Homosexuality is 'damage in the mind'
QATAR - A Qatar World Cup ambassador has told German television broadcaster ZDF that homosexuality is 'damage in the mind', as the Gulf state prepares to host the global tournament in less than two weeks. In an interview filmed in Doha and to be screened later on Tuesday, former Qatari international Khalid Salman addressed the issue of homosexuality, which is illegal in the conservative Muslim country.
Some football players have raised concerns over the rights of fans travelling to the event, especially LGBT+ individuals and women, whom rights groups say Qatari laws discriminate against. The country expects more than one million visitors for the World Cup.
'They have to accept our rules here,' Salman said, in an excerpt of the interview. '(Homosexuality) is haram. You know what haram (forbidden) means?' he said. When asked why it was haram, Salman said: 'I am not a strict Muslim but why is it haram? Because it is damage in the mind.'
The interview was then immediately stopped by an accompanying official. Qatar's World Cup organisers, when contacted by Reuters, declined to comment. World football's ruling body FIFA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Strategy for a Decisive Decade
GERMANY - While Germany’s new China strategy is being drafted, the dispute between the German foreign ministry and the chancellery is escalating over the intensity of the confrontation policy toward Beijing. Chancellor Olaf Scholz is pushing for maintaining a certain degree of economic cooperation despite the growing rivalry with the People’s Republic – in the interests of important branches of the German industry, which depend on China as a sales market and a research and development site. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is pushing for aggressive political attacks against Beijing – under the pretext of fighting for human rights.
She does not even hesitate to publicly attack the chancellor, himself, while abroad. At the same, time, the USA is intensifying pressure in Berlin to scale back its economic cooperation with Beijing, interfering directly in concrete German-Chinese business deals. US President Biden sees a “decisive decade” ahead in the competition with China. In this context Berlin announced a new China strategy for the first quarter of 2023.
While the chancellery seeks stronger consideration for the interests of German business, the Baerbock-led foreign ministry, is more oriented on the foreign, but especially, the military policy interests of the main ally, the USA. It “is not yet clear, whether the foreign ministry or the chancellery will prevail in setting the tone for Germany’s new policy toward China.”
Germans reveal fears for financial survival
GERMANY - Half of Germans asked in a survey have said they’re afraid they might not have enough money to financially survive the coming winter, a poll commissioned by the tabloid Bild revealed on Sunday. Most people also believe the government’s relief measures to alleviate the fallout of the ongoing energy crunch are not enough. Only 36% of respondents believe that government measures will help them get by, according to the survey carried out by the INSA polling agency. In late October, another INSA poll also showed that more than half of Germans believed that Chancellor Olaf Scholz was not up to the challenges the nation was facing.
World is on ‘highway to hell’ – UN chief
UNITED NATIONS - The world must choose whether to cut emissions or condemn future generations to a climate catastrophe, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned while speaking at the COP27 summit in Egypt on Monday. “Humanity has a choice: cooperate or perish,” Guterres told delegates gathered to discuss how to combat change amid an ongoing military conflict between Russia and Ukraine and rising global inflation and energy shortages.
“Greenhouse gas emissions keep growing. Global temperatures keep rising. And our planet is fast approaching tipping points that will make climate chaos irreversible,” Guterres said, proclaiming that “we are on a highway to climate hell with our foot on the accelerator.”
You’re Being Monitored
USA - Today, if you use Big Tech’s products, as almost everyone in the US does, your actions and speech are being monitored. If you use a mobile device such as a cell phone, and/or a laptop or desktop computer connected to the Internet, or anything else connected to the Internet such as your front door bell, or your thermostat, or if you drive a late-model car that is connected to the Internet, you are being monitored. I am not saying that you are necessarily actively being spied upon and listened to, but your actions and speech are being recorded and stored in a database in the Cloud somewhere, where it can be retrieved and analyzed at any time by a real person.
All of that data they collect on you, which today can include everything you say and share on social media, or devices like “Alexa,” what you buy including where and when you buy it, what programs and videos you watch, where you drive to, when you turn your lights off at night or turn your thermostat down, and even what you thought were “private” communications, such as social media “private” chats, conversations on your cell phone, or email correspondences on Big Tech’s “free” email platforms – ALL OF THIS DATA IS FOR SALE, for the right price.
