DISEASES-ANIMAL TO HUMAN
REVELATION 6:7-8 (500 MILLION DEAD EACH FROM THE 4 JUDGEMENTS)(2 BILLION TOT DEAD HERE)
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth,(2 billion) of (8 billion) to kill with sword,(WEAPONS)(500 million) and with hunger,(FAMINE)(500 million) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES)(500 million) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE)(500 million).
THE COVID-19 TOTALS.
WORLD OVER ALL CASES 208,162,468 - DEAD 4,378,278 - AS OF MON AUG 16,2021 (PROBABLY IN THE LAST 200,000 DEAD-150,000 STILL GOT COVID AND DIED AFTER GETTING BOTH VACCINE SHOTS)
PROOF HALF ON EARTH DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION PERIOD (8 BILLION ON EARTH)
REVELATION 6:7-8 (8 BILLION- 2 BILLION = 6 BILLION)
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth,(2 BILLION) to kill with sword,(WEAPONS) and with hunger,(FAMINE) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE).
REVELATION 9:15,18 (6 BILLION - 2 BILLION = 4 BILLION)
15 And the four(DEMONIC WAR) angels were loosed,
18 By these three was the third part of men killed,(2 BILLION) by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.(NUCLEAR ATOMIC BOMBS)
HALF OF EARTHS POPULATION DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION.(THESE VERSES ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)
LUKE 17:34-37 (8 TOTAL BILLION - 4 BILLION DEAD IN TRIB = 4 BILLION TO JESUS KINGDOM) (HALF DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION PERIOD JUST LIKE THE BIBLE SAYS)(GOD DOES NOT LIE)(AND NOTICE MOST DIE IN WAR AND DISEASES-NOT COMETS-ASTEROIDS-QUAKES OR TSUNAMIS)
34 I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other shall be left.(half earths population 4 billion die in the 7 yr trib)
35 Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
36 Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
37 And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.(Christians have new bodies,this is the people against Jerusalem during the 7 yr treaty)(Christians bodies are not being eaten by the birds).THESE ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES-NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES.BECAUSE NOT HALF OF PEOPLE ON EARTH ARE CHRISTIANS.AND THE CONTEXT IN LUKE 17 IS THE 7 YEAR TRIBULATION OR 7 YR TREATY PERIOD.WHICH IS JUDGEMENT ON THE EARTH.NOT 50% RAPTURED TO HEAVEN.
MATTHEW 24:37-42 (THESE ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES-SURE NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)
37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
42 Watch therefore:(FOR THE LAST DAYS SIGNS HAPPENING) for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
AMERICA (POLITICAL BABYLON)(NUKED BY SNEAK ATTACK FROM RUSSIA)
IN REVELATION 17 & 18 IS THE DESTRUCTION OF THE RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL BABYLONS.IF YOU CAN NOT DECERN BETWEEN THE 2 BABYLONS IN REV 17 & 18.YOU WILL JUST THINK THEIR BOTH THE SAME.BUT NO-THERES A RELIGIOUS BABYLON (THE VATICAN IN REV 17)(AND THE POLITICAL BABYLON IN REV 18 (AMERICA OR NEW YORK TO BE EXACT)
ISAIAH 34:10
10 It (AMERICA-POLITICAL BABYLON) shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever.
JEREMIAH 51:29-32 (CYBER ATTACK 1ST)
29 And the land shall tremble and sorrow: for every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon,(AMERICA-NEW YORK) to make the land of Babylon (AMERICA) a desolation without an inhabitant.
30 The mighty men of Babylon (AMERICA) have forborn to fight, they have remained in their holds: their might hath failed; they became as women: they have burned her dwellingplaces; her bars are broken.
031 One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to shew the king of Babylon (NEW YORK) that his city is taken at one end,
32 And that the passages are stopped,(THE WAR COMPUTERS HACKED OR EMP'D) and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.(DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO)
COMPLETE SILENCE AFTER AN EMP GOES OFF
REVELATION 8:1
1 And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.
JEREMIAH 50:3,24
3 For out of the north (RUSSIA) there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they shall remove, they shall depart, both man and beast.
24 I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon,(AMERICA) and thou wast not aware: thou art found, and also caught, because thou hast striven against the LORD. (RUSSIA A SNEAK CYBER,EMP ATTACK,THEN NUKE ATTACK ON AM
EZEKIEL 39:11-22
11 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will give unto Gog (RUSSIA/ARAB/MUSLIMS) a place there of graves in Israel, the valley of the passengers (EAST OF THE DEAD SEA IN JORDAN VALLEY) on the east of the sea: and it shall stop the noses of the passengers: and there shall they bury Gog (RUSSIAN) and all his multitude:(ARAB/MUSLIM HORDE) and they shall call it The valley of Hamongog.(BURIEL SITE OF THE 300 MILLION,RUSSIAN/ARAB/MUSLIMS)
12 And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land.(OF ISRAEL)
13 Yea, all the people of the land (OF ISRAEL) shall bury them; and it shall be to them a renown the day that I (GOD-JESUS) shall be glorified, saith the Lord GOD.
14 And they shall sever out men of continual employment,(NUCLEAR ATOMIC BOMB EXPERTS) passing through the land to bury with the passengers those that remain upon the face of the earth, to cleanse it: after the end of seven months shall they search.
15 And the passengers that pass through the land, when any seeth a man’s bone, then shall he set up a sign by it,(WON'T TOUCH IT) till the buriers have buried it (PROPERLY) in the valley of Hamongog.(RUSSIA/ARAB/MUSLIMS NEW BURIEL SITE)(EAST OF THE DEAD SEA IN THE JORDAN VALLEY)
16 And also the name of the city shall be Hamonah. Thus shall they cleanse the land.(OF THE ISRAEL-GOD HATERS)
17 And, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD; Speak unto every feathered fowl,(500 MILLION MIGRATING BIRDS THREW ISRAEL EVERY SPRING,FALL) and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh, and drink blood.(OF THE RUSSIAN/ARAB/MUSLIM ARMIES)
18 Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan.
19 And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you.
20 Thus ye shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war, saith the Lord GOD.
21 And I will set my glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them.
Iran’s Raisi: ‘Defeat’ of US in Afghanistan is chance for lasting peace-According to statement from presidential office, hardliner makes remarks in call with outgoing foreign minister; says Tehran wants good relations with neighboring Kabul-By AFP-aug 16,21-Today, 3:27 pm
TEHRAN — Iran’s new ultraconservative President Ebrahim Raisi on Monday said that the “defeat” of the United States in Afghanistan must usher in a durable peace in the neighboring war-wracked country.“The military defeat and the US withdrawal from Afghanistan should offer an opportunity to restore life, security and lasting peace in that country,” Raisi said, quoted by his office.The presidency statement came after the Taliban seized control of Kabul, but it did not mention the Taliban nor the fall of the Afghan capital.Raisi, who made the remarks in a call with outgoing Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, said the Islamic republic wanted good relations with Afghanistan.Iran was “closely monitoring the evolution of events in Afghanistan” and wants good neighborly ties with it, he said.Raisi tasked Zarif and Iran’s Supreme National Security Council to give him updated reports on the situation in Afghanistan, the statement added.Iran shares a 900-kilometer (560-mile) border with Afghanistan, and hosts nearly 3.5 million Afghans, according to the UN refugee agency.In 1998, Taliban troops entered the Iranian consulate in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif, killing several diplomats and an official news agency journalist.The Taliban later said they had been killed by individuals acting independently, but Tehran held the movement responsible for the deaths, which sparked outrage and nearly triggered an Iranian military intervention in Afghanistan.Taliban fighters patrol the streets of Kabul on August 16, 2021, after a stunningly swift end to Afghanistan’s 20-year war (AFP)-Analysts say Tehran is taking a pragmatic stance on the Taliban’s resurgence in Afghanistan.On Sunday the Iranian foreign ministry said it had reduced its diplomatic presence in Afghanistan.The announcement came shortly after the Taliban reached the outskirts of the Afghan capital.Foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said a skeleton staff remained at Iran’s Kabul embassy and that employees had been also evacuated from three of out of five diplomatic missions in other Afghan cities.Zarif meanwhile held Monday a meeting in Tehran with China’s special envoy for Afghanistan Yue Xiaoyong, the foreign ministry said.The talks focused on the situation in Afghanistan, it said.Zarif on Sunday said that “Iran stands ready to continue its peacemaking efforts” in Afghanistan.“Violence and war — like occupation — never solve problems,” he wrote on Twitter.His talks with the Chinese envoy come as a government spokeswoman in Beijing on Monday said China was ready to deepen “friendly and cooperative” ties with Afghanistan.
Gaza rocket fired at south, intercepted, in first major attack since May flareup-No injuries or damage reported; launch comes after threats by Palestinian terror groups over slow reconstruction-By Judah Ari Gross-AUG 16,21-Today, 2:21 pm
Palestinian terrorists fired a rocket from the Gaza Strip toward the town of Sderot on Monday afternoon in what appeared to be the first such attack since May’s 11-day conflict in the Palestinian enclave, the military said.The Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted the rocket, which triggered sirens in Sderot, as well as the the communities of Ivim, Nir Am and Erez in the Sha’ar Hanegev region of southern Israel, according to the Israel Defense Forces.“One launch was spotted from the Gaza Strip, which was shot down by air defense soldiers,” the IDF said in a statement.No injuries or damage were reported in the rocket attack.The launch came after repeated threats by Palestinian terror groups in recent weeks over the slow pace of Gaza reconstruction and the entrance of Qatari money into the Strip, following May’s conflict, known in Israel as Operation Guardian of the Walls.The various terror groups in the Gaza Strip, chiefly Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad — known collectively as the joint operations room — were scheduled to meet later in the day on Monday to determine how to proceed in their ongoing ceasefire negotiations with Israel.Sha’ar Hanegev Mayor Ofir Liebstein called on the government to respond to the rocket launch, saying the attack was particularly heinous considering it took place in the middle of the day.“This is the first launch since ‘Operation Guardian of the Walls,’ which ended some two months ago. Until now, the operation had proven itself and I hope and expect that the State of Israel knows how to ensure the deterrence that was put in place after the operation,” Liebstein said in a statement.“Any launch, even if it is intercepted, interrupts our daily lives, especially when it is at a time when children are in summer activities and not at home with their parents. Luckily and unfortunately, the educational teams in our region are experienced in dealing with such things and they are now helping children get back to their routines in the best and healthiest way possible,” he added.Following the May conflict, Israel said it would only allow basic humanitarian aid into the beleaguered enclave, unless the Gaza-ruling Hamas terror group released two Israeli civilians and the remains of two IDF soldiers, whom it has held in captivity since 2014 and 2015.Israel later eased away from this condition, gradually scaling back its blockade of Gaza and allowing more and more goods and people into and out of Gaza, at the request of the United Nations and foreign governments.In a further bid to put pressure on Israel, some terror groups have turned to the tactic of launching balloon-borne incendiary devices into Israel from Gaza in recent weeks, sparking many fires in the area near the border and damaging at least one home and large swaths of nature reserves and agricultural land.A rocket was just fired from Gaza into Israel.The Iron Dome Aerial Defense System intercepted the rocket. pic.twitter.com/jlT4PIb7pe — Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) August 16, 2021Last Friday, Israel announced it would allow 1,350 Palestinians from Gaza to enter Israel to work, provided they are vaccinated or recovered from COVID-19.The military tied the move to the relative quiet in the region, after a week had passed since balloons carrying incendiary devices launched from the coastal enclave sparked a number of fires in southern Israel.In addition, Israel said it would allow further imports and exports through the Kerem Shalom Crossing. Beginning this week, the import of transportation and communications equipment was permitted, as well as materials for humanitarian infrastructure in Gaza, such as sewage and water, according to Israel’s military liaison to the Palestinians, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories.COGAT said the moves were “conditioned on continuing security stability in the region.”Hamas has warned of a return to fighting should Israel seek to again tighten restrictions on the blockaded Strip.Israel and Egypt impose tight restrictions on Gaza, which they say are necessary to prevent a greater threat from the Strip’s Hamas rulers. The terror group took over Gaza in a 2007 coup against the Palestinian Authority.Emanuel Fabian contributed to this report.
5 killed at Kabul airport amid reports of shooting, stampedes, falling stowaways-Chaos at airfield as desperate Afghans and foreigners try to leave; US officials admit American troops fired in air to dispel crowds; reports of stowaways falling from plane wheels-By TOI staff and AP-AUG 16,21-Today, 12:53 pm
Witnesses said Monday that at least five people had died among the chaos at Kabul airport amid the frantic rush by thousands of foreigners and Afghans to flee to safety after a stunningly swift Taliban takeover of the heart of Afghanistan’s capital.The Reuters news agency said witnesses reported seeing at least five bodies at the airfieLD.It was unclear if they were shot or died during a stampede, or whether there might be any other causes of death.A US official said American troops fired into the air to scatter crowds running to try and board planes. There was no official comment from the US on the deaths.Some reports suggested that people had tied themselves to the wheels of planes and fallen to the ground as the aircraft flew over Kabul.Video posted to social media showed chaotic scenes on the runway as desperate Afghans rushed to try to board aircraft, not knowing if these might be the final flights.Latest pictures from Kabul Airport. People are on their own now while the world watches in silence. Only sane advise to Afghan people…RUN pic.twitter.com/RQGw28jFYx — Sudhir Chaudhary (@sudhirchaudhary) August 16, 2021-Taliban forces moved early Sunday into a capital beset by fear and declared they were awaiting a peaceful surrender, capping a stunning sweep of Afghanistan in just the past week.The US poured thousands of fresh troops into the country temporarily to safeguard what was gearing up to be a large-scale airlift. It announced late Sunday it was taking charge of air-traffic control at the airport, even as it lowered the flag at the US Embassy.NATO allies that had pulled out their forces ahead of the Biden administration’s intended August 31 withdrawal deadline were also rushing troops back in to airlift their citizens.The arrival of the first waves of Taliban insurgents into Kabul prompted the US to evacuate the embassy building in full, leaving only acting ambassador Ross Wilson and a core of other diplomats operating at the airport.Afghans crowd at the tarmac of the Kabul airport on August 16, 2021, to flee the country as the Taliban were in control of Afghanistan after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country and conceded the insurgents had won the 20-year war. (AFP)-Even as CH-47 helicopters shuttled American diplomats to the airport, and facing criticism at home over the administration’s handling of the withdrawal, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken rejected comparisons to the 1975 fall of Saigon.“This is being done in a very deliberate way, it’s being done in an orderly way,” Blinken insisted on ABC’s “This Week.”A joint statement from the US State and Defense departments pledged late Sunday to fly thousands of Americans, local embassy staff and other “particularly vulnerable Afghan nationals” out of the country. It gave no details, but high-profile Afghan women, journalists, and Afghans who’ve worked with Western governments and nonprofits are among those who fear Taliban targeting for alleged Western ways or ties.The statement promised to speed up visa processing for Afghans who used to work with American troops and officials in particular. Underscoring the difficulty the US has had getting those Afghans out ahead of the Taliban, the statement could only assure “we will find” other countries to host some of those Afghans.Educated Afghan women have some of the most to lose under the fundamentalist Taliban, whose past government, overthrown by the US-led invasion in 2001, sought to largely confine women to the home.To many, however, the evacuations, and last-ditch rescue attempts by Americans and other foreigners trying to save Afghan allies, appeared far from orderly.Hundreds or more Afghans crowded in a part of the airport away from many of the evacuating Westerners. Some of them, including a man with a broken leg sitting on the ground, lined up for what was expected to be a last flight out by the country’s Ariana Airlines.The Pentagon intends to have enough aircraft to fly out as many as 5,000 civilians a day, both Americans and the Afghan translators and others who worked with the US during the war.But tens of thousands of Afghans who have worked with US and other NATO forces are seeking to flee with family members. And it was by no means clear how long Kabul’s deteriorating security would allow any evacuations to continue.
