God Bless you all! Hoping my food blog site will be last to be removed in these End Times. Stand strong in the faith in Jesus Christ! He is the Way, the Truth and the Life..No one gets to the Father except through Him..
The newly-appointed Defence Secretary, Grant Shapps, has unveiled ongoing discussions about expanding the UK-led training program for Ukrainian troops and potentially relocating British instructors into the country itself, as well as offering Kiev unspecified naval support in the Black Sea.
“I was talking today about eventually getting the training brought closer and actually into Ukraine as well,” Shapps told The Telegraph after a visit to a Salisbury Plain training ground, on Friday.
During his trip to Kiev earlier this week, the new defense chief, who got his post in a government reshuffle a month ago, apparently saw an “opportunity” to “bring more things in country.” Shapps explained he meant “not just training,” but also weapons manufacturing, as he praised the British arms giant BAE Systems for its plans to localize in Ukraine.
“I’m keen to see other British companies do their bit as well by doing the same thing. So I think there will be a move to get more training and production in the country,” he added.
In his discussions with the Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, Shapps also reportedly said that Britain’s Navy could play a role in “defending commercial vessels” the Black Sea, according to The Telegraph.
“Britain is a naval nation so we can help and we can advise, particularly since the water is international water,” he said without elaborating what kind of help he offered Zelensky.
The UK military conducted an official operation to train and arm Ukrainian troops since 2015, which has since shifted out of the country. British Royal Marines also conducted several high-risk “discreet operations” in Ukraine last year, according to one general, but officially London never admitted to having any significant presence in the country after the conflict with Russia escalated in 2022. However, several classified US military documents that leaked online earlier this year suggested that some 50 British special operatives were still active in Ukraine.
The open deployment of British military personnel would be yet another escalation, after the UK became the first NATO country to supply Kiev with depleted uranium shells as well as long-range cruise missiles which Ukraine has since repeatedly used in attacks against Russian infrastructure.
Moscow has repeatedly described the conflict in Ukraine as one between Russia and the “entire Western military machine,” while Russian President Vladimir Putin said last year that there are entire military units in Ukraine “under the de-facto command of Western advisers.”
British intelligence experts were also involved in studying ways to blow up Russia’s Crimea Bridge using divers or maritime drones, according to independent news website The Grayzone. Last year’s attack on the bridge was carried out using a truck bomb, rather than the options discussed in the UK analysis, but in July Kiev used two suicide sea drones in a deadly strike that damaged a span of the road and killed two civilians.
Earlier this week, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused UK and US intelligence agencies of helping to coordinate the latest Ukrainian strike on Sevastopol, Crimea, which targeted the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
The Tribulation is commencing..
Please repent, carry your cross daily and accept the free gift of Jesus Christ’s Death on the Cross for payment for your sins.
The global economic alliance known as BRICS is reportedly considering the launch of a global payments system that could sidestep the banking industry standard SWIFT.
According to a new report from the Russian state-funded news organization TASS, the group’s finance ministers are evaluating the feasibility of a unified payments network, and will formally discuss its potential at the coming BRICS meeting next year.
Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov says the network would boost independent efforts to create payment messaging systems.
“We are trying to introduce our financial messaging system, the SPFS, our Chinese colleagues have their own system, other BRICS countries also either have their systems or are creating them.
The news comes after BRICS – which stands for the nations of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – formally decided to add Saudi Arabia, Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt, Argentina and the UAE to the group.
When asked how Russia views the future potential of BRICS, Siluanov said the bloc is focused on “removing all ties from the West to the Southeast” in a growing trend that will “persist in the future.”
SWIFT is a core component of the global banking system, and is used by banks to securely send and receive money-related messages.
The organization, which is a cooperative that’s primarily owned by banks, banned several Russian banks at the behest of the European Union back in March of 2022.
In August of this year, South Africa’s finance minister Enoch Godongwana said a BRICS-based payments system would aim to strengthen trade in local currencies as opposed to the US dollar.
However, he said implementation would be difficult, and the system would not be designed to directly challenge SWIFT.
The Destruction of the Dollar is commencing..
Please repent, carry your cross daily and accept the free gift of Jesus Christ’s Death on the Cross for payment for your sins.
