That Christianity gives joy and breadth is also a thread that runs through my whole life. Ultimately someone who is always only in opposition could not endure life at all.
Distinction Matter - Subscribed Feeds
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Site: The Orthosphere
“Those who preach faith, or in other words a pure mind, have always produced more popular virtue than those who preached good works, or the mere regulation of outward acts.”
Sir James Macintosh, Diary (July 17, 1808)*
Although his opinion was perhaps colored by a Scotsman’s protestant pride, the famous liberal Sir James Macintosh is almost certainly correct in saying that the doctrine of salvation by faith yields, at least in its first bloom, an exceptionally virtuous society. Calvinism is particularly conducive to popular virtue . It certainly puts a damper on carousing in alehouses, hooting at bawdy shows, betting on cock fights, or cavorting like Peter Pan around a maypole; but it at the same time significantly curtailed a man’s chances of being cuckolded, murdered, or robbed.
Every traveler I have ever read agrees with this favorable view of Calvinist society, although some have been of the opinion that Calvinism and sobriety both depend on some third cause.
“The Calvinistic people of Scotland, of Switzerland, of Holland, and of New England have been more moral than the same classes of other nations.”*
Macintosh suggests that this is because men and women governed by the doctrine of good works always end up haggling to secure salvation on the most advantageous terms. In ends in Talmudism; it ends in casuistry. It ends in legalistic dickering over how much credit one receives for each good work, and how much penalty one pays for each act that is not good but sin,
“The later mode of considering Ethics naturally gives rise to casuistry . . . .”*
I have read some casuistry, but always with feelings of mild disgust. It seems an answer to the question, “how much can a get away with?” It seems like a definition of technical virginity, or Bill Clinton’s conception of truth.
“The tendency of casuistry is to discover ingenious pretexts for eluding that rigorous morality and burdensome superstition, which in the first ardor of religion are apt to be established, and to discover rules of conduct more practicable by ordinary men in the common state of the world.”*
It has been said that hypocrisy is the only alternative to casuistry, since men who cannot excuse thier base conduct will naturally conceal it. Possession of a “pure mind” is no doubt superior to invention of ingenious pretexts to sail very close to the wind, but rascals have always found it easy, and have often found it convenient, to dress up and talk like the most zealous puritans.**
Setting such pharisaical puritan impostors aside, it does seem that the doctrine of faith yields more and better fruit than the doctrine of good works. The reason is that the doctrine of faith incites a desire to be good, whereas the doctrine of works incites a desire to be good enough. And from good enough the doctrine of works too easily descends to as good as can be expected.
“The casuist first let down morality from enthusiasm to reason; then lower it to the level of general frailty, until it be at last sunk in loose accommodation to weakness, and even vice.”*
*) Robert James Mackintosh, ed., Memoirs of the Life of Sir James Mackintosh, second ed., two vols. (London: E. Maxon, 1836), vol. 1, p. 411.
**) H. Hensley, Henson Puritanism in England (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1912), pp. 65-69. -
Site: LifeNews
While pro-abortion Vice President Kamala Harris does most of the heavy lifting, President Joe Biden will also parrot the pro-abortion talking points as he did yesterday in Tampa, Florida. The administration reportedly believes that the abortion issue will put Florida’s 30 electoral votes in play. Florida, Biden tells us, is “ground zero for Trump’s MAGA blueprint.”
And while “reproductive healthcare” was the euphemism of choice, Biden actually said the word “abortion” twice.
Here are a few representative comments from yesterday campaign event at Hillsborough Community College.
For 50 years, the court ruled that there was a fundamental constitutional right to privacy, but two years ago that was taken away.
Let’s be real clear. There’s one person responsible for this nightmare, and he’s acknowledged and he brags about it: Donald Trump. ….
He says it’s up to the states and this is all about states’ rights. But he’s wrong. The Supreme Court was wrong.
Mr. Trump should be proud of what he accomplished. Roe v. Wade’s expiration date had long since come. After nearly 50 years, no one is more responsible for returning the abortion issue to the 50 states than Donald Trump.
As Justice Alito wrote two years ago in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization
It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.
The President continued
SUPPORT LIFENEWS! To help us fight Joe Biden’s abortion agenda, please help LifeNews.com with a donation!
Not only that, I believe voters are going to hold Trump accountable and his MAGA extremist friends to prevent all women in America from getting safe and effective medication, like mifepristone. Approved by the FDA 20 years ago, they’re trying to outlaw that now. (Applause.)
Of course, mifepristone is not “safe and effective.” As the Alliance Defending Freedom explains
The FDA’s job is to keep people safe, but the agency betrayed women and girls by ending these safety standards and encouraging at-home abortions without ongoing care from a doctor. What’s more, the FDA took these reckless actions while acknowledging that roughly one in 25 women who take these drugs will end up in the emergency room.
But the President was absolutely correct in one declaration:
Talk to your family and friends. Organize your community. Register voters. Get them out to vote the old-fashioned way. Pick them up on Election Day. Call. “Do you need a ride to the polls?” (Applause.)
This election promises to be every bit as close as 2016 and 2020. Four more years of Joe Biden means he can consolidate and expand his anti-life agenda.
We can’t let that happen.
LifeNews.com Note: Dave Andrusko is the editor of National Right to Life News and an author and editor of several books on abortion topics. This post originally appeared in at National Right to Life News Today —- an online column on pro-life issues.
The post Joe Biden: Not Being Able to Kill Babies in Abortions is a “Nightmare” appeared first on LifeNews.com.
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Site: PeakProsperityEither Biden's poll numbers really suck, or Team Biden has entirely lost the plot line connecting them to reality. Whatever the cause, if adopted the new proposals out of the White House will crater investment, stoke fear in Biden's political enemies and destroy prosperity.
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Site: RT - News
President Biden personally approved the delivery, an anonymous official has said
Washington secretly sent Kiev an unspecified number of longer-range ATACMS missiles last month, multiple US outlets reported on Wednesday, citing an anonymous US government official.
The Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS), with a range up to 300 kilometers, were included in the $300-million package of military aid approved by President Joe Biden on March 12, according to the official, who spoke with Reuters, Politico and the New York Times, among others.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source said that Ukraine used the missiles for the first time last Wednesday, targeting a Russian airfield about 165 kilometers (103 miles) from the front line.
On the morning of April 17, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said his forces had attacked the airbase in Dzhankoy, Crimea. The Russian Defense Ministry has not commented on that claim.
Zelensky has long clamored for longer-range missiles. According to the anonymous official cited in Reuters’ report, the Pentagon was initially opposed, but changed its mind after Russia used ballistic missiles allegedly supplied by North Korea and began targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
“We warned Russia about those things,” the official said. “They renewed their targeting.”
Read more
Pentagon’s ‘new’ Ukraine aid package was spent months ago – Politico
Biden was advised to send the longer-range missiles by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Charles Q Brown, the official said.
The ATACMS were acquired from Lockheed Martin, rather than from the Pentagon stockpiles, and paid for by the “savings” discovered in March, when several military contracts were reportedly delivered for less than the original bid value.
According to the official, Biden instructed his aides to include the ATACMS in the package but to keep it secret, so as to preserve Ukraine’s “operational security and the element of surprise.”
Ukraine first received mid-range ATACMS last September. The Russian military quickly began shooting them down, however, thwarting Zelensky’s plan to damage or destroy the Crimean Bridge.
“This is yet another mistake on the part of the United States,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said last October, explaining that, had Washington refrained from sending the missiles, it could have later positioned itself as the “good guy” for its attempts to prevent needless casualties.
With Russia upgrading its air defenses to intercept the ATACMS, their arrival will not have a major impact on combat operations, and will only “prolong the agony” of Ukraine, Putin explained. “That’s why it’s a mistake.”
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Site: RT - News
President Biden personally approved the delivery, an anonymous official has said
Washington secretly sent Kiev an unspecified number of longer-range ATACMS missiles last month, multiple US outlets reported on Wednesday, citing an anonymous US government official.
The Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS), with a range up to 300 kilometers, were included in the $300-million package of military aid approved by President Joe Biden on March 12, according to the official, who spoke with Reuters, Politico and the New York Times, among others.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source said that Ukraine used the missiles for the first time last Wednesday, targeting a Russian airfield about 165 kilometers (103 miles) from the front line.
On the morning of April 17, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said his forces had attacked the airbase in Dzhankoy, Crimea. The Russian Defense Ministry has not commented on that claim.
Zelensky has long clamored for longer-range missiles. According to the anonymous official cited in Reuters’ report, the Pentagon was initially opposed, but changed its mind after Russia used ballistic missiles allegedly supplied by North Korea and began targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
“We warned Russia about those things,” the official said. “They renewed their targeting.”
Read more
Pentagon’s ‘new’ Ukraine aid package was spent months ago – Politico
Biden was advised to send the longer-range missiles by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Charles Q Brown, the official said.
The ATACMS were acquired from Lockheed Martin, rather than from the Pentagon stockpiles, and paid for by the “savings” discovered in March, when several military contracts were reportedly delivered for less than the original bid value.
According to the official, Biden instructed his aides to include the ATACMS in the package but to keep it secret, so as to preserve Ukraine’s “operational security and the element of surprise.”
Ukraine first received mid-range ATACMS last September. The Russian military quickly began shooting them down, however, thwarting Zelensky’s plan to damage or destroy the Crimean Bridge.
“This is yet another mistake on the part of the United States,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said last October, explaining that, had Washington refrained from sending the missiles, it could have later positioned itself as the “good guy” for its attempts to prevent needless casualties.
With Russia upgrading its air defenses to intercept the ATACMS, their arrival will not have a major impact on combat operations, and will only “prolong the agony” of Ukraine, Putin explained. “That’s why it’s a mistake.”
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Site: LifeNews
The following letter by Bill Donohue is in response to the Inspector General’s report on the FBI probe of Catholics:
April 24, 2024
Hon. Jim Jordan
Chairman
House Committee on the Judiciary
2056 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-3504
Dear Chairman Jordan:
After issuing a news release on April 19, the day after news stories broke on the FBI’s internal probe of Analysts involved in the investigation of Catholics, I had a chance to read Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report on this issue. While he satisfied some of our concerns, serious issues remain.
Please follow LifeNews.com on Gab for the latest pro-life news and info, free from social media censorship.
Horowitz begins by noting that the Richmond Field Office examined “a purported link between Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists (RMVEs) and ‘Radical Traditionalist Catholic (RTC)’ ideology.” He then cites the conclusion reached by the FBI Inspection Division.
While there was no evidence of malice, it was determined that the probe of Catholics “lacked sufficient evidence” to establish a relationship between the aforementioned extremists and RTC ideology. The report also concluded that the FBI Analysts “incorrectly conflated the subjects’ religious views with their RMVE activities….”
This begs the question: Why did the Analysts think there was a relationship in the first place? It is one thing to concede that there are racial and ethnic extremists in every religious and secular organization; it is quite another to assume a nexus between a mainstream religious organization and violence, especially when the grounds for making such an assumption are spurious.
It is as revealing as it is disturbing to note that the probe of Catholics was based on one person, namely, Defendant A. That he is clearly a violent, bigoted thug—he hates everyone from Jews to cops—is uncontested. But where are the others? There isn’t even a Defendant B.
More disturbing is the admission that Defendant A does not attend a Catholic church. The report admits that he attended a church “with an international religious society that advocates traditional Catholic theology and liturgy but it is not considered by the Vatican to be in full communion with the Catholic Church (my italics).”
Later in the report we learn that “there was no evidence that Defendant A was being radicalized” at the church he attended, and that “he had been on the radar ‘as an unstable, dangerous individual’ before ‘any association with any Catholic related entity whatsoever.’” That being the case, why was it necessary to investigate his fellow churchgoers? Since when does the FBI conduct an investigation of a world religion on the basis of one miscreant whom they admit was not radicalized by it?
To make matters worse, the report says that when those who attended church with Defendant A were questioned about him, they confessed that he “displayed ‘unusual’ and ‘concerning’ behavior.” In fact, the report does not note a single person who attended church with him who found him persuasive—they knew he was odd. Thus does this admission undercut the rationale for a further probe of Catholics.
We know from previous disclosures that “mainline Catholic parishes” were targeted by the FBI. Yet we now know that the Analysts couldn’t even identify radicals within this breakaway Catholic entity, never mind rank-and-file Catholic men and women.
The judgment of both Analysts was more than flawed—it was totally irresponsible. Even more mind-boggling is what the FBI HQ Analyst had to say.
Analyst 1 voiced the opinion that the probe had a “national application.” Analyst 2 admitted that she was “going to take a look at other RMVE actors that are rad-trads” (radical traditionalists). To top things off, the FBI HQ Analyst said she was “really interested in this resurgence of interest in the [C]atholic [C]hurch from our [DVEs]. The latter refers to Domestic Violence Extremists.
What occasioned this “resurgence of interest” in the Catholic Church? Was it something that someone did? Or does this reflect the ideological predilections of the Analyst? Notice she wasn’t referring to a “resurgence of interest” in breakaway Catholic entities. She was referring to the Roman Catholic Church.
There are many issues left outstanding. Moreover, if we are to believe that what happened was nothing of a serious nature, why was it necessary for the FBI to delete files? That suggests a cover up.
Thank you for your continued interest in this matter. When the Catholic Church is subjected to scrutiny by the FBI because of the beliefs and behavior of one maladjusted individual—who does not attend a Catholic church—it cries out for a much more detailed response than what the Horowitz report affords.
Sincerely,
William A. Donohue, Ph.D.
President
The post FBI Still Must be Held Accountable for Targeting Pro-Life Catholics appeared first on LifeNews.com.
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Site: Henrymakow.com
"Our Jewish overlords have created a Frankenstein's monster that has turned on them and they don't know how to control it, other than by doing what they do best, which is to murder and kill."by Mike Stone(henrymakow.com)The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.You've heard the expression, "What if they gave a war and nobody came?" Well, what if they gave a war and people came to the other side?
We're seeing that right now all across the country. White women, blacks, and homosexuals, along with illegal aliens imported into this country by Jews and Freemasons to undermine white men, have turned on their masters. They're protesting the ongoing holocaust in Palestine in direct opposition to their handlers. The front line in this war is forming at college campuses all across the country.In response, organized Jewry and their Freemason flunkies have sent in squads of police officers in full riot gear to arrest anyone and everyone who protests the mass murder of Palestinian children. In their infinite stupidity, they apparently don't know that when you beat, arrest, and otherwise harass peaceful protesters, it makes more people want to join the protest.
We even have RINOs in Washington like Senator Josh Hawley calling for the National Guard.For what? To slaughter students for protesting a genocide they can see with their own eyes? (In case you haven't heard, the latest in Israel's ongoing murder of the innocents is the discovery of a mass grave at Nasser Hospital in Gaza, where naked children were found executed with their hands tied behind their backs.)But you see, the protesters have committed the crime of drawing attention to the war crimes taking place in Palestine.It Will Be Kent State All Over AgainThat Republican Senators are actually calling for the National Guard is a sign of just how traitorous they are. It's as if they are deliberately setting us up for another Kent State shooting incident. Or maybe that's the plan - an updated Strategy of Tension, like what happened in Italy during the 1970s, where an oppressive government police state actually encouraged (and likely participated in) underground bombings that targeted innocent people. It was done to keep the populace in a constant state of fear and tension, thus making them malleable for manipulation by their masters.
