Will Europe Break With the United States?

On September 24, 2022, the Ron Paul Institute republished the following article by Sonar21.com:

“I received a great question from a German reader who also happens to be a journalist. He asked, ‘What would be a way and what would be the practical implications if Europe in general and Germany in particular were to break with the US in order to find a European peace and economic framework including Russia?’

“The craven sycophancy demonstrated by Germany, France and the United Kingdom in their passionate embrace of America’s confrontation with Russia is now on life support. Despite continued bombastic threats to keep arming Ukraine until Russia collapses, economic reality is hitting the Europeans like an icy cold shower from a fire hose. Rapid inflation, particularly in the energy sector, is forcing factories and businesses to shutter operations. The de-industrialization of Europe, especially Germany and the UK, has started. German steel plants are closing, German bakeries are trying to figure out how to pay soaring utility bills while still making bread and pretzels and German toilet-paper manufacturer Hakle GmbH has applied for insolvency proceedings in self-administration…

“So, the economic situation in each of the countries is going to create enormous domestic pressure for the respective European governments, which currently are cheer-leading Ukraine and cursing Russia, to rethink their policies. The Russia/Ukraine war already has created significant fissures among EU members, with Hungary refusing to impose further sanctions on Russia. Cold, hungry voters will become increasingly outraged at sending millions of dollars to Ukraine while deprivation multiples from Berlin to London.

“Europe’s rift with Russia is huge and Russia is not in a mood to forgive… Russia holds the critical trump card–it can turn on the flow of gas and oil essential to rekindle manufacturing and home heating in Europe…

“How about Europe breaking with NATO? Or, more simply put, the breakup of NATO. Up to this point Europe has embraced the delusion that Russia cannot function economically without a European market. The last six months of Russia’s Special Military Operation have proven that the opposite is true–without Russia’s key resources Europe is a dead economy walking naked into a frozen winter.

“Europe’s two largest trading partners are China and the United States. Europe runs a trade deficit with China. If China demands payment in dollars, rather than Euros, then the inflationary pressure on Europe will escalate… the value of the US dollar has soared relative to the Euro and British pound sterling. They will have to spend more Euros to buy dollars, which means the trade deficit with China is likely to worsen.

“The situation with the United States is the opposite. The United States has run a deficit with Europe who, in turn, has enjoyed a surplus. That surplus will go away or, at a minimum, shrink dramatically. Germany’s ability to export products to the United States will weaken because of the price of the dollar and because European factories will close or cut back on production.

“Barring a miracle turnaround–i.e, inflation disappears and the energy crisis dissipates–the situation in Europe will become more dire. The history of these kinds of economic upheaval is littered with the corpses of politicians that insisted on pushing policies that hurt their voters. Germany’s [Weimar] Republic’s failure paved the way for the rise of Adolf Hitler to power…

“The United States is facing its own looming economic disaster. The collapse of the stock market–now down over 20% since the first of the year–is likely to continue. Notwithstanding the Biden administration’s strident insistence that there is no recession, the signs of recession are mounting, especially in the housing market. But the worsening economic picture is not yet sufficient to generate the necessary political pressure among the… American electorate to back away from sending billions to Ukraine. A major shock of stagflation or a collapse of the Ukrainian army, however, could change that calculus…

“Russia’s burgeoning trade and military relations with China, Iran, India and Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Brazil is making Putin’s position stronger, not weaker. The eventual collapse of Ukraine as a result of a wrecked economy and/or battlefield defeats, will be more than a black eye for NATO and, by extension, Europe… The age of the United States’ Colossus is nearing its end…”

Very true on all counts.

The USA Would Lose World War III?

The Daily Mail wrote on September 24:

“Former President Trump said he hopes [he] is ‘wrong’ about the possibility of World War III because the U.S. is being run by ‘stupid people’ at a rally in Wilmington, N.C. on Friday…, as he predicted the U.S. would lose a conflict to Russia.”

The US WILL lose World War III, but the victor will be a United States of Europe.

Clinton: Trump the New Hitler?

Newsmax wrote on September 24:

“Hillary Clinton on Friday likened former President Donald Trump’s supporters to Nazis, and Trump himself to Adolf Hitler. ‘I remember as a young student, you know, trying to figure out, how people get basically drawn in by Hitler. How did that happen? I’d watch newsreels and I’d see this guy standing up there ranting and raving, and people shouting and raising their arms. I thought, “What’s happened to these people?”’ Clinton said Friday at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin, miming the Nazi Sig Heil salute.

“‘You saw the rally in Ohio the other night,’ she continued… ‘Trump is there ranting and raving for more than an hour, and you have these rows of young men with their arms raised. I thought, “What is going on?”’…

“Clinton’s comments come after President Joe Biden at the beginning of September referred to the ‘MAGA’ voters of Trump as a threat to the United States.”

The verbal assassinations on all sides, with potential PRACTICAL consequences, are increasing.

Newsom Guilty of Biblical Distortion

Fox News wrote on September 22:

“Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom is taking flak from Christians who are offended by his multi-state billboard campaign that promotes abortion by quoting Jesus. Last week, Newsom took to Twitter to tout the billboards his gubernatorial campaign is erecting in Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi and four other ‘anti-freedom’ states where abortion is restricted or outlawed. Some versions of the billboards, all of which urge women in such states to come to California to get abortions, advertise the state’s easily obtainable abortions by quoting Mark 12:31, where Jesus says, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no greater commandment than these.’…

“The idea that Newsom is using the words of Jesus Christ, the Holy Scriptures, to promote the killing of unborn children as somehow loving and commanded by God is quite frankly disgusting,’ said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law & Justice, in a statement to Fox News Digital…

“Many Twitter users echoed Sekulow’s sentiment, including Matthew P. Schneider, a Roman Catholic priest who serves as adjunct professor of theology at Belmont Abbey College in Charlotte, North Carolina. He described Newsom’s billboards as ‘one of the [worst] distortions of a Bible passage I’ve ever seen.’ ‘Shame on [Newsom] and his government,’ Schneider said. ‘The most basic level of loving your neighbor as yourself is not killing your neighbor, yet that’s exactly what abortion does.’…

“‘Good Catholic’ [Newsom] is now using Bible scriptures to encourage women to come to California to abort their babies,’ wrote David Giglio, a former congressional candidate who is also a Catholic. ‘A truly shameful display…’”

Other leading Democrats have taken similar positions as Newsom on the issue of abortion, when citing the Bible.

The US Government… Not To Be Trusted

On September 22, the Ron Paul Institute republished the following article by the Rutherford Institute:

“The US government has become a master of deceit… This is a government that lies, cheats, steals, spies, kills, maims, enslaves, breaks the laws, overreaches its authority, and abuses its power at almost every turn; treats its citizens like faceless statistics and economic units to be bought, sold, bartered, traded, and tracked; and wages wars for profit, jails its own people for profit, and has no qualms about spreading its reign of terror abroad.

“Worse, this is a government that has become almost indistinguishable from the evil it claims to be fighting…

“With every passing day, it becomes painfully clear that this is not a government that can be trusted with your life, your loved ones, your livelihood or your freedoms….

“[We] have the makings of a restructuring of reality straight out of Orwell’s 1984, where the Ministry of Truth polices speech and ensures that facts conform to whatever version of reality the government propagandists embrace.

“We’ve already seen this play out on the state and federal level with hate crime legislation that cracks down on so-called ‘hateful’ thoughts and expression, encourages self-censoring and reduces free debate on various subject matter.

“The end goal of these mind-control campaigns—packaged in the guise of the greater good—is to see how far the American people will allow the government to go in re-shaping the country in the image of a totalitarian police state.

“The government’s fear-mongering is yet another key element in its mind-control programming. National crises, global pandemics, reported terrorist attacks, and sporadic shootings leave us in a constant state of fear. The emotional panic that accompanies fear actually shuts down the prefrontal cortex or the rational thinking part of our brains…

“Fear not only increases the power of government, but it also divides the people into factions, persuades them to see each other as the enemy and keeps them screaming at each other so that they drown out all other sounds…”

Biden’s Embarrassing Errors

The New York Post wrote on September 28:

“President Biden asked for the late Rep. Jackie Walorski to identify herself at a Washington event Wednesday, forgetting that the Indiana Republican died in a car crash last month. Biden made the embarrassing error while thanking bipartisan members of Congress at a nutrition event near the White House. ‘I want to thank all of you here, including bipartisan elected officials like Representative [Jim] McGovern, Senator [Mike] Braun, Senator [Cory] Booker, Representative Jackie — are you here? Where’s Jackie? — I think she was going to be here,’ the president said.

“Biden, 79, is the oldest-ever president and his mental acuity is regularly questioned by his political foes…

“The White House on Aug. 3 released a statement from Biden mourning [Jackie] Walorski after she perished in an Indiana wreck alongside her press secretary, Emma Thomson, and St. Joseph County Republican Party chairman Zachery Potts… ‘Jill and I are shocked and saddened by the death of Congresswoman Jackie Walorski of Indiana along with two members of her staff in a car accident today in Indiana,’ Biden said at the time… The flag atop the White House was flown at half-staff for two days after Walorski’s death and the congresswoman’s brother, Keith Walorski, told the Post that Biden called the family to offer his condolences.

“Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, allege that Biden is in mental decline. Those claims resurfaced after video showed first lady Jill Biden directed her husband where to go during another event Wednesday celebrating the Americans with Disabilities Act…

“Biden’s record of forehead-slapping statements includes asking Missouri state Sen. Chuck Graham to stand up during a 2008 campaign event — before realizing too late that Graham was in a wheelchair…

“The president also has a habit of using improper words at awkward points in speeches. During a Middle East trip in July, for example, Biden told an audience in Israel that ‘we must … keep alive the truth and honor the Holocaust’ before correcting himself to say ‘horror of the Holocaust.’  Days later, in Saudi Arabia, Biden said during a speech: ‘We’ll always honor the bravery and selfishness — selflessness of the — and sacrifices of the Americans who served, including my son, Major Beau Biden, who was stationed in Iraq for a year.’

“Meanwhile, the president has regularly shared stories that either are false or impossible to verify. In January, Biden told students at historically black colleges in Atlanta that he was arrested during civil rights protests — for which there is no evidence. Biden in September 2021 told Jewish leaders that he remembered ‘spending time at’ and ‘going to’ the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh after the mass murder of 11 people there in 2018. The synagogue said he never visited and the White House later said he was thinking about a 2019 phone call to the synagogue’s rabbi.

“Also last September, Biden told an Idaho audience that his ‘first job offer’ came from local lumber and wood products business Boise Cascade. The company said it was news to them and Biden had not previously described an interest in moving to the state.

“And In May, Biden said at the Naval Academy’s graduation ceremony that he was appointed to the military school in 1965 by the late Sen. J. Caleb Boggs (R-Del.). A search of Boggs’ archives failed to turn up evidence of the appointment.”

Canada Removes All COVID-19 Travel Measures

National Post wrote on September 26:

“The federal government is removing all remaining COVID-19 related travel measures, ending masks on planes, vaccine mandates and the mandatory use of the ArriveCan app… Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said the government had been following the science and now believes it is safe to relax these measures, starting Oct. 1.

“‘Based on the data accumulated over the last few weeks and months, we are announcing that the Government of Canada will not renew the order in council that expires on September 30 and will therefore remove all COVID-19 border requirements for all travellers entering Canada,’ he said… He strongly advised Canadians to get vaccinated and receive third or even fourth doses…

“Airlines, airports, tourism associations and other groups all called for the government to abandon the app and vaccine mandates months ago. Many other countries have scrapped similar requirements, though people travelling into the United States are still required to show proof of vaccination.”

It is hoped that the USA will likewise remove all travel restrictions very soon.

Russia’s Desperate Attempts to Win the War

AFP wrote on September 25:

“Russia on Saturday toughened penalties for voluntary surrender and refusal to fight with up to 10 years imprisonment, and replaced its top logistics general after a series of setbacks to its seven-month war in Ukraine. The tough new amendments and personnel change come days after Russia instigated partial mobilization with Kyiv taking back more and more territory in a counter-offensive. It also comes as Kremlin-held regions of eastern and southern Ukraine voted for a second day on becoming part of Russia, dramatically raising the stakes. Integrating the four regions into Russia would mean that Moscow would consider any military move there as an attack on its own territory…

“Military-age men have sought to leave, with flights full and neighboring countries receiving an influx of Russians, including Georgia where 2,300 private vehicles were waiting to enter at one crossing, regional Russian authorities said… A separate law, also signed on Saturday, facilitates Russian citizenship for foreigners who enlist in the Russian army as the Kremlin seeks to bolster its ranks…

“UN investigators on Friday accused Russia of committing war crimes on a ‘massive scale’ in Ukraine — listing bombings, executions, torture and horrific sexual violence. In the eastern Kharkiv region, Ukrainian officials said they had exhumed 447 bodies from a site near the city of Izyum, which was recaptured from Russian forces. The Kremlin has accused Kyiv of fabricating evidence of the alleged war crimes.”

Newsmax wrote on September 25:

“The United States warned on Sunday of ‘catastrophic consequences’ if Moscow were to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, after Russia’s foreign minister said regions holding widely-criticized referendums would get full protection if annexed by Moscow…”

The U.S. Sun wrote on September 28:

“RUSSIA claims to have won the ‘SHAM’ referendums as voting ended in Russian-held regions of Ukraine. Moscow-installed officials in the regions are now claiming almost total support among those who took part as Russian sources reported that 96% of voters want to join Putin’s regime.

“The ballots closed in Donetsk and Lugansk in the east and Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south… Western leaders have already slammed the votes.”

Nord Stream Pipeline Network Sabotaged?

Breitbart wrote on September 21:

“The Kremlin said on Tuesday that it cannot rule out ‘sabotage’ as the cause of significant damage to the Nord Stream pipeline network that carries gas from Russia to Germany. The same thought occurred to various European officials as they turned gimlet eyes upon Russia as a potential suspect…

“‘The multiple undersea leaks mean neither pipeline will likely deliver any gas to the EU over the coming winter, irrespective of political developments in the Ukraine war. Depending on the scale of the damage, the leaks could even mean a permanent closure of both lines,’ a notice from the Eurasia Group, a risk consulting firm, said on Tuesday… ‘We are talking about three leaks with some distance between them, and that’s why it is hard to imagine that it is a coincidence,’ Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen observed.”

Germany’s Olaf Scholz Battle With the New York Times

The New York Times wrote on September 25:

“Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany gets right to the point when asked why his country will not send battle tanks to Ukraine: It is ‘a very dangerous war,’ he said. Ukraine has made gains recently against Russia, which invaded the country in February, and has been asking the West for reinforcements. But Germany has declined to lead the way in sending that aid… it took months and the threat of a parliamentary vote before [Scholz] approved any shipments of heavy weapons…

“But Mr. Scholz has refused to provide Ukraine with Leopard battle tanks or Marder infantry fighting vehicles, which Ukrainian officials have repeatedly asked for… Mr. Scholz’s refusal — which goes against the will of many even inside his own governing coalition — has earned him noisy and near-unanimous criticism among Germany’s Eastern European neighbors, not least in Ukraine. Commanders along the front say the Germans’ reluctance to provide battle tanks points to a policy of seeking a negotiated settlement along existing lines, rather than a Ukrainian success in pushing out the Russians…

“Pressed on that question in the interview with The Times, Mr. Scholz bristled. ‘Leadership does not mean you do what people ask you,’ he said. ‘Leadership is about taking the right decisions and to be very strong. And this is what I’m doing.’… In the interview, Mr. Scholz rejected any suggestion that the United States might in fact welcome Germany’s stepping up and taking the lead on sending battle tanks, which are cumbersome to transport, especially across an ocean… But after Ukraine’s successful counteroffensive, the U.S. Embassy in Berlin posted on Twitter what many interpreted as a veiled invitation to Germany: ‘We call on all allies and partners to lend as much support as possible to Ukraine in its struggle for democratic sovereignty,’ the embassy tweeted. ‘The decision on the type of aid ultimately lies with each country.’

“This month’s battlefield gains by Ukrainian forces have only added to the pressure on Mr. Scholz, whose government has cited different reasons at different times for not sending tanks. After Mr. Scholz’s defense minister, Christine Lambrecht, said this month that Germany had to hold onto its tanks to fulfill its obligations to NATO, the alliance’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said that arming Ukraine was more important…

“Even within Germany, impatience has been building. ‘All of Europe is waiting for Germany to make the first step,’ said Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, a member of the Free Democrats, one of the three parties in Mr. Scholz’s coalition government, and the head of the parliamentary defense committee.

“Mr. Scholz’s caution was also evident during the interview in his reluctance to detail his own vision for how the war might end… Did he want Ukraine to win? ‘Russia can’t win,’ was as far as he would go…

“For a chancellor with a robotic manner that long ago earned him the nickname ‘Scholz-o-mat,’ there were moments during the sometimes tense interview with The Times when Mr. Scholz was surprisingly emotional when reacting to questions that challenged him. Several times, he berated journalists for asking those. Asked why Germany will still not spend 2 percent of gross domestic product on military spending in the next couple of years, as Mr. Scholz has said it would, he snapped: ‘Asking that question is not serious, to be very honest.’…

“But Mr. Putin’s veiled threat last week of a tactical nuclear strike when he was announcing the force buildup and promising to see the war through has been resonating in Berlin. ‘Unfortunately, nuclear blackmail seems to be working in Germany,’ said Claudia Major, the head of security policy at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in Berlin. ‘If the chancellor is serious about leading, he will have to show initiative and, yes, step up,’ Ms. Major said. ‘Doing a lot and leading is not the same thing.’”

Scholz’s claim that he is a strong leader is a bad joke.. and a tragic self-illusion… His inability to lead is more than obvious.

Italy’s Move to the Right

ABC News wrote on September 24:

“Giorgia Meloni, leader of Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy), could become the first female prime minister in the history of Italy…

“The archconservative of Italian politics, Meloni entered politics at age 15 in 1992, joining the neo-fascist Social Movement, a group with pronounced sympathy for Benito Mussolini, the country’s dictator from 1925 to 1945. Fratelli d’Italia’s party imagery evokes Italy’s fascist past…

“The collapse of Draghi’s government in July threw Italy into a familiar political tumult… The right wing, though, has joined forces. Polls indicate Meloni will be the leading conservative finisher on Sunday; her government’s junior partners would be Matteo Salvini, leader of the League, and Silvio Berlusconi, the head of the center-right Forza Italia. Berlusconi, the media tycoon and conservative firebrand, rose to power in 1994 and won three stints as prime minister, in total the longest serving premier in the post-war era. Salvini has been seen as the conservative in the wings of Palazzo Chigi, while Meloni had led the smaller Fratelli d’Italia, distant from the mainstream…

“Anticipation for a far-right surge in Rome, which would follow closely behind Tuesday’s stunning electoral victory for the Swedish Democrats, a party with neo-Nazi origins, has already provoked barbed remarks from Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission chief. Von der Leyen was not keen to veil Brussels’ posture toward a government that could move to subvert democracy…”

Deutsche Welle wrote on September 26:

“The center-right coalition led by nationalist Giorgia Meloni secured a parliamentary majority in Italy’s general elections on Sunday, according to exit polls… the main center-left group, the Democratic Party, conceded defeat… Although she has been known for her euroskeptic stance, she has abandoned her calls for Rome to ditch the eurozone. Instead, she wants Italy to assert its interests more in the European Union.

“Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his Polish counterpart, Mateusz Morawiecki, congratulated Meloni after exit polls showed that her coalition was winning. ‘In these difficult times, we need more than ever friends who share a common vision and approach to Europe’s challenges,’ said Orban’s political adviser Balazs Orban. Lawmakers from the German far-right AfD party and the French National Rally party have also hailed the right-wing victory in Italy. ‘We celebrate with Italy!’ AfD lawmaker Beatrix von Storch wrote late Sunday on Twitter. ‘Sweden in the north, Italy in the south: left-wing governments are yesterday’s news,’ she wrote…

“Given the complicated electoral system and the likelihood of coalition negotiations, the first session of the new parliament and formation of a new government is liable to take weeks, as it tends to in Germany after a national vote.”

The Associated Press wrote on September 26:

“Differences among Meloni’s potential coalition partners could loom. She has solidly backed the supplying of Ukraine with arms to defend itself against Russia’s invasion. In contrast, right-wing League leader Matteo Salvini, who before the war was a staunch admirer of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has voiced concern that Western sanctions could end up hurting Italy’s economic interests more that punishing Russia’s.

“Former Premier Silvio Berlusconi, another long-time Putin admirer, has said that his inclusion in a center-right bloc’s coalition would guarantee that Italy stays firmly anchored in the European Union and one of its most reliable members…

“What kind of government the eurozone’s third-largest economy might be getting was being closely watched in Europe, given Meloni’s criticism of ‘Brussels bureaucrats’ and her ties to other right-wing leaders. She recently defended Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban after the European Commission recommended suspending billions of euros in funding to Hungary over concerns about democratic backsliding and the possible mismanagement of EU money.”

Further developments in Italy could be significant, from a prophetic standpoint.

What Italy’s Election Could Mean for the USA

On September 26, The Ron Paul Institute wrote the following:

“Sunday was an historic election day for Italy. A conservative alliance with a populist flair absolutely trounced the technocrats who had been running the country into the ground for the past several years. The previous prime minister, former Goldman Sachs banker Mario Draghi, implemented one of the most restrictive – and inhuman – Covid shutdowns, which, along with supporting economically suicidal sanctions against Russia, have left Italy an economic basket case…

“Ironically, the democratic victory of Meloni and the rest of the Italian right likely owes a great deal of gratitude to one of Europe’s most undemocratic and anti-democratic leaders: European Union Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen… her message to Italian voters was ‘yes you can vote, but if you vote in a way I do not approve of, you will be punished.’ Italians rushed to vote in a way she did not approve of. It will be interesting to see what happens.

“How does any of this relate to the United States as the US moves closer to the midterm elections? Americans have also been given warnings by the political elites that they dare not vote for the ‘wrong’ candidates or parties.

“On September 1st, President Biden issued a warning similar to that of Europe’s von der Leyen. In one of the most bizarre speeches in political history, Biden warned that Trump supporters ‘…are determined to take this country backwards — backwards to an America where there is no right to choose, no right to privacy, no right to contraception, no right to marry who you love. They promote authoritarian leaders, and they fan the flames of political violence that are a threat to our personal rights, to the pursuit of justice, to the rule of law, to the very soul of this country.’… it was a declaration of war against half of the country.”

It is also very interesting that America has been taken backwards under Biden in many different ways when considering the threats and attempts of abandoning constitutional rights of America’s citizens.

British Pound at All Time Low

BBC wrote on September 27:

“The pound has fallen to a record low against the dollar… If the pound stays at low levels against the dollar, imports of commodities priced in dollars, including oil and gas, will be more costly. Other imported goods could also become considerably more expensive, further pushing up inflation which is already at its highest rate for decades….

“Many people don’t think about exchange rates until it’s time to swap money for a foreign holiday. When you travel abroad, things will be more expensive if the pound buys less of the local currency. However, a fall in the pound affects household finances too.

“If the pound is worth less, the cost of importing goods from overseas goes up. For example, as oil is priced in dollars a weak pound can make filling up your car with petrol more expensive. Gas is also priced in dollars.

“Technology goods, like iPhones, that are made abroad, may get more expensive in UK shops. Even things that are made in the UK but from parts that are bought abroad can get much more expensive.”

The Catholic Church and Antichrist

LifeSiteNews wrote on September 23:

“Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller revealed in a new interview that during the discussions at the recent 29–30 August meeting of the College of Cardinals in Rome, a newly appointed cardinal and key papal advisor suggested that the power of the Pope over the Church is ‘unlimited.’ Müller reported that Cardinal Gianfranco Ghirlanda, S.J., a canon lawyer who helped the Pope with his curial reform, presented the ‘theory of the papacy as an unlimited power of divine right over the whole Church, as if the Pope were a Deus in terris [God on earth].’

“The German cardinal explained further that the ‘new cardinal Ghirlanda, S.J, as the most important advisor to the Pope in the reform of the curia, holds the view that everything the popes have ever said or done in the history of the Church is a dogma or a law de jure divino [by divine right].’…

“Müller made it clear that ‘the Pope has no authority to change the teaching of the Church.’ That teaching, he expounded, is ‘anchored in the revelation of God.’ ‘For in doing so, he would exalt himself as a man above God,’ he added.

“…the German bishops think they can make up a new teaching that is not loyal to the Church’s constant teaching. They do not only want to change the Church in Germany, the German prelate explained, but they want to carry their reforms to Rome. ‘In their blind arrogance,’ he stated, ‘they are not thinking of schism, but of taking over the Universal Church…They claim the leading role in the Universal Church.’… And here Cardinal Müller made a reference to the Antichrist: ‘Their [the German bishops’] goal is the transformation of the Church of the Triune God into a worldly welfare organization (NGO).

“‘Then we would finally have arrived at the “religion of universal brotherhood,” i.e. a religion without the God of revelation in Christ, without a truth that reaches beyond finite reason, without dogmas and sacraments as means of grace necessary for salvation – just as the great Russian religious philosopher Vladimir Soloviev described it in his writing Short Narrative of the Antichrist (1899). The world ruler of the universal philanthropy without God is contradicted here by Pope Peter II by hurling the confession against the Antichrist, who has spread himself on the throne of God…

“‘The German cardinal reminded Catholics of their duty, in light of this extreme Church crisis, to defy the commands of the Antichrist and his minions and to stay loyal to Jesus Christ and witness to Him… In a world where people presume to be God, to recreate themselves and to redeem themselves (cf. the main advisor of the New World Order: Yuval Noah Harari, Homo Deus [Man is God]), for us Christians there remains only the testimony of the word and, if necessary, of blood, that only the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is our Savior, because He has overcome the world, its arrogance and its sin and death as the wages of sin.’”

The reality is, popes have exalted themselves above God, and the final representative will do so even more. He will sit in the temple of God, claiming to be God. This, in conjunction with other developments, will be the ultimate fulfillment of the “abomination of desolation.”

 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.

Western Values Which Westerners Don’t Value

On September 16, the Ron Paul Institute republished the following article by Caitlin Johnston:

“Have you ever noticed how those who shriek the loudest about tyranny in foreign countries are always the same people calling for the censorship and deplatforming of anyone who criticizes the western empire?… Anyone — and I do mean anyone — who aggressively and consistently criticizes the foreign policy of the US and its allies in front of a sizeable audience gets branded a Russian agent by empire apologists…

“Defenders of the western empire won’t admit to wanting all empire critics silenced, but that’s what you get… Whenever I criticize the foreign policy of the western empire I get its apologists telling me I’d never be allowed to criticize my rulers like that if I lived in a nation like Russia or China, when they know full well that if it were up to them I wouldn’t be allowed to criticize the western empire here either. They are the same as the tyrants they claim to despise.

“The trouble with ‘western values’ is that westerners don’t value them… all that reverence for free expression and holding power to account with the light of truth goes right out the window the second they see someone saying something that sharply differs from what their rulers and their propagandists have told them to think. Then they want that person silenced and shut down…

“People tell me ‘Move to Russia!’ or ‘Move to China!’… and I always want to tell them, no, you move to Russia. You move to China. You’re the one trying to suppress dissent and criticism of the powerful. I’m the one who is living by western values as they were sold to me and demanding normal scrutiny of the most powerful empire that has ever existed. You don’t belong here…

“It’s obvious with a look around that the ‘western values’ we’re all told about are not actually terribly common in the west. Look at the west’s major media platforms and they virtually never platform anyone who is meaningfully critical of the real centers of power in western civilization. Look at western governments and they continually dance to the beat of oligarchy and empire regardless of how people vote in their supposedly free democratic elections. Look at the internet and it’s actually very difficult to find authentic criticisms of imperial power unless you already know where to look… It’s we marginalized outsiders who are adamantly opposing censorship, propaganda and the empire’s war on the press while continuously working to shine the light of truth on the mechanisms of power from the fringes, while we are being yelled at and accused of treason by mainstream sycophants who have far more in common with the autocrats they claim to oppose than with the western values they purport to uphold.”

Sadly, this is SO true!

The Anointing Oil for King Charles III

Express wrote on September 17:

“The anointing of a monarch is regarded as the most sacred part of the coronation – the only part which is shielded from public view, and which was not televised when the late Queen Elizabeth officially took the crown in 1953. During that section of the ceremony, the Archbishop of Canterbury daubs the head of the monarch with special oil, of a secret recipe that has remained the same across reigns. It is intended to mark their appointment as a religious and spiritual leader for the nation, as well as the head of the Church of England…

“John Bell and Croyden, the Queen’s pharmacy in London, holds the two samples of the oil ‘under lock and key’ at their Marylebone premises. It said it had ‘contacted the palace and are awaiting further instructions’ on the use of the oil in King Charles’ coronation. The current batch of oil was formulated using the same recipe as that which crowned King Charles I in 1626, after the oil used for her father King George VI was destroyed in the Blitz. Several bottles have been made up in the centuries between for various historical reasons, but the use of oil in anointing monarchs in the UK is believed to date back to 973, to the time of King Edgar…

“Though the exact preparation is said to be a well-kept secret [it is said that] the 1952 oil ‘consists of a mixture of sesame and olive oil, perfumed with roses, orange flowers, jasmine, cinnamon, flowers of benzoin, musk, civet and ambergris’…”

King Charles III’s coronation will or may include numerous interesting components and “accessories”… compare our new series of Q&As in this and the next issue.

Queen Victoria’s Crown

The Arlington Daily Dispatch wrote on September 9:

“… an Anglican priest who I have known for decades is searching to find out if the following anecdote — which is circulating once again, for obvious reasons — is real or fiction. It would appear that the original source was one of the queen’s chaplains, or someone close to the chaplain. Here is the reference:

“ONE of the chaplains of her late Majesty, Queen Victoria, had been preaching on the Second Coming of the Lord, and afterward, in conversation with the preacher, the Queen exclaimed: ‘Oh! how I wish that the Lord would come in my lifetime!’ ‘Why,’ asked the chaplain, ‘does your Majesty feel this very earnest desire?’ The Queen replied with quivering lips, and her whole countenance lighted up by deep emotion: ‘I should so love to lay my crown at His feet.’”

This episode, if true, would be remarkable, given the fact, as is being pointed out in our new Q&As, that Queen Victoria apparently believed that she was Jewish and a direct descendant of King David, which would mean that she also believed that she was sitting on the Throne of David, and that the British crown would be transferred to Christ at His return.

The Red Heifer and the Third Temple

Israel 365 wrote on September 16:

“The Temple Institute and Boneh Israel made a huge step towards reinstating the Temple service on Thursday when five red heifers landed at Ben Gurion International Airport. The red heifer was the main component in the Biblically mandated process of ritual purification for impurity that results from proximity or contact with a dead body.  Because the elements needed for this ceremony have been lacking since the destruction of the Second Temple, all Jews today are considered ritually impure, thereby preventing the return of the Temple service. The Temple Institute launched its Red Heifer program about a decade ago, led by Rabbi Azariah Ariel. But even in Temple times, an animal that fulfilled the Biblical requirements was exceedingly rare. Failing to produce a suitable candidate from ranchers in Israel, The Temple Institute began investigating alternative sources for a red heifer.

“Boneh Israel, an organization that connects Christian lovers of Israel to the Holy Land, stepped in to help. Led by Byron Stinson, a native Texan, Boneh Israel understood ranchers. ‘I didn’t set out to do this, but right now, I am probably the best red heifer hunter in Texas,’ Byron quipped. ‘The Bible says to bring a red cow to purify Israel, and I may not understand it, but I am just doing what the Bible said… The prophecies came true, and the Jews are back in Israel,’ Byron said. ‘Now they need to build a Temple… The red heifer is the key to making the Temple work like it’s supposed to.’…

“From the time of Moses, who personally prepared the first heifer, until the destruction of the Temple, only nine red heifers were prepared. Nonetheless, this was sufficient to maintain the ritual purity of the entire nation for almost 2,000 years. According to Jewish tradition, there will only be ten red heifers in human history with the tenth heifer ushering in the Messianic era…”

Even though the Bible does NOT require the existence and sacrifice of a red heifer prior to the building of the Temple, many orthodox Jews believe in its necessity.

