VICE PRESIDENT GREAT PERSON MIKE PENCE STARTS OFF HIS MIDEAST TRIP IN EGYPT.

JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.GET SAVED NOW- CALL ON JESUS TODAY.THE ONLY SAVIOR OF THE WHOLE EARTH - NO OTHER. 1 COR 15:23-JESUS THE FIRST FRUITS-CHRISTIANS RAPTURED TO JESUS-FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT-23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.ROMANS 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.(THE PRE-TRIB RAPTURE)

LUKE 21:28-29
28 And when these things begin to come to pass,(ALL THE PROPHECY SIGNS FROM THE BIBLE) then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption (RAPTURE) draweth nigh.
29 And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree,(ISRAEL) and all the trees;(ALL INDEPENDENT COUNTRIES)
30 When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.(ISRAEL LITERALLY BECAME AND INDEPENDENT COUNTRY JUST BEFORE SUMMER IN MAY 14,1948.)

JOEL 2:3,30
3 A fire devoureth (ATOMIC BOMB) before them;(RUSSIAN-ARAB-MUSLIM ARMIES AGAINST ISRAEL) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(ATOMIC BOMB AFFECT)

ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their eyes shall consume away in their holes,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB)(BECAUSE NUKES HAVE BEEN USED ON ISRAELS ENEMIES)(GOD PROTECTS ISRAEL AND ALWAYS WILL)
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.(1/2-3 BILLION DIE IN WW3)(THIS IS AN ATOMIC BOMB EFFECT)

EZEKIEL 20:47
47 And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.

ZEPHANIAH 1:18
18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.

MALACHI 4:1
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven;(FROM ATOMIC BOMBS) and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

And here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land in the future.
Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.12 TRIBES INHERIT LAND IN THE FUTURE

Arab MK calls Pence ‘dangerous, messianic,’ will boycott his Knesset speech-Head of the Joint List head also rails against Trump, brands him a 'political pyromaniac' and a racist woman-hater-By Alexander Fulbright-JAN 21,18-TOI

Arab Israeli lawmakers will boycott Mike Pence’s speech to the Knesset, with the head of a coalition of Arab parties saying Saturday that the US vice president is “dangerous” and has a “messianic vision” that threatens the region.Pence landed in Egypt Saturday to kick off a Middle East trip that will also include stops in Jordan and Israel, after canceling a December visit due to the passage of US tax reform.Ahead of his arrival, Joint (Arab) List leader Ayman Odeh said MKs in his party would not attend Pence’s Knesset speech due to US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.In a Twitter post Saturday, Odeh said his party would go through with an earlier promise to skip Pence’s address to the Knesset plenum.“[Pence] is a dangerous man with a messianic vision that includes the destruction of the entire region,” he also said.Odeh also attacked Trump, saying he was “even more dangerous” than Pence and a “political pyromaniac” and a “racist” woman-hater. He slammed the US president’s Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking efforts and said Trump “must not have a [political] road map for the region.”The Arab lawmaker said after Trump’s December 6 declaration that the US “has lost its place as the exclusive mediator of negotiations.” echoing Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who has struck out strongly at the Trump administration since the announcement on Jerusalem.The Palestinians claim East Jerusalem, which Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 Six Day War, as the capital of its future state. Trump stressed in his speech that recognizing the city as Israel’s capital was not meant to take a position its final boundaries, which he said should be decided in peace talks between the sides.In addition to being boycotted by Arab MKs, Pence is also being shunned by the PA and will not travel to Ramallah or meet with Palestinian leaders. The PA said it would not meet with any US officials regarding the peace process following Trump’s declaration on Jerusalem.Pence’s visit to the region comes as Abbas has ramped up his criticism of Trump and his peacemaking efforts. In a speech Sunday, the PA leader called a peace plan being formulated by Trump the “slap of the century” and claimed Israel was a European “colonial project.”In response to Abbas’ refusal to engage in American-brokered peace talks, the US has frozen tens of millions of dollars in aid to the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees, although the State Department said the second tranche of funds was being held up due to the need for “reform” at the organization.

Pence kicks off Middle East tour in Egypt amid Arab anger over Jerusalem-US vice president to meet with Sissi in Cairo before heading to Jordan, Israel; no talks with Palestinians, who are boycotting the US vice president-By Maram Mazen and Dave Clark-JAN 21,18-TOI

CAIRO (AFP) — US Vice President Mike Pence arrived in Egypt Saturday to begin a delayed Middle East tour overshadowed by anger in the Arab world over Washington’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.Controversy over US President Donald Trump’s decision to move the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem had led to the cancellation of a number of planned meetings ahead of the trip originally scheduled for December.While the deadly protests that erupted in the West Bank and Gaza Strip at the time have subsided, concerns are mounting over the future of the UN aid agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA.Washington has frozen tens of millions of dollars of funding for the cash-strapped body, putting at risk operations to feed, teach, and treat hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.The Palestinian Authority, already furious over the Jerusalem decision, has denounced the US administration and had already refused to meet Pence in December..@VP Pence and his wife, Karen, exit Air Force Two in Cairo. pic.twitter.com/3AsA9DwSYq— Jeff Mason (@jeffmason1) January 20, 2018-But the vice president’s press secretary, Alyssa Farah, said he would still meet the leaders of Egypt, Jordan, and Israel on the high-stakes four-day tour.Pence is scheduled to hold talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi on Saturday before traveling to Amman for a one-on-one meeting with King Abdullah II on Sunday.The trip had been pushed back in December as a crunch tax vote loomed on Capitol Hill.-Key security partners-The leaders of both countries, the only Arab states that have peace treaties with Israel, would be key players if US mediators ever manage to get a revived Israeli-Palestinian peace process off the ground, as Trump says he wants.They are also key intelligence-sharing and security partners in America’s various covert and overt battles against Islamist extremism in the region, and Egypt is a major recipient of aid to help it buy advanced US military hardware.Sissi, one of Trump’s closest allies in the region, had urged the US president before his Jerusalem declaration “not to complicate the situation in the region by taking measures that jeopardize the chances of peace in the Middle East.”Ahmed al-Tayeb, the grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Egypt’s highest institution of Sunni Islam, cancelled a meeting with Pence in protest at the Jerusalem decision.The head of Egypt’s Coptic Church, Pope Tawadros II, did the same, saying Trump’s move “did not take into account the feelings of millions of Arab people.”After Jordan — the custodian of Christian and Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem’s Old City — Pence will head to Israel for talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.He will also deliver a speech to the Knesset and meet President Reuven Rivlin during the two-day visit.Pence can expect a warm welcome after Trump’s decision on Jerusalem, which was welcomed by Israeli but denounced by the Palestinians.Israel captured the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 Six Day War. It later extended Israeli sovereignty to East Jerusalem in a move never recognized by the international community.Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its united capital, while the Palestinians see East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.The international community considers East Jerusalem illegally occupied by Israel, and currently all countries have their embassies in the commercial capital Tel Aviv.-‘Matter of years’-The State Department has begun to plan the sensitive move of the US embassy to Jerusalem, a process that US diplomats say may take years to complete.This week reports surfaced that Washington may temporarily designate the US consulate general in Jerusalem as the embassy while the search for a secure and practical site for a long-term mission continues.A senior State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has yet to make a decision on either a permanent or interim location for the mission.“That is a process that takes, anywhere in the world, time. Time for appropriate design, time for execution. It is a matter of years and not weeks or months,” he said.Pence — himself a devout Christian — will visit the Western Wall, one of the holiest sites of Judaism in Jerusalem’s Old City, and pay his respects at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial.TOI Staff contributed to this report.

