Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

UN Blames 'Occupation' for Jerusalem Violence, Calls for Talks
Nov 17th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;The Nation Of Israel

UN Security Council

Reuters

A senior UN official warned the Security Council on Monday that violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories was likely to worsen without a quick return to peace talks, AFP reports Monday.

"Returning to negotiations has never been more important," UN Assistant-Secretary General Jens Toyberg-Frandzen told the 15-member council, during a meeting on the Middle East.

"Without a genuine commitment from the parties and an overall improvement in the lives of Palestinians, we should anticipate further deterioration of the security situation and an expansion of the current violence," he said.

It is unclear why the UN believes that the peace process will help rather than exacerbate violence in the capital. An Israel Security Agency (ISA) study revealed last year that terror only escalated since the latest round of peace talks began in 2013. 

The appeal followed a visit to the region last week by US Secretary of State John Kerry, who sought to ease tensions over Jerusalem, which has been wracked by violence. The capital has been subjected to months-long rioting on the Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest site, and to multiple terror attacks over the past several weeks. 

The flare-up in Jerusalem has been watched with growing concern just as efforts to consolidate a ceasefire in Gaza after a 50-day war have run into problems.

Toyberg-Frandzen told the council that there were "some signs of progress" over reconstruction but that "the overall state of affairs in Gaza remains volatile and fraught with potential pitfalls."

Israel has agreed to allow 800 truckloads of reconstruction material into Gaza, up from the current 350, but $62 million worth of UN construction projects are awaiting approval by Israeli authorities. Hamas, meanwhile, has threatened to begin another war if reconstruction does not begin shortly. 

There has been little to no progress in establishing a unity government between Palestinian Hamas and Fatah factions in Gaza - a move seen as a key to speeding up reconstruction, said the UN official.

Toyberg-Frandzen also condemned the recent firing of Hamas rockets in Gaza and in Israel and warned the launches risk re-igniting the conflict with Israel - blaming the "occupation" for the recent round of violence. 

"The continued reality of the close to 50-year long occupation and the lack of progress towards the two-state solution ensure that the next round of violence is never too far below the surface," warned Toyberg-Frandzen.

The 15-member council went into closed-door consultations following the report by the assistant-secretary general.

Ukraine Ready for Total War Says Petro Poroshenko
Nov 17th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Ausralian
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

A woman and her daughter live in the shelled of the Donetsk city hospital. Source: AFP

UKRAINE is ready for “total war,” President Petro Poroshenko has said, as fighting grew more intense around the rebel stronghold of Donetsk amid a build up of separatist troops.

After a week in which Kiev said several unmarked armoured convoys of troops crossed the Russian border to reinforce rebels in the east, Mr Poroshenko toughened his rhetoric, telling the German daily Bild: “I am not afraid of a war with Russian troops.”

He added, in an interview to be published today: “We are prepared for a scenario of total war ... We don’t want war, we want peace and we are fighting for European values. But Russia does not respect any agreement.”

Mr Poroshenko’s claim came as Russian President Vladimir Putin left the G20 summit in Brisbane early after being confronted by a number of other leaders over the Ukraine crisis.

US President Barack Obama said on Sunday that Russia would remain isolated by the international community if Mr Putin failed to end Russian backing for the separatist rebels in Ukraine.

The most acrimonious exchange was with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper as the leaders gathered for the traditional summit photo.

“I guess I’ll shake your hand, but I have only one thing to say to you: you need to get out of Ukraine,” Mr Harper told the Russian president, according to an account provided by the Canadian leader.

It has since emerged that the rest of the conversation was even blunter. “Putin replied, I’m not in Ukraine, to which Harper said, ‘That’s why I don’t want to have a meeting with you, you’ll just lie to me’,” a source at the summit told The Times of London.

Before he left Brisbane, Mr Putin told reporters that his talks on Ukraine with other G20 leaders were “very frank, very substantive and, I think, helpful.”

Mr Poroshenko said Kiev was now better prepared to face a rumoured rebel offensive. “Our army is now in a better state than it was five months ago and we are being supported by the entire world,” he told the paper.

“More than anything we want peace, but we must at the moment face up to the worst-case scenario.”

Seven months of fighting in eastern Ukraine has claimed the lives of more than 4,100 people, according to UN figures.

The latest clashes come amid a nominal ceasefire that has halted fighting along much of the frontline but not stopped regular artillery bombardments at strategic hot spots.

But with an apparent growing military build-up, the UN said it feared “a return to total war”.

On a visit to Bratislava on Sunday, Poroshenko told reporters the conflict would “end within two weeks” if the peace plan signed in Minsk in September was implemented.

Study Shows Millennials Turned Off By Trendy Church Buildings, Prefer a Classic Sanctuary
Nov 17th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy News Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Commentary

Millennials gravitate toward classic, quiet church spaces that feel authentic and provide a break from the busyness of a fast-paced, technological world, revealed a study commissioned by church architectural firms.

Online surveys administered to 843 young adults ages 18 to 29 by Christian research firm Barna Group and Cornerstone Knowledge Network, the market research organization created by church design firms Aspen Group and Cogun, found 67 percent chose the word "classic" to describe their ideal church. By contrast, 33 percent prefer a trendy church as their ideal.

"They don't want something created artificially for them; they don't want a bait and switch. What they want is something deeper and more authentic," Aspen Group AIA Architect Derek Degroot said of the survey results.

That search for authenticity translates into the look and sound Millennials prefer for their ideal church.

When asked to choose their preference between a church sanctuary and a church auditorium, 77 percent chose sanctuary. When shown four different kinds of church windows ranging from modern and least "churchy" to traditionally ornate, over a third of all respondents chose the most ornate stain glass window common to chapels. When shown four styles of church altars, the study showed that a majority of respondents chose altars that "are unambiguously Christian and are more traditional."

"Millennials are a very visual group," explained Barna Vice President of Publishing Roxanne Stone. "If they go into your church and they don't know where to go or it's ambiguous or they don't understand what something is for, they will move on."

Additionally, 78 percent of millennial respondents selected a quiet church as the ideal over a loud church.

The results seem to buck against the trends of the typical megachurch where the sanctuary is a vast space broken into several seating sections, congregants are treated to concert-like worship services, and the pastor preaches from a stage.

Stone said the same result proved true in a field test where another group of Millennials visited a downtown cathedral, a suburban megachurch, a city park and a coffee shop and were told to react to the space.

She recalled "Many of the Millennials when we asked them point blank where would you go to church, they said probably at the suburban megachurch but they didn't have the same kind of appreciation for the megachurches as they did for the cathedrals; they didn't walk in and have the same sense of awe."

Traditional settings featuring decorative depictions of the crucifixion and glass windows were particularly popular among young adults who identified as either marginally churched or unchurched.

"These sort of suburban megachurches," Stone explained, "they don't feel like church, so when they enter these spaces and, they haven't had a religious background, they don't know where they are. Instead of feeling what they were coming for which is [the] desire to connect with the sacred, instead they're sort of asking questions of what they're supposed to do in this space."

While millennials in the study showed a flair for the traditional, 60 percent of respondents still preferred the descriptor "modern" over "traditional" for their ideal church, 64 percent chose "casual" over "dignified" and 56 percent selected performance over ritual.

In creating the perfect church space for young adults, Stone said church leaders need to keep in mind that for Millennials growing up in the information age and church is just one of many places where they can experience a spiritual feeling or connection. Therefore Millennials want a church that gives them a unique experience.

"What we need to create," said Degroot, "are respites that get us away from the busy world, that allow us to connect with one another and to connect with God."

Secret EU Document Reveals Israel Sanctions Policy
Nov 17th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Uncategorized

EU's Federica Mogherini, Mahmoud Abbas

STR/Flash 90

The European Union (EU) has sent a secret document to its 28 member states detailing sanctions to be taken against Israel, if it takes moves the EU feels compromises the creation of an Arab state of 'Palestine' inside Israel.

The paper, drafted by the European External Action Service (EEAS), was distributed to European diplomats who were told not to show it to Israel yet, according to Haaretz. Israeli diplomats in Europe became aware of the document and reported on it to the Foreign Ministry.

Some of the "red lines" which the EU would react to by punishing Israel with the sanctions include construction in the E1 area between Jerusalem and Ma'ale Adumim, as well as in Jerusalem neighborhoods over the 1949 Armistice line. According to the EU, such moves would prevent a division of Jerusalem by which it would be the capital of both Israel and "Palestine."