Blowing the Shofar and Rebuilding the Temple

Israel Today wrote on September 18:

“Three Jewish men were detained by the Jerusalem Police for questioning on Sunday after they blew a shofar outside the Temple Mount, reported TPS. They are being accused of ‘provocations’ and disturbing the peace. The three ‘offenders’ were identified as: Former Member of Knesset Yehudah Glick; Tom nisani, head of the Beyadenu… [and] Emanuel Brosh, also a leader of Beyadenu.

“All three men are activists for a return of Jewish prayer to the Temple Mount, and the eventual rebuilding of the biblical Temple. The present status quo bars Jews from expressions of faith and religion at the Temple Mount, despite it being Judaism’s holiest site.”

JNS wrote on September 18:

“The first shofar blast in the Bible is a supernatural one: at the foot of Mount Sinai, the Jews [the Israelites] are gathered and hear the sound of the shofar, presumably from the lips of God Himself… There is an etymological link between the Hebrew term for ‘shepherd,’ ro’eh, and the term we identify with shofar blasts, t’ruah….

“Leviticus proclaims the first day of the seventh month—Rosh Hashanah—yom t’ruah, a ‘day of blasts.’ On Yom Kippur, every 49 years, the Jubilee is ushered in with the sound of a ‘broken blast.’… In the Temple, priests blew shofars to mark the new moon and as part of the regular musical service of the Levites…. Even in Temple times, it was used to warn of approaching danger, mark the onset of Shabbat (before the advent of clocks) and crown a new king—a practice preserved in modern-day Israel when a new president is sworn in. And it was used in war. In the book of Judges, Gideon and his army of 300 intimidate the much more numerous Midianites with some primitive pyrotechnics accompanied by shofar blasts. Perhaps most famously, at the command of God and under the direction of Joshua, the walls of Jericho collapse at the sound of seven shofars…

“Rosh Hashanah also became the day when, with shofar blasts, the Jewish people crown God as their king… Laden with such history and significance, it’s little wonder that in modern times, the shofar became a symbol of Jewish identity and continuity, blown in Auschwitz, at the end of World War II and at the liberated Western Wall in 1967…”

Even the continued existence and blowing of the shofar keeps the Jewish desire for a third temple very much alive.

Pope Rebuked Over Liberal Abortion Views

LifeStiteNews wrote on September 16:

“Four bishops, several priests, and numerous Catholic scholars have signed a statement rebuking Pope Francis for a recent statement about the reception of Holy Communion, according to which ‘everyone is invited to the supper of the wedding of the Lamb (Re 19:9). To be admitted to the feast all that is required is the wedding garment of faith which comes from the hearing of his Word.’ The Pope wrote these words in his June 29 Apostolic Letter on the liturgy… but for the signatories of this new statement… he omitted the ‘essential topic of repentance for sin for the worthy reception of the Eucharist.’… They explain:

“The Catholic Church has always taught that in order to receive the Holy Eucharist worthily and without sin, Catholics must receive sacramental absolution, if possible, for any mortal sins they may have committed and obey all other laws of the Church concerning reception of the Eucharist (as, for example, the laws concerning fasting prior to reception of the Eucharist).

“If a sacramental confession is not possible, but the reception of Holy Communion urgent (such as for a priest celebrating Mass), the Sacrament of Penance has to be sought as soon as possible afterwards, and the penitent must have perfect contrition for his mortal sins. By extensively quoting from the Council of Trent’s documents, the signatories also make it clear that such teachings as presented in Pope Francis’ document have already been condemned as heresy. ‘The claim,’ they write, ‘that faith is the only requirement for worthy reception of the Holy Eucharist was condemned by the Council of Trent as a heresy.’

“This false teaching might become more important now at this historic moment. Only in May, a U.S. Bishop – Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone – publicly banned Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, from receiving Holy Communion because she is defying the Church’s teaching against abortion. ‘A Catholic legislator,’ he then wrote, ‘who supports procured abortion, after knowing the teaching of the Church, commits a manifestly grave sin which is a cause of most serious scandal to others.’

“It nearly looks as if Pope Francis’s June 2022 document is a response to that diocesan ruling, now stating that faith alone is sufficient for receiving Holy Communion….”

The disagreements and rifts within the Catholic Church about the  Eucharist will not go away. The tragedy is that all sides are wrong. The Eucharist is a false concept based on a false understanding of the Passover. In addition, Revelation 19:9 has nothing to do with the issue at hand. But the controversy within the Catholic Church between liberals (led by Francis) and conservatives (looking at Benedict as their guide) continues.

Biden Declares That the COVID Pandemic Is Over. But This Means Nothing!

The New York Post wrote on September 18:

“The pandemic is essentially over, right?…  It was only June when unvaccinated Canadians were finally allowed to leave the country, for reasons unclear to anyone. The vaccine doesn’t prevent transmission, so how did it make sense to keep the unvaccinated behind the frozen curtain? It didn’t. But that’s Canada. It’s completely lost the plot with COVID… America wouldn’t behave like that, right? Except we are…

“The fractured trust between Americans and our institutions will be immeasurable. And the damage continues… Studies show the vaccine’s effectiveness wears off after a few months and transmission can happen at any time. Forced compliance for the fun of it should not be health policy.

“And no, boosters don’t mean you’re any safer. In fact, the Biden administration isn’t labeling the latest shot a ‘booster’ at all. White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre called it a ‘new vaccine.’ You [the fully vaccinated] might find yourself back with the ‘unvaccinated’ sooner than you think…

“It’s maddening… We have won absolutely nothing with these vaccine mandates — but will have lost so much. Politicians did so many backward, horrible things in the name of safety throughout COVID. The continuing vaccine mandates are a reminder that… the harm goes on.”

The “scientific” incompetence of politicians and their medical “advisors” in their hypocritical approach towards COVID—which is sadly still going on in many parts of the world—has been appalling and terribly harmful.

USA to Defend Taiwan?

Reuters wrote on September 19:

“U.S. President Joe Biden said U.S forces would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion, his most explicit statement so far on the issue. Asked in a CBS 60 Minutes interview broadcast on Sunday whether U.S. forces would defend the democratically governed island claimed by China, he replied: ‘Yes, if in fact, there was an unprecedented attack.’ Asked to clarify if he meant that unlike in Ukraine, U.S. forces – American men and women – would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion, Biden replied: ‘Yes.’

“The interview was just the latest time that Biden has appeared to go beyond long-standing stated U.S. policy on Taiwan, but his statement was clearer than previous ones about committing U.S. troops to the defend the island… In May, Biden was asked if he was willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan and replied… ‘Yes … That’s the commitment we made.’…

“Biden’s remarks are likely to enrage Beijing, which was angered by a visit to Taiwan by U.S. House speaker Nancy Pelosi in August. That visit promoted China to conduct its largest-ever military exercises around Taiwan and China has protested moves by U.S. lawmakers to advanced legislation that would enhance U.S. military support for Taiwan.

“Chinese President Xi Jinping has vowed to bring Taiwan under Beijing’s control and has not ruled out the use of force. Taiwan strongly objects to China’s sovereignty claims… In a phone call with Biden in July, Xi warned about Taiwan, saying ‘those who play with fire will perish by it.’”

It appears that Biden is indeed willing to defend Taiwan militarily with American “boots on the ground” in case of an undefined “unprecedented attack,” even though the White House keeps denying it.

Biden “Warns” Moscow

AFP wrote on September 18:

“US President Joe Biden is warning his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin against using chemical or tactical nuclear weapons in the wake of serious losses in his war in Ukraine. ‘Don’t. Don’t. Don’t,’ Biden said in an excerpt from an interview with CBS’ ‘60 Minutes’ that aired Friday evening… ‘You would change the face of war unlike anything since World War II,’ Biden said. ‘They will become more of a pariah in the world, more than they have ever been,’ the US leader added… Moscow is facing fresh outrage from the West after the discovery of a mass grave outside the formerly Russian-occupied city of Izyum, where, Kyiv officials say, almost all of the exhumed bodies showed signs of torture.

“But Putin remained steadfast, saying his war against Russia’s Western-leaning neighbor was proceeding according to plan. ‘The plan is not subject to adjustment,’ Putin said Friday. ‘Our offensive operations in Donbas itself do not stop. They are going at a slow pace… The Russian army is occupying newer and newer territories.’”

These kinds of vague “warnings” are pretty meaningless.

The Threat of Nuclear War

The Spectator wrote on September 16:

“The world is facing the prospect of its first nuclear attack since the US Air Force dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. Yet that horror arouses little fear or outrage… The vast mass of people don’t care to think about it… we belittle threats that terrified our parents and grandparents… Fears of radiation clouds do not panic the European public…

“The Russian ‘tactical’ weapons that could hit Ukraine are ‘delivered’ by cruise missiles fired from submarines and ships, or from land-based missile launchers…

“The bombs they carry have about 10 kilotons of destructive power. To grasp the devastation 10 kilotons can cause, the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima had a yield of 15 kilotons. It killed about 70,000 people, injured another 70,000 and levelled the city for 12 square kilometres around the blast site. In our time, the explosion that destroyed much of central Beirut in 2020 was less than 1 kiloton. It still stripped steel-framed buildings of their cladding, and left 300,000 people homeless. There’s nothing tactful about tactical weapons…

“Military analysts who believe we can escape a catastrophe must downplay Russian military doctrine and how it envisages the first use of nuclear weapons in conventional wars. They tell us to wipe from our mind, too, of the jeering bullies of Russian state television who deploy threats to go nuclear against Ukraine and the wider West as a matter of course. Underlying their arguments is a belief in Putin’s rationality… Is a man who locked himself away during the pandemic rational? More pertinently does Putin see any rational difference between his interests and Russia’s interests? There’s no reason to think he does. The existential threat to his autocracy that defeat in Ukraine could bring surely appears to him to be an existential threat to Russia itself. The tsar cannot separate the two.

“In these circumstances, we cannot rule out the chance that nuclear terror will return. Neither can we do much to stop it returning. Betraying Ukraine is the only plausible way to remove the possibility of a catastrophe. If we cut off all weapons supplies and left it at Putin’s mercy, then the threat would recede…”

A complacent mankind will have a rude awakening.

Russia, China, India and Pakistan

Insider Paper wrote on September 16:

“Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed the growing influence of ‘new centres of power’ on Friday at a summit with Asian leaders including China’s Xi Jinping. ‘The growing role of new centres of power who cooperate with each other… is becoming more and more clear,’ Putin told the meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in ex-Soviet Uzbekistan…

“The summit has brought together Putin and Xi with the leaders of several Asian countries including India and Pakistan, as Russia looks to show it has not been fully isolated by the conflict in Ukraine.”

In a related article, Insider Paper wrote on September 15:

“A Russian pipeline to China will replace the Nord Stream 2 gas link to Europe, abandoned amid the Ukraine conflict, Moscow’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Thursday… Earlier in the day, the minister, on the sidelines of a visit to Uzbekistan, said Russia and China would soon sign agreements on the delivery of ‘50 billion cubic metres of gas’ per year via the future Force 2 pipeline in Siberia. This volume will almost represent the maximum capacity of Nord Stream 1 — 55 billion cubic metres in total — which has been shut down since September 2…

“Construction is due to start in 2024… Russian gas exports to the EU ‘will drop by around 50 billion cubic metres’ in 2022, Novak said.”

Far Eastern nations are forming to become a new power bloc—the biblical “kings of the East.”

SCO Meets Again

The Jerusalem Post wrote on September 17:

“[The] Shanghai Cooperation Organization [SCO] brought together countries that are close partners of Russia and China… [including Iran and Turkey.]”

Turkey said that it wants to become a member of SCO. While Turkey will ultimately lean more towards Europe than Russia, Iran and other Central Asian countries (all being part of the SCO) might continue to align more strongly with China and Russia. SCO members are China, Russia, India, Pakistan, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

Germany to Become Best-Equipped Force in Europe

Deutsche Welle wrote on September 16:

“German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday once more stressed… the importance of Germany’s armed forces in the new situation. He said Russian President Vladimir Putin was trying to redraw borders with the aim of making Russia an ‘imperial power’ in Europe once more…

“Scholz said Germany had to get used to the fact that Putin’s Russia will define itself as an adversary to it, to NATO and the EU for the foreseeable future. He said that in view of the situation, Germany’s military force must become Europe’s best-equipped. ‘We are making it convincingly clear: Germany is ready to take on leading responsibility for the security of our continent,’ he said. ‘As the most populous country with the greatest economic power and as a country in the middle of the continent, our army must become the cornerstone of conventional defence in Europe: the best-equipped force in Europe,’ he added… ‘The core task of the Bundeswehr is to defend freedom in Europe,’ he said, adding that all other jobs had to take a secondary role…”

As we reported in our last Update, German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht had already said she believed Germany was obliged to play a leading global role, including in the military sphere, and that the country should not be afraid of its responsibility.

Even though the words of Scholz, as such, are pretty meaningless, since he is always wavering and speaking out of both sides of his mouth, the approach is interesting, as he is being pushed to say and echo these words which WILL come true in due time… but not under Scholz and the present Ample coalition, which is a laughing stock and doomed to fall apart.

Germany Wants Weapons From Israel

Israel 365 wrote on September 14:

“Already in early April, reports began surfacing that Berlin is interested in purchasing Israeli-made air- and missile-defense systems, in addition to unmanned aerial vehicles… Monday’s meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin yielded significant clues that a major defense deal is in the works (according to Bloomberg, the cost could be around $2 billion)…

“Germany seems keen to prioritize air defense against Russian missile threats after the latter fired thousands of cruise missiles and an unknown but likely smaller number of ballistic missiles at Ukraine… The Arrow-3 system features advanced radar that constantly scans for threats, and when it detects them, it tracks and dispatches interceptors into the air over a very large area.

“The likely German purchase fits into a larger pattern of growing European defense acquisitions from Israel… Europe as a region is already the leading importer of Israeli defense technology, accounting for 41% of sales in 2021 out of a total of $11.3 billion… The trade will be two-way; Germany is supplying Israel’s most expensive and strategically important platform, the existing Dolphin and future Dakar submarines… These sales reflect extensive, mutual and strategic cooperation on defense, with the Arrow-3 representing a dramatic Israeli export to a Europe that has been permanently changed by Russia’s war against Ukraine.”

The tragedy is that ultimately, Europe will use those Israeli weapons against Israel.

The DOJ’s and the FBI’s Persecution of Trump Supporters

Zero Hedge wrote on September 13:

“Prominent Trump supporter and 2020 election integrity skeptic [MyPillow CEO] Mike Lindell says he was stopped by the FBI Tuesday and had his cell phone seized. While heading home from a hunting trip with a friend, Lindell said he was at a Hardees in Minnesota when ‘cars pulled up in front of us, to the side of us and behind us, and I said “they’re either bad guys or the FBI”’…Well, it turns out they were the FBI. ‘I can’t even imagine that you can take someone’s phone because they want me to be a witness in the Tina Peters case. But I’m not a witness, they just want my phone.’

“Lindell is the latest Trump ally to receive a warrant or subpoena by the FBI. Last week, the Biden DOJ hit dozens of Trump aides and allies with subpoenas as part of their investigation into efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 US election over claims of fraud that handed Joe Biden the White House, as well as the run up to the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot. Interesting how the Biden DOJ waited more than 18 months – right before midterms – to initiate legal action against Trumpworld. And Biden said he wouldn’t weaponize  the Justice Department.”

Newsmax wrote on September 14:

“Trump blasted the FBI through his Truth Social page for questioning Lindell, commenting that he was ‘just raided by the FBI. We are now officially living in a Weaponized Police State, Rigged Elections, and all. Our Country is a laughing stock all over the World. The majesty of the United States is gone…’”

It sure is.

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.

Are We Safer Today Than on September 11, 2001?

Fox News wrote on September 11:

“More than 20 years into the War on Terror and a year after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, terrorism still remains a threat to American security and interests around the globe…

“According to a Washington Post-ABC News poll conducted last year, 49% of Americans believe the country is safer today than it was before 9/11, while 41% believe the U.S. is less safe than it was 21 years ago. The numbers mark a dramatic departure from the same survey two years after the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan. In 2003, 67% of Americans believed the country was safer compared to 27% who said it was less safe. An NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll conducted last year had worse results, with 30% of respondents believing the country is safer than it was before 9/11 compared to 44% who said it is less safe…

“The foothold al Qeada has in Afghanistan provides the organization with two important strategic advantages, safe haven and state sponsorship. Like before September 11, 2001, the terrorist organization can use Afghanistan as a base of operations with little fear, providing safe haven for it to recruit, train, and possibly carry out attacks. However, unlike in 2001, the Taliban completely controlling the country means the organization will have a powerful ally and plenty of protection. Making the threat potentially more deadly is that terrorist organizations have both multiplied their numbers and spread to more far-flung regions of the world, making it difficult for the U.S. to track and fight the organizations on multiple fronts…”

The article also mentions the lack of U.S. commitment to fight… which is in line with Ezekiel 7:14.

More Challenges for the UK

Yahoo! News wrote on September 9:

“It could hardly be a more dramatic start to Liz Truss’ tenure as Britain’s latest prime minister. Barely 48 hours after being formally invited by Queen Elizabeth II to become premier, she found herself faced with the unsettling news Thursday that the beloved 96-year-old monarch had died — an event that instantly plunged the country into grief. Truss and her fledgling Conservative government must now manage the mourning, as well as a complicated, security-laden, emotional state funeral expected to draw heads of state from around the world.

“At the same time, the new prime minister is faced with urgent problems that could quickly boil over into full-blown crises, including runaway energy prices, soaring inflation and Brexit-induced questions over the future of Northern Ireland and Scotland within the United Kingdom…

“Britain has been effectively leaderless in the two months since Truss’ predecessor, Boris Johnson, was forced to resign over a series of ethics scandals and to serve as a lame-duck prime minister until a successor was chosen. Parliament has been mostly paralyzed while the cost-of-living crisis ballooned, gas prices skyrocketed and Britons grew fearful over how to get through the coming winter. The queen’s death now means a further slowdown of some of the workings of government, with parliamentary business suspended during a 10-day mourning period….”

In the end, the irreversible downfall of Great Britain is prophesied.

Queen Elizabeth and King Charles III

The Algemeiner wrote on September 9:

“That Queen Elizabeth II was both Britain’s longest-serving and oldest monarch is a testament to the period of history in which she lived, and upon which she left an indelible mark… Memorable actions, such as staying in London for much of the devastating Blitz wrought by the fighter planes of the German Luftwaffe in 1940 and 1941, fed into a broader narrative of service to her country before anything else…

“Many of the obituaries published since her death noted with amazement that no less than 15 prime ministers were in office during her reign, including Sir Winston Churchill, who was born in 1874, and the newly installed Liz Truss, born in 1975. Each of these prime ministers would dutifully attend a private weekly meeting with the queen to debrief her on current events…

“No one should pretend that Charles will easily fit his mother’s outsized shoes, and he now faces the formidable task of winning the affections of the British people alongside their respect. The knowledge that his mother held onto the throne despite frequent suggestions that she should abdicate in Charles’s favor—so as to avoid the present situation, where he becomes king at the age of 73—will not help in that regard either…

“Nevertheless, the coming days will see an outpouring of prayers for the new monarch’s success, not least from the British Jewish community, which this Shabbat will recite its weekly prayer for the Royal Family with King Charles named as ‘our sovereign lord’ for the very first time. That will be accompanied by a profound sense of sadness that a woman who was integral to British life for nearly a century is suddenly no longer there, together with a modicum of anxiety about what the future might hold. It seems fair, then, to wish King Charles the best of British luck.

“Given what his mother represented, and the high regard in which she was held around the world, he is going to need it.”

Breitbart wrote on September 10:

“King Charles III has been formally proclaimed as monarch following a meeting of the ancient Accession Council  in St James’s Palace…. King Charles also gave a formal oath concerning his constitutional duty relating to the security of the Church of Scotland — a tradition dating back to a time when the Scottish royal family had ascended to the English throne but not yet united the Scottish and English states….”

An upcoming series of Q&As will address this succession of the throne. Neither British “luck” nor prayers for Britain’s “sovereign lord” will prevent Britain’s demise.

Canada’s New Monarch

The Associated Press wrote on September 10:

“King Charles III was officially proclaimed Canada’s monarch Saturday in a ceremony in Ottawa. Charles automatically became king when Queen Elizabeth II died Thursday. But like the ceremony in the United Kingdom hours earlier, the accession ceremony in Canada is a key constitutional and ceremonial step in introducing the new monarch to the country. Charles is now is the head of state in Canada, which is a member of the British Commonwealth of former colonies.

“Overall, the antiroyal movement in Canada is minuscule, meaning that Charles will almost certainly remain king of Canada. One reason is that abolishing the monarchy would mean changing the constitution. That’s an inherently risky undertaking, given how delicately it is engineered to unite a nation of 37 million people that embraces English-speakers, French-speakers, Indigenous tribes and a constant flow of new immigrants…

“Trudeau attended the ceremony where the Chief Herald of Canada read the proclamation on the accession of the new sovereign. Also taking part was Governor General Mary Simon, who is the representative of the British monarch as head of state, a mostly ceremonial and symbolic position. She is an Inuk and is the first Indigenous person to hold the position….”

The glory and power of the “British Commonwealth”—as it had been prophesied in the Bible—is long gone. However, some ceremonial loyalties without any practical consequences are being maintained. Note the next article.

Australia’s New Monarch

The Guardian wrote on September 13:

“Victorian MPs have sworn allegiance to King Charles III in a special sitting of parliament unique to the state following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.  The speaker, Maree Edwards, opened the sitting on Tuesday with a message from the Victorian governor, Linda Dessau, formally announcing the death of the Queen and the ascension of King Charles III to the throne. All 88 lower house MPs were then asked to take an oath or affirmation in which they pledged to be ‘faithful and bear true allegiance to His Majesty and His Majesty’s heirs and successors according to law’… Victoria is the only state or territory which requires members of both houses to swear allegiance to the new monarch after their predecessor’s death under section 23 of its constitution.

“The last time this occurred was on 14 February 1952, eight days after the death of Queen Elizabeth II’s father, King George VI…

“Condolences will continue in both houses for much of Tuesday before parliament adjourns for one week as a mark of respect. It will return for two final sitting days next week ahead of the November state election.

“In NSW, a brief sitting of parliament was held on Tuesday morning, with the premier, Dominic Perrottet, moving a motion to profess ‘profound sorrow’ at the death of the ‘beloved sovereign’. He then moved a separate motion congratulating King Charles III on his ascension to the throne, swearing ‘unswerving loyalty’ and wishing a ‘long and happy’ reign ‘marked by peace and prosperity throughout NSW and Australia.’”

There is discussion in Australia about the future of the monarchy, but it was felt that now was not the time to pursue that matter.

Europe to Become Autonomous?

FP [Foreign Policy] wrote on September 8:

“Russia’s war in Ukraine, Europe’s military weakness, and the United States’ outsized role in the Western response have led many officials and observers to conclude that now is finally the time to ensure Europe can defend itself—and become an autonomous strategic actor. Last week, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz joined the chorus calling for a ‘stronger, more sovereign, geopolitical European Union.’ Claiming that Washington’s focus has shifted to competition with China in the Indo-Pacific, he concluded that ‘Europe is our future.’

“…the European Union has almost 450 million people, a GDP of $18 trillion, and more $200 billion in defense spending by its member countries…

“Europe could do more but remains unwilling… Germany, France, and Italy combined have pledged less to Ukraine than Poland on its own, even though their collective GDP is almost 14 times larger…

“Who would control an EU army? Would Germany—let alone France—agree to be blocked by Hungary (if war needs a unanimous decision among EU members) or be outvoted (if a majority suffices)? Which country’s electorates would tolerate their government passing decisions literally over the life and death of thousands of citizens to EU institutions?…”

The author argues against European autonomy and pleads for staying under the US umbrella. But biblical prophecy shows that the opposite will happen. In times of ongoing crises, ten European core nations or groups of nations will transfer their power and authority to a future charismatic military leader of German or Austrian descent; and this new power bloc will be antagonistic towards the USA.

Germany’s Army (Bundeswehr) Gains Momentum

The Los Angeles Times wrote on September 8:

“In the not-so-distant past, the reputation of the Bundeswehr — the successor force to the infamous Nazi-era Wehrmacht — was less than stellar. Some members, especially conscripts, did their best to keep a low public profile. Few young people aspired to join. Starved of funds, shrunken in size, the military was almost invisible to the public… After the depredations of World War II, framers of the country’s postwar order initially envisioned Germany having no military at all. But a divided Germany was the Cold War’s ground zero for a tense standoff between the West and the members of the Warsaw Pact, led by the Soviet Union. At its height, the Bundeswehr belonged to the former West Germany and fielded almost half a million troops…

“The military draft remained in effect until 2011, but many young Germans sought to avoid conscription by applying to do some form of civilian service instead, such as working in a hospital…

“To a German public deeply shocked by events in Ukraine, the Bundeswehr — which has concerned itself mainly with foreign peacekeeping and natural disasters at home — is now seen as an indispensable guarantor of security... Recruiters are seeking to capitalize on that more dynamic image. A new Bundeswehr video titled ‘We Protect Germany’ features action-heavy scenes of fast-moving tanks and helicopter-borne troops swooping in to land.

“Germany’s Green Party has been an intriguing barometer of changing sentiment. A heavyweight in the current coalition government and deeply rooted in the antiwar movements of the 1970s and 1980s, the left-leaning, environmental-minded party has probably made the most stunning U-turn in Germany’s recent political history, backing continued weapons shipments and a tough stance toward autocratic governments like those in Beijing and Moscow.”

How times have changed. The once—more or less— pacifistic approach of many Germans has turned to a more military outlook and is returning to and embracing Germany’s problematic and frightening original roots. All of this has been prophesied to happen for these end times. The last and final European revival of the ancient Roman Empire, leading to the return of Jesus Christ, is in full swing. Note the next short article as well.

Germany to Play a Leading Military Role

Deutsche Welle wrote on September 12:

“German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said on Monday she believed Germany was obliged to play a leading global role, including in the military sphere, and that the country should not be afraid of the responsibility.

“‘Germany’s size, its geographical situation, its economic power — in short, its clout — makes us a leading power whether or not we want to be one. Militarily as well,’ she said in a keynote security address in Berlin.”

The signs of the time…

Putin Threatens to Cut Off Europe’s Energy Supplies

The Sun wrote on September 7:

“Vladimir Putin has threatened to cut off Europe’s energy supplies completely.He vowed to axe all ‘gas, coal and heating oil’ if the EU imposes a price cap this winter… He fumed: ‘We will not supply anything.’… [He] blasted EU plans as ‘stupid’ and vowed Russia would renege on deals to supply gas through the Nord Stream pipeline.

“Addressing a forum in Vladivostok, he said: ‘Will there be any political decisions that contradict the contracts? Yes, we just won’t fulfil them. We will not supply anything at all if it contradicts our interests.’… Putin switched off Nord Stream One gas supplies last week for unspecified repairs and threatened not to restore them until sanctions are lifted.”

Predictably, EU ministers seem to be caving in to Russia.

Deutsche Welle wrote on September 10:

“European energy ministers have disagreed on a price cap on Russian gas, and want the EU Commission to rework proposals to shield Europeans from increasing energy prices… The biggest sticking point appeared to be whether and how to impose a price cap on the amount the bloc pays for Russian gas… Member states in central and eastern Europe who still get gas from Russia feared retaliation by Moscow.”

Reports were published about Ukraine’s surprise advances in certain key regions in Eastern Ukraine and Russia’s retreat there to “regroup.” But it has also been stated that the war will drag on for months. Ultimately, Russia and Ukraine will unite, and as Ukraine is temporarily victorious in certain regions, Putin’s wrath is kindled… especially against Europe which is sanctioning Russia and supporting Ukraine with weapons and money.

When the Lights Go Out…

The Guardian wrote on September 11:

“That Robert Habeck, Germany’s economy minister in his recent, pre-ministerial life, wrote a children’s book in which a girl called Emily experiences ‘how exciting a night-time power cut can be’ may yet come back to haunt him. These days, Habeck is charged with the daunting task of ensuring that the lights do not go out… in Europe’s largest economy. And even if Germans have been hoarding candles and camping stoves, just as not so long ago they were doing with toilet paper and pasta, they consider the prospect of a blackout and cold homes to be scary rather than exciting. Reports of people illegally felling trees for fuel have brought back memories of postwar squalor, when Berlin’s Tiergarten park was stripped bare as Germans tried to keep warm.

“But a blackout is not so unrealistic since Moscow closed down the Nord Stream 1 pipeline more than a week ago… Bakers in northern Germany on Thursday turned off their lights in protest at the way they had been excluded from the government’s unwieldy sounding Energiekostendämpfungsprogramm, to provide help towards the bills of energy intensive industries, from glass to wallpaper manufacturers. ‘Lights today, ovens tomorrow?’ was the slogan posted on the door of a bakery in the well-to-do Hamburg district of Blankenese. ‘Bread could yet become a luxury good that only rich people can afford,’ the owner said, desperate for recognition that her gas provider had cancelled her contract and she was facing a monthly gas bill that had gone from €3,800 (£3,300) to €8,000…

“Energy specialists say that despite Scholz’s insistence that Germany would have enough energy to get through the winter, it is too early to be optimistic. Already in a colder than usual September, consumption has been higher than expected… Germany now faces nothing less than weighing up which is greater – its angst over atomic power or a blackout.”

Putin Counts on a Strong Winter

The Hill wrote on September 11:

“As the summer war in Ukraine transitions into autumn and the harvesting of sunflowers begins, repeated Russian military setbacks in the Donbas region and Kherson Oblast are forcing Vladimir Putin to show his hand. Impatient to reverse course on the battlefield, the Russian president is signaling that Moscow fully intends to weaponize Europe’s winter energy needs — for not just Ukraine but the entire European Union.

“Putin is gambling on a brutally cold and snowy winter like that of 1941, which helped derail the German army’s attack on Moscow during Operation Barbarossa. Theoretically, the Kremlin’s strategic aim is to produce an energy crisis in the dead of a European winter to break the will of NATO from continuing to militarily and economically support Kyiv. The underlying assumption is that Europeans would choose warmth and comfort over Ukraine’s independence.”

The author continues that Putin’s approach will not work, but time will tell…

The Fear of Nuclear War

Yahoo! Sports wrote on September 12:

“…comments from Ukraine’s top general last week point to a significant threat… ‘There is a direct threat of the use, under certain circumstances, of tactical nuclear weapons by the Russian armed forces,’ General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, writes in an article published by state news agency Ukrinform. ‘It is also impossible to completely rule out the possibility of the direct involvement of the world’s leading countries in a “limited” nuclear conflict, in which the prospect of World War III is already directly visible.’

“That’s a scary picture. The possibility of nuclear war makes all other problems seem trivial in comparison. Legendary investor Warren Buffett once called it ‘the ultimate problem of mankind.’ Warren Buffett is not a doom-and-gloom type of investor. He’s not shy about expressing his seemingly endless optimism over the U.S. economy. But if there’s one threat that keeps the investing legend up at night, it’s most certainly the threat of nuclear war. ‘It is the ultimate problem of mankind,’ Buffett said at his company Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholders meeting back in 2006. ‘And it will happen someday.’… Buffett expressed similar concerns in 2017. ‘I’ve been concerned since 1945 when the first atomic bomb was used,’ he said during a CNBC interview. ‘We have developed over these 72 years, since August of 1945, the ability around the world to almost destroy civilization…”

Sadly, there will be worldwide nuclear war in the future—not just a limited one—which WOULD destroy ALL life on earth if Jesus Christ were not to return to shorten those days and prevent human extinction.  

