Vatican Charges Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò With the “Crime of Schism” and “Denial of the Legitimacy of Pope Francis”
The Washington Post wrote on June 22:
“He has called Pope Francis a liberal ‘servant of Satan,’ demanded his resignation and suggested that the Vatican’s Swiss Guard arrest the 87-year-old pontiff. Now, after receiving years of withering verbal attacks, Francis appears to have struck back against Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the former Vatican ambassador to the United States and the pope’s most ardent internal critic.
“The Vatican’s disciplinary body, the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith, issued a formal decree… assigning the senior cleric to a penal canon trial. The charges: the ‘crime of schism’ and ‘denial of the legitimacy of Pope Francis.’
“Such trials are exceedingly rare, and the move underscores a recent effort by the Vatican to take more-formal action against a gaggle of archconservatives who have sought to undermine Francis’s papacy from the inside. Conviction could lead to Viganò’s defrocking and excommunication, ending the career of the 83-year-old Italian who has been the leading symbol of resistance to a pope viewed by some traditionalists as wildly liberal…
“The crime of schism is defined as a rupture with the church’s ‘unity’ under the pope… The trial amounts to an answer to just how far the Holy See, where the pope rules as the supreme power, is willing to go in allowing dissent.”
Viganò has been outspoken against blessings of same-sex marriages and acceptance of homosexuals, and he pointed out the many sexual abuse cases within the Catholic Church, charging Francis with ignoring the same.
One Papacy For All Churches
kathpress wrote on June 17:
“The Vatican has made proposals for a new understanding and a different exercise of the papal office, according to which the Pope could in the future be accepted as honorary head by other Christian churches…
“The orientations collected under the title ‘The Bishop of Rome’ are the result of decades of theological dialogues that various Christian churches have conducted separately with the Catholic Church.
“A new understanding and a different exercise of the papal primacy should ‘contribute to the restoration of Christian unity…’
“After the presentation, the study document elicited predominantly positive reactions….”
The Path to Unity
Domradio wrote on June 13:
“The papal claim to rule the entire church like a monarch is the main obstacle to Christian unity. The Vatican has now put forward proposals for a new understanding and exercise of the papal office… The paper, approved by Pope Francis, proposes several far-reaching changes for the Catholic Church…
“The first change concerns a new reading of the teachings of the First Vatican Council. In 1870 this proclaimed the dogmatic infallibility of the head of the church. It had also declared the Pope to be the supreme legislator and judge of the entire Christian Church. According to the paper, the decisions made at that time should now be integrated into newer theology, which no longer sees the church as a monarchy, but as a community…
“It must then be clarified to what extent he, as the ‘Patriarch of the West’, is equal with the churches of the East on certain issues, while on others he would be the ‘primacy of unity in the community of the Western and Eastern churches’…
“It is unclear how the Vatican proposals will be implemented under canon law. The Pope could, through church laws, put into effect some of these that concern his own power or the synodal constitution of the Church…”
And so, we will soon see the biblically prophesied return of the “Christian” daughter churches to the fallen woman in Revelation 17.
A New Argentina
The New York Post wrote on June 21:
“Just as South and North Korea and West and East Germany became perfect Cold War laboratory experiments contrasting the blessings of democracy and capitalism with the destructive drudgery of communism, the reformist government in Argentina and the Marxist-led ones in Colombia and Brazil are inviting us to compare and contrast… Argentina’s new free-market President Javier Milei is lapping Colombia’s Gustavo Petro and Brazil’s Inacio Lula da Silva in terms of economic achievement and the ability of people to live in freedom.
“Milei is also an ardent supporter of Israel’s right to exist and defend itself — while the Marxists have sided with the Hamas terrorists who massacred 1,200 Jews on Oct. 7 and now hide behind Gaza’s civilian population…
“Argentina — yes, the country that was until recently South America’s economic basket case — now has a primary fiscal surplus, the first in more than a decade and a half. March was the fourth straight month with more government revenues than non-interest spending: In other words Milei, who was inaugurated in December, has produced a government budget surplus every month since taking over.
“This surplus is partly because Milei has also delivered on another of his promises: paring back Argentina’s gargantuan state. He has halved the number of federal agencies, from 18 to nine, slashing public spending by up to 30%. Best of all, Milei is also making inroads against Argentina’s… inflation. Monthly inflation in May cooled for the fifth straight month… and now sits at 4.2%, compared to over 25% in December when Milei’s term began…
“Colombia this year expects to have its largest fiscal deficit since the Marxist Gustavo Petro took office in August 2022… In Brazil, meanwhile, the Lula government that took over in January 2023 produced the second-highest primary deficit in the country’s history last year, reversing the surplus produced in 2022 by conservative president Jair Bolsonaro… Polling shows that the new president remains popular with Argentines, especially among the young — in spite of a string of anti-Milei protests and riots, some organized with help from Brazilian sources…
“As the Venezuelan-born Manhattan Institute fellow Daniel Di Martino posted on X recently, Milei is the greatest threat to left-wing tyrants in the region. ‘Milei’s success will be the end [of] socialism in Latin America,’ wrote Di Martino.”
Deutsche Welle wrote on June 22:
“Argentine President Javier Milei is set to receive an award in Hamburg in northern Germany on Saturday… Milei is later expected to meet with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin, although a military honors reception has been canceled…
“It comes a day after Milei was snubbed by [extremely left-wing] Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and the country’s royals…”
Russia Threatens Revenge
Reuters wrote on June 24:
“Russia said on Sunday that the United States was responsible for a Ukrainian attack on the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula with five U.S.-supplied missiles that killed four people, including two children, and injured 151 more. The Russian Defence Ministry said four of the U.S.-delivered Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles, equipped with cluster warheads, were shot down by air defence systems and the ammunition of a fifth had detonated in mid-air… Russian-installed authorities in Crimea said missile fragments had fallen just after noon near a beach on the north side of the city of Sevastopol where locals were on holiday.