These campus protests which began in New York are spreading fast. They're now taking place on campuses all across the country. Caught in the middle are Jews who don't support Israel or the actions of the Israeli government and military.It should be noted that the protests have been entirely peaceful - so far. All the protesters really have done is to camp out in tents in areas specifically set aside for them to protest in.Contrast their behavior with that of the George Floyd rioters of 2020, when violent mobs were allowed to riot, loot, assault citizens, and burn down buildings, and no effort was made to stop or arrest them. In fact, the police subjugated themselves by kneeling in front of the rioters and pledging their servitude.The George Floyd rioters weren't arrested, because their actions served their masters. This time is different. Our Jewish overlords have created a Frankenstein's monster that has turned on them and they don't know how to control it, other than by doing what they do best, which is to murder and kill.We're also seeing signs of infiltration occurring among the protesters, with Death to America flyers circulating at the University of Michigan. Gee, I wonder who's spreading those? https://www.themidwesterner.news/2024/04/death-to-america-fliers-circulate-at-university-of-michigan-gaza-camp/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=emailIt wouldn't surprise me if we soon saw provocateurs imbedded among the protesters causing violence in order to elicit a violent response. It's happened before. It will happen again. If the National Guard actually is called in, it's almost certain to happen.It's also worth noting that this is an election year. The George Floyd riots were orchestrated, in part, to destabilize Donald Trump's presidency. Could these current student protests be part of a plan to destabilize the fake "Joe Biden" presidency?We've actually had violent and supposedly organic protests take place in the last three election years: 2016, 2020, and 2024.These student protests are not going away anytime soon. They are gaining in popularity and are going to dominate the news cycle for some time. In opposition, we're seeing wide swaths of people in this country and all over the world who are actually cheering the mass murder of children and the killing of babies.I don't know if there has ever been a time comparable to this one, where we are seeing people for who and what they really are. There's nowhere to hide anymore. You're either with God or you're with the devil and his legions. You either support children being stripped naked, having their hands tied behind their back, and executed (and most likely sodomized), or you don't. There's no middle ground. And whatever side a person is on has become abundantly clear to everyone around them. The masks are off.------Mike Stone is the author of the new book 101 Reasons Why You Might Have a Low IQ https://shorturl.at/otL13 and Teen Boy's Success Book: the Ultimate Self-Help Book for Boys; Everything You Need to Know to Become a Man: https://amzn.to/3o0BQdO -
Site: RT - News
Washington is sacrificing lives of Ukrainians ‘for the sake of its greedy and insatiable defense industry,’ Moscow’s ambassador has said
The US government has made its choice in favor of war, siding with evil and supporting fascism, the Russian ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov has said. He was referring to the latest American military aid package for Ukraine, signed by President Biden, which grants Kiev a fresh $61 billion war chest.
Biden said the US would start sending weapons and military equipment to Ukraine “in the next few hours.”
Following the announcement Ambassador Antonov told reporters that Washington is balancing on the brink of a direct clash between nuclear powers. The development has struck a severe blow to prospects for a hypothetical revival of Russian-American relations in the future, the ambassador stated.
“For the sake of its greedy and insatiable defense industry, the [Biden] administration sacrifices the lives of ordinary people. With their decision, local politicians actually put an end to the fate of the entire state [of Ukraine], which is used as a ‘battering ram’ against Russia,” he stated.
The high-ranking Russian diplomat accused the US administration of violating the UN Charter’s obligation to maintain ‘primary responsibility for international peace and security.’
“American aid will not save [Ukrainian President] Zelensky” he stressed, adding that any new weapons being sent by Washington to Kiev would be destroyed, and that the tasks and goals of Moscow’s military operation will be realized.
READ MORE: Biden signs $95bn foreign military spending bill
The Kremlin has repeatedly warned that Washington’s lethal aid will not change the situation on the battlefield in Ukraine’s favor. According to Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, the US government has effectively been funneling billions of dollars into its own defense industry through the aid scheme.
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Site: RT - News
Washington is sacrificing lives of Ukrainians ‘for the sake of its greedy and insatiable defense industry,’ Moscow’s ambassador has said
The US government has made its choice in favor of war, siding with evil and supporting fascism, the Russian ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov has said. He was referring to the latest American military aid package for Ukraine, signed by President Biden, which grants Kiev a fresh $61 billion war chest.
Biden said the US would start sending weapons and military equipment to Ukraine “in the next few hours.”
Following the announcement Ambassador Antonov told reporters that Washington is balancing on the brink of a direct clash between nuclear powers. The development has struck a severe blow to prospects for a hypothetical revival of Russian-American relations in the future, the ambassador stated.
“For the sake of its greedy and insatiable defense industry, the [Biden] administration sacrifices the lives of ordinary people. With their decision, local politicians actually put an end to the fate of the entire state [of Ukraine], which is used as a ‘battering ram’ against Russia,” he stated.
The high-ranking Russian diplomat accused the US administration of violating the UN Charter’s obligation to maintain ‘primary responsibility for international peace and security.’
“American aid will not save [Ukrainian President] Zelensky” he stressed, adding that any new weapons being sent by Washington to Kiev would be destroyed, and that the tasks and goals of Moscow’s military operation will be realized.
READ MORE: Biden signs $95bn foreign military spending bill
The Kremlin has repeatedly warned that Washington’s lethal aid will not change the situation on the battlefield in Ukraine’s favor. According to Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, the US government has effectively been funneling billions of dollars into its own defense industry through the aid scheme.
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Site: RT - News
Washington is sacrificing lives of Ukrainians ‘for the sake of its greedy and insatiable defense industry,’ Moscow’s ambassador has said
The US government has made its choice in favor of war, siding with evil and supporting fascism, the Russian ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov has said. He was referring to the latest American military aid package for Ukraine, signed by President Biden, which grants Kiev a fresh $61 billion war chest.
Biden said the US would start sending weapons and military equipment to Ukraine “in the next few hours.”
Following the announcement Ambassador Antonov told reporters that Washington is balancing on the brink of a direct clash between nuclear powers. The development has struck a severe blow to prospects for a hypothetical revival of Russian-American relations in the future, the ambassador stated.
“For the sake of its greedy and insatiable defense industry, the [Biden] administration sacrifices the lives of ordinary people. With their decision, local politicians actually put an end to the fate of the entire state [of Ukraine], which is used as a ‘battering ram’ against Russia,” he stated.
The high-ranking Russian diplomat accused the US administration of violating the UN Charter’s obligation to maintain ‘primary responsibility for international peace and security.’
“American aid will not save [Ukrainian President] Zelensky” he stressed, adding that any new weapons being sent by Washington to Kiev would be destroyed, and that the tasks and goals of Moscow’s military operation will be realized.
READ MORE: Biden signs $95bn foreign military spending bill
The Kremlin has repeatedly warned that Washington’s lethal aid will not change the situation on the battlefield in Ukraine’s favor. According to Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, the US government has effectively been funneling billions of dollars into its own defense industry through the aid scheme.
-
Site: RT - News
Washington is sacrificing lives of Ukrainians ‘for the sake of its greedy and insatiable defense industry,’ Moscow’s ambassador has said
The US government has made its choice in favor of war, siding with evil and supporting fascism, the Russian ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov has said. He was referring to the latest American military aid package for Ukraine, signed by President Biden, which grants Kiev a fresh $61 billion war chest.
Biden said the US would start sending weapons and military equipment to Ukraine “in the next few hours.”
Following the announcement Ambassador Antonov told reporters that Washington is balancing on the brink of a direct clash between nuclear powers. The development has struck a severe blow to prospects for a hypothetical revival of Russian-American relations in the future, the ambassador stated.
“For the sake of its greedy and insatiable defense industry, the [Biden] administration sacrifices the lives of ordinary people. With their decision, local politicians actually put an end to the fate of the entire state [of Ukraine], which is used as a ‘battering ram’ against Russia,” he stated.
The high-ranking Russian diplomat accused the US administration of violating the UN Charter’s obligation to maintain ‘primary responsibility for international peace and security.’
“American aid will not save [Ukrainian President] Zelensky” he stressed, adding that any new weapons being sent by Washington to Kiev would be destroyed, and that the tasks and goals of Moscow’s military operation will be realized.
READ MORE: Biden signs $95bn foreign military spending bill
The Kremlin has repeatedly warned that Washington’s lethal aid will not change the situation on the battlefield in Ukraine’s favor. According to Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, the US government has effectively been funneling billions of dollars into its own defense industry through the aid scheme.
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Site: RT - News
The package, which contains assorted ammunition and hardware, comes after US President Joe Biden signed the long-stalled foreign aid bill
The US Department of Defense has pledged a new $1 billion aid package for Kiev. The announcement comes shortly after President Joe Biden signed a long-stalled foreign aid bill on Wednesday, which includes $61 billion for Ukraine.
The “significant new security assistance” package covers Ukraine’s “critical security and defense needs,” the Pentagon has said in a statement. The upcoming delivery includes assorted ammunition, namely 155mm and 105mm artillery shells, as well as 60mm mortar rounds, projectiles for HIMARS-family multiple rocket launchers, as well as various shoulder-mounted anti-tank launchers and small arms ammo.
The package also provides anti-aircraft capabilities, namely shoulder-launched Stinger missiles. The delivery will not include any munitions for Patriot anti-aircraft systems, including instead ship-borne RIM-7 Sea Sparrow and air-launched AIM-9M Sidewinder anti-aircraft missiles. The munitions have been adapted during the conflict for use with Soviet-era ground-based anti-aircraft systems under the so-called FrankenSAM program.
Read more
Biden signs $95bn foreign military spending bill
Ukraine is set to receive an unspecified amount of combat hardware, including Bradley infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs), Humvees, and mine resistant ambush protected vehicles (MRAPs). The delivery also includes various anti-personnel and anti-tank mines, as well as “demolitions munitions for obstacle clearing.”
The package also apparently hints at ongoing preparations for the long-promised delivery of F-16 jets to Ukraine, containing such points as unspecified “precision aerial munitions” and “airfield support equipment.”
The package comes after US legislators adopted a massive $95-billion foreign aid package, that includes $61 billion for Ukraine, after months of debate in Congress. The bill was signed into law by Biden earlier in the day, with the president stating the deliveries of weapons and military equipment to Ukraine were set to resume “in the next few hours.”
According to unnamed US officials cited by AP, however, some contents of the package will indeed arrive on the frontline in a matter of days, while other items listed in the Pentagon’s announcement could take longer.
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Site: RT - News
The package, which contains assorted ammunition and hardware, comes after US President Joe Biden signed the long-stalled foreign aid bill
The US Department of Defense has pledged a new $1 billion aid package for Kiev. The announcement comes shortly after President Joe Biden signed a long-stalled foreign aid bill on Wednesday, which includes $61 billion for Ukraine.
The “significant new security assistance” package covers Ukraine’s “critical security and defense needs,” the Pentagon has said in a statement. The upcoming delivery includes assorted ammunition, namely 155mm and 105mm artillery shells, as well as 60mm mortar rounds, projectiles for HIMARS-family multiple rocket launchers, as well as various shoulder-mounted anti-tank launchers and small arms ammo.
The package also provides anti-aircraft capabilities, namely shoulder-launched Stinger missiles. The delivery will not include any munitions for Patriot anti-aircraft systems, including instead ship-borne RIM-7 Sea Sparrow and air-launched AIM-9M Sidewinder anti-aircraft missiles. The munitions have been adapted during the conflict for use with Soviet-era ground-based anti-aircraft systems under the so-called FrankenSAM program.
Read more
Biden signs $95bn foreign military spending bill
Ukraine is set to receive an unspecified amount of combat hardware, including Bradley infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs), Humvees, and mine resistant ambush protected vehicles (MRAPs). The delivery also includes various anti-personnel and anti-tank mines, as well as “demolitions munitions for obstacle clearing.”
The package also apparently hints at ongoing preparations for the long-promised delivery of F-16 jets to Ukraine, containing such points as unspecified “precision aerial munitions” and “airfield support equipment.”
The package comes after US legislators adopted a massive $95-billion foreign aid package, that includes $61 billion for Ukraine, after months of debate in Congress. The bill was signed into law by Biden earlier in the day, with the president stating the deliveries of weapons and military equipment to Ukraine were set to resume “in the next few hours.”
According to unnamed US officials cited by AP, however, some contents of the package will indeed arrive on the frontline in a matter of days, while other items listed in the Pentagon’s announcement could take longer.
-
Site: RT - News
The package, which contains assorted ammunition and hardware, comes after US President Joe Biden signed the long-stalled foreign aid bill
The US Department of Defense has pledged a new $1 billion aid package for Kiev. The announcement comes shortly after President Joe Biden signed a long-stalled foreign aid bill on Wednesday, which includes $61 billion for Ukraine.
The “significant new security assistance” package covers Ukraine’s “critical security and defense needs,” the Pentagon has said in a statement. The upcoming delivery includes assorted ammunition, namely 155mm and 105mm artillery shells, as well as 60mm mortar rounds, projectiles for HIMARS-family multiple rocket launchers, as well as various shoulder-mounted anti-tank launchers and small arms ammo.
The package also provides anti-aircraft capabilities, namely shoulder-launched Stinger missiles. The delivery will not include any munitions for Patriot anti-aircraft systems, including instead ship-borne RIM-7 Sea Sparrow and air-launched AIM-9M Sidewinder anti-aircraft missiles. The munitions have been adapted during the conflict for use with Soviet-era ground-based anti-aircraft systems under the so-called FrankenSAM program.
Read more
Biden signs $95bn foreign military spending bill
Ukraine is set to receive an unspecified amount of combat hardware, including Bradley infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs), Humvees, and mine resistant ambush protected vehicles (MRAPs). The delivery also includes various anti-personnel and anti-tank mines, as well as “demolitions munitions for obstacle clearing.”
The package also apparently hints at ongoing preparations for the long-promised delivery of F-16 jets to Ukraine, containing such points as unspecified “precision aerial munitions” and “airfield support equipment.”
The package comes after US legislators adopted a massive $95-billion foreign aid package, that includes $61 billion for Ukraine, after months of debate in Congress. The bill was signed into law by Biden earlier in the day, with the president stating the deliveries of weapons and military equipment to Ukraine were set to resume “in the next few hours.”
According to unnamed US officials cited by AP, however, some contents of the package will indeed arrive on the frontline in a matter of days, while other items listed in the Pentagon’s announcement could take longer.
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Site: RT - News
The package, which contains assorted ammunition and hardware, comes after US President Joe Biden signed the long-stalled foreign aid bill
The US Department of Defense has pledged a new $1 billion aid package for Kiev. The announcement comes shortly after President Joe Biden signed a long-stalled foreign aid bill on Wednesday, which includes $61 billion for Ukraine.
The “significant new security assistance” package covers Ukraine’s “critical security and defense needs,” the Pentagon has said in a statement. The upcoming delivery includes assorted ammunition, namely 155mm and 105mm artillery shells, as well as 60mm mortar rounds, projectiles for HIMARS-family multiple rocket launchers, as well as various shoulder-mounted anti-tank launchers and small arms ammo.