Turkey launches offensive against US-backed Kurdish militia in Syria-Dubbed operation 'Olive Branch,' move draws expressions of concern from Washington and Moscow-By Bulent Kilic-JAN 21,18-TOI

HASSA, Turkey (AFP) — Turkey on Saturday launched a new air and ground operation to oust Kurdish militia from a northern Syrian enclave, defying US warnings that the action risked destabilizing the area.Turkey had in recent days sent dozens of military vehicles to the border area and readied pro-Ankara Syria rebels in preparation for the operation against the People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia which Turkey deems to be a terror organization.President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had repeatedly vowed that Turkey would root out “nests of terror” in Syria, despite warnings that the operation could be militarily tough and complicate relations with Washington and Moscow.The foreign ministry of Russia, whose opinion is seen as crucial in determining how far the operation goes, said it had received the news of the campaign with concern and urged restraint.Dubbing the new campaign operation “Olive Branch,” the Turkish army said it had begun at 1400 GMT and was aimed against the YPG and also Islamic State (IS) jihadists.The army said the operation would respect Syria’s territorial integrity and was justified by Turkey’s rights under international law.-Huge plumes of smoke-An AFP correspondent on the Turkish side of the border saw two war planes launch air strikes inside Syrian territory, sending huge white plumes of smoke up into the early evening sky.Prime Minister Binali Yildirim confirmed the air strikes.Units of pro-Ankara rebels known by Turkey as the Free Syrian Army (FSA) also began moving into the Afrin area of Syria, which is controlled by the YPG, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.The Turkish army has over the last two days shelled camps and refuges used by the YPG and Erdogan said earlier Saturday that Turkey had “de-facto” launched the operation.Erdogan said that after Afrin, the forces would also seek to oust the YPG from Manbij, a town to the east that the Kurdish militia also holds.A Turkish foreign ministry official said in the wake of the announcement of the air strikes that Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu held talks with US counterpart Rex Tillerson, at Washington’s request.Turkey accuses the YPG of being the Syrian offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) which has waged a rebellion in the Turkish southeast for more than three decades and is regarded as a terror group by Ankara and its Western allies.But the YPG has been the key ally of Turkey’s fellow NATO member the United States in the fight against IS jihadists, playing a key role in pushing the extremists out of their Syrian strongholds.But it was still unclear what form a Turkish ground operation will take, given the considerable political and military risks.-Warning from Damascus-Turkey from August 2016 to March 2017 pushed into Syria in its more than half-year Euphrates Shield operation in an area to the east of Afrin against both YPG and IS.Syria’s Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad warned on Thursday that the Syrian air force could destroy any Turkish warplanes used in the new offensive.Analysts say that crucial for any major ground operation will be approval from Moscow which has a military presence in the area and a cordial relationship with the YPG.In its first comments since the launch of the air strikes, the Russian foreign ministry said: “Moscow is concerned at this news. We call on the opposing parties to show restraint.”With conspicuous timing, Turkey’s army chief General Hulusi Akar and spy chief Hakan Fidan were in Moscow on Thursday for talks on Syria.“A full Turkish air and ground offensive will not take place without Moscow’s blessing,” said Anthony Skinner, director MENA at global risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft, adding a full Turkish campaign is “not inevitable.” Won’t serve regional stability-The Turkish threats of an intervention have also raised eyebrows in Washington, which has backed the YPG as it dislodged IS and gained control of the swathe of northern Syria up to the Iraqi border.The YPG-held enclave of Afrin marks the westernmost extent of its control and Turkey wants to make sure it is kept well to the east of the Euphrates River.“We do not believe that a military operation… serves the cause of regional stability, Syrian stability, or indeed Turkish concerns about the security of their border,” a senior US State Department official said on Friday.But Erdogan accused the United States of not keeping its past promises that the YPG would clear out of Manbij.“So nobody can object if we do what is necessary,” said Erdogan, threatening to pursue the operations up to the Iraqi border.Erdogan reacted furiously this week to an announcement of plans to create a US-backed 30,000-strong border security force in northern Syria composed partly of YPG fighters, describing it as an “army of terror.”US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson later said the “entire situation has been mis-portrayed, mis-described,” admitting “we owe them (Turkey) an explanation.”“We don’t care what they say,” Erdogan spat back. “They will learn how wrong it is to trust a terror organization.”

Trump to bring ‘America first’ to Davos, the epicenter of globalization-In the past, Trump's attacks on 'global special interests' were accused of being anti-Semitic-By Jitendra Joshi-JAN 21,18-TOI

