The Sixth Seal Is Long Overdue (Revelation 6:12)

     

ON THE MAP; Exploring the Fault Where the Next Big One May Be Waiting

By MARGO NASH

Published: March 25, 2001

Alexander Gates, a geology professor at Rutgers-Newark, is co-author of ”The Encyclopedia of Earthquakes and Volcanoes,” which will be published by Facts on File in July. He has been leading a four-year effort to remap an area known as the Sloatsburg Quadrangle, a 5-by-7-mile tract near Mahwah that crosses into New York State. The Ramapo Fault, which runs through it, was responsible for a big earthquake in 1884, and Dr. Gates warns that a recurrence is overdue. He recently talked about his findings.

Q. What have you found?

A. We’re basically looking at a lot more rock, and we’re looking at the fracturing and jointing in the bedrock and putting it on the maps. Any break in the rock is a fracture. If it has movement, then it’s a fault. There are a lot of faults that are offshoots of the Ramapo. Basically when there are faults, it means you had an earthquake that made it. So there was a lot of earthquake activity to produce these features. We are basically not in a period of earthquake activity along the Ramapo Fault now, but we can see that about six or seven times in history, about 250 million years ago, it had major earthquake activity. And because it’s such a fundamental zone of weakness, anytime anything happens, the Ramapo Fault goes.

Q. Where is the Ramapo Fault?

 A. The fault line is in western New Jersey and goes through a good chunk of the state, all the way down to Flemington. It goes right along where they put in the new 287. It continues northeast across the Hudson River right under the Indian Point power plant up into Westchester County. There are a lot of earthquakes rumbling around it every year, but not a big one for a while.

Q. Did you find anything that surprised you?

A. I found a lot of faults, splays that offshoot from the Ramapo that go 5 to 10 miles away from the fault. I have looked at the Ramapo Fault in other places too. I have seen splays 5 to 10 miles up into the Hudson Highlands. And you can see them right along the roadsides on 287. There’s been a lot of damage to those rocks, and obviously it was produced by fault activities. All of these faults have earthquake potential.

Q. Describe the 1884 earthquake.

A. It was in the northern part of the state near the Sloatsburg area. They didn’t have precise ways of describing the location then. There was lots of damage. Chimneys toppled over. But in 1884, it was a farming community, and there were not many people to be injured. Nobody appears to have written an account of the numbers who were injured.

Q. What lessons we can learn from previous earthquakes?

A. In 1960, the city of Agadir in Morocco had a 6.2 earthquake that killed 12,000 people, a third of the population, and injured a third more. I think it was because the city was unprepared.There had been an earthquake in the area 200 years before. But people discounted the possibility of a recurrence. Here in New Jersey, we should not make the same mistake. We should not forget that we had a 5.4 earthquake 117 years ago. The recurrence interval for an earthquake of that magnitude is every 50 years, and we are overdue. The Agadir was a 6.2, and a 5.4 to a 6.2 isn’t that big a jump.

Q. What are the dangers of a quake that size?

A. When you’re in a flat area in a wooden house it’s obviously not as dangerous, although it could cut off a gas line that could explode. There’s a real problem with infrastructure that is crumbling, like the bridges with crumbling cement.There’s a real danger we could wind up with our water supplies and electricity cut off if a sizable earthquake goes off. The best thing is to have regular upkeep and keep up new building codes. The new buildings will be O.K. But there is a sense of complacency.

MARGO NASH

IAEA says the Iranian Horn is Nuclear Ready: Daniel 8

Iran accelerates enrichment of uranium to near weapons-grade, IAEA says

August 18, 2021 00:07

VIENNA: Iran has accelerated its enrichment of uranium to near weapons-grade, the UN atomic watchdog said in a report on Tuesday seen by Reuters, a move raising tensions with the West as both sides seek to resume talks on reviving Tehran’s nuclear deal.
Iran increased the purity to which it is refining uranium to 60 percent fissile purity from 20 percent in April in response to an explosion and power cut at its Natanz site that damaged output at the main underground enrichment plant there.
Iran has blamed the attack on Israel. Weapons-grade is around 90 percent purity.
In May, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported that Iran was using one cascade, or cluster, of advanced centrifuges to enrich to up to 60 percent at its above-ground pilot enrichment plant at Natanz. The IAEA informed member states on Tuesday that Iran was now using a second cascade for that purpose, too.
The move is the latest of many by Iran breaching the restrictions imposed by the 2015 nuclear deal, which capped the purity to which Tehran can refine uranium at 3.67 percent. The United States and its European allies have warned such moves threaten talks on reviving the deal, which are currently suspended.
Following Reuters’ report, Iran reiterated that its nuclear program is peaceful and said it had informed the IAEA about its enrichment activities. It added that its moves away from the 2015 deal would be reversed if the United States returned to the accord and lifted sanctions, Iranian state media reported.
“If the other parties return to their obligations under the nuclear accord and Washington fully and verifiably lifts its unilateral and illegal sanctions … all of Iran’s mitigation and countermeasures will be reversible,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh was quoted as saying by state media.
The IAEA said on Monday that Iran had made progress in its work on enriched uranium metal despite objections by Western powers that there is no credible civilian use for such work.
Uranium metal can be used to make the core of a nuclear

Hundreds of Gazans Hold Protests Outside the Temple Walls: Revelation 11

Hundreds of Gazans protest blockade along Israeli frontier

WAFAA SHURAFA , Associated Press Updated: Aug. 29, 2021 5:58 p.m.