Project Syndicate wrote on September 5:

“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and nuclear saber rattling against the West have revived a debate about nuclear weapons. Last year, when a United Nations treaty to ban such weapons outright entered into force, none of the world’s nine nuclear-weapons states was among the 86 signatories…

“In 1960, the British scientist and novelist C.P. Snow concluded that nuclear war within a decade was ‘a mathematical certainty.’ That may have been an exaggeration, but many believed Snow’s prediction would be justified if a war occurred within a century. In the 1980s, Nuclear Freeze campaigners like Helen Caldicott echoed Snow in warning that the buildup of nuclear weapons ‘will make nuclear war a mathematical certainty.’… There was a lower probability of nuclear war in 1963, just after the Cuban Missile Crisis, precisely because there had been a higher probability in 1962… During the Cuban Missile Crisis, US President John F. Kennedy reportedly estimated the probability of nuclear war to be between 33% and 50%.”

Many feel that nuclear war is not really possible as there have been so many warnings in the past—and nothing happened. They could not be more wrong.

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.

Charles Is the New King!

BBC wrote on September 8: 

“At the moment the Queen died, the throne passed immediately and without ceremony to the heir, Charles, the former Prince of Wales… He will be known as King Charles III… Although he is heir to the throne, Prince William will not automatically become Prince of Wales. However, he immediately inherits his father’s other title, Duke of Cornwall. His wife Catherine will be known as the Duchess of Cornwall. There will also be a new title for Charles’ wife, whose full title will be Queen Consort – consort is the term used for the spouse of the monarch.  

“In the first 24 hours or so after his mother’s death, Charles will be officially proclaimed King. This happens at St James’s Palace in London, in front of a ceremonial body known as the Accession Council. This is made up of members of the Privy Council – a group of senior MPs, past and present, and peers – as well as some senior civil servants, Commonwealth high commissioners, and the Lord Mayor of London…The King does not traditionally attend….

“At the meeting, the death of Queen Elizabeth will be announced by the Lord President of the Privy Council (currently Penny Mordaunt MP), and a proclamation will be read aloud… This proclamation is then signed by a number of senior figures including the prime minister, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Lord Chancellor… The Accession Council meets again – usually a day later – and this time, the King will attend, along with the Privy Council. There is no ‘swearing in’ at the start of a British monarch’s reign, in the style of some other heads of state, such as the President of the US. But there is a declaration made by the new King and – in line with a tradition dating from the early 18th Century – he will make an oath to preserve the Church of Scotland… 

“He will call: ‘God save the King’, and for the first time since 1952, when the national anthem is played the words will be ‘God Save the King’…  The symbolic high point of the accession will be the coronation, when Charles is formally crowned. Because of the preparation needed, the coronation is not likely to happen very soon after Charles’s accession – Queen Elizabeth succeeded to the throne in February 1952, but was not crowned until June 1953. For the past 900 years the coronation has been held in Westminster Abbey – William the Conqueror was the first monarch to be crowned there, and Charles will be the 40th.

“It is an Anglican religious service, carried out by the Archbishop of Canterbury. At the climax of the ceremony, he will place St Edward’s Crown on Charles’s head – a solid gold crown, dating from 1661. This is the centrepiece of the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London, and is only worn by the monarch at the moment of coronation itself (not least because it weighs a hefty 2.23kg). 

“The new King will take the coronation oath in front of the watching world. During this elaborate ceremony he will receive the orb and sceptre as symbols of his new role and the Archbishop of Canterbury will place the solid gold crown on his head… Charles has become head of the Commonwealth, an association of 56 independent countries and 2.4 billion people. For 14 of these countries, as well as the UK, the King is head of state. These countries, known as the Commonwealth realms, are: Australia, Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, Papua New Guinea, St Christopher and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, New Zealand, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu.”

German Opposition Leader Friedrich Merz Giving in to Woke Insanity and Cancel Culture

Bild International wrote on August 3:

“For weeks, the head of the conservative CDU party, Friedrich Merz (66), had been looking forward to his meeting with top Republican senator and Trump supporter Lindsey Graham (67). But Graham called the meeting off – and accused Merz of cancel culture!

“The background: on 31 August, Merz and Graham were scheduled to appear on a stage together at an event run by the conservative thinktank ‘The Republic’. On Tuesday, Merz called off his participation in the event. He said he still wants to meet Graham, but elsewhere. BILD has learned from Merz’s circles that the head of the CDU was unhappy about the presence of lawyer Joachim Steinhöfel (60), who was due to be on stage a few hours before Merz. In the past, Steinhöfel has represented, among others, AfD politicians – as well as right-wing populist Max Otte (57) in the trial to exclude him from the conservative party….

“Immediately after Merz called off his participation at the event, strong criticism came from the US. Former US ambassador Richard Grenell (55) wrote on Twitter that the head of the CDU ‘bows to the woke mob’. The ‘intolerant left’ does not accept diverging views, Grenell claims. ‘They cancel anyone who they don’t agree with.’ His conclusion: ‘Shame on wimpy Merz’…

“For weeks, the head of the CDU had been criticized because of his meeting with Graham. When Steinhöfel’s participation became known, Konstantin von Notz (51), MP of the Greens, scolded: ‘Someone who participates in events like this makes himself politically unacceptable’.

“For Steinhöfel, the alleged reason for Merz’s cancellation, it is clear that Merz got cold feet because of the criticism by the Greens. Merz’s reasons for the cancellation are ‘unconvincing and opportunistic’, Steinhöfel told BILD. He denies that he is close to the AfD…

“Now the US Republicans have made Merz pay the price for possibly giving in to the criticism from the left and the Greens …”

With such a weak opposition leader, Germany’s current political landscape is doomed.

Over One Third of Germans Believe Israel Treats Palestinians as Nazis

Times of Israel wrote on September 2:

“A new survey by an independent German foundation [the Bertelsmann Stiftung] has found that over a third of Germans believe Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians is essentially the same as the Nazi genocide of the Jews during the Holocaust….

“In response to another question, 24% of German respondents said Jews have too much influence in the world… When asked about the lasting role of the Holocaust in relations, 58% of Israelis agreed or strongly agreed with the sentiment that Germany ‘has a special responsibility for the Jewish people,’ compared to only 35% of Germans.”

Anti-Semitism in Germany is much higher than commonly reported.

Gazprom Shuts Down Nord Stream 1 Pipeline

The Week wrote on September 2:

“Russia on Friday indefinitely halted natural gas imports to Europe through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, adding to fears of a looming European energy crisis. Energy company Gazprom, which… is controlled by the Kremlin, said it would not restart the pipeline on Saturday (as planned) due to an oil leak; the company also did not give an estimate as to when service might resume. The pipeline had been closed since Wednesday for maintenance… Notably, the announcement from Gazprom arrived not long after G-7 countries said they’d be imposing a cap on the price of Russian oil so as to ding Moscow (and its war in Ukraine) financially…

“Europe is decently dependent on Russian gas … and a blow to its supply just before winter is the last thing the continent needs… Plus, Moscow has already retaliated against certain European countries who refused to pay for supplies in rubles, while Gazprom has kept flows through Nord Stream 1 ‘to just 20 percent of its capacity’ since June, ‘citing maintenance issues and a dispute over a missing turbine caught up in Western export sanctions.’”

The New York Post wrote on September 3:

“The planned reopening of Russia’s main gas pipeline to Germany was halted… deepening fears of a winter energy crisis throughout Europe… The announcement fueled accusations that Russia is seeking to weaponize its sway over the world energy market. ‘This was predictable, and it was predicted,” former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wrote Saturday… ‘I warned Germany not to rely on Russian energy,’ he continued. ‘Energy security is national security, which is why we must regain our energy independence.’

“President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine also took to social media to condemn the development. ‘When a state turns energy poverty or hunger into a weapon, it harms everyone in the world,’ Zelensky wrote…  A Kremlin spokesman responded that Russia would halt all sales of its oil to countries that follow through on the price-cap threat.

“Meanwhile, the fourth and last external power line at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant — Europe’s largest – went down Saturday after heavy shelling in the area, leaving only a reserve line to supply Ukrainian-held territories with electricity, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog said.”

German energy giant Siemens is questioning the accuracy of Gazprom’s representation, stating that maintenance and equipment issues are in no way responsible for the shutdown… which should be obvious anyhow. The question is, how will that rift be resolved? In the meantime, Europeans and especially Germans are hurting tremendously from ever-increasing ASTRONOMICAL gas prices, due to unwise and incompetent German politicians who were responsible for an unhealthy reliance on Russia. Now, they do not know what to do… and the European people are HURTING and are becoming more and more frustrated with their helpless governments and “leaders.”

Biden’s Supreme Hypocrisy

The New York Post wrote on September 2:

“President Biden made history Thursday night with the first prime-time presidential speech with a backdrop inspired by the movie ‘V for Vendetta’ and Nazi filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl. The harsh red atmospherics perfectly complemented Biden’s attempt to portray ex-President Donald Trump and Republicans as the Antichrist waiting to crucify American democracy. But the most important takeaway from the speech is the supreme hypocrisy of Biden’s Supreme Leader Democracy.

“Biden, speaking from Philadelphia, invoked the Declaration of Independence to sanctify his spiel. But he omitted quoting the line most relevant today from the author of that declaration. ‘An elective despotism was not the government we fought for,’ Thomas Jefferson warned in 1784.’s

“Biden invoked the ‘rule of law’ five times, notwithstanding his 20 months of dictatorial decrees. Law professor Jonathan Turley observed, ‘President Biden has arguably the worst record of losses in [federal court] the first two years of any recent presidential administration.’ One year ago, Biden went prime-time for his COVID-mandate speech — an illegal decree to inject more than 80 million private employees that got smashed by the Supreme Court. Biden dictated the moratorium on evicting renters would continue, but the Supreme Court overruled him, scoffing at the administration’s attempt to justify the edict by an old law dealing with ‘fumigation and pest extermination.’

“In his litany of Republican sins Thursday, Biden huffed, ‘Can you believe it? — FBI agents just doing their job as directed, facing threats to their own lives from their own fellow citizens.’ But there’s a reason most Americans view the FBI as Joe Biden’s personal Gestapo. Are FBI agents ‘doing their jobs as directed’ when they hound and vilify parents who protested at school-board meetings? Biden personally thanked the head of the National School Boards Association for sending the inflammatory letter to the White House that provided a pretext for the FBI vendetta. The FBI ‘has labeled at least dozens of investigations into parents’ with a terrorist-threat tag, according to House Republicans. And we are still learning about the FBI’s role in suppressing damning evidence from Hunter Biden’s laptop prior to the 2020 election…

“Biden’s entire presidency is a mockery of this nation’s founding principles. In 1798, Thomas Jefferson warned, ‘In questions of power then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the constitution.’ If a president refuses to be bound by the Constitution, he is behaving like a dictator.”

Biden IS behaving like a dictator.

Biden–the Divider in Chief

The Daily Mail wrote on September 3:

“Biden’s speech to the nation at Philadelphia’s Independence Hall… was horrifying…

“Biden is turning Americans against one another – and it’s nightmarish. And it wasn’t just his toxic words. Look at the bizarre and apocalyptic optics of the speech. He stood at his podium in front of murky red lighting: this was the backdrop of a dictator from a science fiction movie, not the democratically elected President of America…

“Everything about his rhetoric last night was upsetting and confusing. Most importantly, it was not inspirational or uniting… [Biden could turn out to be] one of the most infamous failures of a one-term presidents.”

In a related article, Daily Mail wrote on September 3:

“Less than 24-hours after delivering the darkest, most toxic presidential speech of the modern era, the Commander in Chief is trying to gaslight America to believe he didn’t say what it just heard him say…. The stage’s backdrop looked more like the demonic spawn pool of Satan rather than the patriotic birthplace of our republic….

“As an address to the nation as a whole, intended to start bridging divides and save democracy, it was a Kabul-sized catastrophe. And there’s no walking back from that.”

A terrible testimony of America’s alleged freedom. And as usual, Biden tries to “clarify” or deny what he clearly said in front of millions of Americans who cared to listen to him… and who do not buy his “clarification.” That is, they had better not.

Biden Condemned for His Divisive Speech

Breitbart wrote on September 4:

“Conservatives on social media reacted to President Joe Biden’s recent divisive political speech, in which he referred to ‘MAGA Republicans’ as a ‘threat’ to ‘the very soul of this nation,’ by sarcastically explaining how they are threats to the nation as well.

“‘I go to work. I work hard. I go to the gym. I hunt. I fish. I spend time with friends and family. I pay my taxes and don’t break the law. I play disc golf. I am a threat to the very soul of this nation,’ one Twitter user wrote. ‘I’m a registered nurse nearing retirement,’ another explained. ‘I like taking walks and reading mystery novels. I adopted a baby and she’s now an engineering student with a scholarship. I pay my taxes. I don’t break the law. I am a threat to the very soul of this nation.’ ‘I work hard, garden, cook, bake, spin, knit weave and throw pots. I’ve been married 33 years and have two grown kids. I’ve owned businesses and pay taxes. I am a threat to the very soul of this nation,’ a third said…

“‘I’m retired LE. I own my home. I believe in God. I believe life begins at conception. I enjoy the outdoors, going to the gym and riding my road bicycle. I also teach people to use firearms safely and responsibly. I am a threat to the very soul of the nation,’ another proclaimed. ‘I’m a mom, I take care of my sick mother, who can’t live on her own. I love my dogs and I cook “real food” for them twice a day, everyday. I just bought my first house, and I love to decorate and bake goodies for my neighbors. I am a threat to the very soul of this nation,’ another echoed. ‘I work 40 hrs per week. Watch my grandsons after work while my daughter goes to trade school. Pay taxes. Work part time for a charity. Cook and clean for my grandkids and love my dogs! I am a threat to the very soul of this nation,’ another Twitter user wrote…

“‘I go to work. I work two jobs in the school system. I have two dogs and rescue cats. I spend my time with my two granddaughters. I pay my taxes and don’t break the law. I am a threat to the very soul of this nation,’ another Twitter user chimed in. ‘I’m a 63 yr old single grandmother. I take care of disabled seniors, my 21 yr old blind deaf and dying cat, I don’t drink or do drugs. I spend quality time with my kids/grandkids. I’m a threat to the soul of this very nation,’ another tweeted.”

The dangerous stupidity of Biden’s comments can hardly be over-emphasized.

Biden’s Corruption in Ukraine

LifeSiteNews published on September 2 a lengthy article with detailed facts allegedly showing the corruption involving Hunter Biden’s scheme in Ukraine and Joe Biden’s participation. The article summarizes the findings as follows:

 “The emails on Hunter Biden’s laptop, combined with Joe Biden’s own words and actions, prove beyond all doubt that:

“The ‘ultimate purpose’ of Hunter Biden’s multi-million deal with Burisma was to ‘close down’ all criminal ‘cases/pursuits against’ the firm’s owner.

“In November 2015, Hunter agreed to get ‘high-ranking US officials’ to visit Ukraine and persuade the nation’s leaders to end all investigations into the owner. Two ‘key targets’ of this mission were the ‘President of Ukraine’ and the ‘Prosecutor General.’

“In December 2015, Joe Biden visited Ukraine and told its president and prime minister that he would withhold U.S. aid to their nation unless they fired the prosecutor general.

“Those actions, which are complemented by a wealth of incriminating facts, align with textbook definitions of nepotism, bribery, extortion and obstruction of justice.  Yet, major media outlets, big tech companies, fact checkers, former U.S. intelligence officials, and active government officials within the FBI and Department of Justice played major roles in keeping this information from the American people.”

Corruption and censorship galore.

Biden Is Leading Trump?

Breitbart wrote on September 3:

“President Joe Biden leads former President Donald Trump by 6 points in a 2024 hypothetical matchup, a Wall Street Journal poll found Friday. The poll asked respondents, ‘Hypothetically, if the 2024 election for President were held today and the candidates were Joe Biden, the Democrat, and Donald Trump, the Republican, for whom would you vote?’

“Fifty percent chose Biden, while only 44 percent selected Trump. Six percent were undecided. In March, the poll had both Biden and Trump tied at 45 percent with nine percent undecided. In November, the poll had Biden leading by one point (46-45 percent) with 10 percent undecided…

“The poll was critisized on Twitter for being a ‘push poll,’ which means the poll was conducted with a predetermined outcome to impact how Americans feel about the hypothetical matchup between Trump and Biden… The WSJ poll comes as nine other polls have shown Trump leading Biden by one to seven points. In a poll last weekend by McLaughlin and Associates, Trump led Biden by 4 points in a potential 2024 presidential matchup.”

This shows how manipulative and unreliable polls are. But that the conservative Wall Street Journal would conduct and publish such a questionable poll is interesting.

Special Master to Be Appointed in Trump Case

Breitbart wrote on September 5:

“A federal judge on Monday granted former President Donald Trump’s request that a special master review items the FBI seized from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and also halted the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) use of the items for ‘investigative purposes.’…

“[The Judge] added that there was a risk of the DOJ leaking materials that would cause harm to the former president.”

California’s Proposed Radical Abortion Bill

LifeSiteNews wrote on September 1:

“California legislators this week sent a raft of pro-abortion bills to Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk for a signature. Among the measures was… a deeply controversial bill that would prohibit investigation into the death of an unborn child and provide legal protections for anyone who obtains or helps someone obtain an abortion.

“The bill also contains language that pro-life attorneys have warned could be interpreted as decriminalizing infanticide… Gov. Newsom is expected to approve the measure.”

How can ANYONE justify these ungodly concepts???

The UK’s New Prime Minister

The Associated Press wrote on September 7:

“Liz Truss became U.K. prime minister on Tuesday and immediately faced up to the enormous tasks ahead of her: curbing soaring prices, boosting the economy, easing labor unrest and fixing a national health care system burdened by long waiting lists and staff shortages. Truss quickly began appointing senior members of her Cabinet as she tackles an inbox dominated by the energy crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which threatens to push energy prices to unaffordable levels, shuttering businesses and leaving the nation’s poorest people shivering at home this winter…

“Truss became prime minister a day after the ruling Conservative Party chose her as its leader in an election where the party’s 172,000 dues-paying members were the only voters. As party leader, Truss automatically became prime minister without the need for a general election because the Conservatives still have a majority of lawmakers in the House of Commons. But as a national leader selected by less than 0.5% of British adults, Truss is under pressure to show quick results…”

Breitbart added on September 5:

“The public is never told of what happens in confidence between Prime Minister and Monarch, but some may wonder whether Truss’s history of calling for the abolition of the monarchy at a Liberal Democrat party conference in 1994 will be brought up between the two. Judging by her past performance — from campaigning in favour of staying in the EU and high-profile gaffes when in power, to the green agenda and open borders policy proposals she has laid out during the leadership campaign — Britons can expect to see more globalist governance…  as the culture and country are slowly destroyed…

“The migrant crisis, alongside the soaring cost of living, inflation, and fears over potential energy blackouts during the Winter all spells for a difficult future for Truss, who faces becoming the first incumbent Tory prime minister to lose to the opposition Labour party since John Major’s defeat to Tony Blair in 1997. With the next general election quickly approaching, Truss will have to act quickly, decisively, and most importantly conservatively.”

Rift Between the Royal Family and Harry and Meghan Continues

MailOnline published on September 4 an extremely lengthy and seemingly never-ending article (which is not untypical for MailOnline or the Daily Mail). We just quote the following highlights:

“As Meghan and Harry land in UK, royal insiders hit back at [the] ‘tragic and delusional’ couple’s sniping and reveal the ‘toll’ it is taking on the Queen, 96, who resents ‘waiting for the next nuclear bomb’… The Duke and Duchess of Sussex opened up a new rift in their feud with the Royal Times this week when former Suits actress Meghan let off another round of ‘truth bombs’ in her new Spotify podcast and an astonishing US interview where she said she had been compared to South African hero Nelson Mandela and claimed Harry had ‘lost’ his father Charles during Megxit…

“Sources also rubbished Meghan’s claim South Africa celebrated her wedding like they had Mandela’s release in her interview with the ‘woke’ magazine The Cut, raging: ‘The whole thing is just staggering. Nelson Mandela? Who’s next, Gandhi? There are simply no words for the delusion and tragedy of it all.‘

“They also claimed that the Queen, who is now 96 and has pulled out of a string of public events in recent months amid ongoing fears for her health, does not ‘want to be on tenterhooks’ and constantly waiting for the ‘next nuclear bomb’. And Charles’s friends told the paper that the jibes continue to be ‘painful’ for him.”

One wonders what will happen when the Queen dies…

Assassination Attempt on Argentina’s Vice President

The Associated Press wrote on September 3:

“As Argentina’s powerful Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner stepped from her car outside her apartment building and began shaking hands with a throng of well-wishers, a man pushed forward with a gun, pointed it just inches from her face and pulled the trigger with a distinct click. The loaded weapon evidently jammed… the apparent assassination attempt against the deeply divisive figure Thursday night shook Argentina — a country with a history of political violence — and worsened tensions in the sharply divided nation…

“The country’s political leaders quickly condemned the attempted shooting as an assault on democracy and the rule of law, with President Alberto Fernández holding a late-night national broadcast to tell Argentines just how close the vice president came to being killed… Some condemned the political opposition, saying its verbal attacks against the vice president motivated the gunman. Several political leaders similarly accused opposition politicians and media outlets of fomenting violence…

“No politician awakens more passion in Argentina than Fernández, revered by some for her left-leaning social welfare policies and reviled by others as corrupt and power-hungry. The left-of-center leader is on trial on corruption charges involving public works while she was president from 2007 to 2015… She has vehemently denied all charges and cast herself as a victim of political persecution…

“Fernández has been at the center stage of Argentine political life for almost two decades. She was the country’s charismatic first lady during President Néstor Kirchner’s 2003-07 administration, then succeeded her husband…

“Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who has frequently criticized the left-leaning Argentine government, weighed in Friday on the apparent assassination attempt. ‘I lament it, and there are people already trying to blame me for that problem,’ Bolsonaro said. ‘It is good that the attacker didn’t know how to use a gun, otherwise he would have been successful.’”

This world is a powder keg, ready to explode.

Israel Accused of Cover-Up!

Israel 365 wrote on September 7:

“In a scathing letter published on Friday, the executive director of the Vaccine Safety Research Foundation (vacsafety.org), Steve Kirsch, accused Israel’s Health Ministry of deliberately covering up ‘serious safety problems’ in the covid vaccine…

“According to their findings, the COVID vaccines were far more dangerous than international health authorities claimed. The panel discovered ‘serious adverse events,’ Pfizer or any world government never disclosed those side effects. Contrary to what the public was told, the events were long-term. ‘They also determined causality… Causality was both obvious and easy to prove using the re-challenge data that was collected…’, Kirsch wrote.

“The panel concluded that the Israeli government misled the People of Israel… He adds that the Ministry of Health released a fake report to give the impression that the vaccines were safer than the data showed. The only reason the coverup has been exposed is thanks to the whistleblower who leaked the secret meeting between the Ministry of Health and Berkowitz’s panel. Kirsch concluded his piece by calling for an investigation into the Health Ministry’s corruption and lies.”

Abused Beagles Freed

Fox News wrote on September 2:

“The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) on Thursday announced that it has completed its mission to rescue 4,000 beagles from what it termed an inhumane breeding facility in Virginia. The dogs were recovered from a Cumberland-based medical contract breeding facility called Envigo, which has been accused of housing the dogs under poor conditions and then selling them to laboratories for scientific testing purposes, including the… National institute of Health… on average, 60,000 dogs are still used in laboratories each year…

“The complaint [by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other law enforcement agencies] alleged the dogs received inadequate medical care and were subject to painful medical science experiments. Court records stated that more than 300 puppies died at the facility between January and July of last year.”

“Beagles are preferred for animal testing because they are ‘docile, sweet, trusting, and they don’t fight back,’ according to the Beagle Freedom Project.”

These medical “experiments” with Beagles and other animals are sickening.

Pope Dissolves Leadership of Knights of Malta

Reuters wrote on September 3:

“Pope Francis on Saturday dissolved the leadership of the Knights of Malta, the global Catholic religious order and humanitarian group, and installed a provisional government ahead of the election of a new Grand Master. The change, which the pope issued in a decree, came after five years of often acrimonious debate within the order and between some top members of the old guard and the Vatican over a new constitution that some feared would weaken its sovereignty.

“The group, whose formal name is Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta, was founded in Jerusalem nearly 1,000 years ago to provide medical aid for pilgrims in the Holy Land. It now has a multi-million dollar budget, 13,500 members, 95,000 volunteers and 52,000 medical staff running refugee camps, drug treatment centres, disaster relief programs and clinics around the world.

“The order has been very active in helping Ukrainian refugees and war victims. It has no real territory apart from a palace and offices in Rome and a fort in Malta, but is recognised as a sovereign entity with its own passports and licence plates. It has diplomatic relations with 110 states and permanent observer status at the United Nations, allowing to act as a neutral party in relief efforts in war zones…

“But as a religious order, it had to remain under the auspices of the Vatican, said Cardinal Gianfranco Ghirlanda, a member of the working group that prepared the new constitution approved by the pope on Saturday… Francis convoked an extraordinary general chapter for Jan. 25 to begin the process of electing a new Grand Master.

“Under the previous constitution, the top Knights and the Grand Master were required to have noble lineage, something reformers said excluded nearly everyone except Europeans from serving in top roles.”

It has been the goal of Pope Francis to include more and more non-Europeans in the Catholic hierarchy. This could backfire.

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.

Gorbachev Dies

Breitbart wrote on August 30:

“Mikhail Gorbachev, the leader who oversaw the end of the Soviet Union, died Tuesday at the age of 91, according to Russian news agencies…

“Born to a peasant family in Stavropol in 1931, Gorbachev watched the famines and purges of the 1930s, and the struggles of the Second World War, before embarking on a career in the Communist Party in the postwar era. He rose quickly through the ranks, recognized for his intellect and his skill and an administrator. He was viewed as a young leader who could rejuvenate the country and the party, as older leaders faded and as his predecessors, Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko, died after short terms in office.

“Gorbachev assumed power in 1985 during a period of growing confrontation with the U.S., when President Ronald Reagan had strengthened America’s anticommunist posture… When Reagan launched an ambitious program of defense spending, including research into space-borne missile defense systems, Gorbachev realized that the Soviet Union would struggle to match the U.S. He indicated an openness to talks with Reagan, and began a process of internal reform, known as perestroika. Gorbachev encouraged greater openness, or glasnost, within Soviet institutions, although the country remained deeply repressive, imprisoning political dissidents and those who wanted to leave.

“After a series of talks with Reagan, Gorbachev signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with the U.S. in 1987. It was the most significant arms reduction agreement between the two countries, and reduced tensions with the West. But Gorbachev could not contain the growing unrest at home… the Soviet bloc began to unravel.

“The trigger was the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, after an East German bureaucrat accidentally told the public that the border to the West would be opening immediately. When thousands of overjoyed Germans swarmed the hated barrier and tore it down, the world waited to see what Gorbachev would do… Rather than send in the tanks, as previous Soviet leaders had done, Gorbachev allowed the Berlin Wall to fall…

“Soon the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia — never comfortable under Soviet domination — broke free. And in 1991, a group of disgruntled Soviet officials and military leaders attempted to oust Gorbachev from power while he was away at his summer home. The coup failed, and Gorbachev returned to Moscow — though his influence began to fade. By the end of the year, the Soviet Union had fallen, to be replaced by the Russian Federation and a series of former Soviet republics in Europe and Central Asia…

“He is most fondly remembered in the United States as the man Reagan challenged — ‘Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!’ — but later came to respect, and who left a legacy of freedom…

“Gorbachev’s death comes at a time of renewed tensions between Russia and the West — in the wake of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, seen by many as an attempt to reverse Gorbachev’s reforms and restore some of the old Soviet territory and military glory. Putin, who has described the collapse of the Soviet Union as a ‘genuine tragedy,’ represents a nostalgia for the era before Gorbachev — a sentiment that overlooks the poverty and repression of communism, and might yet end up restoring both.”

France and Germany’s Energy Crisis

Breitbart wrote on August 27:

“The economic powerhouses of the European Union, France and Germany, both set records on Friday for electricity prices, as the West’s sanctions war with Russia continues to bite.

“This time last year the cost of electricity per megawatt-hour (MWh) in both France and Germany sat at around 85 euros. On Friday, both countries set record highs, with the cost climbing by at least 1,000 per cent from last year to €850 in Germany and over €1,000 in France…

“The Russian economy has seemingly weathered the sanctions far better than expected… The energy crisis is showing no sign of abating, with futures traders already trading French energy prices at a staggering 1,600 euros per megawatt-hour for December…

“In Germany, the Interior Minister for the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Herbert Reul, issued a stark warning to those who may protest the government’s failures in preventing the energy crisis, branding potential demonstrators as the new ‘enemies of the state.’”

This is incredible and has all the hallmarks of a dictatorship.

Scholz Wants to Enlarge the EU, But…

The Associated Press wrote on August 29:

“German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called Monday for a growing European Union to agree on a series of changes that would help it overcome internal divisions and stand up to external rivals such as Russia and China. In a wide-ranging speech at Charles University in Prague, Scholz said the EU must make itself ‘fit’ for future enlargement from 27 to 30 — or even 36 — nations by taking more decisions by majority vote, rather than requiring unanimity on all issues that has in the past allowed individual member states to veto key decisions… arguing that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was a wake-up call for the EU to change the way it takes decisions.

“Scholz suggested allowing majority decisions on pressing issues… with those unwilling to explicitly back a vote having the option to abstain without blocking unanimity… The German leader also backed calls to reconsider the composition of the European Parliament, which currently has 751 deputies, to prevent it becoming ‘bloated’ through future expansion… Scholz said the EU could become a global leader in the transition to a greener economy that would also help it become less dependent on foreign energy suppliers.”

Germany Sends Warships and Troops to the Far East

Fox News reported on August 31:

“German General Eberhard Zorn said Wednesday the Bundeswehr will send warships to the Indo-Pacific and join allies in drills as China ramps up operations around Taiwan… Zorn told Reuters that the German military will also send troops to Australia for military exercises next year in an effort to ‘consolidate our presence in the region.’”

It is perhaps interesting that the meaning of “Zorn” is “wrath.”

Is God Punishing the United States of America?

The Jerusalem Post wrote on August 24:

“… it is a challenge for me to believe that the series of ‘plagues’ that have befallen the United States of America of late are not part of some heavenly master plan…

“The triumph of democracy and freedom over fascism and national land grabs energized the American body politic to take responsibility and rebuild the world after the devastating losses in the war. The world was put back in order, nations devastated by battle were rebuilt (much of that through US programs like the Marshall Plan), while people felt secure enough to plan for careers, family, education and retirement.

“America’s role as the world’s police officer, resentful as that made some nations feel (everyone remembers the term ‘ugly American’), kept the world in check…

“However, 77 years after the end of the war, it all seems to be falling apart… Politically, whether people want to admit it or not, the country is in the midst of a civil war, though for the moment, not one where both sides have taken up arms…

“30% of the people polled do not believe President Biden won the 2020 election, while among Republicans, that number jumps to 70%. There has never been a time in modern history where such numbers were this high 18 months after the election itself… the legislative branch of government finds itself in a position where any proposal put forth by one party is not something that the other party will support…

“There have been over 300 mass shootings in the US this year as of early July, the largest number by far of any country in the world…

“Then there is the weather… Through June, there have already been 940 reported tornadoes there, which means the country is on track to see 2,000 or more, a 33% increase year-on-year. The nightly news out of the US for the past few months shows tens of millions of people under extreme weather risk every day… In the west, a long period of drought has been drying up reservoirs and spawning massive forest fires…  as of July 5, 34,478 fires have already burned 4,582,301 acres. This is above the 10-year average of 27,346 fires, and twice the average of 2,026,917 acres burned… It all seems to be centered in the US…

“If one accepts the religious concept that whatever happens in the world is part of God’s plan for the world (and not everyone accepts that, to be sure), it is possible to postulate that God had a plan for the United States of America. After all, it was Abraham Lincoln who opined in 1865 that America was the ‘almost chosen people,’ placing the issue of faith and the existence of a heavenly plan for the US squarely in the culture of post-civil war America… However, there has never been a time in post-civil war history as now where the US has been so broken, where so many things seem to be going wrong simultaneously, and where the political leadership seems powerless to deal with all of it.

