It is sad that there are what you might call professional Catholics who make a living on their Catholicism, but in whom the spring of faith flows only faintly, in a few scattered drops. We must really make an effort to change this.
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Site: Zero HedgeWhy US Public Debt Is Unsustainable And Is Destroying The Middle ClassTyler Durden Mon, 04/08/2024 - 11:25
In a recent tweet, a talented financial analyst and investor stated: “The “debt is unsustainable” narrative has been around for 40 years plus. What’s astonishing to me is how the people who push this narrative never ask themselves, “Why has it been sustainable for so long?”.
There is a widespread idea that the fiscal imbalances of a world reserve currency issuer would end in an Argentina-style bankruptcy. However, the manifestation of unsustainability did not even appear as drastic in Argentina itself. Hey, Argentina continues to exist, doesn’t it?
Excessive public debt is unsustainable when it becomes a burden on productive growth and leads the economy to constantly rising taxes, weaker productivity growth, and weaker real wage growth. However, the level of unsustainable accumulation of debt may continue to rise because the state itself imposes public debt on banks’ balance sheets and the state forces the financial sector to take all its debt as the “lowest risk asset.” However, law and regulation have merely imposed and forced this construct. Rising debt bloats the government’s size in the economy and erodes its growth and productivity potential.
Many diabetic and obese people continue to eat too much unhealthy food, thinking nothing has happened so far. That does not mean their eating habits are sustainable.
Those who ignore the accumulation of public debt tend to do so under the idea that nothing has happened yet. This is a reckless way of looking at the economy, a sort of “we have not killed ourselves yet; let us accelerate” mentality.
An ever-weaker private sector, weak real wages, declining productivity growth, and the currency’s diminishing purchasing power all indicate the unsustainability of debt levels. It becomes increasingly difficult for families and small businesses to make ends meet and pay for essential goods and services, while those who already have access to debt and the public sector smile in contentment. Why? Because the accumulation of public debt is printing money artificially.
When money is created in the private sector through the financial system, there is a process of wealth creation and productive money creation. The financial system creates money for projects that yield a genuine economic return. Some fail, others soar. That is the process of productive economic growth and progress. Only when the central bank manipulates interest rates, disguises the cost of risk, and increases the money supply to monetize unproductive deficit spending can it distort this process.
Private banks in an open economy create money to accelerate progress and free-floating interest rates limit the accumulation of unproductive and dangerous risk. When the central bank wants to disguise the worsening solvency of fiscally imprudent governments, it does so by tampering with interest rates—making fiscally irresponsible governments’ borrowing cheaper—and artificially increasing the amount of currency in the system, monetizing public debt—a destructive process of money creation as opposed to the saving-investment function of banking.
When the fiscal position is unsustainable, the only way for the state to force the acceptance of its debt—newly created currency—is through coercion and repression.
A state’s debt is only an asset when the private sector values its solvency and uses it as a reserve. When the state imposes its insolvency on the economy, its bankruptcy manifests in the destruction of the purchasing power of the currency through inflation and the weakening of real wage purchasing capacity.
The state basically conducts a process of slow default on the economy through rising taxes and weakening the purchasing power of the currency, which leads to weaker growth and erosion of the middle class, the captive hostages of the currency issuer.
Of course, as the currency issuer, the state never acknowledges its imbalances and always blames inflation and weak growth on the private sector, exporters, other nations, and markets. Independent institutions must impose fiscal prudence to prevent a state from destroying the real economy. The state, through the monopoly of currency issuance and the imposition of law and regulation, will always pass on its imbalances to consumers and businesses, thinking it is for their own good.
The government deficit is not creating savings for the private economy. Savings in the real economy accept public debt as an asset when they perceive the currency issuer’s solvency to be reliable. When the government imposes it and disregards the functioning of the productive economy, positioning itself as the source of wealth, it undermines the very foundation it purports to protect: the standard of living for the average citizen.
Governments do not create reserves; their debt becomes a reserve only when the productive private sector economy within their political boundaries thrives and the public finances remain under control. The state does show its insolvency, like any issuer, in the price of the I.O.U. it distributes, i.e., in the purchasing power of the currency. Public debt is artificial currency creation because the state does not create anything; it only administers the money it collects from the same productive private sector it is choking via taxes and inflation.
The United States debt started to become unsustainable when the Federal Reserve stopped defending the currency and paying attention to monetary aggregates to implement policies designed to disguise the rising cost of indebtedness from unbridled deficit spending.
Artificial currency creation is never neutral. It disproportionately benefits the first recipient of new currency, the government, and massively hurts the last recipients, real wages and deposit savings. It is a massive transfer of wealth from the productive economy and savers to the bureaucratic administration.
More units of public debt mean weaker productive growth, higher taxes, and more inflation in the future. All three are manifestations of a slow burn default.
So, if the state can impose its fiscal imbalances on us, how do we know if the debt it issues is unsustainable? First, because of the units of GDP created, adding new units of public debt diminishes rapidly. Second, the erosion of the currency’s purchasing power persists and accelerates. Third, because productive investment and capital expenditure decline, employment may remain acceptable in the headlines, but real wages, productivity, and the ability of workers to make ends meet deteriorate rapidly.
Today’s narrative tries to tell us that nothing has happened when a lot has. The destruction of the middle class and the deterioration of the small and medium enterprise fabric in favor of a rising bureaucratic administration that consumes higher taxes but still generates more debt and deficits It does end badly. And all empires end the same way, with the assumption that nothing will happen. The currency’s acceptance as a reserve does come to an end. The persistent erosion of purchasing power and declining confidence in the legally imposed “lowest risk asset” are some of the red flags some are willing to ignore, maybe because they live off other people’s taxes or because they benefit from the destruction of the currency through asset inflation. Either way, it is profoundly anti-social and destructive, even if it is a slow detonation.
The fact that there are informed and intelligent investors who willingly ignore the red flags of weakening the middle class, declining purchasing power of the currency and deteriorating solvency and productivity shows why it is so dangerous to allow governments to maintain fiscal imprudence. The reason why government money creation is so dangerous is because the government is always happy to increase its power over citizens and blame them for the problems its policies create, presenting itself as the solution.
Can debt continue to rise? Of course. The gradual process of impoverishment and serfdom is relatively comfortable when the state can impose the use of the currency and force its debt into your pension by law and regulation.
To think that it will last forever, and nothing will happen is not just reckless “accelerate, we have not crashed yet” mentality. It is ignoring the reality of money. Independent money, gold, and similar, solve this.
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Site: Zero Hedge99% Of Americans Will Be Able To See Either A Partial Or Full Solar Eclipse In The Next Few HoursTyler Durden Mon, 04/08/2024 - 11:24
The much-anticipated total solar eclipse will be watched by millions across North America this afternoon.
Because so many Americans live within or very close to the path of totality, it is being projected that this will be the most viewed total solar eclipse that the U.S. has ever experienced…
The total eclipse will first appear along Mexico’s Pacific Coast at around 11:07 a.m. PDT, then travel across a swath of the U.S., from Texas to Maine, and into Canada.
About 31.6 million people live in the path of totality, the area where the moon will fully block out the sun, according to NASA. The path will range between 108 and 122 miles wide. An additional 150 million people live within 200 miles of the path of totality.
There are more than 19,000 cities, towns and villages in the United States, and the very first one the path of totality will hit will be Eagle Pass, Texas…
The eclipse will begin in the U.S. on the afternoon of April 8. It will first be visible as a partial eclipse beginning at 12:06 p.m. CDT near Eagle Pass, Texas, before progressing to totality by about 1:27 p.m. CDT and progressing along its path to the northeast over the next few hours.
As Michael Snyder reports, according to NASA, the path of totality for the Great American Eclipse of 2024 will actually be substantially wider compared to the path of totality for the Great American Eclipse of 2017…
The path of totality – where viewers can see the Moon totally block the Sun, revealing the star’s outer atmosphere, called the corona – is much wider during the upcoming total solar eclipse than it was during the eclipse in 2017. As the Moon orbits Earth, its distance from our planet varies. During the 2017 total solar eclipse, the Moon was a little bit farther away from Earth than it will be during the upcoming total solar eclipse, causing the path of that eclipse to be a little skinnier. In 2017, the path ranged from about 62 to 71 miles wide. During the April eclipse, the path over North America will range between 108 and 122 miles wide – meaning at any given moment, this eclipse covers more ground.
The 2024 eclipse path will also pass over more cities and densely populated areas than the 2017 path did. This will make it easier for more people to see totality. An estimated 31.6 million people live in the path of totality this year, compared to 12 million in 2017. An additional 150 million people live within 200 miles of the path of totality.
If you are not able to make it into the path of totality on Monday, there is a very good chance you will still be able to experience at least a partial eclipse as long as clouds do not completely obscure your view.
NASA is telling us that literally 99 percent of the people that live in the United States will be able to see at least a partial eclipse…
You don’t need to live within the path of totality to see the eclipse – in April, 99% of people who reside in the United States will be able to see the partial or total eclipse from where they live. Every contiguous U.S. state, plus parts of Alaska and Hawaii, will experience at least a partial solar eclipse.
This really is an eclipse for the entire country.
Even on the west coast, approximately half of the sun will be blocked out by our moon…
The moon will block a significant portion of the sun and create a partial solar eclipse outside of the path of totality. The closer an area is to the path of totality, the larger the portion of the sun and its solar radiation – sunlight and energy – will be obscured by the moon.
At least 50% of the sun will be blocked during the eclipse as far west as Anaheim, California, and as far east as Orlando, Florida. Only around 20% of the sun will be blocked in the Pacific Northwest.
How the eclipse will look from where you are
— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) April 8, 2024
pic.twitter.com/4Gn6VtFgNxNASA is hosting a livestream of the solar eclipse which can be viewed here...
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Site: RT - News
The Holy See has described the procedure as “threatening the unique dignity” that a person receives from the moment of conception
Gender-affirming surgery and surrogacy represent major threats to the dignity of human life, and are on a par with abortion and euthanasia, the Catholic Church has pronounced in its latest doctrinal note.
Pope Francis has previously singled out transgenderism as a “dangerous ideology,” claiming it is part of a “global war” against marriage and the family.
At the same time, the Vatican has in recent months somewhat relaxed its rules, allowing priests to issue blessings to same-sex couples outside of religious rituals or liturgies, although stopping short of legitimizing what it still terms as “irregular situations.”
Last November, the Catholic Church also clarified that transgender believers may receive the sacrament of baptism, serve as witnesses in wedding ceremonies, and act as godparents, provided this does not lead to a “public scandal.”
On Monday, in a paper titled the ‘Doctrine of the Faith “Dignitas Infinita” on Human Dignity’, the Holy See stated that people should accept their lives and bodies as a “gift from God.” As such, any attempts to change this are tantamount to playing God, the document declares.
The Vatican further argued that gender theory aims to deny the “greatest possible difference that exists between living beings: sexual difference.”
Read more
Pope fires anti-LGBTQ bishop
“It follows that any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception,” the document added.
The paper does draw a distinction between transition through choice and cases where surgery is performed on individuals with “genital abnormalities that are already evident at birth or that develop later.”
The Holy See argued that gender theory plays a “central role” in what it termed “ideological colonization.”
The document, which reportedly took five years to produce, does, however, also take aim at countries where “people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation.” Such practices are “contrary to human dignity,” the church said.
Another alleged threat named in the paper is surrogacy, which it described as turning children into “mere objects” and denying them their inalienable right to “have a fully human (and not artificially induced) origin.”
Surrogacy “violates the dignity of the woman,” who ends up being “detached from the child growing in her and becomes a mere means subservient to the arbitrary gain or desire of others,” it claimed.
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Site: Ron Paul Institute - Featured Articles
Even Republican stalwarts like current Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell are starting to notice that something is shifting in the party. While McConnell announced recently that he would step down as Republican leader in the US Senate, in an interview last week he was adamant that he would continue to serve out his term in the Senate with one purpose in mind: “fighting back against the isolationist movement in my own party.”
He sounds worried.
What McConnell deems to be “isolationism” had for much of our history been called America’s traditional foreign policy. There have been major exceptions, but until the emergence of the neoconservatives starting in the late 1970s we largely adhered to the words of John Quincy Adams that America, “goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy.”
Why is that? The idea had always been that we would have more influence on freedom worldwide by concentrating on demonstrating the benefits of a free-market economy and protection of our Constitutional liberties at home. The US would lead the world by example rather than leading at the barrel of a gun.
When we strayed from that idea we got disasters like Vietnam.
