Showing posts with label ARABS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ARABS. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 27, 2022

BITCOIN BECOMES OFFICIAL CURRENCY IN CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC.

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)

 BITCOIN BECOMES OFFICIAL CURRENCY IN CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC.

DISEASES-ANIMAL TO HUMAN

REVELATION 6:7-8 (500 MILLION DEAD EACH FROM THE 4 JUDGEMENTS)(2 BILLION TOT DEAD HERE)
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth,(2 billion) of (8 billion) to kill with sword,(WEAPONS)(500 million) and with hunger,(FAMINE)(500 million) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES)(500 million) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE)(500 million).

THE COVID-19 TOTALS.
WORLD OVER ALL CASES-511-330-339 - DEAD 6,251,314 - AS OF WED APR 27,2022-THESES ARE THE BLOOD TOTALS ON THE HEADS OF FAUCI-DRUG DEALERS MODERNA AND PFIZER. AND ALL THE LEADERS OF THE WORLD THAT SCAMMED THEIR CITIZENS TO TAKE THE POISON KILLER VACCINE SHOTS FOR THE CHILDREN SAKE AND THE EARTH OF COURSE.AS THE LIBBYDEMS PLAY ANY SIN GOES.

REBEL NEWS TAKES ON ANTIFA CULT
https://www.rebelnews.com/showdown_rebel_news_takes_on_antifa_mob_mall_cops_and_politically_correct_police

Activists work to battle land degradation in water-scarce Jordan-As UN report warns of vast global deterioration of land, local initiative introduces four native plants to 10,000 acres of desert in the Sabha reserve east of Amman-By OMAR AKOUR and WANJOHI KABUKURU-APR 27,22-Today, 9:11 pm

SABHA, Jordan (AP) — Efforts to restore damaged but once fertile land in Jordan’s desert is sprouting hope for one of the world’s most water-scarce nations, as a land assessment report Wednesday warned of the growing scale of global degradation.Local organizations believe projects that reintroduce native plants and implement smart water harvesting systems will cushion the impacts of climate change and desertification, which are only set to worsen, according to the United Nations report.The UN desertification agency says 40% of land globally is currently degraded, blaming unsustainable land and water management, poor agricultural practices, mining, urbanization and infrastructure development for the land’s deterioration.Mira Haddad, from the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas said several other factors, including “overexploitation of vegetation cover, overgrazing, and… new land practices” as well as climate change are also contributing to land degradation in Jordan.But environmentalists are already pursuing options to ward off further damage. One of the efforts, run by the Watershed and Development Initiative, is introducing four native plants to 10,000 acres (41 square kilometers) of desert in the Sabha reserve, roughly 56 miles (90 kilometers) east of the Jordanian capital Amman.“We’re working on the water, we’re working on the green cover and we’re working also with the habitats of the creatures, from insects to animals and all living parts of that ecosystem,” Deyala Tarawneh, a WADI founding member, said. “The success rate of these plants is 85%, which is considered a very high percentage, and they only need to be watered once, which is also reducing the amount of water needed for the irrigation of the green areas.”But despite the success of WADI’s planting initiative, land restoration in Jordan is still facing several challenges: the number of land unit areas available for restoration is lacking, and the willingness of local communities to leave the land for at least one or two rainy seasons without grazing is also hindering efforts, said ICARDA’s Haddad.Jordan is one of several countries already grappling with the effects of degradation, with more than 2.3 billion people currently living in water-stressed countries, according to the UN report. It warned that more food supply disruptions, forced migration and greater pressure on species survival are also expected as climate change intensifies and poor land management practices continue. By 2030, it warns that 700 million people could be displaced by drought.“The situation we have right now is unhealthy and certainly not acceptable,” Ibrahim Thiaw, the executive secretary of the UN desertification agency, told The Associated Press. “The more you degrade land the more you emit carbon and the more you contribute to climate change.”The report calls for financial support to bolster conservation and restoration in developing countries. It says the expansion of protected areas and conservation hotspots, better water management, smart agriculture, and the rewilding of biodiversity can be boosted by appropriate funding.If these kinds of measures are implemented on a wider scale, the UN agency’s restoration scenario predicts reduced biodiversity loss and improved soil health, with the benefits particularly felt in North and sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America.But it also notes that inaction would lead to 16 million square kilometers (6 million square miles) — nearly the size of the entire South American continent — of land degradation by 2050.The report also recommends scaling up land rights for Indigenous peoples and local communities, urging farmers to draw on ample lessons about land restoration, crop adaptation and livestock from established customs and traditional knowledge.“We welcome new allies to this battle, including economic actors who are increasingly interested in avoiding climate risk, but we must make clear that we will not be used for greenwashing,” José Gregorio Diaz Mirabal, the leader of the Congress of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin, said in a statement. “Partnering with Indigenous peoples requires embracing transformative change.”The UN’s Thiaw agreed that support for restoration projects should be ramped up.“The message from the report is that do not take land degradation as a fatality. It can be addressed, and it is the cheapest solution to the climate crisis and biodiversity loss. It is possible to do it by 2050, which is just one generation,” Thiaw said. “It does not require high tech nor a Ph.D. to undertake. Land restoration is accessible and democratic.”Several countries, like Jordan, are already addressing their own land issues, from drought preparedness programs in Mexico, the USA and Brazil, to the 11-country Great Green Wall in Africa aimed at restoring 100 million hectares (390,000 square miles) of degraded landscapes along the Sahel.“Land restoration is a win for the environment, economy, society, and for biodiversity,” said Thiaw. “What we are calling for now is the acceleration of such programs.”

Macron pelted by tomatoes as he visits market following reelection win-French president unharmed in incident and continues visit to Paris suburb protected by large black umbrella-By AP-APR 27,22-Today, 6:35 pm

PARIS — Newly reelected French President Emmanuel Macron narrowly avoided being pelted by what looked like a small sackful of cherry tomatoes Wednesday as he waded through a boisterous and packed crowd in a market northwest of Paris.About six of the small fruits, some orange, some red, contained in what looked like a blue plastic bag, flew over the head of the French leader and bounced off the shoulder and arm of two men beside him, according to broadcaster BFM-TV’s video.Macron himself seemed oblivious of the near-miss until someone in the crowd shouted “projectile” and bodyguards raised arms over the French leader’s head to cover him.Someone then unfurled a black umbrella to shield him, and his security detail steered him to cover under a nearby market-stall parasol. The president sheltered there for a few moments until things calmed down.Another snippet of video, shot from a different angle, showed that just after the tomatoes were thrown, a bystander clambered onto a table or something else and from that height hurled himself backward in the direction of the gaggle of people around Macron.The man appeared to throw a wayward punch as he flew through the air. There were screams as he landed hard on the crowd and fell to the floor. Macron's team of bodyguards were promptly on hand to protect him from the tomato attack – by putting up an umbrella.Read in full here???? ????https://t.co/OYLhSq5O2r pic.twitter.com/9TfxPWhwJN — The Spectator (@spectator) April 27, 2022-Macron, ostensibly unharmed and unperturbed, then happily continued his walkabout in Cergy-Pontoise, mingling and talking to people at the market. He told reporters he visited the working-class neighborhood as part of his previously stated pledge to unite France after the bruising presidential campaign.The 44-year-old centrist comfortably beat far-right rival Marine Le Pen in the election runoff on Sunday.

The Hill-??Zelensky says he’s been invited to G-20 summit-Caroline Vakil-Wed, April 27, 2022, 4:03 PM

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenksy said on Wednesday that he had been invited to the Group of 20 (G-20) summit, which is set to take place in November.“Had talks with [Indonesian President Joko Widodo]. Thanked for the support of [Ukrainian] sovereignty and territorial integrity, in particular for a clear position in the UN. Food security issues were discussed. Appreciate inviting me to the @g20org summit,” Zelensky tweeted.Widodo is the current G-20 chairman.President Biden said last month that Russia should be removed from the G-20, a topic he said was discussed during a meeting with NATO members and European allies in Brussels.The president said he raised the possibility of Ukraine being able to observe and attend meetings at the G-20 gathering later this year should other nations disagree on the question of expelling Russia from the group.The United States and Russia are among the members of the G-20. Ukraine is not a member.Amid Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen skipped multiple G-20 meetings earlier this month in protest of the conflict.Several other officials said they walked out of some of the G-20 meetings.“Earlier my representatives, along with US & Canadian counterparts left today’s G20 meeting in Washington as Russian delegates spoke,” British Finance Minister Rishi Sunak tweeted at the time. “We are united in our condemnation of Russia’s war against Ukraine and will push for stronger international coordination to punish Russia.”“The world’s democracies will not stand idly by in the face of continued Russian aggression and war crimes. Today Canada and a number of our democratic partners walked out of the G20 plenary when Russia sought to intervene,” Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said.Russia’s ambassador to Indonesia said last month that Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to attend the G-20 summit later this year.For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.

OIL IN ISRAEL

JOB 29:6
6  When I washed my steps with butter, and the rock poured me out rivers of oil;

GENESIS 12:3
3  And I will bless them that bless thee,(ISRAEL) and curse (DESTROY) him that curseth thee:(DESTROY THEM) and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

GENESIS 14:10
10  And the vale of Siddim was full of slimepits;(CRUDE OIL) and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and fell there; and they that remained fled to the mountain

DEUTERONOMY 33:19,24
19  They (ISRAEL) shall call the people unto the mountain; there they shall offer sacrifices of righteousness: for they shall suck of the abundance of the seas, and of treasures hid in the sand.
24  And of Asher he said, Let Asher be blessed with children; let him be acceptable to his brethren, and let him dip his foot in oil.

DEUTERONOMY 12:3
13  He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields;(OIL) and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock;

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.

Israel, Jordan to convene joint panel on lowering Temple Mount tensions — report-Amman slated to demand greater presence of Waqf guards at flashpoint site following weeks of violent clashes, according to Axios-By TOI staff-APR 27,22-Today, 10:37 pm

Israeli and Jordanian officials are expected to soon meet to discuss efforts to prevent a violent flareup at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City, according to a report by the Axios news site.Jordan, which oversees the flashpoint site via its control of the Waqf Islamic endowment that administers the compound, has been sharply and repeatedly critical in recent weeks of the behavior of Israeli security forces atop the Temple Mount. Violent clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces at the site broke out on multiple occasions over the past few weeks, during heightened tensions as Muslims mark Ramadan and Jews observed Passover.According to the report, which cites three unnamed Israeli and Western sources, a joint committee will convene after Ramadan — which ends next week — in a bid to reach an agreement on how to lower tensions at the holy site and prevent any violent incidents there.According to the report, one of Amman’s main demands is expected to be for Israel to allow more unarmed guards at the Temple Mount on behalf of the Waqf.On Sunday, Jordan’s King Abdullah met in Cairo with Egyptian President Abdel-Fatteh el-Sissi and United Arab Emirates Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, with tensions in Jerusalem at the top of the agenda.He was set to meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday night, as some 150,000 Muslim worshipers packed the shrine for Layl al-Qadr  (Night of Destiny), when Muslims believe the first verses of the Quran were revealed to Muhammad.A statement from the Jordanian Royal Court Sunday emphasized efforts to “restore calm in Jerusalem, end all forms of escalation, and remove obstacles impeding worshippers’ access.”Abdullah also called on Israel to maintain the religious status quo on the Temple Mount and “emphasized the importance of respecting the Hashemite Custodianship” of holy sites in the capital. The king also “stressed the need to respect the historical and legal status quo” at the holy site.Israel’s ambassadors to Jordan and the UAE were both summoned for dressing downs by their host countries this month after police entered Al-Aqsa Mosque multiple times to quash Palestinian riots.Jordan has accused Israel of violating the status quo at the site, under which Muslims are allowed to visit and pray while Jews cannot pray and may only visit during restricted time slots.In a briefing to journalists last week, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid reiterated that Israel is fully committed to maintaining the status quo at the site.But Jordan and other Arab allies have chafed at Israeli calls to maintain “freedom of worship” at the site, which some have interpreted as allowing Jewish prayer atop the Temple Mount, something seen as a major escalation.Hebrew media reports have often documented Jewish visitors to the site quietly praying under their breath while Israeli security forces look the other way. Israel has averred that such instances are not sanctioned and are not part of any shift in policy.After a regional meeting last week in Jordan on the Jerusalem tensions, Amman’s foreign minister told reporters that his counterparts were demanding an end to Jewish prayer at the Temple Mount. “Our demands are clear that Al-Aqsa and Haram al-Sharif in all its area is a sole place of worship for Muslims,” Ayman Safadi said.