The package also provides anti-aircraft capabilities, namely shoulder-launched Stinger missiles. The delivery will not include any munitions for Patriot anti-aircraft systems, including instead ship-borne RIM-7 Sea Sparrow and air-launched AIM-9M Sidewinder anti-aircraft missiles. The munitions have been adapted during the conflict for use with Soviet-era ground-based anti-aircraft systems under the so-called FrankenSAM program.
Read more
Biden signs $95bn foreign military spending bill
Ukraine is set to receive an unspecified amount of combat hardware, including Bradley infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs), Humvees, and mine resistant ambush protected vehicles (MRAPs). The delivery also includes various anti-personnel and anti-tank mines, as well as “demolitions munitions for obstacle clearing.”
The package also apparently hints at ongoing preparations for the long-promised delivery of F-16 jets to Ukraine, containing such points as unspecified “precision aerial munitions” and “airfield support equipment.”
The package comes after US legislators adopted a massive $95-billion foreign aid package, that includes $61 billion for Ukraine, after months of debate in Congress. The bill was signed into law by Biden earlier in the day, with the president stating the deliveries of weapons and military equipment to Ukraine were set to resume “in the next few hours.”
According to unnamed US officials cited by AP, however, some contents of the package will indeed arrive on the frontline in a matter of days, while other items listed in the Pentagon’s announcement could take longer.
-
Site: RT - News
The package, which contains assorted ammunition and hardware, comes after US President Joe Biden signed the long-stalled foreign aid bill
The US Department of Defense has pledged a new $1 billion aid package for Kiev. The announcement comes shortly after President Joe Biden signed a long-stalled foreign aid bill on Wednesday, which includes $61 billion for Ukraine.
The “significant new security assistance” package covers Ukraine’s “critical security and defense needs,” the Pentagon has said in a statement. The upcoming delivery includes assorted ammunition, namely 155mm and 105mm artillery shells, as well as 60mm mortar rounds, projectiles for HIMARS-family multiple rocket launchers, as well as various shoulder-mounted anti-tank launchers and small arms ammo.
The package also provides anti-aircraft capabilities, namely shoulder-launched Stinger missiles. The delivery will not include any munitions for Patriot anti-aircraft systems, including instead ship-borne RIM-7 Sea Sparrow and air-launched AIM-9M Sidewinder anti-aircraft missiles. The munitions have been adapted during the conflict for use with Soviet-era ground-based anti-aircraft systems under the so-called FrankenSAM program.
Read more
Biden signs $95bn foreign military spending bill
Ukraine is set to receive an unspecified amount of combat hardware, including Bradley infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs), Humvees, and mine resistant ambush protected vehicles (MRAPs). The delivery also includes various anti-personnel and anti-tank mines, as well as “demolitions munitions for obstacle clearing.”
The package also apparently hints at ongoing preparations for the long-promised delivery of F-16 jets to Ukraine, containing such points as unspecified “precision aerial munitions” and “airfield support equipment.”
The package comes after US legislators adopted a massive $95-billion foreign aid package, that includes $61 billion for Ukraine, after months of debate in Congress. The bill was signed into law by Biden earlier in the day, with the president stating the deliveries of weapons and military equipment to Ukraine were set to resume “in the next few hours.”
According to unnamed US officials cited by AP, however, some contents of the package will indeed arrive on the frontline in a matter of days, while other items listed in the Pentagon’s announcement could take longer.
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Site: Mundabor's blogI have already expressed myself critically about “Catholic answers”, reflecting that the answers tend to be at times very little Catholic according to who gives them. However, it seems to me that Catholic Answers has now really reached the height of un-Catholic superficiality, as it has created a fictional AI priest to provide its public […]
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Site: ChurchPOP
March for the Martyrs, an organization dedicated to supporting persecuted Christians across the world, will hold a rally on Sat., April 27, 2024, in Washington, D.C.
What is March for the Martyrs?
Here's the organization's mission statement:
"Martyrs is For the Martyrs is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that seeks to raise awareness about the crisis of Christian persecution, advocate for religious freedom, and provide aid to victims of persecution around the world."Click here if you cannot see the video above.
The free rally will begin at 3:00 p.m. at the Constitution Gardens on the National Mall.
The rally will "include testimonies from survivors of persecution, praise and worship songs, and prayerful preparation for the March for the Martyrs procession."
March for the Martyrs 2021 / Photo Courtesy of March of the MartyrsSpeakers will include Jim Caviezel, Ambassador Sam Brownback, March for the Martyrs founder Gia Chacón, Crescent Project founder Pastor Fouad Masri, Executive Director of Armenian National Assembly Washington D.C. Aram Hamparian, founder of TRAFFIK Anthony Trimino, and Executive Director of In Defense of Christians Richard Ghazal.
March for the Martyrs will then lead a procession at 4:00 p.m."This procession is not just a march, but a bold statement of unity, faith, and support for persecuted Christians worldwide," the event's description explains. "It will depart from the National Mall and proceed through the streets of Washington, D.C., and end at the Museum of the Bible."
March for the Martyrs 2021 Procession/ Photo Courtesy of March of the MartyrsFollowing the 4:00 p.m. procession, March for the Martyrs invites participants to the Museum of the Bible for an evening conference beginning at 5:00 p.m.
"The Night of Prayer for the Persecuted is a powerful experience," the event's description states. "It will include speakers who are experts on Christian persecution and testimonies from survivors. Participants will come together in prayer for our brothers and sisters who are suffering for their faith."
The event will focus on three countries of concern: Iran, Nigeria, and Armenia.
The Global Impact of March for the Martyrs
According to March of the Martyrs founder Gia Chacón, the rally, procession, and conference is not just an event, but "a movement of Christians across all ages and denominations coming together as one voice for persecuted Christians around the world."
March for the Martyrs 2022 / Photo Courtesy of March for the MartyrsChacón travels the world offering support and humanitarian aid for persecuted Christians.
She explained that regardless of the aid, the Christians almost always have one request: "Please continue to pray for us."
"March for the Martyrs responds to that need through prayer and solidarity. Yet, it is not just us who have something to give by offering a platform to persecuted Christians," Chacón said.
"Participants of March for the Martyrs walk away feeling deeply impacted by the witness and testimonies from survivors of persecution that speak at the event or the stories from the ground that advocates share; almost always saying they leave feeling emboldened to stand strong and courageous in their faith."
Chacón said that through the organization's advocacy and communication efforts via social media, along with collaborating with the International Religious Freedom space, March for the Martyrs is the "leading voice for persecuted Christians."
"Our movement through March for the Martyrs has opened the eyes of Christians in the West to the reality of persecution, and gives them a tangible way to make a difference in the lives of persecuted Christians."
Click here to register for March for the Martyrs 2024 rally.
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Site: LifeNews
Idaho officials fought at the Supreme Court today to protect babies from abortion, uphold its pro-life state law and to stop Joe Biden from turning Idaho emergency rooms into abortion centers.
As LifeNews.com reported previously, the Supreme Court ruled in January that Joe Biden can’t force Idaho to turn its emergency rooms into abortion centers. The nation’s highest court ruled that Joe Biden can’t exploit a federal law to try to weaken Idaho’s abortion ban by allowing emergency room doctors to do abortions.
But that decision was a temporary victory and Idaho oficials are fighting in court to win the entire case, Idaho v United States. This is the first case to be heard by the Supreme Court directly relating to the Dobbs decision which overturned Roe v. Wade.
Last year, the Justice Department filed suit Aug. 2 against the state of Idaho, hoping to undermine its new law prohibiting most abortions by claiming that the state law conflicts with EMTALA and medical treatment for pregnant women in emergency rooms. The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) was enacted in 1986 and contains a duty to both a pregnant woman and her unborn child. The act never mentions abortion.
Please follow LifeNews.com on Gab for the latest pro-life news and info, free from social media censorship.
The Justice Department filed a lawsuit that challenges Idaho’s protective law — arguing that it would prevent supposedly medically necessary abortions. Despite false reports that abortion bans would prevent doctors from treating pregnant women for miscarriages or ectopic pregnancies, pro-life doctors confirm that is not the case. Some 35 states have laws making it clear that miscarriage is not abortion and every state with an abortion ban allows treatment for both.
Today, Idaho attorneys told the high court that the federal government can’t force Idaho to allow abortions outside the scope of its law, even if Idaho accepts federal dollars for medicare.
Justice Samuel Alito agreed on that point and pointed out that EMTALA specifically mentions unborn children.
“How can you impose restrictions on what Idaho can criminalize, simply because hospitals in Idaho have chosen to participate in Medicare?” he asked U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar.
During the hearing, Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett asked tough questions about both sides and their votes could prove crucial in the outcome.
One pro-life group told LifeNews that the outcome of the case is important because it could mandate abortion on demand throughout all fifty states in hospital emergency rooms.
“The Biden Administration is attempting to twist the compassionate EMTALA law to push their radical agenda of unlimited abortion,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life.
She said that Biden’s attempt to force hospital emergency rooms to perform abortions under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) is contrary to that federal law which was only meant to protect emergency room patients from being dumped and does not mandate that the hospital provide medical care that is contrary to state law.
“Apparently, Joe Biden and his administration have determined that emergency rooms are no longer capable of providing care for both mother and child,” said Tobias. “The Biden Administration’s solution is to turn hospital emergency rooms into abortion facilities.”
Texas Alliance for Life’s Communications Director Amy O’Donnell agreed. Het state is also fighting Biden.
“EMTALA, which recognizes two patients in cases of pregnancy, the mother and the unborn child, requires hospitals to provide medically necessary care to stabilize both patients in emergency situations, which could include abortions in those rare and tragic cases when a pregnancy endangers a woman’s life. All states’ laws allow abortions in those circumstances, including the laws of Idaho and Texas,” she said.
“The pro-abortion Biden/Harris Administration’s misinterpretation of EMTALA threatens to transform hospitals into abortion facilities. The Administration asserts that any pregnancy could necessitate abortion at a single physician’s discretion, another attempt to trample on state abortion laws intended to protect unborn babies from elective abortions,” she added. “The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld Texas’ law that protects unborn babies from abortion, with exceptions for medically necessary abortions, from a similar challenge. That Court found that Texas law allows all life-saving abortions required by EMTALA. We believe the Supreme Court should uphold Idaho’s law in the same way.”
Signed by pro-life President Reagan in 1986, EMTALA requires hospitals to treat patients with emergency medical conditions regardless of their ability to pay. The Biden/Harris administration directive threatens to turn hospitals into abortion facilities by claiming that any pregnancy could require abortion if so deemed by a physician. Their so-called guidance goes beyond EMTALA by mandating abortion, where the act does not mandate medical treatments.
The Biden Administration directive also falsely suggests that Idaho and other state pro-life laws fail to protect women facing life-threatening emergencies during pregnancy. This is untrue. All state’s pro-life laws provide an abortion exception for those rare but tragic circumstances in which a pregnancy poses a threat to a mother’s life or poses a risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function.
The Ninth Circuit of Appeals held that “the two laws would not conflict” and that EMTALA does not mandate abortions punishable under Idaho’s law.
According to the latest data from Texas Health & Human Services (through November 2023), reported elective abortions have dropped to zero. However, doctors have performed 75 abortions under the medical necessity exception (for the life or health of the pregnant woman), all in hospitals since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in Dobbs. No doctor has faced prosecution by a district attorney or sanctions from the Texas Medical Board.
The post Idaho Fights at Supreme Court to Protect Babies From Abortions appeared first on LifeNews.com.
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Site: The Remnant Newspaper - Remnant Articles“MAiD is very predatory. It’s going after sick, vulnerable, aged people. All we can do now is create awareness of what’s happening to us.”
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Site: RT - News
Canberra has refused to identify the religion or motives of seven persons taken into custody
Seven people were detained in Sydney on Wednesday in a counter-terrorism operation involving over 400 local, state and federal law enforcement officers, Australian police have said.
The raids were a follow-up to the stabbing of an Assyrian Christian bishop earlier this month, which the authorities classified as a terrorist incident.
“From that initial incident, a number of associates were identified that we believe warranted further close attention and investigation,” New South Wales Police Deputy Commissioner David Hudson told reporters.
The decision to carry out the raid was motivated by concerns that they “posed an unacceptable risk to the people of New South Wales, and our current, purely investigative strategies could not adequately ensure public safety,” Hudson added.
Seven “juveniles” between the ages of 15 and 17 have been arrested as a result of the operation. Police have described them as adherents of a “religiously motivated violent extremist ideology,” which they declined to name. Five more minors are cooperating with the authorities and have not been detained.
Read more
Man stabs priest during sermon (VIDEO)
The behavior of the youths led the authorities to believe “it was likely that an attack might ensue” and that police would be unable to prevent it, Hudson added.
However, Deputy Commissioner Krissy Barrett of the Australian federal police said that they had “no evidence of specific locations, times, or targets of a violent act” at this time.
Australian authorities grew concerned after the April 15 attack on Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, an Assyrian Christian, in the Sydney suburb of Wakeley. The 16-year-old suspect was caught on a live stream entering the Christ the Good Shepherd church, approaching the bishop in the middle of the evening service then stabbing him repeatedly in the head and chest.
Eyewitnesses reported that the suspect said he was avenging the bishop’s insults against “my Prophet,” suggesting that the assailant might be Muslim. Bishop Emmanuel has been critical of Islam in the past. However, the Australian authorities have refused to identify the suspect’s religion or motives.
The government in Canberra has also tried to censor the video of the incident on platforms such as X (formerly Twitter) and Meta, calling it “gratuitous or offensive violence with a high degree of impact or detail.”
Wakeley is the home of Australia’s largest community of Assyrian Christians, many of whom have fled conflicts in the Middle East.
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Site: RT - News
Canberra has refused to identify the religion or motives of seven persons taken into custody
Seven people were detained in Sydney on Wednesday in a counter-terrorism operation involving over 400 local, state and federal law enforcement officers, Australian police have said.
The raids were a follow-up to the stabbing of an Assyrian Christian bishop earlier this month, which the authorities classified as a terrorist incident.
“From that initial incident, a number of associates were identified that we believe warranted further close attention and investigation,” New South Wales Police Deputy Commissioner David Hudson told reporters.
The decision to carry out the raid was motivated by concerns that they “posed an unacceptable risk to the people of New South Wales, and our current, purely investigative strategies could not adequately ensure public safety,” Hudson added.
Seven “juveniles” between the ages of 15 and 17 have been arrested as a result of the operation. Police have described them as adherents of a “religiously motivated violent extremist ideology,” which they declined to name. Five more minors are cooperating with the authorities and have not been detained.
Read more
Man stabs priest during sermon (VIDEO)
The behavior of the youths led the authorities to believe “it was likely that an attack might ensue” and that police would be unable to prevent it, Hudson added.
However, Deputy Commissioner Krissy Barrett of the Australian federal police said that they had “no evidence of specific locations, times, or targets of a violent act” at this time.
Australian authorities grew concerned after the April 15 attack on Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, an Assyrian Christian, in the Sydney suburb of Wakeley. The 16-year-old suspect was caught on a live stream entering the Christ the Good Shepherd church, approaching the bishop in the middle of the evening service then stabbing him repeatedly in the head and chest.
Eyewitnesses reported that the suspect said he was avenging the bishop’s insults against “my Prophet,” suggesting that the assailant might be Muslim. Bishop Emmanuel has been critical of Islam in the past. However, the Australian authorities have refused to identify the suspect’s religion or motives.