But then in the 1980s, the neoconservatives seized control of the foreign policy of the Republican Party (and eventually much of the Democratic Party). They were determined to remake the world in their image through the use of force.
The military-industrial complex and all the special interests loved this takeover because it meant a huge transfer of wealth from the middle class to them, the moneyed class. The American people at first accepted the hollow promises of the interventionist neocons, believing as they were told that it was the “patriotic” thing to do.
What we are now seeing – and it is evident in the polls as well as in speeches of our politicians – is a shift away from interventionism. The mood has changed, and more Americans are tired of being told they must sacrifice to save the rest of the world from itself.
Recently Col. Douglas Macgregor posted on Twitter, “We have lost $14 TRILLION over the last 20 year on dumb interventions in other countries. What good has it done?”
Many Republicans are asking that same question. What have we gotten for the first $100 billion to Ukraine? A victory for “freedom” like we were promised? No. We got rampaging inflation, decreasing standard of living, and demands for another $100 billion!
What did we get for the trillions we spent in the 20-year war in Afghanistan? Peace and democracy in the region? Hardly. As it’s often said, we spent 20 years in Afghanistan replacing the Taliban with the Taliban. All the money wasted, all the lives destroyed, all the blood spilled over 20 years and the interventionists achieved nothing. Worse than nothing.
Speaker Mike Johnson is facing serious pressure from House Republicans over his desire to keep spending on overseas intervention. That’s one reason the “national security supplemental” foreign aid bill has not been brought to the Floor. All of a sudden interventionism is a loser with more of the American people, and politicians are paying attention.
McConnell may think that he can stem the tide by preaching more intervention, but not even the Senate Republican leader can stop an idea whose time has come.
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Site: Zero HedgeEclipse Will Cut 30 Gigawatts Of Solar Power Across Nation's GridsTyler Durden Mon, 04/08/2024 - 11:00
Later today, as millions of Americans head outside to observe the total solar eclipse, power grid operators across the country will face a significant reduction in solar power generation. This will place grids in a vulnerable spot, as backup fossil fuel generation and or battery reserves will need to kick on to mitigate grid stress.
Bloomberg data estimates that 30 gigawatts of solar energy—equivalent to 30 nuclear reactors—will be lost today because the eclipse will partially block sunlight for solar fields.
Bloomberg compiled a list of the top US power grids that will experience the largest losses in solar electricity generation:
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The Texas power grid will be affected the most, losing about 17 gigawatts, according to estimates compiled by the Schneider Capital Group LLC.
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To the northeast, the grid operated by PJM Interconnection LLC will lose about 4.8 gigawatts of utility-scale solar power and about the same amount from rooftop systems.
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The impact on the Midcontinent Independent System Operator grid, covering much of the Midwest, will be slightly less — 4 gigawatts.
Here's a timeline of the solar eclipse, as well as the power markets that will be the most affected from Texas to Maine, according to S&P Global.
"Because we know about the eclipse ahead of time, utilities have prepared and planned for the lost solar energy," the Energy Information Administration penned in a recent note.
EIA added, "Several grid authorities have released plans for how they plan to deal with the change in solar generation during the eclipse. During the eclipse, electricity generators in the affected areas will have to increase output from other sources of electricity generation to supplement the decrease in solar power."
The country's last total solar eclipse occurred in 2017. Since then, solar generation has tripled in the US, accounting for about 4% of total power generation.
Today will be a major test of renewable-heavy grids. Maybe it's time, instead of grids focusing on building out unreliable solar and wind power generation - to focus on nuclear. The CEO of Pacific Gas & Electric said last week: "Nuclear should be part of the future."
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Site: LifeNews
In a brand-new video message released today, Donald Trump slammed Joe Biden for supporting abortions up to birth and celebrated overturning Roe v. Wade – the radical decision that allowed abortions up to birth across America.
In a four-minute long video posted on Truth Social, trump said he was “proudly the person responsible for the end of Roe v Wade,” the 1973 landmark ruling that had enshrined unlimited abortion.
“Many people have asked me what my position is on abortion and abortion rights, especially since I was proudly the person responsible for something that all legal scholars both sides wanted and in fact demanded be ended: Roe vs Wade. They wanted it ended,” he said.
He thanked the six conservative Supreme Court justices – three of whom he appointed – for “having the courage for this long-fought battle to end”.
“This 50-year battle over Roe v Wade took it out of the federal hands and brought it into the hearts, mind and votes of the people in each state – it’s really something,” he said.
Trump accurately condemned Democrats who support abortions up to birth and even infanticide.
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“That’s exactly what it is. The baby is born, the baby is executed after birth,” he claimed.
Trump went on to say that he believes abortion laws should be decided by individual states – hinting that he would not implement a federal abortion ban should he defeat Biden in November.
“Many states will be different, many will have a different number of weeks or some will have more conservative than others and that’s what they will be. At the end of the day, this is all about the will of the people,” he said.
Trump praised Alabama’s legislature for passing legislation to preserve the availability of IVF in the state – coming after the state’s Supreme Court ruled that fertility clinics can be held accountable for kill9ing human embryos.
“The Republican party will always support the creation of strong, thriving and healthy American families. We want to make it easier for mothers and families to have babies – not harder,” he said.
“That includes supporting the availability of fertility treatment like IVF in every state in America. Like the overwhelming majority of Americans including the vast majority of Republicans, conservatives, Christians and pro-life Americans, I strongly support the availability of IVF for couples who are trying to have a precious baby – what could be more beautiful or better than that.”
Here is a transcript of the full statement:
Under my leadership, the Republican Party will always support the creation of strong, thriving, and healthy American families. We want to make it easier for mothers and families to have babies, not harder. That includes supporting the availability of fertility treatments like IVF in every state in America.Like the overwhelming majority of Americans, including the vast majority of Republicans, conservatives, Christians, and pro-life Americans, I strongly support the availability of IVF for couples who are trying to have a precious baby. What could be more beautiful or better than that?Today, I’m pleased that the Alabama legislature has acted very quickly, and passed legislation that preserves the availability of IVF in Alabama, they really did a great and fast job. The Republican Party should always be on the side of the miracle of life and the side of mothers, father, their beautiful babies. And that’s what we are.IVF is an important part of that and our great Republican Party will always be with you in your quest for the ultimate joy in life. Many people have asked me what my position is on abortion and abortion rights, especially since I was proudly the person responsible for the ending of something that all legal scholars, both sides wanted and, in fact, demanded be ended: Roe v. Wade. They wanted it ended.It must be remembered that the Democrats are the radical ones on this position because they support abortion up to and even beyond the ninth month. The concept of having an abortion in the later months and even execution after birth. And that’s exactly what it is. The baby is born, the baby is executed after birth is unacceptable. And almost everyone agrees with that.My view is now that we have abortion where everybody wanted it from a legal standpoint, the states will determine by vote or legislation or perhaps both. And whatever they decide must be the law of the land. In this case, the law of the state. Many states will be different, many will have a different number of weeks, or some will have more conservative than others, and that’s what they will be.At the end of the day. This is all about the will of the people. You must follow your heart or in many cases, your religion or your faith. Do what’s right for your family and do what’s right for yourself. Do what’s right for your children, do what’s right for our country, and vote; so important to vote. At the end of the day. It’s all about will of the people. That’s where we are right now. And that’s what we want, the will of the people.I want to thank the six justices, Chief Justice John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, and Neil Gorsuch, incredible people, for having the courage to allow this long-term, hard-fought battle to finally end.This 50-year battle over Roe v. Wade took it out of the federal hands and brought it into the hearts, minds, and vote of the people in each state, it was really something. Now, it’s up to the states to do the right thing.Like Ronald Reagan, I am strongly in favor of exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the mother. You must follow your heart on this issue. But remember, you must also win elections to restore our culture and in fact, to save our country, which is currently and very sadly, a nation in decline.Our nation needs help. It needs unity. It needs us all to work closely together. Democrat, Republican, liberal, conservative, everyone. We have to work together. We have to bring our nation back from the brink and that’s where it is. It’s at the brink and we will, we will do it. I promise you. We will do it.Always go by your heart. But we must win. We have to win. We are a failing nation. But we can be a failing nation no longer. We will make our nation great. We will make our nation greater than ever before. Thank you very much.
The post Donald Trump Celebrates Overturning Roe, Slams Democrats for Supporting Abortions Up to Birth appeared first on LifeNews.com.
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Site: AsiaNews.itHomeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said he was "hopeful" that an agreement could be reached after recent discussions with his Chinese counterpart. The number of Chinese crossing the border between Mexico and the United States has a reached record high in recent years. Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen ended her visit to China to reset economic relations.
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Site: RT - News
The Republican presidential candidate has avoided making a federal policy pledge on the contentious issue
Individual US states should decide how abortions are regulated, rather than the federal government, former President Donald Trump has declared in a video statement.
Reproductive rights and restrictions on the termination of pregnancies were propelled to the forefront of US politics following the Supreme Court’s decision in 2022 to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe vs. Wade ruling.
In what has been described as his most detailed statement on the issue so far, Trump released a roughly four-minute video on his Truth Social platform on Monday, reiterating that the Supreme Court decision was made possible by conservative judges he had nominated during his presidency.
He insisted, however, that he wants each state to make its own decision on abortion, contrary to claims by critics that a new Trump presidency would result in a highly restrictive nationwide federal ban.
“My view is now that we have abortion where everyone wanted it from a legal standpoint. The states will determine by vote or legislation, or perhaps both,” Trump said, adding that whatever they decide “must be… the law of the state.”
Read more
Trump ‘dangerous’ for women – Jill Biden
“Many states will be different. Many will have a different number of weeks, or some will have more conservative than others, and that’s what they will be,” the former leader continued. “You must follow your heart, or in many cases your religion or your faith.”
The presumptive Republican nominee for this year’s presidential election expressed his party’s backing for a ‘pro-life’ stance, including the availability of in vitro fertilization treatment. Trump added that he is “strongly in favor” of exceptions that allow abortion in cases of rape or incest, or when the mother’s life is at risk.
Critics have accused Trump of being evasive on the issue. Responding to the video, Ammar Moussa, the spokesperson for President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign, claimed that Trump “is endorsing every single abortion ban in the states, including abortion bans with no exceptions. And he’s bragging about his role in creating this hellscape.”
READ MORE: France enshrines abortion in its constitution
Mike Pence, who served as vice president under Trump, has publicly backed some of the most radical policies limiting abortions. Before ending his bid for the GOP nomination, Pence said last year that he would impose a federal ban for all pregnancies after six weeks.
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Site: LifeNews
The federal government cannot abandon women and children exploited by abortion. Leaving abortion policy to the states is not sufficient.
While federal legislation on abortion policy is challenging at present, we are confident that a Trump administration will be staffed with pro-life personnel committed to pro-life policies, including conscience rights, limits on taxpayer funding of abortion, and protections for pro-life states.
Furthermore, no woman should face an unexpected pregnancy alone. We believe a new whole-of-government approach encouraging and supporting pregnant women to keep their children can be advanced under a new Trump administration.
President Trump’s latest statement on abortion reflects the electoral minefield created by Democrat abortion fanaticism. The fact remains that pro-life voters need to win elections to protect mothers and children.
Further, Democrats are now preparing a billion-dollar election year barrage with radical abortion as its centerpiece. While Trump did not commit to any specific pro-life policies, he notably will not stand in the way of states that have acted to protect innocent children from the violent abortion industry.
SUPPORT LIFENEWS! If you want to help fight abortion, please donate to LifeNews.com!
President Trump rightfully praised the end of Roe v. Wade, and applauded the courage of those Supreme Court justices by name that courageously overturned that decision. He also exposed the shocking extremism of “Catholic” Joe Biden, who supports abortion for any reason, including painful late term abortion.
The contrast between Joe Biden and the Democrats and President Trump is unmistakable. Pro-life voters have only one option in November.
LifeNews Note: Brian Burch writes for CatholicVote, where this column originally appeared.
The post Trump is Right: Biden is the Abortion Extremist Because He Supports Abortions Up to Birth appeared first on LifeNews.com.
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Site: RT - News
Berlin’s military support enables acts of genocide in Gaza, according to the Central American country
Nicaragua called on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Monday to halt Germany from providing military aid to Israel, arguing that Berlin’s support enables acts of genocide and breaches of international humanitarian law in Gaza.
Nicaragua’s Ambassador to the Netherlands, Carlos Jose Arguello Gomez, told the 16-judge panel that Berlin was ignoring its obligations under international law by continuing to provide military assistance to Israel.
“There can be no question that Germany (...) was well aware, and is well aware, of at least the serious risk of genocide being committed,” in Gaza, Arguello Gomez stated, urging that this situation “has got to stop.”