Sanctions under discussion in the document reportedly include marking products from Judea and Samaria in EU supermarkets to facilitate boycotts, limiting cooperation with Israel, and even limiting the free-trade agreement with Israel.

"There is big frustration in Europe and zero tolerance for settlement activity. This paper is part of the internal brainstorming being done in Brussels these days, about what can be done to keep the two-state solution alive," a European diplomat revealed.

According to the diplomat and his colleagues, the document contains "sticks and carrots" to foist Europe's political vision on Israel - they acknowledged it mostly contains "sticks."

EU policy up to this point has put the development of ties with Israel as contingent upon the "peace process." The caveat of the new document is that the EU will now take negative steps such as sanctions and restrictions in ties in response to actions it views as being against that process.

"This paper is an uncooked dish and the process is only beginning, but it is slowly continuing," warned a senior European diplomat.

Officials speaking to Haaretz revealed the document was drafted by Christian Berger of Austria, the director for Middle East of the EEAS. Berger was behind EU sanctions last July as well.

The talk of EU sanctions comes two weeks after human rights groups and political parties in Europe demanded that the EU threaten to suspend the Association Agreement with Israel, which is the central treaty between the two sides. They called for the threat so as to force Israel to give a report on its actions fighting the Hamas terror group in Operation Protective Edge.

At the time Federica Mogherini, the EU's new foreign affairs chief, was in Israel where she called to divide the Israeli capital of Jerusalem.

European officials last month revealed they are weighing various punitive actions against Israel, such as a travel ban on Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria with any criminal record, as well as moves to subvert the trade agreement.

The various moves against Israel come as anti-Semitism has been shown to be skyrocketing in Europe, with research revealing exponential increases in anti-Semitic acts and speech particularly around the recent Gaza operation.

Satanist Coloring Book Push Forces Change in Florida Schools
Nov 17th, 2014
Daily NewsCBS Miami
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

A Satanist group is pushing to distribute coloring books for children at a Central Florida school.

The push has caused Orange County school officials to consider a ban on the distribution of all religious materials at schools.

Religious groups are allowed to place religious materials at schools, and students can pick them up if they want.

So far, an evangelical group has distributed Bibles and an atheist group has distributed literature.

School officials said they’re reconsidering the policy after a group known as the Satanic Temple tried to get their coloring book distributed at schools.

Any school board vote on the matter won’t take place until early next year.

Report: Kerry Threatens Abbas With Sanctions Over UN Bid
Nov 17th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Kerry and Abbas meet at the latter's home in Amman, Jordan

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry threatened to impose sanctions on the Palestinian Authority (PA) if it goes ahead with unilateral moves, such as asking the United Nations Security Council to set a deadline for Israel to withdraw from Judea and Samaria, the London-based al-Araby al-Jadeed newspaper reported on Monday

Speaking on condition of anonymity, official sources confirmed to the newspaper that Kerry called PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and warned him against taking any unilateral measures, threatening to impose financial and political sanctions on the PA. He said the most effective way forward would be to resume negotiations.

The sources added that “Kerry stressed the importance of calming the situation in occupied Jerusalem to avoid serious consequences.”

The sources said an Arab committee would meet in Cairo on November 29 to put the final touches on an Arab draft resolution to be submitted to the Security Council to recognize the Palestinian state.

However, speaking to al-Araby al-Jadeed, other sources close to the PA expressed doubt that Abbas would actually go through with the UN resolution.

“There are Arab and U.S. pressures that will make it impossible for the Palestinian President to take a step like submitting the draft resolution by the end of this month or even before the end of this year”, the sources added.

The PA has been threatening to turn to the Security Council with a resolution setting a deadline for Israel to “end the occupation”, a unilateral move that is in violation of the Oslo Accords.

The move has been accompanied by threats, with Abbas have recently threatened to cut ties with Israel if his latest unilateral move at the UN fails.

"If all efforts fail, we will end relations with Israel and I will tell Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, ‘Come and take over’. However, I will not dismantle the Palestinian Authority and I will submit a request to join all the organizations belonging to the UN," he declared.

Fatah leader Nabil Shaath recently threatened Israel with a “political war” if there is a negative response to Abbas’s steps at the United Nations.

New Poll Shows Large Number of People will Jump At Chance to Have Microchip Implant
Nov 17th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy News Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Commentary

According to a survey by tech giant Cisco Systems, about a fourth of professionals ages 18 to 50 would leap at the chance to get a surgical brain implant that allowed them to instantly link their thoughts to the Internet.

The study was conducted on 3,700 adults working in white-collar jobs in 15 countries.

“Assuming a company invented a brain implant that made the World Wide Web instantly accessible to their thoughts, roughly one-quarter would move forward with the operation,” the study found.

Generation Y professionals, those born in the 1980s through 2000, were only slightly more apt to say they would get the surgery, at 26 percent, versus 21 percent of Gen Xers or those born from the early 1960s through the early 1980s.

The study posed dozens of technology-related questions to professionals in 15 countries including the U.S., Japan, China, Russia and France.

“I really think it’s the cool factor. When they see something that’s cutting-edge, they really don’t stop to think about the implications,” said Liz McIntyre, a privacy expert and co-author of the book, “Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Purchase and Watch Your Every Move.”

“Especially people who work in technology but also just average people, I think they look at the cool factor and they don’t stop to look at the implications for themselves like their privacy and civil liberties, never mind the bigger picture for all of society,” McIntyre said. “It’s part of this whole wave now where the (tech) industry feels like they have an in, and they’re going to push it right through on the cool factor.”

She said many people have become “brainwashed by the industry” to the point where they think they can’t live without being connected to the Internet.

“Look at all the people carrying smartphones; those are tracking devices,” McIntyre said. “What’s the next step? We already have singularity. Having sensors implanted in people everywhere will be the next step.”

All commercial products have sensors, and some day all people could be implanted with brain chips, allowing the people to interact with the products and with each other in a whole new way. To many, that sounds like a brave new world that’s both exhilarating and terrifying at the same time.

“So you will have a God-like feeling of how people are thinking and feeling at all times. It will get to a point where you won’t have a choice. People will become more like machines,” McIntyre said. “There will be a central intelligence, and they will all act on it. You’re part of it. You talk about mind control? Everything will be known. Everything will be part of this collective, and if you don’t participate you won’t have a place in this civil society.

“I think it is very Orwellian.”

McIntyre said the tech industry is likely very close to being able to produce a brain implant, but industry insiders know they still have much work to do in terms of public acceptance for their radical ideas. That could be one of the reasons why Cisco conducted its study – to get a feel for how close the market is to accepting such a product.

“They’re not far, because we already have devices that can be implanted in the body,” McIntyre said. “I think the main barrier to that (brain implant) is public acceptance, and I question the study by Cisco because they have a vested interest. The more people they can portray as being accepting of this, the better it is for them.”

McIntyre, who speaks on technology and privacy issues around the world, said the people with whom she comes in contact are not so eager to be chipped with an RFID, let alone a brain implant that would connect their thoughts with cyberspace.

“You know, when I talk to real people every day, they don’t want implants,” she said. “Even tech people, privately they’re a little bit scared. I have people come up to me wherever I go saying, ‘You know I would have said something, but I work for this company or that company,’ and they have real concerns but are prevented by their job constraints from saying anything. It’s really not normal (to be so accepting).”

Katherine Albrecht, co-author of “Spychips” and founder/director of Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering, said she also has doubts about the credibility of Cisco’s study.

In 2005 she interviewed hundreds of people for her doctoral dissertation at Harvard University and asked them if they would be willing to take an RFID implant.

“Everybody I asked, they all said, ‘No way,’ and some said, ‘Over my dead body.’ Some said things like, ‘You’d have to get me over the barrel of my shotgun first.’”

But the number of people open to such an extreme fusion of technology with the human body could very well be growing.

Albrecht said many younger people have been brought up to think all technology is “cool,” and they’ve also become less sensitive to what she calls “body modifications.”

“We’ve got piercings. We’ve got tattoos. We’ve got implants, people putting silicon in their bodies, implanting weird things,” she said. “In Japan, there is a trend for putting a doughnut shape in your forehead, so the younger generation has been desensitized to this body modification.”

