DW – August 21, 2020

The EU’s chief post-Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier was left ‘disappointed’ at the slow pace of the trade negotiations about the UK’s exit from the European Union, while his UK counterpart David Frost said the EU made talks “unnecessarily difficult.”

“Those who were hoping for negotiations to move swiftly forward this week will have been disappointed,” said Barnier. “Unfortunately, I too am frankly disappointed and concerned.”

“The clock is ticking,” he warned.

Trade discussions between the EU and UK began after Britain officially left the bloc in January.

Both sides are pushing to have a deal in place by the end of a post-Brexit transition period that ends on December 31. The EU said this requires an agreement by October – in two months’ time.

If no deal is struck by then, trading relationships between the two sides will have to use minimum standards set by the World Trade Organization that will see tariffs raised.

“No progress whatsoever” had been made on fisheries, said Barnier. Fair competition rules were also proving to be a sticking point.

“Too often this week it felt as if we were going backwards rather than forwards,” said Barnier.

https://www.dw.com

Sputnik News – June 25, 2020

According to statements made public in the British press, the European Union is afraid of being left “fighting for its survival” if the UK secures a strong trade deal at the end of the Brexit transition.

The news follows tense negotiations between Britain and the EU over the level of trade relations they will have once the Brexit transition ends in December. Sputnik has spoken to political commentator Keith Rowe to give more insight into the matter.

Sputnik: How significant are these reported fears from Brussels that the EU will be left fighting for its survival if the UK secures a decent trade deal? What do they represent in your eyes?

Keith Rowe: When you say decent trade deal, do you mean a decent trade deal with the EU? Well, I would have thought that’s in the EU’s advantage if we get a decent trade deal. They want to keep us on side. We buy a lot of stuff, of all types, from the EU. It’s in their interests for us to have a deal.

The point is they wanted it to be as strongly biased in their favour as they can get and I think the British position is that we just want a straightforward, Canada++ style trade deal.

That’s in their best interests, I suspect that they won’t be able to agree with that and unless they really knock some heads together very, very quickly and realise that they’ve got to compromise strongly I suspect that, while it might be in their interests to have a good trade deal with the UK, that they won’t achieve one in time for us to leave. They might achieve one after, but they won’t achieve one in time for us to leave.

https://sputniknews.com

SETH J. FRANTZMAN  – July 11, 2020

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to “liberate al-Aqsa mosque” from Israel after “resurrecting Hagia Sophia” as a mosque on Friday.

The decision to change the status of the ancient Hagia Sophia church, which had been transformed into a mosque in 1453 and then into a museum in 1934, was made controversially last week.

It follows an increasingly religious authoritarian agenda from Ankara that has made Turkey the world’s largest jailer of journalists, seen dissidents imprisoned for “terrorism” and witnessed increasing military invasions of neighboring countries by Turkey.

The resurrection of Hagia Sophia heralds the liberation of the al-Aqsa mosque, the Turkish Presidency website says. “The resurrection of Hagia Sophia is the footsteps of the will of Muslims across the world to come… the resurrection of Hagia Sophia is the reignition of the fire of hope of Muslims and all oppressed, wrong, downtrodden and exploited.”

The speech, which was in Turkish, was translated slightly differently to Arabic and English, apparently as a way to hide part of Ankara’s full views on how it has linked Hagia Sophia to a wider agenda.

In Arabic the speech says that turning Hagia Sophia into a mosque is part of the “return of freedom to al-Aqsa,” essentially meaning Israel should be ejected from controlling Jerusalem’s Old City where al-Aqsa is located.

https://www.jpost.com

Dr. Rivkah Lambert Adler – Jul 17, 2020

Les Saidel, a veteran immigrant to Israel, originally from Johannesburg, South Africa, likely knows more about the Biblical showbread than anyone else on earth.

Called Lechem Hapanim in Hebrew (literally, bread of the faces), the ancient art of preparing the showbread for use in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem has not been practiced for close to 2000 years.

