As the separation begins to take place, each one of us, like the angels, will have to decide for himself whether he would rather be wrong with Lucifer than right without him,” he added.

The priest said that Catholics seeking to be faithful to Christ and the Church he founded need not be afraid of the present turmoil they are witnessing.

“At Baptism we became members of the Church Militant and, at Confirmation, soldiers of Christ; we, therefore, have been recruited and armed for deadly combat against the three implacable enemies of our souls: the world, the flesh and the devil,” he said.

“Recognising that ‘we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places,’ we fight, like the Apostles, taking the martyrs for our models and Christ Jesus, Himself as our reward,” he added.

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Neon Nettle

Putin On Terror Attacks: This Is The New World Orders Final Stage

Elites 70-year master plan for Europe
By: Daniel Newton |@NeonNettle on 26th May 2017 @ 12.54pm
Vladimir Putin has warned that this is a just a manifestation of the New World Order masterplan
Following the recent spate of terror attacks across Europe, countries are now bracing themselves for the next wave of attacks, but Vladimir Putin has warned that this is a just a manifestation of the New World Order's' “70-year master plan for Europe“.Putin told the Kremlin group: “The New World Order put hornet nests in your countries,” adding “And now they are poking them.”After the recent Manchester attacks which left 22 dead, the UK is now seeing martial law being implemented on their streets along with the likes of Sweden and Germany suffering huge breakdowns of law and order due to the migrant crisis.YNW reports: The New World Order’s plan to fill Western nations with radical Islamic immigrants – against the will of the citizens of these countries – and then unleash hell on earth by “poking them“, has been achieved.Putin believes that rejecting the open border policies forced on European nations must be rejected if the continent is to have any chance of a peaceful future.
“My European brothers and sisters must reject the globalist open border policies being pushed onto them by the elite.”There is no place for sovereign nations in the globalists’ vision of the future, according to Putin. And the Russian president pointed the finger of blame directly at the Rothschilds and their cabal of international elites.“The Rothschild-cabal have infiltrated your government, your media, your banking institutions. They are no longer content with committing atrocities in the Middle East, they are now doing it on their own soil, desperate to complete the plan for a one world government, world army, complete with a world central bank.“They think they can do this by terrorising you into submission. Scaring you into accepting whatever new laws they will put in place to protect you.”Putin issued a call to arms, urging Europeans to reject the siren call of the globalists and their death cult.“They [Europeans] must rise up against their masters, who have long since stopped serving the people, and demand their voices are heard.“The governments of the west are no longer hiding their true intentions. You can see the horror that lies beneath their mask. Keep your eyes on them. Don’t fall for their tricks.“Russia will not stand by and allow its European cousins to be slaughtered and dehumanised like this. The battle is over. The war has begun. Truth and justice will prevail.“

(We have been unable to confirm the veracity of this article by a second news account. ED)

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BREAKINGISRAELNEWS

Jewish Priests, Biblical Status Confirmed By DNA, Ready to Prepare for Third Temple

By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz

“But the Kohanim the Leviim the sons of Tzadok that kept the charge of My sanctuary when the children of Yisrael went astray from Me they shall come near to Me to minister unto Me; and they shall stand before Me to offer unto Me the fat and the blood saith the Lord GOD.” Ezekiel 44:15 (The Israel Bible™)

The priests (Kohanim) gather in the Holy Temple with the High Priest (screenshot)
In a powerful blend of science and religion, a rabbi has turned to genetics to reinstate the priesthood for the Third Temple. This rabbi believes that science has proven that the priesthood is exactly as the Bible described: An eternal covenant that will reappear to herald in the Third Temple.

“Genetics connects modern Judaism to the Bible, confirming 3,000 years of Jewish tradition,” explained Rabbi Yaakov Kleiman to Breaking Israel News. “This is an amazing testament to God’s covenant and the Jewish People. Despite more than 2,000 years of exile we have maintained our religion, our customs, our Torah, and our genetic identity.”

Manifesting prophecy is Rabbi Kleiman’s daily work. He opened the Center for Kohanim in Jerusalem nine years ago as a practical endeavor, and has authored a book on DNA evidence of the priesthood. Kohanim, or priests, are Jewish men believed to be descendants of Aaron, the first high priest of Israel. The Temple service may only be performed by kohanim.

In his effort to designate priestly candidates, Rabbi Kleiman has turned to genetics as an aid. This tools first became available 20 years ago when genetic researchers in Haifa discovered a Y chromosome, a genetic marker passed from father to son, that indicated a common ancestry for Jewish men whose family traditions hold that they are descended from the Biblical priestly class.

Rabbi Kleiman is using this science for a purpose the researchers probably had not envisioned: to help prepare for the Third Temple.

“According to prophecy, there will be a Third Temple, and when there is, we will need to identify the priests,” Rabbi Kleiman explained to Breaking Israel News. “Kohanim are the manpower of the Temple. Without them, it is an empty building.”

“But the Kohanim the Leviim the sons of Tzadok that kept the charge of My sanctuary when the children of Yisrael went astray from Me they shall come near to Me to minister unto Me; and they shall stand before Me to offer unto Me the fat and the blood saith the Lord GOD. Ezekiel 44:15

As a kohen himself, Rabbi Kleiman has a personal interest in the work. He is essentially tracing his own family tree back 106 generations. For him and other kohanim, the results have prophetic implications.

The rabbi noted that this genetic phenomenon represents scientific proof of the most long-lasting unbroken tradition known to modern man. He attributes this to the eternal aspect of the priestly covenant described in the Bible.

“This scientific proof is an affirmation that, as the Torah said, the priestly covenant would be eternal,” the rabbi said, citing the Book of Numbers.