But she still doubts that 26 percent of Gen Y’ers are ready for brain implants, as the Cisco survey suggests.

“I would be very skeptical of the research methodology that was used because in my experience it certainly wasn’t one in four (for RFID chips),” she said “I surveyed several hundred and almost unanimously they were against it, so either this study is flawed or something drastic has changed in just the last nine years. If you think the Internet is invading your privacy just wait till we have implants.”

McIntyre said Cisco and other technology companies will continue to fight the public relations war with the goal of warming people up to the idea of brain implants. But RFID chips will likely come first. They’re already used widely for pets.

“I think right now it’s a public relations game trying to promote this technology and trying to convince us all so we readily line up,” she said. “That said, those of us who are thinking about this need to stand up and make our voices heard, because if we’re not heard with a different viewpoint, then people will think almost everyone in society thinks this is normal so I must accept it, too.”

The study also found that more than 40 percent of respondents would allow their carrier/provider to have access to all their data in exchange for a free smartphone with unlimited data plan. More than seven in 10 Japanese professionals said they would sacrifice having sex for a month if that’s what it would take for them to keep their smartphones.

McIntyre said Americans, generally, are more trusting of technology and technology companies than Europeans.

“And you can see that reflected in the privacy laws,” she said. “Europe’s privacy protection laws are much stronger. America is much more interested in making a profit. Not that that’s bad, but because of that and the competition and the way our society is set up, we tend to go with the way society is set up and how we’re going to make money. Whereas, if you look at those other countries, many of them know what it’s like to live under repressive regimes in Eastern Europe. They had a gulag. Their neighbors disappeared.”

Among the other findings of Cisco’s survey were:

•When it comes to self-driven cars, the majority of Gen X and Gen Y professionals do not expect them to be available by the year 2020. About three in 10, though, do believe they will be available, allowing for an easier commute leaving them free to get work done.

•Roughly eight in 10 Gen X and Gen Y professionals believe middle-income workers will have robots that can assist them with various activities – although most do not expect such robots to be available by the year 2020.

•About one-quarter of Gen X and Gen Y professionals would be willing to move to Mars or another planet if their organization were to open a branch there.

Charlotte Iserbyt, former education adviser to President Ronald Reagan and author of the book, “The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America,” took up the Cisco study this week in her blog, “ABCs of Dumb Down.”

When one-fourth of a couple of generations is willing to line up for brain implants, the implications are chilling, she wrote.

“The article describes an addiction of proportions in which substance addiction pales by comparison,” Iserbyt wrote. “Imagine what the statistics may be with current young generations whose lives are shaped by addiction to technology from infancy through formative years of schooling dominated by ever more intrusive cyber ‘learning.’

“Prediction being fulfilled and even going beyond the book, ’1984′ (but 30 years later) with willing humanity so controlled that people volunteer to subject themselves to physical implants to ensure connection to their slave masters?”

Let the Headlines Speak
Nov 17th, 2014
Daily NewsFrom the internet
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

EU proposal could punish Israel for settlements
JERUSALEM — An internal European Union document proposes unspecified "actions" against Israel for its settlement activities in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, reflecting unhappiness with the lack of progress in Mideast peace efforts.  

Sierra Leone surgeon brought to US for Ebola treatment dies
A surgeon from Sierra Leone who was being treated for Ebola at a Nebraska hospital has died on Monday, according to the hospital. Dr Martin Salia, a permanent US resident, is the second patient to die of Ebola in the US. He arrived in Omaha on Saturday, having left Freetown on Friday by air ambulance. He was immediately transported to Nebraska medical center, where he began treatment.  

Secret EU Document Reveals Israel Sanctions Policy
EU has distributed document to member-states outlining punishments against Israel for 'red lines' - like Jerusalem construction.  

Pope says will visit United States next year
Pope Francis announced on Monday he would visit the United States next year, his first trip there as leader of the 1.2 billion-member Roman Catholic Church. The official confirmation of the trip was keenly awaited in the United States after months of speculation.  

Surgeon infected with Ebola virus in 'extremely critical' condition at Nebraska hospital
A surgeon who contracted the Ebola virus while working in Sierra Leone is fighting for his life at a Nebraska hospital, where doctors say his condition is "extremely critical."  

Japan's slip into surprise recession paves way for tax delay, snap poll
Japan's economy unexpectedly slipped into recession in the third quarter, setting the stage for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to delay an unpopular sales tax hike and call a snap election two years before he has to go to the polls.  

Obama calls IS beheadings 'pure evil'
The 26-year-old Kassig, who founded an aid group to help Syrians caught in their country's brutal civil war, "was taken from us in an act of pure evil by a terrorist group that the world rightly associates with inhumanity," Obama said in a statement.  

US State Dept locks down email system after suspected hacker attack
The US State Department has shut down the whole of its unclassified email system after fears a hacker managed to obtain access. An official said none of the departments classified systems were affected while security upgrades are currently taking place.  

Cyber Warfare-The New Frontier
It is no longer a "Cold War" going on between Russia and the United States it is a "Cyber War". Russia, unbeknownst to most, recently hacked into the White House. It was probably a form of retaliation for Sanctions placed upon it by the President for Russia's invasion of Crimea. Iran has Blueprints of the President's Helicopter. The Chinese stole the classified jet designs of one of the Pentagon's best kept secrets in 2006-the"Joint Strike Fighter".  

The Ivory Tower’s Nazification of Israel
“What if the Jews themselves were Nazis?,” mused French philosopher, Vladimir Jankélévitch in 1986. “That would be great. We would no longer have to feel sorry for them; they would have deserved what they got.”  

There is No 'Status Quo' on the Temple Mount
It is very popular to demand nowadays that Israel "maintain the status quo" on the Temple Mount – but barely anyone can say exactly what that "status quo" is. In fact, the rules instituted for prayer rights on the Mount immediately after the Six Day War barely resemble those in place today.  

OLD SUNSPOT CRACKLES WITH FLARES
Apparently, you can't keep a good sunspot down. AR2192, the aging sunspot famous for producing six X-flares in late October, is growing again and poses a renewed threat for strong eruptions. In the past 24 hours, the active region has produced a series of increasingly intense M-class flares.  

From Vlad to worse: He was snubbed at the airport, made to sit alone at dinner, shunted to the edge of the family photo and condemned by world leaders
Putin's trip was marred by a series of diplomatic snubs and frostiness from Western leaders, sparking an early exit for the Russian leader who flew out on Sunday afternoon, cutting his intended stay short.  

Powerful 6.7 quake off New Zealand coast, no tsunami threat
The quake, which struck at 10:33 am (local time) was centred at sea nearly 200 kilometres from the eastern North Island city of Gisborne and 35 kilometres deep, the US Geological Survey said. New Zealand's civil defence organisation said it was "unlikely to have caused a tsunami that will pose a threat to New Zealand".  

Deadly mudslides engulf homes in Switzerland and Italy
At least four people have been killed in landslides in southern Switzerland and northern Italy following days of torrential rain. Two women died when a wall of mud destroyed a house near the Swiss town of Lugano on Sunday. Over the border, a pensioner and his granddaughter were killed when a mudslide engulfed their home.  

Australia and China seal major free trade deal
China and Australia have sealed a major free trade agreement, as Chinese President Xi Jinping made a rare address to parliament in Canberra. The deal, the result of a decade of talks, will open up markets worth billions of dollars, Canberra says. It will give Australian dairy farmers, winemakers and other sectors tariff-free access to the huge Chinese market within a few years.  

Eurozone facing unprecedented triple-dip recession, warns Cameron
The eurozone is on the 'brink' of an unprecedented triple-dip recession, UK prime minister David Cameron warned as the weekend's G20 summit in Australia came to its conclusion on Sunday (16 November). In an article in the Guardian published Sunday (16 November), Cameron said that the "eurozone is teetering on the brink of a possible third recession, with high unemployment, falling growth and the real risk of falling prices too".  

German customs investigation unit: Iran violates sanctions by purchasing nuclear technology
Iran’s regime continues its illicit efforts to obtain technology for its alleged nuclear weapons program , chemical weapons and rocket systems, according to a Sunday report in the large German daily Der Tagesspiegel. According to the report, the German custom’s criminal investigation unit (ZKA) said Iran’s regime over the last few months sought components for its nuclear program in Germany.  

