Threats of Nuclear War
Express wrote on May 13:
“Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia Dmitry Medvedev said… NATO support [for Ukraine] will make a direct conflict between the alliance and Moscow more likely. He also warned that this could even result in a full-blown nuclear war…. This comes as NATO looks set to welcome Finland and Sweden as new members in a move that has appeared to rub Moscow the wrong way. The Kremlin warned it ‘will be forced to take retaliatory steps, both of a military-technical and other nature’ if the Nordic NATO plans materialize…
“Putin already put his nuclear forces on high alert back in March, sparking fears of a nuclear war. He has also been unveiling some terrifying weapons in his 6,000 strong arsenal. This includes the Sarmat II, dubbed Satan II by the West. This is an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of carrying 10 or more nuclear warheads and can hit targets in the US and Europe.”
Turkey Might Veto
Express wrote on May 13:
“Turkish President [Tayyip Erdoan] argued Finland’s plan to apply for NATO membership, and the expectation that Sweden will follow, would bring about the expansion of the alliance that Russian President Vladimir Putin aimed to prevent from happening by invading Ukraine… Saying it was a mistake for NATO to accept Greece as a member in the past, he added: ‘As Turkey, we don’t want to repeat similar mistakes.’… Mr Erdoğan then said: ‘Furthermore, Scandinavian countries are guesthouses for terrorist organisations. They are even members of the parliament in some countries. It is not possible for us to be in favour.’
“Mr Erdoğan’s comments were primarily directed at the militant group the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which Turkey regards as a terrorist organisation, although they appeared to encompass the communities of Kurdish origin in Scandinavia as a whole. Sweden has a large Kurdish diaspora, with the community considered to be one of the largest outside of the Middle East…. any decision on enlargement [of NATO] must be made by unanimous agreement of its members, a single country opposing a nation’s bid to join could block the membership from unfolding.”
The Associated Press added on May 16:
“Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday ratcheted up his objection to Sweden and Finland joining NATO… [He] said Swedish and Finnish officials — who are expected in Turkey next week — should not bother to come if they hope to convince Ankara into relaxing its objections to their membership.”
Deutsche Welle wrote on May 18:
“Turkey on Wednesday stopped NATO members from starting talks on the bids launched by Finland and Sweden to join the alliance… Helsinki and Sweden handed their official bid to NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday morning… other members of the alliance have given their full backing to the Nordic countries and remain optimistic that they can overcome Turkey’s objections. They hope to complete the process in six months rather than the usual 12 months.”
Turkey is the second-largest military in NATO. It joined NATO 70 years ago. Article 5 of NATO’s founding treaty says an attack on any NATO country should be seen as an attack on all. While Sweden and Finland have long had close relations with NATO, they are not covered by its security guarantee.
Russia Feels Threatened
Deutsche Welle wrote on May 13:
“If [Sweden] formally joins NATO, it will end over 200 years of Swedish non-alignment. It would be a severe setback for Russian President Vladimir Putin… NATO’s land border with Russia is set to more than double if Finland and Sweden submit their membership applications.
“Such an expansion by the Western military alliance would leave Russia surrounded by NATO countries in the Baltic Sea and the Arctic.”
Finland to Join
Deutsche Welle reported on May 14:
“Finland’s ruling Social Democrats backed a proposal on Saturday to apply for NATO membership… The party followed in the footsteps of Prime Minister Sanna Marin, who released a joint statement with President Sauli Niinisto on Thursday saying Finland must join the alliance ‘without delay.’… With the majority of Parliament backing membership, an official application is expected within days…
“The Kremlin’s response to the Finnish president was that any move to abandon Finland’s historically neutral stance would be a mistake. Putin said Russia posed no threat to Finland, but that membership in NATO could negatively affect the countries’ relations. The Kremlin cut off Russian electricity supplies to Finland on Friday night after the firm supplying the electricity, RAO Nordic, complained of payment arrears. Russia provided about 10% of Finland’s electricity, but this has largely been covered by imports from Sweden.
“NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg has previously said both Finland and Sweden would be welcomed into the alliance ‘with open arms.’”
On Tuesday, May 17, Finland’s legislature approved the country’s bid for NATO membership with 188 votes in favor and eight against. The vote in Parliament was seen a formality. Deutsche Welle wrote:
“The vote clears the way for a Finnish application for membership in the Western defense alliance. President Niinisto will now have to sign the application and hand it in to NATO’s headquarters in Brussels… .German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has said Germany will increase military cooperation with Sweden and Finland during the application process… Finland joining NATO would be the biggest security policy shift for the country since after World War II, after which the country adopted a policy of military nonalignment and neutrality.