‘Insane’ Democrats ‘Talking About Jailing Parents for Protecting Their Children’
USA - Virginia Republican congressional candidate Yesli Vega rallied supporters on the eve of the election, saying, “We have to take our country back. It’s insane that we’re talking about jailing parents for protecting their children.” To Vega, Democrats have “lost sight of what matters - that we running for office are public servants and that you all are the bosses and you’re in charge.” “It’s insane that you have to be over 18 years of age to get in a tanning bed, but it’s okay for a 12-, 13-year-old to mutilate their bodies,” she continued, speaking of the issue of transgender-identifying children. “We’re sick and tired of a government telling us how to live our lives, how to spend our money, and how to raise our children,” she continued. “We see the heavy hand of government interfering in our daily lives like never before.”
The US Military Is Operating in More Countries Than We Think
USA - US military forces have been engaged in unauthorized hostilities in many more countries than the Pentagon has disclosed to Congress, let alone the public, according to a major new report released late last week by New York University School of Law’s Brennan Center for Justice.
“Afghanistan, Iraq, maybe Libya. If you asked the average American where the United States has been at war in the past two decades, you would likely get this short list,” according to the report, Secret War: How the US Uses Partnerships and Proxy Forces to Wage War Under the Radar. “But this list is wrong – off by at least 17 countries in which the United States has engaged in armed conflict through ground forces, proxy forces, or air strikes.”
“This proliferation of secret war is a relatively recent phenomenon, and it is undemocratic and dangerous,” the report’s author, Katherine Yon Ebright, wrote in the introduction. “The conduct of undisclosed hostilities in unreported countries contravenes our constitutional design. It invites military escalation that is unforeseeable to the public, to Congress, and even to the diplomats charged with managing US foreign relations.”
US midterm elections begin
USA - All of the House of Representatives, a third of the Senate and 36 state governors are at stake. Polling places across the US opened for the midterm elections on Tuesday, traditionally considered a referendum on the ruling party’s performance. With most Americans worried about the difficult economic situation, some of the policies favored by President Joe Biden – such as giving billions in aid to Ukraine – may lead to Democrats losing control of Congress to their Republican challengers, many endorsed by former president Donald Trump.
All 435 seats in the US House of Representatives are being contested, as are 35 seats in the Senate. Democrats currently have a five-seat majority in the House and Vice President Kamala Harris is the deciding vote in the 50-50 Senate. Also at stake are the governorships of 36 out of 50 US states, with Republicans currently controlling 28 and the Democrats 22.
Poll aggregator Real Clear Politics has predicted the Republicans will end up with 227 seats in the House to the Democrats’ 174, and with a 53-47 Senate favoring the GOP.
Early voting turnout has seen a drastic increase from the 2018 midterms, with more than 42 million ballots already cast. Democrats and major US media outlets have already warned that the final results may not be known for weeks, depending on how long it takes to process all the mail-in votes.
Fire on the Mount?
ISRAEL - Otzma Yehudit leader MK Itamar Ben Gvir is a well-known advocate of increased Jewish rights on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, where the activities of non-Muslims — including the right to prayer — are strictly limited. The far-right leader and his party are set to be a crucial part of the governing coalition put forth by Benjamin Netanyahu, in which Ben Gvir is seeking to be public security minister...
The 14 seats held by the Religious Zionism-Otzma Yehudit alliance will give Ben Gvir and his allies leverage to push for increased Jewish rights on the Temple Mount. Ben Gvir said during his election campaign that Jews deserve equal rights to Muslims at the site. Critically, it is the Israel Police that largely determines policy on the Temple Mount regarding Jewish prayer and visiting hours. If Ben Gvir is awarded the public security ministry, which controls the Police, he will in effect have authority over such decisions.
Ahead of Tuesday’s general election, Ben Gvir repeated his call for equal Jewish rights on the Temple Mount. “There is a problem of racism on the Temple Mount, which violates the status quo,” he told The Times of Israel, pointing out the large discrepancy in visiting hours for Jews and Muslims. “A Jew who prays on the Temple Mount gets arrested,” he continued. “Why are Arabs allowed to pray and Jews are forbidden to pray? This is racism against Jews. I want equal rights. It can’t be that [the rights] of Jews are harmed just because they are Jews.”
Dramatically changing the status quo on the Temple Mount would create a severe diplomatic crisis with Jordan, whose informal status as custodian of the Muslim holy places in Jerusalem — and the al-Aqsa and Dome of the Rock sites in particular — is critical to the legitimacy of the Hashemite regime, which rules the country. Netanyahu will also be acutely aware that Israeli actions on the Temple Mount have on numerous occasions led to severe outbreaks of violence.
Earth's population will hit EIGHT BILLION next week
UK - The world's population is set to hit eight billion next week in a key milestone for humanity, according to the United Nations. The UN Population Division said that the population will continue to grow in the decades to come, with life expectancy set to increase to an average of 77.2 years by 2050. By November 15, the number of humans on Earth will grow to eight billion, more than three times higher than the 2.5 billion global headcount in 1950.
