US warns Russia of further Isolation after east Ukraine vote, the State Department spokesperson said
WASHINGTON, November 4 (RIA Novosti) - The United States does not recognize Sunday's elections in eastern Ukraine and believes that Russia's support of the independence push there will only serve to isolate it further, US State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said at a briefing.
"The United States deplores and does not recognize yesterday's so-called separatist elections in eastern Ukraine, nor do we recognize any of the leaders chosen in this illegal vote," Psaki said late on Monday.
"We also welcome statements from the European Union, the United Nations, France, Germany, and others rejecting these illegal and illegitimate actions," she added.
"If Russia were to recognize the so-called elections, it would only serve to isolate it further," the spokeswoman emphasized.
She threatened the governments of the self-proclaimed Luhansk and Donetsk people's republics (LPR and DPR) with "a range of tools" and stressed Washington would not be working with the newly elected leaders in the east Ukrainian territories.
"We're going to continue to work with the central Government of Ukraine… We're going to continue to press for the implementation of the Minsk Agreement and all of the specific steps that are included in there," Psaki noted.
On November 2, the regions voted in the presidential and parliamentary elections that Kiev said it would never recognize.
Russia said it would recognize the results of the elections in eastern Ukraine since it meant the regions would have their own legitimate representatives at the negotiations with Kiev. In return, the White House warned Moscow of additional costs following its support of what it called as "sham" elections.
The United States has already imposed three rounds of sanctions against Russia beginning in March of this year. Moscow responded with counter-measures taking aim at European imports, particularly agriculture products.
In the wake of the attempted assassination of Rabbi Yehuda Glick, a prominent advocate of allowing Jews to worship atop the Temple Mount, the Obama Administration confirmed that it supports the suppression of full religious freedom at the Jerusalem holy site.
During a press conference last Friday, State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki was asked to articulate the White House’s reaction to the shooting of Glick, a US citizen, by a Palestinian Muslim terrorist.
In her bumbling and somewhat evasive response, Psaki said that while the Obama Administration condemn’s the shooting, it continues to oppose Glick’s efforts to open the Temple Mount to Jewish and Christian worshippers.
“We support the long-standing practices regarding non-Muslim visitors to the site, to Haram al-Sharif / Temple Mount,” said Psaki. “And consistent with our respect for the status quo, we would like to see it returned to that.”
Those “long-standing practices” have been to deny Jewish and Christians visitors the right to worship, pray or carry Bibles atop the Muslim-controlled Temple Mount, despite the fact that it is for all Jews and many Christians the most holy site on earth.
Many Jews and Christians have been detained even for mouthing silent prayers while visiting the Temple Mount.
To clarify that it is, indeed, this denial of freedom of worship that the Obama Administration supports, a reporter pressed Psaki: “You condemn the shooting of an American citizen who had advocated for non-Muslim worshippers to be able to go. But you don’t support [his cause?]”
She responded in the affirmative: “Our position hasn’t changed on this issue. That’s true. …It doesn’t mean we don’t condemn, of course, the shooting.”
Seizing the opportunity provided by Washington, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on Monday released a statement rejecting the very presence of Jews atop the Temple Mount.
“Break-ins by the settlers and Jewish extremists” to the Temple Mount are an affront to “Muslim sensitivities,” read the statement.
A day earlier, Israel Police Chief Yohanan Danino told a Knesset hearing that security forces would do everything in their power ensure Jews and Christians were able to continue ascending the Temple Mount, but insisted the aforementioned “status quo” would be maintained at the holy site.
Monday on Newsmax TV's "The Steve Malzberg Show," Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) said President Barack Obama's executive action can be stopped if the Republicans take control of the U.S. Senate in tomorrow's midterm elections.
A member of the Senate Budget Committee and the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Citizenship, Sessions said they can stop the president in the same way they stopped him from closing Guantánamo, by blocking the funding to carry out his executive action.
Russia holds military drills - RUSSIA’S recent military flights into European airspace are meant to demonstrate to the West that the country is a “great power,” NATO’s supreme allied commander said on Monday.
Although there has been an increase in Russian air activity over Europe during the past year, last week marked the first time Moscow had sent in larger formations of warplanes, General Philip Breedlove told reporters.
“My opinion is they’re messaging us. They’re messaging us that they are a great power,” Breedlove said.
Moscow wanted to show it can exert influence on the alliance’s calculations, he said.
NATO last week reported a series of flights by Russian fighter jets, long-range bombers and tanker aircraft over the Baltics, North Sea and Atlantic Ocean, days before a controversial election held by pro-Moscow separatists in eastern Ukraine on Sunday.
NATO fighter jets quickly intercepted the Russian planes and escorted them out of European airspace without incident.
U.S. air force Gen. Philip Breedlove has said Russian aggression is cause for ‘concern’ recently. Pic: AP Photo/Grigoris Siamidis. Source: AP
In the past, Russian flights were carried out by small groups of one or two aircraft, he said.
“And what you saw this past week was a larger, more complex formation of aircraft, carrying out a little deeper — I would say a little bit more provocative flight path,” the US general said.
The flights were cause for “concern” and “do not add to or contribute to a secure and stable situation.” Russian naval forces also have taken similar provocative steps over the past year in the Black Sea, the North Sea and even in the Pacific Ocean, Breedlove said.
The head of NATO forces and top US general in Europe spoke a day after controversial elections held by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, which have been denounced as illegitimate by the United States and European governments.
Breedlove said it was too early to say how the polls would affect the security situation in Ukraine, but he said the elections were opposed all along by the United States and that it was “not helpful” to efforts to end the conflict.
Military officials take part in a NATO conference in Greece this week. Pic: AP/Grigoris Siamidis. Source: AP
Citing a “revanchist Russia,” Breedlove said he favoured increasing the number of US troops in Eastern Europe on temporary deployments, in addition to measures already taken to reassure anxious partners on NATO’s eastern border.
“Because of the increased pressure that we feel in Eastern Europe right now and because of the assurance measures that we’re taking in the Baltics, in Poland, in Romania, we require additional rotational presence,” he said.
There already have been modest reinforcements for aviation units in Europe flying C-130 cargo planes and F-16 fighter jets, he said.
Breedlove also said he has conferred with US military chiefs on the possibility of stationing more supplies and military hardware at key bases in Europe “to give us a more responsive capability if we were to need it in the future.”
About 750 US troops are now in Poland and the Baltics from the 1st Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, equipped with M-1 Abrams tanks and Bradley infantry armoured vehicles. In a deployment meant to show solidarity with eastern NATO allies, the soldiers from the “Iron Horse brigade” out of Fort Hood, Texas, are on a three-month mission focused on training exercises with alliance members.
Since a ceasefire was agreed between Ukraine and pro-Russian separatists in September, fighting has continued but the line of demarcation between the two sides has solidified while the eastern border with Russia has “become completely porous,” Breedlove said.
There has been no let-up in Russian supply convoys moving across the border into eastern Ukraine, he said.
Russian forces remain in place near Ukraine’s border, with about seven battalions deployed in the area, down from a high of 18 battalions at one point, he said. There are roughly 800 to 1,000 soldiers in a Russian battalion.
Inside Ukraine, Russia has about 250-300 troops who are training and equipping the separatists, Breedlove said.
This Topol-M ballistic missile was launched from Plesetsk in Arkhangelsk region Saturday morning. (Photo: Russian Ministry of Defense)
Russia has over the last 72 hours tested its entire nuclear triad consisting of strategic bombers; submarines and this ICBM launched Saturday morning.
Nuclear triad
A nuclear triad refers to a nuclear arsenal which consists of three components, traditionally strategic bombers, intercontinental ballistic missiles(ICBMs), and submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs). The purpose of having a three-branched nuclear capability is to significantly reduce the possibility that an enemy could destroy all of a nation’s nuclear forces in a first-strike attack; this, in turn, ensures a credible threat of a second strike, and thus increases a nation’s nuclear deterrence.
At 09:20 am (Moscow time), this silo-based Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missile was launched from Plesetsk in Arkhangelsk Oblast. A few minutes later, the dummy nuclear warhead hits its target on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia’s far eastern corner, the Ministry of Defense reports.
The Ministry adds that the Topol-M missile has an “extremely high accuracy of target destruction.”
Strategic bombers
On Friday, Norwegian F-16s were scrambled from Bodø airbase for the second time this week as a group of four Tu-95 strategic bombers were approaching from the northeast, Norway’s TV2 reports.
The bombers, flying out over the Barents Sea from Russia’s Kola Peninsula, were accompanied by four Il-78 tankers.
On Wednesday, a similar group of four strategic bombers and four tanker aircrafts were flying southbound along Norway’s northern coast. Six of the aircrafts turned around and flew north again over the Norwegian- and Barents Seas before heading home to Russia. The two last flew all the way south to outside Portuguese airspace before heading north again.
After scrambling fighter jets from Norway and Great Britian, NATO said in a statement that the Russian bombers pose a risk to civilian air traffic.
“The bomber and tanker aircraft from Russia did not file flight plans or maintain radio contact with civilian air traffic control authorities and they were not using on-board transponders. This poses a potential risk to civil aviation as civilian air traffic control cannot detect these aircraft or ensure there is no interference with civilian air traffic,” NATO said.
Tu-95 is a turboprop aircraft built during the Cold War to carry nuclear weapons and is because of its long range included in the strategic nuclear forces.