FILE – In this Friday, Aug. 27, 2021 file photo, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett speaks as he meets with President Joe Biden in the Oval Office of the White House, in Washington. Early Sunday, Aug. 29, 2021, Israeli planes struck Hamas militant targets in the Gaza Strip, hours after violent clashes between Palestinian protesters and troops along the border. Before returning to Israel from Washington, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said his country will “operate in Gaza according to our interests.Evan Vucci/AP

JERUSALEM (AP) — Hundreds of Palestinians gathered Sunday night along the separation fence with Israel, setting tires on fire and throwing explosives as Gaza’s Hamas rulers pressed ahead with a campaign aimed at pressuring Israel to ease a stifling blockade of the territory. One protester was moderately wounded by Israeli gunfire.

It was the second consecutive nighttime border protest and took place hours after Israeli warplanes carried out a series of airstrikes on alleged Hamas targets in response to the unrest. Hamas officials have promised to hold nightly protests all week.

“The Zionist occupation bears all the repercussions and consequences of the tightening of the siege on Gaza and the escalation of the humanitarian crisis among its residents,” said Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum. “No calm or stability will be achieved as long as our people lack a free and dignified life.”

The Israeli military said protesters set tires on fire and lobbed explosives toward Israeli troops, and that its forces took unspecified measures to disperse the crowd. The Palestinian Health Ministry said one protester was shot and suffered moderate wounds. No further details were immediately available.

Israel, with Egypt’s help, has maintained a tight blockade on Gaza since Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007, a year after winning a Palestinian election.

Israel says the closure, which tightly restricts the movement of goods and people in and out of Gaza, is needed to prevent Hamas from building up its military capabilities. Critics say the closure, which has devastated the economy, amounts to collective punishment.

Israel has tightened the blockade since an 11-day war against Hamas in May while Egypt tries to broker a long-term cease-fire. Israel has demanded that Hamas return the remains of two dead soldiers and release two captive Israeli civilians in exchange for easing the blockade.

Hamas has grown increasingly angry over the lack of progress in the cease-fire talks. Its operatives have launched a series of incendiary balloons across the border in recent weeks, sparking a series of wildfires in southern Israel.

Hamas also has allowed a number of violent demonstrations along the border.

Two Palestinians, including a 12-year-old boy and a Hamas militant, have been killed from Israeli gunfire, while an Israeli soldier was critically wounded when a militant shot him in the head at point-blank range during one of the protests.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, speaking before returning to Israel from Washington, said the pressure on Hamas would continue.

“We will operate in Gaza according to our interests,” he said in Hebrew on the tarmac.

Israel and Hamas are bitter enemies that have fought four wars since Hamas took power, most recently in May.

At least 260 Palestinians were killed during May’s Hamas-Israel war, including 67 children and 39 women, according to the Gaza health ministry. Hamas has acknowledged the deaths of 80 militants. Twelve civilians, including two children, were killed in Israel, along with one soldier.

How the Beast of the Sea Failed: Revelation 13:1

The roots of America’s defeat

The foundations of failure were laid in the days, weeks and months that followed the Sept. 11 attacks, when the guiding assumptions of the “War on Terror” were put together.

Caroline Glick(August 29, 2021 / JNS)

Even before the suicide bombings outside the Kabul airport on Thursday evening, the U.S. media was acting with rare unanimity. For the first time in memory, U.S. media organs across the ideological and political spectrum have been united in the view that U.S. President Joe Biden fomented a strategic disaster for the United States and its allies with his incompetent leadership of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Some compare it to the 1961 Bay of Pigs; others to Saigon in 1975; others to the U.S. embassy in Tehran in 1979. Whatever the analogy, the bottom line is the same: Biden’s surrender to the Taliban has already entered the pantheon of American post-war defeats.

Biden is personally responsible for the humanitarian and strategic disaster unfolding before our eyes. He is the only American leader in history who has willfully abandoned Americans and American allies to their fate behind enemy lines. But while Biden is solely responsible for the decision to leave Afghanistan in its current condition, it isn’t Biden’s fault that after 20 years of war, the Taliban was still around, stronger than it was on Sept. 11, 2001, and fully capable of seizing control of the country. The foundations of that failure were laid in the days, weeks and months that followed the Sept. 11 attacks.

In the aftermath of Sept. 11, then-President George W. Bush and his national security team put together the guiding assumptions for what came to be known as the global war on terror. In the years since, some of the assumptions were updated, adapted or replaced as conditions on the ground evolved. But three of the assumptions that stood at the foundation of America’s military, intelligence and diplomatic planning and operations since then were not revisited, save for the final two years of the Trump administration. All three contributed significantly to America’s defeat in Afghanistan and its failure to win the war against global terror as a whole. The first assumption related to Pakistan, the second to Iran and the third to Israel.

By rights, Pakistan should have been the first domino to fall after the Sept. 11 attacks. The Taliban were the brainchild of Pakistan’s jihad-addled ISI intelligence agency. Al-Qaeda operatives also received ISI support. But aside from a few threats and temporary sanctions around the time of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001, the United States took no significant actions against Pakistan. The reason for America’s inaction is easy to understand.

In 1998 Pakistan tested nuclear weapons. By Sept. 11, 2001, Pakistan fielded a significant nuclear arsenal. Following the attacks, Pakistan made clear its view of nuclear war, and the connection between its position and its sponsorship of terror.