AMERICA (POLITICAL BABYLON)(NUKED BY SNEAK ATTACK FROM RUSSIA)

IN REVELATION 17 & 18 IS THE DESTRUCTION OF THE RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL BABYLONS.IF YOU CAN NOT DECERN BETWEEN THE 2 BABYLONS IN REV 17 & 18.YOU WILL JUST THINK THEIR BOTH THE SAME.BUT NO-THERES A RELIGIOUS BABYLON (THE VATICAN IN REV 17)(AND THE POLITICAL BABYLON IN REV 18 (AMERICA OR NEW YORK TO BE EXACT)

ISAIAH 34:10
10  It (AMERICA-POLITICAL BABYLON) shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever.

JEREMIAH 51:29-32 (CYBER ATTACK 1ST)
29  And the land shall tremble and sorrow: for every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon,(AMERICA-NEW YORK) to make the land of Babylon (AMERICA) a desolation without an inhabitant.
30  The mighty men of Babylon (AMERICA) have forborn to fight, they have remained in their holds: their might hath failed; they became as women: they have burned her dwellingplaces; her bars are broken.
031  One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to shew the king of Babylon (NEW YORK) that his city is taken at one end,
32  And that the passages are stopped,(THE WAR COMPUTERS HACKED OR EMP'D) and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.(DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO)

COMPLETE SILENCE AFTER AN EMP GOES OFF
REVELATION 8:1
1 And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.

JEREMIAH 50:3,24
3 For out of the north (RUSSIA) there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they shall remove, they shall depart, both man and beast.
24 I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon,(AMERICA) and thou wast not aware: thou art found, and also caught, because thou hast striven against the LORD. (RUSSIA A SNEAK CYBER,EMP ATTACK,THEN NUKE ATTACK ON AM

JOEL 3:2 (WW3 OCCURS WHEN JERUSALEM IS DIVIDED)
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people (ISRAEL) and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.(JERUSALEM)(WW3 STARTS BECAUSE JERUSALEM IS DIVIDED AND ISRAELIS UPROOTED FROM THEIR GOD GIVIN LAND BRINGS 3 DEAD BILLION IN WW3)


US CENTRAL BANK DIGITAL CURRENCY
https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/files/money-and-payments-20220120.pdf

HOARDING OF GOLD AND SILVER

JAMES 5:1-3
1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

REVELATION 18:10,17,19
10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.(IN 1 HR THE STOCK MARKETS WORLDWIDE WILL CRASH)
17 For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.

EZEKIEL 7:19
19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed:(CONFISCATED) their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.

BBC-Bitcoin becomes official currency in Central African Republic-Wed, April 27, 2022, 3:20 PM

The Central African Republic (CAR) has approved Bitcoin as legal tender - just the second country to do so.CAR is one of the world's poorest countries, but is rich in diamonds, gold and uranium.It has been wracked by conflict for decades and is a close Russian ally, with mercenaries from the Wagner Group helping fight rebel forces.Lawmakers voted unanimously to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender, said a statement from the CAR presidency.The move puts CAR "on the map of the world's boldest and most visionary countries", it said.El Salvador became the first country to adopt Bitcoin as an official currency in September 2021 - a move criticised by many economists, including the International Monetary Fund, which said it increased the risk of financial instability.Others have raised fears that cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin could make it easier for criminals to launder money, and that they are environmentally damaging because they use so much electricity to generate.The internet is needed to use any cryptocurrency but in 2019, just 4% of people in CAR had access to the web, according to the WorldData website.The country currently uses the French-backed CFA franc as its currency, along with most other former French colonies in Africa.Some see the adoption of Bitcoin as an attempt to undermine the CFA, amid a contest for influence over the resource-rich country between Russia and France."The context, given the systemic corruption and a Russian partner facing international sanctions, does encourage suspicion," French analyst Thierry Vircoulon told the AFP news agency.In the capital, Bangui, the response was mixed.Economist Yann Daworo told BBC Afrique it would make life easier, as transactions can be made with smartphones and it was easy to convert Bitcoin to any other currency."Businessmen will no longer have to walk around with suitcases of CFA francs that will have to be converted into dollars or any other currency to make purchases abroad," he said.He also argued that the CFA was not being used "to benefit Africa". There are growing calls in several countries for the currency to be dropped by those who see it as a relic of the colonial era, enabling France to continue to exercise economic control.However, computer scientist Sydney Tickaya said he thought the adoption of the cryptocurrency was "premature" and "irresponsible"."Internet access is still underdeveloped in the country while Bitcoin depends entirely on the internet," he said, adding that the CAR had more pressing issues such as security, education and access to drinking water.-A pro-Russian rally in Bangui-CAR abstained from condemning Russia in the UN General Assembly-The CAR has suffered from ongoing conflict since its independence in 1960.In 2013, mainly Muslim rebels seized control of the largely Christian country. Self-defence militias were formed to fight back, leading to widespread massacres along religious lines.After President Faustin-Archange Touadéra came to office in 2016, the country started shifting its strategic alliance from France towards Russia.

WORLD POWERS IN THE LAST DAYS (END OF AGE OF GRACE NOT THE WORLD)

EUROPEAN UNION-KING OF WEST-DAN 9:26-27,DAN 7:23-24,DAN 11:40,REV 13:1-10
EGYPT-KING OF THE SOUTH-DAN 11:40
RUSSIA-KING OF THE NORTH-EZEK 38:1-2,EZEK 39:1-3
CHINA-KING OF THE EAST-DAN 11:44,REV 9:16,18
VATICAN-FALSE RELIGIOUS LEADER-REV 13:11-18,REV 17:4-5,9,18

REVELATION 13:16-18 (WORLD ECONOMY RUN BY THE EUROPEAN UNION)
16 And he(FALSE POPE) causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(CHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM

REVELATION 17:12-13
12 And the ten horns (NATIONS) which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.(SOCIALISM)
13 These have one mind,(SOCIALISM) and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.

REVELATION 6:1-2
1 And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.
2 And I saw, and behold a white horse:(PEACE) and he that sat on him had a bow;(EU DICTATOR) and a crown was given unto him:(PRESIDENT OF THE EU) and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.(MILITARY GENIUS)

2 THESSALONIANS 2:9-12
9 Even him,(EU WORLD DICTATOR) whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion,(THE FALSE RESURRECTION BY THE WORLD DICTATOR) that they should believe a lie:
12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

GENESIS 49:16-17-POSSIBLY A JEW FROM DAN KILLS THE DICTATOR AT MIDPOINT OF TRIB
16  Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel.
17  Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward.

REVELATION 13:3,7,8 (WORLD GOVERNMENT, WORLD ECONOMY, WORLD RELIGION)
1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.(THE EU AND ITS DICTATOR IS GODLESS)
2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.(DICTATOR COMES FROM NEW AGE OR OCCULT)
3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death;(MURDERERD) and his deadly wound was healed:(COMES BACK TO LIFE) and all the world wondered after the beast.(THE WORLD THINKS ITS GOD IN THE FLESH, MESSIAH TO ISRAEL)
7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints,(BEHEAD THEM) and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.(WORLD DOMINATION)
8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.(WORLD DICTATOR).

IAEA chief raises alarm over nuclear safety at Russian-controlled plant in Ukraine-Rafael Grossi says UN agency also working to clarify Tehran’s response to findings of traces of enriched uranium at three sites across Iran-By david keyton and Cara Anna-APR 27,22-Today, 6:23 pm

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The International Atomic Energy Agency’s director-general says the level of safety at Europe’s largest nuclear plant, currently under Russian occupation in Ukraine, is like a “red light blinking” as his organization tries in vain to get access for work including repairs.Rafael Grossi, in an interview with The Associated Press, turned the focus to the nuclear plant at Zaporizhzhia — a day after the 36th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. That plant was also taken over by Russian forces.Grossi said that the IAEA needs access to the Zaporizhzhia plant in southern Ukraine so its inspectors can, among other things, reestablish connections with the Vienna-based headquarters of the UN agency. And for that, both Russia and Ukraine need to help.The plant requires repairs, “and all of this is not happening. So the situation as I have described it, and I would repeat it today, is not sustainable as it is,” Grossi said. “So this is a pending issue. This is a red light blinking.”He spoke in an interview Wednesday, a day after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about the issue.“Understandably, my Ukrainian counterparts do not want the IAEA inspectors to go to one of their own facilities under the authority of a third power,” Grossi said. “I had a long conversation about this with President Zelensky last night, and it’s something that will still require consultations. We are not there yet.”The IAEA chief continues to press Russia’s government for access to the Zaporizhzhia plant.“I don’t see movement in that direction as we speak,” he said. But he is meeting with the Russian side “soon.”“There are two units that are active, in active operation, as you know, others that are in repairs or in cool down. And there are some activities, technical activities and also inspection activities that need to be performed,” Grossi said.With 15 reactors and one of the largest nuclear power capacities in the world, the war has essentially turned parts of Ukraine into a nuclear minefield. Again and again since the invasion, nuclear experts have watched in alarm as Russian forces have come uncomfortably close to multiple nuclear plants in Ukraine.A Chernobyl security worker told the AP that the Russians flew aircraft over the damaged reactor site and dug trenches in highly radioactive dirt.On Monday, Russian cruise missiles flew over the Khmelnitsky nuclear plant in western Ukraine.“There cannot be any military action in or around a nuclear power plant,” Grossi said, adding that he has appealed to Russia about this.“This is unprecedented to have a war unfolding amidst one of the world’s largest nuclear infrastructures, which, of course, makes for a number of fragile or weak points that could be, of course, exploited wittingly or unwittingly,” he added. “So this requires a lot of activity on our side and cooperation. Cooperation from the Russian side. Understanding from the Ukrainian side so that we can avoid an accident.”On Iran, Grossi said his agency is still trying to clarify answers from Tehran on outstanding questions involving traces of human-made enriched uranium at three sites in the country. The Islamic Republic and the IAEA have been trying to resolve a series of issues between them since the collapse of Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers, including regaining access to footage from surveillance cameras at atomic sites in the country.He also acknowledged Iran’s ability to enrich uranium since the deal’s collapse had expanded as it uses more-advanced centrifuges. Tehran recently moved a centrifuge workshop to its underground Natanz nuclear facility after a suspected Israeli attack.“They are transferring the centrifuge producing capacity to a place where they feel they are more protected,” Grossi said.Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, along with US and European support for Ukraine in the conflict, have increased tensions between Russia and the West, but it’s “imperative for us to look for common denominators in spite of these difficulties,” he said.He added: “We cannot afford to stop. We have to continue. It’s in the world’s interest, it’s in their own interest that the nuclear situation… is successful. I cannot imagine a geostrategic scenario where more nuclear weapons, proliferation, in the Middle East would help anybody or anything.”Iran long has insisted its nuclear program is peaceful. However, US intelligence agencies and the IAEA assess Tehran had an organized military nuclear program through 2003.

