The Faithful Watchman

Congo’s Mount Nyiragongo Volcano Destroys Hundreds of Homes; At Least 15 Dead

A river of lava a half-mile wide gushing from Congo’s Mount Nyiragongo engulfed hundreds of homes and set fires before coming to rest at the edge of the city of Goma.

Tens of thousands of people fled late Saturday as the volcano unleashed the lava flow that cast a scarlet glow in the night sky. It was the first time Mount Nyiragongo has erupted in nearly 20 years.

“The sky has turned red,” Carine Mbala, a resident of Goma, told AFP by telephone. “There is a smell of sulfur. In the distance you can see giant flames coming out of the mountain.”

At least 15 people died, most in car crashes in the chaotic evacuation, the Associated Press reported. UNICEF, the U.N. children’s agency, said more than 170 children were still feared missing.

When the volcano began erupting, some people boarded boats on Lake Kivu, which lies on the border between Congo and Rwanda in central Africa. About 5,000 people crossed the border into Rwanda. Another 25,000 went northwest toward the town of Sake, according to UNICEF.

Altogether, 17 villages were affected by the lava, government spokesman Patrick Muyaya said in a statement, according to Reuters. Three health centers, a primary school and a water pipeline were destroyed, he said.

https://weather.com

A ‘Killing Field’ of Christians: 8 More Killed, Church Burned to Ground in Nigeria – 1,470 Christians in 4 Months

CBN News – May 25, 2021

Eight Christians were killed and a church was burned down on May 19 during an attack by gunmen in the Chikun area of Kaduna State of Nigeria.

International Christian Concern (ICC), a persecution watchdog, reports Samuel Aruwan, the Kaduna State Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, confirmed the report in a statement to the media.

Aruwan said “bandits” also burned down several homes during the attack, which consisted of unknown gunmen shooting sporadically at civilians.

As CBN News has reported, these “bandits” or “unknown gunmen” are often radical Muslims who target Christians in their relentless attacks on villages across the West African country.

In another unrelated incident, The Premium Times newspaper reports Nigerian Navy troops stationed in the Kujama General Area killed three bandits and arrested two accomplices after repelling an attack on Wakwodna community, near Kasso village, Chikun Local Government Area.

According to the Kaduna state government, the naval troops responded to reports of an attack on the village. The gunmen fled into the surrounding jungle when confronted by the troops, abandoning several rustled cattle. The cattle were rounded up by the troopers and returned to their owners.

“Two locals who were injured in the exchange were evacuated for medical attention,” Aruwan said.

According to the rights group Intersociety Rule of Law, 1,470 Christians were murdered and over 2,200 were abducted by radical Islamists in Nigeria during the first four months of 2021.

Of the 1,470 Christians murdered, 800 of those were killed by the Muslim Fulani Herdsmen, according to the group’s report.

https://www1.cbn.com

As if black & white fungus were not enough: 1st case of deadly ‘YELLOW fungus’ reported in Covid-19 patient in India

RT – May 25, 2021

A patient who was recovering from Covid-19 has been found to have symptoms of yellow fungus, news agency ANI quoted a doctor in an Uttar Pradesh hospital as saying. The new disease is reportedly more dangerous than black fungus.

Dr. BP Tyagi, an otolaryngologist in the city of Ghaziabad in the state of Uttar Pradesh, said it was the first case of yellow fungus in a patient recovering from Covid-19. The 45-year-old man had been undergoing treatment for Covid-19 over the past few months, however, his condition deteriorated over the past few days, so he was admitted to the hospital and an examination revealed yellow fungus.

According to the doctor, yellow fungus is a potentially fatal disease caused by bad hygiene and humidity. It is more dangerous than black fungus or white fungus, as it’s difficult to diagnose because it starts inside the body, affecting the internal organs. Black fungus begins with a distinct facial disfiguration which is easy to spot. The symptoms of yellow fungus include lethargy, lack of appetite, weight loss, and in severe cases, the disease can lead to organ malfunction. He added that the patient earlier had symptoms of black fungus and white fungus, which are also complications of Covid-19.