PARIS (AFP) — A compelling clash of cultures will unfold in the vertiginous Swiss Alps this week as Donald Trump, just over 12 months into his high-wire presidency, confronts the cheerleaders of globalization in Davos.Having whipped up working-class resentment of the global elite to devastating effect en route to the White House, the US president’s “America First” vision will run headlong into the haughty ambition of the World Economic Forum (WEF) to map out “a shared future in a fractured world.”The 2017 gathering ended on the same day as Trump was inaugurated, and many of the discussions during the week dwelt anxiously on what his presidency would portend.China’s President Xi Jinping, the star turn in Davos last year, exploited such misgivings to stake out an alternative vision for the international economy with China playing a lead role in both trade and fighting climate change.A year on, Trump will be closing the conference with a speech next Friday.He faced a budget mess at home, where the US government officially shut down on Saturday after lawmakers failed to agree a stop-gap spending deal.The president is relishing his role as apostate-in-chief bent on demolishing the pieties held dear by the WEF, which is drawing some 70 other leaders along with thousands of delegates from the worlds of industry, finance and show business, plus protesters opposed to the US president.The property mogul’s final election campaign advertisement of November 2016 made the distinction brutally clear, casting himself as the defender of hard-working Americans against “global special interests,” over images of Davos perennials such as financier George Soros and Goldman Sachs chief Lloyd Blankfein.Both are Jewish, and the ad was assailed as anti-Semitic by critics.-Best behavior? So why consort in the Swiss Alps with people who are hate figures to his political base? In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, Trump said part of his motivation in becoming the first US president to attend Davos since Bill Clinton in 2000 was to be an unabashed “cheerleader for the country.”Trump also pointed to quickening US economic growth and a roaring stock market as reasons to cheer when he and a large part of his cabinet join leaders such as French President Emmanuel Macron, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Brazilian President Michel Temer in Switzerland.On Monday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will present in Davos an updated overview of the global economy, which is indeed expanding at a broad and healthy clip.But ahead of the meetings, a WEF survey of nearly 1,000 experts and decision-makers underlined growing anxiety about the risks of environmental disaster and armed conflict — not least involving North Korea and the United States, after months of bellicose rhetoric from Trump.Douglas Rediker, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, who was appointed by Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama to the IMF’s executive board, said there was no way to reconcile the WEF’s globalist outlook and the Trump dogma.“It will be a jarring visit even if the president is on his best diplomatic behaviour. And that’s a big if,” Rediker said.- Davos Woman-Trump will be running up against internationalist foils in Davos this week such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Macron, who has subverted one of the US president’s signature lines with his own motto of “Make our planet great again.”The White House said he plans to meet Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May, days after he cancelled a planned trip to London that had cast further doubt on the strength of the vaunted trans-Atlantic “special relationship.”The organizers, mindful of the globe-trotting but all-male caricature of “Davos Man,” are also keen to extol their efforts to promote representation by women, as sexual harassment and the gender pay gap move up the political agenda worldwide.“Davos Women” will account for 21 percent of the total number of delegates this year, the highest ever proportion, if still relatively meagre. They include IMF chief Christine Lagarde, IBM head Ginni Rometty, and screen star Cate Blanchett.Cue another clash of visions given the presence of Trump, whose election campaign in 2016 was nearly upended late on by a leaked recording in which he boasted of groping women.And there will be no shortage of movers and shakers from Africa in attendance, should the president wish to explain his recent reported dismissal of countries across Africa as “shitholes”.The politicians will join the chiefs of some 1,900 companies to debate a panoply of issues such as the future of work in an age of automation and artificial intelligence, tackling “the next pandemic,” and leveraging the potential of virtual currencies.Yet there is no escaping the long shadow cast over the event by Trump, as the convention-shredding president bids to make good on his Davos-baiting promises.WEF founder Klaus Schwab is not giving up hope.“No country alone, no stakeholder alone, no individual alone, can solve the issues on the global agenda. No issue can be solved in an isolated way,” he said.

Palestinians appeal to ICC to halt alleged Israeli crimes-PA foreign minister urges The Hague's chief prosecutor to hold Jerusalem accountable for violence and arrests, particularly of children-By TOI staff-JAN 21,18

The Palestinian Authority on Saturday called on the International Criminal Court in The Hague to execute its authority to prevent crimes it said were being perpetrated against the Palestinian people, particularly children.Marking three years since ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda launched a “preliminary examination into the situation in Palestine,” PA Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki issued a letter to the prosecutor in which he denounced what he described as an escalation of unlawful practices by Israel, the PA’s official Wafa news agency reported.Preliminary examinations establish whether there is probable cause to conduct a full criminal investigation and whether the court has jurisdiction. Such probes can drag on for years.Earlier this month Israel’s National Security Council reportedly warned members of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that the ICC could this year move from the examination phase and open investigations into the 2014 Gaza war, as well as West Bank settlement construction.In his letter, Malki  said 16 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli forces in the last month, with thousands injured and over 700 arrested, of which 184 were children.The West Bank and Gaza Strip have seen frequent violent protests since US President Donald Trump announced that he was recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital on December 6. Israeli security forces have mostly used non-lethal means to deal with unrest, though officials have said live fire is used when soldiers’ lives are in danger.Malki drew particular attention to the much-publicized arrest of 16-year-old Palestinian Ahed Tamimi — who was arrested after being filmed slapping and shoving IDF soldiers last month — claiming her arrest violated international conventions.An Israeli military court judge ruled Wednesday that Tamimi would remain behind bars until the end of legal proceedings.“These widespread and systematic practices form an integral part of the system of oppression and racism the Israeli government employs against the Palestinian people,” Malki said. “Ahed’s case merely serves as further proof of well-established Israeli policies of severe and discriminatory deprivation of fundamental rights of Palestinians.”He called on the ICC to stop Israel violating international laws “in respect of children that may amount to a violation of Israel’s obligations” under global conventions.Bensouda in a December report said her office has “progressed in its analysis of the alleged crimes committed by both parties to the 2014 Gaza conflict, as well as certain alleged crimes committed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since 13 June 2014.”Israel’s 50-day summer 2014 campaign against Hamas in Gaza originally began as a predominantly aerial campaign in response to repeated rocket attacks from the Strip, similar to the 2012 Operation Pillar of Defense. But after Hamas made use of its cross-border tunnel network to carry out attacks inside Israel, the focus shifted to tackling the subterranean threat.A total of 74 people — 68 IDF soldiers, 11 of whom were killed in cross-border tunnel attacks; and 6 civilians — died on the Israeli side of the conflict. In Gaza, more than 2,000 people were killed, with Israel putting the number of civilians killed at approximately 50 percent, the rest being combatants. Gaza itself was badly damaged by the fighting.

