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UK's PM To "Restore Our Freedoms" After Covid Lockdown

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Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set Monday to confirm "Freedom Day" next week with the lifting of most pandemic curbs in England, but will urge caution with experts worried the government is moving too fast.
Johnson was due to hold an afternoon news conference confirming that the government's tests have been met to allow a full reopening of the economy on July 19, doing away with the final measures of a months-old lockdown.
But with Britain now averaging more than 30,000 daily cases of the fast-spreading Delta coronavirus variant, scientists are fretting that the ending of measures such as mandatory mask-wearing spells trouble.
And the government's decision to allow more than 60,000 football fans to attend Sunday's European Championship final between England and Italy has added to the fears, after near-total flouting of distancing rules.
Johnson, however, insists the time is right to move from legally enforced rules to personal responsibility, and use the summer months to prepare for a potentially more damaging wave of Covid-19 in the winter.
"We are tantalisingly close to the final milestone in our roadmap out of lockdown, but the plan to restore our freedoms must come with a warning," he said in remarks previewing the announcement.
"While the phenomenal vaccine rollout has offered every adult some protection against the virus, and the crucial link between cases, hospitalisations and deaths is weakened, the global pandemic is not over yet.
"Cases will rise as we unlock, so as we confirm our plans today, our message will be clear," Johnson said.
"Caution is absolutely vital, and we must all take responsibility so we don't undo our progress, ensuring we continue to protect our NHS (National Health Service)."
While infection rates have jumped, deaths remain relatively stable in Britain after a mass vaccination campaign, and right-wing media are acclaiming July 19 as "Freedom Day".
But there are signs the campaign is petering out, with take-up rates among younger adults waning.
Sarah Clarke, a board member of the UK's Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine, said there had been a 60 percent increase in ICU admissions over the past week and "we have over 500 patients being admitted per day into intensive cares".
"I would absolutely err on the side of extreme caution," she told Times Radio about Johnson's plan to end rules on masks and social distancing in England.
Keeping the public safe is "not sustainable if we all decide to take our masks off and think that the vaccine programme no longer applies".
The UK's other nations -- Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland -- set their own health policy and are moving more cautiously.
 
 
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news world UK's PM To "Restore Our Freedoms" After Covid Lockdown

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set Monday to confirm "Freedom Day" next week with the lifting of most pandemic curbs in Englan...

Nepal's Supreme Court Orders Appointment Of Sher Bahadur Deuba As Prime Minister

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Sher Bahadur Deuba, 74, has served as the prime minister on four occasions.
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New Delhi:
In a landmark verdict, Nepal's Supreme Court on Monday directed President Bidya Devi Bhandari to appoint Nepali Congress chief Sher Bahadur Deuba as prime minister by Tuesday and reinstated the dissolved House of Representatives for the second time in five months.
A five-member Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana issued the verdict stating that President Bidya Devi Bhandari's decision to dissolve the lower house upon a recommendation of Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli was an unconstitutional act, delivering a major blow to the veteran Communist leader who was preparing for snap polls.
The bench issued a mandamus to appoint Sher Bahadur Deuba as the Prime Minister by Tuesday.
Sher Bahadur  Deuba, 74, has served as the prime minister on four occasions.
The court also ordered summoning a new session of House of Representatives at 5 PM on July 18.
Chief Justice Rana also said that the bench has concluded that party whip does not apply when lawmakers take part in the voting to elect new Prime Minister as per Article 76(5) of the Constitution.
The bench comprising four other senior-most justices -- Dipak Kumar Karki, Mira Khadka, Ishwar Prasad Khatiwada, and Dr Ananda Mohan Bhattarai -- had concluded hearings in the case last week.
President Bidya Devi Bhandari had dissolved the 275-member lower house for the second time in five months on May 22 at the recommendation of Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli and announced snap elections on November 12 and November 19.
Last week, the Election Commission had announced the schedule for mid-term elections despite the uncertainty over polls.
As many as 30 petitions, including one by the opposition alliance led by the Nepali Congress, were filed against the dissolution of the House by the President.
A petition was filed by the Opposition parties' alliance with the signature of 146 lawmakers demanding the reinstatement of the lower house of Parliament and the appointment of Deuba as the prime minister.
Nepal plunged into a political crisis on December 20 last year after President Bhandari dissolved the House and announced fresh elections on April 30 and May 10 at the recommendation of Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli, amidst a tussle for power within the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP).
On February 23, the top court reinstated the dissolved House of Representatives, in a setback to embattled Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli who was preparing for snap polls.
K P Sharma Oli, who is currently heading a minority government after losing a trust vote in the House, has repeatedly defended his move to dissolve the House of Representatives, saying some leaders of his party were attempting to form a "parallel government". 
 
