Defense Minister Gallant instructed the defense establishment to advance all options for an Israeli response, in preparation for the security cabinet meeting. The barrage included 34 rocket launches from Lebanese territory into Israeli territory, the IDF confirmed in a statement.

Of the 34 rockets, 25 were intercepted in the air, while five landed on Israeli territory. The location of four of the rockets is still under investigation. The rocket barrage from Lebanon comes amid increased tensions between Palestinians and Israeli security forces on Temple Mount, with clashes reported between armed Palestinians and Israeli police in al-Aqsa. The Israeli Air Force also struck in Gaza on Wednesday in response to rockets fired from the Strip targeting southern Israel earlier this week.

On Tuesday, police said they had entered Al-Aqsa after masked youths barricaded themselves inside the mosque atop the Temple Mount with fireworks, clubs and rocks and refused to come out peacefully. Officers apparently believed the group intended to assault Jews visiting the mount on Passover Eve. Video of police apparently beating Palestinians in the mosque went viral and sparked outrage across the Muslim world. Police said in response that they had come under direct fire.

“Turkey cannot stay silent in the face of these attacks. Trampling on the Al-Aqsa mosque is our red line,” Erdogan said during a dinner Wednesday for those breaking daytime fasting, a practice for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. “Palestinians are not alone,” he added.

“Israel will respond strongly to any attempt to harm Israeli citizens; Hamas is responsible for the latest round of escalation — on the Temple Mount, in Gaza and in Lebanon — and Hamas will pay the price for recent events; Israel is committed to the status quo on the Temple Mount and to freedom of worship in Jerusalem for all religions,” the ministry said.

It is hoped that the thawing of Syria-Türkiye animosities will usher an end to foreign meddling in Syria, including the occupation of its oil-rich regions by US forces. Given that Türkiye is a powerful US military ally in the region and was a major staging point for US military support to anti-Assad militant groups, this would undermine Washington’s logistical, strategic and diplomatic abilities to interfere in Damascus’ internal affairs. It would also help integrate Syria back into the Middle East and global communities.

Indeed, Saudi Arabia recently announced plans to invite the Syrian president to the next Arab League summit in Riyadh in May. This is a major signal that Syria’s decade-long exclusion from the Arab community, at the behest of Washington, is coming to an end. It may help continue the regional integration of the Middle East despite foreign meddling and attempts at division.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman once famously remarked that “the new Europe will be the Middle East.” However, to truly be “the new Europe” would require much deeper political integration for the whole region. At the same time, it is important to note that the foundations of the European Union, before open borders and a common political framework, were based on economic development and win-win cooperation.

Gallant had conveyed the same concerns privately to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his leadership colleagues, warning them that the external threats were rising because Israel’s enemies smelled internal weakness, and urging that the key decision-making security cabinet be convened to address the dangers.

Specifically, the defense minister told the nation, his own government’s insistence on blitzing through legislation to overhaul the judiciary, was causing a “growing rift in our society” that was now penetrating the IDF and security agencies. It was so profound a rift, indeed, he said, as to pose “a clear, immediate, and tangible threat to the security of the state.”

Gallant pleaded publicly with Netanyahu, as he had pleaded with him privately, to halt the legislation, and instead “initiate a unifying national process with broad participation… for the sake of Israel’s security, for the sake of our sons and daughters.”

Down the ages, there have been claims in the West Country that Jesus visited the area with His uncle, Joseph of Arimathea. The suggestion has been laughed off as a wildly improbable myth. But people from the eastern Mediterranean had visited Cornwall to trade for tin for at least 1,000 years by the time Jesus was born.

High on Penwith Moors, near the tip of Cornwall, sits the pumping engine house, above, that once served what is reputedly the oldest tin mine in Britain. It is said to have supplied ore used to build King Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem. In 2019, scientific analysis of pure tin ingots recovered from Bronze Age shipwrecks off the coast of Israel proved that the metal had been mined in Cornwall.

Glyn S Lewis, author of Did Jesus Come To Britain?, has concluded after a lifetime of research that Christ came to our shores twice, visiting Cornwall and Somerset. Lewis told The Mail on Sunday: 'The legend that Jesus came here is very strong. It is a historical fact that Christianity came to Cornwall very early on. St Augustine was sent here by Pope Gregory in the 6th Century to convert the English, but when he got to the western part of Britain he found people already worshipping Christ.'