Chaos on the runway: Kabul airport mobbed as Afghans make desperate dash to exit-Thousands crowd onto the tarmac in bid to flee after Taliban takeover; all commercial flights canceled; US State Department secures airport perimeter, evacuates employees-By AFP-AUG 16,21-Today, 12:06 pm
KABUL, Afghanistan — US troops fired shots into the air and all commercial flights were canceled at Kabul airport Monday as thousands of Afghans crowded onto the tarmac in the hope of catching any flight out after the weekend Taliban takeover.Dramatic footage posted on social media showed a scene of chaos on the runway, with civilians frantically clambering up an already overcrowded and buckling set of airstairs.It was a desperate bid to board a parked passenger plane and escape the city a day after the government’s collapse.As a crowd of hundreds watched on, those who successfully climbed the stairs helped others up, while some hung from the stair railings by their hands.Panicked families trying to flee the capital carried overpacked luggage, with frightened children in tow.The situation caused such a commotion that US troops fired into the air to restore order and all commercial flights were canceled.#Afghanistan: Total chaos and helplessness at Kabul airport this morning (August 16).pic.twitter.com/16nHRO0RCY — Ahmer Khan (@ahmermkhan) August 16, 202“I feel very scared here. They are firing lots of shots into the air,” the witness said, asking not to be named in case it jeopardized his chances of leaving.#Kabul: Another video emerges from this morning outside Kabul airport. Gunfire can be heard too. pic.twitter.com/elTB2mlpQ1 — Ahmer Khan (@ahmermkhan) August 16, 2021-The US State Department said American troops had secured the perimeter of the airport as they evacuated embassy employees and thousands of Afghans who worked for Washington’s interests since they toppled the Taliban in the wake of the September 11 attacks.‘We are afraid’The US embassy in Kabul tweeted to tell American nationals and Afghans to “not travel to the airport.”But thousand more Afghans — even some with no links to the US-led coalition — showed up in the hope of getting out, even without tickets or visas for foreign destinations.US troops fired into the air at Kabul international airport in order to drive back Afghan civilians https://t.co/PFZ3iH4gK — OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) August 15, 2021-The bedlam at the airport came just hours after Taliban leaders ordered their fighters into Kabul to maintain order as Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country.“We are afraid to live in this city and we are trying to flee Kabul,” said a 25-year old man who also asked to be identified only as Ahmed. Another Saigon moment: chaotic scenes at Kabul International Airport. No security. None. pic.twitter.com/6BuXqBTHWk — Saad Mohseni (@saadmohseni) August 15, 2021-Many of the arrivals were fueled by rumors, or fake news spread on social media.“I read on Facebook that Canada is accepting asylum from Afghanistan,” said Ahmed.“Since I served in the army… there is danger. The Taliban would definitely target me.”Taliban fighters stand guard along a roadside near the Zanbaq Square in Kabul on August 16, 2021, after a stunningly swift end to Afghanistan’s 20-year war, as thousands of people mobbed the city’s airport trying to flee the group’s feared hardline brand of Islamist rule. (Wakil Kohsar / AFP)-The US said it had evacuated its entire embassy staff to the airport, but they were being kept separate from those without permission to travel.Other videos posted on social media also showed desperate scenes overnight of people fighting to cram into the back of a cargo plane.Awful, chaotic scenes at Hamid Karzai International Airport. People scrambling and no where to go. Woman says "look at the state of the people of Afghanistan" #Kabul pic.twitter.com/5Ohe1c81uB — Yalda Hakim (@BBCYaldaHakim) August 15, 2021-Outside of the airport, an uneasy calm held over Kabul as armed Taliban insurgents patrolled the streets and set up checkpoints.In a message posted to social media, Taliban co-founder Abdul Ghani Baradar called on his fighters to remain disciplined after taking control of the city.“Now it’s time to test and prove, now we have to show that we can serve our nation and ensure security and comfort of life,” he said.The scenes at the airport were reminiscent of the chaos that enveloped Washington’s earlier bungled escape from Vietnam in 1975, even as Washington swatted away the comparison.“This is not Saigon,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a broadcaster on Sunday.
4 terror suspects killed, 1 injured in gun battle with Israeli troops in Jenin-Border Police say troops came under ‘heavy fire’ as they entered the Palestinian city on an arrest raid; no Israeli soldiers injured-By Judah Ari Gross-AUG 16,21-Today, 10:09 am
At least four Palestinian suspects were killed in a gun battle with Israeli security forces in the northern West Bank city of Jenin in the predawn hours of Monday morning, Palestinian media reported.According to the Border Police, the Israeli troops had entered the city on an arrest raid. During the operation, “the force came under heavy fire from close range from a large number of terrorists,” the police said.“Undercover officers from the Border Police returned fire at the terrorists and neutralized them,” according to police.Palestinian media reported that four people were killed in the exchange and a fifth was injured. No border guards were reported injured. At least three of the four people killed were identified as belonging to terrorist organizations, one from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and two from Fatah’s military wing, the al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigades.Jenin governor Akram Rajoub, a former West Bank security chief, disputed the Border Police’s account.“This was a massacre perpetrated by the Israeli occupation. All the accounts disseminated by the occupation are falsehoods,” Rajoub told the official Palestinian Authority broadcasting station.The target of the arrest raid in Jenin was said to be Muhammad Abu Zina, who was detained in the operation. The Shin Bet security service declined to comment on the record.According to an Israeli security official, Abu Zina had worked with the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror groups to plan attacks in the West Bank in the past.“He had recently been in contact with Hamas operatives in Gaza seeking to bring about terror attacks inside Israel,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.Video footage from Jenin showed part of the gun battle. Shots can be heard, though it is not clear from the footage who fired them. An ambulance is then seen arriving, taking at least one of the injured suspects away.The Islamic Jihad’s military wing, the Al-Quds Brigades, acknowledged that one of the people killed, Nour Jarrar, was a member of the organization, distributing a photograph of him aiming an assault rifle.“The blood of our martyrs will not be spilled in vain,” the Al-Quds Brigades said in a statement.Two other suspects killed in the shootout — 19-year-old Ra’ed Abu Seif and 21-year-old Saleh Amar — were later identified as being members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.The fourth person killed, Amjad Elazmi, was not immediately claimed as a member of a terrorist organization.According to Palestinian media, two of the men were taken to a hospital in Jenin where they were pronounced dead, while two died on the scene and their bodies were taken into custody by Israeli security forces. As a matter of policy, Israel does not immediately return the remains of slain terrorists.The Border Police said they were aware of the Palestinian reports of five casualties, but refused to comment further.Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas denounced the four deaths, warning that similar Israeli actions could further escalate an already tense West Bank.“We express the presidency’s strong anger and condemnation toward this heinous crime. The continuation of this Israeli policy will lead matters to explode, and to more tension and instability,” Abbas spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh said in a statement.Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas delivers a speech regarding the coronavirus pandemic, at PA headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, May 5, 2020.Abbas’s Fatah faction declared a general strike in Jenin, and many are expected to attend the funerals later on Monday of the two Palestinians whose bodies are in the local residents’ hands.The Hamas terror group celebrated what it deemed to be the “martyrs’ pure blood.”“This heroic act of the revolutionary youth in the resurgent West Bank will not stop unless the occupation is expelled,” said Hazim Qasim, a Hamas spokesperson.The exchange came amid heightened tensions in the West Bank and in the city of Jenin specifically.According to the United Nations, some 57 Palestinians have died during confrontations with Israeli soldiers this year, the highest toll since 2016. Some were killed during violent clashes with troops, while others died in more ambiguous circumstances.Earlier this month, another suspected terrorist — Dia al-Sabarini, 25 — was fatally wounded in a gun battle with Israeli troops in Jenin, dying of his injuries last Wednesday. Five other Palestinians were wounded in those same clashes after Israeli troops entered Jenin in an arrest raid, according to Palestinian medics.Israeli police said at the time that members of its counterterrorism unit, known by its Hebrew acronym Yamam, “neutralized a number of terrorists” who had opened fire at troops. Forces came under “massive fire” during the operations, and the attackers also hurled explosive devices, Molotov cocktails and rocks at the troops, police said.Overnight Israeli arrest raids in West Bank towns are frequently met with fierce resistance from local Palestinians — mostly in the form of rock-throwing and Molotov cocktail attacks — though the use of live gunfire against troops is rare.Aaron Boxerman contributed to this report.
3:23 pm-Afghan military plane crashes in Uzbekistan-By AFP-AUG 16,21
TASHKENT, Uzbekistan — An Afghan military plane has crashed inside Uzbekistan, the Central Asian country’s defense ministry says, confirming earlier reports.“The military plane illegally crossed the border of Uzbekistan. An investigation is under way,” ministry spokesman Bakhrom Zulfikarov tells AFP, confirming Uzbek media reports of a crash taking place last night in Uzbekistan’s southern province of Surkhondaryo, which borders Afghanistan.
3:18 pm-Hamas praises Taliban takeover of Afghanistan-By Aaron Boxerman-AUG 16,21
Hamas praises the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, which it calls “a crowning victory after twenty years of struggle.”In a statement, the terror group “blesses the Afghani Muslim nation for the fall of the American occupation in all Afghani territory.”Senior Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk implicitly draws parallels between the Taliban’s fight against the American-backed Afghani government and Hamas’s fight against Israel in a tweet last night.“The Taliban are victorious today after being accused of backwardness and terrorism. They emerge today as a smarter and more realistic movement. They confronted America and its agents, and refused to compromise with them. They were not deceived by bright headlines about ‘democracy’ and ‘elections,'” Abu Marzouk says.“This is a lesson for all oppressed peoples. Will they learn the moral of this story?”Abu Marzouk asks.
3:05 pm-US national security adviser: Biden ‘stands by’ withdrawal from Afghanistan-By AP-AUG 16,21
WASHINGTON — US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan says the failure of the Afghan military is to blame for the Taliban’s swift takeover of Afghanistan.Sullivan says American President Joe Biden didn’t want the US to enter a “third decade of conflict” in Afghanistan and believed it was time for the Afghan army to defend the country two decades after billions of dollars of investment and training by the US.But Sullivan says, “we could not give them the will and ultimately they decided that they would not fight for Kabul.”He adds that the “worst-case scenario” for the US would be to send thousands of troops to fight in a civil war when the Afghan army “wasn’t prepared to fight itself.”Sullivan says Biden faced “bad choices” on the subject. The president ultimately opted to bring US troops home and leave the Afghans to fight for themselves.He says “it’s heartbreaking” to see what’s happening in Kabul but that Biden “stands by” his decision.Sullivan speaks on ABC’s “Good Morning America” and NBC’s “Today.”
SIGNS OF THE END OF THE AGE (NOT THE WORLD) THE WORLD GOES ON FOREVER.
GENESIS 1:5,145 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:(ISRAELS HOLY DAYS AND SABBATH STARTS AT 6PM) And for SIGNS (PROPHECY SIGNS TO HAPPEN IN THE FUTURE, OUR DAY)
SIGNS IN THE SUN, MOON AND STARS-CHEMICAL WEAPONS
LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences;(BIOLOGICAL/CHEMICAL/NUCLEAR) and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun,(HEATING UP-SOLAR ECLIPSES) and in the moon,(MAN ON THE MOON-LUNAR ECLIPSES) and in the stars;(ASTEROIDS-PROPHECY SIGNS) and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear,(TORNADOES,HURRICANES,STORMS) and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth:(DESTRUCTION) for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.(FROM QUAKES,NUKES ETC)
REVELATION 16:21 80-120LB HAIL ON HUMANS
21And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent:(80-120 LBS) and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.
FAMINE
EZEKIEL 5:16
16 When I shall send upon them the evil arrows of famine, which shall be for their destruction, and which I will send to destroy you: and I will increase the famine upon you, and will break your staff of bread:
REVELATION 6:5-6
5 And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.
6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.(A DAYS WAGES FOR A LOAF OF BREAD)
MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.
LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
DEUTORONOMY 28:24
24 The LORD shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed.
LOCUSTS (DEMONIC) TORTURES SINNERS 5 MONTHS
REVELATION 9:1-6
1 And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
2 And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
3 And there came out of the smoke (DEMONIC) locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.
4 And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.
5 And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.
6 And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.
FEARFUL SIGHTS AND GREAT SIGNS FROM HEAVEN
LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
FIRES AND EXPLOSIONS
REVELATION 8:7
7 The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.
OZONE DEPLETION JUDGEMENT ON THE EARTH DUE TO SIN
ISAIAH 30:26-27
26 Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold,(7X OR 7-DEGREES HOTTER) as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people,(ISRAEL) and healeth the stroke of their wound.
