The Brexit “Deal”

Business Insider wrote on December 25:

“Thursday’s historic Brexit trade deal between the UK and EU still leaves the fishing sector with many key questions unanswered, the mayor of a major French fishing port has warned… The hard-fought agreement between the two parties was resolved, agreeing to a five year transition period over fisheries after which the EU catch would have to reduce by 25%, according to the announcement on Thursday. This was a concession on the part of the UK, who had demanded a 60% fall at the start of the week…

“Despite Johnson calling the deal ‘reasonable’ for the fishing industry in Thursday’s press conference… ‘[the] industry will be bitterly disappointed that there is not more of [a] definitive break,’ Barrie Deas, chief executive of The National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations, said… For Deas, Johnson has given in to EU demands in order to secure a deal overall, making ‘significant concessions’ in the process. ‘It was clear that Boris Johnson wanted an overall trade deal and was willing to sacrifice fishing,’ he told the Press Association.

“With what appears to be a ‘bare-bones’ deal agreed, the fishing sector is not alone in its uncertainty. Agreements are yet to be made on the services industry – the biggest sector of the UK’s economy… Even with a deal made, parts of the UK’s financial services industry remain unconvinced… The deal still needs to be approved by both the UK parliament and the sovereign states of Europe, but most commentators think it will get the green light.”

Deutsche Welle wrote on December 25:

“The British government has said it would summon MPs back to parliament on December 30 to vote on the deal… British lawmakers are likely to be unhappy with the rushed approval process. Significant legislation typically takes months to pass through parliament and involves line-by-line scrutiny. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson may still face a revolt from Brexiteers in his ruling Conservative Party who don’t think the deal offers a clean enough break from Brussels. But he has an 80 seat majority in the lower parliamentary chamber, the House of Commons, and the opposition Labour party has said it would back the deal. Labour leader Keir Starmer said the agreement was thin, but it was better than no deal at all…

“… businesses will nonetheless face new red tape for imports and exports. And since the deal between the UK and EU was reached a week before the year’s end, people and businesses don’t have much time to prepare for changes coming on January 1. Meanwhile, citizens of the UK and EU will no longer be able to enjoy free movement to live, work and study between the two areas. Britons traveling to the EU’s Schengen passport-free zone can only stay for 90 days in every 180-day period. EU nationals can visit the UK for up to 180 days… But leaving the EU’s single market and customs union will undoubtedly have a negative impact on Britain’s economy.”

Worst Recession in 300 Years

CBS News wrote on December 26:

“The world is making adjustments following a new strain of the coronavirus, spreading in the United Kingdom and beyond as the country’s government says it has entered its worst recession in 300 years.”

Getting Ready for January 6

The Independent wrote on December 26:

“Donald Trump appeared to back the idea of trying to overturn the election result in Congress on 6 January in a series of tweets on Saturday morning in which he once again made… claims of electoral fraud. A joint session of House and Senate politicians will meet on 6 January to count the electoral votes, which gave a 306 to 232 victory to Joe Biden. In what is usually a rubber-stamping exercise, sealed certificates submitted by each state are opened by the vice president, who oversees the process. However, if there are written objections from members of both the House and Senate, a vote by both chambers can be triggered.

“Several Republican congressmen have said they will object. Incoming Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville has suggested he might, despite GOP leader Mitch McConnell telling his party members not to. On Saturday morning, Mr Trump tweeted: ‘The “Justice” Department and the FBI have done nothing about the 2020 Presidential Election Voter Fraud, the biggest SCAM in our nation’s history, despite overwhelming evidence. They should be ashamed. History will remember. Never give up. See everyone in D.C. on January 6th.’

“The tweet was immediately tagged with the phrase ‘This claim about election fraud is disputed’ by Twitter. In another tweet, also tagged as disputed, he wrote: ‘If a Democrat Presidential Candidate had an Election Rigged & Stolen, with proof of such acts at a level never seen before, the Democrat Senators would consider it an act of war, and fight to the death. Mitch & the Republicans do NOTHING, just want to let it pass. NO FIGHT!’

“A third read: ‘The U.S. Supreme Court has been totally incompetent and weak on the massive Election Fraud that took place in the 2020 Presidential Election. We have absolute PROOF, but they don’t want to see it – No “standing”, they say. If we have corrupt elections, we have no country!’

“Mr Trump then claimed his incoming successor was a ‘fake president’ and compared the 2020 election unfavourably to those held in Afghanistan. He wrote: ‘A young military man working in Afghanistan told me that elections in Afghanistan are far more secure and much better run than the USA’s 2020 Election. Ours, with its millions and millions of corrupt Mail-In Ballots, was the election of a third world country. Fake President!’…

“If Republican lawmakers do object during the vote-counting on 6 January, the ploy is unlikely to work. The rules stipulate that both chambers must vote to support the objections and the House of Representatives is controlled by the Democrats. The membership of the Senate will be decided on 5 January with two run-off elections in Georgia, where incumbent Republicans are trying to hang on to their seats. If Democrats win both, the parties will be even, with 50 senators each. In the case of tied votes, the president of the Senate – currently vice president Mike Pence… – casts a deciding vote.

“The move has been tried before, including in 2017 when half a dozen Democrats rose to object to Mr Trump’s victory. In a twist of irony they were overruled by none other than Joe Biden, who as vice president was overseeing the count. He pointed out that none of the objections had been properly made in writing, adding: ‘It’s over.’”

Gun Violence Spiking

The Associated Press wrote on December 28:

“In Detroit, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia and even smaller Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Milwaukee, 2020 has been deadly not only because of the pandemic, but because gun violence is spiking. Authorities and some experts say there is no one clear-cut reason for the spike. They instead point to social and economic upheaval caused by the COVID-19 virus, public sentiment toward police following George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis police custody and a historic shortage of jobs and resources in poorer communities as contributing factors. It’s happening in cities large and small, Democrat and Republican-led…

“What the COVID-19 virus did was exacerbate all of the frustration and anger that some in Black and brown communities already were dealing with, according to retired Michigan State University sociology professor Carl Taylor. ‘The COVID has been absolutely the trigger of an everlasting bomb that’s exploding in many parts of our community,’ he added. Nowhere is that more true than inside people’s homes. ‘The COVID crisis and the economic shutdown is forcing people into their homes, creating conditions where people are more volatile,’ said Kim Foxx, the top prosecutor in Cook County, which includes Chicago. And the most jarring statistic that illustrates that volatility is this: The number of domestic-related homicides in the nation’s third-largest city are up more than 60% compared with last year…”

Recalling Newsom

Fox News wrote on December 29:

“The California governor’s days could be limited thanks to a growing effort to invoke a statewide referendum. A campaign to recall [him] is picking up steam after individual donors offered tens of thousands of dollars each and they scored $500,000 from an Irvine-based consulting firm… Since 1911, Californians have attempted to recall their governor 55 times, but were successful only in 2003 against Gov. Gray Davis, who lost his special election to Arnold Schwarzenegger. That effort was propelled into the spotlight after Rep. Darrell Issa donated $2 million. After Prov 3:9 [LLC] became the first major donor in the effort to recall Newsom, other big donors may step forward.

“Fed up with the Democratic governor’s shutdown orders, which some found erratic, Rescue California organized to circulate petitions that call for Newsom’s governorship to be recalled and a special election to take place, well before the next governor’s race in November 2022. Newsom, currently in his first term, has not yet said if he plans to run again.

“Rescue California needs a minimum 1,495,709 valid signatures to recall the governor, and the group says it’s collected some 800,000 so far.”

Jens Spahn Germany’s Most Popular Politician

Newsmax wrote on December 27:

“German Health Minister Jens Spahn has taken over from Chancellor Angela Merkel as the nation’s most popular politician, a poll showed Sunday, highlighting his potential as a future leader of Europe’s biggest economy. Spahn, 40, has long been considered a rising star in Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, and is widely perceived to have made a key contribution to Germany’s relatively successful handling of the coronavirus pandemic. According to the Kantar poll in Bild newspaper, 52% of those surveyed said Spahn should play a major role in German politics in 2021, up from 28% at the end of 2019. Merkel’s approval rating was 51%, up 11 percentage points from the previous year…

“Merkel is stepping down following the next election due in September 2021 after more than a decade and a half in power. The CDU will elect a new leader and probable chancellor candidate at a virtual congress next month. Spahn has backed Armin Laschet, the premier of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, while Friedrich Merz, a long-time Merkel rival, and Norbert Roettgen, a former environment minister, are also running. The winner will likely be the conservative bloc’s candidate to succeed Merkel next year, though Bavaria Premier Markus Soeder, head of the CDU’s sister party in the southern state, may be asked to step in.

“Soeder is the third-most popular politician on 50%, the Kantar poll showed. Finance Minister and Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the Social Democrats’ chancellor candidate, was fourth on 47%, Merz scored 37% in sixth place, Laschet 31% in eighth and Roettgen 29% in ninth. While Spahn has thrown his support behind Laschet, there is an outside chance he could be tapped to run as the conservative candidate for chancellor if he is seen as having the best chance of winning the election.”

A Vaccine Passport

CNN Business wrote on December 28:

“Now that coronavirus vaccines are starting to roll out in the US and abroad, many people may be dreaming of the day when they can travel, shop and go to the movies again. But in order to do those activities, you may eventually need something in addition to the vaccine: a vaccine passport application.

“Several companies and technology groups have begun developing smartphone apps or systems for individuals to upload details of their Covid-19 tests and vaccinations, creating digital credentials that could be shown in order to enter concert venues, stadiums, movie theaters, offices, or even countries. The Common Trust Network, an initiative by Geneva-based nonprofit The Commons Project and the World Economic Forum, has partnered with several airlines including Cathay Pacific, JetBlue, Lufthansa, Swiss Airlines, United Airlines and Virgin Atlantic, as well as hundreds of health systems across the United States and the government of Aruba.

“The CommonPass app created by the group allows users to upload medical data such as a Covid-19 test result or, eventually, a proof of vaccination by a hospital or medical professional, generating a health certificate or pass in the form of a QR code that can be shown to authorities…”

Spain Will Register those who Choose not to get Vaccinated

The New York Times wrote on December 28:

“Spain plans to collect and share with other European Union nations information about residents who decide not to get vaccinated for Covid-19, the country’s health minister said on Monday.

“Spain’s health minister, Salvador Illa, stressed that vaccination would not be made compulsory, but, he said, a register would be set up that would include all the people who turned down the vaccine after being called up for vaccination by Spain’s public health service.

75-Year Old Man Gets Vaccinated and Dies two hours later

365 wrote on December 28:

“A 75-year old man from the norther[n] Israeli town of Beit Shaan died of a heart attack just two hours after getting Pfizer’s covid vaccine on Monday… The man got the vaccine at 8:30 in the morning and waited in the HMO. He was subsequently released to his home after he reported that he felt fine. At home, he lost consciousness and then passed away.

“Initial reports claimed that his death was unrelated to the vaccine however the Health Ministry is now investigating the circumstances of his death. The head of the Health Ministry, Dr Hezy Levi admitted to the Kan broadcasting network that he didn’t know if his death was tied to the vaccine, but said that a committee would be established to investigate it.”

Acknowledgement and Disclaimer

These Current Events are compiled and commented on by Norbert Link. We gratefully acknowledge the many contributions of news articles from our readership. The publication of articles in this section is not to be viewed as an endorsement or approval as to contents or accuracy of the selected articles, but they are published for the purpose of pointing at worldwide developments in the light of biblical end-time prophecy and godly instruction. Our own comments are provided in italics.

“A Disastrous Decision”

Deutsche Welle wrote on December 18:

“The European Union’s top court has deemed kosher and halal slaughter incompatible with animal welfare. This is a grim day for religious freedom in Europe…

“As European societies grow progressively secular, more and more people take offense to certain religious practices. This pertains to certain rituals, religious needs and sensitivities… Now, the ECJ has spoken on the matter. This is a very sad, indeed fateful, day for religious freedom in Europe.

“And by the way: Do not stress the absolute primacy of animal welfare and turn a blind eye to Europe’s meat industry. Consulting the figures quickly shows that kosher and halal slaughter are a marginal issue compared to any one of the continent’s meat processing plants, where livestock are pumped full of chemicals, industrially killed and processed…

According to Times of Israel, dated December 18, “Israel’s foreign ministry lashed out at the verdict as ‘sending a harsh message to all European Jewry. Beyond the fact that this decision harms the freedom of worship and religion in Europe, a core value of the EU, it also signals to Jewish communities that the Jewish way of life is unwanted in Europe,’ the ministry said in a statement.”

“A Disgrace”

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) wrote on December 18:

“Hungary’s deputy prime minister called Thursday’s ruling by the European Union’s highest court in favor of banning kosher slaughter a ‘disgrace… to the religious freedom and security of the European Jewish community and is yet one more sign of the total collapse of our traditional Judeo-Christian value system’…

“In Western Europe, liberals and right-wing nationalists have united over the past few years to oppose the ritual slaughter of animals and the circumcision of boys. Liberal circles cite animal and child welfare concerns, while nationalists perceive the customs foreign imports that need to be limited to mitigate the perceived effects of the arrival of millions of Muslims to Europe in recent years.

“Jews have strict laws to make the slaughter of animals as quick and painless [as] possible, requiring a trained professional slaughterer and extremely sharp and large knives, among other requirements… the ruling by the EU court… is likely to encourage other European courts to enact similar bans…”

Europe will soon begin a systematic persecution of Jews “and all those who keep the Sabbath,” to quote Martin Luther’s terminology when he advocated war against them.

Another Disgrace… Congress’ appalling “Coronavirus Relief” Bill

Breitbart wrote on December 22:

“President Donald Trump demanded Tuesday that Congress amend the coronavirus rescue package and government funding bill before sending it to his desk. The massive 5,593-page bill was passed by both the House and the Senate on Monday night but immediately drew criticism for only sending $600 of direct aid to each American… ‘I am asking Congress to amend this bill and increase the ridiculously low $600 to $2000, or $4000 for a couple,’ he said. The also president lamented that the bill also failed to provide substantial aid to restaurants and small businesses.

“Trump berated members of Congress for failing to even read the massive bill before passing it quickly in the last hours before the Christmas holiday. ‘It’s called the COVID relief bill, but it has almost nothing to do with COVID,’ he said. He criticized the billions appropriated for aid to countries like Cambodia, Burma, Egypt, countries in Central America, and even $25 million for ‘democracy and gender programs’ in Pakistan. The president also ridiculed the bill for including $40 million for the Kennedy Center, $1 billion for the Smithsonian, and $154 for the National Gallery of Art.

“‘Congress found plenty of money for foreign countries and lobbyists and special interests, while sending the bare minimum to the American people who need it,’ Trump said… ‘I am also asking Congress to immediately get rid of the wasteful and unnecessary items from this legislation and to send me a suitable bill or else the next administration will have to deliver a COVID relief package, and maybe that administration will be me and we will get it done,’ he concluded.”

After months and months of “negotiations,” to pass such a bill is appalling. Only very few members of Congress had the guts to object to and not to approve this bill. Shame on the rest who approved without having even read it.

Americans in Revolt

Reason wrote on December 16:

“Evidence from around the country shows that many Americans are thoroughly sick of impoverishing, socially isolating lockdown orders, and are revolting against the often-hypocritical politicians who issue them…

“From coast to coast, businesses and individuals are ignoring restrictive rules that threaten their livelihoods, stifle social contact, and threaten to strangle the necessary interactions of everyday life… On the West Coast, many restaurants also open their door to customers despite state orders to the contrary…

“The city council in Solvang, a tourism-fueled community in Santa Barbara County, recently voted to ignore shutdown orders that threaten locals’ livelihoods…

“None of this should be a surprise. Small businesses have taken it in the teeth from restrictions that cut them off from customers and cash… many of them closing permanently. Restaurants… have been especially hard hit…

“Politicians actively fanned the flames of resistance with their ‘rules are only for the little people’ flouting of their own orders. Amidst a flurry of high-profile examples, California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s expensive gathering with other officials at The French Laundry stands out for its arrogance…

“In distress and after due consideration, many Americans have decided that they shouldn’t comply. Individually and in organized groups, often with the support of their communities, people are pushing back against lockdown orders that they find more threatening than COVID-19. Mayor de Blasio, Cuomo, and their colleagues near and far may loudly announce new restrictions on life, but they’re going to find ever-shrinking ranks willing to listen.”

Many Americans who are facing personal ruin and destruction, will not tolerate governmental Corona measures and restrictions for much longer.

Defiance to Newsom’s Lockdown Orders in San Diego

The following sections describe the sad events happening in San Diego, reflecting what is occurring in much of the country.

