Category: Watching

BITCOINSKI Russia could become first country to make entire currency DIGITAL as cryptocurrency booms

– February 18, 2021

Discussions are underway about the launch of the digital ruble with local banks and the country’s financial watchdog has reportedly said it would present a more detailed concept by summer.

The head of the Central Bank of Russia, Elvira Nabiullina, said the regulator had received detailed feedback from the banking community about the prospect in a report back in October.

According to an RT report, most lenders expressed their support over a two-level model of the digital ruble.

The model would allow banks to open wallets for their clients on the central bank’s platform and conduct operations with the currency.

Nabiullina said: “We will develop a more detailed concept and start discussing it with the public, market participants, and banks at the beginning of summer.”

The next step would involve launching and testing a special platform.

The adoption of the new form of currency would also require amending legislation.

Russia’s central bank revealed its plan to assess the possibility of creating a digital form of the country’s national currency in its report published in October last year.

The digital ruble would exist along with cash and non-cash rubles, and would allow private and corporate users to freely transfer digital rubles to their electronic wallets.

The revelations come amid a boom in the price of the cryptocurrency bitcoin, which surged to record highs last week.

https://www.the-sun.com

South Carolina to Become Latest State to Pass Heartbeat Bill

-February 11, 2021

South Carolina is on the verge of passing a bill banning abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, making it the latest state to move forward with pro-life legislation.

The state legislature’s House Judiciary Committee approved the “heartbeat” bill by a nearly 2-1 margin Tuesday, teeing up the legislation for a vote on the House floor. The state senate passed the bill by a 30-13 margin with one Republican voting against the bill and one Democrat voting for it. The legislation would effectively ban abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, around the point at which a fetal heartbeat is detected, with an exception for cases of rape, incest, and the health of the mother. Pro-abortion advocates criticized the legislation for its extreme nature and alleged it would force women to give birth.

The legislation comes after President Joe Biden rescinded the Mexico City policy, which prohibited the use of taxpayer money to fund foreign organizations that provide abortion services. Biden has also endorsed using taxpayer money to pay for abortions in the United States through the repeal of the Hyde Amendment. At the state level, however, legislatures are taking action to restrict abortion access. Several deep-red states such as Alabama, Louisiana, and Kentucky have passed similar laws to South Carolina’s over the past three years but have met resistance from courts that have prevented the laws from taking effect.

South Carolina pro-life groups endorsed the bill, which found success thanks to unified Republican control of the governorship and the legislature.

https://freebeacon.com

Court Rules Against Campaigner’s Bid to Hold Scottish Independence Vote Without UK Govt’s Consent

Sputnik News – February 5, 2021

The claim comes ahead of parliamentary elections in May, pending the Scottish National Party remains in power and pushes for a second vote on independence after failing to receive backing from UK prime minister Boris Johnson.

A Scottish Independence campaigner has lost a bid to seek backing from a top civil court in Edinburgh, Reuters reported on Friday.

Scotland’s Court of Session ruled against campaigner Martin Keatings, who sought legal support for his claim the Scottish parliament could hold a fresh vote on independence from the United Kingdom without approval from Downing Street.

The Court of Sessions dismissed the case, stating Keatings argument was hypothetical and premature, and did not express a view concerning the legality of the case, Reuters added.

The news comes amid calls for a second referendum on Scottish independence, namely after Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, Europe and External Affairs, Michael Russell, said a vote could take place in June after Holyrood unilaterally passes further legislation to approve the process.

https://sputniknews.com

In outright defiance of UK PM, Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon’s party promises second independence referendum after pandemic

RT – January 23, 2021

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is standing by her threat to hold a fresh referendum on independence if her party wins the May elections, despite Boris Johnson saying another one should not take place until at least 2055.

Sturgeon likened UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to a “cowering tim’rous beastie” – a line from the poem ‘To a Mouse’, about a scared mouse, by Scotland’s national poet Robert Burns – during an interview with the BBC on Sunday. The Scottish leader also accused Johnson of being “frightened of democracy” by opposing another Scottish referendum until at least 2055 – just over 40 years after the last referendum in 2014, when a 55 percent majority of Scots voted against independence.

“The polls now show that a majority of people in Scotland want independence,” Sturgeon declared, adding, “If the SNP win the Scottish election in a few months’ time on a proposition of giving people that choice, then what democrat could rightly stand in the way of that?”