The German government has rejected Managua’s allegations. Tania von Uslar-Gleichen, a legal adviser for the German Foreign Ministry, called Nicaragua’s case “grossly biased” and denied that Berlin is breaching international law.
“Germany does not, and never did, violate the Genocide Convention nor international humanitarian law, neither directly nor indirectly,” she told journalists at the hearing.
Berlin will present its arguments in court on Tuesday.
The case brought by Nicaragua comes at a time of growing calls worldwide to stop the supply of arms to Israel. Germany is the second-largest military exporter to the Middle Eastern country, after the US.
Read more
UK facing growing pressure over arms sales to Israel
On Friday, the UN’s top human rights body called on countries to stop selling or shipping weapons to Israel. The US and Germany opposed the resolution.
In January, the ICJ imposed provisional measures ordering Israel to do all it can to prevent death, destruction and acts of genocide in Gaza. The orders came through a case filed by South Africa accusing Israel of breaching the 1948 Genocide Convention. The court has not ruled on the merit of the claims, and declined to order Israel to halt its military operations.
Last week, the ICJ ordered Israel to take measures to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, including opening more land crossings to allow food, water, fuel and other supplies into the war-ravaged enclave.
Israel declared war on Hamas after the Palestinian militant group carried out a surprise attack on the country last October, killing around 1,100 people and taking more than 200 hostages. More than 30,000 Palestinians have since been killed during Israel’s operations in Gaza, according to local authorities.
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Site: Steyn OnlineLooking at the world through pitch-colored glasses...
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Site: LifeNews
A leading pro-life group says Donald Trump’s statement on abortion is a “step in the right direction.”
On Monday, Trump published a video on Truth Social where he stated that he believed abortion laws should be made by states, which could mean he would not sign any abortion limits as president and would allow states that have legalized abortions up to birth to continue doing so.
“My view is…the states will determine by legislation or vote or perhaps both, and whatever they decide must be the law of the land. In this case, the law of the state. Many states will be different, many will have a different number of weeks or some will have more conservative than others, and that’s what they will be. At the end of the day, this is all about the will of the people,” Trump said in the statement. “You must follow your heart or, in may cases, your religion or your faith. Do what’s right for your family and do what’s right for yourself…do what’s right for our country.”
“Like Ronald Reagan, I am strongly in favor of exceptions for rape, incest and life of a mother,” the presumptive GOP presidential candidate said.
Students for Life Action President Kristan Hawkins told LifeNews.com that she appreciated Trump’s comments supporting life.
Hawkins observed: “Unlike President Biden, President Trump begins his remarks on abortion celebrating ‘the ultimate joy in life’ – children and family. That kind of love and support for the bedrock of society, the family, will be a welcome change in the White House.”
But Hawkins said Trump needs to meet with pro-life leaders to develop a better understanding of pro-life issues.
“We clearly have some work to do to educate the Trump Administration to come on the many ways that abortion has been made federal. But with the mutual goals of supporting families and welcoming young children, we can work together to restore the culture of life stripped away by the national Democratic Party and their leadership,” she said.
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“I’m pleased to see that President Trump listened to pro-lifers and isn’t going to allow a divisive late-term limit that some GOP insiders were been pushing, which would have embraced more than 9 in 10 abortions, to be a distraction from Joe Biden’s abortion extremism,” Hawkins added. “However, to be clear, the Pro-Life Movement is united that abortion is a federal issue, and we won’t stop working until every child, in every state, is protected in life by law and service. Your state lines should never mean the beginning or end of your human rights.”
She continued: “We clearly have some work to do to educate the GOP on the lawlessness of a predatory IVF industry, whose own sloppiness has caused the painful headlines we all have seen. It’s an industry in need of regulation and change, even as we understand the desire and passion for a family. We want to compassionately embrace families who want children as well as the children turned into a disposable commodity by predatory and negligent businesses. But Pro-Life Generation can work with an administration preparing to welcome the next generation, rather than fast-tracking their deaths by abortion.”
“We hope that President Trump’s agenda will end the anti-baby, anti-family bias of President Biden’s Administration. Our SFLA-You Gov poll shows less than one in ten Youth Voters supports the Democratic Party Abortion Position: Abortion without limits, Paid for by taxpayers, Without conscience protections for medical professionals, or Respect for the rights of states to enact laws. Add in the Democratic Party’s efforts to block medical care to infants born during botched abortions, and infanticide, and that’s a horrific agenda.
“Fighting against that kind of abortion extremism is a reason to vote for Donald Trump.”
Trump’s position follows what the Supreme Court has ruled ine one sense but not in another. The nation’s highest court determined that states do have the right to protect babies from abortions. But it left the decisions to “elected representatives” not just to the states. That includes Congress passing laws like the partial-birth abortion ban that protect babies from abortions.
“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled. The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each State from regulating or prohibiting abortion. Roe and Casey arrogated that authority. We now overrule those decisions and return that authority to the people and their elected representatives,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the majority.
“The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, including the one on which the defenders of Roe and Casey now chiefly rely—the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the majority opinion. “That provision has been held to guarantee some rights that are not mentioned in the Constitution, but any such right must be ‘deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition’ and ‘implicit in the concept of ordered liberty.’”
“Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences,” Alito wrote. “And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division.”
Trump also came out in support of IVF, in-vitro fertilization and the artificial creation of human beings — a process which sometimes involves the destruction of human embryos, unique human beings after conception.
“We want to make it easier for mothers and families to have babies, not harder. That includes supporting the availability of fertility treatments like IVF in every state in America.”
Although the statement is disappointing for pro-life Americans who understand babies should not be killed in abortions, when it comes to the presidential election, Americans have a clear choice between the most pro-abortion president in history and the president who compiled the most pro-life record in history.
With Joe Biden and Donald Trump, American will choose between a president who promotes abortions up to birth and one who slams late-term abortions.
In recent comments, Cardinal Gerhard Müller, who previously lead the Vatican’s highest doctrine office, called abortion “infanticide” and saying those politicians who actively support abortion like Biden should be “excommunicated.”
And he called on Americans to reject Joe Biden’s “murderous” abortion agenda.
“The word ‘abortion’ is too much a soft word. The reality is killing, murder of a living person,” said Gerhard Cardinal Müller. “There’s no right to kill another person. It’s absolutely against the Fifth Commandment.”
“They cannot, on the one hand, protest against the killing of innocent people in Ukraine, while on the other hand allow the killing of their own children,” he added.
Biden has a long pro-abortion record and his FY 2025 budget proposal once again calls for eliminating the Hyde Amendment, which has protected unborn babies and their mothers for over 40 years by ensuring that federal tax dollars don’t fund elective abortion. It also calls for eliminating the Dornan Amendment (“D.C. Hyde”).
Multiple post-Dobbs polls show that at least seven in 10 Americans support significant limits on abortion. A clear majority of Americans oppose taxpayer-funded abortion on demand domestically, and more than two thirds oppose using tax dollars to promote abortion overseas.
SBA Pro-Life America is tracking the pro-abortion extremism of the Biden-Harris administration at sbaprolife.org/biden-harris.
The post Pro-Life Group Calls Donald Trump’s Abortion Statement a “Step in the Right Direction” appeared first on LifeNews.com.
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Site: Rorate CaeliFeast of the Annunciation Jubilee of Profession of Dom François Convert and Br. Louis-Marie Pavageau Sermon of the Right Reverend Dom Jean Pateau Father Abbot of Our Lady of FontgombaultFontgombault, April 8, 2024Qui seminant in lacrimis, in exsultatione metent. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. (Ps 125:5) Dear Brothers and Sisters, My dearly New Catholichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04118576661605931910noreply@blogger.com
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Site: Padre PeregrinoThe new document from the DDF, Dignitas Infinita, has many heresies, but we'll just tackle a few below: Error 1: "The glorious Christ will judge by the love of neighbor that consists in ministering to the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, and the imprisoned, with whom he identifies (cf. Mt. 25:34-36). [...]
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Site: AsiaNews.itAt a press briefing in Colombo, the country's Human Rights Commission called for changes to the school curricula to give a central place to human rights, highlighting the plight of marginalised groups, like Tamil plantation workers. Guidelines were presented last December, including on proper arrest procedures. About '24 people taken into custody died in detention,' Commission member Nimal Punchihewa lamented.
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Site: ChurchPOP
There’s so much beauty and history in the Catholic Church!
March 25 is the Feast of the Annunciation. (However, in 2024, the Church moved the feast to April 8 since the March date fell during Holy Week.) The Catholic Church celebrates Mary’s “yes” to the Archangel Gabriel after he asked her to be the Mother of Jesus.
This feast also takes place nine months before Christmas Day.
According to tradition, the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, Israel, was established at the very site of the angel Gabriel’s appearance to Mary. It is also believed to be Mary’s childhood home.
The basilica contains two levels. Nazareth’s Catholic parish community uses the top level. The bottom level consists of a cave and grotto where it is believed Mary once lived and said “yes” to the angel Gabriel.
It is also the largest Christian Church in the Middle East.
While the large basilica was constructed in 1969, it is said an original shrine consisting of an altar and a cave was built in the mid-fourth century.
Here’s a photo of the location in the Basilica where Gabriel appeared to Mary:
Dennis Jarvis, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0 DEEDThis 18th-century altar is located on the bottom level of the Basilica of the Annunciation. Tradition holds that it contains the remains of Mary’s childhood home and is the location where the annunciation took place.
The altar’s Latin inscription reads, “Verbum Caro Hic Factum Est,” which means, “here the word was made flesh (Jn. 1:14).” The stairs behind the altar lead to “Mary’s kitchen” and a yard exit.
The pillar to the right of the altar, most likely built around the fourth century, represents the location where the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary.
Here are some additional photos of the cave and grotto, or the lower level of the basilica:
Dennis Jarvis, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED
Dennis Jarvis, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED
Dennis Jarvis, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0 DEEDHere are some photos of the basilica’s upper level:
Dennis Jarvis, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED
Dennis Jarvis, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED
Dennis Jarvis, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED
Dennis Jarvis, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0 DEEDThis 170-ft cupola represents a lily! ☝️
There are also many Marian mosaics throughout the inside and outside of the basilica:
Dennis Jarvis, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED
Dennis Jarvis, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED
Dennis Jarvis, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED
Dennis Jarvis, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED
Dennis Jarvis, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED
Dennis Jarvis, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED
Dennis Jarvis, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED
Dennis Jarvis, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED
Dennis Jarvis, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED
Dennis Jarvis, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED
adriatikus, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Dennis Jarvis, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0 DEEDHere are some more beautiful exterior photos of this incredible church:
Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain
Dennis Jarvis, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED
Dennis Jarvis, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED
Dennis Jarvis, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED
Dennis Jarvis, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED
Dennis Jarvis, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED
Dennis Jarvis, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0 DEEDHere’s another statue of the young Mary:
Dennis Jarvis, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0 DEEDWhat do you think of the basilica?
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Site: RT - News
Beijing has vowed to safeguard its interests and ties with Moscow following a warning from US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen
Beijing has dismissed a warning from Washington to Chinese companies that allegedly support the Russian military amid its conflict with Ukraine. China will resolutely protect its interests from “foreign interference,” the Foreign Ministry has said in response.
Over the weekend, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen threatened Chinese firms with “significant consequences” if they “provide material support for Russia’s war against Ukraine.”
Yellen’s warning came as anonymous US officials told Bloomberg that Chinese companies were supplying microelectronics and machine tools to Russia to produce tanks, as well as optics and propellants for use in missiles.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning responded to Yellen’s statement during a press conference on Monday.
“China-Russia relations should not be attacked or smeared, and the legitimate rights and interests of China and Chinese companies should not be harmed,” Mao said. “China will take resolute measures to safeguard our legitimate rights and interests.”
The comments come as Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived in Beijing on Monday for a two-day visit.
”The normal cooperation between China and Russia should not be subject to foreign interference or restriction,” Mao added in response to a follow-up question regarding Washington’s warning to Beijing over its ties with Moscow.
Read more
China tells US to commit to market economy
American officials have repeatedly warned Chinese companies against doing business with the Russian military since Moscow began its operation in Ukraine in 2022. Moscow and Beijing have repeatedly denied American claims that the Russian military has bought ammunition and ‘dual-use’ technology (with both military and civilian applications) from China.