“And it shall be unto him, and to his seed after him, the covenant of an everlasting priesthood. Numbers 25:13

Priests are a subset of the Tribe of Levi, but this genetic tool has proven ineffective in identifying the Levites, who also have a role in the Temple.

“Levi is the same concept and you would expect the same genetic markers but there is not the same percentage of the J group, the genetic marker showing that Jews originated in the Middle East. This indicated that the tradition of being a Levi is not as strong as that of kohanim,” Rabbi Kleiman explained.

He speculated that the rituals and the stringencies connected with being a kohen strengthened the tradition. Kohanim are forbidden from marrying converts or divorcees. Also, the public nature and honor associated with giving the priestly blessing in synagogue make identifying kohanim a significant part of the Jewish community.

Similarly, genetics has been unable to find markers for the individual tribes of Israel.

Though “Jews have genetic markers that show that they are from the Middle East,” Rabbi Kleiman explained, “There were many different nations living in the region. Even if we can show a common ancestry with Abraham, he had two sons. We can show a common ancestry but are unable to find markers for specific tribal haplotypes (genes passed from father to son).”

The rabbi noted that genetics will not have the final word. According to Jewish tradition, Elijah the prophet will appear before the Messiah to clarify precisely this issue: who is a priest and who is not, and the tribe to which each Jew belongs.

“Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of Hashem. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers; lest I come and smite the land with utter destruction. Malachi 3:23

Nonetheless, the rabbi does not feel that this final clarification will render his work futile. He hopes that when Elijah arrives, the genetically verified kohanim will already be hard at work in the Third Temple.

“When Elijah arrives, If he wants the DNA information, we will be happy to give it to him,” Rabbi Kleiman joked. “But he will probably be making his determinations based on a higher source.”

(Jesus was, of course, the Jewish Messiah. “But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed.” Matthew 17:12 “And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and compassion: and they shall look upon me, because they have mocked me, [pierced KJV] and they shall make lamentation for him, as for a beloved friend, and they shall grieve intensely, as for a firstborn son.” Zachriah 12:10 “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” John 14:6)

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INDEPENDENT

Nasa partner Robert Bigelow says he is 'absolutely convinced' aliens are currently living on Earth

Extraterrestrials (demons - Ed)are living right under our noses, apparently

Andrew Griffin

30 May, 2017

Humans won’t have to leave Earth to meet extraterrestrials, the billionaire has saidGetty

One of Nasa’s partners has said that he is “absolutely convinced” aliens exist – and that they are living on Earth right now.

Robert Bigelow, an entrepreneur who is working closely with Nasa on future space missions, has suggested that he knows that our planet has an alien presence that is “right under our noses”.

Mr Bigelow made the announcement during an episode of the show 60 Minutes that focused on his work with the space agency.

His company, Bigelow Aerospace, is developing an expendable craft for humans that can inflate and might provide the space habitats of the future.

They have already been tested out in journeys to the International Space Station. And the two organisations are working on further co-operation.

But during that episode Mr Bigelow began to talk about his belief in aliens – and his claim that UFOs have come to Earth and extraterrestrials have an “existing presence” here.

“I’m absolutely convinced [that aliens exist],” he told reporter Lara Logan. “That’s all there is to it.”

Asked by Ms Logan whether he also thought that UFOs had come to Earth, he said he did.

“There has been and is an existing presence, an ET presence,” Mr Bigelow said. “And I spent millions and millions and millions – I probably spent more as an individual than anybody else in the United States has ever spent on this subject.”

Ms Logan then asked if Mr Bigelow thought it was “risky” to say that he believes such things. He said that he doesn't care what people think because it wouldn't “change the reality of what I know”.

Mr Bigelow didn't give any details about whether the research and private space travel that he is funding had revealed anything about aliens to him.

But he said that the hugely expensive work his company and Nasa are doing won’t be required to meet them – he said that people “don’t have to go anywhere”, because the aliens are “right under people’s noses”.

***

<

p>teleSUR

Syria’s Assad Just Explained How America Really Works

By Brandon Turbeville, Bashar al Assad, and Telesur

(TS): Mr. President, thank you for receiving us.

President Bashar al-Assad (BA): I welcome you and teleSUR TV in Syria. You are welcome.

TS: Let’s start directly with the latest developments. Russia has warned that there might be other alleged chemical attacks. What are the precautionary measures that Syria has taken in order to prevent that?

BA: First of all, terrorists have used chemical materials more than once in the past several years and in more than one region throughout Syria. We have asked the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to send specialized missions to investigate what happened. And every time, the United States obstructed these investigations or prevented sending such missions in order to carry out such investigations. This is what happened last week when we called for investigations over the alleged use of chemical weapons in the town of Khan Sheikhoun. The United States and its allies prevented OPCW from taking that decision. As far as we are concerned, we still insist on an investigation, and we and our Russian and Iranian allies are trying to persuade OPCW to send a team to investigate what happened, because if it doesn’t, the United States might repeat the same charade by fabricating the use of false chemical weapons in another place in Syria in order to justify military intervention in support of the terrorists. On the other hand, we continue to fight the terrorists, because we know that the objective of all these American and Western allegations concerning chemical weapons is to support terrorists in Syria. That’s why we will continue to fight these terrorists.

TS: But the Pentagon says that Syria has chemical weapons. Is it true that Syria has kept one percent of the weapons it has committed itself to hand over and destroy four years ago?

