New strain of flu found in China has potential to become a pandemic, scientists warn

Holly Ellyatt – June 30, 2020

Scientists have identified a new strain of flu carried by pigs in China that they say has the potential to become a pandemic.

The new strain is descended from the type of flu — known as “swine flu” — that emerged in 2009 causing the first global flu pandemic in 40 years.

The scientists published their peer-reviewed findings in U.S. science journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday. They said the new strain of flu, which they called “G4 EA H1N1,” is a variation of swine flu, and includes the “G4″ genotype that has become predominant in swine populations since 2016.

As with swine flu, the new strain has been identified as having “all the essential hallmarks of a candidate pandemic virus.”

The scientists, who studied flu viruses in pig populations between 2011 and 2018, noted that around 10% of swine industry workers they tested in China had already been exposed to the virus, which they described as “of concern.” That rate increased among younger workers, aged 18-35, “indicating that the predominant G4 EA H1N1 virus has acquired increased human infectivity.”

“Such infectivity greatly enhances the opportunity for virus adaptation in humans and raises concerns for the possible generation of pandemic viruses,” the scientists, who work at several Chinese universities and the country’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, noted.

They recommended close monitoring of swine populations — and anyone working with them.

“Controlling the prevailing G4 EA H1N1 viruses in pigs and close monitoring in human populations, especially the workers in swine industry, should be urgently implemented,” they wrote.

https://www.newsmax.com

In Parched Southwest, Warm Spring Renews Threat of ‘Megadrought’

DNYUZ – July 8, 2020

LOVELAND PASS, Colo. — Here at 12,000 feet on the Continental Divide, only vestiges of the winter snowpack remain, scattered white patches that have yet to melt and feed the upper Colorado River, 50 miles away.

That’s normal for mid-June in the Rockies. What’s unusual this year is the speed at which the snow went. And with it went hopes for a drought-free year in the Southwest.

“We had a really warm spring,” said Graham Sexstone, a hydrologist with the United States Geological Survey. “Everything this year has melted really fast.”

The Southwest has been mired in drought for most of the past two decades. The heat and dryness, made worse by climate change, have been so persistent that some researchers say the region is now caught up in a megadrought, like those that scientists who study past climate say occurred here occasionally over the past 1,200 years and lasted 40 years or longer.

Even a single season of drought is bad news for the Southwest, where agriculture, industry and millions of people rely on the region’s two major rivers, the Colorado and the Rio Grande, and their tributaries for much of their water. Dry conditions also shrivel crops, harm livestock and worsen wildfires.

But droughts, even long ones, eventually end, when the natural variability of climate results in a few “good,” meaning wet, years in a row. So after a relatively cool and wet spring last year followed by a decent snowpack in the fall and winter, there was some optimism that 2020 might be remembered as the year the long Southwestern drought started to fade.

But then came April and May, which were warm and dry, leading to rapid melting and runoff.

Normally, Dr. Sexstone said, measurements of stream flow at gauges in the region would slowly climb to a peak and then drop off gradually as the season progressed.

“This year it seemed like it peaked and then plummeted,” he said.

https://dnyuz.com

Satanic Temple threatens to sue Mississippi if state adds ‘In God We Trust’ to new flag

Michael Gryboski – July 9, 2020

An atheist group that calls itself The Satanic Temple has threatened to sue Mississippi if it decides to add the national motto “In God We Trust” to its flag.

Recently, Republican Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves signed a law to change the state flag in order to remove the Confederate battle flag, which has long been on the banner.

According to the approved legislation, known as House Bill 1796, the new design for the state flag cannot include the Confederate banner, but it will require “In God We Trust.”

The Randazza Legal Group, which is representing the Satanic Temple, sent a letter to Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, protesting the decision.

“… removing one divisive symbol of exclusion only to replace it with a divisive phrase of exclusion does not eliminate exclusion,” claimed the letter.

https://www.christianpost.com

6 out of 10 Americans reject idea that ‘human life is sacred,’ survey finds

Michael Gryboski – June 24, 2020

Around six in 10 Americans do not believe that human life is inherently “sacred,” though more than two-thirds believe human beings are “basically good,” new data suggests.

The recently launched Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University released a report on Tuesday examining how Americans value human life.

Data for the report came from a survey conducted in January of 2,000 adult respondents in the United States, 1,000 of whom were contacted by telephone and 1,000 reached by online questionnaires. The data has a margin of error of 2 percentage points.

Among respondents, only 39% said they agreed with the statement: “human life is sacred.”