According to Mao, Beijing is “committed to playing a constructive role in promoting ceasefire and political settlement of the crisis” between Moscow and Kiev.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping have deepened their military and diplomatic cooperation over the past two years, with both leaders declaring a “no limits” partnership in February 2022. That partnership has seen Russia become China’s largest supplier of oil, while the Russian space agency Roscosmos announced last month that it could work with China to build an automated nuclear reactor on the Moon by 2035.
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Site: La Salette Journey
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Site: PaulCraigRoberts.org
America Has a Third World Economy
Paul Craig Roberts
Friday’s jobs report, the financial press tells us, “blew past projections,” with a monthly jobs gain of 303,000 compared to the 231,000 average over the past year. The Biden economy is gathering steam. https://www.barrons.com/livecoverage/march-jobs-report-today
In actual fact the jobs report shows that the United States is continuing its collapse into third worldism.
A first world economy is characterized by high productivity, high value-added manufacturing and industrial jobs. A third world economy is characterized by low productivity service and government jobs. As I have reported for 30 years, the US has transitioned from the first to the third world.
The jobs report shows that. In March America lost jobs in primary metal manufacturing, fabricated metal product manufacturing, machinery manufacturing, computer and electronic product manufacturing, computer and peripheral equipment manufacturing, communications equipment manufacturing, semiconductor and other electronic component manufacturing, electrical equipment, appliance, and component manufacturing, furniture and related product manufacturing, food manufacturing, textile product manufacturing, apparel manufacturing, plastics and rubber products manufacturing, leather and allied product manufacturing.
190,000 of the jobs are in services, and 71,000 are in government. In other words, 86% of the jobs gain reflect the third world pattern. The service jobs are in wholesale and retail trade, health care and social assistance, and waitresses and bartenders.
The high tech jobs we were promised in exchange for offshoring US manufacturing industry are hardly visible and certainly did not provide opportunities for displaced manufacturing workers. Moreover, most tech jobs–AI, robotics, software programs–are aimed at displacing humans from the work force.
The offshoring of US manufacturing destroyed the middle class, state and local government budgets, the ladders of upward mobility, and concentrated the wealth of the country in one percent of the population.
That one percent itself is a massively wide wealth range from $11 million to 200,000 million, which are certainly not comparable wealth positions. The difference is the same as between $11 and $200,000. American wealth is concentrated in the hands of multi-billionaires who comprise one-tenth of one percent or less of the population.
The tell-tale sign of a third world economy is the concentration of wealth in the hands of a tiny minority. In the United States this is called “democracy.” And an increase in third world jobs is misrepresented as economic progress.
They will never stop lying to us.
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Site: PaulCraigRoberts.org
24/7 Media and No Valid Information
Paul Craig Roberts
The English language Russian media, such as RT, is better at news reporting than the Western media, but Russian media also supports official narratives, such as the claim that Evgeny Prigozhin, leader of the Wagner Group staged a mutiny against Putin. If the Wagner Group had attempted a coup, it probably would have succeeded. https://www.rt.com/russia/595507-ex-wagner-fighters-join-chechen-unit/
What actually happened is that a small contingent from the group held a march on Moscow to protest the senseless casualties of fighting a war with both hands tied. Prigozhin wanted to get the war with Ukraine over with, not drag it on endlessly and needlessly.
A protest is not a mutiny. The Russian military, jealous of the Wagner Group wanted Prigozhin’s warriors brought under their control. They used the protest to alarm Putin about a mutiny. Putin, who is unable to admit that his “limited military operation” is a blunder, came down hard on Prigozhin. The military got what they wanted. Prigozhin died in a mysterious plane crash, and the Wagner Group was dispersed among Russian military units, thus breaking up the best fighting force Russia had.
I have also noticed that RT and Sputnik support US official narratives, such as the “Jan 6 Insurrection.” The explanation for this could be self-censorship by the English language Russian media so that they are not banned from the US.
If you think about it, the question arises: Do people anywhere in the Western world have a factual understanding of any important event? The assassination of President John F. Kennedy? The Gulf of Tonkin? The 1964 Civil Rights Act? The Soviet collapse? 9/11? Saddam Hussein’s “weapons of mass destruction”? The overthrow and murder of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi? The Maidan Revolution? The Ukrainian-Russian conflict? The Israeli genocide of Palestine? The 2020 US presidential election? The charges against Trump?
For truth to prevail, honest journalism is required, but as Martin Gurri explained in The City Journal, what the West has is “post-journalism” which consists of advocacy of agendas and protection of the narratives that support those agendas. Facts are no longer part of the picture. The Woke turn to the NY Times, CNN, and NPR to slate their emotions with their hate fix for the day.
Consequently, no one knows what is really happening, not even those who know that something is wrong.
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Site: PaulCraigRoberts.org
Third World America
For decades I have emphasized in books and articles that Wall Street, corporations and their political puppets have the US on the road to the third world. It looks like we have arrived:
https://www.rt.com/news/595530-poll-americans-struggle-rising-housing-costs/The typical American household income is $30,000 less than the income required to afford a median-priced home. 22% of Americans skip meals in order to pay the mortgage and medical bills. 45% of Americans 18-29 years of age are living at home with parents. And on top of this 3.6 million immigrant-invaders are arriving annually who require various forms of public assistance.
The transformation of America from an opportunity society to a shithole country is almost complete.
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Site: PaulCraigRoberts.org
Maybe the Worm is Turning
6 April 2024
Shocking moment Hillary Clinton is branded a ‘super predator’ while husband Bill is told he’s a ‘piece of s**t’ to his face by anti-Israel protesters in NYC.
Hillary Clinton was branded a ‘super predator’ while husband Bill was called a ‘piece of s**t’ during an ambush by pro-Palestine protesters in New York City.
The Clintons were accused of ‘facilitating genocide’ by the demonstrators who hurled abuse at the couple as they exited a Biden fundraiser on Wednesday.
Hillary was leaving the Music Box Theater where she and her husband were watching a preview of the show ‘Suffs’ for which she is a producer.
She and fellow host Hamilton writer Lin-Manuel Miranda used the occasion to stump for Biden.
But the Clintons were met by a hostile crowd blaming Hillary in particular for ‘the deaths of millions’.“You call yourself a feminist? Women are dying in Gaza, you fucking coward!”
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton confronted by anti-genocide protestors Wednesday night after hosting yet another fundraiser for Biden in NYC.
“Has anyone told you you ARE the superpredator?”— Talia Jane’Hillary, has anyone ever told you that you are the super predator?’ One protester screamed as the former secretary of state approached her car.
‘Bill Clinton, you’re a genocide supporter. F*** you, you piece of s**t,’ the demonstrator added as the ex-president followed her out.
But Hillary appeared unfazed raising a hand to wave and flashing a smile at the others who had gathered to see her even as the critique kept coming.
‘You are responsible for genocides, you are responsible for atrocities. You’re literally helping facilitate the genocide of Palestinian people,’ the protester continued.
She continued bellowing even as Hillary got into the vehicle and shut the door.
‘F***ing piece of s**t Hillary! Over 34,000 people are dead Hillary. Call yourself a feminist? Women are dying in Gaza.’As the car pulled away, the protester was seen giving the finger before chasing the vehicle down the road to continue shouting.
‘Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton, we can see you hiding in the back of your car,’ the demonstrator yelled. ‘Stop holding fundraisers for genocide you f***ing coward. How many people have died at your hands?’
‘I hope their screams haunt you every night,’ another person added.
The couple were targeted due to their ties to Biden, whose support for Israel as it conducts a devastating bombardment of Gaza has been widely criticized amid the rising death toll.
Among the recent victims were seven aid workers including a US-Canadian citizen who were blasted with missiles by the IDF as they attempted to deliver food.
Initially, Hillary Clinton said those calling for a ceasefire, ‘did not understand Hamas’ as she insisted on Israel’s right to defend itself.
But she has since watered down her comments and criticized Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu for allowing the atrocity to happen.
Support for Israel’s military action in Gaza has dropped dramatically since November with the majority of Americans now opposing, according to the latest Gallup survey data.
The study found that 55 percent disapprove of Israel’s actions while only 36 approve.Note: it should scare Americans to death that 36% of their fellow Americans believe in genocide and Israel’s right to commit the genocide of the Palestinian people. How far the US has declined with more than one-third of the population supporting genocide. Hopefully, it will happen to them.
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Site: RT - News
The Ukrainian president’s failure to keep his election promises has contributed to public disenchantment, Tagesspiegel claims
Public support for Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky is declining as he is increasingly perceived as an authoritarian ruler, German newspaper Tagesspiegel has claimed.
In an article on Saturday, Tagesspiegel reported that approval ratings for Zelensky “have recently sunk to 61%,” citing fresh opinion polls by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology. The Ukrainian leader had enjoyed the support of more than 80% of citizens in the initial months after the conflict with Russia broke out in 2022, the German outlet noted.
In January, the New York Times reported that Ukrainians were growing weary of government narratives being pushed on TV, accusing them of painting an unrealistic picture of frontline developments.
In early March, Kiev Mayor Vitaly Klitschko openly criticized Zelensky’s decision to fire the country’s top military commander, Valery Zaluzhny, in the previous month. Klitschko has also repeatedly accused the Ukrainian president of authoritarian tendencies.
Read more
Zelensky fires security chief
Tagesspiegel quoted Stefan Meister, an Eastern Europe expert at the German Council on Foreign Relations research institute, as saying that Ukrainian society has become increasingly critical of authoritarian tendencies within Zelensky’s government.
According to Meister, Ukrainians are disillusioned with the president’s failure to fulfill the promises he made on the campaign trail five years ago, including bringing peace to the country and eradicating corruption.
Vladimir Paniotto, the head of the Kiev International Institute of Sociology, told German reporters that public trust in Zelensky’s team as a whole has also declined markedly.
Zelensky’s first five-year term is due to end on May 20, although he has ruled out holding presidential elections, citing martial law. He has nonetheless been busy reshuffling his administration, seeking to remove figures who enjoy any significant public support and replacing them with those “loyal to the president [and] without political ambitions,” Tagesspiegel reported.
The newspaper cited the sacking of Zaluzhny as a prime example, adding that the general remains more popular among Ukrainians than Zelensky.
The Ukrainian president “is trying to shunt possible rivals so that they won’t become politically dangerous for him,” Meister alleged.
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Site: LifeNews
In a preview of the statement on abortion he will release today, Donald Trump posted a disappointing message on social media this morning saying abortion should be a state issue.
On Monday, Trump published a video on Truth Social where he stated that he believed abortion laws should be made by states, which could mean he would not sign any abortion limits as president and would allow states that have legalized abortions up to birth to continue doing so.
“My view is…the states will determine by legislation or vote or perhaps both, and whatever they decide must be the law of the land. In this case, the law of the state. Many states will be different, many will have a different number of weeks or some will have more conservative than others, and that’s what they will be. At the end of the day, this is all about the will of the people,” Trump said in the statement. “You must follow your heart or, in may cases, your religion or your faith. Do what’s right for your family and do what’s right for yourself…do what’s right for our country.”
“Like Ronald Reagan, I am strongly in favor of exceptions for rape, incest and life of a mother,” the presumptive GOP presidential candidate said.
Trump’s position follows what the Supreme Court has ruled in one sense but not in another. The nation’s highest court determined that states do have the right to protect babies from abortions. But it left the decisions to “elected representatives” not just to the states. That includes Congress passing laws like the partial-birth abortion ban that protect babies from abortions.
“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled. The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each State from regulating or prohibiting abortion. Roe and Casey arrogated that authority. We now overrule those decisions and return that authority to the people and their elected representatives,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the majority.
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“The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, including the one on which the defenders of Roe and Casey now chiefly rely—the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the majority opinion. “That provision has been held to guarantee some rights that are not mentioned in the Constitution, but any such right must be ‘deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition’ and ‘implicit in the concept of ordered liberty.’”
“Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences,” Alito wrote. “And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division.”
Trump also came out in support of IVF, in-vitro fertilization and the artificial creation of human beings — a process which sometimes involves the destruction of human embryos, unique human beings after conception.
“We want to make it easier for mothers and families to have babies, not harder. That includes supporting the availability of fertility treatments like IVF in every state in America.”
Although the statement is disappointing for pro-life Americans who understand babies should not be killed in abortions, when it comes to the presidential election, Americans have a clear choice between the most pro-abortion president in history and the president who compiled the most pro-life record in history.
With Joe Biden and Donald Trump, American will choose between a president who promotes abortions up to birth and one who slams late-term abortions.
In recent comments, Cardinal Gerhard Müller, who previously lead the Vatican’s highest doctrine office, called abortion “infanticide” and saying those politicians who actively support abortion like Biden should be “excommunicated.”
And he called on Americans to reject Joe Biden’s “murderous” abortion agenda.