BA: You and I remember well what happened in 2003, when Colin Powell showed the world in the United Nations what he claimed to be the evidence which proves that President Saddam Hussein possessed chemical, nuclear, and other weapons. However, when the American forces invaded Iraq, it was proven that all he said was a lie. Powell himself admitted that the American intelligence agencies deceived him with that false evidence. That wasn’t the first nor will it be the last time. This means that if you want to be a politician in the United States, you have to be a genuine liar. This is what characterizes American politicians: they lie on a daily basis, and say something and do something different. That’s why we shouldn’t believe what the Pentagon, or any other American institution says, because they say things which serve their policies, not things which reflect reality and the facts on the ground.

TS: What is the objective behind Syria’s desire to acquire the latest generation of anti-missile systems from Russia?

BA: We are already in a state of war with Israel; and Israel has been committing aggressions on the Arab states surrounding it since its creation in 1948. So, it’s natural that we should have such systems. However, the terrorists, acting on Israeli, American, Turkish, Qatari, and Saudi instructions have destroyed some of these systems. And it is natural for us to negotiate with the Russians now with a view to strengthening these systems, whether to face any Israeli threats from the air or the threats of American missiles. That has become a real possibility after the recent American aggression on al-Shairat airbase in Syria.

TS: What is the role that Israel, in particular, has played in this war against Syria? We know that Israeli attacks against the positions of the Syrian Arab Army have continued in recent weeks.

BA: It is playing this role in different forms; first, by direct aggression, particularly by using warplanes, artillery, or missiles against Syrian Army positions. Second, it is supporting terrorists in two ways: first by providing direct support in the form of weapons, and second by providing logistic support, i.e. allowing them to conduct military exercises in the areas it controls. It also provides them with medical assistance in its hospitals. These are not mere claims or assumptions. They are facts, verified and published on the internet which you can easily access as proven evidence of the Israeli role in support of the terrorists in Syria.

TS: How do you assess the current policy of Donald Trump in the world, and in Syria in particular?

BA: The American President has no policies. There are policies drawn by the American institutions which control the American regime which are the intelligence agencies, the Pentagon, the big arms and oil companies, and financial institutions, in addition to some other lobbies which influence American decision-making. The American President merely implements these policies, and the evidence is that when Trump tried to move on a different track, during and after his election campaign, he couldn’t. He came under a ferocious attack. As we have seen in the past few week, he changed his rhetoric completely and subjected himself to the terms of the deep American state, or the deep American regime. That’s why it is unrealistic and a complete waste of time to make an assessment of the American President’s foreign policy, for he might say something; but he ultimately does what these institutions dictate to him. This is not new. This has been ongoing American policy for decades.

TS: The American administration has opened a new front now with North Korea. Is it possible that this will affect the current American approach towards Syria?

BA: No, the United States always seeks to control all the states of the world without exception. It does not accept allies, regardless of whether they are developed states as those in the Western bloc, or other states of the world. Every state should be an American satellite. That is why what is happening to Syria, to Korea, to Iran, to Russia, and maybe to Venezuela now, aims at re-imposing American hegemony on the world, because they believe that this hegemony is under threat now, which consequently threatens the interests of American economic and political elites.

TS: Russia’s role in the Syrian conflict is very clear; but what is the role of China, this other great global power?

BA: There is great cooperation with Russia and China in terms of political action or political positions. Viewpoints are similar, and there is cooperation in the Security Council. As you know, the United States and its allies have tried several times to use the Security Council in order to legitimize the role of the terrorists in Syria and to legitimize their role in the illegitimate and aggressive intervention in Syria. That’s why Russia and China stood together, and China’s role, with the Russian role, was essential in this regard.

Moreover, some of the terrorists are Chinese nationals who came to Syria through Turkey. They pose a threat to us in Syria, but they pose an equal threat to China. China is aware of the fact that terrorism in any place in the world moves to any other place; and consequently, whether these terrorists are of Chinese or any other nationality, they might return to China and strike there as they have done in Europe, in Russia, and in Syria. We are now cooperating with China on security issues.

TS: Western and American media talk now about moderate terrorists and extremist terrorists. In reality, is there a difference between the two groups?

BA: For them, a moderate terrorist is that who carries out acts of beheading and slaughter but without carrying al-Qaeda flag, or without saying “Allah Akbar,” while an extremist terrorist is that who carries the flag and says Allah Akbar when carrying out acts of beheading and slaughter. This is the only difference. For the United States, all those who serve its political agenda against other states are classified as moderate opposition and not as extremist and terrorist, even if they commit the worst acts of terrorism. They are freedom fighters and not fighters in the cause of destruction and sabotage.

TS: There have been six years of war in Syria. What is Syria’s position now, particularly in the absence of statistics about human losses?

BA: The most painful loss in any war is human loss, the suffering which is inflicted any family when it loses one of its members; for the whole family is scarred for life. This is the natural feeling in a region like ours, where family ties are very strong. Nothing compensates that loss, and nothing exceeds the pain it causes. There are of course huge economic and infrastructure losses, but this infrastructure has been built for a little over 50 years by Syrian hands, not foreign hands. And we have the capacity to rebuild this infrastructure. The same goes for the economy, for the Syrian economy is based on Syrian capabilities first and foremost; and our economic ties with the West have always been limited. When the war is over, it will all be rebuilt. We do not have a problem with that. It is true that it takes time, but it is not impossible. So, the greatest and most painful loss for Syria is the human loss.

TS: Of the 86 states constituting the alliance waging war on Syria, are there any that would take part in the process of reconstruction?

BA: No, of course not. First of all, they do not want to rebuild Syria, but some companies in those countries, if they see that the wheel of the economy and rebuilding has started to turn, and since they are opportunists, they are certainly prepared to come and have a share of rebuilding Syria in order to make money. The Syrian people will certainly not accept this. All the states which stood against the Syrian people and took part in the destruction and sabotage will never take part in rebuilding Syria. That is final.