NBC San Diego wrote on December 17:

“Thursday afternoon, a San Diego judge held a last-minute hearing to clarify a bombshell court order allowing strip clubs, strip clubs that serve food, and thus restaurants to reopen [thereby overruling and nullifying Gov. Newsom’s lockdown order]…”

Fox 5 San Diego wrote on December 18:

“A California appeals court [from the Fourth District Court of Appeals, District One] on Friday blocked a judge’s order allowing San Diego County restaurants to resume indoor and outdoor dining, keeping Gov. Gavin Newsom’s stay-at-home edict in full effect. A three-judge panel’s brief order gave no explanation and came almost immediately after the state asked for emergency intervention…”

What is happening in California is appalling. A recall effort is underway to depose Emperor Newsom, due to his perceived incompetence and ongoing hypocrisy, and it will have to be seen whether it is going to be successful.1,5 million votes are needed, and by now, half of the votes have been obtained.  In 2003, Gray Davis was recalled and Arnold Schwarzenegger replaced him.

CBS 8 wrote on December 20:

“Restaurant owners in San Diego are still pushing back against this week’s court ruling that shut them down again. The on again, off again shut-down of restaurants has frustration levels running high in San Diego County. More and more restaurant owners said they won’t shut down despite the public health order…

“Dozens of people came out in North Park on Saturday to show their support for struggling restaurant owners who want to stay open… the rally was held so more restaurant owners can know how to stand up for themselves… [One restaurant owner] said police have already given her a citation and San Diego County has issued a cease & desist order. She said she’s hired a lawyer and will continue to remain open.”

Do they really have another choice if they want to stay alive? Note the next articles.

Government, not Coronavirus, Is Killing Small Business

The Ron Paul Institute wrote on December 21:“A video of a confrontation between Ventura County, California health officials and restaurant owner Anton Van Happen has gone viral. The health officials were ordering Mr. Van Happen to close his business because he allegedly violated California’s ban on outdoor dining. Mr. Van Happen asked the health officials if the government will pay his employees and his rent while his business is indefinitely closed.

“Mr. Van Happen is hardly the only small business owner worried about how to pay bills during the lockdowns. Many small businesses operate on a narrow profit margin, so being forced to ‘temporarily’ shut down or limit the number of customers they can serve is a virtual death sentence. The lockdowns have already caused as many as 200,000 small businesses to permanently close. Lockdowns, by shrinking the number of employers, lead to long-term unemployment or lower wages for many workers.

“While governments have terrorized small businesses, they have typically deemed the big chain stores ‘essential businesses’ so they can remain open. The lockdowns are thus another government policy that gives big businesses a competitive advantage over their smaller competitors. The benefits big businesses get from the lockdowns — including fewer competitors, more customers, and a job market with more workers competing for fewer jobs — may explain why many big businesses are not fighting the lockdowns… Sadly, even many progressives are unquestioningly parroting the Covid propaganda and demonizing those who dissent…

“Resistance to Covid tyranny is growing as more people figure out that lockdowns and mandates are both unnecessary and harmful. This resistance was largely started by small business owners faced with a choice between obeying the government or making sure they, and their employees, can feed their families. Small business owners have been leaders in recent anti-lockdown protests across America.

“Eventually the resistance will grow to the point where the politicians will be forced to either double down on authoritarianism or admit the lockdowns were a mistake. Either way, those of us who know the truth must resist the Covid tyranny until government officials no longer terrorize small businesses for the crime of serving willing consumers.”

Mandates all about Submission

Breitbart wrote on December 20:

“Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) told Breitbart News on Saturday that mask mandates — ostensibly issued for public health purposes — ‘are all about submission’…

“‘…nobody can eat in a restaurant, there’s no science behind any of that. Middle seat missing on the airplane, you really think you’re like 12 inches from the other guy instead of six inches, it really makes a difference?  None of it really makes any sense, and there’s no epidemiological evidence… If Fauci has his way, you’ll never give up on the mask… It’s all about submission. They want you to submit to their will…’”

Breitbart wrote on December 19:

“Jonathan Philip Chadwick Sumption, who still serves on the Supplementary Panel of Britain’s top court,… questioned the moral and practical basis for [a] lockdown… ‘A policy that only works by suppressing our humanity is unlikely to work at all. Life is risky. A policy that seeks to eliminate risk ends up trying to eliminate life. We have to re-examine the whole concept that governments can simply turn social existence on and off at will, treating us as passive instruments of state policy.’”

True, but what governmental leaders are listening?

Worst Hacking in US History?

Times of Israel and The Associated Press wrote on December 18:

“US officials suspect a massive hacking operation that hit numerous government agencies and has been linked to Russia breached networks tied to the country’s nuclear weapons stockpile… The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said… that the intrusion had compromised federal agencies as well as ‘critical infrastructure’ in a sophisticated attack that was hard to detect and will be difficult to undo…

“CISA directed all civilian agencies of the federal government to remove SolarWinds [software] from their servers. The cybersecurity agencies of Britain and Ireland issued similar alerts…

“[A] US official… said the hack was severe and extremely damaging… ‘This is looking like it’s the worst hacking case in the history of America,’ the official said. ‘They got into everything.’ The official said the administration is working on the assumption that most, if not all, government agencies were compromised but the extent of the damage was not yet known.

“The intentions of the perpetrators appear to be espionage and gathering valuable information rather than destruction… Members of Congress said they feared that taxpayers’ personal information could have been exposed because the IRS is part of Treasury, which used SolarWinds software.”

Trump Disputes Severity

Sputnik News reported on December 19:

“The extent of the hacking attack on US companies and entities is far less severe than mass media picture it to be, US President Donald Trump said on Saturday on his Twitter account… Trump berated media outlets for excluding China’s potential involvement in the attack, which, he believes, might be the case…”

 Secretary of State Mike Pompeo disagrees. Before Trump spoke out on Twitter, Fox News reported on December 19 about Pompeo’s statements on Friday:

“Pompeo says Russia was ‘pretty clearly’ behind the gravest cyberattack against the United States on record, the first administration official to publicly tie the Kremlin to the widespread intrusion.”

Close Military Ties between Russia and China

The Associated Press reported on December 22:

“Russian and Chinese bombers flew a joint patrol mission over the Western Pacific Tuesday in a show of increasingly close military ties between Moscow and Beijing… The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that the joint mission was intended to ‘develop and deepen the comprehensive Russia-China partnership, further increase the level of cooperation between the two militaries, expand their ability for joint action and strengthen strategic stability.’…

“It follows Russian President Vladimir Putin’s statement in October that the idea of a future Russia-China military alliance can’t be ruled out — a signal of deepening military cooperation between Moscow and Beijing amid growing tensions in their relations with the United States… Putin also noted in October that Russia has been sharing highly sensitive military technologies with China that helped significantly bolster its defense capability.”

According to prophecy, a huge, powerful and hostile military alliance between Russia, China and other Far Eastern countries will form.

Big Wild Protest on January 6?

Fox News wrote on December 19:

“President Trump on Saturday promised a ‘wild’ protest in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, as he continued to deny that he lost the election. ‘Statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 Election,’ he tweeted. ‘Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!’ Jan. 6 is the day Congress will meet to accept the presidential election results…

‘Some Trump allies have planned to call for a debate in the House when the election results are received. However,… Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell asked his Republican colleagues in the Senate not to contest the election results on Jan. 6, when a joint session of Congress formally accepts the count… A majority of both chambers of Congress (including the Democratic-controlled House) would be needed to upend the election results.

“Meanwhile, Trump has been critical of those in his party who have accepted Biden’s victory. After McConnell recognized Biden as president-elect in a Tuesday speech on the floor of the Senate, Trump responded by calling on him and other Republicans to ‘get tougher.’… ‘Republican Senators have to get tougher, or you won’t have a Republican Party anymore. We won the Presidential Election, by a lot. FIGHT FOR IT. Don’t let them take it away!’ Trump charged on Twitter.”

What’s going on with McConnell and the Republican Party? Are they trying to commit suicide?

Trump: Biden “Won” through “Monstrous Fraud”

Newsmax wrote on December 23:

“President Donald Trump Tuesday night released a 14-minute long video through Facebook declaring the election had been stolen from him in favor of Joe Biden because of ‘monstrous fraud.’… Trump said he was leading by ‘several hundreds of thousands of votes’ by midnight on election night, but that soon disappeared. He said that he was ahead in several key battleground states like Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, and Biden would not have been able to catch up to him. ‘Then suddenly everything started to disappear, everything started to change,’ said Trump, adding that he was starting to get calls from leaders congratulating him. ‘The vote-counting abruptly stopped in multiple states.’

“By the next morning, the states were starting to swing the other way, said Trump. For example, he said that at 6:31 a.m., Michigan had a sudden boost of votes that went more than 90% for Biden, and soon after that, other states started reporting that the former vice president was winning. ‘These gigantic and ridiculously one-sided spikes were miraculously just enough to push Joe Biden into the lead in all of the key swing states,’ Trump said. ‘These glaring anomalies are just the tip of the iceberg.’

“He also said that in individual states:

“Pennsylvania broke state law by suspending signature verification requirements. Michigan’s Democrat secretary of state ‘illegally flooded the state with absentee ballot applications’ even though Michigan law strictly limits the distribution of absentee ballots. Wisconsin’s Democrat cities deployed over 500 unmanned, unsecured ballot drop boxes. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger started processing ballots ‘weeks before Election Day’ and also ‘destroyed the signature verification systems in violation of the law.’ Absentee ballot rejection rates proved that ‘hundreds of thousands of illegitimate ballots’ had been counted in key states, which was ‘sufficient to change the election results all in their own.’ ‘The same phenomena occurred in Pennsylvania and other states,’ he said. ‘They were accepting all of these ballots, many of which were absolutely illegal.’

“The rejection rates for ballots in most states, he added, were ‘magically’ the lowest they had been. ‘The only possible explanation is that tens of thousands of ballots were unlawfully processed … hundreds and hundreds of witnesses have come forward to testify under penalty of perjury about the cheating and fraud they saw with their own eyes.’

“He also mentioned video showing security camera footage from Georgia ‘that shows officials telling poll watchers to leave the room before pulling suitcases of ballots out from under the tables and continuing to count for hours.’”

As we have pointed out throughout our reporting, evidence for claims of voter fraud and voter “irregularities” seems to be very convincing.

Franklin Graham: The Election Was Stolen

Newsmax added on December 19:

“Franklin Graham said Saturday that President Donald Trump has been right on many issues about how he has been treated during his presidency, and when he says the election was rigged or stolen, ‘I tend to believe him.’ ‘The President has been maligned, falsely accused, and attacked on every front since before the election in 2016,’ Graham posted on his Facebook page…

“Graham commented that in 2016, when Trump told Americans the government was spying on him, ‘the media said that he was paranoid.’ ‘The Obama administration and the Democrats said that this was an absolute lie and that Donald Trump was not fit to be president, only for us to find out later that the U.S. government did spy on Donald Trump, and what he had said was in fact true,’ said Graham.

“Then, for the next two years, Trump was under investigation for collusion with the Russians, but even though he said there was no collusion, ‘the media and the Democrats’ said there was. ‘After an investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, it turned out to be false — there was no collusion,’ said Graham. ‘President Trump was right again. Then the Democrats impeached him over a phone call.’

“He concluded his message by asking for prayers for Trump, Joe Biden, and the nation ‘that we will get through this, and for God’s will to be done.’”

Amen to that.

Pat Robertson: Trump Should give Up and Move On

Mediaite wrote on December 21:

“Pat Robertson thinks that President Donald Trump is being ‘erratic’ and needs to move on from his ‘alternate reality’ about the election. Yes, that Pat Robertson… Back in October, Robertson said God told him Trump would win… before adding, ‘It’s going to lead to civil unrest, and then a war against Israel and so forth.’… But on Monday… after The 700 Club aired a report about Trump considering a 2024 run, Robertson… added Trump shouldn’t run in 2024, saying such a move would be a ‘mistake’…

“Earlier on in the program, Robertson acknowledged Biden’s victory…”

We wonder (not really) whether God “told” him that too…

“With a ‘Little’ Help from His Friends…” Joe Biden in Trouble

Newsmax reported on December 18:

“Fifty-six percent of Americans believe it is likely Joe Biden was consulted and perhaps profited from his son Hunter’s overseas business deals, including at least one involving a company in mainland China, according to a poll by Rasmussen Reports… 52% believe many news organizations ignored the Hunter Biden story to aid his father’s presidential campaign.”

“It was reported that according to a poll, “one of every six Biden voters (17%) said they would not have voted for him had they known the facts about several of the news stories the national media refused to investigate thoroughly because they might have hurt his candidacy. Had one of six voters not voted for Biden in the swing states, or voted for Trump instead, the election would have turned out differently.

“The survey showed that 45.1% of Biden voters were unaware of the financial scandals of Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, and how Hunter’s business had been wrapped up in Biden’s work in foreign affairs while vice president under President Barack Obama. It further showed 35.4% of Biden voters were unaware of his former aide Tara Reade’s allegation that Biden sexually assaulted her on Capitol Hill in the 1990s, and 25.3% of his voters didn’t know that Sen. Kamala Harris, D-California, Biden’s vice presidential running mate, was ranked America’s most ‘progressive’ senator in 2019” (Chattanooga Times Free Press, dated November 26, 2020).

Another poll indicated that Biden would have lost the presidential race if the mainstream news media hadn’t covered up stories about alleged scandals involving the former vice president… For instance, 35.4 percent of those voting for him admitted their news sources didn’t report on the Hunter Biden scandal. If they had known about it, 9.4 percent of them would have changed their vote. That could have moved six of the swing states into the Trump column, giving him a decisive 311 electoral votes…Studies by the Media Research Center show the mainstream news media’s reporting about Trump has been more than 90 percent negative his entire presidency and consistently failed to cover his administration’s accomplishments” (Sky 21 sand CBN, dated November 21).

The Fight for and against Abortion—“Biden-Harris-Becerra: The Unholy Abortion Trinity”

Israel 365 wrote on December 21:

“On Wednesday, President Trump’s Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar announced that it will be enacting a measure withholding $200 million in Medicaid funding from California in the first quarter of 2021 due to the state’s requirement that state insurance companies provide abortion insurance coverage. Azar threatened to continue to penalize the state $200 million for every quarter it does not comply…

“This comes in the wake of a decision by the department’s Office of Civil Rights in January that California’s requirement that state-regulated health plans cover abortions discriminated ‘against health care plans and issuers that did, or would otherwise, limit or exclude abortion coverage in their plan products.’… the decision to bypass the federal regulations was carried out under the attorney generalcy of Kamala Harris, the current Democratic candidate for Vice President. Harris is a strong advocate for abortion…

“California’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom lashed out at President Trump…

“Many pundits have challenged Azar’s threat to continue penalizing California for non-compliance, suggesting that the Trump administration may not remain in office. If this dire reality materializes, it is unlikely that California will be forced to comply as Joe Biden, the Democratic candidate, announced Xavier Becerra as his candidate for Secretary of Health and Human Services. Becerra served as Harris’s assistant, eventually replacing her as California Attorney General…”

The problem is, in withholding Medicaid funding, Californians in the program are penalized who are opposed to abortion.

Biden Would Not Sign US-UK Deal

Express wrote on December 18:

“JOE BIDEN has dashed hopes of a post-Brexit trade deal between the UK and US when he succeeds Donald Trump in January… the former vice-president has said he will adopt a similar ‘America First’ policy as Mr Trump and will ‘fight like hell’ to invest in US firms and employees… Biden, who served as second in command during the Barack Obama administration, has previously made his anti-Brexit views known…

“But, on Thursday, the UK was given an unexpected boost after Donald Trump’s trade representative confirmed he is in talks with the UK over an agreement before the 45th US President leaves office next month. The Department for International Trade has already confirmed post-Brexit trade deals have been secured with 58 countries – including Canada, Japan and Mexico. The agreements are worth £198billion and covers 96 percent of non-EU trade.”

A Brexit Deal? Did Johnson Cave in?

Express wrote on December 23:

“France has boasted Britain has made significant concessions over fishing in Brexit trade talks over the past two days with a trade deal between the UK and European Union reported to be on the verge of being agreed. The French official, who declined to be named, told Reuters: ‘The British have made huge concessions in the negotiations in the past 48 hours.’ The insider also warned that on fishing in particular, the latest position from the UK was ‘far’ from the three-year access to British waters and 80 percent reduction in quotas offered by London a week ago. Fisheries has proved to be a major stumbling block in post-Brexit trade deal talks as the end of the transition period approaches on December 31.

“The Prime Minister has vowed to take back control of the UK’s 200 nautical mile coastline and it is thought this would involve cutting EU access by up to 60 percent over a three-year period. But, with just days to go in negotiations, reports suggested the UK had caved in on this and offered to reduce the amount of fish EU fishermen can catch by around a third over the next five years. The prospect of handing large swathes of fish back to EU vessels has been condemned by UK fishing group Fishing for Leave who branded the proposal ‘abysmal’.”