Invoking Hezbollah, Hagel promises new US military innovation
SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — Wary of a more muscular Russia and China, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Saturday the Pentagon will make a new push for fresh thinking and creative ideas about how the US can keep and extend its military superiority despite tighter budgets and the wear and tear of 13 years of war.  

Parents furious over Florida school's surprise 'active shooter' drill
An unannounced “active shooter drill” at a Florida middle school left teachers and students frightened and confused, and has angered parents who say police and administrators terrified their children. The Thursday morning drill at Jewett Middle Academy in Winter Haven began when the school principal announced the school was going on lockdown. Winter Haven police officers then burst into classrooms brandishing guns, including an unloaded AR-15 rifle, to check on students huddled in the dark. Teachers were also clueless a drill was taking place.  

EPA’s next regulatory tsunami
Looming Environmental Protection Agency ozone regulations personify the Obama administration’s secrecy, collusion, fraud, and disdain for concerns about the effects that its tsunami of regulations is having on the livelihoods, living standards, health and welfare of millions of American families. Virtually every EPA announcement of new regulations asserts that they will improve human health.  

The Limited View from the Amman Summit
The hastily-arranged summit in Amman on November 13, 2014 may have given the participants some instant gratification. In the long run, however, it will join the long list of similar summits in Aqaba, Jordan, Sharm al-Sheikh, Egypt, Washington, DC, and elsewhere that ended with no lasting impact.  

Obama Declares an Amnesty War
There is no lamer duck than the President. Whenever he speaks these days all you can hear is quack, quack, quack. The same mindset that could conspire to foist ObamaCare on Americans by deception is at work to do the same thing with an unconstitutional, unilateral announcement of amnesty for millions of illegal—oops, “undocumented”—aliens living in America. What is amazing about this is that it was announced the day after the midterm election when Obama and the Democratic Party had suffered a huge rejection.  

A Sick Culture, Poisoned by Liberalism, Reels While Seeking Shelter
While it’s true that a Conservative wave just swept the USA in the 2014 elections, the accumulated damage of progressive theory upon the American culture has been nothing short of devastating. The list of areas where Americans are now struggling because of the importation of foreign ideas against American ideals is staggering. The family is probably the most endangered because of the incursion against traditional, biblical and common sense practice.  

Suicide attack in Nigerian market kills at least 12: witnesses
ABUJA - A female suicide bomber blew herself up on Sunday, killing at least a dozen people in a cellphone market in Azare, a town in Nigeria's Bauchi State where a similar attack at a bank last week killed seven, witnesses said.  

Putin says he's convinced solution to Ukraine crisis possible
BERLIN - Russia President Vladimir Putin said in a German television interview on Sunday that he is convinced it should be possible to find a way to resolve the crisis in Ukraine but added he was concerned about the threat of ethnic cleansing.  

Jewish Israeli stabbed as tension rises in Jerusalem
An Israeli man is in stable condition after being stabbed in the back by a suspected Palestinian assailant in East Jerusalem, the latest in a string of incidents in the city that has some fearing a return of an all out Palestinian uprising in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank.  

Republicans weigh government shutdown to stop Obama on immigration
WASHINGTON - One Republican leader on Sunday held open the possibility that his party could move to shut down the government in an attempt to stop President Barack Obama from taking executive action on immigration policy.  

Russia Seen as Greatest Threat in Poll as Oil Erodes Putin's Power
Russia poses the biggest security risk to world markets and will be the biggest loser from the drop in oil prices, according to a Bloomberg Global Poll of international investors.  

Kerry: We're not Intimidated By ISIS
Nov 17th, 2014
Daily NewsArutz Sheva
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

John Kerry

The United States is “not intimidated” by the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group, Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday, after another American hostage was killed by the group.

Kerry said the brutality of the Islamic State group and its potential spread worldwide was a key reason, among many, that the United States must remain deeply engaged in the Middle East, according to the Associated Press (AP).

His comments came right before he headed overseas for nuclear talks with Iran as a November 24 deadline for a deal looms.

"We are obviously entering in a key period with negotiations regarding Iran's nuclear program," Kerry said at an annual policy forum in Washington, hosted by the publisher of Foreign Policy magazine.

"We have to be deeply engaged — deeply engaged — in this region, because it is directly in the interest of our national security and our economy, and it is also in keeping of who we are," he added.

"The United States does not go in search of enemies in the Middle East. There are times, however, and this is one, when enemies come in search of us," said the Secretary of State.

The comments came one day after the White House confirmed the death of aid worker Peter Kassig, a former soldier who tried to help wounded Syrians caught in their country's civil war but ended up dying himself at the hands of Islamic State.

Left unchecked, Kerry said that the Islamic State group could grow worldwide. Already, he said, ISIS has seized more land and resources "than Al-Qaeda ever had on its best day of its existence."

ISIS "leaders assume that the world will be too intimidated to oppose them," Kerry said. "But let us be clear: We are not intimidated."

Islamic Education Infiltrating Public Schools
Nov 17th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy News Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Commentary

Pamela Geller, author of the book Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance, has reported alarming recent accounts by parents whose children have been bringing home Social Studies homework that introduces them to Islam. Parents are frantic as they discover public schools all over America are indoctrinating students in Islam and Sharia. Geller’s book describes and warns of the islamization of the curriculum and the school room. The book was a primer on how to fight the encroaching Islamic supremacism and sharia that is seeking to convert children.

One mother reported that her daughter who is in grade 7 recently asked her to type out her vocabulary words for her Social Studies. The mother became instantly alarmed when the vocabulary included many Islamic terms such as Qur’an, Mosque, Alms, Caliph, Jihad, Sunnis and Shiites. She and her husband spent the next 3 hours reading through their daughter’s book and their lives were completely changed that day. One of the chapters was dedicated completely to Islam and the story of Muhammad, with multiple quotes from the Qur’an throughout the chapter. 

The book even goes on to say that “…Muhammad revealed the purest version of God’s truth” and that Muhammad is the final prophet of God’s truth with the most complete version of that truth. Part of the world history and social studies teachings also include the 1,400 year history of jihadi wars, land appropriations, cultural annihilations and enslavements, not to mention the extermination of the entire Jewish Banu Qurayza tribe of Arabia.

Despite the family’s protest to their daughter’s school, assignments continued to come in, including one in which the students were asked to use information in the textbook to illustrate each of the 5 pillars of Islam. The students had to mention the title of the pillar, draw a picture and use one to two sentences to describe the pillar in their own words, as well as write a word collage of all that is good with Islam.

At their meetings with the teacher and principal to discuss the curriculum, the parents were told these were in line with “state standards” and “Common Core.” The teacher defended the book, saying Christianity was discussed in the first two chapters. However, Jesus is mentioned once as a Jewish prophet in the first chapter and the second chapter briefly discusses the division within the Christian Church. The table of contents also reveals that Islam is the dominant religious focus throughout the book. Another Christian mother reported her 12 year old son was forced to write and say the Muslim declaration of faith and write it repeatedly.

Yet another shocked parent advised parents to be concerned and check their children’s assignments after his own son came for help with an assignment about the one god (Allah) and the Five Pillars of Islam. Most parents have no problem with their child learning about the various cultures around the world and the religions they practice, but for a school to emphasize and actually teach a single religion to children while discouraging the others is what most are up in arms against. Matthew 13:25 rightly says: “But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.”

It has become apparent that the United States public school system curriculum has been hijacked by a Pro-Muslim Common Core platform with frightening ramifications. Children are being forced to say the shahada, and learn the five pillars of Islam. The shahada, which Muslims force Christians to say when they convert, is the Muslim declaration of faith. The Arabic writing on the black flag of jihad (also known as the al Qaeda flag or ISIS flag) is the shahada. 

It is surprising that the textbook, which was reportedly introduced in 2007, has not elicited the expected amount of publicity that it deserves within Christian circles. Is it possible that now that ISIS, which stands for (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) and its recent and ongoing highly publicized horrific persecution of Christian men, women and children is perhaps the reason that distraught children and parents are finally connecting the diabolical dots between the curriculum and the current news? It is not wrong for Christians to learn about other religions – informed Christians are better equipped to defend their faith, but also as they abide in Jesus Christ, they are able to bear fruit that will point others to the true God. 