“The incident generated a furious reaction among Russian public figures. The Defence ministry said U.S. specialists had set the missiles’ flight coordinates on the basis of information from U.S. spy satellites, meaning Washington was directly responsible…
“Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and now views the Black Sea peninsula… as an integral part of its territory, though most of the world considers it still part of Ukraine… Russia will respond to Sunday’s attack, the Defence Ministry said, without elaborating…”
Netanyahu: USA Withholds Weapons From Israel and Is Lying About It
Breitbart wrote on June 21:
“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu… posted a video to social media earlier this week in which he thanked the Biden administration for its support, but urged it to stop withholding arms and ammunition. The White House claimed that it did not know what he was talking about, but Republican senators filled in the details: the Biden administration had been using bureaucratic tricks to delay weapons shipments since as long ago as January…
“Netanyahu explained: ‘We began to see that we had some significant problems emerging a few months ago. And in fact, we tried, in many, many quiet conversations between our officials and American officials, and between me and the president to try to iron out this diminution of supply… I raised this issue with Secretary Blinken. And I said that we are being told by our Defense Department officials that barely a trickle is coming in….’I don’t know what’s causing it. But I’m aware that there has been a great slowdown in the provision of the important ammunition and weapons. I’m not talking about F-35s or F-16s that are years down the line. I’m talking about what is necessary now to both win the war in Gaza quickly and avoid a war in Lebanon that, in the absence of such a correction, the risks of it breaking out are increasing.’
“It is suspected that the slowdown in arms shipment came at the behest of anti-Israel Democrats, as President Joe Biden faces dissent from Arab- and Muslim-American voters in key swing states like Michigan in a tough re-election.
“The White House criticized Netanyahu for his public comments earlier this week, to which Netanyahu responded, ‘I am willing to absorb personal attacks if that is what it takes for Israel to get the arms and ammunition it needs in its war for survival.’”
Newsmax wrote on June 21:
“Netanyahu noted that he’s neither a Republican nor a Democrat. ‘I’m an Israeli patriot, and I speak on behalf of the Israeli people. I’m happy to see that in one poll after another when Americans are asked who do they support in this world, 80% percent say Israel and 20% say Hamas. Twenty percent supporting Hamas is still an incredible number,’ he said.
“If the Israelis get the weapons they need, Netanyahu is confident they can ‘finish the job.’ Once that happens, he said, a civilian government in Gaza is critical to a sustained peace in the region but will need to come ‘with assistance by Arab countries.’ ‘And then the third thing would be obviously some kind of deradicalization process that would begin in the schools and the mosques to teach these people a different future than the one of annihilating Israel and killing every Jew on the planet,’ he said.”
The relationship between Israel and the USA will deteriorate even more.
Israel’s Ultra-Orthodox Men Must Be Drafted
The Associated Press wrote on June 25:
“Israel’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled unanimously that the military must begin drafting ultra-Orthodox men for military service, a decision that could lead to the collapse of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition as Israel continues to wage war in Gaza. The court ruled that in the absence of a law that distinguishes between Jewish seminary students and other draftees, Israel’s compulsory military service system applies to the ultra-Orthodox like any other citizens.
“Under longstanding arrangements, ultra-Orthodox men have been exempt from the draft, which is compulsory for most Jewish men and women. These exemptions have long been a source of anger among the secular public, a divide that has widened during the eight-month-old war, as the military has called up tens of thousands of soldiers and says it needs all the manpower it can get. Over 600 soldiers have been killed.
“Politically powerful ultra-Orthodox parties, key partners in Netanyahu’s governing coalition, oppose any change in the current system. If the exemptions are ended, they could bolt the coalition, causing the government to collapse and leading to new elections…
“In a post on the social media platform X, cabinet minister Yitzhak Goldknopf, who heads one of the ultra-Orthodox parties in the coalition, called the ruling ‘very unfortunate and disappointing… The state of Israel was established in order to be a home for the Jewish people whose Torah is the bedrock of its existence. The Holy Torah will prevail,’ he wrote.”
Britain’s Battle For Rulership
Express wrote on June 21:
“Nigel Farage’s Reform UK has surged ahead of Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives, a bombshell new poll for the Daily Express has revealed. Reform UK’s support has increased to 20 per cent, up three per cent, after the party’s manifesto launch this week. The poll, from Whitestone Insight, said just 19 per cent of voters would back the Prime Minister’s party amid ‘disillusion’ among Conservative voters. Labour’s lead has fallen by two per cent, to 39 per cent, with the Liberal Democrats on 12 per cent.
“But the pollsters said Sir Keir Starmer’s party [Labour] would have a 288 seat majority, winning 469 seats, with the Tories securing just 67. Nigel Farage’s party would win six seats, the Greens would claim two, while the Liberal Democrats will have 61 MPs…
“But the Whitestone poll offered a glimmer of hope for the Conservatives as three quarters of Reform voters said they were terrified by the prospect of a Labour Government. It said 75% would be unhappy with Labour being in office for 10 years… And Whitestone revealed almost half of people are unhappy with plans to give 16 and 17-year-olds the right to vote. Only 31 per cent backed the proposals. Even fewer backed Sir Keir’s plan to view EU citizens the right to vote, with just one in four supporting it.”