Subsequently, on December 24, it was announced that a deal was reached. The details are sketchy, and while every side claims victory, reality might be different. It has already emerged that the British fisheries are unhappy.  

Newsmax commented on December 24:

“While the last-minute deal prevents the most acrimonious ending to the saga on Jan. 1, the United Kingdom is set for a much more distant relationship with its biggest trade partner than almost anyone expected at the time of the 2016 referendum… Without the collective might of the EU, the United Kingdom will stand largely alone…”

Sky News wrote on December 24:

“The deal will be judged by the public on a broad set of criteria.

“Does this deal satisfy everyone who voted to leave the European Union in the referendum on 23 June 2016?

“Does the British public think it gives the nation the freedom to do things it could not do as members of the EU?

“Does it cause businesses and individuals difficulties in their dealings with the EU, or have sensible compromises been found?

“How easy will it be to live, work and deal with people across the Channel and the Irish Sea?

“These questions are simply not possible to answer today. Britain has begun a journey away from the EU and this is only the first step.

“The detail of the deal has not been seen, only the slogans have.

“Only once businesses are forced to follow its strictures and courts interpret its meaning, when it comes into force on 1 January, will the deal start to have an impact.

“And only then can we truly know how good a deal it is.”

Negative Reaction to Corona Vaccination

Breitbart wrote on December 16:

“A health worker in Alaska experienced a ‘serious reaction’ and was subsequently hospitalized after receiving a dose of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine… The worker had ‘no history of drug allergies,’ the [New York] Times reported…

“This month, Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) confirmed that it was providing ‘resuscitation facilities’ in vaccination centers following reports of two individuals experiencing anaphylactic reactions after receiving the vaccine. However, the two health care workers reportedly had histories of allergic reactions. ‘Resuscitation facilities should be available at all times for all vaccinations. Vaccination should only be carried out in facilities where resuscitation measures are available’” the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said, offering ‘precautionary advice.’”

Some local hospitals have halted vaccinations due to allergic reactions of patients.

Censuring “Phony Claims” against Vaccinations

The Times of Israel wrote on December 20:

 “As Israel kicked off its mass inoculation drive on Sunday, state prosecutors warned that the distribution of false material about the vaccine could amount to a criminal offense as it was announced that Facebook deleted dozens of posts containing falsehoods about the inoculation… Additionally, four groups were removed from Facebook for propagating false information about vaccinations, prosecutors said…

“Posts that fall afoul of the policy could include phony claims about vaccine safety, efficacy, ingredients or side effects… Twitter said last week that it will begin removing misinformation about COVID-19 vaccinations from its site. It listed among posts that will [be] removed as those including false claims that the virus is not real, debunked claims about the effects of receiving the vaccine and baseless claims that suggest that immunizations are used to harm or control people.

“Health Minister Yuli Edelstein… last week criticized Israelis who spread fake news and unverified claims about coronavirus vaccines, saying it could cause people to die if they take their advice and refuse to vaccinate.”

The question is, what is the exact nature of so-called phony claims?

Reluctance to Take Vaccines in Muslim Communities

The Associated Press reported on December 20:

“As companies race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine and countries scramble to secure doses, questions about the use of pork products — banned by some religious groups — has raised concerns about the possibility of disrupted immunization campaigns.

“Pork-derived gelatin has been widely used as a stabilizer to ensure vaccines remain safe and effective during storage and transport. Some companies have worked for years to develop pork-free vaccines: Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis has produced a pork-free meningitis vaccine, while Saudi- and Malaysia-based AJ Pharma is currently working on one of their own. But demand, existing supply chains, cost and the shorter shelf life of vaccines not containing porcine gelatin means the ingredient is likely to continue to be used in a majority of vaccines for years, said Dr. Salman Waqar, general secretary of the British Islamic Medical Association.

“Spokespeople for Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca have said that pork products are not part of their COVID-19 vaccines. But limited supply and preexisting deals worth millions of dollars with other companies means that some countries with large Muslim populations, such as Indonesia, will receive vaccines that have not yet been certified to be gelatin-free. This presents a dilemma for religious communities, including Orthodox Jews and Muslims, where the consumption of pork products is deemed religiously unclean, and how the ban is applied to medicine, he said.

“‘There’s a difference of opinion amongst Islamic scholars as to whether you take something like pork gelatin and make it undergo a rigorous chemical transformation,’ Waqar said. ‘Is that still considered to be religiously impure for you to take?’ The majority consensus from past debates over pork gelatin use in vaccines is that it is permissible under Islamic law… There’s a similar assessment by a broad consensus of religious leaders in the Orthodox Jewish community as well. ‘According to the Jewish law, the prohibition on eating pork or using pork is only forbidden when it’s a natural way of eating it,’ said Rabbi David Stav, chairman of Tzohar, a rabbinical organization in Israel. If ‘it’s injected into the body, not (eaten) through the mouth,’ then there is ‘no prohibition and no problem, especially when we are concerned about sicknesses,’ he said.

“Yet there have been dissenting opinions on the issue — some with serious health consequences for Indonesia, which has the world’s largest Muslim population, some 225 million. In 2018, the Indonesian Ulema Council, the Muslim clerical body that issues certifications that a product is halal, or permissible under Islamic law, decreed that the measles and rubella vaccines were ‘haram,’ or unlawful, because of the gelatin. Religious and community leaders began to urge parents to not allow their children to be vaccinated… A decree was later issued by the Muslim clerical body saying it was permissible to receive the vaccine…  In Malaysia, where the halal status of vaccines has been identified as the biggest issue among Muslim parents, stricter laws have been enacted so that parents must vaccinate their children or face fines and jail time. In Pakistan, where there has been waning vaccine confidence for religious and political reasons, parents have been jailed for refusing to vaccinate their children against polio… In Indonesia, the government has already said it will include the Muslim clerical body in the COVID-19 vaccine procurement and certification process.”

Please note our Q&A on the issue addressed in the above-quoted article, titled, “Does it violate the Biblical injunction against consumption of unclean meat to use medicines, vitamins and mineral supplements derived from unclean animals? Is it a violation to use gelatin products, which might be derived from parts of unclean animals?” 

Vatican: OK to Get Vaccination

The Associated Press wrote on December 21:

“The Vatican on Monday declared that it is ‘morally acceptable’ for Roman Catholics to receive COVID-19 vaccines based on research that used cells derived from aborted fetuses, guidance that came after some churchmen in the United States argued that such products were immoral… The doctrinal office pointed out that bishops, Catholic groups and experts have offered ‘diverse and sometimes conflicting pronouncements’ on the matter…

“The Vatican concluded that ‘it is morally acceptable to receive COVID-19 vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted fetuses’ in the research and production process when ‘ethically irreproachable’ vaccines aren’t available to the public… The Vatican didn’t name any of the COVID-19 vaccines already being given to people in some countries or authorized to be used soon…

“The Vatican… noted that ‘health authorities do not allow citizens to choose the vaccine with which to be inoculated.’ Given such circumstances, it is morally acceptable to receive vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted fetuses, the Vatican said. The Vatican said the COVID-19 vaccines that are getting rolled out or are expected to be soon used cell lines ‘drawn from tissue obtained from two abortions that occurred in the last century.’…

“The Roman Catholic church’s doctrinal orthodoxy office said ‘vaccination is not, as a rule, a moral obligation’ and must be voluntary. Still, it said, from an ethical point of view, ‘the morality of vaccination depends not only on the duty to protect one’s own health but also on the duty to pursue the common good.’”

So, that settles it????

Catholic-Protestant Reconciliation  

Philstar wrote on December 23:

“Pope Francis is being asked to lift the excommunication of Martin Luther and thus seal Catholic-Lutheran reconciliation. Cleansing the legacy of the 16th-century reformer would remove a major block to Christian unity, influential ecumenical thinkers say. A papal initiative shall be reciprocated by Lutheran leaders. Other Protestant churches will be motivated into deeper talks for communion.

“Harsh words exchanged in the wake of Luther’s schism 500 years ago need to be taken back. That will cap 50 years of efforts at Catholic-Lutheran mending… A date is suggested for the historic restoration: Jan. 3, 2021… On that day five centuries ago, Pope Leo X excommunicated Luther… Four years earlier the German monk had nailed his Ninety-Five Theses on the Wittenberg church door. Aided by newly invented printing, the schism spread fast across Christian Europe.

“By June 1520 Leo X issued a bull ‘condemning, reprobating and rejecting completely’ 41 of Luther’s theses. He called them ‘errors… either heretical, scandalous, false, offensive to pious ears or seductive of simple minds, and against Catholic truth.’…

“Luther reaffirmed his declarations and added, ‘Whoever wrote that bull, he is Antichrist.’… he and fellow-reformer Philip Melancthon burned a copy of the bull and other papal documents. Expulsion followed… Leo X censured Luther as a ‘misguided,’ ‘debased,’ ‘depraved,’ ‘damnable …heretic.’ Persecutions and wars ensued as monarchs and nobles took sides.

“Rescinding the excommunication would delete such descriptions… the Lutheran World Federation [is being urged] to revoke Luther’s condemnation of the pope as ‘Antichrist.’”

That figures. If the Pope of the Mother church is “Antichrist,” what then happens to the daughter churches? (See Revelation 17).

Israel’s Government Collapses

CNN wrote on December 22:

“The Israeli government collapsed on Tuesday…  after the country’s parliament failed to meet a deadline for passage of the 2020 and 2021 budgets. Israel will now head to its fourth elections in two years probably on March 23 next year. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his erstwhile coalition partner, Blue and White leader Benny Gantz, sought to blame one another for the collapse of their seven-month-old government…

“After three inconclusive elections, and with the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic underway, Gantz agreed to join Netanyahu in April, in what was described as an ‘emergency’ coalition government – even though he’d campaigned on a platform that ruled out sitting with the Prime Minister while he faced corruption charges.

“Under the deal, the prime ministership would have been rotated between the two party leaders: Netanyahu would serve first, and then give way to Gantz after 18 months. The only loophole in the complicated deal was if lawmakers failed to agree to a budget before Tuesday’s midnight deadline — a failure that has now come to pass…

“Opinion polls suggest Netanyahu’s Likud party is again on track to win the most Knesset seats in the next election…”

Trump, Johnson and Netanyahu seem to be in serious difficulties. But we have not heard the latest from these three individuals.

Getting Closer to the Third Temple?

Israel 365 wrote on December 20:

 “Israel’s coalition chair and lawmaker (Likud) Amit Halevi lit Chanukah candles on Tuesday outside of the Temple Mount. Halevi then entered the holy site and recalled how Matityahu of the Hasmonean Dynasty ‘illuminated our light.’ … Members of Knesset… are not allowed on the site without the Prime Minister’s explicit approval which means that Halevi had to have gotten the green light from PM Benjamin Netanyahu to ascend the mount…

“Halevi was impressed with the changes taking place on the Temple Mount and said that step-by-step, Israel is getting closer to the Temple… Halevi is a member of the Levite tribe…

“Excited to enter the Temple Mount, Halevi quoted Zechariah: ‘Does anyone scorn a day of small beginnings?’ (Zechariah 4:10). He also said that he is there to ‘strengthen the Temple, the House of Prayer.’ He then called on Israel to strengthen the light of the Temple and the light of God.”

A third temple will be built soon…

Germany… Wake Up!

Deutsche Welle reported on December 19:

“Geneticist Wolfram Henn says those who turn down the new COVID-19 vaccine should carry a note also refusing intensive care treatment… [He said they] should not be able to access ventilators and other emergency measures if they become ill…  ‘Whoever wants to refuse the vaccination outright, he should, please also always carry a document with the inscription: “I don’t want to be vaccinated!… I want to leave the protection against the disease to others! I want, if I get sick, to leave my intensive care bed and ventilator to others.’

“He also slammed conspiracy theorists and coronavirus deniers, saying that decisions should not be left to ‘lateral thinkers and vaccination opponents.’ …Germany has played host to a growing movement against coronavirus-related measures. Several large protests have been held in cities including the capital Berlin and eastern city of Leipzig. Last month,  a protest in Leipzig drew over 20,000 participants.”

Henn also blamed vaccination opponents for the “damage” they cause for parents who stay at home with their children or for restaurant owners who cannot open their business or for the unemployed, according to Focus, December 19. Talking about twisted and perverted sick thinking! If this does not remind us of Nazi Germany’s propaganda and the despicable “Judenstern,” what does? Sadly, many Germans believed Hitler and Goering, and today, many Germans seem to believe the coronavirus propaganda demanding lockdowns, if polls are accurate [which they might not be].

Germany and other European Countries Ban All Flights from UK

 Deutsche Welle reported on December 20:

“German Health Minister Jens Spahn announced Germany is ‘banning all passenger flights from the UK to Germany as of midnight.’ The decision comes after several European countries put a stop to all flights coming from the UK. ‘Tomorrow we plan to restrict all travel to GB (Great Britain) & South Africa with a government order in light of the reports over a mutation of the virus,’ Spahn tweeted. Berlin was taking this step due to ‘the reported mutation of the coronavirus,’ according to government spokeswoman Martina Fietz… The federal police also warned that people should only travel to the UK ‘if it is absolutely necessary.’

“The interior ministry has instructed federal police to systematically check travelers from the UK and South Africa, with immediate effect…”

Express wrote on December 21:

“Spain will ban all travellers from Britain except Spanish nationals and residents from entering the country from Tuesday… Controls at the border with Gibraltar… [will] be stepped up… the entry ban for non-residents had been coordinated with neighbouring Portugal… A number of European nations among others have shut off travel ties to Britain after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned that the new strain of the coronavirus was a danger to the country.”

That “danger” is not even medically supported. “Health officials said this new variant doesn’t appear to be deadlier…” (The Week, dated December 21). But the paranoia spreads, and the UK has become the sick man of Europe, being isolated by just about everybody. First, it was reported that the USA remained “Britain’s only friend” for not banning flights from the UK (The Sun, dated December 20), but now it is said that that decision is under consideration.

Over 40 countries in Europe, Asia, South America, the Caribbean and the Middle East have restricted travel from the UK and in some cases, also travel from other countries that have documented cases with the variant (CNN, December 23).

Breitbart added on December 20:

“All may not be as it seems with respect to the travel bans, however, at least where France and the EU are concerned, with both anti-Brexit and pro-Brexit commentators indicating that it is really about damaging commerce in order to strong-arm the British into signing a disadvantageous trade agreement.”

Europe to Intervene in Ethiopia?

The European Council for Foreign Relations wrote on December 15:

“The recent war in Ethiopia may at first glance appear to be a short, sharp internal conflict with few implications for the Horn of Africa – or for Europe. But the war is far from over, and the risks it creates are spreading…

“The United States has all but confirmed that the Eritrean Army joined the military campaign on the side of the Ethiopian government. European countries’ diplomatic response to the crisis should focus on the destructive relationship between Eritrea’s participation in the war…

“Although European governments are considering whether to cut some of their aid to Ethiopia in response to these alleged crimes, their position on the political solution is less forceful. They are deferring to African leaders on the issue. But, given that the African Union will struggle to confront a member state as influential as Ethiopia, this deference is unlikely to help Europeans achieve their aims.

“Europe is currently the only actor that can bring the international community together on the conflict in Ethiopia… the AU and well-intentioned states on the Horn of Africa will need Europe’s political support if they are to help resolve the conflict.

“European leaders could begin to help by gathering the currently disparate international players in the region, with a view to fashioning a core group that can achieve progress towards a political solution. Europeans can help avert further conflict in Ethiopia – but they need to act now.”

The relationship between Europe and Ethiopia will be of prophetic relevance. Please read our free booklet, “Middle Eastern and African Nations in Bible Prophecy.”

European Bishops Criticize Europe’s Attack on Religious Freedom

Vatican News reported on December 20:

“The Bishops of the European Union… argue that proposed norms for dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic interfere with freedom of religion and belief…

“The Bishops stress that the European Commission’s Document highlights the importance of ‘avoiding large services or using online, TV or radio broadcast, in case of ceremonies, […] and banning of communal singing.’ In response to this, the Bishops state that ‘while understanding the concern behind the recommendation, COMECE cannot support the method for which the EU institutions opted in providing such an orientation.’

“In their statement, the bishops reiterate the message addressed to the EU and Member States on behalf of all EU Bishops’ Conferences which stresses that ‘the respect for the freedom of religion of believers in full respect of sanitary requirements is a crucial element for the Church in many EU Member States during the current pandemic.’

“Finally, the statement reads that ‘non-binding EU recommendations on this matter, especially if taken without consulting with Churches and religious communities, may put at risk the efforts made in these recent months by EU Member States, together with local Churches and religious communities, to ensure that health measures are in place during celebrations, while avoiding violations of freedom of religion.’”

In the future, the ten kings of Revelation 17 who collaborate with the Church at first, will hate and participate in destroying it.