Any assistance to Ukraine should be removed from a stopgap US spending bill in order for the federal government to avoid a shutdown, US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy has said.
Saturday is the deadline for lawmakers to agree on the federal budget, and avert a crisis that would put key programs on hold and lead to delays in payments for government employees, among other things.
On Friday, the House failed to pass a last-minute bill aimed at extending government funding beyond September 30. It was rejected in a 232-198 vote, with all Democrats and 21 of McCarthy’s fellow Republicans opposing the legislation.
“I think if we had a clean one without Ukraine on it, we could probably be able to move that through,” the House speaker told CNN after the vote.
McCarthy warned that if “the Senate puts Ukraine on there and focuses on Ukraine over America, I think – I think that could cause real problems.”
In a later message on X (formerly Twitter), he reiterated that the “misguided” bill from the Senate, which includes aid for Kiev, has “no path forward and is dead on arrival.”
However, McCarthy said the House will keep working “around the clock” to find a way to keep the government open.
More votes on the issue are expected to take place on Saturday, according to the Republican leadership in the lower chamber.
Support for Ukraine had already been reportedly slashed from $25 billion to $6.2 billion as a result of negotiations between lawmakers earlier this week. But many Republican hardliners insist that it should be dropped from the budget entirely.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby warned this week that the Pentagon could only support Ukraine for “a few weeks” if Congress fails to pass a new funding bill.
Last week, McCarthy rejected Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s request to address the House during his visit to the US, as he did the previous year when the chamber was under Democratic leadership. The two held talks behind closed doors instead.
Prior to the meeting, House speaker said he had demanded that Zelensky explain what Kiev was doing with the billions already provided by Washington since the start of the conflict with Moscow. McCarthy said taxpayers were asking: “Where’s the accountability on the money we’ve already spent? What is the plan for victory?”
Earlier this month, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky told The Economist that he was “sensing” weakening support for his country from the West. This week, Ukraine’s Finance Minister Sergey Marchenko admitted that the number of those willing to give Kiev money was “growing smaller and smaller” and that “there are many questions about how much taxpayers in those countries are willing to finance us.”
Meanwhile, the head of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council, Aleksey Danilov, suggested that the West should tell Kiev exactly how long it is planning to support it.
President Joe Biden has welcomed a bipartisan short-term budget deal that will keep the US government open for the next 45 days, but was disappointed that none of the billions of dollars in aid to Kiev that he had requested made it to the final bill.
“We cannot under any circumstances allow American support for Ukraine to be interrupted,” Biden said in a brief statement on Saturday night, shortly after Congress passed the measure.
Biden had requested an additional $24 billion for Ukraine, but critics argued that Washington has more important priorities and should have stronger safeguards against the misappropriation of the funds and supplies it sends to Kiev.
Moscow will add even more new regions to its territory, former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said on the first anniversary of the country’s unification with the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, and Zaporozhye and Kherson regions.
The residents of the four territories took part in referendums a year ago and made the decision “to be with their Fatherland,” Medvedev wrote on his Telegram channel on Saturday.
“This choice became a symbol not only of the restoration of historical justice but also of the unity of the Russian people, their colossal will and dedication,” he said.
Speaking about the ongoing fighting in Ukraine, Medvedev, who now holds the position of deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, insisted that Moscow’s military operation would continue until the current regime in Kiev is “destroyed and the original Russian territories are liberated from the enemy.”
“Victory will be ours. And there will be more new regions within Russia,” the former president wrote.
The signing of agreements incorporating the People’s Republics of Donetsk (DPR), Lugansk (LPR), and Zaporozhye and Kherson regions with the Russian state took place at the Kremlin on September 30, 2022.
It followed referendums in the four regions held between September 23 and 27 last year. During the votes, the number of those who supported unification with Russia stood at 99.23% in the DPR, 98.42% in the LPR, 87% in Kherson Region, and 93.11% in Zaporozhye Region. The results have not been recognized by the Ukrainian authorities and their Western backers.
In a speech on Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the unification of the new territories was a “conscious, long-awaited, hard-won, and genuinely popular decision … made collectively through referendums in full compliance with international norms.”
The Tribulation is commencing..
