Author: Ron Chambers

Russia declares war on Ukraine, explosions in Kyiv, Mariupol, Kharkiv, Odessa, Lvov

Debkafiles – February 24, 2022

Vladimir Putin early Thursday, Feb. 24, announced a special military operation in the Donbas “to demilitarize” the region, amid unconfirmed reports of a huge seaborne landing in the Black Sea port of Odessa. Explosions were heard in Kyiv, Mariupol, Odessa, Lvov and Kharkiv.

President Joe Biden will address the nation at noon on Thursday, after condemning Russia’s as “alone responsible” for “choosing a premeditated war” by an “unprovoked and unjustified attack.” The United States and its Allies and partners will respond in a united and decisive way, he said. “The world will hold Russia accountable.”

In an early morning address, Putin said the “special military operation” he had launched comes in response to threats coming from Ukraine. He added that Russia doesn’t have a goal to occupy the country. Putin said responsibility for bloodshed “lies with the Ukrainian “regime.” He insisted that the operation was targeting military installations and avoiding populated areas. Putin told Ukrainian service members to “lay down their arms and go home.”

The Russia’s defense ministry also denied attacking Ukrainian cities – saying it is targeting military infrastructure, air defense and air forces with “high-precision weapons.” Explosions nonetheless ripped through Kyiv, the capital, Mariupol and Kharkiv.

Unconfirmed reports said that Russian forces had destroyed or rendered unusable the Ukrainian navy and taken control of Boryspil Airport in Kiev. Other reports spoke of a huge seaborne landing in Odessa involving large landing craft and helicopters shortly after dawn. Ukraine’s access to the Black Sea and Azov Sea was cut off.

Ukraine was on Wednesday placed on a war footing and a state of emergency declared; 200,000 military reservists called up; border areas restricted and citizens given right to arm themselves.

https://www.debka.com

The U.S. Government Just Admitted That This Is A War That Will Determine Who Will Rule The New World Order

– February 24, 2022

We now have a war that the vast majority of us never wanted.  All of our lives are going to be turned upside down, the global economy is going to be absolutely eviscerated, and countless numbers of people are going to die.  I am very angry with Vladimir Putin and the Russians for launching a full-blown invasion, because it didn’t need to happen.  And I am also very angry with the Biden administration because it would have been so easy to find a diplomatic solution to this crisis.  Unfortunately, the time for diplomacy is now over and World War III has begun.

On Thursday, State Department spokesman Ned Price made a stunning admission regarding what this war is really all about.

According to Price, Russia and China “also want a world order”, but he warned that if they win their world order “would be profoundly illiberal”…

China has given “tacit approval” for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s latest invasion of Ukraine, in the judgment of U.S. officials, as part of a joint effort to undermine the institutions that American and allied leaders established to minimize conflict in the decades following World War II.

“Russia and the PRC also want a world order,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said Wednesday. “But this is an order that is and would be profoundly illiberal. … It is an order that is, in many ways, destructive rather than additive.”

It would take an entire book to unpack everything that Price said there.

First of all, by stating that Russia and China “also want a world order”, he was tacitly admitting that the United States and other western nations desire to have a “world order” of their own.

And he implied that what we are witnessing is a battle over who will ultimately run the “world order”.

http://endoftheamericandream.com

As H5N1 Bird Flu Spreads To More States, Many Are Wondering What Will Happen If People Start Getting Infected…

ETH – February 23, 2022

(OPINION) I have been watching the H5N1 bird flu for a very long time. Many of my readers don’t even know this, but many years ago I actually had an entire website that was dedicated to tracking the latest news regarding bird flu.

Fortunately, H5N1 hasn’t been a significant threat for ages, but now it is back. It is spreading very rapidly in birds in North America right now, and some experts are concerned that it could mutate into a version that could begin spreading easily in humans. If that happens, it would make the COVID pandemic look like a bad joke in comparison, because the death rate for H5N1 in humans is extremely high.

Over the past several days, we have received some really troubling news about the spread of bird flu inside the United States. For example, bird flu has now been detected in a “non-commercial backyard flock” in Suffolk County, New York. The following comes from the official USDA website…

The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has confirmed the presence of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in a non-commercial backyard flock (non-poultry) in Suffolk County, New York.