27 Behold, the name of the LORD cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire:
MATTHEW 24:21-22,221 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
22 And except those days should be shortened,(DAY LIGHT HOURS SHORTENED) there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake (ISRAELS SAKE) those days shall be shortened (Daylight hours shortened)(THE ASTEROID HITS EARTH HERE)
29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
REVELATION 16:7-9
7 And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.
8 And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.
9 And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.
Wildfire outside Jerusalem starts spreading again, some homes evacuated-AUG 16,21
A large wildfire outside Jerusalem has begun to spread again as the wind picks up, leading police to evacuate some residents of Sho’eva as the blaze nears the community.Police say a fire near Eitanim hospital has also renewed and that some sections of routes 395 and 3955 have been closed to traffic in both directions.
Haiti Earthquake Kills Nearly 1,300: Cardinal Injured, Priest Among the Dead-U.S. bishops offer prayers, assistance following the 7.2-magnitude tremor.Cardinal Chibly Langlois of Les Cayes was injured after the earthquake destroyed his residence.Christine Rousselle/CNA and ACI Prensa World-August 14, 2021-Editor's Note: This story has been updated.
LES CAYES, Haiti — Cardinal Chibly Langlois of Les Cayes has been injured, while a Catholic priest died early in the morning of Aug. 14 after an 7.2-intensity earthquake shook Haiti.At least 1,300 people have been reported to have died, with hundreds of others either injured or missing. The reported death toll has been steadily rising. Speaking to ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news agency, Akim Rikonda, director for Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in Haiti, said that Cardinal Langlois “is hurt, but his life is not in danger.” Cardinal Langlois, 62, was created the first Haitian cardinal by Pope Francis on Feb. 22, 2014.“CRS has spoken with the priestly residence in Les Cayes, and we have reports that the house has been severely damaged. Unfortunately, we were informed of three fatalities, one priest and two employees,” Rikonda said. Rikonda also reported to ACI Prensa that “all CRS personnel are safe and sound, but, unfortunately, one of our employees’ wife died, and his baby is gravely injured."The earthquake happened at 8:30am local time, affecting all the country, but especially the region of Les Cayes, in the southwestern region of Haiti. Rikonda also said that the local public hospital has been overwhelmed by the number of emergencies and is turning away most of the injured."We are currently evaluating the extent of the damage. ... Once we have a full evaluation of the injured, dead and affected, we will proceed to provide emergency services, especially to the poorest and most vulnerable people."The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops expressed their sorrow at the news of the massive earthquake as the United States announced a new relief effort to assist the country. “On behalf of the bishops of the United States, I wish to express my heartfelt prayers for the people of Haiti who are mourning the loss of loved ones and are suffering from the destruction caused by the earthquake that took place this morning,” said a statement released Saturday, Aug. 14, from Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles, president of the USCCB. Archbishop Gomez added that the bishops are offering prayers to Archbishop Launay Saturné, the president of the bishops’ conference in Haiti, as well as “to all those who tirelessly serve the faith communities in Haiti.” “We stand in solidarity with the Church in Haiti in offering our prayers, in a particular way this weekend as we celebrate the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin,” said Archbishop Gomez.“In these moments of continued trial, may you feel the comfort, compassion and embrace of our Blessed Mother,” said Archbishop Gomez. “Our Lady of Perpetual Help, patroness of Haiti, intercede for us!” In January 2010, the USCCB, along with Catholic Relief Services, the conference’s relief and development agency, immediately went into action to assist the people of Haiti following the 7.0-magnitude earthquake on Jan. 12 that killed nearly a quarter of a million people. The USCCB had a special collection at Mass the weekend following the earthquake to benefit the relief effort in Haiti and has continued to play a role in the country’s recovery and rebuilding efforts.Catholics, or anyone of goodwill, who wishes to assist with Haitian relief efforts following the latest earthquake, should contact Catholic Relief Services, said Archbishop Gomez. “I am grateful to all who can support the relief effort for our brothers and sisters in Haiti,” he said.Shortly after the USCCB released a statement on Haiti, President Joe Biden released one as well, announcing that the United States would be helping with the relief efforts. ”In what is already a challenging time for the people of Haiti, I am saddened by the devastating earthquake that occurred in Saint-Louis du Sud, Haiti, this morning. We send our deepest condolences to all those who lost a loved one or saw their homes and businesses destroyed,” said Biden. “I have authorized an immediate U.S. response and named USAID Administrator Samantha Power as the senior US official to coordinate this effort,” he added. Said Biden, “Through USAID, we are supporting efforts to assess the damage and assist efforts to recover those who were injured and those who must now rebuild. The United States remains a close and enduring friend to the people of Haiti, and we will be there in the aftermath of this tragedy.”
Hundreds of properties evacuated as wind prompts growth in B.C. wildfires-AUG 15,21-8 hrs ago
High winds intensified numerous wildfires burning in British Columbia, forcing more evacuation orders for residents in hundreds of homes late Sunday, says the BC Wildfire Service. Some of the largest and most dangerous fires are burning in the southern Interior in the Kamloops fire centre where most of the new evacuation orders have been issued. Andrew Roebbelen with the Thompson-Nicola Regional District said there are 29 evacuation orders affecting over 1,400 properties in the area. There are at least a dozen wildfires in the district, including the Lytton, White Rock Lake, Tremont Creek and Sparks Lake blazes, he said. The City of Kamloops issued an evacuation order for more than 700 properties due to the sudden growth of the Tremont Creek wildfire. Orders to get out were issued for hundreds of properties in the Township of Spallumcheen late Sunday as the White Rock Lake fire pushed forward, said spokeswoman Lisa Gyorkos.The same fire destroyed homes in Monte Lake and Westwold about 60 kilometres west of Spallumcheen on Aug. 4. The City of Armstrong, with a population of about 5,000 people, has been placed on evacuation alert.The city says in a statement that the alert is a precautionary measure due to the rapidly changing conditions of the White Rock Lake Fire. "The fires are unpredictable in nature but remain approximately 20 kilometres from the city," the statement says. Roebbelen said in an interview Sunday that their biggest concern was the unstable weather forecast through to Monday. "And that can mean either good things or bad things for fire. So, precipitation would be great, right about now. But the winds, and if there's possible lightning, that would greatly impact fire growth." The Okanagan Indian Band near Vernon, B.C., ordered residents of about 80 properties to leave immediately. BC Wildfire information officer Erika Berg said wind gusts starting mid-afternoon Sunday reached up to 60 kilometres per hour, driving the flames past containment lines in multiple areas. "It's been a very active evening for the BC Wildfire Service," Berg said, adding the high winds were expected to persist. B.C.'s Ministry of Transportation said in a news release that highways may close with limited notice because of wildfire activity. It asked people to avoid non-essential travel in order to leave evacuation routes open for those escaping the flames.There are about 270 blazes burning in B.C. More than 30 of them are wildfires of note, which means they are either highly visible or considered a danger to the public. Berg said some of the fires that have seen significant growth include the White Rock Lake, Nk'Mip Creek and Lytton wildfires.The White Rock Lake wildfire is estimated to be more than 620 kilometres in size and grew aggressively on both its northeast and southern flanks. The BC Wildfire Service website said it expects "extreme" behaviour and it's assessing the situation for when flights can be resumed to start dumping water or retardant on the fires. "At this time all air resources have been grounded," the website said. The Lytton Creek wildfire is estimated to be about 563 square kilometres and grew "fuelled by hot and dry conditions and strong winds," said the website. The Nk'Mip Creek wildfire, which is six kilometres north of Osoyoos jumped containment guards at the western base of Mount Baldy and is now estimated to be about 180 square kilometres.Berg said the area burned this year so far is about seven times greater than the 10-year average. She also warned that extreme wildfire behaviour was expected to persist. "You could call it a blitz. We're working and continuing to respond." This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 15, 2021.Hina Alam, The Canadian Press
World-Greece wildfires: New blazes burning outside of Athens-Greece has been roiled by hundreds of wildfires for about two weeks-The Associated Press · Posted: Aug 16, 2021 8:02 AM ET |
Yet more wildfires broke out in Greece Monday, with two blazes triggering evacuation alerts for settlements to the southeast and northwest of the Greek capital.Fanned by strong winds, the first blaze, which broke out Monday morning in the Keratea region southeast of Athens, quickly burned through shrubland and was headed toward a national park in the Sounion area.Three settlements in the area were ordered evacuated, while the fire department sent dozens of firefighters, as well as six water-dropping planes and four helicopters. Local officials appealed to people not to approach the area.On the other side of the capital to the northwest, another blaze broke out in the Vilia area just after noon, triggering an evacuation alert of another three settlements. Strong winds were predicted to last until at least the evening, potentially hampering the firefighting effort.-Severe heat wave-Greece has been roiled by hundreds of wildfires for about two weeks, with the blazes coming on the heels of the country's most severe heat wave in decades that left its forests tinder dry.Tens of thousands of hectares of forest and farmland have been destroyed, homes and businesses have been burned, and thousands of people were evacuated by land and by sea. One volunteer firefighter died, and four have been hospitalized, including two in critical condition in intensive care units.The fires stretched Greece's response capabilities to the limit, leading the government to appeal for international help. About 24 European and Middle Eastern countries sent firefighters, helicopters, planes and vehicles. By Monday most had left, although 40 Austrian firefighters remained in the southern Greek region of the Peloponnese, where two major fires have been burning for several days.Several Mediterranean countries have suffered intense heat and quickly spreading wildfires in recent weeks, including Turkey, where at least eight people have died, and Italy. In Algeria, wildfires in the mountainous Berber region have killed at least 69 people.Wildfires continue to scorch southern Italy after temperatures reportedly top 48 C- At least 65 killed in Algerian wildfires as Greece, Turkey also battle blazes-Worsening drought and heat have also fuelled wildfires this summer in the western United States and in Russia's northern Siberia region. Scientists say there is little doubt that climate change from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas is driving more extreme weather events.Two major fires, which began in early August — one on the island of Evia and one in a national park north of the Greek capital — were still smouldering Monday, with firefighters deployed to secure their perimeters, the fire department said.
Turkey wildfires: Despair and questions as forests burn-Devastating wildfires have tore through forests and villages, killing at least eight people and burned through huge tracts of land.By Liz Cookman-13 Aug 2021
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Manavgat, Turkey – Turkey’s southern coastline is burning. On the wooded hills of Antalya’s Manavgat district, plumes of thick smoke appear in the sky one after another as each time a forest fire is brought under control, another seems to ignite.A blood-red sun shines through the sallow haze and as visibility clears, the charred, skeletal remains of what were forests and villages are revealed. This, many believe, is just the latest sign the world is entering an era of climate crisis, and Turkey is not prepared for it.Over the past six days, 132 destructive blazes have raged through southern and other parts of Turkey, killing eight people and burning at least 118,789 hectares of land, according to the European Forest Fire Information System.While controversy is rife, with many in Turkey believing the fires are the result of “sabotage” – a theory encouraged by many politicians – they coincide both with months of severe drought and extreme temperatures.Antalya, a tourist hotspot that averages near the mid-30s Celsius (95 Fahrenheit) at this time of year, has seen highs of more than 40C this week. On July 20, Turkey recorded its hottest ever temperature at 49.1 (120.38 Fahrenheit) degrees in the southeast.Many of the blazes tore through forests near beach destinations popular with local and European tourists, such as Bodrum and Marmaris, with people fleeing in cars, small boats and in some cases luxury yachts. Soaring temperatures have also seen wildfires break out across much of southern Europe, including Greece, Spain and Italy.Manavgat is among the most fire-affected places in Turkey, and while seasonal fires are normal and even healthy for the local ecosystem, environmental groups say they have never been seen on this scale. With the landscape parched and strong winds – in particular, one that blows from the northeast known as “poyraz” in Turkey – the authorities are struggling to move fast enough to control thingsThe small village of Sirtkoy, where the main income comes from growing aromatic bay leaves used in cooking, caught fire in the early hours of Sunday morning. Within an hour, the local school was gutted and many of the houses were reduced to rubble.“All of this area was fine yesterday,” said resident Mustafa, who did not want to give his last name, pointing to a blackened, still-smouldering pile of stones that had been his friend’s house. “The fires came this morning at 5am and this burned down. At 6am, the fire was done, but at 9am the wind came back again and so did the fire.”When Al Jazeera visited Sirtkoy on Sunday afternoon, planes, firefighters and forestry workers battled tirelessly to control flames that, like a trick candle, kept reigniting. With pungent smoke turning the whites of their eyes red, many of the men had little more to protect their lungs than disposable surgical masks.Villagers doused exterior walls and possessions with bottles of water, trying desperately to keep the flames away, while some asked why the authorities were yet to take responsibility for a lack of preparation for a disaster that many could see coming.“No one has taken responsibility for these fires and we have nothing after today,” said resident Hatice Cinar, the sound of burned trees collapsing ringing from the forest below.Cinar said the village is not suitable for growing vegetables or keeping animals so the only way of life they know is growing bay leaves – she had 500 trees, which she had hoped would give her 18-year-old son a future, but they have all been destroyed.“With the forest, we lost everything,” she said.Erdogan tours area-Over the weekend, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other government ministers visited communities destroyed by the fires to inspect the damage and offer their condolences.“We will continue to take all necessary steps to heal our nation’s wounds, compensate for its losses, and improve its opportunities,” said Erdogan, as he promised that the government would provide financial support to those affected. The measures announced included covering rents and postponing taxes, social security and credit payments, as well as offering credit with zero interest to small businesses.We cannot do anything beyond wishing the mercy of God for the lives we have lost but we can replace everything that was burned,” Erdogan.Some have criticised Turkey’s government for its handling of the disaster, in particular, due to a lack of firefighting planes in the country. Instead, waterbombers have been mobilised from Ukraine, Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran to help, and the European Union said on Sunday it would send three more.With a lack of resources in the fire-hit regions, firefighters from municipalities across the country were sent in to help. Teams of volunteers gathered to offer support to the displaced, including members of Antalya’s Communist party, who have been visiting affected sites since Thursday to donate clothing, food and cold water.“People are having a very hard time, but the government should be doing this with our taxes, not us,” said volunteer Cem Taylan. “It was predictable. This is not fate, you can manage the harm these fires cause.”In Kalemler village, Mitad Akca, 63, and his wife, Hatice Akca, 61, were packing a car in front of the ruins of their home with donations of vegetables and other food supplies from the Disaster and Emergency Management, or Afad.They said the whole village had been destroyed three days previously in 45 minutes and the only thing that survived the heat was their jewellery.“It came 35km (22 miles) away and I was so nervous I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t take anything I just left,” said Akca.“My tractor and everything else was burned – 50 years of work was gone in minutes. But Erdogan came today and told us the government will give us new tractors next week and houses within a year.”‘As climate changes, fires will grow’Hediye Gundiz, head of the environmental group A Platform, said the government was warned 15 years ago after the last unusually large fires in Manavgat that global warming would likely cause more, but nothing was done.She said that as well as needing waterbombing planes to tackle fires quickly, the government should hold workshops to train residents of at-risk areas how to prevent fire.“It takes one tree between 30 and 40 years to grow. It could take 50 years to recover what we had, but we don’t have the water we need for it like we used to,” she said.This, however, is not the only recent sign that Turkey is struggling to cope with changing climates – in May, a lake in eastern Turkey’s Van province completely dried up. Migratory birds such as flamingos have been found dead en masse this year as their watering holes disappear, droughts have caused sinkholes in central Anatolia and, last week, six people were killed in flash floods in Turkey’s Black Sea region.Since December last year, thick, unsightly “sea snot”, caused by rising sea temperatures and pollution, took over the Sea of Marmara, stifling tourism and stripping local fishers of their livelihoods.Fire ecologist Ismail Bekker said that to recover from the fires, the key is not to replant as it might appear, but to leave the forests to their own devices.“These Mediterranean ecosystems and fires have been like this for hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of years, albeit smaller,” he said, adding that strong forest protection laws in Turkey actually make disasters like this more likely.While in some countries, such as the United States, controlled burns are used to clear the forest of dried leaves and other debris that act as fuel for fires Turkey does not allow them, leading to larger natural blazes that are hard to control.“We need to include forests in urban planning as this disaster has shown that forest fires are now reaching a size where they can threaten urban areas,” he said.“As the climate changes, it will get even hotter and the fires will grow.”Source: Al Jazeera.