Trump will not negotiate on immigration until government reopened-[Reuters]-YAHOONEWS-January 20, 2018

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump will not open negotiations on immigration until Democrats agree to reopen the government, his spokeswoman said on Saturday in a statement."The president will not negotiate on immigration reform until Democrats stop playing games and reopen the government," Sarah Sanders said.(Reporting by Jim Oliphant; Editing by Bill Trott)

Trump: Democrats ‘could have easily made deal’ to avert government shutdown-Failure to reach compromise over undocumented immigrants will see federal services come to a halt or scaled back-By Dave Clark-JAN 21,18

WASHINGTON (AFP) — US President Donald Trump marked the first anniversary of his inauguration Saturday with his government in shutdown, accusing Democrats of taking Americans hostage with their demands and saying they “could have easily made a deal.”As the clock struck midnight, in the absence of an agreed spending plan, federal services began to come to a halt or be scaled back.Essential services and military activity will continue but many public sector workers will be sent home without wages and even serving soldiers will not be paid until a deal is reached to reopen the US government.“Democrats are far more concerned with Illegal Immigrants than they are with our great Military or Safety at our dangerous Southern Border,” Trump wrote in an early morning tweet.“They could have easily made a deal but decided to play Shutdown politics instead. #WeNeedMoreRepublicansIn18 in order to power through mess!”“This is the One Year Anniversary of my Presidency and the Democrats wanted to give me a nice present,” he added.Vice President Mike Pence had earlier raised the issue of soldiers’ salaries after meeting with US military personnel on a stopover in Shannon Airport in Ireland ahead of a three-country tour of the Middle East.“You have troops headed down range to Kuwait for six months and they are anxious about the fact that they aren’t going to get paid right away,” he told reporters. “It’s unconscionable.”A deal had appeared likely on Friday afternoon, when Trump seemed to be close to an agreement with Democratic Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer on a measure to prevent the expulsion of undocumented migrants who arrived in the country as children.But no such compromise was in the language that reached Congress for a stop-gap motion to keep the government open for four more weeks while a final arrangement is discussed — and Republicans failed to win enough Democratic support to bring it to a vote.The White House lashed out at Schumer, blaming him for the shutdown and doubling down: Trump’s spokeswoman Sarah Sanders declared that he would never negotiate an immigration deal until Congress agrees to resume normal government spending.“Senate Democrats own the Schumer Shutdown,” she declared.“We will not negotiate the status of unlawful immigrants while Democrats hold our lawful citizens hostage over their reckless demands,” she said.Republican majority leader Mitch McConnell echoed the White House’s language, but Schumer fought back, blaming Trump for leading him to believe a deal was possible on the immigration dispute but then failing to bring his own party along.-Responsibility to govern-“Every American knows the Republican Party controls White House, the Senate, the House — it is their job to keep the government open. It is their job to work with us to move forward,” Schumer told the Senate, after the 50 to 49 vote.Schumer added he had also offered to discuss the possibility of building a wall along the border with Mexico, a key campaign pledge made by Trump that is anathema to many Democrats.“Even that was not enough to entice the president to finish the deal,” he said.Democrats accused Republicans of poisoning chances of a deal and pandering to Trump’s populist base by refusing to fund a program that protects 700,000 “Dreamers” — undocumented immigrants who arrived in the US as children — from deportation.The president shelved plans to fly to Florida to celebrate at his Mar-a-Lago estate the first anniversary of his inauguration to remain in Washington to ride out the storm.Republicans have a tenuous one-seat majority in the Senate but would have needed to lure some Democrats to their side to get a 60 vote supermajority to bring the motion forward. They fell ten votes short.The measure brought to Congress would have extended federal funding until February 16 and reauthorized for six years a health insurance program for poor children — a long-time Democratic objective.But it would have cut the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA, that affects Dreamers.White House officials insisted there was no urgency to fix DACA, which expires March 5.There have been four government shutdowns since 1990. In the last one in 2013, more than 800,000 government workers were put on temporary leave.International ratings agency Fitch said a partial shutdown was unlikely to affect America’s AAA/stable rating for US sovereign debt.Negotiations with the White House on a bipartisan compromise on DACA blew up last week after Trump reportedly referred to African nations and Haiti as “shithole countries.”The Senate was set to reconvene at noon on Saturday, with McConnell seeking a new stop-gap measure to fund the government till February 8.

Assad regime promotes Syria as ‘tourist’ destination-With war seemingly reigned in, Damascus is courting foreign travelers for the first time in seven years-By AFP-JAN 21,18-TOI

MADRID, Spain — It is over a year since Bashar Assad’s regime, with the help of Russian air strikes and barrel bombs, pounded the rebel-held east of Aleppo into submission.Buildings were flattened, those who survived were left terrorized, hungry and filled with despair, and the stench of dead bodies rose up from the rubble as families searched for their loved ones.Now, having largely destroyed the city it sought to control, the Assad regime wants the world to visit what remains: as a tourist destination.This week the Syrian government is advertising Aleppo, along with other destinations in Syria, at the Fitur International Tourism Trade Fair in Madrid, “promoting” the country’s attractions to the world.It is the first time Syria has attended the trade fair since 2011, before the war broke out.Along with the ruins of Aleppo, it also encourages people to visit the ancient Roman-era ruins of Palmyra, the UNESCO-listed archaeological site which was twice controlled by the Islamic State (IS) group.IS fighters blew up some of the temples and burial towers before being forced out of the city for the final time last year by Syrian government forces and their Russian backers.“This year is the time to rebuild Syria and our economy,” Bassam Barsik, director of marketing at the Syrian Ministry of Tourism, told AFP.Barsik said 1.3 million foreign visitors travelled to Syria last year, although that figure includes those who came from neighbouring Lebanon for only one day.“We’re targeting two million visitors this year,” he said.He argued that religious destinations, such as the historic Christian town of Maaloula, one of the last places on earth where Aramaic is still spoken, are still a draw to tourists.Damascus, Tartus, Latakia, and the historic Crusader castle of Krak des Chevaliers close to the border with Lebanon, although damaged by bombing, are other possible attractions.“In 2017, the army controlled much of the country, and that was a big help to promote Syria abroad and attract tourist groups again,” said Barsik.Most countries advise citizens against all travel to Syria.The war has displaced millions of people and is estimated to have claimed the lives of at least 340,000 people since 2011.