Strategic submarines
The third arm of Russia’s nuclear triad, the submarine based ballistic missiles (SLBM), were tested on Wednesday, when “Yury Dolgoruky” launhced a Bulava missile from submerged position in the Barents Sea.
This was the first operational test launch of Bulava in line with the program of combat training. All previous launches were part of development testing of the new weapon.
It is also the first time a Borey-class submarine had a full set of missiles on board when the launch was conducted. The Borey-class submarines carries 16 missiles that each may hold as many as 10 nuclear warheads. “Yury Dolgoruky” got her full set of Bulava missiles in June this year.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has recently taken a position publicly known to be uncharacteristic of him - open and direct criticism of Israel’s handling of the Palestinian cause. Although it’s true that Russia typically and routinely votes against Israel at the United Nations, Putin himself is hardly known to express vocal resentment towards Israel in public. This development is therefore being seen by diplomatic sources and analysts as an indication that Russia henceforth intends to more actively advance and promote Palestinian issues at the United Nations. The end result should naturally result in a strengthening of Russia’s hand or “active presence” in the Middle East peace process effort.
This analysis, based on the wider Arab-Israeli conflict was carried in a recent edition of the Jerusalem Post. The article further reported that, in a recent speech in Moscow, the Russian president was quoted stating that: "The humiliation and the oppression that the Palestinian people are going through are a source of danger and destabilization, and every step must be taken to eliminate the humiliation and oppression”. Putin reportedly also spoke out against settlement construction and said that the settlement enterprise constitutes "a cause increasing tension in the Middle East."
These positions are thought to be uncharacteristic of Putin in at least two ways. Firstly, Putin’s comments align to US President Barack Obama’s stated position on Israeli settlement projects – which in itself is unusual in the sense that Putin rarely supports US diplomatic approaches – in public. Secondly, Putin has so far been thought to support Israel and has even forged good diplomatic and economic ties with the Jewish nation.
Some recent cases in point evidencing the mutual working relationship between the two nations were that Israel refrained from protesting the widely condemned annexation of Crimea that started in March of 2014, much to the chagrin of the US. It is also known additionally that Russia has a keen interest in the vast gas and oil reserves recently discovered in Israel, and has been discussing proposals of mutual benefit with Israel.
Putin's comments were undoubtedly welcomed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose initiative to win a UN Security Council vote (for its resolution to force Israel to withdraw from the West Bank on a timetable)has been buoyed. The intended goal is to finally facilitate the establishment of a Palestinian state. Israel, on the other hand has predictably not been encouraged by these developments. Adding cause to their concerns is the apparent growing comradeship between Russia and Iran, as reportedly evidenced during talks on Tehran's nuclear program with the P5+1 group of world powers.
What isn’t so clear is what exactly has prompted the further hardlining of positions by Russia towards Israel. A hint may be found in Putin’s resolve, which is clear in the choice of the words “…and every step must be taken to eliminate the humiliation and oppression (of the Palestinians)”, not to mention his virtually unprecedented reference to Israeli settlements as “a cause increasing tension in the Middle East." His words “every step must be taken” certainly do not suggest an aversion to military action as a potential step.
What is the significance of all this? Could it be that Russia is positioning herself to spearhead a military invasion of Israel, under the convenient and popular guise of protecting the Palestinian cause and helping to enforce a Middle East peace agreement? Could the real reason for such a Russia-led attack be instead an attempt to forcefully “plunder and loot” Israel’s vast and much valued gas and oil reserves, not to mention gaining control of a highly strategic geographical location for military and expansionist purposes?
From a Bible prophecy perspective, we know that in these last days, there will be a Russia-led alliance that will wage war against Israel. We also know that God will actually provoke such a war by putting “hooks” in the “jaws” of “Gog” – widely believed by Bible prophecy scholars to represent present-day Russia (Ezekiel 38:3-4, 10-12). Iran (Persia) is also mentioned in Ezekiel’s scenario as a key partner in the anti-Israeli military alliance. Reading today’s news and current affairs, it’s easy to see how the cozy relationship between Moscow and Tehran would facilitate such developments.
“On that day thoughts will come into your mind and you will devise an evil scheme. You will say, “I will invade a land of unwalled villages; I will attack a peaceful and unsuspecting people (Israel) —all of them living without walls and without gates and bars. I will plunder and loot and turn my hand against the resettled ruins and the people gathered from the nations, rich in livestock and goods, living at the center of the land.” (Ezekiel 38:10-12).
The reference to “rich in livestock and goods” suggests the lure of financial/economic gain or a “great spoil” (see also Ezekiel 38:13). This may partially represent a dominant control over vast natural and mineral reserves. Such a catch would grant tremendous economic advantage for Russia – such as in the natural gas market in Europe and beyond, already well exemplified by the control and reach of Russian gas giant Gazprom.
The outcome of this war will be that God will directly intervene and cause the anti-Israel alliance to fight each other. In addition, God will enforce their crushing defeat using the elements of nature and direct interventions to destroy that alliance: “…And so I will show my greatness and my holiness, and I will make myself known in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am the LORD.’” (Ezekiel 38:18-23).
Russian President Vladimir Putin has recently taken a position publicly known to be uncharacteristic of him - open and direct criticism of Israel’s handling of the Palestinian cause. Although it’s true that Russia typically and routinely votes against Israel at the United Nations, Putin himself is hardly known to express vocal resentment towards Israel in public. This development is therefore being seen by diplomatic sources and analysts as an indication that Russia henceforth intends to more actively advance and promote Palestinian issues at the United Nations. The end result should naturally result in a strengthening of Russia’s hand or “active presence” in the Middle East peace process effort.
This analysis, based on the wider Arab-Israeli conflict was carried in a recent edition of the Jerusalem Post. The article further reported that, in a recent speech in Moscow, the Russian president was quoted stating that: "The humiliation and the oppression that the Palestinian people are going through are a source of danger and destabilization, and every step must be taken to eliminate the humiliation and oppression”. Putin reportedly also spoke out against settlement construction and said that the settlement enterprise constitutes "a cause increasing tension in the Middle East."
These positions are thought to be uncharacteristic of Putin in at least two ways. Firstly, Putin’s comments align to US President Barack Obama’s stated position on Israeli settlement projects – which in itself is unusual in the sense that Putin rarely supports US diplomatic approaches – in public. Secondly, Putin has so far been thought to support Israel and has even forged good diplomatic and economic ties with the Jewish nation.
Some recent cases in point evidencing the mutual working relationship between the two nations were that Israel refrained from protesting the widely condemned annexation of Crimea that started in March of 2014, much to the chagrin of the US. It is also known additionally that Russia has a keen interest in the vast gas and oil reserves recently discovered in Israel, and has been discussing proposals of mutual benefit with Israel.
Putin's comments were undoubtedly welcomed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose initiative to win a UN Security Council vote (for its resolution to force Israel to withdraw from the West Bank on a timetable)has been buoyed. The intended goal is to finally facilitate the establishment of a Palestinian state. Israel, on the other hand has predictably not been encouraged by these developments. Adding cause to their concerns is the apparent growing comradeship between Russia and Iran, as reportedly evidenced during talks on Tehran's nuclear program with the P5+1 group of world powers.
What isn’t so clear is what exactly has prompted the further hardlining of positions by Russia towards Israel. A hint may be found in Putin’s resolve, which is clear in the choice of the words “…and every step must be taken to eliminate the humiliation and oppression (of the Palestinians)”, not to mention his virtually unprecedented reference to Israeli settlements as “a cause increasing tension in the Middle East." His words “every step must be taken” certainly do not suggest an aversion to military action as a potential step.
What is the significance of all this? Could it be that Russia is positioning herself to spearhead a military invasion of Israel, under the convenient and popular guise of protecting the Palestinian cause and helping to enforce a Middle East peace agreement? Could the real reason for such a Russia-led attack be instead an attempt to forcefully “plunder and loot” Israel’s vast and much valued gas and oil reserves, not to mention gaining control of a highly strategic geographical location for military and expansionist purposes?
From a Bible prophecy perspective, we know that in these last days, there will be a Russia-led alliance that will wage war against Israel. We also know that God will actually provoke such a war by putting “hooks” in the “jaws” of “Gog” – widely believed by Bible prophecy scholars to represent present-day Russia (Ezekiel 38:3-4, 10-12). Iran (Persia) is also mentioned in Ezekiel’s scenario as a key partner in the anti-Israeli military alliance. Reading today’s news and current affairs, it’s easy to see how the cozy relationship between Moscow and Tehran would facilitate such developments.
“On that day thoughts will come into your mind and you will devise an evil scheme. You will say, “I will invade a land of unwalled villages; I will attack a peaceful and unsuspecting people (Israel) —all of them living without walls and without gates and bars. I will plunder and loot and turn my hand against the resettled ruins and the people gathered from the nations, rich in livestock and goods, living at the center of the land.” (Ezekiel 38:10-12).
The reference to “rich in livestock and goods” suggests the lure of financial/economic gain or a “great spoil” (see also Ezekiel 38:13). This may partially represent a dominant control over vast natural and mineral reserves. Such a catch would grant tremendous economic advantage for Russia – such as in the natural gas market in Europe and beyond, already well exemplified by the control and reach of Russian gas giant Gazprom.
