A foreign policy with regard to Israel, which relied on the strength of its proxy armies in the several countries encircling the Jewish state (despite Khamanei’s meaningless protestations to the contrary) – the so-called “Ring of Fire” – painstakingly assembled over decades largely lies in tatters. His main ally in the Lebanese movement Hezbollah, former secretary general Hassan Nasrallah, was killed along with his most senior lieutenants in a two-month period from the end of July to the end of September.

Israel’s exploding beeper and walkie talkie operation exposed lapses in both Hezbollah and Iran’s organizational structures, revealing the depths to which Mossad intelligence agents had penetrated both. To that end, the hugely embarrassing elimination of Hamas leader Ismail Hanlyeh on Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps turf in the heart of Tehran was seemingly the catalyst for series of events potentially catastrophic for the regime.

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While the official Iranian media and the speeches of the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei try to present regional developments as a summer cloud that Tehran will disperse, we as researchers monitoring the political, military and security movements internally, regionally and… pic.twitter.com/AD2HZItbTP

— Eva J. Koulouriotis | إيفا كولوريوتي (@evacool_) December 31, 2024

Perhaps the portents for Iran were less than stellar when we regard its initial ballistic missile strike on Israel on April 13. Having fired more than 300 projectiles, including cruise missiles and drones, many did not make it out of Iranian airspace, the majority that did were shot down by a previously unlikely coalition of Israel, the U.S., France, the U.K., Jordan, UAE, and Saudi Arabia – the latter three not allowing their country’s airspace to be used as flyover country for Iranian missiles. Israel’s response too, which some considered too subtle, actually impressed many in defense establishments across the world, who understood Israel had taken out a critical radar station with an ingenious new missile.

Iran’s October mass missile strike, where it launched some 180 projectiles, was more successful, not least because Israel could not count on the same coalition as six months previously. However, the upshot of this attack was an Israeli reprisal, which comprised of a third to a half of the entire Israeli airforce taking out all of Iran’s surface-to-air missile defense capabilities. […]

— Read More: www.wnd.com

It was an official in Canyon Independent School District in Canyon who told parents he had ordered librarians to remove the Bible because of a new state law called the “Restricting Explicit and Adult-Designated Education Resources” law.

That now has been reversed, according to a report from columnist Todd Starnes.

He noted how the district “felt the wrath of every church-going citizen in the Panhandle after they compared the Holy Bible to pornography and banned God’s Word from school libraries.”

School Supt. Darryl Flusche had claimed the Bible was subject to a law “aimed at removing sexually explicit material from school libraries – especially materials that ‘describe or portray sexual conduct…in a patently offensive way.’” […]

— Read More: www.wndnewscenter.org

In Luke 1, an angel visited Mary to inform her that she has “found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

That would be a lot for anyone to take in. Some people might focus on how life-changing it would be to give birth to royalty. Or what a never-ending kingdom would look like.

Mary homed in on something much more practical and immediate. Even 2,000 years ago, people knew how babies were made.

“‘How will this be,’ Mary asked the angel, ‘since I am a virgin?'” […]

— Read More: www.wnd.com

Genesis Gold Group took a very different approach. They aren’t just a faith-driven precious metals company. They were unabashed supporters of Donald Trump’s election campaign and fully expected him to win which is why they’re uniquely positioned to help Americans take advantage of the coming administration’s economic policies.

“Everything has played out how we anticipated, from Trump’s historic victory to the immediate drop in precious metals prices to the surge that we’re seeing now,” said Jonathan Rose, CEO of Genesis Gold Group. “The mix of metals that we prepared for our clients is ideal to hedge against the geopolitical upheaval that is coming.”

As America First policies take shape, it’s important for patriots to position their wealth and retirement to take full advantage of what’s to come. But before things stabilize, it seems clear the Biden-Harris regime’s “landmines” are having their toll.

President Trump’s policies, particularly tariffs, combined with likely interest rate cuts are poised to make gold and silver prices soar. Gold is coming off one of its strongest weeks in over a year. Turbulence in Ukraine is among the reasons, but Rose is looking at a variety of scenarios that can benefit Americans who engage in tax-free rollovers and transfers into a Genesis Gold IRA. […]

— Read More: www.wnd.com

Since the U.S. relies heavily on China for these minerals, China’s new export ban could delay the manufacture of defense platforms and munitions, exacerbating already depleted defense stocks and further undermining America’s warfighting capabilities. The United States depends greatly on China for other minerals, too. For example, for minerals in which the U.S. is more than 50% net import reliant, China—the Pentagon’s “pacing challenge“—is the leading import source for 24 minerals. Critically, China could ban exports of these other minerals, such as bismuth (used in defense alloys) and tungsten (needed for armor-piercing munitions).

As a result, the U.S. government must stockpile strategic minerals to ensure a reliable and resilient supply for the defense industrial base.

Yet, the government’s current mineral stockpile—the U.S. National Defense Stockpile—”is not intended to influence prices in the market or insulate private industry from supply shocks.” This stockpile is only supposed to be tapped “in times of national emergency,” namely war. Stockpile acquisitions and releases from the National Defense Stockpile are also subject to bureaucratic approval by the Strategic and Critical Materials Board of Directors. These strictures are not conducive to protecting the defense industrial base in the global mineral market, which faces risks of supply shocks from China.