“The word ‘abortion’ is too much a soft word. The reality is killing, murder of a living person,” said Gerhard Cardinal Müller. “There’s no right to kill another person. It’s absolutely against the Fifth Commandment.”
“They cannot, on the one hand, protest against the killing of innocent people in Ukraine, while on the other hand allow the killing of their own children,” he added.
Biden has a long pro-abortion record and his FY 2025 budget proposal once again calls for eliminating the Hyde Amendment, which has protected unborn babies and their mothers for over 40 years by ensuring that federal tax dollars don’t fund elective abortion. It also calls for eliminating the Dornan Amendment (“D.C. Hyde”).
Multiple post-Dobbs polls show that at least seven in 10 Americans support significant limits on abortion. A clear majority of Americans oppose taxpayer-funded abortion on demand domestically, and more than two thirds oppose using tax dollars to promote abortion overseas.
SBA Pro-Life America is tracking the pro-abortion extremism of the Biden-Harris administration at sbaprolife.org/biden-harris.
The post Donald Trump Says Abortion Should be a State Issue appeared first on LifeNews.com.
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Site: Ron Paul Institute - Featured Articles
A version of this article first appeared as a regular RPI Update. Subscribe for free here.
Last week the Israelis scored a bloody “hat trick” – slaughtering seven international food aid workers, demolishing the last major hospital operating in Gaza, and – perhaps most dangerous – attacking an Iranian diplomatic facility in Damascus, Syria, in which several senior Iranian military figures were killed.
There is a very good reason diplomatic facilities are off limits even in times of war. It has been mutually beneficial for thousands of years for all parties to know that they may continue to communicate and conduct diplomacy even during crises and war with messengers and diplomats able to fulfil their duties unmolested. Attacks on diplomatic facilities are so rare that when they do occur even the most apology-averse regimes find themselves obligated to break out the ashes and sackcloth. When the US bombed the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia in 1999, for example, there were moments when a US war with China was suddenly not beyond imagination. It was extremely tense – until the US government offered profuse apologies and compensation to the families of the victims.
The Israeli attack on an Iranian embassy complex in Syria – a country Israel has been habitually bombing for years with impunity including in a separate case just days before the Iran embassy attack where 53 Syrians were killed in Aleppo under Israeli bombs – is thus a serious and boldfaced threat to the existing world order. When all the rules and customs are thrown aside, doors are suddenly opened for previously unimaginable actions and consequences.
Why would Israel risk a direct confrontation with an Iran that is strong and well-armed – including reportedly with hypersonic missiles – at this point in its ongoing bloodbath in Gaza? It seems by calculation.
Many observers believe that, six months into its operation in Gaza with no discernible degrading of the strength of Hamas as a political or fighting force – and with some 33,000 Palestinian civilians killed in the process – Israel is looking to get out by going further in. In other words, Tel Aviv is looking to extricate itself from a growing crisis by escalating its war to Iran and Lebanon (and perhaps Syria) with the idea that its dedicated supporters among the US political elites of both parties will join together to pull Israel’s chestnuts out of the fire.
Already at home, tens of thousands are taking to the Israeli streets to demand new elections and negotiations to get the Israeli hostages released. While polls suggest most Israelis favor Israel’s assault on Palestinians in Gaza, they are frustrated with the lack of any result and the continued specter of Israelis being held by Hamas.
Opposition to the Netanyahu regime’s total war against Palestinians in Gaza is not limited to Israel itself or what is called the “global south” or the “global majority” (meaning Russia, China, India, and the rest of the BRICS countries), but even inside the United States, where unquestioning support for Israel was once nearly automatic and opposition to US/Israel being joined at the hip only came from what were dismissed as “the fringes.”
According to a new poll from the Gallup organization, the “Majority in U.S. Now Disapprove of Israeli Action in Gaza.” The numbers from their recent poll are devastating not only to Tel Aviv but to our political class at home: “approval has dropped from 50% to 36% since November,” reports Gallup.
That means for the first time in recent memory, the people of the United States are fed up with backing Israel’s endless aggression in the Middle East. The numbers are worse for Biden voters – hence the desperation in his re-election camp – but even among Israel’s stalwart supporters in the US Republican Party, support for Israel has slipped from 71 percent to just 64 percent just since November.
That number is sure to sink further, as GOP dinosaurs like Mitch McConnell are being supplanted by a Republican Party that appears to be – slowly – waking up to the disaster created by US foreign policy interventionism. So when McConnell warns that even as his short-circuiting brain has caused him to step down from Republican leadership in the Senate, he is determined to finish his term with the singular goal of defeating growing “isolationism” among his GOP Senate colleagues…well, would you want to advertise “Glitch Mitch” as your poster child for foreign policy? The guy who eagerly lent his face to each of the disastrous wars of the 21st century?
His attacks on his fellow Kentucky Senator, Rand Paul, as someone who “would be the first one to say that he’s an isolationist” just seem increasingly wince-inducing and out-of-touch.
So what will Iran do to respond to Israel’s attack on its embassy in Syria? The US is reportedly on “high alert” for an Iranian response in the Middle East, but also has reportedly assured Iran it would not respond to any Iranian retaliation against Israeli aggression. Washington reportedly informed Iran that Israel did not give it a heads up before hitting its embassy in Damascus.
Is it a trap? I have suspicions, but no information beyond that.
For its part, a senior Israeli official hinted that the country may use nuclear weapons against Iran if Iran retaliates and the US does not jump in on Israel’s side: “In the event of a conflict with Iran, if we do not receive American ammunition – we will have to use everything we have…”
These are the woes an interventionist foreign policy brings to Americans. Which is why we do not support getting involved in the affairs of any country overseas. Yes, that goes for Israel too. And we are happy that finally the rest of the country is coming in our direction. Hopefully it is not too late.
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Site: Rorate CaeliDeclaration “Dignitas Infinita”on Human DignityPresentationDuring the Congresso of 15 March 2019, the then-Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith decided to commence “the drafting of a text highlighting the indispensable nature of the dignity of the human person in Christian anthropology and illustrating the significance and beneficial implications of the concept in the social,New Catholichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04118576661605931910noreply@blogger.com
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Site: RT - News
Despite the ongoing hostilities in Gaza, a record number of Arab soldiers are currently serving in the Israeli army
Israeli Arabs are normally exempt from the military service that is compulsory for all. However, throughout the years hundreds have enrolled in the IDF, albeit their numbers have been insignificant. In recent years, this tendency has shifted, and in 2021 more than a thousand Muslim Arabs served in its ranks.
With Israel’s operation in Gaza hitting the six-month mark, the international community is putting pressure on officials in West Jerusalem to end the war.
Mass demonstrations against the war have become common in such states as the US, UK, France, Germany, and Netherlands. The positive perception of Israel in the US has gone down from the previous 68% of 2023 to the current 58%, the lowest rating in over two decades.
A similar trend has also been registered in Arab states, where Israel's reputation has dropped, with 89% rejecting the idea of normalizing relations with Israel because of its bloody military campaign in Gaza.
Interestingly, though, this was not the case inside Israel within its own Arab population. In November 2023, shortly after the bloody attacks of Hamas on the country’s southern communities, where at least 1,400 people were slaughtered, a poll revealed that 70% of Arab Israelis felt a connection to the state and that the problems of Israel concerned them too. In comparison, in June of 2023, only 48% of Israeli Arabs had expressed such a view.
Read more
‘Russia is very important for protecting Palestinians’: Top Hamas official talks to RT about the conflict with Israel
This sentiment has also translated into a boost in the number of Israeli Arabs who enrolled for military service.
Israeli law doesn’t impose service in the IDF on Israeli Arabs, who make up some 20% of the total population. Yet, throughout the years, some members of the community have served.
In recent years, however, more and more Israeli Arabs have opted for the military. While in 2018 and 2019, only 436 and 489 Arabs served in the IDF, respectively, in 2020 more than 600 wore the uniform.
By 2021, the number of Arab soldiers had reached over a thousand, including in combat units, while the raging war in Gaza has given another boost to the numbers.
Yusef Hadad, an Israeli Arab from the city of Nazareth in northern Israel, is also one of those who decided to stand with Israel.
In 2003, when he was 18, he went to serve in an elite combat unit called Golani, and three years later, he was sent to Lebanon, where Israel was waging a war in retaliation for the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers by militants of Hezbollah, a Shiite militia linked to Iran.
While fighting in the ranks of the IDF, he was wounded and lost a foot but says he has never regretted serving the State of Israel.
“The reason I decided to go and serve was because our army is called the IDF, meaning Israel Defence Forces, not JDF, Jewish Defence Forces. This military is for everyone and it protects us all, Jews and Arabs alike. So by serving there, I am serving not only my community but also all the peoples of Israel.”
Recalling his days in uniform, Hadad says he faced mixed reactions. He was bullied at times, harassed, and called a traitor for neglecting the Palestinian cause and for siding with whom many saw as an occupier. But such people, he says, have never managed to break his determination and spirit.
Read more
Why the US decided to give peace in Gaza a chance
“I was never ashamed of my decision, and every time I went back home from the base, I made sure to wear my uniform, and I remember that children used to approach me to ask questions,” he said over the phone.
“Back in those days my deed was unique. In my own family I was the first one to do it. But I paved that path for many. My sister enrolled straight after me,” he added.
Today, due to his injury in the Second Lebanon War, Hadad is not able to serve in the reserves, but he dedicates his time to advocating for Israel. He has been seen in studios debating pro-Palestinian activists, often clashing with them without mincing his words. He is touring the world with lectures promoting Israel, for which he is often slammed and rebuked.
But the more the war in Gaza goes on, the more difficult it becomes to justify it. The number of casualties in Gaza has already surpassed 30,000 people. Thousands of others are wounded, many others are unaccounted for, while 80% of buildings have been partially or totally destroyed. More than a million Gazans have become internally displaced.
The actions of some IDF soldiers are not helping Hadad’s advocacy efforts either. Since the beginning of the war on October 7, 2023 social media has been packed with viral videos of Israeli fighters ruining furniture, looting property and humiliating civilians – actions that have caused an international uproar. Hadad condemns the actions of these individuals, who “go against the morals of the IDF” and is certain they will be prosecuted and punished for their actions.
“We are a small country of nine million people and almost every family in Israel was affected by the events of October 7. So some soldiers are acting out of anger and the desire to revenge. It is unfortunate but a rather natural reaction,” he explained.
“Yet, it is important to remember that the spirit of the IDF – from the lowest ranking soldier and to the highest ranking officer – is different. We are considered to be one of the most moral armies in the world and we do our best not to harm civilians.”
The statistics, however, show a different picture. Of the 30,000 people dead in Gaza, 10,000 were terrorists as per the IDF. The remaining 20,000 were civilians, including women and children.
Read more
‘You become a traitor and a bad Jew’: Israeli anti-war activists speak to RT about their country’s actions
But Hadad says the media – which is generally hostile to Israel – is misguided by information fed by Hamas.
“When I tell them that the IDF killed 10,000 terrorists, they don’t believe me. But they go on and quote the numbers of the Palestinian health ministry that’s controlled by the terror group Hamas. What does that mean? Do they rather believe a terror group than one of the most moral armies in the world? This is hypocrisy,” reasoned the activist.
Hadad believes that this biased approach towards Israel harms the credibility of news networks that “don’t give their viewers credible information” about the reality on the ground. They don’t speak about the co-existence between Jews and Arabs that exists in Israel. Neither do they mention that the majority of Israeli Arabs speak against Hamas and its horrendous crimes.
For his advocacy efforts Hadad has already been branded as Israel’s de-facto minister of public diplomacy. But he says he is far from politics, especially at a time when the war is still raging and 134 Israeli hostages are still captive in Gaza.
“Now we need to concentrate on supporting the IDF and bringing the hostages back. Whatever happens next... all possibilities are open.”
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Site: RT - News
Robert Fico said he wouldn’t be surprised if the EU cuts funding to the country after the victory of Social Democrat Peter Pellegrini
The EU may look for ways to punish Slovakia following the victory of Ukraine-skeptic Peter Pellegrini in the country’s presidential elections, Prime Minister Robert Fico has warned.
The Social Democrat politician is set to become president after defeating pro-Western liberal candidate Ivan Korczok, who had called for more military and financial support for Kiev.
Pellegrini officially won 53% of the vote while Korczok, a former minister for foreign affairs, trailed on 46%. In his victory speech, Pellegrini called for hostilities in Ukraine to be stopped as soon as possible.
“It is an absolute tragedy to support… a conflict that has not brought any results in two years,” while leaving tens of thousands dead, the president-elect said.