Spanish PM vows accountability over alleged use of Israeli spyware against Catalans-Pedro Sanchez says answer needed amid claims notorious Pegasus software was used on leading figures in Catalonian separatist movement including elected officials-By AFP-APR 27,22-Today, 4:09 pm

MADRID, Spain — Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez vowed Wednesday to “be accountable” for allegations that Madrid spied on dozens of Catalan separatist figures using controversial spyware.The allegations have strained relations between Sanchez’s leftist minority coalition government and the Catalan separatist party ERC, whose support he needs to pass legislation.Canada’s Citizen Lab group said last week that more than 60 people linked to the Catalan separatist movement had been targets of Pegasus spyware after a failed independence bid in 2017.Elected officials, including current and former Catalan regional leaders, were among those targeted by the spyware made by Israel’s NSO group, which infiltrates mobile phones to extract data or activate a camera or microphone and spy on its owners.“We will be accountable,” Sanchez said during a parliamentary debate, his first public comments on the spying allegations.“This is a serious issue which demands serious answers,” he added.The government said Sunday it would launch inquiries into the affair.It has neither confirmed nor denied whether it uses Pegasus or similar spyware, saying only that any surveillance was carried out under the supervision of judges.Sanchez vowed “maximum transparency,” saying documents could be declassified to help the investigations.At the same time, he defended Spain’s intelligence service, the CNI, saying everything it had done had been carried out “scrupulously and with rigor, within the framework of the law.”Citizen Lab, which operates out of the University of Toronto, focuses on high-tech human rights abuses.In its analysis, it said it could not directly attribute the spying operations to the government, but that circumstantial evidence pointed to Spanish authorities.Those targeted included “members of the European Parliament, Catalan Presidents, legislators, jurists, and members of civil society organizations,” it said.Catalan separatists have pointed the finger at Spain’s intelligence service.Top-selling Spanish daily El Pais reported Tuesday that the service had court approval to spy on Catalan separatist figures, and that the spying targeted far fewer people than alleged by Citizen Lab.Catalonia, in northeast Spain, has been for several years at the center of a political crisis between separatists, who control the executive and the regional parliament, and the central government in Madrid.Tensions had eased since dialogue began between Sanchez’s government and the regional authorities in 2020 and the granting of pardons to nine pro-independence leaders last year.

PROOF HALF ON EARTH DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION PERIOD (8 BILLION ON EARTH)

REVELATION 6:7-8 (8 BILLION- 2 BILLION = 6 BILLION)
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth,(2 BILLION) to kill with sword,(WEAPONS) and with hunger,(FAMINE) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE).

REVELATION 9:15,18 (6 BILLION - 2 BILLION = 4 BILLION)
15 And the four(DEMONIC WAR) angels were loosed,
18 By these three was the third part of men killed,(2 BILLION) by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.(NUCLEAR ATOMIC BOMBS)

HALF OF EARTHS POPULATION DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION.(THESE VERSES ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)

LUKE 17:34-37 (8 TOTAL BILLION - 4 BILLION DEAD IN TRIB = 4 BILLION TO JESUS KINGDOM) (HALF DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION PERIOD JUST LIKE THE BIBLE SAYS)(GOD DOES NOT LIE)(AND NOTICE MOST DIE IN WAR AND DISEASES-NOT COMETS-ASTEROIDS-QUAKES OR TSUNAMIS)
34 I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other shall be left.(half earths population 4 billion die in the 7 yr trib)
35 Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
36 Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
37 And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.(Christians have new bodies,this is the people against Jerusalem during the 7 yr treaty)(Christians bodies are not being eaten by the birds).THESE ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES-NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES.BECAUSE NOT HALF OF PEOPLE ON EARTH ARE CHRISTIANS.AND THE CONTEXT IN LUKE 17 IS THE 7 YEAR TRIBULATION OR 7 YR TREATY PERIOD.WHICH IS JUDGEMENT ON THE EARTH.NOT 50% RAPTURED TO HEAVEN.

MATTHEW 24:37-42 (THESE ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES-SURE NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)
37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
42 Watch therefore:(FOR THE LAST DAYS SIGNS HAPPENING) for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.

AMERICA (POLITICAL BABYLON)(NUKED BY SNEAK ATTACK FROM RUSSIA)

IN REVELATION 17 & 18 IS THE DESTRUCTION OF THE RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL BABYLONS.IF YOU CAN NOT DECERN BETWEEN THE 2 BABYLONS IN REV 17 & 18.YOU WILL JUST THINK THEIR BOTH THE SAME.BUT NO-THERES A RELIGIOUS BABYLON (THE VATICAN IN REV 17)(AND THE POLITICAL BABYLON IN REV 18 (AMERICA OR NEW YORK TO BE EXACT)

ISAIAH 34:10
10  It (AMERICA-POLITICAL BABYLON) shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever.

JEREMIAH 51:29-32 (CYBER ATTACK 1ST)
29  And the land shall tremble and sorrow: for every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon,(AMERICA-NEW YORK) to make the land of Babylon (AMERICA) a desolation without an inhabitant.
30  The mighty men of Babylon (AMERICA) have forborn to fight, they have remained in their holds: their might hath failed; they became as women: they have burned her dwellingplaces; her bars are broken.
031  One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to shew the king of Babylon (NEW YORK) that his city is taken at one end,
32  And that the passages are stopped,(THE WAR COMPUTERS HACKED OR EMP'D) and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.(DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO)

COMPLETE SILENCE AFTER AN EMP GOES OFF
REVELATION 8:1
1 And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.

JEREMIAH 50:3,24
3 For out of the north (RUSSIA) there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they shall remove, they shall depart, both man and beast.
24 I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon,(AMERICA) and thou wast not aware: thou art found, and also caught, because thou hast striven against the LORD. (RUSSIA A SNEAK CYBER,EMP ATTACK,THEN NUKE ATTACK ON AM

JOEL 3:2 (WW3 OCCURS WHEN JERUSALEM IS DIVIDED)
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people (ISRAEL) and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.(JERUSALEM)(WW3 STARTS BECAUSE JERUSALEM IS DIVIDED AND ISRAELIS UPROOTED FROM THEIR GOD GIVIN LAND BRINGS 3 DEAD BILLION IN WW3)

EZEKIEL 38:1-23
1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2  Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him,
3  And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:
4  And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
5  Persia,(IRAN,IRAQ) Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
6  Gomer,(GERMANY) and all his bands; the house of Togarmah (TURKEY) of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee.(AFRICAN MUSLIMS,SUDAN,TUNESIA ETC)
7  Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.
8  After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.
9  Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.
10  Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:
11  And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,
12  To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.
13  Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?(OIL IS IN SPOIL-I BELIEVE THATS WHY RUSSIA,ARAB/MUSLIMS MARCH TO ISRAEL)
14  Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord GOD; In that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it?
15  And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army:
16  And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes.
17  Thus saith the Lord GOD; Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years that I would bring thee against them?
18  And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, that my fury shall come up in my face.
19  For in my jealousy and in the fire (atomic bomb) of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel;
20  So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.
21  And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord GOD: every man’s sword shall be against his brother.
22  And I will plead against him with pestilence (biological,chemical,nuclear) and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.(NUKED,THEN MIGRATING BIRDS EAT RUSSIA/ARAB/MUSLIMS FLESH)
23  Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the LORD.

EZEKIEL 39:1-29
1 Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:
2  And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee,(300 MILIION RUSSIA-ARAB-MUSLIMS GET NUKED BY ISRAEL) and will cause thee to come up from the north parts, and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel:
3  And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.
4  Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou,(RUSSIA) and all thy bands,(RUSSIA SUPPORTED WITH WEAPONS-ARAB/MUSLIM COUNTRIES) and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.
5  Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
6  And I will send a fire (ATOMIC BOMB) on Magog, and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD.
7  So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.
8  Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord GOD; this is the day whereof I have spoken.
9  And they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the handstaves, and the spears, and they shall burn them with fire seven years:
10  So that they shall take no wood out of the field, neither cut down any out of the forests; for they shall burn the weapons with fire: and they shall spoil those that spoiled them, and rob those that robbed them, saith the Lord GOD.
11  And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will give unto Gog a place there of graves in Israel, the valley of the passengers on the east of the sea: and it shall stop the noses of the passengers: and there shall they bury Gog and all his multitude: and they shall call it The valley of Hamongog.
12  And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land.
13  Yea, all the people of the land shall bury them; and it shall be to them a renown the day that I shall be glorified, saith the Lord GOD.
14  And they shall sever out men of continual employment, passing through the land to bury with the passengers those that remain upon the face of the earth, to cleanse it: after the end of seven months shall they search.
15  And the passengers that pass through the land, when any seeth a man’s bone, then shall he set up a sign by it, till the buriers have buried it in the valley of Hamongog.
16  And also the name of the city shall be Hamonah. Thus shall they cleanse the land.
17  And, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD; Speak unto every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh, and drink blood.
18  Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan.
19  And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you.
20  Thus ye shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war, saith the Lord GOD.
21  And I will set my glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them.
22  So the house of Israel shall know that I am the LORD their God from that day and forward.
23  And the heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity: because they trespassed against me, therefore hid I my face from them, and gave them into the hand of their enemies: so fell they all by the sword.
24  According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions have I done unto them, and hid my face from them.
25  Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name;
26  After that they have borne their shame, and all their trespasses whereby they have trespassed against me, when they dwelt safely in their land, and none made them afraid.
27  When I have brought them again from the people, and gathered them out of their enemies’ lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations;
28  Then shall they know that I am the LORD their God, which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen: but I have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them any more there.
29  Neither will I hide my face any more from them: for I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD.

JEREMEIAH 49:35-37 (IN IRAN AT THE BUSHEHR OR ARAK NUKE SITE SOME BELIEVE)
35  Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Behold, I will break the bow of Elam,(IRAN/BUSHEHR NUCLEAR SITE) the chief of their might.(MOST DANGEROUS NUKE SITE IN IRAN)
36  And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven,(IRANIANS SCATTERED OR MASS IMIGARATION) and will scatter them toward all those winds; and there shall be no nation whither the outcasts of Elam shall not come.(WORLD IMMIGRATION)
37  For I will cause Elam (IRAN-BUSHEHR NUKE SITE) to be dismayed before their enemies, and before them that seek their life: and I will bring evil upon them, even my fierce anger,(ISRAELS NUKES POSSIBLY) saith the LORD; and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them:(IRAN AND ITS NUKE SITES DESTROYED)

ISAIAH 17:1,11-14
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
11  In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish: but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.
12  Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations,(USELESS U.N) that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!
13  The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.
14  And behold at evening tide trouble; and before the morning he is not.(ASSAD KILLED IN OVERNIGHT RAID) This is the portion of them that spoil us,(ISRAEL) and the lot of them that rob us.