MARK OF THE BEAST
REVELATION 13:16-18
16 And he(FALSE POPE) causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(CHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM
REVELATION 16:1-2
1 And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.
2 And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image.
All dogs in Shenzhen, China will get microchipped by 2020-Rita Liao@ritacyliao / 4:30 AM EDT-July 28, 2020
The world’s hardware haven is taking a digital leap for pets. In May, China’s southern city Shenzhen announced that all dogs must be implanted with a chip, joining the ranks of the U.K., Japan, Australia and a growing number of countries to make microchips mandatory for dogs.This week, city regulators began to set up injection stations across their partnering pet clinics, according to social media posts from the Shenzhen Urban Management Bureau.The chip, which is said to last for at least 15 years and is the size of a grain of rice, is implanted under the skin of a dog’s neck. Each chip, when scanned by authorized personnel, reveals a unique 15-digit number matching the dog’s name and breed, as well as its owner’s identity and contact information — which will help reduce strays. The microchip, a radio-frequency identification (RFID) chip, doesn’t track the dog’s location; nor does the authority store its owner’s personal information, according to a local media report.While Shenzhen’s poster child of technology Huawei is striving to phase out foreign semiconductor parts amid U.S. trade sanctions, the city is procuring imported pet chips, including American and Swedish brands, said the same report.The Shenzhen government is footing the bill for all the implants as it aims to seize more regulatory oversight over the city’s growing pet population. Those who don’t get their dogs microchipped by November will face a fine or have to turn their pets over to regulators. The city of more than 20 million residents owned around 200,000 dogs and cats in 2019, according to official data. The total number of dogs and cats nationwide grew 8.4% year-over-year to nearly 1 billion in 2019, an industry white paper showed.
Have you been chipped?
That question is set to divide millions of people in the 2020s. And perhaps billions of people in the 2030s and 2040s.Just as the world begins to understand the many benefits of the Internet of Things (IoT), but also learns about the ‘dark side’ from ‘smart everything,’ including our connected cities, we are now on the cusp of small chips causing major new privacy disagreements.As individuals try to grapple with the privacy and security implications that come with IoT, big data, public- and private-sector data breaches, social media sharing, GDPR, a new California privacy law, along with data ownership and “right to be forgotten” provisions, along comes a set of technologies that will become much more personal than your smartphone or cloud storage history.Get ready for people to ask you to place microchips under your skin for a wide variety of reasons.Why are implanted chips so controversial? What is at stake? How can such a small thing affect so many people? What leads me to proclaim that implanted chips will become the next big privacy debate? Short answer: Implanting chips in humans has privacy and security implications that go well beyond cameras in public places, facial recognition, tracking of our locations, our driving habits, our spending histories, and even beyond ownership of your data. This topic touches upon your hand, your heart, your brain and the rest of your body —literally. This new development is set to give a very different meaning to ‘hacking the body’ or biohacking. While cyber experts continue to worry about protecting critical infrastructure and mitigating security risks that could harm the economy or cause a loss of life, implanted chips also affect health but add in new dimensions that conflict with people’s religious beliefs. Let’s explore the good, the bad and the possible ugly implications that come with microchip implants.Background on Implanting Microchips in Your Body-First, as background, we initially explored this implanted chips topic last year in this piece about employees at Three Square Market, a technology company in Wisconsin, who had a small chip injected in their hands for security convenience. Reactions to this news was all over the map, with headlines ranging from positive stories about the dawning of a great new era to big brother privacy concerns to fears that biblical prophecies are about to come true.Many more articles have been written on this topic since my first article in July 2017. USA Today came out in August of 2017 with the headline: You will get chipped — eventually. Here’s a quote: “This would go beyond paying with your smartphone. Instead, chipped customers would simply wave their hands in lieu of Apple Pay and other mobile-payment systems.The benefits don't stop there. In the future, consumers could zip through airport scanners sans passport or driver’s license; open doors; start cars; and operate home automation systems. All of it, if the technology pans out, with the simple wave of a hand. …”The Atlantic offered an article in September 2018 describing why you’re probably getting a microchip implant someday. The article focused on how microchip implants are going from tech-geek novelty to genuine health tool — and you might be running out of good reasons to say no.“Three Square Chip says that its medical RFID implants will be powered by body heat, and McMullan’s plans to develop a single piece of hardware to aid patients with a wider range of conditions could make the chips more affordable than devices with more specialized (and limited) functions. “Many heart patients, right now, the only time they know they’ve got a problem is when they’re in the back of an ambulance,” McMullan says.The company estimates that it will be selling chips capable of tracking a wearer’s live vital signs in a little more than a year, but a few other developments will come first. McMullan hopes that people will soon consider storing their medical information on encrypted RFID chips, and the group is also working on a way to make GPS-enabled chips available as an option for families to track relatives suffering from severe dementia—another use for the chips that poses both obvious benefits and legitimate concerns. …”Second, the topic resurfaced last month with several stories, like this NPR article on how thousands of Swedes are inserting microchips under their skin. “More than 4,000 Swedes have adopted the technology, with one company, Biohax International, dominating the market. The chipping firm was started five years ago by Jowan Osterlund, a former professional body piercer.After spending the past two years working full time on the project, he is currently developing training materials so he can hire Swedish doctors and nurses to help take on some of his heavy workload. …”Third, the topic became heated — again — after this recent article in the The Guardian (UK) went viral, titled: Alarm over talks to implant UK employees with microchips. The article described how the Trade Union Congress is concerned over tech being used to control and micromanage people.For a brief time this month, implanting chips into your body became the No. 1 topic of discussion on LinkedIn globally. An article that I posted received more than 30K views and well over a hundred comments — mostly appalled by the practice of implanting chips — at least for convenience. Fourth, there have been numerous articles over the past year describing medical advances, potentially even cures for various diseases, which may come by implanting microchips in humans in various ways. Here are three examples:Implants Offered as an Optional Improvement? But medical necessities aside, would you pay to receive a chip implant if it offered some other optional medical enhancement for your body? Other research, which started as deep-brain stimulation as a treatment for Parkinson’s disease, now suggests that chip implants can boost your memory. Or, what if a chip implant offered the convenience of embedding a smartphone in your body? This Allure.com article suggests how.“Chris Harrison, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute, has been working on a similar idea since 2009. “People want to do more sophisticated things on mobile phones. And the industrial answer seemed to be: Let’s put bigger and bigger screens on them,” he says. “That only works up to a point. Why don’t we just forget the screen entirely? Why not use the skin? Instead of the three-and-a-half-inch iPhone, why not have the 20-inch arm bone?” So Harrison created OmniTouch (also in collaboration with Microsoft), a device worn on the shoulder that would project your phone interface onto your palm. A depth-sensitive camera picked up when and where you tapped on your skin, so the projection reacted with it. “The invention of smartphones enabled the creation of all these ideas and apps and services. Imagine what that will be like for the body,” Harrison says.Looking back a few decades, I remember watching the TV show, The Six Million Dollar Man. The opening phrase is still appealing: “We can rebuild him. We can make him ... better, stronger, faster.” A Few Good Privacy Questions-There are many intriguing stories about the potential dark side of implanting microchips. Wired magazine describes, Mind Games: The Tortured Lives of ‘Targeted Individuals.’ Here’s the final paragraph from that piece: “Once she loved technology, shaping and molding it, playing with data in the backend of a website. When the targeting first began, she even considered the ways the technology could do good: What if, for instance, the chip inside your head could teach you to speak a new language? But she quickly learned that it wasn’t there to teach her—it was there to hurt her. It was permanent, and it would change her forever. …”In this Forbes article, the author describes how The Privacy Debate Isn't About Secrets, It's About Control. Quote: “Even if Internet search yielded an accurate, fair, crowd-vetted record of all human experience — which it doesn’t — those records no longer belong to individuals, but rather to the faceless mechanisms of social discourse and surveillance. Sure, the loss of privacy can be embarrassing or frustrating, but it’s a side effect of this thornier issue of giving up control.”Most of the same questions that surround cybersecurity and privacy in other disciplines apply to this microchip implant topic, only the stakes can become even higher and more personal.At first, a microchip implant may be pretty “dumb” on the scale of microchip advancements. Perhaps all the chip can do is open a door or verify your identity at work. But is this only step one down a scary yellow brick road? Here are a few basic questions to consider about microchip implants:What are the benefits of implanting the chip(s)? Is implanting chips physically and emotionally safe? Who owns the data on the chip? Who has access to the data — and when- Do the chips communicate, somehow, with outside networks? How are chips updated when flaws are found? Can the chips be hacked? Assuming yes, what security is in place to stop unauthorized access to data and manipulation of dataDo religious beliefs forbid the practice? Is implanting the microchip truly volu ntary? Will it still be voluntary tomorrow or in 10 or 20 years? Is the practice medically necessary? Are incentives offered to those who participate? Are penalties coming for those who don’t participate? Will being chipped start as an exception and become the rule? Will ethical and moral processes and procedures be breached by hackers? (No way to stop the bad actors once you begin.)- What laws are put in place on this implanted chip topic? What company policies are affected? On a wider scale, since the Internet is an accelerator for good and evil at the same time, what good or evil outcomes will come from this implanted chip trend? Closing Thoughts-There is no doubt in my mind that we will keep coming back to this implanted chip topic over the next decade. More health advantages are coming, as well as technology breakthroughs that may even bring cures for some diseases by using chip implants as part of the answer.If you are interested, I recommend reading these other articles listing more benefits and downsides of implanting microchips — and explaining why the trend is set to explode over the next decade.But the questions will remain about whether these substantial implanted chip benefits are worth the privacy, security and other risks. Expect related chip implant questions (in various forms) to become a top technology, privacy and security concern in the 2020s — and will even become a hotly debated topic in 2019. I was amazed at the deep emotional feelings regarding this topic that recently came through online, and this passion has grown in the past 18 months. More than any other privacy or security issue I have seen recently, implanted chips are, and will be, a hot-button privacy topic that is not going away. In fact, I think it may become the No. 1 privacy topic in the next few years. Military leaders point out that capabilities take a long time to develop, but intentions can change overnight. In other words, the debate will not only center on current technology solutions, but also on what you believe might happen in the future regarding the use of implanted chips. For example: Will it truly stay voluntary? Finally, since perspectives on this topic do not cut across the typical left-right divide, your personal decision on receiving a chip implant may have more to do with your trust in your doctor, your employer, your government, the technology company providing the answers, or even your religious beliefs, than your political party affiliation or what a specific chip can currently do — or not do
SINCE THE RAPTURE OCCURS BEFORE THE FUTURE 7 YR TREATY IS SIGNED, I WONT BE AROUND TO HAVE THE ACTUAL TREATY SIGNING. BUT UNTIL THEN THIS SITE IS DEDICATED TO THE BEGININGS OF THE ISRAELI / ARAB PEACE PROCESS. AND AS CLOSE TO THE 7 YEAR SIGNING THAT WE GET BEFORE THE RAPTURE OF THE SAVED TO HEAVEN. UNTIL WE MEET JESUS IN THE CLOUDS BODILY, AND COME TO EARTH 7 YRS LATER.
IMPORTANT LINKS
- 1159 THE COUNTDOWN P1 JVI
- 1159 THE COUNTDOWN P2 JVI
- ABORTION IS MURDER OF A WHOLE GENERATION.
- ANTICHRIST SUPER DECIEVER JVI
- BAN VACCINES, MASKS PETITION.
- BIRD MIGRATION IN ISRAEL.
- BRENT MEIDINGER - SINGER
- DAN 1:1 - DAN 3:30 VBV - 1 JVI
- DAN 4:1 - DAN 6:28 VBV - 2 JVI
- DAN 7:1 - DAN 9:27 VBV - 3 JVI
- DAN 10:1 - DAN 12:13 VBV - 4 JVI
- DANCE UNLIMITED - JASMINE
- DESTINY OF NATIONS.
- ELIJAH & MOSES PREACH 3 1/2 YEARS.
- EUS MIDEAST PEACE PLAN.
- FROM NEBUCHADNEZZAR TO TODAY.
- GABRIEL ATTAL (DICTATOR CANDIDATE)
- HOLY TEMPLE MYTH 1
- HOLY TEMPLE MYTH 2
- HOLY TEMPLE MYTH 3
- I ASKED AI LEADER QUESTIONS.
- ISRAEL 500 MILLION BIRDS IN HULA VALLEY.
- ISRAEL 500 MILLION MIGRATING BIRDS
- ISRAEL AND EUS HISTORY TO END OF TRIBULATION.