Persecution by Finland’s Government for Quoting the Bible

International Family News reported on December 14:

“Last Thursday it became known that the Prosecutor General of Finland Raja Toivieinen opened the fifth criminal case against the former Minister of the Interior of Finland (2011-2015), the former leader of the Finnish Christian Democrats Party (2004-2015) and the current MP Eduskunta (Finnish Parliament) from this party, Päivi Räsiänen. In three of the five criminal cases, Ms. Ryasyanen has already received an indictment and is awaiting trial. Päivi Räsianen is a doctor, wife of a Lutheran pastor and mother of five children. She’ll turn 61 this December… She is accused of… ‘hate speech.’ [She] quoted the Bible and called homosexual acts sinful…

“The problems of Räsianen started after the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, to which it belongs, became the official partner of the gay parade in June 2019. Rässianen wrote about it in Facebook, accompanying the news with a picture of the Bible, which was opened on the page with the following words: ‘Therefore, God handed them over to impurity through the lusts of their hearts for the mutual degradation of their bodies. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and revered and worshiped the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. Therefore, God handed them over to degrading passions. Their females exchanged natural relations for unnatural, and the males likewise gave up natural relations with females and burned with lust for one another. Males did shameful things with males and thus received in their own persons the due penalty for their perversity’ (Romans 1:24-27) and the question, ‘How can the faithful foundation of the church, the Bible, be combined with upward display as an object of pride in that which is ashamed and sinful?’

“After that, a criminal case was brought against Rässianen arose. Subsequently, four more were added to it, connected respectively with her participation in talk shows on radio, television, with the availability on the Internet of her booklet, written in 2004, entitled ‘Male and female he created them. Homosexual relations challenge the Christian understanding of the human being’… And finally, the fifth criminal case opened the other day was a response to a September post on her blog entitled: ‘The king is naked! Gay pride parade is not a human rights event’.

“Päivi Rässianen repeatedly stated that all people, regardless of their sexual orientation, are loved by God and valuable to Him, all are sinners and are called to repent for their sins. What’s threatening, slanderous or insulting about it? The police tried to close the case several times without finding anything criminal in the deputy’s words, but the prosecutor general demanded to continue the investigation.

“Rässianen says that she is not afraid of prison (she faces up to two years in prison on each of the five charges against her)… If the court finds her guilty, it will mean the beginning of large-scale state censorship… But…  constant criminal charges, pre-trial investigations and interrogations by the police themselves, even without a conviction, in practice limit freedom of speech and conscience.

“With this example, we can see that the LGBT movement…, gaining power, becomes intolerant and begins to persecute anyone who disagrees with it…”

These are horrible developments in Europe, which are, sadly, not limited to Finland by any means.

Religious “Leaders” Agree on Prohibiting Conversion Therapy

Deutsche Welle wrote on December 18:

“More than 300 religious leaders have called for a worldwide clampdown on conversion therapy for LGBT+ people. ‘We recognize with sadness that certain religious teachings have often, throughout the ages, caused and continue to cause deep pain and offense to those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex.’ This was a rare admission from members of the clergy… 370 interfaith religious leaders from around the world… came together this week for a conference calling for a global ban on the practice of ‘conversion therapy’ [which] is based on the belief that cisgender heterosexuality is the norm and anything else is an illness or abnormality — a belief that the World Health Organization (WHO) has rejected.

“Among the signatories to the declaration organized by the UK’s Ozanne Foundation were high-ranking representatives of Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and Sikh faiths, including South African former archbishop and Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu, and England’s Bishop of Liverpool…

“[Under the leadership of openly gay Health Minister Jens Spahn,] Germany became the fifth country to introduce an outright ban on the practice for minors in 2020, following Ecuador, Brazil, Taiwan and Malta as well as several US states and Canadian provinces… Bans have since been introduced in Albania, Switzerland and the Australian province of Victoria and have been proposed in many more countries, including France and the UK, where Prime Minister Boris Johnson described the practice as ‘abhorrent.’”

Who cares what the WHO, religious leaders and politicians believe? The Bible is clear that practicing homosexuality is an unnatural abomination.

 Acknowledgement and Disclaimer

These Current Events are compiled and commented on by Norbert Link. We gratefully acknowledge the many contributions of news articles from our readership. The publication of articles in this section is not to be viewed as an endorsement or approval as to contents or accuracy of the selected articles, but they are published for the purpose of pointing at worldwide developments in the light of biblical end-time prophecy and godly instruction. Our own comments are provided in italics.

2020 in Review

The Associated Press wrote on December 12:

“Not since World War II has a single phenomenon dominated the news worldwide as the COVID-19 pandemic has in 2020. In the United States, a tumultuous presidential election and a wave of protests over racial injustice also drew relentless coverage. Overshadowed, to an extent, were other dramatic developments. Among them: China’s crackdown on Hong Kong’s democracy; an apocalyptic explosion in Beirut; the shocking helicopter-crash death of basketball icon Kobe Bryant and his daughter.

“Some seemingly epic events early in the year now seem distant, like President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial and the January announcement by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle that they were exiting their prominent roles in Britain’s royal family. Just a few weeks later came the long-awaited Brexit, Britain’s formal withdrawal from the European Union. As most of the world battled COVID, armed conflicts broke out between Armenia and Azerbaijan and in Ethiopia’s Tigray region. Afghanistan’s seemingly endless war dragged on… Massive protests challenged the ruling powers in Belarus and Thailand…

“The year ended as it began with tensions between Iran and the U.S. inflamed by the killing of a top official. On Jan. 3, a U.S. drone strike killed Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani. Iran responded with a missile attack that injured dozens of U.S. troops in Iraq. In December, a mysterious attack near Tehran killed a nuclear scientist whom the U.S. and others had identified as organizing Iran’s effort to seek nuclear weapons two decades ago. Iran blamed that attack on Israel [with support from the USA]…

“It was such a historically busy hurricane season that forecasters had to turn to the Greek alphabet after running out of assigned names. In the U.S., Louisiana took the brunt of the onslaught: three hurricanes and two tropical storms… Thousands of wildfires raged throughout the western U.S…. bringing apocalyptic scenes of orange skies and hazardous air. … massive brush fires… raged for months… in Australia.”

We should not expect really good news on the world scene in 2021 either.

The Hunter Biden Scandal… What If the Mass Media Would Not Have Suppressed it?

The New York Post Editorial Board wrote on December 11:

“‘Collusion’ was perhaps the media’s favorite word these past four years, even when it wasn’t true. But you know what real collusion looks like? It’s when left-leaning media, that is the media in general, decide en masse that something is ‘not a story’ because it harms their preferred political candidate. That’s a key takeaway from Wednesday’s bombshell news revealing a federal probe of Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, that reportedly involves emails from his laptop — which The New York Post reported on exclusively in October. We even noted back then that the FBI had seized the computer and hard drive; Fox News later confirmed that it was part of an FBI money-laundering probe.

“Other media outlets didn’t just ignore the story; they tried to suppress it. Then social media stepped in, preventing the story from being posted (Facebook) and even banning The Post (Twitter)… Many Americans who’d already cast ballots in early voting sought to change their votes after learning of the emails… All of which raises serious national-security questions.”

There can be very little doubt that in the present climate, Hunter Biden will not be convicted for most of the crimes which he allegedly committed, and any alleged connection between Hunter Biden and his father, President-elect Joe Biden, will be carefully and systematically suppressed.

“This Hunter Biden Cover-Up Stinks”

On December 10, Mail Online published the following article by Piers Morgan:

“I said at the time that the media’s abject failure to properly report the New York Post’s scoop about Hunter was a shameful dereliction of journalistic duty driven by the inherent liberal bias of much of the US media – and I said it as a liberal myself… They were happy to buy into Joe Biden’s line that it was all a hoax driven by nefarious Russians to discredit him…

“I find it deeply suspicious that we’re only now hearing about the federal probe into Hunter Biden’s business conduct, a month after the election. Why did prosecutors not go public before, given that they started the investigation in 2018? How did it not leak in an era when everything leaks? Or did it leak, and once again, the media suppressed it?

“This announcement is also deeply embarrassing for all the journalists who have worked so hard to NOT report on Hunter’s business conduct lest it damage his father’s election chances… this time, most of America’s media is guilty…”

Especially CNN is guilty of the systematic suppression of the Hunter Biden story. The political director of CNN “advised” “his” journalists and moderators NOT to report on the story before the election. Of course, most CNN reporters and moderators are Democrats anyhow.

Mass Media Guilty of Dereliction of Duty

The Hill published on December 11 the following article by Joe Concha:

“The story was outright banned from public discourse by social media giant Twitter, which limited its members from sharing a New York Post report on Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine and China. This New York Post report… contained actual emails from Hunter Biden’s own laptop… an election was coming. And, so, the media mantra apparently became: Protect the candidate at all costs. Dismiss the story as an ‘alternative facts,’ ‘right-wing media’ fantasy.

“Gallup and the Knight Foundation have found that 84 percent of Americans believe the media bears the blame for the divide in this country. Just one-in-ten believes social media has a positive impact on the country…”

The carefully staged suppression of the Hunter Biden story by the mass media and Big Tech to protect their political candidate, Joe Biden, is appalling and sickening.  It shows once more the utmost corruption of a country which is doomed to fall very soon.  

US Supreme Court Rejects Texas Case against Pennsylvania and other States for “Lack of Standing”

CNN wrote on December 11:

“The court’s order Friday night was unsigned, and [the] court did not provide a vote count…

“The order states: ‘The State of Texas’s motion for leave to file a bill of complaint is denied for lack of standing under Article III of the Constitution. Texas has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections. All other pending motions are dismissed as moot.’”

CBS News added:

“Justice Samuel Alito, joined by Justice Clarence Thomas, said the court does ‘not have discretion to deny the filing of a bill of complaint in a case that falls within our original jurisdiction. I would therefore grant the motion to file the bill of complaint but would not grant other relief, and I express no view on any other issue.’”

This means, they would not grant any other relief at this point, until the matter has been adjudicated in a trial.

Breitbart wrote on December 11:

“All three of President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court appointees — Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett — joined Chief Justice John Roberts and the three liberal justices in declining to hear Texas v. Pennsylvania… The three new Trump appointees voted with their liberal colleagues, whose votes were never in doubt. Roberts has lately moved toward the liberal camp, and voted accordingly… Four justices out of the nine would have had to agree to hear the case for it to have proceeded at the Supreme Court.”

In fairness, as Fox News pointed out, “The court did not provide a complete vote breakdown, so it’s unclear how Trump’s nominees, Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett may have voted on the appeal.” It is clear, however, that at least two of the three would have voted against it.

Texas clearly had standing and the Supreme Court had a legal obligation to take the case. Their outright denial without a hearing is a sad example of cowardness on the part of the conservative judges (with the exception of Alito and Thomas who made their disagreement public) and of political motivation of the left-liberal judges. This will backfire, as nearly 77% of Trump voters and over 35% of Independents and Democrats believe that the election was stolen, while no court, so far, has had the courage to examine the facts in a trial and to get to the bottom of it. Those who claim that the election was stolen believe that they are truly witnessing a totally corrupt legal system!

Trump Supporters Outraged

Daily Mail wrote on December 13:

“Donald Trump supporters have voiced outrage after the Supreme Court refused to hear [the Texas] case… White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany [blasted] the Supreme Court for ‘dodging’ the lawsuit and ‘hiding behind procedure’.

“Texas GOP Chairman Allen West put out a statement suggesting states should secede from the union in response to the ruling…

“Giuliani fumed about the court’s decision as he spoke on Hannity from his hotel, where he is recovering from COVID-19. He branded the move ‘censorship’ and a ‘scandal’ that will ‘go down in history’. ‘So far the facts have been suppressed, they’ve been subject to censorship by big media, censorship by big tech, censorship by the Democrat party, and censorship by the courts,’ he said… Giuliani accused the Supreme Court of ‘evading its responsibility’…

“He added: ‘I think this is going to be a terrible thing in American history… this is going to live in our history and the Supreme Court has made a terrible mistake in not getting this resolved in a fair, decent, and equitable way because it’s going to leave a real black mark with regard to the selection throughout our entire history.’”

Giuliani might be right with his assessment.

Civil War Because of Supreme Court?

“The Ron Paul Institute wrote on December 15:

“By washing its hands of responsibility to hear the Texas challenge to the 2020 presidential election, the nine Justices of the US Supreme Court may have sealed the country’s fate and made a kinetic civil war much more likely… The irony here is that the Supreme Court could have actually prevented another civil war had it chosen to hear the Texas lawsuit, and then ruled against it on non-pretextual grounds. That, at least, would have sent the message to Trump supporters that the System works, and that they should continue to place their trust in it. There would always be the possibility of a rematch in the 2022 midterms or 2024…

“Instead, they literally abdicated their constitutional responsibility – and sent a message to 75 million Americans who voted for Trump that their votes don’t matter. Worse, that the System of government that supposedly made the US special, takes a back seat to the media, Big Tech and the consensus manufactured by people who tend to riot when they don’t get their way…

“Civil wars begin when a faction decides it can no longer pursue its goals through the political, legal or economic means, as they have all been foreclosed to them… Whether rightly or wrongly, [Trump supporters] believe the election was stolen and that the people who did so got away with it. How likely are they to trust any election going forward? About as much as they trust the media, the corporations, or the courts right now.

“The Supreme Court had a chance to defuse this ticking time bomb. Instead, they channeled Pontius Pilate and said ‘not our problem.’ That’s how Bosnia happened. I hope and pray that doesn’t happen here, but fear that it shall.”

What prospects…

Trump Vows to Continue the Fight

Fox News wrote on December 13:

“President Trump vowed that he and his campaign ‘are going to continue to go forward’ with their legal challenges against November’s election results… ‘No, it’s not over… We have numerous local cases,’ Trump said… ‘we caught them, as you know, as fraudulent, dropping ballots, doing so many things, nobody can even believe it.’ Trump said that there were votes cast in the name of dead people and that ‘tens of thousands of ballots’ were illegally submitted.

“The president said it was ‘a rigged election’ and attributed this to local Democrats who ‘outsmarted’ their Republican counterparts… Trump said he worries about the U.S. ‘having an illegitimate president’ due to alleged fraud. ‘What happened to this country is we were like a third world country,’ he later said.”

Newsmax listed, as of Sunday, December 13, 15 cases still pending in front of courts in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Nevada.

Newsmax added on December 14:

“A forensic audit of the presidential vote tally by Dominion Voting Systems software used in Antrim County, Michigan, showed a more than 68% error rate, with auditors claiming the system intentionally creates the errors so the machine can have them ‘adjudicated’ – allowing individuals to change the result. The error rate is astounding considering the Federal Election Commission allows a maximum error rate of just 0.0008 percent for computerized voting systems.

“‘We conclude that the Dominion Voting System is intentionally and purposefully designed with inherent errors to create systemic fraud and influence election results,’ the audit report prepared by Allied Security Operations Group read… The audit was released Monday by state court Judge Kevin Elsenheimer of the 13th Circuit Court of Michigan in a case brought by county resident William Bailey against Antrim County, Michigan… Trump attorney and former federal prosecutor and New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said… ‘The evidence of fraud is indisputable.’”

But the courts are unwilling to look at the evidence.

In the explosive Senate’s hearing on “2020 voting irregularities” on December 16, it was clearly established what was—or should have been—known all along; namely, that fraud and irregularities occurred in the presidential election.  False claims that courts had ruled that there was no fraud were convincingly debunked by pointing out that courts only ruled on procedural matters, such as “lack of standing.” The sworn testimony by attorneys James Troupis and Jesse Binnall showed that attempts were also made to systematically suppress access to voting machines, voter ballots and other documents preventing to prove the full scale of massive voter fraud. The question is now: What, if anything, is the Senate willing to do about it?

Breitbart wrote on December 14:

“President Donald Trump’s senior adviser, Stephen Miller, told Fox News on Monday morning that the president will continue to challenge the 2020 election, even after the electoral college votes on Monday for former Vice President Joe Biden as president-elect. ‘The only date in the Constitution is January 20, so we have more than enough time to right the wrong of this fraudulent election and certify Donald Trump as the winner of the election,’ Miller said during the interview.

“Miller also said an ‘alternate slate of electors’ will vote in contested states, and those results will be sent to Congress… If the Trump campaign won additional court cases in the contested states, Miller stated, the alternate set of electors could be certified. Miller cited three major legal issues in the 2020 election: improperly cast absentee ballots in Wisconsin, violation of the Equal Protection Clause in Pennsylvania with cured ballots, and changes to the signature matching in Georgia without state legislature approval. ‘Those three violations alone make Donald Trump the winner of the 2020 election,’ Miller said.”

This would be an uphill battle, as the courts so far have refused—for whatever reason—to be willing to focus on the underlying factual allegations. The ballots of the Electoral College’s vote on Monday, declaring Biden to be the elected President, will be delivered to the Senate by December 23, and Congress will meet in a special joint session on Jan. 6 to count the electoral votes. The final step is the inauguration on Jan. 20. In a highly divisive speech belying his claim that he wants to unify the nation, Joe Biden declared victory on December 14 after the Electoral College’s vote had been announced.