The removal of the tenets of the Christian faith from public schools: prayer, the Ten Commandments and Christian education created an “areligious vacuum” that is just waiting to be filled and that has left the children in the school system as sitting ducks. This is clearly a question of double standards. 

As one parent put it: “We cannot discuss our Ten Commandments in school, but they can discuss Islam’s Five Pillars?” If children cannot learn about or practice Christianity in school, they should also not be allowed to practice or learn about Islam in school. The standards should be the same. The bigger issue, however, is the appropriateness of children being taught materials objectionable to their parents.

Regardless of whether you agree that religion should be taught in public school or not, there is no question that parents should

Read more at http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/2014/November17/175.html#TSL8xB1jqW5SBeIm.99

ISIS Threatens Slaughter in the Streets of the West
Nov 17th, 2014
Daily NewsThe Telegraph
Categories: Today's Headlines;War

'Jihadi John' threatens to bring slaughter to the streets of the West as he announces the death of American aid worker Peter Kassig

A still from a video issued by the Islamic State of the terrorist reffered to as 'Jihadi John'  

In Washington, Mr Obama’s National Security Council said US intelligence agencies were working to confirm the authenticity of the video. Officials said they were "increasingly convinced" it was genuine.

A spokeswoman said: "If confirmed, we are appalled by the brutal murder of an innocent American aid worker and we express our deepest condolences to his family and friends."

The killing showed the West may have to “think the unthinkable” and commit ground troops to help Iraqi forces beat back the militants from northern Iraq, Lord Dannatt, former head of the Army said.

The 15-minute-long film was released hours after unconfirmed reports that Jihadi John, who is now one of the world’s most wanted men, had been wounded last week in a US air strike. It was not immediately clear when it was filmed.

The militant, who speaks in a London accent, says: “To Obama, the dog of Rome. Today we are slaughtering the soldiers of Bashar and tomorrow we will be slaughtering your soldiers and with Allah’s permission we will break this final and last crusade and the Islamic State will soon, like your puppet David Cameron said, begin to slaughter your people on your streets.”

The video then shows the execution of at least 18 pilots and officers from Bashar al Assad’s government forces. Later the militant can be seen with a decapitated head at his feet, which he says belongs to Mr Kassig. Mr Kassig makes no propaganda statement in the video, in contrast to the executions in earlier hostage films, and one close friend said he believed he had defied his captors to the end.

Michael Downey, one of Mr Kassig's best friends from Beirut, said: “I think he refused. He was a man of principle and wouldn't give into intimidation from thugs. He never took the easy route."

Mr Cameron earlier this year warned that Britain faces the “greatest and deepest” terror threat in the country’s history and the risk posed by Isil, also known as Isis, will last for “decades”.

ISIS Has 200,000 - Strong Force, Says Kurdish Leader
Nov 17th, 2014
Daily NewsRT
Categories: Today's Headlines;War

Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) militants have an army of about 200,000 fighters, over six times larger than previous CIA estimates, a senior Iraqi Kurdish leader has claimed.

"I am talking about hundreds of thousands of fighters because they are able to mobilize young Arab men in the territory they have taken," Fuad Hussein, the chief of staff of Iraqi Kurdish President Massoud Barzani, told the UK Independent in an exclusive interview.

Controlling roughly one third of Iraq and Syria, Hussein says the 250,000 square kilometer territory has provided IS a 10 to 12 million-large population from which to attract potential fighters.

He said this sizeable force explains how the Islamic State had been able to wage successful campaigns on multiple fronts in Iraq and Syria.

"They are fighting in Kobani," he said. “In Kurdistan last month they were attacking in seven different places as well as in Ramadi [capital of Anbar province west of Baghdad] and Jalawla [an Arab-Kurdish town close to Iranian border]."

‘They will fight to the death’

Hussein believes previous US intelligence estimates, with an upward range of 31,500 militants, may have been referring strictly to a “core” force of fighters. But with a sophisticated propaganda effort, coupled with a strong military and ideological core, IS has developed into a sophisticated fighting force that has caught Western governments off guard.

"We are talking about a state that has a military and ideological basis," said Mr Hussein, "so that means they want everyone to learn how to use a rifle, but they also want everybody to have training in their ideology, in other words brainwashing."

In their blistering 5-month offensive, Islamic State militants have counted suicide bombings, mines, snipers and deployment of captured US armored fighting vehicles among their tactics.

That the Islamic State was able to seize and use tanks, heavy artillery and other US hardware, with such speed following the fall of Mosul on June 10, likely signifies the group has successfully identified and incorporated former Iraqi and Syrian soldiers.

The militants proved equally adept at using Russian-made equipment appropriated in Syria.

Hussein told the daily his Kurdish Peshmerga fighters are impressed by the militants level of competence, grit and discipline.

"They will fight until death, and are dangerous because they are so well-trained," said Mr Hussein. "For instance, they have the best snipers, but to be a good sniper you need not only training on how to shoot, but discipline in staying put for up to five hours so you can hit your target."

That the war-torn and impoverished region leaves few opportunities for young men, the group’s $400-a-month salary also provides a strong incentive for locals to take up arms.

The Islamic State’s horrific acts show that they are willing to go as far as it takes to win, UK-based Middle East expert Catherine Shakdam told RT.

“They are willing to commit horrific, you know, murders and massacres to achieve their goals, I think, this is...propaganda. And I think that is what they are trying to achieve, they are trying to prove a point and demonstrate that they are willing to go to the other extent, to claim victory over the foreign powers and the region. They are trying to coerce people into joining them out of fear, and the sense of helplessness,” Shakdam said.

‘Pulling Iraq back from the precipice’

Washington’s recognition of the threat IS poses can be explained by a series of recent moves pointing to broader US engagement in the region.

During a surprise visit to Baghdad on Saturday, General Dempsey, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, met with Iraqi officials and American troops to assess the situation on the ground.

Dempsey sounded a note of optimism, saying the US military had helped Iraqi and Kurdish forces “pull Iraq back from the precipice,” Reuters, whose journalists accompanied the general on the trip, said.

“And now, I think it's starting to turn. So well done," Dempsey told a group of Marines at the US embassy in Baghdad.

Earlier in the week, Dempsy told congress that an 80,000-strong ground force would be needed to defeat IS. Despite retaking the town of Baiji, which houses the country’s largest refinery, Iraqis have little faith their army is capable of triumphing over IS.

Last week, US President Barack Obama authorized more than doubling the number of American ground forces in Iraq. Around 1,400 US troops are currently in Iraq, with Obama's signing off up to 3,100 troops.

On Thursday, US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel told Congress that American troops might have to assume a new role to expedite the anti-extremist campaign.

Hagel insisted, however, that Americans “will not be engaged in a ground combat mission.”

US security guarantees have given Kurdish fighters much needed breathing space, after the Islamic State routed Peshmerga forces in Iraq and nearly captured the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, Irbil.

The siege of the Syrian city of Kobani, which has become the epicenter of both Kurdish resistance and Washington’s campaign to “degrade and destroy” IS, similarly saw the Kurds on the brink of being crushed before US-led airstrikes turned the tide.

Despite the relative gains, the Kurdistan Regional Government is tasked with defending a 650-mile long front line, which extends across Northern Iraq between Iran and Syria.

While Hussein expressed appreciation for US air support that had allowed the Kurds to hold out, he told the Independent they would need Apache helicopters and heavy weapons such as tanks and artillery to combat the jihadists effectively.

Ramping up CIA involvement, opposition forces

Meanwhile, reports have indicated the US is planning to ramp up support for the moderate Syrian opposition in a bid to both stem the IS tide and bolster less radical forces seeking to overthrow the government of President Bashar Assad.

On Friday, the Washington Post, citing senior US officials, reported the Obama administration is weighing plans to ramp up the CIA’s involvement in arming and training fighters in Syria.

Currently, the CIA is on track to train 5,000 fighters a year, a figure that echoes previous Pentagon aims.

The following day, reports surfaced in the Turkish Daily Hurriyet that the US and Turkey had agreed on plans to train 2,000 members of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) on Turkish territory.

The two sides, however, failed to agree on the question of training members of Syria’s Democratic Union Party (PYD), an affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Turkey has called a terrorist organization.

Last month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said “the PYD is equal with the PKK for us.”