The word “sacred” is defined by the researchers as “having unconditional, intrinsic worth.”

Many respondents who identified as religious were more likely than the total sample to believe that human life is sacred. For example, 60% of evangelical and born-again Christian respondents agreed that life is sacred.

Among other respondent groups, 46% of Pentecostals, 45% of mainline Protestants, and 43% of Roman Catholics agreed that human life is sacred.

Meanwhile, 12% of respondents said they believe people are only “material substance – biological machines.” Another 12% said that believe humans are “part of the mind of the universe.”

https://www.christianpost.com

China develops weapons to fry US electric grid, eyes high-tech ‘Pearl Harbor’ attack

Paul Bedard – June 18, 2020

With the help of stolen U.S. technology, China has developed at least three types of high-tech weapons to attack the electric grid and key technologies in a “surprise Pearl Harbor” assault that could send America into a deadly blackout, according to a new analysis.

According to the report from the independent EMP Task Force on National and Homeland Security, China has built a network of satellites, high-speed missiles, and “super-electromagnetic pulse” weapons that could melt down the U.S. electric network, fry critical communications, and stifle aircraft carrier groups.

According to the report, written by the task force’s executive director, Peter Pry, long an expert on EMP warfare, China developed the weapons as part of its “Total Information Warfare” that includes hacking raids on computers.

What’s more, despite China’s promises to attack only after being attacked, Pry revealed new data to show that the communist nation is lying and eager to shoot first with “high-altitude electromagnetic pulse,” or HEMP, weapons launched from satellites, ships, and land.

“China’s military doctrine — including numerous examples presented here of using HEMP attack to win on the battlefield, defeat U.S. aircraft carriers, and achieve against the U.S. homeland a surprise ‘Pearl Harbor’ writ large — is replete with technical and operational planning consistent with a nuclear first-strike,” said Pry in his report, provided to Secrets. It is shown below.

He added that while some believe China’s promise not to fire first, there are key U.S. officials who don’t buy it. For example, he cited February 2020 testimony from the chief of U.S. Strategic Command, Adm. Charles Richard, who said that he could “drive a truck through” China’s no-first-use policy.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com

The Quiet Struggle Over Jerusalem’s Temple Mount

Joseph Puder – June 12, 2020

There is a quiet struggle going on over control of East Jerusalem’s Noble Sanctuary (Haram al-Sharif) or Temple Mount.  It is not as you might guess between Israel and the Palestinians.  It is actually between two Sunni-Muslim nations, the Hashemites Kingdom of Jordan and Erdogan’s Turkey.  To the extent that Israel is involved in this quiet struggle, it is to strengthen Jordan’s position against the encroaching Turks, by adding Saudi representatives to the Islamic Waqf Council.  The Islamic Waqf Council controls the activities surrounding the Noble Sanctuary or Temple Mount.  Israel has engaged the U.S. administration to mediate the issue with the Saudis.

The Hashemites, who once controlled Mecca and Medina, Islam’s holiest sites, lost out to the Saudis in the 1920’s.  The Hashemites are related by a bloodline to the Prophet Mohammad through his daughter Fatimah and her husband Ali, the Fourth Caliph.  Hasan, the son of Fatimah and Ali, is the progenitor of the Hashemite line, which is a subdivision of the Quraysh tribe.  The consolation prize was control over Islam’s third holiest site -The Noble Sanctuary or Temple Mount where the Al-Aqsa and Omar mosques are located. The Prophet Mohammad is said to have flown from the al-Aqsa mosque to heaven on his horse named Buraq.

Given the historical rivalry between the House of Saud and the Hashemites, Jordanians in the past would not contemplate allowing their Saudi rivals a foothold in Jerusalem’s holy places.  But now, after 100 years, Erdogan’s Turkey is challenging Jordan’s control over the Temple Mount. Jordan, under the Hashemite King Abdullah II, is finally relenting to the Saudis out of financial necessity and a looming threat from Erdogan’s Turkey.

Even more significantly, Turkey’s influence peddling in Jerusalem is not limited to the Temple Mount.  In its efforts to bolster the Palestinians, Erdogan’s Turkish government delivered a treasure trove of 140,000 pages of microfilm, which includes land registrations under the Ottoman Empire from 1517-1917.   The Palestinian Authority (PA) has used it to challenge Israeli ownership of real estate in various parts of the country.  The Turkish development NGO or TIKA, working on behalf of the Turkish government has invested around $1.3 million annually in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza. The Turkish organization, “Our Legacy,” funded by TIKA, has as its goal the “protection of the Al-Aqsa mosque, and the Ottoman legacy in Jerusalem.

https://www.frontpagemag.com

China races to prevent virus second wave

Jing Xuan Teng – June 18, 2020

China imposed travel restrictions on nearly half a million people near its capital on Thursday to contain a fresh coronavirus outbreak as deaths surged in other parts of the world.