 
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news world Nepal's Supreme Court Orders Appointment Of Sher Bahadur Deuba As Prime Minister

Sher Bahadur Deuba, 74, has served as the prime minister on four occasions. New Delhi: In a landmark verdict, Nepal's Supreme Court...

What Jeff Bezos, Upstaged In Spaceflight Race, Told Richard Branson

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Richard Branson has insisted he and Jeff Bezos are friendly rivals.
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British billionaire Richard Branson on Sunday soared more than 50 miles above the New Mexico desert aboard his Virgin Galactic rocket plane and safely returned in the vehicle's first fully crewed test flight to space, a symbolic milestone for a venture he started 17 years ago.
Branson, one of six Virgin Galactic Holding Inc employees strapped in for the ride, touted the mission as a precursor to a new era of space tourism, with the company he founded in 2004 poised to begin commercial operations next year.
"We're here to make space more accessible to all," an exuberant Branson, 70, said shortly after embracing his grandchildren following the flight. "Welcome to the dawn of a new space age."
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The success of the flight also gave the flamboyant entrepreneur bragging rights in a highly publicized rivalry with fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos, the Amazon online retail mogul who had hoped to fly into space first aboard his own space company's rocket.
"Congratulations on the flight," Bezos said on Instagram. "Can't wait to join the club!"
Space industry executives, future customers and other well-wishers were on hand for a festive gathering to witness the launch, which was livestreamed in a presentation hosted by late-night television comedian Stephen Colbert. Joining the reception was another billionaire space industry pioneer, Elon Musk, who is also founder of electric carmaker Tesla Inc.
Grammy-nominated R&B singer Khalid performed his forthcoming single "New Normal" after the flight.
The gleaming white spaceplane was carried aloft attached to the underside of the dual-fuselage jet VMS Eve (named for Branson's late mother) from Spaceport America, a state-owned facility near the aptly named town of Truth or Consequences. Virgin Galactic leases a large section of the facility.
Reaching its high-altitude launch point at about 46,000 feet (14,020 m), the VSS Unity passenger rocket plane was released from the mothership and fell away as the crew ignited its rocket, sending it streaking straight upward at supersonic speed to the blackness of space some 53 miles (86 km) high.
The spaceplane's contrail was clearly visible from the ground as it soared through the upper atmosphere, to the cheers of the crowd below.
At the apex of the climb with the rocket shut down, the crew then experienced a few minutes of microgravity, before the spaceplane shifted into re-entry mode, and began a gliding descent to a runway back at the spaceport. The entire flight lasted about an hour.
"I was once a child with a dream looking up to the stars. Now I'm an adult in a spaceship looking down to our beautiful Earth," Branson said in a video from space.
Back at a celebration with supporters from a stage outside Virgin Galactic's Gateway to Space complex at the spaceport, he and crewmates doused one another with champagne.
Retired Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield pinned Virgin-produced astronaut wings onto the blue flight suits worn by Branson and his team. Official wing pins from the Federal Aviation Administration will be presented later, a company spokesman said.
High-Cost Tickets
Virgin Galactic has said it plans at least two further test flights of the spaceplane in the months ahead before beginning regular commercial operation in 2022. One of those flights will carry four Italian astronauts-in-training, according to company CEO Michael Colglazier.