If Everything is Just Fine, Why are so Many Really Smart People Forecasting Economic Disaster?
Nov 17th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy News Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Commentary

The parallels between the false prosperity of 2007 and the false prosperity of 2014 are rather striking. If we go back and look at the numbers in the fall of 2007, we find that the Dow set an all-time high in October, margin debt on Wall Street had spiked to record levels, the unemployment rate was below 5 percent and Americans were getting ready to spend a record amount of money that Christmas season. But then the very next year the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression shook the entire planet and everyone wondered why most people never saw it coming. Well, now a similar pattern is unfolding right before our eyes. 

The Dow and the S&P 500 both hit record highs on Monday, margin debt on Wall Street is hovering near record levels, the unemployment rate has ticked down a little bit and Americans are getting ready to spend more than 600 billion dollars this Christmas season. The truth is that the economy seems pretty stable for the moment, and most people cannot even imagine that an economic collapse is coming. So why are so many really smart people forecasting economic disaster in the near future?

For example, just consider what the Jerome Levy Forecasting Center is saying. This is an organization with a tremendous economic forecasting record that goes all the way back to the Great Depression. In fact, it predicted ahead of time the financial trouble and the recession that would happen in 2008. Well, now this company is forecasting that there is a 65 percent chance that there will be a global recession by the end of next year...

In 1929, a businessman and economist by the name of Jerome Levy didn’t like what he saw in his analysis of corporate profits. He sold his stocks before the October crash.

Almost eight decades later, the consultancy company that bears his name declared “the next recession will be caused by the deflating housing bubble.” By February 2007, it predicted problems in the subprime-mortgage market would spread “to virtually all financial markets.” In October 2007, it saw imminent recession -- the slump began two months later.

The Jerome Levy Forecasting Center, based in Mount Kisco, New York, and run by Jerome’s grandson David, is again more worried than its peers. Its half-dozen analysts attach a 65 percent probability of a worldwide recession forcing a contraction in the U.S. by the end of next year.

Could they be wrong?

It's certainly possible.

But I wouldn't bet against them.

John Hussman is another expert that is warning of financial disaster on the horizon. He believes that we are experiencing a massive stock market bubble right now and that stocks are approximately double the value that they should be...

If you look at corporate profits and especially corporate profit margins, they're one of the most cyclical and mean-reverting series in economics. Right now, we have corporate profits that are close to about 11% of GDP, but if you look at that series you will find that corporate profits as a share of GDP have always dropped back to about 5.5% or below in every single economic cycle including recent decades, including not only the financial crisis but 2002 and every other economic cycle we have been in.

Right now stocks as a multiple of last year’s expected earnings may look only modestly over valued or modestly richly valued. Really if you look at the measures of valuation that are most correlated to the returns that stocks deliver over time say over seven years or over the next 10 years the S&P 500 in our estimation is about double the level of valuation that would give investors a normal rate of return.

Could you imagine the chaos that would ensue if stocks really did drop by 50 percent?

Well, Hussman says that this is precisely what must happen in order for stock prices to return to historical norms...

Right now, like I say, we are looking at stocks that have been pressed to long-term expected returns that are really dismal. But more important than that, in every market cycle that we've seen with the mild exception of 2002, we've seen stocks price revert back to normal rates of return. In order to get to that point from here, we would have to have equities drop by about half.

If that does happen, it will make the crisis of 2008 look like a Sunday picnic.

Meanwhile, other very prominent thinkers are also warning that an economic nightmare is rapidly approaching.

Economic cycle theorist Martin Armstrong foresees major economic problems in 2015 which will ultimately lead to "civil unrest" in 2016...

It looks more and more like a serious political uprising will erupt by 2016 once the economy turns down. That is the magic ingredient. Turn the economy down and you get civil unrest and revolution.

And of course there are a whole lot of other economic cycle theorists that are forecasting that we are about to experience a massive economic downturn as well. For much more on this, please see this article and this article.

What is truly frightening is that we have never even come close to recovering from the last economic crisis. One poll that was taken just prior to the recent election found that only 28 percent of Americans said that their families were doing better financially. In addition, here are some more survey numbers about how Americans are feeling about the economy...

According to voter exit polls conducted by CNN, 78% said they are worried about the economy, with 69% saying that, in their view, economic conditions are not good. 65% responded that the country is on the wrong track vs. only 31% who believed that it is headed in the right direction.

Even though we are repeating so many of the same patterns that we experienced back in 2007, we are doing so with a fundamentally weaker economy. The last crisis did a tremendous amount of permanent damage to us. For an extensive look at this, please see my previous article entitled "12 Charts That Show The Permanent Damage That Has Been Done To The U.S. Economy".

And there are lots of signs that much of the planet is already entering another major economic slowdown. In a recent article, Brandon Smith summarized some of these. He says that we are currently witnessing "the last gasp of the global economy"...

Global exports, and thus consumer demand, are plunging. Germany, the only pillar left to prop up the failing European Union, has experienced a severe decline in exports not seen since 2009.

China, the largest exporter and importer in the world, and Chinese companies, have been caught in a number of instances using fraudulent invoices to artificially inflate their own export numbers, in some cases reporting 50% more exported goods than had actually existed.

China's manufacturing has also declined for the past five months, exposing the nature of its inflated export stats and indicating a global slowdown.

The Baltic Dry Index, a measure of global shipping rates for raw goods, and thus a measure of demand for shipping, continues to drag along near historic lows.

The U.S. consumer (the only economic asset the U.S. has besides the dollar's world reserve status), has seen declines in spending as well as wages.

In the meantime, long term jobless Americans continue to fall off welfare rolls by the millions, making unemployment numbers look good, but the overall future picture look terrible as participation rates dissolve into the ether of government statistics.

How is such poverty being hidden? Foodstamps. Plain and simple. Nearly 50 million Americans now subsist on food stamp programs today, and this number shows no signs of dropping. In states like Illinois, two people sign up for food assistance for every citizen that happens to find a job.

From time to time, I get accused of "spreading fear" and of being obsessed with "doom and gloom".

But that is not the case at all.

I actually want our economy to stay stable for as long as possible. Many Americans don't realize this, but even the poorest of us live in luxury compared to much of the rest of the world. It would be wonderful if we could all live out our lives in peace and quiet and safety.

Unfortunately, it is simply not going to happen.

And it does not take an expert to see what is coming.

Anyone who looks around them should be able to see the economic disaster that is approaching.

There is hope in understanding what is happening and there is hope in getting prepared. Millions of Americans that are willingly blind to our problems are going to have their lives absolutely destroyed when they get blindsided by the coming crisis. So please use this brief period of relative stability to get prepared and to warn others.

Once this false bubble of hope runs out, all of our lives are going to dramatically change.

From Vlad to Worse: Putin was treated poorly at the G20 Summit
Nov 17th, 2014
Daily NewsOnline Mail
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

From Vlad to worse: He was snubbed at the airport, made to sit alone at dinner, shunted to the edge of the family photo and condemned by world leaders… it's no wonder President Putin was Russian to leave the G20 summit

• Russian President Vladimir Putin has cut his attendance at the G20 Summit in Australia short Departed shortly before President Obama and European leaders opened their talks on Ukraine, where Russia is backing separatist rebels Putin, the first leader to fly out of Brisbane, claimed he left early because he wanted to be rested before returning to work on Monday The weekend saw a series of diplomatic snubs from Western leaders who demanded accountability from the Russian President for the MH17 flight disaster Mr Putin was put in 'social Siberia' in the G20 leaders 'family photo' and ate dinner alone Canadian PM Stephen Harper allegedly told Mr Putin to 'get out of the Ukraine' while other leaders including President Obama publicly condemned Russia's involvement in the embattled nation On the potential for increasing sanctions against Russia, Obama said the U.S. and European allies are always looking at more penalties but the existing sanctions are 'biting plenty good'It has been a tumultuous weekend at the G20 Summit for Vladimir Putin, as the Russian President's presence sparked hostility from political leaders and protesters alike.

Putin's trip was marred by a series of diplomatic snubs and frostiness from Western leaders, sparking an early exit for the Russian leader who flew out on Sunday afternoon, cutting his intended stay short. 

He also departed Australia shortly before President Barack Obama and European leaders opened their talks on Ukraine, where Russia is backing separatist rebels in the east of the country after annexing Ukraine's Crimea Peninsula in March.