In October and December 2001, Kashmiri terrorists sponsored by Pakistan attacked the Jammu and Kashmir parliament and the Indian parliament. When India accused Pakistan of responsibility and threatened reprisals, then-Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf placed the Pakistani military on alert. India began deploying troops to the border and Pakistan followed suit.

Rather than side with India, the United States pressured Delhi to stand down, which it did in April 2002. In June 2002, Pakistani-backed terrorists carried out suicide bombings against the wives and children of Indian soldiers. The countdown to war began again. In June 2002, again bowing to U.S. pressure, India pledged it would not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons to the conflict. Musharraf refused to follow suit.

Rather than rally behind India, the Bush administration wrested an empty promise from Musharraf that he would stop sponsoring terrorism and then pressured India to stand down again. The U.S. message was clear. By credibly threatening to use its nuclear weapons, Pakistan deterred the Americans. Less than six months later, North Korea expelled United Nations inspectors from its nuclear reactor at Yongbyon and withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Iran escalated its covert nuclear activities at Isfahan and Natanz.

The U.S. decision to dodge a confrontation with Pakistan following the Sept. 11 attacks empowered the ISI to rebuild the Taliban and Al-Qaeda after the United States decimated both in its initial offensive. Taliban leaders decamped to Pakistan, where they rebuilt their forces and waged a war of attrition against U.S. and NATO forces and the Afghan army and government they built. Osama bin Laden was living in what amounted to a Pakistani military base when he was killed by U.S. commandos. That war ended with Biden’s surrender and the Taliban’s recapture of Kabul this month.

This brings us to Iran. In their post-Sept. 11 deliberations, Bush and his advisers decided not to confront Iran, but instead seek to reach an accommodation with the mullahcracy. This wasn’t a new policy. Since the Reagan administration, the dominant view in Washington has been that it is possible to reach an accord with the Iranian regime that would restore the strategic alliance between Washington and Tehran that existed prior to the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Bush and his advisers were not moved to reassess that view when they learned that Iran provided material support to the September 11 hijackers. They didn’t reconsider their assumption after Al-Qaeda’s leadership decamped to Tehran when the Taliban was routed in Afghanistan. They didn’t reconsider it when Iran served as the headquarters and the arms depot for Al-Qaeda in Iraq or the Shi’ite militias in their war against U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq.

Barack Obama embraced Bush’s assumption on Iran. Instead of confronting Tehran, he tried to realign the U.S. Middle East alliance system toward Iran and away from America’s Arab allies and Israel. He effectively handed Iran control over Iraq when he withdrew U.S. forces. He paved Iran’s path to nuclear arsenal with the 2015 nuclear deal.

After a prolonged fight with the Washington establishment and its representatives in his cabinet who embraced Bush’s assumptions, in his last two years in office, Donald Trump partially abandoned the strategic assumption that Iran could and should be appeased. Biden, for his part, is committed to reinstating and escalating Obama’s policies towards Iran.

As for Israel, in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, then secretary of state Colin Powell convinced Bush to adopt two related assumptions on Israel. First, he determined that terrorism against Israel was different—and more acceptable—than terrorism against everyone else. And second, Bush determined that the war against terror would be directed at terror groups, but not at governments that sponsored terrorism (except Iraq). As former Bush administration official David Wurmser, who was involved in the post-Sept. 11 deliberations, recalled recently, Powell argued that terrorism threatened the Arabs no less than it threatened America. This being the case, the trick to winning them over to the U.S. side was to give them a payoff that would make it worth their while.

Israel was the payoff. The United States would be able to bring Syria on board by getting Israel to give the Golan Heights to the Assad regime. Washington would bring in the Saudis and the rest of the Sunnis by forcing Israel to give Judea, Samaria, Gaza and Jerusalem to the PLO.

Ahead of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon tried to unravel Washington’s guiding assumption about Iran. He told Bush and his advisers that Iraq hadn’t posed a strategic threat to Israel or anyone else in the region since the 1991 Gulf War. If the United States wanted to defeat global terror, Sharon explained, it should act against Iran. The administration ignored him.

As for the administration’s assumptions about Israel, a week after the attacks, Bush deliberately left the terrorism against Israel out of the war on terror when he told the joint houses of Congress that the war would be directed against terror groups “with global reach.”

Recognizing where the Americans were headed, in October 2001, Sharon gave what became known as his “Czechoslovakia speech.”

Following a deadly terror attack in Gaza, Sharon said, “I call on the Western democracies, and primarily the leader of the free world, the United States: Do not repeat the dreadful mistake of 1938, when enlightened European democracies decided to sacrifice Czechoslovakia for ‘a convenient temporary solution.’

“Do not try to appease the Arabs at our expense—this is unacceptable to us. Israel will not be Czechoslovakia. Israel will fight terrorism. There is no ‘good terrorism’ and ‘bad terrorism,’ as there is no ‘good murder’ and ‘bad murder.’”

The administration’s response to Sharon’s statement was swift and furious. Sharon was harshly rebuked by Powell and the White House and he beat a swift retreat.
A month later, Powell became the first senior U.S. official to officially endorse the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Sharon’s failure to convince the Americans to rethink their false assumptions owed to his incomprehension and fear of Washington. Benjamin Netanyahu, in contrast, had an intimate familiarity with the ways of Washington. As a result, his efforts to convince the Americans to reconsider their assumptions about Iran and Israel met with significant success. Netanyahu’s first success in relation to Iran came through the Arabs.