This comes as cases of mucormycosis (commonly known as black fungus) and white fungus have been on the rise among Covid-19 patients in India. Several states declared it to be an epidemic. Fungal infections have been reported in patients who were put on prolonged oxygen support or have been prescribed steroids as part of treatment for Covid-19. Both black and white fungus affect the lungs and other vital organs and can be extremely dangerous.

https://www.rt.com

The $6 Trillion Man? Biden’s Budget Would Make U.S. Taxpayers Pay for Abortions in Far-Left Spending Plan

Steve Warren – May 27, 2021

President Joe Biden will send a clear message on Friday when he releases his proposed 2022 $6 trillion budget to Congress. His message? He wants U.S. taxpayers to fund abortions at a time when Republican-led states are ramping up restrictions on it and when the U.S. Supreme Court plans to hear a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade.

Several media outlets are reporting Biden’s budget would cause the highest sustained level of federal spending since World War II as the president looks to fund his ever-increasing progressive agenda investing in education, infrastructure, and fighting climate change.

Politico reports Biden is also expected to leave out the Hyde Amendment as well as any other pro-life acknowledgments in his spending proposal in a move to try to please progressives and abortion activists.

The Hyde amendment is a decades-old bipartisan policy that has been included in federal spending bills for roughly 40 years to prevent taxpayer funds from paying for abortions. Biden’s exclusion of Hyde would largely be a token confrontation due to the Democrat Party’s narrow majority in Congress, and no clear winning edge in the Senate.

As CBN News reported in 2019, in his many years as a senator, he was for it. But suddenly then-candidate Biden flip-flopped on the issue saying he wanted to get rid of the ban on taxpayer-funded abortions. This surprised many Democrats including some of the then-former vice president’s aides.

“Just as I’ve never attempted to impose my views on anyone else as to when life begins, I have never attempted to impose my view on who should pay for it if people fundamentally disagree with the position we take,” Biden said at the time. “But folks, but folks times have changed. I don’t think these guys are gonna let up.”

He shifted his position, he said, while crafting his healthcare plan, as more and more states pass laws protecting the unborn.

“I can’t justify leaving millions of women without access to the healthcare they need and the ability to exercise their constitutionally protected right,” he said.

https://www1.cbn.com

Judge Sides with Atheist Group, Strikes Down Pre-Court Prayer as Unconstitutional

Michael Foust – May 24, 2021

A Texas judge’s practice of opening his court sessions in chaplain-led prayer violates the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition on government establishment of religion, a federal district court ruled Friday.

Judge Wayne Mack, a justice of the peace in Montgomery County, Texas, created a chaplaincy program in 2014 allowing volunteer chaplains to “assist the Court system and Law Enforcement with grieving families on tragic death scenes or death call notifications.” Chaplains also were allowed to offer an invocation for Mack’s court sessions.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), which calls itself an organization of “atheists, agnostics and skeptics of any pedigree,” sued Mack in federal court, arguing that the prayers were unconstitutional. FFRF represented an attorney who is a member of the organization and who frequently argued cases in Mack’s courtroom.

On Friday, U.S. District Judge Kenneth M. Hoyt issued a 15-page decision siding with the atheist organization. Hoyt was nominated by President Reagan. Mack’s attorneys say they will appeal.

“The Court is of the view that the defendant violates the Establishment Clause when, before a captured audience of litigants and their counsel, he presents himself as theopneustically-inspired, enabling him to advance, through the Chaplaincy Program, God’s ‘larger purpose,” Hoyt wrote. “Such a magnanimous goal flies in the face of historical tradition and makes a mockery of both religion and law.”

