Pope Francis: God still loves us all, even the worst of us

Pope Francis last week introduced sweeping changes to remove the rule of "pontifical secrecy"

Pope Francis has ushered in Christmas by saying God loves everyone - "even the worst of us".

He was speaking to thousands of people during Christmas Eve Mass in St Peter's Basilica at the Vatican.

"You may have mistaken ideas, you may have made a complete mess of things... but the Lord continues to love you," the Argentine pontiff said.

This will be interpreted by some as a reference to Church scandals, including sex abuse, our correspondent says.

• Church abuse scandal: What you need to know
• Archbishop of Canterbury to reflect on attack in sermon
• In pictures: Christmas around the world

Pope Francis will return to St Peter's Basilica later on Christmas Day to deliver the traditional papal message to the world.

Among those taking part in the Mass were children chosen from countries including Venezuela, Iraq and Uganda.

The BBC's Rome correspondent Mark Lowen says this is a clear gesture from the leader of 1.3 billion Catholics who often focuses on the plight of migrants and victims of war, as well as on extending the reach of the Church to its periphery.

What did the Pope say?

"Christmas reminds us that God continues to love us all, even the worst of us. To me, to you, to each of us, he says today: 'I love you and I will always love you, for you are precious in my eyes,'" the 83-year-old pontiff said.

"God does not love you because you think and act the right way. He loves you, plain and simple. His love is unconditional; it does not depend on you."

And the Pope also alluded to the clerical abuse and financial scandals afflicting the Church.

"Whatever goes wrong in our lives, whatever doesn't work in the Church, whatever problems there are in the world, will no longer serve as an excuse."

Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50908016

Notre Dame won't host a Christmas mass for first time in 200 years

Sanna Marin: Estonia apologises after minister mocks Finland PM

Sanna Marin worked as a sales assistant before going to university and entering politics

Estonia's president has apologised after the country's interior minister described Finland's new prime minister as "a sales girl".

President Kersti Kaljulaid said she was "embarrassed" by the comments of Mart Helme, 70, who leads the populist far-right party Ekre.

Finnish PM Sanna Marin, 34, is the world's youngest prime minister.

She heads a centre-left coalition with four other parties, all female-led, and has been a rising star for some years.

Mr Helme made his controversial remarks on his party's radio talk-show.

"Now we see how one sales girl has become a prime minister and how some other street activists and non-educated people have also joined the cabinet," he said.

Ms Marin has spoken about growing up in a disadvantaged family. She worked as a sales assistant before going to university and embarking on a political career.

She was the first person in her family to finish high school and attend university.

Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50818032

Earth's Magnetic North Pole Continues Drifting, Crosses Prime Meridian

By Stephanie Pappas - Live Science Contributor

Earth’s magnetic field protects us from the solar wind by deflecting the charged particles.

(Image: © Shutterstock)

Earth's magnetic north pole, which has been wandering faster than expected in recent years, has now crossed the prime meridian. 

Magnetic north has been lurching away from its previous home in the Canadian Arctic toward Siberia at a rate of about 34 miles (55 kilometers) a year over the past two decades. The latest model of the Earth's magnetic field, released Dec. 10 by the National Centers for Environmental Information and the British Geological Survey, predicts that this movement will continue, though likely at a slower rate of 25 miles (40 km) each year. 

This model is used to calibrate GPS and other navigation measurements. 

Earth's magnetic field is produced by the churning of the planet's iron outer core, which produces a complex, but largely north-south magnetic field. For reasons not entirely understood but related to the planet's interior dynamics, the magnetic field is currently undergoing a period of weakening. That's why magnetic north is drifting. 

As of February 2019, magnetic north was located at 86.54 N 170.88 E, within the Arctic Ocean, according to the NCEI. (Magnetic south similarly does not line up with geographic south; it was at at 64.13 S 136.02 E off the coast of Antarctica as of February 2019.) 

Scientists release a new version of the World Magnetic Model every five years, so this 2020 update was expected. In February 2019, though, they had to release an update ahead of schedule due to the fast clip of magnetic north's movements. The 2020 model shows the "Blackout Zone" around magnetic north where compasses become unreliable and start to fail because of the proximity of true north. The new maps also show magnetic north east of the prime meridian, a boundary the pole crossed in September 2019, according to Newsweek. The prime, or Greenwich, meridian is the meridian that was set as the official marker of zero degrees, zero minutes and zero seconds in 1884;iIt runs through the Royal Observatory at Greenwich in England. 