The U.S. Sun wrote on June 21:
“In a painful blow to the Tories the survey says that three in four of Farage’s vote comes from disgruntled former Conservative voters… It has him a mammoth 27 points ahead of Tory incumbent Giles Watling, despite the ex-actor winning an endorsement from Boris Johnson.
“Farage leads in every age group apart from 18-34-year-olds with only one in five 2019 Tory voters sticking with Watling.”
British Outrage Over Farage’s Comments on Russia and Ukraine
CNN wrote on June 22:
“Nigel Farage, a figurehead of the UK’s populist right, has sparked outrage from political opponents after saying the West ‘provoked’ Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Farage – who… was a pivotal figure in Brexit – is seeking to win a seat in parliament for the first time in next month’s general election [on July 4]…
“During an interview with the BBC Friday, Farage was asked if he stood by a tweet posted in February 2022 which called Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine a ‘consequence of EU and NATO expansion.’ ‘Why did I say that? It was obvious to me that the ever-eastward expansion of NATO and the European Union was giving this man [Putin] a reason to his Russian people to say they’re coming for us again, and to go to war,’ he told the BBC’s Nick Robinson. ‘We’ve provoked this war – of course it’s his fault – he’s used what we’ve done as an excuse,’ he said.
“Farage – a former EU parliamentarian – claimed to be ‘the only person in British politics’ to predict the invasion of Ukraine. Following his BBC appearance, Farage took to X and clarified his comments. ‘I am one of the few figures that have been consistent & honest about the war with Russia,’ he wrote. ‘Putin was wrong to invade a sovereign nation, and the EU was wrong to expand eastward.’”
Breitbart added on June 22:
“The British political establishment went into full meltdown on Friday as Reform UK leader Nigel Farage suggested that Western expansionist policies in Ukraine ‘provoked’ the Russian invasion… In an apparent re-run of attempts to tarnish the Brexit movement with debunked claims of Russian influence, top political and media figures in Britain have once again tried to use the issue of Russia to derail Nigel Farage as his Reform party soars in the polls ahead of the July 4th general election…
“Such sentiments have become taboo in Britain, with both establishment Westminster political parties largely rallying around the war in Ukraine, which the UK has been a top funder of. It is therefore unsurprising that both the Conservative and Labour parties immediately chastised Mr Farage’s comments…
“However, Mr Farage’s diagnosis that attempts to expand both the European Union and NATO to Russia’s doorstep played a role in provoking the 2022 invasion of Ukraine has previously been expressed by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg himself, who appeared to boast that the invasion made NATO enlargement more likely, and therefore the invasion had backfired against Putin’s desire to halt the expansion of the American-led alliance…
“Even members of Ukrainian President Zelensky’s team appeared to realise before the invasion that joining the Western military alliance would likely spark a war with Russia, with former senior advisor Oleksiy Arestovych saying in 2019 that ‘with a 99.9 per cent probability, our price for joining NATO is a big war with Russia.’ Arestovych argued this was a price worth paying, however, claiming that otherwise, Russia would merely seek to ‘absorb’ Ukraine in the coming years, regardless.”
Orban: Germany No Longer the Same
AFP wrote on June 21:
“Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said during a visit to Berlin on Friday that Germany ‘no longer smelled and looked the same’, saying it had turned into a ‘colourful, multicultural world’ due to migration.
“The nationalist leader — who is staunchly anti-immigration — was set to meet German Chancellor Olaf Scholz later on Friday, when Hungary takes over the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union on July 1… Orban said the face of Germany had changed beyond recognition compared to 10 years ago. ‘Hundreds of thousands’ of migrants have been ‘granted citizenship on a fast-track basis’, he claimed… Once an example for its ‘hard-working people’ and ‘order’, Orban said Germany ‘is no longer that’…
“Last year, Germany received 334,000 asylum applications, more than any other European Union country. Applications across the 27-nation bloc hit a seven-year high in 2023. Germany has taken in close to a million refugees in the past two years, many fleeing conflict, persecution or poverty.
“Orban, who returned to power in 2010 and is the EU’s longest serving leader, touted his own country’s tough line on migration, claiming he had ‘preserved…an island of peace’ in Hungary. Earlier this month, the EU’s top court fined Hungary 200 million euros ($213 million) and imposed a daily one-million-euro penalty for failing to follow the bloc’s asylum laws and illegally deporting migrants.”
Violent Crimes in Germany Through Male Immigrants
Breitbart wrote on June 23:
“Young foreign males are the driving force behind the violence ravaging Berlin, the chief of the German capital’s police force admitted… Berlin Police President Barbara Slowik tacitly conceded that the open borders agenda of the German government has led to more crime on the streets of its largest city. ‘To put it bluntly: according to our figures, the violence in Berlin is young, male and has a non-German background. This also applies to knife violence,’ Slowik said…
“The frank comments from the Berlin Police President come after a string of high-profile stabbings carried out in recent weeks by Afghan migrants. In one instance, a failed asylum seeker from Afghanistan went on a stabbing spree in Mannheim at a rally against the Islamification of Germany. The migrant knifeman stabbed multiple people, including a police officer, who ultimately died of his wounds. This was followed last week by another knife rampage by an Afghan migrant, who stabbed a fellow Afghani to death before wounding another three people.
“Last year saw a dramatic rise in violent crime among foreigners, making up 79,088 suspected violent criminals in 2023, a 14 per cent increase over 2022 when 69,086 non-Germans were suspected of violent crime. Commenting on the rise of violent crime among foreign populations within Germany, the Welt am Sontag newspaper wrote, ‘One thing is certain: many people’s sense of security has deteriorated. These are incidents that have shaken the country: knife attacks again, again committed by people who had fled war zones and found a new home in peace in Germany. And who then themselves became a threat to public safety. Violent crime continues to rise, and people without a German passport are significantly overrepresented in the statistics. Nobody is talking about isolated cases anymore.’”