TS: But how was life during these past six years in this besieged country?

BA: Life has certainly been tough to every Syrian citizen. The terrorists have destroyed the infrastructure. In certain areas, electricity is on for one or two hours, and there are areas in which there’s no electricity at all. There are areas in which electricity has been cut off for more than two or three years. People don’t know television, children do not go to school, there are no medical clinics or hospitals, and nobody treats the ill. They live a prehistoric existence thanks to the terrorists. There are areas which did not have water for years, like what happened in Aleppo, which did not have water for many long years. Sometimes, they use polluted water for drinking, washing up, and other purposes. Life has been very tough.

TS: One of the main targets during these years has been the person of Bashar al-Assad. Have you ever felt fear during these years?

BA: When you are in the middle of the war, you do not feel fear. I believe this is something common to all people. But you have a general concern for the homeland; for what is the value of being safe, as an individual, as a citizen, while the country is under threat? You cannot feel safe. I believe that the feeling we have in Syria in general is concern for the future of Syria rather than personal fear. The evidence is that mortar shells fall anywhere, on any house; nevertheless, you see that life continues in Syria. The will to life is much stronger than personal fear. As a President, I take strength from the feelings of the general public, not from my personal feelings. I do not live in isolation from the others.

TS: Western media have been waging a media campaign against you. Am I sitting now with this devil portrayed by the media?

BA: Yes, from a Western perspective, you are now sitting with the devil. This is how they market it in the West. But this is always the case when a state, a government, or an individual do not subjugate themselves to their interests, and do not work for their interests against the interests of their people. These have been the Western colonial demands throughout history. They say that this evil person is killing the good people. Okay, if he is killing the good people, who have been supporting him for the past six years? Neither Russia, nor Iran, nor any friendly state can support an individual at the expense of the people. This is impossible. If he is killing the people, how come the people support him? This is the contradictory Western narrative; and that’s why we shouldn’t waste our time on Western narratives because they have been full of lies throughout history, and not something new.

TS: What can Syria, too, do in order to put an end to this war ahead of the sixth round of Geneva talks?

BA: We said that there are two axes: the first is fighting the terrorists; and this is not subject to any discussion, and we don’t have any other choice in dealing with the terrorists except fighting them. The other axis, the political one, includes two points: first, dialogue with the different political forces over the future of Syria; and second: local reconciliations, in the sense that we negotiate with the terrorists in a certain village or city, depending on each case separately. The objective of this reconciliation is for them to lay down their weapons and receive an amnesty from the state, and consequently return to their normal life. This approach has been implemented during the past three or four years, has succeeded, and is ongoing now. These are the axes which we can work on in order to find a solution to the Syrian crisis.

TS: From the perspective of a country in a state of war, how do you see the situation in Latin America, particularly in Venezuela, where a number of acts very similar to those which caused the conflict in Syria have emerged?

BA: Of course, they should be similar, because the party planning and implementing these acts is the same. It is the United States as a maestro and the Western states constituting the choir. Latin America in general, and Venezuela in particular, used to be the backyard of the United States for decades. Through that backyard, Western states, particularly North America, or the United States, used to secure their economic interests through the influence of the big companies in your countries. Military or political coups in Latin America during the 1960s and the 1970s aimed at perpetuating American hegemony over the interests of your people. But Latin America freed itself during the past twenty years and gained its independent decision-making. Governments started defending the interests of their peoples, which is unacceptable to the United States. That’s why they are exploiting what’s happening in the world, starting with the orange revolution in Ukraine up to the recent coup there a few years ago, and what is taking place in the Arab countries, in Libya, Syria, Yemen and others, in order to implement it in Latin America. They started in Venezuela with the objective of overthrowing the national government, and it will spread over to other Latin American countries.

TS: Some people, particularly ordinary citizens in Latin America, think that a scenario similar to what’s happening in Syria could be repeated in Latin America. What do you think?

BA: This is true. That’s why I say since the party planning and implementing is the same, it’s natural that the scenario is not only similar, but identical. Some local elements might be different. In Syria, they said in the beginning that there were peaceful demonstrations, but in fact, when these peaceful demonstrations did not spread wide enough, they implanted individuals who fired on both sides, on the police and the demonstrations, and there were casualties. They started to say that the state is killing the people, and this scenario is being repeated everywhere. The same scenario will be repeated in Venezuela. That’s why the Venezuelan people have to be very careful. There is a difference between opposing the government and being against the homeland, a huge difference. On the other hand, no foreign state can be more concerned about Venezuela’s interests than the Venezuelan people themselves. Do not believe the West, for it’s not concerned either about human rights or about the interests of states. It is only concerned about the interests of part of the governing elites in its countries. And these governing elites are not necessarily politicians, they are economic companies too.

TS: I’m talking about Latin America, Venezuela, the Bolivarian Revolution which was your strong ally. How do you remember the late Hugo Chavez?

BA: President Chavez was a world-class distinguished personality. When we talk about Latin America, we immediately remember the late President Chavez and the late leader Fidel Castro, the leader of the Cuban Revolution. They are distinguished personalities who changed the face of Latin America. But of course the leader I knew personally and whom I met more than once and had a personal relationship with was President Chavez, when he visited us in Syria and I visited him in Venezuela. He visited us twice. When you meet him, you can tell that he is the son of the people. You do not feel that you are meeting a president or a politician, but a person who lived the suffering of his people. Everything he said, and every minute of his time, was about the details related to the people of his country. And when he talked with a head of another state, or an official from another state, he always thought of how to create common interests which reflect positively on his people. He was a real and strongly charismatic leader. And he was an extremely genuine person.

