Approximately 1,000 evacuated as Canadian fires engulf town

AFP Staff Writers- July 1, 2021

About 1,000 people were evacuated in western Canada, authorities said Thursday, as fires raged amid an unprecedented heat wave, charring most of at least one town.

The province of British Columbia has recorded 62 new fires in the past 24 hours, premier John Horgan told a press conference.

“I cannot stress enough how extreme the fire risk is at this time in almost every part of British Columbia,” Horgan said.

The town of Lytton, 250 kilometers (155 miles) northeast of Vancouver, “has sustained structural damage and 90 percent of the village is burned, including the centre of town,” local MP Brad Vis said.

The village’s 250 residents were evacuated on Wednesday evening, one day after it set a jaw-dropping Canadian record high temperature of 49.6 degrees Celsius (121 degrees Fahrenheit).

The evacuation order was extended Wednesday night to residents of about 100 properties north of Lytton.

“The last 24 hours have been devastating for Lytton residents,” Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan wrote on Twitter, adding that the Canadian armed forces “are ready to support residents as we move forward in the next steps.”

Provincial authorities have not yet announced any injuries or death related to the fires, a number of which were also clustered north of the city of Kamloops, located some 150 kilometers northeast of Lytton.

Early Thursday evening, British Columbia fire authorities said the unprecedented hot and dry conditions had led them to expect another difficult day ahead.

https://www.terradaily.com

Flesh eating parasites skyrocket in the US

Strange Sounds – July 1, 2021

Experts have warned that the current Earth changes and land-use changes could be creating a conducive environment for flesh-eating leishmania parasites to infect more people in the US.

Numerous studies by climate researchers across the world have already highlighted the increasing risk of insect and pest-borne tropical diseases spreading to temperate and colder parts of the world like Europe and parts of the US with rising global temperatures.

Surge of flesh-eating parasites

As the climate crisis continues, scientists say tropical parasites, such as the one that causes leishmaniasis, may gain more favourable habitats, expanding access to immunologically naive hosts, and may even develop longer and more intense transmission seasons.

The leishmania parasites are transmitted to humans through the bite of sand flies, which themselves are infected by mammals like rodents when the insects feed on their blood.

The parasitic disease leishmaniasis, characterised by crater-like ulcers with a thick, yellowish pus coat, was well-known to be a tropical infection, affecting people in countries such as Brazil, Mexico and India, but now experts say it is endemic to US states like Texas and Oklahoma, with the potential to extend to Canada in the future.

While the predominantly infectious species of the parasite in the US, Leishmania mexicana, causes milder symptoms that can heal on its own, scientists say there are also strains that can be life threatening.

https://strangesounds.org

Church of England bishop calls for ‘gender neutral marriage canon’ to ‘bless’ same-sex unions

Christian Today – July 2, 2021

The Bishop of Liverpool, Paul Bayes, has ramped up pressure on the Church of England to allow clergy to bless same-sex relationships by making the controversial call for a “gender neutral marriage canon.”

The call comes in advance of elections to the governing body, the General Synod, where evangelicals are seeking to increase numbers in a bid to protect the doctrine of the Church.

Speaking to a national conference on Saturday for revisionist activists in the CofE, Bishop Bayes said: “I want to see a gender-neutral marriage canon, such as they have in the Episcopal Church (in the U.S.) or in the Scottish Episcopal Church.

“And as a necessary but not sufficient first step I want to see conscientious freedom for the Church’s ministers and local leaders to honor, recognize and, yes indeed, to bless same-sex unions whether civil partnerships or civil marriages.”

Bishop Bayes was addressing the Movement of Supporting Anglicans for an Inclusive Church (MoSAIC), which launched in February.

The group announced: “The movement aims to have a presence in each diocese of the Church of England, where it will work with local clergy and laity on projects that promote inclusion for all those who are currently marginalized by the Church of England — whether that be due to race, ability, sexuality, gender or gender identity.”

https://www.christianpost.com

Will there be another EU ‘exit’ – over homosexuality?

Patrick J. Buchanan – July 1, 2021

Respect LGBT rights or get out of the EU, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte instructed Hungary’s Viktor Orban at last week’s gathering of the European Union in Brussels.

According to Reuters, attendees described it as the “most intense personal clash among the bloc’s leaders in years.”

What caused the clash?

Hungary just passed a law that bans schools from using materials seen as pro-homosexuality. According to the AP, the new law “prohibits sharing content on homosexuality or sex reassignment to people under 18 in school sex education programs, films or advertisements.”

Rutte eagerly related details of his confrontation with Orban: “It was really forceful, a deep feeling that this could not be. It was about our values; this is what we stand for.”

“I said, ‘Stop this; you must withdraw the law, and if you don’t like that and really say that the European values are not your values, then you must think about whether to remain in the European Union.'”

