The Faithful Watchman

ACanadian reporter for one of the northern nation’s only conservative media outfits was arrested Sunday and carted away for doing his job faithfully on public property.

Rebel News reporter David Menzies, who local and federal officials appear keen to shut up and lock away, confirmed to Blaze News that he was charged for alleged breach of the peace and trespassing for daring to pose questions to anti-Israel protesters outside Toronto City Hall.

Menzies indicated that he will be suing the Toronto Police Service over this incident just as he is suing the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for a similarly rough arrest earlier this year.

Background

Thousands of people gathered outside Toronto City Hall on Sunday for “6 Months in Hell,” an event centered around demands for the release of those remaining Israeli captives who have suffered at the hands of Islamic terrorists since Hamas waged its unprovoked Oct. 7 attacks on the Jewish nation.

Footage of the event outside Toronto City Hall shows a peaceful crowd waving Canadian and Israeli flags at Nathan Phillips Square while various speakers take the stage, including Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre.

Poilievre, the parliamentarian poised to steamroll Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the 2025 federal election, called on “friends of humanity — Jews, gentiles, people of all backgrounds, Canadians, all people of decency — to stand against the homicidal, genocidal death cult that is Hamas, a death cult that must be destroyed so that we can free the hostages and restore peace for all.”

Anti-Israel demonstrators flocked to the scene in an apparent effort to counter the anti-terrorist sentiment expressed by Poilievre and others.

Menzies told Blaze News he ventured over “as a journalist in the public square doing public service journalism … to find out why these people were there trying to crash this event.”

“Incredibly, there was a protest of a few dozen people — the pro-Hamas types — which was particularly gross because to me this was like crashing a funeral,” Menzies told Blaze News. “They’re spouting their rhetoric, which by the way includes calls for genocide like, ‘from the river to the sea,’ and ‘intifada.'”

Footage shows a number of the anti-Israel protesters crowding Menzies outside Toronto City Hall as he attempts to conduct impromptu interviews with his phone and microphone in hand. The mob presses the reporter up against a wall, shoving him with flag poles and sneaking in jabs. Other protesters can be seen attempting to block the view of Menzies’ cameraman with flags and placards.

Menzies indicated that police looked on as protesters not only assaulted him but illegally used amplifying devices to push their vitriol and drown out calls for the hostages’ releases.

A masked Toronto Police Service officer can finally be seen swooping in, grabbing Menzies, and separating him from the crowd.

Menzies tells the officer, “They can chant genocide in the street, and I can’t cover that? Obey your oath. Officer, obey your oath.”

The TPS officer can be seen grabbing Menzies’ wrist and tossing his camera onto the ground. Additional cops crew around as the officer handcuffs the reporter, then carts him away.

The arresting officer announces Menzies was “under arrest for refusing to leave [the] premises.”

“It’s a public place!” responds Menzies in an apparent state of disbelief. “This is literally the public square.”

The officer begins to explain his actions, but Menzies interrupts, noting, “They assaulted me and you did nothing.”

The police drag him over to a van, ostensibly banging Menzies’ head against the rear door before tossing him inside.

Read more at: theblaze.com

VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) – Lithuanian leaders hailed a “historic event” as Germany on Monday began deploying troops in the Baltic country – a NATO member – marking the first time since World War II that German forces will be based outside the country on a long-term basis.

About two dozen soldiers arrived in Lithuania, laying the groundwork for a further 150 to join them later this year. The deployment is expected to be up to its full strength of 5,000 by the end of 2027.

“This is the first time that we have permanently stationed such a unit outside of Germany,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said in Berlin at a farewell ceremony for the preliminary command of Germany´s Lithuanian brigade, according to German news agency dpa. Pistorius called it “an important day for the German army.”

The United States believes that an Iranian attack on Israel may be imminent and has instructed its diplomatic employees in Israel not to travel far from their homes in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Be’er Sheva in the south.