“It is almost as if God is now expressing displeasure with his servant, the US, in the course it has taken.

“The hope, of course, is that at some point the political leadership will get its act together and find a way to address the myriad of problems that the country is presently facing. However, if one accepts that this is perhaps a manifestation of God’s disappointment with the USA, perhaps the nation should turn to God and pray for a return to normalcy…

“It would not be the first time in history that prayer was invoked on behalf of a country… In December 1944, fog, clouds, rain and snow over Europe were hampering US war efforts. A frustrated Patton contacted Chaplain James O’Neill, a Catholic priest, and asked for a prayer for good weather that would improve the chances of victory… The results? The weather cleared for the next six days, and Patton’s allied forces were victorious, vanquishing the German army… When hope eluded him, Patton, the battle-hardened cynic, asked his troops to turn to a higher force. What he later said about people in such a quandary is noteworthy: ‘Watch what people are cynical about, and one can often discover what they lack.’

“Maybe the time has come for everyone to bury the cynicism and look up. There is certainly no downside in doing so, while there is every possibility that our prayers will be answered.”

This would require that the nation as a whole will repent of their many terrible sins. This is not to be expected. You might want to view our many StandingWatch programs on this topic, including our recent presentation, “America’s Downfall Is Prophesied!”; “Civil War, Violence and Misery in the USA”; and “Is Civil War Coming?” [Please see our NEW StandingWatch program: “Is God Punishing the USA?”]  

A Third of Pakistan is Underwater!

nbcnews.com reported on August 30:

“A third of the country [is] underwater. More than 1,000 people killed. And an estimated $10 billion of damage done.

“Pakistan’s “monster monsoon” has swept away lives, homes, crops and bridges as weeks of historic rains fuel deadly flash floods. Almost half a million people have been displaced, with vast areas cut off from supplies and power…

“The extreme floods have killed more than 1,136 people since June, including 386 children, and damaged a million homes, Pakistan’s government said.”

Biden Refuses to Talk to Lapid So Far About Iran Deal

Fox News wrote on August 28:

“Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid is hoping to talk to President Biden about the new Iran nuclear deal that appears to be nearing fruition, but lately, he has not had much luck… According to The Jerusalem Post, Lapid has been unable to get Biden on the phone, with the White House first blaming the president’s recent vacation — which ended on Wednesday. With both men set to speak at the United Nations General Assembly in September, Lapid is hoping for an in-person meeting…

“Lapid and Biden met during the president’s trip to Israel in July, and the two men held a joint press conference, but that was before the European Union offered its ‘final’ proposal for the Iran deal. Since then, the Israeli prime minister has had conversations with the leaders of Germany and France, who are part of the negotiations along with the U.S., United Kingdom, Russia, and China…. Macron has acknowledged that the present state of the deal does not address certain issues, including Iran’s ballistic missile program. Still, he claimed that the deal as it stands would be ‘useful and is better than no agreement,’ the Post reported….

“In recent days, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Ganz met with White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan. The Defense Ministry told the Post that Ganz pushed for increasing Israel’s capabilities of taking on Iran…”

Israel may find itself all alone in this battle.

Germany’s Support of Anti-Israeli Groups

Israel 365 News wrote on August 28:

“… nearly one billion shekels have been funneled to radical left-wing organizations operating within Israel over the last decade. The leading supporter of these radical organizations is Germany, a country that, despite a law passed in 2019 that equated the BDS movement [BDS stands for Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions, a Palestinian-led movement] with Anti-Semitism, has funneled more than 150 million shekels to radical left-wing organizations, many of which promote BDS. [This is even higher than the EU.]

“Much of the funds that are funneled into Israel are transferred to Israel through political entities linked with German political parties represented in the Bundestag. Despite the money being designated for political use within the German political system, it is instead used to uproot policies within Israel. Germany has not successfully determined how the money is being used, since the organizations are being classified as ‘independent organizations.’ In order to grant German government money, the recipient organization has to meet the criteria that the money is aligned with the political party’s agenda. This broad definition has essentially allowed German government money to be floated to whichever NGO a party desires.

“The Heinrich Böll Foundation has not submitted financial reports since 2014. The Rosa Luxemborg Foundation which is associated with the Die Linke (left) Party has skirted the laws for years and does not have a valid operating license. The Heinz Seidel Foundation sent over 900 thousand shekels to the Palestinian Authority, which contradicts the agenda of the Foundation, a public-benefit corporation, and provides legal grounds for having it shut down… former Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party is linked to the Konrad Adenauer Organization, which has consistently broken Israeli Law by failing to submit financial reports, required for organizations whose source of funding is overseas.”

Affidavit Poses More Questions Than It Answers

Breitbart wrote on August 26:

“The Department of Justice (DOJ) affidavit seeking a search warrant for former President Donald Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago earlier this month was uncertain whether there were documents with ‘defense information,’ or merely ordinary presidential records.

“In the affidavit,  submitted by an FBI special agent, the DOJ argued that based on 15 boxes of materials voluntarily submitted by Trump, which were disorganized and allegedly included documents that had some classified markings, there was probable cause to believe that there were other such documents on the premises, and that they were not being properly, securely stored.

“In addition, the DOJ stated that ‘there is probable cause to believe that additional documents that contain classified NDI [National Defense Information] or that are Presidential records subject to record retention requirements currently remain at the PREMISES.’ The key word is ‘or’; the DOJ did not know exactly what it was looking for. (It added that it might find ‘evidence of obstruction’— that is, of deliberate refusal to comply with past requests for documents from the White House.)  Thus the DOJ could not state with certainty whether it was seeking to enforce the criminal law against mishandling defense information, or whether it was seeking to enforce the Presidential Records Act, which does not have criminal enforcement.

“Later in the affidavit, the FBI special agent admitted that he (or she) did not actually know whether documents with alleged classified markings actually had defense information; however, he (or she) merely asserted that ‘[b]ased on my training and experience, I know that documents classified at these levels typically contain NDI.’ Much of the affidavit was redacted.”

So, no one is immune from FBI interference when an agent asserts, based on his or her “training and experience,” that FBI actions are necessary? This is a FRIGHTENING scenario.

Special Master to Be Appointed?

Fox News wrote on August 27:

“A federal judge on Saturday announced her ‘preliminary intent to appoint a special master’ to review records seized by the FBI during its unprecedented raid of his Mar-a-Lago home earlier this month, at the request of former President Trump and his legal team, citing the ‘exceptional circumstances.’ …

“A hearing is set for Sept. 1 at 1:00 p.m. in West Palm Beach, Fla. Cannon also ordered the Justice Department to file a response by Aug. 30 and provide, ‘under seal,’ a ‘more detailed Receipt for Property specifying all property seized pursuant to the search warrant executed on August 8, 2022… Cannon also ordered the Justice Department to file under seal a ‘particularized notice indicating the status’ of its review of the seized property, ‘including any filter review conducted by the privilege review team and any dissemination of materials beyond the privilege review team.’…

“Sources familiar with the investigation told Fox News Saturday that the former president’s team was informed that boxes labeled A-14, A-26, A-43, A-13, A-33, and a set of documents — all seen on the final page of the FBI’s property receipt — contained information covered by attorney-client privilege.”

If true, that would be outrageous and illegal.

Trump Calls for New Elections

Newsmax wrote on August 29:

“Former President Donald Trump is taking his case against FBI ‘election interference’ to the American people — and to a new level — by demanding to be declared the ‘rightful winner’ or ‘have a new election.’ ‘So now it comes out, conclusively, that the FBI BURIED THE HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP STORY BEFORE THE ELECTION knowing that, if they didn’t, “Trump would have easily won the 2020 Presidential Election,”’ Trump wrote… ‘This is massive FRAUD & ELECTION INTERFERENCE at a level never seen before in our country.’

“Trump added the ‘remedy’ for the 2020 presidential election meddling should be to ‘declare the rightful winner’ or, a minimum, hold a ‘new election.’”

Neither will happen, of course, but Trump keeps himself in the news.

FBI and DOJ Condemned by Trump

Daily Mail wrote on August 31:

“Donald Trump has claimed the FBI agents were responsible for throwing classified documents on the floor of Mar-a-Lago – and said they were ‘perhaps pretending it was me who did it’.

‘Terrible the way the FBI, during the Raid of Mar-a-Lago, threw documents haphazardly all over the floor (perhaps pretending it was me that did it!), and then started taking pictures of them for the public to see,’ he said in a Truth Social post Wednesday morning.

‘Thought they wanted them kept Secret? Lucky I Declassified!’ he added during a flurry of posts condemning the FBI agent who retired amid backlash over the Hunter Biden probe. He was responding to the bombshell pictures showing papers – with many marked ‘top secret’ – on the carpet of the Florida mansion during the August 8 search. The photographs were released in a 36-page court filing where officials said they’d uncovered a plot to obstruct the probe into the discovery of government records. The DOJ accused the ex-president’s team of moving around and hiding classified documents they had previously searched for.”

Newsmax added on August 31:

“Former President Donald Trump’s attorneys filed a new motion Wednesday, renewing calls for a special master to review documents seized in a search of his residence, which they say they will eventually argue was unconstitutional. ‘Left unchecked, the DOJ will impugn, leak, and publicize selective aspects of their investigation with no recourse for Movant but to somehow trust the self-restraint of currently unchecked investigators,’ the lawyers’ latest filing Wednesday read.

“The motion used the ‘gratuitous’ release of photos of the Mar-a-Lago search as proof the Department of Justice cannot be trusted with the handling of the documents seized from Trump’s home.”

White House Accuses Trump Supporters of Posing Extremist Threat

Breitbart wrote on August 31:

“The White House denounced supporters of President Donald Trump on Wednesday, accusing them of posing an ‘extremist threat to our democracy.’ White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre began the daily briefing by condemning Republican leaders for their dangerous rhetoric but also said that President Joe Biden believed supporters of former President Donald Trump were also a threat…

“Jean Pierre asserted there was ‘more examples we can count’ of Trump supporters and Republican leaders  demonstrating their threats to democracy. She specifically complained about Gov. Ron DeSantis for calling for Dr. Anthony Fauci to be ‘physically assaulted’ when he said that ‘someone needs to grab that little elf and chuck him across the Potomac.’”

This makes a mockery of Biden’s initial claim to become a unifier.

Facebook’s Zuckerberg Admits FBI Interference

Fox News wrote on August 26 the following headline:

“FBI blasted after Zuckerberg revealed their warning ahead of the Hunter Biden laptop story: Collusion.”

The article continued:

“Twitter exploded after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg claimed in a Thursday podcast appearance the FBI warned Facebook about ‘Russian propaganda’ before the Hunter Biden laptop story dropped in 2020. Speaking on an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, Zuckerberg explained, ‘The FBI, I think, basically came to us – some folks on our team – and was like, “Hey, just so you know, like, you should be on high alert…  We thought that there was a lot of Russian propaganda in the 2016 election. We have it on notice that, basically, there’s about to be some kind of dump of that’s similar to that. So just be vigilant.’”…

“Zuckerberg acknowledged that ‘the distribution on Facebook was decreased’ of the New York Post’s story about Hunter Biden’s laptop, noting, ‘fewer people saw it than would’ve otherwise.’ When asked by Joe Rogan how many people had been deprived of the information, Zuckerberg responded, “I don’t know off the top of my head, but it’s – it’s meaningful.”

“Many commentators saw the incident as a damning example of Big Government and Big Tech working in unison…. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., tweeted, “The FBI colluded with Big Tech to silence news stories weeks before the 2020 election in an attempt to control your access to information. Democrats in Congress have been intentionally ignoring the facts. When Republicans are back in charge, we will hold all of them accountable.”…Byron York, Fox News contributor and chief political correspondent for the Washington Examiner, explained, “In the final weeks of the 2020 contest, the FBI was on the lookout for anything that might damage the Biden campaign. Warned Facebook. Facebook acted on warning and suppressed an accurate story about Hunter Biden.”

The New York Post added on August 26:

“[McCarthy] accused ‘legacy media’ and Big Tech of either ignoring — or actively suppressing — The Post’s exposé about Hunter Biden. ‘One of the nation’s largest newspapers was effectively shut out of the digital public square,’ McCarthy said.

“The lawmaker also took a swipe at the 51 former intelligence officers who circulated an open letter questioning the reporting’s veracity and arguing that it had all the hallmarks of a Russian disinformation campaign. ‘These signatories misused the imprimatur of their former titles to discredit evidence that raised serious questions about the access granted to Joe Biden during his last time in office,’ McCarthy argued.”

According to reports, the FBI knew at the time that there was NO Russian interference in regard to the 2026 election, but FBI agents allegedly claimed otherwise when  they “warned” Facebook in respect to the Hunter Biden story. While many Republican politicians demand a thorough investigation of the FBI, others claim that the FBI is beyond repair and must be dissolved. Note the next article.

Breitbart added on August 27:

“The FBI on Friday did not deny it warned Facebook of the imminent ‘dump’ of ‘Russian propaganda’ before the story of Hunter Biden’s laptop broke in the 2020 election cycle.

“The agency did, however, try and distance itself from the Facebook actions the bureau fueled. NBC News reported the FBI admitted the bureau did provide ‘companies with “foreign threat indicators” to help protect their platforms and customers, but that it ‘cannot ask, or direct, companies to take action on information received.’…

“While the FBI was communicating with Facebook, the FBI’s leadership forbade agents from investigating Hunter Biden’s laptop until after the 2020 election was decided, according to whistleblowers that came forward to Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI). The whistleblowers said the FBI did not want to investigate the laptop because it was afraid public disclosure would alter the outcome of the 2020 election…

“Polling shows the shenanigans surrounding Hunter’s ‘laptop from hell’ impacted the 2020 election. Seventy-four percent of Americans believe the FBI misled the public when it claimed Hunter Biden’s laptop was ‘disinformation.’ Seventy-nine percent of Americans say former President Donald Trump would have won reelection in 2020 if Hunter’s laptop had been known to voters.”

If all of this is true, then the FBI would have engaged in illegal election interference.

California Bans Sale of Gas-Powered Cars

Newsmax wrote on August 25:

“California’s pollution regulation board voted Thursday to approve a ban on selling all gas-powered cars in the state by 2035… The new guidelines require 35% of all new cars sold in the state to be electric by 2026, 68% by 2030, and 100% by 2035…

“California Gov. Gavin Newsom applauded the proposal in an interview on Wednesday…”

Many of the necessary components of electric cars are at this point manufactured in and imported from China. Electric cars are currently much more expensive than gas-powered cars and virtually unaffordable for the average American.

New Covid Boosters Not Even Tested

The Wall Street Journal wrote on August 28:

“The Food and Drug Administration is expected to authorize new Covid-19 booster shots this week without a staple of its normal decision-making process: data from a study showing whether the shots were safe and worked in humans.

“The shots, modified to target the latest versions of the Omicron variant, won’t have finished testing in humans when the FDA makes its decisions.”

Incredible!!!

Cancel Culture and Woke Nonsense in Germany

Deutsche Welle reported on August 24:

“Another day, another online outrage over ‘cancel culture.’ German Twitter lit up with instant indignation this week after a German publisher announced it was pulling two… books from its line-up amid accusations of racism and cultural appropriation. Both books were inspired by Wild West stories from the wildly popular… 19th-century German writer Karl May… May’s books have sold around 200 million copies worldwide — as well as in several movies and even an animated series.

“The publisher, Ravensburger Verlag, citing ‘lots of negative feedback’ around the ‘romanticized’ and ‘clichéd’ depiction of Native Americans in the books, dropped the titles from its program and apologized if it had hurt anyone’s feelings. The blowback was quick, and predictable. #Winnetou has been a trending topic online since with the majority of posters furious over what German tabloid Bild… termed the ‘woke hysteria’ that was ‘burning the hero of our childhood at the stake.’

“Behind the online fury lies a very real, and particularly German, love affair with the Wild West, an affection that can be traced directly back to Karl May and his idealized depiction of 19th-century America. May’s characters — the noble, heroic Winnetou and his white-skinned ‘blood brother’ Old Shatterhand, a German immigrant land surveyor — are as present in the German popular imagination as the figures in Grimm’s Fairy Tale.

“You’ll find Winnetou books and records in many German households. A series of Winnetou films made during the 1960s are still staples on German TV. There are Karl May-inspired Wild West festivals and theme parks across the county where families gather to dress up as cowboys and Indians on stage sets of saloons and hitching posts. The most popular, in Bad Segeberg, attracts about 250,000 people a year…

“The Winnetou films, including the most recent, all feature white actors in the Indigenous roles. The most famous Winnetou is Pierre Brice, a white Frenchman who played the Apache chef in nearly a dozen films from 1962-68 as well as in a TV series in the 1980s.

“… labeling May and his imaginary America as racist and imperialist ignores how radical, for its time, Winnetou was. A century before Kevin Costner’s 1990 epic Western film ‘Dances with Wolves,’ Karl May flipped the traditional depiction of ‘wild Indians’ and ‘civilized cowboys,’ portraying Indigenous Americans (at least Winnetou and his friends) as the heroes…

“German society does not lack for racism but, thanks in large part to Karl May, Native Americans are held in near-universal regard…”

This is a highly-publicized and strongly debated example of how left-wing lying radicals can influence people with little or no understanding who are following blindly the woke nonsense and the cancel culture idiocy. Our German APS program, “Wer Winnetou liest, ist ein Rassist?” addresses the issue at length.

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.

“Germany’s Stone-Faced Chancellor Faces Critics on Nearly Every Side”

On August 20, DNYUZ ran the following article which was originally published by the New York Times:

“‘Shame in the chancellery,’ screamed one headline in the tabloid Bild this week, while the newsmagazine Spiegel ran an exasperated column about the chancellor’s hesitant communication style: ‘Scholz is silent.’ Germany’s chancellor, the prominent podcast The Pioneer concluded, has had ‘a horrific week.’

“Mr. Scholz’s most recent travails come on top of a rocky start to his chancellorship… he has struggled to find his footing as the head of Europe’s biggest democracy and as the successor of Angela Merkel…

“Given Germany’s economic and political power in Europe, weak leadership in Berlin has implications for leadership in the European Union as well, at a time when no other country could easily step into a vacuum. In neighboring France, the second-richest member state, President Emmanuel Macron recently lost his majority in Parliament.

“Accused of being too aloof and passive in his communication, Mr. Scholz, a Social Democrat, has slumped in opinion polls since the election, falling far behind his popular vice chancellor and foreign minister, both from the Green party.

“Abroad, too, his dithering has not gone unnoticed… in the nearly six months since the invasion of Ukraine by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, Mr. Scholz has ruled out a gas embargo, saying it would be too costly. He is still dragging his feet on weapons deliveries to Ukraine. And according to a new report by the German Economic Institute, a Cologne-based think tank, Germany might fail — again — to meet the target of spending 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense agreed by N.A.T.O. members…

“… Mr. Scholz held a joint news conference with the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. Asked whether he was ready to apologize for the Palestinian terrorist attack at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich that killed 11 Israeli athletes, Mr. Abbas launched into a tirade against Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. ‘Between 1947 and today Israel has committed 50 massacres in 50 Palestinian locations,’ he said, before adding, ‘50 massacres, 50 Holocausts.’ A stony-faced Mr. Scholz listened but did not verbally respond. He shook Mr. Abbas’ hand when his spokesman wrapped up the news conference immediately after… Friedrich Merz, the leader of Germany’s conservative opposition, called Mr. Scholz’s failure to speak up ‘beyond belief.’… Mr. Scholz did eventually react, telling the tabloid Bild later that evening that ‘any relativization of the Holocaust is insufferable and unacceptable.’ But it was not until the next morning that he sent out a tweet from his own account…

“Mr. Scholz has come under increasing pressure over allegations that he helped a private bank evade a 47 million-euro tax payment to the city of Hamburg in 2016, when he was mayor. After initially denying that he met privately with one of the co-owners of the M.M. Warburg Bank, Mr. Scholz was forced to admit that they did meet after the banker’s personal calendar indicated as much. Summoned by Hamburg lawmakers for the second time on Friday, Mr. Scholz reiterated that he did not recall what he and a bank executive talked about but insisted that there had been ‘no political influencing’ of the tax procedure… ‘I don’t believe a word the chancellor says,’ Friedrich Merz… told a newspaper on Friday. ‘There is hardly anyone in Germany that buys his many memory lapses.’

“Along with the challenges of rising inflation, slowing economic growth and potential gas shortages — Russia’s state-owned gas company Gazprom announced Friday that gas flows to Germany would temporarily stop again at the end of the month — the accumulation of problems big and small haunting the German chancellor have weighed on his popularity… Several political observers warn of a winter of protests, as Germans feel the pain of higher heating costs.

“Less than one in five Germans would now vote for Mr. Scholz’s Social Democrats, according to a poll released Friday. Instead, if an election were held today, the conservatives would beat them….”

Deutsche Welle added on August 21:

“Around two thirds of Germans said they were dissatisfied with Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his divided coalition, which has experienced one crisis after another since taking office in December… 62% of Germans [have] an unfavorable view of Scholz… If the Chancellor were elected directly, Scholz would now come only in third place [with] only 18% [of the votes]… 65% of Germans [have]  a negative assessment on the work of the federal government.”

JTA reported on August 18:

“Under fire for accusing Israel of ’50 Holocausts,’ Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas walked back his statement, calling the Holocaust ‘the most heinous crime in modern human history.’”

But he did not apologize for his comments regarding Israel’s “50 Holocausts.”

Focus wrote on August 19:

“Misfortunes never come alone. However, what is currently happening in the Federal Republic’s relationship with the Palestinians and thus also with Israel is not a disaster. The rule here is rather: one lack of instinct follows the other. The indignation about the blatant failure of Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz has not yet abated, rightly so, when he wordlessly accepted the downplaying of the Holocaust by the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. And that in the Chancellery, not far from the Holocaust memorial in the capital.

“This lack of instinct number one is immediately followed by lack of instinct number two. Now, of all times, the Federal Foreign Office is announcing that the German government has pledged a total of 340 million euros to the Palestinians for humanitarian aid and development projects for the years 2021 and 2022. Abbas will be happy about that: The Germans obviously don’t blame him for his anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic slurs.

“Germany has always been one of the biggest donors to the Palestinian Authority. Officially, of course, the funds always flowed into humanitarian projects or were intended to promote economic development. Admittedly, there were repeated indications that the Palestinians were not so particular about earmarking. Anyone who claims to be able to precisely control the use of these German payments is lying to their own pockets.

“In any case, the question arises as to how one wants to and can justify financial support – under whatever label – as long as the Palestinian Authority is paying out bonuses to anti-Israel terrorists. After Abbas’ ‘outrageous appearance’, it was not only Volker Beck, the President of the German-Israeli Society, who called for the payments to be checked. But the federal government did exactly the opposite: it keeps the money flowing.”

And although the public prosecution announced, as expected, that they are not going to take action against Scholz, Mr. Scholz’s days are numbered… and that is also true for his unruly and divided “ample” coalition. The failure of the present German government was to be expected from the outset.

Daughter of “Putin’s Brain” Assassinated

The Associated Press wrote on August 21:

“The daughter of an influential Russian political theorist often referred to as ‘Putin’s brain’ was killed in a car bombing on the outskirts of Moscow… the bloodshed gave rise to suspicions that the intended target was her father, Alexander Dugin, a nationalist philosopher and writer.

“Dugin is a prominent proponent of the ‘Russian world’ concept, a spiritual and political ideology that emphasizes traditional values, restoration of Russia’s power and the unity of all ethnic Russians throughout the world. He is also a vehement supporter of Russia’s sending of troops into Ukraine… Some Russian media reports cited witnesses as saying that the SUV belonged to Dugin and that he had decided at the last minute to travel in another vehicle…

“Denis Pushilin, president of the separatist Donetsk People’s Republic, the pro-Moscow region that is a focus of Russia’s fighting in Ukraine, blamed it on ‘terrorists of the Ukrainian regime, trying to kill Alexander Dugin.’ Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, denied Ukrainian involvement, saying, ‘We are not a criminal state, unlike Russia, and definitely not a terrorist state.’…

“While Dugin’s exact ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin are unclear, the Kremlin frequently echoes rhetoric from his writings and appearances on Russian state TV. He helped popularize the ‘Novorossiya,’ or New Russia, concept that Russia used to justify the 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea and its support of separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine. He promotes Russia as a country of piety, traditional values and authoritarian leadership, and disdains Western liberal values.

“His daughter expressed similar views and had appeared as a commentator on the nationalist TV channel Tsargrad… Dugina herself was sanctioned by the United States in March for her work as chief editor of United World International, a website that the U.S. described as a disinformation source…”

The USA has also sanctioned Alexander Dugan.

The Sun added on August 21:

“There is no direct evidence Ukraine or its agents were involved in the Moscow attack. Yet senior pro-Putin war supporters were quick to demand an all-out attack on Kyiv over the… assassination…. Margarita Simonyan, head of RT network, posted on Telegram: ‘Decision-making centres [in Ukraine to be blasted]!’ …

“Putin crony Yury Kot warned escalating conflict at Europe’s biggest atomic plant could lead to Armageddon… He claimed it was Kyiv and the West jeopardising nuclear safety – and urged Putin to be ready to fire nukes at London and Washington.”

This could make the Russian-Ukrainian war even more deadly.

While America Falls Apart…

Dr. Ron Paul wrote the following opinion piece in his weekly column in the Ron Paul Institute publication, dated August 22:

“There is a video clip making the rounds showing President Biden speaking at a recent NATO summit about the seven billion dollars the US government had – at that time – provided to Ukraine. Attached to that is another clip showing the horrific state of several US major cities, including in Pennsylvania, California, and Ohio. The video of American cities is shocking: endless landscapes of filth, trash, homelessness, open fires on the street, drug-addicted zombies…

“Watching Biden bragging about sending billions of dollars to… leaders overseas with American cities looking like bombed-out Iraq or Libya is US foreign policy in a nutshell…

“What is seldom asked, is what is in this deal for those Americans who suffer to pay for our… foreign policy. Do they really think a working American in Ohio or Pennsylvania is better off or safer because we are supposedly protecting Ukraine’s borders? I think most Americans would wonder why they aren’t bothering to protect our own borders. A reported 200,000 illegals crossed the border into the US in July alone. You can believe they are learning quickly about the free money provided by the US government to illegals. They’ll probably get a voting card as well.

“Last Friday the Pentagon announced that yet another $775 million would be sent to Ukraine. As Antiwar.com reported, it was the eighteenth weapons package to Ukraine in six months… the reality is that it is in no way aid to Ukraine… It is money created out of thin air by the Fed and appropriated by Congress to be spent propping up the politically-connected military-industrial complex. It is a big check written by middle America to rich people who run Raytheon and Lockheed Martin…

“Bloomberg reported earlier this summer that inflation is costing the average American household more than $5,200 this year. Inflation is a tax on middle class and poor Americans… [We] watch as the dollar buys less and less… America feels like we’re becoming Zimbabwe. How long until it takes a trillion dollars for a loaf of bread?…”

After World War I, Germany experienced something like this.

The Guardian wrote on August 24:

“Joe Biden has announced nearly $3bn in new military assistance to Ukraine, including anti-aircraft missiles, artillery, counter-drone defences and radar equipment.

“The huge tranche of military aid brings to nearly $13bn the US has supplied or pledged to Kyiv under the Biden administration.”

Most Americans Disapprove of Biden

Daily Mail wrote on August 22:

“A whopping 74% of Americans say the United States is on the wrong track in a new NBC News poll conducted earlier this month. It also found that more than half… feel ‘worried that America’s best years may already be behind us’.

“Among the respondents’ main concerns was the economy, with 68 percent saying they think the country is already in a recession despite Biden’s claims. In total, the poll found, 55 percent of Americans disapprove of the job the president is doing while just 42 percent approve.”

Still, how can 42 percent of Americans approve of the miserable job he is doing? This total blindness is just dumbfounding!

Why the Iran Deal Guarantees Nuclear War

Israel365 News wrote on August 21:

“The Biden administration is on the verge of closing its long-sought for nuclear agreement with the Islamic Republic of Iran…  Back in 2015, news that the Obama-Biden administration was closing in on a final draft of what became its nuclear deal with Iran provoked a mass public outcry. The majority of Americans opposed the deal. Many key Democrats opposed it. The entire Republican Party opposed it. News of the deal was greeted by mass protests in Washington, New York and countrywide. Today, the opposite is the case. News of Biden’s deal is greeted with yawns and apathy.

“The difference is doubly striking because since 2015, the warnings the deal’s opponents sounded have all been borne out by events. Just as the opponents warned, Iran began cheating on the deal the moment it was concluded: Iran stockpiled uranium beyond what was permitted and refused to come clean to inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency on its previous nuclear work.

“Even worse, Iran exploited the deal’s loopholes—first and foremost its non-limitation of research and development work. While ostensibly abiding by the agreement, Iran developed advanced centrifuges capable of enriching uranium 10 times faster and to much higher levels of purity than the centrifuges it fielded in 2015…

“As the deal’s opponents had warned, Iran used the tens of billions of dollars it received from sanctions relief in 2015 and 2016 to massively expand its funding of terror proxies… The nuclear deal was supposed to keep Iran a year away from breakout, but last month Teheran announced it had already crossed the nuclear threshold and could develop bombs at will. The nuclear deal Biden is now negotiating won’t push Iran’s nuclear genie back in the bottle. Iran will enter the deal—if it agrees—as a threshold nuclear state. And it will exit the deal as a nuclear power.

“Yet, despite the manifest dangers Iran poses, and everything we have learned since 2015, no one is in the streets protesting today. No one is campaigning against Biden’s deal. The apathy afflicting everyone from moderate Democrats to conservative Republicans, from Jewish American groups to Christian Zionist groups to national security lobbies is particularly stunning because Biden’s nuclear deal is even worse than Obama’s was. Not only does it give nuclear license to Iran, Biden’s agreement ushers in an era of nuclear chaos…

“Biden’s policy is far worse in two ways. First, it is being undertaken after Iran announced it had crossed the nuclear threshold. In other words, Biden can’t plausibly claim that this is a non-proliferation deal…  Under Biden’s deal, by 2030, Iran will receive $1 trillion in sanctions relief—enough to transform Iran into a regional economic power as Tehran uses its nuclear arsenal to blackmail its neighbors.

“This leads us to the second reason that Biden’s deal is worse than Obama’s… According to media reports of the E.U. final draft, Biden has accepted Iran’s demand that the IAEA end its investigations of Iran’s undeclared nuclear installations…

“The implication is stunning… Once Biden and Iran conclude their deal, the prospect of nuclear war will no longer be a distant if ever-present concern. It will become a certainty, as nation after nation rushes to acquire nuclear weapons…”

The blindness of the Western powers is striking.

Fauci’s Retirement Can’t Come Soon Enough

The New York Post’s Editorial Board wrote on August 22:

“‘Whether you’ve met him personally or not, he has touched all Americans’ lives with his work,’ President Joe Biden said of news that his chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci, is finally retiring [As Breitbart wrote on August 22, “The [Democrat] leader’s remark follows Fauci’s retirement announcement, moving up his timeline to December 2022 — conveniently after the midterm elections, when Republicans hope to gain a majority in both the House and Senate].

