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As Sanctions Against Russia Take Hold, They Are Having The Effect Of Devastating Economies All Over Europe, Who Will Be The First To Fall?

The political impact of the cost-of-living squeeze is ultimately likely to test the continent’s resolve to keep confronting Russia at a time when its president, Vladimir Putin, is threatening to shut off gas supplies amounting to about a third of EU consumption. “This is a sword of Damocles,” said Yves Dubief, whose grandfather founded textile weaver Tenthorey, an employer of 50 people in northeastern France that produces 5 million meters of cloth a year. In such circumstances, the business leader says the state would need to revive measures used during Covid to need help with fixed costs and furloughing workers. “If there is an embargo and we have to reduce our production, whatever the price of gas, it will be a question of whether we are compensated by public authorities.”

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Two weeks since Russia began the biggest conflict in Europe since World War II, businesses across the continent are already in varying stages of despair at the consequences on livelihoods from economic sanctions.

Economic sanctions to bring Putler and Russia to their knees? Don’t count on it. In fact, the sanctions placed on Russia over the past 2 weeks is hurting the economies of Europe just as much as it is Russia, and on some levels, even more so. The thing people forget is that Russia is a nation whose people have suffering as their birthright, shutting down McDonald’s and Starbucks doesn’t do anything. But $20 a gallon petrol for the Europeans will wreck their lives and inflict pain that they will not likely survive.

“And the famine was sore in the land.” Genesis 43:1 (KJB)

In many places in the Middle East, flour is already being rationed as Ukraine and Russia account for nearly 30 percent of wheat, 17 percent of corn and over half of sunflower seed oil exports. Critically, Russia is also a major exporter of fertilizer, the price of which has already been soaring. Significant disruptions of Russian exports could see that price jump more — further driving up the cost of food production globally. In the United States soaring gas prices combined with the Biden inflation is already beginning to be felt. But Bidenflation was already in progress before Russia invaded Ukraine.

Shockwaves Spread as Europe’s Economy Reels at Energy Fallout

FROM YAHOO NEWS: A crisis of human suffering in Ukraine, whose wider economic impact prompted European Central Bank officials to quicken their withdrawal from stimulus this week, is affecting prosperity from the farmlands of Spain to the euro zone’s manufacturing core in Germany and France.

Surging energy costs are the central complaint, though disrupted supply chains, sanctions and worries about a looming demand drop are also weighing on enterprises. The abrupt shock of war nearby, combined with broad effects and an uncertain duration, will pile pressure on governments to cushion the blow as well as testing their resolve to confront Russia.

“I don’t know what to do if the war in Ukraine continues for much longer,” Spanish pig farmer Lorenzo Rivera said in an interview this week. “I either have to halt production — or close business for good.”

Rivera, whose 200 sows outnumber people in Peleas de Arriba, the settlement in northern Spain where he lives, has endured cost increases for a while — first electricity, then fuel, and then animal feed. It was all manageable until war broke out on the other side of the continent.

The root of the difficulty is the European Union’s reliance on Ukraine for over half its supply of corn, a key source of feed for pigs. With farmers unable to access fields, analysts are slashing outlooks for crops and exports there by as much as a third, sending prices to the highest in about a decade. Other economic disruption is being inflicted by the geography of the crisis. In Germany, the heartland of the euro-zone economy, Porsche AG stopped production of its Taycan electric car in Stuttgart because it lacks cable trees made in Ukraine. Meanwhile its parent, Volkswagen AG, has halted exports to Russia and stopped production at an auto factory in Kaluga outside Moscow.

Most onerous is the energy impact. If current prices persist, the extra cost of importing gas and oil will amount to an income shock of 550 billion euros ($605 billion) or 4.5% of annual gross domestic product, according to JPMorgan economist Greg Fuzesi. Goldman Sachs now reckons inflation will reach toward 8% and the euro zone will suffer a contraction in the second quarter. To many euro-zone businesses, that pinch has been immediately crippling. Just in December, Manuel Rodriguez’s Groupe Kramer took over a century-old porcelain factory in eastern France called Jurassienne de Ceramique Francaise. He has now taken the painful decision to put it in hibernation.

“If we were to pay a gas bill that’s increased 10-fold, we’d hit the wall,” he said. “We would have no other choice but to file for bankruptcy and close down the factory.”