She added, “Boris Johnson clearly just fears the verdict and the will of the Scottish people.”

Various polls have repeatedly showed that a majority of Scots now support independence, with the most recent placing the number at around 52 percent. It was the 20th poll in a row to show that a majority of Scots support independence.

On Saturday, the SNP revealed in its “roadmap to a referendum” that a draft independence referendum bill “would be enacted if an SNP Scottish Government is re-elected with a majority to do so” in the May 2021 elections. The party claimed that such a referendum would be beyond any “legal challenge” from the UK government, though it stressed that any referendum would only be held after the Covid-19 pandemic.

https://www.rt.com

Missouri becomes first ‘abortion-free state’: report

Ryan Foley – January 13, 2021

A pro-life group is reporting that Missouri has become the first “abortion-free state” in the U.S. after its last remaining abortion facility ceased terminating pregnancies.

Operation Rescue released a report outlining “The Status of American Abortion Facilities in 2020” last week. According to the report, “a total of 45 abortion facilities closed or halted abortions nationwide in 2020, leaving one state without an active abortion facility.”

“Reproductive Health Services Planned Parenthood in St. Louis was the last abortion facility in Missouri. It remains open, but Operation Rescue has confirmed that no abortion appointments have been available there for months, and none are available anytime in the foreseeable future. All abortion appointments are now being referred to the Fairview Heights Planned Parenthood facility across the Mississippi River in Illinois.”

Reproductive Health Services Planned Parenthood confirmed with The Christian Post that it no longer performs abortions and refers all patients seeking abortions to its new 18,000-square-foot Fairview Heights facility, which is located 16 miles away.

Planned Parenthood’s new Fairview Heights clinic performs both surgical abortions and medication-induced abortions for women in Southern Illinois and surrounding areas.

According to the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, Missouri has an abortion ban that would immediately go into effect should the Roe v. Wade U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide be overturned. In 2019, the state passed a heartbeat bill, which would ban abortion at the point a fetal heartbeat can be detected, usually around six weeks gestation. Like many similar measures passed in other states, the law was quickly subject to a court challenge.

The pro-life group Americans United for Life ranked Missouri as the eighth-most pro-life state  on its “Life List 2021,” which was compiled based on a “comprehensive analysis of each state’s law and policy protections for human life from conception to natural death.” Nearby Arkansas was ranked the most pro-life state in the U.S., followed by Louisiana, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Indiana, Kansas and Arizona.

https://www.christianpost.com

What Is “The Great Reset”?

Michael Snyder – November 22, 2020

The Internet sure has been buzzing about “the Great Reset” lately.  That term has been trending on Facebook and Twitter, and the New York Times even published an article dismissing it as a “conspiracy theory”.  But it is definitely no conspiracy theory.

I was determined to get to the bottom of this whole thing, and I am going to share the facts that the New York Times either could not find or refused to share.  It turns out that “the Great Reset” is actually an initiative that was started by the World Economic Forum that is designed to get “global stakeholders to cooperate in simultaneously managing the direct consequences of the COVID-19 crisis”.  The following comes directly from the official website of the World Economic Forum…

There is an urgent need for global stakeholders to cooperate in simultaneously managing the direct consequences of the COVID-19 crisis. To improve the state of the world, the World Economic Forum is starting The Great Reset initiative.

So the New York Times put out fake news when they told all of us that “the Great Reset” is just a “conspiracy theory”, and they owe all of us a major apology.

According to the World Economic Forum, “the Great Reset” is a “unique window of opportunity” for global leaders to shape “the future state of global relations, the direction of national economies, the priorities of societies, the nature of business models and the management of a global commons”…

As we enter a unique window of opportunity to shape the recovery, this initiative will offer insights to help inform all those determining the future state of global relations, the direction of national economies, the priorities of societies, the nature of business models and the management of a global commons. Drawing from the vision and vast expertise of the leaders engaged across the Forum’s communities, the Great Reset initiative has a set of dimensions to build a new social contract that honours the dignity of every human being.

In other words, “the Great Reset” is essentially just an updated blueprint for a New World Order.

https://www.shtfplan.com

New Year brings final Brexit split between EU and UK

DW – January 1, 2021

Britain saw a major reset to its relations with the European Union on January 1, the first day after the end of the 11-month transition phase which served to smooth its exit from the bloc.