“Biden’s only too right — tragically. Fauci’s COVID guidance was disastrous. Fauci, now 81, initially greeted COVID by insisting it wasn’t a ‘major threat,’ only to flip almost overnight into a strident hawk. He demanded contact tracing, a measure as costly as it was useless. He called for economic shutdowns and national school closures. He ridiculed efforts to focus protective efforts narrowly on the truly vulnerable — the elderly and the immunocompromised. He mocked the idea that people who recovered from COVID had some degree of natural immunity (after having once proposed it himself). And he did all this even as he doubted in private the efficacy of masks and the existence of asymptomatic spread.

“His overgrown ego, in short, led him to promote the most destructive federal and state policies in recent US memory. And as of late July he was still at it, saying we should’ve had ‘much more stringent restrictions’ to fight asymptomatic COVID spread in 2020. This, when his tactics accomplished nothing. The United States did worse on overall COVID outcomes than did Sweden, which never closed schools nor implemented other draconian policies.

“Yet Fauci’s chief sin likely came before COVID even reached these shores: As chief of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, he championed and oversaw funding for labs in China that performed gain-of-function research on viruses. Then, as the face of the nation’s coronavirus response, he joined the drive to render unmentionable the idea that the virus might have leaked from that Wuhan lab. And for all the lives his ideas cost and all the needless pain they inflicted, Fauci has not been — and looks likely never to be — held accountable.

“In his own words, the good doctor is leaving to ‘pursue his next chapter.’ For the sake of the world, we hope it’s focused on gardening. Fauci’s too dangerous to be anywhere near the levers of power.”

Will Fauci Be Held Accountable?

Breitbart wrote on August 22:

“A Republican-led House in Congress will hold Dr. Anthony Fauci accountable, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said Monday following Dr. Anthony Fauci’s announcement. ‘Dr. Fauci lost the trust of the American people when his guidance unnecessarily kept schools closed and businesses shut while obscuring questions about his knowledge on the origins of COVID,’ McCarthy said Monday, adding, ‘He owes the American people answers’…

“McCarthy is not the first Republican to warn that Fauci’s departure will not protect the NIAID director from answering tough questions on the origins of the Chinese coronavirus — a battle Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has continued to wage as Fauci continues to deny that NIAID funded gain-of-function research…. ‘Fauci’s resignation will not prevent a full-throated investigation into the origins of the pandemic. He will be asked to testify under oath regarding any discussions he participated in concerning the lab leak,’ Paul said.”

Of course, talk is cheap. We need to wait and see what will really happen to Fauci.

Republican Victory in November Not a Given?

Fox News wrote on  August 21:

“Former President Donald Trump went after Sen. Mitch McConnell… over social media for expressing skepticism around Republicans’ chances of retaking congressional majorities in the November midterms…. McConnell suggested Thursday that he did not think Republicans would retake the Senate as ‘candidate quality has a lot to do with the outcome.’ He said his party may fare better in reclaiming the U.S. House…. ‘Right now, we have a 50-50 Senate and a 50-50 country, but I think when all is said and done this fall, we’re likely to have an extremely close Senate. Either our side up slightly or their side up slightly,’ he added.

“The comment was widely criticized by conservatives… McConnell’s shaky optimism comes as Republican senatorial candidates Blake Masters of Arizona, Herschel Walker of Georgia, and Mehemt Oz of Pennsylvania are trailing in their respective races. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-WI, also trails in his re-election effort….”

The Associated Press wrote on August 20:

“Republicans have found success in Democratic strongholds like Maryland and Massachusetts when they have fielded moderate candidates who could appeal to voters in both parties. With Democrats facing headwinds this year, Republicans had hoped that strategy could pay off yet again. But Republican voters have nominated loyalists of former President Donald Trump in several Democratic states, including Maryland and Connecticut, making the GOP’s odds of winning those general election races even longer…”

One will have to wait and see. In regard to the prophesied downfall of the USA, neither a Republican nor a Democratic victory will change anything substantially, anyhow.

“The Trump Warrant Had No Legal Basis”

The Wall Street Journal wrote on August 22:

“A former president’s rights under the Presidential Records Act trump the statutes the FBI cited to justify the Mar-a-Lago raid.

“Was the Federal Bureau of Investigation justified in searching Donald Trump’s residence at Mar-a-Lago? The judge who issued the warrant for Mar-a-Lago has signaled that he is likely to release a redacted version of the affidavit supporting it. But the warrant itself suggests the answer is likely no—the FBI had no legally valid cause for the raid.

 “The warrant authorized the FBI to seize ‘all physical documents and records constituting evidence, contraband, fruits of crime, or other items illegally possessed in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§793, 2071, or 1519’ (emphasis added). These three criminal statutes all address the possession and handling of materials that contain national-security information, public records or material relevant to an investigation or other matters properly before a federal agency or the courts.”

Hannity said on Fox News on August 22: “Federal law gives Mr. Trump a right of access to them. His possession of them is entirely consistent with that right and therefore lawful, regardless of the statutes that the FBI is citing in their warrant…  there was no legal basis for this unprecedented warrant.”

What Did Biden Know?

The New York Post Editorial Board  wrote on August 23:

“The official line spun by the White House is that President Joe Biden and his staff had no clue Attorney General Merrick Garland had authorized the armed FBI raid on ex-Prez Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home until after it actually happened.  But it turns out they at least enabled and knew about the ongoing investigation.

“A now-public May 10 letter to Team Trump from acting National Archivist Debra Steidel Wall notes that the president’s counsel had told her: ‘President Biden defers to my determination’ on respecting Trump’s claims of executive privilege in retaining various documents — and that she had ‘decided not to honor’ those claims. She adds: ‘NARA will provide the FBI access to the records in question, as requested by the incumbent President.’

“That is, Biden told the National Archives and Records Administration, or NARA, it could go ahead and demand more documents. Is that really the last time the White House got involved? Wall’s letter led to a June meeting where Trump’s aides handed the FBI a bunch of documents, on top of the January handover of other docs. The many mysteries here include: Why exactly did Garland then go for the raid, when Trump had been turning over docs regularly?

“How did NARA get involved in the first place? The DC Circuit Court of Appeals ruled back in 2012: ‘NARA does not have the authority to designate materials as presidential records, and NARA lacks any right, duty, or means to seize control of them.’…

“The New York Times reported back in April that Biden has been telling his aides that he wants Garland to indict Trump for something. That doesn’t help us believe the White House’s official ‘we know nothing’ stance… we… have zero concrete proof that the raid was actually justified.”

Meritocracy Is Dead

Daily Mail published the following article by Andrew Neil on August 19:

“Meritocracy is dead. Long live diversity. That’s the mantra that increasingly dominates this country’s most powerful public and private institutions, from the civil service to the military, the media to the NHS [National Health Service], the universities to major companies — and just about everything important in between. The age-old idea that jobs, position and promotion are best allocated solely on merit and ability, regardless of background, is withering on the vine, replaced by a new religion — almost a fanaticism — that elevates diversity and inclusion above all else…

“No company or public body is currently immune from it, even traditional, well-established, well-regarded, culturally conservative institutions, such as our illustrious Royal Air Force,  which now operates under a ‘Diversity and Inclusion Directive’. It’s worth quoting one of its key lines: ‘The RAF is intent on increasing diversity across all minority groups, including race, religion and beliefs, age, disability, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and reassignment, marriage/civil partnership, socio-economic representation and neuro-diversity.’ The prescient reader will have noticed that nowhere in this box-ticking list is there mention of ability or the best person for the job.  It is a bizarre omission, especially at a time when Britain faces greater military and security threats than it has for a generation… when it comes to appointing fighter pilots, drone operators and surveillance aircraft crews — people in whose hands we are placing the defence of the realm — surely ability and aptitude must trump all else…

“The head of RAF recruitment, a female group captain, has reportedly stepped down from her post in protest at what she regards as ‘impossible diversity targets’ (40 per cent women by 2030, 20 per cent from ethnic minority backgrounds). They can’t be met unless there is a de facto freeze on the recruitment of white males, no matter how well-qualified… without meritocracy, we are doomed to decline.”

Diversity, as propagated and applied these days, does in fact eradicate “meritocracy” to a large extent. Andrew Neil pointed out what many believe, without being willing to say it.

Fetus No Longer a Baby?

Life News wrote on August 18:

“This week, Students for Life of America noticed that the definition of ‘fetus’ changed on Google to exclude the word ‘baby.’ Just a few weeks ago, Google defined ‘fetus’ as ‘an unborn offspring of a mammal, in particular an unborn human baby more than eight weeks after conception,’ according to a screen shot captured by Students for Life. Now, when someone searches for the definition on Google, it reads ‘an offspring of a human or other mammal in the stages of prenatal development that follow the embryo stage (in humans taken as beginning eight weeks after conception.).’

“‘Google altered their definition of “fetus” to not include the word “baby.” They don’t want you to know the truth: a human fetus is a human baby,’ the pro-life organization wrote… Google cited Oxford Languages as the source of its definition for the word ‘fetus.’ However, the website Lexico, which also uses Oxford, still has the definition that includes the word ‘baby.’

“The new definition on Google better meshes with a pro-abortion agenda, not science… An unborn baby’s life begins at conception and, by the fetus stage (about eight weeks of pregnancy), already has almost all of his/her body parts… Even the current U.S. Department of Health and Human Services… despite being run by the pro-abortion Biden administration, uses the word ‘baby’ to describe the developing unborn child at the embryo and fetus stages…

“The definition change follows similar actions by the pro-abortion American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and Planned Parenthood… Google, one of the most powerful companies in the world, has a history of leftist pro-abortion politics…

The reason for the change in definition is abominably obvious.

Resurrecting the Tasmanian Tiger and the Mammoth?

npr wrote on August 20:

“… the Tasmanian tiger [is] not a feline but a dog-like marsupial, a predator that humans hunted to extinction. The last known specimen died in a zoo in 1936. Now the… company Colossal Biosciences wants to genetically resurrect the Tasmanian tiger, also known as the thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus) or the Tasmanian wolf… Colossal… has previously aired plans to resurrect the woolly mammoth…

“It’s not cloning. ‘Cloning is a very specific scientific process. That process requires a living cell,’ evolutionary biologist Beth Shapiro of University of California, Santa Cruz told NPR when talk of resurrecting the mammoth gained new currency in 2015. Instead, Colossal plans to essentially create a hybrid animal, with many of the characteristics of a Tasmanian tiger. Its scientists will use CRISPR gene editing technology to splice bits of recovered thylacine DNA into the genome of a Dasyurid — a family of carnivorous marsupials such as the numbat and Tasmanian devil that are the extinct animal’s closest relatives. The altered nucleus would then be inserted into a Dasyurid egg — and when it develops into an embryo, it would be implanted into a surrogate…

“It could arrive as early as the next few years. By comparison, Colossal hopes to bring its first woolly mammoth calves into the world within the next five or six years, using elephant surrogates. “

What will be next?

“India Sees More Deadly Elephant Attacks…”

Deutsche Welle wrote on August 19:

“Elephant-human conflicts have been on the rise in India as a result of habitat loss, and experts say such conflicts could get worse… More than 1,500 people have died in elephant attacks in the country in the past three years, with 300 of the animals killed in retaliation…  India accounts for 70-80% of all recorded human deaths caused by elephants across Asia… India is home to the world’s largest population of Asian elephants and about 29,000 elephants remain in the wild…  Elephants are expected to live for up to 50 years but their survival depends upon regular migration over large distances to search for food, water, and social and reproductive partners…

“Left alone, elephants do not usually attack people. When elephants enter agricultural fields, or go near human habitation, they are inevitably surrounded by mobs of people. They are intelligent, powerful animals and eventually they will retaliate, again and again…   Elephant herds are known to migrate across 350-500 kilometers (200-300 miles) annually but increasingly fragmented landscapes are driving the giant mammals more frequently into human-dominated areas…”

The Bible says that in these end times, men will be attacked by the wild beasts of the earth.

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.

Biden’s Afghanistan Debacle…

npr wrote on August 15:

“A year ago, U.S. troops withdrew from Afghanistan, a chaotic end to America’s longest war — and a turning point in the Biden presidency, a moment when his approval ratings fell… Doug Sosnik, a former adviser to President Bill Clinton, said it wasn’t just Afghanistan that started Biden’s fall from grace. Covid-19 was surging and inflation was beginning to accelerate. But Sosnik says the bungled withdrawal from Afghanistan really hurt Biden because it undercut the president’s image. ‘If bringing competence back to government is one of the kind of hallmarks of a candidacy, then I think the optics of the Afghanistan withdrawal go completely against the sort of rationale of why you should have voted for Biden,’ he said…

“The withdrawal helped start Biden’s slide in the polls. But a year later, voters are more concerned about the economy, said Mohamed Younis, Gallup’s editor-in- chief. ‘I’m saying… it’s really been a very long time since foreign policy has been the factor in a presidency sort of turning sour,’ Younis said.”

The indifference of many Americans regarding US foreign policy is another reason for America’s coming downfall…

China Celebrates Biden’s Defeat and the Downfall of the USA

Breitbart wrote on August 17:

“The Global Times and its stable of ‘Chinese experts’ argued the ‘Kabul moment’ showed that America’s playbook of ‘democratic transformation’ will never work anywhere, the American ‘strategy of hegemony’ is a bust, and while Biden might have thought he was escaping from a quagmire, he instead made the United States perpetually responsible for the misery of the Afghan people…

“After US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan island on August 2, a delegation of five US lawmakers arrived on the island of Taiwan on Sunday…

“The Global Times advised Americans to regard the ‘Kabul moment’ as proof they are a ‘superpower in its downfall’… ‘The U.S. has passed its peak, with its withdrawal from Afghanistan marking the beginning of the decline of U.S. strength…”

Bild Online reported on August 17 that China is sending troops to Russia to participate in a military exercise in the east. Troops from India and Belarus will also participate. Bild Online commented: “A clear signal to the USA: Nuclear powers playing war.” Also, Russia and North Korea just announced their desire to improve their friendly relationship. The “kings of the East” are coming together. 

Is the USA Facilitating its Own Death?

On August 17, the Ron Paul institute published the following article by Larry Johnson:

“After 8 years of arming and training Ukraine’s army and air force, spending billions of tax payer dollars, the United States no longer has a viable strategy to defeat the Russian forces and compel Vladimir Putin to accept a humiliating defeat. Yes, the US and NATO are pouring a large amount of HIMARS, Army Tactical Missile Systems (aks ATACMS), tanks, vehicles and aircraft into the fight, but this is only prolonging the inevitable surrender of Ukraine…

“Throughout the period from 1990 to February 24, 2022, there were still people in the Russian political leadership who believed that negotiations with the United States and Europe was a viable option. That is no longer the case. Whether the United States and Europe want to believe it, the Russian leaders and people now believe that the west poses an existential threat to them and they will do what is necessary to defend themselves and survive.

“I am old enough to remember a time when the freedom of the press and freedom of speech set the United States apart as a special place. American culture and economic prowess was something that many in Russia and the rest of the world envied. But that was then. When foreigners now consider the state of America they see something radically different. Freedom of the press and freedom of speech are now under regular, sustained attack directed at Christians and conservatives. I remember when the Soviets labeled dissidents as terrorists. Now, America’s own Department of Justice is doing the same to parents opposed to critical race theory and outraged over their daughters being asked to shower with males who claim they are female…

“American culture is now awash with filth. Child pornography, pedophilia and transgenderism is being touted as normal. Anyone who dares challenge these things as abnormal are tagged as racists and hatemongers… Most people in the world, not just Russians, see this and can only conclude that the United States is in the grip of mass psychosis…

“When Russia secures its victory in Ukraine–regardless of how much time and bloodshed is required to achieve that end–it will be committed to building global relations that exclude the United States. The era of the United States as the supreme military and economic power in the world is over.

“I am an American patriot. I love this country and what it is supposed to stand for. But the actions of the Biden Administration are weakening dramatically the US economy and military. The weapon systems that are flooding into Ukraine are being destroyed by Russia or sold on the black market by Ukrainian profiteers. I fear that when the war in Ukraine is settled that the United States will have burnt all bridges that could have led to a reconciliation with Russia. I hope I am wrong.”

No, he is right. The irresponsible conduct of the Biden Administration is only accelerating America’s isolation in the world and its inevitable downfall. The Bible says that America will be viewed as a curse and it will be hated by all nations.

The Disunited USA

Newsmax published the following opinion piece by Patrick Buchanan on August 16:

“… we are a country whose people have a diminishing confidence in almost all of its institutions, from big business to the churches, universities and media… Public approval of Biden’s performance is at the lowest level ever recorded for a president at this point in his first term…

“The left today dominates the academic community and culture to a greater degree than it once did and is further removed from the heart of the country in Middle America than it has ever been. When, how, does America ever unite again?… Where is the common ground on which to stand?

“Does such ground even exist, given the divisions in religion, race and ethnicity, and the seemingly irreconcilable disagreements over morality, ideology, culture and politics? Has the great experiment run its course?”

America is destined to fall…

USA in Perilous Times

Breitbart wrote on August 15:

“Donald Trump’s legal team demolished the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) media spin that denied having the former president’s passports in their possession following the FBI’s raid on Mar-a-Lago last week… As Breitbart News noted, the passports were ‘not independently itemized on the FBI’s property receipt of the 28 inventory items federal agents seized… The warrant, which Attorney General Merrick Garland says he approved and was signed by Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, did not state that they could take Trump’s passport,’ the report noted. ‘Typically, the government needs a separate court order to seize someone’s passport, even temporarily.’

“According to Norah O’Donnell of CBS News, a DOJ official said the former president’s passports were not in their possession, one of which presumably would have been a diplomatic passport… Shortly after Norah’s post, Taylor Budowich, the former president’s communications director, shared an email from Jay Bratt, the top counterintelligence official in the Justice Department’s national security division, confirming that three passports were seized in the raid and that they would be returned to the former president soon… [According to other press releases, they have now been returned.]

“Donald Trump warned about the ‘tremendous anger’ brewing in the country following the raid on his private residence. ‘There has never been a time like this where law enforcement has been used to break into the house of a former president of the United States, and there is tremendous anger in the country—at a level that has never been seen before, other than during very perilous times,’ Trump said.”

The New York Post added on August 16:

“Trump initially accused the FBI of taking the passports Monday afternoon — an explosive allegation that suggested investigators believed he was a flight risk or faced potential charges that would prevent him from leaving the country… The former president and his allies have slammed the FBI and said the raid is the latest phase of a long-running ‘witch hunt’ that dates back to the bureau’s investigation into whether he colluded with Russia’s government during the 2016 campaign.

“After the search warrant and inventory were unsealed Friday, Trump claimed that the documents in question had already been declassified and that the FBI search was unnecessary. ‘They could have had it anytime they wanted without playing politics and breaking into Mar-a-Lago,’ he wrote on Truth Social. ‘It was in secured storage, with an additional lock put on as per their request. They could have had it anytime they wanted—and that includes LONG ago. ALL THEY HAD TO DO WAS ASK.’”

There is indeed tremendous anger in the country, and calls for civil war are getting louder.

Cheney vs. Trump

The Associated Press reported on August 17:

“Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney was increasingly open on Wednesday about considering a 2024 presidential campaign after soundly losing a Republican primary to a challenger backed by former President Donald Trump. Speaking to NBC in the wake of her loss, the third-term congresswoman called Trump ‘a very grave threat and risk to our republic,’ and said defeating him will require ‘a broad and united front of Republicans, Democrats and independents — and that’s what I intend to be part of.’ She declined to say if she would run for president but conceded it’s ‘something that I’m thinking about.’…

“With Cheney’s loss, Republicans who voted to impeach Trump are going extinct… In all, seven Republican senators and 10 Republican House members backed Trump’s impeachment… Just two of those 10 House members have won their primaries this year…”

Cheney’s defeat was expected.  Her constant attacks on Trump did not win her any favors.

Deutsche Welle wrote on August 17:

“Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney, a fierce critic of Donald Trump, lost her seat in Congress to Trump-backed candidate Harriet Hageman on Tuesday… Hageman’s rout of Cheney was also a testament to Trump’s grip over the party’s fortunes and an achievement in his campaign to oust Republicans who backed impeaching him… Cheney’s criticism of Trump and her role in the congressional panel investigating the January 6 attack made her a pariah in her party. Her third and final Congress term ends in January. She will continue in her leadership role on the January 6 attack panel until it dissolves at the end of 2022.”

Will Trump Go After Clinton and Obama?

Daily Mail wrote on August 17:

“Former President Donald Trump signaled that he intends to capitalize on the FBI’s Mar-a-Lago raid – sharing an op-ed that predicting Republicans might exact vengeance by using law enforcement to go after Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

“Trump shared without comment an op-ed by loyalist and conservative columnist Kimberly Strassel in the Wall Street Journal, whose work he has frequently promoted in the past. In an email from his Save America PAC, Trump tweeted the article’s headline: ‘The Payback for Mar-a-Lago Will Be Brutal.’”

Abortion Merely a Means of Birth Control?

Life News wrote on August 8:

“Minnesota has released its report on abortion in the state in 2020 and 2021. The report points out reasons why women had abortions. In 2021, by far the most common reason given was that the woman ‘[did] not want children at this time.’ Eighty-four percent of women who responded gave this reason for their abortions… Less than 1% of Minnesota abortions in 2021 and 2020 were committed because the mother was a victim of rape or incest, and no abortions were reported either year to save the life of the mother.”

Economic hardship is another major reason for abortions. But how can this justify the murder of an unborn child?

Mr. President, Get Rid of Corona Restrictions!

The Ron Paul Institute wrote on August 15:

“In June, the United States Department of State published an announcement of the ending of coronavirus testing requirements imposed on Americans and foreigners flying to America. The announcement, though, also declared that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ‘Order requiring proof of vaccination for noncitizen nonimmigrants to travel to the United States is still in effect.’ And that coronavirus crackdown requirement remains in effect today.

“Fortunately, public opposition to the requirement that visitors to America take the experimental coronavirus ‘vaccine’ shots is rising among Republican governors and Republican House of Representative members. Indeed, Joseph Summers wrote Thursday at LifeSite about two letters groups of Republican office holders sent to President Joe Biden this month requesting that Biden terminate the requirement that foreigners take coronavirus shots as a prerequisite for visiting America, The first is an August 1 letter from eight Republican US House of Representatives members. The second is an August 10 letter from 17 Republican governors.

“Notably, the governors’ letter includes this strange assertion: ‘Republican Governors consistently stood against the immense, unconstitutional overstepping of power that occurred in our country during the pandemic in the name of public health.’ Of course, most Republican governors jumped right on the coronavirus crackdown bandwagon, though they often applied a lighter tyrannical touch than their Democratic counterparts. Still, it is good to see now the increased number of Republican governors standing in opposition to some of the still in place aspects of the crackdown.”

Will Joe Biden listen? Now his wife has corona. 

She was fully vaccinated. According to some reports, she is now taking the corona pill Paxlovid, a medication which German doctors are warning about (see last Current Events, “Germany’s COVID Chaos”).

Kennedy Jr. Suspended from Facebook and Instagram

 The Associated Press wrote on August 18:

“Instagram and Facebook suspended Children’s Health Defense from its platforms this week… [The] anti-vaccine group [is] led by Robert Kennedy Jr… In a statement, Kennedy compared Facebook’s actions to government censorship…”

Germany’s Vaccination Mandate

Deutsche Welle wrote on August 18:

“The Federal Constitutional Court rejected a bid to overturn a measles vaccination requirement for children in day care centers and schools, upholding a law that has come into effect in March 2020… If a child’s immunization is not documented, schools are required to notify the local public health office.

“It is not possible to exclude unvaccinated children from schools, because of a legal obligation to education, but parents who refuse to vaccinate their children face fines of up to €2,500 ($2,760).”

The New Inflation Reduction Act

Fox News wrote on August 16:

“White House officials are not saying when the act will start reducing inflation or by how much, even though the legislation is being billed as a way to slow price increases…. overall inflation… sits at 8.5% over a year ago as of July…

“… multiple outside studies and economists are projecting that the bill will have very little, if any, success in decreasing inflation. Even Sen. Bernie Sanders… said the bill ‘will in fact have a minimal impact on inflation’… “

The bill was passed on party-line votes in both the House and the Senate. It will double the IRS workforce over the decade. Fox News wrote that despite assurances from Democrats to the contrary, “Republican politicians have voiced concern that the [bill will] not only raise taxes on lower- and middle-class Americans, but could also increase the amount of tax audits, disproportionately affecting citizens who are unable to afford legal counsel… The editorial board of The Wall Street Journal also demurred, with a Sunday editorial that argued the IRS expansion would likely collect billions in cash from ‘new middle-class audits.’ The problem is that for every tax cheat the IRS identifies, several more compliant tax filers will be subjected to needless scrutiny,’ the board wrote.”

Biden’s New $739 Billion Inflation Bill Blasted

Fox News wrote on August 16:

“President Joe Biden was blasted for his comments while signing the Inflation Reduction Act into law Tuesday. The bill costs $739 billion and the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office and Penn Wharton Budget Model estimate it will not reduce inflation, despite its name…

“Conservative commentator Ian Miles Cheong, a refugee from China, tweeted, ‘Orwellian. This might be the single largest transfer of wealth from the middle class to corporate and state interests since the pandemic policies bankrupted numerous small businesses… Not only are these people taking away your hard earned money, they’re killing your children’s chance of having any kind of comfortable future,’ he continued.

“Cheong also criticized Biden’s speech, which the president struggled to get through, tweeting, ‘It’s clear that Joe has dementia but no one in the media will point it out.’

“Guy Benson, a Fox News contributor and political editor of Townhall, tweeted, ‘Oh, a lot of “green” special interests won. So did the IRS, big time. And when the IRS doubles, a lot of Americans don’t feel like winners.’ Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., disputed Biden’s claim that ‘no one earning less than $400,000 a year will pay a penny more in federal taxes.’ ‘The CBO disagrees. Americans earning less than $400k a year are estimated to pay an additional $20 BILLION in new taxes. This Administration just lies…and the media covers for them. Every time,’ Tuberville tweeted.

“James J. Carafano, vice president for foreign and security policy at the Heritage Foundation, tweeted, ‘This will be a dark day for everyday Americans that will bear the brunt of this big government law. How fitting to sign on anniversary of Afghanistan disaster that humiliated every single American.’”

Is the European Army on the Way?

Politics Today wrote on August 16:

“On July 20, the European Union Commission announced its plan to provide 1.2 billion Euros… to support 61 joint defense research and development projects… This move raised questions about whether the EU states are now more willing to form a European military identity given Russia’s invasion of Ukraine… The idea of creating a European army has a long and contentious history in Europe… Some EU countries such as France, Germany, and Italy prioritize the EU’s own defense and promote the idea of an EU army… Today, there is considerable support among other EU member states for the EU maintaining its own security. Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Draghi argued for the need to enhance European security…

“Tensions between the U.S. and some EU countries, too, fuel debates on Europe becoming a self-sufficient and self-reliant power. In NATO-EU security relations, the distrust felt by some EU member states—especially evident during the Trump administration—has a potential to resurge in the future… It is remarkable that Germany, which kept its defense budget the same for years, has finally increased it to €100 billion… though still small in size, the EU is getting closer to a common security understanding. It will be curious to follow whether the European Union will achieve a strong security and defense of its own.”

According to biblical prophecy, it will.

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.

Witch-Hunt on Trump from Every Angle

The Sun wrote on August 9:

“Sources say the FBI search was part of an investigation into whether he took classified records from the White House to Mar-a-Lago… Law enforcement sources told TMZ that federal agents ‘waited for Trump to leave town’ before conducting the raid. The protocol of an FBI raid like the one conducted on Monday would require federal agents to ‘handcuff the target – if they’re home – until the property is secured,’ the outlet reported citing sources. ‘The target would not be arrested, but rather detained. Once the property was secured, agents would remove the handcuffs, but the target could not reenter the premises until the raid was completed.’

“On Tuesday, the DC Court of Appeals announced that the House Ways and Means Committee could obtain Trump’s tax returns from the IRS in the latest legal blow to the former president.

“… the search comes amid a separate grand jury investigation into efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election…

“Trump’s former Vice President Mike Pence ripped the FBI, saying the raid ‘undermines public confidence’ in the country’s justice system… ‘No former President of the United States has ever been subject to a raid of their personal residence in American history… the appearance of continued partisanship by the Justice Department must be addressed… Attorney General Garland must give a full accounting to the American people as to why this action was taken and he must do so immediately.’”

Of course, Garland has so far refused to say anything which would have been substantial. Republicans and political conservative contenders for the White House like Mike Pence were quick to give their full support for Donald Trump. The political and presumably illegal action of the Justice Department and the FBI will backfire and might constitute the biggest debacle for the Biden administration… much bigger than the Afghanistan catastrophe. It does not appear that Biden and the Democrats will be able to recover from these devastating developments. Note the next articles.

Republicans in Arms in Support of Trump

Florida Politics wrote on August 8:

“The historic spectacle of the FBI raiding the former President’s… Palm Beach estate lit Twitter on fire with outraged Republicans venting about the news. State Republicans argued the raid… is an example of the federal government being weaponized against the administration’s opponents...

“Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio went on something of a Tweetstorm, evoking the political upheaval in his parent’s native country, Cuba. ‘Using government power to persecute political opponents is something we have seen many times from 3rd world Marxist dictatorships. But never before in America,’ Rubio said… U.S. Sen. Rick Scott was making basically the same point as Rubio. ‘The FBI’s raid of Mar-A-Lago is incredibly concerning, especially given the… Biden admin’s history of going after parents and other political opponents. This is 3rd World country stuff…’ [He also wrote:] ‘Biden is playing with fire by using a document dispute to get the Justice Department to persecute a likely future election opponent. Because one day what goes around is going to come around. And then we become Nicaragua under Ortega.’

“Gov. Ron DeSantis was also pessimistic about the historic event… ‘The raid of MAL is another escalation in the weaponization of federal agencies against the Regime’s political opponents, while people like Hunter Biden get treated with kid gloves,’ DeSantis tweeted. ‘Now the Regime is getting another 87K IRS agents to wield against its adversaries? Banana Republic.’

“Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis… demanded additional explanation about the raid from federal officials… ‘This administration has lost its mind. It is corrupt. It is political. They raid a former President, they do nothing about the border or about Hunter…. Pure Banana Republic tactics. Only in dictatorship do they use the power of government to eliminate their enemies.’”

Newsmax added on August 8:

“House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said in a statement[:] ‘The Department of Justice has reached an intolerable state of weaponized politicization.’“

Breitbart published on August 8 numerous comments from conservative newscasters, supporting Trump and accusing the Biden Administration, the FBI and the Justice Department for improper conduct:

“Lou Dobbs: ‘The FBI and the DOJ have ruthlessly violated the Constitution and law in America. Joe Biden and Merrick Garland are no more than Marxist thugs, not public servants. They’re an outrage against decency, judgment, a former President, and the American people.’

“Sebastian Gorka: ‘The FBI is currently raiding President Trump home at Mar-a-Lago. They have declared war on 74 MILLION Americans.’

“Glenn Beck: ‘This is the act of a dictator of a Banana Republic. Republicans NEVER did this to Clinton, although perhaps we should have. With Joe & Hunter Biden paying zero consequence for his actions. This is shameful and MUST STOP. We don’t do this in America. Way over the line… Hillary Clinton acid washed hard drives. TOOK SKIFF only top secret documents home. WILDLY illegal. THEY did NOTHING. The FBI needs to be fumigated. ANY FBI agent who knows about corruption and keeps quiet is just as guilty.’”

Deutsche Welle added on August 10:

“Senator Lindsey Graham… said ‘launching an investigation of a former president this close to an election is beyond problematic,’ while Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, the third-ranking House Republican, called Monday’s events a ‘dark day in American history.’”

Fox News added on August 10:

“Former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino called the FBI raid on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home a ‘constitutional abomination to our constitutional republic’ and said the personnel involved with the raid should be fired.”

Termination and PROSECUTION may have to include EVERYONE directly or indirectly involved, including Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI Director Christopher Wray, and any and all “higher-ups,” if they were in any way complicit in this attack on American liberties and freedoms.

What’s Really Behind the Raid?

