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Your power company can turn up your thermostat remotely — if you let it

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Texas’s power grid is unpleasantly surprising its users again. After last winter’s storm disabled parts of the grid for <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/2/16/22284140/texas-blackout-outage-winter-storm-uri-ercot-power-grid-cold-snow-austin-houston-dallas">several days</a>, causing potentially <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/peteraldhous/texas-winter-storm-power-outage-death-toll">hundreds of deaths</a>, a summer heat wave is once again <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/15/climate/texas-heat-wave-electricity.html">threatening the grid</a>. One potential solution Texas power companies have found is to turn up the temperature on some customers’ smart thermostats. Problem is, some of those customers weren’t aware that their power company could and would do such a thing — until their homes got uncomfortably warm.
One Houston family <a href="https://www.khou.com/article/news/local/texas/remote-thermostat-adjustment-texas-energy-shortage/285-5acf2bc5-54b7-4160-bffe-1f9a5ef4362a">told a local news affiliate</a> that their smart thermostat was turned up to 78 degrees with seemingly no notice other than a text sent after the fact. When they enrolled in a program called “Smart Savers Texas” — entering them in a sweepstakes to win up to $5,000 off their energy bills for the next year — these users didn’t realize that this also gave the power company permission to adjust their thermostat during high demand periods, like heat waves.
The idea of a power company turning up your thermostat like a <a href="https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/dads-and-air-conditioning">stereotypical electricity-bill-conscious dad</a> might seem dystopian, but it’s also fairly common. There are programs like Smart Savers Texas all over the country, from <a href="https://www.pge.com/en_US/residential/save-energy-money/savings-solutions-and-rebates/smart-ac/smart-ac.page?WT.mc_id=Vanity_smartac">California</a> to <a href="https://www.nationalgridus.com/MA-Home/Connected-Solutions/Thermostat-Program">New England</a>. The idea behind them is to decrease power consumption in order to alleviate stress on the electrical grid and avoid brownouts. Since customers aren’t likely to volunteer to use less of the power they pay for when they need it most, these programs give them an incentive and the means to do so easily (by proxy). Some programs provide better incentives than others. When it launched in 2011, Philadelphia’s Smart A/C Saver program gave participants a <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/philly/business/20110615_Peco_offers__120_to_customers_for_energy-saving_program.html">$120 bill credit</a> (apparently this was too generous, as it was reduced to $40 in subsequent years). But Smart Savers Texas only offers customers the chance to win free power for a year, and apparently it didn’t make its terms very clear.
But sometimes, the program’s terms were a little too good for customers. New York City’s <a href="https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/money-matters/2016/06/13/keep-your-apartment-cool-on-the-go-with-con-ed-s-smart-ac-program">Smart AC Program</a>, which gave participants smart plugs and gift cards, ended in 2020 because, Con Edison said, it <a href="http://documents.dps.ny.gov/public/Common/ViewDoc.aspx?DocRefId=%7BA4FB6989-450B-4784-9DFD-9DE1CA57C677%7D">wasn’t cost-effective</a>. Philadelphia’s PECO <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/business/peco-discontinues-smart-a-c-saver-energy-conservation-program-20201118.html">ended its similar program</a>, with the $40 bill discount, last fall.
Power companies usually do these programs in partnerships with the tech companies that provide the devices. Smart Savers Texas is administered by a company called EnergyHub and is available through smart thermostats made by Alarm.com, Lux, Google’s Nest, Radio Thermostat, Sensi, Vivint, and ecobee.
Google’s Nest even has its own “<a href="https://store.google.com/us/collection/rebates_and_rewards?hl=en-US&GoogleNest">Rush Hour Rewards</a>” program available through participating power companies. The rewards vary. In one New York zip code, for instance, ConEd offers “up to” $85 if you enroll in the program, while National Grid is only giving out a $25 gift card. Some power companies also offer discounts on the smart thermostats themselves. And Google seems to hope there’s room to expand its Rush Hour Rewards beyond just temperature, too: Nest’s head of energy partnerships <a href="https://blog.google/inside-google/googlers/ask-techspert-how-can-we-fight-energy-rush-hours/">said in April</a> that “in the future, your electric vehicle or even your whole home may be able to join in.”
These programs are currently opt in, unlike the aforementioned stereotypical electricity-bill-conscious dad. But if the Texas example is anything to go by, there are some people who didn’t realize what they were getting into. If you’re afraid you might be one of them and you don’t want to be, now would be a good time to check with your power company to make sure you aren’t, especially if you have a smart thermostat.
It’s also a good reminder to always check the fine print, especially if you’re being offered something for what appears to be nothing in return. There’s always a catch.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22543678/smart-thermostat-air-conditioner-texas-heatwave">https://www.vox.com/recode/22543678/smart-thermostat-air-conditioner-texas-heatwave</a>