But the world's population growth rate, after a peak in the early 1960s, has decelerated dramatically to below 1 per cent in 2020, Rachel Snow of the UN Population Fund said. That figure could potentially fall to around 0.5 percent by 2050 due to a continued decline in fertility rates, the United Nations projects.
Pope Francis to Muslim Elders
VATICAN - Pope Francis told Muslim elders in Bahrain Friday that God is the source of peace and he “never brings about war, never incites hatred, never supports violence.” “I have come among you as a believer in God, as a brother and as a pilgrim of peace,” the pontiff told the Muslim Council of Elders, so that “we can journey together.”
In passing, the pope also addressed concerns of alleged human rights abuses in the majority Sunni Muslim nation, especially of the country’s minority Shiite Muslim community. In recent years many Shiite activists have been imprisoned or deported, and the largest Shiite opposition group has been outlawed.
“I offer … my prayerful hope that the peace of the Most High may descend upon each of you … who desire to foster reconciliation in order to avoid divisions and conflicts in Muslim communities,” Francis said. “We, who believe in [God], are called to promote peace with tools of peace, such as encounter, patient negotiations and dialogue, which is the oxygen of peaceful coexistence,” he said.
‘I’m selling my blood’: can’t make ends meet with two jobs
USA - Millions of Americans are currently working two or more jobs in order to make ends meet, as global inflation and corporations jacking up prices have sent prices of food, gas, housing, health insurance and other necessities soaring in the past year. Cashe Lewis, 31, of Denver, Colorado works two jobs and is currently trying to find a third job to cover the recent $200 monthly rent increase to her apartment. She works days as a barista at Starbucks, but claims it’s been difficult to get enough hours...
“I’m exhausted all the time,” said Lewis. “On the one day I have off a week, I donate plasma for extra money. I’m literally selling my blood to eat because I have no choice.”
“All of my friends and family work multiple jobs as well, just trying to keep our heads above water. Nothing is affordable and the roadblocks set up to keep people in the cycle of poverty benefit the most wealthy members of our society,” added Lewis. “We aren’t living, we’re barely surviving and we have no choice but to keep doing it.”
Most Americans don't view the Bible as primary determinant of right and wrong
USA - A new study reveals that less than one-third of Americans believe the Bible should serve as the foundation for determining right and wrong, even as most people express support for traditional moral values. The fourth installment of the America’s Values Study, released by the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University Tuesday, asked respondents for their thoughts on traditional moral values and what they would like to see as “America’s foundation for determining right and wrong.” The survey is based on responses from 2,275 US adults collected in July 2022.
Overall, when asked to identify what they viewed as the primary determinant of right and wrong in the US, a plurality of participants (42%) said: “what you feel in your heart.” An additional 29% cited majority rule as their desired method for determining right and wrong, while just 29% expressed a belief that the principles laid out in the Bible should determine the understanding of right and wrong in the US.
Woke corporate policies wreaking havoc on religious employees
USA - Woke corporate culture continues to wreak havoc on religious employees. The evidence keeps growing, as it seems that nearly every week there’s a new headline of another company caving to radical woke ideology and firing someone because of their faith. The Christian Post reported that Nelli Parisenkova, a childcare teacher in California, is suing her former employer. The lawsuit claims she was fired for refusing on religious grounds to read books to children that featured same-sex couples.
A marked increase in workplace discrimination cases in recent years makes it clear that woke corporate culture poses a serious threat to millions of people of faith. In a recent article, our team detailed the major and potentially landmark cases First Liberty is fighting right now to help defend religious employees and stop the wave of illegal discrimination. This means that defending religious liberty in the marketplace and at work is perhaps one of the most critical legal battlefronts today.
‘Mother Lode Of Meth’
USA - US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Office of Field Operations (OFO) officers seized over $18.6 million in methamphetamine Tuesday while inspecting a tractor trailer at the World Trade Bridge in Laredo, Texas. CBP officers seized a total of 2,033 pounds – which has a combined street value of $18,694,838 – of alleged methamphetamine in the tractor trailer, the press release notes. The seizure is currently under investigation by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement-Homeland Security Investigations (ICE-HSI) special agents. The primary manufacturers and distributors of methamphetamine in US cities are Mexican drug trafficking organizations, according to a fact sheet by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
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The views expressed in this section are not our own, unless specifically stated, but are provided to highlight what may prove to be prophetically relevant material appearing in the media.