AMOS 1:5
5  I will break also the bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant from the plain of Aven, and him that holdeth the sceptre from the house of Eden:(IRAQ) and the people of Syria shall go into captivity unto Kir,(JORDAN) saith the LORD.(I belive ISIS-DAMASCUS GET NUKED BY ISRAEL)

CHINA AND KINGS OF THE EAST MARCH TO ISRAEL 2ND WAVE OF WW3 (200 MILLION MAN ARMY)(THIS WILL BE WW3 DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION PERIOD I BELIEVE.2 BILLION DIE ON EARTH IN THIS NUKE WAR)

REVELATION 16:12-16
12 And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates;(WERE WW3 STARTS IN IRAQ OR SYRIA OR TURKEY) and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.(THE TURKEY ATATURK DAM ON THE EUPHRATES CAN BE SHUT AND DRIED UP ALREADY BY TURKEY)
13 And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon,(SATAN) and out of the mouth of the beast,(WORLD DICTATOR) and out of the mouth of the false prophet.(FALSE POPE)
14 For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.(WERE 2 BILLION DIE FROM NUKE WAR)
15 Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
16 And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.(ITS AT THIS TIME I BELIEVE WHEN AMERICA GETS NUKED BY RUSSIA ON THE WAY TO THE MIDEAST)

DANIEL 11:44 (2ND WAVE OF WW3)
44 But tidings out of the east(CHINA) and out of the north(RUSSIA, MUSLIMS WHATS LEFT FROM WAVE 1) shall trouble him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.( 1/3RD OF EARTHS POPULATION)

REVELATION 9:12-18
12 One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.
13 And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,
14 Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four(DEMONIC WAR) angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.(WORLDWIDE WAR)(TURKEY-IRAQ-SYRIA)(EUPHRATES RIVER CONSISTS OF 760 MILES IN TURKEY,440 MILES IN SYRIA AND 660 MILES IN IRAQ)
15 And the four(DEMONIC WAR) angels were loosed,(WORLDWIDE WAR) which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.(1/3 Earths Population die in WW 3 2ND WAVE-2 billion)
16 And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand:(200 MILLION MAN ARMY FROM CHINA AND THE KINGS OF THE EAST) and I heard the number of them.
17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.(NUCLEAR BOMBS)
18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.(NUCLEAR BOMBS)

EZEKIEL 39:6
6  And I will send a fire on RUSSIA (Magog,) and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD.

SECOND ANGEL: The Middle East DR DOCTORIAN
Then Isawthat the second angel had a sickle in his hand,such asis used in harvesting. The second angelsaid, “Harvest time has come in Israel and the countries all the wayto Iran.” Isawthose countriesin a fewsplitseconds. “All of Turkey and those other countries that have refused me and refused my message of love shall hate each other and kill one another.” I saw the angel raise the sickle and come down on all the Middle East countries.I saw Iran, Persia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, all of Georgia – Iraq, Syria,Lebanon,Jordan, Israel, all of Asia Minor – full of blood. Isaw blood all over these countries. And I saw fire; nuclear weapons were used in many of those countries. Smoke rising from everywhere. Sudden destruction – men destroying one another. I heard these words, “Israel, Oh Israel, the great judgment has come.”The angel said, “The chosen, the church, the remnant, shall be purified. The Spirit of God shall prepare the children of God.” I saw fires rising to heaven.The angel said, “This is the final judgment My church shall be purified, protected and ready for the final day. Men will die from thirst. Watershall be scarce all over the Middle East. Rivers shall dry up, and men will fight for water in those countries.” The angelshowed me that the United Nationsshall be broken in pieces because of the crisisin the Middle East. There shall be no more United Nations. The angel with the sickle shall reap the harvest.

Fox News-Iran looking to increase military cooperation with 'like-minded' China-Wed, April 27, 2022, 2:58 PM

Iran is looking to strengthen ties with China in hopes of countering the U.S., as discussions over a new Iran nuclear deal remain unfruitful.Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi welcomed Chinese Minister of National Defense Wei Fenghe, and the two men agreed on the strategic benefit of their alliance, Iranian state media reported according to The Associated Press. Wei said the purpose of the trip was "improving the strategic defense cooperation" between Iran and China.46 RETIRED GENERALS, ADMIRALS URGE WHITE HOUSE AGAINST IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL"Confronting unilateralism and creating stability and order is possible through cooperation of independent and like-minded powers," Raisi reportedly said.Wei agreed, stating that a stronger relationship between the two countries would be good for security, "particularly in the current critical and tense situation."AUSTRALIAN PM WARNS CHINESE THAT NEW BASE WOULD BE ‘RED LINE’ FOR AUSTRALIA AND THE US-Iranian foreign minister Gen. Mohammad Reza Ashtinai also met with Wei, who invited the Iranian official and others in the Iranian military to visit China."Wherever the U.S. has had military presence, it has created waves of insecurity, instability, rifts, pessimism, war, destruction and displacement," Wei was quoted by Iranian media as saying.The two countries have been developing their military relationship, as they signed a 25-year strategic cooperation agreement in 2021 that includes economic and agricultural activities as well as transportation. Iranian and Chinese navies have also visited each other’s ports and held joint drills in the Indian Ocean.

The Daily Beast-Putin’s Stooges: He May Nuke Us All but We Are Ready to Die-Julia Davis-Wed, April 27, 2022, 2:38 PM

Russian President Vladimir Putin ominously warned on Wednesday that if any other country intervenes in Ukraine, Russia will respond with “instruments… nobody else can boast of, and we will use them if we have to.”In recent days, Russian state media has been hyping up the same rhetoric, bombarding audiences with jarring declarations that World War III is imminent. Every major channel is promoting the idea of an inevitable, never-before-seen escalation over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which is being portrayed as a war waged against the Kremlin by the collective West. Patriotic citizens are now being primed for the idea that even the worst outcome is a good thing, because those dying for the motherland will skyrocket to paradise.During Tuesday’s broadcast of 60 Minutes, Vladimir Avatkov of Russia’s Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs delivered an Orwellian perspective of current events. “What is happening right now is not about Ukraine, but about the future world order, which has no room for hegemony and where Russia can’t be isolated.”Host Olga Skabeeva described a summit hosted by the U.S. in Germany that day to discuss upping Ukraine’s defense capabilities as a sign that this is indeed “World War III, no longer just a special operation, with forty countries against us. They declared a war.” Portraying global opponents of Russian aggression as evil incarnate, political scientist Mikhail Markelov claimed: “The representatives of those forty different countries are today’s collective Hitler.”Later the same day, on The Evening With Vladimir Solovyov, host Vladimir Solovyov lamented the West’s refusal to heed the Kremlin’s warnings. “If they decide to support Ukraine—even though [Russia’s Foreign Minister] Sergey Lavrov told them that this could lead to WWIII—nothing will stop them. They’ve decided to play it big... These are the bastards with no morals.” Head of RT Margarita Simonyan added: “Personally, I think that the most realistic way is the way of World War III, based on knowing us and our leader, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, knowing how everything works around here, it’s impossible—there is no chance—that we will give up.”In perhaps the most shocking declaration about a nuclear holocaust delivered on Russian television in recent months, Simonyan concluded that the idea “that everything will end with a nuclear strike, to me, is more probable than the other outcome. This is to my horror, on one hand, but on the other hand, with the understanding that it is what it is.” Solovyov chimed in: “But we will go to heaven, while they will simply croak.” Simonyan comforted the audiences by adding: “We’re all going to die someday.”Once the conversation turned to Western arms deliveries to Ukraine and a series of fires and explosions on Russian territory, Solovyov pondered out loud: “What is preventing us from striking the territory of the United Kingdom, targeting those logistical centers where these arms are being loaded?” Andrey Sidorov, deputy dean of world politics at Moscow State University, retorted that rather than strike the U.K., Russia should target the real mastermind: America. He specified: “If we decide to strike the U.K., we should rather decide to strike the United States... Final decisions are being made not in London, but in Washington. If we want to hit the real center of the West, then we need to strike Washington.”Attacks Begin in New Country as Russia Warns Nuclear Threat Is ‘Real’In a bizarre attempt to soften the blow of Russia’s grim predicament, state TV host and media personality Dmitry Kulikov told audiences that war is sometimes “inevitable.” “This is a big war. The West declared it against us. It’s being waged through different methods, never seen before, but there’s never been as many nuclear weapons in the world either,” he said. “That is the only thing that sets this war apart from all others. This is a historical event, something we’re used to. Let’s be worthy of our predecessors, everyone who lived through that. What made us think that our lives should be better than those of our grandparents? Why should we be free of our historical mission?”Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova appeared on the same program and continued with the same hard line. Solovyov asked her: “How far is the West ready to go?” Without hesitation, Zakharova replied: “They’ll go as far as they’re allowed to. If they aren’t stopped, they will go all the way.”Adding his two cents to the nuclear apocalypse sideshow on Wednesday was military expert and retired Colonel Yury Knutov. “I’ve been observing the American approach from its top levels of leadership towards Russia for several years now,” he said on the state TV show 60 Minutes. “For some reason, they believe that Russia can be choked for as long as it takes, until it surrenders, and Russia will never respond or use its nuclear weapons or its nuclear potential... They themselves are creating the situation when there is a threat to the existence of our nation and our military doctrine prescribes that it gives us the right to use nuclear weapons.”Throughout the program, close-up photographs depicting dead Ukrainian servicemen were repeatedly shown on the screen. Knutov praised the production choice. “We see the Ukrainian land flooded by corpses of Ukrainian soldiers and National Guardsmen... our media needs to be showing more of that.”

UK says Western allies must ‘double down’ and send Ukraine tanks, jets-Foreign Secretary Liz Truss warns against inaction and says countries helping Kyiv must show ‘courage’ in the face of Russian threats of escalation, which she calls misplaced-By Jill Lawless-28 April 2022, 12:58 am

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s top diplomat called Wednesday for Western allies to send tanks, warplanes and other heavy weapons to Ukraine, saying fears of escalating the war were misplaced and “inaction would be the greatest provocation.”Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said “this is a time for courage, not caution” among nations helping Ukraine fight Russia’s invasion.“Heavy weapons, tanks, airplanes — digging deep into our inventories, ramping up production. We need to do all of this,” Truss said during an annual foreign policy speech at Mansion House, the residence of the Lord Mayor of London.NATO nations have supplied Ukraine with military weapons and gear, including missiles and armored vehicles. But they have been reluctant to send fighter planes — despite pleas from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — for fear of escalation. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has already accused NATO of effectively waging a proxy war against Russia.Western officials deny that, saying the conflict is between Russia and Ukraine due to Russia’s illegal invasion of its neighbor.Britain has sent 450 million pounds ($565 million) in military aid to Ukraine, including thousands of missiles. But Despite Truss’s call for jets, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman, Max Blain, said there were “no plans” for the UK to send planes. He did not rule out Britain sending planes to another country, such as Poland, that would then give its own jets to Ukraine, but said there were “no specific plans” to do so.Truss said Russia’s attack on Ukraine must be a wake-up call for international institutions that failed to prevent the invasion.“The architecture that was designed to guarantee peace and prosperity has failed Ukraine,” Truss said. “The economic and security structures developed after the Second World War and then the Cold War have been bent out of shape so far that they have enabled rather than contained aggression.”Truss called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “desperate rogue operator” who was ripping up the global order and outfoxing international institutions.“Russia is able to block any effective action in the UN Security Council,” where it has a veto as a permanent member, she said, adding that the Group of 20 club of wealthy and emerging nations “cannot function as an effective economic body while Russia remains at the table.”In response, Truss called for a new focus on “military strength, economic security and deeper global alliances” among “free nations.”After years of declining military spending in many countries, including Britain, she said NATO’s goal that countries spend 2% of gross domestic product on defense should be “a floor, not a ceiling.”Truss also called for tougher economic sanctions on Russia, saying the West must cut off Russian oil and gas imports “once and for all.” That would be an easier thing to do for Britain than for many other European nations.“If Putin succeeds, there will be untold further misery across Europe and terrible consequences across the globe,” she said. “We would never feel safe again. So we must be prepared for the long haul and double down on our support for Ukraine.”