“Finland shares a 1,300-kilometer (800-mile) long border with Russia, and Moscow has strongly opposed its membership in NATO. Neutral Finland was invaded by the Soviet Union in 1939 and fought two wars against it during the course of World War II. It ultimately lost large chunks of the eastern Karelia province to the Soviet Union and had to pay reparations.”
On Sunday, Sweden’s governing party backed a plan to join NATO. Axios wrote that “Sweden’s Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson announced Monday that her government will formally apply to join NATO”, continuing: “Sweden does not share a border with Russia but has long feared the possibility of Moscow invading Gotland — a strategically located island in the Baltic Sea viewed as critical to the defense of the region.”
The Sun reported on May 16 that as a consequence, “Russia has started deploying nuclear missiles toward its border with Finland.”
Russia Accepts the Challenge
Express wrote on May 14:
“Sergei Lavrov… told a Russian audience: ‘The collective West has declared total hybrid war on us and it is hard to predict how long all this will last but it is clear the consequences will be felt by everyone, without exception. We did everything to avoid a direct clash – but now that the challenge has been thrown down, we of course accept it.’…
“Efforts by the West to isolate Russia were doomed to fail, Mr Lavrov claimed, while pointing to the importance of Russia’s relations with China, India, Algeria and Gulf states. His comments come two days after Boris Johnson travelled to Finland and Sweden to sign security pacts with the two Scandinavian nations, which pledge military assistance if either party is attacked…
“As well as threats of cyber warfare, concerns have been raised that Russia may resort to chemical or biological weapons. It has already hinted at using its nuclear option. Russia is also not averse to targeted attacks on individuals on foreign soil, including in the UK: the Russian Government has already been blamed for the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko in London and the attempted poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal.”
Where Do the $56 Billion Go?
The Dossier wrote on May 14:
“The United States has now delegated some $56 billion… ‘for Ukraine’, but hardly any of it is actually going to the Ukrainian people… If you think the people of Ukraine are going to see one dime of this money, think again. Not even the ‘humanitarian aid’ portions of the assistance will reach the Ukrainian people…
“… the majority of the funds from the latest $40 billion behemoth will be used to supply weapons purchase orders, and resupply weapons that were already sent to Ukraine, which arrived with a seeming back room deal to add to the deep pockets of the weapons manufacturers back home.”
Freakish NBC Program… Simulation of US War with China
The Ron Paul Institute wrote on May 18:
“NBC’s Meet the Press just aired an absolutely freakish segment in which the influential narrative management firm Center for a New American Security (CNAS) ran war games simulating a direct US hot war with China. CNAS is funded by the Pentagon and by military-industrial complex corporations Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, and Lockheed Martin, as well as the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office, which as Antiwar’s Dave DeCamp notes is the de facto Taiwanese embassy in the US.
“The war game simulates a conflict over Taiwan which we are informed is set in the year 2027, in which China launches strikes on the US military in order to open the way to an invasion of the island. We are not told why there needs to be a specific year inserted into mainstream American consciousness about when we can expect such a conflict, but then we are also not told why NBC is platforming a war machine think tank’s simulation of a military conflict with China at all.
“It happens that the Center for a New American Security was the home of the man assigned by the Biden administration to lead the Pentagon task force responsible for re-evaluating the administration’s posture toward China. That man, Ely Ratner, is on record saying that the Trump administration was insufficiently hawkish toward China. Ratner is now the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs in the Biden administration…
“It also happens that CNAS co-founder Michele Flournoy, who appeared in the Meet the Press war games segment… wrote… in 2020… that the US needed to develop ‘the capability to credibly threaten to sink all of China’s military vessels, submarines, and merchant ships in the South China Sea within 72 hours.’…
“It also happens that CNAS is routinely cited by the mass media as an authoritative source on all things China and Russia, with no mention ever made of the conflict of interest arising from their war machine funding… citing war machine-funded think tanks as expert analysis without even disclosing their financial conflict of interest is plainly journalistic malpractice. But it happens all the time in the mass media anyway, because the mass media exist to circulate propaganda, not journalism.
“This is getting so, so crazy… the mass media are now openly teaming up with war machine think tanks to begin seeding the normalization of a hot war with China into the minds of the public… The mass-scale psychological manipulation is getting more and more overt and more and more shameless.
“This is headed somewhere very, very bad. Hopefully humanity wakes up in time to stop these lunatics from driving us off a precipice from which there is no return.”