While congratulating the new president on his victory, Fico warned that Slovakia must now take into account “the possible punishment of the West for electing Peter Pellegrini, and not Ivan Korczok, who would not have hesitated to send Slovak battalions to Ukraine.”
The prime minister recalled that, following the victory of his Social Democrat party in the parliamentary elections in Slovakia last year, instead of receiving congratulations from the EU, the group was expelled from the Party of European Socialists due to its position on Ukraine.
Read more
Ukraine conflict must end – EU state’s president-elect
“I would not be surprised if the European Commission, purely for political reasons and because of the results of the presidential elections, suspended payments to us from [EU] funds,” Fico said.
During his election campaign, Pellegrini repeatedly stated that the Ukraine conflict must be resolved through peaceful means. He has opposed sending any further military aid to Kiev, arguing that Ukraine would not be able to defeat Russia on the battlefield, and that further weapon shipments would only lead to the unnecessary deaths of thousands of soldiers and civilians.
The incoming president has also described the West’s sanctions on Russia as ineffective and against the interests of Slovakia. Pellegrini has opposed Ukraine’s membership in NATO but is open to Kiev becoming part of the EU. He has said, however, that the country must first meet all the necessary requirements to join the bloc.
He has indicated that Slovakia would remain aligned with the EU and NATO under his leadership, but the country must also take a more independent position on the global stage.
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Site: Novus Motus LiturgicusNLM is deeply grateful to the International Centre for Liturgical Studies (CIEL) for permission to publish a translation of an extremely important paper that was given by Canon Guitard at the XIIIth colloquium of the CIEL, Rome, January 25, 2024. The text will be definitively published in the proceedings, scheduled to appear in January 2025. The “Private” Mass from Its Origins to the Thirteenth Peter Kwasniewskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02068005370670549612noreply@blogger.com0
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Site: Novus Ordo Watch
Approved by ‘Pope’ Francis…
Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith
Declaration Dignitas Infinita
on Human DignityApril 2, 2024
The Vatican’s text factory has just released another ‘magisterial’ document: Jorge Bergoglio (a.k.a. ‘Pope Francis’) has approved the publication of another declaration issued by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF). It bears the name Dignitas Infinita (“Infinite Dignity”) and concerns itself with the topic of human dignity, specifically in view of various moral issues of our time. The last declaration issued by the DDF was Fiducia Supplicans, which permitted the administering of blessings on same-sex ‘couples’.… READ MORE
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Site: Novus Ordo Wire – Novus Ordo Watch
Approved by ‘Pope’ Francis…
Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith
Declaration Dignitas Infinita
on Human DignityApril 2, 2024
The Vatican’s text factory has just released another ‘magisterial’ document: Jorge Bergoglio (a.k.a. ‘Pope Francis’) has approved the publication of another declaration issued by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF). It bears the name Dignitas Infinita (“Infinite Dignity”) and concerns itself with the topic of human dignity, specifically in view of various moral issues of our time. The last declaration issued by the DDF was Fiducia Supplicans, which permitted the administering of blessings on same-sex ‘couples’.… READ MORE
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Site: RT - News
The West must keep sending weapons to Kiev rather than seek compromise with Russia, President Alexander Stubb argues
Negotiating an acceptable peace with Russia regarding Ukraine is unlikely, so the Western nations must keep providing Kiev with weaponry, Finnish President Alexander Stubb argued during an interview with CNN on Sunday.
Helsinki used to serve as a mediator between the US and the USSR during the Cold War, despite being generally aligned with the West. It broke its decades of neutrality due to the Ukraine conflict and formally joined NATO last year; Russia perceives the bloc as a hostile tool of the US.
CNN host Fareed Zakharia asked Stubb whether it was “worth talking to the Russians,” given that the hostilities appear to have reached a stalemate.
“When you mediate peace, it begins with dialogue and after dialogue you start setting parameters. But I think the cold truth in this particular case is that the only way we can achieve peace is through the battlefield,” Stubb responded.
The Finnish politician, who called himself “avidly pro-American” in the interview, urged the US Congress to overcome Republican resistance and release an additional $60 billion in aid for Ukraine. He claimed that withholding the funds amounted to “playing” with Ukrainian lives.
Read more
Ukraine may have to compromise with Russia – Stoltenberg
Stubb blamed Russia and President Vladimir Putin personally for supposedly standing in the way of peace. Meanwhile there has been a “shift of language” on peace talks by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, he claimed. Stubb didn’t explain what this was, but cited an upcoming summit in Switzerland.
The gathering is expected to be focused on the so-called ‘Zelensky peace formula’, which the Ukrainian leader and his foreign backers have been promoting since 2022 and which Russia perceives as a demand for capitulation. Moscow has dismissed the meeting in Switzerland as irrelevant and said it would not participate in it, even if Kiev were to lift its objections to inviting a Russian delegation.
An order that Zelensky signed in October 2022 bans all talks with Russia as long as Putin remains in power. He touted his vision of a Ukrainian victory in an interview with CBS News last month. It involves Kiev scoring enough battlefield progress to cause Putin to “lose power within his country” and be forced to seek dialogue.
Kiev’s attempt to push back Russian forces proved futile last year, and Ukraine has been losing ground on the front line this year.
READ MORE: Kremlin responds to Kiev’s plan for ‘peace formula’ talks
Kiev and Moscow were on the verge of signing a peace treaty in 2022, when Ukrainian officials reportedly agreed to a neutral status for their nation.
The deal was derailed by then-UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who urged his allies to keep fighting, according to Kiev’s top negotiator, MP David Arakhamia.
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Site: Zero HedgeHardly Anyone Is Short Treasuries; Perhaps They Should BeTyler Durden Mon, 04/08/2024 - 07:20
Authored by Simon White, Bloomberg macro strategist,
Survey data shows that outright shorts in US Treasuries are near lows. But investors are missing a trick as inflation risks point to higher bond volatility and yields.
JP Morgan’s Treasury Survey tracks their clients’ positioning in Treasuries, asking them whether they are long, neutral or short. The net of the positions is close to flat, but outright shorts are unusually low, with the number of clients saying they are positioned that way near the nadir for the 20-year history of the survey.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Commitment of Traders data has speculators net short Treasuries, but this is hugely distorted by basis trading (i.e. cash bonds versus futures). However, a position proxy for bond futures (see here) shows positioning is falling but is still net long.
(This proxy, whose methodology is explained in the chart, circumvents the distortion to Commitment of Traders data from the basis trade, i.e. trading the cash bond versus the future.)
The survey rings true in that traders are reducing long Treasury bets as recession risks have receded, but are still reluctant to go outright short.
But bond yields look to be coiling for a larger move.
Bond volatility has been falling, despite upside growth and inflation risks.
There is a yawning disconnect between inflation volatility and bond volatility. Uncertainty in inflation has been rising, and that typically means more volatile yields.
The gap is likely to be closed by rising bond volatility, and given the inflation backdrop, yields are poised to remain elevated.The few bond shorts that are out there look to be in good shape.
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Site: southern orders
Overall it is traditional Catholic moral theology, footnotes not withstanding. And Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI are quoted in their magisterial teachings signaling that some at the Vatican realize that the papacy did not begin with Pope Francis. Overall it is a relief, but those tricky footnotes, we’ll see.From Vatican News:
New Vatican document lists ‘grave violations’ of human dignity
The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith’s new document 'Dignitas infinita' took five years to complete, and builds on the papal magisterium of the last decade: from war to poverty, from violence against migrants to violence against women, from abortion to surrogate motherhood to euthanasia, from gender theory to digital violence.By Andrea Tornielli
Three chapters offer the foundations for the fourth, which is dedicated to "some grave violations of human dignity".
That’s the structure of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith’s new Declaration "Dignitas infinita", which commemorates the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and reaffirms "the indispensable nature of the dignity of the human person in Christian anthropology " (Intro.)
The main novelty of the document, which is the fruit of five years' work, is the inclusion of a number of key themes from the recent papal magisterium that accompany the bioethical ones. In the 'non-exhaustive' list that is offered, abortion, euthanasia and surrogate motherhood are listed as violations of human dignity alongside war, poverty and human trafficking.
The new text thus contributes to overcoming the dichotomy that exists between those who focus exclusively on beginning-and-end-of-life issues, while forgetting so many other attacks against human dignity and, conversely, those who focus only on defending the poor and migrants while forgetting that life must be defended from conception to its natural conclusion.
Fundamental Principles
The first three parts of the Declaration recall fundamental principles.
"In the light of Revelation, the Church resolutely reiterates and confirms" the "ontological dignity of the human person, created in the image and likeness of God and redeemed in Jesus Christ" (1).
This is an "inalienable dignity”, corresponding to "human nature apart from all cultural change"(6). It is a "gift" and therefore present in "an unborn child, an unconscious person, or an older person in distress (9).
"The Church proclaims the equal dignity of all people, regardless of their living conditions or qualities" (17), and she does so on the basis of biblical revelation: women and men are created in the image of God.
Christ, by becoming incarnate, "confirmed the dignity of the body and soul" (19), and, in His rising, revealed to us that man's dignity man rests “above all on the fact that he is called to communion with God" (20).
The dignity of every person
The document highlights the misunderstandings of those who prefer the expression "personal dignity" to "human dignity", “since they understand a person to be only ‘one who is capable of reasoning’" (24).
Thus, according to them, "the unborn child would not have personal dignity, nor would the older person who is dependent upon others, nor would an individual with mental disabilities. On the contrary, the Church insists that the dignity of every human person, precisely because it is intrinsic, remains in all circumstances" (24).
Furthermore, the document stresses that "the concept of human dignity is also occasionally misused to justify an arbitrary proliferation of new rights … as if the ability to express and realize every individual preference or subjective desire should be guaranteed." (25).
The list of violations
The Declaration then presents the list of "some grave violations of human dignity".
This includes "all offences against life itself, such as murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia, and willful suicide” must be recognized as contrary to human dignity ", but also "all violations of the integrity of the human person, such as mutilation, physical and mental torture, undue psychological pressures ".
And, finally, it includes "all offences against human dignity, such as subhuman living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution, the selling of women and children, degrading working conditions where individuals are treated as mere tools for profit rather than free and responsible persons".
The death penalty is also cited, since it "violates the inalienable dignity of every person, regardless of the circumstances" (34).
Poverty, war and human trafficking
The first issue mentioned is poverty, "one of the greatest injustices in the contemporary world" (36).
Then there is war, "another tragedy that denies human dignity", and always a “defeat of humanity" (38), to the point that "it is very difficult nowadays to invoke the rational criteria elaborated in earlier centuries to speak of the possibility of a ‘just war.’"(39).
The Declaration also discusses the "travail of migrants", whose "lives are put at risk because they no longer have the means to start a family, to work, or to feed themselves" (40).
The document then dwells on "human trafficking", which is taking on "tragic dimensions" and is described as " vile activity, a disgrace to our societies that claim to be civilized ". The Declaration invites "exploiters and clients" to make a serious examination of conscience (41).
Similarly, it calls for the fight against phenomena such as “the marketing of human organs and tissues, the sexual exploitation of boys and girls, slave labour, including prostitution, the drug and weapons trade, terrorism, and international organized crime” (42).
The document also mentions sexual abuse, which leaves “deep scars in the hearts of those who suffer it”: these are “sufferings that can last a lifetime and that no repentance can remedy” (43).
Discrimination and violence against women are then discussed. Among the latter are listed "coercive abortions, which affect both mother and child, often to satisfy the selfishness of males" and "the practice of polygamy" (45). Femicide is also condemned (46).Abortion and surrogacy
The condemnation of abortion is strong: "Among all the crimes which can be committed against life, procured abortion has characteristics making it particularly serious and deplorable", and reference is made to the fact that "defence of unborn life is closely linked to the defence of each and every other human right" (47).
The Declaration’s rejection of surrogacy, by means of which "the immensely worthy child becomes a mere object", is also strong. This is a practice that "represents a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child … A child is always a gift and never the basis of a commercial contract.” (48)
The list goes on to mention euthanasia and assisted suicide, confusingly defined by some laws as " death with dignity". The document stresses that "suffering does not cause the sick to lose their dignity, which is intrinsically and inalienably their own" (51).
The Declaration then speaks of the importance of palliative care and the avoidance of “aggressive treatments or disproportionate medical procedures”, reaffirming that “Life is a right, not death, which must be welcomed, not administered” (52).
A further serious violation of human dignity is the marginalization of differently-abled persons (53).
Gender theory
The document begins the section on this topic by stressing that "every sign of unjust discrimination” against homosexual persons “is to be carefully avoided, particularly any form of aggression and violence".