He said 600 wealthy would-be citizen astronauts have also booked reservations, priced at about $250,000 per ticket for the exhilaration of supersonic flight, weightlessness and the spectacle of spaceflight.
Branson has said he aims ultimately to lower the price to about $40,000 per seat as the company ramps up service, achieving greater economies of scale. Colglazier said he envisions eventually building a large enough fleet to accommodate roughly 400 flights annually at the spaceport.
The Swiss-based investment bank UBS has estimated the potential value of the space tourism market reaching $3 billion annually by 2030.
Proving rocket travel safe for the public is key.
An earlier prototype of the Virgin Galactic rocket plane crashed during a test flight over California's Mojave Desert in 2014, killing one pilot and seriously injuring another.
Space Race
Branson's participation in Sunday's flight, announced just over a week ago, typified his persona as the daredevil executive whose various Virgin brands - from airlines to music companies - have long been associated with his ocean-crossing exploits in sailboats and hot-air balloons.
His ride-along also upstaged rival astro-tourism venture Blue Origin and its founder, Bezos, in what has been popularized as the "billionaire space race." Bezos has been planning to fly aboard his own suborbital rocketship, the New Shepard, later this month.
Branson has insisted he and Bezos are friendly rivals and were not racing to beat one another into space.
"We wish Jeff the absolute best and that he will get up and enjoy his flight," Branson said at a post-flight news conference.
Blue Origin, however, has disparaged Virgin Galactic as falling short of a true spaceflight experience, saying that unlike Unity, Bezos's New Shepard tops the 62-mile-high-mark (100 km), called the Kármán line, set by an international aeronautics body as defining the boundary between Earth's atmosphere and space.
"New Shepard was designed to fly above the Kármán line so none of our astronauts have an asterisk next to their name," Blue Origin said in a series of Twitter posts on Friday.
However, US space agency NASA and the US Air Force both define an astronaut as anyone who has flown higher than 50 miles (80 km).
A third player in the space tourism sector, Musk's SpaceX, plans to send its first all-civilian crew (without Musk) into orbit in September, after having already launched numerous cargo payloads and astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA.
A Virgin Galactic spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal that Musk had bought a ticket for his own space ride. The newspaper said that it was not clear how far up the waiting list Musk is for a seat.
Representatives for Musk could not be immediately reached. Virgin Galactic and Tesla did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The spaceplane's two pilots were Dave Mackay and Michael Masucci. The three other mission specialists were Beth Moses, the company's chief astronaut instructor; Virgin Galactic's lead operations engineer Colin Bennett; and Sirisha Bandla, a research operations and government affairs vice president.
All recounted afterward being mesmerized by the view through Unity's windows. Mackay described the immense blackness of space against the brightness of Earth's surface, "separated by the beautiful blue atmosphere, which is very complex and very thin."
"Cameras don't do it justice," he told reporters. "You have to see it with your own eyes."
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
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news world What Jeff Bezos, Upstaged In Spaceflight Race, Told Richard Branson

Richard Branson has insisted he and Jeff Bezos are friendly rivals. British billionaire Richard Branson on Sunday soared more than 50 mi...