More Violence in Israel
The Evening Standard wrote on May 13:
“Israeli police clashed with Palestinian mourners packed around the coffin of killed Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh at the start of her funeral procession in Jerusalem on Friday… The violent scenes underlined the growing anger over Ms Abu Akleh’s killing which has threatened to add further fuel to an already raging conflict. Ms Abu Akleh, who had covered Palestinian affairs and the Middle East for more than two decades, was shot while reporting on an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday.
“Palestinian authorities described Ms Abu Akleh’s killing as an assassination by Israeli forces. Israel’s government initially suggested Palestinian fire might have been to blame, but officials have also said they could not rule out it was Israeli gunfire that killed her… The inquiry has raised two possibilities, the military said in a statement. The first, that Ms Abu Akleh was hit by Palestinian militants who fired dozens of bullets toward Israeli military vehicles, ‘which is also the direction where Ms. Abu Akleh was.’ The second, that an Israeli soldier returning fire from a jeep toward a gunman had inadvertently hit her…
“Ms Abu Akleh’s death has drawn widespread condemnation. Video footage from the moments after she was shot showed the 51-year-old wearing a blue vest marked ‘Press’… Israel, which has voiced regret at Ms Abu Akleh’s death, has proposed a joint investigation with the Palestinians, asking them to provide the bullet for examination. The Palestinians have rejected the Israeli request. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday said Israel was fully responsible and called for an international investigation.”
Bogus Charges Against Netanyahu?
Breitbart wrote on May 16:
“Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gloated Monday as the prosecution in his corruption trial asked the court for permission to amend its indictment against him when a key witness backtracked on his earlier testimony against him. ‘In your face,’ Netanyahu told reporters.
“He faces three charges, which have been described by critics from the beginning as bogus, and as an apparent effort by Netanyahu’s political enemies in the Israeli legal fraternity to remove him from power…
“The prosecution has… been clouded by revelations that state investigators unlawfully hacked Netanyahu’s phone and those of his associates in an effort to spy on him and use damaging personal information to turn witnesses against him. Netanyahu has refused to accept any plea deals and has insisted on proving his innocence. The prosecution has stumbled as the post-Netanyahu government, a ragtag coalition led by former aide Naftali Bennet, has moved closer to internal collapse.”
Iran May Already Have Nukes
Israel 365 wrote on May 16:
“‘Washington’s bipartisan consensus is that Iran does not yet have nuclear weapons or missiles capable of threatening the United States with a nuclear attack,’ wrote Peter Vincent Pry, the EMP Task Force on National and Homeland Security executive director. ‘But some Israeli analysts and some highly credible U.S. experts disagree with the “consensus view.’”…
“‘Assessments that Iran does not yet have nuclear weapons assume erroneously: our intelligence is perfect, Iran’s civilian nuclear program is all there is, and no clandestine nuclear weapons program exists in Iran’s numerous underground military facilities — including unaccounted uranium and plutonium facilities for fueling nuclear weapons, as in North Korea,’ the report warns…
“Washington’s intelligence assessments that Tehran ‘suspended its nuclear-weapons program in 2003 are contradicted,’ the group cautions, ‘both by Iran’s nuclear archives, stolen by Israel in 2018, indicating Iran’s ongoing nuclear-weapons program (reported at several sites in 2006, 2017, and 2019) and by Iran’s rapid resumption of enriching uranium to prohibited levels. This demonstrates an existing capability to quickly produce weapons-grade uranium.’…
“‘Iran is a threshold nuclear weapons state,’ Pry concludes. ‘Prudence would dictate regarding Iran as a de facto nuclear threat.’”
Blow to Olaf Scholz in North Rhine-Westphalia (NW)
Deutsche Welle wrote on May 15:
“In a blow to Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s SPD party, voters backed the conservatives, CDU, in an election Germany’s most populous state. The Greens meanwhile more than doubled the number of votes they received…. In Germany’s federal system, state lawmakers hold a considerable amount of power and the election in NRW was considered an important bellwether for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s ruling SPD party…. Around 13 million people were eligible to vote, making it the biggest election in Germany this year, and one of the most important outside of the general election…
“The victory will be seen as an important boost for the CDU, relegated to the opposition in last year’s election after 16 years in power under Merkel… The CDU has tried to recover from its big defeat in last year’s general election by gaining ground in regional governments. Just last week, voters in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein delivered a landslide victory in the CDU….”
According to Bild Online, this was the biggest defeat ever for the SPD in NRW. Bild blamed Scholz for the disaster for his indecisiveness and lack of clarity.