vox Your power company can turn up your thermostat remotely — if you let it

Texas’s power grid is unpleasantly surprising its users again. After last winter’s storm disabled parts of the grid for several days , caus...

The EU Warns Lebanon: “You are at the edge of the financial collapse.”

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EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned Lebanon: “You are at the edge of the financial collapse.” The warning comes in the midst of the country being in non-stop declining economy, as we read in <a href="https://www.arabnews.com/node/1880776">Arab News</a>:
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EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Saturday said that the Lebanese leaders were to blame for the crises gripping their country, and threatened to impose sanctions on those who continue to obstruct the formation of a new government. Meanwhile, earlier this month, the World Bank issued another warning about the impending economic collapse of Lebanon, stressing that its economic and financial crisis is likely to rank in the Top 10, possibly Top 3, most severe episodes globally since the mid-19th century.
In fact, Lebanon has been gripped by a combined political and economic crisis since at least October 2019, when Lebanese youths took to the streets to protest against the economic recession and Iran’s meddling in Lebanon’s affairs. The protests forced the resignation of then-Prime Minister Saad Hariri.
The twin crises intensified last summer following the Beirut port blast that killed hundreds and injured thousands of innocent civilians, destroyed many homes and toppled the government of Prime Minister Hassan Diab. Since then, Lebanon has not been able to form a new government to replace Diab’s and the economic crisis has reached boiling point.
Lebanon’s mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc with the health and livelihoods of its citizens and accelerated its slide toward chaos. Lebanon’s multiple crises are now coming to boiling point and threatening to unleash unprecedented chaos in the already troubled country. Last Tuesday, the Lebanese pound hit a record low of 15,550 to the dollar in unofficial exchanges — a tenfold increase on the official rate of 1,507, which has been in place since 1997. It continued in effect until September 2019, when the banking sector practically collapsed. Since then, while maintaining the official peg to the dollar, the pound’s rate of exchange has declined dramatically, with several unofficial and semi-official rates operating at the same time.
Lebanon’s public debt has exceeded 170 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), the highest ratio in its history and among the highest globally. The country defaulted on paying back debt obligations for the first time in March 2020, while talks aimed at reaching an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on a bailout package stopped last year, and corruption accusations leveled at Lebanon’s top banking officials have further eroded trust in Lebanon’s monetary and financial system both locally and internationally.
Borrell’s comments, which were made at the presidential palace after he met with President Michel Aoun, came amid reports in the Lebanese media that France and the EU are putting together proposals for possible travel bans and asset freezes on some Lebanese politicians. Borrell urged Lebanon to reach a deal with the IMF, saying: “We cannot understand that nine months after the resignation of a prime minister, there is still no government in Lebanon… Only an urgent agreement with the International Monetary Fund will rescue the country from a financial collapse… There is no time to waste. You are at the edge of the financial collapse.”
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Lebanon is a country filled with strife, and there are no sides that are good, with neighbors hating one another, and with factions covering their own intentions with the face of justice. Rebellion is masqueraded as justice, and the true nightmare is exposed only after everyone is sold to the facade of righteous indignation.