Orban calls himself a freedom fighter and defender of traditional Catholic values who believes in democracy but not liberalism: “The Hungarian nation is not a mere pile of individuals.”

https://www.wnd.com

Dems Push Taxpayer-Funded Abortions Overseas

– June 30, 2021

House Democrats are fighting for taxpayer-funded abortions through international aid in a bid to overturn a decades-long bipartisan agreement.

A spending bill advanced by the State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs subcommittee Monday would repeal the Helms Amendment, which bans direct funding of abortions through foreign aid. The bill would also repeal the Mexico City policy, known by critics as the global gag rule, which prevents the United States from funding international organizations that are involved with abortion services. The policy has been implemented and repealed by presidents of opposing parties since its inception under President Ronald Reagan in 1985.

The United Nations Population Fund, which the Trump administration stopped funding in 2017 due to the group’s relationship with the Chinese Communist Party’s family planning program, would receive a 50 percent increase in funding under the bill.

Supporters of the Helms Amendment and the Mexico City policy expressed concern with the U.S. government using taxpayer dollars to fund abortions globally.

“Repealing the Helms Amendment and funding United Nations Population Fund would endanger unborn lives worldwide and represent cultural imperialism of the worst kind, attempting to impose leftist values on countries whose people overwhelmingly reject them,” Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project, told the Washington Free Beacon. “This extremism is also widely opposed by Americans, and Democrats will be forced to answer for it next time voters head to the polls.”

Pro-choice groups have long opposed the Helms Amendment and Mexico City policy, which they claim prevent funds from aiding vulnerable women across the globe in need of safe abortions.

https://freebeacon.com

Taiwan’s foreign minister says ‘we need to prepare’ for military conflict with China

Eric Cheung and Will Ripley – June 24, 2021

Taipei, Taiwan (CNN)China’s escalating military intimidation of Taiwan shows the self-governed island “needs to prepare” for a possible military conflict, Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said in an exclusive interview with CNN.

His warning came one week after the island reported the largest daily incursion by Chinese military planes into Taiwan’s self-declared Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ).

The incursion — by 28 Chinese warplanes including fighter jets and bombers — did not violate Taiwanese sovereign airspace or international law, but it was seen as show of strength by China’s People’s Liberation Army.

“As Taiwan decision makers, we cannot take any chances, we have to be prepared,” Wu told CNN in Taipei on Wednesday. “When the Chinese government is saying they would not renounce the use of force, and they conduct military exercises around Taiwan, we would rather believe that it is real.”

Wu, who has served as minister of foreign affairs since 2018, was accused by Beijing in May of being a “diehard separatist” after remarks he made during a news conference that Taiwan would fight “to the very last day” if attacked by China.

“Stopping ‘Taiwan independence’ is the necessary condition for maintaining peaceful cross-strait relations,” said Zhu Fenglian, a spokeswoman for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office. “Joseph Wu has repeatedly and arrogantly provoked ‘Taiwan independence’ … we will take all necessary measures to severely punish such ‘Taiwan independence’ diehards for life in accordance with the law.”

In response, Wu told CNN he is “honored” to be targeted by Communist authorities in Beijing. “Authoritarianism cannot tolerate truth. If they continue to say that they want to pursue me for the rest of my life, I’m not really concerned about that,” he said.

https://www.cnn.com

Israel Begins Testing Of New World Order Centralized Digital Currency

Mac Slavo – June 22, 2021

We are down to the wire. The digital dollar is here and is now being tested in a pilot program in Israel.  If we, as a society, are not yet aware enough to reject this obvious enslavement, we are all in big trouble.

Andrew Abir, the Deputy Governor of the Bank of Israel, has started to issue digital shekels as the first step of an internal pilot program. The idea of the digital shekel has been kicked around since 2017 but, Israel decided to put the development of its central bank digital currency (CBDC) into high gear. As reported by The Jerusalem Post and published in a report by Yahoo News, the pilot test was announced by Abir at a conference of the Fair Value Forum of IDC Herzliya.

We all know by now that a fully controlled and centralized digital dollar is one of the keys to the total enslavement of mankind.  If we want any chance at all in the future or even care about humanity, people will need to reject this as what it is: your slave marker. The central banks will essentially own you.

The digital dollar/shekel/euro etc. will be controlled by the central banks and turned off as the rulers see fit.  They will ensure that you are taxed immediately and will stop transactions on a whim.  You will be allowed to only do what you are told and obey. If you choose to dissent, you will be cut off from any of the funds that you earned. We had better start to unite and stand up for each other against this or they will continue to divide and conquer:

During his speech, Abir stated that the Bank of Israel had already run a digital currency pilot, much to the surprise of everyone in attendance. The report suggests that this was an unintentional reveal by the bank’s Deputy Governor when discussing the need for a digital shekel and its possible effects on the financial sector. –Yahoo News

This isn’t new. This is a part of the Great Reset into a totalitarian slave dystopia.

https://www.shtfplan.com

Drought Indicators in Western U.S. Flash Warnings of the ‘Big One’

Brian K Sullivan and Elizabeth Elkin – June 24, 2021

(Bloomberg) — Sarah Brunner opened the irrigation spigots on her farm in March, three months early. The rain should have still been falling in California. Now that summer is taking hold, she and her husband are considering shifting their meager water supplies into pastures so their animals will have enough to eat.