The threat of a second wave hitting China, which had largely brought the virus under control, and rising tolls in Latin America and South Asia underscore the global challenge in slowing down the pandemic that has killed more than 450,000 people.

The world economy has also taken a hit, with the US Labor Department saying another 1.5 million American workers filed for unemployment benefits last week, bringing the number of people laid off, at least temporarily, by COVID-19 to 45.7 million.

With scientists around the globe racing to find a vaccine, the World Health Organization said it hoped that a few hundred million COVID-19 vaccine doses could be produced this year, and two billion by the end of 2021.

“If we’re very lucky, there will be one or two successful candidates before the end of this year,” WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said, adding that priority would be given to key workers and vulnerable people.

https://www.terradaily.com

City of Boston, Which Rejected Group’s Request to Fly Christian Flag, Holds Homosexual Pride Flag Raising

– June 16, 2020

BOSTON — The City of Boston held a virtual flag-raising ceremony on June 5 to commence the 50th annual Boston Pride Week, celebrating the sins of homosexuality and bisexuality. Boston remains embroiled in a federal lawsuit after it denied a private group’s request to fly the Christian flag over City Hall during their temporary event recognizing Constitution Day.

“In Boston, we’re very proud of how far we’ve come,” Mayor Ben Walsh said during the recorded event, which was posted to the Boston Pride YouTube page with the hashtag #wickedproud. “We’re proud of the trailblazers and activists who’ve changed the world, and we’re proud that many of them call our city home.”

“We’re going to keep fighting for greater visibility and representation for people of all sexualities and gender identities,” he stated. “We won’t let anyone take us backward.”

Walsh advised that since the in-person Pride event had to be canceled this year, the City looked for other ways to observe the occasion. He said that part of the plan includes lighting City Hall in rainbow colors.

Republican Gov. Charlie Baker also spoke to viewers, thanking those involved with Boston Pride.

“You’ve made an enormous difference for the people in the Commonwealth and in the city of Boston, and you really have changed the world over the course of the past 50 years,” he stated. “God bless and good luck in the next 50.”

Davron Monroe, an award-winning singer who performs opera, theater, gospel and jazz, sang the national anthem for the virtual event, and the song “Raise You Up” from the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus played as footage showed the rainbow flag being run up the pole at City Hall.

As previously reported, the City of Boston was sued in 2018 after it rejected a group’s application to fly the Christian flag outside City Hall during an event celebrating the religious history of the city and the contributions made by Christians.

https://christiannews.net

Powerful Magnitude 7.4 Earthquake Strikes Off Coast Of New Zealand

ETH – June 18, 2020

(ETH) – A powerful magnitude 7.4 earthquake has struck off the coast of New Zealand with a depth of about 2o miles according to a report.  An alert was released from the UNESCO/IOC Pacific Tsunami warning and mitigation system stated: “Hazardous tsunami waves from this earthquake are possible within 300km of the epicenter.” More information will come as we receive it.

https://endtimeheadlines.org

MLK’s Niece: ‘I Hope There’s a Juneteenth for’ the ‘Little Babies in the Womb’

Melanie Arter – June 19, 2020

(CNSNews.com) – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s niece, Dr. Alveda King, told Fox Business’s “Mornings With Maria Bartiromo” on Friday that it’s a dream come true for her to see Juneteenth acknowledged more broadly, but she hopes there’s a Juneteenth for the unborn.

Juneteenth is the national commemoration of the ending of slavery in the U.S. June 19th marks the day that slaves in Texas learned two years later that President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation ending slavery.“

This is a dream come true for me – the acknowledgement broadly of Juneteenth. As an African-American woman, I have celebrated Juneteenth for many years. In the Bible, Juneteenth would be associated with jubilee, a time of liberty, repentance and restoration,” said King, who serves as director of African-American outreach for Gospel of Life, headed by Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life.

“I even think about the little babies in the womb, I hope there’s a Juneteenth for them. I’m over at Civil Rights for the Unborn with Priests for Life,” she said.

https://www.cnsnews.com