Biden’s Priorities… or the Lack Thereof

The Times of Israel wrote on December 11:

“Unlike his predecessors, US President-elect Joe Biden is not entering office with plans to launch a major Israeli-Palestinian peace initiative. There’s no talk of reaching the ‘ultimate deal,’ as Donald Trump described it in 2016, and there’s no intention to appoint a special envoy for the Middle East on his first day in office as Barack Obama did in 2009. No marathon peace negotiations like the ones led by Obama’s secretary of state John Kerry in 2013 and 2014 and no Vision for Peace like the one unveiled by Trump and his son-in-law/adviser Jared Kushner in 2019 and 2020…

“Some Biden aides have been more willing to admit that Israel, and even the Middle East more broadly, is not going to receive the amount of attention that it has enjoyed during the tenures of recent presidents. One senior adviser to the campaign told Foreign Policy magazine in October that the Middle East would be ‘a distant fourth’ in the list of foreign policy priorities, after Europe, the Indo-Pacific, and Latin America… The conflict will almost certainly be overshadowed by other issues in the region, namely the Iran nuclear deal, which Biden has made clear he plans to rejoin…

“But possibly the easiest manner in which the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could skip to the top of Biden’s agenda would be if violence breaks out in the West Bank or Gaza. The territories have been relatively quiet in recent months, but are not known for extended periods of calm…”

If Biden becomes President, he and his team might concentrate on a better relationship with Europe and perhaps Iran, while throwing the UK and Israel under the bus.

War Always Seems to Win

The Ron Paul Institute wrote on December 14:

“… we learned that if Joe Biden ends up in the White House next month he intends to put a deep state member of the military-industrial complex in charge of the Pentagon… Gen. Austin was head of the US Central Command under an Obama Administration that launched a brutal war on Libya under false pretenses and pursued a regime-change policy in Syria that involved arming and training jihadists. Upon retirement, as is all too common with military leaders, he cashed in on his service with a position on the board of military contractor Raytheon.

“Austin will be ‘business as usual’ for Washington’s warmongers and the military contractors who make a fortune inventing endless conflicts overseas. Then things went from bad to worse, as the yearly monstrosity called the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) was passed with an amendment severely restricting the US president’s ability to remove troops from Afghanistan and Europe… The amendment all but guarantees that America’s longest war in history will continue pointlessly onward.

“A coalition of warmongering Democrats and Republicans have been furious with President Trump for his last minute effort to draw troops down from Afghanistan and elsewhere, and they appear to have a veto-proof majority to tie the president’s hands. Congress has for decades believed that the president can go to war whenever or wherever he pleases without a declaration, but if the president dares attempt to end a war their belief in a ‘unitary executive’ is thrown out the window. What hypocrisy.

“The Constitution is clear that the president is the commander in chief of the military and as such should have the authority to move troops as he sees fit. The Founders understood that 535 Members of Congress trying to micromanage troops on the battlefield is not a good idea. Congress has it backward. It should be very difficult for a president to take the country to war and easy for that war to be ended… no matter how sick the American people are of endless war, the war machine finds a way to keep chugging along…”

Very sad… and very true.

European Court of Justice Allows Ban on Ritual Slaughter

Deutsche Welle wrote on December 17:

“The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that EU member states could legally ban stun-free slaughter… [stating] that ‘the principle that an animal should be stunned prior to being killed meets the main objective of the protection of animal welfare.’…

“In September, a legal expert from the ECJ said exceptions should be made to allow religious slaughter… ‘The people who kill animals while hunting or fishing or controlling harmful organisms, on the one hand, and the people who kill animals according to special slaughter methods prescribed by the customs of religious worship, on the other hand, are treated differently without reasonable justification,’ the statement said.”

JTA wrote on December 17:

“Israel’s ambassador to Belgium called the ruling [‘catastrophic’ and] ‘a blow to Jewish life in Europe.’…

[The court specifically said EU member states have the ‘discretion’ to enact measures such as the Belgian bans.]

“In Judaism and Islam, animals need to be conscious when their necks are slit for their meat to be considered kosher or halal. That has made ritual slaughter a ripe target in Europe from both liberals who cite animal welfare as their main concern and right-wing nationalists who view the custom as foreign to their countries’ cultures. (Ritual circumcision, too, has united opponents on the left and right.)”

Please view our new StandingWatch program, titled, “Europe’s Attack on Religious Freedom and the Coming Great Tribulation.” 

Europe’s Military Ambitions

Science/Business wrote on December 15:

“MEPs and the German presidency of the EU Council reached agreement on a new defence R&D programme worth €7.9 billion on Monday, giving the EU more firepower to reduce a longstanding reliance on US military technology. As of next year, the fund will place the EU among the top three defence research and technology investors in Europe, with the European Commission starting implementation of the programme in January 2021…

“The new defence fund is part of a broader strategy by the EU to flex its geopolitical influence in the world and to cover gaps in EU’s defence system left uncovered by the US…”

Who Will Succeed Merkel?

Project Syndicate wrote on December 11:

“Within the next few weeks, the CDU will hold its 33rd party convention, and choose a new leader. Whoever it is will most likely be anointed as the CDU’s candidate for chancellor when Merkel steps down…

“The three men vying for the party’s top job are not household names abroad. The first (going in alphabetical order) is Armin Laschet, the minister-president of North Rhine-Westphalia and a longtime party workhorse whose charisma does not match his competence. Next is Friedrich Merz, who led the CDU caucus in the Bundestag two decades ago, until he was driven out by Merkel as she prepared her own run to the top. After slinking off to the private sector and making oodles of money, he is pushing for a comeback. The third contender is Norbert Röttgen, the chairman of the Bundestag’s Foreign Affairs Committee. He served a brief stint as environment minister under Merkel until she fired her then-fair-haired boy.

“Laschet is Merkel’s unspoken favorite, if only because the other two have accounts to settle with ‘Mutti’ (mom), whose path to power is strewn with the corpses of not-so-steely rivals…There is no real front-runner…

“Throughout the first half of the twentieth century – from Kaiser Wilhelm II to the Führer – Germany was… a political volcano, and a deadly threat to its neighborhood. Today… Germany [does not] have a Donald Trump on the scene…

“In addition to the three declared CDU contenders, there are two dark horses who, instead of going the conventional route – first chairman, then candidate chancellor – are playing a waiting game. Maybe the party will get bored with the trio of Laschet, Merz, and Röttgen, and will want somebody who is in the public eye daily. One is Minister of Health Jens Spahn, a hard-working politico who, thanks to COVID-19, is constantly in the news. The other is CSU leader Markus Söder, a man of burning ambition who tirelessly works the interview and talk-show circuit…”

None of these five candidates is good news for Germany.

Merkel is Playing Hardball

Breitbart wrote on December 14:

“Germany’s Angela Merkel has rejected Boris Johnson’s pleas for face-to-face talks to help secure an 11th-hour Brexit deal, with a source saying she is ‘determined to make Britain crawl across broken glass’ for an agreement.

“Boris Johnson has been trying desperately for a breakthrough, flying to Brussels to talk directly to European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and offering to do the same for high-profile national leaders such as Chancellor Merkel and France’s Emmanuel Macron. He has gotten nowhere, however, with the Brussels talks producing nothing and Merkel and Macron both declining to meet with him…

“Talks have stalled in large part over the EU’s refusal to agree a deal if Britain does not agree to so-called ‘level playing field’ rules — in essence, continued submission to EU regulations, as interpreted by EU judges, but without even the often inconsequential input the British were afforded as EU members — and continued EU control over Britain’s national fisheries.

“While even European Economic Area (EEA) members Norway and Iceland are allowed to control their own territorial waters, the EU is reluctant to give up its longstanding and profitable jurisdiction over Britain’s fisheries, having assigned the lion’s share of them to other EU members for decades — destroying tens of thousands of British fishing industry jobs and more than halving the national fishing fleet.

“This hardline position comes despite Britain having already made a number of huge concessions to the EU, including an agreement to pay a massive multi-billion divorce settlement to the bloc and allowing it to exercise continued control over swathes of Northern Ireland’s state aid and regulatory policies, in exchange for virtually nothing in return.”

Prophecy says that Britain will try to get help from Germany, but won’t get it.

War over Fishing Rights?

The Daily Mail wrote on December 11:

“Four Royal Navy vessels will be dispatched to Britain’s territorial waters if a trade deal is not agreed with the EU. Armed with cannon and machine guns, they will patrol the English Channel and Irish Sea to stop illegal fishing. In a dramatic ratcheting-up of No Deal contingency planning, Wildcat and Merlin helicopters are also being placed on standby to help with coastal surveillance. And military personnel have been seconded to the Joint Maritime Security Centre to help deal with any clashes in fishing grounds. The naval ships could even be ordered to impound rogue French fishing vessels. The potential deployment evokes memories of the Cod Wars of the 1970s. At times the Royal Navy stopped Icelandic boats interfering with British trawlers…

“Norway yesterday said it might close its fishing waters to European and British vessels from January 1. Oslo concluded a bilateral agreement with Britain in October but first wants this to be part of a trilateral deal with the EU… European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen… insisted that European boats had a ‘legitimate expectation’ to maintain access to British waters as they have done for ‘decades, and, sometimes, centuries’.”

The Sun wrote on December 14:

“French fishermen have vowed to blockade Dover and Calais if there’s a No Deal Brexit – and warned it could lead to ‘warlike’ tensions in the Channel. Trawlermen said they would respond to being shut out of UK waters by stopping ferries carrying vital goods from entering major ports. And they said Britain’s threat to send gunboats in and to repel foreign vessels would mean that ‘we are negotiating things that relate to war’.

“Dimitri Rogoff, president of Normandy’s regional fisheries committee, said that will lead to Dutch, Belgian and German ships piling into French waters… There will therefore be blockages to ferries, since this mainly happens by ferries… the UK has decided to leave but from there to sending warships, it’s unimaginable.’”

A prelude to the prophesied war between the UK and the EU?

Hard Lockdown in Germany

Deutsche Welle wrote on December 13:

“Germany is to impose new coronavirus curbs from Wednesday… On Sunday, Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that most stores would shut from Wednesday, along with schools and day care centers… The decision is set to cause a major disruption for retailers, the education system and the public in the lead-up to the Christmas holidays…

“All nonessential shops and services will close until January 10, including hairdressers. Schools are urged to send students home and continue lessons online, as well as extend the winter break until January 10. Day care centers will also close, but parents will be able to take paid holidays in order to look after their children. Employers are encouraged to allow employees to work from home. People will not be allowed to drink alcohol in public. Religious events in churches, synagogues and mosques may take place if they follow hygiene rules [including social distancing and wearing masks throughout the service], but communal singing is not allowed.

“States still plan to ease stricter contact restrictions for December 24 to 26 so that close family members can spend Christmas together — a household may, during this time, invite up to four adults from other households but only from the immediate family, plus any number of children under 14. People may not purchase fireworks for New Year’s Eve.

“The chancellor also recommended that families who are planning to meet up should isolate for a week beforehand to be safe…. Hans Brandt, a DW reported in Berlin, explained the relevance of the speedy decision that the government and heads of Germany’s 16 states made. ‘It was somewhat surprising that they agreed so quickly,’ Brandt said. ‘The whole meeting took just over an hour…’”

Bild Online added that the new restrictions might last a lot longer than just January 10 (The German government has lied about deadlines before). It was even suggested by a spokesperson of the government that it was very unlikely that the measures will be lifted by the end of January at all. The mass tabloid Bild also stated that the government is partially to be blamed for the disaster, also because of stirring up paranoia while neglecting older people and placing them in house arrest, rather than helping them. It was also pointed out that Health Minister Jens Spahn lied on September 1 when he said that based on what we know now, no small shops or stores would have been closed, and it will not happen again, but now, all the small stores will be completely closed.

In other words, German politicians are destroying small businesses on an unparalleled scale. At the same time, the government prohibited the filing of applications for bankruptcy, at least until the end of January (MSN, dated December 14.). In addition, Bild Online listed in a related article (“The Broken Corona-Promises of Politics”) four more broken promises of the German government. Bild asked: “Are the politicians acting against better knowledge?”

The German government recommended NOT going to church, but to watch services online (Breitbart, December 14). The left-wing German paper, Der Tagesspiegel, wrote on December 14 that church services should be PROHIBITED, as they are contributing to the spread of the pandemic. The ironic conclusion of the article is: “Would Jesus have wanted that many were to assemble on His birthday and take the risk of contracting and passing on a dangerous virus? To ask the question means, to know the answer already.” Ironic, because Christmas has nothing to do with Christ’s birthday, and even a left-wing paper like Der Tagesspiegel should know that.

What is Really Behind Germany’s Anti-Lockdown Demonstrations?

Breitbart reported on December 11:

“Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), has claimed… that the Querdenker (Lateral Thinker) group have ‘intensified escalation potential’ but also noted that many small anti-lockdown protests have been largely peaceful, despite a small number of attacks on police and media at some of the more well-attended events. According to a report by Deutsche Welle, members of the Querdenker movement in Baden-Württemberg are under observation after the region’s interior minister Thomas Strobel announced the move earlier this week on Wednesday. Beate Bube, the head of the region’s intelligence agency, alleged that the anti-lockdown group’s members were ‘opposed to the peaceful democratic order.’

“Other regions have come out against the movement as well, such as Lower Saxony, whose Interior Minister Boris Pistorius said: ‘From within the movement, legitimate protest against coronavirus measures has developed into an attack on the state and democracy.’ North Rhine-Westphalia’s Herbert Reul, meanwhile, claimed the members of the Querdenker were becoming ‘increasingly violent.’

“Last month, supporters of the group entered the German parliament and confronted several MPs over the coronavirus lockdown following a large demonstration in Berlin. Several politicians blamed the populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and said members of the party had smuggled in the activists.

“Violence against Querdenker members has also been seen in recent weeks, particularly from Antifa counter-protesters in various cities across the country. In November, police in Frankfurt were forced to use water cannons to disperse the far-left extremists who denounced the Querdenker movement as ‘Nazi propaganda.’ In Leipzig, Antifa members brutally attacked Querdenker members, with 15-20 black-clad extremists surrounding and beating two men, stomping and kicking their heads. Police were forced to fire a warning shot in order to disperse them, and the Leipzig police far-left extremism task force launched an investigation to identify the Antifa attackers.”

Who, then, are the real violent troublemakers? “Querdenker” members or far-left extremists like “Antifa.” And why are German governmental politicians so desperate in their attempt to control and silence those who are concerned about draconian restrictive measures, such as a new lockdown?

Allergic Reaction to Coronavirus Vaccination

Deutsche Welle wrote on December 11:

“It wasn’t even two days before authorities in the UK issued a warning:  People with significant allergies should avoid getting vaccinated against COVID-19 for now… especially if they experienced an anaphylactic shock in the past. That’s what scientists call a significant allergic reaction to food, medicines or vaccines. Anaphylactic shock is a serious bodily reaction that can be life-threatening. It is the strongest known form of an allergic reaction and considered an absolute medical emergency…

“Irrespective of an individual’s allergy history, people with allergies will not get the vaccine for now [in the UK]. That’s especially the case for people who carry an adrenalin ‘autoinjector’ pen…”

That should ring some alarm bells. Even Dr. Fauci advised “caution” against taking the vaccine if one has a history of allergic reactions.

In Germany, vaccinations are supposed to be voluntary. However, some governmental leaders are already speaking of mandatory vaccinations for those who are at risk, including doctors and nurses. Otherwise, they might lose their jobs (Focus, December 13). Others debate mandatory vaccinations for the military, or they criticize the lack of enthusiasm by medical personnel for vaccinations (Der Spiegel, dated December 14).

How Radical Jewish Spiritual “Authorities” View Vaccinations against Coronavirus

The Jerusalem Post wrote on December 13:

“Anyone who refuses to take the coronavirus vaccine should be hit with limited social sanctions as a result, Tzohar Center for Jewish Ethics director Rabbi Yuval Cherlow said in a statement. The sanctions proposed by Cherlow, who is a leading ethicist in Israel, would consist of keeping people from frequenting business establishments like retailers and public transportation. Businesses, he explained, should be allowed to ask customers for proof that they’ve been vaccinated, and public transport and flights have an ethical obligation to turn away those who haven’t been vaccinated… ‘The ethical question becomes when the decision people make for themselves impacts on others – in this case increasing the risk for widespread infection by refusing to vaccinate,’ Cherlow explained. ‘We cannot allow certain people who disregard the overwhelming science in support of widespread vaccination to impact the fate of the population at large.’…

“Many in Israel and abroad have expressed hesitance in getting vaccinated, should one become available, some of whom also refuse to take vaccines in general. For many who are hesitant only towards a COVID-19 vaccine, this appears to be due to fears that the vaccine is too new and rushed, rather than being tried and tested… For those against vaccines entirely (also known as anti-vaxxers), however, this is due to a belief… about the dangers of vaccines, along with wide distrust for authority.”