Over 100,000 Muslim worshippers gather on Temple Mount for nighttime prayers-Police say mass prayer event for Qadr Night proceeds as planned; thousands of officers deployed to Jerusalem’s Old City amid high tensions in recent weeks-By TOI staff-28 April 2022, 12:36 am

Over 100,000 Muslim worshippers were taking part in mass prayers on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem Wednesday evening on one of the few remaining nights before the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan on May 1.Worshippers were gathered on Wednesday night for Laylat al-Qadr (Night of Destiny) when Muslims believe the first verses of the Quran were revealed to Muhammad. Worshipers gather for intense nighttime prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque.Thousands of police were deployed to Jerusalem’s Old City ahead of the prayers Wednesday and into Thursday on the compound, where officials have been trying to prevent a flare-up of violence for several weeks.Israel Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai held a security assessment with Jerusalem police officials Wednesday evening, according to the Israel Police. The prayers were proceeding as planned, the police said.The Temple Mount, known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif or the Al-Aqsa complex, is the holiest site in Judaism and the third holiest in Islam. Over the past few weeks, it has been the site of riots and clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police, during heightened tensions as Muslims mark Ramadan and Jews observed Passover.Earlier Wednesday, the Axios news site reported that Israeli and Jordanian officials were soon expected to meet to discuss efforts to prevent a violent flare-up surrounding the compound.Jordan, which oversees the flashpoint site via its control of the Waqf Islamic endowment that administers the compound, has been sharply and repeatedly critical in recent weeks of the behavior of Israeli security forces atop the Temple Mount.According to the report, which cites three unnamed Israeli and Western sources, a joint committee will convene after Ramadan in a bid to reach an agreement on how to lower tensions at the holy site and prevent any violent incidents there.According to the report, one of Amman’s main demands is expected to be for Israel to allow more unarmed guards at the Temple Mount on behalf of the Waqf.On Sunday, Jordan’s King Abdullah met in Cairo with Egyptian President Abdel-Fatteh el-Sissi and United Arab Emirates Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, with tensions in Jerusalem at the top of the agenda.The monarch was set to meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday night.Jordan has accused Israel of violating the status quo at the site, under which Muslims are allowed to visit and pray while Jews cannot pray and may only visit during restricted time slots.In a briefing to journalists last week, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid reiterated that Israel is fully committed to maintaining the status quo at the site.But Jordan and other Arab allies have chafed at Israeli calls to maintain “freedom of worship” at the site, which some have interpreted as allowing Jewish prayer atop the Temple Mount, something seen as a major escalation.Hebrew media reports have often documented Jewish visitors to the site quietly praying under their breath while Israeli security forces look the other way. Israel has averred that such instances are not sanctioned and are not part of any shift in policy.

UN chief arrives in Kyiv as Ukraine warns of ‘extremely difficult weeks’ ahead-Fresh off meeting with Putin in Moscow, Antonio Guterres says ‘the sooner this war ends, the better — for the sake of Ukraine, Russia and the world’-By AFP-APR 27,22-Today, 11:09 pm

KYIV, Ukraine — UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced his arrival in Kyiv on Wednesday following talks in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin.“I have arrived in Ukraine after visiting Moscow,” he wrote on his official Twitter account as he landed ahead of talks with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.“We will continue our work to expand humanitarian support and secure the evacuation of civilians from conflict zones. The sooner this war ends, the better — for the sake of Ukraine, Russia and the world,” Guterres tweeted.At the Moscow talks on Tuesday, Guterres repeated calls for both Russia and Ukraine to work together to set up “safe and effective” humanitarian corridors in war-torn Ukraine. In turn, Putin told him he hoped that negotiations could end the conflict which saw Russian troops invading Ukraine on February 24.“Despite the fact that the military operation is ongoing, we still hope that we will be able to reach agreements on the diplomatic track,” the Russian leader said in televised remarks.Talks had been taking place in Turkey but stalled after the discovery of civilian bodies in areas near Kyiv previously occupied by Russian forces.Ukraine Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said Kyiv faced “extremely difficult weeks” ahead, warning of major “destruction” in a developing Russian offensive in the east of the country.“Some extremely difficult weeks lie ahead,” Reznikov said in a statement on Facebook on Wednesday. “Russia has already gathered forces for a large-scale offensive in eastern Ukraine,” he added, saying Moscow “will try to inflict as much pain as possible” and warned of “destruction and painful casualties.”“In the coming days we will need all our resilience and extraordinary unity,” Reznikov told Ukrainians. He added that the coming events would “determine the future of our state.”Russia has pressed on with its invasion of Ukraine, re-focusing on the east and south of the country as the war enters its third month.Kyiv conceded that Russian forces had made gains in the east, with Moscow’s forces capturing a string of villages in the Donbas region.Meanwhile, the interior ministry of Transnistria, a Moscow-backed separatist region of Moldova bordering Ukraine, said Wednesday that shots were fired at a village housing a Russian arms depot after drones flew over from Ukraine.This came after the unrecognized region reported a series of explosions that it called “terrorist attacks,” raising fears of a spillover from the war in Ukraine.“Last night, several drones were noticed in the sky over the village of Kolbasna,” the Transnistrian interior ministry said on its website. “The drones were launched onto the territory of Transnistria from Ukraine,” it said.Kolbasna, known as Cobasna in Romanian, is located around 2 kilometers (1.25 miles) from the Ukrainian border. It houses a stockpile of some 20,000 tons of munitions that date back to the Soviet era, guarded by Russian troops. The interior ministry said that it is believed to be the largest ammunition depot in Europe.“On the morning of April 27 at 8:45 am (0545 GMT) shots were fired from the Ukrainian side towards Kolbasna,” the Transnistrian ministry added, saying that there were no reported injuries.The region has reported explosions on Monday and Tuesday hitting the security ministry, a military unit and a Russian-owned radio tower. This prompted Moldova to urge its citizens to keep calm and step up security measures.Moldova’s Foreign Minister Nicu Popescu said Transnistria had announced men of fighting age would be prevented “from leaving the region so this is a sign we are not yet out of the potential danger zone.”“Our primary duty is to maintain peace in Moldova. Moldova should not be drawn in any type of military scenario in this region,” said Popescu. “We remain very alert. We are not in a position to predict how things will evolve. We will do everything to keep Moldova out of any military escalation on this regional scale.”

White House says Iran is ‘a few weeks or less’ from bomb breakout-‘It definitely worries us’: US blames Trump administration for Iran’s nuclear development, urges diplomatic solution, as talks remain stalled-By TOI staff-APR 27,22-Today, 2:54 am

The US said Tuesday that Iran’s nuclear breakout time was down to weeks, and blamed the previous administration, as negotiations between Tehran and world powers continued to stall.“Their breakout period is down from about a year, which is what we knew it was during the deal, to just a few weeks or less,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said at a press conference, referring to the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Iran’s breakout time was “down to a matter of weeks.”The Biden administration has issued similar warnings about Iran’s nuclear breakout time in the past.Having enough nuclear material for a bomb is not the same as having the capabilities to build the core of the weapon and to attach it to the warhead of a missile, which would likely take more time.Psaki told reporters at the Tuesday press conference that Iran’s nuclear development “definitely worries us.”“If we go back, under the Iran nuclear deal, Iran’s nuclear program was tightly constrained,” she said. “Since the Trump administration ceased US participation in the deal, Iran has rapidly accelerated its nuclear program.”“That is a direct impact of pulling out of the nuclear deal, making us less safe, giving us less visibility, and it’s one of the reasons we pursued a diplomatic path again,” Psaki said.Psaki said Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Biden talked about Iran during a call on Sunday. Biden said during the call that he will make his first visit to Israel as president in the coming months.“They also talked about the Iran nuclear deal negotiations which we keep the Israelis briefly regularly on, so certainly that could be a part of this conversation as well,” Psaki said of Biden’s upcoming trip.Talks in Vienna between Iran and world powers have been stalled for six weeks, reportedly over Iran’s demand that Washington delist its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from a US terror list.Israeli officials have said the chances of world powers signing a new nuclear deal with Iran have been greatly diminished, and the US is closer than ever to admitting defeat on Biden’s stated goal of returning to the 2015 deal, according to Tuesday reports.Iran’s Governor to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Kazem Gharib Abadi, and political deputy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran, Abbas Araghchi, from left, leave the ‘Grand Hotel Vienna’ where closed-door nuclear talks take place in Vienna, Austria, Sunday, June 20, 2021. (AP Photo/Florian Schroetter)Facing criticism of the deal during an appearance before Congress, Blinken on Tuesday called the 2015 agreement imperfect but better than the alternatives.“We continue to believe that getting back into compliance with the agreement would be the best way to address the nuclear challenge posed by Iran and to make sure that an Iran that is already acting with incredible aggression doesn’t have a nuclear weapon,” Blinken told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.“We’ve tested the other proposition, which was pulling out of the agreement, trying to exert more pressure,” he said.The US has issued several other warnings about Iran’s nuclear development in recent months.US officials told lawmakers that Iran was weeks away from a nuclear breakout during a closed-door briefing in February, and US State Department Spokesperson Ned Price said earlier this month that Iran’s breakout time was in “weeks rather than months.”The 2015 deal gave Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs meant to guarantee that Tehran could not develop a nuclear weapon, something it has always denied wanting to do.The United States unilaterally withdrew from the accord in 2018 under then-US president Donald Trump and reimposed biting economic sanctions, prompting Iran to begin rolling back its own commitments and advancing its nuclear development.The Vienna talks, which started a year ago, aim to return the US to the nuclear deal, including through the lifting of sanctions on Iran, and to ensure Tehran’s full compliance with its commitments. The US communicates with Iran via intermediaries at the talks.Last week, a senior Israeli diplomatic official claimed that Biden administration officials notified their European counterparts that Washington does not plan on delisting Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.According to an Axios report on Monday, the Biden administration “has recently started discussing a scenario” in which the deal won’t be revived.A former member of Iran’s parliament said Sunday that Iran always intended to build a nuclear bomb.AFP contributed to this report.

 

Saturday, April 23, 2022

SOMETHINGS FISHY IN CHINA-HARDLY ANY COVID DEATHS.YET CLAIM 25 MILLION IN LOCKDOWN.BECAUSE OF COVID-THAT WILL GET CONSPIRACY THEORY END OF THE WORLDERS MINDS DREAMING UP IMAGINATIONS.THATS FOR SURE. SUCH AS IS CHINA JOE BIDEN AND HUNTER BIDEN BEING PAID BY CHINA TO COVERUP THE CHINESE DEATHS.

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)

 SOMETHINGS FISHY IN CHINA-HARDLY ANY COVID DEATHS.YET CLAIM 25 MILLION IN LOCKDOWN.BECAUSE OF COVID-THAT WILL GET CONSPIRACY THEORY END OF THE WORLDERS MINDS DREAMING UP IMAGINATIONS.THATS FOR SURE. SUCH AS IS CHINA JOE BIDEN AND HUNTER BIDEN BEING PAID BY CHINA TO COVERUP THE CHINESE DEATHS.