The outcome of this war will be that God will directly intervene and cause the anti-Israel alliance to fight each other. In addition, God will enforce their crushing defeat using the elements of nature and direct interventions to destroy that alliance: “…And so I will show my greatness and my holiness, and I will make myself known in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am the LORD.’” (Ezekiel 38:18-23).
"The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb" (Psalm 19:9-10).
A recent study involved sticking little numbered tags on the backs of seven thousand living honeybees. The purpose was the age-old question of what determines our behavior: nature or nurture? genes or environment? The honeybees were used to see if their occupation in the hive was based upon what their father did. That is, was it genetic inheritance? Typically, the queen bee mates with over a dozen males before settling down to a year or two of continuous egg-laying. In one study, the queen was allowed to mate only with a "guard bee" and an "undertaker bee," whose job is to dispose of dead bees in the hive.
It was found that the young bee is likely to take up its father's occupation 80 percent of the time. This means that much of the complex social structure of the beehive is passed on in the genes. But the study also left evolutionary scientists with a mystery. There is a wide genetic variation within the normal beehive, so if the whole arrangement evolved, the very cooperative and complex society actually found would not be expected.
The answer is, of course, that when something is clearly so intricately designed there must be a Designer. Some have even admitted that their main objection to believing in creation is that they would have to accept the fact that there is a Creator.
US President Barack Obama will be actively using his executive power: former assistant to the president on legislative affairs
WASHINGTON, November 4 (RIA Novosti) - US President Barack Obama will be actively using his executive power regardless what party takes control of the Congress, Patrick Griffin, former assistant to the president on legislative affairs told RIA Novosti on Monday.
"I think the president will continue to use his executive power aggressively," Griffin said. "The Congress will use its legislative authority to resist but getting enough votes again will be problematic."
At the beginning of his new term, Obama stated that he would counter Congressional gridlock by using a pen and a phone, which provoked a lot of criticism from both the American citizens and the Congress members.
US House Speaker John Boehner is pursuing a lawsuit against the president over abuse of power. House Republicans have argued that Obama is abusing his authority by side-stepping Congress on immigration, healthcare and other policies.
"There are no major, exclusively Republican, initiatives that can prevail," Griffin stressed, adding that they have to work with the president on issues where there may be some common interest, like trade, tax reform and transportation infrastructure.
The former US official noted that the Republicans will need a consensus from their own caucus plus eight or more Democrats just to get a bill out of the Senate.
"Then, the president can still veto any legislation sent to him even if it gets enough Democratic support to get out of the House and Senate and onto his desk," he said, explaining that the Congress then needs two thirds of those present and voting in both the Senate and House to override his veto. "That is a very high threshold to meet."
Griffin does not see any dramatic changes in foreign policy with regard to the countries like Ukraine, Israel, Syria, or Iran.
"They will continue to present challenges," he asserted. "If the Republicans wind up in control of the Congress, you might see more cooperation with the president in foreign policy rather than less."
This election is all domestic but not necessarily about anyone issue, Griffin emphasized.
"The republicans have successfully framed this election, in most states, as a general referendum on President Obama," he concluded.
On Tuesday, Americans will take part in the midterm elections to elect 435 members of the House of Representatives, 36 senators, 36 governors and 46 state legislatures. The elections are dubbed midterms as they occur in the middle of the present president's four-year term.
Most American evangelicals hold views condemned as heretical by some of the most important councils of the early church.
A survey released today by LifeWay Research for Ligonier Ministries “reveals a significant level of theological confusion,” said Stephen Nichols, Ligonier’s chief academic officer. Many evangelicals do not have orthodox views about either God or humans, especially on questions of salvation and the Holy Spirit, he said.
Evangelicals did score high on several points. Nearly all believe that Jesus Christ rose from the dead (96%), and that salvation is found through Jesus alone (92%). Strong majorities said that God is sovereign over all people (89%) and that the Bible is the Word of God (88%).
And in some cases the problem seems to be uncertainty rather than heresy. For example, only 6 percent of evangelicals think the Book of Mormon is a revelation from God, but an additional 18 percent aren’t sure and think it might be.
Jesus, Almost as Good as His Father?
Almost all evangelicals say they believe in the Trinity (96%) and that Jesus is fully human and fully divine (88%).
But nearly a quarter (22%) said God the Father is more divine than Jesus, and 9 percent weren’t sure. Further, 16 percent say Jesus was the first creature created by God, while 11 percent were unsure.
No doubt, phrases like “only begotten Son” (John 3:16) and “firstborn of all creation” (Col. 1:15) have led others in history to hold these views, too. In the fourth century, a priest from Libya named Arius (c.250–336) announced, “If the Father begat the Son, then he who was begotten had a beginning. … There was a time when the Son was not.” The idea, known as Arianism, gained wide appeal, even among clergy. But it did not go unopposed. Theologians Alexander and Athanasius of Alexandria, Egypt, argued that Arius denied Christ’s true divinity. Christ is not of similar substance to God, they explained, but of the same substance.
Believing the debate could split the Roman Empire, Emperor Constantine convened the first ecumenical church council in Nicaea in A.D. 325. The council, comprising over 300 bishops, rejected Arianism as heresy and maintained that Jesus shares the same eternal substance with the Father. Orthodoxy struggled to gain popular approval, however, and several heresies revolving around Jesus continued to spread. At the second ecumenical council in Constantinople in 381, church leaders reiterated their condemnation of Arianism and enlarged the Nicene Creed to describe Jesus as “the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.”
In other words, the Son is not a created being, nor can he be less divine than the Father.
The Holy Spirit: May the Force Be with You?
But if evangelicals sometime misunderstand doctrines about Jesus, the third member of the Trinity has it much worse. More than half (51%) said the Holy Spirit is a force, not a personal being. Seven percent weren’t sure, while only 42 percent affirmed that the Spirit is a person.
And 9 percent said the Holy Spirit is less divine than God the Father and Jesus. The same percentage answered “not sure.”
Like Arianism, confusion over the nature and identity of the Spirit dates to the early church. During the latter half of the fourth century, sects like Semi-Arians and Pneumatomachi (Greek for “Spirit fighters”) believed “in the Holy Spirit”—as the First Council of Nicaea (A.D. 325) taught—but said the Spirit was of a different essence from the Father and the Son. Some said the Spirit was a creature, and others understood the Spirit to be a force or power, not a person of the Trinity.
At Constantinople, 150 bishops assembled to discuss these heresies, among other issues, and affirmed that “the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit have a single Godhead and power and substance, a dignity deserving the same honor and a co-eternal sovereignty, in three most perfect hypostases, or three perfect persons.” Affirming the full divinity and personhood of the Holy Spirit, the church ruled out Semi-Arianism and Pneumatomachianism.
Salvation: Who Makes the First Move?
Human nature and salvation were other areas of confusion for respondents. Two out of three (68%) said that a person obtains peace with God by seeking God first, and then God responds with grace. A similar percentage (67%) said people have the ability to turn to God on the own initiative. Yet half (54%) also think salvation begins with God acting first. So which is it?
In the fifth century, a British monk named Pelagius reportedly argued that people can choose God by the strength of their own will. Adam’s sin, he taught, did not sabotage human freedom, so we still have the ability to choose and follow God by the strength of our will.
His school of thought, known as Pelagianism, was denounced at the Council of Carthage in 418 and later at the Council of Ephesus in 431. A variation, known as Semipelagianism, cropped up shortly thereafter, affirming original sin but teaching that humans take the initiative in salvation. The Council of Orange in 529 rejected Semipelagianism as heretical, maintaining that faith is a gift of God’s grace and does not originate in ourselves.
More than half of survey participants (55%) said people have to contribute to their own salvation. This, however, is a debated issue. Some Christians—such as Roman Catholics, Orthodox, and certain Protestants—believe humans cooperate with God’s grace in salvation. Others believe our efforts can contribute nothing, though a response to God’s grace is a necessary element of conversion. Nevertheless, historic Christian teaching in all branches maintains that whatever role humans play is ultimately inspired by the work of God’s Spirit. The Council of Orange put it this way:
If anyone says that God has mercy upon us when, apart from his grace, we believe, will, desire, strive, labor, pray, watch, study, seek, ask, or knock, but does not confess that it is by the infusion and inspiration of the Holy Spirit within us that we have the faith, the will, or the strength to do all these things as we ought; or if anyone makes the assistance of grace depend on the humility or obedience of man and does not agree that it is a gift of grace itself that we are obedient and humble, he contradicts the Apostle who says, “What have you that you did not receive?” (1 Cor. 4:7), and, “But by the grace of God I am what I am” (1 Cor. 15:10).
A Historic Problem with Historical Solutions
Ligonier’s Nichols said that while the survey results are disappointing, they’re not unique to our time or culture, or irreversible. “The church in every age has faced theological confusion and heresy. In this survey we see a wake-up call to the church. We cannot assume the next generation—or even this present one—will catch an orthodox theology merely by being in the church,” he said.
John Stackhouse, professor of theology and culture at Regent College in Vancouver, agrees. “We continue to hold adult Christian education in low regard,” he said. “A sermon on Sunday morning and a conversational Bible study during the week won’t get the job done of informing and transforming people’s minds along the lines of orthodox Christian belief.”
The Lifeway survey also found that 9 in 10 evangelicals believe the local church does not have authority to say a person is not a Christian.