Samples from the flock were tested at the Cornell University Animal Health Diagnostic Center, part of the National Animal Health Laboratory Network, and confirmed at the APHIS National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL) in Ames, Iowa.

APHIS is working closely with state animal health officials in New York on a joint incident response. State officials quarantined the affected premises, and birds on the properties will be depopulated to prevent the spread of the disease. Birds from the flock will not enter the food system.

https://endtimeheadlines.org

Freedom of Religion on Trial in Finland

William Kilpatrick – February 25, 2022

Päivi Räsänen is a member of the Finnish Parliament, a former minister of the interior, a public speaker and the mother of five grown children.

She faces a heavy fine and two years in prison for quoting the Bible.  In response to the Evangelical Lutheran Church’s affiliation with the Helsinki LGBT Pride event, she posted the Bible passage from Romans 1: 24-27 which condemns homosexual behavior.

Finnish prosecutors stated that the use of the word “sin” could be harmful, and alleged that Ms. Räsänen’s comments were made to cause intolerance, contempt, and hatred toward homosexuals.

But couldn’t the prosecutor’s remarks cause intolerance, contempt and hatred toward Ms. Räsänen?  If criticizing another person’s beliefs or behavior is a hate crime, then isn’t she the victim of a hate crime?

The court prosecutors worried that the word “sin” could be harmful.  One supposes they mean harmful to one’s self-esteem.  And, indeed, the list of sins in Romans 1: 24-32 is meant to make you feel bad about yourself.  From a Biblical perspective, acknowledgment of sin, followed by repentance, leads on to salvation.  In other words, feeling bad about your behavior is, in some cases, a good thing.  It’s not only homosexual behavior that is condemned in Romans I.  The extended passage condemns all manner of sins including idolatry, deceitfulness, envy, gossip, slander, and disobedience to parents.

From one point of view this is highly offensive and insulting to those disposed to deceitfulness and slander.  From another point of view, it can be looked upon as highly therapeutic—a moment of self-recognition that leads on to change.

Prosecutors should have no difficulty understanding the concept.  After all, they apply painful therapeutics as a matter of course.  They hope that a heavy fine or a dose of prison will force the criminal to recognize his crimes and put himself on the road to rehabilitation.

Increasingly, however, prosecutors are prosecuting “thought crimes” rather than real crimes, and courts are using hurt feelings as a criterion for making decisions.  Take the case of Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff, an Austrian woman who was found guilty of “inciting hatred” by an Austrian Court because of her assertion that the prophet Muhammad was a pedophile.  In 2018, the ruling was upheld by the European Court of Human Rights which held that her right to freedom of expression was outweighed by “the right of others to have their religious feelings protected.” In short, feelings trumped facts, and the alleged pain caused to Muslims by the “slander” of their prophet became the deciding factor.

https://www.frontpagemag.com

The US Southwest is hitting megadrought status

– February 14, 2022

About half of the contiguous US is currently experiencing moderate to extreme drought—including almost all of the West. That shouldn’t come as a surprise, as widely pervasive drought has been present for quite a while now in this region, where major reservoirs like Lake Powell and Lake Mead are hovering around all-time low-water levels. But how does this ongoing drought compare to the past? After all, the region is no stranger to dry stretches.

A 2020 paper examined the 2000-2018 data in the context of a tree ring reconstruction going back to the year 800 and stretching from Southern California to Wyoming. That team found that this was likely the second-driest period in the record, beat out only by a megadrought in the late 1500s.

At the time, the paper’s authors guessed that good precipitation in 2019 would be enough to end the extended drought. But instead, a particularly wicked 2021 kept the drought alive. As a result, three of those researchers—UCLA’s Park Williams and NASA’s Benjamin Cook and Jason Smerdon—decided to update the numbers through 2021.

The most mega

The term “megadrought” isn’t some sensationalist moniker from bad television; it’s a term for the handful of two- to three-decade Southwestern droughts in the past millennium or so—some with history-defining impacts on the civilizations who lived there at the time.

With the analysis updated, 2000-2021 ranks as the driest such 22-year period in the data going back to the year 800. The megadrought years of 1571-1592 slip into second place. (Though the error bars on the two periods overlap.)