The warning came after days of threats by Iran to retaliate against Israel for an airstrike April 1 in Damascus, Syria, that killed two generals and five officers responsible for attacks on Israel via terrorist proxy armies in recent months.

Israel warned that if Iran launches an attack on Israel directly from Iranian territory, it will retaliate against Iran directly — not against Iran-backed Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, or militias in Iraq.

The Israeli military canceled leave for combat soldiers and called up reservists from air defense units several days ago. President Joe Biden also reiterated Wednesday that U.S. support for Israel was “ironclad,” in an attempt to deter Iran.

Meanwhile, the Jerusalem Post and Reuters reported on Friday morning that the U.S. has warned ocal staff:

The United States said on Thursday it had restricted its employees in Israel and their family members from personal travel outside the greater Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Be’er Sheva areas amid Iran’s threats to retaliate against its regional adversary.

Iran has vowed revenge for the April 1 airstrike on its embassy compound in Damascus, ratcheting up tension in a region already strained by the Gaza war.

“Out of an abundance of caution, U.S. government employees and their family members are restricted from personal travel outside the greater Tel Aviv (including Herzliya, Netanya, and Even Yehuda), Jerusalem, and Be’er Sheva areas until further notice,” the US embassy said in a security alert on its website on Thursday. “U.S. government personnel are authorized to transit between these three areas for personal travel.”

Anchors on Israel’s Army Radio were somewhat puzzled by the U.S announcement, and asked whether it was informed by accurate intelligence. They noted that the U.S. had inadvertently confirmed where its local staff lives.

Other world powers, such as the United Kingdom, have urged Iran not to attack Israel, and to avoid a larger war.

Read more at: breitbart.com

Did you see what just happened in Damascus?  In an absolutely stunning move, Israel took out the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.  Needless to say, the Iranians are absolutely furious and they are promising a “harsh” response.  For a long time, I have been warning my readers that an apocalyptic war in the Middle East will be one of the conflicts that defines World War III.  The good news is that the war in the Middle East has not escalated to an apocalyptic level yet.  But after what we witnessed on Monday, we are just one step away.

A building next to Iran’s embassy in Damascus has been destroyed in an airstrike, reportedly killing a senior commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps and five others – with state media saying Israel was behind the attack.

Pictures show the building in Syria’s capital razed to the ground, with huge plumes of smoke rising from the site following the explosion this afternoon and emergency workers rushing to the scene.

This particular building was apparently the residence of the Iranian ambassador to Syria.

The Syrian government says that the missiles that destroyed this building were fired from the Golan Heights…

The Syrian Ministry of Defence responded with a statement.

“This evening, the Israeli enemy launched an air aggression from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan, targeting the Iranian consulate building in Damascus,” it said.

“Our air defences responded to the missiles and shot down some of them. The aggression led to the destruction of the entire building and the martyrdom and injury of everyone inside.

“Work is underway to recover the bodies of the martyrs, treat the wounded and remove debris.”

It appears that the IDF was targeting a gathering of very important regional leaders.

Mohammad Reza Zahedi was among those that were killed.  He was the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps…

The head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Mohammad Reza Zahedi, was confirmed killed in the strike, alongside several other Iranian diplomats visiting the Syrian capital.

The IRGC-managed Fars News agency announced the commander’s death on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Another important Iranian military official named Haji Rahimi is also dead…

Haji Rahimi was named as the second commander killed in the attack on Iran’s consulate building in the Syrian capital, according to the statement shared by state news agency IRNA on Monday night.

Haji Rahimi was reportedly a coordinator for the Quds Force, according to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News.

This was a major victory for Israel, but the Iranians will inevitably respond.

Read more at: theeconomiccollapseblog.com

Euthanasia isn’t really about compassion but fear of decline and a loathing of dependency — and of those experiencing them.

That nasty truth has become abundantly clear with a new column published in the Times of London in which former Tory MP Matthew Parris argues that euthanasia/assisted suicide should not only be permitted — but encouraged. In “We Can’t Afford a Taboo on Assisted Dying,” he writes (my emphasis):

I can’t dispute the objectors’ belief that once assisted dying becomes normalized we will become more apt to ask yourselves for how much longer we can justify the struggle.