Heading south, along Italy’s coastline, the spiraling cost of fuel has also left many trawlers unable to go to sea and sparked a week-long strike of fishing boats. Carlo Lista, who owns a fishmonger business in Rome’s Monteverde district, says the effect has been dramatic.

“About 80% of fishing boats have stopped due to the surge in fuel prices,” he said. “You go there, and it’s maybe one boat, and one guy bids and then another, and the price just goes up — whoever bids more gets the fish. Prices are just soaring and soaring.”

Grumpy fishermen are calling on Italy’s government to do something about their predicament beyond the 16 billion euros already spent to protect consumers and companies from rising energy costs. That’s a plea being echoed around the continent. In Spain, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has already extended a series of energy tax breaks to the end of June. Portugal will cut fuel levies starting on Friday, and other counterparts are likely to take similar action.

With the EU also under pressure to act, leaders are discussing the crisis in Versailles on Friday. One measure the bloc could consider would be to temporarily lift a ban on imports of genetically modified grains from the U.S. and South America to help farmers struggling with supply disruptions, according to Spain’s Agriculture Minister Luis Planas.

What Bloomberg Economics Says…

“If the gas supply is turned off, Germany and Eastern Europe almost certainly face a crunching blow to output, pushing the euro area into recession.”

The political impact of the cost-of-living squeeze is ultimately likely to test the continent’s resolve to keep confronting Russia at a time when its president, Vladimir Putin, is threatening to shut off gas supplies amounting to about a third of EU consumption.

“This is a sword of Damocles,” said Yves Dubief, whose grandfather founded textile weaver Tenthorey, an employer of 50 people in northeastern France that produces 5 million meters of cloth a year. In such circumstances, the business leader says the state would need to revive measures used during Covid to need help with fixed costs and furloughing workers. “If there is an embargo and we have to reduce our production, whatever the price of gas, it will be a question of whether we are compensated by public authorities.”

While such challenges are likely to focus governments in coming weeks, the most immediate task of addressing economic fallout has been left to ECB President Christine Lagarde. Officials accelerated stimulus withdrawal on Thursday as they unveiled forecasts showing inflation averaging 5.1% this year. The war presents a “substantial upside risk” to prices, she said.

Rodriguez, the French ceramics entrepreneur, looks on that threat with dread. He warns that the problems he’s seeing are likely to cascade throughout global manufacturing.

“There is a domino effect,” he said. “All big industrial firms on the planet have the same problem. In the more or less long term, we will all be faced with this problem of gas that’s too expensive.” READ MORE

Russia sanctions: Moscow warns it will retaliate to Europe gas changes

Russia sanctions: Alexander Novak, Russian Deputy Prime Minister speaks of how Russia will retaliate to the European gas movements as he also warned that the actions will cause prices to rise. Novak said Russia, which supplies 40% of Europe’s gas, was fulfilling its obligations in full but that it would be entirely within its rights to retaliate against the European Union after Germany last month froze the certification of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.

Oil price surge and any sanctions hurt Europe more than U.S., expert explains

Seton Hall University Professor Margarita Balmaceda sits down with Yahoo Finance Live to discuss how the energy market would be impacted by the U.S. import ban on Russian oil, additional operational costs for European refineries, and crude oil prices.

Now The End Begins is your front line defense against the rising tide of darkness in the last Days before the Rapture of the Church

When you contribute to this fundraising effort, you are helping us to do what the Lord called us to do. The money you send in goes primarily to the overall daily operations of this site. When people ask for Bibles, we send them out at no charge. When people write in and say how much they would like gospel tracts but cannot afford them, we send them a box at no cost to them for either the tracts or the shipping, no matter where they are in the world. Even all the way to South Africa. We even restarted our weekly radio Bible study on Sunday nights again, thanks to your generous donations. All this is possible because YOU pray for us, YOU support us, and YOU give so we can continue growing.

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“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJV)

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Donald Trump

The Vast Majority Of The People Who Live In Greenland Reject Trump’s ‘Manifest Destiny’ Leaving Him No Other Choice Than A Hostile Military Takeover

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U.S. President Donald Trump has made it clear what he wants: Greenland. But the Greenlanders who live there refuse to be subjugated by America and Manifest Destiny

Donald Trump is all over the news lately, talking about how he, one way or the other, will ‘get Greenland’. The people who live there said “The United States will not get Greenland. We do not belong to others. We decide our own future. We must not react with fear. We must react with calm, dignity and unity.” It would appear that the only way Trump will ‘get Greenland’ is by the use of military force, is that really where we are right now? It would appear to be so.