The Propaganda of the Tagesschau
Report 24 wrote on June 21:
“With programs ‘in simple language’ you can potentially bring daily government propaganda closer to those who barely speak German. The Tagesschau [Germany’s first public broadcast company] is now attacking the AfD in very simple terms – and simply claims that it devalues people and causes fear among homosexuals. While Correctiv’s Potsdam lie [note our previous articles in the Current Events] has just been finally collapsed, the ‘Tagesschau in simple language’ continues to agitate against the unpleasant opposition party and so-called right-wing extremists. It is blatantly claimed that they devalue people: right-wing extremists, such as those found in the AfD according to an ‘important authority’ (meaning the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, which is bound to the instructions of the red Ministry of the Interior), would allegedly say that foreigners are worth less than a German. They would also allegedly say that people with disabilities are worth less. Therefore, ‘many’ believe that the AfD could become ‘dangerous’.
“This tells the target group of this program that their value as a human being is being denied by the AfD. That should justify a ban on the party. The program also claims that homosexuals (as well as migrants) are afraid of the AfD. A steep thesis when you consider survey results that show high levels of support for the party among this group. A number of people with a migrant background who reject the Islamization of Germany and the plundering of the welfare state at their own expense also give their vote to the AfD.
“Now, of course, calls for the control and limitation of mass migration and the deportation of delinquent migrants do not mean that anyone’s ‘worth’ is questioned. In return, one could otherwise accuse the old parties of viewing migrants as more valuable than Germans; after all, it is the latter who pay for foreigners from all over the world and have to live with all the other negative consequences of mass immigration without receiving anything in return. Also, any law that restricts anyone in the world in any way would be right-wing extremist and dehumanizing – especially, of course, those laws that define crimes and their punishment…”
This is how politics is made and this is how the masses are seduced.
When You Resist the Corona Measures
Nius wrote on June 22:
“Because she let her father, who is a pastor, visit a dying person during the Corona period, the Gera regional court sentenced a former probationary judge [for perverting the course of justice!] to a suspended sentence [of one year in prison]. It is one of the cruelest chapters from the Corona period: hundreds of thousands of people had to die alone in nursing homes, without the company of their relatives or another person they could trust.
“Judge Anna K. (37) defied the cruel ban on visits in April 2020 – and permitted her father to visit a woman for pastoral care who was 89 years old and dying in a nursing home in Jena. The man had previously tried in vain to obtain permission from the home management to visit her… Anna K. announced that she would appeal.”
This is so terrible to hear!
“What If It’s Dangerous to Be Right when the Government Is Wrong?”
Judge Andrew Napolitano wrote on June 20, 2024 in the Ron Paul Institute:
“What if the National Security Agency (NSA) — the federal government’s 60,000-person strong domestic spying apparatus — has convinced Congress that it needs to cut constitutional corners in order to spy on every person in America?…
“What if the Constitution requires warrants for searches and seizures and only permits warrants that are based on probable cause of crime? What if the Constitution requires that all warrants for searches and seizures specifically describe the place to be searched or the person or thing to be seized? What if the FISA Court issues warrants based on a lesser standard than probable cause of crime? What if that standard is probable cause of speaking with or knowing someone who has spoken with a foreign person? What if this is such an absurd and loose standard that it violates the Constitution, permits spying on anyone and ends up protecting no one except the spies who pretend to employ it?
“What if the NSA has convinced every president since George W. Bush that it needs to spy on everyone in America to keep us safe, no matter what the Constitution says? What if those presidents have bought that devil’s bargain? What if NSA spying is really done without any warrants? What if this spying captures in real time every keystroke on every computer and hand-held device — as well as the content of every email, text message, telephone call and fiber-optic cable transmission — in the United States 24/7? What if NSA computers have direct and unimpeded access to all mainframe computers of all telecoms and computer service providers in the U.S.?…
“What if Bush’s government was asleep at the switch on 9/11? What if 3,000 civilians died while the government slept? What if the government’s invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq were perpetrated to divert our attention from its sleeping on 9/11?…
“What if the Franklin D. Roosevelt government knew of the attacks on Pearl Harbor before they came? What if it looked the other way knowing that the American people would react with fury and thus America could enter World War II, which FDR desperately wanted? What if 3,000 sleeping sailors died because the government looked the other way?…
“What if the government hates being caught spying and lying? What if it humiliates and frustrates and falsely charges and seizes the passports of those it hates and fears? What if the government hates and fears our freedoms?…”
Challenging questions.
Proposal to Draft Women
Newsmax wrote on June 21:
“A contentious provision in the annual defense bill requiring women to register for the military draft reportedly is worrisome for some vulnerable Senate Democrats seeking reelection in November. The provision in the National Defense Authorization Act was advanced by the Senate Armed Services Committee this month…
“There hasn’t been a draft since 1973 during the Vietnam War… The issue is bipartisan, but it divides some Republicans as well, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who supports including women in the draft, while Sen. Roger Wicker R-Miss., opposes it…
“The draft proposal has become a flashpoint in the Nevada race between incumbent Sen. Jacky Rosen, a Democrat, and Republican nominee Sam Brown… Brown, an Army veteran whose face was severely burned from an improvised explosion device while serving in Afghanistan, highlighted his personal experience in a campaign video. ‘Look at my face. This is the high cost of war,’ Brown says in the video. Rosen’s campaign declined to comment.”