The government in Canberra has also tried to censor the video of the incident on platforms such as X (formerly Twitter) and Meta, calling it “gratuitous or offensive violence with a high degree of impact or detail.”
Wakeley is the home of Australia’s largest community of Assyrian Christians, many of whom have fled conflicts in the Middle East.
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Site: RT - News
Canberra has refused to identify the religion or motives of seven persons taken into custody
Seven people were detained in Sydney on Wednesday in a counter-terrorism operation involving over 400 local, state and federal law enforcement officers, Australian police have said.
The raids were a follow-up to the stabbing of an Assyrian Christian bishop earlier this month, which the authorities classified as a terrorist incident.
“From that initial incident, a number of associates were identified that we believe warranted further close attention and investigation,” New South Wales Police Deputy Commissioner David Hudson told reporters.
The decision to carry out the raid was motivated by concerns that they “posed an unacceptable risk to the people of New South Wales, and our current, purely investigative strategies could not adequately ensure public safety,” Hudson added.
Seven “juveniles” between the ages of 15 and 17 have been arrested as a result of the operation. Police have described them as adherents of a “religiously motivated violent extremist ideology,” which they declined to name. Five more minors are cooperating with the authorities and have not been detained.
Read more
Man stabs priest during sermon (VIDEO)
The behavior of the youths led the authorities to believe “it was likely that an attack might ensue” and that police would be unable to prevent it, Hudson added.
However, Deputy Commissioner Krissy Barrett of the Australian federal police said that they had “no evidence of specific locations, times, or targets of a violent act” at this time.
Australian authorities grew concerned after the April 15 attack on Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, an Assyrian Christian, in the Sydney suburb of Wakeley. The 16-year-old suspect was caught on a live stream entering the Christ the Good Shepherd church, approaching the bishop in the middle of the evening service then stabbing him repeatedly in the head and chest.
Eyewitnesses reported that the suspect said he was avenging the bishop’s insults against “my Prophet,” suggesting that the assailant might be Muslim. Bishop Emmanuel has been critical of Islam in the past. However, the Australian authorities have refused to identify the suspect’s religion or motives.
The government in Canberra has also tried to censor the video of the incident on platforms such as X (formerly Twitter) and Meta, calling it “gratuitous or offensive violence with a high degree of impact or detail.”
Wakeley is the home of Australia’s largest community of Assyrian Christians, many of whom have fled conflicts in the Middle East.
-
Site: RT - News
Canberra has refused to identify the religion or motives of seven persons taken into custody
Seven people were detained in Sydney on Wednesday in a counter-terrorism operation involving over 400 local, state and federal law enforcement officers, Australian police have said.
The raids were a follow-up to the stabbing of an Assyrian Christian bishop earlier this month, which the authorities classified as a terrorist incident.
“From that initial incident, a number of associates were identified that we believe warranted further close attention and investigation,” New South Wales Police Deputy Commissioner David Hudson told reporters.
The decision to carry out the raid was motivated by concerns that they “posed an unacceptable risk to the people of New South Wales, and our current, purely investigative strategies could not adequately ensure public safety,” Hudson added.
Seven “juveniles” between the ages of 15 and 17 have been arrested as a result of the operation. Police have described them as adherents of a “religiously motivated violent extremist ideology,” which they declined to name. Five more minors are cooperating with the authorities and have not been detained.
Read more
Man stabs priest during sermon (VIDEO)
The behavior of the youths led the authorities to believe “it was likely that an attack might ensue” and that police would be unable to prevent it, Hudson added.
However, Deputy Commissioner Krissy Barrett of the Australian federal police said that they had “no evidence of specific locations, times, or targets of a violent act” at this time.
Australian authorities grew concerned after the April 15 attack on Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, an Assyrian Christian, in the Sydney suburb of Wakeley. The 16-year-old suspect was caught on a live stream entering the Christ the Good Shepherd church, approaching the bishop in the middle of the evening service then stabbing him repeatedly in the head and chest.
Eyewitnesses reported that the suspect said he was avenging the bishop’s insults against “my Prophet,” suggesting that the assailant might be Muslim. Bishop Emmanuel has been critical of Islam in the past. However, the Australian authorities have refused to identify the suspect’s religion or motives.
The government in Canberra has also tried to censor the video of the incident on platforms such as X (formerly Twitter) and Meta, calling it “gratuitous or offensive violence with a high degree of impact or detail.”
Wakeley is the home of Australia’s largest community of Assyrian Christians, many of whom have fled conflicts in the Middle East.
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Site: AsiaNews.itThe Calcutta High Court ordered new appointments within 15 days, directing concerned school staff to return paid salaries with interest. The State administration led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has appealed to the Supreme Court. Some state officials have been arrested on corruption charges, while assets worth millions of rupees have been confiscated.
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Site: Zero HedgeMarket Is Splendidly Indifferent To Rising Inflation RisksTyler Durden Wed, 04/24/2024 - 13:25
Authored by Simon White, Bloomberg macro strategist,
There continues to be scant evidence of inflation hedging in markets despite clear signs price-growth risks are rising.
Inflation remains in focus this week as we get the first quarter’s update for US PCE on Friday. Regardless of one data point, the trend is clearly that inflation has stopped falling, with multiple leading indicators suggesting a recurrence.
It’s not just in the US though. Globally, inflation is resurfacing. Through last year, the Citi Inflation Surprise indices were falling almost everywhere. Year-to-date in 2024, they are now rising in two-thirds of the countries the indices cover.
But that is not being priced in markets. Ven Ram points out that two-year Treasuries would struggle to sell-off on even a sticky core PCE print later this week, and that’s probably true in the nearer term. But even two-year yields are not yet pricing in the likelihood of a proper inflation shock that would require several more hikes from the Federal Reserve. That’s not a base case at the moment, but its probability is still underpriced.
Yields have been rising, and so have gold and silver, but there is a distinct lack of the inflation urgency seen in 2021 and early 2022, when CPI was hitting decade highs and the Federal Reserve had not yet responded with interest rate hikes.
As one sign of the relative complacency, take two ETFs that are designed to hedge inflation, INFL and IVOL.
These saw marked inflows in 2021, but the flows have been muted since the Fed started raising rates in 2022 and have remained so.
There have also been no marked pick-up in flows to ETFs of inflation-linked bonds, such as the TIP ETF.
Similarly shorting interest in Treasuries continues to be minimal. JPMorgan’s Client Treasury Survey is registering a near series-low of outright shorts, while short interest in the TLT long-term UST ETF is low and has barely risen.
There are no inflation alarms ringing. But that could prove to be misguided as inflation shows clear signs of resurfacing.
This is even more so as the structural backdrop, with increasingly coordinated fiscal and monetary policy, is conducive to a secular rise in price growth.
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Site: Zero HedgeSubpar Record 5Y Auction Tails, Pushes Yields To Session HighsTyler Durden Wed, 04/24/2024 - 13:21
One day after the US sold a record amount of 2 Year paper in a very strong auction, the Treasury has followed that up with a record amount of 5 year paper, this time in a less than impressive sale.
The $70BN in 5Y paper was up $3BN from $67BN last month and was the highest amount on record offered for the tenor. But don't worry there will be plenty more record auctions in the future: after all, the US has now crossed into the Minsky Moment and it is now issuing debt just to pay the interest on its existing debt.
The auction priced at a thigh yield of 4.659%, up sharply from 4.235% last month and the highest since October's cycle high of 4.899%. Unlike yesterday's 2Y auction which stopped through, today's sale modestly tailed the When Issued 4.655% by 0.4bps.
The Bid to Cover was also weaker than last month, dropping from 2.41 to 2.39, and just below the 2.411 six-auction average.
The internals were also subpar, with Indirects sliding to 65.7% from 70.5% last month, if almost on top of the recent average of 65.4%. And with Directs taking down 19.2%, above the 17.9% recent average, Dealers we left holding 15.0%, just below the recent average of 16.7%.
Overall, this was a mediocre and forgettable auction, and one which accelerated the move higher in bond yields which are now at 4.654%, just shy of session highs.
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Site: Rorate CaeliSuppose a new edition of a famous novel was published with great fanfare, including press conferences, new releases, and all the other public manifestations of an important event. We can use a classic like Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield as an example. The talking heads in the media would speak about the meticulous scholarship that this new edition reflected and the joy of making this New Catholichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04118576661605931910noreply@blogger.com
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Site: Zero HedgeRomney & The Wrong Question: Senator's Statement On Trump's Guilt Captures The Problem With The Manhattan TrialTyler Durden Wed, 04/24/2024 - 13:11
Yesterday, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) had a much covered interaction with CNN’s Manu Raju who asked him about Trump’s criminal trial and whether he was guilty of the underlying criminal conduct. Romney responded “I think everybody has made their own assessment of President Trump’s character, and so far as I know you don’t pay someone $130,000 not to have sex with you.” I have previously defended Romney in his votes on impeachment despite our disagreement on the constitutional standard. I also understand that he was making a more general comment on character.
However, his response is precisely what Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is seeking from the jury: a verdict on Trump as a person rather than the underlying criminal allegations.
Trump is currently facing 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree regarding payments made to Daniels during the 2016 presidential election. As I discuss today in the New York Post, many of us (including liberal legal experts) still question whether there is any crime alleged by Bragg. Raju reasonably asked Romney for his own view.
Romney is an interesting person to ask. He is not only a critic of the President from within his own party but he is a former businessman who has had to deal with complex reporting and business obligations.
Romney’s response must be encouraging for Bragg.
Rather than address the ambiguous criminal allegation, Romney suggested that Trump was guilty as charged in having a tryst with a former porn star.
The defense is not contesting the payment and the fact of the affair is not central to the allegations.
The question is whether the payments were unlawfully denoted as legal expenses with the intent to somehow steal the 2016 election.
Asked Mitt Romney about the hush money allegations against Trump.
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) April 23, 2024
“I think everybody has made their own assessment of President Trump's character, and so far as I know you don't pay someone $130,000 not to have sex with you." pic.twitter.com/ofBL15MJw1It is not a crime to use a NDA or other means to quash an embarrassing story.
Bill Clinton had a host of lawyers quashing allegations of affairs and sexual assaults throughout his presidency. He ran into trouble when he committed perjury in the effort to hide what Hillary Clinton called one of his “bimbo eruptions.”
Moreover, denoting this as a legal expense, on the advice of counsel, is not necessarily wrong. It is not clear how it should have been to be denoted. A “nuisance payment”? The campaign of Hillary Clinton and its general counsel Marc Elias hid the funding of the Steele dossier as a legal expense and was fined by the government for doing so. They litigated the question and insisted that that is precisely what it was.
Romney is precisely what Bragg is looking for in these jurors. Smart and savvy, he still viewed the question of the trial as whether Trump had an affair with Stormy Daniels. If so, it was not a legal expense. Yet, quashing the story and avoiding any litigation was a legal matter with the eventual crafting of the NDA.
There are a lot of motivations for NDAs of this kind. Trump was married. He was the host of a hit television show (with a clause on termination for scandalous conduct). And, yes, he was also seeking to be president. He wanted these stories killed and friends like David Pecker were helping in that effort. What those facts say about the former president’s “character” will remain a matter of public debate and, as Romney said, most long ago reached their own conclusions. Yet, it is the crime not the character of Trump that is at issue in Manhattan.
Alvin Bragg would like the trial to remain a verdict on character, which is why he started the trial discussing not the Daniels matter but an uncharged affair and settlement with a former Playboy bunny. It is why he fought hard (and succeeded) in being able to question Trump about past cases involving an alleged assault and fraudulent conduct. As legal experts continue this week to debate if there is even a crime alleged in the indictment, Bragg is making a case that Trump’s lack of character is beyond a reasonable doubt.
To be fair, Romney was not giving a full interview on the case in his statement to CNN and may well have some reservations about the Bragg indictment. However, Bragg is likely hoping that “everybody has made their own assessment of President Trump,” including twelve jurors currently sitting in the Manhattan courtroom.
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Site: Zero HedgeCocoa Drops Most Since April 2009, Some Losses Recovered In Muti-Day Volatility RollercoasterTyler Durden Wed, 04/24/2024 - 13:05
Cocoa futures in London on Tuesday plunged the most since April 2009, tumbling as much as 8.1%, while prices slid as much as 7.7% in New York. Prices recovered some losses on Wednesday morning. It appears the downdraft was caused by fast-money traders taking profits after a record high of $12,250 per ton was recorded in New York on Friday.
Cocoa prices faded record highs as "opportunistic fast traders" exit positions to take profits after bearish signals flashed in recent sessions, Tristan Fletcher, chief executive officer at ChAI, a platform that uses AI to analyze commodity markets, told Bloomberg.
Last week's catalyst for record-high prices came after data about grindings—where cocoa transforms into butter and powder used in candy—showed that demand destruction has not materialized despite soaring prices.
Here's the cocoa grindings data from last week that served as fuel for bulls (via Barchart):
Cocoa also has support on signs that global cocoa demand remains resilient despite record-high prices. Last Thursday, the National Confectioners Association reported that North American Q1 cocoa grindings rose +9.3% q/q and +3.7 % y/y to 113,683 MT. Also, last Thursday, the Cocoa Association of Asia reported that Q1 Asia cocoa grindings rose +5.1% q/q, although they fell -0.2% y/y to 221,530 MT. In addition, the European Cocoa Association reported that Q1 European cocoa grindings rose +4.7% q/q, although they fell -2.2% y/y to 367,287 MT.
Paul Joules, an analyst at Rabobank, wrote in a note that grindings figures are "an indication that for now demand is holding up despite current pricing," adding that "demand destruction will come, but clearly it's taking longer to filter into grind data than the market was anticipating."
Famed commodity trader Pierre Andurand told Bloomberg via an emailed interview, "We will finish the year with the lowest stocks-to-grinding ratio ever, and potentially run out of inventories late in the year." He added that cocoa prices "could break $20,000 later this year" based on the thesis of worsening drought and disease ravaging the world's largest cocoa farms in West Africa.
Paul Torres, a London-based trading and agricultural consultant, said, "I do not foresee prices falling significantly," adding that prices could range between $8,000 to $10,000.
Torres noted: "There could be just some easing of the frenetic moves we've seen."
Meanwhile, analysts from JPMorgan recently told clients that cocoa prices in New York could come down to around $6,000 a ton in the medium term, while Citi analysts said a bear market could begin in early 2025.
There is some good news for cocoa supply: Bloomberg quoted Marijn Moesbergen, sourcing lead at Cargill, at the World Cocoa Conference in Brussels on Wednesday as saying cocoa production is expected to bounce back next year as the El Nino effect won't be in play.
"The current prices are maybe a bit overshooting. The question indeed is what will be the new equilibrium between this supply issues versus what will be the demand impact going forward," adding, "That question will be answered in the coming period."
The combination of a worsening global supply deficit plus bullish grindings data might only suggest prices have to head higher.
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Site: LifeNews
Police officers forcing women to take pregnancy tests during traffic stops, pregnant mothers being chained to hospital beds while tests are performed to verify rape — such are the dystopian images offered by California’s pro-abortion governor in a new spate of ads aired across the country. Starting Sunday, Governor Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) and his pro-abortion PAC Campaign for Democracy debuted a 30-second TV spot entitled “Fugitive” in Alabama. The video depicts a young woman trying to cross state lines to seek an abortion who is pulled over by a police officer armed with a pregnancy test. A narrator intones, “Trump Republicans want to criminalize young Alabama women who travel for reproductive care.”