The word “justify” is telling. It does not only concern the suffering of the person who is ill, disabled, or elderly but the suffering that person is supposedly causing to family and society. Parris believes that, eventually, for such a person to continue to live will be considered unjustifiable:

I can’t dispute the objectors’ belief that once assisted dying becomes normalized we will become more apt to ask yourselves for how much longer we can justify the struggle.

The word “justify” is telling. It does not only concern the suffering of the person who is ill, disabled, or elderly but the suffering that person is supposedly causing to family and society. Parris believes that, eventually, for such a person to continue to live will be considered unjustifiable:

Is life still giving us more pleasure than pain? How much is all this costing relatives and the health service? How much of a burden are we placing on those who love us? How much of a burden are we placing on ourselves? . . .

If assisted dying becomes common and widely accepted, hundreds of thousands — perhaps millions — will consider choosing this road when the time comes, and in some cases, even ask themselves whether it would be selfish not to. . . .

Within a decade or more [assisted suicide] will be seen as a normal road for many to take, and be considered socially responsible –– and even, finally, urged upon people.

In other words, the creation of a “duty to die.” Come on, Granny! Time to swallow the pills. We need your money to send Junior to college.

Read more at: wa

Hear, then, the plan which Hashem has devised against Edom, and what He has purposed against the inhabitants of Teman [Yemen] : Surely the shepherd boys Shall drag them away; Surely the pasture shall be Aghast because of them.” JEREMIAH 47:20 (THE ISRAEL BIBLE)

On Monday, Houthi rebels fired two anti-ship ballistic missiles from their bases in Yemen into the Red Sea toward merchant vessel Pinocchio, a Singaporean-owned, Liberian-flagged ship. The US navy responded harshly.

“United States Central Command conducted six self-defense strikes destroying an unmanned underwater vessel and 18 anti-ship missiles in Houthi controlled areas of Yemen”, CENTCOM announced.

“It was determined these weapons presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and U.S. Navy ships in the region,” officials said. “These actions are taken to protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure for U.S. Navy and merchant vessels.”

Despite the US navy’s response, the Houthi attacks continued and two drones were shot down by an Italian warship in the Red Sea in what was described as an act of self-defense.

On Saturday, Centcom said US and coalition warships had “downed a total of at least 28” drones in what appeared to be a large attempted attack by the Houthis.

On Wednesday, a Houthi attack off the port of Aden killed three crew of the Barbados-flagged, Greek-operated True Confidence. On February 18, a Houthi missile sank the cargo ship Rubymar.

Since the US began its campaign of airstrikes in January, the U.S. military says it has shot down and destroyed more 100 Houthi missiles, according to an Associated Press analysis of its statements.

Claiming to stand with Hamas in its war against Israel, the Houthis have launched attacks against civilian vessels in the Red Sea that have disrupted global shipping, forcing firms to re-route to longer and more expensive journeys around southern Africa.  This has stoked fears that the Israel-Hamas war could spread to destabilize the wider Middle East.

During its first weeks in office the Biden administration chose to unconditionally revoke Trump’s decision to classify the Houthis as a terrorist organization but reclassifieed the organization as terrorists in January.

As the Middle East heats up, the US is encountering Yemenite Houthis and other Iranian proxies in hostile encounters. The US miliary is even coming close to putting boots on the ground in Gaza as it airdrops humanitarian aid. A US naval vessel is en route, carrying equipment to build a temporary pier off the coast of Gaza. Hamas has been accused by Israel of violently hijacking trucks carrying humanitarian aid into Gaza, raising the possibility they will be in conflict with US troops distributing food, fuel, and medical equipment to Gaza’s civilians.

Read more at: israel365news.com

The largest producer of fresh eggs in the U.S. said Tuesday it had temporarily halted production at a Texas plant after bird flu was found in chickens, and officials said the virus had also been detected at a poultry facility in Michigan.