Thousands attend Jerusalem ‘Holy Fire’ ceremony despite complaints over restrictions-Israeli officials say they don’t want a repeat of Mt. Meron disaster; Easter ceremony at Church of the Holy Sepulchre goes ahead with some 4,000 participants-By Joseph Krauss-APR 23,22Today, 4:09 pm

JERUSALEM (AP) — Thousands of Christians celebrated the “Holy Fire” ceremony at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem on Saturday against a backdrop of rising tensions with Israeli authorities, which imposed new restrictions on attendance this year that it said were needed for safety.Israel says it wants to prevent another disaster after a crowd stampede at a packed Jewish holy site last year left 45 people dead. Christian leaders say there’s no need to alter a ceremony that has been held for centuries.In the dense confines of Jerusalem’s Old City, where Jews, Christians and Muslims must share their holiest sites — no matter how reluctantly — even small changes can cause prophetic angst.The city has already seen a week of clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police at the nearby Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, the third holiest site in Islam, which sites atop the Temple Mount.This year major Jewish, Christian and Muslim holidays have converged against a backdrop of renewed Israeli-Palestinian violence. Tensions have soared as tens of thousands of people flock to Jerusalem’s Old City to visit some of the holiest sites for all three faiths for the first time since the lifting of pandemic restrictions.Eastern Orthodox Christians believe that on the Saturday before Easter a miraculous flame appears inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a sprawling 12th-century basilica built on the site where Christians believe Jesus was crucified, buried, and resurrected.Every year the Greek patriarch enters the Holy Edicule, a chamber built on the traditional site of the tomb, and returns with a lit lantern, passing the flame from candle to candle among thousands of people, gradually illuminating the walls of the darkened basilica. The flame is later transferred to Orthodox communities in other countries on special flights.The source of the Holy Fire has been a closely guarded secret for centuries, and highbrow skeptics going back to the Middle Ages have scorned it as a carnival trick for the masses.Two years ago, the church was nearly empty because of a coronavirus lockdown, but Israel made special arrangements for the flame to be carried abroad. Hundreds attended last year, when travel restrictions were in place and the ceremony was limited to the fully vaccinated.This year, Israel says it is applying a safety law that limits crowd size based on space and the number of exits. Authorities say they want to prevent a repeat of last year’s stampede on Mount Meron in northern Israel during a religious festival attended by around 100,000 mostly ultra-Orthodox Jews.It was one of the worst disasters in the country’s history, and authorities came in for heavy criticism over alleged negligence.“There’s never a problem until there’s a problem, and this is what happened last year in Meron,” said Tania Berg-Rafaeli, the director of interreligious affairs at the Israeli Foreign Ministry.If something were to happen at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, “we would have to take responsibility for that, and we want to avoid any problem,” she said.Authorities said they would allow a total of 4,000 people to attend the Holy Fire ceremony, including 1,800 inside the church itself, which has a single large entryway with a raised step. Berg-Rafaeli said Israeli authorities have been in close contact with the churches and would revise the quota upwards next year if more doors in the basilica can be opened.“It’s totally about safety and not at all about anything else,” she said.Church leaders rejected any restrictions on principle, saying they infringe on religious freedom. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, like Al-Aqsa, is governed by a decades-old set of informal arrangements known as the status quo. As at Al-Aqsa, seemingly minor violations have ignited violence, including notorious brawls between monks of different denominations. Thousands gather at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem this morning, for the Holy Fire ceremony pic.twitter.com/9Pnrp8cQAd — Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) April 23, 2022-In a statement released earlier this month, the Greek Patriarchate said it was “fed up with police restrictions on freedom to worship.”“The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem has decided, by the power of the Lord, that it will not compromise its right to provide spiritual services in all churches and squares,” it said. “Prayers will be held as usual.” The patriarchate says up to 11,000 people attend in normal years.Police sealed off the main entrances to the Christian Quarter with barricades. Large crowds jostled to get in, as the police waved through a trickle of local residents and some foreign tourists.The ceremony, which goes back at least 1,200 years, hasn’t always passed peacefully.In 1834, a frenzied stampede broke out in the darkened church, and the ruler of the Holy Land at the time barely escaped with his life after his guards drew swords and hacked their way through the crowd, the historian Simon Sebag Montefiore recounts in his history of Jerusalem. Some 400 pilgrims died in the melee, most from suffocation or trampling.Israel says it is committed to ensuring freedom of worship for Jews, Christians, and Muslims, and has long presented itself as an island of tolerance in the Middle East. Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem today; thousands in attendance at the Holy Fire ceremony pic.twitter.com/MoHyT27Sqd — Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) April 23, 2022-In recent years, however, tensions have risen with the local Christian community, most of whom are Palestinian Christians, a population that has steadily dwindled through decades of conflict as many have sought economic opportunities abroad.In recent years, the Greek Patriarchate has been locked in a legal battle with a Jewish nationalist group over the sale of three properties in the Old City, including two Palestinian-run hotels. The patriarchate says it has proof of corruption in the disputed 2004 sale.Israel’s Supreme Court upheld the sale in 2019, ruling in favor of Ateret Cohanim, an Israeli organization that seeks to expand the Jewish presence in mostly Palestinian neighborhoods of east Jerusalem.The group took over part of one of the hotels — a popular backpacker hostel — last month. Christian leaders denounced the move, accusing them of trying to change the religious character of Jerusalem’s Christian Quarter.The frustration could be felt outside the New Gate leading to the Christian Quarter on Saturday, as people jostled with police to get in, lifting baby strollers and small children over the barricades as some were waved through.“It’s like this every year and every year there’s a different excuse,” said Dr. Muna Mushahwar, a physician who argued with police as she tried to organize the entry of a foreign delegation.“They don’t want the Christians here. The more you push people the more frustrated they get and then they leave.”

Ukraine says Russians trying to storm Mariupol steel plant, port city’s last defense-Officials estimate 2,000 troops defending 1,000 civilians sheltering at facility’s underground tunnels; Putin had ordered military to only blockade the area-By david keyton and YESICA FISCH-APR 23,22-Today, 3:08 pm

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces attacked a steel plant in the shattered Ukrainian port city of Mariupol on Saturday, Ukrainian officials said, apparently seeking to eliminate the last pocket of Ukrainian resistance in the strategic city the Kremlin claims its military has otherwise seized.The assault was reported by an adviser to Ukraine’s presidential office as an estimated 1,000 civilians sheltered in the Azovstal plant alongside the remaining Ukrainian fighters, while Russian forces pressed their offensive elsewhere in the eastern Donbas region amid fierce Ukrainian counterattacks.The presidential adviser, Oleksiy Arestovich, said during a briefing that Russian forces had resumed airstrikes on the massive seaside plant and were trying to storm it, which would represent a reversal from an order Russian President Vladimir Putin gave two days earlier.Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported to Putin on Thursday that the whole of Mariupol, with the exception of Azovstal, had been “liberated” by the Russians. At the time, Putin ordered him not to send Russian troops into the plant but instead to block off the facility, an apparent attempt to starve out the Ukrainians and force them to surrender.Ukrainian officials have estimated that about 2,000 of their troops are inside the plant along with the civilians sheltering in the facility’s underground tunnels. Arestovic said the Ukrainian forces were trying to counter the new attacks. ????????I am commander of Azov regiment, Denis Prokopenko. I call to the leaders of the world. Right now, in Mariupol, at "Azovstal" steel factory hundreds of civilians are sheltering. Among them – people of all ages, women, children, families of Mariupol defenders.???????? pic.twitter.com/7IG6cEJHud — АЗОВ (@Polk_Azov) April 18, 2022-Earlier Saturday, the Azov Regiment of Ukraine’s National Guard, which has members holed up in the plant, released footage of around two dozen women and children, some of whom said they had been in the mill’s underground tunnels for two months and longed to see the sun.“We want to see peaceful skies, we want to breathe in fresh air,” one woman in the video said. “You have simply no idea what it means for us to simply eat, drink some sweetened tea. For us, it is already happiness.”The regiment’s deputy commander, Sviatoslav Palamar, told The Associated Press the video was shot Thursday, the same day Russia declared victory over the rest of Mariupol. The contents could not be independently verified.Both Ukrainian and Russian authorities have said the Azovstal plant is the last remaining defense stronghold in Mariupol, which has strategic importance to Moscow and has been under siege since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.More than 100,000 people — down from a prewar population of about 430,000 — are believed trapped in Mariupol with little food, water or heat, according to Ukrainian authorities.The footage of Azovstal showed soldiers giving sweets to children who respond with fist-bumps. One young girl says she and her relatives “haven’t seen neither the sky, nor the sun” since they left home on Feb. 27.Over 20,000 civilians have been killed in Mariupol during the nearly two-month siege. Satellite images released this week showed what appeared to be mass graves near Mariupol, and local officials accused Russia of burying thousands of civilians to conceal the slaughter taking place there.Ukrainian officials had said they were trying again Saturday to evacuate women, children and older adults from Mariupol after many previous attempts failed. Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on the messaging app Telegram that the effort was to get underway at midday, but it wasn’t clear how the new assault on the plant would affect any possible evacuation.Russia has pulled a dozen crack military units from Mariupol to bolster the offensive elsewhere in the eastern Donbas region, while other troops continue to keep the remaining Ukrainian troops in the city pinned in the plant, Ukrainian officials said.In Donbas, Russian troops pressed their offensive in an attempt to fully seize Ukraine’s industrial heartland but have made little headway as fierce Ukrainian counterattacks have slowed their efforts, Ukrainian and British officials said Saturday.Ukrainian forces over the past 24 hours repelled eight Russian attacks in the two regions, destroying nine tanks, 18 armored units and 13 vehicles, a tanker and three artillery systems, Ukraine’s General Staff said.“Units of Russian occupiers are regrouping. Russian enemy continues to launch missile and bomb strikes on military and civilian infrastructure,” the General Staff said on its Facebook page.Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai said Saturday that two people were killed by Russian shelling in the city of Popasna. Separately, Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Synehubov said on Telegram on Saturday that two people were killed and 19 more wounded by the Russian shelling. Synehubov said that over the past day the Russian forces fired at the region’s civilian infrastructure 56 times.“In addition to the fact that street fighting continues in the city (of Popasna) for several weeks, the Russian army constantly fires at multistory residential buildings and private houses,” Haidai wrote on the messaging app Telegram. “Just yesterday, local residents withstood five enemy artillery attacks. … Not all survived,”Britain’s Ministry of Defense said despite their increased activity “Russian forces have made no major gains in the last 24 hours as Ukrainian counter-attacks continue to hinder the efforts.”Russia still has not established air or sea control due to Ukrainian resistance, and despite Putin’s declaration of victory in Mariupol, “heavy fighting continues to take place, frustrating Russian attempts to capture the city, thus further slowing their desired progress in the Donbas,” the Ministry of Defense said.Overall, the Kremlin has thrown more than 100,000 troops and mercenaries from Syria and Libya into the fight in Ukraine and is deploying more forces in the country every day, Danilov said.“We have a difficult situation, but our army is defending our state,” he said.In western Ukraine, regional governor Maksym Kozytskyy announced a curfew for the Lviv area ahead of Orthodox Easter. Kozytskyy cited “new intelligence” and said the curfew would run from 11 p.m. Saturday to 5 a.m. Sunday, and then every day between these hours until further notice.“Unfortunately, the enemy doesn’t have such a concept as a major religious holiday,” Kozytskyy wrote.Mariupol has taken on outsize importance in the war. Fully capturing it would deprive the Ukrainians of a vital port and allow Russia to create a land corridor with the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow seized from Ukraine in 2014.Taking over the city also would allow Putin to throw more of his forces into the potentially climactic battle for the Donbas and its coal mines, factories and other industries.The city has been reduced largely to smoking rubble by weeks of bombardment, and Russian state TV showed the flag of the pro-Moscow Donetsk separatists raised on what it said was the city’s highest point, its TV tower. It also showed what it said was the main building at in flames.Under cover of darkness, Ukrainian forces have managed to deliver weapons to the besieged steelworks via helicopter, said Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council.The latest satellite photos from Maxar Technologies revealed what appeared to be a second mass grave site near Mariupol. The site at a cemetery in the town of Vynohradne has several newly dug parallel trenches measuring about 40 meters (131 feet) long, Maxar said in a statement.Earlier, Maxar released photos of what appeared to be rows upon rows of more than 200 freshly dug mass graves next to a cemetery in the town of Manhush, outside Mariupol. That prompted Ukrainian accusations that the Russians are trying to conceal the slaughter of civilians in the city.The Ukrainians estimated that the graves seen in the photos released Thursday could hold 9,000 bodies.The Kremlin did not respond to the satellite pictures.