- ISRAEL CITIES LIVE CAM
- ISRAEL DEFEATS ALL ENEMIES.
- ISRAEL LIVE CAM MIGRATING BIRD
- ISRAEL LIVE CAM WESTERN WALL.
- ISRAEL RADIO
- ISRAEL WESTERN WALL LIVE CAM 2
- ISRAEL-JERUSALEM TOGETHER FOREVER.
- ISRAEL365 NEWS
- JERUSALEM COUNTDOWN JVI
- JERUSALEM POST NEWS
- JEWISH FEAST - HOLY - HOLIDAY FEASTS.
- JOHNNY BORTON SINGER
- KILLER COVID STARTED IN 1965
- MARK LEVIN (TRUTH)
- MY 12 YR GAY FLAG BAN IN OS
- MY END TIME SCENARIO
- MY EVENTS IN TIME SITE
- MY MOHAWK AND HORSE PREDICTIONS
- MY NHL HOCKEY SITE STATS
- MY TWITTER SITE
- MY YOUTUBE SITE
- NEW AGE SPIRITS JVI
- NEW WORLD OR STORY BY ME STAN
- NEW WORLD ORDER ARMAGEDDON JVI
- POPE FRANCIS ARMAGEDDON JVI
- PREDICTIONS FOR CANADA 24
- REV 1 - REV 4:6 VBV - 1 JVI
- REV 4:9 - REV 9:21 VBV - 2 JVI
- REV 10:1 - REV 14:1 VBV - 3 JVI
- REV 14:2 - REV 18:24 VBV - 4 JVI
- REV 19:1 - REV 22:21 VBV - 5 JVI
- SO CALLED MRNA SHOTS ARE GENE THERAPY
- STRONG MAN BEHIND THE SPIRIT - 2.
- THE GATEWAY PUNDIT
- THE LAST GENERATION.
- THE SHROUD OF TURIN.
- THE SHROUD OF TURIN.
- THE TIMES OF ISRAEL NEWSFEED
- WAR IN HEAVEN REV 12
- WERE 300 M MUSLIMS TO BE BURIED.
- WHOS LAND IS IT? (1)
- WHOS LAND IS IT? (2)
- WHOS LAND IS IT? (3)
- WHOS LAND IS IT? (4)
- WHOS LAND IS IT? (5)
- WHOS LAND IS IT? (6)
- WOKE CULTURE IS MAOISM
- WW3 THE WAVES.
- THE PRE TRIB RAPTURE - JVI
- BEWARE OF FALSE PROPHETS - JVI
- NEW AGE SPIRITS - JVI
- YOGA IS DEMONIC.
- DANGERS OF THE OCCULT - J NIZZO
- 23 MINUTES IN HELL-BILL WIESE.
- GET HEALED FROM KILLER VACCINE SHOTS DR JUDY MIKOVITS.
- 5 ANGELS - DR SAMUEL DOCTORIAN.
- UNDER TEMPLE MOUNT-SERGIO & RHONDA
- ROSH HASHANA HORN
- VICTORY ROSH HASHANA HORN
- AI AND BIBLE PROPHECY.
- AI QUESTIONS ABOUT REV 6 SEALS.
- ALEX JONES SHIRTS & STORE SALES BIG % OFF STORE SALES.
- ERICK STAKELBECK - ISA NEWS
- TBN ISRAEL
- THE LAND OF ISRAEL
- JOEL ROSENBERG.
- J.D FARAG.
- AMIR TSARFATI.
- JOHN HAGEE.
- MIKE - COUNCILOFTIME
- NOW THE END BEGINS.
- CHRIST IN PROPHESY JOURNAL.
- DAVID JEREMIAH.
- PRE-TRIB RAPTURE READY
- PROPHESY NEWS UPDATE.
- TERRY JAMES.
- PRE-TRIB TIM LAHAYE.
- JEWISH HOLIDAYS
- WEEKLY TORAH PORTIONS.
- TEMPLE INSTITUTE.
- TV7 ISRAEL NEWS.
- LOOK AT THE THIRD TEMPLE.
- THE 4TH TEMPLE DURING THE 1,000 YR REIGN OF JESUS I BELIEVE.
- JERUSALEM DATELINE.
- ILTV ISRAELI NEWS.
- TV7 ISRAEL NEWS
- RYANYALL - WEATHER WATCHER
- MAX VELOCITY - WEATHER WATCHER
- MAKALA ROSE - GREAT SINGER.
- DEMOCRACIES - ISRAEL AND DEATH CULTS ISLAM (BUY BOOK)
- SATANIC WORSHIP - MICROCHIP IMPLANT
- VOTE FOR CHRISTIANS.
- WHY DO CATHOLICS PRAY TO MARY.
- CATHOLIC DAILY NEWS.
- GODS PROMISED LAND FOR ISRAEL
- REARM EUROPE PLAN
- LAST DAYS AGE OF GRACE COUNTDOWN.
- CSPAN RADIO.
- MOHAMMAD DOESN'T EXIST.
- GOD GAVE THE WORLD OVER TO.
- MISSING INDIAN WOMEN, GIRLS.
- DELUDED ISLAM AND LIBERALS
- THE GAZA FAMINE MYTHE.
- WORLD HYPOCRACY AGAINST ISRAEL.
- 20 YRS GAZA A TERRORIST STATE.
- THE TRUTH ABOUT ISLAM
- JESUS IS ON THE SHROUD.
- FAKE GAZA STARVATION.
- IS ABORTION A SIN?
- MARK REGEV JNS TV
- EU WORLD CONTROL ECONOMIES.
- DEATH TO LIFE CHARLIE KIRK.
- TURNING POINT USA.
- QATAR ALLY OR ENEMY.
- FALSE RAPTURE DATE SETTER.
- ROCKY KANATA - ANIMAL SHELTER.
- WORLD READY FOR NUKES.
- AI 2027 WHAT WILL BE HAPPENING.
- 2 JUDGEMENTS ON EARTH BY WATER AND FIRE.
- JUDGEMENT OF THE WORLD NATIONS.
- APRIL-ELECTRIC ARM CHAIR.
- JAN 2026 - COUNTDOWN.
- SUN,SPACE NEWS.
Monday, August 16, 2021
1,300 KILLED IN 7.2 HAITI QUAKE-CHIP IMPLANTS-AFGHANISTAN
Thursday, August 12, 2021
ISRAEL, POSSIBLE ASTEROID EARTH HIT, WILD FIRES
DISEASES-ANIMAL TO HUMAN
REVELATION 6:7-8 (500 MILLION DEAD EACH FROM THE 4 JUDGEMENTS)(2 BILLION TOT DEAD HERE)
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth,(2 billion) of (8 billion) to kill with sword,(WEAPONS)(500 million) and with hunger,(FAMINE)(500 million) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES)(500 million) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE)(500 million).
THE COVID-19 TOTALS.
WORLD OVER ALL CASES 205,534,964 - DEAD 4,337,522 - AS OF THU AUG 12,2021 (PROBABLY IN THE LAST 200,000 DEAD-150,000 STILL GOT COVID AND DIED AFTER GETTING BOTH VACCINE SHOTS)
Blinken lauds ‘significant’ first post-normalization visit by Lapid in Morocco-Secretary says Biden administration will continue working with Israel and Morocco to strengthen all aspects of their new partnership and create more peaceful future for region-By Jacob Magid-AUG 12,21-Today, 3:30 am
NEW YORK — US Secretary of State Antony Blinken welcomed Wednesday’s visit by Foreign Minister Yair Lapid in Morocco as Jerusalem and Rabat built on the normalization agreement signed last year between their two countries.Blinken in a statement called the visit, along with the upcoming reopening of the Israeli liaison office in Rabat, “significant for Israel, Morocco, and the broader region.”“The United States will continue to work with Israel and Morocco to strengthen all aspects of our partnerships and create a more peaceful, secure, and prosperous future for all the people of the Middle East,” Blinken said.The administration says that the normalization agreements brokered by the previous White House were among the few Trump foreign policy initiatives it supports and seeks to build on. There were reports earlier this year that US President Joe Biden will appoint a special envoy tasked with advancing normalization between Israel and the Arab world; however, no such announcement has been made.Analysts speculate that while the administration may support the initiative in theory, it may be more difficult to build on it in practice as the new US government is unlikely to go as far in incentivizing potential candidates in the Arab world as former president Donald Trump did. Biden officials have raised eyebrows at Trump’s sale of F-35 fighter jets to the UAE along with his recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara region. Both moves were essential in getting Abu Dhabi and Rabat, respectively, to agree to normalize relations with Israel.During his meeting with Lapid in Rabat on Wednesday, Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita used the opportunity to call for a two-state solution based on the pre-1967 border.Foreign Minister Yair Lapid (left) touches down in Rabat, Morocco, on August 11, 2021. (Foreign Ministry)-On Israel-Morocco ties, Bourita said the bilateral relationship “is not like any other.” He referenced the status of the Jewish community in the kingdom and ties between Jews in Israel and Morocco.The two ministers signed three framework agreements that covered political consultation between the ministries; cooperation in culture, youth, and sports; and air service between the countries.Lapid was in Morocco for the first official visit by an Israeli top diplomat since 2003 and the highest-level trip since an agreement was signed by Jerusalem and Rabat last year to reestablish ties after some two decades.Lapid is set to officially open up the Israeli Liaison Office in Rabat on Thursday.On Thursday, Lapid will also spend time in Casablanca with the local Jewish community and will pray in the Beth-El Synagogue there.The trip is the fruit of a US-brokered deal for Morocco to resume ties with Israel, which were cut off in 2000 following the outbreak of the Second Intifada. Though the countries are not establishing full ties, Israeli officials have said they expect Rabat to eventually upgrade the relationship and establish embassies.Lazar Berman contributed to this report.
Israel set to approve new Palestinian and Jewish building in West Bank-Defense Ministry to okay 1,000 Palestinians homes and some 2,000 settler houses; Jerusalem court freezes Palestinian home demolitions in Silwan-By TOI staff, AFP and Jacob Magid-11 August 2021, 8:54 pm
The government is slated to approve new building in Palestinian areas of the West Bank as well as in Jewish settlements.Defense Minister Benny Gantz has approved the construction of 1,000 Palestinian homes in the Israeli-controlled Area C, mostly in the Jenin and Bethlehem areas, a defense official confirmed to The Times of Israel WednesdayMeanwhile, the ministry’s Civil Administration will also okay some 2,000 new homes in West Bank settlements, for the first time since both Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and US President Joe Biden took office.Area C makes up some 60 percent of the West Bank and is fully under Israeli security and administrative control. Israel rarely approves Palestinian construction in Area C, with the overwhelming majority of requests being denied. This has resulted in rampant illegal building, which is in turn often demolished by Israel.Between 2016 and 2018, just 21 of the 1,485 Palestinian applications for construction permits in Area C were approved by the Defense Ministry, or 0.81 percent.In 2019, the security cabinet approved — in principle — a record 700 building permits for Palestinians in what was widely seen as an attempt both to prevent the High Court of Justice from blocking further demolitions of Palestinian property on the grounds that it is impossible for Palestinians to build legally and to stave off international criticism against Israel for failing to allow Palestinian construction.However, an investigation by The Times of Israel last year found that very few of those buildings permits had actually been issued.Most of the international community considers settlement construction a violation of international law.Meanwhile, a lawyer said Wednesday that a Jerusalem court had ruled that dozens of home demolitions in a flashpoint Palestinian neighborhood should be frozen for six months.Israel had ordered the demolition of around 100 homes in Silwan, a Palestinian neighborhood on the edge of the Old City in East Jerusalem, claiming they were built illegally on public land.Monday’s court order froze most of those demolition orders until February 2022, while also allowing 16 homes to be razed immediately.“I have reached the conclusion that it is appropriate to grant a specific extension,” wrote Judge Sigal Albo of the Jerusalem Court for Local Affairs in the decision.Lawyer Ziad Kawar, representing residents in the Al-Bustan area of Silwan, told AFP the ruling was “progress” but “not a victory.” He said he would appeal to foreign diplomats to put pressure on Israel over home demolitions.View of the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, April 8, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)-Kawar said his clients were applying for retroactive permission for their homes, which he said they built on their own private property without permission.“It is not possible to get permits there,” Kawar said.Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan during the Six Day War in 1967, and later annexed it in a move not recognized internationally.In the 1980s, settlers began moving into Silwan, which sits on land where — according to Jewish tradition — King David established his capital some 3,000 years ago, making the area hallowed ground in Jewish history.Israelis have said they hope to build a park devoted to the biblical King David in Al-Bustan.Several hundred settlers currently live in Silwan under heavy security, among about 50,000 Palestinians.