Europe's Climate Masterplan Aims To Slash Emissions Within A Decade

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Emissions in Europe's electricity sector are falling fast, but other sectors have been stuck.
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Brussels:
The European Union is set to take the lead in climate policy action among the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitters this week, with a raft of ambitious plans designed to cut emissions drastically over the next decade.
The policies, if approved, would put the bloc - the world's third-largest economy - on track to meet its 2030 goal of reducing planet-warming emissions by 55% from 1990 levels.
The "Fit for 55" package being released on Wednesday will face months of negotiations between the 27 EU countries and the European Parliament.
Other major economies including China and the United States - the world's top two emitters - have committed to achieving net zero emissions, which scientists say the world must reach by 2050 to avoid catastrophic climate change.
But the EU is the first to overhaul its legislation to drive greener choices within this decade among the bloc's 25 million businesses and nearly half a billion people.
"Everybody has a target. But translating it into policies that lead to real emission reductions, that's the most difficult part," said Jos Delbeke, a former senior policymaker who developed some of the EU's flagship climate policies.
By 2019, the EU had cut its emissions by 24% from 1990 levels.
ECONOMY-WIDE
The European Commission will propose 12 policies targeting energy, industry, transport and the heating of buildings.
Emissions in Europe's electricity sector are falling fast, but other sectors have been stuck.
Emissions from cars, planes and ships, which make up a quarter of the EU total, are rising. Buildings produce a third of the bloc's emissions and, like Europe's factories, many homes use heat produced from fossil fuels.
The draft measures aim to encourage companies and consumers to choose greener options over polluting ones.
For example, a leaked draft of one proposal would tax polluting jet fuel for the first time and give low-carbon aviation fuels a 10-year tax holiday. A revamp of the EU carbon market is also expected to hike CO2 costs for industry, power plants and airlines, and force ships to pay for their pollution.
The list of proposals is long. Tougher EU CO2 standards for cars could effectively ban sales of new petrol and diesel cars in 2035. EU countries will face more ambitious targets for expanding renewable energy.
Brussels will also announce the details of its world-first carbon border tariff, targeting imports of goods produced abroad with high emissions such as steel and cement. That has unnerved EU trading partners, including Russia and China.
CLIMATE POLICIES COME HOME
The political road ahead will likely be rough, as EU countries and the European Parliament negotiate the proposals.
Already, the plans have exposed familiar rifts between richer western and Nordic EU states where electric vehicle sales are soaring, and poorer eastern countries that are worried about the social cost of weaning their economies off coal.
EU member capitals are particularly worried about the Commission's plan to launch a carbon market for transport and home heating, potentially raising household fuel bills.
The Commission has promised a social fund to shield low-income households from the costs, and is urging countries to use the EU's 800-billion-euro COVID-19 recovery fund to help people insulate their homes and create jobs in clean technologies such as hydrogen.
By making climate policies more visible to EU citizens than ever before, "Fit for 55" is set to test public support for ambitious climate action.
"There's no hiding that this package comes in the middle of a massive socio-economic crisis," said Manon Dufour of independent climate change think-tank E3G. The EU "has to be even more careful about the social impacts".
Policymakers are also braced for a storm of industry lobbying. Europe's steel and cement sectors are already fighting plans to end free CO2 permits and some of the sectors due to be covered by the carbon border tariff say they do not want to be included.
Past attempts to tighten CO2 standards for carmakers have faced fierce industry opposition. But with European giants like Volkswagen already committed to ending combustion-engine car sales in Europe in the 2030s, some governments say now is the time to bring laggards into line.
"The Commission needs to basically wake up and smell the coffee - that now is the time to actually cement that into legislation," an EU diplomat said regarding the potential proposal to ban sales of new combustion engine cars by 2035.
FIRST-MOVER (DIS)ADVANTAGES
With its world-first package, the EU also aims to burnish its global climate leadership position. It is unclear if that will be enough, however, to elicit similarly ambitious action from other major economies at the U.N. climate conference in November in Glasgow, Scotland.
"The challenge is that other big players - China and the U.S. specifically - will need to be on board," said Tom Rivett-Carnac, the U.N.'s chief political strategist in the run-up to the 2015 Paris Agreement. "Whether the EU can achieve this diplomatically remains to be seen."
Brussels says it is time to take Europe's climate policies global. Much of the diplomatic lift required will be on the carbon border tariff, which the EU says will put its firms on more equal footing with competitors in countries with weaker carbon policies.
The proposals would also push EU industry to invest in expensive green technologies. Moving early could give European firms a competitive edge in global markets for new products like low-carbon steel produced from green hydrogen, but producing those products will cost manufacturers more.
"At the end of this transformation, our economy will look a lot better, and we can get the climate crisis under control," Frans Timmermans, the EU Commissioner in charge of climate policy, told CNN last week. "And that's the whole point."
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
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news world Europe's Climate Masterplan Aims To Slash Emissions Within A Decade

Emissions in Europe's electricity sector are falling fast, but other sectors have been stuck. Brussels: The European Union is set t...