Please repent, carry your cross daily and accept the free gift of Jesus Christ’s Death on the Cross for payment for your sins.
Romania is establishing new military observation posts and re-deploying anti-aircraft systems closer to its border with Ukraine, along the Danube River, Reuters reported on Friday, citing two senior defense sources.
The development follows an uptick in Russian strikes on Ukrainian river port infrastructure and fuel depots in the region, observed in recent weeks. According to Bucharest, debris from what could be parts of a Russian drone fell on the country’s territory during the strikes in early September. Ukraine has insisted that a drone “exploded” over Romanian territory, apparently striving to portray the incident as a Russian attack on a NATO member’s soil.
The US-led bloc itself, however, has sought to downplay the drone debris incident. “We don’t have any information indicating an intentional attack by Russia, and we are awaiting the outcome of the ongoing investigation,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said shortly after the supposed drone parts were discovered.
In mid-September, the Romanian military said it was ready to shoot down Russian aircraft should they pose a direct threat. Bucharest was “ready to use all the military power to defend Romanian territory,” with the exact nature of response depending on the “level of threat,” deputy chief of the country’s general staff, General Gheorghita Vlad, said at the time. So far, however, no incidents of that nature have been reported.
Moscow ramped up suicide drone and cruise missile attacks on Ukraine’s southwest after it pulled out of the Black Sea grain deal in mid-July, citing the failure of the West to meet any of Moscow’s demands, envisioned under the now-defunct agreement. Aside from repeatedly targeting port infrastructure in Odessa, Ukraine’s main sea hub, Russia has repeatedly attacked targets at its river ports, namely Izmail and Reni, both immediately across the Danube River from Romanian soil.
The Tribulation is commencing..
Please repent, carry your cross daily and accept the free gift of Jesus Christ’s Death on the Cross for payment for your sins.
The United States urged Belgrade to pull its forces back from the border with Kosovo on Friday after detecting what it called an “unprecedented” Serbian military build-up.
Serbia deployed sophisticated tanks and artillery on the frontier after deadly clashes erupted at a monastery in northern Kosovo last week, the White House warned.
The violence — in which a Kosovo police officer and three Serb gunmen were killed — marked one of the gravest escalations for years in Kosovo, a former Serbian breakaway province.
“We are monitoring a large Serbian military deployment along the border with Kosovo,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
“That includes an unprecedented staging of advanced Serbian artillery, tanks, mechanized infantry units. We believe that this is a very destabilizing development.”
He added: “We are calling on Serbia to withdraw those forces from the border.”
The build-up took place within the last week but its purpose was not yet clear, Kirby said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had telephoned Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic to urge “immediate deescalation and a return to dialogue,” he added.
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan also spoke with Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti and “expressed concern about Serbian military mobilizations,” according to a readout of the call.
The pair also “discussed the EU-facilitated Dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia, which Mr. Sullivan underscored was the only long-term solution to ensuring stability throughout Kosovo,” the readout said.
Serbia’s leader Vucic did not directly deny there had been a recent build-up but rejected claims that his country’s forces were on alert.
“I have denied untruths where they talk about the highest level of combat readiness of our forces, because I simply did not sign that and it is not accurate,” Vucic told reporters.
“We don’t even have half the troops we had two or three months ago.”
Serbia said Wednesday that the defense minister and head of the armed forces had gone to visit a “deployment zone” but gave no further details.
– ‘Worrisome’ –
The clashes on Sunday began when heavily armed Serb gunmen ambushed a patrol a few miles from the Serbian border, killing a Kosovo police officer.
Several dozen assailants then barricaded themselves at an Orthodox monastery, sparking an hour-long firefight in which three gunmen were killed and three were arrested.
Kosovo’s government has accused Belgrade of backing the operation, while a member of a major Kosovo Serb political party admitted to leading the gunmen, his lawyer said Friday.
Kirby said the attack had a “very high level of sophistication”, involving around 20 vehicles, “military-grade” weapons, equipment and training.
“It’s worrisome. It doesn’t look like just a bunch of guys who got together to do this,” he said.
The NATO peacekeeping force known as KFOR would be “increasing its presence” following the attack, Kirby added.
In Brussels, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg confirmed that the US-led alliance was ready to boost the force to deal with the situation.