Ridgeland, Mississippi-based Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. said in a statement that approximately 1.6 million laying hens and 337,000 pullets, about 3.6% of its total flock, were destroyed after the infection, avian influenza, was found at a facility in Parmer County, Texas.

The plant is on the Texas-New Mexico border in the Texas Panhandle about 85 miles (137 kilometers) southwest of Amarillo and about 370 miles (595 kilometers) northwest of Dallas. Cal-Maine said it sells most of its eggs in the Southwestern, Southeastern, Midwestern and mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.

“The Company continues to work closely with federal, state and local government officials and focused industry groups to mitigate the risk of future outbreaks and effectively manage the response,” the statement said.

“Cal-Maine Foods is working to secure production from other facilities to minimize disruption to its customers,” the statement said.

The company said there is no known bird flu risk associated with eggs that are currently in the market and no eggs have been recalled.

Eggs that are properly handled and cooked are safe to eat, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The announcement by Cal-Maine comes a day after state health officials said a person had been diagnosed with bird flu after being in contact with cows presumed to be infected, and that the risk to the public remains low. The human case in Texas marks the first known instance globally of a person catching this version of bird flu from a mammal, federal health officials said.

In Michigan, Michigan State University’s Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory has detected bird flu in a commercial poultry facility in Ionia County, according to the Michigan’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Read more at: apnews.com

In a mandatory course on “structural racism” for first-year medical students at the University of California Los Angeles, a guest speaker who has praised Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel led students in chants of “Free, Free Palestine” and demanded that they bow down to “mama earth,” according to students in the class and audio obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

Lisa “Tiny” Gray-Garcia, who has referred to the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks as “justice,” began the March 27 class by leading students in what she described as a “non-secular prayer” to “the ancestors,” instructing everyone to get on their knees and touch the floor—”mama earth,” as she described it—with their fists.

At least half of the assembled students complied, two students said. Gray-Garcia, a local activist who had been invited to speak about “Housing (In)Justice,” proceeded to thank native tribes for preserving “what the settlers call L.A.,” according to audio obtained by the Free Beacon, and to remind students of the city’s “herstory.”

The prayer also included a benediction for “black,” “brown,” and “houseless people” who die because of the “crapatalist lie” of “private property.”

“Mama earth,” Gray-Garcia told the kneeling students, “was never meant to be bought, sold, pimped, or played.”

So began a long and looney lecture that shocked some students at the elite medical school and has led to calls for an investigation. Wearing a keffiyeh that covered her entire face, Gray-Garcia, a self-described “poverty scholar,” led the class in chants of “Free, Free Palestine” as faculty and staff looked on in silence, according to people in the course and contemporaneous text messages reviewed by the Free Beacon.

One of the onlookers was Lindsay Wells, a pediatrician at UCLA and the director of the mandatory first-year course, “Structural Racism and Health Equity,” who did not respond to a request for comment.

Gray-Garcia later referred to modern medicine as “white science” and inveighed against the “occupation” of “Turtle Island”—that is, the United States—before asking students to stand for a second prayer. This time, nearly everyone rose.

“The net effect was that UCLA staff intimidated first-year medical students into participating in a religious service in derogation of their own personal beliefs,” UCLA’s Jewish Faculty Resilience Group wrote to university chancellor Gene Block on Sunday.  “There needs to be an urgent and thorough external review and investigation of the [medical school’s] curriculum and systemic antisemitism.”

UCLA and Gray-Garcia did not respond to requests for comment.

The surreal spectacle is the latest controversy to envelop the “Structural Racism and Health Equity” class, launched in the wake of George Floyd’s death as a part of the medical school’s “anti-racism roadmap.”

The course became the subject of a civil rights complaint in January after it separated students into race-based discussion groups—one for white students, another for African Americans, and a third for “Non-Black People of Color.” UCLA cancelled the exercise after a Wall Street Journal editorial highlighted the complaint.