Jordan's Former Royal Court Chief Gets 15-Year Jail Term Over "Coup Plot"

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Jordan "coup plot": Former crown prince, Hamzah, himself was not on trial.
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Amman:
A Jordanian court on Monday sentenced two former officials to 15 years in jail over a palace coup attempt that sparked a crisis in a kingdom seen as a regional oasis of stability.
Former royal court chief Bassem Awadallah and an ex-envoy to Saudi Arabia, Sharif Hassan bin Zaid, had been convicted of conspiring to topple King Abdullah II in favour of his half-brother Prince Hamzah.
The former crown prince himself was not on trial.
But the 13-page charge sheet said Hamzah, 41, "was determined to fulfill his personal ambition to rule, in violation of the Hashemite constitution and customs".
Awadallah and Bin Zaid, who both have close ties to neighbouring Saudi Arabia, were found guilty of "incitement against the ruling system" and "acts that could threaten society and create sedition", said the sentence read out in court.
Awadallah, who holds Saudi nationality, and his co-defendant had been on trial since June 21 and had faced up to 20 years in prison if convicted on all charges.
Images released by authorities showed the two men, in light blue prison uniforms, being escorted into the court on Monday by security personnel in black uniforms.
Journalists at a makeshift media centre outside the State Security Court, a military tribunal that also includes civilian judges, were later shown short videos of the ruling being issued.
The men's lawyers said they would appeal.
Regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia has fervently denied any involvement in the alleged plot.
The unprecedented palace crisis erupted in April. Eighteen suspects were arrested after authorities announced they had foiled a bid to destabilise the pro-Western kingdom, but 16 were later released.
A former crown prince who was sidelined as heir to the throne by the king in 2004, Hamzah accused Jordan's rulers of corruption and ineptitude in a video message posted by the BBC on April 3.
He said the same day that he had been put under house arrest.
Authorities later said he would not stand trial, as his case had been resolved within the royal family, with Hamzah pledging allegiance to Abdullah.
Closed-Door Trial
The king appointed Hamzah as crown prince in 1999, at the request of his late father, but removed him from the post in 2004, later naming his son, Prince Hussein, as next in line to the throne.
The court had rejected a defence request to summon three princes along with Prime Minister Bisher al-Khasawneh and Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi as witnesses, calling it "unproductive".
The trial was held behind closed doors in the capital Amman.
At the start, Awadallah's lawyer Mohammed Afif had said the two defendants "insist that Prince Hamzah testify in this case".
"The final decision is up to the court, but if it refuses to summon him, it must justify it," he told AFP on June 22.
Bin Zaid's lawyer said ahead of the verdict that the defence team had asked the court to "find both our clients innocent of the charges against them".
US-educated Awadallah was long considered a contentious and divisive figure in Jordan, having served as finance and planning minister before becoming royal court chief in 2007.
He played a key role pushing for economic reforms, before he resigned in 2008 amid criticism over alleged interference in sensitive political and economic issues.
He rose to become an influential figure familiar with the inner workings of the Saudi leadership, and often appeared alongside Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince and de facto ruler Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
When the trial opened, a video was widely shared on social media showing Awadallah arriving at the court wearing a plain blue prison uniform and a mask.
To the delight of his many detractors in Jordan, he was seen with his hands cuffed behind his back, escorted by an anti-terror officer.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
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news world Jordan's Former Royal Court Chief Gets 15-Year Jail Term Over "Coup Plot"

Jordan "coup plot": Former crown prince, Hamzah, himself was not on trial. Amman: A Jordanian court on Monday sentenced two f...