TS: They demonized Chavez before; and it is clear that it is Nicolas Maduro’s turn now.

BA: Of course, as long as President Maduro is walking the same patriotic line, the line of Venezuela’s independence, and acting in the best interest of his country’s people, it is natural that he should be the first target of the United States. This is self-evident.

TS: How does Bashar al-Assad envision the end of the war?

BA: Today, foreign intervention in Syria aside, the problem is not complicated, for the majority of the Syrians are tired of the war and want a solution. They want to return to safety and stability. There is a dialogue between us as Syrians, there are meetings, and people live with each other, i.e. there is no real barrier. The problem now is that with every step we make towards a solution and regaining stability, the terrorist gangs receive more money and weapons in order to blow the situation up. That’s why I can say that the solution should be stopping outside support to the terrorists. As far as we are concerned in Syria, reconciliation among all Syrians, and forgetting and forgiving all that happened in the past throughout this war, is the way to restore safety to Syria. Rest assured that Syria will be then much stronger than it was before the war.

TS: Are you prepared to have reconciliation with those who carried arms against the Syrian people?

BA: Of course, and this has actually happened in many and different places, and some of them have fought side by side with the Syrian Army, some fell martyrs, and some returned to their cities and live in the part under government control. We don’t have a problem. Tolerance is essential to end any war. And we are proceeding on that track.

TS: Mr. President, what is your message to Latin America and the world?

BA: Keep your independence. We, in the Arab region, are celebrating independence in more than one country. But this independence used to mean, in a number of countries in the region, the mere evacuation of occupying forces. But real independence happens when you are in possession of your national decision-making. For us, Latin America was a model of independence, in the sense that occupiers were evacuated, in case there were foreign forces, but at the same time there was national decision-making, openness, and democracy. You provided the world with an important model. So, keep it, because if the countries of the third and developing world wanted to develop, they should follow the model implemented in Latin America.

TS: Mr. President, thank you for giving teleSUR this interview, and thank you for your precious time and all the information that you have provided.

BA: Thank you for coming, and once again I welcome you in Damascus.

***

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***

PRESSTV

Yemen descending into total collapse as world watches: UN

Tue May 30, 2017 6:11PM

Displaced Yemeni children stand outside a make-shift shelter at a camp for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) on the outskirts of the capital Sana'a, April 15, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

The United Nations says impoverished Yemen is on the brink of total collapse, as the country is facing an ongoing bloody military aggression by Saudi Arabia, an emerging famine, and an outbreak of cholera.

"Crisis is not coming, it is not looming, it is here today, on our watch and ordinary people are paying the price," said UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen O'Brien in a speech on Tuesday, addressing the UN Security Council.

"The people of Yemen are being subjected to deprivation, disease and death as the world watches," he said, adding that the crisis is triggering "total social, economic and institutional collapse" in the Arab country.

O'Brien told the council that "the time is now" to finish the world's largest food emergency and to put Yemen on the path of survival.

His alarming remarks come as the UN Security Council has so far failed to turn off the Saudi war machine and prevent it from inflicting more damage to the kingdom's poor southern neighbor.

Since March 2015, Yemen has been heavily bombarded by Saudi warplanes as part of a brutal campaign against the impoverished country in an attempt to crush the popular Houthi Ansarullah movement and reinstall Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, the president who has resigned and is a staunch ally of Riyadh.

Latest tallies show that the war has so far killed over 12,000 Yemenis and wounded thousands more. Indiscriminate Saudi bombardments have also taken a heavy toll on the Yemeni infrastructure, schools and hospitals, with prominent rights groups censuring Riyadh’s military for the use of internationally-banned weapons against Yemeni civilians.

The relentless airstrikes have put more than half of all health facilities in Yemen in a state of complete or partial shutdown. Nearly 3.3 million Yemeni people, including 2.1 million children, are currently suffering from acute malnutrition.

Some 19 million out of the country's 28 million population are in dire need of humanitarian aid and many of them are reported to be on the brink of famine. The relentless airstrikes have also put more than half of all health facilities in Yemen in a state of complete or partial shutdown.

Furthermore, the war-torn nation has been grappling with a deadly cholera outbreak since last October. Over 55,200 Yemenis, one third of them children, are infected by the disease. The UN figures show that since late April nearly 500 Yemeni have lost their lives due to cholera infection. It is estimated that some 150,000 new cases of cholera are surfaced in the next six months.

The chaos in Yemen, caused by the Saudi campaign, has also given the Takfiri al-Qaeda and Daesh terror groups room to operate in the country, further complicating the situation on the ground there.

***

NEO

Eastern Europe Tilts to OBOR and Eurasia

27.05.2017 Author: F. William Engdahl

http://journal-neo.org/2017/05/27/eastern-europe-tilts-to-obor-and-eurasia/

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Small but geopolitically important steps were taken by key members of the European Union from the EU’s Eastern periphery. While largely ignored in Western mainstream media and in Brussels, they could well portend a longer-term alternative economic space to the failing construct known misleadingly today as the European Union with its bankrupt Eurozone single currency and European Central Bank. I refer to the talks recently in Beijing at the major Belt and Road Forum, between leaders of 29 nations and China’s President Xi Jinping with the Prime Ministers of Hungary, Greece, Italy, Spain as well as the President of the Czech Republic and the President-elect of the Republic of Serbia.

The significance of the attendance of these specific European countries is underscored by the conspicuous absence of the leaders of Germany, France (maybe excusable due to presidential elections), and the remaining EU member countries, as well as the absence of the President of the EU Commission.

