Jan Markell hosts Dr. Mark Hitchcock for the hour. A new film says evangelicals are trying to hasten earth’s end—to bring on Armageddon. Can we hasten the Lord’s return? They also look at life on earth after the Rapture and consider America in prophecy. Find Hitchcock’s book on the Reset in our online store.
Saturday, April 29, 2023
Russia: Ukrainian Command Center Destroyed
Ukrainian command center destroyed – Moscow
RT
The Russian military has destroyed a major Ukrainian command center, the country’s Defense Ministry reported on Saturday. Cruise missiles launched from the sea were used to target the facility, the ministry’s spokesman, Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov, announced during a media briefing.
“On the evening of April 28 of this year, Russia’s Armed Forces delivered a group strike with sea-based long-range precision weapons at the location of the commanding officers of Ukraine’s joint troops grouping ‘Kherson,’” Konashenkov stated, adding that the goal of the strike “has been reached.” The official did not provide any estimates on potential casualties Ukrainian troops may have suffered in the attack.
The strike comes as both sides of the ongoing conflict, which has been raging since February 2022, have seemingly ramped up long-range attacks against each another. Earlier this week, Russia launched a cruise missile salvo against Ukraine, targeting groupings of its military reserves. The strikes successfully prevented redeployment of the reserves towards the frontline, according to the Russian military.
During the strike, a multistory residential building was damaged in the Ukrainian city of Uman, located in the central Cherkasy Region. It was not immediately clear what exactly struck the building, given the many instances of Ukrainian air defense projectiles having hit civilian sites in the country and even beyond. Nevertheless, Kiev squarely blamed Russia for the incident, which left more than 20 civilians dead, according to local officials
Ukrainian forces, meanwhile, appear to have intensified attacks on residential areas in the Russian city of Donetsk, which has seen almost daily shelling throughout the conflict. On Friday, the city and its vicinity were subjected to particularly intense shelling, which left at least nine civilians dead and over a dozen injured. The attacks destroyed multiple residential homes and damaged a local hospital. Kiev’s forces also landed a direct hit on a passenger bus, killing all of its occupants.
The uptick in strikes comes ahead of the Ukrainian counteroffensive that has been long-advertised by the country’s top officials. On Friday, President Vladimir Zelensky said he expected the offensive to be “successful,” dismissing Western concerns over Ukraine’s capabilities that have appeared in several media outlets in recent weeks.
“A counteroffensive will happen. We are preparing for it,” Zelensky said in an interview with several Nordic media outlets. “I strongly believe that it will be successful and that we will de-occupy our territories.”
New World Coming: Lavrov - West's Efforts To Isolate Russia Have Failed
West’s efforts to isolate Russia have failed – Lavrov
RT
The top diplomat says nations comprising 85% of the world’s population are refusing to take part in anti-Russia policies
The West has failed to isolate Russia, with the majority of the world still interested in maintaining good relations with Moscow, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. He also argued that the trend toward multipolarity is irreversible, whether former colonial powers like it or not.
Addressing the World Online Conference on Multipolarity on Saturday, Lavrov said that “Washington’s and its satellites’ efforts to reverse history, to force the international community to live by the invented ‘rules-based order’” are proving to be a fiasco, citing the “total failure” of the West “to isolate Russia.”
According to the foreign minister, a number of countries, which combined are home to 85% of the world’s population, have made it clear that they will not do the bidding of the former colonial powers.
The Russian diplomat said the fact that delegates from several dozen nations “from nearly every continent” attended the online forum shows just how much traction the idea of multipolarity has gained.
Lavrov noted that new global centers are emerging in Eurasia, the Indo-Pacific region, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America, and that these nations are pursuing independent policies guided by national interests.
According to the foreign minister, developing nations have been steadily expanding their share in the global economy over the past three decades, while the role of the G7 nations has been diminishing.
He also hailed the fact that more and more countries have expressed interest in joining international groups “of the new kind,” such as BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
Russia, Lavrov explained, champions a multipolar world order based on respect for the UN charter, and a “balance of interests” as opposed to a “balance of fear.”
President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Moscow will not abide by the “so-called rules” invented and imposed by “certain countries.”
Also on Friday, while addressing members of the SCO, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu claimed that the West is putting “unprecedented pressure” on independent countries to pit them against Russia and China, and undermine the rise of the multipolar world.