The Mass Jewish Suicide Of Masada, And Modern Day Suicide Cults: A Comparison

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By The Shoebats
“All they that hate me love death” (Proverbs 8:36)
“O my friends, why are we so earnest to kill ourselves? and why do we set our soul and body, which are such dear companions, at such variance?” — Josephus, to the Jews who pressured him to commit suicide.
 
For years we have heard the narrative that the Jews who murdered themselves in Masada ended in a heroic martyrdom. The reality is that what happened in Masada was a cult suicide, reminiscent to what happened in Jonestown or in the Heaven’s Gate cult. Of course, while these events are not completely equal, the reality is the Jews of Masada emphasized a cultic admiration for self-destruction. What nobody points to is that while the Jews in Masada not only did what was contrary to the Scripture — committing suicide — they also looked to Hinduism for their inspiration for their plan of mass self-murder.    
In the battle of Masada, when the Jews knew that the Roman victory was inevitable, the leader of the rebels, Eleazar, exhorted his followers to murder their own wives and children and then commit suicide. When many of the Jews refused to do such bloodshed, Eleazar began to sting their insecurities, calling them effeminate and cowards and deeming them as not real men:
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“Truly I was greatly mistaken, when I thought to be assisting to brave men, who struggled hard for their liberty, and to such as were resolved either to live with honour, or else to die. But I find that you are such people as are no better than others, either in virtue, or in courage: and are afraid of dying; though you be delivered thereby from the greatest miseries.” (War, 7.8.7).
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Here Eleazar pokes at their insecurities, goading them to self-murder. Within the atmosphere of suicide, there is always the ‘enemy’ who leaves the cult with no choice but to kill others and to destroy themselves. Life is no longer an option; death is the only solution. Jim Jones had this way of thinking when he told his followers at the time the US government was trying to intervene in his cult activities: “We can’t go back; they won’t leave us ‘alone: They‘re now going back to tell more lies, which means more Congressmen. And there’s no way, no way we can survive.” Suicide is not seen as self-murder but as a show of defiance against the enemy. Hence why Jim Jones told his followers before they drank the poisoned kool aid: “This is a revolutionary — a revolutionary suicide council. I’m not talking about self — self‐destruction.” Jones told his followers that their own children needed to be killed in order to save them from the enemy (the US government), and that it was better to kill them than to allow them to live in misery.  “I don’t care how many screams you hear,” said Jones to the cries of children who were about to die. “I don’t care how many anguished cries, death is a million times preferable to spend more days in this life.” Like Jim Jones, Eleazar told his Jewish followers that they should murder their own children in order to ‘free’ them from Rome: “Let our wives die before they are abused; and our children before they have tasted of slavery. And after we have slain them, let us bestow that glorious benefit upon one another mutually; and preserve our selves in freedom, as an excellent funeral monument for us.”
In such cults suicide is seen as a means to liberating the soul from the body which is seen as a prisoner to the flesh. As Eleazar explained: “For this last affords our souls their liberty; and sends them by a removal into their own place of purity; where they are to be insensible of all sorts of misery.” The Heaven’s Gate cult’s position on suicide was that it was a way to liberate the soul from the body (which they referred to as a “vehicle”) so as to free it from this world and enter a new dimension of space and reach the next stage of human evolution. The followers of this cult believed that through suicide they were escaping the miseries of this world. As one of the cult’s followers put it:
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“We feel that the mental suffering of remaining in a world where you know you do not belong is certainly as severe. The human world is a hideous hell due to all of the poor choices humans have made since the beginning of this civilization. If this is all there is with nothing to look forward to beyond this, then why choose to extend your time in this hell?”
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Suicide is seen as a ‘way out’  of the world’s miseries, and is glorified as an honorable death. Suicide is given a divine position, such as how Plato taught that one should not kill himself “until the god sends some compulsion upon him, as he sends compulsion on us at present”.  There is also an interesting phenomena in which death cults will find influence in other religions. Joseph Smith called himself the “second Muhammad”, and Eleazar referenced Hinduism when trying to inspire the Jews in Masada to commit mass suicide:
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“let us regard those Indians who profess the exercise of philosophy. For these good men do but unwillingly undergo the time of life; and look upon it as a necessary servitude; and make haste to let their souls loose from their bodies. Nay when no misfortune presses them to it, nor drives them upon it, these have such a desire of a life of immortality, that they tell other men beforehand that they are about to depart. And no body hinders them. But every one thinks them happy men, and gives them letters to be carried to their familiar friends [that are dead]. So firmly and certainly do they believe that souls converse with one another [in the other world]. So when these men have heard all such commands that were to be given them, they deliver their body to the fire: and in order to their getting their soul a separation from the body in the greatest purity, they die in the midst of hymns of commendations made to them. For their dearest friends conduct them to their death, more readily than do any of the rest of mankind conduct their fellow-citizens when they are going a very long journey. Who at the same time weep on their own account; but look upon the others as happy persons; as so soon to be made partakers of the immortal order of beings. Are not we therefore ashamed to have lower notions than the Indians?” (Josephus, War, book 7)
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He speaks of ritual self-immolation, which is part of Hinduism, specifically in the rite of sati in which a woman burns herself alive after her husband has died. The Graeco-Roman world had some knowledge of this rite. Graeco-Roman writers such as  Aristobulus of Cassandreia, Strabo and Megasthenes made mention of this ritual. Thus, it is not surprising that knowledge of Hindu self-immolation would have been known to the Jews of Judea, since it was under Roman influence. What we see here are Jews inspired by Hinduism to commit mass ritual suicide. It must be mentioned that Eleazar referenced the Hindus only after many of the Jews expressed opposition to murdering their families and themselves. Amongst Eleazar’s arguments to convince the Jews to commit themselves to his cult murder-suicide was that Hindus also have ritual self-destruction. Here we see an influence of paganism, from the Indian subcontinent, in ancient Judea. Perhaps this is one of the reasons as to why St. John wrote: “And I know the blasphemy that comes from those who say they are Jews but are not; rather, they are a synagogue of Satan.” (Revelation 2:9)
It was after Eleazar’s series of arguments — Hinduism included — that almost all of the Jews in Masada decided with great enthusiasm to commit mass suicide. Josephus recounts that “the husbands tenderly embraced their wives, and took their children into their arms, and gave the longest parting kisses to them, with tears in their eyes. Yet at the same time did they complete what they had resolved on; as if they had been executed by the hands of strangers.” They then chose ten other men — the most heartless of them all — to slaughter themselves: “these ten had, without fear, slain them all, they made the same rule for casting lots for themselves; that he whose lot it was should first kill the other nine; and after all should kill himself. Accordingly all these had courage sufficient to be no way behind one another in doing or suffering. So, for a conclusion, the nine offered their necks to the executioner; and he who was the last of all took a view of all the other bodies; lest perchance some or other among so many that were slain should want his assistance to be quite dispatched: and when he perceived that they were all slain, he set fire to the palace, and with the great force of his hand ran his sword entirely through himself, and fell down dead near to his own relations.” (War, 7.9)
Altogether, nine hundred and sixty destroyed themselves in Masada, including the women and children. The Romans did not know that this suicide took place until the next morning. The Roman soldiers were expecting a battle, but they heard nothing but a terrible silence, with no one coming out of the fortress. The soldiers made a shout, but the only people who came out were some women who refused to commit suicide and they informed the Romans as to what happened. Just as the horrific aftermath of the mass cult sacrifice of Jonestown and Heaven’s Gate were later discovered, seeing the many dead bodies laying around, the Roman soldiers saw the horrors of the suicide when they entered Masada and saw the hundreds of corpses, “but could take no pleasure in the fact, though it were done to their enemies.” (War, 7.9.2) Here lies the reality that shatters the narrative that the Jews were heroes fighting for their religion, revealing that they were influenced by pagan Hindu ritual sacrifice; that the Judaism of the time had become not only a suicide cult but a syncretistic religion that was influenced by Hinduism.  It also reveals not just a misconstruing of the Law of God, but a fanatical foolishness. For, if the Jews were fighting so that the Romans would not kill them, then why turn the sword on themselves? This was the argument of Josephus to the Jews who tried pressuring him to kill himself:
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“If, therefore, I avoid death from the sword of the Romans, I am truly worthy to be killed by my own sword, and my own hand: but if they admit of mercy, and would spare their enemy, how much more ought we to have mercy upon ourselves and to spare ourselves? for it is certainly a foolish thing to do that to ourselves which we quarrel with them for doing to us.” (War, 3.5)
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Josephus makes an outstanding argument: its not okay for the Romans to kill us, but its okay for us to kill ourselves.
Josephus also affirmed to these fanatics that suicide was contrary to God’s law:
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“It may also be said, that it is a manly act for one to kill himself. No certainly, but a most unmanly one; as I should esteem that pilot to be an arrant coward, who, out of fear of a storm, should sink his ship of his own accord. Now self-murder is a crime most remote from the common nature of all animals, and an instance of impiety against God our Creator: nor indeed is there any animal that dies by its own contrivance, or by its own means, for the desire of life is a law engraven in them all; on which account we deem those that openly take it away from us to be our enemies, and those that do it by treachery are punished for so doing.” (Ibid)     
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Truly for such evildoers do the words of Chris apply: “teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” (Matthew 15:9) You can see the corruption in the time of Christ, and the fate of such of those who followed this decay was like that of Judas: self-destruction.
We look to the death cults that the world has witnessed — Heaven’s Gate, Jonestown, the Kamikazes of Japan, the suicide bombers of Islam — and then we look to the Jews of two-thousand years ago, and we see the same thing: Men convincing other people to murder themselves. The resistance to the mind’s natural desire to live is utterly resisted; even when people desire to live, they will deny themselves of this want for self-preservation in order to appeal to the pressure of the religious leader who exhorts them to self-destruction. The master over such minds will tell his followers that they must ‘transcend’ this life, that if they wish to live then they are somehow weak and are not strong enough. Such a teaching is really the selling of insecurity. The desire to live is somehow selfish, and to prove one’s selflessness, honor and courage, one must end his own life. Such is cult manipulation. When Josephus (who ruled over the region of Tiberias) surrendered to the Romans, a group of fanatical Jews told him that he should kill himself “that the glory of our forefathers may not be tarnished.” Glory, honor, courage, such are the words used to manipulate and, in turn, to convince people to murder themselves. Yukio Mishima, a Japanese nationalist and ideological cult leader who believed in reviving Japan’s empire and power, told his followers (the Shield Society) that because Japan tarnished its history by surrendering to the Americans, death was a way to redemption. In his failed attempt at a military coup, Mishima told a group of Japanese soldiers: . “Grinding our teeth we had to watch Japanese profaning Japan’s history and traditions… Rise with us and, for righteousness and honor, die with us. We will restore Japan to her true form, and in the restoration, die…” After making this speech, Mishima would commit seppuko or ritual suicide. Such was the spirit that possessed the soul of Israel.
Some might argue that many of the Jews, after the Roman victory, would have been sent to the Roman arenas to be killed for entertainment, that taking their lives by their own hands would be justified rather than to endure the cruelty of the mob. But compare such an argument to the Christians who died in the Roman arenas who chose martyrdom over suicide. Such a reality underlies the differences between Christianity and the religions of death, be they synchronistic Judaism, Shintoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, or any cult. 
 
 
source <a href="https://shoebat.com/2021/07/12/the-mass-jewish-suicide-of-masada-and-modern-day-suicide-cults-a-comparison/">https://shoebat.com/2021/07/12/the-mass-jewish-suicide-of-masada-and-modern-day-suicide-cults-a-comparison/</a>

armageddon The Mass Jewish Suicide Of Masada, And Modern Day Suicide Cults: A Comparison

By The Shoebats “All they that hate me love death” (Proverbs 8:36) “O my friends, why are we so earnest to kill ourselves? and why do w...