More unwanted attention came in March when the Daily Wire published portions of the course’s syllabus, which includes units on “settler colonialism” and recommends a podcast about “Indigenous womxn’s health.” Students are also urged to read an essay, “Decolonization is not a metaphor,” that describes the “epistemic, ontological, cosmological violence” of “the settler.”

Read more at: freebeacon.com

Is it just a coincidence that “blood moon eclipses” are occurring on Purim for three years in a row just as a great war erupts in the Middle East?  Yesterday, one of my readers wrote to me and pointed out a video where someone was talking about this.  I had previously written about the “blood moon eclipse” that happened during the second day of Purim on March 25th of this year, but I had not heard that there would be “blood moon eclipses” on Purim in 2025 and 2026 too.  So I started to do some research to confirm whether this is true or not.

I did a Google search for Purim in 2025, and this is what I found…

Purim in 2025 is on Friday, March 14. Purim is always celebrated for 2 days, so it will continue till March 15.

So then I went to Wikipedia and I discovered that there will be a lunar eclipse on March 14th, 2025…

A total lunar eclipse will take place on Friday, March 14, 2025, the first of two total lunar eclipses in 2025. The Moon will take place near apogee during this eclipse, making it appear smaller than usual.

This blood moon eclipse will happen on the first day of Purim next year, and it will be visible from Jerusalem.

Having confirmed that there will be a “blood moon Purim eclipse” in 2025, I asked Google when Purim would be in 2026.

According to hebcal.com, the first day of Purim in 2026 begins at sundown on March 2nd and it ends at sundown on March 3rd…

Purim for Hebrew Year 5786 begins at sundown on Monday, 2 March 2026 and ends at nightfall on Tuesday, 3 March 2026 .

And according to Wikipedia there will be a lunar eclipse on March 3rd, 2026…

A total lunar eclipse will take place on Tuesday, March 3, 2026, the first of two lunar eclipses in 2026.

This “blood moon Purim eclipse” will complete the set.

As far as I know, we have never seen something like this happen for three years in a row.

So what does all of this mean?

I don’t know.

But I will give you some of my thoughts.

In the Book of Esther, we read about the origins of Purim.

The enemies of Israel thought that they were finally going to defeat the Jewish people, but in the end the Jewish people got the upper hand on their enemies.

And I think that a similar scenario is playing out today.

Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and other Iranian-backed groups in the region have been preparing for war with Israel for years.

Right now, the world is waiting to see how Iran will respond to Israel’s stunning airstrike on Damascus on Monday.

Iran’s supreme leader has told the world that Israel “will be punished by our brave men”…

Several of Iran’s most powerful officials, including “supreme leader” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, vowed revenge against Israel following an airstrike in Damascus, Syria, on Monday that eliminated a senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) leader.

“The evil regime will be punished by our brave men. We will make them regret this crime and other ones, by God’s will,” Khamenei proclaimed, according to the Iranian state-run PressTV propaganda network on Tuesday. Khamenei referred to Israel as “usurping and despicable.”

That makes it sound like Iran will take revenge directly instead of relying on proxies to do their dirty work this time.

Read more at: harbingersdaily.com

By the first century, Rome had conquered a vast region of the known world, from modern-day Portugal on the west, to what we now call Iran and Iraq on the east. Rome controlled the largest portion of what would become Great Britain at the northern tip of the empire and portions of modern Morocco, Algeria, Libya and Egypt on the southern edge. At its peak, 60 to 70 million people lived under Roman rule, and they worshiped a vast array of mythical gods.

[Yet] The resurrection of Jesus is true. It can be confirmed by direct evidence: the testimony of eyewitnesses. The worshipers of Mithras, Osiris, Attis and others placed their trust in ancient mythologies based on folklores rather than verifiable, recorded history. Those who observed the resurrection of Jesus, on the other hand, testified about Jesus based on their own firsthand observations. More than 100 of His followers gathered following His ascension. On another occasion, He appeared to more than 500 at one time, most of whom were still available to the readers of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 15:6).