But Stackhouse said he’s not sure that stronger efforts by churches to instruct their congregants would raise the numbers. The survey, he noted, was of self-described evangelicals, and many of those with unorthodox beliefs may not be regular church attenders. “We continue to have a severe public relations problem regarding the term evangelical,” he said.
(Lifeway Research says the survey used was a balanced online panel in February and March. Of the survey’s initial 3,000 responses, this report looked at the 557 who came from Protestants who described themselves as evangelical—which would be about 19 percent of the American population.)
Timothy Larsen, professor of Christian thought at Wheaton College, is similarly cautious. He said the same survey questions should be asked over time in order to determine what sort of trend exists. “What matters is not what self-identified evangelicals know or believe, but whether they are being discipled over time into mature believers,” he said. “If the answers are not getting better with more Christian discipleship, that would be alarming.”
Larsen was encouraged, however, by several statistics. He said he would have guessed fewer than 96 percent would have affirmed belief in the Trinity. Howard Snyder—a former professor at United Theological Seminary, Asbury Seminary, and Tyndale Seminary—expressed similar optimism at the survey’s high number on that point, though he said the survey reveals the need for clearer teaching on what belief in the Trinity means. “Western Christianity, not just evangelicals, have viewed the Trinity as ‘a mathematical problem to be solved,’ not as a central revelation of the personal and tri-personal nature of God,” said Snyder. For him, the doctrine of the Trinity is not an abstract concept but a fundamental Christian truth that informs us about the God we worship, who we are as humans, and all creation.
Snyder isn't alone. Beth Felker Jones, professor of theology at Wheaton College, said, "Orthodoxy is life-giving, and God's people need access to it." Participants who gave unorthdox answers are not heretics, but probably lacked quality resources, she said. "Church leaders need to be able to teach the truth of the faith clearly and accurately, and we need to be able to show people why this matters for our lives."
For Nichols, one way forward in understanding God and ourselves is to consult the historic church. “While slightly over half see value in church history, [nearly] 70 percent have no place for creeds in their personal discipleship,” he said. For Nichols, the church’s knowledge of its past will determine its future. Knowing heresies and how they were overcome, he says, will help the church stay on the right track theologically.
NASA followed the biggest sunspot in many years as it roamed across the face of the sun, releasing solar flares along the way.
This massive sunspot could be seen during viewing of the eclipse. NASA/SDO
If you got a chance to don some proper eclipse eyewear and look up at the sun during the partial solar eclipse on October 23, you may have noticed a dark spot on the face of the sun. You weren't imagining things. What you saw was a sunspot so large, it was visible to the naked eye (with proper eye protection in place).
The sunspot, named AR 12192, is the biggest in 24 years. It strolled across the sun's face, letting off 10 good-size solar flares along the way. "Despite all the flares, this region did not produce any significant coronal mass ejections," said Alex Young, a NASA solar scientist. What we can learn from this is that large sunspot regions don't always spew major coronal mass ejections (massive clouds of solar particles), the kind of solar events that can impact electronics on Earth.
AR 12192 grew to about 80,000 miles across. Despite its grand size, the sunspot was only the 33rd largest region out of 32,000 that have been tracked since 1874. It's the biggest seen since 1990. The sunspot is currently hiding on the far side of the sun, but NASA says it could wind its way back around in a couple of weeks.
NASA released an image of the sunspot on its journey across the front of the sun, tracking the region from October 17 to October 29. It's fascinating to follow it as it rotates along a straight path, the dark spots coming together to form what looks like a shadowy set of islands.
The sunspot and its flares are giving scientists plenty of fodder for study. "Having so many similar flares from the same active region will be a nice case study for people who work on predicting solar flares," said Dean Pesnell, a project scientist at NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. "This is important for one day improving the nation's ability to forecast space weather and protect technology and astronauts in space."
Let the Headlines Speak
Nov 4th, 2014
Daily NewsFrom the internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues
New Poll Finds Evangelicals’ Favorite Heresies
Most American evangelicals hold views condemned as heretical by some of the most important councils of the early church. A survey released today by LifeWay Research for Ligonier Ministries “reveals a significant level of theological confusion,” said Stephen Nichols, Ligonier’s chief academic officer. Many evangelicals do not have orthodox views about either God or humans, especially on questions of salvation and the Holy Spirit, he said.
Human Skulls Found in Connecticut Home Were Owned by Occultist
A pair of Connecticut junk haulers was stunned to learn on Friday that two skulls picked up at the cluttered home of a deceased man on the day before Halloween were human remains, not made of plastic as they had thought.
Obama 'using federal law to target Christians
A new lawsuit has been filed arguing that the Obama administration is using the law to attack groups of faith that do not support the White House agenda of contraception and abortion for all. “On information and belief, plaintiffs allege that the purpose of the Final Mandate, including the restrictively narrow scope of the religious employers exemption, is to discriminate against religious organizations that oppose contraception and abortion,”
Napolitano: Obama Can Open The Borders Whenever He Wants
NAPOLITANO: Some of this is very frightening and what I’m about to tell you and our viewers is frightening as well. Here’s what the president can do and totally on his own: he can open the borders. He can order the Border Patrol to do nothing when people present themselves at the borders who are absolutely and totally unqualified to come in.
The Third Intifada is already here Who ever did not realize it already (Israel Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino, for example), this is definitely the third Intifada. But unlike the nightmare scenarios we imagined, based on past experience, numerous Palestinians are not participating as they did in the First Intifada, nor is it characterized by frequent and catastrophic terror attacks like the Second Intifada.
Jeanne Shaheen Conspired With White House Insider On IRS Targeting Scandal
Democratic New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen was principally involved in a plot with Lois Lerner and President Barack Obama’s political appointee at the IRS to lead a program of harassment against conservative nonprofit groups during the 2012 election...
U.S. scientists say uncertainties loom about Ebola's transmission, other key facts
Another crucial question is whether the virus can be spread by people who do not show symptoms. For months public health officials in the United States and elsewhere have insisted it cannot. But the possibility of such "subclinical transmission" remains very much open, said Dr. Andrew Pavia, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Utah.
Ebola in Sierra Leone is 'spreading nine times faster than two months ago', campaigners warn
The news comes as the World Health Organisation (WHO) advised that the number of new cases of the disease is levelling off.
SOMETHING IS COMING
A sunspot just around the bend, however, could break the quiet. Earth-orbiting satellites are detecting flare activity behind the sun's northeastern limb. Although the eruption was partially eclipsed by the edge of the sun, it registered M2.2 on the Richter Scale of Solar Flares. This means the actual flare was much stronger, possibly even an X-flare.
Russian military flights sending message they are ‘great power’: NATO leader
The flights were cause for “concern” and “do not add to or contribute to a secure and stable situation.” Russian naval forces also have taken similar provocative steps over the past year in the Black Sea, the North Sea and even in the Pacific Ocean, Breedlove said.
Russia skips nuclear summit planning meeting
Russia has failed to show up at a meeting planning the 2016 Nuclear Security Summit, US and European officials said Monday, in a potentially serious blow to efforts by President Barack Obama to cement his legacy as leaving the world safer from nuclear terrorism than when he took office.
GCHQ's Robert Hannigan says tech firms 'in denial' on extremism
US technology companies have become "the command and control networks of choice for terrorists and criminals", the new head of GCHQ has said. Writing in the Financial Times, Robert Hannigan said some internet firms were "in denial" about how their services were being misused by groups such as Islamic State. He called for greater co-operation with security services from the companies.
ECB takes control as EU bank supervisor
The European Central Bank (ECB) formally assumes its new role as the chief supervisor of EU banks on Tuesday (4 November), a major milestone in the creation of the bloc's banking union. The making of the banking union, whose legal framework was agreed by lawmakers inside two years, is the biggest shift of power over economic policy making since the introduction of the euro.
New EU foreign policy chief: I’d like to see a Palestinian state by the time I leave office
The EU’s new foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini told the European media on Monday that she would like to see a Palestinian state by the time her five-year term is up. “The important thing for me,” Mogherini said, “is not whether other states, European or not, recognize Palestine. What would make me happy, is if a Palestinian state existed at the end of my term.”
Nasrallah to Israel: You should close all your ports, our rockets can reach everywhere
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned Israel on Tuesday that the Lebanese organization's rockets can reach all of Israel and will cause the closure of Ben-Gurion Airport and Haifa Port during any future conflict. Nasrallah made a rare public appearance before a crowd of thousands in southern Beirut in a speech marking the Shi'a Islam occasion of Ashoura.
Israel Must Prepare for ‘Day After’ Iran Deal, Researcher Says
Israel should ask for U.S. security guarantees if Iran and world powers reach a nuclear deal this month that leaves the Islamic Republic with the potential to develop weapons, an Israeli political analyst said. “There is the possibility that there will be enough holes in the agreement that will allow Iran to become a nuclear threshold state,” Azriel Bermant, a research fellow at The Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, said by phone.
'Duck Dynasty's' Alan Robertson: Teach Bible in Public Schools
Alan Robertson, son of Phil Robertson of the TV show "Duck Dynasty," said in a recent interview that the Bible should be taught in the public school system.
Liberty or Laws? Government Enforces Their Laws – Who Shall Enforce the Constitution?
