Same-Sex Marriages to Receive Blessings in the Church of England

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Same-sex marriages will receive “prayers for God’s blessing” for the first time in the Church of England following a vote at the General Synod, the legislative body of the established church of England.

On Thursday, the three houses of the Synod voted in favour of officially recognising gay marriages for the first time, with priests now being empowered to give their blessings to such unions.

The vote was overwhelmingly approved by the House of Bishops, which supported the measure by a margin of 36 to four, with two members of the house abstaining from the vote. However, the issue was far more contested amongst the lower houses of the Synod, with the House of Clergy backing the measure by a vote of 111 to 85, with three abstentions, and by the House of Laity which supported the move by a margin of 103 to 92, with five abstaining members.

In a joint statement, the two most senior bishops in the Church, Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Stephen Cottrell, the Archbishop of York said: “It has been a long road to get us to this point.

(Read more from “Same-Sex Marriages to Receive Blessings in the Church of England” HERE)

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Meltdown: UK’s Government-Run Healthcare Service Faltering Under Crisis Conditions

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. . .We’ve covered these impacts in countries like Canada and the UK previously, but a new Wall Street Journal report further spotlights a worsening healthcare crisis in the latter nation:

[Britain’s] state-funded service is falling apart. People who suffer heart attacks or strokes wait more than 1½ hours on average for an ambulance. Hospitals are so full they are turning patients away. A record 7.1 million people in England—more than one in 10 people—are stuck on waiting lists for nonemergency hospital treatment like hip replacements. The NHS on Monday faced the biggest strike in its history, with thousands of paramedics and nurses walking out over pay. The NHS’s woes are an extreme example of issues playing out across the developed world. Healthcare systems, hit hard by Covid, are under pressure as people live longer and have a wider range of treatment options. Aging populations mean costs will keep growing. The U.K.’s experience is a warning of what happens when supply in healthcare provision can’t keep up with demand.

The NHS has lost thousands of hospital beds in the past decade in its drive for efficiency. Covid delayed treatments for patients, resulting in a vast waiting list. Hospitals in England were already at 98% capacity in December when the brutal flu season began to take hold. The mass of sick patients gummed up the system to devastating effect. Delays in treating people are causing the premature deaths of 300 to 500 people a week, according to estimates from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, a professional association in London. One in five British people were waiting for a medical appointment or treatment by the NHS in December, according to the U.K. Office for National Statistics (ONS)…Fixing the service will take time, said NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard. The NHS said that over the next year it aims to cut the average time a heart attack sufferer waits for an ambulance to 30 minutes.

The targeted, aspirational improvement would be an ambulance waiting time of half an hour for someone having a heart attack. An estimated 300-500 excess/premature deaths per week under the foundering NHS, which the Brits treat as something of a national religion. (Read more from “Meltdown: UK’s Government-Run Healthcare Service Faltering Under Crisis Conditions” HERE)

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Addressing UK Parliament, Zelensky Thanks Country ‘in Advance’ for Warplanes

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the British Parliament Wednesday afternoon, expressing his view on military alliances in terms of equipment transfers, and thanking the United Kingdom “in advance” for the gift of its warplanes.

The speaker of the British House of Commons was presented with a signed combat pilot’s helmet by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday afternoon, saying the gift should act as a symbol to help get Western warplanes donated to the Ukrainian war effort. Indicating, perhaps, that he now considers getting British fighter jets is now a fait accompli Zelensky said in his address to the UK Parliament that he was “thanking all of you –in advance — for powerful English planes”.

The claim may not be so outlandish, given just hours before, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the UK was to start training Ukrainian pilots in flying what have been identified as “NATO-standard fighter jets”, the first country to publicly announce such a development.