During the Second Temple period, the showbreads were baked by the Garmu family of Levi’im (Levites). Each Friday, the Garmu family baked a new set of 12 loaves. Each of the loaves represented one of the 12 Tribes. They were placed on the Temple’s golden shulchan (table) in two stacks of six and they remained on the shulchan all week.

According to Saidel, these special breads had miracles associated with them during the time the Holy Temples stood in Jerusalem. Despite the fact that the breads sat out uncovered for seven days, they miraculously remained fresh and warm, even a week later.

The showbreads were replaced every Friday and the previous week’s showbreads were distributed among the incoming and outgoing shifts of kohanim (priests assigned to work in the Temple). Saidel explained that this amounted to 400 or 500 people eating from these 12 loaves. Despite the fact that each kohen (priest) received only a small amount of bread, it miraculously was as filling as if they had eaten an entire meal.

https://www.breakingisraelnews.com

Victor Tangermann – July 28, 2020

Today, engineers started construction of the world’s largest nuclear fusion project in southern France, The Guardian reports, with operations planned to begin in late 2025.

The project, called ITER, is an international collaborative effort between 35 countries with enormous ambitions: prove the feasibility of fusion energy with a gigantic magnetic device called a “tokamak,” as per the project’s official website.

“Enabling the exclusive use of clean energy will be a miracle for our planet,” ITER director-general Bernard Bigot said during today’s virtual celebration, as quoted by The Guardian.

Fusion power, in theory, works by harnessing the energy released by two lighter atomic nuclei fusing to form a heavier nucleus, and turning it into electricity.

If proven to be economical — that is, if the machine generates more energy than has to be put in to kickstart the process — the technology could lay the groundwork for an entirely new way of generating nearly unlimited clean energy on a commercial scale. Fusion power would be far safer than conventional fission nuclear energy, since there’s no risk of a meltdown or leftover nuclear waste.

But if the last six decades of fusion research are anything to go by, it remains an elusive way of generating net energy. The extremely hot plasma inside the fusion reactors is notoriously difficult to predict and control.

https://futurism.com

NewsMax – July 24, 2020

China ordered the United States on Friday to close its consulate in the western city of Chengdu, ratcheting up a diplomatic conflict at a time when relations have sunk to their lowest level in decades.

The move was a response to the Trump administration’s order this week for Beijing to close its consulate in Houston after Washington accused Chinese agents of trying to steal medical and other research in Texas.

The Chinese foreign ministry appealed to Washington to reverse its “wrong decision.”

Chinese-U.S. relations have soured amid a mounting array of conflicts including trade, the handling of the coronavirus pandemic, technology, spying accusations, Hong Kong and allegations of abuses against Chinese Muslims.

“The measure taken by China is a legitimate and necessary response to the unjustified act by the United States,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

“The current situation in Chinese-U.S. relations is not what China desires to see. The United States is responsible for all this,” it said. “We once again urge the United States to immediately retract its wrong decision and create necessary conditions for bringing the bilateral relationship back on track.”

Also Friday, the U.S. State Department sent out a notice warning Americans in China of a “heightened risk of arbitrary detention.”

https://www.newsmax.com

RT – July 23, 2020

British politician Farage has been revealed as a behind-the-scenes figure in advising a new ‘Italexit’ party that will campaign for a return of Italy’s sovereignty, fuelled by a rising tide of anti-EU sentiment.

Just when you thought he’d been consigned to history, Mr. Brexit himself, Nigel Farage, is back. Only this time, he’s franchising out his brand to take another swing at the establishment.

Italexit is all systems go after publicly confirming its plan and Farage is on board. The leader of the party that was officially launched on Thursday, Gianluigi Paragone, is an Italian senator who was expelled from the Five Star Movement after refusing to vote in line with the party’s wishes.

Paragone is a charismatic speaker, has right-wing leanings and was formerly the editor of the nationalist party Northern League’s newspaper.