It is “contrary to human dignity", the Declaration says, that in some places “not a few people are “imprisoned, tortured and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation" (55).
Gender theory, which is “extremely dangerous since it cancels differences in its claim to make everyone equal", is then criticised (56).The Church, we read, recalls that "human life in all its dimensions, both physical and spiritual, is a gift from God. This gift is to be accepted with gratitude and placed at the service of the good. Desiring a personal self-determination, as gender theory prescribes … amounts to a concession to the age-old temptation to make oneself God" (57).
Gender theory "intends to deny the greatest possible difference that exists between living beings: sexual difference” (58).
Therefore, " all attempts to obscure reference to the ineliminable sexual difference between man and woman” are “to be rejected" (59).
Sex change is also judged negatively since it "risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception". This does not mean, however, excluding the possibility that “a person with genital abnormalities that are already evident at birth or that develop later may choose to receive the assistance of healthcare professionals to resolve these abnormalities" (60).Digital violence
The final item on the list is “digital violence”. “New forms of violence are spreading through social media”, we read, such as cyberbullying, and “the internet is also a channel for spreading pornography and the exploitation of persons for sexual purposes or through gambling” (61).
The Declaration ends by urging that “respect for the dignity of the human person beyond all circumstances be placed at the centre of the commitment to the common good and at the centre of every legal system” (64).
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Site: Mises InstituteWhile the ruling elites decry populism, what they don't say is that populism has arisen precisely because the ruling classes have done everything they could to diminish freedom.
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Site: Zero HedgeSouthwest Shares Fall After FAA Launches Investigation Into Engine Cover Ripping Off Its Boeing JetTyler Durden Mon, 04/08/2024 - 06:55
Southwest Airlines shares are down around 1% in premarket trading in New York after the Federal Aviation Administration announced on Sunday that it was investigating a Houston-bound Boeing plane operated by the low-budget carrier that lost an engine cover and struck the wing flap during takeoff.
On Sunday morning, Flight 3695, a Boeing 737-800 aircraft operated by Southwest, was taking off from Denver International Airport to Houston when passengers heard a loud bang and recorded the moment the engine cowling ripped off the plane.
Scary moments for passengers on a Southwest flight from Denver to Houston when the engine cover ripped off during flight , forcing the plane to return to Denver Sunday morning. pic.twitter.com/BBpCBXpTsl
— Sam Sweeney (@SweeneyABC) April 7, 2024Part of the engine cover "peeled off within the first 10 minutes" of the flight, Lisa C. told ABC News, adding, "We all felt kind of a bump, a jolt, and I looked out the window because I love window seats, and there it was."
The FAA told ABC News and other corporate media outlets that it's investigating the incident involving Flight 3695.
Another passenger told ABC: "People in the exit row across from me started yelling up to the flight attendants and showed them the damage."
Southwest Airlines told Business Insider in a statement that Flight 3695 experienced a "mechanical issue," and its maintenance team was inspecting the aircraft Sunday afternoon.
"Our Customers will arrive at Houston Hobby on another aircraft, approximately three hours behind schedule," the budget carrier said in a statement.
Not a week goes by that some major incident involving Boeing planes, whether it is a tire falling off, runway excursions, engine fires, hydraulic leaks, pilot seats flailing around the cockpit and slamming the yoke, and or external panels ripping off.
We continue to ask whether these mid-air mishaps are sabotage or just shoddy maintenance.
To avoid Boeing jets while traveling, use the online travel booking website Kayak's plane filter.
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Site: non veni pacem
Blessed Feast, everyone!
DOUBLE, FIRST CLASS / WHITE
Every year this feast recalls anew Mary’s reply to God’s angelic messenger: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to thy word.” Every work of the Creator is called to perfection, and perfection consists in obedience. The heavens and the earth inevitably announce the glory of God, but to human beings alone God granted a free will to serve Him. At the Annunciation, the obedience of Mary brought Christ down on earth to save fallen humanity. we, too, are called upon to co-operate with the Creator. The glory of God awaits our human word of obedient consent.https://tridentine-mass.blogspot.com/
(Today is one of the very few days of the year that the Gospel reading is exactly the same in the TLM and the Novus Ordo. -nvp)
GOSPEL (Luke 1:26-38)
At that time, the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee, called Nazareth, To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David: and the virgin’s name was Mary. And the angel being come in, said unto her: “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.” Who having heard, was troubled at his saying and thought with herself what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said to her: “Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God. Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb and shalt bring forth a son: and thou shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David his father: and he shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever. And of his kingdom there shall be no end.”
And Mary said to the angel: “How shall this be done, because I know not man?” And the angel answering, said to her: “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee. And therefore also the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And behold thy cousin Elizabeth, she also hath conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her that is called barren. Because no word shall be impossible with God.” And Mary said: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord: be it done to me according to thy word.””Folks, get right with God. Do what it takes to assume the bearing of “be it done to me according to thy word.” And then live every breath knowing it might be your last. Love of the Law is the key to knowing and loving God.
For those of you getting stink eye from certain people, simply for noting the fact of the X eclipse today, take note that the Creator of the Universe, in the 14th verse of Scripture, told us why He created the Sun and the Moon:
“And God said: Let there be lights made in the firmament of heaven, to divide the day and the night, and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years.” – Gen 1:14
To know Him is to love Him.
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Site: Mises Institute"Carl Menger’s writings are the closest to Randian doctrines that have ever emanated from any economist. It will follow that we should read and reread his great books."
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Site: AsiaNews.itCard. Suharyo and the president of the Bishops' Conference confirm the rumours leaked in recent days. The mosaic of the long September trip between Asia and Oceania is being put together, which would see the Pontiff also make stops in East Timor, Papua New Guinea and Singapore. For Indonesia it would be the third visit by a pontiff after Paul VI in 1970 and John Paul II in 1989.
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Site: Zero HedgeWhat Is Driving Gold To All-Time Highs?Tyler Durden Mon, 04/08/2024 - 06:30
Submitted by BullionStar/Jesse Colombo
After more than three years of stagnation, gold has awakened with a vengeance since early-March and has promptly surged by nearly $300 an ounce or 14% to an all-time high $2,330 — a sharp move for a safe-haven asset that has a reputation for its slow and steady trends. Gold’s powerful rally came seemingly out of the blue and has confounded the majority of investors and commentators who have been much more focused on trendy speculative stocks and cryptocurrencies as of late. In this piece, I will explain several of the technical and fundamental factors that are driving gold to all-time highs, what is likely ahead for gold, and how investors can best take advantage of the yellow metal’s resurgence.
A Look at the Technicals
The chart of gold over the past year shows how it suddenly sprang to life over the past month. As I had explained in my last blog post on March 1st, there was an important technical resistance zone from $2,000 to $2,100 that had been acting as a price ceiling for gold since the middle of 2020. Gold’s successful close above that zone signified that a new rally had begun even though the fundamental drivers of it weren’t exactly apparent just yet.
Gold daily chart
The multi-year gold chart shows the significance of the $2,000 to $2,100 resistance zone and how gold kept bumping its head at that level until it finally pushed through in the past month:
Gold daily chart
Gold’s multi-decade chart shows that it has been steadily climbing an uptrend line that began in the early-2000s as the U.S. and other countries kicked off an unprecedented debt binge that shows no signs of stopping whatsoever:
Gold monthly chart
Gold is Rising Despite the Strong U.S. Dollar
What’s particularly interesting and notable about gold’s surge over the past month is how it has occurred independently of the action in the U.S. dollar. Gold and the U.S. dollar have a long-established inverse relationship, which means that strength in the dollar typically causes weakness in gold, while dollar weakness typically causes the price of gold to rise.
The chart below compares gold (the top chart) to the U.S. Dollar Index (the bottom chart) and shows how action in the dollar often causes an opposite trend in gold. Gold’s recent surge took place while the dollar was trending slightly higher, which is a sign of gold’s strength due to its ability to buck the negative influence of the strengthening dollar.
Gold vs. the U.S. Dollar Index
Mainstream Investors & Journalists Missed Gold’s Rally
What is also worth noting is how gold’s surprising recent rally has received very little mainstream attention by a press that is much more enamored with hot AI stocks as well as Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies that have recently benefited from the U.S. government’s approval of a number of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which has resulted in tremendous inflows from institutional investors and retail investors alike.
As the chart below shows, investors have pulled billions of dollars worth of funds from gold ETFs in order to re-invest in Bitcoin ETFs, which is ironic considering its timing shortly before gold’s liftoff (and is confirmation of contrarian investing principles). The continuation of gold’s bull market will likely lead to funds flowing back into gold ETFs, providing additional fuel for the rally.
Central Banks Are Steadily Accumulating Gold
Though Western retail investors (who are often considered to be the “dumb money" in the market) have been sleeping on gold before and even during its surge of the past month, central banks — particularly those in Russia, China, Turkey, and India — have been steadily accumulating practically all of the gold that they can get their hands on. According to the World Gold Council, central banks purchased a healthy 1,037.4 metric tons of gold in 2023 in an effort to diversify out of the U.S. dollar and other fiat currencies that are being debased at an alarming rate and into a hard asset with a six-thousand year history as sound money that cannot be printed.
Central bank gold buying
Though virtually all of the world’s currencies have been downgraded to pure fiat or paper currencies that are not backed by gold since 1971, many of those currencies are indirectly and implicitly backstopped by gold due to the held by many countries. For example, the U.S. officially holds 8,133 metric tons of gold, Germany holds 3,353 metric tons, Italy holds 2,452 metric tons, France holds 2,437 metric tons, Russia holds 2,333 metric tons, and China holds 2,192 metric tons of gold. In a serious currency crisis, a country’s gold reserves is likely to be one of its only saving graces, which is why many countries are accumulating gold at such a rapid pace.
Gold reserves
Chinese Investors Are Buying Up Gold
Chinese investors who are seeking refuge from the country’s sinking property and stock markets are another important driver of gold’s nascent rally. Starting in the mid-2000s, China’s property and stock markets embarked on a seemingly unstoppable bull market as the country’s economy grew rapidly and the country began to increasingly flex its economic and geopolitical muscles on the world stage. Unfortunately, like Japan in the 1980s and US in the mid-2000s, China’s asset boom was actually an unsustainable bubble that was driven by copious amounts of debt and reckless speculation.
As all bubbles eventually do, China’s property and stock market bubbles have burst over the past year causing at least hundreds of billions of dollars worth of losses — including $100 billion alone from the country’s property tycoons. As faith in China’s economy and financial markets sinks, investors are turning to the old standby, gold, which has thousands of years of history in China as a superb store of value in good and bad times alike. When complex financial systems and products fail, as they currently are in China, savers and investors appreciate the simplicity and straightforward nature of physical gold. As the famous financier J. P. Morgan once said, “Gold is money. Everything else is credit."
According to the World Gold Council, consumer demand for gold in China increased by a stout 16% in 2023, while demand for gold bars and coins rose by an even more impressive 27%. Retail gold buying in China has been dominated by the younger generations who face a difficult job market and are largely priced out of the country’s unaffordable housing market but find physical gold to be attainable — even if it means buying tiny amounts of it at a time as funds allow. Indeed, one of the most popular gold bullion products among young Chinese are gold beans that weigh as little as one gram and cost approximately 600 yuan (USD$83).
Gold beans are becoming popular with young Chinese investors. Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg
How Inflation is Contributing to Gold’s Recent Rise
Another important factor driving gold’s recent rally is stubbornly high inflation that is not easing as quickly as economists had hoped and may instead be on the verge of a resurgence. Gold is traditionally seen as a hedge against inflation and is very adept at sniffing out rising future inflation rates. U.S. year-over-year inflation — as measured by personal consumption expenditures — increased at a 2.5% rate in February, which caused traders to slightly dial back their expectations for Federal Funds Rate cuts this year.
Though U.S. inflation is still elevated, there is good reason to believe that the Fed will still go through with their plans to cut rates this year, which should prove to be beneficial for the price of gold. According to Bank of America’s commodities strategist Micheal Widmer, “The market is interpreting that the Fed is willing to accommodate higher inflation as it cuts rates.”
What is worth paying attention to in particular is the sharp surge in commodities prices over the past month, which is likely an indication of higher rates of inflation in the future:
Similarly, crude oil increased by 10% over the past few weeks:
U.S. wholesale gasoline prices have spiked by approximately 30% in the past two months and are one of the most psychologically important and visible indicators of inflation in the minds of everyday consumers:
Gold is Benefiting From Political Uncertainty
In addition to being a hedge against inflation, gold is also a hedge against economic and political uncertainty. In 2024, more than 60 countries are set to hold national elections, which makes it one of the most active global election years in a very long time, earning it the moniker “The Super Election Year." The United States, Mexico, India and Indonesia are just some of the countries that are holding national elections this year.