Zelensky’s speech was heavy on the subject of military equipment, and framed the whole concept of international alliances in terms of them being vehicles for the transfer of weapons to Ukraine. Throughout his address, the President referred to a “coalition of NLAW and Javelin“, a “coalition of artillery rounds and air defence”, and the “coalition of the planes”. (Read more from “Addressing UK Parliament, Zelensky Thanks Country ‘in Advance’ for Warplanes” HERE)

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China Wants Its Downed Spy Aircraft Back, Blasts U.S. ‘Use of Force’ Response to Surveillance Flight

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The People’s Republic of China is requesting the return of its surveillance aircraft after the balloon was shot down over the continental United States on Saturday.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning fielded questions Tuesday about the incident, which dominated news cycles and commanded attention from U.S. politicians.

Asked for additional information regarding the purpose of the spy balloon and reports of similar aircraft making routes through North American and South American airspace, Mao declined.

“The Chinese side has given information about the unmanned airship on several occasions. I don’t have anything to add at the moment,” she stated.

The Pentagon said it “acted immediately to protect against the collection of sensitive information” from the spy platform. But geopolitical experts said there is little reason to believe those efforts were successful as the balloon almost certainly transferred surveillance data over to China as it flew over several military bases. (Read more from “China Wants Its Downed Spy Aircraft Back, Blasts U.S. ‘Use of Force’ Response to Surveillance Flight” HERE)

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Russia’s Secretly Splurging on Bomb Shelters ‘Everywhere,’ Report Says

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The Kremlin has quietly ordered an upgrade to bomb shelters across Russia, according to four former and current Russian officials who spoke with The Moscow Times.

“An order was given from Moscow to carry out this work everywhere—inspection and repair,” one Russian official told the outlet in a report published Monday. Moscow has not publicly announced the updates.

Local authorities have reportedly spent hundreds of millions of rubles on the bomb shelter preparations, which allegedly began in February 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine. The preparations will reportedly continue this year. And although in some regions authorities have installed signs near the shelters, some authorities have sought to downplay the updates, in an apparent attempt to avoid causing panic.

The demand for bomb shelters in Russia rose last year after Putin announced the “partial mobilization” of troops for the war in Ukraine, according to Russian news outlet 66.RU. The shelters built then would allow people to remain inside them for as long as a year, and could allow people to survive a nuclear explosion. Residents in Moscow, Belgorod, and Kursk have also reportedly been building bomb shelters. (Read more from “Russia’s Secretly Splurging on Bomb Shelters ‘Everywhere,’ Report Says” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

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Ex-Israeli PM: West ‘Blocked’ Ceasefire Early in Ukraine War

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Naftali Bennett, the Prime Minister of Israel towards the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year, says the West “blocked” a ceasefire he was helping to broker early in the war.

Bennett, who was prime minister and then alternate prime minister in Israel during a confusing period of coalition politics prior to the return of Benjamin Netanyahu as head of government in December, said that “there was a good chance of reaching a ceasefire” before the Western powers “curbed” negotiations in a wide-ranging interview uploaded to YouTube.

Israel is one of a number of states traditionally seen as being aligned with the West, along with the likes of India and Turkey, which have played little or no part in efforts to support Ukraine militarily or engage in the sanctions war with Russia, with Bennett explaining that while “the Americans expect… that we all rally for Ukraine” this would not necessarily have been in Israel’s interests.

By way of example, Bennett cited Israeli interests in Syria, where “once or twice a week we attack the Iranian presence… Russia, the superpower, has the S-300 there, and if they press the button Israeli pilots will fall.” (Read more from “Ex-Israeli PM: West ‘Blocked’ Ceasefire Early in Ukraine War” HERE)

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Military Experts Give Frank Assessment if U.S. Were to Confront China After Shooting Down Spy Balloon

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The U.S. would face few but significant hurdles if the military were to confront China following a Taiwan invasion, military experts told Fox News Digital.

“Unfortunately, talking broadly and in overall terms, the Chinese have dramatically increased their air, sea, space, cyber and missile capabilities in the last couple of decades,” said James Anderson, acting undersecretary of defense for policy under President Trump.

“In some of the scenarios that could happen, we might well be at a competitive disadvantage initially because they have home-field advantage in terms of their capacity to quickly mobilize local forces, and that’s really important to the PRC.”