In the north of Kosovo, where the Serb minority is concentrated, KFOR has decided to “increase its presence and activity”, added a NATO official who requested anonymity.
He added that KFOR was prepared to make “further adjustments” if necessary to enable it to fulfil its peacekeeping mandate.
Kosovo broke away from Serbia in a bloody war in 1998-99 and declared independence in 2008 — a status Belgrade and Moscow have refused to recognise.
It has long seen strained relations between its ethnic Albanian majority and Serb minority, which have escalated in recent months in northern Kosovo.
The Tribulation is commencing..
Please repent, carry your cross daily and accept the free gift of Jesus Christ’s Death on the Cross for payment for your sins.
Clad in black waders, Guðmundur Hauker Jakobsson jumps into the River Blanda, whose freezing waters run down from the Hofsjökull glacier. Armed with a net, he casts around the ascending pools of the river’s fish “ladder”, built to aid wild salmon migrating up this powerful waterway from the sea.
Within minutes, he pulls out a 15lb silver fish, which thrashes and writhes against the net, then another, then another – five in all. The wild salmon of the Blanda here in north-west Iceland are some of the largest and most athletic in a country where the rivers are considered among the world’s best. King Charles has fished for salmon here, as have David Beckham and Guy Ritchie; Eric Clapton is a regular.
But these, says Jakobsson – known as Gummi, who is the vice-chair of the Blanda and Svartá fishing club – are not wild fish.
“Look,” he shouts above the howling wind whipping our faces, pointing at one salmon. “It’s an intruder.”
Sure enough, it has a rounded tail and torn fins: signs of a farmed salmon. He suspects it’s a fugitive from an open-net pen where just last month, on 20 August, thousands of fish grown in pens from a Norwegian strain escaped. They have since been found upstream in rivers, endangering the wild salmon population and hitting the headlines in Iceland.
Suspected escapees have now been found in at least 32 rivers across north-west Iceland, according to unconfirmed social media posts, one of which showed fish covered in sea lice, a parasite that can be lethal to wild fish. Iceland’s Marine and Freshwater Research Institute (MRI) confirmed the farmed fish have been found in multiple rivers.
The escape – at a pen in Patreksfjörður owned by Arctic Fish, one of the country’s largest salmon-farming companies, which is owned by Norwegian salmon giant Mowi – has reignited calls from environmentalists, sport fishers and some politicians to restrict or ban open-pen fish farming. It is not the first big escape: just last year, another salmon farming company, Arnarlax, was fined £705,000 for not reporting an escape of 81,000 fish in 2021.
Gummi and his father, Jakob, 73, have captured 44 farmed salmon over the past fortnight, after closing the ladder to stop them swimming upstream. At a garage next to his house in nearby Blönduós, a coastal village a short drive from the river, they point out what sets the farmed fish apart for their wild cousins: worn gill covers, shortened and disfigured snouts, and missing or torn fins. Gummi has sent 11 of the fish to MRI for analysis.
“This is an environmental catastrophe,” he says. “If they breed, the salmon will lose their ability to survive.”
Indeed, studies have shown interbreeding between farmed and wild fish produces offspring that mature faster and younger, undermining the ability of the species to reproduce in nature.
There are three reasons, scientists say, this escape is so disastrous: the fish are entering many rivers over a large area; there are in greater numbers than ever seen before; and a high percentage are mature, ready to breed.
Last week, Iceland police opened an investigation into whether Arctic Fish has breached laws governing fish farming. Specialist divers, paid for by Arctic Fish, are hunting down escapees; the firm’s CEO, Stein Ove Tveiten, who along with board members could face up to two years in jail if found guilty of negligence, has apologised for the incident.
Iceland’s open-net salmon farming industry is in its infancy compared with Norway’s, which produced 1.5m tonnes in 2021 – or Scotland’s (205,000 tonnes) – but it has grown more than tenfold since 2014, from under 4,000 tonnes to 45,000 in 2021.
However, the speedy growth has brought problems. Iceland’s national audit office found regulation patchy and weak and the industry largely unsupervised. It found that the Icelandic Food and Veterinary Authority did not consider additional monitoring necessary, despite serious and repeated breaches of regulations.