About 90 percent of the chaplains between November 2017 and October 2020 were Protestant Christians, although the chaplains list also included representatives of Buddhism, Hinduism and Judaism, Hoyt said.

https://www.christianheadlines.com

Solar storms are back, threatening life on Earth as we know it

The Associated Press – May 23, 2021

A few days ago, millions of tons of super-heated gas shot off from the surface of the sun and hurtled 90 million miles toward Earth.

The eruption, called a coronal mass ejection, wasn’t particularly powerful on the space-weather scale, but when it hit the Earth’s magnetic field it triggered the strongest geomagnetic storm seen for years. There wasn’t much disruption this time — few people probably even knew it happened — but it served as a reminder the sun has woken from a yearslong slumber.

While invisible and harmless to anyone on the Earth’s surface, the geomagnetic waves unleashed by solar storms can cripple power grids, jam radio communications, bathe airline crews in dangerous levels of radiation and knock critical satellites off kilter. The sun began a new 11-year cycle last year and as it reaches its peak in 2025 the specter of powerful space weather creating havoc for humans grows, threatening chaos in a world that has become ever more reliant on technology since the last big storms hit 17 years ago. A recent study suggested hardening the grid could lead to $27 billion worth of benefits to the U.S. power industry.

“It is still remarkable to me the number of people, companies, who think space weather is Hollywood fiction,” said Caitlin Durkovich, a special assistant to President Joe Biden and senior director of resilience and response in the National Security Council, during a talk at a solar-weather conference last month.

The danger isn’t hypothetical. In 2017, a solar storm caused ham radios to turn to static just as the Category 5 Hurricane Irma was ripping through the Caribbean. In 2015, solar storms knocked out global positioning systems in the U.S. Northeast, a particular concern as self-driving cars become a reality. Airline pilots are at greater risk of developing cataracts when solar storms hit. Female crew see higher rates of miscarriages.

In March 1989, a solar storm over Quebec caused a province-wide outage that lasted nine hours, according to Hydro-Quebec’s website. A 2017 paper in the journal of the American Geophysical Union predicted blackouts caused by severe space weather could strike as much as 66% of the U.S. population, with economic losses reaching a potential $41.5 billion a day.

https://www.pennlive.com

WATCH: Palestinians Riot Again at Al-Aqsa Mosque; Israeli Police Enter Compound

Joel B. Pollak – May 21, 2021

Palestinians rioted again Friday at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, hurling stones and incendiary devices, and Israeli police enter the Temple Mount compound to stop the violence and disperse them– the same pattern that the Hamas Palestinian terrorist group used as a pretext to launch a war with Israel two weeks ago.

Video of the confrontations emerged, with anti-Israel media falsely claiming Israel had attacked “worshipers” at the mosque — which, despite being an Islamic holy site, is used as a base for rioters.

The Times of Israel noted that Hamas had called for a “day of rage” at the Temple Mount. 15 Palestinians were reported injured.

The Jerusalem Post reported:

Israel Police clashed with Palestinians on the Temple Mount on Friday afternoon, firing tear gas and rubber bullets, according to Palestinian media.

Israel Police stated that a riot broke out on the Temple Mount with hundreds of youth who threw stones and Molotov cocktails at police officers. Jerusalem District police commander Doron Turgeman ordered police to enter the Temple Mount and handle the rioters near the police station, while allowing those not involved to leave the Temple Mount.

False claims about Israel “attacking” the mosque two weeks ago, on the last Friday of Ramadan, inflamed Muslim public opinion throughout the world, and were hyped by anti-Israel critics in general.

On Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked the Israeli people for their “resilience” in the conflict.

https://www.breitbart.com

Beijing issues deadliest war warning yet as China declares it is now ‘ready to defeat’ US

Oli Smith – May 15, 2021

CHINA has issued its deadliest warning yet as Beijing warned that the US will be “defeated” if the two superpowers go to war amid a tense stand-off over the South China Sea and Taiwan.

China has pledged to rapidly defeat the US in a military conflict in one of the country’s most explicit warnings yet. China’s Global Times, which is seen as a Government news outlet, published an editorial revealing the threat in response to joint military drills carried out by the US. The US joined drills with Japan, Australia and France this week in an intended show of force against Beijing.