The New York Post wrote on August 9:

“The court-authorized search… is another unmistakable signal that the Justice Department is trying to build a criminal case against [Trump] arising out of the Capitol riot. Ostensibly, the search relates to a long simmering dispute between the former president and the government over Trump’s potentially illegal retention and mishandling of classified information. But don’t be deceived…

“The ongoing proceedings implicating Trump – in particular, the Justice Department’s investigation and the House January 6 committee probe – seem geared toward undermining his capacity to seek the presidency again in 2024…But a felon is not a disqualification, so even crimes potentially far more serious than mishandling classified information are not a bar to seeking the presidency…

“The Justice Department obviously used the potential classified information as a pretext to obtain a warrant so it could search for what it is really looking for: evidence that would tie Trump to a Capitol riot offense… The Biden Justice Department is under enormous pressure from the Democratic base to indict Trump, and it is straining to deliver. But what it is trying to deliver is a Capitol riot case, not a case of mishandling classified documents.”

This supports the suggestion raised by many that the FBI and others went on a politically and legally problematic fishing expedition. There exists a statute which might be used to bar Trump from running for the Presidency. But as legal scholars point out, only the Constitution declares when someone is barred from running. So any statute going beyond this is unconstitutional and void.

Trump’s Response

Newsmax and Reuters wrote on August 8:

“Former President Donald Trump on Monday said his opponents ‘desperately don’t want me to run for President in 2024’ and will ‘likewise do anything to stop Republicans and Conservatives in the upcoming Midterm Elections.’ That, he said, is why FBI agents raided his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida, on Monday even though he said he had been ‘working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies.’… Trump called the move against a former president ‘dark times for our nation,’ and said the action was no different than Watergate and had turned the United States into a ‘broken third-world country.’

“Trump, who found plenty of support on Monday from political allies, issued a statement reading:

“‘Nothing like this has ever happened to a president of the United States before… Such an assault could only take place in broken, third-world countries. Sadly, America has now become one of those countries, corrupt at a level not seen before. They even broke into my safe!…

“‘Hillary Clinton was allowed to delete and acid wash 33,000 e-mails AFTER they were subpoenaed by Congress. Absolutely nothing has happened to hold her accountable. She even took antique furniture, and other items from the White House.

“I stood up to America’s bureaucratic corruption… the establishment hated it. Now, as they watch my endorsed candidates win big victories, and see my dominance in all polls, they are trying to stop me, and the Republican Party, once more. The lawlessness, political persecution, and witch hunt must be exposed and stopped…’”

Calls for taking up arms and the need for civil war are becoming louder in some circles.

 Newsmax wrote on August 9:

“President Joe Biden ‘knew all about’ Monday’s raid at Mar-a-Lago, just as he surely knew all about son Hunter Biden’s business deals, former President Donald Trump proclaimed on Tuesday… Trump has been blasting the actions of the Biden administration’s Justice Department as a continuation of efforts to discredit him as a president and potential 2024 candidate for reelection.

“Earlier Tuesday, at a White House press conference, officials insisted Biden had not been briefed on the FBI raid. That, they said, is because he would have had no role in it, with the Justice Department expected to perform its tasks independent of the Oval Office.

“Biden has also repeatedly denied any involvement in, or knowledge of, son Hunter’s business dealings with foreign entities and individuals.

“Democrat and anti-Trump operatives have offered hints, and sometimes more, about wanting to attack Trump with an eye toward blocking a 2024 run. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., has acknowledged that a goal of the House Jan. 6 Select Committee probing the Capitol attack is to keep Trump from the White House…”

The problem is, Biden has been lying on several occasions. There is clearly an appearance of collusion between the White House and the FBI and the Justice Department. Further concerns were raised when it was revealed that “The federal judge who reportedly signed off on the raid at former President Trump’s …  Mar-a-Lago residence donated thousands of dollars to former President Barack Obama’s presidential campaign and victory fund in 2008” (Fox News, dated August 9).

Dark Days in the USA—While It Is Getting Darker…

The New York Post reported on August 9:

“FBI agents scoured Melania Trump’s wardrobe and spent several hours combing through Donald Trump’s private office, breaking open his safe and rifling through drawers when they raided the former First Family’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida Monday morning… A source close to the former president expressed concern that FBI agents or DOJ lawyers conducting the search could have ‘planted stuff’ because they would not allow Trump’s attorneys inside the 128-room building to observe the operation, which lasted more than nine hours.

“The raid… extended through the Trump family’s entire 3,000-square-foot private quarters, as well as to a separate office and safe, and a locked basement storage room in which 15 cardboard boxes of material from the White House were stored. The boxes [taken by the FBI] contain documents and mementos from Trump’s presidency, reportedly including [private!] letters from Barack Obama and Kim Jong Un, and other correspondence with world leaders…

“… agents fanned out to search every room, while shocked staff were instructed by Trump’s lawyers to unlock doors and provide the FBI access to every room, including the sumptuous Versailles Master Bedroom, renovated by Melania two years ago. Another group of agents, including a professional safe cracker, moved to a separate part of the enormous 1924 Spanish stucco building to search Trump’s office and safe. The demeanor of the three DOJ lawyers who accompanied the FBI was described by one eyewitness as ‘arrogant’…

“Despite the sweltering 91 degrees temperature Monday, Trump’s lawyers were forbidden by the feds to shelter inside the cool lobby, or to observe the search in any way, but were left outside in the baking sun near a parking lot. The feds instructed Trump’s representatives to switch off the security cameras but they refused.”

If this does not tell us what is happening…

Newsmax wrote on August 9:

“No former president had been raided in the 114-year history of the FBI before Trump, including President Barack Obama, who Trump has alleged was a part of spying on his 2016 presidential campaign against Hillary Clinton.

“Former NYPD Commissioner Bernie Kerik…  issued a warning Tuesday the FBI raid required body cameras, and he issued a call for the House Judiciary Committee and Ranking Member Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, to subpoena those from the raid on Trump…”

“Justice” in America?

Newsmax wrote on August 10:

“The FBI raided former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence as opposed to issuing a subpoena, because they wanted to circumvent Trump’s Fifth Amendment rights – and seize anything they wanted – according to legal expert Alan Dershowitz… Dershowitz… added… a search warrant is easily obtained through a judge, who signs off on them without much justification. ‘For a search warrant, you go to Santa Claus and you say, “Santa, it’s Christmas, give me presents,”’ Dershowitz said. ‘Every judge grants almost every search warrant request, and there is no judicial oversight to speak of for search warrants.’

“Dershowitz’s remarks appear to stamp out allegations from the likes of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who suggested the FBI must have had ‘justification’ to raid Trump’s private residence. Dershowitz argued a search warrant has a very low bar. ‘I’ve been doing this for 60 years, Greta: I don’t remember a case where a judge turned down a search warrant,’ Dershowitz continued. ‘… And, if a judge turns down a search warrant, you just go to another judge and another judge and another judge. You can get to the eighth judge, if seven have been denied, you still get your search warrant.’”

Incredible. This shows how the “justice system” “works.” The Ron Paul Institute is asking the question on August 9 whether America is now a “police state.”

It Will Backfire!

The New York Post reported on August 10:

“The former commander-in-chief told the [Republican Study Committee] he ‘has made up his mind’ about his long-teased run, and ‘enjoyed encouragement’ from them to ‘get the decision out sooner rather than later.’… ‘The Republican Party is bigger and stronger than ever before because of Donald Trump’s leadership,’ insisted the study committee chairman.

“[Rep. Jim] Banks joined others in saying that ‘what happened at Mar-a-Lago unifies Republicans in our outrage… If anything, what the left and the corrupt Biden administration has done will only backfire on them, as they see that the American people stand with President Trump,’ he told Fox. ‘The House GOP is fighting back. We stand united in outrage against the Biden White House and DOJ, and we stand with President Trump.’”

It will backfire indeed. Republicans and even Democrats and Independents take Trump’s side against the irresponsible conduct of those responsible for this raid. In a sense, nothing better could have happened toTrump…

The Days the Truth Died

Paul Craig Roberts, Institute for Political Economy, wrote on August 5:

“The Establishment’s determination to close down narrative-challenger Alex Jones has put Sandy Hook back in the news…

“My search of the IPE archives brought up my articles on other controversial shootings–Las Vegas and Orlando–and the Oklahoma City Bombing.  The common thread in all of these incidents is that the narrative is established the minute the news is reported, and officials and media never vary from the narrative.  As soon as it happens, the government and the media already know what happened.  No investigation ever takes place.  It was the same for President Kennedy’s assassination, his brother’s assassination, 9/11, the Gulf of Tonkin, Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, Assad’s use of chemical weapons, the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty, etc.

“Legitimate questions about the narratives are ignored by officials and media who seem to be involved in a conspiracy to bury the truth.  Skeptics, no matter how prominent or fact-based are demonized as ‘conspiracy theorists’ unworthy of attention. Clearly, America no longer has a media watchdog.  America has a propaganda ministry for official narratives. What this tells us should shock every American… truth is hard to find in the American media and the American government.

“In the not distant future, it will become actionable to doubt… the government on the grounds that doubt implies disbelief and disbelief is a crime or proves that you are a foreign agent.  Slander and libel will evolve to apply to media and government as institutions.  As we are so gullible, so trusting, we are going to be reduced to silence or praise.  Silence will bring official suspicion.  Praise of the false narratives will bring career success and rewards…

“Younger people have been indoctrinated in schools that government and media protect blacks, homosexuals, and transgendered from racist, homophobic and transphobic white people who use normality as an illegitimate standard of approval. Sodom and Gomorrah are approved, but not the white family unit.

“Can we believe that there is a future for freedom in America when Democrats, media, CIA, FBI, and NSA can create a narrative of President Donald Trump as a Russian agent? Can we believe that there is a future for freedom in America when the same collection of schemers can create a show trial of the President of the United States planning a coup by a couple of hundred unarmed supporters seizing the government of the United States by walking around in the Capitol and sitting in Nancy Pelosi’s chair?…”

This was even written BEFORE the outrageous raid on Trump’s property in Florida.

On the other hand, we should not forget some of the outrageous ideas Trump supports. Note the next articles.

Trump: Death Penalty for Drug Dealers

In his rallies, including the most recent rally on August 5, 2022, Trump is pleading for the death penalty for drug dealers. His stance is not new; note the following article by The Washington Post from February 15, 2019:

“President Trump spoke fondly again on Friday about the practice — popular among some anti-Democratic leaders — of executing drug traffickers. Speaking at the White House to announce that he was declaring a national emergency to secure funding to build his long-promised border wall, Trump digressed to speak about a recent conversation he had with Chinese President Xi Jinping. ‘Their criminal list — a drug dealer gets a thing called the death penalty,’ he said of China… ‘When I asked President Xi, I said, “You have a drug problem?” “No no no.”… Why? Death penalty,’ Trump said, imitating someone who speaks broken English. “We give death penalty to people who sell drugs. End of problem.”’ [Trump repeats this conversation continuously during his recent rallies.]

“Human rights experts said Trump’s regular praise for Xi is concerning and misleading… While Trump claimed he was told that China does not have a drug problem, that does not appear to be the case. According to China Daily, a state-run newspaper, police in China solved ‘140,000 criminal cases related to drugs in 2016, arrested 168,000 suspected drug users, seized 82.1 tons of drugs and destroyed 438 drug labs.’ And the outlet noted that there were 2.5 million known drug addicts in China by the end of 2017.’…

“China does execute people in some cases for drug trafficking, distribution and manufacturing but that its legal processes would not pass muster in the United States… There’s no due process… Everything about every death penalty case in China would fail the tests we have here for a fair trial…”

The death penalty for drug dealers, following China’s example, is a terrible idea which would not fly in the USA. And what about mothers who abort their children? Is Trump, who was at one time “pro-choice,” suggesting that they should get the death penalty too?

Trump: End Chain Migration

In his rallies, including the most recent rally on August 5, 2022,Trump is pleading for ending chain migration. His stance is not new; note the following article by Vox, dated January 30, 2018:

“[President Donald Trump is] talking more — a lot more — about how ‘chain migration’ is bad for the United States. ‘Ending chain migration’ has become one of the four pillars that the White House demands be part of any bill to protect the 690,000 young unauthorized immigrants affected by Trump’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program [commonly referred to as the “Dreamers”]. The White House’s own proposal suggests doing this by preventing all US citizens from sponsoring parents, siblings or adult children to settle in the US — a radical change from current law….”

We should point out that legal chain migration is a long, cumbersome and expensive process. Many would not qualify. Trump does not seem to know much about how chain migration really works. We should also point out that Trump’s own parents-in-law were able to settle in the USA because of chain migration. Ending chain migration is another one of Trump’s terrible ideas.

Fauci at it Again

The Ron Paul Institute republished on August 5 the following article by the Dossier:

“This week, Anthony Fauci has been making the media rounds warning of a severe winter of death and illness for the unvaccinated. Once more, he has warned of a heavy toll for those who refuse experimental gene injections that have been fraudulently represented as the cure to the coronavirus… Fauci recently had a bad bout with COVID-19, despite taking four Pfizer injections and two full courses of Pfizer oral pills…

“Last year, Fauci warned of a brutal winter for those who decided not to get injected with the gene juice… President Biden infamously declared a coming ‘winter of death and severe illness for the unvaccinated.’ Of course, that 2021 winter of death and severe illness never came to fruition, and neither will the 2022 winter projection, to the devastation of the people in charge… Americans are largely tuning out the Big Pharma-Government Health seasonal mRNA sales drive.”

One of Trump’s colossal blunders was not to fire Fauci. We cannot expect Biden to do so, of course.

In fact, Fauci has become somewhat of a mentor for other “health experts”… with disastrous consequences. Note the next articles regarding COVID restrictions in Germany.

Germany’s COVID Chaos

Deutsche Welle wrote on August 5:

“German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach has tested positive for the coronavirus and is isolating at home… Lauterbach… has received four doses of the COVID vaccine… On Wednesday, the German government announced basic COVID measures… The most notable national plan, the compulsory wearing of face masks on long-distance trains and airplanes, will remain in place… A negative COVID-19 test will also be required from October until early April for many people to secure entry to hospitals, nursing homes and similar institutions…

“Germany’s 16 states are largely left to implement their own rules from among a range of options… State governments could decide to require masks on local public transport, in schools for students, or at indoor events, for example… The government also plans a vaccination drive in the coming months…”

 Lauterbach does not seem to have too much confidence in these vaccines, as he is now taking the corona pill “Paxlovid” to avoid complications, even though his symptoms are allegedly “mild.” So did Biden after he came down with COVID the first time in July, but subsequently he came down with it again, and has been tested positive for 7 consecutive days including Friday. We are being told that his symptoms were mild. He has now been tested negative, as of Saturday.

German doctors warn against Paxlovid. According to t-online, dated August 6, the medication causes side-effects such as high blood pressure, diarrhea and muscle pain, and should only be taken after diligent medical consultation. The article also points out that it is unknown why Corona returns after taking Paxlovid.

That’s Enough, Herr Lauterbach!

The mass German tabloid, Bild Online, wrote on August 5:

“Germany is back in the Corona crisis. But not because of the virus, but because of the rules…

“The threatening rule chaos is homemade. While other countries (e.g. Switzerland, Austria, France) rely on freedom instead of measures, Health Minister Lauterbach and Justice Minister Buschmann are sending Germany back to arbitrary rule.

“Masks are compulsory in schools even though children almost never get sick? Vaccinations every 3 months to avoid wearing an FFP2 mask in the restaurant? It has nothing to do with health protection.

“Karl Lauterbach calls this the ‘incentive for vaccination’. But that is nothing more than vaccination pressure. Many people who have supported all Corona measures in the past will say: That’s enough!”

But will Lauterbach and Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP) listen to these appeals? That is hardly to be expected. Their goal of fearmongering and pressuring those who do not agree with their unscientific opinions is very obvious.

Recession Is Still Looming…

Breitbart wrote on August 5:

“The U.S. economy added 528,000 jobs in July and the unemployment rate fell to 3.5 percent… The July figures and the upward revisions to June’s gains are likely to spark concerns over inflation persisting at very high levels. Particularly with economic output contracting, adding demand in the form of additional workers and higher wages is likely to push prices up.”

The Associated Press added on August 5:

“The economic backdrop is troubling: Gross domestic product — the broadest measure of economic output — fell in both the first and second quarters; consecutive GDP drops is one definition of a recession. And inflation is roaring at a 40-year high… History isn’t entirely reassuring: The unemployment rate was even lower — 3.5% — when an 11-month recession began in December 1969…

“Economist House at Wells Fargo expects employers to keep adding jobs for a few months. But rising interest rates, she said, will gradually choke off economic growth… ‘Our expectation is that the U.S. economy will slip into recession, probably at the start of the year.’”

CNBC wrote on August 5:

“There is no historical precedent to indicate that an economy in recession can produce 528,000 jobs in a month, as the U.S. did during July. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a recession ahead, and, ironically enough, it is the labor market’s phenomenal resiliency that could pose the biggest danger. The Federal Reserve’s rate tightening to address inflation poses a recession threat into 2023.”

On the other hand, Politico wrote on August 5:

“It’s the fastest pace of jobs growth since February as the labor market continues to defy fears that the economy is heading into a recession.”

In Britain too…

Breitbart wrote on August 5:

“The Bank of England has warned that the British economy is heading into a protracted recession as it raised interest rates to fight inflation amid fears of 13 or 15 per cent inflation by the end of year…. the highest level since the 2008 financial crisis. The central bank raised the rates in the hopes of mitigating the expected increases to inflation, which it now forecasts as hitting 13.3 per cent this year, a four decade high. It is now expected that at the end of the year, the British economy will sink into a recession that will last for at least five quarters…”

… and in Germany…

Deutsche Welle wrote on August 7:

“For the fifth month in a row, German factories received fewer orders for their products. In June, orders fell 0.4% compared with May. Though a minor decline at first glance, that adds up to a 5.6% decrease for the second quarter of 2022. Because of the bottlenecks in global supply chains, German industries still have a high order backlog, but not enough to protect them from the upcoming economic hardship, Commerzbank chief economist Jörg Krämer told DW. ‘The risk of a recession is increasing,’ Krämer said….

“The current high inflation rates continue to erode consumer purchasing power… There is also great uncertainty as to what additional costs might arise from the high energy prices caused by the war in Ukraine and the gas levy… Additionally, the global economy is suffering, affecting overseas markets. In the United States, one of the most important sales destinations for German industry, inflation rates are so high that the Federal Reserve is raising interest rates much faster than the European Central Bank, pushing people and businesses to spend less….

“A recession seems inevitable… That could push at least parts of German industry to relocate their production abroad — to places where energy is cheaper and produced domestically…”

These are not good signs for the economic prosperity of Germany. It would take a strong and dictatorial Führer with drastic measures to turn this trend around, but it would have terrible consequences for Germany and the entire world.

Snickers Gives in to China

Bild Online wrote on August 5:

“One of the most successful chocolate bars collapses in front of the Chinese dictatorship!

“The US candy company Mars Wrigley (including Snickers, Twix) apologized on Friday for a Snickers ad in which Chinese social media users said that Taiwan was a country… Unbelievable (and inedible): The American bar -Giant posted an apology on its account… and said the relevant content had been changed. The former Snickers slogan ‘When you get hungry’ would have to be rephrased: ‘When you get cowardly’…”

The correct slogan is: “You’re not you when you’re hungry“, to be changed to, “You’re not you when you’re a coward.”

China on the Warpath

Breitbart wrote on August 5:

“The ambassador for Communist China to France said on Monday that the people of Taiwan will need to be ‘re-educated’ after the democratic island nation is ‘reunified’ with the mainland.”

Deutsche Welle wrote on August 5:

“The Chinese Communist Party says that self-ruled, democratic Taiwan is part of its territory and has promised to one day take it, if necessary by force. As such, Beijing objects to foreign governments having formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. While the US does not have such relations with Taipei, it remains its most important military and political backer. .. Pelosi said on Friday that the US would ‘not allow’ China to isolate Taiwan…

“Taiwan’s defence ministry on Friday said a total of 68 Chinese military aircraft and 13 navy ships were conducting missions in the Taiwan Strait. Some, they said, had crossed an official buffer separating the two sides. The ministry described the move as ‘damaging the status quo’.”

The Guardian added on August 5 that “Japan’s prime minister also called for an immediate halt to the exercises after his government said at least five missiles landed within its exclusive economic zone.”

The Sun wrote on August 6:

“CHINA boasted it has rehearsed sinking US aircraft carriers using hypersonic missiles as part of a massive war games amid simmering tensions over Taiwan… Warships, warplanes and missiles have all been moved towards the island for the massive Chinese war games – which in effect blockaded Taiwan.

“Beijing’s state run media bragged the drills showed how China could attack the island by first unleashing a wave of rocket strikes across the Taiwan Strait. And it then boasted missile launches showed how the Communist forces could also strike any ‘foreign’ aircraft carriers that may attempt to ‘intervene from the Philippine Sea’. Hypersonic missiles such as the DF-17 could be used, it claimed…

“The ‘foreign’ ships being referred to is clearly a barb at the US – with aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and her strike group just days ago operating in the Philippine Sea. Chinese state media described the ship as ‘retreating’ as she started to sail back towards its home port in Japan.”

The Sun wrote on August 5, 2022:

“Oriana Skylar Mastro, a fellow at Stanford University and a former China analyst at the Pentagon,… explained that Beijing now believes it also has to fight the US if it is to fulfil its… goal of invading Taiwan and ‘reuniting’ with the mainland. And Mastro believes the most likely way such a conflict would play out is with a Pearl Harbor-style attack on US forces in the region. It would be designed to try and knock out US forces so they could not react to stop China gaining a foothold in Taiwan… And it has always been unclear if Washington would intervene militarily should China attack Taiwan, despite a recent vow from US President Joe Biden.

“Mastro is one of the world’s leading authorities on the Chinese military and its thinking… Mastro is not the only expert to have suggest that the US could face another ‘Pearl Harbor’ over Taiwan… Brands and Beckley warn the ‘most worrying’ scenario would see Beijing attempt to launch a ‘surprise missile attack’ on American forces in Asia… they warn ‘by the time the [US] was ready to fight, the war might effectively be over’…. The massive assault would then be followed by cyberattacks and anti-satellite operations to try [to] sow chaos and stop any effective response by Taiwan and the US…

“Taiwan is feared to be a major flashpoint between Washington and Beijing — with a potentially invasion potentially forcing the US to either abandon the island or face full scale war with China… state controlled media has been turning up the heat on the rhetoric, referring to the drills as ‘rehearsals for the reunification operation.’”

The Bible does not indicate any full-fledged war between China and the USA prior to Christ’s return. This does not rule out a scenario as described above.

It Gets More Complicated

The Washington Post wrote on August 5:

“The fallout over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan escalated sharply Friday as China reacted angrily to having its ambassador [Qin] summoned to the White House, said it would cancel or suspend dialogue with the United States on several issues and sanctioned Pelosi and her family…

“The fast-moving events have forced President Biden to manage potentially volatile confrontations between the United States and two other world powers. Even as tensions bubble between the United States and China over Pelosi’s trip, Biden is striving to keep Beijing from aiding Russia in its scorched-earth war against Ukraine...”

Deutsche Welle wrote on August 5:

“German foreign policy faces a dilemma: China is Germany’s most important trading partner. If Berlin took a clear stand against Chinese efforts to retake Taiwan, this could risk serious conflict, above all in economic terms. Yet if Germany keeps quiet, the country undermines its claims to have a ‘values-based’ foreign policy. Either way, it is difficult for Berlin to stay out of the growing conflict between China and the United States…

“Germany does not officially recognize Taiwan as an independent state; rather, Taiwan is considered part of China. There are no high-level contacts. The ‘One China’ policy stipulates there is only one Chinese government: in Beijing. Most of the international community abides by this concept, including Germany and the US. Taiwan has never officially declared itself independent… Despite the One China policy, Germany and Taiwan maintain close relations…. Germany is Taiwan’s largest trading partner in Europe, to the tune of  €22 billion ($22 billion) worth of trade in 2021. However, trade volume with China dwarfs that relationship by a factor of 12…

“‘Even if there is no military confrontation, the Europeans and especially… Germans will be the ones to suffer from the decoupling from the Chinese economy that Washington is now pushing,’ said Josef Braml, a political scientist. ‘Should Trump or a similar China hawk enter the White House in 2024, Braml thinks the EU will need greater strategic sovereignty. That would include a stronger political and military union…  If we don’t succeed in this, we will become collateral damage in a major confrontation between the US and China,’ Braml said.”

Bild Online wrote on August 5:

“”The G7 had expressed concern and stressed that there was no reason to use a visit [by Pelosi] as a pretext for ‘aggressive military activity’. In Beijing, ambassadors from EU countries and Japan, as well as EU representatives, were summoned to the Foreign Ministry, where they were handed a formal protest against the G7 statement. Germany currently holds the presidency of the G7.

“Further irritations with Beijing are expected from a long-planned visit by the Human Rights Committee of the Bundestag to Taiwan. The trip should take place between October 22nd and 30th and also go to Japan and the Chinese special administrative region of Hong Kong… MEPs from all six parliamentary groups are expected to take part in the trip.”

The Bible prophesies a major nuclear war between Europe and Far Eastern nations, including China, prior to Christ’s return.

China and Japan… a Troubled Relationship

Foreign Policy wrote on August 8:

“China’s… extensive military action is bringing a new sense of urgency to heighten Japan’s defense capability, substantially raise the defense budget, and, potentially, institute new rules that would for the first time allow preemptive military steps if Japan is at risk…

“Japanese analysts saw China’s actions as a direct warning, especially in relation to Japan’s hosting of more than 50,000 U.S. service personnel, the largest offshore deployment of U.S. forces in the world. ‘The purpose of those kind of threatening [actions] is … make Japan recognize that if Japan cooperates with the United States to contain China or to block China conducting the unification operation of Taiwan, then Japan must be involved in the war, must be damaged by the Chinese military operation,’ Bonji Ohara, a senior fellow at the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, [said]…

“Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida… has promised a significant increase in Japan’s defense spending. Japan’s military… is one of the largest and considered among the most capable in the world, but the spending level has been unofficially capped…

“The Chinese action also serves as something of a vindication for former Prime Minister Taro Aso, who said a year ago when he was a deputy prime minister that an attack on Taiwan would represent a threat to Japan. The remarks were criticized at the time, but the recent Chinese military actions show that his analysis was correct. More controversially, he also said that ‘if that is the case, Japan and the U.S. must defend Taiwan together.’

“Japan has long-term ties to Taiwan, formerly a Japanese colony. China-Japan tensions are not new…”

Japan was an ally to Germany in WW II against China. This scenario could repeat itself, or China and Japan will finally unite—as Russia and Ukraine will do.

Canada’s Weak Military Condition

National Post wrote on August 8:

“For the first time in eight years, Canadian warships are not involved in either of two NATO naval task forces charged with patrolling European waters and defending against Russian threats… Canada… is struggling with a shrinking fleet of aging ships and a lack of trained sailors…

“While Canada has 12 frigates…, the navy’s maintenance and training requirements mean only a handful are available to deploy at any given time. Canada used to also have three destroyers, but those vessels were retired in 2014.

“The navy, like the rest of the military, is also facing a severe shortage of personnel.”

All of this is to be expected from a radical left-wing government.

Relationship Between USA and Ukraine in Turmoil?

Head Topics Deutschland wrote on August 3:

“The New York Times makes a remarkable revelation: the White House’s relationship with the Ukrainian president appears to be at turmoil. The story does not appear to be mere conjecture by the columnist…

“At the beginning of June, US intelligence officials complained that Kyiv had not given them enough information about what was happening in the country. ‘How much do we really know about how Ukraine is doing?’ Beth Sanner, a former senior intelligence official, told the NYT at the time: ‘Can you find a person who will tell you with confidence how many troops Ukraine has lost, how many pieces of equipment has Ukraine lost?‘”

In the New York Times article of June 8, 2022 , it was also stated:

“Some European agencies say it will be difficult if not impossible for Ukraine to reclaim the land that Russia has taken since it invaded in February, but U.S. intelligence agencies are less pessimistic, officials said. Still, there are cracks in Ukraine’s defenses, and questions about the state of Ukraine’s military forces and strategy in the Donbas have created an incomplete picture for the United States.”

Three Popes?

The Guardian wrote on August 5:

“Almost a decade has passed since Pope Benedict XVI became the first pontiff for 600 years to retire rather than die in office. The idea of two popes – one serving and one emeritus – intrigued some and troubled others… But three popes? That prospect was raised by Pope Francis last weekend when he told reporters on his return to Rome after a penitential visit to Canada that the ‘door is open’ to his retirement. It would not be a catastrophe, he said. His comments… were not the first time Francis has hinted at retirement.

“Almost as soon as he was elected, in March 2013 at the age of 76, Francis began alluding to a time when he would no longer be pope – either because of death or retirement. His health… has deteriorated in recent years…

“On stepping down, Benedict took the title of pope emeritus. He has continued to wear the incumbent’s traditional white cassock, and lives within the Vatican at the Mater Ecclesiae monastery. Francis has already indicated that he would take the title of emeritus bishop of Rome, live quietly outside the Vatican, and eschew the papal white robes…

“The existence of two popes has not always been easy. [Papal biographer Austen] Ivereigh said: ‘When the emeritus pontificate was created, effectively as a new institution, the fear was it would be confusing, it could act as a focus of opposition or contrast with the existing pope… There have been many instances where the pope emeritus has effectively been manipulated in the service of traditionalist agendas. It creates a sense there is a rivalry.’…”

There have been incidents in the Catholic Church where there have been two rival popes, each with his own following, cardinals, and administrative offices. This Western or Great Schism took place from 1378 to 1417, with one pope residing in Rome and the other in Avignon, and it was never officially announced by the Catholic Church as to who of the two rival popes was the “official pope.”  To end the schism, cardinals from both movements elected a third pope, Alexander V. Finally, the Roman pope, Gregor XII, and the Avignon pope, Benedict XIII, were replaced by Martin V in 1417, ending the schism.  

Huge Pride Canal Parade in Amsterdam

 AP wrote on August 6:

“Hundreds of thousands of spectators lined Amsterdam’s historic canals Saturday to celebrate Canal Parade, a flotilla of 80 brightly decorated boats packed with partying and singing people waving rainbow flags, balloons and umbrellas. The boats representing rights groups, bars, clothing brands and even the Dutch military made their way slowly through the waterways in a resumption of the hugely popular LGBTQ Pride event after two years canceled amid the COVID-19 pandemic….

“Spectators were packed several people deep along canals and on bridges to watch the 25th version of the parade that was the the highlight of a nine-day pride event in the Dutch capital.”

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.

Dissolving Ukraine?

The Associated Press wrote on July 30:

“The US ambassador to the United Nations said Friday there should no longer be any doubt that Russia intends to dismantle Ukraine ‘and dissolve it from the world map entirely.’

“… Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov ‘has even stated that this is Russia’s war aim,’ she said. Lavrov told an Arab summit in Cairo on Sunday that Moscow’s overarching goal in Ukraine is to free its people from its ‘unacceptable regime.’ Apparently suggesting that Moscow’s war aims extend beyond Ukraine’s industrial Donbas region in the east comprising Donetsk and Luhansk, Lavrov said: ‘We will certainly help the Ukrainian people to get rid of the regime, which is absolutely anti-people and anti-historical.’

“Russia’s deputy UN ambassador Dmitry Polyansky told the Security Council on Friday that ‘The de-Nazification and demilitarization of Ukraine will be carried out in full.’”

There should be no doubt that Russia wants to bring Ukraine back into “Mother Russia’s” fold, and unification between Russia and Ukraine (the modern “Medes”) is indeed prophesied.

Italy’s Return to Fascism?

The Associated Press wrote on July 30:

“Italy’s president [Sergio Mattarella], marking the 100th anniversary of one of the attacks that helped bring dictator Benito Mussolini to power, on Thursday encouraged Italians to reinvigorate their country’s democracy as a bulwark against fascism.

