The Faithful Watchman

Shallow M6.1 earthquake hits Seram Island, Indonesia – tsunami warning issued

Teo Blašković – June 16, 2021

A shallow earthquake registered by the Indonesian BMKG as M6.1 hit Seram Island, Moluccas, Indonesia at 04:43 UTC (11.43 LT) on June 16, 2021. The agency is reporting a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles). EMSC and USGS are reporting M5.8 at a depth of 10.6 km (6.6 miles).

The epicenter was located 70.6 km (43.9 miles) ESE of Amahai (population 47 653) and 147 km (91.3 miles) E of Ambon (population 355 596), Maluku, Indonesia.

There are 300 000 people living within 100 km (62 miles).

9 000 people are estimated to have felt moderate shaking and 278 000 light, according to the USGS.

The Indonesian Agency for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics (BMKG) warned of possible aftershocks and tsunami potential, especially to Seram Island. “Please move away from beaches and move to higher ground,” BMKG said.

While the agency initially said there was no tsunami potential, it later said a tsunami wave could potentially be triggered by landslides.

“The results of tsunami modeling with a tectonic earthquake source showed that this earthquake has no tsunami potential, but based on observations of sea level… it showed the sea level rose as high as 0.5 m (1.6 feet),” BMKG said.

Residents along the coast of Tehoru panicked and ran up nearby hills when the sea started rising, but many have since returned home.

Local officials said some buildings sustained damage like cracked walls and windows, but there were no reports of injuries or casualties.

https://watchers.news

New, ‘GREEN fungus’ case reported in India, adding to 3 other color types of infection developing in Covid patients

RT – June 16, 2021

As thousands suffer from black, white and yellow fungus in India, doctors are now worried that another infection, dubbed “green,” has been added to the list of post-Covid complications for patients.

A 34-year-old man in Madhya Pradesh, a large state in central India, is believed to possibly be the first patient diagnosed with the new type of fungus, local media reports. Scientifically known as Aspergillosis infection and said to be relatively uncommon, it affects the lungs.

The man had been treated for Covid-19 for two months – one of which he spent in an intensive care unit – before he was released from a hospital. However, back at home he started experiencing nose bleeds, fever and weight loss. Doctors first thought he had contracted black fungus, or mucormycosis, but tests apparently showed the green type of infection, Indian news media company NDTV reported citing his doctor, Ravi Dosi. The patient was airlifted to Mumbai for further treatment, as 90% of his lungs have been affected, according to The Times of India daily.

“This possibly is the first green fungus case in the country,” a local health department official, Apoorva Tiwari said, as quoted by India’s ANI News agency.

Dosi, who is the head of Chest Diseases Department at Sri Aurobindo Institute of Medical Sciences (SAIMS) in Indore, warned that more research is needed on the new fungus. He also explained that “it is not that the fungal infection gives color shades in the body.” The name comes from shades that appear during laboratory tests with various types of fungal infection, he said.

Fungus cases have emerged in India as the densely populated Asian country has been battling the coronavirus pandemic. At least three ‘color’ types have been detected in Covid patients, with the deadly black one hitting the worst, and several states having declared it to be an epidemic.

https://www.rt.com

IRS Denies Tax-Exempt Status to Christian Non-Profit Saying ‘Bible Teachings’ Are Affiliated with Republican Beliefs

CBN News – June, 16, 2021

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) denied tax-exempt status to a Texas Christian non-profit last month, arguing it was not eligible for 501(c)(3) status in part because “Bible teachings are typically affiliated with the Republican party and candidates.”

Christians Engaged, an organization dedicated to educate and empower Christians to pray for the nation and elected officials, vote, and be civically engaged, was denied the tax exemption in a letter from IRS Exempt Organizations Director Stephen A. Martin.

First Liberty Institute, a religious rights law firm, is representing Christians Engaged and has appealed the IRS’s decision.

Christians Engaged incorporated in July 2019 as a Texas nonprofit corporation “formed exclusively for charitable, religious, educational, or scientific purposes.” From its religious perspective, the organization provides nonpartisan religious and civic education, focusing on encouraging and educating Christians to be engaged citizens as a part of their religious practice. Christians Engaged applied for tax-exempt status in late 2019.