After Moscow visit next week, UN chief to meet Zelensky in Ukraine-Antonio Guterres heading to meet Putin on Tuesday, then Ukrainian president two days later-By AFP-APR 23,22-Today, 12:20 pm

UNITED NATIONS, United States — UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Ukraine next week after a stop in Moscow to confer with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the war, the UN said Friday.Guterres will see Zelensky and Ukraine’s foreign minister on Thursday, two days after visiting Moscow, the United Nations said in a statement.The Kremlin confirmed Friday that Putin would meet Guterres on Tuesday.Guterres sent letters this week requesting these in-person meetings to try to regain the initiative for the UN, which has been largely marginalized from the crisis since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24.In part this is because the war has divided the UN Security Council permanent members: the United States, France, Britain, China and Russia.China has refused to condemn the invasion, depicting Russia as a victim of Western efforts to weaken it.With the letters he sent on Tuesday, Guterres sought to spur dialogue to end the war.“At this time of great peril and consequence, he would like to discuss urgent steps to bring about peace in Ukraine,” spokesman Stephane Dujarric said this week.Guterres has had little contact with Zelensky since the war began, speaking with him just once by telephone, on March 26.Putin has not taken Guterres’s phone calls, or had any contact with him, since the UN chief stated that the invasion violated the UN charter.

Civilian evacuation effort set for Mariupol, say Ukraine authorities-Deputy PM says another attempt will be made to get women, children and elderly in bombarded city to safer area-By Agencies and TOI staff-APR 23,22-Today, 11:26 am

Ukraine will make a new attempt to evacuate civilians from Mariupol, the heavily destroyed city largely controlled by Russian forces, at noon on Saturday, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.Vereshchuk said on the Telegram messaging app there will be another attempt to evacuate women, children and the elderly from the strategic port city of Mariupol, which has been besieged by Russian forces for weeks and reduced largely to smoking rubble by constant bombardment.“Today we will again try to evacuate women, children and the elderly,” Vereshchuk said on Telegram, calling for people to gather on the motorway close to the Port City shopping center in the city. “If everything happens as planned, we will start the evacuation around noon.”Many previous attempts to evacuate civilians from the city have failed.The Kremlin earlier this week declared that Mariupol has been “liberated,” with the exception of the Azovstal steel mill, the last pocket of resistance where Ukrainian troops are holed up.The governor of the eastern Luhansk region, Serhiy Haidai, said on Telegram that an evacuation train will depart Saturday from the eastern city of Pokrovsk. Residents of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which comprise Ukraine’s industrial heartland known as Donbas, will be able to take the train free of charge.It will bring them to the Western city of Chop near Ukraine’s border with Slovakia and Hungary, according to Haidai.Russia has said that establishing full control over the Donbas, a large part of which has been in the hands of Russia-backed separatists since 2014, is currently one of the main goals of its operation in Ukraine.Haidai also said Saturday that two people were killed by Russian shelling in the city of Popasna.Haidai said on the messaging app Telegram that residential buildings in the region were shelled 12 times the previous day, and Popasna “got the most” of it.“In addition to the fact that street fighting continues in the city for several weeks, the Russian army constantly fires at multi-story residential buildings and private houses. Just yesterday, local residents withstood five enemy artillery attacks… Not all survived,” Haidai wrote.He added that some houses were also destroyed in Lysychansk and Novodruzhesk.On Friday, the city council and an adviser to the mayor of Mariupol said that another mass grave has been found outside the city.The city council posted a satellite photo provided by Planet Labs showing what it said was a mass grave 45 meters (147.64 feet) by 25 meters (82.02 feet) that could hold the bodies of at least 1,000 Mariupol residents.It said the new reported mass grave is outside the village of Vynohradne, which is east of Mariupol.Earlier this week, satellite photos from Maxar Technologies revealed what appeared to be rows upon rows of more than 200 freshly dug mass graves in the town of Manhush, located to the west of Mariupol.The discovery of mass graves has led to accusations that the Russians are trying to conceal the slaughter of civilians in the city.

Despite advances, Russia makes ‘no major gains’ in past 24 hours, says UK intel-Ukrainian counter-attacks continue to hinder Russian forces’ efforts, reports British Ministry of Defence-By TOI staff and Agencies-APR 23,22-Today, 10:02 am

As Russia presses ahead with its deadly war on Ukraine, now focused on destroying and capturing the country’s eastern parts, its forces have made “no major gains” over the past 24 hours, hindered by Ukrainian counter-attacks, according to a daily intelligence report by the UK’s Ministry of Defence Saturday.“Russian air and maritime forces have not established control in either domain owing to the effectiveness of Ukraine’s air and sea defense reducing their ability to make notable progress,” the ministry said.In addition, despite Moscow’s claims of the “liberation” of the strategic port city of Mariupol, “heavy fighting continues to take place frustrating Russian attempts to capture the city thus further slowing their desired progress in the Donbas,” the report added.The Ukraine military’s general staff said Saturday that Russian forces continue their “offensive operations” in eastern Ukraine with the goal of defeating Ukrainian forces, establishing full control over the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and securing “a land route between these territories and the occupied Crimea.”Ukrainian forces in the past 24 hours repelled eight Russian attacks in the two regions, destroying nine tanks, 18 armored units and 13 vehicles, a tanker and three artillery systems, the general staff said on its Facebook page on Saturday morning.Russian forces continue to partially block and shell Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, and are active in the area of Izyum, the update said.In Mariupol, Russian troops “continue to blockade” Ukrainian units in the area of the Azovstal steelworks, the last remaining stronghold, and “launch airstrikes on the city, including with the use of long-range aircraft,” the post said, adding that an engineering unit arrived in Mariupol in order to demine the port infrastructure.The city, reduced largely to smoking rubble by weeks of Russian bombardment, Russian state TV showed the flag of the pro-Moscow Donetsk separatists raised on what it said was the city’s highest point, its TV tower.Russian forces are pummeling an estimated 2,000 Ukrainian fighters holed up inside the sprawling Azovstal plant, the last known pocket of resistance in the strategic southern port city, the mayor’s office reported.“Every day they drop several bombs on Azovstal,” said Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to Mariupol’s mayor. “Fighting, shelling, bombing do not stop.”On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared victory in the battle for Mariupol despite the steel-mill holdouts. He ordered his forces not to storm the plant to finish off the defenders but to seal it off instead in an apparent bid to force them to surrender.The Kremlin has thrown over 100,000 troops and mercenaries from Syria and Libya into the fight in Ukraine and is deploying more forces in the country every day, said Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council.“We have a difficult situation, but our army is defending our state,” he said.Numerous cities and villages came under bombardment in the Donbas — the industrial region in the east that the Kremlin has declared the new, main theater of war — as well as in the Kharkiv region just to the west, and in the south, authorities said.Mariupol has taken on outsize importance in the war. Capturing it would deprive the Ukrainians of a vital port and complete a land corridor between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, which Putin seized from Ukraine in 2014.It would also allow Putin to throw more of his forces into the potentially climactic battle for the Donbas and its coal mines, factories and other industries, or what the Kremlin has now declared to be its main objective.Danilov reported that some 12 to 14 of Russia’s elite military units have, in fact, left Mariupol and begun moving to the east to take part in the fighting there.“It will now be difficult for our forces, because our guys in Mariupol were taking [those units] on themselves. It is their courage and feat,” he said.Danilov also said Kyiv managed to deliver weapons via helicopter at great risk under cover of night to the Mariupol steelworks, which have been bombarded for weeks.Putin said Russia gave Ukrainian forces inside the plant the option to surrender, with guarantees to keep them alive, and offered “decent treatment and medical care,” according to an account of a phone call with European Council President Charles Michel, provided by the Kremlin.“But the Kyiv regime does not allow them to take this opportunity,” Putin charged.More than 100,000 people — down from a prewar population of about 430,000 — are believed trapped in Mariupol with little food, water or heat, and over 20,000 civilians have been killed in the nearly two-month siege, according to Ukrainian authorities.Most attempts to evacuate civilians from the city have failed because of what the Ukrainians said was continued Russian shelling.Satellite photos released Friday by Maxar Technologies revealed what appeared to be a second mass grave site excavated recently near Mariupol. The site at a cemetery in the town of Vynohradne has several newly dug parallel trenches measuring about 40 meters (131 feet) long, Maxar said in a statement.A day earlier, Maxar made public satellite photos of what appeared to be rows upon rows of more than 200 freshly dug mass graves next to a cemetery in the town of Manhush, outside Mariupol. That prompted Ukrainian accusations that the Russians are trying to conceal the slaughter of civilians in the city.

1 rocket falls short of border; 2 land in open Israeli areas-Israel shutters Gaza pedestrian crossing after three more rockets fired at south-Gantz had vowed ‘harsh response’ to continued rocket fire, but military doesn’t strike Hamas sites overnight; Erez Crossing to reopen following assessment on Sunday-By Emanuel Fabian-APR 23,22-Today, 8:42 am

Israel announced the temporary closure of its sole pedestrian crossing with the Gaza Strip on Saturday, after three rockets were fired from the Hamas-run coastal enclave at southern Israel late Friday and overnight.According to the military’s liaison to the Palestinians, the crossing will not reopen for Palestinian workers on Sunday after it had been shuttered since Thursday afternoon due to the Passover holiday.“Following the rockets that were fired toward Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip last night, it was decided that crossings into Israel for Gazan merchants and workers through the Erez Crossing will not be permitted this upcoming Sunday,” the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, known by its acronym COGAT, said in a statement.“The re-opening of the crossing will be decided in accordance with a security situational assessment,” COGAT added.The crossing — along with crossings with the West Bank — was already closed since Thursday at 5 p.m., and was to remain in effect until Saturday at an hour yet to be determined.Exceptions are made for humanitarian and other outstanding cases but require the approval of COGAT.The number of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip who can work in Israel was raised to 12,000 last month, and the government said it would raise it by an additional 8,000, to a total of 20,000. Another video shows the two rocket launches at southern Israel, one which fell short. pic.twitter.com/tRyWkvRyGt — Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) April 22, 2022-Israel avoided responding militarily to the three rockets, despite a series of strikes this week that came in response to similar attacks.Defense Minister Benny Gantz had vowed on Thursday to provide a “harsh response” to continued rocket fire.“The defense minister noted that before the holiday [of Passover], forces and preparedness in the area were upped, and that the policy of a harsh response to all terror activities will continue,” Gantz’s office said. The defense minister had met with leaders of communities near the border with the Gaza Strip, hours after Israeli jets struck Hamas targets following an earlier rocket attack.On Friday night, one rocket landed in an open field in the Sha’ar Hanegev regional council, while the second fell short in the northern Gaza Strip, according to the military. Hours later, a third rocket was fired from the southern Gaza Strip, landing in an open area near a town close to the border.It was the fifth rocket attack on southern Israel in a week, after one fell short in Gaza on Thursday, one landed near a home in the city of Sderot on Wednesday, and another was shot down by air defenses on Monday.There was no immediate claim of responsibility by any of the Gaza-based terror groups for the rocket fire, though Monday’s attack was blamed on the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in several media reports.The IDF responded to Monday’s and Wednesday’s rocket launches with air raids targeting a number of Hamas military sites in Gaza, including one used by the terror group to manufacture weapons.The army said in its early Thursday statement that it holds Hamas responsible for what takes place in the Gaza Strip, sticking to its long-held policy of targeting posts belonging to the group in response to rocket fire, regardless of whether its fighters were behind the launches or not.This week’s rocket attacks ended an almost four-month period of quiet on the Gaza border. Wednesday’s rocket fire came at the tail-end of a tension-filled day in Jerusalem, where Israeli nationalists were prevented by police from marching through the Old City’s Damascus Gate, a popular gathering point for Palestinians in East Jerusalem. Hamas had threatened to attack if the march went ahead.The last few days have seen violent clashes between Palestinian rioters and police on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, leading to the injury of dozens of Palestinians and several police officers.Hamas and other Gaza-based terror groups have repeatedly invoked the flashpoint holy site as a red line. Police actions to quell riots there last year were among the triggers of an 11-day war in Gaza last May.The Gaza Strip has been blockaded by both Israel and Egypt for 15 years in an attempt to contain the enclave’s Hamas rulers and other groups. Israel says the tight restrictions on goods and people are necessary due to efforts by Hamas, which is sworn to Israel’s destruction, to massively arm itself for attacks against the Jewish state.Critics lament the blockade’s impact on ordinary Gazans, around 50 percent of whom are unemployed, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. The sky-high poverty rates make employment in Israel a highly attractive option for those lucky enough to receive permits.

