‘God is Dead’: Leftist Rioters Vandalize Churches and Synagogues

Daniel Greenfield – June 4, 2020

The assault on St. John’s Episcopal Church by radicals and racists was the ugliest moment of the D.C. riots. Not only was the famous 204-year-old church, which every president since Madison has attended, sprayed with graffiti, but some of the thugs even tried to burn it down by starting a fire in its basement.

The attack and President Trump’s subsequent visit to the ‘Church of Presidents’ captured the attention of a nation. But what happened to St. John’s was not an aberration. The Black Lives Matter and Antifa riots have been associated with attacks on churches and synagogues across the United States.

The victims of New York City’s leftist riots included St. Patrick’s Cathedral as the venerable 142-year-old building was defaced with obscenities and the three letters BLM for Black Lives Matter, along with “George Floyd” and “No Justice, No Peace”.

In Richmond, Virginia, Beth Ahabah, a 225-year-old Reform Jewish congregation, had the windows in its grand 116-year-old building smashed by rioters. The building is now covered over with plywood. St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, a 175-year-old building, also in Richmond, was defaced with graffiti. Finally, rioters in Richmond broke the windows of the West Broad Church of Christ, an African-American congregation. They left intact the one pane of glass reading, “Welcome”.

Some of the nationwide vandalism of churches and synagogues featured generic Black Lives Matter slogans, but some had hateful messages that were specifically targeted to the houses of worship.

The Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Denver, a 108-year-old building, was at the center of some of the local riots, including the hit-and-run of three Denver police officers, and suffered permanent damage. The walls were also vandalized with graffiti reading, “Pedofiles” and “God is dead”.

https://www.frontpagemag.com

Federal Judge Overrules Idaho Law that Birth Certificates Conform to Biological Sex

Penny Starr – June 5, 2020

Lawmakers in Idaho last year passed the Idaho Vital Statistics Act, which does not allow people to change the sex identification on their birth certificate just because they “identify” as something other than their biological sex.

Those who want to change their gender on their birth certificate because they are “transgender” or have some other “sexual orientation” had already been able to do so because of a 2018 ruling by federal Magistrate Judge Candy Dale, who said it was unconstitutional to deny such changes.

The Idaho State Journal reported on the judge’s latest decision:

Shortly after the bill took effect Lambda Legal, which represented the plaintiffs in the 2018 F.V. v. Barron case, filed a motion asking Dale to clarify whether her 2018 injunction still applies. She ruled on Monday that it does and that the passage of House Bill 509 doesn’t change that.

“The Court clarifies that the plain language and objective of the Order and Judgment entered in this case permanently enjoin (the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare) from infringing on the constitutional rights of transgender individuals by automatically rejecting applications to change the sex listed on their birth certificates to match their gender identity,” Dale wrote. “The Injunction requires IDHW to institute a meaningful and constitutionally-sound process for accepting, reviewing, and considering applications from transgender individuals to amend the gender listed on their birth certificates.”

The judge did not rule on the constitutionality of House Bill 509 or grant Lambda Legal’s effort to block enforcement of the law.

“While serious and formidable questions exist over the constitutionality of HB 509, whether HB 509 can pass constitutional muster is not yet before the Court and not decided here,” Dale wrote. “Likewise, whether enforcement of HB 509 violates the Injunction is not ripe.”

https://www.breitbart.com

New Cold War Tensions Building Between U.S., China

TruNews – June 3, 2020

It’s difficult to know how much longer the “good friendship” between presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping can endure the growing tensions between the U.S. and China, especially after the latest development.

Today, the Chinese Communist Party’s mouthpiece Global Times published an editorial that blasted the U.S., and President Trump in particular, for the violent riots that have erupted across the country:

“As more and more netizens question ‘whether this is how U.S. President Donald Trump makes America great again,’ observers see a weak, irresponsible, and incompetent leadership navigating the country into a completely opposition direction, with all-out efforts to deflect public attention from its own failure. The protests exposed long-standing issues in the U.S., including racial inequality, discrimination, and a polarized society, which have been amplified under the Trump administration.”

The article goes on to claim American politicians have been blaming China for “inflaming the social unrests (sic).” To date, no U.S. politician has made that claim.