Netanyahu recognized that the Arab Gulf states were as threatened by Iran—and by Obama’s efforts to appease Iran—as Israel was. So he reached out to them. Convinced by Netanyahu, Saudi Arabia led the Arab Gulf states and Egypt in embracing Israel as their ally in their existential struggle against Iran. Confronting Iran, the Saudis explained, was far more important to the Arabs than helping the Palestinians.

Israeli-Arab unity on Iran stymied Obama’s efforts to win congressional approval for his nuclear deal. It also stood at the foundation of Trumps’ decision to abandon Obama’s deal.

Netanyahu used his operational alliance with the Arabs as well in his effort to undo the U.S.’s false assumptions about Israel, particularly in regard to the Palestinians. He also used public diplomacy geared towards influencing Israel’s congressional supporters and public opinion. Netanyahu’s efforts derailed Obama’s plan to dictate the terms of a “peace” settlement to Israel. Under Trump, Netanyahu’s efforts influenced Trump’s decision to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem and convinced Trump to support Israeli sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria.

Distressingly, Netanyahu’s successes are being swiftly undone by the Biden administration and the Bennett-Lapid government.

There is a growing sense that Biden’s catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan is setting the world back 20 years. But the truth is even more dire. In 2001, the United States was far more powerful relative to its enemies than it is today. And as has been the case for the past 20 years, the situation will only start moving in the right direction if and when America finally abandons the false assumptions it adopted 20 years ago.

Caroline Glick is an award-winning columnist and author of “The Israeli Solution: A One-State Plan for Peace in the Middle East.”

This article first appeared in Israel Hayom.

The Russian Nuclear Horn Tests Her Latest Weapon: Daniel 7

Russia to start Tsirkon hypersonic missile flight trials from Severodvinsk nuclear submarine in September 2021

Sunday, 29 August 2021 15:23

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According to information released by the Russian press agency, TASS on August 26, 2021, Russian-made Tsirkon hypersonic missile will begin flight trials from the Severodvinsk Yasen-class nuclear submarine on September 2021, citing a source of the Russian defense industry.

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Russian Navy K-560 Severodvinsk nuclear attack submarine Project 885. (Picture source Reddit)

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The first test launch of Tsirkon hypersonic missile from the Severodvinsk submarine in the White Sea is scheduled in September 2021,” said press officer of the Russian defense industry at the Army-2021 International Military Technical Forum in Moscow, Russia. Several test launches are to be made before the White Sea is covered with ice.

Another source said the submarine launch should be preceded by a test launch from the Admiral Gorshkov frigate. NPO mashinostroenia that designed Tsirkon refused to comment on this information.

Many countries in the world have launched the development of hypersonic missile systems including China, Russia and the United States. Most U.S. hypersonic weapons, in contrast to those in Russia and China, are not being designed for use with a nuclear warhead. As a result, U.S. hypersonic weapons will likely require greater accuracy and will be more technically challenging to develop than nuclear-armed Chinese and Russian systems. Hypersonic missiles can fly at a speed of Mach 5. This type of missile could challenge detection and defense due to its speed, maneuverability, and low altitude of flight. Currently, terrestrial-based radar cannot detect hypersonic weapons until late in the weapon’s flight.

Today, Russia has launched two hypersonic weapons programs including the Avangard and the 3M22 Tsirkon (or Zircon), and has reportedly fielded the Kinzhal (“Dagger”), a maneuvering air-launched ballistic missile.

The Tsirkon is a ship-launched hypersonic cruise missile capable of traveling at speeds of between Mach 6 and Mach 8. The missile is reportedly capable of striking both ground and naval targets. According to Russian news sources, Tsirkon has a range of between approximately 400 and 965 km and can be fired from the vertical launch systems mounted on cruisers Admiral Nakhimov and Pyotr Veliky, Project 20380 corvettes, Project 22350 frigates, and Project 885 Yasen-class submarines, among other platforms.

The K-560 Severodvinsk is a Yasen-class nuclear-powered cruise missile submarine of the Russian NavyThe Yasen-class nuclear submarines will be armed with land-attack cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles, anti-submarine missiles including the P-800 Oniks SLCM, Kalibr family SLCM or 3M51 SLCM. Kalibr-PL has several variants including the 3M54K (terminal-supersonic) and 3M54K1 (subsonic) anti-ship, 91R1 anti-submarine, and the 3M14K land-attack variant. The submarine will be also able to fire hypersonic 3M22 Zircon cruise missiles. Each submarine can carry 32 Kalibr or 24 Oniks, according to Russian military sources, the submarine will be able to carry 40 Kalibr and 32 Oniks cruise missiles which are stored in eight (ten for 855M) vertical launchers. Additional missiles may be carried in the torpedo room at the expense of torpedoes. and the lead vessel of this class.

The growing fear of World War III with Russia: Revelation 16

WW3 fears Russia is planning a final test of supersonic nuclear weapons, warning NATO is “causing a conflict” with the Black Sea wargame

isabellakhademhosseini

Three fears have been fueled as World War III Russia accused NATO of “causing conflict” with the Black Sea war game.

The Moscow warning is in the midst of planning a final test of Vladimir Putin’s feared hypersonic nuclear weapon (a deadly weapon at 15,880 mph).RS-28 Sarmat-also known as Satan-2 in the WestCredit: East2West

Weapons at 15,880 mph will be Putin’s largest nuclear weaponCredit: East2West

Moscow is proud that its new weapons can evade the US defense shield and destroy areas as large as England and Wales, or Texas.

Russia today confirmed that a new deadly hypersonic 208-ton “Satan-2” intercontinental ballistic missile flight test is about to begin.