The ad refers to legislation recently introduced into the Alabama House of Representatives which would criminalize aiding minors in seeking abortions without parental consent. Sponsored by Rep. Mark Gidley (R), H.B. 370 states, “This bill would provide that it is a Class A misdemeanor for any person, with the intent to conceal an abortion from a minor’s parents or guardian, to harbor or transport a minor girl and obtain, or aid and abet her in obtaining, an abortion or abortion-inducing drug.” Although Newsom’s ad expressly portrays the young woman seeking an abortion as the target of the Alabama bill, the legislation itself stipulates that it “would not authorize criminal penalties or civil liability against a minor girl.”
Newsom took aim at similar legislation in Tennessee earlier this year, with an ad entitled “Hostage,” depicting a crying young woman handcuffed to a hospital gurney awaiting the results of a “sexual assault evidence collection kit.” Like Alabama’s bill, Tennessee’s H.B. 1895, sponsored by Rep. Jason Zachary (R), would outlaw attempts to seek out, harbor, or transport underage girls for the purposes of committing an out-of-state abortion. While Alabama’s bill would classify such efforts as a Class A misdemeanor (punishable by up to one year in jail and fines of up to $6,000), Tennessee’s bill would make them a Class C felony (punishable by 3 to 15 years in prison and fines of up to $10,000). The narrator of Newsom’s ad says, “Don’t let [Trump Republicans] hold Tennessee women hostage.”
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Both ads direct viewers to “take action” by visiting Campaign for Democracy’s “Right to Travel” website to sign petitions opposing the targeted legislation. Noting that transporting minors out of state to seek abortions may soon be criminalized in both Alabama and Tennessee, as well as Oklahoma, the website says, “These are states that basically want to imprison women and young girls. It’s a backdoor nationwide abortion ban, denying women the opportunity to go to a freedom state.”
Newsom’s out-of-state pro-abortion advertising is not a novelty. After the U.S. Supreme Court dismantled Roe v. Wade in 2022, the Golden State governor funneled his reelection campaign money into billboards in states like Texas and Mississippi where pro-life laws had been enacted. The billboards often depicted women in handcuffs accompanied by slogans like, “Texas doesn’t own your body. You do.” The billboards also directed people to visit an official California state government website promoting abortion and providing those in other states with instructions on how to seek abortions in California. Later that year, Newsom continued to spend reelection campaign money on TV ads supporting an effort to enshrine abortion as a constitutional right in California and make the state an “abortion sanctuary.”
Also on Sunday, Newsom announced plans to introduce “emergency legislation” to invite Arizona abortionists to California to continue committing abortions, in the wake of an Arizona State Supreme Court ruling upholding a pro-life law and banning abortion in almost all circumstances. President Joe Biden also launched a series of pro-abortion ads in Arizona, endorsing a ballot initiative which would enumerate a “right” to abortion in the state’s constitution.
Democrats across the nation have made abortion the central pillar of their 2024 campaigns. The Biden-Harris campaign reportedly “plans to spend every day until Nov. 5” focusing on abortion, including stunts such as Vice President Kamala Harris’s nationwide “abortion tour” and Biden’s scheduled visit to Florida to promote a pro-abortion ballot initiative. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is targeting at least seven states, all of which will feature abortion-related ballot initiatives in November, for pro-abortion messaging, hoping to score a potential 18 congressional seats on the strength of abortion alone. Meanwhile, Republicans have largely abandoned the issue of abortion, either following former President Donald Trump’s lead and declaring it a “states’ issue” or else outright adopting pro-abortion rhetoric.
LifeNews Note: S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.
The post Gavin Newsom Lies, Abortion Bans Don’t Allow Police to Pull Over Pregnant Women appeared first on LifeNews.com.
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Site: AsiaNews.itLower consumer demand forces small restaurants as well as ambitious bakery brands to throw in the towel. Business closures jump 232 per cent over a year as post zero-COVID reopening saw rising prices and income crunch for many households.
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Site: RT - News
President Biden has signed a bill forcing the platform’s Chinese parent company ByteDance to divest ownership or face a ban
US President Joe Biden has signed a new law that could potentially lead to TikTok being banned in the country. The legislation is part of a bill that includes over $95 billion in military aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
Under the new TikTok law, ByteDance - the platform’s Chinese owner - will have nine months to sell its business or it will be barred from US app stores. The bill will also bar it from controlling TikTok’s algorithm.
The bill was approved by the US House of Representatives on Saturday and by the Senate on Tuesday.
The legislation comes after a number of US officials expressed concerns that the app poses a risk to national security and could be used by Chinese authorities to obtain the private data of US citizens or influence their opinions by suppressing or promoting certain content on TikTok.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairwoman Maria Cantwell stressed that “Congress is not acting to punish ByteDance, TikTok or any other individual company”; it is making the move to “prevent foreign adversaries from conducting espionage, surveillance, maligned operations, harming vulnerable Americans, our servicemen and women, and our US government personnel.”
Read more
Beijing slams proposed US TikTok ban as ‘bandit logic’
TikTok has threatened to legally challenge the US government over the law. The company’s head of public policy for the Americas, Michael Beckerman, has described the bill as a violation of the First Amendment rights of the app’s 170 million users in the US and warned that the potential ban would also have “devastating consequences” for the nearly seven million businesses using the platform.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew posted a response to the new law, addressing the users of the platform. “Make no mistake, this is a ban. A ban on TikTok, a ban on you, and a ban on your voice... Rest assured, we aren’t going anywhere. We are confident that we will keep fighting for your rights in the courts. The facts and the Constitution are on our side, and we expect to prevail.”
China has also blasted plans to ban TikTok in the US, describing such a move as “contrary to the principles of fair competition and international economic and trade rules” and accusing Washington of “bullying behavior” and “leveraging state power” against ByteDance.
Some US lawmakers have also opposed the bill, calling it a “cure” that is “worse than the disease” and raising concerns that it would give the White House the power to ban other websites and apps.
Elon Musk has also warned that the bill is “about censorship and government control,” while the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has denounced the legislation as “violating the free speech rights of millions of Americans” who use the platform daily.
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Site: RT - News
President Biden has signed a bill forcing the platform’s Chinese parent company ByteDance to divest ownership or face a ban
US President Joe Biden has signed a new law that could potentially lead to TikTok being banned in the country. The legislation is part of a bill that includes over $95 billion in military aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
Under the new TikTok law, ByteDance - the platform’s Chinese owner - will have nine months to sell its business or it will be barred from US app stores. The bill will also bar it from controlling TikTok’s algorithm.
The bill was approved by the US House of Representatives on Saturday and by the Senate on Tuesday.
The legislation comes after a number of US officials expressed concerns that the app poses a risk to national security and could be used by Chinese authorities to obtain the private data of US citizens or influence their opinions by suppressing or promoting certain content on TikTok.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairwoman Maria Cantwell stressed that “Congress is not acting to punish ByteDance, TikTok or any other individual company”; it is making the move to “prevent foreign adversaries from conducting espionage, surveillance, maligned operations, harming vulnerable Americans, our servicemen and women, and our US government personnel.”
Read more
Beijing slams proposed US TikTok ban as ‘bandit logic’
TikTok has threatened to legally challenge the US government over the law. The company’s head of public policy for the Americas, Michael Beckerman, has described the bill as a violation of the First Amendment rights of the app’s 170 million users in the US and warned that the potential ban would also have “devastating consequences” for the nearly seven million businesses using the platform.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew posted a response to the new law, addressing the users of the platform. “Make no mistake, this is a ban. A ban on TikTok, a ban on you, and a ban on your voice... Rest assured, we aren’t going anywhere. We are confident that we will keep fighting for your rights in the courts. The facts and the Constitution are on our side, and we expect to prevail.”
China has also blasted plans to ban TikTok in the US, describing such a move as “contrary to the principles of fair competition and international economic and trade rules” and accusing Washington of “bullying behavior” and “leveraging state power” against ByteDance.
Some US lawmakers have also opposed the bill, calling it a “cure” that is “worse than the disease” and raising concerns that it would give the White House the power to ban other websites and apps.
Elon Musk has also warned that the bill is “about censorship and government control,” while the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has denounced the legislation as “violating the free speech rights of millions of Americans” who use the platform daily.
-
Site: RT - News
President Biden has signed a bill forcing the platform’s Chinese parent company ByteDance to divest ownership or face a ban
US President Joe Biden has signed a new law that could potentially lead to TikTok being banned in the country. The legislation is part of a bill that includes over $95 billion in military aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
Under the new TikTok law, ByteDance - the platform’s Chinese owner - will have nine months to sell its business or it will be barred from US app stores. The bill will also bar it from controlling TikTok’s algorithm.
The bill was approved by the US House of Representatives on Saturday and by the Senate on Tuesday.
The legislation comes after a number of US officials expressed concerns that the app poses a risk to national security and could be used by Chinese authorities to obtain the private data of US citizens or influence their opinions by suppressing or promoting certain content on TikTok.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairwoman Maria Cantwell stressed that “Congress is not acting to punish ByteDance, TikTok or any other individual company”; it is making the move to “prevent foreign adversaries from conducting espionage, surveillance, maligned operations, harming vulnerable Americans, our servicemen and women, and our US government personnel.”
Read more
Beijing slams proposed US TikTok ban as ‘bandit logic’
TikTok has threatened to legally challenge the US government over the law. The company’s head of public policy for the Americas, Michael Beckerman, has described the bill as a violation of the First Amendment rights of the app’s 170 million users in the US and warned that the potential ban would also have “devastating consequences” for the nearly seven million businesses using the platform.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew posted a response to the new law, addressing the users of the platform. “Make no mistake, this is a ban. A ban on TikTok, a ban on you, and a ban on your voice... Rest assured, we aren’t going anywhere. We are confident that we will keep fighting for your rights in the courts. The facts and the Constitution are on our side, and we expect to prevail.”
China has also blasted plans to ban TikTok in the US, describing such a move as “contrary to the principles of fair competition and international economic and trade rules” and accusing Washington of “bullying behavior” and “leveraging state power” against ByteDance.
Some US lawmakers have also opposed the bill, calling it a “cure” that is “worse than the disease” and raising concerns that it would give the White House the power to ban other websites and apps.
Elon Musk has also warned that the bill is “about censorship and government control,” while the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has denounced the legislation as “violating the free speech rights of millions of Americans” who use the platform daily.
-
Site: RT - News
President Biden has signed a bill forcing the platform’s Chinese parent company ByteDance to divest ownership or face a ban
US President Joe Biden has signed a new law that could potentially lead to TikTok being banned in the country. The legislation is part of a bill that includes over $95 billion in military aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
Under the new TikTok law, ByteDance - the platform’s Chinese owner - will have nine months to sell its business or it will be barred from US app stores. The bill will also bar it from controlling TikTok’s algorithm.
The bill was approved by the US House of Representatives on Saturday and by the Senate on Tuesday.
The legislation comes after a number of US officials expressed concerns that the app poses a risk to national security and could be used by Chinese authorities to obtain the private data of US citizens or influence their opinions by suppressing or promoting certain content on TikTok.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairwoman Maria Cantwell stressed that “Congress is not acting to punish ByteDance, TikTok or any other individual company”; it is making the move to “prevent foreign adversaries from conducting espionage, surveillance, maligned operations, harming vulnerable Americans, our servicemen and women, and our US government personnel.”
Read more
Beijing slams proposed US TikTok ban as ‘bandit logic’
TikTok has threatened to legally challenge the US government over the law. The company’s head of public policy for the Americas, Michael Beckerman, has described the bill as a violation of the First Amendment rights of the app’s 170 million users in the US and warned that the potential ban would also have “devastating consequences” for the nearly seven million businesses using the platform.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew posted a response to the new law, addressing the users of the platform. “Make no mistake, this is a ban. A ban on TikTok, a ban on you, and a ban on your voice... Rest assured, we aren’t going anywhere. We are confident that we will keep fighting for your rights in the courts. The facts and the Constitution are on our side, and we expect to prevail.”
China has also blasted plans to ban TikTok in the US, describing such a move as “contrary to the principles of fair competition and international economic and trade rules” and accusing Washington of “bullying behavior” and “leveraging state power” against ByteDance.
Some US lawmakers have also opposed the bill, calling it a “cure” that is “worse than the disease” and raising concerns that it would give the White House the power to ban other websites and apps.
Elon Musk has also warned that the bill is “about censorship and government control,” while the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has denounced the legislation as “violating the free speech rights of millions of Americans” who use the platform daily.
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Site: Zero HedgeCities' "Doom Loops" Are Even Worse Than You ImaginedTyler Durden Wed, 04/24/2024 - 12:45
Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,
This is why those who understand these dynamics are getting out, even though the city was their home.
A correspondent who prefers to remain anonymous sent me this account of the "doom loop" that is playing out in many American cities. The correspondent makes the case that the Doom Loop is not limited to specific cities, but is a universal dynamic in all US cities due to the core causes of the Doom Loop: financialization and the multi-decade decay of cities' core industrial-economic purpose / mission.
I have edited the text slightly, with the correspondent's approval.
The context of the Doom Loop is the process and politics of this decay are the second-order results of central bank easy money (free fiat). That led to financialization becoming the city's core function and the subsequent loss of the city's previous mission. The people living in cities just haven't gotten the message yet.
As such, there is no reversing the process until the centralization of capital itself is reversed.
The typical media articles on metropolitan "doom loops" make it seem like not every city is headed down the path. Now that financialization does not require a physical presence, every city above a certain size will share the same experience. There will be local variations which impact the trend, such as a potential utility as a large pool of voters (i.e. a vote farm), but the decline is part and parcel of financial 'virtualization.'
It is inevitable.
Even hosting one of the twelve central reserve banks won't save you.
The process when a city loses its purpose but persists due to inertia follows this basic pattern:
1. Corporate consolidation costs the city its financial base as Fortune 100 corporations are sold to conglomerates closer to the centers of finance.
This is one more second-order effect of easy money: global corporations can easily finance the acquisition of multi-billion dollar companies.
2. In the past, cities received huge government subsidies for re-development, but none for ongoing maintenance. All the redevelopment projects looked great at first, but with little funding for maintenance, they've gone downhill and many are now dangerous.
Today, the only redevelopment is done by the billionaire class who make most of their money from (surprise) finance. Once the billionaire loses interest, it's gone, too.
I would rather find myself in a developing-world city than an American downtown, at least there would be people around. Many American downtowns are literally apocalyptic.
3. Major league sports are increasingly an exercise in force protection. It's like going inside a forward firebase in Iraq. People still get shot in the stands from guns fired outside the bubble. Unsurprisingly, some major league teams are exploring space outside the cities despite their stadiums being only 20 years old.
4. When federal agencies build new facilities, they're essentially fortresses with direct entrance/egress from the highway. They add little to nothing to the surrounding economy.
5. Real estate, sales and personal property taxes in cities are typically the highest within the state. As tax revenues decline, cities' political leaders increase business taxes and start floating ideas such as taxing non-profit organizations: a financial death spiral indeed. Should taxes increase, organizations and companies have said they will leave.
6. In the industrial economy, the core purposes of cities were derived from advantageous locations and key transportation assets (first water, then rail, then roads, and later aviation). In the information age, those benefits are diminished or gone. As a result of their transportation advantages, cities became manufacturing and warehousing hubs. Those too are diminished or gone.