But there is no doubt that Christianity was seeded in Cornwall. Churches sprang up in the South West far earlier than in any other part of Britain, and by the time St Augustine arrived in 597 AD, there was a thriving church community.

The US is no longer the power it once was, and has failed to rally the Arab world against Iran and curtail its nuclear program, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a speech to senior officials on Tuesday.

The Ayatollah went on to note the rise of several “anti-American” governments in Latin America, the declining importance of the dollar in global trade, the political chaos in Israel, and the diplomatic consequences of the EU “taking the brunt of the war” in Ukraine on Washington’s behalf as examples of the US’ waning influence.

"In order to take advantage of this opportunity, we must increase our dynamism, initiative and activities in foreign policy," Khamenei said.

The comments come just hours after Russia announced it had deployed nuclear-capable missiles to the borders of NATO in Belarus, and refitted Belarussian jets with the equipment to carry and drop nuclear bombs. Moscow made a tacit accusation that the United States was to blame for this, saying Russia was doing no more than America already did, in stationing nuclear weapons in the territory of European allies.

The US is “playing with fire” and was risking making “fatal mistakes”, Ryabkov said, saying the Russian Federation “will be ready to take all measures and to use all means at our disposal” if there were attempts to encroach on their sovereignty.

80,000-100,000 acres of Farmland Threatened to go Underwater as Record Snow Depths Melt in California Mountains. The California Department of Water Resources conducted a snow survey yesterday, stating that this year’s snowpack melt could top every record they’ve ever seen since the snow sensor network was established in the 1980s.

Mark Grewal, an agronomist since 1979, with more than 59 years of experience in the agricultural business lived through it in the 1983 flooding. He says he expects this one to be much worse. “If it’s anywhere like 83, you’re going to see between 80,000-100,000 acres of farmland go underwater and it’s going to be around 200 square miles, maybe a little bit bigger,” Grewal said. “That water could be there for two years,” Grewal says, “It’s going to have a major impact.”

Grewal says it’s going to have a trickle-down effect on the Central Valley and the entire state. “All the dairy cows impacted, the feed for those cows, you’ve got your butter, your milk, your ice cream, your cheeses and all of those things, are going to be affected,” he said. He says Tulare County alone produces over 20% of all the milk in the United States.

Since California produces so much of the nation’s food, the loss of agricultural products in California is going to cause shortages and higher prices. Amid flooded farm fields and warnings of more rain, food prices are likely to go up as California is responsible for producing one-third of vegetables and three-quarters of fruits and nuts in the US, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture. “California is the leading agricultural state in the United States,” produce expert Michael Marks said, as per a report in Alaska’s News Source.

California also grows a lot of grains, not to sell in the retail market, but to feed their huge dairy and cattle industries in feed lots, and many of these grain fields are also under water now. If they have to go outside the state to secure wheat and other grains, they may have a difficult time doing so based on a report published today about high prices of American winter wheat, due to droughts in the Midwest.

To make matters even worse, the announcement by OPEC over the weekend to reduce oil production is going to lead to higher fuel prices, and farmers are already one of the largest consumers of diesel gasoline to run all their farm equipment, and now many of them would need to transport grains from far away just to keep their dairy and cattle farms operating, increasing their need for fuel. This is a national disaster on the nation’s food supply that is an ongoing breaking news story that few yet fully understand.

But though the bounty has eased drought conditions, experts warn that the dense Sierra Nevada snowpack will soon melt, potentially unleashing torrents of water and creating considerable concern about spring flooding in valleys, foothills and communities below.

"All of that water is going to have to come downhill sooner rather than later," said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA. Incoming warmer weather is "good news for a lot of folks who need it, but it does mean that the 'big melt' is on the way."

Erdogan attended a ceremony in the Bagcilar district of Istanbul on Sunday, dedicated to the official opening of nearly 100 houses and other facilities built in the wake of a series of devastating earthquakes. In a follow-up meeting with a group of officials from the far-right Grey Wolves movement, he focused on the May 14 election and the US envoy’s alleged abuse of his diplomatic authority.

“We need to teach America a lesson in these elections,” Erdogan said, as cited by Anadolu. Ambassador Flake met with the leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), Kemal Kilicdaroglu, on March 29, “as part of continuing conversations with Turkish political parties on issues of mutual interest between our two countries,” according to a tweet from the US Embassy.