Read more: https://www.livescience.com/earth-magnetic-north-passes-prime-meridian.html

A Janitor Allegedly Used a Botanical Code to Broker Weapons Deals for North Korea

In a case spotlighting role of regime allies in the West, Australian prosecution document alleges South Korean-born citizen tried to broker deals to sell missile parts and coal on the black market

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un overseeing a test of a rocket system in this undated state media photo released Nov. 28. PHOTO: KCNA/REUTERS

By

Rachel Pannett

Updated Dec. 17, 2019 12:00 am ET

• PRINT
• TEXT

SYDNEY—With little more than an internet connection, a laptop and a cellphone, Chan Han Choi, a soft-spoken janitor in his early 60s, allegedly played a central role in a plot to help North Korea sell missile parts and coal on the black market.

Working from a rented apartment in a Sydney suburb, the South Korean-born Australian citizen spoke in code while negotiating with groups suspected of working on Pyongyang’s behalf, police said, adding that he used botanical terms such as “little pine tree” to describe missiles and “nursery” to refer to weapons factories.

Chan Han Choi PHOTO: TROTSKYIST PLATFORM

These and other details—contained in investigation documents prepared by Australian police—are being used by prosecutors to paint a picture of an eager foot soldier for North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un who operated undetected and generated important income for Pyongyang for years before international sanctions were tightened.

The police and prosecutors allege he has been an economic agent of North Korea since at least July 2013 and brokered commodity sales for Pyongyang as early as 2008, before tighter international sanctions were in place.

Handcuffed and accompanied by three prison guards, Mr. Choi appeared in a Sydney court on Dec. 5. Dressed in a green prison sweatshirt, slacks and green sneakers, he spoke softly to a translator, self-consciously combing his hair with his hand.

A judge that day dismissed his application to have the case thrown out.

Mr. Choi has spent nearly two years in one of Australia’s most notorious prisons. He is classified as a National Security Interest prisoner, a designation authorities can impose if they think there is a risk that an inmate may engage in activities that seriously threaten the peace, or incite others to do so. His defense counsel argued at a recent bail hearing that he doesn’t pose a serious threat to the community and said Mr. Choi had an allegiance to Australian society.

His defense counsel had argued that his right to lawyer-client confidentiality is being violated because his phone conversations must be in English, which Mr. Choi doesn’t speak well, and prison guards regularly monitor these calls to check that he is speaking with an approved person. Mr. Choi also suspects authorities are listening in on his prison visits, his attorney said, although he didn’t provide any evidence.

Mr. Choi was arrested in late 2017 and has pleaded not guilty to eight charges, including providing services for a weapons-of-mass-destruction program. He is set to stand trial in February.

The Wall Street Journal has seen a 39-page police statement of allegations, a document that was referred to in court during an unsuccessful application for bail in October. Mr. Choi’s defense team has argued that none of the alleged transactions were completed.

Read more: https://www.wsj.com/articles/australian-probe-portrays-janitor-as-a-foot-soldier-for-pyongyang-11576509801

New Zealand volcano eruption: Why were tourists on White Island after volcanic activity increased?

A police investigation is underway after an eruption on a volcanic island in New Zealand killed at least six people, left eight other presumed dead and injured many more.

Police said Tuesday they were investigating the deaths on behalf of the coroner after questions were raised over why tourists were allowed on White Island after it had seen increased seismic activity in the weeks leading up to the eruption.

Those killed, missing or injured came from around the globe to visit the island when tragedy struck Monday afternoon as steam and ash blanketed the popular tourist destination.

With the odds of another eruption at 50%, search and rescue crews were still using drones to survey the island and determine when it is safe to land.

Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2019/12/10/new-zealand-volcano-eruption-why-were-tourists-white-island/4382671002/

Germany is closing all its nuclear power plants. Now it must find a place to bury the deadly waste for 1 million years

(CNN)When it comes to the big questions plaguing the world's scientists, they don't get much larger than this.

Where do you safely bury more than 28,000 cubic meters -- roughly six Big Ben clock towers -- of deadly radioactive waste for the next million years?

This is the "wicked problem" facing Germany as it closes all of its nuclear power plants in the coming years, according to Professor Miranda Schreurs, part of the team searching for a storage site.

Experts are now hunting for somewhere to bury almost 2,000 containers of high-level radioactive waste. The site must be beyond rock-solid, with no groundwater or earthquakes that could cause a leakage.