The surprise announcement came a few days after more than 2,000 troops and 30 ships, including the United Kingdom, participated in the NATO exercise Breeze 2021 in the Black Sea.

The first test of a 5th generation silo-based liquid propellant intercontinental ballistic missile (called RS-28 Sarmat, but Satan-2 in the west) will be “Autumn”.

And by the end of this year, the second test will start.

The missile’s new promotional video shows a poster from the West boasting that Salmat “doesn’t need a visa.”

Weapons at 15,880 mph will be the largest modernized nuclear weapon in Vladimirputin after a state trial.

If successful, the Salmat missile will help strengthen Russia’s defenses soon next year.

Nuclear weapon “moldable”

Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu said: [will begin] This year, it is scheduled to be completed in 2022.

“In 2022, the first batch should be commissioned with the Strategic Rocket Force.”

According to the Russians, the weapon can deliver multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle (MIRV) warheads (weighing up to 10 tonnes) anywhere in the world, flying both the North Pole and the South Pole. increase.

Izvestia reported that it has the ability to use orbits and unpredictable routes that “substantially prevent their destruction even by advanced missile defense systems.”

According to the designer, it is possible to bypass the missile defense system and fly on an “unpredictable route”.

Sarmat can also fly over the North and South Pole and “approach the target from directions where interception is not expected.”

Shoygu made a test announcement while visiting Krasmash, which is based in Krasnoyarsk. Class Mash plans to mass produce a new Salmat strategic missile system.

He was accompanied by Dmitry Rogozin, head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos.

Putin’s close ally, Shoygu, said, “We have seen Krasmash ready to fulfill the long-term contract for the Salmat missile, one of the most formidable weapons we should have.” rice field.

The Black Sea is strategically important to NATO.

Nato spokesman Piers Casalet

The launch is expected to take place from an underground silo at the Plesetsk Space Center in northwestern Russia, meeting Kamchatka’s goal on the country’s Pacific coast.

One test can be done over a maximum range of 11,200 miles.

In previous footage, “invincible” hypersonic weapons emerged from silos, paused as if they were floating on the ground, and speeding up toward the target in a cloud of white smoke.

Today’s announcement is in the midst of heightened tensions between Russia and the West.

Putin was angry after Bulgaria led a large-scale maritime exercise that ended on July 19.

14 NATO allies and partners from Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and the United States were involved in the Black Sea mission.

“The Black Sea is strategically important to NATO.

“The alliance continues to focus on the security of the Black Sea,” said Deputy Spokesman Pierce Casalet.

World War II horror

NATO has increased its presence in the Black Sea since Russia annexed Crimea illegally and illegally. 

Nato vessels operate routinely in the Black Sea in accordance with international law and typically patrol the waters for about two-thirds of the year.

However, Yuri Piripson, the fourth European director of the Moscow Ministry, told Leah Novosti on Thursday:

“It is very clear that this kind of’training’does rather than prevents conflict situations. “

“We have repeatedly warned that the spread of military and political conflicts at the border entails conflicting responsibilities.”

His warning is issued after a Russian hypersonic nuclear submarine has submerged more than 500 meters in the Atlantic Ocean after performing an ominous “deep penetration” mission.

And on August 2, Sun Online reported that Moscow had accused the United States of “extremely dangerous” threats of using force against Putin’s fighters over the Black Sea.

Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko counterattacked after the top US Admiral appeared to be “seducing us to shoot us first” in the turmoil of Moscow’s NATO ships by low-flying Air Force fighters.

There is a continuing verbal war between Russia and the West, and there is fear that future major conflicts may be resolved in space.

Russia is accelerating testing of the new Sarmat strategic missile systemCredit: East2West

Sergey Shoygu, Minister of Defense of Russia, strict at Krasmash factoryCredit: East2West

Salmat missiles are factory producedCredit: East2West

The video shows a mysterious “blast” that “six people died” at a secret Russian weapons factory after suffering from “horrible burns”

WW3 fears Russia is planning a final test of supersonic nuclear weapons, warning NATO is “causing a conflict” with the Black Sea wargame

The Antichrist seeks to share in the summit’s limelight as he eyes elections

Muqtada al-Sadr seeks to share in the summit’s limelight as he eyes elections

BAGHDA–Iraqi Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has tried to share in the limelight and project himself as a pragmatic statesman on the occasion of the Baghdad Summit for Cooperation and Partnership.

On the eve of the summit, Sadr announced the reversal of his decision to boycott the early parliamentary elections scheduled for this October.

The Sadrist movement will enter the electoral contest hoping to achieve a comfortable parliamentary majority that would allow it to form the next Iraqi government.

Sadr seeks to take advantage of the failure of his major rivals in the Shia political camp to lead the country.

He voiced support for the summit, which brought together regional leaders in addition to French President Emmanuel Macron.

The gathering was hosted by Iraqi President Barham Salih and Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi.

Sadr tweeted, “Iraq can play an important role in establishing security and stability in the Middle East”.

He knows that, since 2003, the choice of Iraq’s rulers has been determined by an American-Iranian consensus, despite the intense competition that pits Washington against Tehran for influence over the country.

The leader of the Sadrist movement wants to shed the image of a sectarian religious leader and armed militia chief, assuming instead the mantle of a responsible statesman.

He said, holding the summit “is very important from an economic and security perspective and it is a  clear indication of the importance of Iraq in the region.”

He added, “The summit was successful in bringing together many parties and Iraq can play a major role in establishing security and stability in the Middle East.”