“Felony Possession of a Firearm” is the feds’ way of charging someone who is a convicted felon and possesses a firearm, which is found in 18 USC 922, at (g)(1). In two previous articles, we touched upon various aspects of that law. In “No bended knee for me” – the Charge against Robert Beecher, we addressed the interstate commerce aspect of that law.
World Oil Markets and Oil Prices
There have been many ups and downs in the oil market over the last decade causing oil prices to either escalate or drop precipitously. Of particular note is the oil price drop in 2008 from a price of $146 per barrel to $35 per barrel in just 6 months[1]—a price decline of over 75 percent. The current price decline—one that caught forecasters by surprise– is much less—closer to 25 percent—but has ramifications throughout the oil producing and consuming world.
Tahmooressi suddenly freed . . . just days before the election
Your first temptation, of course, is to say that the sudden release of Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi has a November Surprise sort of feel to it. Oh. Sure. Three days before the election he’s coming home.But you don’t have to think about it much to recognize the problems with that. First, Obama critics have complained all along that the White House didn’t even seem interested in Tahmooressi’s case, let alone concerned about the timing of its resolution. Were they completely disengaged and inept, or engaged in a sinister manipulation of the timing? It can’t be both.
Netanyahu: World is silent as Abbas feeds flames at Temple Mount
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas incited violence at the Temple Mount with his condolence letter to the Israeli-Arab family of the man whom police allege shot right-wing activist Yehudah Glick last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday.
Dozens of Palestinians throw stones at police in east Jerusalem
Dozens of Palestinians threw stones and shot fireworks at police in east Jerusalem on Meir Nakar street on Monday afternoon. The forces were using riot dispersal methods on the rioters.
Tragic Setbacks for U.S. Allies in Iraq and Syria
Western Iraq saw more brutal bloodshed this weekend after the Islamic State massacred 322 people of the Albu Nimr tribe, a Sunni group, including women and children. The Iraqi government confirmed the attack in the Anbar region, which began on Saturday and continued into Sunday, and was described as "systematic killings."
Saudi Arabia mobilizes clergy and media against jihadi recruitment
RIYADH - For Saudi Arabia, the war against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is a vital struggle for the future of the Middle East that must be fought – but not by its own young men.
EU's top diplomat to visit Israel, Gaza, West Bank
Brussels - New EU foreign affairs head Federica Mogherini will visit Israel, Gaza and the West Bank this week to help revive the stalled Middle East peace process, her office said Monday.
Egypt's Ansar militants swear allegiance to Islamic State: statement
CAIRO - Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, Egypt's most active militant group, has sworn allegiance to Islamic State, a statement from Ansar said Monday night.
From the get go, Syria's civil war has offered few easy policy choices for the Obama administration, which said repeatedly that President Bashar a
CAIRO - Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, Egypt's most active militant group, has sworn allegiance to Islamic State, a statement from Ansar said Monday night.
Is the US-led war on Islamic State really helping Syria's Assad? Maybe.
From the get go, Syria's civil war has offered few easy policy choices for the Obama administration, which said repeatedly that President Bashar al-Assad had to go but was hesitant to provide significant military support to armed regime opponents.
Israel advances plan for 500 settler homes in East Jerusalem
An Israeli government committee on Monday advanced plans for 500 settler homes in East Jerusalem, an official said, in the face of disapproval from the United States at construction on occupied Palestinian land.
3.4 quake hits near Joseph in northeastern Oregon
A small earthquake struck northeast Oregon on Monday morning. The U.S. Geological Survey said it was of magnitude 3.4.
Yellowstone Volcano Observatory Monthly Update Reports 98 Earthquakes in October
The Yellowstone Volcano Observatory says in its monthly update that 98 earthquakes happened in the Yellowstone National Park region in October.
U.S. stocks may benefit from Japanese foreign stock purchases.
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Bank of Japan’s plan to expand its bond-purchase program, announced on Friday, delivered a big dose of euphoria to stocks around the world.
However, the Government Pension Investment Fund’s plans to increase stock purchases in addition to the expansion of the central bank’s bond-purchase program, likely will be a boon for U.S. stock markets over the longer term, said Citigroup chief equities strategist Tobias Levkovich, in a note to investors.
The Japanese Pension Fund plans to increase its holdings of foreign stocks to 25% of its monetary base, from roughly 16% currently. This expansion would benefit U.S. equity markets over the course of next year as Japan’s investment kicks off, Levkovich notes
“While the exact amount of money coming to the U.S. is hard to calculate, the overall contribution to non-Japanese stocks could approach $60 billion of new purchases and we suspect that half could make its way into the U.S. by the end of 2015,” the note said.
The BoJ’s decision to bump up their bond purchases sent a signal to markets that central banks will keep fighting deflation. The action weakened the yen, helping Japanese exporters, who are crucial to the country’s economy.
While Japanese stocks benefitted from the monetary policy, it is aimed primarily at ending disinflation and to speed up economic growth. It’s a move likely to aid the U.S. too, given its close trading ties with Japan.
While Levkovich and team did not make any changes to their year-end 2014 target of 2,000, they wrote “it would be remiss to ignore the possibility that stocks trade higher” but warns “if that were to occur, however, it may just be borrowing from next year’s returns.”
It’s about to get a lot more difficult for someone else to use your credit card.
MasterCard and the biometric payment company Zwipe announced plans Friday to develop a payment card that allows you to make purchases by waving it over a payment terminal while placing your unique thumbprint on the card’s biometric sensor.
But the two companies were quick to address privacy concerns: ”Cardholder fingerprint data is stored directly on the card, not in an external database,” a statement Friday read.
Ajay Bhalla, president of enterprise security solutions at MasterCard, spoke further to the issue.
“Our challenge is to ensure the technology offers robust security, simplicity of use and convenience for the customer. Zwipe’s first trial is a significant milestone and its results are very encouraging,” Bhalla said.
Once a customer activates their fingerprint, it’s then used as a PIN replacement, allowing them to make purchases of any amount. And because the card will tap into the power from payment terminals, it won’t require a battery, Gizmodo reported.
Slated for release in 2015, MasterCard and Zwipe said this is the first card of its kind to use biometric data together with contact-less application.
Founder and CEO of Zwipe Kim Humborstad said feedback from the product’s pilot phase has been “very positive.”
British faith schools are to be forced to teach equality and respect for gay rights or face closure, in a move backed by Education Secretary Nicky Morgan. The orders come following 40 snap inspections of faith schools, including Christian and Jewish schools, in the wake of the Trojan Horse plot in Birmingham in which radical Islamists were found to have infiltrated between four and eight schools to promote hard-line Salafist Islam.
Reports on the 40 snap inspections are due later this month. Sir Michael Wilshaw, chief inspector of schools, is expected to conclude from the reports that any school not preparing students for life in modern Britain, by which he means embracing alternative lifestyles and other cultures, will be subject to no-notice inspections, downgrades, and even possible closures.
They will face the same penalties if they are deemed to be in breach of the Equalities Act, which mandates respect for gay and transgender people, and of other religions and races, despite the Act containing an exemption for school curricula.
His stance has the backing of Morgan, who told the Sunday Times today that it is “crucial” that Jewish and Christian schools “actively promote” British values, including tolerance for other lifestyles and cultures. “These values — democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs — are not new. The requirement to ‘actively promote’ them is designed to reinforce the importance this government attaches to these values,” she said.
However, Ofsted inspectors have come under fire in recent weeks for being overzealous in their desire to root out any behaviour which doesn’t adhere to their standards, including by asking inappropriate questions during their snap inspections designed to probe whether pupils held tolerant views towards gays and members of other religions.
“They made us feel threatened about our religion. They asked ‘Do you have friends from other religions?’ They asked this many times until we answered what they wanted us to say,” one year eleven pupil at a Jewish orthodox school has reported.
Another pupil at the same school, a girl in year nine, said she was made to feel “uncomfortable and upset” after inspectors told her that a “woman might choose to live with another woman and a man could choose to live with a man, it’s up to them”.
Fears that the new guidelines designed to curb extremist Islam could have a stifling effect on Christian and Jewish schools appear to have been well-founded, as St Benedict's, a Roman Catholic school in Suffolk which achieved A level results in the top 1 percent nationally, has been told that it is not doing enough to conform to British values by not doing enough to tackle radicalisation.
In another example, Trinity Christian School in Reading, which recently underwent a routine inspection required in order for it to expand its age range, was told by inspectors that it did not meet the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of its young pupils. Yet just one year ago, before the new regulations came in, it was rated ‘good’ and ‘outstanding’ for the ‘spiritual, moral, social and cultural development’ requirement, with last year’s report attesting that pupils were “well prepared for life in modern, multicultural, democratic British society through the teaching of the Christian principle to ‘love thy neighbour”.
Its failure to meet the new standards led to its application to expand being denied, and the school is now threatened with closure unless it actively promotes other faiths as part of its curriculum. Its governing board has written to Morgan asking for the new rules to be scrapped.
According to the Christian Institute, which is supporting the school, “The [report] made clear that the new standards, which engage the principles of the Equality Act, require changes to the school’s curriculum. This conflicts with section 89 of the Equality Act which excludes the content of the curriculum from equality law”.
Speaking to the Sunday Times, Morgan said “Schools should broaden horizons not close minds . . . and should encourage pupils to respect other people even if they do not agree with them. I should have thought this is a principle with which the vast majority of people would agree. All schools of whatever type have a duty to protect young people and to ensure they leave school fully prepared for life in modern Britain.”