Breitbart wrote on June 24:
“Senate Democrats have added a provision to a yearly defense bill that would require women to sign up for the draft, prompting opposition from Republicans. The yearly bill, known as the National Defense Authorization Act, authorizes the fiscal year budget for the Pentagon, but it also authorizes policies and programs at the Pentagon. The House and Senate each pass a version that gets meshed together into one. This year, Democrats — who control the Senate and the committee drafting the defense bill — included a provision in their version that would require women to register for the draft…
“The top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Roger Wicker (MS), said he will try to strip it out of the bill. ‘I hope it will fall out, either on the floor or in conference,’ he told The Hill. Committee Chairman Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), an Army veteran, told CNN he could not understand why the issue is a ‘sore point… We have had amendments that would have required women to register and we can’t get any real traction on the other side. We are going to try to do it. It makes sense. The military now is a mixed force,’ he told CNN.
“… under the Biden administration, the U.S. military is currently engaged in conflict in Iraq and Syria, as well as on ships in the Red Sea against Houthi rebels. U.S. troops are also involved in supporting Israel in its war against Hamas and Ukrainian forces in their war with Russia.”
Why Do We Make Wars?
The Telegraph wrote on June 23:
“The development of nuclear weapons has substantially changed the terms of any future global conflict… the lessons of history are seldom learnt… the question of how a third world war might erupt haunts us today more than at any time since the end of the last world war. The very act of guessing is proof of our expectation that warfare of some kind remains a fact in a world of multiple insecurities… regular threats from Russia about using nuclear weapons suggest that our fantasies may not be so wide of the mark after all…
“Why do we make war at all? War has been a characteristic of almost the whole of recorded history… There have been very few cultures in which warfare has not played a part, usually a central part, in the life of the community. In the historic period of states, from about 5,000 years ago, there are no examples where warfare was not accepted practice… Wars are always waged for something, whether it is pleasing the gods by seizing captives to execute or sacrifice, or coveting resources, or wars for belief, or extending power over others, or in the search for heightened security, or simply a war of defence against a predator. This mix of motives has remained remarkably constant.
“The seizure of resources is an obvious motivation for war, an explanation that extends from the ancient Romans as they destroyed enemy cities and grabbed slaves and treasure and exacted tribute, to the Japanese forces in 1942 when they captured the oil and raw materials of South-east Asia needed for waging further war. Wars for belief also span millennia, from the Muslim conquests of the Middle East and North Africa in the early Middle Ages, and the age of Christian crusades that followed, to the current jihad campaigns of militant Islam…
“Pursuit of power is perhaps the most common explanation for war… The two world wars began with a major power picking on a lesser one – Serbia in 1914, Poland in 1939 – and then dragging other powers into the maelstrom. That might indeed happen with Taiwan, as it is already happening with Ukraine.
“The wars of the future draw on a grim heritage… And that heritage is the chief reason it is possible to imagine a future war. After the end of the Cold War, there was once a fashion for saying that war was obsolete – if only that were so, we might now live in a world without weapons and fear. While few would actively seek the Third World War, few envisaged or wanted the other two. The sad reality is that our understanding of why wars occur has so far contributed little to setting warfare aside as an enduring element in human affairs.”
It must be through the spirit if we want to save the flesh. Wars will only cease when Jesus Christ returns to this earth and establishes a righteous government… and when men will finally realize the horror and futility of war and when they will not learn war anymore.
An Iron Dome for America?
Newsmax wrote on June 23:
“Trump promised that if elected, he will ‘prevent World War III’ and under his presidency will ‘build the great “iron dome” over our country, a dome like has never been seen before.’ The dome would be a state-of-the-art missile defense shield that would be built entirely in the United States…
“He noted in the attempted missile attack on Israel earlier this year, ‘300 missiles were shot into Israel. Only one of them got through and that was limping through that got hit. To think of it, why don’t we have that?’
“He added that late President Ronald Reagan also wanted an ‘iron dome,’ ‘but that was a long time ago.’ ‘We didn’t have the technology,’ said Trump. ‘Today, you have incredible technology…’”
Still, nothing will prevent America’s defeat in a coming nuclear war, as prophesied in the Bible.
“House Prices Hit Record High as Sales Stall” in the USA
CNBC wrote on June 21:
“Sales of previously owned homes are sitting at a 30-year low and didn’t move much in May as prices hit a new record and mortgage rates remain high… The average rate on the popular 30-year fixed loan… is now right around 7%.
“… mortgage payment for a typical home today is more than double what it was five years ago. Not only have rates climbed, but home prices are more than 50% higher than they were five years ago.”
Houses are way overpriced and when the bubble bursts, many who bought homes recently with high mortgages may lose their homes and may have to walk away from them, as happened before.
Swimming in Debt
MSN wrote on June 21:
“America is cruising into an uncharted sea of federal debt, with a public seemingly untroubled by the stark numbers and a government seemingly incapable of turning them around. In the presidential race, there’s not much partisan difference or advantage on this subject. Donald Trump and President Biden have overseen similar additions to the nation’s accumulated debt—in the range of $7 trillion in each case—during their terms. The national response to both has been, by and large, to look the other way. History, however, offers some cautionary notes about the consequences of swimming in debt.
“Over the centuries and across the globe, nations and empires that blithely piled up debt have, sooner or later, met unhappy ends. Historian Niall Ferguson recently invoked what he calls his own personal law of history: ‘Any great power that spends more on debt service (interest payments on the national debt) than on defense will not stay great for very long. True of Habsburg Spain, true of ancient régime France, true of the Ottoman Empire, true of the British Empire, this law is about to be put to the test by the U.S. beginning this very year.’