Neighbor is going against neighbor, with Lebanese hating Syrian. There is an immense hatred towards Syrian refugees, especially now that many Syrians are voting for Bashar al-Assad within Lebanon. Mobs of Right-wing Lebanese attacked buses carrying Syrian expats and Syrians heading towards the Syrian embassy in Beirut.
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These mobs consisted mainly of members of the Right-wing Lebanese Forces, a political party (that was once a militia) of Maronite Catholics whose religion is more of a national identity than a spirituality. The mobs waited for the cars and buses of Syrians at several intersections in Beirut, outside the city and in the eastern Bekaa region. They attacked the vehicles with rocks and smashed the windows with sticks. In one situation near Nahr el-Kalb, on the highway north of Beirut, one person attacked a driver by poking him with a wooden stick while others smashed his windshield. The buses had photos of al-Assad which only agitated the mobs. Fadi Nader, one of those in the mob, <a href="https://www.arabnews.com/node/1861771/middle-east">expressed</a> his rage: “They don’t need to carry pictures and flags for an absurd criminal regime … If they want to vote, they can go home and vote there… Since they love Bashar Assad, why don’t they go home?“
The Assad regime is extremely hated in Lebanon, and this stems from a resentment rooted in the Lebanese Civil War when Bashar al-Assad’s father, Hafez al-Assad, invaded Lebanon. The Syrian military did not fully withdraw from Lebanon until 2005, when Bashar al-Assad had already been ruling.  As Syrians made their way into the embassy in Baabda, they <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/20/thousands-of-syrian-refugees-and-expats-vote-early-in-lebanon">cried</a> out  “God! Syria! Bashar!” and “We’d sacrifice ourselves for you, soul and blood, Bashar”, an indication of the tribal divisions being revealed within Lebanon. The Syrians continuously showing their support for Assad will only exasperate the hatred that Right-wing Lebanese forces have towards them. But yet again, we cannot blame Syrians for supporting Assad; he is, after all, fighting the terrorists who ruined their country, and more power to Assad means countering the forces of chaos and bringing more stability to the country that they left due to NATO’s support for rebels who seek to overthrow Assad. On Syrian woman who had left her hometown of Raqqa in 2015, said to Al Jazeera:  “We want al-Assad, and God wants him too … We lived in stability under his excellency”.
Tension with refugees is one of the things that accelerated the Lebanese Civil War which sparked in the 1970s. Lebanon is still a heavily divided country, being broken up between the Christians, Sunnis, Shiites and Druze, and animosity towards Syria is still harbored by the country’s Maronite faction. The country is still ripe for civil war. In the <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/lebanon-civil-war-coming-political-financial-crisis">words</a> of Hicham Safieddine: “Social conflict is at an all-time high, and regional wars and geopolitical tensions are simmering.” Just as conflict between Lebanese Christians and Palestinians erupted in the Lebanese Civil War, so could the tensions between the Right-wing Forces and Syrians explode into another ethnic conflict.