7. Cities have lost their core economic purpose and are choking on their high legacy costs. The proposed substitute purposes--entertainment and bourgeois lifestyles--are not true substitutes. Fine dining and secure condos with delivery do not replace actual economic functions.
8. Making matters worse, the upper-middle class doesn't want affordable housing in their enclaves, as it lowers property values. So the workers needed to keep the city functioning can no longer afford to live there. Yes In My Backyard (YIMBY) movements to promote affordable housing are not enough.
9. Much of the politics the media focuses on are a consequence of decline, not a cause, and the net result of all the in-fighting is some version of stasis: all sorts of solutions are proposed, but since none address the core sources of decline or the cities' high legacy costs, they boil down to rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
This is why those who understand these dynamics are getting out, even though the city was their home.
Of related interest:: The Real Estate Nightmare Unfolding in Downtown St. Louis: The office district is empty, with boarded up towers, copper thieves and failing retail--even the Panera outlet shut down. The city is desperately trying to reverse the 'doom loop.'
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Site: LifeNews
An Indiana high school student and her pro-life student group are appealing a court decision against them in a lawsuit they filed after school officials derecognized the group because the student sought permission to post flyers that administrators found objectionable. Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing the student and the group in E.D. v. Noblesville School District entered their appearance in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit on Wednesday.
In August 2021, the freshman student met with the principal of Noblesville High School to form a chapter of Students for Life of America. After the student completed all required steps, the school officially recognized the group. However, officials later told her she could not post flyers that included pro-life messages. Shortly after that, the principal derecognized the group.
“Students don’t lose their First Amendment right to free speech when they walk into a school building,” said ADF Legal Counsel Mathew Hoffmann. “This isn’t just about a flyer; this is about a school telling a high-schooler that she can’t publicly express messages that are important to her. School officials punished the student because she sought to use flyers that expressed pro-life messages. While other student groups at the school are allowed to express messages that are important to them, this club was specifically punished because of the messages on the flyers.”
Follow LifeNews on the MeWe social media network for the latest pro-life news free from Facebook’s censorship!
At the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year, the student met with Dr. Craig McCaffrey, the principal of Noblesville High School, to discuss forming Noblesville Students for Life, which she hoped would “educate [her] peers on the issue of abortion and empower [her] peers in a local community with pregnancy-related items.”
After the student filled out the questionnaire the principal gave her, the school approved the group. A few weeks later, the student sought permission to post flyers that used a Students for Life of America template that included photographs of students holding signs in front of the U.S. Supreme Court reading, “I Reject Abortion,” “Defund Planned Parenthood,” and “I Am the Pro-Life Generation.” School staff insisted that she post the flyers without the pictures, telling her at one point that the flyer could not be “political.” The same day the student met with those administrators, the principal derecognized the group.
“We are eager to protect the rights of students whose views may differ from some preferred viewpoint,” said Zac Kester, CEO and managing attorney of Charitable Allies.
“The district court’s decision discourages parents and weakens First Amendment protections by insisting that a temporary loss of rights is nothing to worry about,” added Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America.
The post High School Dumps Pro-Life Student Group for Distributing Pro-Life Fliers appeared first on LifeNews.com.
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Site: Zero HedgeApple Slashes Vision Pro Shipment Projections By 50% As Demand For $3,500 Headset CratersTyler Durden Wed, 04/24/2024 - 12:25
In what will come as a surprise to exactly nobody, the revolutionary if ridiculously overpriced Vision Pro virtual reality headset, which retails for $3,500, is not selling.
While it was hardly necessary - at least for anyone with a functioning frontal lobe - an analysis published this morning by the widely-read TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo (best known for gathering intelligence from his contacts in Apple's Asian supply chain), who back in January correctly reported that Apple has lowered its 2024 iPhone shipments to a 15% decline, reported that Apple has cut its full year Vision Pro shipments to 400–450k units by as much as 50% versus the market consensus of 700–800k units or more.
Kuo also notes that Apple cut orders before launching Vision Pro in non-US markets, which means that "demand in the US market has fallen sharply beyond expectations, making Apple take a conservative view of demand in non-US markets."
Of course, it's not like anyone - except of course for AAPL's multimillionare management team - had expected that $3,500 heavy neck braces would sell like hot cakes - so it's not exactly a surprise to anyone, excpet Apple which is now "reevaluating its headset roadmap, potentially delaying the launch of a more affordable mixed-reality headset beyond 2025."
Below we excerpt from the full note.
- Apple has cut its 2024 Vision Pro shipments to 400–450k units (vs. market consensus of 700–800k units or more).
- Apple cut orders before launching Vision Pro in non-US markets, which means that demand in the US market has fallen sharply beyond expectations, making Apple take a conservative view of demand in non-US markets.
- Apple is reviewing and adjusting its head-mounted display (HMD) product roadmap, so there may be no new Vision Pro model in 2025 (the previous expectation was that there would be a new model in 2H25/4Q25). Apple now expects Vision Pro shipments to decline YoY in 2025.
The weak-than-expected Vision Pro demand means that the following new trends are likely to be below market expectations.
- MR headset devices. The challenge for Vision Pro is to address the lack of key applications, price, and headset comfort without sacrificing the see-through user experience. In contrast, VR is also a niche market, but at least there are proven successful applications (games), and trend visibility is better than MR.
- Pancake. As the upgrade of optical specifications for smartphones has slowed down for several years, investors expect Pancake, which has a significantly higher unit price than lenses, to become a new growth driver for the optical sector. Weaker-than-expected shipments of Vision Pro will lower Pancake’s contribution to the optical industry in the foreseeable future than investors’ expectations.
- Micro OLED. Vision Pro/MR headset is the most critical application of Micro OLED. With key applications not growing as expected, the timeframe of mass production and adoption of Micro OLEDs in other small-sized consumer electronics devices will be delayed.
Judging by the meltup in AAPL stock - as the rest of the tech sector is grinding lower - it seems that the catastrophic launch of the Vision Pro isn't news to anyone.
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Site: RT - News
Tehran’s doctrine is based on a fatwa Islamic law, which unequivocally prohibits indiscriminate weapons of mass destruction
In light of the direct conflict that broke out between Israel and Iran, rumors that the Islamic Republic could produce nuclear weapons began circulating again. In addition, just a few days ago Reuters and other media outlets quoted a senior commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) saying that Iran may review its nuclear doctrine following Israeli threats.
The US, EU, and Israel have long feared that Iran may produce nuclear weapons, and have used this threat to justify their actions against the Islamic Republic. However, it is important to understand that Iran’s nuclear doctrine is based on a fatwa (a ruling based on Islamic law) issued by the country’s Supreme Leader. According to this fatwa, the production of nuclear weapons is a sin. However, Iran’s opponents do not believe in the sincerity of this ruling and, they suggest, it can be renounced at any time.
Things are not that simple
On April 17 and 18, the first Tehran International Conference on Disarmament and Non-Proliferation took place. The motto of this conference was “Nuclear energy for everyone, nuclear weapons for no one.” There, Ali Akbar Velayati, adviser to the Supreme Leader of Iran, read Ayatollah Khamenei’s message in front of officials and members of various international delegations and organizations.
“All of you know that, in the absence of the Imam Mahdi, whose coming is expected by the Shiites, the Shiite legal system is based on the opinion of authoritative and highly competent experts in the field of Islamic law (which Iran’s decisions are based on). These religious scholars issue fatwas which clearly indicate whether any action is permissible or not. One [important] issue is the permissibility of the production and use of weapons of mass destruction (chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons) …”.
Read more
US forced Israel to abandon larger attack on Iran – NYT
Ayatollah Khamenei had carefully analyzed the consequences of the use of nuclear weapons by the Americans in Japan as well as the use of chemical weapons against Iran during the Iran-Iraq war, and stated his position on this issue:
“We believe that, besides nuclear weapons, other types of weapons of mass destruction, such as chemical and biological weapons, also pose a serious threat to humanity. The Iranian nation, which is itself a victim of chemical weapons, feels more than any other nation the danger that is caused by the production and stockpiling of such weapons, and is prepared to make use of all its facilities to counter such threats. We consider the use of such weapons as haraam [forbidden] and believe that it is everyone’s duty to make efforts to secure humanity against this great disaster.”
In the period from 2010 to 2015, other religious authorities, such as ayatollahs Makarem Shirazi, Jafar Subhani, Noori-Hamedani, and Javadi Amoli, also issued fatwas that prohibited the production and use of weapons of mass destruction.
But can the issued fatwas be changed or canceled? Can Iran’s position in this regard change? From a theological point of view, certainly not. Islamic law states clear reasons for this.
Why Iran can’t produce nuclear weapons
Nuclear weapons and the radiation which results from their use threaten the environment, causing the destruction of crops and the death of offspring. Verse 205 of Surah al-Baqarah says: “And when he goes away, he strives throughout the land to cause corruption therein and destroy crops and animals. And Allah does not like corruption.”
The protection of the environment, the preservation of the life of living beings and plants is every Muslim’s obligation under Sharia, Islamic law. The production and stockpiling of nuclear weapons, even if they are never used, may endanger the lives of people on the planet as a result of human error. According to Islamic law, this is unacceptable.
Islam believes that a victory must be achieved by reasonable, lawful, and humane means.
As for the rules of warfare, Islam strictly prohibits the killing of civilians, women, children and the elderly, as well as attacks on civilian infrastructure.
Read more
Iran’s supreme leader thanks armed forces for Israel attack
Here are the main principles of warfare in Islam:
First, there must be a clear division between military personnel and civilians. Secondly, civilians should not be targeted. Then, weapons that are used in the attack must correspond to the desired (military) goal. Appropriate weapons must be used to strike military targets. The fourth principle is the principle of necessity. The production, stockpiling, and use of nuclear weapons contradicts all four principles of warfare.
Many hadiths, which are sayings or traditions of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, also prohibit harming nature and people who cannot defend themselves. For example, Ali ibn Abu Talib (cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad) said that the Prophet prohibited adding toxic substances to water – even to the enemy’s water sources – since this may harm civilians.
Are there loopholes?
Iran advocates agreements which would prohibit the production, proliferation, and stockpiling of weapons of mass destruction, and generally accedes to such treaties. Iranians can lay claim to remaining faithful to the signed agreements – unlike Americans, who signed a nuclear deal with Tehran under one president then unilaterally withdrew from it when the administration in the White House changed.
Some people say that Iran is a Shiite country, and in Shia Islam there is a concept called taqiyya, which allows one to conceal one’s beliefs, convictions, etc. in the face of danger. Its critics say Iran covers up its aggressive intentions with false humane and religious principles. This idea is fundamentally wrong, since taqiyya concerns only the fact of protecting and preserving one’s religion – for example, if Muslims are in danger of being killed for their religious beliefs.
Taqiyya is prohibited if humanity is in danger of being destroyed, or if it contributes to the spread of iniquity and unrest. Therefore, taqiyya is not applicable to the production of nuclear weapons.
Based on Islamic law, the Supreme Leader of Iran made a definitive decision to ban the production and use of weapons of mass destruction. The US, Israel, and European countries know this very well. At the same time, Iran needs peaceful nuclear energy – and there is nothing dangerous or reprehensible about this.
-
Site: RT - News
Tehran’s doctrine is based on a fatwa Islamic law, which unequivocally prohibits indiscriminate weapons of mass destruction
In light of the direct conflict that broke out between Israel and Iran, rumors that the Islamic Republic could produce nuclear weapons began circulating again. In addition, just a few days ago Reuters and other media outlets quoted a senior commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) saying that Iran may review its nuclear doctrine following Israeli threats.
The US, EU, and Israel have long feared that Iran may produce nuclear weapons, and have used this threat to justify their actions against the Islamic Republic. However, it is important to understand that Iran’s nuclear doctrine is based on a fatwa (a ruling based on Islamic law) issued by the country’s Supreme Leader. According to this fatwa, the production of nuclear weapons is a sin. However, Iran’s opponents do not believe in the sincerity of this ruling and, they suggest, it can be renounced at any time.
Things are not that simple
On April 17 and 18, the first Tehran International Conference on Disarmament and Non-Proliferation took place. The motto of this conference was “Nuclear energy for everyone, nuclear weapons for no one.” There, Ali Akbar Velayati, adviser to the Supreme Leader of Iran, read Ayatollah Khamenei’s message in front of officials and members of various international delegations and organizations.
“All of you know that, in the absence of the Imam Mahdi, whose coming is expected by the Shiites, the Shiite legal system is based on the opinion of authoritative and highly competent experts in the field of Islamic law (which Iran’s decisions are based on). These religious scholars issue fatwas which clearly indicate whether any action is permissible or not. One [important] issue is the permissibility of the production and use of weapons of mass destruction (chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons) …”.
Read more
US forced Israel to abandon larger attack on Iran – NYT
Ayatollah Khamenei had carefully analyzed the consequences of the use of nuclear weapons by the Americans in Japan as well as the use of chemical weapons against Iran during the Iran-Iraq war, and stated his position on this issue:
“We believe that, besides nuclear weapons, other types of weapons of mass destruction, such as chemical and biological weapons, also pose a serious threat to humanity. The Iranian nation, which is itself a victim of chemical weapons, feels more than any other nation the danger that is caused by the production and stockpiling of such weapons, and is prepared to make use of all its facilities to counter such threats. We consider the use of such weapons as haraam [forbidden] and believe that it is everyone’s duty to make efforts to secure humanity against this great disaster.”
In the period from 2010 to 2015, other religious authorities, such as ayatollahs Makarem Shirazi, Jafar Subhani, Noori-Hamedani, and Javadi Amoli, also issued fatwas that prohibited the production and use of weapons of mass destruction.
But can the issued fatwas be changed or canceled? Can Iran’s position in this regard change? From a theological point of view, certainly not. Islamic law states clear reasons for this.
Why Iran can’t produce nuclear weapons
Nuclear weapons and the radiation which results from their use threaten the environment, causing the destruction of crops and the death of offspring. Verse 205 of Surah al-Baqarah says: “And when he goes away, he strives throughout the land to cause corruption therein and destroy crops and animals. And Allah does not like corruption.”
The protection of the environment, the preservation of the life of living beings and plants is every Muslim’s obligation under Sharia, Islamic law. The production and stockpiling of nuclear weapons, even if they are never used, may endanger the lives of people on the planet as a result of human error. According to Islamic law, this is unacceptable.
Islam believes that a victory must be achieved by reasonable, lawful, and humane means.
As for the rules of warfare, Islam strictly prohibits the killing of civilians, women, children and the elderly, as well as attacks on civilian infrastructure.
Read more
Iran’s supreme leader thanks armed forces for Israel attack
Here are the main principles of warfare in Islam:
First, there must be a clear division between military personnel and civilians. Secondly, civilians should not be targeted. Then, weapons that are used in the attack must correspond to the desired (military) goal. Appropriate weapons must be used to strike military targets. The fourth principle is the principle of necessity. The production, stockpiling, and use of nuclear weapons contradicts all four principles of warfare.
Many hadiths, which are sayings or traditions of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, also prohibit harming nature and people who cannot defend themselves. For example, Ali ibn Abu Talib (cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad) said that the Prophet prohibited adding toxic substances to water – even to the enemy’s water sources – since this may harm civilians.