On its website, the organization states it is educational, Christian, and non-partisan.

“Specifically, you educate Christians on what the Bible says in areas where they can be instrumental including the areas of the sanctity of life, the definition of marriage, biblical justice, freedom of speech, defense, and borders and immigration, U.S. and Israel relations,” Martin wrote. “The Bible teachings are typically affiliated with the Republican party and candidates. This disqualifies you from exemption under IRC Section 501(c)(3).”

In its administrative appeal letter to the IRS, First Liberty wrote, “By finding that Christians Engaged does not meet the operational test, Director Martin errs in three ways: 1) he invents a nonexistent requirement that exempt organizations be neutral on public policy issues; 2) he incorrectly concludes that Christians Engaged primarily serves private, nonexempt purposes rather than public, exempt purposes because he thinks its beliefs overlap with the Republican Party’s policy positions; and 3) he violates the First Amendment’s Free Speech, and Free Exercise, and Establishment clauses by engaging in both viewpoint discrimination and religious discrimination.”

Lea Patterson, counsel for First Liberty Institute, said the IRS has violated its own regulations.

https://www1.cbn.com

G7 Summit Group Wants to Expand Killing Babies in Abortions Worldwide

Marie Smith – Jun 11, 2021

The Group of Seven (G7) Summit is taking place in the UK from June 11-13 under the presidency of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson with an aim to “build back better from coronavirus, uniting to make the future fairer, greener and more prosperous.” Last year’s G7 Summit under the presidency of President Donald Trump was postponed indefinitely due to the pandemic.

One of six official G7 engagement groups is Women 7 (W7) which is described as bringing together “women’s rights advocacy groups from the G7 countries and around the world committed to women and girls’ rights.” Its objective is “to ensure that G7 leaders adopt concrete commitments that lead to a tangible, lasting and transformative impact on women and girls’ lives in 2021 and beyond”. The “transformative impact on women and girls’ lives” the pro-abortion activists of the W7 seek will be deadly for unborn children during a global crisis that has already ended nearly 3.8 million lives.

The W7 resorted to the use of bullying in its call for the G7 members — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States— to threaten countries with “isolation from the G7” if any dares to enact pro-life foreign policies like President Trump’s Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance Policy, previously known as the Mexico City Policy, which prevented U.S. taxpayer dollars from going to international NGOs that perform or promote abortion on demand.

The W7 communique—Making gender equality a reality, Recommendations to the G7— calls on the G7 to “Agree that future reinstatement of restrictive policies, like the Mexico City Policy, will result in consequences, such as isolation from the G7.”

It wants the G7 to establish a trust fund for abortion access in order to ensure “sustained financial support in the face of any future restrictive policies”—meaning to counter the actions of any future G7 leader who values the lives of unborn children and refuses to enable their demise. Additional funding is also sought for pro-abortion organizations as is the integration of abortion in other programs such as domestic violence hotlines.

https://www.lifenews.com

Scientists Surgically Attach Uterus to Male Rats to Make Them Give Birth

Wesley Smith – Jun 11, 2021

Years ago, the late Joseph Fletcher — an anything-goes utilitarian, sometimes called the “patriarch of bioethics” — yearned for a time when men would give birth. He wrote in his 1988 book, The Ethics of Genetic Control:

Transplant or replacement medicine foresees the day, after the automatic rejection of alien tissue is overcome, when a uterus can be implanted in a human male’s body—his abdomen has spaces—and gestation started by artificial fertilization and egg transfer. Hypogonadism could be used to stimulate milk from the man’s rudimentary breasts—men too have mammary glands. If surgery could not construct a cervical canal the delivery could be effected by a Caesarean section and the male or transsexualized mother could nurse his own baby

What seemed crackers then is promoted now as a matter of human rights as part of the transgender movement and other advocacy agendas for creating new family structures. Indeed, an article a bit ago in the Journal of Medical Ethics opined:

From a justice perspective, there is a moral imperative to ensure equitable access to UTx [uterine transplant]. In this case, arguments against providing UTx to genetically XY [transgender] women for reasons unrelated to safety and efficacy should be assessed carefully to address potential discrimination against genetically XY women as a social group.