Erdogan says Turkey has launched new ground operation in Syria-Ankara defies US warnings that action against Kurdish militia risks destabilizing the area-By Kadir Demir, Stuart Williams and Fulya Ozerkan -JAN 21,18-TOI

TURKEY (AFP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that Turkey had “de-facto” launched a new operation on the ground to oust Kurdish militia from a northern Syrian enclave, defying US warnings that the action risked destabilizing the area.Turkey has in recent days sent dozens of military vehicles to the border area and readied pro-Ankara Syria rebels, amid repeated threats from top officials the operation on the town of Afrin was imminent.The Turkish army has over the last two days shelled camps and refuges used by the People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia in response to fire from the militia group, which Turkey deems to be a terror organization.“The Afrin operation has de-facto been started on the ground,” Erdogan said in a televised speech in the city of Kutahya, without elaborating.“This will be followed by Manbij,” he added, referring to another Kurdish-controlled Syrian town to the east.Turkey accuses the YPG of being the Syrian offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which has waged a rebellion in the Turkish southeast for more than three decades, and is regarded as a terror group by Ankara and its Western allies.But the YPG has been the key ally of Turkey’s fellow NATO member the United States in the fight against Islamic State jihadists, playing a key role in pushing the extremists out of their Syrian strongholds.AFP correspondents in the area around the Turkish border village of Sugedigi in Hatay province saw several more Turkish military vehicles heading south to the border.But it was still unclear what form a Turkish ground operation will take amid considerable political and military risks.Turkey from August 2016 to March 2017 pushed into Syria in its more than half-year Euphrates Shield operation in an area to the east of Afrin against both YPG and IS.Syria’s Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad warned on Thursday that the Syrian air force could destroy any Turkish warplanes used in the new offensive.Analysts say that crucial for any major ground operation will be approval from Moscow, which has a military presence in the area and a cordial relationship with the YPG.With conspicuous timing, Turkey’s army chief General Hulusi Akar and spy chief Hakan Fidan were in Moscow on Thursday, for talks with Russian counterparts on Syria.“A full Turkish air and ground offensive will not take place without Moscow’s blessing,” said Anthony Skinner, Director MENA at global risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft, adding that a full Turkish campaign is “not inevitable.”Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency reported Friday afternoon that Russian military personnel in the Afrin area were withdrawing from their positions, but Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov later issued a strong denial.Meanwhile the Turkish threats of an intervention have also raised eyebrows in Washington, which has backed the YPG as it dislodged IS and gained control of the swathe of northern Syria up to the Iraqi border.The YPG-held enclave of Afrin marks the westernmost extent of its control and Turkey wants to make sure it is kept well to the east of the Euphrates River.“We do not believe that a military operation…serves the cause of regional stability, Syrian stability, or indeed Turkish concerns about the security of their border,” a senior US State Department official said on Friday.Skinner said a Turkish operation would be a “serious blow” for the US-led coalition in Syria, which still depended heavily on the YPG to stabilize the area after the ousting of IS from major towns.But Erdogan accused the United States of not keeping its past promises that the YPG would clear out of Manbij.“The promises made to us over Manbij were not kept. So nobody can object if we do what is necessary,” said Erdogan, threatening to pursue the operations up to the Iraqi border.Erdogan had reacted furiously this week to an announcement of plans to create a US-backed 30,000-strong border security force in northern Syria composed partly of YPG fighters, describing it as an “army of terror.”US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson later said the “entire situation has been mis-portrayed, mis-described,” admitting “we owe them [Turkey] an explanation.”But Erdogan appeared to scoff at the mixed messages and lashed out at American military support for the YPG.“We don’t care what they say,” he warned. “They will learn how wrong it is to trust a terror organization.”

India signs on with Israeli firm to fight drought-In deal with Tata corp, Watergen will provide two models of its atmospheric generators that extract water from the air-By JTA-JAN 21,18-TOI

In a move that could alleviate India’s deadly drought problem, the country’s Tata corporation signed a memorandum of understanding with an Israeli firm that specializes in extracting drinking water from the air.Watergen and Tata representatives signed the document in New Delhi during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to India this week, the Israeli firm said in a statement. The memorandum seeks to create a mutual entity in India to manufacture Watergen units. Financial terms were not disclosed.Watergen’s president, Mikhael Mirilashvili, showcased his company’s plan for solving the water crisis in India by 2022 to Prime Minister Narendra Modi during Modi’s visit to Israel.Watergen’s two models of atmospheric water generators can extract up to 6,000 liters of water from the air every day, depending on the air humidity, the company said. The medium scale units produce up to 600 liters of water daily.In the framework of the memorandum, a pilot program featuring the midsize unit will be set up this year in India. Last year, Watergen instituted a GEN-350G pilot in New Delhi’s Connaught Place, where nearly 2,000 people received drinking water from the air every day, the firm said. Some of the units can operate on solar energy.The Tata-Watergen agreement is one of at least nine deals sealed during the visit, in which businessmen from Israel accompanied Netanyahu.The Israel Electric Corp. is joining with the government of the Andhra Pradesh state to help with critical infrastructure, The Jerusalem Post reported. And the Israeli startup Phinergy is cooperating with Ashok Leyland on clean energy systems from aluminum-air batteries.At least 330 million people are affected by drought in India, which hit hard in 2016, the government has told the Supreme Court. Dozens have died of heatstroke since the drought began, including an 11-year-old girl, Yogita Desai, who had spent close to four hours in 107.6 temperatures gathering water from a pump.

Pay into EU budget for market access, Macron tells May By Eszter Zalan-EUOBSERVER

BRUSSELS, 19. Jan, 09:25-French president Emmanuel Macron warned British prime minister Theresa May on Thursday (18 January) that if the UK wants to maintain the level of access for London's financial centre to the EU's single market, Britain would have to pay into the EU budget after Brexit."The choice is on the British side, not on my side," Macron said at the joint press conference."If you want access to the single market, including the financial services, be my guest. But it means that you need to contribute to the budget and acknowledge European jurisdiction," Macron warned."I'm here neither to punish nor to reward," he added.The French president stuck to the EU's Brexit negotiating line when telling the UK prime minister that she either accepts the EU's rules to retain the City's market access, or negotiates a looser tie along the lines of a Canada-type trade deal with the EU."If you want a trade access, it will cover everything, but then it is not full access to the single market and to financial services," Macron told May.He added that while he does not rule out including the financial sector in a UK-EU trade agreement, the level of market access will not be the same as when being a member of the single market.May confirmed that the UK wants to leave the single market, but aims for a bespoke agreement with the EU."We recognise that as we're leaving the European Union we will no longer be full members of the single market," May told reporters.London's financial services employ more than 2.2 million people and contribute 11 percent of economic output.Macron travelled to the UK for the first time since becoming president last year, as Britain tries to strengthen ties before leaving the EU in March 2019.Last year, Macron launched a charm offensive on banks in London's City to lure them to Paris.He has already won one Brexit 'trophy' - EU countries decided last year that the European Banking Authority (EBA), one of the EU agencies that has to relocate from London, will be move to Paris after Brexit.May and Macron emphasised the historic ties between their countries on Thursday in what was a cordial meeting, despite France holding the toughest line in Brexit negotiations.The two leaders – meeting at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst – agreed to boost their defence cooperation.Britain will send helicopters to help French counterterrorism operations against Islamist extremists in Mali, while France will send troops to a UK-led battle group in Estonia helping to deter Russian aggression.France and Britain, the two European nuclear powers, account for half of the defence spending in the EU.-No jungle-May also agreed to sign a "complementing" treaty to the 2003 Touquet border deal, which allows British border checks to be carried out in France.The northern French port town that had seen a large tent-city of migrants. The so-called 'jungle' camp was bulldozed in 2016.Still hundreds of people camp out there, hoping to stow away on trucks heading for the UK.The 'Sandhurst Treaty', as Macron called it, is aimed at speeding up asylum procedures by migrants, including minors, in Calais to prevent another tent-city from forming.Against the backdrop of Conservative party criticism, May pledged €50 million to beef up border controls in the French port of Calais.As a sign of goodwill, Macron agreed to loan a 950-year-old Bayeux tapestry depicting William the Conqueror's victory in the Battle of Hastings, which has never left France before.