Depleting the Water
Nov 17th, 2014
Daily NewsCBSN
Categories: Today's Headlines;Contemporary Issues

Lesley Stahl reports on disturbing new evidence that our planet's groundwater is being pumped out much faster than it can be replenished

The following is a script of "Water" which aired on Nov. 16, 2014. Lesley Stahl is the correspondent. Shari Finkelstein and Jennie Held, producers.

It's been said that the wars of the 21st century may well be fought over water. The Earth's population has more than doubled over the last 50 years and the demand for fresh water -- to drink and to grow food -- has surged along with it. But sources of water like rainfall, rivers, streams, reservoirs, certainly haven't doubled. So where is all that extra water coming from? More and more, it's being pumped out of the ground.

Water experts say groundwater is like a savings account -- something you draw on in times of need. But savings accounts need to be replenished, and there is new evidence that so much water is being taken out, much of the world is in danger of a groundwater overdraft.

California is entering its fourth year of a record-breaking drought. Last year was the driest since the state started keeping records more than a hundred years ago. And yet, pay a visit to California's Central Valley and out of that parched land you'll see acre upon acre of corn, almond trees, pomegranates, tomatoes, grapes. And what makes them all possible: water. Where do you get water in a drought? You take it out of the savings account: groundwater.

[Jay Famiglietti: When we talk about surface water, we're talking about lakes and rivers. And when we're talking about groundwater, we're really talking about water below the water table.]

Jay Famiglietti, an Earth sciences professor at the University of California, Irvine, is a leading expert on groundwater.

Jay Famiglietti: It's like a sponge. It's like an underground sponge.

He's talking about the aquifers where groundwater is stored -- layers of soil and rock, as he showed us in this simple graphic, that are saturated with water and can be drilled into, like the three wells shown here.

Lesley Stahl: You can actually pump it out of the crevices?

Jay Famiglietti: Imagine like trying to put a straw into a sponge. You can actually suck water right out of a sponge. It's a very similar process.

Sucking the water out of those aquifers is big business these days in the Central Valley. Well driller Steve Arthur is a very busy man.

Steve Arthur: All the farmers, they don't have no surface water. They've got to keep these crops alive. The only way to do that is to drill wells, pump the water from the ground.

Lesley Stahl: So it's either drill or go out of business?

Steve Arthur: Yes.

So there's something of a groundwater rush going on here. Arthur's seven rigs are in constant use and his waiting list is well over a year. And because some wells here are running dry, he's having to drill twice as deep as he did just a year or two ago. This well will cost the farmer a quarter of a million dollars, and go down 1,200 feet -- about the height of the Empire State Building.

"If we're talking about a deeper aquifer, that could take tens or hundreds of years to recharge."

Lesley Stahl: Are you and are the farmers worried that by going that deep you are depleting the ground water?

Steve Arthur: Well, yes, we are depleting it. But on the other hand, what choice do you have? This is the most fertile valley in the world. You can grow anything you want here. If we don't have water to grow something, it's going to be a desert.

He said many farmers think the problem is cyclical and that once the drought ends, things will be okay.

Lesley Stahl: Now when they take water out and it rains...

Jay Famiglietti: Yes.

Lesley Stahl: ...doesn't the water go back down there?

Jay Famiglietti: These aquifers near the surface, they can sometimes be replenished very quickly. If we're talking about a deeper aquifer, that could take tens or hundreds of years to recharge.

Figuring out how much is being depleted from those aquifers deep underground isn't easy. Hydrologist Claudia Faunt took us to what looked like someone's backyard shed, where she and her colleagues at the U.S. Geological Survey monitor groundwater levels in the Central Valley the way they always have -- by dropping a sensor down a monitoring well.

Lesley Stahl: So this is a well.

Claudia Faunt: This is a well. So we have a tape here that has a sensor on the end.

Lesley Stahl: Oh, let me see.

The Geological Survey has 20,000 wells like this across the country.

Lesley Stahl: It's a tape measure.

Claudia Faunt: It's a tape measure.

Lesley Stahl: How will you know when it hits water?

Claudia Faunt: It's going to beep.

By comparing measurements from different wells over time, they get the best picture they can of where groundwater levels stand. She unspooled and unspooled, until finally...

[Beep]

Lesley Stahl: Oh.

It startled me, as did the result: a five-foot drop in just one month.

Claudia Faunt: Right now, we're reaching water levels that are at historic lows, they're like...

Lesley Stahl: Historic lows?

Claudia Faunt: Right. At this site, water levels have dropped about 200 feet in the last few years.

Gathering data from holes in the ground like this has been the only way to get a handle on groundwater depletion. That is, until 2002, and the launch of an experimental NASA satellite called GRACE.

Lesley Stahl: What does GRACE stand for?

Mike Watkins: So GRACE stands for gravity recovery and climate experiment.

Mike Watkins is head of the Science Division at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. He was the mission manager for the latest Mars rover mission and he is the project scientist for GRACE.

Mike Watkins: So the way GRACE works is it's two satellites.

Lesley Stahl: Two?

Mike Watkins: They're actually measuring each other's orbit very, very accurately.

What affects that orbit is gravity.

Mike Watkins: As the first one comes up on some extra mass, an area of higher gravity, it gets pulled away...

Lesley Stahl: It goes faster.

Mike Watkins: ...from the second spacecraft.

And that's where water comes in. Since water has mass, it affects the pull of gravity, so after the first GRACE satellite approaches an area that's had lots of heavy rain for example, and is pulled ahead, the second one gets there, feels the pull and catches up. The instruments are constantly measuring the distance between the two.

Mike Watkins: Their changes in separation, their changes in their orbit are a little different this month than last month because water moved around and it changed the gravity field just enough.

So GRACE can tell whether an area has gained water weight or lost it.

Lesley Stahl: So GRACE is like a big scale in the sky?

Mike Watkins: Absolutely.

GRACE can also tell how much water an area has gained or lost. Scientists can then subtract out the amount of rain and snowfall there, and what's left are the changes in groundwater.

Lesley Stahl: It's kind of brilliant to think that a satellite in the sky is measuring groundwater.

Mike Watkins: It is fantastic.

Jay Famiglietti: I thought it was complete nonsense. There's no way we can see groundwater from space.

Jay Famiglietti started out a skeptic, but that was before he began analyzing the data GRACE sent back. The first place he looked was India. He showed us a time-lapse animation of the changes GRACE detected there over the last 12 years. Note the dates on the lower right. The redder it gets, the greater the loss of water.

Lesley Stahl: Oh, look at that.

He calculated that more than half the loss was due to groundwater depletion.

Jay Famiglietti: And this is a huge agricultural region.

Lesley Stahl: Have they been doing the same kind of pumping...

Jay Famiglietti: Yes.

Lesley Stahl: ...that we're seeing in California?

Jay Famiglietti: Yes.

Lesley Stahl: It got so dark red.

Jay Famiglietti: Yeah, that's bad.

His India findings were published in the journal "Nature." But as he showed us, India wasn't the only red spot on the GRACE map.

Jay Famiglietti: This is right outside Beijing, Bangladesh and then across southern Asia.

He noticed a pattern.

Jay Famiglietti: They are almost exclusively located over the major aquifers of the world. And those are also our big food-producing regions. So we're talking about groundwater depletion in the aquifers that supply irrigation water to grow the world's food.

If that isn't worrisome enough, some of those aquifer systems are in volatile regions, for instance this one that is shared by Syria, Iraq, Iran and Turkey.

Jay Famiglietti: Turkey's built a bunch of dams. Stored a bunch of water upstream. That forces the downstream neighbors to use more groundwater and the groundwater's being depleted.

Lesley Stahl: Oh my.

Jay Famiglietti: We're seeing this water loss spread literally right across Iran, Iraq and into Syria and down.

Lesley Stahl: It's progressive.

"So the ground basically collapses or compresses down and the land sinks."

Famiglietti, who's now moved to the jet propulsion lab to work on GRACE, has started traveling around the world, trying to alert governments and academics to the problem, and he isn't the only one who's worried.

A 2012 report from the director of National Intelligence warned that within 10 years "many countries important to the United States will experience water problems ... that will risk instability and state failure..." and cited the possible "use of water as a weapon or to further terrorist objectives."

Lesley Stahl: Water is the new oil.

Jay Famiglietti: It's true. It's headed in that direction.

And what about our own food-producing regions, like California's Central Valley, which produces 25 percent of the nation's food. What is GRACE telling us there?