Fast forward to 1996. Jesus was still being worshiped across the region of the now fallen ancient Roman Empire, and He was also being celebrated as far away as Southern California. That’s where I learned about Him. I was 35 at the time, a committed atheist and a homicide detective. I found myself in a church service, sitting dutifully with my wife. The pastor that day described Jesus as “the smartest man who ever lived.” I was provoked enough to buy a Bible to see what was so smart about this ancient sage. That led me to the Gospels. As I read them, I began to recognize characteristics of eyewitness testimony, given that I had interviewed hundreds of witnesses by that time in my law enforcement career.

Was the story about Jesus true? I decided to test the Gospel authors by asking the same four questions I would typically ask of any eyewitness in a criminal investigation.

• Were these authors really present to see what they said they saw?
• Could their claims be corroborated in some way?
• Were they consistent, or did their story about Jesus change over time?
• Were they motivated to lie?

For the next six to eight months, I investigated the death and resurrection of Jesus like the many cold cases I’ve solved over the years.

I discovered that the Gospels were written early enough to have been penned by authors who had access to true eyewitnesses. Luke’s Book of Acts, for example, lacks any description of the destruction of the Jewish Temple (in A.D. 70); the Roman siege of Jerusalem (in the late 60s); the death of Peter or Paul (between A.D. 64 and 65); or the death of James, the brother of Jesus (in A.D. 62). These omissions are reasonable if Luke wrote this New Testament book prior to A.D. 62, and if so, he would already have completed the Gospel bearing his name. Paul must have had access to this Gospel written by his friend, as he quoted from it in his first letter to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 11:23-26), written in the mid-50s. That places the authorship of Luke between A.D. 50 and 55.

Mark’s Gospel (quoted repeatedly by Luke) was clearly written earlier and available to Luke as a resource. Both Gospels were penned early enough to have been constructed from true eyewitness accounts (as Luke declares in the opening lines of his Gospel) and “fact-checked” by those who were living at the time.

I also discovered that the Gospel accounts could be corroborated in several ways, including archaeology. Historical figures such as Pontius Pilate (Matthews 27:2); Erastus (Romans 16:23); Sergius Paulus (Acts 13); and many more have been verified and confirmed by archaeological discoveries. The Gospel authors also accurately described the cities and geography of the region, the popular names for men and women at the time, and the correct governmental processes and procedures employed by the Jews and the Romans. The authors even documented these truths using a form of Greek that was popular in the region in the first century.

The claims of the Gospel authors were also preserved over time. My experience documenting the “chain of custody” for any piece of evidence in a criminal trial helped me to trace the claims of the New Testament authors over the centuries. The students of the Apostle John, for example (Ignatius, Papias and Polycarp), reiterate John’s claims without any modification. Ignatius and Polycarp then repeated the Gospel claims faithfully to their student, Irenaeus, without altering them. As I examined the ancient letters of these Church Fathers, I discovered that the truth about Jesus could be reconstructed from their letters to one another and to local congregations. The facts about Jesus were never altered along the way.

Finally, I investigated the motives of the Gospel authors. My experience investigating homicides taught me that there are only three reasons why anyone commits a murder, and these are the same three reasons why people lie: financial greed, sexual desire and the pursuit of power. As I examined the lives of the Gospel authors, I found that none of them had anything to gain in any of these areas. Christians in the first three centuries (prior to the Roman Edict of Milan), suffered for their commitment to Jesus. Christians were persecuted during this time. Many lost their possessions, their standing within their family and community, even their lives. If the claims related to Jesus were untrue, they would have been the most dangerous and consequential untruths anyone could utter.

The Gospel authors passed the four-part test I typically applied to eyewitnesses in my criminal cases. Their written accounts reliably and accurately described the resurrection of Jesus without ulterior motive. When I realized this was the case, everything changed for me.

Read more at: harbingersdaily.com