Brunner’s worries don’t stop at the barnyard. The family’s fields of shallots, garlic and goats are surrounded by thick Northern California forests, dried out and primed to burn. An early season wildfire near her home recently prompted Brunner to document her possessions and reevaluate her fire insurance. “I don’t feel safe anymore. It’s going to hit us hard,” she says. “There’s no doubt about it, we’re going to be inundated with fires. It’s just a matter of time.”

Drought in a habitat shared with bears, cougars and coyotes, all searching for a drink, has a way of compounding the danger. “The animals are going to get more desperate,” Brunner says.

Unstoppable drought is rolling over California and the Western U.S. once again, as it has with little interruption since the new century began. Nearly 98% of land across 11 Western states is abnormally dry, and more than 90% is covered by some category of drought—the worst levels in the U.S. Drought Monitor’s 21-year history. Reservoirs have drained to their bottoms, leaving bath-tub rings on their shorelines. Rivers reduced to trickles are setting off conflicts for dwindling water rights. Millions of acres of trees and shrubs have turned from shade to fuel for the out-of-control blazes everyone predicts will come.

“As far as drought goes, this is the big one, especially if we are talking about the broader drought across the whole Southwest,” says Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California Los Angeles. “By a lot of metrics, it is the most severe drought on record.”

https://finance.yahoo.com

Apocalyptic mice plague ravages Australia: First came the drought. Then, the floods. Now, the mouse…

Strange Sounds

First came the drought. Then, the floods. Now, the mice. Farmers in Australia are burning their own crops. They’re desperate to escape an epic plague infesting their hay. The mice are invading homes. They’re destroying crops. They even force the evacuation of prisons. They’re chewing through appliances, sofas, cars — and livelihoods.

Colin Tink, 63, has been farming all his life and has never experienced a mouse plague like the one ravaging Australia’s eastern grain belt. Nor a drought like the one that preceded it, which turned fertile crop areas into dust bowls.

When the rains finally came last year, Tink thought his fortunes were changing.

The rain led to bumper crops through the spring and summer months (September to March in the Southern Hemisphere). Silos are overflowing with grain. And barns are piled high with hay. Tink grew enough hay to feed his cattle for two years.

Then the mice arrived. Millions of them. There are so many that even a prison had to be evacuated!

The vermin burrow deep into his hay. What they don’t eat is ruined anyway as their urine trickles down through the bales. The smell is acrid. It sticks in your nose and lingers on your clothes.

It breaks your heart a bit,” Tink said. “We’re back to square one.

https://strangesounds.org

DOJ cancels plan to ‘vigorously’ defend religious rights

Mary Margaret Olohan – June 10, 2021

Following backlash, the Justice Department has edited a court filing to remove a comment indicating that it will “vigorously” defend religious rights.

In the Tuesday court filing, the Justice Department said that it will defend the religious exemption of Christian schools, a religious exemption included in Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, as it applies to “‘sexual and gender minority students’ attending private religious colleges and universities that receive federal funding,” according to the filing.

The filing formerly mentioned that the Justice Department would “vigorously” defend religious rights — a comment that was taken out Wednesday following backlash against the Biden administration, the Washington Post reported.

The Biden administration’s filing opposed a motion from several Christian schools to join the court case in order to protect their religious exemptions. The federal lawsuit involves a group of students who sued the government for giving funding to religious schools that the students say discriminate against LGBTQ persons.

The Justice Department instead inserted the word “adequate” multiple times and removed four instances of the phrase “ultimate objective,” including part of a sentence saying that the Department of Education and Christian schools “share the same ‘ultimate objective’ … namely, to uphold the Religious Exemption as it is currently applied.”

“We welcome the Biden administration’s commitment to the Title IX religious exemption, but we do believe that the Christian colleges and universities whose rights are at stake should have a representative at the table, and in the courtroom, for these important conversations,” Council for Christian Colleges & Universities president Shirley Hoogstra said in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

CCCU filed a motion to be an official participant in the case “so it can defend Title IX’s religious protections” in May.

Critics claimed that the move contradicts the Biden administration’s public statements on discrimination against LGBTQ persons. The Biden administration said in a March memo from the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division that “[a]ll persons should receive equal treatment under the law, no matter their gender identity or sexual orientation,” according to CNN.

https://www.wnd.com