The list of Beijing attendees confirms that a tectonic fault line is developing across Europe between government leaders opting for national economic growth and development versus the nations whose leaders are still tied to the scelerotic, dying economies of the old Atlanticist order known as the American Century.

‘Historical Cusp’

China made clear to the USA and the EU that their OBOR infrastructure project was not at all exclusionary. Beijing made clear months ago that it genuinely wanted their participation in what Vladimir Putin called the development of an Eurasian Century.

Trump responded by sending a low-level National Security Council civil service bureaucrat named Matt Pottiger. Germany’s Merkel sent her Economics Minister who pompously declared in Beijing that Germany would not sign the Forum Joint Communique, complaining instead that she wanted a “level playing field,” newspeak for the old Anglo-American globalization model that makes the rules for “less developed” countries and thereby gives superior advantage for the Western G-7 multinational giant corporations and states.

Notably, leaders of the EU countries most strongly objecting to Brussels policies in key areas of the economy and refugees, such as Hungary’s Viktor Orban, strongly embraced participation in China’s vast $22 trillion infrastructure project called One Belt, One Road or OBOR, more recently Belt and Road, for short.

In remarks in Beijing summarizing his talks there, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban spoke bluntly of an emerging global tectonic fault line. Orban declared that the old globalisation model is obsolete, noting that “a large part of the world has had enough of a world where “a few developed countries have been continuously lecturing most of the world on human rights, democracy, development and the market economy,” a direct slap in the face to the US-led “democracy and human rights” NGOs of George Soros and the CIA-tied USAID which have ferociously tried to topple the very popular Orban.

Orban added that the world today has, “arrived at a cusp between historical eras: the old model for globalisation – built on the assumption that money, profit and technological know-how are in the West, flowing ‘from there to less developed, eastern countries.’ That model, Orban stressed, has “lost its impetus.” The Hungarian leader emphasized the crucial point that Washington and the stagnating governments of much of the EU are in denial. “Over the past ten years, the global economy’s engine room is no longer in the West, but in the East. More precisely, the East has caught up with the West.”

The Hungarian Prime Minister noted the fact that in Hungary over the past year or so, “large American and European companies have been bought up by Chinese enterprises, leading to a sharp increase in the number of Hungarian development projects that are now Chinese-owned. This movement of capital is totally different to what we have been used to, and to what we have been taught about how the global economy operates.”

Orban obviously gets the very central point that Washington, Wall Street, Brussels and Berlin are in denial over: The emerging Eurasian Century represents an entire new quality of globalization. No longer are the colonial European powers or their American cousins holding the key cards or calling the shots.

During his private talks in Beijing with Xi Jinping and other Chinese officials, Orban signed Memoranda of Understnding in connection with linking the OBOR infrastructure with the economies of Europe.

For Hungary, Orban signed financial and economic agreements in Beijing. He stated that the “most spectacular” of these agreements was for modernisation of the Budapest, Hungary to Belgrade, Serbia railway line, including the financing. Serbian President-elect Aleksandar Vučić, together with Orban a major target of destabilization protests led by Washington NGOs of George Soros and the National Endowment for Democracy, also participated in the signing.

Notable is also the fact that Hungary’s Orban also met in Bijing with Turkish President Recep Erdogan, a featured OBOR keynote speaker alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin. Orbán told reporters that he had Erdogan, who was also attending the One Belt, One Road forum. The Prime Minister told Erdogan, “We will always show Turkey respect, especially as European security – including Hungary’s security – is greatly dependent on Turkey, because today Turkey is a stable country that is capable of preventing illegal migration.” Orban added that “properly maintaining” Hungarian-Turkish relations was one of Hungary’s most important national security interests.

The Greek Connection

In addition to Hungary and Serbia, debt-ridden Greece is also drawing closer to Beijing and her OBOR initiatives. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, until recently a darling of the International Monetary Fund for bringing his Parliament to sign savage pension cuts and other austerity laws so that the EU and IMF debt deals go forward, is finding the Chinese OBOR option increasingly attractive.

In a meeting with Tsipras in Beijing before the opening of the OBOR forum, China’s Xi Jinping offered Tsipras proposals of expanding cooperation in infrastructure, energy and telecommunications. Xi told Tsipras, according to the official Chinese news agency, that Greece was an important part in China’s new Silk Road strategy. He put it in characteristic Chinese language: “At present, China and Greece’s traditional friendship and cooperation continues to glow with new dynamism.”

Greek infrastructure development group Copelouzos signed a deal with China’s Shenhua Group to cooperate in green energy projects and to upgrade power plants in Greece. The deals are worth more than $3 billion. In 2016, China’s largest shipping company, state-owned COSCO bought majority ownership stake in Piraeus Port Authority as preparation to turn Greece into a transhipment hub for the rapidly growing trade between Asia and Eastern Europe.

It is important to recall that, contrary to the religious dogma of economic simpletons such as Milton Friedman, there exist in nature no such entities as “free markets.” Markets are the careful product of man-made economic infrastructure developments. This is the core of China’s “globalization with Chinese characteristics,” as Deng might have termed Xi’s OBOR idea.

In recent months China has been a major investor in Greece’s economy, a sharp contrast to the demands of the EU and IMF for Greek austerity. The China State Grid last year bought a 24 percent stake in Greek power grid operator ADMIE for 320 million euros.

Many other Chinese investment projects are in discussion with Greece. One of the more interesting and little appreciated is China’s deployment of tourism as a geopolitical instrument. Over the past decade or so a huge number of Chinese have attained a middle income status as China’s economy boomed. This has led to an equally huge rise in Chinese wanting to “see the world” as tourists.