Economic issues, including inflation, are the top concern for Americans who will most likely choose either President Joe Biden or former President Donald Trump to be the next U.S. president in a redux of the hotly-contested 2020 presidential election. President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party have earned a reputation for heavy spending and racking up the national debt, which are major reasons why they are blamed for the United States’ inflation problem. Based on that view, a potential Biden win would be beneficial for the price of gold.
How Geopolitical Tensions Are Helping Gold
As if there were not enough uncertainty and confusing cross-currents in the world already, rising geopolitical tensions in a number of hot-spots are also helping to boost the price of gold. The Russia-Ukraine war has taken a turn for the worse recently after Russia shot down 53 Ukrainian drones and the Kremlin warned that Russia and NATO are now in “direct confrontation.” Ukraine claimed that it destroyed least 6 Russian fighter jets, damaged eight more, and killed or injured 20 service personnel.
In addition, the Israel-Hamas war has now reached the six-month mark and shows no signs of de-escalation. On the contrary, Iran is now increasingly involved in the fray after Israel struck, numerous Iran-backed targets in Syria, which has now resulted in Iran vowing to retaliate, which is putting the world on edge and supporting the price of gold and crude oil.
(Our documentary, “Gold in Times of Crisis Ep 1 - Passage out of Vietnam" highlights the importance of holding gold in times of geopolitical uncertainty.)
How Declining Production Supports the Price of Gold
Another factor that is supporting the price of gold is the stagnating and declining production of gold from mines around the world. After rising steadily each year since 2010, global gold production peaked in 2019 at 3,300 metric tons and has since been declining even as the price of gold rocketed 66% from $1,200 to roughly $2,000 in 2023. Many experts believe that the world reached “peak gold" in 2018, which means that the amount of economically viable gold deposits around the world has peaked and entered into a terminal decline. Supporting that theory is the US Geological Survey’s alarming estimate that all known gold reserves could be depleted in just seventeen years.
Why You Should Invest in Gold
As I’ve discussed in this piece, gold is in a confirmed uptrend and there are numerous factors that are driving that uptrend. To learn more about the additional monetary and fiscal factors that are driving gold’s bull market, I recommend taking a look at my other recent piece, “What you need to know about gold's long-term bull market." To summarize, gold is rising in response to the alarming debasement of paper currencies and the ballooning global debt burden that guarantees a serious currency crisis in the not-too-distant future.
While many of today’s most popular financial products are only a few decades old at most and the average lifespan of a fiat currency is measured in mere decades, gold has helped humans preserve their wealth from all sorts of fiscal and monetary shenanigans perpetrated by governments for at least six-thousand years. Though we live in a highly complex world that is increasingly dependent on technology (and likely too dependent on technology), the simplicity of physical gold is one of its many strong points — especially when complex systems experience upheaval and failure.
There are countless modern investment products that aim to help investors gain exposure to gold, but most of those are “fool’s gold" rather than the real deal. There are gold exchange-traded funds (ETFs), gold futures and options, contract for differences (CFDs), other derivatives, and gold mining shares, but those are just paper claims on gold instead of actual gold that you hold free and clear. In times of serious crisis and chaos, as I expect we are heading into, there is no substitute for physical gold bullion that is in your possession and completely unencumbered by any other claims.
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Site: AsiaNews.it'The Line' was supposed to accommodate 1.5 million people by 2030, but updated plans speak of less than 300,000 by then. Out of 170 km of the total development, only 2.4 km will be realised by 2030. At least one contractor has already started cutting staff and the Saudi Public Investment Fund is looking for liquidity.
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Site: Fr. Z's BlogThe sun, which will not visibly eclipsed in totality from Rome, rose at 06:39 and it will set at 19:46. The Ave Maria should ring at 20:00 Speaking of the Ave Maria, today we celebrate the Feast of the Annunciation, … Read More →
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Site: Zero HedgeHow Much Money Do You Need To Join The Top '1 Percent'?Tyler Durden Mon, 04/08/2024 - 05:45
A recent report by real estate consultancy Knight Frank details how much money a person needs to possess to be considered part of the 1 percent of the richest people in their respective country - and the results differ significantly.
Despite China making big steps towards leadership in several business sectors and transforming its economy toward higher value-creating industries, being a millionaire was pretty much enough to place a person in the upper 1 percent of China's richest. A Chinese resident with assets of just under $1.1 million were considered part of the 1 percent in 2023, according to the report. As recent as 2020, even $850,000 would have been considered enough to be part of the 1 percent in China.
As Statista's Katharina Buchholz details below, this is far from the case in other economies, for example notoriously wealthy Switzerland, where only those with a wealth of $8.5 million or more would be considered part of the 1 percent. In tiny and exclusive Monaco, one's net worth would have to have eight digits, as only $12.9 million is enough to join the 1-percent club in the European micronation. In the United States, this number stood at $5.8 million last year.
You will find more infographics at Statista
While Knight Frank did not publish this numbers again for 2023, India in 2020 counted everyone who possessed the equivalent of $60,000 or more in the top 1 percent of the wealthiest residents. But this does not necessarily mean that India is more egalitarian when it comes to wealth distribution. With a population of around 1.4 billion people, India's 1 percent is still 14 million people strong.
This means extreme wealth concentrates in the wealthiest 0.1 percent rather than the richest 1 percent, making the division of wealth even starker. A recent report on the country details that on a per-adult, pre-tax basis, India's top 1 percent earned around 40 percent of the nation's income while almost 30 percent of that was attributable to just the 0.1 percent.
Despite the lower profile of India's 1 percent internationally, the group is still wealthier than its counterparts in the United States or European countries when comparing to the wealth of the rest of the nation. Credit Suisse found that in 2022, India's 1 percent held around 40 percent of the country's wealth, compared to 34 percent in the United States and 36 percent in Sweden, for example. In China, the number stood at 31 percent.
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Site: Mundabor's blogFirst comes the “Ukrainian source”. The Ukrainian source is 100% propaganda, but it appears in a newspaper, so it looks like “news”. For example, something like this. This way, the desperate and increasingly more depressed Ukrainian readers get to read their fantasy about the 19 destroyed or damaged Russian was airplanes, and it might make […]
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Site: Fr Hunwicke's Mutual EnrichmentI have something to put before you. But before I do so: Thank You for your Good Wishes. Pancreatic Cancer is not the best daily companion, but your prayers and good wishes really do help.Presumably, it is not wicked to canvas views on liturgical changes. We had a lot of those between about 1910 and 1970; and, it seemed, we never stopped talking about the subject, like IV Formers discussing Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com0
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Site: Crisis Magazine
The Day has arrived. The Great 2024 North American Solar Eclipse occurs today, and weather permitting, millions of observers in the path of totality are in for some amazing heavenly sights. While many are excited about this celestial event, the Eclipse has also sparked apocalyptic talk among many Christians, including not a few Catholics (who should know better). Some are saying it’s the sign…
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Site: Crisis Magazine
My wife recently discovered a video featuring an audio recording of Bishop Fulton Sheen reciting the 15-decade rosary. Sheen’s riveting prose, coupled with his commanding voice and bejeweled with a slide show of some of the finest sacred art ever produced, makes for a thoroughly engaging experience. When I first viewed this recording and contemplated the mysteries of the Annunciation and the…
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Site: Zero HedgeSecretive Experiment To Shoot Aerosols Into The Sky Over San Francisco To Increase Cloud CoverTyler Durden Mon, 04/08/2024 - 05:00
Authored by Paul Joseph Watson Via Modernity.news,
A secretive project conducted from the deck of an aircraft carrier in the San Francisco Bay will shoot trillions of aerosol particles into the sky to increase cloud cover in the name of preventing global warming, and details have been held back to “avoid (a) public backlash.”
The experiment is being dubbed America’s “first outdoor test to limit global warming.”
“The Coastal Atmospheric Aerosol Research and Engagement, or CAARE, project is using specially built sprayers to shoot trillions of sea salt particles into the sky in an effort to increase the density — and reflective capacity — of marine clouds,” reports Scientific American.
“The experiment is taking place, when conditions permit, atop the USS Hornet Sea, Air & Space Museum in Alameda, California, and will run through the end of May, according to a weather modification form the team filed with federal regulators.”
A solar geoengineering experiment in San Francisco could lead to brighter clouds that reflect sunlight. The risks are numerous https://t.co/53pbUSolxi
— Scientific American (@sciam) April 4, 2024The report notes that there is little data on the potential negative effects of such geoengineering projects and that they “could also harm communities and ecosystems in unexpected ways.”
Shuchi Talati, the executive director of the Alliance for Just Deliberation on Solar Geoengineering, remarked how the test had been “kept under wraps” with little public engagement whatsoever.
A similar experiment that was set to be conducted over Sweden by Harvard University and had previously received funding from Bill Gates was cancelled last month after opposition from campaigners and Indigenous groups.
The Scientific American report warns that artificially creating cloud cover “could alter weather patterns in unclear ways and potentially limit the productivity of fisheries and farms.”
But they’re just going to go ahead and do it anyway.
Participants in the project declined to answer emailed questions or interview requests about the experiment in San Francisco.
According to a report by the New York Times, the secrecy is based on concerns that if the public knew the full scope of what was happening, “critics would try to stop them.”
“History has shown us that when we insert ourselves into modification of nature, there are always very serious unintended consequences,” said Greg Goldsmith, the associate dean for research and development at Chapman University.
Conspiracy theorists have long claimed that such experiments have been taking place for years, even decades, with some even asserting that weather modification has been conducted via “chemtrails” released from military and commercial aircraft.
The chemtrail conspiracy theory, which has been around since the early 90’s at least, is based around claims that contrails released from the jet engines of aircraft linger around in the sky for hours and produce de facto cloud cover to block out the sun.
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Site: Eccles is savedWe introduced the World Cup of Misused Churches here. This post will be used for the results of the quarter-finals and later rounds. Here are photos of those remaining churches that were not already mentioned in the previous post.Vienna - giant sweater.
Borgloon (Belgium) - holy cow.
Washington - light and sound
New York - God is trans. THE QUARTER-FINALS St Edmundsbury Masonic dinner v Vienna Giant sweater Westminster Amal puppet v Rochester Crazy golf Canterbury Silent disco v Borgloon (Belgium) Holy cow Washington Light and sound v New York God is trans
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Site: RT - News
The United Arab Emirates has eclipsed Türkiye as the top broker in prisoner swaps, Kirill Budanov has said
The United Arab Emirates has emerged as the prime mediator between Kiev and Moscow regarding prisoner exchanges, the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, Kirill Budanov, has claimed. He also backed a proposal put forward by Pope Francis, who last month called for a swap that would encompass all POWs from the two states.
Türkiye has been viewed as the top intermediary between Kiev and Moscow following the outbreak of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022. The first attempt at peace negotiations took place in March of the same year in Istanbul. Russian President Vladimir Putin subsequently said the Ukrainian delegation had initially agreed to a number of Moscow’s terms during the talks, but then abruptly reneged on the deal.
In an interview with Germany’s ARD broadcaster published on Sunday, Budanov claimed that Ankara has ceased to play a central role in prisoner swaps, with the UAE taking its place. Commenting on the Pope’s initiative, the top Ukrainian spy said: “I fully support this. Let us do it. There remains only one little thing: to persuade Russia.” According to the official, Moscow has not demonstrated any interest in such a POW exchange.
Read more
Ex-German chancellor calls for diplomatic solution to Ukraine conflict
The last publicly confirmed prisoner swap between Kiev and Moscow took place in early February, when the Russian Defense Ministry reported that a total of 100 Russian POWs had returned home as part of a deal mediated by the UAE.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told the Russian media last September that his country was ready to “play the role of mediator in issues such as the exchange of prisoners,” as well as in potential peace negotiations.
Russia and Ukraine have not sat at the negotiating table since the talks in Istanbul fell through. Moscow has repeatedly signaled its readiness to resolve the conflict through diplomacy. Moscow has accused Ukraine and its Western backers of refusing any meaningful dialogue, saying this has left it with no choice but to continue pursuing its goals on the battlefield.
According to revelations by David Arakhamia, Ukraine’s top negotiator in Istanbul, then-UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson pressured Kiev to pull out of the talks at the time. Johnson has strongly denied any role in derailing the peace negotiations.
Gold daily chart
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Gold beans are becoming popular with young Chinese investors. Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg
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