Hamas said to block UN team from inspecting school where tunnel was found-Bomb disposal experts, tasked with ensuring site is safe for opening of academic year, hustled away by terror group; UNRWA warns it won’t let students back until check completed-By TOI staff-11 August 2021, 3:42 pm
Hamas has prevented UN bomb disposal experts from inspecting a Palestinian refugee agency school in the Gaza Strip under which a tunnel dug by the terror group was uncovered during fighting in May, the Kan public broadcaster reported Tuesday.The team was asked by the UN Relief and Works Agency to make sure that its Zaitoun Preparatory Boys’ School was safe for students to return to with the upcoming start of the new academic year. The experts were to ensure that no unexploded munitions were in the compound, left over from the fighting between the Israel Defense Forces and Hamas.Sources in the Gaza Strip said that the experts arrived at the compound, but when Hamas learned of the development, it swiftly sent police to block them and order them to immediately leave.The team was also supposed to check another UNRWA school in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, where it is suspected that Hamas dug another tunnel. Following the disruption at the first site, the UN team canceled the second inspection as well.As a result of the developments, UNRWA told Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, that it will not permit the 4,000 students who attend the schools to return to studies until the sites are properly checked, Kan reported.Hamas has dug an extensive network of tunnels under Gaza, which are used to move its forces or store weapons, including rockets and launchers.In the wake of the Kan report, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan asked the UN director-general and UNRWA director-general to carry out a thorough review of all UNRWA sites in the Gaza Strip.“The international community cannot ignore Hamas’s heinous human rights violations & the state of terror it inflicts on Gazans. Hamas is a terror organization that uses innocents & children as hostages & human shields,” Erdan tweeted Tuesday.According to UNRWA, Israeli attacks on the Zaitoun compound in Gaza City’s Rimal neighborhood took place on May 13 and 15 when the complex was empty. After the 11 days of fighting ended, investigators were sent to the school and discovered what appeared to be a tunnel underneath the compound that was revealed by a missile strike.UNRWA announced the discovery of the tunnel in June while condemning the Israeli bombings and the Hamas construction of the tunnel.“A detailed assessment on 31 May 2021 revealed what appears to be a cavity and a possible tunnel, at the location of the missile strike. The depth of the cavity is approximately 7.5 meters below the surface of the school. UNRWA discovered the existence of a possible tunnel in the context of the investigation of the fired missiles,” the agency said.According to UNRWA, the tunnel did not appear to originate or end at the school, but instead passed underneath it.UNRWA officials were said to be deliberating whether to make a more public issue of the spat over the schools, Kan reported. However, the UN agency was reluctant to clash with Hamas, having recently installed a new director in Gaza after the previous chief was recalled for saying that IDF airstrikes during the May fighting were “precise.”Matthias Schmale’s remarks to Israeli television news led to accusations from Hamas that he was exonerating Israel for the deaths of Palestinian civilians, prompting Schmale to apologize. An UNRWA spokesperson later told Channel 12 that Schmale had been called back to Jerusalem for consultations and had decided to take an extended leave of absence.Between May 10 and 21 Hamas fired thousands of rockets at Israeli towns and cities. Israel responded with intense airstrikes against Hamas targets until a ceasefire was reached.UNRWA schools in Gaza have been used in the past to store and launch rockets at Israel, particularly during the 2014 Gaza war.In 2017, the agency also said it had found a Hamas tunnel dug underneath one of its schools.In one case during the latest round of fighting, the IDF determined that the courtyard of at least one school — it was not immediately clear if it belonged to UNRWA — housed 14 underground rocket launchpads, which it said were used during the fighting.As schools in Gaza have regularly been used as refugee centers during times of conflict, the IDF’s official policy is to avoid striking them unless necessary.
PROOF HALF ON EARTH DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION PERIOD (8 BILLION ON EARTH)
REVELATION 6:7-8 (8 BILLION- 2 BILLION = 6 BILLION)
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth,(2 BILLION) to kill with sword,(WEAPONS) and with hunger,(FAMINE) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE).
REVELATION 9:15,18 (6 BILLION - 2 BILLION = 4 BILLION)
15 And the four(DEMONIC WAR) angels were loosed,
18 By these three was the third part of men killed,(2 BILLION) by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.(NUCLEAR ATOMIC BOMBS)
HALF OF EARTHS POPULATION DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION.(THESE VERSES ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)
LUKE 17:34-37 (8 TOTAL BILLION - 4 BILLION DEAD IN TRIB = 4 BILLION TO JESUS KINGDOM) (HALF DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION PERIOD JUST LIKE THE BIBLE SAYS)(GOD DOES NOT LIE)(AND NOTICE MOST DIE IN WAR AND DISEASES-NOT COMETS-ASTEROIDS-QUAKES OR TSUNAMIS)
34 I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other shall be left.(half earths population 4 billion die in the 7 yr trib)
35 Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
36 Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
37 And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.(Christians have new bodies,this is the people against Jerusalem during the 7 yr treaty)(Christians bodies are not being eaten by the birds).THESE ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES-NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES.BECAUSE NOT HALF OF PEOPLE ON EARTH ARE CHRISTIANS.AND THE CONTEXT IN LUKE 17 IS THE 7 YEAR TRIBULATION OR 7 YR TREATY PERIOD.WHICH IS JUDGEMENT ON THE EARTH.NOT 50% RAPTURED TO HEAVEN.
MATTHEW 24:37-42 (THESE ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES-SURE NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)
37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
42 Watch therefore:(FOR THE LAST DAYS SIGNS HAPPENING) for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
AMERICA (POLITICAL BABYLON)(NUKED BY SNEAK ATTACK FROM RUSSIA)
IN REVELATION 17 & 18 IS THE DESTRUCTION OF THE RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL BABYLONS.IF YOU CAN NOT DECERN BETWEEN THE 2 BABYLONS IN REV 17 & 18.YOU WILL JUST THINK THEIR BOTH THE SAME.BUT NO-THERES A RELIGIOUS BABYLON (THE VATICAN IN REV 17)(AND THE POLITICAL BABYLON IN REV 18 (AMERICA OR NEW YORK TO BE EXACT)
ISAIAH 34:10
10 It (AMERICA-POLITICAL BABYLON) shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever.
JEREMIAH 51:29-32 (CYBER ATTACK 1ST)
29 And the land shall tremble and sorrow: for every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon,(AMERICA-NEW YORK) to make the land of Babylon (AMERICA) a desolation without an inhabitant.
30 The mighty men of Babylon (AMERICA) have forborn to fight, they have remained in their holds: their might hath failed; they became as women: they have burned her dwellingplaces; her bars are broken.
031 One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to shew the king of Babylon (NEW YORK) that his city is taken at one end,
32 And that the passages are stopped,(THE WAR COMPUTERS HACKED OR EMP'D) and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.(DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO)
COMPLETE SILENCE AFTER AN EMP GOES OFF
REVELATION 8:1
1 And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.
JEREMIAH 50:3,24
3 For out of the north (RUSSIA) there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they shall remove, they shall depart, both man and beast.
24 I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon,(AMERICA) and thou wast not aware: thou art found, and also caught, because thou hast striven against the LORD. (RUSSIA A SNEAK CYBER,EMP ATTACK,THEN NUKE ATTACK ON AM
EZEKIEL 39:11-22
11 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will give unto Gog (RUSSIA/ARAB/MUSLIMS) a place there of graves in Israel, the valley of the passengers (EAST OF THE DEAD SEA IN JORDAN VALLEY) on the east of the sea: and it shall stop the noses of the passengers: and there shall they bury Gog (RUSSIAN) and all his multitude:(ARAB/MUSLIM HORDE) and they shall call it The valley of Hamongog.(BURIEL SITE OF THE 300 MILLION,RUSSIAN/ARAB/MUSLIMS)
12 And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land.(OF ISRAEL)
13 Yea, all the people of the land (OF ISRAEL) shall bury them; and it shall be to them a renown the day that I (GOD-JESUS) shall be glorified, saith the Lord GOD.
14 And they shall sever out men of continual employment,(NUCLEAR ATOMIC BOMB EXPERTS) passing through the land to bury with the passengers those that remain upon the face of the earth, to cleanse it: after the end of seven months shall they search.
15 And the passengers that pass through the land, when any seeth a man’s bone, then shall he set up a sign by it,(WON'T TOUCH IT) till the buriers have buried it (PROPERLY) in the valley of Hamongog.(RUSSIA/ARAB/MUSLIMS NEW BURIEL SITE)(EAST OF THE DEAD SEA IN THE JORDAN VALLEY)
16 And also the name of the city shall be Hamonah. Thus shall they cleanse the land.(OF THE ISRAEL-GOD HATERS)
17 And, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD; Speak unto every feathered fowl,(500 MILLION MIGRATING BIRDS THREW ISRAEL EVERY SPRING,FALL) and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh, and drink blood.(OF THE RUSSIAN/ARAB/MUSLIM ARMIES)
18 Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan.
19 And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you.
20 Thus ye shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war, saith the Lord GOD.
21 And I will set my glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them.
The face of Iran’s new terror government’: Israel blasts Raisi’s cabinet-Foreign Ministry calls on international community to condemn appointment of Ahmad Vahidi, who is wanted by Interpol over alleged role in 1994 AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires-By AP and TOI staff Today, 2:21 am
Israel on Wednesday urged the international community to condemn the appointment to Iran’s new cabinet of a “criminal” wanted by Interpol over his alleged role in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires.In a statement reacting to the newly announced composition of Iran’s cabinet crafted by hardline President Ebrahim Raisi, the Foreign Ministry called the tapping of Gen. Ahmad Vahidi as interior minister a “shameful” choice.Vahidi is a former defense minister blacklisted by the US in 2010. He was the head of the Revolutionary Guards’ international operations arm, known as the Quds Force, at the time of the bombing of the AMIA Jewish Center in Argentina’s capital. His name appeared on an Interpol “red notice” list regarding the attack on the AMIA building.The AMIA (Argentine Israelite Mutual Association) bombing, carried out by a Lebanese suicide bomber who drove a car bomb at the multistory building, killed 85 people and wounded hundreds. The bomber was subsequently identified as Ibrahim Hussein Berro, an operative of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terror group, and he was allegedly assisted by other Hezbollah and Iranian operatives.The Foreign Ministry also took the opportunity to reiterate its characterization of Raisi as the “butcher from Tehran,” noting that he was responsible for putting to death thousands of Iranian dissidents when he served as head of the country’s judiciary.“This is the face of the new terror government in Iran,” the ministry said, adding that its ministers “are responsible for killing people around the world.”The aftermath of the 1994 AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires. (Newspaper La Nación (Argentina/Wikipedia Commons)-Raisi also nominated hardline career diplomat Hossein Amirabdollahian to the crucial post of foreign minister, as Iran and the US seek to resuscitate Tehran’s landmark nuclear deal with world powers.Amirabdollahian, 56, has served in a range of administrations over the decades. He was deputy foreign minister for Arab and African affairs under former populist hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, known in the West for his Holocaust denial and disputed reelection in 2009.According to Reuters, Amirabdollahian is an avowed anti-Westerner believed to have close relations with the Hezbollah terrorist group in Lebanon as well as Iran’s Revolutionary Guards force.The parties to the nuclear accord have met in Vienna for months to try to revive the deal. The last round of talks ended in June with no date set for their resumption. Raisi has promised that his administration will focus on lifting sanctions that have clobbered Iran’s already ailing economy.The Iranian cabinet list, which offered few surprises, must still be confirmed by he country’s parliament. The supreme leader also typically weighs in on picking officials for the most sensitive positions, such as foreign minister.Javad Owji, 54, a longtime official in the country’s vital oil and gas sector, was nominated as oil minister. Raisi picked Rostam Ghasemi, a former oil minister under Ahmadinejad, as the minister for roads and urbanization. The list named Gen. Mohammad Reza Ashtiani, a former deputy chief of staff of the armed forces, as defense minister.
Taliban complete northeast Afghan blitz as three more provincial capitals fall-With capture of Badakhshan, Baghlan and Farah capitals, Islamist militia now controls two-thirds of nation as US and NATO finalize their withdrawal after decades of war-By TAMEEM AKHGAR and Jon Gambrell Today, 5:02 am
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban seized three more Afghan provincial capitals and a local army headquarters Wednesday, completing a blitz across the country’s northeast and giving them control of two-thirds of the nation as the US and NATO finalize their withdrawal after decades of war.The fall of the capitals of Badakhshan, Baghlan and Farah provinces put increasing pressure on the country’s central government to stem the tide of the advance, even as it lost a major base in Kunduz. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani rushed to Balkh province, already surrounded by Taliban-held territory, to seek help from warlords, many linked to allegations of atrocities and corruption, in pushing back the insurgents. He also replaced his army chief of staff.While the capital of Kabul itself has not been directly threatened in the advance, the stunning speed of the offensive raises questions of how long the Afghan government can maintain the control of the slivers of the country it has left. The government may eventually be forced to pull back to defend the capital and just a few other cities.“I think what I would say to President Ghani is if you remain spread out everywhere, the Taliban will be able to continue to apply their current approach with success,” warned Ben Barry, the senior fellow for land warfare at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. “You’ve got to do a bit more than stopping the Taliban. You’ve got to show you can push them back.”The success of the Taliban offensive also calls into question whether they would ever rejoin long-stalled peace talks in Qatar aimed at moving Afghanistan toward an inclusive interim administration as the West hoped. Instead, the Taliban could come to power by force — or the country could splinter into factional fighting like it did after the Soviet withdrawal in 1989.The multiple battle fronts have stretched the government’s special operations forces — while regular troops have often fled the battlefield — and the violence has pushed thousands of civilians to seek safety in the capital.Stranded people gather to seek information from security forces about opening the border crossing between Pakistan and Afghanistan which was closed by authorities a few days ago, in Chaman, Pakistan, August 11, 2021. (AP/Jafar Khan)-The US military, which plans to complete its withdrawal by the end of the month, has conducted some airstrikes but largely has avoided involving itself in the ground campaign.The latest US military intelligence assessment is that Kabul could come under insurgent pressure within 30 days and that if current trends hold, the Taliban could gain full control of the country within a couple of months, according to a US defense official, who discussed the internal assessment on condition of anonymity.Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan — whose country is contemplating running and protecting Kabul airport following the withdrawal of US and NATO troops — told CNN-Turk television that he may meet with the Taliban leadership.“If we don’t bring them under control at the highest level … it will not be possible for us to ensure peace in Afghanistan,” Erdogan said.Humayoon Shahidzada, a lawmaker from the western province of Farah, confirmed Wednesday to The Associated Press his province’s capital of the same name fell.Taliban fighters dragged the shoeless, bloody corpse of one Afghan security force member through the street, shouting: “God is great!” Taliban fighters carrying M-16 rifles and driving Humvees and Ford pickup trucks donated by the Americans rolled through the streets of the capital.Taliban fighters patrol inside the city of Farah, capital of Farah province southwest of Kabul, Afghanistan on August 11, 2021. (AP Photo/Mohammad Asif Khan)-“The situation is under control in the city, our mujahedeen are patrolling in the city,” one Taliban fighter who did not give his name said, referring to his fellow insurgents as “holy warriors.”The crackle of automatic weapon fire continued throughout the day in Farah.Hujatullah Kheradmand, a lawmaker from Badakhshan, said the Taliban had seized his province’s capital, Faizabad. An Afghan official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to speak about an unacknowledged loss, said Baghlan’s capital, Poli-Khumri, also fell.The Afghan government and military did not respond to repeated requests for comment about the losses.The insurgents earlier captured six other provincial capitals in the country in less than a week.Taliban fighter is seen inside the city of Farah, capital of Farah province southwest of Kabul, Afghanistan on August 11, 2021. (AP Photo/Mohammad Asif Khan)-On Wednesday, the headquarters of the Afghan National Army’s 217th Corps at Kunduz airport fell to the Taliban, according to Ghulam Rabani Rabani, a provincial council member in Kunduz, and lawmaker Shah Khan Sherzad. The insurgents posted video online they said showed surrendering troops.The province’s capital, also called Kunduz, was already among those seized, and the capture of the base now puts the country’s northeast firmly in Taliban hands.It wasn’t immediately clear what equipment was left behind for the insurgents, though a Taliban video showed them parading in Humvees and pickup trucks. Another video showed fighters on the airport’s tarmac next to an attack helicopter without rotor blades.In southern Helmand province, where the Taliban control nearly all of the capital of Lashkar Gar, a suicide car bomber targeted the government-held police headquarters, provincial council head Attaullah Afghan said. The building has been under siege for two weeks.The rapid fall of wide swaths of the country to the Taliban raises fears that the brutal tactics they used to rule Afghanistan before will also return. Some civilians who fled Taliban advances said the insurgents have imposed repressive restrictions on women and burned down schools, and there have been reports of revenge killings.In the face of the rapid deterioration in Afghanistan, Germany and the Netherlands both announced Wednesday they’d suspend deportations to the country.Taliban fighters patrol inside the city of Farah, capital of Farah province southwest of Kabul, Afghanistan, August 11, 2021. (AP Photo/Mohammad Asif Khan)-Speaking to journalists Tuesday, a senior EU official said the insurgents held some 230 districts of the over 400 in Afghanistan. The official described another 65 in government control while the rest were contested. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the internal figures.In addition to the northeast, much of northern Afghanistan has also fallen to the Taliban, except for Balkh province. There, warlords Abdul Rashid Dostum, Atta Mohammad Noor and Mohammad Mohaqiq planned to mobilize forces in support of the Afghan government to push back the Taliban.Dostum in particular has a troubled past, facing investigations after the 2001 US-led invasion for killing hundreds of Taliban fighters that year by letting them suffocate in sealed shipping containers.On Wednesday, Dostum said the Taliban “won’t be able to leave the north and will face the same fate” as the suffocated troops.Ghani, meanwhile, ordered Gen. Hibatullah Alizai to replace Gen. Wali Ahmadzai as the Afghan army chief of staff, according to an Afghan Defense Ministry official who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the decision had yet to be made public.Alizai was the commander of the Afghan army’s Special Operations Corps — the elite troops that, along with the air force, have been forced to do most of the fighting as regular forces have collapsed.