Lesley Stahl: 2008.

Jay Famiglietti: Right.

Lesley Stahl: '09.

Jay Famiglietti: And now things are going to start to get very red.

Lesley Stahl: 2010.

GRACE is confirming what the geological survey well measures have shown, but giving a broader and more frightening picture, since it shows that the rainy years are not making up for the losses.

Lesley Stahl: '14. Dark red.

Lesley Stahl: That's alarming.

Jay Famiglietti: It should be.

So much groundwater has been pumped out here that the geological survey says it's causing another problem: parts of the valley are literally sinking. It's called subsidence.

Claudia Faunt: So the ground basically collapses or compresses down and the land sinks.

Lesley Stahl: The land is sinking down.

She said at this spot, the ground is dropping several inches a year.

Claudia Faunt: And north of here, it's more like a foot per year.

Lesley Stahl: That sounds like a lot, a foot a year.

Claudia Faunt: It's some of the fastest rates we have ever seen in the valley, and in the world.

She says it's caused damage to infrastructure: buckles in canals and sinking bridges. Here the land has sunk six feet. It used to be level with the top of this concrete slab.

Lesley Stahl: And this is because of the pumping of the groundwater?

Claudia Faunt: Yes.

Lesley Stahl: Is there any limit on a farmer, as to how much he can actually take out of this groundwater?

Claudia Faunt: Not right now in the state of California.

Lesley Stahl: None?

Claudia Faunt: As long as you put it to a beneficial use, you can take as much as you want.

But what's beneficial to you may not be beneficial to your neighbor.

Lesley Stahl: When you dig a well like this, are you taking water from the next farm?

Steve Arthur: I would say yeah. We're taking water from everybody.

Lesley Stahl: Well, is that neighbor going to be unhappy?

Steve Arthur: No. Everybody knows that there's a water problem. Everybody knows you got to drill deeper, deeper. And it's funny you say that because we're actually going to drill a well for that farmer next door also.

"I can't believe how brave I am. 45 minutes ago, this was sewer water."

Making things worse, farmers have actually been planting what are known as "thirsty" crops. We saw orchard after orchard of almond trees. Almonds draw big profits, but they need water all year long, and farmers can never let fields go fallow, or the trees will die.

But with all the water depletion here, we did find one place that is pumping water back into its aquifer.

Lesley Stahl: Look, it really looks ickier up close.

We took a ride with Mike Markus, general manager of the Orange County Water District and a program some call "toilet to tap." They take 96-million gallons a day of treated wastewater from a county sanitation plant -- and yes, that includes sewage -- and in effect, recycle it. He says in 45 minutes, this sewage water will be drinkable.

Mike Markus: You'll love it.

Lesley Stahl: You think I'm going to drink that water?

Mike Markus: Yes, you will.

They put the wastewater through an elaborate three-step process: suck it through microscopic filters, force it through membranes, blast it with UV light. By the end, Markus insists it's purer than the water we drink. But it doesn't go straight to the tap. They send it to this basin and then use it to replenish the groundwater.

Jay Famiglietti: It's amazing. Because of recycling of sewage water, they've been able to arrest that decline in the groundwater.

Lesley Stahl: All right. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it.

All that was left was to try it. To tell the truth, it wasn't bad.

Lesley Stahl: I can't believe how brave I am. Forty-five minutes ago, this was sewer water.

Mike Markus: And now, it's drinkable.

He says it's a great model for big cities around the country. But it's not the answer for areas like the Central Valley, which is sparsely populated and therefore doesn't produce enough waste. So at least for now, it's continuing withdrawals from that savings account.

Lesley Stahl: Will there be a time when there is zero water in the aquifer for people in California?

Jay Famiglietti: Unless we take action, yes.

California has just taken action -- enacted a law that for the first time takes steps toward regulating groundwater. But it could take 25 years to fully implement.

100 Years After WWI, Turkish Leaders Nostalgic for Empire
Nov 17th, 2014
Daily NewsProphecy News Watch
Categories: Today's Headlines;Commentary

This Armistice Day (November 11) marks the 100 year anniversary of the World War I which saw the collapse of the 700 year old Turkish Ottoman Empire. Yet on Friday (Nov. 7) Prime Minister Ahmet Davotuglu spoke of Turkey's Ottoman colonial territories as if they still belong to them arguing that "Al-Quds [Jerusalem] has been entrusted with us by [Muslim caliph] Hazrat Omar. 

Al-Quds has been entrusted to us by [Ottoman Sultan] Yavuz Sultan Selim and [Ottoman Sultan] Süleyman the Magnificent. Al-Quds has been entrusted to us by the last soldier of the Ottomans."

Jerusalem was captured by the British in 1917 along with Turkey's other imperial possessions in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan and Syria. The division of the empire by the victorious powers created the modern map of the Middle East.

After the war the only victorious Ottoman general, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, created modern Turkey out of the Anatolian heartland of the empire (Ataturk means 'Father of the Turks) and invented a new Turkish nationalism on which to base the identity of the new country.

As part of his reforms he formally abolished the Ottoman Caliphate on March 3rd 1924.

This event marked the first time in Islamic history that there had been no caliph. It had a profound emotional effect on Muslim identity and group consciousness worldwide.

The tension between the secularist forces imposed by Ataturk that have been dominant in Turkish society since the 1920s and the resurgent Islamism of Turkey's President Tayyip Recep Erdogan and the AKP party is the primary fissure in Turkish political culture today. Erdogan's Islamist ideology landed him in prison in 1998 when he was given a 10 month prison sentence for reciting a poem which included the lines "The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers." The secularist judiciary held it to be "inciting religious hatred."

Turkey has since begun to re-evaluate its Ottoman history, led by the now ruling Islamist AKP party. In a speech in mid-October 2014, Erdogan evoked his 'neo-Ottoman' outlook, blaming modern day 'Lawrences of Arabia' for Turkey's woes in the region, referring to T.E. Lawrence, the British liaison to Arab leaders during WWI. He said: "Lawrence was an English spy disguised as an Arab. There are new voluntary Lawrences, disguised as journalists, religious men, writers and terrorists."

When asked what he thought of allegations that he was a "neo-Ottoman" by Time magazine in 2011, Turkish President Tayyip Recep Erdogan said "We were born and raised on the land that is the legacy of the Ottoman Empire. They are our ancestors. It is out of the question that we might deny that presence. Of course, the Empire had some beautiful parts and some not so beautiful parts. It’s a very natural right for us to use what was beautiful about the Ottoman Empire today."

Erdogan's Islamism has cost him on the international stage. His close links with the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas have severely damaged Turkey's relationship with Egypt, where general turned president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is busily engaged in crushing any visible signs of the movement.

The Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH), heavily linked to Erdogan's AK party, was involved in recruiting and funding for the Muslim Brotherhood affiliate Hamas, damaging Turkey's previously warm relationship with Israel.

Following Erdogan's speech at the UN attacking Egypt, President Sisi blasted Turkey's pro-Muslim Brotherhood stance saying that Ankara was "keen to provoke chaos to sow divisions in the Middle East region through its support for groups and terrorist organizations."

In something of an Ottoman cultural revival in Turkey, the most popular television show is called Magnificent Century, a soap opera about the court of Suleiman the Magnificent, regarded by many as the high point of the empire.

In 2009 Erdogan even opened a museum commemorating Sultan Mehmet's 1453 conquest of Constantinople. He has also presided over a far broader beatification campaign in Istanbul, seeking to restore the erstwhile imperial capital to something of its former glory, neglecting the republican capital of Ankara. An attempt to bulldoze trees at Taksim square in order to make room for the reconstruction of Ottoman era barracks prompted widespread protests against his increasingly corrupt and authoritarian rule. The move was seen by many as an attempt to wash away the secular legacy of Ataturk.

Returning to Lawrence of Arabia, it is easy to see why Erdogan chose that reference. Lawrence's role was to precipitate the Arab revolt against Ottoman rule, aiding Western powers in dethroning Turkey from its place as the leader of the Middle East and the caliph as spiritual leader of the Muslim world.

His neighbors certainly regard Erdogan as 'neo-Ottoman'. Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad was quoted as saying "he [Erdogan] personally thinks that he is the new sultan of the Ottomans and he can control the region as it was during the Ottoman Empire under a new umbrella. In his heart he thinks he is a caliph."