This month, just prior to the OBOR forum, the large Chinese investment conglomerate Fosun International announced that it was planning to make Greece tourism a major goal for Chinese tourists. With this in mind Fosun this March bought a significant 5% share of the European tour group, Thomas Cook, a share now at 8%, tendency rising.

The Shanghai company plans to use its Thos. Cook arm to organize direct flights from Beijing and Shanghai to Athens. Fosun also plans to service the China-Athens tourism rise via her newly-acquired subsidiary, the well-established French-based Club Med. Fosun is also planning to buy or construct major Greek luxury tourism hotels. The Fosun company says it expects at least 1.5 million Chinese tourists will find the Greek islands as their goal, a huge boost to the troubled Greek economy. For Greece, the Chinese tourism engagement is pure honey to the soul. Fully 25% of the Greek GDP is tourism-based.

If we take the developments in Beijing’s OBOR forum of Hungary, Serbia, Greece, Czech Republic, and add to this the fact that Turkey’s President Recep Erdogan was also present and made a major committment to participate in the China-Russian-led OBOR, we have the seed crystal of a world geopolitical renaissance that contains the potential to replace the now-dead Anglo-American globalization model of top-down fascist economic domination, with a model truly based on mutual benefit among sovereign nations. As a traditional Russian saying goes, the select nations of Eastern Europe, along with Russia, China and perhaps also Turkey, are truly “making porridge together,” making rich nutritious Kasha.

***

MailOnline

A step too far? Lifestyle company creates a bizarre Bluetooth-connected smart SALT shaker with mood lighting

• Smalt incorporates a Bluetooth connected smart speaker and mood lighting

• Will connect to Amazon's Alexa to automate the process of seasoning food

• Crowdfunding launches in June and devices should start arriving by December

By Tim Collins For Mailonline

PUBLISHED: 09:34, 10 May 2017 | UPDATED: 13:37, 10 May 2017

Have you ever felt like the process of seasoning your latest culinary masterpiece was too low tech?

One lifestyle firm believes it has spotted a gap in the market and has come up with a bizarre piece of kit designed to make this more of an event.

Smalt incorporates a Bluetooth connected smart speaker and mood lighting, to take the stress out of shaking salt.

Users will also be able to monitor their salt intake via Smalt's app.

California-based lifestyle company Herb & Body aspire 'to make ordinary life more fun, easier, and healthier.'

Their strange vision for the future of sodium chloride dispensing is currently still at the concept stage.

The company's website says they will soon be launching a crowd-funding campaign to help make it a reality.

And early adopters can sign up now to receive up to 50 per cent off a future retail price, yet to be announced.

How much interest it will receive from the general public remains to be seen.

Smalt has been in development for two and a half years, according to reports in SF Gate.

And a functional prototype was demonstrated at the International Home + Housewares Show in Chicago, held in March.

Speaking to the site, CEO Bipan Singh said: 'Whether it is the healthy eating trend or the convenience of meal ingredient services, people love to prepare meals, get together, have fun.

'We want them to further enhance their dining experience with Smalt by using all of its features.

'We believe that food tastes much better when the ambiance is right.

'Smalt is much more than a smart salt shaker.'

Smalt will connect to a smartphone app which will interface with Amazon's Alexa home assistant.

Users will be able to request that Alexa issues a command to start shaking salt, without the need for any strenuous twisting or grinding.

It's not exactly clear how the salt-dispensing system will work, but the simplest solution would be a grinder.

More details should become apparent when the Indiegogo fundraising drive is launched.

However it may function, the user should be able to simply pick up the device and Alexa will automatically do the rest via voice commands.

But the device will also work 'offline', for any Luddites that may find the need for an AI's help unnecessary.

A manual dial will be at the top of Smalt that will allow them to control the speed of the salt coming out of the bottom.

Smalt is expected to launch on Indiegogo by mid-June and they should start arriving with customers by the end of this year.

Although the product may seem slightly frivolous, it does have one serious application that could be beneficial for the health conscious.

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HHN

Study: Manuka honey kills more bacteria than all available antibiotics

By Erin Elizabeth

May 26, 2017

Not all honey is created equal. While the benefits of raw, unprocessed honey have been well-documented over the centuries, Australian researchers have found one type of honey, called Manuka honey, to be better than all known antibiotics.

Manuka honey is produced by bees that forage on the nectar of Leptospermum Scoparium, or New Zealand’s Manuka bush, as well as tea trees, native to Australia and New Zealand only.

This remarkable type of honey not only effectively kills bacteria, but none of the bugs killed by it have been able to build up immunity. In a world where many of the last resort antibiotics are failing against antibiotic-resistant superbugs, Manuka honey may hold the key to fighting resistance issues, saving thousands of lives worldwide.

Manuka honey fights superbugs

Dr. Dee Carter from the University of Sydney’s School of Molecular and Microbial Biosciences noted that antibiotics not only have short shelf lives, but the bacteria they attack quickly become resistant as well, making them useless over time.

The report, published in the European Journal of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, claimed that Manuka honey killed almost every bacteria and pathogen it was tested on. Unlike all antibiotics available on today’s market, none of the bugs tested were able to survive the honey treatment.

According to Dr. Carter, there are particular compounds, like methylglyoxal, in the Manuka honey that cause multi-system failure in the bacteria, killing them before they are able to adapt and build up immunity.

What Manuka honey can do for you

Manuka’s biological properties range from antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antiviral, antibiotic and wound healing, to immune-stimulatory. However, what separates Manuka honey from the rest is that its antibacterial powers challenge even the toughest superbugs, such as the life-threatening methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus(MRSA).

