Important Takeaways:
- China is expanding the number of road-mobile DF-26 intermediate-range ballistic missiles that Beijing has called the “Guam killer” for its ability to attack American forces on the Pacific Island, according to a Defense Intelligence Agency report on foreign nuclear threats.
- Chinese officials said the U.S. withdrawal from the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty between the United States and Russia in 2019 has hurt strategic stability between the world’s top nuclear powers. In response, China has “fielded thousands of weapon systems, including the DF-26, that would be covered by the treaty if China were to participate,” the report said.
- Actual numbers of single-warhead DF-26s were not included in the report. Private defense analysts estimate there are 250 launchers along with additional reload missiles.
- The missile is also said to be capable of attacking U.S. aircraft carriers at sea.
- The DIA said in 2020 China’s total warhead arsenal was estimated to be in the “low 200s,”… It now has more than 500 warheads and is on track to have over 1,000 warheads by 2030. The warheads will be deployed on missiles and bombers capable of reaching the United States, the report said.
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Important Takeaways:
- So, what does Metaxas say? He says North American Christianity is too much the same as that found in the German Church of the 1930s. In his view, that’s a bad thing.
- “So the only question,” he writes, “is whether we might understand those parallels, and thereby avoid the fatal mistakes the German Church made during that time.”
- What fatal mistakes did the German Church make? We don’t have to guess because Bonhoeffer, as Metaxas makes clear, identified those mistakes for us. The German Church’s first mistake was the failure to recognize with the coming to power of Hitler and the Nazis, the world changed and not for the better. As Metaxas puts it, “They seemed to think what might have worked in 1915 or 1925 would work in 1935… They refused to see the new situation and to act accordingly.”
- Metaxas then gives details to show the same situation prevails in North America today. We don’t face Nazis but “the emergence of ideas and forces that ultimately are at war with God Himself.”
- All of them, Metaxas says, spring from a central source, “atheistic Marxist ideology,” as expressed in Critical Race Theory’s many guises, and “radical transgender and pro-abortion ideologies” that are “inescapably anti-God and anti-human.”
- To summarize, “These ideas have over many decades infiltrated our own culture in such a way they touch everything, and part of what makes them so wicked is that they smilingly pretend to share the biblical values that champion the underdog against the oppressor.”
- What, then, are we to do? Bonhoeffer spelled out his position in an April 1933 essay, The Church and the Jewish Question. In the essay, written on behalf of the “Emergency Pastors League,” Bonhoeffer argued “the church was the conscience of the state and must call it to account,” and “that it must loudly object if the state was doing wrong.”
- Churches must not, as Metaxas denounces in scathing terms, retreat to a focus on “the gospel” as though God has nothing to say about public evil.
- “This is not just nonsense,” Metaxas writes, “but is a supremely deceptive and satanic lie, designed only to silence those who would genuinely speak for truth.”
- But more from Bonhoeffer as Metaxas reports it: “… the Christian Church was obligated to help any victims of the state,” he wrote. Then he really bore down, “… if the state refused to change course and do the right thing, but rather continued in its sins — which in this case were principally focused on persecuting the Jews — it was the solemn obligation of Christians to take action. They were not merely to protest verbally and to help the victims, but were also to become actively political — to ‘shove a stick in the spokes’ of the wheel of the rumbling machine of the state.”
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Important Takeaways:
- In recent years, author and radio host Eric Metaxas and other conservative Christian supporters of Donald Trump have compared themselves to the famed German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer — who was put to death, in part, for participating in a plan to assassinate Adolph Hitler.
- In a recent interview on Flashpoint, a Christian television talk show on the Victory network, both Metaxas — author of a bestselling biography of Bonhoeffer — and the show’s host called the current election a “Bonhoeffer moment” and urged Christians to rise up and oppose evil.