If a civil war does break out again, Iranian proxy Hezbollah will most definitely participate in order to establish its own power, being currently the most armed of the political factions. The Lebanese military will have difficulty dealing with the situation since it’s ranks will fragment, with Shiites, Sunnis and so-called Christians dissenting to fight for their own sides. Just to give you an idea as to how bloody Lebanon’s past civil war was, here are some examples of the horrors that took place in that conflict. In 1978, Right-wing Catholic claiming Maronite thugs forced an entire group of Shiite men, women and children into a mosque in the village of Khiam, and shot all of them to their deaths. This took place under the superintendence of Israeli soldiers. Etienne Saqr, a Maronite militia leader who went by the name Abu Arz — the “Father of the Cedars” — had a penchant for cruelty and enjoyed tying Palestinian prisoners to the backs of taxis and dragging them for twelve miles before tossing their corpses into a dried riverbed. “If you feel compassion for the Palestinian women and children,” he once said, “remember they are communists and will bear new communists.” In one of the events leading up to the full breakout of the war, in 1975 four Christians were found shot dead in a car outside the electricity company headquarters in east Beirut. According to Maronite officers of the Right-wing Phalange paramilitary at the time, their leader, Bashir Gemayel, ordered his men to slaughter forty Muslims. His officers set up roadblocks and the first forty Muslim men they found, they took and slit their throats.
Muslim militias followed the same example, setting up their own roadblocks and butchering the Christians they found. These killings took place for hours, being conducted by both Christian and Muslim forces, and hundreds were butchered. In 1976, the Phalange and their allies — the Chamounists — took over the slum of Karantina (which was populated by Palestinians, Syrians, Kurds and Armenians) and butchered 1500 people, mainly Muslims. The Palestinians responded by hitting the Christian village of Damour. Camille Chamoun led the defense of the village before escaping on a helicopter and the PLO massacred almost the entire population. The Phalangists and other Maronite factions laid siege on Tel al-Zaatar, a refugee camp controlled by the PLO. The Phalangists blocked water from entering the camp by shooting those who tried to bring water inside. Numerous Palestinians were injured trying to transport water into the camp and around three thousand people died from dehydration. An agreement was eventually reached and it specified that civilians in the camp would leave Tel al-Zaatar with the assistance of the Red Cross. As the civilians were leaving, the Maronite fighters ambushed them and thousands were butchered. 
Out of all the massacres that took place within the Lebanese Civil War, the most horrific was what took place in the refugee camps of Sabra and Chatila. There were bodies everywhere, and the smell of rotting corpses filled the air. As was written on the innumerable corpses by Robert Fisk, who was present in the camps right in the aftermath of the massacre: “They were everywhere, in the road, in laneways, in back yards and broken rooms, beneath crumpled masonry and across the top of garbage tips. … Each corridor through the rubble produced more bodies. The patients at a Palestinian hospital had disappeared after gunmen ordered the doctors to leave. Everywhere, we found signs of hastily dug mass graves. … All of us wanted to vomit. We were breathing death.” (Fisk, Pity the Nation, ch. 11, p. 360, ellipses mine). He goes on to describe: “We might have accepted evidence of a few murders; even dozens of bodies, killed in the heat of combat. But there were woman lying in houses with their skirts torn up to their wastes and their legs wide apart, children with their throats cut, rows of young men shot in the back after being lined up at an execution wall. There were babies — blackened babies because they had been slaughtered more then 24 hours earlier and their small bodies were already in a state of decomposition — tossed into rubbish heaps alongside discarded US army ration tins, Israeli army medical equipment and empty bottles of whisky.” (Ibid, pp. 360-1). Thousands were killed. Such was the war, and such is the horror that would occur again if civil war were to ever break out in that country.
 
