Navy Sends Destroyers to ‘Desensitize’ Russia

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The Navy has deployed the guided-missile destroyer Carney to join the destroyer Ross in the Black Sea in a move that U.S. military officials told CNN is intended to “desensitize” Russia to the presence of American military assets in the strategically important region.

The deployment of the Carney marks the first time in four years that two American destroyers have operated in the Black Sea outside of scheduled exercises. The move comes as Russia continues to militarize Crimea, the peninsula it seized from Ukraine in 2014.

In recent years, the U.S. and NATO have accused Russia of sending troops and military hardware to Crimea, and there are now reports that submarines have been added to the mix.

Nevertheless, U.S. and NATO officials have insisted that they are not playing tit-for-tat with the Russians.

“Our decision to have two ships simultaneously operate in the Black Sea is proactive, not reactive,” said Vice Adm. Christopher Grady, commander of 6th Fleet, which oversees U.S. naval operations in the region. “The continued presence of the U.S. Navy in the Black Sea demonstrates our enduring commitment to regional stability, maritime security of our Black Sea partners, and the collective defense of our NATO allies,” he added. (Read more from “Navy Sends Destroyers to ‘Desensitize’ Russia” HERE)

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Iran Threatens to ‘Level Tel Aviv’ If Israel Attacks

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Any attacks carried out against Iran will result in the destruction of Tel Aviv, Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Expediency Council, warned Israel on Monday, according to the Fars News Agency.

Quoted by Iran’s semi-official government news site, Rezaei, in response to Netanyahu’s comments at the Munich Security Conference, asserted that “If they [Israel] carry out the slightest unwise move against Iran, we will level Tel Aviv to the ground and will not give any opportunity to Netanyahu to flee.”

“The US and Israeli leaders don’t know Iran and don’t understand the power of resistance and therefore, they continuously face defeat,” he was quoted as saying in an interview with Lebanese Hezbollah-affiliated Al Manar News.

“Today, the situation of the US and Israel indicate their fear of the Zionist regime’s collapse and the US decline,” he added in the interview.

Israel came in direct conflict with Iran on February 10, when an IAF attack helicopter shot down an Iranian operated drone, and later took out its command center in Syria. (Read more from “Iran Threatens to ‘Level Tel Aviv’ If Israel Attacks” HERE)

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HERO: This Utterly Mediocre Skier Made It to the Olympics on a Technicality

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Meet the greatest Olympian since Orsippus: Elizabeth Swaney, a 33-year-old mediocre American skier who qualified for the 2018 Olympic Games in PyeongChang by exploiting a loophole in Hungary.

Swaney’s half-pipe run on Monday involved one quasi-trick, no air, and a last-place finish. She frequently did not clear the top of the half-pipe. She qualified for the Olympics by leveraging her grandparents’ Hungarian birth to attend International Ski Federation World Cup events, where she regularly finished among the top 30 skiers because fewer than 30 skiers showed up to compete.

International Ski Federation judge Steele Spence told The Denver Post, “She would compete in [events] consistently over the last couple years and sometimes girls would crash so she would not end up dead last.” Alas, Swaney’s dearth of skill caught up with her on Monday, when he finished her second run in last place.

(Read more from “HERO: This Utterly Mediocre Skier Made It to the Olympics on a Technicality” HERE)

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North Korea’s Failed Olympians Hope to Avoid Dangerous Consequences

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As North Koreans return home this week from the Pyeongchang Winter Games, possibly without any medals, Olympians hope to avoid the gulags — a fate the losers of the 1966 World Cup are believed to have experienced.

Twenty-two North Koreans participated in the 2018 Olympics, with the support of the nation’s handpicked cheering squad, for the regime’s ninth representation in a Winter Games.

Competing in figure skating, skiing and ice hockey — as part of a joint team with South Korea — the country has failed to medal in any event, surely disappointing leader Kim Jong Un, whose family allegedly sentenced the failed World Cup athletes to concentration camps for the loss.

A survivor of the North Korea gulags, according to the U.K.’s Daily Star, wrote about meeting the World Cup squad at the Yodok gulag, where the team reportedly said they were imprisoned for losing 5-3 to Portugal.

