Eurogroup reaches ‘breakthrough deal’ on $11 billion Greek bailout payment
EUROPE - Eurozone finance ministers have struck a deal with Greece and the International Monetary Fund to release over €10 billion in emergency bailout payments, much of which Athens will send straight back to its creditors to avert default in the summer. Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem confirmed that an agreement has been reached to green light €10.3 billion ($11.5 billion) in bailout loans to Greece. The bailout cash will be released in tranches, with over €7.5 billion ($8.4 billion) to be allocated in June, and another payment expected sometime in the fall. Meanwhile Slovakia's Finance Minister Peter Kažimír said that the new tranche will provide Greece with enough “breathing space until October.”
40 Volcanoes Are Erupting Right Now
USA - Have you noticed that our planet has begun to shake, rattle and roll? Over the past few days we have seen major volcanic eruptions in Costa Rica and Indonesia, and according to Volcano Discovery 40 volcanoes around the planet are erupting right now as you read this article.
Meanwhile, earthquakes continue to shake the globe with alarming regularity. Just last week, Ecuador was hit by a magnitude 6.7 earthquake and a magnitude 6.8 earthquake in rapid succession. Overall, there have been more than 3,000 earthquakes of magnitude 1.5 or greater within the past month globally.
So yes, I write constantly about the rapidly accelerating deterioration of our financial system, but the coming “collapse” is not just about money. I am convinced that we are entering a “perfect storm” in which a confluence of factors will absolutely cripple society and bring about changes that most of us would not even dare to imagine right now.
Temple Mount Firebrand Yehuda Glick Finds Himself in Knesset After Israel Shakeup
ISRAEL - A year and a half ago he was a fringe Temple Mount activist expected to die, the victim of a point-blank assassination attempt. This week he will enter the Knesset, the ruling Likud party’s replacement legislator for outgoing Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon.
Yehuda Glick’s journey — from the United States to Israel, from government bureaucrat to outspoken demonstrator at Jerusalem’s most contested site, and from a hospital bed to elected office — is an unlikely one. And Glick’s arrival in the halls of the Knesset reflects the growing reception of his push for Jews’ right to visit and worship on the Temple Mount.
Between 2009 and 2014, Jewish visits to the site nearly doubled. Glick has been barred from the mount — revered by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary — and was even charged with assault there (the charges were dropped). Glick and his fellow religious activists see his accession to the Knesset as a victory for a just cause following his brush with death. Critics, however, say the power he wields could exacerbate tensions at a regional flashpoint.
The One World Religion Cometh
VATICAN - When Pope Francis met with Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb on Monday, he told him that “our meeting is the message”. So precisely what kind of “message” was Pope Francis attempting to convey?
Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb is the Grand Imam of Cairo’s Al-Azhar Mosque, and some have described him as “the highest figure in Sunni Islam”. The Daily Mail said that the meeting between these two men was a “historic bid to reopen dialogue between the two churches”, and this is yet another in a long series of attempts by Pope Francis to build bridges between Catholicism and various other faiths.
In the end, what are we to make of all of this? Could it be possible that Pope Francis is laying the groundwork for the “super world church” and the coming one world religion that David Wilkerson and so many others have warned about? Pope Francis made sure that when he embraced Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb there would be plenty of reporters there to document the moment.
There is a very clear pattern developing here. Pope Francis believes that Christians and Muslims worship the same God, and he wants us to know that he considers Islam to be a perfectly acceptable way to seek God. It has become exceedingly clear that Pope Francis believes that all major religions are completely valid paths to the same God, and there is virtually no uproar over this.
The Pope Has Betrayed Christianity
USA - The Pope says that ISIS’ conquest of the Middle East is just like Jesus sending out his disciples. I must have missed that bible chapter where Jesus’ disciples behead people, force them into sex slavery and make them pay a tax on pain of death if they refuse to convert. When will the Pope actually behave like a Christian by defending Christianity instead of constantly undermining it?
Iranian commander: We can destroy Israel ‘in under 8 minutes’
IRAN - If supreme leader gives order, Revolutionary Guards ‘will raze the Zionist regime’ quickly, says senior adviser of elite al-Quds unit. Ahmad Karimpour, a senior adviser to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ elite unit al-Quds Force, said if Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei gave the order to destroy Israel, the Iranian military had the capacity to do so quickly.