Scientists just took a big step toward making that once unthinkable prospect — biological males giving birth — a reality. Rats were subjected to an experiment in which a male was surgically attached to a female so there was shared blood, and then a uterus was transplanted into the male. IVF embryos were implanted in the transplanted uterus, and some of the pups were gestated to a successful Caesarean birth. From “A Rat Model for Male Pregnancy:”

For the first time, a mammalian animal model of male pregnancy was constructed by us. Our research reveals the possibility of normal embryonic development in male mammalian animals, and it may have a profound impact on the research of reproductive biology.

https://www.lifenews.com

Anticipating War With China, The U.S. Air Force Is Fanning Out Across The Pacific

David Axe – June 7, 2021

For years, the U.S. Air Force concentrated its warplanes at just two bases in the western Pacific: for fighters, Kadena Air Force Base in Japan’s Okinawa prefecture; and for bombers and big support planes, Guam’s Andersen Air Force Base.

Beijing eyed these mega-bases and devised a simple strategy for suppressing U.S. air power in the region. Build a couple thousand non-nuclear ballistic missiles and, in wartime, lob them at the bases until their runways, aprons, hangars, fuel tanks and warehouses are nothing but craters.

After years of build-up, the Chinese rocket force possesses around 1,300 ground-launched missiles with sufficient range to hit Kadena and Andersen from mainland China.

The USAF is keenly aware of the threat. It has its own plan for dodging the missile barrages. The idea is to spread out hundreds of warplanes across potentially dozens of smaller bases—thus diluting the striking power of China’s rocket force.

The Air Force won’t say exactly which bases are part of its plan, but it’s possible to make educated guesses. American territories and small island countries offer the most dependable facilities. Arguably the most important bases—in the Philippines—are accessible only at the whim of that country’s mercurial president.

The emerging map of the USAF’s expanding base network also reveals where the service has potential airfield gaps, most glaringly in the Philippine Sea east of Taiwan. In that gap, the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet might lend its sister service a helping hand—and deploy some of its 10 aircraft carriers and big-deck assault ships.

The Air Force maintains a master list of what Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, the head of Pacific Air Forces, described as “every single piece of concrete” in the Pacific region.

https://www.forbes.com

EU Launches “Digital Wallet” In Latest Step Toward ‘Cashless Society’

Tyler Durden – June 02, 2021

Despite the concerns about digital privacy being invaded by the “vaccine passports” that Europe has demanded of travelers, the EU is pressing ahead with plans to launch a “digital wallet” that would carry digital copies of a drivers’ license and credit cards (sort of like Apple Pay does) as Europe continues its transition away from cash.

According to the FT, the EU is preparing to unveil its plans for the bloc-wide “digital wallet” on Wednesday. The product is the result of what Brussels described as several states’ demands for the EU to create a digital tool to access important records and other products and services via the smartphone.

A digital wallet could store payment details and passwords, and allow citizens from all 27 countries to log into local government websites or pay utility bills or perhaps even merchants using a single recognized identity.

Like with other smartphone apps, the digital wallets will be accessed via fingerprint and/or retina scanning. It can also serve as a vault where users can store official documents such as a driver’s license. Using the wallet will not be compulsory, but EU citizens who chose to sign up would benefit from an extra-secure digital ecosystem and greater flexibility ideal for post-pandemic life.

“The new digital ID will give every European the keys to their digital twin,” Thierry Breton, and EU commissioner in charge of digital policy, said in a speech earlier this year.

EU officials plan to make it illegal for companies to use any data gleaned from these ‘digital passports’ for marketing or any other commercial purpose, the FT said. Brussels is engaged in discussions with member states to provide guidelines on technical standards for the rollout of the digital wallet, which is expected to be fully operational in about a year.

https://www.zerohedge.com

The Shaking In California Is Getting WORSE As Hundreds And Hundreds Of Earthquakes Cause Alarm On The West Coast

Michael Snyder – June 6, 2021

Are we getting close to a major seismic event on the west coast? Within the past several days, we have seen hundreds of earthquakes happen in southern California, there have been large earthquakes offshore near the Cascadia Subduction Zone, and there has been a very alarming swarm of earthquakes at Mt. Hood. We haven’t seen this much seismic activity along the west coast in quite a long time, and many are concerned that this could be leading up to something really big.