 
source <a href="https://shoebat.com/2021/06/21/the-eu-warns-lebanon-you-are-at-the-edge-of-the-financial-collapse/">https://shoebat.com/2021/06/21/the-eu-warns-lebanon-you-are-at-the-edge-of-the-financial-collapse/</a>

armageddon The EU Warns Lebanon: “You are at the edge of the financial collapse.”

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned Lebanon: “You are at the edge of the financial collapse.” The warning comes in the midst of th...

Major Catholic Bishops In America Try To Outlaw The Giving Of Communion To Politicians Who Support Abortion. But Leaders In The Vatican Say Want To Co...

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Major bishops Catholic bishops in America are trying to outlaw giving Communion to politicians who support abortion. But figures within the Vatican do not want this to happen. As we read in <a href="https://archive.is/VUWel#selection-517.0-553.21">the New York Times</a>:
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For the first time in Catholic history, a pope has come out in support of homosexual “civil unions” which is really just secular marriage under a state. During an interview for a documentary which premiered at the Rome Film Festival, Francis <a href="https://apnews.com/article/pope-endorse-same-sex-civil-unions-eb3509b30ebac35e91aa7cbda2013de2">stated</a>:
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“Homosexual people have the right to be in a family. They are children of God… You can’t kick someone out of a family, nor make their life miserable for this. What we have to have is a civil union law; that way they are legally covered.”
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Of course, the priests who are acolytes of Sodom are praising Pope Francis for this, with priests of Sodom like Fr. James Martin saying: “The pope’s speaking positively about civil unions also sends a strong message to places where the church has opposed such laws”. This is coming from a priest who for years has been pushing for the idea of ‘building bridges’ between the Church and Sodom. Well, its obvious that that bridge has been built… and that it has been crossed. Of course, there are Catholic officials who are opposing this. Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence, Rhode Island stated: “The pope’s statement clearly contradicts what has been the long-standing teaching of the church about same-sex unions … The church cannot support the acceptance of objectively immoral relationships.” And Ed Mechmann, director of public policy at the Archdiocese of New York, affirmed in a blog post that the pope had simply “made a serious mistake.”
The Church has been utterly conquered by Sodom, and looking at the Second Jerusalem, I cannot help but reference St. John when he spoke of Sodom and Egypt when referring to that City on a Hill. Rome has become Egypt; for it is filled with the evils of pagandom; Sodom, for it is filled with the ways of that abysmal metropolis which was cut asunder by fire from Heaven. Will it take fire from heaven for the world to finally see that darkness they are embracing? Or perhaps another scourge will have to be used, a human scourge of armies of other nations more warlike than most, to invade Rome and bring about a horrific fury of insatiable rage to that city, such as when German mercenaries invaded Rome in 1527. What will it take? Only time will tell. But what we can tell are the fumes from the corrupt incense burning from the warped altars of Sodom’s temples, with people calling themselves Catholic when they are in reality members of the church of Satan.
Many traditional Catholics will defend the Church, while at the same time not realizing, (or being too afraid to admit) that the Vatican, and the whole of the Catholic apparatus, has become a homosexual hornets nests. I myself have had experience with the homosexual infiltrators in the Catholic Church, and did two videos recounting my experiences:
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While we were doing some work in Texas we were told of a man named Msgr. Michael Yarbrough (also known as Michael Yarborough), of Holy Trinity Catholic Church, and how he is a deviant priest who forcefully kissed a young man named Hector Escalante on the lips, and how he was supporting a pro homosexual group called Call to Action. Here is a photo of Msgr. Michael Yarbrough:
Well, we decided that we were going to bait Msgr. Michael Yarbrough. I visited him in a confessional booth where I told him my age and apparently it registered an interest and he asked me if I wanted to come and hang out with him. He fell for the bait. I found it very odd that a priest of his high position, with a very busy schedule, would all of a sudden want to spend time with me.
I accepted his offer, and gave him a call, and asked him if we would meet at a book store. He said that he preferred that we meet in his office. I found this quite disturbing because it was in his office where he kissed Hector Escalante. When I did research on Msgr. Michael Yarbrough, I found a 2002 report written in the San Antonio Express which <a href="http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news3/2002_04_28_Michael_PunishingThe_Fernandez_AND_Ortiz_Dietz_2.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stated</a>:
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Hector Escalante complained that Monsignor Michael Yarbrough kissed him on the lips and groped him in his office in 1998 when Escalante was 27, on his last day on the job as a St. Matthew’s Parish employee.
Yarbrough admitted kissing him but said Escalante misunderstood the gesture, which the priest said was common among men in his family. He denied groping Escalante.
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Imagine, a man kissing another man on the lips as “common.” Well, since Pope Francis now vocally supports sodomite “civil unions” I guess the forces of Sodom are “common” within the ecclesiastical system.