Sadr also thanked Salih and Kadhimi, lauding the prime minister for “the effective impact he had in opening up to the international and regional environment, especially the Arab world.”

His words reflected Sadr’s support for the present Iraqi administration, though he had vowed in the past not to back any current or future governments.

On Saturday, the Iraqi capital hosted the Baghdad Summit for Cooperation and Partnership, with the participation of both Saudi Arabia and Iran.

This, of itself, was considered an achievement for the diplomacy of Salih and Kadhimi.

Overcoming the country’s instability and restoring its crumbling economy requires balanced relations with major regional players. This was Kadhimi’s goal behind the summit.

The countries taking part in the conference voiced  their support for the stability of Iraq and its government’s efforts to “strengthen state institutions in accordance with constitutional mechanisms and to hold parliamentary elections under international supervision to ensure the integrity and transparency of the expected voting process.”

In their final statement, the leaders and representatives of participating countries welcomed “Iraq’s efforts to reach a common ground with the regional and international neighbours.”

The summit was held in the run-up to Iraq’s next parliamentary elections, which some consider as a last chance for change in the country that has been languishing for eighteen years under the rule of a group of religious parties and armed Shia factions under a cloud of suspected corruption and ineptitude .

The leader of the Sadrist movement senses his opportunity to achieve a watershed victory in the forthcoming elections as he seeks to boost his leadership credentials amid factional and political adversity.

USGS confirms earthquake before the Sixth Seal: Revelation 6:12

 

USGS confirms earthquake reported in Livingston County

NEW YORK NEWS
by: Eric Snitil, James Battaglia
Posted: May 29, 2021 / 06:21 PM EDT / Updated: May 29, 2021 / 06:26 PM EDT

LIVINGSTON COUNTY, N.Y. (WROC) — Residents of Livingston County, New York felt a 2.4-magnitude earthquake Thursday evening, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, which studies landscapes, natural resources, and natural hazards that threaten the country.

It happened at 8:41 p.m., and many in the region felt the shake. Livingston County Sheriff Thomas Dougherty tweeted about the earthquake just before 9:30 p.m., saying his office was receiving multiple calls from concerned residents.

Schumer, Gillibrand urge USDA to fund more NYS dairy farmers
According to Eric Snitil, the chief meteorologist at NEWS10’s sister station in Rochester, earthquakes under 3.0 magnitude are difficult for the general public to notice. However, because Thursday’s quake occurred at a depth of roughly 2.3 miles, a little over 12,000 feet. Anything under 44 miles is considered “shallow.” Shallow quakes have a higher likelihood of being noticed, so even at a 2.4 magnitude, you might feel it.

Copyright 2021 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

The Antichrist to run in general elections

Iraq’s Muqtada al-Sadr to run in general elections

Iraq’s influential Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has announced his intention to participate in upcoming general elections, reversing a previous decision.

AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): Iraq’s influential Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has announced his intention to participate in upcoming general elections, reversing a previous decision.

Sadr said in a televised address on Friday that he and his supporters “will enter these elections with vigor and determination, in order to save Iraq from occupation and corruption.”

The early elections, a key demand of the demonstrators who staged anti-government protests in 2019, is scheduled for October 10. Sadr’s bloc is part of an alliance that holds the most seats in parliament now, and is likely to be one of the front-runners in the upcoming vote.

Sadr said he changed his earlier decision after a number of political leaders wrote to him about a “charter for reform” to rid Iraq of corruption and mismanagement. He did not mention names. He also called on his supporters to head to the polls and vote in the forthcoming elections, noting that a vote for his movement would mean an Iraq liberated from foreign meddling and rampant graft.

Last month, Sadr had said he would not participate in the parliamentary elections, and withheld his support for the current government and said he would not back the one that would be elected next either.

The upcoming parliamentary vote will be held under a new electoral law that reduces the size of constituencies and eliminates list-based voting in favor of votes for individual candidates.

Sadr’s political bloc emerged as the biggest in the 2018 parliamentary elections. Last year, Sadr said he wanted the next prime minister to be a member of his party for the first time.

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Antichrist says he will participate in Iraq general election

 

Moqtada al-Sadr says he will participate in Iraq general election

Shia scholar says political leaders had written to him with a ‘charter for reform’ to rid Iraq of corruption.

The populist Shia Muslim scholar, Moqtada al-Sadr, has said he and his supporters would take part in Iraq’s October general election, reversing a decision last month to stay out.

Al-Sadr’s bloc is part of a coalition that holds the most seats in parliament now, and is likely to be one of the frontrunners in the vote, which was called early by Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi as a response to popular protests that took place in 2019.

Al-Sadr said in a televised address on Friday that the about-face came after a number of political leaders, whom he did not identify, had written to him with a “charter for reform” to rid Iraq of corruption and mismanagement.

Taking part in the elections is “now acceptable”, he said, flanked by dozens of officials from his Sadrist movement.

He urged supporters to go to the polls and vote in the election scheduled for October 10. A vote for his movement, he said, would mean an Iraq liberated from foreign meddling and rampant corruption.

“We will enter these elections with vigour and determination, in order to save Iraq from occupation and corruption,” al-Sadr said.

Al-Sadr, whose political manoeuvres have at times puzzled observers, had said in February he backed early elections overseen by the United Nations.

He commands a loyal following of millions of Iraqis, is one of the most powerful political leaders in Iraq and has grown his influence over state institutions in recent years.