Yet Trinity Christian School appears to adhere to this standard. On its website, under the heading ‘What is a Christian education?’ it states “God gave us our minds and we encourage our pupils to think for themselves and not accept uncritically everything they hear or read.”
Simon Calvert, the Christian Institute’s Deputy Director said “Christian schools like Trinity have a reputation for high standards and well-rounded pupils and they should have the freedom to continue doing what they’ve always done.
“Parents clearly want such schools to thrive, and the Department for Education should too.
“At the beginning of the summer we warned that if the Government brought in these regulations then they would be enforcing political correctness in schools. We also said there would be hostility to the religious, and ethical, viewpoints of religious schools.
“The DfE said it would never happen, but since then we’ve been finding case after case where that’s exactly what’s going on.”
A colonel’s column was removed from an Air National Guard newsletter because the writer violated military policy by including references to Jesus Christ and God, an Ohio National Guard spokesman said.
Col. Florencio Marquinez, the medical group commander of the 180th Fighter Wing, wrote an essay in the September edition of the “Stinger.” It was titled, “A Spiritual Journey as a Commander.”
He wrote about how his mother’s faith in Jesus Christ influenced his life and he referenced a Bible verse from the New Testament, “With God all things are possible.”
“So no matter how stressful your life can be with juggling family issues, relationships, career advancement, work, school, or any burden that life throws your way, cast it upon the Lord and He will sustain you,” the colonel wrote.
It wasn’t too longer after the newsletter was posted online before someone filed a complaint – lamenting that the colonel’s words had caused great angst and offense.
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation’s Mikey Weinstein reached out to Air Force officials at the Pentagon, the Air National Guard is governed by Air Force rules, as well as the 180th Fighter Wing demanding they remove what he called “that odious and offending proselytizing commentary.”
Before you could say God bless America, the military ordered the colonel’s remarks stricken from the newsletter. Ohio National Guard spokesman James Sims told me the column was a clear violation of military policy.
“It’s very clear what you can and cannot say in an Air Force publication,” Sims said. “Once it was brought to our attention and we compared it with the regulation, we found it was in violation of the regulation.”
So what rules did Col. Marquinez violate by referencing the Almighty? I want to quote from the official statement provided by the Ohio National Guard:
“The article violated AFI 1-1, Sections 2.11 and 2.12.1, and the Revised Interim Guidelines Concerning Free Exercise of Religion in the Air Force guidance, and finally, ‘The Air Force Military Commander and the Law’ book.”
A bit much, don’t you think? All that for mentioning that “With God all things are possible.”
I’m surprised the Air Force didn’t convene a court martial. For the record, Sims told me that to his knowledge the colonel was not reprimanded for writing about Jesus – just censored.
But the Air Force wasn’t content with just removing the colonel’s column. No sir. They had to publically shame and humiliate this officer and gentleman.
As Sims noted in his statement, after the article was removed from the newsletter, it was “followed up with a base-wide email, with updated link for the Singer, stating: ‘The 180th FW Public Affairs office has removed the article ‘A Spiritual Journey as a Commander’ from The Stinger, Volume 52, Issue 09, September 2014 due to sensitivities.”
Sensitivities?
I’ve included a link to the colonel’s “offensive” column. Please note the “sensitive” nature.
Here’s one of the sections that violated the “godless” standards of the Air Force.
“I would not be the man I am today if it wasn’t for my mother leading our whole family to Jesus Christ,” Col. Marquinez wrote. “Her creed to us five children growing up is God first in your life, then comes family and third work.”
The Air Force regulations that were allegedly violated regard “government neutrality regarding religion.”
“Leaders at all levels must balance constitutional protections for an individual’s free exercise of religion or other personal beliefs and the constitutional prohibition against governmental establishment of religion,” the regulation states. “For example, they must avoid the actual or apparent use of their position to promote their personal religious beliefs to their subordinates or to extend preferential treatment for any religion.”
Think of it as a sort-of religious version of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
As you might imagine, the Air Force’s censorship rubbed religious liberty advocates the wrong way.
“Not only did you publicly humiliate him by your actions, but you have sent a chilling message to other members of the Air Force, that they need to keep their faith to themselves or else rise the judgment of the command,” wrote Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty executive director Ron Crews in a letter to the wing commander.
“Your actions violated his rights under the First Amendment – both his free exercise of religion and his free speech,” Crews added.
Chaplain Alliance is calling on the Air Force to reverse its censorship and repost the colonel’s column.
“The Ohio National Guard is not free to censor the protected speech of one of its members based on the content that speech,” he said.
As Crews pointed out in his letter, just last year a Moody Air Force Base publication posted a column entitled, “Atheist Ponders Spiritual Fitness.”
So if the Air Force can make an accommodation for atheists, why can’t they make one for Christians?
The laser system with its precision, speed and low noise can shoot down drones at an altitude of 500 meters and a speed of 50 meters per second (180 kilometers per hour or 112 miles per hour).
MOSCOW, November 3 (RIA Novosti) - China has successfully developed a laser defense system that can shoot down small-scale low flying drones within a two kilometer radius in five seconds, Xinhua news reported.
The laser system with its precision, speed and low noise can shoot down drones at an altitude of 500 meters and a speed of 50 meters per second (180 kilometers per hour or 112 miles per hour), the news agency reported on Sunday evening citing a statement published by the China Academy of Engineering Physics.
The academy’s statement added that the laser system would be installed in vehicles, aimed at providing heightened security at major events. These include international conferences, sporting events and political meetings. Based on the testing carried out, the laser system indicated 100 percent success.
"Intercepting such drones is usually the work of snipers and helicopters, but their success rate is not as high and mistakes with accuracy can result in unwanted damage," Yi Jinsong, of the team leading the project was quoted as saying by Xinhua.
Jinsong added that small-scale unmanned drones were a likely choice for terrorists because they were cheap and easy to use.
Meanwhile, the academy is working on similar laser systems with greater power and range, the news agency reported.
Aussie Under Pressure Amid New Currency War
Nov 4th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Sydney Morning Herald
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues
Global consolidation efforts are driving the Australian dollar down.
The Australian dollar came under renewed selling pressure on Tuesday as the consolidation of global imbalances continues to fuel a rally in its US counterpart.
The Aussie dropped briefly to touch a four-year low around $US86.5 cents on weak trade data and an upward revision in unemployment, before recovering to around $US86.9 cents as the market took heart from strong retail sales figures.
However, the main driver of more general weakness is a new surge in the US dollar, spurred by another bout of extreme monetary easing by the Bank of Japan.
The BoJ on Friday caught markets off-guard by announcing a larger-than-expected boost to it quantitative easing program, less than 48 hours after the US Federal Reserve confirmed a halt to its own six-year stimulus scheme.
Coming straight after the Japanese government formally doubled overseas asset allocation quotas for the country's biggest industry pension fund, the easing instantly got the reaction being sought: the yen dropped like a stone against the greenback and other reference currencies, and continues to fall.
By mid-morning on Tuesday the greenback was fetching Y113.88, up more than 4 per cent since the BoJ announcement, while the Australian dollar had gained more than 2 per cent, to Y98.88.
Tokyo is hoping that its latest monetary intervention will weaken the currency sufficiently to help kick-start an anaemic export economy while importing enough inflation to heat up domestic demand.
An instant rally in the Tokyo stock exchange, which on Tuesday looked sustainable, suggests investors share this optimism.
National Australia Bank's global co-head of foreign exchange strategy, Ray Attrill, said the move constituted a delicate balancing act.
"In the lead-up to last week's easing, there was a lot of Japanese business lobbies starting to express some disquiet at the dollar-yen exchange before it even got to Y110," he said.
"Small and medium-sized enterprises are basically suffering the consequences of a lower yen on higher input costs, and they not getting any of the benefit because they're not exporters."
This pressure, he said, was being weighed up by the government, which decided anyway that an even weaker yen would be good for the economy at large.
The decision was partly influenced by the sinking price of oil, a fuel which Japan has increasingly had to use in the wake of its nuclear power disaster in 2011.
At the other end of the equation is the US, whose surging currency has so far gone largely unremarked, although there are some policymakers who have warned of its potential to apply the brakes to the country's economic recovery.
US Federal Reserve Stanley Fischer last month set off a ripple of fresh volatility in global markets when he voiced concerns not only about parlous global growth trends, but the potential impact of the strengthening greenback on the US's still-vulnerable recuperation.
These concerns were also reflected in the minutes of the Fed's Open Market Committee September meeting, released just before Mr Fischer's comments.
In the event, the Fed cut its quantitative easing anyway, although the greenback's strength will remain on watch by economists and policymakers in the world's biggest economy.
In the near-term, however, they seem sanguine about another "currency war", during which troubled economies do everything possible to make themselves more competitive against the US.
"At the margin, the stronger dollar will have a dampening effect on inflation, which at this stage is a negative, but the impact on growth I think will be negligible," NAB's Ray Attrill said.
He said US growth looks set to continue because the latest data showed healthy factory activity.
"The strength of domestic demand is clearly more than making up for any slight dampening in external demand that would come from a strong exchange rate," he said.
This recent undated satellite image provided by Space Imaging/Inta SpaceTurk shows the once-secret Natanz nuclear complex in Natanz, Iran, about 150 miles south of Tehran.
