It was a reenactment of the Paschal sacrifice, staged by activists seeking to expand the Jewish presence on the Temple Mount and attended by hundreds of right-wing Jewish men, women and children. The bloody trail marked the route from the place where the lamb was slaughtered to the altar put up in the middle of the plaza.

This is the sixth year in which Temple Mount activists have staged the reenactment, with barefoot priests in white garments resembling those worn by priests in the ancient Temples and gold-painted vessels modeled after those of the Temples strewn about the altar.

But Thursday’s event marked a real achievement. For the first time the group was allowed to hold the ceremony in the heart of the Jewish Quarter, outside the Hurva Synagogue, just a few hundred meters from the Temple Mount − which is administered by a Muslim religious trust. The activists had originally sought to hold the event at the Davidson Center in an archaeological park next to the Temple Mount. But the police scuttled that idea, and the High Court of Justice upheld the decision.

“When you ask for 100 percent, you get 70 percent,” said Raphael Morris, head of the group Hozrim Lahar, explaining how a fringe right-wing outfit had managed to snare such a prestigious location. It’s a big step up from just two years ago, when the ceremony was held almost in secret in a school courtyard in one of the capital’s religious neighborhoods.

Such a prospect is unwelcome to many Germans, who are renowned for their love of cash. The Bundesbank, Germany's central bank, said they carry an average of 103 euros on their person. "Cash must remain an important means of payment," Economy Minister Brigitte Zypries, a Social Democrat, said in a statement. "Even in the era of digitization, it is valid," she added, echoing a similar message from European Central Bank President Mario Draghi at the launch of a new 50 euro note on Tuesday.

Draghi said three-quarters of euro zone payments are made in cash, and that it remains essential for the economy despite the rise of digital payments. The Bundesbank has warned that an upper limit on cash payments could lead to a loss of faith in the euro as a currency. The ECB's decision last year to phase out the 500-euro banknote irked some at Germany's central bank, who feared people's freedom to store their savings in cash was being curtailed.

The oceans are slowly dying, and with them, a significant part of our food supply will disappear. Since the number of smaller marine life dramatically reduces every year, bigger predators are starving to death. The causes of the recent mass strandings and die-offs of marine life are numerous, ranging from overfishing and climate change to plastic pollution and radioactive contamination.

As bad as all of this sounds, if you’re relying on the mainstream media for your news, you may not be aware of this growing issue that is threatening our food chain. A massive cover-up is ongoing about what might turn into the greatest marine extinction since “The Great Dying” 251.9 million years ago. Lately, heartbreaking stories of hundreds of millions of salmon that are dying before they make it back to their spawning place and record numbers of whales getting stranded on our beaches are finding their way to the public.

In the past year and a half, scientists recorded a collapse of several dozen food chains within the Pacific Ocean. Authoritative figures in Vancouver, however, estimated that number may be closer to the hundreds or thousands then the reported dozens. The evidence is clear, yet many scientists, media, and governments remain silent. According to some skeptics, the world may be headed to another “Permian Mass Extinction” or “Great Dying.”

Since 2012, a year after Fukushima’s nuclear accident, reports showed that tuna, among other fish species, caught off the coast of California tested positive for radiation. Each day more signs are emerging that our ocean and world are slowly dying. We’re living in perilous, unstable times that may affect every living thing on our planet. Nonetheless, media and governments don’t see any harm in remaining surprisingly silent.

Armed police are currently at the scene and the incident is being treated as a suspected terror attack, according to local media. The lorry had been hijacked earlier in the day. The public has been warned to stay away from the city centre and a police cordon has been put up around the area.

Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven has said everything indicates that the Stockholm truck crash is "a terror attack". He added: “The Government is naturally being updated continuously and receiving the latest information. The Government is assisting the authorities in its work and now we are encouraging the public to be alert and listen to the police’s information.”

At least two people have been arrested by police - the first arrest was made at Olof Palmes gata and the other at Klara North Church Street. Police have now confirmed a shooter at a second incident in Fridhemsplan - around a 20 minute drive from the first incident.

Shops on the street have closed down and people are being locked inside, according to reports. The public subway system has also now been stopped in the city and an evacuation of the Central Train station in Stockholm has been ordered.

“We reaffirm our commitment to the UN-approved principles for a Palestinian-Israeli settlement, which include the status of East Jerusalem as the capital of the future Palestinian state. At the same time, we must state that in this context we view West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,” the Foreign Ministry in Moscow said in a statement.