Al-Sadr loyalists hold official posts with control of a large portion of the country’s wealth and patronage networks. Detractors accuse al-Sadr and his supporters, like other Iraqi parties, of being involved in corruption within state institutions – a charge Sadrists reject.

An unpredictable and wily political operator, al-Sadr opposes the presence of US troops, of which some 2,500 remain in Iraq, and rejects the influence of neighbouring Iran – a position at odds with many rival Shia politicians and armed groups who are loyal to Tehran.

Militias loyal to al-Sadr fought the US-led occupation of Iraq and he retains a devoted following among the country’s majority Shia population, including in the poor Baghdad district of Sadr City.

The parliamentary vote is set to be held under a new electoral law that reduces the size of constituencies and eliminates list-based voting in favour of votes for individual candidates.

Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi, who came to power in May last year after months of unprecedented mass protests against a ruling class seen as corrupt, inept and subordinate to Tehran, had called the early vote in response to demands by pro-democracy activists.

Al-Sadr’s supporters have been expected to make major gains under the new electoral system.

His Sairoon bloc is currently the largest in parliament, with 54 out of 329 seats.

Plagued by endemic corruption, poor services, dilapidated infrastructure and unemployment, Iraq is facing a deep financial crisis compounded by lower oil prices and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Al-Sadr has appeared under pressure in recent weeks, with pro-Iran groups and individuals attacking him on social media and accusing him of responsibility for Iraq’s recent woes, including electricity shortages and two deadly hospital fires.

The Recurring War Outside the Temple Walls: Revelation 11

War is Gaza’s recurring nightmare

Beit Hanoun, Gaza Strip — From the shell of their sitting room, its wall blown open by Israeli missiles, Zaki and Jawaher Nassir have a window into their neighborhood’s upheaval.

In one building’s skeleton, children play video games atop a slab of fallen concrete. In another, a man stares out from beside a bed covered in debris.

Until this neighborhood was hammered by the fourth war in 13 years between Israel and Hamas, the Nassirs often sat by their window, watching children play.

Now they watch demolition workers hack away at the wreckage so they and their neighbors can start rebuilding — again.

“We have no peace in our lives and we expect that war can happen again at any time,” Zaki Nassir says.

The story of the Nassirs, their neighbors and the toll of four wars is Gaza’s story.

Since 2008, more than 4,000 Palestinians have been killed in the conflicts, over half of them civilians. The Israeli death toll stands at 106.

The Islamic militants, who reject Israel’s right to exist, have fired thousands of rockets across the border. Israel, which considers Hamas a terrorist organization, has repeatedly hit the Strip with overwhelming firepower that, despite its high-tech precision, continues to kill civilians.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has likened Israel’s periodic offensives to mowing an unruly lawn. But the wars have done more than $5 billion in damage to Gaza’s buildings and infrastructure.

Nearly 250,000 homes have been damaged or destroyed.

Gaza’s crisis is rooted in events that came long before Hamas seized control in 2007.

More than half its population are from Palestinian families who fled or were driven from what is now Israel during the 1948 war over its formation. But the recurrent fighting and the blockade of recent years have made life in Gaza far worse.

“It’s not (just) about you are losing a building. You are losing the hope that things will get better,” says Omar Shaban, who runs a Gaza think tank. “Forty percent of the population was born under siege.”

The Nassirs are all too familiar with that narrative of despair. But they resist it, even after a fourth war.

“This is what we have,” Zaki Nassir says. “We have to live.”

Five decades ago, Zaki Nassir’s father moved his family to a plot of farmland in what was then a village. Today, homes built on that tract are filled with Nassirs.

Life in Beit Hanoun deteriorated sharply after Israel withdrew settlers and troops in a 2005 disengagement.

After winning Palestinian elections in 2006, Hamas clashed with the rival Fatah party the following year and seized control of Gaza. In 2008, Israel launched a major offensive after heavy fire by militants.

About 2½ weeks into that war, Israel’s military declared a pause in the fighting so residents could gather supplies. Khaldiya Nassir was preparing the family’s remaining vegetables when her husband, Adham — Zaki Nassir’s nephew — announced he was going out to get flour.

On his way home, a woman flagged him down, pleading for help with her wounded daughter. As the 38-year-old Adham carried the girl from their house, he was wounded in the neck and back by a spray of gunfire.

Evacuated to an Egyptian hospital, Adham died three weeks later. His wife blames Israeli special forces.

Afterward, Khaldiya Nassir set aside much of the orphans’ assistance her family received to build a home filled with personal touches. After the latest war, much of it will have to be torn down, U.N. inspectors say.

“Everything is gone,” she says. “We cannot afford any more fear.”

The Nassirs were largely spared by the next conflict, in 2012. But their neighborhood’s reprieve ended when war returned, less than two years later.

In 2014, three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped in the West Bank and found dead weeks later. Members of Hamas eventually claimed responsibility and Israel arrested scores of its leaders in the West Bank.

Militants responded by firing rockets into southern Israel, igniting a crackdown that exploded into a seven-week war. In Beit Hanoun, residents were told to evacuate to shelters.

Some 3,000 people took refuge at a school, including one of Zaki’s sisters, Wafaa Sihueil, and her husband Thaer.

When the war ended in late August, the Sihueils and others returned to a war-scarred neighborhood. Zaki and Jawaher found their home littered with shrapnel, with cracks crossing the ceiling and a hole that funneled in rainwater. In his brother’s home next door, an incendiary shell had scorched the ceiling black.