A senior Iranian general on May 9 announced that the country’s armed forces successfully tested a precision-guided, medium-range ballistic missile two weeks earlier that could reach Israel, the state-run Tasnim agency reported.
“We test-fired a missile with a range of 2,000 kilometers and a margin of error of eight meters,” Brigadier General Ali Abdollahi was quoted as saying at a Tehran science conference. The eight-meter margin means the “missile enjoys zero error,” he told conference participants.
Khamenei has repeatedly threatened to annihilate the Jewish state, and in September 2015 suggested Israel would not be around in 25 years. In a quote posted to Twitter by Khamenei’s official account on September 9, 2015, Khamenei addressed Israel, saying, “You will not see next 25 years,” and added that the Jewish state will be hounded until it is destroyed.
Islamic State group leader urges attacks in Europe and US
MIDDLE EAST - An Islamic State group spokesman has urged sympathizers in Europe and the US to launch attacks on civilians there if they are unable to travel to the group's self-declared caliphate in Syria and Iraq. In a 31-minute audio message released late Saturday by the IS media arm al-Furqan, Abu Mohammed al-Adnani told his followers that, "the tiniest action you do in the heart of their land is dearer to us than the biggest action by us ... there are no innocents in the heart of the lands of the Crusaders." He encouraged lone wolf attacks during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which is expected to start early next month, "to win the great award of martyrdom." Al-Adnani also said the US-led war against the group was doomed to failure and that America "fell in the swamp of perdition."
Islamic State aims to destroy Israel, ‘liberate’ Jerusalem
MIDDLE EAST - With a media blitz, the Islamic State has set its sights on Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula as the next shot at expanding its empire and establishing a base from which to attack neighboring Israel. The terrorist group’s propaganda units have gone into high gear for recruitment this month to build a force in Sinai large enough to one day conquer Jerusalem — the same way its fighters took over large parts of Syria and Iraq. Last week, Marine General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned of the Islamic State’s presence in Sinai, where the group may have placed as many as 1,000 terrorists. The general’s concern is a signal that the US faces another war front against the Islamic State in addition to Iraq, Syria and Libya.
Al-Qaeda 'planning major terror attack against West' from Afghanistan
AFGHANISTAN - Al-Qaeda has re-established its terrorist headquarters in southern Afghanistan and is using it as a base to plan major attacks against the West, the Daily Telegraph can reveal.
After more than a decade of hiding across the border in Pakistan’s lawless tribal belt, al-Qaeda terrorist cells have moved back into southern Afghanistan following the withdrawal of British and American forces at the end of 2014.
Now Afghan security officials are warning that al-Qaeda chiefs are hoping to use their new Afghan base to plot a fresh wave of terror attacks against the West and its allies.
“Al-Qaeda has taken advantage of the withdrawal of Western troops to re-establish its headquarters in southern Afghanistan,” said a senior Afghan defence official. “Now they are back they will be determined to use Afghanistan as a base to prepare new attacks against Western targets.”
Here’s the Punishment Canadians Found Guilty of Anti-Transgender Speech Could Soon Face
CANADA - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced a bill that would criminalize anti-transgender speech, with violators receiving up to two years in prison. The new bill, introduced May 17 on the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, aims to amend the Canadian Criminal Code to expand the country’s “hate speech” prohibitions to include any public speech or communication that “promotes hatred” on the basis of “gender identity” or “gender expression.” It would also change the Canadian Human Rights Act to cover transgender people.
Girl Scouts Welcome Cross-Dressing Boys into their Ranks
USA - The Girl Scouts of America (GSA) is the latest organization to cave to pressure from the LGBTIQA lobby, adapting its policies to extend membership to boys who identify as girls. Penny Nance from Concerned Women for America called the decision “just one more slap in the face to Christian parents.”
On the GSA website, the association states: “If the child is recognized by the family and school/community as a girl and lives culturally as a girl, then Girl Scouts is an organization that can serve her in a setting that is both emotionally and physically safe.” Girls participating in the scouts will now be obliged to recognize transgenderism as a normal lifestyle, critics say.