“This is more than a wake-up call,” says Jón Kaldal of Icelandic Wildlife Fund about the escapes. “All red lights should be blinking. You’re talking about the future of wild salmon.”
Globally, the numbers of wild Atlantic salmon, a keystone species for many mammals and birds, have dropped from 8-10 million in the 1970s to 3-4 million today. Only 500,000 are left in Norway, half the number of 20 years ago. Escaped farmed fish and sea lice – a persistent problem in open-pen farms – are their greatest threats. Scotland has seen a 40% decline in salmon returning to rivers over four decades; the Scottish government says many factors have caused the crisis, including the climate emergency, but that sea lice from aquaculture were partly to blame.
Environmentalists also say open-pen farms cause pollution from organic waste and the pesticides to treat sea lice. A medium-sized fish farm of about 3,000 tonnes can produce as much effluent as a city of 50,000 people, according to the Norwegian Pollution Control Authority, and eutrophication problems – too many unnecessary nutrients added to water bodies, causing harmful blooms of algae – may follow.
In Iceland, the extent of hybridisation between farmed and wild salmon may be more extensive than previously believed, researchers said in July. Crucially, they also found evidence that the hybrids survived – and produced offspring. Nevertheless, the MRI has raised its catch limit on farmed salmon in Icelandic waters to 105,500 tonnes, or 68 million fish – a threefold increase.
“We know what will happen if we reach that figure,” says Kaldal. “Wild salmon won’t stand a chance.”
He sees the escape incident as a “turning point” that could positively influence the public consultation that’s under way before a new aquaculture bill is expected next year. One of the biggest problems, he says, is the lack of independent surveillance.
“The NAO report confirmed what conservationists have been saying for years,” says Kaldal. “The industry has been given a free ride. They do what they want.”
In Iceland, where nature is prized, most people are against open-pen salmon farming. But in the remote Eastfjords and Westfjords, where the industry is based, it has helped breathe life into sparsely populated rural villages, though it only provides about 5.5% of jobs in the region.
In the tiny port of Þingeyri, Westfjords, where the mountainous landscape dwarfs wooden-clad low houses clustered around Dýrafjörður, most people know someone who works for Arctic Fish. Residents tend to dismiss conservationists as Reykjavik people who don’t understand rural life. House prices have risen – a welcome development – and the fish farms attract incomers.
At a petrol station that becomes the port’s only restaurant when summer fades, Elísa Björk Jónsdóttir says: “It keeps my business afloat through the winter. If it wasn’t for the salmon company, the store wouldn’t be here.” She had heard of the escape.
“I haven’t made up my mind about the risk of extinction of wild salmon. I don’t know if it’s true,” she says.
At the pool, the heart of the port’s 300-strong community, Valdimar Haukur Gislason, 89, a former teacher and now an eider duck farmer, emerges after his morning swim. The population has been falling for years, he says. “The salmon farms are just fine. There’s more employment. Everyone is pro the farms here. It gives people something to do.”
On a red and white service boat from the port to one of Arctic Fish’s four sites here, Bernharður Guðmundsson, site manager at Dýrafjörður, insists the company follows all regulations and says his employees had been insulted by conservationists. “Its like we are terrorists or a tobacco company. They want to stop the industry and we lose jobs, but for what purpose?”
A single pen, measuring 35 metres in diameter, holds between 100,000 and 120,000 fish, more than double Iceland’s wild salmon population. Each site has about 10 pens. Arctic Fish has licences for 21,800 tonnes of salmon in the Westfjords, with two more sites planned.
Asked about official reports that for three months before the escape, three fjords south of Dýrafjörður, underwater inspection of some nets had not been done, Daníel Jakobsson, head of development at Arctic Fish, doesn’t comment on specifics because of the police investigation, but says they are working with the authorities to minimise damage.
“We have been farming for 10 years and this is the first time an incident of this scale has happened,” he says from his office at Ísafjörður, a town in Westfjords.
Jakobsson does not believe the incident has implications for wild salmon. “We have systems in place that ensure wild salmon are not put at risk,” he says. “On top of that, our licences have an expiry date. If we do not behave, we don’t get licences renewed.”