On Monday, Lavrov called for the expansion of Asian, African, and Latin American representation in the UN Security Council, arguing that the West is over-represented in the international body.
US officials accuse Russia of antagonizing Washington's illegally occupying troops in Syria
The US military, with the help of its Kurdish allies, occupies a third of Syrian territory with no legal basis and is now complaining about Russia antagonizing its troops. Although Moscow has been invited into Syria by Damascus and the US has repeatedly been asked to leave, the Americans are treating Syrian territory as if it is their own.
US officials have recently lashed out with yet more accusations against Moscow. This time the complaints have surfaced through Western corporate media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). The head of US Air Forces Central Command, Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, told the WSJ that “we continue to see unsafe and unprofessional area activity from the Russians,” reportedly in proximity of US forces. No evidence has been provided for the claims and Moscow has yet to make any comment.
In July of last year, Dana Stroul, the Biden administration’s deputy assistant secretary of defense (DASD) for the Middle East, said: “Russia is flying in and moving about, at times, in the same space or terrain, near our forces, and it is the responsible, professional thing to do to make sure we have a channel to talk to each other.” She claimed this system has been in place for “a very long time” and is key in preventing misunderstandings that could “tip into an escalatory cycle.” With the presence of both forces in close proximity so frequently, there has yet to be any indication that what is being complained about now is anything new.
However, the story that is being completely written out of existence here is that the US has no legitimacy whatsoever to even operate inside Syria. The US government attempts to legally justify its presence by asserting that under international law it is a victim state in the face of non-state actors such as ‘Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) ISIS or Al-Qaeda. Therefore, the Authorization for Use of Military Force (UAMF) against Iraq, which was passed by US Congress in 2002, is utilized here.
The problem is that the US invasion of Iraq had no validity under international law either, a point explicitly made by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 2004. Knowing this, US government officials will always cite their invitation from the Iraqi government to operate inside the country today, sometimes attempting to attach their operations in Syria as coming in defense of their Iraqi ally. Article 2(4) of the UN Charter, an international law which prohibits the use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of another state, completely invalidates US operations inside Syria, since the sovereign government of the nation never granted America permission to enter its territory. In fact, it has even ordered US forces to leave.
Israeli airstrikes hit targets near Homs, Syrian state media says
Israeli airstrikes hit targets near Homs, Syrian state media says
Israel launched airstrikes against targets near the western Syrian city of Homs during the pre-dawn hours of Saturday morning, Syrian state media reported.
Syria’s state news agency, SANA, citing military officials, said that three civilians were wounded in the strike and that a civilian fuel station caught fire and a number of fuel tankers and trucks were burned.
It reported that Syrian air defenses responded to Israeli airstrikes. Syria regularly claims to intercept Israeli missiles, though military analysts doubt such assertions.
The pro-government Sham FM radio said fires broke out south of Homs as a result of the strikes and “successive explosions sounded from the area.”
While Israel’s military does not as a rule comment on specific strikes in Syria, it has admitted to conducting hundreds of sorties against Iran-backed groups attempting to gain a foothold in the country, over the last decade.
The IDF says it also attacks arms shipments believed to be bound for those groups, chief among them Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy. Additionally, airstrikes attributed to Israel have repeatedly targeted Syrian air defense systems.
There have been a number of alleged Israeli strikes in Syria in recent weeks.
On Monday, the IDF shelled a site in southern Syria, just across the border from the Golan Heights, according to Syrian media reports.
Shortly after the strike, the IDF reportedly dropped threatening pamphlets in the area, warning Syrian soldiers to stop cooperating with Hezbollah.
A similar incident reportedly occurred days before.
The IDF has repeatedly accused the Syrian military of actively assisting Hezbollah and warned it against this, both through flyers dropped along the border and through overt, public appeals.
Earlier this month, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned Iran and Hezbollah that Israel would not tolerate any efforts to harm the country or its citizens after a man was seriously wounded in a Megiddo bomb attack blamed on Hezbollah.
Israel is alleged to have carried out a number of strikes in Syria this month, including one that killed two members of Iran’s IRGC.
After that strike, a suspected Iranian drone launched from Syria was brought down over Israeli airspace.
Several days later, six rockets were launched from southern Syria at the Golan Heights in two separate barrages hours apart, with three landing in Israeli territory, the military said. The IDF responded with artillery strikes in response to the rocket attack.
