The Faithful Watchman

IDF adds elite units to border buildup, braces for Hizballah strike in days

Debkafile – July 27, 2020

Israel’s northern border remained tense on Tuesday, July 28 as IDF forces prepared for another Hizballah attempt to strike a military target in the next day or two, after the first encounter with IDF troops on Mt Dov on Monday was a letdown. The next strike is expected on or around the Muslim Eid festival on Thursday. Hizballah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah declared again that the death of a fighter in an Israel strike in Syria last week was still to be avenged.

The IDF meanwhile further reinforced its border deployment along 150km from the coast to Mt. Hermon with advanced firepower, surveillance units and troops of a commando brigade, ready to ward off a Hizballah attempt to seize a military position. Hizballah units were sighted during the day near the Lebanese-Israel border fence and inside Shiite villages of the South. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister both toured the IDF northern command and warned the enemy that Israel was armed and ready for any scenario.

Hizballah prepared the way for another attack by denying that anything happened at Mt. Dov on Monday and that Israel had made a huge song and dance about a non-incident, although Hizballah fighters never fired a shot. The IDF claimed it had footage of the attack which proved otherwise.

The prime minister and defense minister warned Hizballah in joint statements Monday night, July 27 that it is “playing with fire.” Their statements came after the IDF thwarted a Hizballah intrusion and a Kornet attack on tanks at Israel’s Mt. Dov outposts. Hizballah later claimed that the incident did not happen and that its revenge for the killing of one of its fighters in Israel’s raid near Damascus last week was still to come. The IDF replied that the incident was documented.

“We take a grave view of this attempt to infiltrate our territory,” PM Binyamin Netanyahu said. “Hezbollah and the State of Lebanon are held responsible for this incident and for any further attacks originating from Lebanese territory against Israel. Hezbollah is playing with fire. Any attack against us will be answered with great force,” he said.

https://www.debka.com

We Are Experiencing Economic Devastation On A Scale That America Has Never Seen Before

Michael Snyder – July 30, 2020

For a very long time we have been warned that a U.S. economic collapse was inevitably coming, and now it is here. Fear of COVID-19 and unprecedented civil unrest in our major cities have combined to plunge us into a historic economic downturn, and nobody is exactly sure what is going to happen next. On Thursday, we learned that U.S. GDP was down 32.9 percent on an annualized basis last quarter. That officially makes last quarter the worst quarter in all of U.S. history, and many people believe that this new economic depression is just getting started. But of course not all areas of the country are being affected equally. According to USA Today, states such as Hawaii, Nevada, Michigan and New York were hit particularly hard last quarter…

Every state was walloped last quarter, though ones that rely heavily on travel and tourism, such as Hawaii and Nevada, were hit hardest by the downturn, according to employment figures analyzed by economist Adam Kamins of Moody’s Analytics. Michigan, the heart of the nation’s auto industry, was slammed as consumers put off car purchases. And densely populated Northeast states struck by the most severe virus outbreaks – like New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts – absorbed among the heaviest economic losses as governors shut down earlier and residents stayed home.

Originally, the mainstream media was telling us that the U.S. economy would come surging back to life during the third quarter, but we continue to get more signs that indicate that the economy is starting to slow down again.

For example, the Labor Department just released some new numbers that were more than just a little bit startling. If you can believe it, another 1.434 million Americans filed new claims for unemployment benefits last week. That was an increase over last week’s revised number, and it represents the second week in a row that initial claims have risen.

Overall, new claims for unemployment benefits have now been above one million for 19 weeks in a row.

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com

Florida braces for impact as Hurricane Isaias bears down

Alex Sosnowski – July 31, 2020

Isaias exploded into a Category 1 hurricane, packing 80-mph maximum sustained winds, Thursday night, shortly after pulling away from Hispaniola. The hurricane, which saw winds weaken slightly to 75 mph Friday morning, will churn through the Bahamas through Saturday, and make a run along the Eastern Seaboard of the United States this weekend to early next week.

Hurricane warnings were in effect for the Bahamas on Friday, including hard-hit areas from Dorian in 2019 like the Abaco Islands, although meteorologists expect the impacts to pale in comparison to the monster storm that stalled for 24 hours and caused utter devastation there last year.

“Isaias is expected to be a 1 on the AccuWeather RealImpact™ Scale for Hurricanes in the Bahamas and the coastal southeastern U.S. due to flooding and damaging winds,” AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Rob Miller said. This scale is a more nuanced method the company introduced in 2019 to assess the potential damage a tropical system could cause.

It has been 25 years since a hurricane tracked through the Bahamas so early in the season, specifically prior to the middle of August. Erin strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane near Rum Cay in the Bahamas and moved through the island chain on Aug. 1-2, 1995, according to Colorado State tropical meteorologist Philip Klotzbach. The storm passed over the Abaco Islands and Grand Bahama, causing generally minor damages, before heading toward Florida.