Between 2000 and 2021, 18 of those years saw soil moisture below the long-term average. Only two past megadroughts meet that level of consistent dryness. The years 2002 and 2021 rank as the 11th and 12th driest years in the whole record—and it has been three centuries since a drier year occurred. And although some megadroughts were focused in a particular region, the drought of the last two decades has been widespread across the West. That’s what you would expect to see from a drought driven more by global warming than by precipitation patterns.

To estimate the contribution of climate change, the researchers repeated their analysis of climate models run with and without warming temperatures. Their previous work had estimated that 46 percent of the severity of the 2000-2018 drought was due to human-caused warming. For 2000-2021, they get a similar answer of 42 percent despite using a new generation of climate model simulations.

https://arstechnica.com

Texas A.G. Declares: Transgender Treatments on Minors Is Child Abuse under State Law

Michael Foust – February 23, 2022

The prescription of puberty blockers and the performance of sex-change surgery on transgender-identifying children can legally be defined as child abuse under Texas law, the state’s attorney general says in a new opinion.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, released the opinion on February 18 in response to a question from state Rep. Matt Krause about the use of common medical procedures on trans-identifying minors. Krause, a Republican, chairs the House Committee on General Investigating.

Specifically, Krause asked Paxton whether the administration of puberty blockers and the performance of such surgeries as mastectomies, vasectomies and hysterectomies on minors constitutes child abuse under Texas law. Paxton said it can.

Puberty blockers can leave a minor infertile.

“Each of the ‘sex change’ procedures and treatments enumerated above, when performed on children, can legally constitute child abuse under several provisions of chapter 261 of the Texas Family Code,” Paxton wrote. “When considering questions of child abuse, a court would likely consider the fundamental right to procreation, issues of physical and emotional harm associated with these procedures and treatments, consent laws in Texas and throughout the country, and existing child abuse standards.”

Paxton said the procedures can violate Texas law because they:

  • cause “mental or emotional injury to a child that results in an observable and material impairment in the child’s growth, development, or psychological functioning.”
  • “caus[e] or permit[] the child to be in a situation in which the child sustains a mental or emotional injury that results in an observable and material impairment in the child’s growth, development, or psychological functioning.”
  • cause a “physical injury that results in substantial harm to the child.”
  • involve a “‘failure to make a reasonable effort to prevent an action by another person that results in physical injury that results in substantial harm to the child[,]’ particularly by parents, counselors, and physicians.”

“There is no doubt that these procedures are ‘abuse’ under Texas law, and thus must be halted,” Paxton said in a statement. “The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) has a responsibility to act accordingly. I’ll do everything I can to protect against those who take advantage of and harm young Texans.”

https://www.christianheadlines.com

Chinese Scientists Create System to Care For Embryos in Artificial Womb

Tony Tran – February 1, 2022

Parents of the future rejoice! Scientists in China have developed an AI nanny that they say could one day take care of human fetuses in a lab.

Researchers in Suzhou, China, claim to have created a system that can monitor and care for embryos as they grow into fetuses while growing inside an artificial womb, The South China Morning Post reports.

The robotic nanny is already reportedly caring for a number of animal embryos. Experimentation on human embryos, however, is still forbidden under international law, as the newspaper points out.

The team published their findings in the Journal of Biomedical Engineering last month. In the paper, they detail an “online monitoring system” designed for the “long-term culture of embryos.”

The system could theoretically allow parents to grow a baby in a lab, thereby eliminating the need for a human to carry a child. The researchers go as far as to say that this system would be safer than traditional childbearing.

Beyond those claims, though, it remains unclear whether the system could actually bring an embryo, mouse or otherwise, to term.

As it exists right now, the artificial womb is a container that grows a number of mouse embryos in a row of cubes filled with nutritious fluids, according to the paper.

The AI nanny is reportedly able to monitor the embryos, detect changes, and adjust their artificial environment accordingly. It can even alert a technician in case an embryo develops a defect or dies.

The technology is still very much in its nascent stages, but a looming population crisis in China is only serving to accelerate its development.