Russia’s surprising announcement came as US President Donald Trump considers moving the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. It is unclear what prompted Moscow’s decision and whether other countries in its sphere of influence will follow suit. Officials in Jerusalem, evidently taken aback by the statement, declined immediate comment on the announcement.

“We are studying the matter,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Emmanuel Nahshon said. At this point it is unclear whether the Israeli government would welcome the recognition of West Jerusalem as its capital, since Israel claims the entire city as its eternal united capital. Recognizing only the Western part of it would appear to deny Israel’s claims to the eastern part, including the Old City, which it captured in 1967 and subsequently annexed. The Russian statement specifically said that Moscow views “East Jerusalem as the capital of the future Palestinian state.”

The strike completed a policy reversal for President Donald Trump — who once warned America to stay out of the conflict — and drew angry responses from Damascus and its main ally, Russia. The missiles were launched from the USS Ross and the USS Porter in the Mediterranean Sea toward Shayrat Airfield. American officials believe it was used by the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad to carry out a strike on Tuesday involving chemical weapons that resulted in the deaths of more than 100 people.

"Assad choked out the lives of helpless men, women and children," Trump said in remarks from Mar-a-Lago, his family compound in Palm Beach, Florida. "It is in the vital national security interest of the United States to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons." The president also called on other countries to end the bloodshed in Syria.

The strike provoked an angry response from Russia, which is backing the Assad regime in its six-year civil war against a patchwork of rebel factions and other groups, including ISIS.

While Israel and Egypt have enjoyed close cooperation under Al-Sisi, the Egyptian leader reportedly told Trump that peace between Israel and the Arabs should be based on the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative.

Israel at the time expressed appreciation for the concept of comprehensive peace (as opposed to separate peace processes with the Palestinians and the rest of the Arab world) but was unable to accept many of the terms, like opening the gates of the Jewish state to millions of so-called “Palestinian refugees.”

Should Egypt and other Arab nations convince Trump to adopt the 2002 Initiative as the foundation for future peace talks, Israel could once again find itself in a dangerous position. According to the Arab daily Al-Hayat, that’s precisely what’s happening.

American sources cited by the paper said Trump was looking at a US-hosted peace summit this summer, with Egypt joining the US as one of the chief arbiters between Israel and the rest of the Arab world. Egypt is already officially at peace with Israel.

Hours after those remarks were reported, North Korea fired a ballistic missile into the waters off its east coast, according to South Korean officials. Trump will host Xi late this week at his Mar-a-Lago private club in Florida, their first face-to-face talks since the November election.

The American president is expected to raise longstanding concerns about what the new administration angrily describes as an unfair bilateral trade relationship and about what is seen in the West Wing as Beijing’s stubborn refusal to do more to contain North Korea’s belligerent behavior.

“It is now urgent, because we feel that the clock is very, very quickly running out,” the official told reporters. “We would have loved to see North Korea join the community of nations. They’ve been given that opportunity over the course of different dialogues and offers over the course of four administrations, with some of our best diplomats and statesmen doing the best they could to bring about a resolution.”

When I wrote that a conflict with North Korea could be “Trump’s first war” last month, I was still hoping that cooler heads would prevail and that a military conflict could be avoided.  Unfortunately, it appears that a peaceful solution is not on the cards, and that means that the United States may soon start bombing North Korea. 

And of course if that happens the North Koreans will strike back with whatever they can, and that includes nuclear weapons. I don’t know if I have the words to effectively communicate how serious this situation could become.  We have gotten to the point where the White House is openly talking of going to war with a nuclear power…

And Donald Trump better get the public approval of South Korean and Japanese leadership before ever attempting such an attack, because they will likely pay the highest price if North Korea is able to strike back.

If South Korea or Japan balk at backing such an operation and then they get hit by North Korean nukes, the United States could lose them as friends and allies forever. The stakes are incredibly high, and there are so many things that could go wrong. So let us pray for peace, because the alternative is almost too horrible to imagine.

In other words, those procedures were being done to women against their will.  The United Nations Population Fund is the tip of the spear when it comes to implementing the UN’s twisted population control agenda, and so Donald Trump should be greatly congratulated for defunding them.

When Trump does something right, he should be applauded.  And defunding the United Nations Population Fund is one of the best things that he has done so far. Unfortunately, the US accounted for only about 7 percent of their funding, and so the sick and twisted work of the United Nations Population Fund will continue to go on around the world.