The conservative American Family Association expressed its outrage at the policy change, accusing scout leaders of “losing their moral compass.” This is the case of adults being “willing to experiment on our kids — both the boys who are confused and the girls who will wonder why a boy in a dress is in the bathroom with them.”
The money seagulls are heading to shore!
USA - Sailors say that, when all the seagulls head to shore at once, it’s time to do the same. It’s a sure sign that a storm is on its way. The following stories from this week’s news make it clear that some of the world’s biggest players in the financial markets are seeking secure ground as fast as they can. They are the ‘insiders’ who, not only have a clear view of what is happening in the economy, but some of them are the people who make it happen.
If you think you know what lies ahead better than these people, then these articles will waste your time. But if you think they may have a seagull-like instinct for coming financial storms, then pour yourself a cup of coffee and read these stories very, very carefully.
Billionaire George Soros is preparing for an economic storm. He has reduced his stock investments by 33% and increased his gold-mining holdings by $264 million. Central banks also are running to buy gold. China, which consumes 40% of all newly mined gold each year, recently bought Barclays’ precious-metals storage business. It is clear that these big players know something about the coming price of gold. (RT 2016 May 18)
Gold and silver prices still are being rigged. Bullion banks, like JP Morgan Chase, are allowed to sell contracts for future delivery of precious metals far in excess of what they have. If you can sell something you do not have, you can sell as much of it as necessary to depress the price. It’s that simple. The current number of ounces sold in this fashion now is 500 times greater than what is actually available for delivery. When that bubble bursts – as it must – the splat will be enormous. Those holding paper contracts will be jumping from high-rise buildings. Those holding gold and silver will be wealthy. (Money Metals 2016 May 16)
‘Obama’s US exceptionalism statements rival Hitler quotes’ – top Russian judge
RUSSIA - The chairman of the Russian Constitutional Court has said that Barack Obama’s statements about American exceptionalism were very similar to propaganda used by Nazi Germany and equally dangerous to world peace.
“The idea of specialness, exceptionality and unique rights of the American state and American people has been used in US internal political rhetoric for quite a while, but in recent years it has been actively and persistently offered in US foreign policy documents and public speeches on international politics delivered by US officials,” Judge Valery Zorkin said at the St Petersburg international legal forum on Thursday.
“Any unbiased and educated person would see that this statement by Obama is an almost exact copy of leading politicians and propaganda specialists of the Third Reich, including Adolph Hitler… In essence, Obama is using the exact same thing that Nazi bosses said about the German exceptionalism when they started the world war,” he added.
EU countries are costing the UK billions
EUROPE - A secret government memo today reveals how a trade war between European Union countries is damaging the British economy. The damning Whitehall assessment – seen by the Telegraph – has found that France and other EU countries are hampering new “free-trade” deals because they want to protect their farmers from the extra competition. David Cameron claims that the power of Brussels to negotiate these free-trade agreements with parts of the world such as the United States is a critical reason why Britain must not leave the EU. But the memorandum suggests that Britain is losing out on £2.5 billion a year in potential trade as a result of the ongoing delays to a proposed deal between the EU and Latin America.
We're in the Eye of a Global Financial Hurricane
USA - The Keynesian gods have failed, and as a result we're in the eye of a global financial hurricane.
• The Keynesian god of growth has failed.
• The Keynesian god of borrowing from the future to fund today's consumption has failed.
• The Keynesian god of monetary stimulus / financialization has failed.
Every major central bank and state worships these Keynesian idols.
The global financial system is in the eye of an unprecedented hurricane. While central bankers are congratulating themselves on their god-like mastery of Nature, and secretly praying to the idols of the Keynesian Cargo Cult every night, the inevitable consequence of borrowing from the future, the obsession with "growth" at any cost and financialization / monetary stimulus…is systemic collapse.
Don't fall for the mainstream media and politicos' shuck-and-jive that all is well and "growth" will return any day now. The only "growth" we're experiencing are the financial cancers of systemic risk and financialization's soaring wealth/income inequality.
Disclaimer:
The views expressed in this section are not our own, unless specifically stated, but are provided to highlight what may prove to be prophetically relevant material appearing in the media.