Israel 365 News wrote on December 13:

“Rabbi Pinchas Levin, a prominent rabbinic scholar, recently published his Halachic (Torah law) opinion concerning the recently available vaccine against COVID-19: ‘To all who adhere to guidance from HaShem,’ Rabbi Levin wrote. ‘In the near future, our Government agencies will authorize the usage of a vaccine for the coronavirus. Our entire Government believes this is a good thing. The only argument is if they will make the vaccine mandatory for the entire population or voluntary… We hereby inform you that this belief is contrary to the instructions of our Torah… The only time a vaccine is permitted and maybe even obligated is if it’s necessary to prevent an illness to the person, and not to possibly prevent it from spreading to others…  in the case of the coronavirus vaccine the prohibition is absolute according to all opinions. There is no room for leniency….

“The rabbi delineated  two distinct reasons for ruling against taking the vaccine:

“1) There is no need for a vaccine. There are many ways to prevent and cure this virus naturally or with safe medications and vitamins.

“2) The virus is not dangerous for the overwhelming majority of the population. For them, the sin of inserting toxins into the body remains. For the minority of high-risk patients who would otherwise be permitted to do a damaging procedure to possibly save their lives, there is no safe vaccine, as the trials to prove the vaccine to be safe are only being done on healthy people.

“Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, the Chief Rabbi of Tzfat, posted on Facebook his Halachic opinion that people should get vaccinated: ‘This is a very serious issue and many lives depend on it,’ Rabbi Eliyahu said… ‘A lot of people approached me following my call to use vaccines and told me about the risk of vaccines in general and the risk of the coronavirus vaccine. I listened to them closely. They brought me a lot of material to read about the risk of vaccines. I read about people who died after getting the vaccine. I read about people who got sick after vaccines,’ the rabbi wrote. ‘After all this, I tell everyone to take vaccines. Those harmed by vaccines are very few and it is not at all certain that they died because of the vaccine…’

“Rabbi Halperin…  is a recognized authority on medical ethics. ‘Simply put, my opinion is that… people should get vaccinated… the dangers must be weighed against each other: what is the danger of taking the vaccine compared to not taking the vaccine. Currently, the authorities have reported very minimal dangers and the side effects are minimum. There is a great chance of being infected. Therefore, even though it is halachically forbidden to actively do something which endangers your life, but since the chance of this happening from a vaccine is minimal, it is permitted to be vaccinated. And since the benefit may be saving your life, it is even recommended.’…

“‘If it is true that an unvaccinated person can endanger the public and if it is true that there is no danger in getting vaccinated, then the public, that is the government in a democracy, can force or demand that everyone be vaccinated. Religion in general and Judaism in particular highlights how our physical and spiritual well-being is intermingled. We are dependent upon and responsible for each other. This vaccine is the modern-day answer to Cain’s question of, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” The answer to this question weighs the freedom of the individual over the needs of others,’ Rabbi Halperin concluded.’

With this mind-boggling confusion and twisting of the Holy Scriptures, it is no surprise that God is very angry with Judah’s religious and spiritual “leaders”. The same goes for Christian religious leaders.

Forced Vaccinations in Israel?

Israel Today wrote on December 14:

“The pandemic started not too long ago, and we already have an authorized vaccine in our hands… a vaccine normally takes about 10 years to develop, with the 1st research stage taking between 2-5 years, pre-clinical development of 2 years, a 3-phase clinical development that takes about 5 years, regulatory review of 1-2 years, and finally manufacturing and delivery… People are understandably cautious, if not suspicious…

“In case something does happen, the drugmakers won’t be able to be held accountable, as the law protects vaccine manufacturers from design-defect charges as long as they can prove that the vaccine was properly manufactured and carried adequate warnings labels…

“23% of Israelis will agree to be inoculated, 26% would like to wait several months, 20% will wait for others to get jabbed first, and 22% said they would flat out refuse the drug. The Ministry of Health doesn’t view these numbers favorably. In a meeting held with the epidemic treatment team, they examined the possibility of enacting a law that would require the public to be vaccinated against COVID-19, while preparing a program of procedural and legal incentives for the public who choose to be inoculated.

“Among the possible restrictions that could be imposed on those who refuse the vaccine: Will be denied a certificate enabling freedom of movement, especially flying abroad; Will be required to quarantine upon return from abroad; May not enter cinemas or other cultural establishments; Will be denied entry to hotels; Will not be permitted use of gyms or entry to sporting events…

“Our health is not something to be trifled with, yet the trends that follow us from the inception of the pandemic are increasingly alarming: banning worship and prayer at our synagogues and churches; tracking our phones; lockdowns specifically on biblical Feasts, etc.

“All of this allegedly for the sake of the safety of the citizens, while at the same time the politicians who impose it on us fail to follow their own recommendations and instructions. We can fight a common-sense fight against COVID-19, but it cannot come at the expense of our God-given freedoms.”

Sadly, this is exactly what is happening… and it will only get worse.

US Bishops “Clarify” Church Doctrine on Covid Vaccination

Vatican News reported on December 15:

“… the US Bishops have decided to further clarify the Church’s position regarding vaccines that have some connection to cell lines originating from aborted foetuses, reminding that since the beginning of the pandemic it has advocated for the development of a vaccine that has no link to abortion.

“Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Doctrine, and Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities reiterate that, given the urgency of the crisis, ‘the lack of available alternative vaccines, and the fact that the connection between an abortion that occurred decades ago and receiving a vaccine produced today is remote, inoculation with the new COVID-19 vaccines in these circumstances can be morally justified’…

“According to the US Bishops, although all the three vaccines produced by Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca now available in the US have some connection to cell lines connected to aborted foetuses, their use would be morally justifiable in consideration of the present circumstances. These are: the lack, at present, of an available alternative vaccine ‘that has absolutely no connection to abortion’, the serious risk to public health and, most importantly, the need to protect the more vulnerable from the disease.

“With regard to the AstraZeneca vaccine, the US Bishops note that it is ‘more morally compromised’ than the other two, and therefore ‘should be avoided’ if there are alternatives available. However, if ‘one does not really have a choice of vaccine, at least, not without a lengthy delay in immunization that may have serious consequences for one’s health and the health of others’, they state that ‘it would be permissible’ to accept it.”

Vaccinations and Testing

CLI wrote on December 3:

“…a majority of vaccine candidates did not use abortion-derived cell lines in their production. Several used abortion-derived cell lines in laboratory testing, or their use in testing could not be determined.

“CLI’s expert scientific analysis finds that many leading vaccine candidates supported by Operation Warp Speed do not use abortion-derived cell lines in their production. This is encouraging news. Unfortunately, some vaccine developers have unnecessarily put American families in a difficult position by choosing to use controversial human fetal cell lines in production or testing, or by a lack of transparency. Many developers already opt to use animal cell lines, non-fetal human cells, yeast, or chicken eggs instead. We urge all developers to avail themselves of these options going forward. Doing so will reduce vaccine hesitancy for those who oppose the use of fetal cell lines, thereby increasing the public health impact of the vaccine.

“CLI will continue to provide the public with access to timely and accurate information so that individuals and families can weigh all factors – including secular science and religious traditions – and make vaccine decisions in line with their conscience.”

Get Your Digital Vaccine Passport!

BBC News wrote on December 4:

“There is… growing interest in how people can prove they have been vaccinated… Quite soon, millions of people will have been vaccinated, and they may want a simple way to show they no longer pose a threat of infection. Some businesses may even demand it.

“The Australian airline Qantas has suggested it may need to see an ‘immunity passport’ before passengers are allowed on board. The UK government has suggested it may look at making vaccination records a feature of the NHS Covid-19 contact-tracing app in England and Wales…

“Professor Deborah Dunn-Walters, chair of the British Society for Immunology… worries about the implications of only letting people into places such as pubs or restaurants on the condition that they have such an app…

“Dr Ana Beduschi, an associate professor of law at the University of Exeter… has been researching immunity passports and says they present legal problems…

“In addition, Prof Dunn-Walters says it’s too early to talk about vaccination passports when there are still things we don’t know about the vaccine. ‘We have evidence that having a vaccine would protect me, but not necessarily that it would protect my family or anybody else I come into contact with,’ she explains…

“Dr Beduschi argues that freedom of association, as well as privacy, would be imperilled if the authorities decided only people with immunity passports could use public transport or attend churches, for example.”

However, in this climate of propaganda and paranoia, we can foresee that courts will uphold the violation of individual rights “for the greater good.”

Pope Pleads for World Authority

Democracy without Borders wrote on December 11:

“… the pope brings to the fore [in his latest encyclical letter, ‘Fratelli tutti’] a new ethics for international relations. It is stated that a new global political order is to be established based on the principles of subsidiarity, rule of law and a renewed trust in international cooperation… Pope Francis’ call to reform global governance and for the establishment of a ‘world authority’ confirms the priority that world federalism is to be given…

“A common denominator can… be found in the secular notion of ‘global citizenship’, which is conceptually promoted in pope Francis’ encyclical…

“Building a global community is also an international responsibility of states, says pope Francis.. The pontiff recalls that successful prototypes can be found in the European Union and many other regional integration models… He delves into more details in the following paragraphs: ‘… When we talk about the possibility of some form of world authority regulated by law, we need not necessarily think of a personal authority. Still, such an authority ought at least to promote more effective world organizations…’

“While the notion of ‘personal authority’ used by pope Francis is unclear, the promotion of a rules-based international order, secured by the executive power of a world authority entrusted with instruments of international sanctions is crystal-clear… In its original Spanish version, the pontiff uses the expression of ‘global legislation’ as a synonym for ‘governance’ when defining the best possible instruments for tackling global issues…

“The call for a ‘world authority’ included in this latest encyclical has firm roots in catholic social teaching… it was put forward before in the encyclicals ‘Laudato Si’ of pope Francis in 2015, in ‘Caritas in veritate’ by Benedict XVI in 2009 or in ‘Populorum progressio’ of Paul VI in 1967, among others.”

A godly world authority will come when Christ returns to this earth to establish the Kingdom and Government of God at the beginning of the Millennium, but not before then. All other attempts would be Satanic counterfeits, as “envisioned” before, when, for example, Hitler proclaimed his short-lasting “One Thousand Year Reich” (“das Tausendjaehrige Reich”).

New Rule for Plenary Indulgence

In addition to our eight-part series on indulgences in our Q&As, here is an additional novelty.

Catholic News Agency wrote on December 10:

“Pope Francis has granted a plenary indulgence to Catholics celebrating the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe at home this Saturday. Cardinal Carlos Aguiar Retes… explained that in order to receive the indulgence — which the Catechism of the Catholic Church defines as ‘a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven’ — Catholics must fulfill certain conditions.

“First, they must prepare a home altar or other place of prayer in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Second, they must view a livestreamed or televised Mass from the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City on Dec. 12 ‘with devotion and with exclusive attention to the Eucharist. Third, they must meet the three usual conditions for receiving a plenary indulgence — sacramental confession, the reception of Holy Communion, and prayer for the pope’s intentions — once it is possible to do so…

“Up [to] 15 million pilgrims normally visit the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe during the first two weeks of December. But Church authorities decided to cancel this year’s pilgrimage because of the pandemic… The feast day commemorates the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe to Juan Diego, an Aztec convert to Catholicism, in 1531. The apparition and its miraculous Marian image led to mass conversions of native American communities to Catholicism. Devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe has continued for native communities, Mexicans, and across the Americas and the world.

“Concluding his letter, Aguiar said: ‘Let us allow Our Lady to visit us in our homes this year. Let us open our doors to her and lift up our hearts so that she may bless us and cover us with her mantle. May Our Lord Jesus Christ and His Most Holy Mother, St. Mary of Guadalupe, continue to accompany us and bless us on this painful journey for all the people of God who wander in our archdiocese and throughout the world.’”

Inviting “Our Lady” into our homes? Since this “Lady” was NOT Mary, the mother of Christ, who died and is still in her grave, awaiting her resurrection from the dead to eternal life together with all Christians who have died, this deceitful “apparition” with its “miraculous Marian image,” if it ever occurred, would have been clearly demonic.

Acknowledgement and Disclaimer

These Current Events are compiled and commented on by Norbert Link. We gratefully acknowledge the many contributions of news articles from our readership. The publication of articles in this section is not to be viewed as an endorsement or approval as to contents or accuracy of the selected articles, but they are published for the purpose of pointing at worldwide developments in the light of biblical end-time prophecy and godly instruction. Our own comments are provided in italics.

“Biden Vote Fraud Claims Hit ONE MILLION in Five Key States”

Express wrote on December 5:

“An independent human rights organisation has claimed that it has identified more than a million instances of potential fraud in five key states in the US Presidential election to support legal challenges to the presumptive victory for Joe Biden.

“The Amistad Project of the Thomas More Society, which is a non-party political and [which is] not officially affiliated [with the] Trump campaign, has filed its latest motion in Arizona which Mr Biden won by just 10,477 votes… According to expert data analysis for the Amistad Project more than 200,000 illegal votes were potentially cast for Mr Biden in the state while 100,000 legal ballots were not counted… according to the independent Amistad Project, the data, compiled and analysed over the course of ‘weeks of rigorous investigation’, show that the total number of illegal ballots counted and legal ballots not counted likely exceeds 300,000 votes — 30 times more than the number of votes separating the presidential candidates.

“In five closely fought states, including Arizona, Michigan and Pennsylvania, where the Amistad Project is challenging reported results, it claims its investigators have identified over a million instances of potential fraud… The latest challenge follows the Amistad Project unveiling a number of whistleblowers last week who have signed legal documents saying they are willing to testify to instances of voter fraud and running fraudulent votes across state lines.”

According to the mass media, all of this is baseless and without any evidence. Really?

US Citizens In Israel Receiving Multiple Mail Ballots

 Israel 365 News reported on December 10:

 “US citizens living in Israel received multiple email ballots from Pennsylvania to vote in the presidential elections on Thursday, five weeks after election day.

 “Joshua Wander, a reporter for Israel365 News, was shocked when he opened his email on Thursday morning, December 10, and discovered three sets of email ballots to vote in the US presidential elections that were held on November 3… Wander, formerly a resident of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania had applied to vote via email in Allegheny County but actually voted via mail-in paper ballot. Wander contacted five acquaintances who had also voted in that county via mail-in ballots and all had received multiple email ballots. Upon receipt of the email ballots, Wander submitted a request for an investigation by the Congressman, state councilman, county councilman, as well as several attorneys involved in election-related irregularities. ‘This makes it absolutely clear that there is a serious glitch in the system that must be explained,’ Wander said…

“Devorah… Freeland, a resident of Tsfat (Safed) Israel and a self-described ‘recovering attorney’, also received several sets of emails… ‘Receiving these emails, which are still coming in, just shows me that the Pennsylvania election officials don’t know what they’re doing,’ Freeland said. ‘There’s no rhyme or reason to this. It’s time-stamped today, weeks after the elections. They don’t know what their computer system is doing. How can they report election results if they don’t even know who or when they are sending out mail-in ballots?’…

“It is important to note that in pre-election polls, 70% of the 184,000 US citizens of voting age currently residing in Israel supported the reelection of President Trump. Only 17% of the US voters in Israel said they would support Joe Biden…

“Marc Zell, chairman of Republicans Overseas Israel, was deeply concerned about the emails, noting that glitches in voting systems had serious implications. ‘The Pennsylvania presidential election has been fraught with irregularities, illegalities, and even fraud,’ Zell said. ‘This latest batch of email ballots is puzzling and worrisome. It highlights the inherent and systemic problems in Pennsylvania’s mail-in voting…’”

Courts Dismiss Voter Fraud Lawsuits… Here is Why

Fox News wrote on December 7:

“Attorney Sidney Powell suffered losses in two states Monday morning, with judges in both Michigan and Georgia ruling against her clients in lawsuits challenging the election results in those states. Both cases alleged widespread voter fraud and errors having to do with absentee ballots and vote counting. In the Michigan case, U.S. District Court Judge Linda Parker [who was nominated by President Obama] said that because the election has taken place and its results have been certified, it is too late to grant an injunction…

“Powell’s lawsuit called for decertification of the results, an injunction blocking state officials from sending the results to the Electoral College, an order to send certified results that name President Trump as the winner, an order for a manual recount for absentee ballots, and an order that votes that were tabulated by machines not be counted unless the machines were certified according to state and federal requirements. ‘If granted, the relief would disenfranchise the votes of the more than 5.5 million Michigan citizens who, with dignity, hope, and a promise of a voice, participated in the 2020 General Election,’ Parker wrote [Now, what a rationale and basis for a decision is THAT?]… Plaintiffs could have lodged their constitutional challenges much sooner than they did, and certainly not three weeks after Election Day and one week after certification of almost three million votes,’ Parker wrote… [It takes time to accumulate the evidence of voter fraud. Judge Parker should have known that.]