Manuka honey is marketed for cancer treatment and prevention, high cholesterol, chronic inflammation, diabetes, the treatment of gastrointestinal problems, and eye, ear and sinus infections. However, it might be most useful in treating skin wounds and leg ulcers.

According to one study, published in the scientific journal Peer J, chronic wounds are becoming a major global health problem, due to antibiotic resistance issues. They are costly and difficult to treat, and bacterial biofilms are important contributors to the delay in healing. There is an urgent need for new, effective agents in topical wound care, and honey has shown some great potential in this regard.

For their study, researchers reviewed Manuka honey in particular as an alternative treatment for wounds because of its broad-spectrum antibacterial activity and the inability of bacteria to develop resistance to it. Their study indicated that honey might prevent bacterial biofilms and eliminate established biofilms. Furthermore, they reported that Manuka honey could successfully be used to kill all MSSA and MRSA biofilms in a chronic wound, supporting the use of this type of honey as an effective topical treatment for chronic wound infections.

In recent years, word of the biological benefits of Manuka honey has spread to every corner of the world, turning it into one of the most popular superfoods out there. Its fame and the over-demand, however, have caused shortages, resulting in fake, usually cheaper, products to enter the market. So, if you are going to spend your money on honey to reap its benefits, make sure you are buying the real thing.

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Natural News

The Amish, who don’t get vaccinated, rarely get autism, cancer, or heart disease – coincidence?

Sunday, January 08, 2017 by: S.D. Wells

(Natural News) Do not talk about whether vaccines work or not, or whether or not they cause autism, unless you’re ready for a very heated debate. Although the link between vaccines and autism is nothing new, to even speak of it can get you labeled as an “anti-vaxxer” or a health fanatic of sorts by the sheeple (brainwashed masses) that believe every vaccine the CDC recommends not only works, but is 100% safe and 100% effective 100% of the time. Even if some vaccines work some of the time, are they worth the health risk? That is the ultimate question, because one statistic you may not know is that children who receive mercury-containing vaccinations (listed as thimerosal usually) are 27 times more likely to develop autism than those who don’t get those jabs. That comes from a recent study based on the CDC’s own data. Still want to keep it a hush-hush topic?

Pediatricians in America are not allowed to question vaccines at all, nor are they allowed to recommend less than the CDC recommends, or they face the wrath of the AMA – the infamous American Medical Association – that finds a way to shut down the “contenders,” sometimes even taking away their license to practice medicine. Big question: would the statistics of autism suddenly bottom out if mercury was removed from all vaccines, including flu shots? (By the way, the CDC lied when they said mercury has been removed from all vaccines).

Nary is a case of autism in the Amish communities of America

For starters, children are not born with autism. It appears during infancy or childhood, and is brought on by an overload of neurotoxins either consumed, injected or ingested from environmental factors, or all of the above. In fact, the recent autism spectrum disorder (ASD) spike over the past two decades in the USA directly coincides with the vaccine schedule increase, by quantity and frequency, enforced by the CDC. To understand why autism is next to non-existent for the Amish, consider that the Amish have been “cut off” from American scientific and medical “progress” for centuries, thus they’ve had less exposure to the major factors that trigger autism, including the most likely proponent–vaccines.

Take a little trip to the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country and try to tag yourself even half a dozen Amish children with autism and you’ll come up short. If statistics matched our national average, there would be about 200 in the Amish community, but to date, there are only three, one of which was adopted and brought over from China. Go figure. Another one actually did get vaccinated and developed autism shortly afterwards. Go figure again.

Here are some universal and national statistics to consider. Autism affects over 20 million people around the world, and occurs in boys four to five times more often than girls. In the US, one in every 68 children has some form of ASD, a 30% increase from just 2012. Why is that, you’re asking yourself? United States kids get 50 inoculations before age seven, many that are combinations containing multiple disease strains, mercury, formaldehyde (yes, embalming fluid for the dead), monosodium glutamate (MSG) and aluminum, just to name a few neurotoxins. Flu shots contain the highest levels of mercury, up to 25,000 times what the EPA allows as a maximum in drinking water and edible fish. Mercury is the second most poisonous element know to mankind.

Due to religious beliefs, the Amish opt out of all vaccines

Fortunately for the Amish, they’re also opting out of three of the most controversial vaccines on the market today: hepatitis B, HPV (human papillomavirus) and of course, the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella combo) that was implicated in the CDC vaccine-autism-link and biggest medical cover-up in history, ever. Conflicting with CDC claims, the multi-dose version of hepatitis B still contains thimerosal (50% mercury). The immature central nervous systems and the liver of Amish newborns are spared this volatile toxin thanks to their parent’s religious beliefs. Amish children experience hardly any learning disabilities at all, in fact. Nor are the Amish experiencing typical US diseases like cancer, heart disease and diabetes. This could all be because they don’t eat GMO, take chemical pharmaceuticals, or vaccines. Surely, no government run regulatory agency will ever run this comparison of Amish health vs. non-Amish health, but the reality speaks for itself.

Still, the CDC refuses to regulate the vaccine industry and instead literally promotes toxic chemicals, dangerous heavy metal toxins, carcinogens and lethal “preservatives” like mercury. It’s all about lifestyle and natural health these days, if you really want immunity that doesn’t come with a boatload of permanent and debilitating “side effects,” like autism spectrum disorder, Asperger’s syndrome or liver cancer.

Sources:
TraceAmounts.com
YourNewsWire.com
Healing-Arts.org
TruthWiki.org
12160.info
TruthWiki.org
TruthWiki.org
TruthKings.com

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

“I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil.”
(Romans 16:19)