- That evil, in Metaxas’ eyes, is the Democrats, who, he has argued, stole the 2020 election and whom he often compares to Nazis. For him, if Democrats win the next election, it could mean the end of America as we know it. Metaxas has argued and has claimed in the past that Trump is God’s chosen candidate and that those who oppose him oppose God.
- His newest book, “Religionless Christianity” — a phrase used by Bonhoeffer — describes America’s current politics as a spiritual war and sign of the end times.
- A group of Bonhoeffer scholars — and the theologian’s descendants — have had enough. In a statement issued Friday (Oct. 18) members of the International Bonhoeffer Society called on Metaxas and others to stop comparing the current election to the rise of the Nazis. The statement, in particular, called out Metaxas for social media posts featuring a gun and a Bible and his support of Jan. 6 rioters.
- “This portrayal glorifies violence and draws inappropriate analogies between our political system and that of Nazi Germany,” the scholars said in a statement, which has been signed by more than 800 Bonhoeffer scholars and other Christian leaders. “It is a dangerous misuse of Bonhoeffer’s life and lessons, particularly in this election season in the United States.”
- The statement from the Bonhoeffer Society makes a similar point.
- “Any attempt to invoke Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his resistance against Hitler as a reason to engage in political violence in our contemporary context must be strongly opposed,” it says. “Moreover, while Bonhoeffer supported the coup, he refused to offer a Christian or theological justification for it. He understood the dangers of such a rationale.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Two days after Israel’s historic strike on Iran, the Middle East is still processing its impact. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that the attack on Iran was precise, powerful, and achieved all of its goals.
- “We severely damaged Iran’s defense capacity and the ability to produce missiles aimed at us,” he said.
- Three waves of attacks, involving more than 100 warplanes, struck targets over 1,000 miles from Israel. However, the IDF Chief of Staff noted that Israel used only a fraction of its capabilities.
- Satellite images reveal extensive damage to key Iranian military installations, potentially delaying Iran’s ballistic missile production for years. Israel also dismantled air defenses in Iraq, Syria, and Iran, including advanced S-300 and S-400 systems.
- Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman sees this as a powerful message to Iran. “Most importantly, it’s sending the message to Iran. Anytime, we want. We gotcha,” Friedman told CBN News. “And we didn’t do it this time but keep it up, keep up this nuclear program and you’ll see us in the near future.”
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Important Takeaways:
- China is expected to double its nuclear arsenal to 1,000 warheads over the next five years, according to a new Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report.
- In 2020, the DIA assessed China had acquired 200 nuclear warheads and would double that by the end of the decade. Now, the intelligence agency says China has already reached 500 warheads and will have more than 1,000 by 2030.
- “China is undergoing the most rapid expansion and ambitious modernization of its nuclear forces in history,” the report said, while noting China’s capabilities are still far behind that of the U.S. or Russia.
- At the same time, China carried out another “combat control” near the island over the weekend as Beijing threatens countermeasures for the U.S.’ $2 billion arms deal with Taiwan.
- The Pentagon has lately been grappling with how to prepare for 2027 – the point at which Chinese leaders have told their military they should have the capability to invade Taiwan.
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Important Takeaways:
- Iran’s Guards chief warns of ‘bitter, unimaginable consequences’ for Israel’s strike
- The head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Monday that Israel had “failed to achieve its ominous goals” with its Saturday strikes on Iranian military sites.
- Hossein Salami, quoted by the Tasnim news agency, said the Israeli attack, which came in retaliation for Iran’s Oct. 1 ballistic missile barrage on the country, was a sign of “miscalculation and helplessness” as Israel battles the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.
- “Its bitter consequences will be unimaginable” for Israel, Salami warned according to Tasnim.
- Meanwhile, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei warned that Tehran would use “all available tools” to respond to Israel’s strikes.
- Speaking at a weekly televised news conference, Baghaei said Iran would “use available tools to deliver a definite and effective response to the Zionist regime.”
- Israel has indicated it will not take further action if Iran holds its fire after its two strikes on the Jewish state — in April and in October — but has threatened escalation if the Islamic Republic launches a third barrage.