“Indeed, the Congressional Budget Office projects that, in part because of rising interest rates, the federal government will spend $892 billion during the current fiscal year for interest payments on the accumulated national debt of $28 trillion—meaning that interest payments now surpass the amount spent on defense and nearly match spending on Medicare.
“Washington has been adding to the national debt at an alarming pace. Not so long ago—beginning in the late 1990s—the federal government’s budget was actually in surplus, at least for a time. This year, it will be some $1.9 trillion in the red, the Congressional Budget Office forecast just this week.
“Only a dozen years ago, the aggregate government debt amounted to about 70% of the nation’s gross domestic product. This year, it will be about equal to the entire gross domestic product. By 2028, it is forecast to reach a record 106% of GDP, matching the record hit during the heavy spending to finance World War II. By 2034, barring changes in tax and spending policy, it is projected to hit 122% of GDP, the highest level ever recorded…
“‘Even if a country issues the leading reserve currency [creating more money], even if a country is the dominant geopolitical power, that just doesn’t bail countries out,’ says J.H. Cullum Clark, director of the Bush Institute-Southern Methodist University Economic Growth Initiative. ‘They do lose that status.’ Clark… points to the Roman Empire as an early cautionary tale. After establishing their empire as the world’s most powerful, Rome’s leaders began spending lavishly on imperial administration and the army in the third century. Emperors financed the resulting debt by debasing the currency, which generated high inflation. That weakened the empire’s stability and defenses, leading to its demise in the fifth century.
“After establishing a foothold in the New World, Spain financed its military adventures and globe-spanning empire with extensive borrowing from abroad and high taxation, eventually losing its status as Europe’s greatest power… France traveled much the same path and defaulted frequently on its debt. Ultimately, profligate borrowing and spending by the court at Versailles caught up with the royals, producing deindustrialization and fiscal crises that led to the revolution of 1789.
“China’s Qing Dynasty went through a similar cycle and encountered a similar fate. It was a leading world economic power, but spending and foreign borrowing in the 19th century led to damaging underinvestment in the infrastructure needed to keep advancing.
“Great Britain may offer the most compelling parallels. It oversaw the world’s most far-flung empire through the 18th and 19th centuries before war spending, including the fight against the American Revolution, produced high debt. It recovered but by the 20th century found that it could no longer afford the spending required to both maintain an army and navy to police the empire and to finance rapidly growing social programs. Debt began crowding out other investments, and economic weakness sapped the strength of the British pound. The pound ceased being the world’s leading reserve currency, and the British Empire soon declined. Clark says that, in the current environment, the event triggering a debt crisis could be a downgrade of America’s credit rating or the refusal of international financiers to continue lending…”
What is sorely overlooked in the article is the fact that GOD has determined and preordained when and how a nation should come to power, and for how long, before its demise. This is especially true, in our time, for the United Kingdom and the USA.
Trump’s Green Card Proposal for Foreign Students Under Attack
The New York Post wrote on June 21:
“Former President Donald Trump has floated green cards for all foreign students who graduate from US universities and junior colleges in a podcast interview — prompting hardline immigration advocacy groups to lash out at what they called a ‘cockamamie proposal.’…
“Mark Krikorian, the executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, told The Post that the green-card handout… would unleash a ‘firehose of foreign cash’ by effectively ‘stapling a green card to the diploma’ of any US college graduate. If someone earns a PhD. at a university in a hard science, I personally will drive to their house and give them a green card,’ Krikorian said. ‘The issue is any foreign college graduate, even from a bogus two-year master’s program or gender studies [major], would get a green card. If this proposal were adopted, you would see an explosion of quickie, one-year master’s programs around the country as a way of selling green cards to foreigners,’ he added, which lobbyists and others would ‘exploit’ to earn profits from potentially ‘billions of people around the world.’
“‘There’s no percentage limit for any particular institution,’ Krikorian concluded. ‘Foreign students are one of the drivers of immigration because if you come here to study from Yemen or Cameroon, why would you want to go back?’”
“The green-card extension would cut against some of Trump’s promised immigration restrictions if he is elected to a second term — including plans for ‘nearly 20 million’ illegal migrants to be removed through the “largest mass deportation effort” in US history.”
Trump Campaign Backtracks
Breitbart wrote on June 21:
“President Donald Trump’s campaign team is rewriting his Thursday night promise to grant green cards to any foreign graduates of four-year universities and two-year community colleges. President Trump believes ‘we ought to keep the most skilled graduates who can make significant contributions to America … who would never undercut American wages or workers,’ said the statement from spokeswoman Katherine Leavitt…
“In the 2016 campaign and in the White House, Trump periodically veered from his American-first, low-migration campaign. Each time, he and his staffers backpedaled to the center amid protests by his base”.