“I don’t think technology would be a problem,” one anonymous researcher at the Capital Institute of Pediatrics in Beijing, told the SCMP, adding that the tech could risk turning hospitals into factories that churn out babies — and no hospital “would want to bear this responsibility.”

https://futurism.com

Russia to Stage Massive Nuclear Drills Amid Ukraine Standoff

Newsmax – February 18, 2022

The Russian military on Friday announced massive drills of its strategic forces, a stark reminder of the country’s nuclear might amid Western fears that Moscow might be preparing to invade Ukraine.

The Defense Ministry said Russian President Vladimir Putin will personally oversee Saturday’s exercise, which will involve multiple practice launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles and cruise missiles.

The ministry said it planned the maneuvers some time ago to check the readiness of Russia’s military command and personnel, as well as the reliability of its nuclear and conventional weapons.

The war games follow U.S. President Joe Biden’s warning on Thursday that Russia could invade Ukraine within days.

Western fears focus on an estimated 150,000 Russian troops — including about 60% of Russia’s overall ground forces — concentrated near Ukraine’s borders. The Kremlin insists it has no plans to invade.

But Moscow has demanded that the U.S. and its allies keep Ukraine and other ex-Soviet nations out of NATO, not deploy weapons in Ukraine and pull back NATO forces from Eastern Europe.

Washington and its allies bluntly rejected the Russian demands, and Moscow threatened to take unspecified “military-technical measures” if the West continued to stonewall.

Russia holds massive drills of its strategic nuclear forces on an annual basis, but the maneuvers planned for Saturday pointedly involve the Black Sea Fleet. The fleet is based on the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

https://www.newsmax.com

PlatinuPlatinum Jubilee: Queen marks 70 years in power by firming up future of the monarchy for Charles and Camillam Jubilee: Queen Elizabeth marks 70 years as monarch

 

Katie Grant – February 6, 2022

The Queen has marked 70 years on the throne by renewing a promise to “always be devoted” to public service and expressing her “sincere wish” that the Duchess of Cornwall will eventually take the title Queen Consort.

In a message to the nation on Accession Day, the 95-year-old monarch conveyed her hope that when, “in the fullness of time”, her eldest son, Prince Charles, ascends the throne, the public will rally behind him and his wife Camilla.

Commemorating the 70th anniversary of the death of her father, King George VI, and of her ascension to the throne, Elizabeth II reflected on the past and paved the way for the future of the monarchy, pointedly paying tribute to Camilla’s “loyal service”.

Remarking on what the anniversary means to her, the Queen said: “It is a day that, even after 70 years, I still remember as much for the death of my father, King George VI, as for the start of my reign.”

She continued: “As we mark this anniversary, it gives me pleasure to renew to you the pledge I gave in 1947 that my life will always be devoted to your service.”

The monarch, who is the first British sovereign in history to celebrate seven decades on the throne, also spoke of her “sense of hope and optimism” as the country prepares to celebrate her Platinum Jubilee this summer.

“I am reminded of how much we can be thankful for,” she said, pointing to the “extraordinary progress socially, technologically and culturally” that she has witnessed during a record-breaking reign.

She stressed how “fortunate” she felt to have enjoyed the “steadfast and loving support” of her family.

https://inews.co.uk

UK Issues Rare ‘Danger-To-Life’ Red Alert As It Faces Worst Storm In Decades

Melanie Wilcox – February 18, 2022

As storm Eunice picked up speed with winds as high as 122 miles per hour, the United Kingdom’s Met Office expanded its “danger-to-life” weather alert Friday to include the south of England and some areas of Wales, CNN reported.

In the southwestern London area of Surbiton, a CNN reporter saw a rooftop fly off a home and crush a parked car.

Apart from crushing cars and toppling fences, Storm Eunice has also sent planes skidding on airport runways, according to CNN.

More than 200,000 people watched a live stream on YouTube of planes trying to land at London’s Heathrow Airport, battling wind gusts and skidding from side-to-side on the runway, according to CNN.

Presenter Jerry Dyer gave encouraging, entertaining words on the Big Jet’s TV channel, saying to the pilot, “Come on mate, you can do it!”

British Airways said that although “significant disruption” was to be expected, most flights would continue as scheduled. The airline said it would use larger aircraft to combat the weather.

https://dailycaller.com