Fauci “Promises” to Resign, if…
Breitbart wrote on May 16:
“[Fauci] used an interview on CNN to reveal he does not want to serve under the former president if he is re-elected in 2024 and would likely resign… Fauci’s antipathy towards Trump was made plain on notable occasions, none more so than when he accused the former president of ‘poisoning the well’ on vaccinations…
“Previous to that he questioned the Trump administration’s vaccine rollout efficiency and publicly called into question Trump’s ability to deliver on his promises to protect all Americans during the height of the coronavirus pandemic… Fauci said, ‘the divisiveness during the Trump administration’ made his job difficult… ‘I had to be publicly correcting misrepresentation on the part of the president and on the part of people in the administration.’
“Fauci, 82, has been the director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases since 1984. He was appointed as Chief Medical Advisor to the Biden administration in 2021.”
Fox News added on May 16:
“Many conservatives expressed relief on Sunday when Dr. Anthony Fauci declared he would not stick around as chief medical adviser at the White House if… Trump wins the 2024 election… Fauci has emerged as a symbol of COVID-era lockdowns and restrictions in the eyes of many Trump supporters… [Many stated that] this was the best possible endorsement for Trump in 2024…”
Due to Fauci’s many failed predictions, wrong and dangerous advice and false promises, his resignation has been long overdue. Of course, Trump should have fired him when he had the chance.
WHO to Get Universal Powers
Israel 365 wrote on May 18:
“In four days, the World Health Organization will vote on resolutions that will give them emergency powers over any country they choose [by unilaterally declaring a health emergency in that country]. The Biden administration initiated the measures but kept them under wraps until just a few weeks ago when the vote was a foregone conclusion. It was recently revealed that Israel fell into lockstep, backing the measure…
“If passed, the resolutions will go into effect in November. [They] will empower WHO’s Director-General to declare health emergencies or crises in any nation and do so unilaterally and against the opposition of the target nation. The Director-General will be able to declare these health crises based merely on his personal opinion or consideration that there is a potential or possible threat to other nations.”
It seems that Biden is doing whatever he can to destroy the USA.
Buffalo Massacre Used as Alibi to Restrict Freedom of Speech
Law Professor Jonathan Turley wrote on May 16 (reprinted by the Ron Paul Institute):
“Politicians have long viewed tragedies and crises as opportunities not to be ‘wasted.’… Governor Kathy Hochul (D-NY) adopted the same approach to the massacre in Buffalo in renewing calls for censorship on the Internet…
“As it became more likely that Elon Musk could buy Twitter, there was a notable shift in the comments of pro-censorship figures. Hillary Clinton went to Twitter to call on the European Union to quickly pass the Digital Services Act in Europe to force censorship ‘before it’s too late.’…
“At the same time, the United Kingdom is pushing its own Online Safety Act and recently Musk was summoned to Parliament to answer for his alarming suggestion of restoring free speech on social media… It is threatening to take ten percent of the company’s profits if Musk does not censor users.
“Now, Hochul is trying to rally voters to the cause of censorship in the wake of the Buffalo tragedy. To defend free speech in response to such a call is to risk being denounced as supporting violent extremists or dishonoring the fallen.
“The government would then be able to determine what constitutes ‘unfettered sharing of hate information on the internet.’ Indeed, the Biden Administration already created a Disinformation Governance Board that is ready to start that work with great eagerness. It may be a bitter pill for some who value free speech, but it is hard to defend the abstraction of free speech in the aftermath of a massacre. That is why this is a crisis that cannot be wasted. As the Biden’s Administration’s ‘Mary Poppins of Disinformation’ might say, a crisis ‘helps the censorship medicine go down in a most delightful way.’”
Perhaps she is going to release another childish song on video. Please spare us!
Disinformation Governance Board “Paused” – Janowicz Resigns
The New York Post wrote on May 19:
“Despite calling The Post’s reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop a ‘Trump campaign product’ and blasting Republican concerns about the teaching of ‘critical race theory’ in public schools as ‘weaponizing people’s emotion,’ the now-former head of the Biden administration’s short-lived disinformation board is denying she has a pro-Democrat bias.
“Nina Janowicz made the far-fetched claim to MSNBC ‘All In’ host Chris Hayes hours after she announced her resignation following the Department of Homeland Security’s decision to ‘pause’ the Disinformation Governance Board… The board was criticized almost from the moment of its creation last month by conservatives, libertarians and even some liberals, who compared it to the Ministry of Truth from George Orwell’s novel ‘1984.’”