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Important Takeaways:
- North Korea has sent about 10,000 troops to Russia to train and fight in Ukraine within “the next several weeks,” the Pentagon said Monday, in a move that Western leaders say will intensify the almost three-year war and jolt relations in the Indo-Pacific region.
- Some of the North Korean soldiers have already moved closer to Ukraine, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said, and were believed to be heading for the Kursk border region, where Russia has been struggling to push back a Ukrainian incursion.
- Earlier Monday, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte NATO confirmed recent Ukrainian intelligence reports that some North Korean military units were already in the Kursk region.
- Adding thousands of North Korean soldiers to Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II will pile more pressure on Ukraine’s weary and overstretched army. It will also stoke geopolitical tensions in the Korean Peninsula and the wider Indo-Pacific region, including Japan and Australia, Western officials say.
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Important Takeaways:
- A deadly E. coli outbreak linked to McDonald’s Quarter Pounders has led to 75 cases in 13 states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday, as it investigates the source of the spread.
- The outbreak has led to 22 hospitalizations and one previously reported death of an older adult in Colorado.
- Out of 61 patients with information available, 22 have been hospitalized and two people have developed a serious condition that can cause kidney failure, called hemolytic uremic syndrome. All of the 42 people who were interviewed by the CDC reported eating at McDonald’s, while 39 people reported eating a beef hamburger, the agency said.
- Those with infections ranged from ages 13 to 88, according to the CDC. The agency reiterated that the number of cases in the outbreak is likely much higher than what has been reported so far. The CDC added that the outbreak may not be limited to the states with related cases. That is because many patients don’t test for E. coli and recover from an infection without receiving medical care, the CDC said. It also usually takes three to four weeks to determine if a sick person is part of an outbreak.
- Those with infections ranged from ages 13 to 88, according to the CDC. The agency reiterated that the number of cases in the outbreak is likely much higher than what has been reported so far. The CDC added that the outbreak may not be limited to the states with related cases. That is because many patients don’t test for E. coli and recover from an infection without receiving medical care, the CDC said. It also usually takes three to four weeks to determine if a sick person is part of an outbreak.
- McDonald’s declined to comment on the update, citing the company’s statement when the outbreak was first announced.
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Important Takeaways:
- China on October 22 conducted live-fire exercises in the Taiwan Strait.
- The bellicose move follows a 13-hour simulated blockade of Taiwan on October 14 and 15. The People’s Liberation Army, in the Joint Sword-2024B exercises, employed a record 153 planes as well 26 ships, including the Liaoning, one of the country’s three aircraft carriers.
- The Chinese Coast Guard participated in the massive drill as well, carrying out, as the Economist noted, an “unprecedented” patrol around the main Taiwan island.
- The drill, according to the Chinese Coast Guard, was a “practical action to control Taiwan island in accordance with the law based on the one-China principle.”
- Beijing maintains that the island has been an “inalienable” part of China since time immemorial. The People’s Republic has never exercised control over Taiwan. In fact, no Chinese regime has ever held indisputable sovereignty to it. Chiang Kai-shek, the first Chinese ruler to exercise control of the whole island, arrived in 1949.
- A quarantine is a cunning maneuver at a time that China is not prepared for a full-scale war and is not ready to start hostilities by launching an invasion of Taiwan’s main island.
- Not prepared? Xi Jinping does not trust the Chinese military, a war on Taiwan would be extremely unpopular with the Chinese people, and the Chinese regime is extremely casualty averse.
- Xi, therefore, is trying to intimidate everyone else into submission.
- “The real target is the United States.” … They were “practicing ways to ambush the U.S. Navy if it heads towards an already held-hostage Taiwan.” — Chang Ching of the R.O.C. Society for Strategic Studies.
- Xi’s implied threats to use these weapons are particularly ominous. We have to ask ourselves: When in history has a militant regime engaged in belligerent acts and constantly threatened to go to war but did not actually do so?
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