Three doors down from the Nassirs, neighbors Fauzi and Neama Abu Amsha told their sons that they were staying put, insisting that at 63 and 62, the Israeli military would never see them as a threat. Jawaher Nassir, seven months pregnant, worried she might not be strong enough to flee on foot.

“When we got to the school we found there was no room for us,” she recalls. “We had to stay in the stairwell.”

They returned home 51 days later to find their home littered with shrapnel, with cracks crossing the ceiling.

When neighbor Akram Abu Amsha returned, his parents were not in their hiding place under the stairs. Then he and his brothers looked for them in a narrow alley, readily visible to drones.

“We found them in pieces,” he says.

This May protests erupted over the anticipated eviction of Palestinian families from homes in east Jerusalem and Israeli restrictions on Ramadan gatherings. A clash with Israeli soldiers at the holy city’s Al-Aqsa mosque touched off the latest war.

Three nights into the fighting, the Nassirs and their neighbors hunkered down, the sound of shelling cutting through the dark.

A little after 12:30 a.m. on May 14, shouts outside warned of military fire to the east. Neighbor Itzhak Fayyad, 46, ran upstairs to reassure sleeping relatives just as the first Israeli missile exploded into the courtyard. The force flung him out a fourth-floor window, shattering his right leg.

Across the yard, the shockwaves flattened Jamal Nassirs’ grocery. Inside, bricks shaken loose from the wall fell on Jalal Nassir, leaving his back twisted in pain.

“May nobody, neither Jews nor Arabs, ever experience such a night,” Itzhak’s brother, Khalil Fayyad, says.

The Israeli Defense Force told the Associated Press it targeted the area because it sat atop an underground tunnel belonging to Palestinian militants. The Air Force had used “precision weapons” to demolish the tunnel, while avoiding civilian casualties, it said.

While missiles did not hit any homes directly, the force blew walls and ceilings apart and left deep craters. Inspectors say many facing the courtyard will have to be torn down and rebuilt or require major repairs.

Until then, the Nassirs and their neighbors return each morning despite inspectors’ warnings not to spend time in the wreckage. Even after four wars in 13 years, and with every expectation that conflict will erupt again, they are staying put.

“Our memories are here,” Jawaher Nassir says.

Iran’s Khamenei: America is still Babylon the Great: Revelation 18

The supreme leader’s remarks came during his first visit with President Ebrahim Raisi’s cabinet, which gained a sweeping vote of confidence by the country’s hardline parliament on Wednesday [Khamenei website via Reuters]

No different from Trump, Iran’s Khamenei slams ‘predatory’ Biden

Iranian supreme leader doubles down on his position before future nuclear talks with Western powers.

Maziar Motamedi

28 Aug 2021

Tehran, Iran – Shortly before Iran and the United States, along with other world powers, are expected to head back to Vienna for nuclear talks, Supreme Leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei said “predatory wolf” President Joe Biden is no different from his predecessor.

Khamenei blasted the “shameless” behaviour of the US on Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal on Saturday, saying it behaved as if Iran left the accord, while the Americans in 2018 unilaterally withdrew from it, imposing harsh sanctions.

He also slammed the European signatories to the deal, saying, “they are like the US as well, but in words and rhetoric they are always demanding, as if it was Iran that for long ridiculed and undermined negotiations”.

The supreme leader’s remarks came during his first visit with President Ebrahim Raisi’s cabinet, which gained a sweeping vote of confidence by the country’s hardline parliament on Wednesday.

On Friday, Iran’s new foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, had his first phone call with the European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, during which Borrell called on Iran to commit to a date to come back to Vienna for talks on restoring the nuclear deal.

While Iran has said it will at some point come back to continue six rounds of talks that ended on July 20, a specific date has yet to be determined.

While the Biden administration has said it wants to return to the nuclear deal, the US president is still enforcing Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign as he has refused to lift any sanctions before an agreement is reached in Vienna.

Iranian and American officials have so far clashed on how and what sanctions need to be lifted, and how Iran needs to scale back its nuclear programme again. Iran is currently enriching uranium to 60 percent, its higher ever rate.

Khamenei’s remarks on Saturday appeared to be a double down on Iran’s position before the two countries, in addition to European powers and Russia and China, head back to Vienna.

The supreme leader specifically directed Raisi’s cabinet to plan for managing the country’s ailing economy with the assumption that US sanctions will remain in place.

“Diplomacy must not be influenced and linked with the nuclear issue because the nuclear issue is a separate issue that must be resolved in a manner suitable and deserving of the country,” he also said.

Instead, Khamenei said Raisi and his team must focus on boosting “economic diplomacy”.

The appointment of Amirabdollahian, a veteran diplomat with a focus on regional affairs, is indicative of that orientation. The foreign minister, who is now in Baghdad to participate in a significant regional summit orchestrated by Iraq, has said he aims to craft an “Asia-centric” foreign policy agenda.

Afghanistan

The supreme leader on Saturday said the best example that the US is a wolf and “at times acts as a cunning fox” is the current situation in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Khamenei expressed his sorrow at the suicide bombing outside the Kabul airport on Thursday, which killed dozens of Afghans and 13 US personnel, saying “these problems and difficulties are the work of Americans that for 20 years occupied the country and imposed a variety of cruelties on its people”.

“The US didn’t take a single step for the advancement of Afghanistan. If today’s Afghanistan is not behind in terms of social and civil developments compared to 20 years ago, it is not ahead.”

As the Taliban has taken control of almost all of Afghanistan, Khamenei said Iran supports the people of the country because, as before, governments come and go but the people remain.