“Parker concluded by accusing the plaintiffs of attempting to sow doubt among the public when it comes to democratic institutions. ‘[T]his lawsuit seems to be less about achieving the relief Plaintiffs seek—as much of that relief is beyond the power of this Court— and more about the impact of their allegations on People’s faith in the democratic process and their trust in our government,’ Parker said.

“In stark contrast to Parker’s 36-page order, the federal judge in the Georgia case ruled from the bench, speaking directly to the parties. While Parker merely denied a request for an injunction in the Michigan case, Judge Timothy Batten dismissed the Georgia case.”

Based on the information provided above, the rationale for the decision by Judge Parker seems to be highly questionable, and the judge seems to have been highly biased. But it is apparently another effort to gloss over the many affidavits of voter fraud in an attempt to just restore the “trust” of the American public in a functioning democracy… but this trust has been irreparably destroyed BY THE MASSIVE EVIDENCE of voter fraud and corruption.  

Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Texas Lawsuit

The Palmieri Rreport wrote on December 8:

“[The] U.S. Supreme Court will hear Texas’ lawsuit against Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin over potential voter fraud. The case was added to the Supreme Court docket today…

“In a novel legal strike, the state of Texas has asked the Supreme Court to invalidate the election results in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Georgia, arguing officials in those four battleground states violated the Constitution by making changes to how ballots were cast and counted without legislative approval.

“The lawsuit filed late Monday night by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton asked the justices to issue a temporary restraining order preventing the states ‘from taking action to certify presidential electors or to have such electors take any official action including without limitation participating in the electoral college.’

“The suit argues that changes made by the state’s governors, secretaries of states and election supervisors were ‘inconsistent with relevant state laws and were made by non-legislative entities, without any consent by the state legislatures. The acts of these officials thus directly violated the Constitution.’”

To the question of standing, it was pointed out that Texas would be affected and harmed, as would be the entire country, if Joe Biden would become the President due to voter fraud in those named states.  

Breitbart added on December 9:

“Tuesday during an appearance on FNC’s ‘Hannity,’ Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton elaborated on the merits of a lawsuit his state of Texas has against Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, claiming those states violated the election guidelines set by the U.S. Constitution in the 2020 election. Paxton also noted that when a state sues another state, or in this case, multiple states, the case goes directly to the U.S. Supreme Court as the court of jurisdiction.”

Fox News reported on December 10:

 “Missouri and five other states on Thursday threw their support even further behind the Texas lawsuit aiming to prevent Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin’s electors from casting their electoral votes by asking the Supreme Court  to let them join the Texas suit. Missouri on Wednesday led a group of 17 states in filing a brief that supported the Texas lawsuit, which alleges that the four key swing states that voted for President-elect Joe Biden violated the Constitution by having their judicial and executive branches make changes to their presidential elections rather than their legislatures. But the Thursday filing led by Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, which also includes Arkansas, Utah, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina, would make those states parties before the court in the case rather than just outside voices weighing in. President Trump’s campaign did the same on Wednesday.”

 The eighteen states are: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and West Virginia. It is now up to the Supreme Court to decide what is going to happen next.

CNN wrote on December 10:

“First the court would have to allow Paxton to file the suit. Then the court would have to block certification of the Electoral College vote, determine that the four states had allowed massive amounts of ‘illegal’ votes, have the states revisit their vote counts and then resubmit the numbers. The court could also, Trump’s filing suggests, let state legislatures determine who wins each state or throw the entire election to the US House of Representatives, where each state delegation would have one vote — and since Republican delegations outnumber Democratic delegations, Trump would win… The Supreme Court is going through standard procedural protocols, placing the case on its docket. Each of the four states responded Thursday afternoon. The court could act after those filings [have arrived] or wait until Texas files a brief replying to the arguments made by the battleground states… They do ‘meet’ Friday for their regular conference, now held over the phone… it will take five justices to agree to allow Paxton to file his suit…”

Of course, the fact that the Supreme Court accepted to take the case and asked the sued states to respond to the allegations in the lawsuit does not mean that they will make a correct decision. No court so far has been willing to even acknowledge the evidence of massive voter fraud unparalleled in the recorded history of the USA. Also note the next article.

Supreme Court Rejects Pennsylvania Lawsuit

The Week wrote on December 8:

“The Supreme Court on Tuesday denied a request from Pennsylvania Republicans, including Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.), to block the state from certifying its presidential election results… It’s not exactly clear what each individual justice thought of the plaintiffs’ final brief, but there were no public dissents, and the decision to reject it — which was revealed via a one-line order — reportedly took just 34 minutes to make, indicating there was little drama.”

As npr “explains”:

“The lawsuit was brought by Republican Rep. Mike Kelly, who argued a 2019 state law authorizing universal mail-in voting is unconstitutional [the allegation being, the expansive vote-by-mail law is unconstitutional because it required a constitutional amendment to authorize its provisions] and that all ballots cast by mail in the general election in Pennsylvania should be thrown out… Kelly, along with several others, filed the lawsuit on Nov. 21 and requested Pennsylvania either reject the more than 2.5 million ballots cast by mail or allow state lawmakers to select presidential electors. Republicans control Pennsylvania’s Legislature.”

It’s hard to keep track of all the pending lawsuits and those which are still to come, but here is an interesting article in this regard, as published by Newsmax on December 8:

 “President Donald Trump’s legal team is reportedly moving full steam ahead with courtroom election challenges that are now expected to continue into January. Tuesday marked the ‘safe harbor’ deadline, historically accepted as the date by which all state-level election challenges — such as recounts and audits — are supposed to be completed. But Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis, representing Trump in his bid to overturn the election results, said the courts will look at challenges into next month, well past that deadline…

“‘Justice [Ruth Bader] Ginsburg recognized in Bush v. Gore that the date of ‘ultimate significance’ is Jan. 6, when Congress counts and certifies the votes of the Electoral College,’ they said in a statement… ‘The only fixed day in the U.S. Constitution is the inauguration of the president on Jan. 20 at noon.’…”

“Biden Officially Secures Electoral College Majority after California Certifies Votes”

CBS News wrote on December 5:

“California certified its presidential election Friday and appointed 55 electors pledged to vote for President-elect Biden, officially handing him the Electoral College majority needed to win the White House… with 279 electors… That’s just over the 270 threshold for victory.

“Edward B. Foley, a law professor at Ohio State University [said:] ‘It is a legal milestone and the first milestone that has that status… Everything prior to that was premised on what we call projections.’

“The electors named Friday will meet December 14, along with counterparts in each state, to formally vote for the next president… Results of the Electoral College vote are due to be received, and typically approved, by Congress on January 6… lawmakers can object to accepting the electors’ votes…

“The Democratic-controlled House and Republican-controlled Senate would both vote separately to resolve any disputes. One already has arisen from Pennsylvania, where 75 Republican lawmakers signed a statement on Friday urging Congress to block the state’s electoral votes from being cast for Mr. Biden…

“The last remaining move to block the election would be the… effort to vote down the electors in Congress. This tactic has been tried — a handful of congressional Democrats in 2000, 2004 and 2016 objected to officially making both George W. Bush and Mr. Trump president. But the numbers were not enough to block the two men from taking office.”

No More Fraud?

Breitbart reported on December 9:

“Google-owned video platform YouTube has announced plans to remove any content that questions Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 U.S. presidential election despite the fact that legal challenges involving multiple states continue… In the blog post, YouTube writes [on December 9]:

“‘Yesterday was the safe harbor deadline for the U.S. Presidential election and enough states have certified their election results to determine a President-elect. Given that, we will start removing any piece of content uploaded today (or anytime after) that misleads people by alleging that widespread fraud or errors changed the outcome of the 2020 U.S. Presidential election, in line with our approach towards historical U.S. Presidential elections. For example, we will remove videos claiming that a Presidential candidate won the election due to widespread software glitches or counting errors. We will begin enforcing this policy today, and will ramp up in the weeks to come…’”

The Ron Paul Institute added on December 10:

“[YouTube] used the end of the ‘safe harbor’ period for counting votes to justify censor those with lingering doubts or those who want to post explanations of why the count remains suspicious, including presumable an array of members of Congress who have called for investigations. For free speech advocates, the move is a raw example of corporate censorship but Democrats and many liberals applauded the action… It appears that Big Brother is now being embraced as a protector of truth.

“… some polls show up to 90 percent of Republicans believe that election was not fair and honest. Roughly half of the country voted for President Donald Trump and many of them hold this view. The best way to address such views is to expose them to debate and challenge. That is the value of free speech. Otherwise, you end up on a slippery slope of censorship of any views that you deem harmful or misleading.

“This action notably occurs just weeks after companies blocked discussion of the Hunter Biden story. It was only after the election that the CEOs then said it was a mistake.  Biden is now under federal investigation and the laptop and its disturbing emails now appear to be legitimate… We are watching free speech drain away to the applause of those eager for less freedom.”

What Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services Would Look Like

Israel 365 News wrote on December 7:

“Joe Biden announced his choice to head the Department of Health… His choice, the current California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, has plenty of experience prosecuting journalists who uncover ugly truths about the abortion industry. In this respect, the appointee will feel right at home running the branch of the federal government in charge of the task force tasked with battling the COVID pandemic which is dominated by advocates for abortion and euthanasia… as a career lawyer and politician, he does not, in fact, have any previous experience in the area of health or medicine…

“In 2015, David Daleiden, an undercover journalist and anti-abortion activist, released videos showing footage of Planned Parenthood officials discussing fees for human fetal tissue and organs… In 2017, Becerra filed 15 felony charges against Daleiden. Less than one month later, Superior Court Judge Christopher Hite dismissed fourteen of the charges, with leave to amend, on the grounds that they were legally insufficient. Less than two weeks later, Becerra refiled those charges and they are still active. Daleiden is still in a legal battle, fighting the felony charges, and is appealing a civil suit filed by Planned Parenthood in excess of two million dollars.

“In April 2016, Kamala Harris, then the California Attorney General, order[ed] the Department of Justice [to serve] a search warrant on Daleiden, [to raid] his apartment [and to seize] multiple computers, hard drives, documents, cell phones and other matters collected in his research on Planned Parenthood… Both Becerra and Harris were accused of having a conflict of interest in pursuing the prosecution of Daleiden as they both have a long history of receiving contributions and support from Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion organizations…

“In legal circles, Becerra is known as ‘the man who sued Trump more than anyone else’ having brought over 100 cases against the president as the California attorney general. If Biden is declared the winner of the presidential election, Becerra will have to be approved by the senate.

“If Biden does become president and Becerra is approved as the head the Department of Health and Human Services, the people tasked with saving the country from the pandemic will be of an interesting breed, having more in common in their approach to ending human life than in saving it. Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, one of the 13 members of [Biden’s] coronavirus task force, authored a book on medical ethics titled The Ends of Human Life in which he advocated for doctors engaging in passive euthanasia…

“Dr. Emanuel is not an outlier in Biden’s coronavirus task force. One of the chairmen is Dr. David Kessler, a former FDA commissioner. He is… an advocate for physician-assisted suicide.

“It should also be noted that another task force appointee, Dr. Vivek Murthy who, when he served as the Surgeon General from 2014 until 2017, advocated for stricter laws enforcing vaccination of children. In an interview with CNN, he said he was ‘concerned’ that vaccine exemptions for religious and other reasons ‘in some states is too permissive.’”

This is truly APPALLING!!! Another Catholic priest just stated that Biden, who is proudly proclaiming to be a “Catholic,” should not receive communion based on his stance on abortion and other life-ending measures.

“Side effects from the COVID-19 vaccine means ‘your body responded the way it’s supposed to,’ experts say”

USA Today wrote on December 4:

“Americans will likely experience at least one side effect from the COVID-19 vaccine, but doctors say that’s normal and you should still get vaccinated. In Moderna’s Phase 3 trials, [the] company said the most common side effects were fatigue, muscle soreness and aches, joint pain, headache, and pain, redness or swelling at the injection site. More than half of Moderna’s study participants had side effects from the vaccine in Phase 1 trials…

“… Physicians emphasize that these side effects are not just normal but also a sign that the body is reacting properly to the vaccine.

“Dr. Melanie Swift, an occupational medicine physician helping lead the COVID-19 vaccination plan at the Mayo Clinic, said it’s important to educate Americans about the vaccines’ side effects or it may deter people from getting the second dose…  ‘It’s important to take both doses or that first dose was all for nothing.’… If someone is going to have a bad reaction to a vaccine, it is likely to occur in the first six weeks after vaccination, according to medical experts. But experts still don’t know the long-term effects of the COVID-19 vaccines and won’t know until after the trials are completed and researchers monitor participants in the real world for years after…

“The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has numerous national monitoring systems in place to track reportable adverse events from vaccines. However, the agency added another layer of safety monitoring for the COVID-19 vaccine: V-SAFE. It’s a new smartphone-based, post-vaccination health checker for essential workers who receive the COVID-19 vaccine. For those who enroll, the program will use texting messaging and web surveys to check in with people for health problems following vaccination… Text messages and emails will be sent daily for the first week post vaccination and then weekly thereafter for six weeks. The agency will not only ask about side effects and possible adverse events, but it will also ask about COVID-19 infection to better understand effectiveness and how long vaccine protection may last.”

If all of this is not reason to be greatly concerned, what is?

CNBC wrote on December 8:

“One Pfizer trial participant told CNBC that after the second shot, he woke up with chills, shaking so hard he cracked a tooth. ‘It hurt to even just lay in my bed sheet,’ he said.”

The Daily Mail wrote on December 9:

“There are fears over how safe Pfizer’s COVID vaccine is after two British healthcare workers who were among the first in the world to receive it on Tuesday went into anaphylactic shock hours later, prompting British authorities to tell anyone with a ‘severe’ allergy to food or medicine not to get it [to be more precise, the advice is against vaccinating anyone with a history of significant allergic reactions to medicines, food or vaccines]… In America, that applies to at least 200,000 people who have food allergies and many more who have drug allergies.”

The Jerusalem Post reported on December 9 that two participants died. It also stated: “At the same time, the FDA said that currently there is not enough research to guarantee the vaccine’s safety for immunocompromized groups, pregnant women and children.”

RT added on December 9:

“Four trial participants who received the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine experienced facial paralysis, according to the Food and Drug Administration… Bell’s palsy, a form of temporary facial paralysis, was reported by four participants during phase 3 trials… The condition resembles a stroke, with most sufferers watching helplessly as one side of their face droops and their muscles go limp. In some rare situations, both sides of the face may become paralyzed…”

For much more information on potential side effects and moral issues, please view our new StandingWatch program, titled, Should you get vaccinated against Coronavirus?” 

Gov. Newsom’s New Lockdown in California

The Guardian wrote on December 7:

“More than 23 million people in southern California have been placed under the harshest lockdowns in the US, as Covid-19 cases hit record levels in the country’s most populous state. The restrictions require people to stay at home and minimise contact with other households. They came into effect at 11.59pm local time on Sunday (0659 GMT) and will remain in place for at least three weeks, covering the Christmas holiday. All retail stores can stay open, although at 20% capacity, along with outside spaces such as parks and beaches, but restaurants, bars, hair and nail salons and tattoo shops are required to close…

“The new shutdowns were a gut-wrenching move for small businesses…”

SFGate wrote on December 5:

“Many Bay Area small businesses barely survived the first shutdown in March, only to go under during the summer when California’s watch list system imposed another round of mandated closures… People want evidence their businesses are actually contributing to the spread of the virus. This question came up during Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Thursday press conference announcing the new stay-at-home framework, but he was highly evasive… The lack of data and transparency is infuriating for so many… With no federal help on the way just before the holidays, people are scared they may close for good… To say that people are incensed with California’s leaders would be an understatement…”

RV Business wrote on December 5:

“Californians will see sharp new limits on public gatherings and shopping under a new statewide order issued today by Gov. Gavin Newsom… parks and other campgrounds in five regions of the state will be prohibited from accommodating overnight guests… For at least 21 days, the rules will limit many activities in areas facing critical care shortages that could last through the holidays…

“Affected communities will be required to close personal service businesses including hair and nail salons, playgrounds, amusement parks, bars and movie theaters. Restaurants will be required to return to take-out service only. Hotels may not rent rooms to tourists, although essential travelers can be accommodated.”

The Ron Paul Institute wrote on December 7:

“The cruel illogic of this latest round of Covid lockdowns has infuriated more and more Americans and exposed the corruption and hypocrisy of the ‘leaders.’ While outdoor dining is being forcibly shut down in places like California – with no ‘science’ to back the move up – indoor shopping at big-box stores continues unabated. Small restaurants are going under by the thousands while the powerful and well-connected are reaping record profits. America is being pushed to the breaking point by hypocrite ‘do as I say not as I do’ governors like California’s Gavin Newsom and many more.”

