ISRAEL - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed European “hypocrisy” and “double standards,” saying EU leaders were quick to condemn President Donald Trump for his recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital but remained silent in the face of retaliatory rocket attacks into Israel from Gaza. The prime minister made his remarks ahead of a two-day trip to Paris and Brussels.
CHINA - One of China’s top diplomats to the US warned Washington that Beijing would invade Taiwan should the US ever send a Navy ship to the island nation, which China considers to be a wayward province. Li Kexin, a minister with the Chinese Embassy to the United States, said during an embassy event on Friday that he had told American officials that China would activate their Anti-Secession Law if US naval vessels were sent to the Taiwan Strait.
USA - Technocrats will ignore any data that presents a contrary case against their own pre-conceived ideas and assumptions. In this case, another solid report from university scientists with funding from the Department of Energy! TN Editor
UK - A headteachers’ union will tell schools to be more supportive of LGBT teachers who want to reveal their sexual identity in the classroom as it would make children better “citizens of the world”. In a ‘first of its kind’ guidance to be published next week, the NAHT told members they were responsible for creating school environments where “staff can feel safe and be open with colleagues and with pupils”, reports the BBC.
UK - An NHS health survey given out in schools is asking children aged ten whether they are “comfortable in their gender”, as well as whether they are a boy, a girl or “other”. While the questionnaire has traditionally been used to monitor pupils’ height, weight and fitness, forms sent to schools across Lancashire by the county’s NHS foundation trust asks Year 6 pupils: “Do you feel the same inside as the gender you were born with? (feeling male or female)”.
USA - We have never seen a year like this in the history of the state of California. Yes, there are large wildfires in California every year, but this is one for the record books. Well over half a million acres have already been burned, and we still have three weeks remaining in 2017. At this moment, the fires that have absolutely ravaged Ventura County for the past seven days are moving into Santa Barbara County, and at this point no end to the crisis is in sight.
EUROPE - The EU’s Orwellian-dubbed Civil Liberties and Economic Affairs committee has approved tough new rules on cash that travelers might bring into or take out of the bloc. It’s also broadened the definition of cash to include precious stones and metals and prepaid credit cards. For the moment the new definition does not include Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, for one simple reason: “customs authorities lack the resources to monitor them.” Most importantly, the draft law will enable authorities to impound “cash” below the traditional €10,000 threshold, if criminal activity is suspected. The new rules would repeal the First Cash Control Regulation (CCR) from 2005, which requires individuals to declare sums over €10,000 when leaving or entering the EU.
ISRAEL - Israeli activist: “Words of prophecy are coming forth from the Bible and becoming facts”. While Muslims jeer, Israelis cheer President Trump’s Jerusalem declaration, prompting Jewish religious activists to suggest building the Third Temple is closer to reality than ever before.
EUROPE - A new initiative developed by the leader of the German SPD party, Martin Schulz, primarily reflects the aspirations of European politicians to create a single Europe that is willing to obey unified rules coming from Brussels. The leader of the German SPD party, Martin Schulz, wants to turn the European Union into the so-called "United States of Europe" with a common constitution.
ISRAEL - Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman stated that Israel will maintain the status quo on the Temple Mount. The status quo presents significant legal problems that have not been addressed. It is basically a political agreement with Jordan stating that Jews cannot pray on the Temple Mount. Yet the status quo contradicts Israeli law, basic Israeli constitutional issues and significant Israeli values.
USA - America’s envoy to the UN, Nikki Haley, has claimed that only the United States, and not the 14 other nations comprising the UN Security Council, has credibility when it comes to mediating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Palestinians, however, see things very differently.
USA - US defense modernization efforts are "failing to keep pace" when compared with its two big adversaries, and American forces are "poorly postured to meet key challenges in Europe and East Asia," according to a starkly worded new report from think-tank Rand.
USA - The orchestrated hostility toward Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea protects the $1,000 billion annual budget of the military/security complex by convincing the American public that the US is threatened by enemies. It also keeps alive Democratic Party hopes that Trump can be removed from office, and it has prevented President Trump from normalizing relations with Russia.
GERMANY - Europe is not ready for a federal system, trusted allies of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) have said, rejecting a vision for the continent as proposed by Martin Schulz of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), a former coalition partner. Germany plunged into crisis after the country’s political forces failed to form a coalition following the September Bundestag election. SPD leader Martin Schulz, who had previously ruled out forming a coalition with the CDU, this week agreed to “open-ended” talks with Merkel's camp. “We don’t have to govern at any price, but we must not reject governing at all costs either,” Schulz said Thursday, after CDU coalition negotiations with the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) and the Greens collapsed.
USA - It appears that something unusual is happening along the California coastline. Over the past 24 hours, California has been hit by 46 earthquakes. That is approximately twice the normal daily number, and much of the shaking has taken place in the southern part of the state. In recent weeks I have been writing repeatedly about the alarming seismic activity that we have been seeing along the west coast, and many believe that the potential for a megaquake is significantly higher than normal right now. Unfortunately, most residents of California are not paying any attention to what is going on at all, and so if there is a major event they will be completely blindsided by it.