However, Svandís Svavarsdóttir, Iceland’s minister of food, agriculture and fisheries, says the escape has had “serious consequences” for native salmon. It is the “unequivocal responsibility” of the permit holder and company to prevent escapes, she says, adding that she had established a taskforce to examine the regulations as part of a review of the Aquaculture Act.
In Reykjavik, the writer Simen Sætre is at an event organised by clothing company Patagonia, to launch his book The New Fish: The Truth About Farmed Salmon and the Consequences We Can No Longer Ignore. He is disappointed with Iceland’s authorities.
“In Norway, there’s a big problem with fish welfare. In Canada, authorities are facing political pressure to stay away from First Nation areas and to tighten regulation. In the Faroe Islands, the fjords are full. But in Iceland, they are a little naive,” Sætre says.
“I’m surprised they are surprised by the escape of 3,500 fish. They’ve allowed the industry to call the shots and the authorities react. But they always come too late.”
The Tribulation is commencing..
Please repent, carry your cross daily and accept the free gift of Jesus Christ’s Death on the Cross for payment for your sins.
Sept 30, 2023 – Watchman News – Philippians 1:9-10 – CDC Issues Travel Notice in Response to Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Outbreak Throughout Afghanistan (Abomination Shot Implantation and Adverse Event), The Biden Impeachment Begins: Beaking Down The Evidence, Time to ‘kill’ SWIFT, Russian banker suggests, It’s Official: For The First Time Neutrinos Have Been Detected in a Collider Experiment, Russia Prepares Nationwide Drills With Nuclear War Scenario, Senator Dianne Feinstein Dead At 90, One Day After Casting Vote | (The Soon Birthing of the Promised Child), Republicans reject own funding bill, US government shutdown imminent, Catastrophic flooding strikes NY City, Most rain in decades and More!
VERSE OF THE DAY Philippians 1:9-10 (New King James Version) And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ,
Key Watch Times with Translation to the Gregorian Dates in the Graph Link Below using the Current Torah Calendar, Torah Calendar One Month Off, God’s Sun (Sun enters Constellation)/Moon Calendar (Counting Moon entering Constellations), Zadok Priestly Calendar and Enoch Calendar.
https://1drv.ms/w/s!Aj4XR7TEghaykW7HUB3_03Z8sAJe?e=HyH5T7 _______________________________________ Prepare for the Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ! Please repent and accept the free gift of Jesus Christ’s Death on the Cross for payment for your sins.
May the Lord Bless You and Keep You,
Trevis Dampier Ministries 4111-e Rose Lake Rd #696 Charlotte, NC 28217 Email – trevisdampierministries@outlook.com
Romans 10:9 – If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.
Rain walloped the New York metropolitan area with a startling punch Friday, knocking out several subway and commuter rail lines, stranding drivers on highways, flooding basements, and shuttering a terminal at LaGuardia Airport for hours in one of the city’s wettest days in decades.
Almost 7 inches (18 centimeters) of rain had fallen in parts of Brooklyn by midday, with at least one spot seeing 2.5 inches (6 centimeters) in a single hour, according to weather and city officials.
The nearly 8 inches (20 centimeters) at John F. Kennedy Airport surpassed its record for any September day, a bar set during Hurricane Donna in 1960, the National Weather Service said. And more downpours were expected.
The deluge came two years after the remnants of Hurricane Ida dumped record-breaking rain on the Northeast and killed at least 13 people in New York City, mostly in flooded basement apartments. Although no deaths or severe injuries have been reported so far from Friday’s storm, it stirred frightening memories.
Ida killed three of Joy Wong’s neighbors, including a toddler. And on Friday, water began lapping against the front door of her building in Woodside, Queens.
“I was so worried,” she said. It became too dangerous to leave: “Outside was like a lake, like an ocean.” Within minutes, water filled the building’s basement nearly to the ceiling. After the family’s deaths in 2021, the basement was turned into a recreation room. It is now destroyed. City officials said they got reports of six flooded basement apartments Friday, but all occupants got out safely.
Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams declared states of emergency and urged people to stay put if possible. But schools were open, students went to class and many adults went to work, only to wonder how they would get home.