“Italy’s fascist legacy faces increasingly closer scrutiny these days as the country holds an early parliamentary election on September 25. Opinion polls indicate the far-right Brothers of Italy, which has neo-fascist roots, would be the top vote-getter, with the party’s leader, Giorgia Meloni, eager to become premier. She has never disavowed her party’s fascist roots but has distanced it from Mussolini’s racial laws targeting Jews….

“After Italian Premier Mario Draghi’s wide-ranging coalition collapsed last week, Mattarella dissolved Parliament, triggering the early election. Sinking Draghi’s pandemic unity government were Salvini, Berlusconi and the populist 5-Star Movement, all refusing to back him in a confidence vote. Meloni was the only major leader to refuse to join Draghi’s pandemic unity government when it was formed in early 2021 after he was tapped by Mattarella. She argued that Italians should decide their leader in an election.

“When it appeared that Berlusconi and Salvini were waffling at the prospect of Meloni becoming the next premier — and the first woman to hold that office — she demanded the three of them huddle to confirm the alliance’s long-standing rule: whoever gets the most votes becomes its pick for the premiership.”

Italy, as well as other European nations, may very well return to their fascist roots under the umbrella of a “United States of Europe.”

America’s Suffering Military

Politico wrote on July 27:

“Lawmakers from both parties are putting increasing pressure on the Pentagon to fix the recruitment crisis that threatens to leave the military well short of its goals to bring new troops aboard this year, in what is widely considered the worst recruiting environment since the end of the Vietnam War…

“While leaders from the different military branches have all acknowledged the problem, they also have been unable to move the needle in a positive direction, as the desire of young Americans to join the military falls off the statistical cliff…

“The Army has reached 66 percent of its goal for the fiscal year ending in September, and the Navy is at 89 percent… Even with rates of 100 percent for the Marine Corps, Air Force and Space Force, that leaves the department with a total rate of just 85 percent.”

America in decline and nearing total disaster will not have a powerful army to defend itself against foreign enemies.

Fox News Banning Trump

Newsmax wrote on July 30:

“The New York Times reported Friday that Fox News has not had Donald Trump on its network in over 100 days, which the paper said was part of a larger strategy to eliminate the former president as a major GOP player. Trump’s last appearance on Fox News came April 13 on ‘Hannity.’ But, The Times noted, even Trump has complained his longtime friend ‘doesn’t seem to be paying him much attention anymore.’ The paper said Trump believes Fox’s strategy of shunning him is an effort in ‘effectively displacing him’ from the news cycle and as de facto leader of the Republican Party.

“The decision to shun Trump has been made at ‘the highest levels’ of Fox’s parent company, and is backed by its billionaire chairman, Rupert Murdoch, and his son, company CEO Lachlan Murdoch. Both are Republicans, but are said to have developed a strong distaste for Trump. Earlier this month, the Murdoch-owned newspapers the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal published harsh rebukes of Trump’s actions regarding Jan. 6 while strongly opposing a Trump bid for president in 2024. The Times said Trump’s failure to accept the 2020 election result was at the root of the Murdochs’ criticism of the former president, a view shared by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

“Trump has not hidden his new distaste for Fox News… this week, Trump blasted ‘Fox & Friends’ on his Truth Social account for being ‘terrible’ and having ‘gone to the dark side.’ Trump suggested former House Speaker Paul Ryan’s sitting on Fox Corp.’s board of directors is behind the shadow banning of Trump.

“Meanwhile, The Times said Fox has sought to displace Trump with other GOP 2024 contenders, notably Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis. A recent FoxNews.com report featured man-on-the-street interviews with Trump ‘supporters’ who did not want him to run again and ‘unanimously’ backed DeSantis for 2024. ‘I spent 11 years at Fox, and I know nothing pretaped hits a Fox screen that hasn’t been signed off on and sanctioned at the very top levels of management — especially when it has to do with a presidential election,’ Newsmax host Eric Bolling said in a monologue this week.

“Dick Morris, a former Fox News Analyst who is currently with Newsmax, said The Times’ report should not surprise anyone who has been watching Fox. ‘Lachlan Murdoch and the network’s leadership wants Fox to be more like CNN,’ Morris said. ‘The Fox ban of Trump is a politically motivated decision, not based on news value, because Trump completely dominates the Republican Party and is still the biggest newsmaker in politics,’ Morris added.

“Recent polls show Trump crushing all potential opponents in a Republican primary. A recent Harvard-Harris poll had Trump pulling 56% of the vote against a field of seven GOP rivals, including DeSantis with 16%. Morris… argues Trump will easily win the upcoming Republican primary, but is the only GOP candidate who can win against the Democrats in 2024.”

The influence of Trump critics in high positions at Fox and associated media outlets can hardly be denied—and Trump’s former “friends” stay quiet… perhaps, because they want to keep their jobs.

DNYUZ added on July 29:

“On July 22, as Mr. Trump was rallying supporters in Arizona and teasing the possibility of running for president in 2024, saying ‘We may have to do it again,’ Fox News chose not to show the event — the same approach it has taken for nearly all of his rallies this year. Instead, the network aired Laura Ingraham’s interview with a possible rival for the 2024 Republican nomination, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida. It was the first of two prime-time interviews Fox aired with Mr. DeSantis in the span of five days; he appeared on Tucker Carlson’s show shortly after talking to Ms. Ingraham.

“When Mr. Trump spoke to a gathering of conservatives in Washington this week, Fox did not air the speech live. It instead showed a few clips after he was done speaking. That same day, it did broadcast live — for 17 minutes — a speech by former Vice President Mike Pence….

“Referring to the congressional investigation into the Jan. 6 attack, the Fox anchor Bret Baier said it had made Mr. Trump ‘look horrific’ by detailing how it had taken 187 minutes for him to be persuaded to say anything publicly about the riot… Viewers in recent weeks have seen occasionally critical coverage of Mr. Trump, but, unlike other news networks, Fox has chosen to air its own prime-time programming rather than the hearings of the committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack… Mr. Carlson, Mr. Hannity and Ms. Ingraham dismiss the hearings as a ‘show trial.’”

But if Trump becomes the Republican nominee, then we can expect Fox News and its main moderators to be Trump’s friends again. Oh what hypocrisy!

Tunisian Constitution Calls for Palestinian State With Jerusalem as Capital

Israel 365 wrote on July 29:

“A new constitution was passed by a referendum in Tunisia on Tuesday, expressing support for a Palestinian state with its capital in Jerusalem.

“‘We defend the legitimate rights of the peoples who, according to this legitimacy, have the right to decide their own destiny, the first of which is the right of the Palestinian people to their stolen land and the establishment of their state over it after its liberation, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif [Jerusalem] as its capital,’ read the preamble of the new constitution.”

Antisemitism and anti-Zionism are growing once again.

Europe and Libya

Politico wrote on July 27:

“Since February, the eyes of the world have been firmly fixed on the horrors unfolding in Ukraine. But while Europe’s attention has been consumed by the crisis on its eastern flank, the trouble burgeoning on its southern one in Libya has been largely ignored.  As escalating political tensions and recent outbreaks of violence now threaten to hurl the country back into civil war again, and the consequence will impact Europe and the wider international community…

“Africa’s most oil-rich nation finds itself in a state of total dysfunction and could be accurately described as a failed state. Since the civil war, which ended in 2020, it has effectively been split between an internationally recognized government based in Tripoli and the Russia-aligned Libyan National Army controlling the country’s east, and violence has been ongoing…

“Europe and Libya share the Mediterranean Sea: Alexander the Great, the Greeks, Romans and even the Normans have all exchanged goods, culture and ideas with Libya. But this proximity has also meant the country’s troubles often wash up on European shores… And as Europe finds itself in need of alternative energy sources — while it tries to cut itself off from Russian fossil fuels — Libya is the bloc’s closest alternative supply source… However, Libya’s enduring instability makes its supply largely inaccessible, as the vast majority of its reserves are under the control of the Libyan National Army…

“Currently, Libya has enough cash in its central bank to last several years, tens of billions of dollars in foreign investments, plus there’s all the oil — despite all the chaos, Libya is still able to produce over a million barrels of oil per day for export. But what the country doesn’t have is experience in building a functional state — this is where the international community comes in.

“Today, Libya is overflowing with arms, many of which are relics from the Gaddafi era… If a major global power or international body could eliminate these supply lines, Libya’s warring factions would soon run out of ammunition and have little choice but to work toward a peaceful solution for the country…”

A global power from Europe will invade Libya in due time, as Daniel 11:43 prophesies. The production and receipt of oil may be a major factor.

Pope Participates in Pagan Ritual of Sacred Circle of Spirits

Life Site News reported on July 28:

“Speaking in the presence of pro-abortion Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Pope Francis criticized the ‘ideological colonizations’ which target ‘the unborn,’ and defended the Church’s role in protecting life from ‘conception to natural death.’… Following a pagan ‘smudging’ ritual, which called on ‘the sacred circle of spirits,’ Francis delivered an address in which he lamented a ‘colonizing mentality,’ and spoke of a need for the Catholic Church to ‘promote indigenous cultures.’…

“Justin Trudeau had issued yet another fiery attack against the Catholic Church for ‘its role’ in the ‘spiritual abuse, cultural abuse, emotional abuse, physical abuse and sexual abuse of Indigenous children in Church run residential schools.’ However, Francis appeared to somewhat rebuff Trudeau’s criticism… highlighting the Church’s ‘service’ of life at ‘every stage, from conception to natural death.’…

“The Pope’s comments gained a particular significance given those he was addressing. Following the U.S. Supreme Court leak pre-empting the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Trudeau publicly voiced  his support for the killing of the unborn on demand. ‘The right to choose is a woman’s right and a woman’s right alone,’ he tweeted. Indeed, the self-professed Catholic has regularly professed his support for abortion…

“However, Pope Francis has a peculiar record with regards to abortion… his actions have undermined any vocal opposition to abortion which he makes. The Pope has repeatedly sided with the United Nations (UN) and its 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which is heavily pro-abortion… In recent weeks he authorized and defended the Vatican’s joining of the Paris Climate Agreement, despite its pro-abortion tenets. Francis has also ignored Catholic teaching regarding Holy Communion for pro-abortion politicians on a number of occasions…”

Life Site News wrote on a related article on July 30:

“Popular Catholic commentators have been reacting with shock and outrage to video footage of Pope Francis and prominent cardinals partaking in a ‘smudging’ ritual invoking a ‘sacred circle of spirits’ that went ‘viral’ on social media earlier this week…

“Catholic author and exorcist scholar Charles D. Fraune [wrote:] ‘Francis is literally participating in summoning demons. This is so wrong….’ ‘Give us access to the sacred circle of spirits so they can be with us,’ Lord, have mercy!’ added Fraune, quoting words said by one of the leaders of the ceremony…

“… the ritual is not merely a cultural act but a religious act of ‘superstition,’ reminiscent of… Pope Francis’ veneration of the pagan pachamama idol at the Vatican in 2019.”

The inclusion of many pagan rites in Roman Catholicism and communication with demons by some prior Popes is well-documented. Please read especially chapter 10 of our free booklet, “The Ten European Revivals of the Ancient Roman Empire.” 

Hungarian Prime Minister’s Controversial Remarks

Reuters reported on July 29:

“Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban stuck to his anti-immigration stance Thursday but insisted it was not rooted in racism after his recent remarks that Hungarians did not want to become ‘peoples of mixed race’ drew fire at home and abroad… his comments in Romania on Saturday, when he said that in contrast to Western Europe’s ‘mixed-race world’ where people mixed with arriving non-Europeans, Hungary was not a mixed race country — hit a nerve, drawing condemnation from the United States, the European Union, Jewish groups and academics…

“European Commission vice president Frans Timmermans said on Twitter ‘poisonous’ racism had no place in Europe that drew its strength from diversity… Budapest’s chief rabbi Zoltan Radnoti told Reuters any communication ‘talking about races, pure races, and mixing of races’ was unacceptable.”

Deutsche Welle wrote on July 27:

“Hungarian Chief Rabbi Robert Frölich said there was ‘only one species on earth that walks on two legs, works, speaks and occasionally thinks: Homo sapiens — that is a single and indivisible race.’”

msn added on July 30:

“The concept used by the National Socialists, among others, that there are different human races is scientifically untenable and part of racist worldviews.”

JTA wrote on July 30:

[Subsequent to his speech] Orban wrote: ‘You can’t be serious about accusing me of racism after 20 years of working together. You know that, according to my understanding, God created all people in his own image. Therefore, in the case of people like me, racism is excluded from the get-go.’

“In his statement about Orban’s speech, Koeves, [an] Orthodox rabbi, said… it may be appropriate to lament ‘the loss of space in Western Judeo-Christian culture…’ But, he added, ‘one of the fundamental values of Judeo-Christian civilization is that God created every human being in his own image. For this reason alone, it is particularly unfortunate to speak of races.’”

To describe all human beings as the human race is correct. But to say that there are no human races is ludicrous. The Bible speaks of three human races, the black, the yellow and the white race. And to equate this correct biblical understanding with racism is ridiculous, ignorant and deeply offensive. For more information on the origin and existence of races, as well as the concept of interracial marriages, please read our free booklet, “God’s Teachings on Sexual Relationships,” chapter 9, pages 57-66.

Brand-New Conditions After COVID Shots?

WND wrote on July 31:

“Stories abound of healthy people, including athletes, suddenly dying or suffering severe illness without explanation. Many who have posted links to the reports on social media have suggested a possible relationship to the experimental COVID-19 vaccines. When four practicing physicians in the greater Toronto area died unexpectedly in the past two weeks, their hospitals made a point of insisting their deaths were not related to the vaccines. A fifth area physician, just 27 years old, died Thursday after collapsing during a triathlon.

“Now, national survey by Zogby Strategies has found 17% of adults who received at least two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine say they were diagnosed with a new condition within weeks to several months after getting the shot. The figure was 15% for those who had received at least one shot. The respondents also were asked if someone they personally knew had been diagnosed with a new medical condition within the same time frame. Overall, 26% reported yes, while 63% reported no.

“Significantly, 34% of those ages 18-29 say they know someone who was diagnosed, as did 30% of those ages 30-49, 21% of those ages 50-64, and 18% of those older than 65. Among those who were medically diagnosed with a new condition, the top conditions were blood clots (21%), heart attack (19%), liver damage (18%), leg or lung clots (17%), and stroke (15%).

“The survey was commissioned by Children’s Health Defense, the organization founded by Robert Kennedy Jr. that says it’s mission is ‘to end the childhood health epidemics by working to expose causes, eliminate harmful exposures, hold those responsible accountable, seek justice for those injured, and establish safeguards to prevent future harm.’ The survey of 1,038 adults found 67% received one or more COVID-19 vaccines and 33% were unvaccinated. Among the vaccinated, 6% received one dose, 28% two doses, 21% three doses and 12% took four or more.

“Laura Bono, the executive director of CHD, noted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports more than 232 million Americans ages 18-65 have taken at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. She said the result is ‘concerning and needs further study.’… The survey found 58% said it was a good decision to get the vaccine, 28% were neutral and 14% regretted it.”

To get or not to get vaccinated is an individual decision, and based on individual circumstances, a person may have no reasonable choice other than getting vaccinated. In such a case, the person and his or her loved ones should pray to God that He will protect the person and not allow him or her to get sick with serious side effects from the COVID shot.

New COVID Rules

The Washington Post wrote on August 2:

“France became the latest country in Europe to get rid of pandemic-era entry restrictions for visitors. As of Monday, tourists going to France no longer need to provide proof of vaccination or a negative coronavirus test… Earlier this summer, the country required travelers to be vaccinated, or show proof of recovery or a recent negative test. ‘France reserves the right to reimpose entry restrictions if the health situation requires it,’ the [US] embassy [in France] says on its website… Travelers don’t have to offer health information in advance of arriving in France or test upon arrival.

“Destinations including Italy, the United Kingdom, Portugal and Germany have all dropped their covid-era entry rules. The United States still requires foreign nationals to show proof of vaccination before flying to the country, crossing a border by land or arriving by ferry. Travelers flying into the U.S. no longer need to show a negative test, as of mid-June.”

ABC News wrote on August 3:

“The German government on Wednesday said basic coronavirus  requirements would remain in place during the coming fall and winter… Face masks and presenting proof of a negative coronavirus test will be mandatory from October until early April at hospitals, nursing homes and similar institutions with vulnerable people. Passengers on airplanes and making long-distance trips by train and bus also will have to wear masks during that period, as they do now…

“However, Germany’s 16 states have the authority to adopt their own rules depending on how severely the virus affects their areas. State governments could decide to require masks on local public transportation in schools for students in fifth grade and up, and at public indoor events.

“Community facilities such as schools, prisons or asylum-seeker shelters may implement regular testing again… The government also plans a fall vaccination campaign.”

Germany’s left-wing health minister Lauterbach is known for his radical preference for vaccination mandates.

Discrimination Against Clergy Because of COVID

WND wrote on July 31:

“A state judge in Wisconsin has ruled that the Department of Corrections broke the law when it decided to give lawyers and bureaucrats and even reporters and dog trainers access to inmates during COVID, but refused to provide any procedure for clergy to visit…

“For 450 days, Catholic clergy were forbidden from fulfilling their religious duty to meet in-person with inmates at Wisconsin’s correctional institutions; they could not administer sacraments or even meet in-person to provide counseling. At the same time, however, WIDOC granted in-person access to a host of other individuals ranging from lawyers to law enforcement to teachers to dog trainers…

“The court’s ruling means that corrections department had to cancel the restrictive policy and is not allowed to renew it in the future. The judge noted that the state agency ‘simply “shut off” clergy access completely for over 450 days…’”

Dr. Fauci’s Disinformation

WND wrote on August 1:

“Dr. Anthony Fauci complained on Monday that his effort to get people to adopt the government’s COVID-19 health measures has been hampered by ‘misinformation and disinformation.’ But it’s Fauci who, in his defense of masking, lockdowns and vaccines, has spread information that has turned out not to be true, sometimes with life-altering and even deadly consequences…

“Fauci insisted in July that he did not recommend locking down the nation. But in October 2020, he explicitly said, ‘I recommended to the president that we shut the country down.’.. As of July 22, VAERS contained 29,790 reports of COVID-19 vaccine-related deaths among a total of more than 1.3 million adverse events.

“Last Friday, the nation’s first class action lawsuit for health care workers over a COVID shot mandate was settled for more than $10.3 million. The settlement against NorthShore University HealthSystem was on behalf of more than 500 current and former health care workers who were denied religious exemptions from the COVID shot mandate.”

Fauci and Biden also insisted that you cannot get sick if you are fully vaccinated. But both got sick, even though they were fully vaccinated… Biden even twice so far. Fauci’s coworker Dr. Birx even admitted that they knew that the vaccines did not prevent infection. Fauci also downplayed natural immunity in his push to get vaccinated…even though he should and might have known better. And while he is now once again pushing for the wearing of masks, he said there is no reason to be walking around with a mask in the middle of an outbreak, while admitting that the wearing of masks could have negative consequences in some cases. It should be clear that Fauci’s declarations and his judgment cannot be trusted.

Kansas Voters for Abortion

Deutsche Welle reported on August 3:

“Voters in the US state of Kansas [with a high proportion of Republican voters in the state which is run by Democratic governor Laura Kelly] overwhelmingly backed protections for abortion rights on Tuesday, rejecting an amendment to the state’s constitution. It was the first major ballot on abortion since the US Supreme Court [overturned Roe v Wade]  in June…

“The right to abortion is protected in the Kansas constitution. Tuesday’s vote asked whether this should be removed and the responsibility on the issue returned to the control of politicians in the state… The referendum in Kansas was being monitored closely as a test case for abortion rights nationwide…

“The states of California and Kentucky are scheduled to vote on the issue in November…  As it stands, abortion in Kansas is legal and the procedure may take place up to 22 weeks. The law is based on the assertion that a fetus can feel pain after that point….”

Even Republican voters support abortion. This country is going downhill so fast…

Did the FBI Swing the 2020 Election?

The Ron Paul Institute published on August 3 the following article by James Bovard from the Future of Freedom Foundation:

“Joe Biden won the 2020 election as a result of 43,000 votes in three states. The election was far closer than the media has usually admitted. There were plenty of dubious factors that could have tipped the scales for a Biden victory, including machinations by the Federal Bureau of Investigation… the bureau has long history of intervening in presidential elections…

“In 1964, the FBI illegally wiretapped Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater’s presidential headquarters and plane and conducted background checks on his campaign staff for evidence of homosexual activity. The FBI also conducted an extensive surveillance operation at the 1964 Democratic National Convention to prevent embarrassing challenges to President Lyndon Johnson.

“In 2016, the FBI whitewashed Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, protecting her despite her various crimes regarding handling of classified information and destruction of emails and other evidence from her time as secretary of state. An Inspector General report revealed in 2018 that the key FBI agents in the investigations were raving partisans… The FBI failed to make any audio or video recordings of its interviews with Clinton aides and staffers…

“The FBI failed to stop Trump from winning in 2016, but FBI officials devoted themselves to crippling his presidency with fabricated evidence implying that Russia had illicitly intervened in the presidential election. One top FBI lawyer was convicted for falsifying evidence to secure a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant to target Trump campaign officials. FBI chief James Comey leaked official memos to friendly reporters, thereby spurring the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller to investigate Trump. Mueller’s investigation generated endless allegations and controversies and helped Democrats capture control of the House of Representatives in 2018 prior to admitting in 2019 that there was no such Russian conspiracy. Not one FBI official has spent a single day in jail for the abuses…

“In December 2019, FBI agents came into possession of a laptop that Hunter Biden had abandoned at a Delaware computer repair shop. That laptop was a treasure trove of crimes, including evidence that Hunter and other Bidens had collected millions in payments from foreign sources for providing access in Washington and other favors. That laptop provided ample documentation that Joe Biden could be compromised by foreign powers. When news finally leaked out about the laptop in October 2020, 50 former intelligence officials effectively torpedoed the story by claiming that the laptop was a Russian disinformation ploy. The FBI knew that the laptop was bona fide but said nothing to undercut the falsehoods by the former spooks. The Justice Department commenced an investigation of Hunter Biden in 2019, but Attorney General William Barr made sure that information did not surface publicly before the 2020 election. (The investigation is ongoing.)

“The FBI’s most brazen intervention in the 2020 election consisted of fabricating a ludicrous plot to kidnap Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, one of Biden’s favorite governors. Michigan was a swing state in the election. Whitmer enraged many Michiganders by placing the entire state under house arrest after the outbreak of COVID-19. Anyone who left their home to visit family or friends risked a $1,000 fine, and business owners faced three years in prison for refusing to close their stores. Unemployment soared to 24 percent statewide…  The FBI exploited the anger against Whitmer to try to add some scalps to their collection. A few weeks before the 2020 election, the FBI announced the arrests of individuals who had been lured by FBI informants and undercover agents to talk about capturing Whitmer and putting her on trial. After the arrests were announced, Whitmer speedily denounced Trump for inciting ‘domestic terrorism’…  Joe Biden claimed that the arrests showed President Trump’s ‘tolerance of hate, vengeance, and lawlessness to plots such as this one.’

“… There was plenty of reason to doubt the plot from the start… A Michigan jury in April effectively concluded that the plotters had been entrapped in an FBI-fabricated plot… Almost 100 years ago, the American Civil Liberties Union warned that the FBI had become ‘a secret police system of a political character.’ Neither Congress nor federal courts have since effectively reined in the most powerful domestic federal agency. What mischief will the FBI commit to influence future elections? And what are the odds that Americans will know about it before the polling booths close?”

That is another nail in the coffin of political corruption.

Bin Laden’s Successor Killed in Afghanistan

Breitbart wrote on August 1:

“President Joe Biden…announce[d] Monday that the U.S. has killed Al Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri…

“Al-Zawahiri was apparently killed by a CIA drone in Afghanistan. Biden, suffering low approval ratings, is expected to benefit from the news, especially as the one-year anniversary of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan draws nearer…  Al-Zawahiri took over Al Qaeda after U.S. forces eliminated Osama bin Laden in 2011. He was one of the most elusive terror figures in the world, and U.S. intelligence hunted in vain for him for many years until he was ultimately found and killed.”

Deutsche Welle added on August 2:

“The latest strike is likely to complicate Washington’s already strained relations with the Taliban… US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Taliban ‘grossly’ violated the 2020 Doha Agreement — which led to the US withdrawal from Afghanistan — by sheltering al-Qaida’s chief… In a statement, the Taliban government condemned the US strike, saying it constituted ‘a clear violation of international principles and the Doha Agreement.’ …

“The Egyptian surgeon was identified as one of the masterminds of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the US that killed nearly 3,000 people… As a teenager, he joined the banned Islamist group Muslim Brotherhood. He was among hundreds arrested and accused of involvement in the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1981. Although he was cleared of the charge, he spent three years in an Egyptian prison on charges of weapons possession — an experience that is said to have further radicalized him.

“He traveled to Afghanistan after his release, where he got to know bin Laden and participated in the battle against Soviet troops. Al-Zawahiri is believed to have forged a strong bond with bin Laden in the late 1980s when he treated the latter in the caves of Afghanistan amid Soviet bombardment. He rose to become second-in-command of al-Qaida in 1998.  Since the killing of bin Laden by US forces in 2011, al-Zawahiri topped the list of most-wanted fugitives by the FBI, with a $25 million (€24.3 million) bounty on his head.”

Biden’s Monumental Failure

Piers Morgan wrote on August 2 in an article published by the New York Post:

“… after Biden’s disastrous overnight withdrawal from Afghanistan last summer, betraying the people there — including allies — to the Taliban wolves, the president assured us that al Qaeda was ‘gone’ from the country… al Qaeda’s No. 1 terrorist swiftly moved into Kabul with his family… Zawahiri would [not] have done this without the knowledge and explicit support of Taliban chiefs… the leader of al Qaeda was actively plotting further terror attacks from inside Kabul, and the Taliban knew it. Of course, this makes an absolute mockery of Biden’s claim that al Qaeda was ‘gone’ from Afghanistan.

“But if the Taliban allowed Zawahiri to do this, how many more al Qaeda operatives are back in Afghanistan right now, also planning to murder Americans and their allies? The whole point of the 20-year war that followed 9/11 was precisely to stop al Qaeda using Afghanistan as a base to plan more such attacks…. All hopes of a new, reformed, different, ‘nicer, wiser’ Taliban were as bogus as many of us feared at the time… Both hate America and everything it stands for, and given the chance, will kill as many Americans as they can.

“The fact that Zawahiri was able to plan new attacks from Kabul tells you all you need to know about the real damage caused by Biden’s appalling abandonment of Afghanistan…. let’s be under no illusion: The fact the world’s most wanted man was back in the heart of Afghanistan, devising new ways to kill Americans, is a monumental failure. And the buck for that failure stops with you, Joe Biden, the man who waved the white flag a year ago and has now exposed the US to a potential whole new world of pain and bloodshed at the hands of the very same terrorists who brought down the Twin Towers in 2001.”

Yes, terrible times are awaiting this country due to the utmost incompetence of its leadership.

Pelosi in Taiwan, Defies Biden and China

Breitbart wrote on August 2:

“House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) landed in Taipei, Taiwan, late Tuesday evening local time in defiance of the Biden administration’s and China’s warnings not to go.

“The trip marks the first time in 25 years that a U.S. official of her level visited Taiwan. The previous visit was in 1997 by then-Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich (GA)…. ‘Our Congressional delegation’s visit to Taiwan honors America’s unwavering commitment to supporting Taiwan’s vibrant Democracy,’ Pelosi said in a statement…

“The Biden administration opposed her trip out of fear it would further destabilize the U.S. relationship with China at a time when the U.S. is suffering from high prices of goods, supply-chain disruptions, and pursuing a green energy agenda, all of which the administration hopes it can work with China on as midterm elections loom….

“The trip sparked fury from Beijing, which warned of consequences. Chinese propagandist Hu Xijin threatened that China could shoot down her plane in a tweet, which he later deleted after Twitter locked his account. The Taiwan president’s website was reportedly under a cyber-attack earlier Tuesday.

“Republicans urged Pelosi to take the trip and not back down to Biden or allow Beijing to veto the travel of American officials.”

The New York Post added on August 2:

“President Biden said July 20 that the US military believed a Pelosi trip to Taiwan was ‘not a good idea now.’ However, members of Congress responded by rallying behind the speaker — including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who said Pelosi would hand China ‘a victory of sorts’ if she canceled. Beijing had repeatedly made clear that it would view a visit by Pelosi as an endorsement of Taiwan’s independence and China’s Foreign Ministry said Monday that its military would ‘not sit idly by’ if the speaker went ahead with the trip.”

Deutsche Welle wrote on August 2:

“Shortly ahead of Pelosi’s arrival, Beijing’s state media reported that Chinese fighter jets had crossed the Taiwan Strait, which separates mainland China and Taiwan… Foreign Minister Wang Yi said US politicians who ‘play with fire’ on the Taiwan issue will ‘come to no good end…’ China said its military had been put on high alert and would launch ‘targeted military operations.’… Chinese President Xi Jinping has made ‘reunification’ with Taiwan a key objective, and has not ruled out the possible use of force to achieve this… the US… provides considerable political and military support to Taiwan while stopping short of formal diplomatic relations.”

The situation involving China and Taiwan seems to mirror the situation regarding Russia and Ukraine. The USA has made no commitment to send troops to Taiwan in case of a Chinese occupation, but it has said it would send weapons to Taiwan to defend themselves.

Pelosi Left Taiwan

Thomson/Reuters wrote on August 3:

“U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi left Taiwan on Wednesday after pledging solidarity and hailing its democracy, leaving a trail of Chinese anger over her brief visit to the self-ruled island that Beijing claims as its own. China demonstrated its outrage over the highest-level U.S. visit to the island in 25 years with a burst of military activity in surrounding waters, summoning the U.S. ambassador in Beijing and halting several agricultural imports from Taiwan…

“Fury on the mainland over the 82-year-old Democrat’s defiance of Beijing was evident all over Chinese social media…”

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.

Ukraine and Russia Sign Deal to Export Grain

The Associated Press wrote on July 22:

“Russia and Ukraine signed separate agreements Friday with Turkey and the United Nations clearing the way for exporting millions of tons of desperately needed Ukrainian grain — as well as Russian grain and fertilizer — ending a wartime standoff that had threatened food security around the globe.

“The deal will enable Ukraine — one of the world’s key breadbaskets — to export 22 million tons of grain and other agricultural products that have been stuck in Black Sea ports due to Russia’s invasion…

The deal makes provisions for the safe passage of ships through the heavily mined waters.

“A coordination center will be established in Istanbul, staffed by U.N., Turkish, Russian and Ukrainian officials, to monitor the ships and run the process through specific corridors. Ships would undergo inspections to ensure they are not carrying weapons…

“A key element of the deal is an agreement by both Russia and Ukraine that there will be no attacks on any of the vessels, according to the official. It will take a few weeks before the deal is fully working, the official noted.”

Deutsche Welle added on July 22:

“The signing of the deal comes a day after Russia restored critical gas supplies to Europe via Germany… The Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline had been shut for 10 days of maintenance, stoking fears it might not be turned on again. However, while it did come back online, the gas being sent through was only at 40% capacity.”

Russia Further Cuts Gas Deliveries to Germany

Deutsche Welle reported on July 25:

“Russian gas giant Gazprom said Monday it was cutting daily gas deliveries via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to 33 million cubic metres starting Wednesday. That would correspond to 20% of the pipeline’s capacity. The current flow of gas into Germany is only at 40%.  The company said it was halting the operation of another turbine due to the ‘technical condition of the engine.’…  Germany says the cuts are not the result of maintenance or technical issues but are punishment for EU sanctions… Germany, which is heavily dependent on Russian gas, has previously accused the Kremlin of using energy as a ‘weapon.’”