However, instead of backing down, China appears to have been rattled, prompting a fierce rebuke in Beijing’s state-run newspapers asserting confidence in Chinese military superiority.

RT America’s Alex Mihailovich said: “The Global Times put out an editorial saying the US would be defeated if any conflict broke out in the South China Sea.

“Many see the drills as a show of force aimed at China as Japan works towards consolidating military alliances in an effort to deter its neighboring superpower

“However the drills appeared to irritate China rather than contain it.”

He continued: “According to the Global Times editorial, the US will be defeated if it engages in combat with China in its neighboring waters.”

https://www.express.co.uk

Wildfires burning at extremely dangerous levels across Manitoba, Canada

Julie Celestial – May 20, 2021

Wildfires are blazing out of control across Manitoba, Canada, some of which have caused evacuations. As of Wednesday, May 19, 2021, the government reported 12 fires at extremely dangerous levels, prompting air-quality warnings for the western and central areas due to smoke.

The biggest fire reported is in Homebrook, estimated to be 144 000 ha (355 800 acres), more than 80 km (50 miles) long, and roughly 16 km (10 miles) wide at its widest point.

“Important value protection efforts [are] underway to preserve the Manitoba Hydro Bi Pole Lines 1 and 2,” the Manitoba Government wrote on its 10^th Fire Bulletin.

Smoke from the fire could affect a number of communities in the area, including Grand Rapids, Misapawistik Cree Nation, Homebrook, Skownan First Nation, Waterhen, Mallard, and Gypsumville.

The second-largest fire is in the Rural Municipality of Mountain South, estimated to be 7 000 ha (17 300 acres). The fire is posing risk to half a dozen properties, but work is underway to protect them and local crews are responding.

The third biggest fire is reported in the Spruce Woods Provincial Park, estimated at 5 600 ha (13 800 acres), which prompted a local state of emergency in the rural municipality of North Cypress and Carberry.

“There is also potential for smoke to affect Spruce Woods Provincial Park and Swan Lake First Nation,” wrote the government. “The Spirit Sands Trails in the Carberry desert are closed.”

“Hikers are urged to avoid the area and should not ignore closed trail signs. The suppression effort continues jointly between the Department of National Defense from Shilo, Manitoba Wildfire Service, and local authorities.”

https://watchers.news

6 Indian states declare Covid-linked ‘black fungus’ an epidemic as death toll rises

RT – May 21, 2021

Multiple Indian states and territories have formally declared mucormycosis – more commonly known as ‘black fungus’ – to be an epidemic as Indians who have recovered from Covid-19 continue to die from the infection.

After the Union Health Ministry called on Indian states to declare an epidemic on Thursday, three states and one territory reportedly did so on the same day. They are Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Gujarat, and the Chandigarh union territory.

The states and territories join Telangana and Rajasthan, which had already declared an epidemic before the ministry’s letter, to make a total of six states and territories which officially recognize black fungus as an epidemic under the Epidemic Diseases Act of 1897.

Recognizing the infection as an epidemic makes the reporting of suspected and confirmed cases to the health department mandatory and also gives the Indian government more resources to fight the problem.

The Union Health Ministry warned on Thursday that black fungus was leading to a “prolonged morbidity and mortality amongst Covid-19 patients.”

The infection enters through the bloodstream via a cut or through the respiratory system via the nose, and can then spread to the heart, the brain, and the lungs. Symptoms can include facial swelling and black lesions, and mucormycosis has a fatality rate of around 54%.

Black fungus can have even more of an impact on those who have recovered from Covid-19, however, which is what’s thought to have caused India’s latest problem with the infection.

According to most recent reports, at least 90 people have died from the fungus during the pandemic, with thousands more cases recorded. Health experts argue that steroids used for Covid-19 patients, along with a lack of proper sanitation, could be behind the surge of cases.

https://www.rt.com