The Fate of Special Counsel Jack Smith
The Washington Examiner wrote on June 22:
“Judge Aileen Cannon [a Trump appointee] grilled attorneys in Florida on Friday about how much independence special counsel Jack Smith had over the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump. Cannon’s questions came as part of hearing on a request Trump made in February that the case be dismissed on the grounds that Attorney General Merrick Garland allegedly unlawfully appointed Smith as special counsel… The judge did not rule from the bench on Trump’s motion to dismiss his charges, and she has set aside three more days of hearings next week to continue the discussion, as well as address other pending legal disputes in the case…
“Toward the end of the hearing, Cannon also raised an issue Trump has been highly vocal about: what involvement, if any, Garland, and by extension President Joe Biden, had in the federal prosecutions against him. James Pearce, a prosecutor arguing on behalf of Smith, appeared caught off guard by Cannon’s question, according to Politico. Pearce eventually said he was ‘not authorized’ to discuss communications between Garland and Smith… The question came as part of Cannon’s quest to define how Smith acted independently of Garland while also acting as a subordinate to him…
“Cannon’s decision to hold a hearing on the special counsel question has drawn criticism from some who say that arguments surrounding special counsel appointments have been exhaustively entertained in courts… The scrutiny over Cannon’s pace comes after the judge had initially scheduled a trial to begin in May 2024 but then scrapped the date because of a logjam of legal motions and other incomplete pretrial steps. The judge has not yet set a new date…
“Cannon’s approach has been favorable to Trump, who pushed for a trial to occur after the presidential election. The buildup of unsettled disputes in the case and Cannon’s willingness to hold full hearings on matters that other judges might not normally hold has made the prospect of a post-election trial increasingly likely.”
Newsmax wrote on June 22:
“Alan Dershowitz, Harvard law professor emeritus, told Newsmax on Friday he is pleased with Judge Aileen Cannon, who has been criticized by liberals for her handling of former President Donald Trump’s classified documents case. Dershowitz said Cannon was right to appoint an independent investigator to determine if any of the material seized from Mar-a-Lago during the FBI raid was lawyer-client privilege.
“‘The government shouldn’t be looking at it,’ Dershowitz said. ‘They shouldn’t have its own investigations. There should be an independent investigator.’ Dershowitz said even though he’s a liberal Democrat, he supports the judge. ‘I think she’s doing a wonderful job so far,’ Dershowitz said. ‘She is going methodically, not being rushed, not backing down… I hope she sticks to her guns.’’
Country May Come to Regret
CNN wrote on June 26:
“The Supreme Court on Wednesday said the White House and federal agencies such as the FBI may continue to urge social media platforms to take down content the government views as misinformation, handing the Biden administration a technical if important election-year victory.
“Of immediate significance, the decision means that the Department of Homeland Security may continue to flag posts to social media companies such as Facebook and X that it believes may be the work of foreign agents seeking to disrupt this year’s presidential race… the court ruled that the state and social media users who challenged the Biden administration did not have standing to sue…
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Brett Kavanaugh and Ketanji Brown Jackson were in the 6-3 majority. Justice Samel Alito, joined by Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Neil Gorsuch, wrote a dissent that dubbed the case ‘one of the most important free speech cases to reach this Court in years.’ He said the challengers had brought forward enough evidence to establish standing [and] that America ‘may come to regret’ the majority ruling’].”
WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange Soon Free
The Associated Press wrote on June 24:
“Assange is expected to return to his home country of Australia after his plea and sentencing. The hearing is taking place in Saipan because of Assange’s opposition to traveling to the continental U.S. and the court’s proximity to Australia, prosecutors said. The guilty plea, which must be approved by a judge, brings an abrupt conclusion to a criminal case of international intrigue and to the U.S. government’s years-long pursuit of a publisher whose hugely popular secret-sharing website made him a cause célèbre among many press freedom advocates who said he acted as a journalist to expose U.S. military wrongdoing. Investigators, by contrast, have repeatedly asserted that his actions broke laws meant to protect sensitive information and put the country’s national security at risk.
“… In a statement posted on X, WikiLeaks… applauded the announcement of the deal, saying it was grateful for ‘all who stood by us, fought for us, and remained utterly committed in the fight for his freedom.’ ‘WikiLeaks published groundbreaking stories of government corruption and human rights abuses, holding the powerful accountable for their actions. As editor-in-chief, Julian paid severely for these principles, and for the people’s right to know,’ WikiLeaks said.
“Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who has been lobbying for the United States to end its prosecution of Assange, told Parliament that an Australian envoy had flown with Assange from London. ‘Regardless of the views that people have about Mr. Assange’s activities, the case has dragged on for too long…’
“The deal ensures Assange will admit guilt while also sparing him from additional prison time…”
ntv wrote on June 25:
“Julian Assange offers good reasons to dislike him. He is radical and puts transparency above everything. That makes him controversial and also dangerous. But the hunt by Western powers for the activist was arbitrary and illegal. This had to come to an end…
“Assange, Wikileaks founder and political activist, who spent five years in a British high-security prison, having previously holed himself up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for seven years: Suddenly he is free. In a video shared around the world, he climbs the steps onto the plane with his arms swinging. This is what it looks like when an unworthy legal drama comes to an end after far too many years.
“In brief, what sparked the drama: In 2010, Chelsea Manning, an IT specialist for the US Army, handed over almost 500,000 secret documents about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraqto Wikileaks. Julian Assange makes it public. This includes a video that shows soldiers from a US attack helicopter shooting two Iraqi civilians. The two men are rescuing an injured reporter, lifting him into their car and then collapsing dead under machine gun fire. Two children who are clearly visible sitting in the front of the car are seriously injured…
“Among the 500,000 secret documents, some reveal alleged human rights violations, corruption and torture. Assange was charged with 18 counts of espionage and was on the run from US justice for the next 14 years. He faces 175 years in prison…
“It’s good that the threatened US trial has now been averted. Not because Assange only carried out journalism protected by freedom of the press… He is an activist and often acted radically, even ruthlessly. The documents published in 2010 contained tons of real names of informants and those involved. Wikileaks published everything without redaction… In 2016, the platform made the US Democrats’ internal email traffic public, thereby massively damaging Hillary Clinton’s election campaign. ‘I love Wikileaks,’ declared Donald Trump at the time and shortly afterwards moved into the White House.