Are there loopholes?
Iran advocates agreements which would prohibit the production, proliferation, and stockpiling of weapons of mass destruction, and generally accedes to such treaties. Iranians can lay claim to remaining faithful to the signed agreements – unlike Americans, who signed a nuclear deal with Tehran under one president then unilaterally withdrew from it when the administration in the White House changed.
Some people say that Iran is a Shiite country, and in Shia Islam there is a concept called taqiyya, which allows one to conceal one’s beliefs, convictions, etc. in the face of danger. Its critics say Iran covers up its aggressive intentions with false humane and religious principles. This idea is fundamentally wrong, since taqiyya concerns only the fact of protecting and preserving one’s religion – for example, if Muslims are in danger of being killed for their religious beliefs.
Taqiyya is prohibited if humanity is in danger of being destroyed, or if it contributes to the spread of iniquity and unrest. Therefore, taqiyya is not applicable to the production of nuclear weapons.
Based on Islamic law, the Supreme Leader of Iran made a definitive decision to ban the production and use of weapons of mass destruction. The US, Israel, and European countries know this very well. At the same time, Iran needs peaceful nuclear energy – and there is nothing dangerous or reprehensible about this.
-
Site: RT - News
Tehran’s doctrine is based on a fatwa Islamic law, which unequivocally prohibits indiscriminate weapons of mass destruction
In light of the direct conflict that broke out between Israel and Iran, rumors that the Islamic Republic could produce nuclear weapons began circulating again. In addition, just a few days ago Reuters and other media outlets quoted a senior commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) saying that Iran may review its nuclear doctrine following Israeli threats.
The US, EU, and Israel have long feared that Iran may produce nuclear weapons, and have used this threat to justify their actions against the Islamic Republic. However, it is important to understand that Iran’s nuclear doctrine is based on a fatwa (a ruling based on Islamic law) issued by the country’s Supreme Leader. According to this fatwa, the production of nuclear weapons is a sin. However, Iran’s opponents do not believe in the sincerity of this ruling and, they suggest, it can be renounced at any time.
Things are not that simple
On April 17 and 18, the first Tehran International Conference on Disarmament and Non-Proliferation took place. The motto of this conference was “Nuclear energy for everyone, nuclear weapons for no one.” There, Ali Akbar Velayati, adviser to the Supreme Leader of Iran, read Ayatollah Khamenei’s message in front of officials and members of various international delegations and organizations.
“All of you know that, in the absence of the Imam Mahdi, whose coming is expected by the Shiites, the Shiite legal system is based on the opinion of authoritative and highly competent experts in the field of Islamic law (which Iran’s decisions are based on). These religious scholars issue fatwas which clearly indicate whether any action is permissible or not. One [important] issue is the permissibility of the production and use of weapons of mass destruction (chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons) …”.
Read more
US forced Israel to abandon larger attack on Iran – NYT
Ayatollah Khamenei had carefully analyzed the consequences of the use of nuclear weapons by the Americans in Japan as well as the use of chemical weapons against Iran during the Iran-Iraq war, and stated his position on this issue:
“We believe that, besides nuclear weapons, other types of weapons of mass destruction, such as chemical and biological weapons, also pose a serious threat to humanity. The Iranian nation, which is itself a victim of chemical weapons, feels more than any other nation the danger that is caused by the production and stockpiling of such weapons, and is prepared to make use of all its facilities to counter such threats. We consider the use of such weapons as haraam [forbidden] and believe that it is everyone’s duty to make efforts to secure humanity against this great disaster.”
In the period from 2010 to 2015, other religious authorities, such as ayatollahs Makarem Shirazi, Jafar Subhani, Noori-Hamedani, and Javadi Amoli, also issued fatwas that prohibited the production and use of weapons of mass destruction.
But can the issued fatwas be changed or canceled? Can Iran’s position in this regard change? From a theological point of view, certainly not. Islamic law states clear reasons for this.
Why Iran can’t produce nuclear weapons
Nuclear weapons and the radiation which results from their use threaten the environment, causing the destruction of crops and the death of offspring. Verse 205 of Surah al-Baqarah says: “And when he goes away, he strives throughout the land to cause corruption therein and destroy crops and animals. And Allah does not like corruption.”
The protection of the environment, the preservation of the life of living beings and plants is every Muslim’s obligation under Sharia, Islamic law. The production and stockpiling of nuclear weapons, even if they are never used, may endanger the lives of people on the planet as a result of human error. According to Islamic law, this is unacceptable.
Islam believes that a victory must be achieved by reasonable, lawful, and humane means.
As for the rules of warfare, Islam strictly prohibits the killing of civilians, women, children and the elderly, as well as attacks on civilian infrastructure.
Read more
Iran’s supreme leader thanks armed forces for Israel attack
Here are the main principles of warfare in Islam:
First, there must be a clear division between military personnel and civilians. Secondly, civilians should not be targeted. Then, weapons that are used in the attack must correspond to the desired (military) goal. Appropriate weapons must be used to strike military targets. The fourth principle is the principle of necessity. The production, stockpiling, and use of nuclear weapons contradicts all four principles of warfare.
Many hadiths, which are sayings or traditions of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, also prohibit harming nature and people who cannot defend themselves. For example, Ali ibn Abu Talib (cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad) said that the Prophet prohibited adding toxic substances to water – even to the enemy’s water sources – since this may harm civilians.
Are there loopholes?
Iran advocates agreements which would prohibit the production, proliferation, and stockpiling of weapons of mass destruction, and generally accedes to such treaties. Iranians can lay claim to remaining faithful to the signed agreements – unlike Americans, who signed a nuclear deal with Tehran under one president then unilaterally withdrew from it when the administration in the White House changed.
Some people say that Iran is a Shiite country, and in Shia Islam there is a concept called taqiyya, which allows one to conceal one’s beliefs, convictions, etc. in the face of danger. Its critics say Iran covers up its aggressive intentions with false humane and religious principles. This idea is fundamentally wrong, since taqiyya concerns only the fact of protecting and preserving one’s religion – for example, if Muslims are in danger of being killed for their religious beliefs.
Taqiyya is prohibited if humanity is in danger of being destroyed, or if it contributes to the spread of iniquity and unrest. Therefore, taqiyya is not applicable to the production of nuclear weapons.
Based on Islamic law, the Supreme Leader of Iran made a definitive decision to ban the production and use of weapons of mass destruction. The US, Israel, and European countries know this very well. At the same time, Iran needs peaceful nuclear energy – and there is nothing dangerous or reprehensible about this.
-
Site: RT - News
Tehran’s doctrine is based on a fatwa Islamic law, which unequivocally prohibits indiscriminate weapons of mass destruction
In light of the direct conflict that broke out between Israel and Iran, rumors that the Islamic Republic could produce nuclear weapons began circulating again. In addition, just a few days ago Reuters and other media outlets quoted a senior commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) saying that Iran may review its nuclear doctrine following Israeli threats.
The US, EU, and Israel have long feared that Iran may produce nuclear weapons, and have used this threat to justify their actions against the Islamic Republic. However, it is important to understand that Iran’s nuclear doctrine is based on a fatwa (a ruling based on Islamic law) issued by the country’s Supreme Leader. According to this fatwa, the production of nuclear weapons is a sin. However, Iran’s opponents do not believe in the sincerity of this ruling and, they suggest, it can be renounced at any time.
Things are not that simple
On April 17 and 18, the first Tehran International Conference on Disarmament and Non-Proliferation took place. The motto of this conference was “Nuclear energy for everyone, nuclear weapons for no one.” There, Ali Akbar Velayati, adviser to the Supreme Leader of Iran, read Ayatollah Khamenei’s message in front of officials and members of various international delegations and organizations.
“All of you know that, in the absence of the Imam Mahdi, whose coming is expected by the Shiites, the Shiite legal system is based on the opinion of authoritative and highly competent experts in the field of Islamic law (which Iran’s decisions are based on). These religious scholars issue fatwas which clearly indicate whether any action is permissible or not. One [important] issue is the permissibility of the production and use of weapons of mass destruction (chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons) …”.
Read more
US forced Israel to abandon larger attack on Iran – NYT
Ayatollah Khamenei had carefully analyzed the consequences of the use of nuclear weapons by the Americans in Japan as well as the use of chemical weapons against Iran during the Iran-Iraq war, and stated his position on this issue:
“We believe that, besides nuclear weapons, other types of weapons of mass destruction, such as chemical and biological weapons, also pose a serious threat to humanity. The Iranian nation, which is itself a victim of chemical weapons, feels more than any other nation the danger that is caused by the production and stockpiling of such weapons, and is prepared to make use of all its facilities to counter such threats. We consider the use of such weapons as haraam [forbidden] and believe that it is everyone’s duty to make efforts to secure humanity against this great disaster.”
In the period from 2010 to 2015, other religious authorities, such as ayatollahs Makarem Shirazi, Jafar Subhani, Noori-Hamedani, and Javadi Amoli, also issued fatwas that prohibited the production and use of weapons of mass destruction.
But can the issued fatwas be changed or canceled? Can Iran’s position in this regard change? From a theological point of view, certainly not. Islamic law states clear reasons for this.
Why Iran can’t produce nuclear weapons
Nuclear weapons and the radiation which results from their use threaten the environment, causing the destruction of crops and the death of offspring. Verse 205 of Surah al-Baqarah says: “And when he goes away, he strives throughout the land to cause corruption therein and destroy crops and animals. And Allah does not like corruption.”
The protection of the environment, the preservation of the life of living beings and plants is every Muslim’s obligation under Sharia, Islamic law. The production and stockpiling of nuclear weapons, even if they are never used, may endanger the lives of people on the planet as a result of human error. According to Islamic law, this is unacceptable.
Islam believes that a victory must be achieved by reasonable, lawful, and humane means.
As for the rules of warfare, Islam strictly prohibits the killing of civilians, women, children and the elderly, as well as attacks on civilian infrastructure.
Read more
Iran’s supreme leader thanks armed forces for Israel attack
Here are the main principles of warfare in Islam:
First, there must be a clear division between military personnel and civilians. Secondly, civilians should not be targeted. Then, weapons that are used in the attack must correspond to the desired (military) goal. Appropriate weapons must be used to strike military targets. The fourth principle is the principle of necessity. The production, stockpiling, and use of nuclear weapons contradicts all four principles of warfare.
Many hadiths, which are sayings or traditions of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, also prohibit harming nature and people who cannot defend themselves. For example, Ali ibn Abu Talib (cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad) said that the Prophet prohibited adding toxic substances to water – even to the enemy’s water sources – since this may harm civilians.
Are there loopholes?
Iran advocates agreements which would prohibit the production, proliferation, and stockpiling of weapons of mass destruction, and generally accedes to such treaties. Iranians can lay claim to remaining faithful to the signed agreements – unlike Americans, who signed a nuclear deal with Tehran under one president then unilaterally withdrew from it when the administration in the White House changed.
Some people say that Iran is a Shiite country, and in Shia Islam there is a concept called taqiyya, which allows one to conceal one’s beliefs, convictions, etc. in the face of danger. Its critics say Iran covers up its aggressive intentions with false humane and religious principles. This idea is fundamentally wrong, since taqiyya concerns only the fact of protecting and preserving one’s religion – for example, if Muslims are in danger of being killed for their religious beliefs.
Taqiyya is prohibited if humanity is in danger of being destroyed, or if it contributes to the spread of iniquity and unrest. Therefore, taqiyya is not applicable to the production of nuclear weapons.
Based on Islamic law, the Supreme Leader of Iran made a definitive decision to ban the production and use of weapons of mass destruction. The US, Israel, and European countries know this very well. At the same time, Iran needs peaceful nuclear energy – and there is nothing dangerous or reprehensible about this.
-
Site: RT - News
Tehran’s doctrine is based on a fatwa Islamic law, which unequivocally prohibits indiscriminate weapons of mass destruction
In light of the direct conflict that broke out between Israel and Iran, rumors that the Islamic Republic could produce nuclear weapons began circulating again. In addition, just a few days ago Reuters and other media outlets quoted a senior commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) saying that Iran may review its nuclear doctrine following Israeli threats.
The US, EU, and Israel have long feared that Iran may produce nuclear weapons, and have used this threat to justify their actions against the Islamic Republic. However, it is important to understand that Iran’s nuclear doctrine is based on a fatwa (a ruling based on Islamic law) issued by the country’s Supreme Leader. According to this fatwa, the production of nuclear weapons is a sin. However, Iran’s opponents do not believe in the sincerity of this ruling and, they suggest, it can be renounced at any time.
Things are not that simple
On April 17 and 18, the first Tehran International Conference on Disarmament and Non-Proliferation took place. The motto of this conference was “Nuclear energy for everyone, nuclear weapons for no one.” There, Ali Akbar Velayati, adviser to the Supreme Leader of Iran, read Ayatollah Khamenei’s message in front of officials and members of various international delegations and organizations.
“All of you know that, in the absence of the Imam Mahdi, whose coming is expected by the Shiites, the Shiite legal system is based on the opinion of authoritative and highly competent experts in the field of Islamic law (which Iran’s decisions are based on). These religious scholars issue fatwas which clearly indicate whether any action is permissible or not. One [important] issue is the permissibility of the production and use of weapons of mass destruction (chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons) …”.
Read more
US forced Israel to abandon larger attack on Iran – NYT
Ayatollah Khamenei had carefully analyzed the consequences of the use of nuclear weapons by the Americans in Japan as well as the use of chemical weapons against Iran during the Iran-Iraq war, and stated his position on this issue:
“We believe that, besides nuclear weapons, other types of weapons of mass destruction, such as chemical and biological weapons, also pose a serious threat to humanity. The Iranian nation, which is itself a victim of chemical weapons, feels more than any other nation the danger that is caused by the production and stockpiling of such weapons, and is prepared to make use of all its facilities to counter such threats. We consider the use of such weapons as haraam [forbidden] and believe that it is everyone’s duty to make efforts to secure humanity against this great disaster.”
In the period from 2010 to 2015, other religious authorities, such as ayatollahs Makarem Shirazi, Jafar Subhani, Noori-Hamedani, and Javadi Amoli, also issued fatwas that prohibited the production and use of weapons of mass destruction.
But can the issued fatwas be changed or canceled? Can Iran’s position in this regard change? From a theological point of view, certainly not. Islamic law states clear reasons for this.
Why Iran can’t produce nuclear weapons
Nuclear weapons and the radiation which results from their use threaten the environment, causing the destruction of crops and the death of offspring. Verse 205 of Surah al-Baqarah says: “And when he goes away, he strives throughout the land to cause corruption therein and destroy crops and animals. And Allah does not like corruption.”
The protection of the environment, the preservation of the life of living beings and plants is every Muslim’s obligation under Sharia, Islamic law. The production and stockpiling of nuclear weapons, even if they are never used, may endanger the lives of people on the planet as a result of human error. According to Islamic law, this is unacceptable.
Islam believes that a victory must be achieved by reasonable, lawful, and humane means.
As for the rules of warfare, Islam strictly prohibits the killing of civilians, women, children and the elderly, as well as attacks on civilian infrastructure.