At this moment, scientists are carefully monitoring the area around the Salton Sea. According to the USGS, in one 24 hour period over the weekend more than 600 earthquakes of at least magnitude 1.0 shook that area of southern California…

More than 600 small earthquakes have been recorded this weekend in a rural area near the Salton Sea in Southern California, with the largest having a magnitude of 5.3, a US Geological Survey geophysicist told CNN.

Geophysicist Randy Baldwin said 603 temblors with a magnitude of at least 1 happened in the area from Saturday to just before sunrise Sunday.

The magnitude 5.3 quake was felt throughout the region.

In fact, it is being reported that it was even felt at an apartment building that was 95 miles away from the epicenter of the earthquake…

People in Chula Vista, San Diego, El Centro and Indio felt the 5.3 quake, according to the USGS, Did You Feel It reports. The tool collects information from people who report they’ve felt an earthquake and creates an interactive map.

Saturday morning’s shaking could be felt in an apartment building near Del Mar, California, approximately 95 miles away from the location of the earthquake.

When I wrote about the alarming rise of earthquake activity on the west coast a week ago, just over 1,000 earthquakes had occurred in California and Nevada over the previous seven days.

Now that number is up to 1,757, and it seems to be going up with each passing hour.

http://endoftheamericandream.com

Girl has Bible confiscated by school officials

Bob Unruh – June 5, 2021

It’s been some 30 years or more since the U.S. Supreme Court established some of the most significant precedents for students in schools, including one that the First Amendment does indeed apply to students in schools.

But still sometimes educators don’t understand, as happened with a recent case in Illinois where officials confiscated a Bible from a second-grader simply because she was reading it during recess, and would talk about it with friends.

The documentation of the situation comes in a report from Francis J. Manion at the American Center for Law and Justice, whose founder, Jay Sekulow, argued some of those precedent-establishing cases at the Supreme Court.

“A little girl had her Bible confiscated by school officials. How could this still be happening in America?” the report wondered, then explaining it’s because “local school officials still don’t seem to have gotten the message.”

“We recently heard from the parents of Gabrielle, a second grader in Illinois. It seems Gabrielle likes to bring her Bible to school and read it during recess. Sometimes she reads it aloud, and sometimes other kids listen in and talk with her about what she’s reading,” the report said. “Constitutional crisis? It shouldn’t be; but little Gabrielle had her Bible taken away by a teacher and was told, ‘You just can’t be doing that.'”

The school then told the little girl’s parents she was not allowed to read the Bible during recess.

They objected, and the school changed its course slightly, determining she “could read it during outside recess but not during inside recess,” the report said.

That was after the school confirmed there were no complaints about the bible reading.

“It was a simple case of public school officials’ hypersensitivity to the specter of a threat from the ACLU or some similar spreader of long-debunked propaganda about ‘separation of Church and State,'” the organization reported.

https://www.wnd.com

CDC warns about spike in RSV cases across South

Maggie Fox – June 10, 2021

(CNN)A common cold virus called respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is spreading across the South, causing an unusual wave of late spring disease, the US Centers for Disease Control and prevention said Thursday.

The CDC issued a Health Advisory Network warning to doctors and other health care providers to be on alert for the virus, which can cause pneumonia, especially in very small children and babies.

“Due to this increased activity, CDC encourages broader testing for RSV among patients presenting with acute respiratory illness who test negative for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19,” the CDC said in the alert.

“RSV can be associated with severe disease in young children and older adults. This health advisory also serves as a reminder to healthcare personnel, childcare providers, and staff of long-term care facilities to avoid reporting to work while acutely ill — even if they test negative for SARS-CoV-2.”

RSV is spread like most other respiratory diseases — by small droplets and on contaminated surfaces.

“RSV is the most common cause of bronchiolitis and pneumonia in children under one year of age in the United States. Infants, young children, and older adults with chronic medical conditions are at risk of severe disease from RSV infection,” the CDC said.

https://www.cnn.com