But should we really be surprised by Francis’s position? This is the Pope who takes every opportunity to declare the Bible is wrong, after all. He kicked off his papacy by declaring evolution and the big bang theory were real.

This is the pope who informed his flock that “relationships with Jesus are dangerous and harmful.” Breaking with centuries of Christian tradition, Pope Francis sparked fears that he is an illegitimate pope with a sinister agenda when he told a crowd of 33,000 pilgrims in St Peter’s Square in Rome that “a personal, direct, immediate relationship with Jesus Christ” must be avoided at all costs.

In 2017, Pope Francis called for a “one world government” and “political authority”, arguing that the creation of the one world government is needed to combat issues such as “climate change.” Speaking with Ecuador’s El Universo newspaper, the Pope said that the United Nations does not have enough power and must be granted full governmental control “for the good of humanity.” This includes Americans, he stressed, who according to the pope must be ruled by a world government “for their own good.”

In 2019, Pope Francis signed a historic covenant with leaders of the world’s major faiths, pushing us much closer to a one-world religion, one of the major goals of the New World Order. According to the document produced by Pope Francis and published on the Vatican’s official website, all religions must be considered equal, and Islam is as acceptable to God as Christianity. He then shocked the Christian world by hosting Islamic prayers and Quran recitals in the Vatican.

1. “The US has used Ukraine to prepare for a large war. They have publicly admitted that.” This is, in fact, implicit if not official policy articulated by the Biden administration. The president himself declared early last year that Putin “cannot remain in power,” a threat of forced regime change if there ever was one. Biden kicked off the week by visiting the capital of Ukraine, a literal war zone with no US military presence, as if to claim the conflict is as much ours as it is Ukraine’s (and it is, given that we’re footing about two-thirds of Ukraine’s defense cost).

2. “The West is guilty of escalation.” Since well before Russia invaded Ukraine, Washington has promoted the expansion of new member nations to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO, an alliance that exists in its present form for the express purpose of intimidating Russia. What started out as a warning to the Soviet Union that the US would defend its European allies against military aggression is now a vanity project for both of our political parties to look like heroes by further alienating the Kremlin from the rest of the developed world.

3. “They [the West] want to have a strategic defeat of Russia. …It means they want to have no more, anything to do with Russia. They want to have a global resistance against Russia.” What part of that contradicts anything the Biden administration, most of Congress, and virtually every former military official on cable news has said? They all say it.

Assume that right now Russia were to retreat from Ukraine and declare a truce. Who’s going to be the first to propose that the US and Europe resume regular trade and cooperation to stabilize Russia’s economy and its standing in the world? None of them will. They all expect a lasting minimizing of Russia, preferably without Putin in the picture.

Say whatever you want about Putin, he’s not irrational.

“Look at what they’re doing to their own peoples: the destruction of the family, of cultural and national identity, perversions and abuses against children, up to pedophilia, are declared to the norm, the norm of their lives, while clergymen and priests are forced to bless same-sex marriages,” Putin said.

“But I would like to tell them: look, please forgive me, to the holy scriptures – the main texts of all of the world’s religions. Everything is explained there, including that a family is the union of a man and a woman. But even these holy texts are now being questioned. The Anglican Church, for example, now plans to consider the idea of a gender-neutral God. What can we say here? ‘Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing’,” Putin said, quoting a verse from the Bible.

According to the Russian president, “millions of people in the West” have come to “understand that they are being led to a real spiritual catastrophe,” with their elites “seemingly going mad, and it seems there is no cure.” These are “their problems” and Russia will not interfere in other countries’ affairs, but “we are obliged to protect our own children –and we will do so: we will protect our children from degradation and degeneration,” Putin said.

In Bahrain, a one hour flight away, the Jewish community has been brought back to life. Jews are encouraged to visit with open arms. The same is happening in Morocco and perhaps soon in Oman, Saudi Arabia and who knows where else next?!

The Temple Mount is “open to everyone,” Ben-Gvir said in a video. “Muslims and Christians come here, and, yes, Jews, too.” Staring into the camera while walking through the compound, he added, “In a government in which I’m a member, there will be no racist discrimination.”

But the galaxies found in the Webb images appeared shockingly big, and the stars in them too old. The new findings are in conflict with existing ideas of how the universe looked and evolved in its early years, and don't match earlier observations made by Webb's less powerful predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope.

"We looked into the very early universe for the first time and had no idea what we were going to find," Leja said in a Penn University statement. "It turns out we found something so unexpected it actually creates problems for science. It calls the whole picture of early galaxy formation into question."

The news comes as other European countries face similar concerns with the risk of catastrophic drought and rising temperatures due to global warming, following the third hottest January on record. The unseasonable weather across the continent has seen water reserves sink in Spain, crop production slashed, and low tides leaving gondolas unable to navigate Venice's historic canals.