All of this is INSANE! The California government is DESTROYING the lives and businesses of thousands upon thousands of people. In doing so, they are following the lead of Satan the Devil who is called the “destroyer” in the Bible.

LA County’s Abuse of Power

Politico wrote on December 8:

“A judge on Tuesday issued a blistering rebuke to Los Angeles County public health officials… saying an indefinite ban on outdoor dining announced late last month was ‘unsupported by any findings’ and an abuse of emergency powers… The tentative ruling to block the indefinite ban won’t have immediate practical consequences for Los Angeles-area restaurants, as the county is now under a temporary stay-home order… But it marks a symbolic and legal victory for those challenging the emergency powers flexed by state and local officials — and a rare setback for public health authorities…

“The judge’s 73-page assessment found that the county failed to justify its decision to shutter outdoor dining or perform a required risk-benefit analysis about the restriction. Outbreak data provided to the court, [the judge] wrote, showed that cases traced back to bars and restaurants accounted for just 3.1 percent of the non-residential outbreak locations, ‘the vast majority of which were chain/fast food type restaurants’ and almost exclusively involved employees rather than customers.”

The Los Angeles Times Newsletter added on December 9:

“A judge has limited Los Angeles County’s outdoor dining ban to three weeks, even as a state order will keep the restriction in place past Christmas, according to a tentative decision announced Tuesday. Once the ban expires — on Dec. 16 — county public health officials must conduct a risk-benefit analysis to extend the closures, according to the judge’s ruling.”

How the Rich Get Richer

ABC 7 News wrote on December 9:

“At least eight companies partially owned by Gov. Gavin Newsom collectively received millions of dollars from the Paycheck Protection Program, according to an ABC7 analysis. While data released by the Small Business Administration earlier this year showed the PlumpJack Group received up to $350,000 worth of PPP loans, newly-released data by the SBA indicated PlumpJack businesses – including wineries, bars, and restaurants – received more than eight times that amount at nearly $3 million altogether….

“Gov. Newsom is not affiliated with the operations of the companies as his interests are in a blind trust. However, he is listed as the founder on the website and his sister Hilary Newsom is listed as the company’s President and Partner. According to the governor’s 2019 Statement of Economic Interest, Newsom does have an ownership interest in eight companies affiliated with PlumpJack that received PPP funding… the governor’s 2018 tax returns show he and his wife made $1.2 million from wages and investments – a majority of which stems from his ventures in wine and hospitality.

“The PlumpJack Group will have two to five years to apply for loan forgiveness if they choose to do so. This means the company may not have to pay back these loans… If companies don’t seek forgiveness of the loan, they have to pay it back – but these companies still benefit. ‘They were able to benefit from this extremely low interest rate the government was providing,’ said Danielle Brian, the Executive Director of Project on Government Oversight. ‘These are one percent loans…it’s essentially free money for them.’”

Incredible and shameful. And that occurs, while millions of small businesses are forced to go under…

How We Are Destroying Our People

The Los Angeles Times wrote on December 8:

“Dino Ferraro texted friends from a concrete bench next to the Huntington Beach Pier on Monday as he tried to sort out his worries. He has mounting bills — more than $100,000 from back rent owed for his two restaurants… He spent thousands of dollars deep-cleaning and disinfecting both businesses, three times each in the past months, he said, along with complying ‘with every demand required.’ Now, like thousands of other restaurants in much of California, he began Monday with a new set of restrictions, including a suspension of outdoor dining, which had been a lifeline for his business…

“The timing of the state’s latest [stay-at-home] order is the newest blow, in a year full of them…   Ferraro, who grew up helping his mother make pizza and lasagna, says he is not just concerned about himself. He said he had 58 employees and that meant ‘58 families are getting fed — how can we think of layoffs?’”

The Washington Post wrote on December 7:

“Millions of Americans who lost their jobs during the pandemic have fallen thousands of dollars behind on rent and utility bills, a warning sign that people are running out of money for basic needs. Nearly 12 million renters will owe an average of $5,850 in back rent and utilities by January… Economists say the data underscores the deepening financial disaster for many families as the pandemic continues to [correctly: as governmental restrictions] shut off work opportunities…

“‘The tidal wave is coming. It’s going to be really horrible for people,’ said Charlie Harak, a senior attorney at the National Consumer Law Center… Nashville mother Nikki Cornwell is $4,000 behind on rent and fears she will be evicted right after Christmas. Her water was shut off on Monday. Her landlord filed the paperwork already, and her court date is set for Jan. 5 — just after the federal eviction moratorium is set to expire…

“Economics warn low-income families won’t be able to suddenly pay back three to six months of rent at once… Shelbie Selewski is $2,100 behind on rent and utilities after losing her job as a medical receptionist in Macomb County, Mich. Her landlord has taped eviction papers to her door three times, and her electricity was shut off in September — on her son’s third day of virtual kindergarten. She begged friends and relatives for help to get the electricity back on, but bills are piling up again…”

A Matter of Survival

7 San Diego wrote on December 9:

“A day after new state shutdown orders went into effect, many small businesses are refusing to comply with the orders and are defiantly staying open for business… with customers expressing support for… defying the shutdown order… Meanwhile, the Escondido Police Department released a statement regarding enforcement… ‘Businesses that refuse to comply with the health orders are subject to citations, which may result in fines.  The county public health department has also been issuing cease-and-desist orders to businesses failing to comply throughout the county.’”

Shameful and appalling indeed.

Playground Closure Infuriates Parents

The Los Angeles Times Newsletter reported on December 10:

“L.A. County’s playground closures had infuriated and confounded many parents. Why, they asked, were outdoor playgrounds closed when indoor malls remained open and filled with shoppers? What made swing sets and monkey bars more dangerous than tennis courts, golf courses, beaches, skate parks and hiking trails, which all remained open? And after months of Zoom school and not seeing friends, hadn’t kids suffered enough?… Following outcry from parents and some legislators, the state has reversed course on closing playgrounds as part of its regional stay-at-home order. Los Angeles County — which had closed outdoor public playgrounds prior to the state’s order — will also follow the state’s lead and allow playgrounds to reopen.”

Violent Clashes in LA

The Los Angeles Times Newsletter wrote on December 6:

“The new order… will further pummel the California economy and many small businesses…  Los Angeles police clashed with protesters outside Mayor Eric Garcetti’s official residence on Sunday, leading to one arrest and a skirmish with baton-wielding officers that several elected officials later denounced as police brutality and a violation of demonstrators’ free speech rights.”

A foretaste of what is to come in the USA?

Germany’s Deceitful Restrictions

Reuters wrote on December 7:

“German leaders came out on Monday in favour of stricter measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus… Chancellor Angela Merkel told party colleagues that existing lockdown measures – with bars and restaurants closed and shops admitting limited numbers – were too little to get the virus under control…

“Markus Soeder, premier of the southern state of Bavaria… said he was certain regional and national leaders would agree tighter measures before Christmas. They had previously agreed not to revisit lockdown rules before Jan. 10…

“Meanwhile, some states are going further on their own initiative: Rhineland-Palatinate banned takeaway sales of mulled wine… From Wednesday, Bavaria will allow people to leave home only for essential reasons, while evening curfews are planned for hotspots with the highest infection rates.”

Deutsche Welle wrote on December 7:

“Germany has been under a partial lockdown since November 2 that was supposed to last one month. It was extended to January 10, following a meeting between Chancellor Angela Merkel and the heads of the 16 federal states…”

And while the German government keeps on lying to the German people, who are in many cases gullible enough to believe the lies and the “explanations” by power-hungry and well-fed governmental officials (what else is new?), millions of lives are being destroyed, and millions of euros are pouring into governmental suitcases from fines for violations of corona “restrictions.”

How to Destroy Opposing Views

Deutsche Welle reported on December 9:

“The State Office for the Protection of the Constitution in the German state of Baden-Württemberg on Wednesday declared that it will begin to surveil a Querdenker, or ‘lateral thinking,’ group opposed to coronavirus-related restrictions.  The state office responsible for domestic security, formally classified the group as an object of observation as the group has been ‘infiltrated by extremists.’… The ‘lateral thinking’ movement has been responsible for organizing some of the largest demonstrations against coronavirus restrictions, including a protest in Leipzig last month, which saw over 20,000 attendees.

“The founder of the group is Stuttgart-based entrepreneur Michael Ballweg… ‘We are a peaceful movement and not a political party,’ he told the dpa news agency…

“At a meeting of federal and state ministers on Thursday, politicians are set to focus on groups such as the Querdenker movement. According to the draft resolution, ministers will look at ‘the attempted influence on the formation of opinion in society through disinformation of foreign powers and through conspiracy theories used by extremists,’ as such views ‘could develop into a tendency toward radicalization and new extremism.’ The aim of the meeting is to figure out ways to combat the ‘negative effects and possible threats to the free democratic basic order – especially against the background of the current pandemic in connection with conspiracy theories.’”

Reuters added on December 9:

“‘Legitimate protest against coronavirus restrictions is increasingly making way for a general hate against state and politics,’ Baden-Wuerttemberg’s Interior Minister Thomas Strobl said, without specifying how many people were being observed. Strobl accused the movement of spreading false claims to incite hate against the state, making ‘absurd comparisons’ with the Nazis, and downplaying the Holocaust…

“‘Querdenken 711’ representatives… have in the past rejected accusations of extremism. Last month, police fired water cannon and pepper spray to scatter thousands of protesters in Berlin angry about coronavirus restrictions.”

Germany’s descent into a dictatorship is only too obvious.

Saudi Prince Attacks Israel

The Times of Israel wrote on December 6:

“A Saudi prince and former senior government official on Sunday launched a blistering attack against Israel, describing the Jewish state as a belligerent and apartheid-practicing occupier, and saying that peace will remain elusive until the creation of a Palestinian state along 1967 lines. ‘Israeli governments have arrested thousands of the inhabitants of the lands they are colonizing and incarcerated them in concentration camps under the flimsiest of security accusations — young and old, women and men who are rotting there without recourse or justice,’ said Turki al-Faisal al Saud, the former head of the kingdom’s intelligence service… ‘They’re demolishing homes as they wish, and they assassinate whomever they want to. And yet, the Israeli Knesset passed a law that defines the citizenship of Israel as exclusively Jewish, denying the non-Jewish inhabitants of Israel equal rights under the law. What kind of democracy is that?’ He also lamented Israel’s construction of the West Bank security barrier, which he called the ‘apartheid wall.’…

“Al-Faisal led Saudi intelligence for more than two decades and served as the kingdom’s ambassador to the United States and United Kingdom. Although he currently does not hold any official position, his stance is seen as closely mirroring that of King Salman. In contrast, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has signaled greater willingness to quietly engage with Israel to counter their common enemy, Iran, and boost foreign investment in the kingdom…

“Saudi Arabia has insisted that any normalization between it and Israel can only happen alongside a lasting peace deal involving a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict…”

This means, then, there will not be lasting peace between Saudi Arabia and Israel.

No Deal Most Likely

The Daily Mail wrote on December 10:

“Boris Johnson has warned there is now a ‘strong possibility’ of the UK and the EU parting ways on December 31 without a trade deal in place. The Prime Minister said this evening he is stepping up British preparations for a chaotic split from Brussels at the end of the ‘standstill’ post-Brexit transition period.”

The Sun added on December 10:

“No Deal is now the most likely outcome of Brexit trade talks as Brussels wants to keep the UK as its twin, Boris Johnson warned last night.”

Is the UK Threatening Europe with War?

Express wrote on December 7:

“Boris Johnson has sent a warning to his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron after France threw the Brexit talks into chaos by hardening the EU’s fishing demands at the last minute. In response, Environment Secretary George Eustice announced that the capacity of the Royal Navy fisheries protection fleet has been increased to police British waters. He said that this increase will ‘stop EU boats coming in to fish’… in case an agreement is not reached with the EU.

“Mr Eustice said: ‘Yes, we have taken on two additional vessels to supplement the work that the Royal Navy do to increase capacity. It’s also the case the Navy have just put forward three new off-shore patrol vessels and have decided not to decommission the old ones at this point so there are some reserve capacity to draw on.’

“He said: ‘There are certain things we’ve been clear from the start that we cannot compromise on and that is our sovereignty as a nation, our ability to control our own laws, our ability to control access to our waters.’”

This could be a prelude for worse developments to come.

German DW Attacks the UK

Deutsche Welle wrote on December 6:

“Some things uttered by politicians are so stupid they leave you speechless… the British government seems awkwardly obsessed with the possibility of boasting about some sort of coronavirus vaccine success. For those unaware of what is actually going on: German scientists (of Turkish background) working at a German firm in cooperation with the US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer developed the vaccine using a pioneering approach. Their research was financed from a number of sources, including the EU — and the UK had absolutely nothing to do with any of it.

“The whole incident seems quite childish and is perhaps best ignored. Still, it touched a nerve… The desire to leave the EU seems to have now given way to a new neurosis, one in which Brexiteers crown themselves with others’ laurels and constantly pound their chests in an attempt to sell the UK as a ‘global leader’ — no matter the topic. This type of propaganda tends to be rather embarrassing but seeking to instrumentalize the coronavirus pandemic is simply beyond the pale… The Stone Age nationalism born of Brexit has nothing to do with [cooperation with the EU].”

And so, there will be no cooperation between the EU and the UK on any given topic. The hostility between these two powers will increase.

Planned: Worldwide Censorship and Mind Control

Distributed News wrote on December 2:

“An all-powerful global government has already formed, and they have already made their plans public. They plan to use covid-19 lock downs and public health orders to strip people of their individual rights, to forfeit private property ownership, and to submit sovereign countries to a one world economy that is complete with heightened data collection and surveillance of human beings with vaccine passports and a wealth redistribution system that quashes the American dream and submits everyone to an ‘equitable’ future replete with controlled markets, a digital currency, and central bank economic controls. This will admittedly be accomplished through a sophisticated brainwashing initiative launched by the World Economic Forum (WEF), the United Nations (UN) and Big Tech…

“They openly admit they want to use governments, researchers, businesses and influencers to promote their communist system… Big Tech censorship, which accelerated over the past four years, is only the first part of the deception — a period of elimination — where free thought, free market ideas, independent journalism and scientific advancement are restricted. Any information that gets in their way will be labeled as ‘misinformation’ and will be mocked and blocked. The next phase of thought control will include overt manipulation, a coordinated attempt to convince people in influential positions to promote a new ‘sustainable’ world economy, where people have no privacy or consent in what is mandated regarding their body. The system they want everyone to accept will require bodily submission to the public health orthodoxy, coupled with a more invasive surveillance state.

“The UN and WEF have partnered to launch the #PledgetoPause initiative. UN communications director Melissa Fleming called the program ‘the first global behavior change campaign on misinformation.’ Multiple NGOs backed by George Soros and all the Big Tech companies are on board. The program has already weeded out and removed online content that challenges their agendas. Now their goal is to ‘mobilize experts and researchers, government, influencers, civil society, businesses, regulators and the media to block out any “wrong information” regarding covid-19 vaccines, lock downs, economic controls, masks, social distancing, gathering restrictions,’ etc. The initiative has already coordinated with a left-wing activist group called Purpose. This group strives to promote the LGBT movement and has recently launched attacks on Poland’s pro-family laws and culture, while eliminating any dissent through online censorship. The initiative has also partnered with Google and the Gates Foundation to eliminate any open discussion about vaccines, informed consent, individual rights, medical privacy, vaccine injury, etc.”

Of course, this world is already a prisoner and victim of mind control, brainwashing and censorship, due to the fact that Satan the Devil rules mankind. But if one needed any confirmation as to the veracity of Distributed News, then listen to the irresponsible attempts of “mediabiasfactcheck” to discredit them and other outlets:

“Overall, we rate Distributed News an extreme right biased Tin-Foil Hat Conspiracy website that also publishes pseudoscience. This source is associated with Natural News, which is one of the most discredited sources on the internet.”

“Discredited,” because Natural News is highly critical of the so-called “accepted”” science by Dr. Fauci and others regarding governmental restrictions and “safe” and “harmless” vaccinations! Distributed News also published quite a few articles regarding voter fraud and irregularities during the Presidential election, which have all been verified or collaborated, as far as we can tell, by other sources. Not everything which the above-quoted article alleges might be provable, but there is enough there to raise much more than just a few eyebrows.

Acknowledgement and Disclaimer

These Current Events are compiled and commented on by Norbert Link. We gratefully acknowledge the many contributions of news articles from our readership. The publication of articles in this section is not to be viewed as an endorsement or approval as to contents or accuracy of the selected articles, but they are published for the purpose of pointing at worldwide developments in the light of biblical end-time prophecy and godly instruction. Our own comments are provided in italics.