For years we have seen how the Vatican covers up for sexual predators and deviants, heretics and debased theologians. We even investigated Fr. Robert L. Kincl, who was appointed by the Pope and had befriended us as a fan of Shoebat.com acting as conservative. In a private conversation with me, Kincl actually stated that he believes that homosexual fondling is permissible. Having been shocked at his remarks, I told Kincl:
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How can you, as a priest, be so liberal toward such a sick evil as two men fondling each other, or as two men having a “relationship” just as long as they are not going with other men. It is evil and it is reprobate.
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I also told him:
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It is not tolerable for you, as both a priest and a canon law judge, to be permissive to somebody having a homosexual relationship just as long as they are not being promiscuous with other men. It is deplorable, and in the words of St. Paul, “worthy of death” (Romans 1:32).
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Kincl defended his position and responded with a rejection of the Old Testament and a twisting of St. Paul’s condemnation of homosexuality in Romans, stating
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We do not follow the Hebrew Scriptures. We follow Jesus Christ who never mentioned gay relationships. When St. Paul mentioned such a relationship he was referring to the promiscuousness of the Romans using sodomy.
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Shoebat.com decided to investigate Kincl and found that he has a dark past. In 1993, Kincl worked as a Commander in charge of clergy at the U.S. Navy, and while he was in the service he defended another chaplain confirmed to be guilty of child molestation, named Robert Hrdlicka.
The investigation revealed that Robert L. Kincl had even <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2003/jul/5/20030705-120850-9217r/#ixzz33jCPbVZz" target="_blank" rel="noopener">written the authorities</a>, not to charge the pedophile who molested the young boys, but urged them to send him back to serve as a chaplain:
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Catholic chaplain Lt. Robert Hrdlicka pleaded guilty to molesting boys in 1993. Before his sentencing, six other Catholic Navy chaplains and the church’s archbishop for the military services urged authorities to send Lt. Hrdlicka to a church-run treatment center.
“It is my fervent hope and prayer that he will be able to return to the active ministry as soon as possible,” wrote then-Cmdr. Robert L. Kincl.
Instead, Lt. Hrdlicka went to prison.
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We reported Kincl to the ecclesiastical authorities in the Diocese of Austin. We spoke with Deacon Ron Walker and Vicar General Daniel Garcia, but they did nothing to have Robert L. Kincl punished.
We may express anger at what Pope Francis has said, but I really don’t understand why we are surprised. Support for Sodom has been extremely common amongst Catholic priests, and not just this, common Catholic people are generally sympathetic to Sodom. One such layperson is Robert Spencer who called me a jihadists for believing in the Biblical prescription of punishment against sodomites. Let us look to the saints of the past to see what they said about sodomites.
St. Augustine:
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“Sins against nature, therefore, like the sin of Sodom, are abominable and deserve punishment whenever and wherever they are committed. If all nations committed them, all alike would be held guilty of the same charge in God’s law, for our Maker did not prescribe that we should use each other in this way. In fact, the relationship that we ought to have with God is itself violated when our nature, of which He is Author, is desecrated by perverted lust.”
“When God commands a thing to be done against the customs or agreement of any people, though it were never done by them heretofore, it is to be done”; and when he wrote afterwards: “For as among the powers of human society, the greater authority is obeyed in preference to the lesser, so must God in preference to all.”  (Confess. iii, 8)
“A sovereign serves God one way as man, another way as king; he serves Him as man by living according to the faith, he serves Him as king by exerting the necessary strength to sanction laws which command goodness and prohibit the opposite.” (Augustine, letter 185, ch. 19)
“It was thus that Ezechias [Hezekiah] served Him [God] by destroying the groves and temples of idols and the high places which had been set up contrary to the commandments of God; thus Josias served Him by performing similar acts [see 2 Kings 23:1-25]; thus the king of the Ninevites served Him by compelling the whole city to appease the Lord; thus Darius served Him by giving Daniel power to break the idol, and by feeding his enemies to the lions; thus Nabuchodnosor, of whom we spoke above, served Him when he restrained all his subjects from blaspheming God by a terrible penalty.” (Augustine, letter 185, ch. 19, brackets mine)
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King Josiah “brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of the Lord, where the women wove hangings for the grove” (1 Kings 23:7). But there is no King Josiah. There is no Christendom. Christendom is dead, and we have killed him.
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source <a href="https://shoebat.com/2021/06/21/major-catholic-bishops-in-america-try-to-outlaw-the-giving-of-communion-to-politicians-who-support-abortion-but-leaders-in-the-vatican-say-want-to-continue-to-give-communion-to-pro-abortion-democrats/">https://shoebat.com/2021/06/21/major-catholic-bishops-in-america-try-to-outlaw-the-giving-of-communion-to-politicians-who-support-abortion-but-leaders-in-the-vatican-say-want-to-continue-to-give-communion-to-pro-abortion-democrats/</a>