Four-star Air Force Gen. Mike Minihan, head of Air Mobility Command, wrote in a memo last week that he believes that the U.S. and China “will fight in 2025,” adding, “I hope I am wrong.” He pointed to the upcoming elections in the U.S. and Taiwan, which he believed could provide a distraction and allow China to make a move on the island.

The general said “a fortified, ready, integrated and agile Joint Force Maneuver Team ready to fight and win inside the first island chain” needs to be established to prepare for the looming fight. (Read more from “Military Experts Give Frank Assessment if U.S. Were to Confront China After Shooting Down Spy Balloon” HERE)

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U.S. Giving Ukraine Smart Bombs to Double Strike Range Against Russia

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The U.S. will announce on Friday it is sending Ukraine Ground Launched Small Diameter Bombs or GLSDB, significantly improving the country’s ability to strike targets behind Russian lines, according to media reports.

Ukraine has been pushing for longer-range missiles, particularly the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) which has a range of 185 miles, in a bid to disrupt Russian command posts and supply chains ahead of an expected spring offensive.

Washington has been refusing to hand over ATACMS to the Ukrainians, fearing this would be seen as too provocative by Moscow, as they could be used to hit targets deep within Russian territory.

However, the Financial Times reported Kyiv will be sent the smart bombs, which have a range of 94 miles and can be fired from Ukraine’s HIMARS rocket launchers. (Read more from “U.S. Giving Ukraine Smart Bombs to Double Strike Range Against Russia” HERE)

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Canada Says It Is Monitoring ‘Potential Second Incident’ Linked to Chinese Alleged Spy Balloon

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The Canadian Armed Forces revealed late Thursday that it is monitoring a “potential second incident” related to the discovery of a massive Chinese balloon over Montana that the Communist Party claimed had drifted off course and coincidentally landed near American military sites of high importance.

The Pentagon confirmed late Thursday that it had identified what it suspected was a Chinese surveillance balloon over Montana, near an area housing nuclear missile silo fields. A Pentagon spokesman insisted the balloon was “currently traveling at an altitude well above commercial air traffic and does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground.” Pentagon officials reportedly opted not to shoot the balloon down, despite the overt national security threat it causes, out of concern that debris from the destroyed balloon could hurt people on the ground.

The Communist Party of China confirmed on Friday that the balloon originated in China, but claimed it unintentionally drifted into sensitive U.S. airspace due to “force majeure.”

The balloon has caused a growing international scandal for left-wing President Joe Biden, who is facing criticism from the right for not acting to take down the balloon and reportedly moved to postpone a planned trip to China by Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday. Hours before the reported postponement, reports indicated that China had agreed to schedule a meeting between Blinken and dictator Xi Jinping.

The Canadian government waded into the fray with a statement confirming that it is working “with American partners and continue to take all necessary measures to safeguard Canada’s sensitive information from foreign intelligence threats.” It also suggested the existed of either a second Chinese alleged spy balloon or of a second incident involving the same balloon.

(Read more from “Canada Says It Is Monitoring ‘Potential Second Incident’ Linked to Chinese Alleged Spy Balloon” HERE)

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Ukraine Confirms Putin Planning February ‘Anniversary’ Attack With Half a Million Troops

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Ukraine has confirmed fears that Russian President Vladimir Putin may be planning a February 24 ‘anniversary’ attack on the country with half a million troops.

Ukraine’s defence minister Oleksii Reznikov has said that Moscow has amassed hundreds of thousands of troops and could “try something” on the one year anniversary of its invasion.

The major new offensive would mark another phase of the ongoing war, and comes after prolonged fears Russia might utilise the anniversary date to renew their efforts to take Ukraine.

The Kremlin shocked the world when, in February last year, it invaded the country and tried to seize Kyiv as apart of what it claimed was a “special military operation”.

Any attack would also mark Russia’s Defender of the Fatherland Day on February 23 – which celebrates the army. (Read more from “Ukraine Confirms Putin Planning February ‘Anniversary’ Attack With Half a Million Troops” HERE)

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