Isaias’s recent strengthening will help the hurricane forge a track more to the north. And the system could potentially strengthen even more over the very warm waters of the Gulf Stream, especially since Isaias is now expected to avoid the large land mass of Cuba this weekend. While a track up part of the Florida Peninsula is still possible, forecasters have ruled out a track toward the Gulf of Mexico with these developments.

https://www.accuweather.com

Suspected case of BUBONIC PLAGUE registered in China, days after Mongolian outbreak

RT – July 5, 2020

A suspected case of bubonic plague has been registered in China’s north, according to local health authorities. The news comes after two similar cases were detected in neighboring Mongolia.

The case was registered at a hospital in China’s Inner Mongolia region, its health commission said in a statement on Sunday.

This prompted a third-level warning of a potential epidemic in the region. The alert comes into force immediately and will be in place until the end of this year. It’s believed the patient in question is suffering from the bubonic form, which causes swollen lymph nodes, and is considered to be the most easily treated variant of the disease.

The plague also has a pneumonic and an extra-deadly septicemic form that can kill a victim within a day.

Earlier this week, two people also tested positive for the bubonic plague in neighboring Mongolia.

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage, the potential return of the dreaded plague is definitely the last thing the world needs. So far, Covid-19 has infected nearly 11.5 million people, killing more than 530,000 of them.

https://www.rt.com

China orders Christians to replace crosses and images of Jesus Christ with portraits of communist leaders

The Blaze – July 20, 2020

The communist Chinese government is ordering some Christians to take down religious symbols, including crosses, crucifixes, and images of Jesus Christ, and to replace them with communist leaders, according to a new report.

The startling report of religious oppression was reported in Bitter Winter, a religious liberty magazine.

“All impoverished households in the town were told to display Mao Zedong images,” said a local pastor to Bitter Winter.

“The government is trying to eliminate our belief and wants to become God instead of Jesus,” he added.

The order was made in April when communist party officials visited believers’ homes in the city of Linfen, located in the northern province of Shanxi.

The officials said that those who were receiving financial assistance from the government would have to take down their religious symbols and replace them with portraits of Chairman Mao and President Xi Jinping. If they refused to do so, they could face the loss of their welfare benefits.

One villager recounted that officials tore down the Christian images in his home and replaced them with a portrait of Mao Zedong.

https://www.theblaze.com

People in Israel are Preparing Show-Bread for Service in Coming “Third Temple”

Dr. Rivkah Lambert Adler – Jul 17, 2020

Les Saidel, a veteran immigrant to Israel, originally from Johannesburg, South Africa, likely knows more about the Biblical showbread than anyone else on earth.

Called Lechem Hapanim in Hebrew (literally, bread of the faces), the ancient art of preparing the showbread for use in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem has not been practiced for close to 2000 years.

During the Second Temple period, the showbreads were baked by the Garmu family of Levi’im (Levites). Each Friday, the Garmu family baked a new set of 12 loaves. Each of the loaves represented one of the 12 Tribes. They were placed on the Temple’s golden shulchan (table) in two stacks of six and they remained on the shulchan all week.

According to Saidel, these special breads had miracles associated with them during the time the Holy Temples stood in Jerusalem. Despite the fact that the breads sat out uncovered for seven days, they miraculously remained fresh and warm, even a week later.

The showbreads were replaced every Friday and the previous week’s showbreads were distributed among the incoming and outgoing shifts of kohanim (priests assigned to work in the Temple). Saidel explained that this amounted to 400 or 500 people eating from these 12 loaves. Despite the fact that each kohen (priest) received only a small amount of bread, it miraculously was as filling as if they had eaten an entire meal.

https://www.breakingisraelnews.com

Scientists Start Construction of World’s Largest Fusion Reactor

Victor Tangermann – July 28, 2020

Today, engineers started construction of the world’s largest nuclear fusion project in southern France, The Guardian reports, with operations planned to begin in late 2025.

The project, called ITER, is an international collaborative effort between 35 countries with enormous ambitions: prove the feasibility of fusion energy with a gigantic magnetic device called a “tokamak,” as per the project’s official website.

“Enabling the exclusive use of clean energy will be a miracle for our planet,” ITER director-general Bernard Bigot said during today’s virtual celebration, as quoted by The Guardian.

Fusion power, in theory, works by harnessing the energy released by two lighter atomic nuclei fusing to form a heavier nucleus, and turning it into electricity.