Ukraine says Russian strike on Odesa killed 5, including three-month-old infant-Kyiv says 18 people wounded in missile attack on Black Sea port, which hit military facility and two residential buildings; Moscow continues assault on last Mariupol stronghold-By Agencies-APR 23,22-Today, 7:04 pm

A Russian strike killed at least five people, including a baby, and wounded 18 others in Ukraine’s Black Sea city of Odesa on Saturday, Kyiv said, warning the toll would likely rise.“Five Ukrainians killed and 18 wounded. And those are only the ones that we were able to find. It is likely that the death toll will be heavy,” the head of Ukraine’s presidential office Andriy Yermak said on Telegram. “A three-month-old baby was among those killed.”Earlier on Saturday, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said: “The only aim of Russian missile strikes on Odesa is terror.”Ukraine’s air force said its defense systems intercepted two Russian TU-95 missiles that it said were fired from the Caspian Sea.But it said four other missiles hit the city, including civilian infrastructure.“Unfortunately, two missiles hit a military facility and two hit residential buildings,” the air force’s southern command said on Facebook.Odesa, a largely Russian-speaking city and cultural hub, has been targeted previously by Moscow’s forces which were rebuffed by Ukraine.Meanwhile, an adviser to Ukraine’s presidential office said on Saturday that Russian forces are attacking a steel plant that is the last defense stronghold of Ukrainian forces in the strategic port city of Mariupol.Oleksiy Arestovich, an adviser to the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, said during a briefing on Saturday that the Russian forces have resumed airstrikes on Azovstal and were trying to storm it.“The enemy is trying to completely suppress resistance of the defenders of Mariupol in the area of Azovstal,” Arestovich said.Arestovich’s statement came two days after Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported to Russian President Vladimir Putin that the whole of Mariupol, with the exception of Azovstal, had been “liberated” by the Russians.Putin ordered the Russian military not to storm the plant and instead to block it off in an apparent attempt to stifle the remaining pocket of resistance there.Ukrainian officials have estimated that about 2,000 of their troops are inside the plant along with about 1,000 sheltering in the facility’s underground tunnels.Arestovich says the Ukrainian fighters are still holding on despite the resumed attacks and are even trying to counter them.

Iran Revolutionary Guards general survives deadly ambush in restive region — report-Bodyguard killed near checkpoint in Sistan-Baluchistan province; attackers arrested, says Iran state TV-By TOI staff and Agencies-APR 23,22-Today, 8:33 am

An Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps general is said to have survived a deadly attack that killed a bodyguard, according to a report on Iranian state TV Saturday.Brigadier General Hossein Almassi, a Guards commander in the restive Sistan-Baluchistan province, was traveling in a vehicle near a checkpoint in the provincial capital Zahedan when it came under fire by gunmen, Reuters reported Saturday, citing Iranian TV.The general sustained no injuries, the report said.The bodyguard who was slain was identified as Mahmoud Absalom, the son of a senior IRGC commander in the region, according to a report by the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).Authorities have arrested some suspects but did not identify them, the report added.Sistan-Baluchistan is the site of occasional clashes between Iranian forces and various militant groups. The relationship between the predominantly Sunni residents of the region and Iran’s Shiite theocracy has long been fraught.The province, bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan, is a base for a Sunni separatist group affiliated with al-Qaeda and known as Jeish al-Adl, or Army of Justice.Security forces have also clashed with drug traffickers in the province, located along a major smuggling route for Afghan opium and heroin.In January, IRGC forces said they killed an unidentified gunman who attacked its intelligence office in the town of Saravan in Sistan-Baluchistan, about 1,360 kilometers (850 miles) southeast of the capital, Tehran.In late December, the IRGC said it killed six “armed bandits” in a shootout in the region that also left three of its members dead.The IRGC is a US-designated terrorist organization.

Surprisingly low Shanghai COVID death toll spurs questions of government cover-up-City of 25 million only reports 25 coronavirus deaths despite major outbreak in recent months; Chinese authorities use less transparent, inconsistent methods of tallying statistics-By HUIZHONG WU and Dake Kang-22 April 2022, 11:51 pm

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Lu Muying died on April 1 in a government quarantine facility in Shanghai, with her family on the phone as doctors tried to resuscitate her. She had tested positive for COVID-19 in late March and was moved there in line with government policy that all coronavirus cases be centrally isolated.But the 99-year-old, who was just two weeks shy of her 100th birthday, was not counted as a COVID-19 death in Shanghai’s official tally. In fact, the city of more than 25 million has only reported 25 coronavirus deaths despite an outbreak that has spanned nearly two months and infected hundreds of thousands of people in the world’s third-largest city.Lu’s death underscores how the true extent of the virus toll in Shanghai has been obscured by Chinese authorities. Doctors told Lu’s relatives she died because COVID-19 exacerbated her underlying heart disease and high blood pressure, yet she still was not counted.Interviews with family members of patients who have tested positive, a publicly released phone call with a government health official and an internet archive compiled by families of the dead all raise issues with how the city is counting its cases and deaths, almost certainly resulting in a marked undercount.The result is a blurred portrait of an outbreak that has sweeping ramifications for both the people of Shanghai and the rest of the world, given the city’s place as an economic, manufacturing, and shipping hub.An Associated Press examination of the death toll sheds light on how the numbers have been clouded by the way Chinese health authorities tally COVID-19 statistics, applying a much narrower, less transparent, and at times inconsistent standard than the rest of the world.In most countries, including the United States, guidelines stipulate that any death where COVID-19 is a factor or contributor is counted as a COVID-related death.But in China, health authorities count only those who died directly from COVID-19, excluding those, like Lu, whose underlying conditions were worsened by the virus, said Zhang Zuo-Feng, an epidemiologist at the University of California, Los Angeles.  “If the deaths could be ascribed to underlying disease, they will always report it as such and will not count it as a COVID-related death, that’s their pattern for many years,” said Jin Dong-yan, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong’s medical school.That narrower criteria means China’s COVID-19 death toll will always be significantly lower than those of many other nations.Both Jin and Zhang said this has been China’s practice since the beginning of the pandemic and is not proof of a deliberate attempt to underreport the death count.However, Shanghai authorities have quietly changed other standards behind the scenes, in ways that have violated China’s own regulations and muddied the virus’ true toll.During this outbreak, Shanghai health authorities have only considered virus cases where lung scans show a patient with evidence of pneumonia as “symptomatic,” three people, including a Chinese public health official, told the AP. All other patients are considered “asymptomatic” even if they test positive and have other typical COVID-19 symptoms like sneezing, coughing or headaches.This way of classifying asymptomatic cases conflicts with China’s past national guidelines. It’s also a sharp change from January, when Wu Fan, a member of Shanghai’s epidemic prevention expert group, said that those with even the slightest symptoms, like fatigue or a sore throat, would be “strictly” classified as a symptomatic case.Further adding to the confusion, the city has overlapping systems to track whether someone has the virus. City residents primarily rely on what’s called their Health Cloud, a mobile application that allows them to see their COVID-19 test results. However, the Shanghai health authorities have a separate system to track COVID-19 test results, and they have the sole authority to confirm cases. At times, the data between the systems conflict.In practice, these shifting and inconsistent processes give China’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “wiggle room” to determine COVID-related deaths, said the Chinese health official, allowing them to rule out the coronavirus as being the cause of death for people who didn’t have lung scans or positive test results logged on their apps. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive topic.In response to questions about Shanghai’s COVID-19 figures, China’s top medical authority, the National Health Commission, said in a fax that there is “no basis to suspect the accuracy of China’s epidemic data and statistics.” Shanghai’s city government did not respond to a faxed request for comment.Statements from the authorities are little comfort to the relatives of the dead. Chinese internet users, doubting the official figures, have built a virtual archive of the deaths that have occurred since Shanghai’s lockdown based on firsthand information posted online. They have recorded 170 deaths so far.Chinese media reports on the unrecorded COVID-19 deaths have been swiftly censored, and many criticisms of Shanghai’s stringent measures expunged online. Instead, state media has continued to uphold China’s zero-COVID approach as proof of the success of its political system, especially as the world’s official death toll climbs past 6.2 million.Earlier this month, doubts over the data burst into public view when a Shanghai resident uploaded a recording of a phone conversation he had with a CDC officer in which he questioned why city health authorities told his father he had tested positive for COVID-19 when data on his father’s mobile application showed up as negative.“Didn’t I tell you to not look at the Health Cloud?” said the official, Zhu Weiping, referring to the app. “The positive cases are only from us notifying people.”Others skeptical of the data include relatives of Zong Shan, an 86-year-old former Russian translator who died March 29. Despite testing positive and being moved to a government quarantine facility, online test results showed Zong supposedly was negative for COVID-19 on the day of her death.“My relative, like most of the other people in Shanghai who were notified as positive, all reported negative results” on the Health Cloud app, one of Zong’s relatives said, declining to be named for fear of retribution.Zong was taken to a government quarantine facility from the Donghai Elderly Care Hospital on March 29, and died there that night. The family was told by hospital staff she was being transferred after she tested positive for COVID-19. But they didn’t think the virus was the biggest threat to her health — rather, it was the dearth of nursing care at the quarantine facility. Zong needed to be fed liquids and couldn’t eat without assistance.She had been in stable condition before the transfer, said a relative. When the family asked for the cause of death, doctors didn’t give a clear answer.“They gave me very vague answers. One minute they said it was stroke, then they said this was also just a hypothesis,” said the relative. “But on one point, they were very clear, they said it had nothing to do with COVID. Her lungs were clear.”Lu, who was also transferred from the Donghai hospital, would have celebrated her 100th birthday on April 16; her relatives had ordered a cake and gotten permission to host a small celebration Thursday. But when she tested positive, the family made mental preparations for her death, acknowledging she had lived a long life.But the strange thing, a relative said, was the night before she died, the doctor had specifically called the family to let them know Lu was now testing negative for COVID-19. Ultimately, the doctor said she died because the virus had worsened her underlying illnesses, said the relative, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the issue.Further, the family knew of another patient from the same hospital, a neighbor, who died the day after being transferred to a quarantine facility on March 25 and also had not been counted.Jin, the Hong Kong virologist, noted the potential political benefits of Shanghai’s low official COVID-19 death toll.“They might claim this is their achievement, and this is their victory,” Jin said.

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