In 2010, the losing North Korea World Cup team reportedly endured a six-hour “grand debate” in which they were criticized for their “betrayal of the trust of Kim Jong Un,” South Korean newspaper The Chosun Ilbo reported. (Read more from “North Korea’s Failed Olympians Hope to Avoid Dangerous Consequences” HERE)

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Volcano Alert: You Want to Talk ‘Catastrophic Climate Change’?

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At least two potential super-volcanos have the attention of scientists worldwide because of the devastation any of them – two in the U.S. and one in Japan – could wreak on the planet, killing tens of millions and ravaging global economies.

Saturday’s rumblings at the Yellowstone Caldera in America’s most famous national park caught the attention of seismologists over the weekend because of its cataclysmic potential. Scientists warn that a major eruption of the Wyoming volcano would kill an estimated 87,000 people immediately and render two-thirds of the U.S. uninhabitable because of an ash cloud that would spark rapid climate change.

If that scenario sounds apocalyptically scary, consider the other volcano being watched worldwide off the shore of Japan. Just last week, Japanese scientists were warning an eruption at the Kikai Caldera, about 50 miles south of Japan’s main island, could kill 100 million people and set off catastrophic global climate change that would make the world forget about “global warming” scares.

The Japanese lava dome was recently discovered in an underwater volcano. It is growing in size and was formed, scientists believe, following what is known as the Akahoya super-eruption that may have wiped out the ancient Jomon culture that inhabited the southern Japanese island of Kyushu at the time.

“Although the probability of a gigantic caldera eruption hitting the Japanese archipelago is 1 percent in the next 100 years, it is estimated that the death toll could rise to approximately 100 million in the worst-case scenario,” said professor Yoshiyuki Tatsumi, head of the Kobe Ocean-Bottom Exploration Center and a magma specialist. (Read more from “Volcano Alert: You Want to Talk ‘Catastrophic Climate Change’?” HERE)

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U.S. Winter Olympics 2018 Medal Winners

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From the only triple axel landed by a female American Olympic skater to the first men’s single medal for USA Luge at the Games, U.S. athletes are making history in the 2018 Winter Olympics.

Athletes from 92 nations are fiercely competing for a chance to stand on those coveted Olympic podiums in Pyeongchang, South Korea. There are 15 different sporting activities and a total of 102 events . . .

Team USA’s Jamie Anderson took home the gold in the 2018 Winter Games after she performed in less-than-perfect weather conditions . . .

The conditions for the men’s snowboard slopestyle were less than ideal, but 17-year-old Red Gerard made it through the swirling winds to capture the United States’ first gold medal of the 2018 Olympics.

At 17, Chloe Kim became the youngest woman to win an Olympic snowboarding gold medal during the Winter Games. Kim dominated two amazing runs on the women’s snowboard halfpipe, earning her the first place spot on the medal podium. (Read more from “U.S. Winter Olympics 2018 Medal Winners” HERE)

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U.N. Aid Workers Carried out 60,000 Rapes in a Decade

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UN staff have carried out thousands of rapes all around the world, a former official claimed on Tuesday.

Andrew MacLeod, who was chief of operations at the UN’s Emergency Co-ordination Centre, warned that ‘predatory’ abusers used aid jobs to prey on vulnerable girls. The claim was made in a dossier passed to the former secretary for international development Priti Patel last year, according to The Sun newspaper.

He estimated 60,000 rapes had been carried out by UN staff in the past decade, with 3,300 paedophiles working in the organisation and its agencies. He added there is an ‘endemic’ of cover-ups with those trying to blow the whistle getting fired.

‘There are tens of thousands of aid workers around the world with paedophile tendencies, but if you wear a Unicef T-shirt nobody will ask what you’re up to,’ he told The Sun.

‘You have the impunity to do whatever you want. It is endemic across the aid industry across the world. The system is at fault, and should have stopped this years ago.’ (Read more from “U.N. Aide Workers Carried out 60,000 Rapes in a Decade” HERE)

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NASA Warns of New Solar Storm That Could Affect U.S. and Canada This Week

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Earth could travel through the path of particles released by a solar storm this week, according to experts who advise of the possible impact of such an event.

According to WPXI, NASA satellites Sunday night revealed what is called a solar mass ejection, through which material from the sun is blasted with great force out into space. That eruption continued until Monday morning.