Notably, however, the Trump Administration could use the Defense Production Act (DPA) to build a separate mineral stockpile that can function outside of national emergencies and war. This stockpile would be capable of not only selling minerals to the defense industrial base amid supply shortages but also acquiring minerals from domestic mineral producers to incentivize domestic production. […]

— Read More: www.wnd.com

While the massacre of Oct. 7, 2023, was one of the most traumatic events in modern Jewish history, it’s obvious now that it was a massive, perhaps existential, blunder by the Islamic State as well as a stunning defeat for its allies both in the Middle East and Washington.

Oct. 7 transformed the Middle East in ways that seemed impossible only a few years ago. Hamas, perhaps the most immediate threat to both Jewish and Arab lives in the region, is largely eradicated. Hezbollah, the theocratic militia that’s kept Lebanon in a state of turmoil and war for decades, is reeling.

Indeed, it was Israel’s success against the latter that helped send Bashar Assad, a real-world genocidal dictator, into Russian exile. Most of all, events have left Iran, which spent decades building its proxies throughout the Middle East, impotent.

It’s no surprise that on their way out, Barack Obama cronies in the Biden administration approved another $10 billion in sanctions relief for the mullahs by waiving restricted payment transfers from the Iraqi government. […]

— Read More: www.wnd.com

That watchdog, the Independent Press Standards Organization, immediately condemned the words as “pejorative and prejudicial.”

The words actually follow the science in that a transgender male can “claim” to be a woman, but being male or female is embedded in the body down to the DNA level and cannot be changed.

It is the Christian Institute that noted the publication is the Spectator, and officials there defended the freedom of speech of journalist Gareth Roberts, who used the phrase to refer to transgender author Juno Dawson, who filed a complaint.

“The Spectator published the judgment, as required of the magazine by IPSO, but criticized the decision as an attack on free speech,” the institute reported. […]

— Read More: www.wndnewscenter.org

On October 7, 2023, Iran chose to heat up its long-simmering cold war with Israel, initially by proxy but eventually directly. Throughout that entire period, the Biden Administration has preached restraint. Its stated concerns for humanitarian aid and the avoidance of a wider war have hamstrung Israeli military action, prolonged suffering, leaked valuable intelligence, and explicitly protected Iranian nuclear facilities. By all indications, the incoming Trump Administration will take a very different approach.

Biden’s misplaced prioritization stems from a longstanding bipartisan elevation of conflict management over military victory. No Western military has set its sights on a crushing, dispositive, region-altering victory since the Second World War. Initially, this preference stemmed from a desire to avoid a direct, potentially nuclear, U.S.-USSR conflict. The historically anomalous, relatively bloodless collapse of the Soviet Empire then entrenched the conceit throughout Western foreign policy intelligentsia that, given enough time and international pressure, all conflicts would resolve themselves. As a result, the concentrated carnage of short decisive wars has given way to multigenerational suffering and instability. Few countries have suffered more from this conflict management doctrine than Israel. Few populations have suffered its depredations more than the hapless Arabs that the UN designated “Palestine Refugees.”

Fortunately, the confluence of three events has created a unique opening to stabilize the Middle East and reorient it around development and prosperity: (i) The elevation of the new Trump team; (ii) Israel’s potentially imminent military victory over Iran; and (iii) The revival of the first Trump Administration’s dormant Peace to Prosperity Plan. A fourth foreseeable potentially imminent occurrence—a succession crisis following the death or disability of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khameini—would be a welcome addition.

Taken together, their confluence promises to usher in a new Middle East, free of both the Iranian nuclear threat (and possibly the Iranian regime) and the permanently unsettled Palestine Refugees. If handled correctly, the resolution—not management—of these longstanding problems will also demonstrate the meaning of a true “America First” foreign policy. […]

— Read More: www.wnd.com

It’s the settlement that the state is required to pay after losing its war – at the U.S. Supreme Court – on the Christian faith of artist Lorie Smith.

She runs her own design studio, 303 Creative, specializing in graphic and website design.

“She left the corporate design world to start her own small business in 2012 so she could use her skills to promote causes consistent with her beliefs and close to her heart, such as supporting children with disabilities, the beauty of marriage, overseas missions, animal shelters, and veterans,” the ADF explained.

“She was excited to expand her portfolio to create websites that celebrate marriage between a man and a woman, but Colorado made clear she’s not welcome in that space.” […]

— Read More: www.wnd.com

Under the terms of the warrants, Netanyahu and Gallant risk arrest if they travel to any of the more than 120 countries that are members of the court.

Situation in the State of Palestine:#ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I rejects the State of Israel’s challenges to jurisdiction and issues warrants of arrest for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant. Learn more https://t.co/opHUjZG8BL

— Int'l Criminal Court (@IntlCrimCourt) November 21, 2024

The court did not release the content of the full warrants, although an ICC statement said it “found reasonable grounds to believe” from Oct. 8, 2023, until May 20, 2024, at least, Netanyahu and Gallant “each bear criminal responsibility for the following crimes as co-perpetrators for committing the acts jointly with others: the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts” as well as “the war crime of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population.”

Both Netanyahu and Gallant are accused of a laundry list of alleged crimes, much of which seems to stem from the nature of the war, with Hamas being not just embedded but rather rooted within a civilian population. The court claimed both Israeli politicians failed to “prevent or repress the commission of crimes or ensure the submittal of the matter to the competent authorities,” despite having the means to do so. It should be noted there is significant documentary evidence to show the lengthy process through which the IDF is subject to, which in many instances results in aborted missions because of the presence of the civilian population.

In the Pre-Trial Chamber’s released statement, the judges highlight many areas of concern, which relate to humanitarian aid. […]

— Read More: www.wndnewscenter.org