The technological challenges -- of transporting the lethal waste, finding a material to encase it, and even communicating its existence to future humans -- are huge.

But the most pressing challenge today might simply be finding a community willing to have a nuclear dumping ground in their backyard.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/30/europe/germany-nuclear-waste-grm-intl/index.html

Prince under pressure: Is this the end for Andrew?

Video captures bridge collapsing in Taiwan

"Introduction to the UBUNTU Movement by Michael Tellinger"

https://www.ubuntuplanet.org/

"'Dear Refugees: This Is How To Interact With Our Women' - Austrian Politician Releases Scandalous Video"

by Tyler Durden - Jun 7, 2016 5:43 PM

"In their ongoing attempts to assimilate and integrate the several hundred thousand recent middle-eastern refugees, both Germany and Austria have resorted to what some have dubbed childish measures, creating pamphlets and websites explaining what is permitted, either in public, by the swimming pool, or even what is proper and improper during sex (along with a basic sex education course). Not surprisingly, these have failed to work, as today's report of 69,000 crimes committed by German refugees in just the first quarter has demonstrated.

"Which is perhaps why an Austrian politician from the right-wing Freedom Party, Armin Sippel, has taken these steps to their absurd extreme and released a provocative, and according to many, scandalous video in which he 'explains' to asylum seekers, using a blonde mannequin and posters in Arabic, that European women generally don’t like being groped in public by strangers.



"The video sparked a lot of negative comments and a series of video responses, forcing Sippel to take the video down due to 'extremely aggressive personal attacks,' reports the Local.  'A debate on this unpleasant topic of sexual assaults is essential, but should be good mannered,' Sippel said on Facebook. Soon, however, the video reemerged on YouTube uploaded by others.

"Sippel appears on the screen and addresses the viewers: 'Dear … Asylum Seekers.' Then a blonde mannequin dressed in an open blouse and a low-cut skirt comes into shot.

"The politician asks migrants not to look at women provocatively, whistle or harass them. Sippel physically demonstrates on the mannequin that groping women, 'grabbing a woman by the butt or bosom' is unacceptable.  At the end of the video, Sippel shows a sign reading: 'Keep your fingers off our women'.

"As a reminder, the anti-immigration and Euroskeptic party nearly won the presidential post in a recent poll with candidate Norbert Hofer, who was even ahead of the Green Party candidate Alexander van der Bellen while ballots were being counted.

"The FPO says the making of the video was spurred by a string of sex harassment scandals in neighboring Germany involving asylum seekers.

"Only a month ago, a German education center was reportedly hired by the German government to teach migrants how to approach and get acquainted with local women at specially organized classes. Bayerischer Rundfunk television filmed one of the classes teaching migrants how to get along better with women. The majority of comments on the video were negative."



Read more: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-06-07/dear-refugees-how-interact-our-women-austrian-politician-releases-scandalous-video


And keep your fingers off of our men, children, and sheep, too.

"Photos: 52nd anniversary of JFK's assassination"

From The Journal Times.com:

"Photos of the events surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963."

"See and read more at: http://journaltimes.com/news/local/state-and-regional/photos-nd-anniversary-of-jfk-s-assassination/collection_593f464b-e869-5cd0-9345-1ae0fdda42f6.html#0"


 **************************************************************

 From: https://www.whitehouse.gov/

John F. Kennedy

"John F. Kennedy was the 35th President of the United States (1961-1963), the youngest man elected to the office. On November 22, 1963, when he was hardly past his first thousand days in office, JFK was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, becoming also the youngest President to die."

Read more:  https://www.whitehouse.gov/1600/presidents/johnfkennedy


The JFK assassination was my first experience of a moment in time when you forever remember exactly where you were and what you were doing when you heard the news.  Too many more moments like those occurred.

I believe that the JFK assassination changed the world.

"A French Muslim speaks his mind after recent events"

From LiveLeak:

"This we can all get behind, I'd say.

"Credits to https://www.facebook.com/Chronic-2-Bass-1112592598752758/"

Read more at http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=66d_1447941216#Ukil6h9abfSB6yX2.99

"Russia probes 'selfie with dead' online community"

"Moscow (AFP) - Russia is investigating an online community that urges members to post selfies with dead people and even offers cash prizes for the best shot, police told AFP on Monday.

"A police spokesman in the northern city of Syktyvkar told AFP they have opened an investigation into a community called 'Selfie with the Deceased' on popular Russian social networking site VK.