Computer projections indicate the storm is on track to impact or narrowly miss Earth Thursday morning.

If the relatively weak flare does cross paths with our planet, the effects could be noticeable but are not expected to be substantial.

Solar storms can create fluctuations in power grids, though any effects from Thursday’s event are expected to be minor. Experts predict the same for any interference with satellite operations due to emission.

The flare can also result in an aurora visible in the skies above areas within 30 and 60 degrees north or south of the equator. Within the U.S., these lights are most likely to appear over the west coast.

Some migratory animals are affected by solar storms, with the impact most evident in northern locations, including Canada.

Flares are common occurrences on the sun, with particulate matter routinely ejected at millions of miles per hour. Of the more than 150 storms that break out in a given year, however, only a small fraction collide with Earth.

While we could experience such a collision Thursday, the event has been classified as a G1, or minor storm. One week last September provided an extended example of the types of storms the sun is capable of producing.

As Space.com reported at the time, a series of seven powerful flares were recorded in a seven-day period beginning Sept. 4. Each storm originated from the sun’s Active Region 2673 as that area rotated out of sight from Earth.

One forceful storm from that series did pass close to North and South America, prompting an advisory from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration via its Space Weather Prediction Center. Among the possible effects of that storm, the agency wrote, were high-frequency radio blackouts and low-frequency communication issues lasting for about an hour on the sunlit side of the planet.

“While a fast event, the CME was off the Sun-Earth line and is not expected to produce notable geoeffective impacts,” the SWPC wrote.

Three of the major flares recorded that week were classified as the most severe X storms, including one on Sept. 6 that registered as the strongest in 12 years.

Thursday’s event could be a more direct impact than any of those, but its relatively low force should keep any negative effects to a minimum, according to WHIO meteorologist Brett Collar.

“Don’t think that this storm will be historic by any means but certainly something to keep an eye on over coming days,” he said. (For more from the author of “NASA Warns of New Solar Storm That Could Affect U.S. and Canada This Week” please click HERE)

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U.S. Jet Obliterates Russian Tank in ‘Self-Defense’ in Syria

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A U.S. fighter jet operating in Syria destroyed a Russian-built tank over the weekend in an act that officials described as self-defense.

Fox News’ Lucas Tomlinson first reported the destruction of the tank, noting that the tanks’ three-man crew were all killed in the strike inside. What makes this incident noteworthy is the fact that it is unclear who was operating the tank, whether it was the Syrian government, forces loyal to the Syrian government, or members of the Russian military . . .

The tank was reportedly destroyed after “pro-regime forces” launched an attack on U.S. special forces last week, which prompted the U.S. to respond “with a furious barrage of air and artillery strikes and reported killing 100 pro-government troops, but sources told Bloomberg on Saturday that as many as 200 or 300 Russian mercenaries were killed in the attack.” (Read more from “U.S. Jet Obliterates Russian Tank in ‘Self-Defense’ in Syria” HERE)

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The Origin of Valentine’s Day Is Not What You Think

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. . .During the first three centuries of Christianity, there were 10 major persecutions in which the government threw Christians to the lions, boiled them alive, had their tongues cut out, and worse. Christian writings, scriptures and historical records were destroyed.

Because so many records were destroyed, details of Saint Valentine’s life are scant. What little is know was passed down and finally printed in the year 1260 in “Legenda Sanctorum” by Jacobus de Voragine, and in the Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493.

Saint Valentine was either a priest in Rome or a bishop in Terni, central Italy. He risked the Emperor’s wrath by standing up for traditional marriage, secretly marrying soldiers to their young brides. When Emperor Claudius demanded that Christians deny their consciences and worship pagan idols, Saint Valentine refused. Saint Valentine was arrested, dragged before the Prefect of Rome, and condemned him to die.

While awaiting execution, his jailer, Asterius, asked Saint Valentine to pray for his blind daughter. When she miraculously regained her sight, the jailer converted and was baptized, along with many others. Right before his execution, Saint Valentine wrote a note to the jailer’s daughter, signing it, “from your Valentine.”

Saint Valentine was beaten with clubs and stones, and when that failed to kill him, he was beheaded outside the Flaminian Gate on Feb. 14, 269 A.D. (Read more from “The Origin of Valentine’s Day Is Not What You Think” HERE)

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