Virtually every subway line was at least partly suspended, rerouted or running with delays. Metro-North commuter rail service from Manhattan was suspended for much of the day but began resuming by evening. The Long Island Rail Road was snarled, 44 of the city’s 3,500 buses got stranded and bus service was disrupted citywide, transit officials said.
“When it stops the buses, you know it’s bad,” Brooklyn high school student Malachi Clark said after trying to get home by bus, then subway. School buses were running, but they transport only a fraction of public school students, many of them disabled.
The Tribulation is commencing..
Please repent, carry your cross daily and accept the free gift of Jesus Christ’s Death on the Cross for payment for your sins.
WASHINGTON, Sept 29 (Reuters) – Hardline Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday rejected a bill proposed by their leader to temporarily fund the government, making it all but certain that federal agencies will partially shut down beginning on Sunday.
In a 232-198 vote, the House defeated a measure that would extend government funding by 30 days and avert a shutdown. That bill would have cut spending and imposed immigration and border security restrictions, Republican priorities that had little chance of passing the Democratic-majority Senate.
The Senate, meanwhile, has been advancing a bipartisan stopgap bill to fund the government through Nov. 17, though it was not clear when they would vote.
“It’s not the end yet, I’ve got other ideas,” Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy told reporters following the defeat of the bill he had backed.
He declined to say what those ideas were.
If Congress does not pass a spending package that can be signed into law by President Joe Biden before 12:01 a.m. ET (0401 GMT) on Sunday, U.S. national parks will close, the Securities and Exchange Commission will suspend most of its regulatory activities, and pay for up to 4 million federal workers will be disrupted.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Friday that a government shutdown would “undermine” U.S. economic progress by idling programs for small businesses and children, and could delay major infrastructure improvements.
The shutdown would be the fourth in a decade and just four months after a similar standoff brought the federal government within days of defaulting on its $31 trillion debt. The repeated brinkmanship has raised worries on Wall Street, where the Moody’s ratings agency has warned it could damage U.S. creditworthiness.
HEAVY TOLL ON MILITARY SAYS BIDEN
Biden warned that a shutdown could take a heavy toll on the armed forces.
“We can’t be playing politics while our troops stand in the breach. It’s an absolute dereliction of duty,” Biden, a Democrat, said at a retirement ceremony for top U.S. general Mark Milley.
McCarthy had hoped the Republican spending bill’s border provisions would have won over at least nine hardline holdouts who so far have defied efforts to avert a shutdown.
Democrats had warned that the Republican bill would slash benefits for poor women and children and resources for fighting wildfires.
In the end, 21 hardline House Republicans sided with Democrats to defeat the measure.
“Some of my colleagues couldn’t really see that securing our border and cutting spending was the right way to go. And I think that was important,” said Republican Representative Byron Donalds, a member of the hardline House Freedom Caucus who voted for the bill.
McCarthy notched a small win late on Thursday night when Republicans succeeded in passing three of four bills that would fund four federal agencies for the full fiscal year that starts Oct. 1. They stand no chance of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate and would not avert a shutdown because they do not fund the full government even if they do become law.
Holdouts say Congress should focus on these spending bills rather than temporary extensions, even if it leads to a shutdown.
“What does work is rolling up our sleeves and getting onto these single subject bills and moving them,” Representative Matt Gaetz said on a podcast after voting against the stopgap bill on Friday.
Gaetz and a handful of other hardliners have threatened to oust McCarthy from his leadership role if he relies on Democratic votes to avert a shutdown.
“We’re in the middle of a Republican civil war that has been going on for months, and now threatens a catastrophic government shutdown,” top House Democrat Hakeem Jeffries told reporters.
Many House Republicans have also expressed frustration with their hardline colleagues.
McCarthy and Biden in June agreed to a deal that would have set agency spending at $1.59 trillion in fiscal 2024, but hardliners like Gaetz say that figure should be $120 billion lower. Lawmakers are not considering cuts to popular benefit programs such as Social Security and Medicare that make up a larger portion of the government’s $6.4 trillion budget.
Former President Donald Trump, Biden’s likely election opponent in 2024, criticized Senate Republicans for working with Democrats on a funding agreement.
The Tribulation is commencing..
Please repent, carry your cross daily and accept the free gift of Jesus Christ’s Death on the Cross for payment for your sins.