On Friday, Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian visited Lebanon’s border with Israel, taking a tour of the area with Hezbollah and Lebanese parliamentarians, after a meeting with Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.
During the visit, Amir-Abdollahian predicted that “positive developments in the region will lead to the collapse of the Zionist entity.”
Things To Come? A Biohazard Is Brewing
Seizure of Biological Lab in Khartoum: A biohazard is brewing
Ever since the intense fighting started in Sudan on 15 April 2023, its capital Khartoum has been the epicenter of intense fighting. While official figures indicate over a few hundred dead, unofficial numbers are many times higher than that. In the last two weeks, government forces under Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) are fighting with the paramilitary forces of the country who have since turned rebel as Rapid Support Force (RSF). Most of the foreign nationals and diplomats have been evacuated from Sudan and the country is now left at the mercy of these two warring factions.
While the fighting has plunged Sudan into massive chaos, one of the major concerns of the fighting was that the rebels have forcefully taken over the National Public Health Laboratory, one of the important centers for disease control and research on epidemics in Africa.
National Public Health Laboratory was established in 1992 and since then was instrumental in carrying out several research projects with the help of western funding. In 2012, the World Health Organization (WHO) started supporting it and enhanced its research capabilities to a very large extent. Today, it is one of the major research centers for pathogens in entire Africa. During the COVID-19 pandemic, this laboratory successfully carried out genome mapping, testing and research on COVID-19 virus.
So, when the rebel faction (RSF) has taken over the laboratory, expelled all of its staff and technicians and started using the laboratory building as a strong fighting base for themselves, there are certain nightmares which may haunt us in the near future. The situation is so tense that the WHO Chief himself has raised serious concerns of a biological hazard. Dr Nima Aabid Sayeed who is the WHO representative in Sudan expressed that due to various factors, one of the worst nightmares of a biohazard may come true. This event needs to be analyzed in detail and there are several factors to this hazard which cannot be ignored.
1. Huge stockpiles of pathogens: The laboratory has become one of the major research centers of WHO in recent years and hence there are large stocks of isolated pathogens which include polio, measles, Cholera, COVID, Ebola and many more. Although these pathogens were primarily kept there for research purposes some of the strains are new and have not been studied yet. Some of the samples are collected from distant places of Africa and the nature of their pathogenetic abilities are yet to be established. Under such circumstances, the situation is like a Damocles’ sword hanging over the world.
2. Safe keep of pathogens: There are two major factors due to which the safekeep of these pathogens are under threat. First and foremost is the absence of technicians who are expelled by the armed group occupying the laboratory while the second one is the absence of electricity to keep the pathogens in a controlled environment. Both the factors are essential and, in their absence, the chances of pathogens breaking out of the laboratory are very high.
3. Release of Pathogens in the outside environment: The pathogens can be released into the outside environment in many ways since there is no one to keep them safe. One threat is that the fighters staying in the building may get affected and when they move out, spread the disease in other areas. Second threat is that the rebel fighters may take out the samples and release it in the areas occupied by pro-government forces to secure their victory via means like artillery shells etc. Third threat is that in case pro-government forces resort to bomb the building or storm the building to flush out the rebels, pathogens may get leaked into the outside environment and lastly, the pathogens may get released themselves since there are no measures to keep them safe.
4. High risk of Infection: Due to ongoing civil war, Sudanese people are forced to stay in closed spaces. Some are in underground basements; some are occupying concrete buildings, and some have taken over community homes as their shelter. There is a serious shortage of water, food, or any other human need and under such circumstances, the risk of infection becomes much more severe. When people stay within congested places and use unhygienic measures, the rate of infection becomes ten times higher and that is another nightmarish situation.
5. Collapsed Health system: The entire healthcare system of Sudan has collapsed totally. Over 80% of hospitals are either destroyed or vacated due to ongoing war and wherever little healthcare support they have is taken over to treat injured people who are turning to these facilities in large numbers every day. Under such circumstances, if there is a biohazard or an epidemic spread in the country, Sudan’s present healthcare system will not be able to support it.
The situation is grim and Sudan is under the spotlight of the world. The 72-hours truce period is expiring today and there is no breather from this possible biohazard. The world is still recovering from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and is in no position to handle another one. It is high time that the global powers should play their cards well to end the Sudan conflict and help the world recover from the fear of another biohazard.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)