“Our doors are closed for him, he can no longer come in. Why? He needs to know his place,” Erdogan said. “Shame on you, think with your head. You are an ambassador. Your interlocutor here is the president.”

The Need for New California: The US Declaration of Independence of 1776, the Alta California Declaration of Independence of 1836 and the Sonoma Proclamation of 1846 declared the Right of the People in the states of Alta California and California respectively to throw off the bonds of tyranny.

Constitutional Authority to Act: The current state of California has become governed by a tyranny, which rivals those expressed in the above documents. Therefore the United States Declaration of Independence of 1776, the Constitution as adapted in 1783 by the Congress of the United States of America, the Alta California Declaration of Independence of 1836, the Sonoma Proclamation of 1846, and the California State Constitution of 1848 Mandate the Right, the Responsibility, the Duty of the People who are suffering the long train of abuses and usurpations at the hands of a tyrannical government to abolish and make new a government by the People and for the People under GOD.

​New California will be the 6th largest State behind New York (bigger than Illinois and Pennsylvania). It’s Estimated 25-27 seats in the US House of Representatives will go to New California. Old California will become the 2nd most populous state behind Texas and ahead of Florida, losing 25-27 seats in the US House of Representatives.

Such confrontations at the contested holy compound, the third holiest shrine in Islam that is also the most sacred site in Judaism and referred to as the Temple Mount, have sparked deadly cross-border wars between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers in the past, the last of which was in 2021.

Videos on social media purportedly showed Israeli police officers beating Palestinians with batons and rifle butts at the mosque.Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that dozens of worshippers, who spend all the night during Ramadan praying, were injured when the police raided the mosque.

There are fears that violence in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank could escalate this month, when the Muslim holy month of Ramadan coincides with Judaism's Passover and Christian Easter. Hamas, which rules Gaza, warned on Monday that permitting Jewish sacrifice in the compound 'would fuel an already explosive situation, for which the Israeli occupation government bears full responsibility'.

Because this year, Easter has gone beyond a few hours of eggs, bonnets and hot cross buns. From seasonal decorations to springtime crackers and even Easter ‘stockings’ (in the form of baskets to be filled with goodies) being put out by children on ‘Easter Eve’ — or Holy Saturday, as it was once known — Easter has unashamedly become the new Christmas.

So much so, say experts, that it’s now worth a staggering £2 billion to British retailers — not incomparable to Christmas itself. It’s no wonder shops are cashing in. At John Lewis, which has seen a 266 per cent rise in sales of Easter decorations year on year, there are almost 100 products in its seasonal interiors category.

Easter trees are flying off the shelves, along with hand-painted glass egg ‘baubles’ (£12 for five), floral fabric bunting (from £6) and felt decorations in the shape of carrots and lambs (£6 each). You can even add tree lights. At Next, there’s a table-top light-up tree (£35), while Amazon sells a white tree (£17.49) which comes with lights, pastel eggs and wooden message tags. Though not quite on the scale of a festive fir, they’re favoured by everyone from interiors influencers to A-listers. So if you truly want to embrace the season, it seems, you’ll have to do a lot better than buying a few chocolate treats.

There is also the problem of the currency and interest rate derivatives. No one knows the risk in these instruments. The US dollar itself is declining in use as world reserve currency. Alarmed by Washington’s weaponization of the dollar with sanctions and confiscations, much of the world is arranging to abandon the dollar’s use to settle international trade accounts, but the supply of dollars is not declining. This implies a fall in the dollar’s exchange value. The offshoring of manufacturing and food production has made the US heavily dependent on imports. A loss in the dollar’s exchange value resulting from countries settling their trade balances in other currencies means a sharp rise in US inflation.

The Federal Reserve hasn’t the intelligence to think through the consequences of its higher interest rate policy. The federal government cannot comprehend the consequences of offshoring for the US trade deficit or the consequences of continuing massive US budget deficits for the Treasury market.

Washington is too arrogant to comprehend the new way in which the US is perceived abroad. The world sees the dollar-based reserve currency system as Washington’s punishment device, and the world sees dollar-based debt expanding while demand for dollars declines. The result will be a drop in the foreign exchange value of dollar denominated financial instruments such as stocks and bonds.