“And a mighty king shall stand up, that shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will.” Daniel 11:3 (KJB)

As of the date I am writing this, it is fairly unfathomable that Donald Trump will use military force to take control of Greenland, but after taking control of Venezuela and seizing their oil, it would seem that all bets are off and everything is on the table. Let’s see, when’s the last time the world watched an authoritarian leader going about and taking control of other sovereign nations while talking about peace and safety? It’s right on the tip of my tongue, if only I could remember.

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What Greenland Wants And Why Trump Can’t Afford To Buy It

FROM FORBES: “We can give the people of Greenland way more money” than “the $60,000 per year per person” they get from the Danish government, Vice President JD Vance said in an interview on Newsmax on Thursday. But judging by a January poll of public opinion in Greenland, money is not the answer to what Greenland wants. And the more Trump and his team insist that the question of Greenland is about money, the harder they make it for themselves to win the Greenlanders over.

The same day JD Vance offered the Greenlanders ‘way more money’ than the Danish government, Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen held a press conference aboard the Danish Navy inspection ship Vaedderen in Nuuk, Greenland. Flanked by Greenland’s acting elected head of government Múte Borup Egede on the one side and the newly elected head of government Jens-Frederik Nielsen on the other, Frederiksen spoke directly to the American government in English, saying: “You cannot annex another country, not even with an argument about international security.”

For the U.S. government and media, the question of Greenland is about control, specifically whether Denmark or the United States should have control of the island. But for Greenlandic and Danish leaders, it is about Greenland’s past, present, and future, specifically what it takes for Greenland to succeed as an independent country.

“We don’t want to be Americans. No, we don’t want to be Danes. We want to be Greenlanders. And we want our own independence in the future. And we want to build our own country by ourselves,” said Jens-Frederik Nielsen, just before he was elected as Greenland’s new head of government in March.

In a joint statement, the Greenlandic leaders said, “We – all party leaders – cannot accept the repeated comments about annexation and control of Greenland.” And when Trump earlier this week said, “We’ll Get Greenland. Yeah, 100%,” Nielsen shared this statement on Facebook (translated from Danish):

“President Trump says that the United States will “get Greenland”. Let me be clear: The United States will not get Greenland. We do not belong to others. We decide our own future. We must not react with fear. We must react with calm, dignity and unity. And it is through these values ​​that we must clearly, distinctly and calmly show the American president that Greenland is ours. That was the case yesterday. That is the case today. And that is the case in the future.” READ MORE

President Trump gave what some consider his strongest remarks on Greenland and Denmark recently, saying “Whether they like it or not, the nice way or the difficult way” and mentioning that the US would need the territory so Russia and China would not take it. Greenland is controlled by Denmark, and is a NATO ally of the United States. Trump has been discussing military options and other ways to gain control of the world’s largest island.

Now The End Begins is your front line defense against the rising tide of darkness in the last Days before the Rapture of the Church

When you contribute to this fundraising effort, you are helping us to do what the Lord called us to do. The money you send in goes primarily to the overall daily operations of this site. When people ask for Bibles, we send them out at no charge. When people write in and say how much they would like gospel tracts but cannot afford them, we send them a box at no cost to them for either the tracts or the shipping, no matter where they are in the world. We have a Gospel Billboard program. We are now broadcasting Bible studies, Podcasts and a Sunday Service 5 times a week, thanks to your generous donations. All this is possible because YOU pray for us, YOU support us, and YOU give so we can continue growing.

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But whatever you do, don’t do nothing. Time is short and we need your help right now. The Lord has given us an open door with a tremendous ‘course’ for us to fulfill that will create an excellent experience at the Judgement Seat of Christ. Please pray for our efforts, and if the Lord leads you to donate, be as generous as possible. The war is REAL, the battle HOT and the time is SHORTTO THE FIGHT!!!

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJB)

“Thank you very much!” – Geoffrey, editor-in-chief, NTEB

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Emmanuel Macron

Emmanuel Macron Slams Trump For For Creating A ‘New World Order’ And Abandoning His European Allies After Pulling Out Of Dozens Of EU Organizations

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Emmanuel Macron decries Trump’s America isolationist stance and says he is ‘destroying the world order’ but what’s really going on?