Putin also stated that negotiations regarding the Nord Stream 2 pipeline may have to be resumed. German Chancellor Scholz rejected the idea. In the meantime, the EU is waiving several sanctions imposed on Russia.

Russia’s Breach of Contract?

The Associated Press wrote on July 23:

“Russian missiles hit Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa just hours after Moscow and Kyiv signed deals to allow grain exports to resume from there. Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry denounced Saturday’s airstrikes as ‘spit in the face’ of Turkey and the United Nations, which brokered the agreements…

“The head of Zelenskyy’s office, Andriy Yermak, said on Twitter that the Odesa strike coming so soon after the endorsement of the Black Sea ports deal illustrated ‘the Russian diplomatic dichotomy.’”

Newsmax added on July 23:

“‘In our contact with Russia, the Russians told us that they had absolutely nothing to do with this attack, and that they were examining the issue very closely and in detail,’ [Turkey’s] Defence Minister Hulusai Akar said in a statement. ‘The fact that such an incident took place right after the agreement we made yesterday really worried us,’ he added.”

This war will not end until Russia has achieved what it wants to achieve… for now. Ultimately, as we have emphasized over and over again, Russia and Ukraine [the modern Medes] will be united against continental Europe [modern Babylon]. And they will be used to destroy it. Compare Revelation 18:1-2, 21; 19:2-3.

Ukraine Places Prominent Americans on Their Blacklist

The Washington Examiner wrote on July 25:

“The Ukrainian Center for Countering Disinformation released a list of politicians, academics, and activists who it claimed promote ‘Russian propaganda.’ The list, published on July 14, includes multiple high-level U.S. figures, including Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI). The criteria for making the list are not clear, and the agency did not say what consequences, if any, result from being placed on the list…”

UnHerd.com added:

“Heterodox journalist Glenn Greenwald also rejected being called a Russian propagandist… ‘War proponents in the West and other functionaries of Western security state agencies have used the same tactics for decades to demonize anyone questioning the foreign policy of the US and NATO. Chief among them, going back to the start of the Cold War, is accusing any dissidents of spreading ‘Russian propaganda’ or otherwise serving the Kremlin…’

“‘The Ukrainians have the absolute right to pursue whatever war policies they want. But when they start demanding that my country and my government use its resources to fuel their war effort, then I, along with all other Americans, have the absolute right to question that policy or to point out its dangers and risks. I don’t care at all about Ukraine’s attempts to shut down debate in our country by smearing journalists and politicians who are questioning US/NATO policy as being Russian propagandists…’”

It was pointed out that even though America and Europe claim that they have to support Ukraine against Russia for upholding and protecting democracy, the conduct of Ukraine’s leadership has been anything but democratic. This includes, not allowing single men to leave the country, suppressing any news agencies criticizing Ukrainian politics and jailing journalists who do.  

Ukraine and Europe Lose Against Russia

The Ron Paul Institute wrote on July 27:

“Beyond the damage in Ukraine, the war also has significant casualties in the rest of Europe as the continent is losing its most competitive energy supplies, compromising the region’s manufacturing edge and accelerating an inflation wave that through higher energy costs will severely affect the wellbeing of its population this coming winter.

“Europe has been trying for years to diversify its energy sources but it did not have a comprehensive contingency plan to counteract the impact of abruptly severing access to Russia’s oil and gas since the beginning of the Ukraine war. European politicians have grossly exaggerated the substitution potential of other energy sources (like LNG) and are facing the need to accept alternatives that not too long ago were considered politically unpalatable, like the reopening of coal production in Germany.

“How this gross miscalculation took place?… It can be argued that the wrong assessment on the war outcome has its roots in faulty US-British intelligence which forecasted Russia’s defeat through economic warfare and, therefore, a limited impact of sanctions on Europe. This not being the case has now made European leadership to scramble for solutions…

“On the other hand, dissenting and unorthodox European political views are sounding louder, as Hungarian prime minister Orban’s recent speech where he boldly mentioned that Russian sanctions and arming Ukraine have failed, Ukraine can’t win the war, the more weapons go to Ukraine the more territory it will lose…”

Further Raise of Interest Rates

Breitbart wrote on July 27:

“The Federal Reserve on Wednesday raised its benchmark interest rate target by three-quarters of a percentage point… This is the second consecutive 0.75 point raise, a rate of increases that is unprecedented in the modern era of interest rate targeting…

“The U.S. economy contracted 1.6 percent in the first three months of the year. Two consecutive quarterly contractions is often considered a recession…

“The Biden administration has been insisting that the economy should not be considered to be in a recession even if it shrinks in the second quarter, pointing to the historically low unemployment rate. Critics have said the administration is attempting to redefine recession to avoid being blamed for a serious downturn. Much of that debate, however, is likely to be moot in the near future. Most economists now think a recession will start next year, with many thinking it will begin in the first half of next year. A few think it may come even earlier. Bank of America says it thinks the economy will be in a recession this year.”

Deutsche Welle added:

“The increase is the fourth since March and brings the interest rate to its highest level since 2018. The move comes as inflation, at 9.1%, has been increasing at its fastest rate in 41 years… The aim of the central bank is to increase the cost of borrowing, for example for a car or a mortgage on a house, so that consumers are less likely to borrow and spend. The hope is then for the economy to cool and for inflation to slow down.

“But with the US economy already slowing down, the interest rate hike may be increasing the risk of inducing a recession.”

Many feel we are already in a recession. Regardless, the American people are hurting, and they don’t care for political games and interpretations.  

US Government Corrupt?

Reason wrote on July 25:

“A new poll from the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics finds a majority of Americans think the government is corrupt and stacked against them… 73 percent of poll respondents who identify as ‘strong Republican’ respondents agreed with the statement that the government is ‘corrupt and rigged against everyday people like me.’… Fifty-one percent of ‘very liberal’ voters agreed with the same statement. Overall, 56 percent of survey respondents said that the government is corrupt. This included 66 percent of all Republican respondents, 63 percent of independents, and 46 percent of Democrats.

“The survey… found that a significant number of people expect that extreme measures may be necessary to protect against government overreach. 28 percent of respondents agreed with the statement that ‘it may be necessary at some point soon for citizens to take up arms against the government.’ Thirty-six percent of Republicans, 35 percent of independents, and 20 percent of Democrats agreed…

“Most respondents, regardless of political affiliation, were also in agreement that ‘it should be illegal for private companies such as Verizon, Google and Facebook to collect information about people’s phone and internet usage.’”

Hypocritical Democrats Questioned Republican Wins in 2016 and 2004

Newsmax wrote on July 22:

“Former President Donald Trump overnight shared a video montage showing 10 minutes of Democrats, ranging from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, denying the results of elections, including several who questioned his win in 2016… Trump’s posts, and the video, came after the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attacks at the Capitol — which Trump calls the ‘Unselect’ Committee — held its eighth hearing Thursday night.

“In the prime-time hearing, the last before the committee resumes in September, testimony was presented accusing Trump of dereliction of duty for not stopping what was happening that day… The testimony, over the three hours, outlined a case that during the incidents, Trump was in a dining room near the Oval Office, where he watched televised reports of what was happening at the Capitol and rejected pleas from aides, staff, and congressional Republicans to stop the violence that was unfolding. The testimony also said he was calling senators to try to stop Congress from certifying the Electoral College results.

“The video Trump posted early Friday first shows Clinton commenting after her loss to Trump in 2016 that ‘you can run the best campaign, you can even become the nominee and you can have the election stolen from you.’ It goes on to several key Democrats, mainly questioning his 2016 win and blaming the victory on Russian interference:

“Vice President Kamala Harris: Agreed with a show host’s contention that Trump was an ‘illegitimate president that didn’t really win.’ President Joe Biden: Agreed with an audience member that Trump was not a legitimate president. Former President Jimmy Carter: Maintained that Trump did not win in 2016 and that he was ‘put into office because the Russians interfered.’

“The video also shows political figures questioning former President George W. Bush’s win over Al Gore, including Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe saying that if all Florida’s votes had been counted, Gore would have been elected.

“Others featured in the video while questioning election results included Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., saying people are ‘very worried that when they cast a ballot on an electric voting machine that there is no paper trail to record that vote’ and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, saying that ‘we cannot declare that the election of 2004 was free and clear’ and that there must be ‘independent testing of the voting machines’ in Ohio, after President George W. Bush’s win over Democrat nominee John Kerry.

“The video wraps with Harris declaring that Abrams would be the governor in Georgia, and with Abrams commenting that she stands by her decision refusing to concede she lost the race.”

A great video by Trump, showing the incredible hypocrisy of those Democrats featured in the video. It again raises the distinct possibility, if not probability, that the election in 2020 was stolen from Trump. That would of course mean that Biden is an illegitimate president, and that Trump was the duly elected President in 2020. Here is a link to the video. Judge for yourself.\ https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/108689194787620302

More Political Hypocrisies

The New York Post wrote on July 23:

“Democrats have carved out quite a niche for themselves as the party of the have-nots, even if it’s mostly a hypocritical marketing ploy. Bernie Sanders, the socialist, lives a pretty non-socialist life with a town house, a vacation home…  while he claims to champion the proletariat.

“There’s no shortage of similar examples… The latest of these ‘freedom for me but not for thee’ ­hypocrisies involves the matter of Paul Pelosi, [husband] of Nancy Pelosi… [He][ has been killing it in the stock market in recent years… enough of his winners involve companies that appear to have been benefiting from legislation that his wife, as the powerful… house speaker, has a hand in… Nancy ­Pelosi is one of the richest members of Congress — with an estimated net worth of more than $100 million on an annual salary of about $200,000.

“The power couple have a vineyard in tony Napa Valley plus many of the perks of wealth and status. She represents the dysfunctional congressional district in and around San Francisco, which means she’s regularly attacking wealth creators while virtue signaling about the poor and downtrodden…

“Insider trading — or trading stocks on material, non-public information — is a crime, of course. Recent legislation puts people who use information they learned based on their position in Congress (or their spouse’s) in the same slimy bucket. But most lawmakers who have been investigated for allegedly ­using their position to trade almost always never face criminal charges. See the case of North Carolina Republican Sen. Richard Burr. Lawmakers get private briefings, as Burr did before selling stock just before the pandemic rocked the markets. They can and do point to the fact that the same information was swirling around on the Internet or business television. “

“That’s why any case against Paul Pelosi would likely go nowhere. His timing on Nvidia may have been fishy, but he could just as easily point to countless news reports about the legislation going back at least six months, long ­before his trades were made.

“So it may not be illegal— but it sure does look scummy. The Pelosis are in positions of influence with access to information not available to most Americans. And they have no shame taking millions while Nancy Pelosi leads a party that is dedicated to virtue signaling about the sins of capitalism….”

As the old saying goes: “I am for socialism and communism, as long as it does not hurt me.” But God will deal with the hypocrites in His due time (Isaiah 33:14).

Blind on the Left Eye

GBH News reported on July 23:

“The leader of a known Neo-Nazi group was placed into custody today by Boston Police following a demonstration by the group in Jamaica Plain. The protest by NSC-131 took place outside the historic Loring Greenough House where residents had gathered for a children’s drag queen story hour, an event in which individuals in drag read to children. The white supremacist demonstrators shouted anti-LGBTQ slogans and taunted counter-demonstrators who had gathered across the street amid a heavy police presence. Among those arrested was NSC-131 leader, Chris Hood, on charges of disturbing the peace according to Boston police. He was handcuffed and transported to the West Roxbury precinct… They too were charged with disturbing the peace. Reports of injuries during the protest and counter protest were not confirmed by GBH News.

“Hours after the protest, residents stood outside the Greenough House to show support for their LGBTQ neighbors…”

We most certainly do not condone, endorse or support activities of Neo-Nazi groups or white supremacists. On the other hand, the prejudice against those who are opposing drag queen activities for children, apparently without resorting to violence, is stunning in light of the fact that Antifa, BLM and other radical left-wing groups are permitted to conduct violent demonstrations without having to face any arrests.

Conviction of Bannon Unconstitutional

The Daily Beast wrote on July 23:

“After former Trump adviser Steve Bannon was found guilty Friday of contempt of Congress, attorney and former Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz was on Newsmax complaining about the jury, calling the conviction ‘entirely in violation of the Constitution,’ and predicting that a higher court will ‘very likely’ overturn it. ‘The only provision of the Constitution, which appears basically twice, is trial by jury in and in front of a fair jury. Number one, he didn’t have a fair jury. Number two, the judge took his defenses away from him,’ claimed Dershowtiz.

“Bannon’s legal team chose not to call a single witness in his defense. The jury in the case, composed of Washington, D.C. residents, took just three hours to come to its conclusion. After Newsmax host Greta Van Susteren said the district is ‘94 percent Democrat,’ Dershowitz chimed in, ‘Well, not only that, but probably 97 percent Trump haters.’ He added, ‘And all you had to do was say, “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, this man Bannon worked for Trump.” That’s the end of the case.’”

Dershowitz also said: “The judge denied him a jury trial. They wouldn’t allow him to put it on evidence that he believed that there was an executive privilege involved, and he wanted a judicial determination before he violated the executive privilege.”

Steve Bannon commented:

“I only have one disappointment and that is the gutless members of that show trial committee, the J6 Committee didn’t have the guts to come down here and testify in open court…  We may have lost the battle here today but we’re not going to lose the war…”

Fox News wrote on July 22:

“After his contempt of Congress conviction Friday, former Trump strategist Steve Bannon warned Democrats are waging an ‘ideological war’ that regular Americans must win, pointing to the House January 6 committee and Biden administration as being tinged with Chinese Communist Party style governance… Bannon expressed confidence he will continue to mount his appeals, saying the law is on his side against a ‘lawless committee [conducting] a blatantly unethical and one-sided investigation.’”

It appears that Bannon’s conviction must be overturned… if fair and honest procedures are employed. Sadly, not much righteousness, justice, fairness and equity can be found in the land today (compare Isaiah 5:7).

The Fight Against the Traditional Family

Daily Mail wrote on July 23:

“The whole thing, which operates in the name of ‘gender equality’, is based on the firm belief that women ought to go out and earn wages to be fulfilled and that the raising of the next generation is a second-rate task, best farmed out to paid strangers…. It suits the state, because it creates millions of new taxpayers. And it suits big business, because it provides a willing new workforce.  And, of course, it suits the minority of women who pursue exciting high-flying careers of the Cherie Blair type, and who can afford good nannies.

“It is not so great for those who must work in call centres and such places, leaving their young all day in dreary childcare. And it is pretty terrible for the children themselves…  If a woman (or a man for that matter) prefers to stay at home to bring up and educate the young, conservatives respect them for it and, at the very least, don’t get in their way. But look at how the tax breaks and the social attitudes go, if you want to choose this way of life.

“The tax and benefits system, and the attitudes of all parts of the state, will help almost any form of childcare – except the one where a parent stays at home to do it and the family has to cope on a single income. Since this form of ‘equality’ got under way, the old form of family has been badly squeezed. You have to be rich, or grimly determined, or both, to do it. And in any case this point of view is now dismissed by millions as bigoted. Why does nobody in politics oppose this anti-family policy, even though there are good, strong arguments against it?…

“… traditional ideas about the family have been falsely classified and smeared as ‘phobias’ about other ways of life.  Defend traditional marriage, the type of family universally accepted as good and normal until recently, from discrimination against it, and the radicals will not bother to argue with you. They will just try to destroy you by claiming that you wish to discriminate against them.”

God condemns those who want to replace the traditional family with all the wrong and unbiblical alternatives.

Rubio vs. Buttigieg

Fox News reported on July 25:

“Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg hit out at [Sen. Marco] Rubio early Sunday over the senator’s opposition to codifying gay marriage. Rubio fired back in a video on Twitter, mocking the Biden administration official for telling Americans suffering under high gas prices to buy expensive electric cars. ‘We have a transportation secretary named Pete Buttigieg who believes that highways can be racist; who believes that $5 gas—which is killing working Americans—is a great thing because that means people are gonna drive less, or because everyone is now gonna go out and buy a $65,000 electric car with a Chinese battery in it,’ Rubio said. ‘I’m gonna focus on the real problems. I’m not gonna focus on the agenda dictated by a bunch of affluent, elite liberals and a bunch of Marxist misfits who sadly today control the agenda of the modern Democratic Party,’ he added.

“Rubio had previously called the push to codify gay marriage in Congress a ‘stupid waste of time.’  Democrats began pushing the bill after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, causing some within the party to fear that Obergefell v. Hodges, the ruling creating a right to gay marriage, could fall as well… The same-sex marriage bill passed through the House of Representatives last week and now must gain the support of at least 10 Republicans to pass the Senate.”

Pete Buttigieg is famously openly gay and the “wife” to his male partner, “husband” Chasten Buttigieg, born as “Chasten James Glezman.” But the homosexual lifestyle is condemned by God, both in the Old and in the New Testament (Leviticus 18:22; Romans 1:24, 27).

Pope vs. German Bishops

Fox News wrote on July 21:

“Pope Francis on Thursday took a swing at the Catholic Church’s leadership in Germany, reminding faithful in the country that the German bishops do not have the authority to propagate new theology or alter church governance… In the message, the pope expressed concern for the laity and clergy of Germany if their leaders break with established church teaching. The statement claimed that Catholics would be negatively affected by the many proposed changes to the church pushed by Cardinal Reinhard Marx and other liberal German leaders in their ‘Synodal Path.’… The synod, organized by the German Bishops’ Conference and the Central Committee of German Catholics, aims at discussing and addressing four loose topics: sexual ethics, the structure of church governance, women’s role in the church and the vocation of the priesthood…

“Marx, who spearheaded the committee, has tabled propositions to change teachings on homosexuality, marriage, masturbation, female priests and more that go against the Catechism of the Catholic Church. A significant alteration in the governance of the German Church or its belief system could push it into schism with the Holy See, thereby splintering out of the Catholic Church. Such a conflict could prove catastrophic for both German Catholics and the Catholic Church at large — thanks to a long-standing government ‘church tax,’ the Catholic Church in Germany is perhaps the wealthiest branch of the institution.”

Especially the Catholic Church in Germany seems to be moving more and more to the left, thereby clearly inviting strong controversy with the Vatican. Pope Francis may not be the one able to control this fight and return the Catholic Church to its historic conservative stance, but a successor might very well do that.

Churches Apologize

AP wrote on July 23:

“When Pope Francis apologizes to Indigenous groups on Canadian soil this week, he will make another effort toward healing harms inflicted at church-run residential schools — and add to the Catholic Church’s growing ledger of atonement for past transgressions. Like the papacy, top Protestant leaders also have gradually issued institutional mea culpas for their churches’ historical wrongs. Many of the apologies on behalf of Christian denominations are for grave offenses: genocide, sex abuse, slavery, war and more… For 1,900 years, churches didn’t apologize for the bad things that they did…  significant apologies [came] in the aftermath of World War II, especially a declaration by Germany’s Protestant churches that they failed to adequately oppose the Nazis. It was among the first in a series of recognitions that Christian institutions themselves committed wrongs…”

Of course, the Catholic Church in Germany did not oppose Naziism either. The Catholic and the Protestant churches will have a lot to “apologize” for when they will work with the “beast” in persecuting true Christians and engaging in military activities in the prophesied near future (compare Revelation 13:4, 6, 15).

Justice for Pastor Pawlowski and His Brother?

Life Site News wrote on July 22:

“An appeals court today nullified contempt charges against Alberta pastor Artur Pawlowski and his brother Dawid for protesting COVID health rules, ruling that a ‘not sufficiently clear’ May 2021 ban on virus protests did not apply to them. ‘The Pawlowskis’ appeals are allowed. The finding of contempt and the sanction order are set aside. The fines that have been paid by them are to be reimbursed,’ wrote a penal of three judges, Justices Barbara Lea Veldhuis, Michelle Crighton and JJo’Anne Strekaf.

“The Alberta judges ordered that Pawlowski and Dawid be reimbursed by Alberta Health Services (AHS) for all costs associated with their appeal, including fines paid. The fine amounts that must be returned are $23,000 for Artur and $10,000 for Dawid. Also, the court ordered that the brothers be paid $15,733.50 in costs associated with their appeal by AHS.

“In essence, the judges ruled that Pawlowski and his brother’s jail time, arrests, and charges along with the censorship mandate by the court were not valid.

“The Pawlowskis made international headlines after they were arrested in a highway takedown in May 2021 for holding worship services contrary to Alberta’s COVID rules affecting church service capacity limits. The Pawlowskis  served three nights in jail before being released on bail.

“They were jailed under a court injunction dated May 6, 2021, by Alberta Chief Justice J. Rooke, who placed a ban on ‘illegal’ protests in Alberta against COVID mandates. This order allowed police to arrest, detain, and imprison anyone who disobeyed. However, this order was intended to be directed at Christopher Scott, the owner of Whistle Stop Café in Mirror, Alberta, who earlier defied government health orders and opened for dine-in service…

“The Pawlowski brothers and Scott were found to be in contempt of a court order by Justice Adam Germain in May 2021. However, the brothers appealed the contempt charges and other sanctions imposed on them. Today, the appeals panel ruled that Rooke’s injunction ‘was not sufficiently clear and unambiguous.’ As a result, the panel also reduced penalties placed on Scott to time served…

“Under Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, many were fined and others jailed for fighting against his government’s draconian COVID rules, which severely impacted thousands of businesses.

“After the judges’ decision regarding Pawlowski was released earlier today, many praised it as a win for religious freedom… Olympic gold medalist and former NHL Canadian hockey legend Theo Fleury tweeted,  ‘Congrats to Pastor Arthur for your courage strength and perseverance… You were and always will be on the right side of history…’ Jamie Salé, gold medal pairs figure skating champion who recently spoke out on her ‘awakening’ to combat the COVID narrative, tweeted, ‘The TRUTH WINS again in the case of Art P!!!’

“In total, since the start of the COVID crisis, Pawlowski was jailed not less than five times. After his last arrest, he was initially denied bail when a provincial judge ruled he was a threat to ‘public safety.’ This despite his purported ‘crimes’ being completely non-violent in nature… Pawlowski was jailed for nearly three months after speaking out against COVID mandates when he gave a sermon to truckers blockading the highway in Coutts, Alberta.”

This is a classic example of terrible injustice in an authoritarian country under left-wing dictator Justin Trudeau, fueled by uninformed propaganda disseminated by proverbial politicians. Note the next two articles as well.

Fauci’s Irresponsible Follies

The New York Post published on July 23 the following opinion piece:

“The man almost single handedly responsible for the failed COVID policies of the past two-plus years has announced that he will be retiring soon.  For many of us, that day cannot come soon enough. During the first year of the pandemic, Anthony Fauci MD was a study in confusion. He expressed wildly conflicting opinions about how lethal and contagious the coronavirus was depending on who he was talking to. In private he questioned whether it could be spread asymptomatically, whether wearing masks could help contain it, and whether it was possible to be re-infected.

“In public he warned us that we were facing a viral apocalypse, touting a pandemic model from the Imperial College in London that predicted millions upon millions of US deaths. It turned out that the model was algorithmic garbage, but that didn’t stop America’s most famous virologist from recommending — in mid-March 2020 — that the economy of the entire country be shut down indefinitely, 40 million people be put out of work, tens of millions of children be denied an education, and millions of ‘nonessential’ small businesses be shuttered, many never to reopen.

“Under Fauci’s influence, the US Coronavirus Task Force then proceeded to commit every epidemiological sin in the book.  Among his mistakes were:

“… At the outset of the US outbreak, Fauci insisted on contact tracing. An enormous amount of valuable time and resources was wasted trying to track down every last person who might have come into contact with every person who might have had COVID — because Fauci insisted on it.  He actually made Zoom calls to groups of hundreds of ‘contact tracers’… For a highly infectious airborne viral infection, however, it was a criminal misuse of public health resources that did nothing to stop the spread of the disease…

“From the first, Fauci was calling for nationwide school closures… Few dared to question the all-knowing Dr. Fauci in those days, but the proper response to his fear-mongering about infections among children would have been: So what if children get infected? Their risk of dying from COVID-19 is effectively zero, far lower than their risk of dying from the seasonal flu, which itself is minuscule…

“Closing America’s schools did not save lives. But it did have a destructive effect on the academic performance and the emotional health of children… As professors Martin Kulldorff and Jay Bhattacharya wrote at the end of 2021, ‘Considering the devastating effects of school closures on children, Dr. Fauci’s advocacy for school closures may be the single biggest mistake of his career.’

“… Perhaps one day Fauci will tell us why, throughout the last half of 2020 and 2021, he ignored, dismissed, even ridiculed the idea that those who had recovered from COVID-19 had acquired natural immunity. This wasn’t the way he was talking at the outset of the pandemic. In a March 2020 interview with Trevor Noah of Comedy Central, for example, Fauci asserted that it was highly likely that those who had been infected with coronavirus were now immune… You don’t have to be an immunologist like Fauci to know this, of course. Medical practitioners have known about natural immunity since at least the time of the Antonine Plague that began in 165 AD. Everyone who’s had high school biology knows about natural immunity from disease.

“… Fauci committed his ‘original pandemic sin’ long before the present pandemic by playing a key role in enabling it. The long-time head of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Disease was the chief cheerleader and funder of gain of function research — the dangerous idea that deadly viruses could be created and studied in the lab to help prevent the next pandemic. China was happy for its scientists — including the head of the Wuhan Institute of Virology — to be taught these techniques in Fauci-funded labs. After COVID-19 likely leaked from that Wuhan lab, Fauci’s errors began to multiply as rapidly as the coronaviruses he paid Chinese scientists to collect in bat caves and study. He made a bad situation much, much worse.”

Fox News wrote on July 23:

“Fauci says he still believes that the coronavirus originated in nature but acknowledged he is keeping an ‘open mind.’ Fox News host Bret Baier pressed Fauci on emails showing that Fauci has previously dismissed the lab leak theory as a ‘shiny object’ that will ‘go away’ when discussing the origin with top scientists…

“Fauci has faced heated criticism from Republicans who have suggested a possible government coverup on the origins of the virus which many believe came from a lab in Wuhan, China and not an animal in nature. Republican Sen. Rand Paul said on Fox News this week that if his party takes control of Congress in November that Fauci will be forced to testify under oath about the origins of the virus and gain of function research that Fauci’s office was reportedly conducting at the Wuhan lab. ‘I do fully believe this virus, this pandemic that killed 6 million people around the world, leaked from the lab,’ Paul said on America Reports. ‘But I think there was a concerted effort by him and his colleagues to cover this up and make sure it didn’t come to light, that the NIH was funding that lab and that there was reasonable scientific evidence that suggests that it came from the lab. So he’s going to be made to testify under oath. And I hope he sticks around because we do have some questions.’”

The bad news is, many “scientists” around the world followed Fauci’s dangerous and incompetent directives. And they still do this today, including Germany’s doom-and-gloom Health Minister Karl Lauterbach, who received advice from Fauci while in Washington. Lauterbach declared on his return to Germany that “Germany and the US will cooperate on how best to control the next outbreak of COVID-19” (Deutsche Welle, dated July 23). This sounds terribly dangerous!

Origin of Corona Virus Pandemic?

Deutsche Welle wrote on July 27:

“A pair of studies in the latest issue of the journal Science appear to back up the theory that an animal market in the Chinese city of Wuhan really was the source of the coronavirus pandemic… Mammals that can carry the coronavirus — including red foxes, hog badgers and raccoon dogs — were all sold live in the market, the team showed… They found that both lineages jumped from animals at the market to humans on separate occasions, and that one did not come from the other…

“Co-author Kristian Andersen of Scripps Research, based near San Diego in the United States, said the findings did not disprove the lab-leak theory but gave a plausible explanation for the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in humans.”

“Ugly Covid Lies”

On July 25, 2022, Dr. Ron Paul wrote the following editorial in his weekly column:

“After two years of unprecedented government tyranny in the name of fighting a virus, the prime instigators of this infamy are walking free, writing books, and openly pretending they never said the things they clearly said over and over.

“Take Trump’s White House Covid response coordinator Deborah Birx, for example. She was… the principal architect of the disastrous ‘lockdown’ policy that destroyed more lives than Covid itself… She sold the White House on the out-of-thin-air ‘fifteen days to slow the spread’ all the while knowing there was no evidence it would do any such thing… she was also destroying the lives of millions of Americans. The hysteria she created led to countless businesses destroyed, countless suicides, major depressions, drug and alcohol addictions. It led to countless deaths due to delays in treatment for other diseases. It may turn out to be the most deadly mistake in medical history.

“As she revealed in her book, she actually wanted to isolate every single person in the United States!… She wanted to prevent even two people from meeting. How is it possible that someone like this came to gain so much power over our lives? One virus and we suddenly become Communist China?

“Last week in a Fox News interview she again revealed the extent of her treachery. After months of relentlessly demanding that all Americans get the Covid shots, she revealed that the ‘vaccines’ were not vaccines at all! ‘I knew these vaccines were not going to protect against infection,’ she told Fox. ‘And I think we overplayed the vaccines…’

“So when did she know this? Did she know it when she told ABC in late 2020 that ‘this is one of the most highly-effective vaccines we have in our infectious disease arsenal…’?… she admits in her book, she believes it’s just fine to lie to people in order to get them to do what she wants…

“The big question now, after what appears to be a tsunami of vaccine-related injuries, is will anyone be forced to pay for the lies and subterfuge? Will anyone be held to account for the lives lost for the arrogance of the Birxes and Faucis of the world?”

Sadly, the answer is probably no… for now. But it is going to be quite a different story when they have to appear before the Judgment Seat of Jesus Christ. Note Matthew 12:36-37.

The Danger of Menthol Cigarettes and Flavored Cigars

On July 25, Axios published the following article by the American Heart Association:

“In 2009, Congress ended the sale of flavored cigarettes — except for menthol cigarettes… A study published in the journal Tobacco Control estimated that 650,000 lives would be saved between 2021 and 2060 if the FDA ended the sale of menthol cigarettes… Menthol cigarettes are still on shelves today… From 1980 to 2018, menthol cigarettes led to 10.1 million new smokers, caused 378,000 premature deaths and took nearly 3 million years off people’s lives… More than half a million kids — and even more young adults — use flavored cigars… Cigars are the second-most popular tobacco product among high schoolers…

“Today, tobacco companies relentlessly market menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars to Black, Hispanic/Latino, Asian American and American Indian/Alaska Native populations, as well as to LGBTQ+ communities and youth… Tobacco companies intentionally hide the health dangers of their products. In reality, smoking harms almost every organ in the body, causes disease and leads to premature death. Menthol also makes it easier for people to start smoking and harder to quit. Tobacco companies deliberately use kid-friendly flavors in their cigars, such as chocolate, strawberry, banana split, cherry dynamite and tropical twist.

“Surveys show that nearly three-quarters of kids who smoke cigars do so because they like the flavors…  In the 1950s, less than 10% of Black people who smoked used menthol cigarettes. Today, about 85% of Black people who smoke use menthols… Tobacco use is a major contributor to three leading causes of death among Black people in America: heart disease, cancer and stroke… Black people account for 41% of all premature deaths from menthol cigarette use, even though they are only 12% of the overall U.S. population.”

Smoking is a sin! It is clearly harmful to the human body. Ephesians 5:29 explains, in principle, how unnatural and ungodly the ugly habit of smoking really is.

Is Boris Johnson to Emulate Winston Churchill?

Express wrote on July 24:

“Christopher Hope, political editor for The Telegraph, said the outgoing Prime Minister could ‘copy his hero Winston Churchill who was pushed out at the 1945 election only to return triumphantly to 10 Downing Street in 1951.’

“Mr Johnson, who will be a caretaker Prime Minister until September, hinted at a possible comeback when he told MPs at his final Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday ‘Hasta la vista, baby’ and said it was ‘mission largely accomplished – for now’…

“…  a growing number in the grassroots have made it clear they want the incumbent Mr Johnson to remain in post.”

There are others who could make a comeback… including Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump.

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.