In January 2010, inspectors with the International Atomic Energy Agency visiting the Natanz uranium enrichment plant in Iran noticed that centrifuges used to enrich uranium gas were failing at an unprecedented rate. The cause was a complete mystery—apparently as much to the Iranian technicians replacing the centrifuges as to the inspectors observing them.
Five months later a seemingly unrelated event occurred. A computer security firm in Belarus was called in to troubleshoot a series of computers in Iran that were crashing and rebooting repeatedly. Again, the cause of the problem was a mystery. That is, until the researchers found a handful of malicious files on one of the systems and discovered the world’s first digital weapon.
Stuxnet, as it came to be known, was unlike any other virus or worm that came before. Rather than simply hijacking targeted computers or stealing information from them, it escaped the digital realm to wreak physical destruction on equipment the computers controlled.
Countdown to Zero Day: Stuxnet and the Launch of the World’s First Digital Weapon, written by WIRED senior staff writer Kim Zetter, tells the story behind Stuxnet’s planning, execution and discovery. In this excerpt from the book, which will be released November 11, Stuxnet has already been at work silently sabotaging centrifuges at the Natanz plant for about a year. An early version of the attack weapon manipulated valves on the centrifuges to increase the pressure inside them and damage the devices as well as the enrichment process. Centrifuges are large cylindrical tubes—connected by pipes in a configuration known as a “cascade”—that spin at supersonic speed to separate isotopes in uranium gas for use in nuclear power plants and weapons. At the time of the attacks, each cascade at Natanz held 164 centrifuges. Uranium gas flows through the pipes into the centrifuges in a series of stages, becoming further “enriched” at each stage of the cascade as isotopes needed for a nuclear reaction are separated from other isotopes and become concentrated in the gas.
As the excerpt begins, it’s June 2009—a year or so since Stuxnet was first released, but still a year before the covert operation will be discovered and exposed. As Iran prepares for its presidential elections, the attackers behind Stuxnet are also preparing their next assault on the enrichment plant with a new version of the malware. They unleash it just as the enrichment plant is beginning to recover from the effects of the previous attack. Their weapon this time is designed to manipulate computer systems made by the German firm Siemens that control and monitor the speed of the centrifuges. Because the computers are air-gapped from the internet, however, they cannot be reached directly by the remote attackers. So the attackers have designed their weapon to spread via infected USB flash drives. To get Stuxnet to its target machines, the attackers first infect computers belonging to five outside companies that are believed to be connected in some way to the nuclear program. The aim is to make each “patient zero” an unwitting carrier who will help spread and transport the weapon on flash drives into the protected facility and the Siemens computers. Although the five companies have been referenced in previous news reports, they’ve never been identified. Four of them are identified in this excerpt.
The Lead-Up to the 2009 Attack
The two weeks leading up to the release of the next attack were tumultuous ones in Iran. On June 12, 2009, the presidential elections between incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and challenger Mir-Hossein Mousavi didn’t turn out the way most expected. The race was supposed to be close, but when the results were announced—two hours after the polls closed—Ahmadinejad had won with 63 percent of the vote over Mousavi’s 34 percent. The electorate cried foul, and the next day crowds of angry protesters poured into the streets of Tehran to register their outrage and disbelief. According to media reports, it was the largest civil protest the country had seen since the 1979 revolution ousted the shah and it wasn’t long before it became violent. Protesters vandalized stores and set fire to trash bins, while police and Basijis, government-loyal militias in plainclothes, tried to disperse them with batons, electric prods, and bullets.
That Sunday, Ahmadinejad gave a defiant victory speech, declaring a new era for Iran and dismissing the protesters as nothing more than soccer hooligans soured by the loss of their team. The protests continued throughout the week, though, and on June 19, in an attempt to calm the crowds, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei sanctioned the election results, insisting that the margin of victory—11 million votes—was too large to have been achieved through fraud. The crowds, however, were not assuaged.
The next day, a twenty-six-year-old woman named Neda Agha-Soltan got caught in a traffic jam caused by protesters and was shot in the chest by a sniper’s bullet after she and her music teacher stepped out of their car to observe.
Two days later on June 22, a Monday, the Guardian Council, which oversees elections in Iran, officially declared Ahmadinejad the winner, and after nearly two weeks of protests, Tehran became eerily quiet. Police had used tear gas and live ammunition to disperse the demonstrators, and most of them were now gone from the streets. That afternoon, at around 4:30 p.m. local time, as Iranians nursed their shock and grief over events of the previous days, a new version of Stuxnet was being compiled and unleashed.
Recovery From Previous Attack
While the streets of Tehran had been in turmoil, technicians at Natanz had been experiencing a period of relative calm. Around the first of the year, they had begun installing new centrifuges again, and by the end of February they had about 5,400 of them in place, close to the 6,000 that Ahmadinejad had promised the previous year. Not all of the centrifuges were enriching uranium yet, but at least there was forward movement again, and by June the number had jumped to 7,052, with 4,092 of these enriching gas. In addition to the eighteen cascades enriching gas in unit A24, there were now twelve cascades in A26 enriching gas. An additional seven cascades had even been installed in A28 and were under vacuum, being prepared to receive gas.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during a tour of centrifuges at Natanz in 2008.
The performance of the centrifuges was improving too. Iran’s daily production of low-enriched uranium was up 20 percent and would remain consistent throughout the summer of 2009. Despite the previous problems, Iran had crossed a technical milestone and had succeeded in producing 839 kilograms of low-enriched uranium—enough to achieve nuclear-weapons breakout capability. If it continued at this rate, Iran would have enough enriched uranium to make two nuclear weapons within a year. This estimate, however, was based on the capacity of the IR-1 centrifuges currently installed at Natanz. But Iran had already installed IR-2 centrifuges in a small cascade in the pilot plant, and once testing on these was complete and technicians began installing them in the underground hall, the estimate would have to be revised. The more advanced IR-2 centrifuges were more efficient. It took 3,000 IR-1s to produce enough uranium for a nuclear weapon in one year, but it would take just 1,200 IR-2 centrifuges to do the same.
Cue Stuxnet 1.001, which showed up in late June.
The Next Assault
To get their weapon into the plant, the attackers launched an offensive against computers owned by four companies. All of the companies were involved in industrial control and processing of some sort, either manufacturing products and assembling components or installing industrial control systems. They were all likely chosen because they had some connection to Natanz as contractors and provided a gateway through which to pass Stuxnet to Natanz through infected employees.
To ensure greater success at getting the code where it needed to go, this version of Stuxnet had two more ways to spread than the previous one. Stuxnet 0.5 could spread only by infecting Step 7 project files—the files used to program Siemens PLCs. This version, however, could spread via USB flash drives using the Windows Autorun feature or through a victim’s local network using the print-spooler zero-day exploit that Kaspersky Lab, the antivirus firm based in Russia, and Symantec later found in the code.
Based on the log files in Stuxnet, a company called Foolad Technic was the first victim. It was infected at 4:40 a.m. on June 23, a Tuesday. But then it was almost a week before the next company was hit.
The following Monday, about five thousand marchers walked silently through the streets of Tehran to the Qoba Mosque to honor victims killed during the recent election protests. Late that evening, around 11:20 p.m., Stuxnet struck machines belonging to its second victim—a company called Behpajooh.
It was easy to see why Behpajooh was a target. It was an engineering firm based in Esfahan—the site of Iran’s new uranium conversion plant, built to turn milled uranium ore into gas for enriching at Natanz, and was also the location of Iran’s Nuclear Technology Center, which was believed to be the base for Iran’s nuclear weapons development program. Behpajooh had also been named in US federal court documents in connection with Iran’s illegal procurement activities.
Behpajooh was in the business of installing and programming industrial control and automation systems, including Siemens systems. The company’s website made no mention of Natanz, but it did mention that the company had installed Siemens S7-400 PLCs, as well as the Step 7 and WinCC software and Profibus communication modules at a steel plant in Esfahan. This was, of course, all of the same equipment Stuxnet targeted at Natanz.
At 5:00 a.m. on July 7, nine days after Behpajooh was hit, Stuxnet struck computers at Neda Industrial Group, as well as a company identified in the logs only as CGJ, believed to be Control Gostar Jahed. Both companies designed or installed industrial control systems.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad observes computer monitors at the Natanz uranium enrichment plant in central Iran, where Stuxnet was believed to have infected PCs and damaged centrifuges. Office of the Presidency of the Islamic Republic of Iran
Neda designed and installed control systems, precision instrumentation, and electrical systems for the oil and gas industry in Iran, as well as for power plants and mining and process facilities. In 2000 and 2001 the company had installed Siemens S7 PLCs in several gas pipeline operations in Iran and had also installed Siemens S7 systems at the Esfahan Steel Complex. Like Behpajooh, Neda had been identified on a proliferation watch list for its alleged involvement in illicit procurement activity and was named in a US indictment for receiving smuggled microcontrollers and other components.
About two weeks after it struck Neda, a control engineer who worked for the company popped up on a Siemens user forum on July 22 complaining about a problem that workers at his company were having with their machines. The engineer, who posted a note under the user name Behrooz, indicated that all PCs at his company were having an identical problem with a Siemens Step 7 .DLL file that kept producing an error message. He suspected the problem was a virus that spread via flash drives.