armageddon Major Catholic Bishops In America Try To Outlaw The Giving Of Communion To Politicians Who Support Abortion. But Leaders In The Vatican Say Want To Co...

Major bishops Catholic bishops in America are trying to outlaw giving Communion to politicians who support abortion. But figures within the...

Australia To Challenge UNESCO Downgrade Of Great Barrier Reef

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Australian government had itself downgraded Great Barrier Reef's long-term outlook to "very poor" (File).
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Brisbane:
Australia will strongly oppose a UNESCO plan to list the Great Barrier Reef as "in danger" over its deterioration caused by climate change, the government said Tuesday.
The UN body released a draft report on Monday recommending the reef's World Heritage status be downgraded because of its dramatic coral decline.
Environmental campaigners said the decision highlighted Australia's lack of action to curb emissions and brought "shame" on the government.
Environment Minister Sussan Ley said Australia would mount a challenge after the "back-flip on previous assurances from UN officials", ahead of the World Heritage Committee's 44th session hosted by China next month.
Ley said the decision did not consider the billions of dollars spent attempting to protect the world's largest coral reef.
"This sends a poor signal to those nations who are not making the investments in reef protection that we are making," she said in a statement.
Australia has resisted calls to commit to a target of net-zero emissions by 2050, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison saying the country hoped to reach carbon neutral "as soon as possible" without harming its commodity-dependent economy.
The plan to add the reef to the World Heritage "in danger" list prompted environmental groups to highlight Canberra's reluctance to take stronger climate action.
The Climate Council said it "brings shame on the federal government, which is standing by as the reef declines rather than fighting to protect it".
Aside from its inestimable natural, scientific and environmental value, the 2,300-kilometre-long (1,400-mile-long) reef was worth an estimated $4.8 billion a year in tourism revenue for the Australian economy before the coronavirus pandemic.
"The recommendation from UNESCO is clear and unequivocal that the Australian government is not doing enough to protect our greatest natural asset, especially on climate change," said WWF head of oceans Richard Leck.
In December, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said climate change had become the biggest threat to UN-listed natural world heritage sites and pushed the reef into "critical" condition.
Australia's own government had already downgraded the reef's long-term outlook to "very poor" after back-to-back mass bleaching events in 2016 and 2017.
Bleaching occurs when changes in ocean temperatures stress healthy corals, causing them to expel algae living in their tissues -- draining them of their vibrant colours.
"I agree that global climate change is the single biggest threat to the world's reefs but it is wrong, in our view, to single out the best managed reef in the world for an 'in danger' listing," Ley said.
The Great Barrier Reef has now suffered three mass coral bleaching events in the past five years, losing half its corals since 1995 as ocean temperatures have climbed.
The reef has also been battered by several cyclones as climate change drives more extreme weather and outbreaks of crown-of-thorns starfish -- which eat the coral -- in recent decades.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/australia-to-challenge-unesco-downgrade-of-great-barrier-reef-2469335">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/australia-to-challenge-unesco-downgrade-of-great-barrier-reef-2469335</a>

news world Australia To Challenge UNESCO Downgrade Of Great Barrier Reef

Australian government had itself downgraded Great Barrier Reef's long-term outlook to "very poor" (File). Brisbane: Austr...