“I met Nigel Farage, leader of the Brexit Party in London, who triumphed in the British referendum by bringing the United Kingdom out of the European Union cage,” Paragone said earlier this week. “I confronted him on the present and future of a truly sovereign country which, even more so after Brexit, is able to give real answers to citizens.”

Even with a solid CV, Paragone is a mere rookie and Farage is the Grand Wizard. No one would dispute that without him, Brexit wouldn’t have happened. Farage drove the bus at top speed, crashing through any obstacle that got in his way. He’s often seen bobbing about in the English Channel documenting the illegal arrival of immigrants.

He beat the drum for national pride and escaped the clutches of EU bureaucrats. His rivals brand him racist, heartless, and arrogant.

What maybe isn’t so widely known is that Farage was the classic Trojan Horse. He had been a member of the European Parliament since 1999. The reason he lost his seat?

https://www.rt.com

Sputnik News – July 11, 2020

Predictions about the end of the European project have long been bandied about in the corridors of power and in newspaper columns. However, one Finnish MEP has joined the long list of those making the claim that the end may be on the horizon.

The European Union is on track to “inevitably” collapse due to increasing concerns over the bloc’s plan to further centralise power in Brussels, a Finnish MEP has told The Express.

Laura Huhtasaari, an MEP for the Finns Party and a well-known Eurosceptic in her country, has said that the EU’s continued attempts to bring member states under the command of Brussels, and to increasingly concentrate law-making powers there, will result in the union’s demise.

Referring to what she says is the inescapable end of the EU, the Finnish MEP said, “I think it’s inevitable that it will collapse, but probably not right now.”

“I want my country back, I want to get out of the EU. I don’t want to be part of this new Soviet Union-like union. I definitely want to be an independent state, doing a free trade agreement and other kinds of loose operations,” Ms. Huhtasaari added.

https://sputniknews.com

Heather Clark – July 15, 2020

JERUSALEM — An excavation in Jerusalem Walls National Park that yielded a rare stamp and seal impression dating back to the Persian era is stated to provide evidence for the restoration of Jerusalem during the times of Ezra and Nehemiah, as chronicled in the Scriptures.

“The finding of the stamp and seal impression in the City of David indicates that despite the city’s dire situation after the destruction, efforts were made to restore the administrative authorities to normal, and its residents continued to use the structures that were destroyed partly,” stated Prof. Yuval Gadot of the Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures at Tel Aviv University, and Dr. Yiftah Shalev, of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

The Antiquities Authority recently announced the discovery, which was uncovered in the Givati parking lot area of the National Park next to rubble from a structure razed during the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem.

Gadot and Shalev state that it is rare to find artifacts from the Persian Period, and few of this type have been found in Israel.

The impression was found on what is known as a bulla, a clay seal used by administrative authorities to sign documents and to keep them sealed until they reach their destination. They were also sometimes used as seals on storage jugs for food received as a tax.

https://christiannews.net

Michael Snyder – July 7, 2020

The recession of 2008 and 2009 was bad, but it was nothing like this.  Even though this new economic downturn is only a few months old, we are already seeing numbers that we haven’t seen since the worst parts of the Great Depression of the 1930s.  More than 48 million Americans have filed new claims for unemployment benefits over the past 15 weeks, well over 100,000 businesses have permanently closed their doors, and civil unrest has turned quite a few of our major cities into war zones.  But not all areas of the country are being affected equally.  For example, there are rural areas that haven’t really seen a lot of COVID-19 cases where life seems to have changed very little from six months ago.  On the other hand, some urban areas that have been hit really hard by COVID-19 have been absolutely devastated economically.  For example, the New York Times is reporting that a million jobs have been lost in New York City, and the unemployment rate for NYC “is hovering near 20 percent”…

The city is staggering toward reopening with some workers back at their desks or behind cash registers, and on Monday, it began a new phase, allowing personal-care services like nail salons and some outdoor recreation to resume. Even so, the city’s unemployment rate is hovering near 20 percent — a figure not seen since the Great Depression.

We are going to be using the phrase “since the Great Depression” a lot in the coming months.

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com