Global Times editor-in-chief Hu Xijin personally took things even further Tuesday when he wrote in a separate article:

“When riot breaks out in the U.S., they want to use all means necessary, and cannot stand the loss of order for even one more day. What they are facing are merely unorganized protesters. If this was organized subversion, what would they do? Will they drop an atomic bomb?”

https://www.trunews.com

Israel intel: Iran will have fissile material for a nuke this year, a nuclear-capable missile in two years

ANNA AHRONHEIM, TOVAH LAZAROFF  – February 13, 2019

Iran is capable of producing a nuclear weapon within two years, if it steps up work on its nuclear program and violates the 2015 deal with the West, according to a recent Israeli intelligence assessment.

The assessment was released as the controversial US-led summit against Iran opened in Warsaw, where Israel is expected to pressure the European Union against trying to prop up the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action following the American withdrawal last May.

In the Polish capital, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke openly about the possibility of war with Iran, and the possibility of a new alliance of Arab states with Israel, in the event of such hostilities.

“I am going to a meeting with 60 foreign ministers and envoys of countries from around the world against Iran,” Netanyahu said next to an outdoor skating rink in a short video clip his staff filmed for his Facebook page.

“What is important about this meeting – and this meeting is not in secret, because there are many of those – is that this is an open meeting with representatives of leading Arab countries, that are sitting down together with Israel in order to advance the common interest of war with Iran,” he said.

https://www.jpost.com

DR Congo announces fresh Ebola outbreak in country’s northwest

Al Jazeera – June 1, 2020

Health officials in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have reported a fresh Ebola outbreak in the country’s northwest, just weeks before they hoped to declare the end of another Ebola epidemic in the country’s east.

The appearance of the deadly disease on the other side of the vast country comes as an added blow as the DRC attempts to also battle the coronavirus pandemic.

Health Minister Eteni Longondo said on Monday “four people have already died” from Ebola in a district of the northwestern city of Mbandaka.

“The National Institute of Biomedical Research (INRB) has confirmed to me that samples from Mbandaka tested positive for Ebola,” Longondo told a news conference.

“We will send them the vaccine and medicine very quickly,” the minister said, adding that he planned to visit the site of the outbreak at the end of the week.

The capital of Equateur Province, Mbandaka is a transport hub on the Congo River with a population of more than a million.

Equateur Province was previously hit by an Ebola outbreak between May and July 2018, in which 33 people died and 21 recovered from the disease.

https://www.aljazeera.com

78 Members of Congress Support HHS Rule Protecting Healthcare Workers Who Decline to Perform Abortions

– June 1, 2020

WASHINGTON — Numerous state attorneys general and 78 members of Congress have signed on to amicus briefs supporting a new rule issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that aims to protect the conscience rights of medical professionals who have objections to assisting with abortions or physician-assisted suicides.

HHS was sued last year by New York Attorney General Letitia James, who led a coalition of nearly two dozen other states, as she asserted that the “Conscience Rights in Health Care” rule is discriminatory and “a gross misrepresentation of religious freedom.” The abortion giant Planned Parenthood and the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association sued to challenge the protections as well.

In November, a federal judge struck down the measure, opining that the rule is unnecessary and too rigidly places states at jeopardy of losing federal funding for non-compliance with the conscience protections.

“The Department’s regulations are a recent chapter in this country’s ‘long history of providing protections … on the basis of religious beliefs and moral convictions,’” wrote Ohio Attorney General David Yost in a recent amicus brief to defend the rules as the case now rests in the hands of a federal appeals court.

“That history actually begins with the states. By the time the federal Constitution was ratified, all but one of the original thirteen states already had constitutional protections for religious freedom,” he noted.

https://christiannews.net

Magnitude 5.5 quake hits shaky California desert region

Associated Press – June 3, 2020

RIDGECREST, Calif. (AP) — A magnitude 5.5 earthquake has jolted the region of California desert where a powerful quake last summer was followed by thousands of aftershocks.

The U.S. Geological Survey says Wednesday’s quake hit at a fairly shallow depth shortly after 6:30 p.m. and was centered 13.6 miles (22 kilometers) north of the small city of Ridgecrest.

A dispatcher with the Ridgecrest Police Department said there were no immediate reports of damage or injury.

The quake was felt as a bump and rolling motion in a high-rise building in downtown Las Vegas. Local television news broadcasts stopped as anchors reported seeing lights sway in their studios.

It also shook buildings in downtown Los Angeles.

A magnitude 7.1 quake on July 5, 2019, and a magnitude 6.4 foreshock the day before strongly shook the region.

Damage from those quakes occurred to facilities on the sprawling Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake as well as in the nearby communities of Trona and Ridgecrest.