US, South Korea To Consider Ending North Korea Coordination Group

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="US, South Korea To Consider Ending North Korea Coordination Group" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-06/j66lc85k_uskoreareuters650_625x300_22_June_21.jpg" title="US, South Korea To Consider Ending North Korea Coordination Group" /></div>
A Korea expert said Moon administration would see this as a goodwill gesture from US President Joe Biden.
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Seoul:
The United States and South Korea have agreed to consider scrapping a working group established to coordinate North Korea policy, Seoul's foreign ministry said on Tuesday, after it became seen as a way for Washington to block inter-Korean projects.
During talks between US special representative for North Korea Sung Kim and his South Korean counterpart Noh Kyu-duk on Monday, the two agreed to "look into terminating the working group" while reinforcing coordination at other levels, the ministry said in a statement.
On Monday, Kim said he was willing to meet with the North Koreans "anywhere, anytime without preconditions" and that he looks forward to a "positive response soon". He was scheduled to meet with South Korean Unification Minister Lee In-young, who handles relations with the North, on Tuesday.
The working group was set up in 2018 to help the two allies coordinate their approaches to issues such as denuclearisation talks, humanitarian aid, sanctions enforcement and inter-Korean relations amid a flurry of diplomatic engagement with North Korea at the time.
When asked last year about Seoul's proposals such as reopening individual tourism to its northern neighbour, US ambassador to South Korea at the time, Harry Harris, said that "in order to avoid a misunderstanding later that could trigger sanctions... it's better to run this through the working group."
Though Harris added that it was not the United States' place to approve South Korean decisions, the remarks caused controversy in Seoul and a former aide to South Korean President Moon Jae-in later told parliament the working group was increasingly seen as an obstacle to inter-Korean relations.
The Moon administration would see ending the working group as a goodwill gesture from new US President Joe Biden, said Ramon Pacheco Pardo, a Korea expert at King's College London.
"From a South Korean perspective, this was basically a mechanism for the US to block inter-Korean projects during the Trump years," he said. "It would be a clever political move for the Biden administration to end the group, since consultation between Washington and Seoul will take place anyway."
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
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A Korea expert said Moon administration would see this as a goodwill gesture from US President Joe Biden. Seoul: The United States and ...

Pakistan Assures Help To US In Recovering Hostages From Afghanistan: Embassy

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="Pakistan Assures Help To US In Recovering Hostages From Afghanistan: Embassy" src="https://i.ndtvimg.com/i/2016-06/pakistan-us-flag-reuters-650_650x400_81465912707.jpg" title="Pakistan Assures Help To US In Recovering Hostages From Afghanistan: Embassy" /></div>
US: Reports said pressuring Pakistan to act on hostage case has succeeded in the past (Representational).
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Washington:
Pakistan has assured the US that it would continue to assist America and other countries in recovering their hostages from Afghanistan, but only as "a moral duty" and not under coercion or incentives.
The statement was issued by the Pakistani Embassy in Washington after a report in US media urging US President Joe Biden's administration to "pressurise or offer incentives" to Islamabad to secure the release of an American hostage, Mark Frerichs, who was captured by the Taliban, reported Dawn.
US Senator Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat, also urged the Biden administration to use "all the options" and get Frerichs, one of her constituents, back home.
Media reports said "pressuring Pakistan to act on a hostage case has succeeded in the recent past" and the Biden administration should also try this option to get Frerichs out of Afghanistan.
According to Dawn, one report recalled a 2017 case, claiming that during Trump regime, the White House "initiated secret efforts to cajole Pakistan" to get another hostage, Caitlin Coleman, out after five years. However, the Pakistan Embassy rejected the suggestion that Islamabad was forced to get Coleman and her children released.
This comes after reports emerged that Pakistan would allow the US to use its airbases for any action against Afghanistan as Washington has begun pulling out its troops amid high violence in Kabul.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has made it clear that the country would "absolutely not" permit any of its bases or use of its territory to the United States for any kind of action inside Afghanistan.
"Absolutely not. There is no way we are going to allow any bases, any sort of action from Pakistani territory into Afghanistan. Absolutely not," the Prime Minister said in an interview given to Jonathan Swan of HBO Axios, Dawn reported.
This comes amid reports that the negotiations for the military bases in the region have reached an impasse, for now, The New York Times reported.
The Pentagon is now mulling to authorise airstrikes in Afghanistan if the country falls into crisis due to the rise in violence by the Taliban.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/pakistan-assures-help-to-us-in-recovering-hostages-from-afghanistan-embassy-2469325">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/pakistan-assures-help-to-us-in-recovering-hostages-from-afghanistan-embassy-2469325</a>

news world Pakistan Assures Help To US In Recovering Hostages From Afghanistan: Embassy

US: Reports said pressuring Pakistan to act on hostage case has succeeded in the past (Representational). Washington: Pakistan has assu...