In Spain, one of the European countries most exposed to the risk of drought, there is also concern about current water reserves. Barcelona and large swathes of Spain's northeastern region of Catalonia have imposed water restrictions due to the lack of rain.

According to local reports, SatanCon 2023 is themed after an ancient springtime German holiday known as “Witches Night” or “Hexennacht.” Tickets for the “weekend of blasphemy and remembrance” have reportedly all been sold out.

“Satancon attendees must be 18 or over and have proof of COVID vaccination. Attendees must wear an N-95, KN-95, or disposable surgical mask. Gaiters, bandanas, and cloth masks will not be allowed,” a notice on the group’s website instructs Satancon 2023 goers.

Orban branded the sanctions “the weapons of Brussels’ war policy,” adding that while the EU was using this tool to target Russia, it has harmed itself instead. “It was not so long ago that Brussels promised that these sanctions would bring an end to the war. A year has passed, and the end of the war is not getting closer, it is getting further away,” the prime minister insisted.

Hungary, a country heavily dependent on Russian energy, has repeatedly spoken against the sanctions the EU has imposed on Moscow since it started its military operation against Ukraine in February 2022. Budapest has argued that the restrictions have failed to meaningfully weaken Russia, while damaging the European economy. In late January, Orban also signaled that Hungary would veto any EU sanctions targeting Russia’s nuclear energy sector.

The current generation of Ukrainian nationalists is being armed to the teeth with NATO-supplied weapons, just as social media has been flooded with videos purportedly showing their units torturing and executing captured Russian soldiers, as well as civilians.

In the Middle East, the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) was born through radicalization in US-run camps and prisons in Iraq, former detainees say. The group later unleashed its terror on the region and got its hands on US and British weapons. Former Afghan president Hamid Karzai has openly accused Washington of using IS to destabilize his country.

His comments came after two quakes occurred, three minutes apart, measuring 6.4 and 5.8 respectively, according to AFAD, Turkey's disaster management agency. The epicentre was in the district of Samandag in Turkey according to Turkish monitor Kandilli but it was felt by residents in Syria, Israel, Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine, according to media reports.

Across the border in Syria, at least 470 people were injured after the latest earthquakes shook the region and damaged buildings toppled, with 150 hurt in the rebel-held north-west.

Meanwhile, a 'perfect storm' of flooding, cold temperatures and cancelled ferries have caused major supply problems on the Continent, meaning supermarkets have also struggled to access imported goods. Store bosses initially insisted that supplies will improve 'in the coming days', before the British Retail Consortium trade body later admitted disruption will likely last 'a few weeks'.

Moreover, over 80% of food banks reported that many Britons who were asking for help were doing so for the first time in their lifetime. About 50% of the organizations covered in the survey also said that if demand increased, they would be forced to cut the volume of assistance or to refuse some applicants altogether.

The document attributed these developments mainly to increases in the cost of living. These have been spurred by skyrocketing inflation and soaring energy prices, exacerbated by the sanctions the West imposed on Russia over the Ukraine conflict. Other reasons include inadequate wages and the waiting time needed to receive a first social security payment from authorities, as well as benefit deductions.

Union Pacific claimed “no one was injured” in a statement released on Tuesday, revealing that train traffic had already reopened on one of the three mainline tracks less than six hours after the accident. Its cause was still “under investigation.” There were three other Union Pacific derailments in the area last year. Another coal train derailed in May southeast of Gothenburg, followed just a month later by a similar incident near the town. The third hit in November near neighboring Lexington.

Tuesday’s crash comes as the US public is increasingly alarmed about an apparent surge in accidents, following a catastrophic incident in East Palestine, Ohio earlier this month. A Norfolk Southern train carrying 10 cars full of hazardous materials mysteriously derailed on a straight stretch of track on February 3, leaking toxic chemicals including vinyl chloride into the surroundings.

However, experts have warned the wreck and the massive toxic cloud created by the burn could give rise to one of the worst environmental disasters in US history. In a video posted by locals to social media, the Ohio River, which supplies drinking water to a tenth of the US population, appeared to be thoroughly contaminated. The perceived failure of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to act decisively – or at all, until nearly three weeks had elapsed since the crash – to address the situation in East Palestine has triggered calls for his resignation.

Additionally, they have the right to obtain Israeli citizenship, should they request it, though only about five percent have exercised that option since East Jerusalem was annexed by Israel and Jerusalem was “unified” in 1967. Despite these privileges, terrorism emanates from these East Jerusalem neighborhoods, and, frighteningly, many of the terrorists are children.

In last Saturday night’s airing of “Meet the Press” with Amit Segal and Ben Caspit on Israel’s Channel 12, it was suggested that Israel’s options in East Jerusalem might be either learning to live with the occasional terror attack or building a wall. If that is the case, and, sadly, we have seen too many terrorist attacks, let’s build a wall and divide the city once and for all.