Seismologist Lucy Jones tweeted that Wednesday’s quake was “a large late aftershock” of last July’s activity. Among the many aftershocks, a handful have reached the magnitude-5 level.

https://news.yahoo.com

New Jersey Adopts Mandated LGBTQ-Inclusive Planned Parenthood Sex Ed Standards

Dr. Susan Berry  –  June 4, 2020

LGBTQ activist groups and Planned Parenthood are applauding the New Jersey State Board of Education’s approval of their “gold standard” sex ed standards.

LGBTQ activists Garden State Equality and abortion business Planned Parenthood announced in a joint statement Wednesday they are pleased their recommended public school sex ed standards, modeled after the National Sexuality Education Standards for grades K-12, were approved.

“The new guidelines and educational requirements feature an updated, more comprehensive curriculum that includes expanded content topics, including LGBTQ identities and consent,” the press statement said.

The 2020 NJSLS were adopted at today’s SBOE meeting. We are so grateful for the collaboration between the NJDOE, educator review teams, and stakeholders for their contribution to the adopted standards. Please click here to access the ’21-’22 standards: https://www.nj.gov/education/cccs/

The leftwing activist groups framed their announcement about the adoption of the new standards in the context of the national events occurring in the wake of the death of George Floyd, claiming sex ed is now an “equity issue”:

As our nation reckons with the systemic racism and violence against Black communities that is a part of all of our institutions, including our education systems, we take pause today to consider how sex education is an equity issue. Sex education is essential to young people’s health, relationships, and life goals, and has a proven track record of helping young people develop the knowledge and skills they need to make healthy decisions about their relationships, their health, and their future.

However, Monica Cline, a previous Planned Parenthood-trained Title X sex ed instructor and founder of It Takes A Family, told Breitbart News Planned Parenthood and its allies are “cleverly high jacking the injustices of other populations to silence opposition to their sexualized agenda for our youth.”

https://www.breitbart.com

NASA Keeping Tabs on Stadium-Sized Asteroid Headed Toward Earth

Amy Furr – June 4, 2020

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said Wednesday that it was keeping an eye on several asteroids moving closer to Earth in the next few days.

“According to the agency’s asteroid watch, the largest of the five currently being tracked is 1,100 feet wide, roughly the size of a stadium,” WMBF reported.

However, the massive asteroid, expected to be nearest the Earth on Saturday, was not supposed to be a threat because the closest it was predicted to come was 3.16 million miles away.

“There are three others the size of a plane and one the size of a house also making their way to earth over the next few days,” according to Fox 2 Now.

“Scientists also don’t believe there are any concerns from those asteroids either. The closest one is expected to come within 1,830,000 miles of earth later today,” the article noted.

On its website, NASA posted an Asteroid Watch Widget to track the asteroids and comets that would make relatively close approaches to our planet.

“The Widget displays the next five Earth approaches to within 4.6 million miles (7.5 million kilometers or 19.5 times the distance to the moon); an object larger than about 150 meters that can approach the Earth to within this distance is termed a potentially hazardous object,” the site read.

Although it was unlikely for an asteroid to collide with Earth in the near future, scientists from all over the world gathered at a 2019 conference to discuss how to respond to one big enough to destroy a major city, according to CBS News.

“All we have to do is change its speed a little faster or a little slower so that when it crosses Earth’s orbit, it crosses either in front of us or behind us,” stated Dr. Lori Glaze, who is the director of planetary science at NASA.

https://www.breitbart.com

India and China Move In More Troops as Border Tensions Rise

Archana Chaudhary, Sudhi Ranjan Sen – May 27, 2020

(Bloomberg) — India has moved additional troops along its northern border as it prepares for an extended conflict with neighbor China, after several rounds of talks failed to ease tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals.

China has already placed about 5,000 soldiers and armored vehicles within its side of the disputed border in the Ladakh region, an Indian government official said, asking not to be identified citing rules. India is adding a similar number of troops as well as artillery guns along the border to fend off the continuing incursions by Chinese army, the official said.

The standoff began on May 5, when troops clashed on the banks of Pangong Tso — a glacial lake at 14,000 feet in the Tibetan plateau — leaving scores of soldiers on both sides injured. Since then there has been a steady build up of troops amid continuing face-offs.

Diplomats in New Delhi and Beijing have begun talks after negotiations between Indian and Chinese military officials on May 22 and 23 brought no results, the official said. China’s move to step up incursions at two different locations along the 3,488 kilometer (2,167 mile) undemarcated border is a deviation from its earlier attempts to gain territory after the two nations fought a war in 1962,according to the officials.

U.S. President Donald Trump said in a tweet Wednesday that he had offered to mediate. There was no immediate response from India or China.

https://www.bloombergquint.com