Israel said to warn CIA chief that new Iranian president is mentally disturbed-William Burns visits Israel for talks focused on Iran; reportedly given dossier describing Ebrahim Raisi as a demented extremist who can’t be negotiated with-By TOI staff and AFP-11 August 2021, 4:01 amUpdated at 3:33 pm
Israel hosted US Central Intelligence Agency chief William Burns Tuesday for talks focused on Iran, with Jerusalem reportedly attempting to deter any American rapprochement with Tehran by presenting Iran’s new president as a deranged misfit.Officials gave no details of the agenda for the CIA chief’s talks in Israel, but the Walla news site reported that Burns planned to meet with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Mossad spy agency head David Barnea and other senior intelligence figures.During the meeting with Barnea, Mossad official presented Burns with information intended to show Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi as untrustworthy and incapable of negotiating a new nuclear deal or sticking to his commitments, Channel 12 news reported.According to the channel, Barnea gave Burns a dossier on Raisi that portrayed him as exceptionally extreme, cruel, corrupt and unstable.“The Mossad described him as someone with mental disturbances,” the channel claimed in the unsourced report.Raisi, a hardline former judiciary head who was Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s choice for the role, has been accused of ordering the execution of thousands of prisoners toward the end of the Iran-Iraq war in 1988.He took office on Thursday, taking over for Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate who agreed to a landmark deal in 2015 that curbed Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief.Burns, a career diplomat, played a key role in the US rapprochement with Iran that led to the deal between Iran and major powers.US President Joe Biden has sought to rejoin the pact after former president Donald Trump withdrew from it in 2018. Israel opposes the deal and government officials have held successive rounds of talks with US counterparts on the nuclear negotiations.CIA Director William Burns speaks during a House Intelligence Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, April 15, 2021. (Al Drago/Pool via AP)-The visit by Burns comes amid what analysts have called a “shadow war” that has seen a spate of attacks on facilities in Iran and maritime vessels linked to Israel.Last month, the MT Mercer Street, an oil products tanker operated by Israeli-controlled Zodiac maritime, was struck by a drone off the Omani coast, killing two crew members — a Briton and a Romanian.G7 foreign ministers on Friday pointed the finger of blame for the attack at Iran, as the US military released the findings of an investigation alleging the drones were made in the Islamic republic.Iran dismissed the allegations.Defense Minister Benny Gantz on Tuesday said Iran was “the greatest threat to peace in the region”.“We call on the international community to act to stop Iranian aggression,” Gantz said.Tug boats are moored next to the Israeli-managed tanker MT Mercer Street, off the Fujayrah port in the United Arab Emirates, on August 3, 2021. (Karim Sahib/AFP)-US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday renewed vows to punish Iran for allegedly attacking the tanker, saying the world cannot allow “impunity.”“It is on all of our nations to hold accountable those responsible. Failing to do so will only fuel their sense of impunity and embolden others inclined to disregard the maritime order,” he said.Burns was also expected to travel to Ramallah for talks with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, a Palestinian official said.Walla News said he would also meet Palestinian intelligence chief Majed Faraj there.
Associated Press-N Korea repeats threat as US says joint drills are defensive-KIM TONG-HYUNG-Tue, August 10, 2021, 9:27 PM
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea on Wednesday repeated a threat to respond to U.S.-South Korean military exercises it claims are an invasion rehearsal, while the United States insisted the drills were “purely defensive in nature” to maintain the South’s security.In a statement released by state media on Wednesday, senior North Korean official Kim Yong Chol condemned South Korea for continuing the allied drills and warned of unspecified counteractions that would make Seoul “realize by the minute” that it had walked into a security crisis.A day earlier, Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korea’s leader, said the drills were the “most vivid expression of the U.S. hostile policy” toward North Korea and said the North will work faster to strengthen its preemptive strike capabilities.The allies have not confirmed when the drills will take place or other details, but local media have reported preliminary training was underway this week to set up larger computer-simulated drills on Aug. 16-26.Talking to reporters in Washington, State Department spokesperson Ned Price stressed that the drills were “purely defensive in nature.”“As we have long maintained, the United States harbors no hostile intent toward the DPRK,” Price said, using the initials of the country’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.“We support inter-Korean dialogue, we support inter-Korean engagement and will continue to work with our (South Korean) partners toward that end.”The South Korean government in a statement called for North Korea to respond to its offers for dialogue and said “raising military tensions on the Korean Peninsula wouldn't help anyone.”U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric reiterated “that diplomacy is the only pathway to a sustainable peace" and called for “a lowering of the rhetorical tensions that we are seeing."North Korea has a history of dialing up pressure on the South when it doesn’t get what it wants from the United States.Analysts say the North has been trying to exploit South Korea’s desperation for inter-Korean engagement, pressuring Seoul to drop the allied military drills and extract concessions from Washington on its behalf while the larger nuclear diplomacy remains stalemated.North Korea ended a yearlong pause in ballistic tests in March by firing two short-range missiles into the sea, continuing a tradition of testing new U.S. administrations with weapons demonstrations.But there haven’t been any known test launches since then as leader Kim Jong Un focused national efforts on fending off the coronavirus and salvaging a broken economy damaged further by pandemic border closures.North Korea’s threat that it may respond to the U.S.-South Korean drills with counteractions and advances of its preemptive strike capability may signal a resumption of its weapons testing activities.The North also could carry out a previous threat to abandon a 2018 agreement with Seoul on reducing military tensions, retire a ruling party unit devoted to inter-Korean affairs or abolish an office that had handled South Korean tourism at a North Korean resort, said Kim Dong-yub, a professor from Seoul’s University of North Korean Studies.The Diamond Mountain tours were a major symbol of engagement between the rivals and an important source of income for the cash-strapped North before Seoul suspended them in 2008 after a North Korean guard fatally shot a South Korean tourist.Leif-Eric Easley, a professor of international studies at Seoul’s Ewha Womans University, said the North with its amped-up rhetoric may be trying to pressure South Korean presidential candidates to express differences with U.S. policy on sanctions and denuclearization ahead of the election in March next year.Since Kim Yo Jong’s statement was released on Tuesday, North Korea has not answered South Korea’s calls over inter-Korean communication channels. The hotlines had been disconnected for a year before the North agreed to reopen them in late July in what the Koreas then described as a conciliatory gesture.In Wednesday’s comments, Kim Yong Chol, a senior ruling party official who handles affairs with the South, said South Korea blew its opportunity for better ties by opting for “alliance with outsiders, not harmony with compatriots, escalation of tension, not detente, and confrontation, not improved relations.”“We will make them realize by the minute what a dangerous choice they made and what a serious security crisis they will face because of their wrong choice,” he said.North Korea has long bristled at joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States, which the allies insist are routine and defensive in nature. The North often responds to them with its own weapons tests.The allies in the past few years have canceled or downsized some of their joint training to provide space for diplomacy or because of the COVID-19 pandemic.The United States keeps about 28,000 troops in South Korea to help deter potential aggression from North Korea, in a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War.North Korea has suspended its nuclear and long-range missile tests since 2018, when leader Kim Jong Un initiated diplomacy with South Korea and then-President Donald Trump while attempting to leverage his nuclear weapons for badly needed sanctions relief.After the talks fell through in 2019 over disagreements in exchanging the release of sanctions and North Korea’s denuclearization steps, the North ramped up tests of new short-range, solid-fuel weapons to improve its ability to deliver nuclear strikes and overwhelm missile defense systems in South Korea and Japan.
SIGNS OF THE END OF THE AGE (NOT THE WORLD) THE WORLD GOES ON FOREVER.
GENESIS 1:5,145 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:(ISRAELS HOLY DAYS AND SABBATH STARTS AT 6PM) And for SIGNS (PROPHECY SIGNS TO HAPPEN IN THE FUTURE, OUR DAY)
SIGNS IN THE SUN, MOON AND STARS-CHEMICAL WEAPONS
LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences;(BIOLOGICAL/CHEMICAL/NUCLEAR) and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun,(HEATING UP-SOLAR ECLIPSES) and in the moon,(MAN ON THE MOON-LUNAR ECLIPSES) and in the stars;(ASTEROIDS-PROPHECY SIGNS) and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear,(TORNADOES,HURRICANES,STORMS) and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth:(DESTRUCTION) for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.(FROM QUAKES,NUKES ETC)
REVELATION 16:21 80-120LB HAIL ON HUMANS
21And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent:(80-120 LBS) and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.
FAMINE
EZEKIEL 5:16
16 When I shall send upon them the evil arrows of famine, which shall be for their destruction, and which I will send to destroy you: and I will increase the famine upon you, and will break your staff of bread:
REVELATION 6:5-6
5 And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.
6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.(A DAYS WAGES FOR A LOAF OF BREAD)
MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.
LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
DEUTORONOMY 28:24
24 The LORD shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed.
LOCUSTS (DEMONIC) TORTURES SINNERS 5 MONTHS
REVELATION 9:1-6
1 And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
2 And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
3 And there came out of the smoke (DEMONIC) locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.
4 And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.
5 And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.
6 And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.
FEARFUL SIGHTS AND GREAT SIGNS FROM HEAVEN
LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
FIRES AND EXPLOSIONS
REVELATION 8:7
7 The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.
OZONE DEPLETION JUDGEMENT ON THE EARTH DUE TO SIN
ISAIAH 30:26-27
26 Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold,(7X OR 7-DEGREES HOTTER) as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people,(ISRAEL) and healeth the stroke of their wound.
27 Behold, the name of the LORD cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire:
MATTHEW 24:21-22,221 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
22 And except those days should be shortened,(DAY LIGHT HOURS SHORTENED) there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake (ISRAELS SAKE) those days shall be shortened (Daylight hours shortened)(THE ASTEROID HITS EARTH HERE)
29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
REVELATION 16:7-9
7 And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.
8 And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.
9 And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.
Hottest day in European records, as ‘Lucifer’ anticyclone sweeps through Italy-Regional authorities in Sicily record temperature of 119.8 degrees, beating country’s all-time record of 119.3 degrees from 1999, and 1977 record of 118.4 degrees in Greece-By AFP-AUG 12,21-Today, 3:08 am
ROME — Regional authorities in Sicily recorded temperatures of 48.8 degrees Celsius (119.8 Fahrenheit) Wednesday as an anticyclone dubbed “Lucifer” swept in, which if confirmed would be a new Italian and European record.The blistering temperature was recorded near Syracuse, beating Italy’s all-time record of 48.5 degrees Celcius (119.3 Fahrenheit), set in Sicily in 1999, and the 1977 record of 48 degrees Celcius (118.4 Fahrenheit) at Eleusis in Greece.A spokesman for Italy’s national meteorological service said the result still had to be validated, while the World Meteorological Organization, which lists the Greece record as Europe’s highest, did not respond to requests for comment.Elsewhere in southern Italy, the anticyclone was forecast to send the mercury rising to 39-42 degrees before sweeping northwards, with weekend temperatures of up to 40 degrees in the central regions of Tuscany and Lazio, which includes Rome.As the capital warmed up on Wednesday, tourists sought out shade and water.“I kinda like it, it’s the goal of summer to be hot and sweat and just enjoy it!” said Nora Vert, a 20-year-old from France.People enjoy the sea on the beach of Torre Faro during a hot summer day in Messina, on August 11, 2021. (Giovanni ISOLINO / AFP)-The heat has raised fears for the fires that have blighted Sicily and the region of Calabria all summer, many caused by arson but fueled by warm winds and dry soil and plants.Firefighters said earlier Wednesday they had recorded 300 interventions in the past 12 hours, while a 77-year-old man died from burns received while trying to shelter his herd in the countryside near Reggio Calabria.The deputy head of environmental NGO WWF Italy, Dante Caserta, called for more resources, such as air support, to quell the flames “or it will be too late, and we will lose forever a priceless heritage.”The Madonie mountain range, near the Sicilian capital Palermo, has also for several days been besieged by flames that have destroyed crops, animals, homes and industrial buildings.Sicily’s governor, Nello Musumeci, called for a state of emergency to be declared for the mountains, while Agriculture Minister Stefano Patuanelli visited Wednesday to meet local mayors around Palermo.“The fires are an emergency that need immediate responses, first and foremost with the relief that must be given to those who have lost everything,” Patuanelli said.Blazes have also devastated Sardinia, with 13 fires recorded during the day on Tuesday. Over 20,000 hectares (50,000 acres) burned last month in the west of the island during the worst fires seen in decades.Southern Europe has experienced intense heatwaves and wildfires this summer as experts warn climate change increases the intensity and frequency of such extreme weather events.