“Nevertheless, none of this justifies accusing someone who exposes suspected war crimes of espionage. State secrets of this kind do not deserve protection. Investigative journalism also thrives on examining hidden facts for relevance and – if necessary – publishing them.
“Assange’s activism certainly doesn’t justify what happened to him… there was a lot of arbitrariness in his dealings with the Wikileaks boss. The Swedish judiciary issued an arrest warrant for rape allegations based on manipulated witness statements. A UN report made this public in 2020. No charges were ever filed and the arrest warrant remained in place for nine years. When the Ecuadorian embassy revoked Assange’s asylum in 2019, he was sent to the high-security Belmarsh prison, where he was held in solitary confinement. For five years, also without charges…”
He Is Free!
Judge Andrew P. Napolitano wrote in the Ron Paul Institute on June 27, 2024:
“I offer this brief legal lesson in order to examine just how twisted the government’s views on speech have become in the Trump and Biden years, as the Department of Justice in both administrations has persecuted mercilessly and sought to prosecute aggressively the Australian journalist Julian Assange for his exercise of the freedom of speech…
“The case against Assange is a sham and is motivated by the U.S. intelligence community… It is a sham because the First Amendment protects the freedom of speech of all persons, not just Americans. Even though the materials Assange and WikiLeaks received had been stolen by Manning, because they were and are of profound interest to the public — American drones targeting civilians, secret U.S. military actions in countries with which the U.S. was not at war, and government lying to the public on a grand scale — the media is free to reveal them.
“The Supreme Court announced this legal principle in the Pentagon Papers case in 1971. There, Daniel Ellsberg, a civilian employee of the Pentagon, stole classified materials that demonstrated that U.S. Army generals had been lying to President Lyndon B. Johnson and LBJ had been lying to the public about military progress during the war in Vietnam. When Ellsberg turned the materials over to The New York Times and to The Washington Post, the Nixon DoJ obtained a court order barring their publication. Within days, the Supreme Court lifted that order and issued an opinion further expanding First Amendment rights — to include the right to know what the government has done. The court ruled that publishers are immune from civil liability and criminal prosecution when they publish data of material interest to the public, even if the data was stolen. Ellsberg, like Manning, was indicted for espionage. Yet, when the trial judge in Ellsberg’s case learned that the FBI had vandalized the office of his psychiatrist looking for his medical records, the judge dismissed the case…
“The feds have perfected three things — lying, stealing and killing. In the Assange revelations, we learned that they have excelled at what they have perfected. They don’t care about the Constitution or the rule of law, both of which they have sworn to uphold. The deep state is animated by a warped belief that its personnel are superior to the Constitution and can use the powers of government however they want, so long as they can get away with it… Assange is a hero. He exposed government without limits — the archenemy of personal freedom.”
The Future of Marriage?
npr wrote on June 19:
“Over the past few decades, cohabitation rates have nearly doubled, more children are being born outside of marriage and in recent months — there’s been buzz around polyamory and open relationships.
“With younger generations less set on following tradition, marriage could look very different in the future.”
Please read our free booklet, “God’s Teachings on Sexual Relationships.”
Criminal Sanctions for Lying Politicians
Study Finds wrote on June 20:
“If passed, Wales would become the first country in the world to introduce criminal sanctions for lying politicians. The proposals are being led by the former leader of Plaid Cymru, Adam Price, who has described a ‘credibility gap’ in UK politics as a ‘gaping chasm.’ Price has pushed for such changes since the mid-2000s when he campaigned for the impeachment of Tony Blair over the war in Iraq….
“The problem with the current regime is a lack of enforcement. Beyond accountability to the electorate during elections, there are very few repercussions when politicians mislead the public. This is helping to fuel a mistrust of politicians, and casting doubt over what can be believed…
“It’s a bleak indictment of democracy that a law reminding politicians not to lie is even being considered.”
If this idea would be applied throughout the world, we fear that many more prisons would have to be built for all the lying politicians who would have to be incarcerated. In fact, virtually no politician might remain free.
The Nonsense of the Fairy Tale of Evolution
Bild Online wrote about Dinosaurs on June 21:
“Dr. Daniela Schwarz, paleontologist and dinosaur expert at the Natural History Museum in Berlin, told BILD: ‘Their ancestors were small, slim, four-legged lizard-like reptiles that hunted for insects.’ These animals were no longer than half a meter. Only in the course of evolution did the dinosaurs become real giants… [The claimed idea is, they ate more and more food.]
“The prehistoric giants are extinct, but live on in our birds. They are considered descendants of dinosaurs. The birds evolved from the smaller predatory dinosaurs... At first it was downy feathers that kept the dinosaurs warm. Later, real feathers in different colors developed, which were also used for courtship, i.e. to woo reproductive partners. And much later, real flight feathers developed – like the ones we know from our birds today.”
This nonsense is also taught to our children in schools. Dinosaurs did not evolve into birds. The entire evolutionary hypothesis is nothing more than a fairy tale and the imagination of anti-God scientists. As Bild itself writes: “They became extinct as a result of a huge asteroid impact on the earth 65 million years ago, i.e. in the so-called Cretaceous period.” If they became extinct due to a catastrophe, how could they evolve into birds?
Acknowledgement and Disclaimer
These Current Events are compiled and commented on by Norbert Link. We gratefully acknowledge the many contributions of news articles from our readership. The publication of articles in this section is not to be viewed as an endorsement or approval as to contents or accuracy of the selected articles, but they are published for the purpose of pointing at worldwide developments in the light of biblical end-time prophecy and godly instruction. Our own comments are provided in italics.