Read more
Iran’s supreme leader thanks armed forces for Israel attack
Here are the main principles of warfare in Islam:
First, there must be a clear division between military personnel and civilians. Secondly, civilians should not be targeted. Then, weapons that are used in the attack must correspond to the desired (military) goal. Appropriate weapons must be used to strike military targets. The fourth principle is the principle of necessity. The production, stockpiling, and use of nuclear weapons contradicts all four principles of warfare.
Many hadiths, which are sayings or traditions of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, also prohibit harming nature and people who cannot defend themselves. For example, Ali ibn Abu Talib (cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad) said that the Prophet prohibited adding toxic substances to water – even to the enemy’s water sources – since this may harm civilians.
Are there loopholes?
Iran advocates agreements which would prohibit the production, proliferation, and stockpiling of weapons of mass destruction, and generally accedes to such treaties. Iranians can lay claim to remaining faithful to the signed agreements – unlike Americans, who signed a nuclear deal with Tehran under one president then unilaterally withdrew from it when the administration in the White House changed.
Some people say that Iran is a Shiite country, and in Shia Islam there is a concept called taqiyya, which allows one to conceal one’s beliefs, convictions, etc. in the face of danger. Its critics say Iran covers up its aggressive intentions with false humane and religious principles. This idea is fundamentally wrong, since taqiyya concerns only the fact of protecting and preserving one’s religion – for example, if Muslims are in danger of being killed for their religious beliefs.
Taqiyya is prohibited if humanity is in danger of being destroyed, or if it contributes to the spread of iniquity and unrest. Therefore, taqiyya is not applicable to the production of nuclear weapons.
Based on Islamic law, the Supreme Leader of Iran made a definitive decision to ban the production and use of weapons of mass destruction. The US, Israel, and European countries know this very well. At the same time, Iran needs peaceful nuclear energy – and there is nothing dangerous or reprehensible about this.
-
Site: Zero HedgeYields Will Trigger "Serious Earthquakes" Across The Economy, Former Floor Trader SaysTyler Durden Wed, 04/24/2024 - 12:05
Submitted by QTR's Fringe Finance
Jack Boroudjian is a legendary former floor trader and now Chairman of SmartXData. Aside from over 30 years of industry experience, Jack is a published author "Secrets of the Trading", Wiley 2007 and has countless articles published in industry periodicals and websites. Jack appears regularly as a paid, guest contributor for CNBC, both domestic and Asia, and has done over 5000 global guest Television appearances. Jack graduated with honors and distinctions from Loyola University of Chicago and is happily married with two adult children.
Jack and I discussed monetary policy, fiscal policy, the move in gold, politics and why the bond market may take the spending keys away from the Biden administration for more than an hour last weekend.
"People have been conditioned to buy dips, and quite frankly, it was almost forced upon us," Jack explains. He points to several factors that shaped this behavior: "The Fed keeping money very loose, the lack of alternative investment avenues, and no real competition for capital—all of these elements contributed to creating a market condition that was, if you think about it, almost obscene."
Boroudjian draws on his experiences from the trading floors to illustrate his point: "It almost feels like what we used to call on the floor of the exchange, the big sucking noise. You'd hear people getting sucked into positions, all chasing the same strategy, and then, suddenly, the market would correct."
He reflects on the impact of such corrections: "I've seen the market correct by 20%, 30% numerous times in my life. But consider this: a 30% correction now equates to 1,500 S&P points. That's more than most people have ever witnessed in their lifetimes."
"Because there are still way too many people convinced that this little 5% pullback is a blip—it's nothing more than a hiccup. I've had at least half a dozen people tell me it's an election year; there's no way they'll let the market break. But the reality is this: if anybody really wants to know what's going on, I would suggest reading Nassim Taleb's book, 'Black Swan.' It talks about it.”
Jack continues: “Nassim was a trader at First Boston—many don't know his story, but I used to handle him on the floor. He was an options trader in the pit and he went broke. This is one of the most brilliant minds on Wall Street, and he went broke as a floor trader. He got off the floor and ended up making billions of dollars. What took him down was a black swan, something that came out of nowhere that he did not expect, and that's exactly what we could see happening now. Could it be something that we've already seen the beginnings of?"
Talking about gold, Jack said: "So fundamentally, something has shifted in the last few months in the gold market. If you've noticed, central bank buying has never been this strong before. All of a sudden, you're starting to see Russia pay for things with gold. People are now paying for Russian oil with gold.”
“Gold is becoming the currency that Bitcoin was hoping to be one day. And it's really starting to turn into something more tangible than fiat currency. It gives you a reflection of how people are starting to feel about paper money. They're starting to realize that maybe there's a problem there. So when central banks start to buy gold, that tells you there is more than just a technical breakout. There's a fundamental shift happening, whether they believe that there is a debasement that is going to occur and continue to occur. And if that's the case, then you will see them stockpile gold, or they see it as a safe haven and see huge problems down the road. And I hope that's not the case,” he continued.
Jack explained that watching the 10 year is going to be the way to gauge the health of the economy.
"This is what I keep telling people: watch the 10-year yield. Keep an eye on the 10-year and the 30, but more importantly, the 10, because that's the part of the curve that the Fed really cannot manipulate. They can do the short end of the curve, but they can't do the long end.”
He continued: “Why do I say that? We used to call them the bond vigilantes in the old days. They were the people that would come in and you'd start to see them hitting that bond market, especially on the long end, because of what you just described. When the bond market starts to understand that the biggest expenditure on the balance sheet now is going to be servicing the debt, bigger than defense, bigger than anything else, you'll start to see bonds get hit, especially on the long end. That's one of the reasons we've started to see the 10-year doing what it's been doing.”
“I think we see a five, maybe even five and a half percent 10-year before we're done here,” Jack said. “And if that's the case, that is going to trigger some serious earthquakes within real estate and other sectors of the economy. So to me, we're on the precipice. You can feel it. But how long will we be here? I don't know. It feels like something can break at any time. But then again, you know what? We could be two years early. And if that's the case, it could stay ridiculously overbought for two years."
"The 10-year bond is the most liquid. It's the one that everybody—the Chinese, the Saudis—is holding. That's the fixed income note of choice for the entire world."
"The one thing that I know about the Treasury market is that less than 5% of the people in finance understand the Treasury market, which is scary when you think about it. And that's the truth, Chris. Think about that. Less than 5%. That's the going rate. And everyone knows stocks. And as you were talking about it, people that have been in the market for the last 10 years have seen the stock market go nothing but up and seen a bond market that's gone nothing but down. But the reality is that this bond market is poised to do something historical in my mind."
You can listen to my full interview with Jack at this link and for more on how treasury auctions work, you can read this piece: Treasury Auctions Explained For People With Short Attention Spans
QTR’s Disclaimer: I am an idiot and often get things wrong and lose money. I may own or transact in any names mentioned in this piece at any time without warning. Contributor posts and aggregated posts have not been fact checked and are the opinions of their authors and are either published with the author’s permission or under a Creative Commons license. This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any stocks or securities, just my opinions. I often lose money on positions I trade/invest in. I may add any name mentioned in this article and sell any name mentioned in this piece at any time, without further warning. None of this is a solicitation to buy or sell securities. These positions can change immediately as soon as I publish this, with or without notice. You are on your own. Do not make decisions based on my blog. I exist on the fringe. The publisher does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information provided in this page. These are not the opinions of any of my employers, partners, or associates. I did my best to be honest about my disclosures but can’t guarantee I am right; I write these posts after a couple beers sometimes. Also, I just straight up get shit wrong a lot. I mention it twice because it’s that important.
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Site: AsiaNews.itWhile the country is getting ready to welcome Pope Francis in September, amendments have been proposed to assert the country's Christian identity. For the Catholic Bishops' Conference, this is a 'dangerous' step that 'obscures and even erases our unique Melanesian identity [. . .] rather than acknowledge, celebrate and perfect it through the Gospel'. ...
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Site: RT - News
More than half of respondents said the rules laid down in the Quran take precedence, in their eyes
The majority of Muslim schoolchildren in the German state of Lower Saxony view religious rules as more important than the law, a new study has found. More than a third of respondents also indicated that they condoned acts of violence against those who insult Islam.
Germany has been the destination of choice for hundreds of thousands of migrants from Türkiye for decades. In 2015, then-chancellor Angela Merkel opened the borders to several million refugees and migrants, predominantly from Muslim nations such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Although the influx has since diminished, people continue to arrive in Germany by the thousands.
According to estimates provided by the country’s interior ministry, there are over five million Muslims currently residing in the country, which translates to nearly 7% of the entire population.
Read more
German communities can’t take any more Ukrainians – local government boss
In its report on Sunday, Bild, citing a study by the Lower Saxony Criminology Research Institute, reported that 67.8% of schoolchildren polled said that the “rules of the Quran are more important to me than the laws in Germany”; 45.8% said that Islamic theocratic rule is the best form of state government, with over half contending that it is only their religion that has answers to the “problems of our times.”
According to the study’s findings, 35.3% suggested that insults directed at Islam and its prophet are reason enough for a violent attack. More than a fifth of respondents argued that the “threat to Islam posed by the Western world” justifies a violent response on the part of Muslims.
The researchers surveyed a total of 8,539 people in Lower Saxony, including 300 Muslims. Bild pointed out that the findings thus cannot be extrapolated to the whole of Germany.
Nevertheless, Christoph de Vries from Hamburg, who represents the opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in the German parliament, told the media outlet that the “study shows how deep the traces are that the political Islam has already left behind in Germany.” The lawmaker attributed the troubling trend to “systematic indoctrination,” adding that “multiculti has long since failed.”
The secretary of education from the neighboring Schleswig-Holstein region, Karin Prien, also from the CDU party, warned that unless “democratic values” are better instilled into students, “social cohesion risks going into a skid.”
-
Site: RT - News
More than half of respondents said the rules laid down in the Quran take precedence, in their eyes
The majority of Muslim schoolchildren in the German state of Lower Saxony view religious rules as more important than the law, a new study has found. More than a third of respondents also indicated that they condoned acts of violence against those who insult Islam.
Germany has been the destination of choice for hundreds of thousands of migrants from Türkiye for decades. In 2015, then-chancellor Angela Merkel opened the borders to several million refugees and migrants, predominantly from Muslim nations such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Although the influx has since diminished, people continue to arrive in Germany by the thousands.
According to estimates provided by the country’s interior ministry, there are over five million Muslims currently residing in the country, which translates to nearly 7% of the entire population.
Read more
German communities can’t take any more Ukrainians – local government boss
In its report on Sunday, Bild, citing a study by the Lower Saxony Criminology Research Institute, reported that 67.8% of schoolchildren polled said that the “rules of the Quran are more important to me than the laws in Germany”; 45.8% said that Islamic theocratic rule is the best form of state government, with over half contending that it is only their religion that has answers to the “problems of our times.”
According to the study’s findings, 35.3% suggested that insults directed at Islam and its prophet are reason enough for a violent attack. More than a fifth of respondents argued that the “threat to Islam posed by the Western world” justifies a violent response on the part of Muslims.
The researchers surveyed a total of 8,539 people in Lower Saxony, including 300 Muslims. Bild pointed out that the findings thus cannot be extrapolated to the whole of Germany.
Nevertheless, Christoph de Vries from Hamburg, who represents the opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in the German parliament, told the media outlet that the “study shows how deep the traces are that the political Islam has already left behind in Germany.” The lawmaker attributed the troubling trend to “systematic indoctrination,” adding that “multiculti has long since failed.”
The secretary of education from the neighboring Schleswig-Holstein region, Karin Prien, also from the CDU party, warned that unless “democratic values” are better instilled into students, “social cohesion risks going into a skid.”
-
Site: RT - News
More than half of respondents said the rules laid down in the Quran take precedence, in their eyes
The majority of Muslim schoolchildren in the German state of Lower Saxony view religious rules as more important than the law, a new study has found. More than a third of respondents also indicated that they condoned acts of violence against those who insult Islam.
Germany has been the destination of choice for hundreds of thousands of migrants from Türkiye for decades. In 2015, then-chancellor Angela Merkel opened the borders to several million refugees and migrants, predominantly from Muslim nations such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Although the influx has since diminished, people continue to arrive in Germany by the thousands.
According to estimates provided by the country’s interior ministry, there are over five million Muslims currently residing in the country, which translates to nearly 7% of the entire population.
Read more
German communities can’t take any more Ukrainians – local government boss
In its report on Sunday, Bild, citing a study by the Lower Saxony Criminology Research Institute, reported that 67.8% of schoolchildren polled said that the “rules of the Quran are more important to me than the laws in Germany”; 45.8% said that Islamic theocratic rule is the best form of state government, with over half contending that it is only their religion that has answers to the “problems of our times.”
According to the study’s findings, 35.3% suggested that insults directed at Islam and its prophet are reason enough for a violent attack. More than a fifth of respondents argued that the “threat to Islam posed by the Western world” justifies a violent response on the part of Muslims.
The researchers surveyed a total of 8,539 people in Lower Saxony, including 300 Muslims. Bild pointed out that the findings thus cannot be extrapolated to the whole of Germany.
Nevertheless, Christoph de Vries from Hamburg, who represents the opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in the German parliament, told the media outlet that the “study shows how deep the traces are that the political Islam has already left behind in Germany.” The lawmaker attributed the troubling trend to “systematic indoctrination,” adding that “multiculti has long since failed.”
The secretary of education from the neighboring Schleswig-Holstein region, Karin Prien, also from the CDU party, warned that unless “democratic values” are better instilled into students, “social cohesion risks going into a skid.”
-
Site: RT - News
More than half of respondents said the rules laid down in the Quran take precedence, in their eyes
The majority of Muslim schoolchildren in the German state of Lower Saxony view religious rules as more important than the law, a new study has found. More than a third of respondents also indicated that they condoned acts of violence against those who insult Islam.
Germany has been the destination of choice for hundreds of thousands of migrants from Türkiye for decades. In 2015, then-chancellor Angela Merkel opened the borders to several million refugees and migrants, predominantly from Muslim nations such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Although the influx has since diminished, people continue to arrive in Germany by the thousands.
According to estimates provided by the country’s interior ministry, there are over five million Muslims currently residing in the country, which translates to nearly 7% of the entire population.
Read more
German communities can’t take any more Ukrainians – local government boss
In its report on Sunday, Bild, citing a study by the Lower Saxony Criminology Research Institute, reported that 67.8% of schoolchildren polled said that the “rules of the Quran are more important to me than the laws in Germany”; 45.8% said that Islamic theocratic rule is the best form of state government, with over half contending that it is only their religion that has answers to the “problems of our times.”
According to the study’s findings, 35.3% suggested that insults directed at Islam and its prophet are reason enough for a violent attack. More than a fifth of respondents argued that the “threat to Islam posed by the Western world” justifies a violent response on the part of Muslims.
The researchers surveyed a total of 8,539 people in Lower Saxony, including 300 Muslims. Bild pointed out that the findings thus cannot be extrapolated to the whole of Germany.
Nevertheless, Christoph de Vries from Hamburg, who represents the opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in the German parliament, told the media outlet that the “study shows how deep the traces are that the political Islam has already left behind in Germany.” The lawmaker attributed the troubling trend to “systematic indoctrination,” adding that “multiculti has long since failed.”
The secretary of education from the neighboring Schleswig-Holstein region, Karin Prien, also from the CDU party, warned that unless “democratic values” are better instilled into students, “social cohesion risks going into a skid.”
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