Associated Press-Northwest sizzles as heat wave hits many parts of US-Pacific Northwest Heat Wave-December Snedecor, a homeless woman who lives in a tent in Portland, Ore., helps set up snacks at a cooling center established to help vulnerable residents ride out the second dangerous heat wave to grip the Pacific Northwest this summer on Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2021. Snedecor, 46, spent two nights at the same cooling center in June when temperatures in the city soared to 116 degrees Fahrenheit and she plans to spend the night there again this week as temperatures are forecast to hit 100 F or higher for three consecutive days. (AP Photo/Gillian Flaccus)-GILLIAN FLACCUS-Thu, August 12, 2021, 12:20 AM
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Volunteers and county employees set up cots and stacked hundreds of bottles of water in an air-conditioned cooling center in a vacant building in Portland, Oregon, one of many such places being set up as the Northwest sees another stretch of sizzling temperatures.Scorching weather also hit other parts of the country this week. The weather service said heat advisories and warnings would be in effect from the Midwest to the Northeast and mid-Atlantic through at least Friday.In Portland, tempertures neared 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 Celsius) on Wednesday and the mercury could soar past the century mark Thursday and Friday. Authorities trying to provide relief to vulnerable people are mindful of a record-shattering heat wave earlier this summer that killed hundreds in the Pacific Northwest.The high temperatures in Portland, part of a usually temperate region, would break all-time records this week if the late June heat wave had not done so already. Seattle will be cooler than Portland, with temperatures in the mid-90s, but it still has a chance to break records, and many people there, like in Oregon, don’t have air conditioning.People began coming into a 24-hour cooling center in north Portland before it opened Wednesday.The first few people in were experiencing homelessness, a population vulnerable to extreme heat. Among them was December Snedecor, who slept two nights in the same center in June when temperatures reached 116 F (47 C).She said she planned to sleep there again this week because the heat in her tent was unbearable.“I poured water over myself a lot. It was up in the teens, hundred-and-something heat. It made me dizzy. It was not good,” Snedecor said of the June heat. “I’ve just got to stay cool. I don’t want to die.”Oregon Gov. Kate Brown has declared a state of emergency and activated an emergency operations center, citing the potential for disruptions to the power grid and transportation. Besides opening cooling centers, city and county governments are extending public library hours and waiving bus fare for those headed to cooling centers. A 24-hour statewide help line will direct callers to the nearest cooling shelter and offer safety tips.Emergency officials have sent alerts to phones, said Dan Douthit, spokesman for the Portland Bureau of Emergency Management.The back-to-back heat waves, coupled with a summer that's been exceptionally warm and dry overall, are pummeling a region where summer highs usually drift into the 70s or 80s. Intense heat waves and a historic drought in the American West reflect climate change that is making weather more extreme.The June heat in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia killed hundreds of people and served as a wake-up call for what's ahead in a warming world. It was virtually impossible without human-caused climate change, a detailed scientific analysis found.Even younger residents struggled with the heat in June and dreaded this week's sweltering temperatures.Katherine Morgan, 27, has no air conditioning in her third-floor apartment and can't afford a window unit on the money she makes working at a bookstore and as a hostess at a brewery.She'll have to walk to work Thursday, the day when temperatures could again soar.“All my friends and I knew that climate change was real, but it’s getting really scary because it was gradually getting hot — and it suddenly got really hot, really fast," Morgan said.___Follow Flaccus on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/gflaccus.
Associated Press-First water cuts in US West supply to hammer Arizona farmers-FELICIA FONSECA-Thu, August 12, 2021, 12:11 AM
CASA GRANDE, Ariz. (AP) — A harvester rumbles through the fields in the early morning light, mowing down rows of corn and chopping up ears, husks and stalks into mulch for feed at a local dairy.The cows won't get their salad next year, at least not from this farm. There won't be enough water to plant the corn croClimate change, drought and high demand are expected to force the first-ever mandatory cuts to a water supply that 40 million people across the American West depend on — the Colorado River. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's projection next week will spare cities and tribes but hit Arizona farmers hard.They knew this was coming. They have left fields unplanted, laser leveled the land, lined canals, installed drip irrigation, experimented with drought-resistant crops and found other ways to use water more efficiently.Still, the cutbacks in Colorado River supply next year will be a blow for agriculture in Pinal County, Arizona's top producer of cotton, barley and livestock. Dairies largely rely on local farms for feed and will have to search farther out for supply, and the local economy will take a hit.The cuts are coming earlier than expected as a drought has intensified and reservoirs dipped to historic lows across the West. Scientists blame climate change for the warmer, more arid conditions over the past 30 years.Standing next to a dry field, his boots kicking up dust, farmer Will Thelander said "more and more of the farm is going to look like this next year because we won't have the water to keep things growing everywhere we want."His father, Dan, tried to steer his kids away from farming, not because water would be scarce but because development was expected to swallow farms between Phoenix and Tucson where their family grows alfalfa, corn for cows, and cotton, some destined for overseas markets.“It was fun just keeping the family business going, working with my dad,” said Thelander, a 34-year-old, fourth-generation farmer whose office is a dusty pickup truck.Thelander manages almost half of the 6,000 acres his family farms under Tempe Farming Co., much of it devoted to corn for cows. He's not planning on growing that crop next year, opting for others that will be more profitable on less land.He didn't plant anything on 400 acres this year to cut down on water use. Farmers' Colorado River water comes by way of Lake Mead, which sits on the Arizona-Nevada border and serves as a barometer for water deliveries to Arizona, Nevada, California and Mexico, in the river’s lower basin.The nation’s largest reservoir already has hit the level that triggers mandatory shortages — 1,075 feet (328 meters) above sea level. The Bureau of Reclamation will issue the official projection for 2022 water deliveries Monday, giving users time to plan for what's to come.Arizona is expected to lose 512,000 acre-feet of water, about one-fifth of the state's Colorado River supply but less than 8% of its total water. Nevada will lose 21,000 acre-feet, and Mexico will lose 80,000 acre-feet. An acre-foot is enough water to supply one to two households a year.The cuts will be most deeply felt in Arizona, which entered into an agreement in 1968 for junior rights to Colorado River water in exchange for U.S. funding to build a 336-mile (540-kilometer) canal to send the water through the desert to major cities.Agriculture won't end in Pinal County, but the cuts to farmers will force more of them to rely on groundwater that's already overpumped.Hardly anyone expects a more than 20-year megadrought to improve. Models show the Colorado River will shrink even more in coming years because of climate change, leading to additional cuts that could ultimately affect home taps.The river carries melted snow from the Rocky Mountains and other tributaries through seven Western states, providing drinking water, nourishment for crops and habitat for plants and animals. Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the river's two largest reservoirs, are popular for recreation and their dams produce hydropower for the region.“It's such a significant river,” said Sarah Porter, director of the Kyl Center for Water Policy at Arizona State University. “It used to be called the Nile of the West, which is almost impossible to believe these days.”Arizona has positioned itself to weather the cuts by storing water underground and in Lake Mead and through conservation. It's also trying to secure other water sources. Among the options are importing groundwater to metropolitan Phoenix and Tucson from other parts of the state, leasing more water from tribes, creating a more robust supply of recycled water and desalinating water from the Sea of Cortez in Mexico.“They all work together," said Ted Cooke, general manager of the Central Arizona Project, which manages the canal system that carries river water. “Some of them are more near term, some of them are farther away, some of them are more costly than others, but all of those things need to be done.”Under a drought contingency plan that Western states signed in 2019, some of the water that farmers will lose will be replaced by other sources next year. Arizona, the Central Arizona Project, environmental groups and others have kicked in millions of dollars to soften the blow to farmers and improve groundwater infrastructure.The Maricopa-Stanfield Irrigation and Drainage District, where Thelander farms, plans to have nine wells complete by year's end.District President Bryan Hartman said it won't pump anywhere near what it used to and will be looking for other sources, likely turning to cities and tribes with higher priority water rights.The next few months will be critical to planning for a future with less water."Growers will be asking, ‘How much water are we going to get, how many acre-feet, what are the flows going to be,' and that will determine the cropping pattern,” said Hartman, himself a farmer.Paul “Paco” Ollerton, 66, who largely grows feed for animals, will plant 25% to 35% less land next year.He thought he was done with farming back in 2005 when he sold his land, partly because he knew water would be hard to get.“I just finally woke up one day and thought, the secretary of the Interior one day is going to say, ‘It’s more important for you to flush your toilet and have water to brush your teeth with than farm,’” Ollerton said.Too young to retire, he leased back the land and has farmed across Pinal County.One of his farms along a stretch of interstate leading to San Diego uses drip irrigation that makes water use more efficient and crops more productive, he said. Making the rounds in his cotton fields, he flushes the system's valves with Aggie, a yellow lab who rides in the backseat of his pickup truck.His two children talk about being farmers, but he doesn’t promote the long hours or uncertainty. Three generations of farming likely ends with him.For Thelander, he's considered getting out of farming and starting a trucking business. But he also sees hope in guayule, a drought-resistant shrub that could be used in the production of rubber. His family's farm is participating in research for a tire manufacturer to see if it can be used on a large scale“This is my Hail Mary, trying to save farming for myself," Thelander said.___See AP’s complete coverage of the drought: https://apnews.com/hub/droughts.
Associated Press-Higher but still slim odds of asteroid Bennu slamming Earth-MARCIA DUNN-Wed, August 11, 2021, 4:44 PM
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The good news is that scientists have a better handle on asteroid Bennu’s whereabouts for the next 200 years. The bad news is that the space rock has a slightly greater chance of clobbering Earth than previously thought.But don’t be alarmed: Scientists reported Wednesday that the odds are still quite low that Bennu will hit us in the next century.“We shouldn't be worried about it too much,” said Davide Farnocchia, a scientist with NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, who served as the study's lead author.While the odds of a strike have risen from 1-in-2,700 to 1-in-1,750 over the next century or two, scientists now have a much better idea of Bennu's path thanks to NASA's Osiris-Rex spacecraft, according to Farnocchia.“So I think that overall, the situation has improved," he told reporters.The spacecraft is headed back to Earth on a long, roundabout loop after collecting samples from the large, spinning rubble pile of an asteroid, considered one of the two most hazardous known asteroids in our solar system. The samples are due here in 2023.Before Osiris-Rex arrived at Bennu in 2018, telescopes provided solid insight into the asteroid, about one-third of a mile (one-half kilometer) in diameter. The spacecraft collected enough data over 2 1/2 years to help scientists better predict the asteroid’s orbital path well into the future.Their findings — published in the journal Icarus — should also help in charting the course of other asteroids and give Earth a better fighting chance if and when another hazardous space rock heads our way.Before Osiris-Rex arrived on the scene, scientists put the odds of Bennu hitting Earth through the year 2200 at 1-in-2,700. Now it's 1-in-1,750 through the year 2300. The single most menacing day is Sept. 24, 2182.Bennu will have a close encounter with Earth in 2135 when it passes within half the distance of the moon. Earth's gravity could tweak its future path and put it on a collision course with Earth in the 2200s — less likely now based on Osiris-Rex observations.If Bennu did slam into Earth, it wouldn’t wipe out life, dinosaur-style, but rather create a crater roughly 10 to 20 times the size of the asteroid, said Lindley Johnson, NASA's planetary defense officer. The area of devastation would be much bigger: as much as 100 times the size of the crater.If an object Bennu’s size hit the Eastern Seaboard, it “would pretty much devastate things up and down the coast," he told reporters.Scientists already are ahead of the curve with Bennu, which was discovered in 1999. Finding threatening asteroids in advance increases the chances and options for pushing them out of our way, Johnson said.“One-hundred years from now, who knows what the technology is going to be?” he said.In November, NASA plans to launch a mission to knock an asteroid off-course by hitting it. The experimental target will be the moonlet of a bigger space rock.___The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
BBC-Algeria forest fires: At least 65 people killed as fires spread-Wed, August 11, 2021, 9:48 AM
Wildfires tearing through northern Algeria have now killed at least 65 people, including 28 soldiers deployed to help the firefighters.The blazes in the mountainous Kabylie region are some of the worst in the country's history. Officials have blamed arson for many of them.President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has declared three days of national mourning for the victims.A total of 69 fires were burning on Wednesday, amid a heatwave sweeping across North Africa. The flames have been fanned by strong winds and tinder-dry conditions.In the worst-affected district of Tizi Ouzou, residents have fled and many homes have been destroyed. Many of the victims live in remote villages.Several people have been arrested on suspicion of starting fires, but officials gave no details.Emergency services have been overstretched and Algeria is nearing a deal with European partners to rent firefighting planes.On Facebook, there have been calls for volunteer doctors to provide support.The heatwave is expected to continue across North Africa until the end of the week, with temperatures in Algeria reaching 46C (115F).Fires have caused devastation in several Mediterranean countries in recent days, including Turkey, Greece, Lebanon and Cyprus.The fires come as the UN released a major report stating that the effects of climate change are even more severe than previously thought.The report warned that increasingly severe weather patterns that can fuel wildfires, such as heatwaves and droughts, will become more common if action is not taken soon.
Wildfire continues to ravage parts of California-Sat, August 7, 2021, 10:13 PM
At least eight people were missing Saturday (August 7) as the fire destroyed forest and tinder dry scrub in the Sierra Nevada mountains and a historic gold rush town.Even as the calmer, less windy weather gave firefighters a break overnight with the Dixie fire, the third largest fire in California's history, the Pulmas County Sheriff's Office released the somber news."We have received reports of eight unaccounted for individuals," the sheriff's office said in a statement, asking for the public's help in finding them.Five of the missing belong to the old mining town of Greenville where blazes leveled most of its downtown, about 160 miles north of Sacramento.Nearly 447,000 acres have already burned in the Dixie fire and it was 21 percent contained by mid-afternoon, said Edwin Zuniga, a firefighter and spokesman for Cal Fire, the combined firefighting entity battling the blaze.Earlier in the week, the fire was reported as 35 percent contained, but better mapping clarified the area, officials said.The cause of the fire is listed as unknown and remains under investigation.