The UK officially left the bloc on January 31, 2020, but it effectively remained tied to it in terms of customs and commercial arrangements while it sought a free-trade agreement.

At the stroke of midnight in Brussels and 11 p.m. in London on Thursday, the UK quit the EU’s Customs Union and Single Market. The New Year also ended freedom of movement between the UK and nearly all of the EU states, except for Ireland.

However, special rules are now in place for Gibraltar, a British Overseas Territory on the southern Spanish coast. Talks between the governments in London, Madrid, and Gibraltar on Thursday came down to the last hours to scramble a deal that sees Gibraltar enter the Schengen zone.

The first post-Brexit truck carried goods across the border on Friday. The driver pulled in at the new pit stop at the exit of the Channel Tunnel with a new array of documents which will now become standard practice for those passing between the UK and the EU as a result of Brexit.

DW correspondent Barbara Wesel, reporting from Calais, in northern France, said that there was very little traffic on the morning of January 1, but she explained that this was because the bigger companies had had time to prepare and accustom themselves to the new rules.

However, “it is going to hit a lot of the smaller transport companies that carry mixed loads … For them, life is going to be much more difficult.”

She added that the delays might be more noticeable on Monday, after the long weekend and the New Year’s day holiday. “Then we might see those traffic jams that everybody has been warning about,” Wesel said.

https://www.dw.com

Brexit deal is finally DONE as Boris Johnson hails ‘immense moment where we have taken back control of our destiny’

– December 25, 2020

BORIS Johnson hailed “glad tidings of great joy” in a Christmas message last night after sealing his £660billion Brexit trade deal.

The PM gave the nation an early Christmas present yesterday as he secured a historic agreement which finally sees the UK take back control from the EU and ends four years of bitter wrangling.

Mr Johnson last night punched the air as he proudly showed off the 500-page trade deal.

Speaking in a video on Twitter, the PM said: “Tonight, on Christmas Eve, I have a small present for anyone who may be looking for something to read in that sleepy post-Christmas lunch moment.

“And here it is, tidings, glad tidings of great joy because this is a deal.

“A deal to give certainty to business, travelers, and all investors in our country from January 1.

“A deal with our friends and partners in the EU.

“You remember the oven ready deal by which we came out on January 31, that oven ready deal was just the start – this is the feast, full of fish, by the way.

“And I believe it will be the basis of a happy and successful and stable partnership with our friends in the EU for years to come.

https://www.thesun.co.uk

Brexit: Some progress, more gaps as UK, EU race to lock down trade deal

DW – December 18, 2020

Leaders from Britain and the European Commission did not take an overly optimistic tone following talks late Thursday over a trade deal that would keep the UK from crashing out of a transition period with the EU without a deal in place.

President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said “substantial progress” had been made on several issues, but fishing rights remained a point of contention. At the same time, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned that a no-deal outcome was becoming “very likely.”

“We welcomed substantial progress on many issues. Yet big differences remain to be bridged, in particular on fisheries. Bridging them will be very challenging,” von der Leyen said following Thursday’s talks, adding that negotiations will continue on Friday.

With just days to go before the end-of-year deadline, Downing Street opted for a more pessimistic tone.

“The prime minister repeated that little time was left,” a spokesman for the British PM said. “He said that, if no agreement could be reached, the UK and the EU would part as friends, with the UK trading with the EU on Australian-style terms.”

Australia doesn’t have a free trade deal with the bloc.

https://www.dw.com

Boris Johnson Says ‘Strong Possibility’ of UK, EU Failing to Agree on Trade Deal

Sputnik – December 11, 2020

MOSCOW, (Sputnik) – UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said on Thursday that there is a “strong possibility” that his country and the European Union will fail to conclude a free trade agreement before the end of the Brexit transition period on December 31.

During an interview at Downing Street that was screened by UK broadcasters, the prime minister said there was a “strong possibility” that both sides would fail to resolve their differences, and urged citizens and businesses to step up preparations for a no-deal Brexit.

The prime minister said that the EU’s proposals were “not, at the moment, right for the UK,” citing concerns over the bloc’s desire to establish a set of rules and procedures to prevent businesses in one country from undercutting their rivals in another country, also known as the level playing field.

Johnson also cited the ongoing disagreements over fisheries as another major issue preventing a deal being reached.

https://sputniknews.com