When he used a DVD or CD to transfer files from an infected system to a clean one, everything was fine, he wrote. But when he used a flash drive to transfer files, the new PC started having the same problems the other machine had. A USB flash drive, of course, was Stuxnet’s primary method of spreading. Although Behrooz and his colleagues scanned for viruses, they found no malware on their machines. There was no sign in the discussion thread that they ever resolved the problem at the time.
It’s not clear how long it took Stuxnet to reach its target after infecting machines at Neda and the other companies, but between June and August the number of centrifuges enriching uranium gas at Natanz began to drop. Whether this was the result solely of the new version of Stuxnet or the lingering effects of the previous version is unknown. But by August that year, only 4,592 centrifuges were enriching at the plant, a decrease of 328 centrifuges since June. By November, that number had dropped even further to 3,936, a difference of 984 in five months. What’s more, although new machines were still being installed, none of them were being fed gas.
Clearly there were problems with the cascades, and technicians had no idea what they were. The changes mapped precisely, however, to what Stuxnet was designed to do.
How does it feel to live under a government that is getting even more paranoid with each passing day? Yes, we live in a world that is becoming increasingly unstable, but that is no excuse for how ultra-paranoid the federal government has become.
Today, every single one of us is viewed as a “potential threat” by the government. As a result, the government feels the need to intercept our emails, record our phone calls and track our expenditures. But they aren’t just spying on individuals. The government keeps tabs on thousands of organizations all over the planet, it spies on our enemies and our allies, and it even spies on itself.
The American people are told that the emerging Big Brother police state is for our safety, but the truth is that it isn’t there to protect us. It is there to protect them. Our government has become kind of like a crazy rich uncle that is constantly spying on everyone else in the family because he believes that they are “out to get him”. The following are 15 signs that we live during a time of rampant government paranoia…
#1 Former CBS News reporter Sharyl Attkisson says that the federal government was so concerned about her reporting on Benghazi, Fast and Furious and other Obama scandals that they hacked her computer, monitored every keystroke and even planted classified material in an apparent attempt to potentially frame her.
#2 The United States has become the nation of the “permanent emergency”. In fact, there has been at least one “state of emergency” in effect in this country since 1979.
#3 In America today, almost everyone is considered to be a criminal. At this point, nearly one out of every three Americans has a file in the FBI’s master criminal database.
#4 Most people don’t realize this, but the FBI also systematically records talk radio programs. The FBI says that it is looking for “potential evidence”.
#5 In Wisconsin, 24 armed police officers are an armored military vehicle were recently sent to collect a civil judgment from a 75-year-old retiree. It is being reported that officials feared that he might be “argumentative“.
#6 According to guidelines that were recently made public, purchasing Amtrak train tickets with cash is considered to be “suspicious activity” and needs to be reported to the authorities.
#7 The IRS can now seize your bank accounts on suspicion alone. If you are successful fighting the IRS in court, you might get your money back years later.
#8 Thousands of Americans have their mail spied on by the U.S. Postal Service. If you are on “the list”, all of your mail and packages are shown to a supervisor before they are delivered to you.
#9 Most people don’t realize that the U.S. border is now considered to be a “Constitution-free zone” where officials can freely grab your computer and copy your hard drive.
#10 The feds have apparently become extremely concerned about what all of us are saying on the Internet. In fact, they have even been caught manipulating discussions on Reddit and editing Wikipedia.
#11 The U.S. government has become so paranoid that it even spies on our European allies. Needless to say, our allies over in Europe are quite upset about this but we continue to do it.
#12 To the government, each citizen is a “potential threat”, and this justifies the militarization of our entire society. The following is an excerpt from an excellent commentary by John Whitehead…
Just take a stroll through your city’s downtown. Spend an afternoon in your local mall. Get in your car and drive to your parents’ house. Catch the next flight to that business conference. While you’re doing so, pay careful attention to how you and your fellow citizens are treated by government officials—the ones whose salaries you are paying.
You might walk past a police officer outfitted in tactical gear, holding an assault rifle, or drive past a police cruiser scanning license plates. There might be a surveillance camera on the street corner tracking your movements. At the airport, you may be put through your paces by government agents who will want to either pat you down or run scans of your body. And each time you make a call or send a text message, your communications will most likely be logged and filed. When you return home, you might find that government agents have been questioning your neighbors about you, as part of a “census” questionnaire. After you retire to sleep, you might find yourself awakened by a SWAT team crashing through your door (you’ll later discover they were at the wrong address), and if you make the mistake of reaching for your eyeglasses, you might find yourself shot by a cop who felt threatened.
Is this the behavior of a government that respects you? One that looks upon you as having inviolate rights? One that regards you as its employer, its master, its purpose for being?
I don’t think so. While this hyper-militarization of the government is being sold to the public as a means of preventing terrorism and maintaining national security, it is little more than a wolf in sheep’s clothing. In fact, as I document in my book A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, what we are dealing with is a police state disguised as a benevolent democracy, a run-away government hyped up on its own power and afraid of its citizenry, whose policies are dictated more by paranoia than need.
#13 As our police departments have become militarized, SWAT team deployments have gone through the roof. As I wrote about recently, there were only about 3,000 SWAT raids in the United States back in 1980. But today, there are more than 80,000 SWAT raids per year in this country.
#14 The federal government is so paranoid that it is actually spying on itself. The “Insider Threat Program” encourages federal employees to closely watch one another and to report any hint of suspicious activity…
The federal effort, called the Insider Threat Program, was launched in October 2011, and it certainly hasn’t diminished since Edward Snowden disclosed details of the National Security Agency’s domestic spying. As McClatchy reporters Marisa Taylor and Jonathan S. Landay have described, federal employees and contractors are encouraged to keep an eye on allegedly suspicious indicators in their co-workers’ lives, from financial troubles to divorce. A brochure produced by the Defense Security Service, titled “INSIDER THREATS: Combating the ENEMY within your organization,” sums up the spirit of the program: “It is better to have reported overzealously than never to have reported at all.”
#15 Last, but certainly not least, there is the matter of the NSA constantly spying on all of us. The NSA is monitoring and recording billions of our phone calls and emails, and most Americans don’t seem to care. But they should care. I like how an article in the New York Post described what is happening to our society…
Through a combination of fear, cowardice, political opportunism and bureaucratic metastasis, the erstwhile land of the free has been transformed into a nation of closely watched subjects — a country of 300 million potential criminals, whose daily activities need constant monitoring.
Once the most secret of organizations, the NSA has become even more famous than the CIA, the public face of Big Brother himself. At its headquarters on Savage Road in Fort Meade, Md., its omnivorous Black Widow supercomputer hoovers up data both foreign and domestic, while its new $2 billion data center near Bluffdale, Utah — the highly classified Intelligence Community Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative Data Center — houses, well, just about everything. As James Bamford wrote in Wired magazine two years ago, as the center was being completed:
“Flowing through its servers and routers and stored in near-bottomless databases will be all forms of communication, including the complete contents of private e-mails, cellphone calls, and Google searches, as well as all sorts of personal data trails — parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore purchases, and other digital ‘pocket litter.’ ”
Reuters/NASA
Moscow University’s robotic telescope has discovered a massive asteroid that could potentially hit Earth in the future. If such a collision happens, the explosion would be 1,000 more powerful the Chelyabinsk meteorite explosion in 2013.
An automatic telescope installed in Russia’s Caucasus Mountains, near the city of Kislovodsk, first spotted the newly discovered space rock, dubbed 2014 UR116. The asteroid is estimated to be 370 meters in diameter, which is bigger than the size of the notorious Apophis asteroid.
Once Russian astronomers saw the new space object, they passed the data to colleagues at the Minor Planet Center of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. That means many observatories around the world closely scrutinized 2014 UR116, which helped to calculate the object’s preliminary orbit.
2014 UR116’s orbit is fluctuating because it also passes close to Venus and Mars, and the gravitational pull of these planets can also influence the asteroid’s trajectory.
When a meteorite exploded in the skies above the Russian city of Chelyabinsk in February 2013, the energy of the explosion was estimated to be equivalent to 300-500 kilotons of TNT. But the Chelyabinsk meteorite was relatively small, about 17 meters in diameter and it disintegrated with a blast at an altitude of over 20 kilometers.
The newly discovered 2014 UR116 is much bigger and its collision with our planet would be catastrophic, as its impact power would be 1,000 times stronger than of the Chelyabinsk meteorite, Scientific Russia journal pointed out.
But the good news is that the asteroid poses no threat to Earth for at least the next six years, Victor Shor, research associate at the Institute of Applied Astronomy told the Interfax news agency.
At the moment the closest part of 2014 UR116’s orbit is 4.5 million kilometers from Earth. But this will change, so scientists are going to have to keep an eye on 2014 UR116 for years to come.
The robotic telescope network that discovered 2014 UR116 is called MASTER. It belongs to Moscow State University and was created in close cooperation with Russian universities in Yekaterinburg, Irkutsk, Blagoveschensk, the Kislovodsk station of Pulkovo Observatory and help from the National University of San Juan, Argentina.
MASTER has already snagged two other potentially dangerous asteroids: 2013 SW24 and 2013 UG1, but they were smaller than 2014 UR116, ‘only’ 250 and 125 meters respectively.
The video showing the movement of 2014 UR116 is made up of a number of photos taken by the MASTER robotic telescope, with several minutes interval between each one.