Instagram and Google Plus join EU anti-hate speech drive By Nikolaj Nielsen-EUOBSERVER

BRUSSELS, 19. Jan, 16:23-Social media outlets Instagram and Google Plus are joining ranks with other IT firms as part of a broader European Commission effort to remove online hate speech.Speaking to reporters in Brussels on Friday (19 January), EU justice commissioner Vera Jourova said the two firms would now join Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Microsoft to remove the offending material."The digital Wild West is over. It is time to balance the power and the responsibility of the platforms and social media giants," she said.Instagram is photo-sharing app, whilst Google Plus, also known as Google+, is a social network based around 'circles' of friends and colleagues.IT firms last summer adopted an EU commission code of conduct that requires them to remove online hate speech within a day of notification.Jourova, who presented a review of those efforts based on a sample of reports, said the pace of the overall take downs had increased over the past year."From 28 percent in 2016, the rate of removal of online hate speech has gone up to 70 percent as of end of 2017," she noted.The commissioner described hate speech as anything that has the potential to incite violence."In principle, you can offend, you can ridicule, you can make very critical offensive remarks, you can use satiric methods and it is all allowed," she said.She noted Facebook had recently hired another 3,000 people, on top of an existing staff 4,500, all tasked to remove the material.Out of a sample of just under 3,000 notifications of hate speech over a six-week period for all the platforms, Facebook performed the best and had removed 89.3 percent of the content in under 24 hours. YouTube managed 62.7 percent and Twitter 80.2 percent.Racist comments against ethnic minorities, anti-muslin hatred, and xenophobia dominated the take downs.EU justice ministers are set to discuss the results next week amid broader questions on whether to regulate the issue.But Jourova, who appeared pleased with the results, said she preferred to keep the system voluntary and not to get the courts involved."We will continue to monitor this very closely and will consider additional measures if efforts are not pursued or slowed down," she said.Similar national efforts in Germany, where companies risk a €50 million fine, saw a satirical magazine Twitter account shut down within days of the law being enacted.The European Commission is also looking at ways of preventing online terrorist propaganda and the spread of fake news.

EU 'hypocrisy' condemns people to Libya By Nikolaj Nielsen-EUOBSERVER

BRUSSELS, 18. Jan, 13:54-The EU is condemning people to "nightmarish conditions" in Libya by training its coastguard to prevent them from fleeing towards Europe, according to Human Rights Watch.Kenneth Roth, the NGO's executive director, said at a press conference in Paris on Thursday (18 January) that the EU policy is an exercise in hypocrisy.He said the EU would not itself forcibly send people back to Libya but instead uses the Libyan coastguard to do the dirty work."It is time for this hypocrisy to end and for the European Union to find other ways to protect its border," he said.The EU has been training the Libyan coastguard to pluck people from the sea and ship them back to the country. But people returned risk murder, rape, and slavery at any number of detention camps, some which are run by armed militia groups.A EU-funded programme from the International Organization for Migration is sending others back to their home countries. A similar effort by the UN refugee agency is dispatching people from Libya to Niger as part of an eventual resettlement programme towards European countries.But the EU's sea rescue containment policy, which is broadly led by the Italian government, has caused untold suffering for people returned to the war-torn country.Similar outspoken condemnations have been voiced over the past few months from the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Doctors without Borders, and others.Meanwhile, the EU's efforts to reform internal asylum policy laws have been peppered with anti-migrant rhetoric. Such discourse has become more common and more mainstream among several governments.Last November, the political outrage over a single Syrian refugee in Slovenia threatened to topple the government.The refugee, who had made every effort to integrate, including by learning the language, had entered the country through Croatia in contravention of EU asylum law.-Hungary and Poland threat-Roth also had strong words for Hungary and Poland, describing Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban and the chief of Poland's ruling party Jaroslaw Kaczynski as fundamental threats for Europe."I think it is important for the European Union to recognise that the threat of Orban or Kaczynski is not just a national threat but a fundamental threat to the entire European project," he said.Hungary has been pursuing a campaign to discredit civil society groups, has attempted to undermine the Central European University in Budapest, and introduced a raft of laws against migrants and asylum seekers.Poland's government has seized control of the judiciary, cracked down on civil society, and restricted access to emergency contraception. Warsaw's move against the courts triggered the EU commission to launch sanctions.Roth's statement follows the launch of the Human Rights Watch's annual 643-page world report.The report's chapter on the European Union noted, among other things, that populist extremists are having "an outside influence over European politics."It noted that far right groups have also made inroads in the German and Austrian governments and that "racist, xenophobic, and anti-Muslim sentiment and violence" persisted throughout the EU.

STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES

LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun,(HEATING UP-SOLAR ECLIPSES) and in the moon,(MAN ON MOON-LUNAR ECLIPSES) and in the stars;(ASTEROIDS ETC) and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear,(TORNADOES,HURRICANES,STORMS) and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth:(DESTRUCTION) for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.(FROM QUAKES,NUKES ETC)

Mudslides take heavy toll on immigrants serving posh town-[Associated Press]-JULIE WATSON-YAHOONEWS-January 20, 2018

Oprah Winfrey and Rob Lowe give Montecito its star power, but it's people like Antonio and Victor Benitez who keep the wealthy Southern California community running.The Mexican brothers are gardeners and part of the town's working-class immigrant population, which suffered outsized losses from the recent mudslides that killed at least 20, injured dozens and damaged or destroyed hundreds of homes.Antonio and Victor Benitez suffered broken bones and each lost a child. Antonio's wife was killed, while Victor's wife is missing and his toddler son was injured.Nearly a third of those killed in the Jan. 9 mudslides were from immigrant families working in service jobs in the largely white and retired Pacific coast town of 9,000. Many of these families are from developing countries seizing the opportunities provided by the area's wealth to make a better life for their children.Among them was 30-year-old Pinit Sutthithepa from Thailand who worked at a Toyota dealership in Santa Barbara and sent money to his wife and two children for years before being able to bring them to the United States in 2016. The mudslides killed him, his 6-year-old son and his 79-year-old stepfather. Crews are still searching for Sutthithepa's 2-year-old daughter.His wife and mother were working at a grocery store when rocks and rushing water obliterated their home, Mike Caldwell, Sutthithepa's boss wrote on a GoFundMe page seeking help for the family.Martin Cabrera Munoz, 48, worked long hours as a landscaper so he could send money to his children in his native Guanajuato, Mexico. He was sleeping in the room he kept at his boss's home when an avalanche of mud ripped through the property."He wanted to give his kids a better life," his youngest sister, Diana Montero, told the Los Angeles Times.His funeral was held Wednesday at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Santa Barbara, where people are also mourning the deaths in the Benitez family.The Rev. Pedro Lopez has tried to offer words of comfort to his tightknit, Spanish-speaking parish — but he knows the healing will be slow and painful."We've let everyone know the importance of being available to one another to share their grief," Lopez said.Many members of the modest church are without work now that the million-dollar homes they cared for have been destroyed by the storm-triggered landslides, which also closed U.S. Highway 101, a major route for commuters between the coastal region's two major cities, Santa Barbara and Ventura.A lot of families "can't get to work because of the freeway closure, or they don't know where to work now, and they don't know how they are going to pay rent or buy groceries," Lopez said.Victor and Antonio Benitez built a thriving gardening business after coming to the United States as teenagers from Mexico, joining their father and another brother.The two brothers, their wives and children shared a home so they could afford the rent in Montecito, where the median home price is more than $4 million.They were asleep when the mud and rocks thundered down the hillsides. As it poured in, collapsing the walls, some of the family members tried to escape through the kitchen door but were swept away.The body of Victor's son, 10-year-old Jonathan Benitez, was found nearly 2 miles (3 kilometers) away."He was quite a popular young man. He took everybody under his wing," Lopez said, adding that one girl cried when recalling how Jonathan welcomed her to the first communion class.Jonathan's mother, 28-year-old Fabiola Benitez, a housekeeper, is still missing.Antonio and Victor Benitez, and Victor's toddler son, Ian, remain in the hospital with broken bones and bruises. Antonio Benitez underwent surgery for abdominal injuries from being dragged by the landslide. He is recovering but overwhelmed with grief over the loss of his 27-year-old wife, Marilyn Ramos, and his 3-year-old daughter, Kaelly, their only child."Antonio wakes up, cries and cries, and then is given a sedative to go back to sleep, only to wake up again later and cry again," said his sister-in-law, Jennifer Ramos.Marilyn Ramos was living the American dream that had spurred her to come to the United States at age 20, said her sister, who remained in Marquelia, a small Mexican fishing community south of Acapulco. Ramos met her husband in California."All she wanted was to be a mother and have a good family life, which she had," Jennifer Ramos said.Nearly a third of Pamela Viale's upscale neighborhood in nearby Goleta hired Antonio and Victor Benitez. The brothers worked for her for five years."Once people saw what wonderful work they do and what a strong work ethic they have, word spread," she said. "It grew from one family to 18 families here, and everyone feels strongly about them. They are always willing to go the extra mile, always smiling — very friendly, just amazing people."We're really very devastated by their loss."Viale and others organized GoFundMe pages to help the family, who also lost their tools and truck and face mounting medical bills and funeral costs before they can rebuild their lives.Lori Lieberman, a recording artist who lives part-time in Montecito, said the outpouring of support has been incredible."Everyone really loves this family," she said.

DISEASES

REVELATION 6:7-8
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword,(WEAPONS) and with hunger,(FAMINE) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE).

Brazilian state decrees emergency over yellow fever outbreak-[Associated Press]-YAHOONEWS-January 20, 2018

SAO PAULO (AP) — The government of Brazil's southeastern state of Minas Gerais has decreed a state of emergency for its public health system due to an outbreak of yellow fever in 94 of its 853 cities.The decree was published Saturday in the state's official gazette and allows the government to contract health providers without going through a bidding process.Since July 2017, 35 cases of yellow fever have been confirmed in Brazil and 20 people have died, according to the latest figures from the health ministry.The World Health Organization said earlier this week that all of Sao Paulo state is also at risk for yellow fever and recommended that international visitors to be vaccinated.

MURDER

JEREMIAH 1:5
5  Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee;(GOD ORDAINED OR LIVES BEFORE WE WERE EVEN CREATED IN A WOMANS BODY)(GOD NEVER CREATED ANYONE HOMOSEXUAL)(AND THIS TELLS US ABORTION IS MURDER) and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

GENESIS 4:8-11 (THE FIRST MURDER)
8 And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.
9 And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper?
10 And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground.
11 And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand;

GENESIS 6:11-13 (EARTH DESTROYED BECAUSE OF TERRORISM,MURDERS)
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

JOHN 8:44
44  Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

EXODUS 20:13
13 Thou shalt not kill.(Murder)(THAT INCLUDES ABORTION)

Trump decries 'permissive' U.S. abortion laws at rally-[Reuters]-By Ian Simpson-YAHOONEWS-January 20, 2018