The Hunter Biden Scandal
Newsmax wrote on May 17:
“A former White House staffer during the Trump administration has apparently posted more than 120,000 emails [to a searchable database this week through his organization, Marco Polo] from Hunter Biden’s now-infamous laptop computer, which was seized by the FBI in 2019… The emails reportedly span from December 2009 to March 2019 — shortly before Hunter Biden dropped off his MacBook Pro at a Delaware computer store, but never returned to pick it up…
“Among the reported highlights, according to the Daily Mail: The ‘10 for the big guy’ message, which potentially links President Joe Biden to son Hunter’s overseas business dealings — during Joe Biden’s time as vice president (2009-17) — through a 10% equity stake in a Chinese energy conglomerate… Hunter Biden describing an apparent quid pro quo with a Mexican billionaire’s son, outlining how Biden got him into the White House and presidential inauguration ceremony, and then thanking him for visits to a villa…
“The site also pointed out that Hunter Biden’s laptop had been abandoned… as a legal loophole for posting the trove of emails online…
“The Daily Mail reportedly had the laptop authenticated by top cyber forensics experts last year; and earlier in 2022, The Washington Post and The New York Times independently verified the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop…
“This potentially sets the stage for Republican lawmakers launching a full-scale investigation into the alleged corruption exposed from Hunter Biden’s laptop in 2023, if Republicans take back control of the House chamber after the November midterm elections.”
Republicans have said that, if they come to power in the midterm election and if the allegations against Hunter Biden and Joe Biden are proven to be true, an impeachment procedure against Joe Biden would be initiated.
A New Definition of “Woman”
Breitbart wrote on May 12:
“The San Diego County Board of Supervisors has adopted a new definition of ‘woman’ that would reportedly allow male-to-female transgender residents to demand inclusion as women in jails, homeless shelters, and domestic violence shelters… the ordinance… include[s] those who simply identify as women…
“Local television station KUSI-TV [said:] ‘Now in San Diego County, the definition of “women” will include transwomen and intersex women…’
“Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson declined to provide a definition of ‘woman’ in her confirmation hearings in March.”
Britain’s Sad “Accomplishments”
The Daily Mail wrote on May 14:
“A dozen native oysters washed down with vintage champagne, then a large tranche of oozing, bloomy, artisan Camembert — there is no finer or more elegant lunch.
“You could be enjoying such delicacies on holiday in Normandy and, for decades, you may have wished we did this just as well at home… At last the British are beating the French at what they do best — producing the greatest food and wine… As for our seafood, it is riding a high… Tourists are flocking to the British coast in pursuit of the freshest lobster, crab, Dover sole and turbot, while there’s an expanding market for buying fish online, direct from the boats….
“The popularity of shellfish has also boomed. Oysters, once a rarity on menus, are popular again. Our brown crab is considered the best worldwide owing to cold waters, and we can even buy ormer — or abalone — farmed in Jersey.
“So these are exciting times. Essentially, one no longer needs to live near a good fishmonger to buy the freshest fish. There are seafood sellers online who will deliver even live shellfish to your door via overnight courier.”
“Sadly,” all these “delicious” “foods” are forbidden in the Bible and declared to be “unclean,” since they are harmful to humans.
Hard to Believe: Used Cars Much More Expensive than New Cars
The Daily Mail wrote on May 14:
“Motorists are facing a massive used car premium with some second hand vehicles costing some £26,000 more than a brand new model… A nearly new Landrover Defender with a list price of £62,000 will cost £10,000 more if the car is second and with relatively low mileage. This is especially true if the car is bought using a PCP plan, which are affected by changes in the interest rate…
“The Bank of England’s monetary policy committee has indicated that interest rates will have to rise further in order to counter the threat of runaway inflation despite the very real threat of the country moving into recession… Also, manufacturers have said that the supply of microchips used in onboard computers and vital safety systems are in incredibly short supply since Covid-19.
“Under normal market conditions, a second hand car will lose a considerable percentage of its value as soon as its front wheels hit the tarmac outside the dealership… Even Britain’s cheapest car, the Dacia Sandero has seen it price increase. A one-year-old version with 10,000 miles on the clock will cost £12,481 – or £312 a month on a three-year PCP with £2,000 deposit. This makes the used car £5,333 more expensive than the new version…
“New car buyers, however can face long waiting lists before they can sit into their vehicle… Popular marques such as BMW and VW have told prospective buyers that there is a nine-month waiting list… Worse still for motorists, diesel prices have soared to a new record high despite the cut in fuel duty, figures show.”
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.