"The community's administrators pledge to pay between 1,000 and 5,000 rubles ($15-$76) for the best selfie with a corpse. They say the selfie-taker should be smiling because the deceased 'has gone to a better place.'

"The community's page is filled with photographs of people posing alongside dead bodies at funeral homes."

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/russia-probes-selfie-dead-online-community-135810494.html

Humans are crazy. 

"The Luft-wafer: Ice cream cone named after Adolf Hitler on sale in India sparks anger in Germany"

From The Daily Mail.com: 

• Germans are outraged by treat named after Adolf Hitler
• Lack of Holocaust education in the country means the snack isn't shocking
• The ice cream cones are readily-available across India
• German newspaper Bild labelled the cones a macabre publicity stunt

By Imogen Calderwood For Mailonline

Published: 09:27 EST, 26 May 2015 | Updated: 06:46 EST, 27 May 2015

"Even for the most dedicated of ice cream lovers this sweet treat may prove a little hard to swallow. Unbelievably a brand of ice cream cone is readily available in India which is named after Hitler. It’s difficult to fathom what the Nazi leader may have in common with the crunchy snack, but Hitler’s name is splashed across boxes of the tasteless delicacy which is hawked across the country.

"Meanwhile the cold eyes of the killer stare out at ice cream customers from the side of the packaging.

"In some instances he appears in cartoon form in a Swastika-shaped top hat with a jaunty red bowtie, which is somewhat at odds with his furious expression. 

"Other more sombre packages depict him in full military regalia with almost photographic realism, looking very out of place next to an ice cream that's almost as big as he is.

"But all the boxes of cones have the notorious moustache on display.

"A lack of Holocaust education in India means that people on the sub-continent know little about the Nazi leader, and consequently Hitler-themed pubs and restaurants are not viewed with outrage.

"But back in the country that struggles to shake off his murderous legacy 70 years after his death, it is a different story.

"News of the Hitler ice cream cones provoked a furious response on websites calling for the brand to be withdrawn.

"One spectator in Berlin, said: ‘There is taste and there is tastelessness. The people of India should be made aware of the terrible crimes committed by him.’

"German newspaper Bild labelled the ice cream cones a ‘macabre publicity stunt’, while several Twitter users branded them ‘tasteless!’"

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3097640/The-Luft-wafer-Ice-cream-cone-named-Adolf-Hitler-sale-India-sparks-anger-Germany.html#ixzz3bPjcYxLK
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

So everyone thought Hitler escaped to Argentina, when all along he'd been making and hawking ice cream in India.

"Volcano Calbuco Eruption Forces 1,500 People to Evacuate"

From Live Leak:

"Volcano Calbuco in southern Chile erupted for the first time in at least four decades on Wednesday, sending a thick plume of ash and smoke several kilometres into the sky.

"Chile's Onemi emergency office declared a red alert following the eruption, which occurred about 1,000 km south of the capital Santiago near the tourist town of Puerto Varas.

"About 1,500 people were being evacuated from the region, which is sparsely populated with just a few small communities, authorities said.

"'There are a lot of people out in the streets, many heading to the gas stations to fill up on gas,' Derek Way, a resident of Puerto Varas said."



http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=5d1_1429744430

"Russia’s Pravda Bashes Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker"

From Racine Exposed:

"Russia’s Pravada runs a hard hitting Editorial titled: 

"Will Wisconsin’s ignorance become America’s ignorance again? –

"And makes RE wonder – what happened to the spineless Wisconsin State Journal and The Journal Times? The times they are a changing when Pravda is telling great truths about American Politicians and the Political Environment – while American Newspapers cover up the truth and actively war-monger."

Read more:  https://racineexposed.wordpress.com/2015/03/04/russias-pravda-bashes-wisconsin-governor-scott-walker/

Je suis Charlie

"Preview: Joe Cocker and John Belushi - Feelin' Alright"

'Joe Cocker Is Dead at 70'

By BEN SISARIO

"Joe Cocker, the gravelly British singer who became one of pop’s most recognizable interpreters in the late1960s and ’70s with passionate, idiosyncratic takes on songs like the Beatles’ 'With a Little Help From My Friends,' died on Monday at his home in Crawford, Colo. He was 70.

"The cause was lung cancer, his agent, Barrie Marshall, said.".

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/23/arts/music/joe-cocker-is-dead-at-70.html