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump criticized U.S. abortion laws as among the most permissive in the world in a speech to anti-abortion activists at the annual March for Life on Friday, and pledged his administration would always defend "the right to life."The Republican president's speech, relayed via video link from the White House Rose Garden to thousands gathered on Washington's National Mall, highlighted his shift in recent years from a supporter of women's access to abortion to a powerful opponent."As you all know, Roe v. Wade has resulted in some of the most permissive abortion laws anywhere in the world," he said, criticizing the 1973 Supreme Court decision that affirmed a woman's right to an abortion at most stages of a pregnancy.Trump said the United States "is one of only seven countries to allow elective late-term abortions," mentioning China and North Korea. "It is wrong. It has to change."The other countries that allow elective abortions after 20 weeks are Canada, the Netherlands, Singapore and Vietnam, according to the Charlotte Lozier Institute, an anti-abortion research group.Trump listed some anti-abortion measures his administration had taken, including an announcement earlier in the day by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The agency said it was revoking Obama administration legal guidance that had sought to discourage states from trying to defund organizations that provide abortion services, such as Planned Parenthood.Roe v. Wade effectively legalized abortion nationwide. In the 45 years since the decision was issued on Jan. 22, 1973, the March for Life has been staged near the ruling's anniversary in protest."Because of you, tens of thousands of Americans have been born and reached their full, God-given potential," Trump, a Christian, told the marchers, who included many groups of students from Roman Catholic schools.Trump has pledged to appoint more federal judges who oppose abortion with the hope that the ruling might eventually be overturned.Trump is the third sitting president to address the march: Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush both made supportive remarks to the march at least twice each during their presidencies, speaking via telephone broadcast by loudspeakers.Trump sent Vice President Mike Pence, a vocal abortion opponent, to speak at last year's march, a few days after the presidential inauguration. This year, Pence introduced Trump, saying the president would "restore the sanctity of life to the center of American law."Many marchers, carrying signs with slogans such as "Pray to end abortion," said they were excited to hear from a president they see as an ally, but hesitated to point to any specific advancements in their agenda from Trump's first year in office."It's so refreshing to have a standing president who supports pro-life," Tim Curran, a 66-year-old grocer who had traveled to the march from Kentucky, said before the remarks and the march to the steps of the Supreme Court for a rally. "He seems to be moving us back in the direction of traditional families and morality."The event came a day before the first anniversary of Trump's inauguration, a milestone to be marked by the second Women's March in cities across the United States, including Washington. Organizers hope to recreate last year's huge anti-Trump protests by hundreds of thousands of people who saw Trump as a foe of women's rights and reproductive freedom.Trump previously supported women's access to abortion, saying in an interview in 1999, when he was still a celebrity real-estate tycoon in New York City, that while he "hated the concept of abortion," he was "very pro-choice."As a candidate for the presidency in 2016, Trump said his position had "evolved," describing himself as "pro-life with exceptions," such as in cases of rape or incest.Trump has said he hopes Roe v. Wade will eventually be overturned and that each state will instead be allowed to decide whether to ban it.Americans tend to split roughly down the middle on abortion access, with 49 percent saying they supported it and 46 percent saying they opposed it in a 2017 Gallup poll.(Reporting by Ian Simpson in Washington and Jonathan Allen in New York; Writing by Jonathan Allen; Editing by Steve Orlofsky and Jonathan Oatis)

Cardinal rebukes pope over Chile 'slander' comments on abuse-[Associated Press]-NICOLE WINFIELD-YAHOONEWS-January 20, 2018

LIMA, Peru (AP) — Pope Francis' top adviser on clerical sex abuse implicitly rebuked the pontiff over his accusations of slander against Chilean abuse victims, saying Saturday that his words were "a source of great pain for survivors of sexual abuse."Cardinal Sean O'Malley, the archbishop of Boston, said he couldn't explain why Francis "chose the particular words he used" and that such expressions had the effect of abandoning victims and relegating them to "discredited exile."In an extraordinary effort at damage control, O'Malley insisted in a statement that Francis "fully recognizes the egregious failures of the church and its clergy who abused children and the devastating impact those crimes have had on survivors and their loved ones."Francis set off a national uproar upon leaving Chile on Thursday when he accused victims of the country's most notorious pedophile priest of having slandered another bishop, Juan Barros. The victims say Barros knew of the abuse by the Rev. Fernando Karadima but did nothing to stop it — a charge Barros denies."The day they bring me proof against Bishop Barros, I'll speak," Francis told Chilean journalists in the northern city of Iquique. "There is not one shred of proof against him. It's all calumny. Is that clear?"The remarks shocked Chileans, drew immediate rebuke from victims and their advocates and once again raised the question of whether the 81-year-old Argentine Jesuit "gets it" about sex abuse.The Karadima scandal has devastated the credibility of the Roman Catholic Church in Chile, and Francis' comments will likely haunt it for the foreseeable future.O'Malley's carefully worded critique was remarkable since it is rare for a cardinal to publicly rebuke the pope in such terms. But Francis' remarks were so potentially toxic to the Vatican's years-long effort to turn the tide on decades of clerical sex abuse and cover-up that he clearly felt he had to respond.O'Malley headed Francis' much-touted committee for the protection of minors until it lapsed last month after its initial three-year mandate expired. Francis has not named new members, and the committee's future remains unclear."It is understandable that Pope Francis' statements ... were a source of great pain for survivors of sexual abuse by clergy or any other perpetrator," O'Malley said in the statement. "Words that convey the message 'if you cannot prove your claims then you will not be believed' abandon those who have suffered reprehensible criminal violations of their human dignity and relegate survivors to discredited exile."Francis' comments were all the more problematic because Karadima's victims were deemed so credible by the Vatican that it sentenced him to a lifetime of "penance and prayer" in 2011. A Chilean judge also found the victims to be credible, saying that while she had to drop criminal charges against Karadima because too much time had passed, proof of his crimes wasn't lacking.Those same victims accused Barros of witnessing the abuse. Yet Francis said he considered their accusations "all calumny" and that he wouldn't believe them without proof.Catholic officials for years sought to discredit victims of abuse by accusing them of slandering and attacking the church with their claims. But many in the church and the Vatican have come to reluctantly acknowledge that victims usually told the truth and that the church had wrongly sought to protect its own by demonizing and discrediting the most vulnerable of its flock.O'Malley said he couldn't fully address the Barros case because he didn't know the details and wasn't involved. But he insisted the pope "gets it" and is committed to "zero tolerance" for abuse."Accompanying the Holy Father at numerous meetings with survivors I have witnessed his pain of knowing the depth and breadth of the wounds inflicted on those who were abused and that the process of recovery can take a lifetime," he said.Karadima's victims reported to church authorities as early as 2002 that he would kiss and fondle them in the swank Santiago parish he ran. But only when they went public with their accusations in 2010 did the Vatican launch an investigation that led to Karadima being removed from ministry.The emeritus archbishop of Santiago subsequently apologized for having refused to believe the victims from the start.Francis reopened the wounds of the scandal in 2015 when he named Barros, a protege of Karadima, as bishop of the southern diocese of Osorno.His appointment outraged Chileans, badly divided the Osorno diocese and further undermined the church's credibility in the country.