If proven to be economical — that is, if the machine generates more energy than has to be put in to kickstart the process — the technology could lay the groundwork for an entirely new way of generating nearly unlimited clean energy on a commercial scale. Fusion power would be far safer than conventional fission nuclear energy, since there’s no risk of a meltdown or leftover nuclear waste.

But if the last six decades of fusion research are anything to go by, it remains an elusive way of generating net energy. The extremely hot plasma inside the fusion reactors is notoriously difficult to predict and control.

https://futurism.com

Taiwan says threat of military clash with China is ‘on the rise’

Gerry Shih – July 22, 2020

TAIPEI, Taiwan – The prospect of a military clash in the Taiwan Strait is rising precariously, the Taiwanese foreign minister warned Wednesday, urging “extreme caution” in the island’s dealings with a Chinese leadership in Beijing that he described as both increasingly emboldened and insecure.

The Chinese military has held a growing number of exercises that simulate an invasion of Taiwan, a self-ruled island about 80 miles off China’s east coast that considers the United States its main military and diplomatic backer. The pace and scale of China’s drills, as well as those of U.S. naval and air forces deployed to the region, have risen in recent months as relations between Beijing and Washington plummet on numerous fronts.

Relations took another sharp turn Wednesday after the State Department said it ordered China to close its consulate in Houston.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper said this week the United States would sell more arms to Taiwan as part of a $10 billion deal approved by Congress. He also said the U.S. military would reposition forces across Asia to prepare for a confrontation with China in flash points including self-ruled Taiwan, which China claims as its territory and has vowed for decades to take by force, if necessary. Inside China, the government has faced growing calls from hawkish military pundits and nationalist commentators to grasp the current strategic window to seize Taiwan, an accomplishment that could rally the Chinese population and burnish leader Xi Jinping’s political legacy.

Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said Wednesday he was worried China has conducted an “unprecedented” number of sea and air drills around Taiwan in 2020, with the pace rising to nearly once every day since June. “The threat is on the rise,” he said.

https://www.thehour.com

China Orders US Consulate in Chengdu Closed

NewsMax – July 24, 2020

China ordered the United States on Friday to close its consulate in the western city of Chengdu, ratcheting up a diplomatic conflict at a time when relations have sunk to their lowest level in decades.

The move was a response to the Trump administration’s order this week for Beijing to close its consulate in Houston after Washington accused Chinese agents of trying to steal medical and other research in Texas.

The Chinese foreign ministry appealed to Washington to reverse its “wrong decision.”

Chinese-U.S. relations have soured amid a mounting array of conflicts including trade, the handling of the coronavirus pandemic, technology, spying accusations, Hong Kong and allegations of abuses against Chinese Muslims.

“The measure taken by China is a legitimate and necessary response to the unjustified act by the United States,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

“The current situation in Chinese-U.S. relations is not what China desires to see. The United States is responsible for all this,” it said. “We once again urge the United States to immediately retract its wrong decision and create necessary conditions for bringing the bilateral relationship back on track.”

Also Friday, the U.S. State Department sent out a notice warning Americans in China of a “heightened risk of arbitrary detention.”

https://www.newsmax.com

Brexit mastermind Nigel Farage is looking to repeat the impossible by helping Italy liberate itself from the EU’s shackles

RT – July 23, 2020

British politician Farage has been revealed as a behind-the-scenes figure in advising a new ‘Italexit’ party that will campaign for a return of Italy’s sovereignty, fuelled by a rising tide of anti-EU sentiment.

Just when you thought he’d been consigned to history, Mr. Brexit himself, Nigel Farage, is back. Only this time, he’s franchising out his brand to take another swing at the establishment.

Italexit is all systems go after publicly confirming its plan and Farage is on board. The leader of the party that was officially launched on Thursday, Gianluigi Paragone, is an Italian senator who was expelled from the Five Star Movement after refusing to vote in line with the party’s wishes.

Paragone is a charismatic speaker, has right-wing leanings and was formerly the editor of the nationalist party Northern League’s newspaper.

“I met Nigel Farage, leader of the Brexit Party in London, who triumphed in the British referendum by bringing the United Kingdom out of the European Union cage,” Paragone said earlier this week. “I confronted him on the present and future of a truly sovereign country which, even more so after Brexit, is able to give real answers to citizens.”

Even with a solid CV, Paragone is a mere rookie and Farage is the Grand Wizard. No one would dispute that without him, Brexit wouldn’t have happened. Farage drove the bus at top speed, crashing through any obstacle that got in his way. He’s often seen bobbing about in the English Channel documenting the illegal arrival of immigrants.

He beat the drum for national pride and escaped the clutches of EU bureaucrats. His rivals brand him racist, heartless, and arrogant.

What maybe isn’t so widely known is that Farage was the classic Trojan Horse. He had been a member of the European Parliament since 1999. The reason he lost his seat?

https://www.rt.com