As if on cue, France’s Emmanuel Macron has now joined Germany’s Frank-Walter Steinmeier in sounding the alarm that Donald Trump is “destroying the world order” by pulling the United States out of a long list of U.N.-linked agreements and institutions they proudly wear as badges of global virtue. Macron, Steinmeier, the U.N., the EU — all of them are architects and defenders of the same framework that conditions the world to accept centralized authority “for the greater good.”

“Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.” Psalms 146:3 (KJB)

One side screams “Global cooperation!” The other side screams “America first!” But neither side is your friend. The Bible tells you not to pin your hope on princes, because today’s hero is tomorrow’s headline, and all of them are dust in God’s hands. It’s the direction of the world to go toward a one-world political order that culminates in a one-world ruler. Trump stepping away from these “woke” U.N. agreements doesn’t derail prophecy, it doesn’t even slow it down. If anything, it agitates the system, forcing elites to double down on calls for stronger global enforcement. Chaos always precedes consolidation. And consolidation always produces a demand for a savior-figure who promises order, stability, and peace — at a cost. Right now you are watching the chaos, just wait for the consolidation. Something worse than the United Nations is coming.

Emmanuel Macron says Trump is ‘destroying world order’ after leaving ‘woke’ UN agreements

FROM METRO UK: The Trump administration announced it wouldn’t take part in the UN’s population agency, international climate negotiations, UN Women and other organisations. Many of the targets are UN-related agencies that focus on issues the Trump administration has categorised as catering to diversity and ‘woke’ intiatives’. Other non-UN organisations on the list include the Partnership for Atlantic Cooperation, the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance and the Global Counterterrorism Forum.

The move has been slammed by international leaders, with French President Emmanuel Macron saying the US is ‘breaking free from international rules’ and ‘gradually turning away’ from some of its allies.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier went further, saying America was destroying the world order.

‘Then there is the breakdown of values by our most important partner, the USA, which helped build this world order,’ he said. ‘It is about preventing the world from turning into a den of robbers, where the most unscrupulous take whatever they want, where regions or entire countries are treated as the property of a few great powers.’

In the executive order signed by Trump, posted on the White House website, it reads: ‘After deliberating with my Cabinet, have determined that it is contrary to the interests of the United States to remain a member of, participate in, or otherwise provide support to these organisations.’

This July, Trump pulled the US out of UNESCO over its support for what he calls ‘woke causes’.

The State Department accused UNESCO of having ‘a globalist, ideological agenda for international development at odds with our America First foreign policy’. The department’s spokeswoman, Tammy Bruce, said that ‘continued involvement in UNESCO is not in the national interest of the United States’. READ MORE

French President Emmanuel Macron sharply criticised the United States under President Donald Trump, saying it is “breaking free from international rules” and “gradually turning away from some of its allies” amid tension over renewed U.S. interest in Greenland. Macron’s remarks, delivered to French ambassadors, reflect growing European concern about Trump’s assertive foreign policy and the perception that long‑standing alliances are being undermined. His comments come as European leaders press for respect for Greenland’s sovereignty and coordinated diplomacy in response to U.S. actions.

Now The End Begins is your front line defense against the rising tide of darkness in the last Days before the Rapture of the Church

When you contribute to this fundraising effort, you are helping us to do what the Lord called us to do. The money you send in goes primarily to the overall daily operations of this site. When people ask for Bibles, we send them out at no charge. When people write in and say how much they would like gospel tracts but cannot afford them, we send them a box at no cost to them for either the tracts or the shipping, no matter where they are in the world. We have a Gospel Billboard program. We are now broadcasting Bible studies, Podcasts and a Sunday Service 5 times a week, thanks to your generous donations. All this is possible because YOU pray for us, YOU support us, and YOU give so we can continue growing.

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But whatever you do, don’t do nothing. Time is short and we need your help right now. The Lord has given us an open door with a tremendous ‘course’ for us to fulfill that will create an excellent experience at the Judgement Seat of Christ. Please pray for our efforts, and if the Lord leads you to donate, be as generous as possible. The war is REAL, the battle HOT and the time is SHORTTO THE FIGHT!!!

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJB)

“Thank you very much!” – Geoffrey, editor-in-chief, NTEB

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European Union

NATO Jet Fighters Scramble In Poland While Russia Unleashes A Hellish Fury Upon Ukraine As WWIII Begins Knocking Loudly On The End Times Door

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NATO fighter jets were scrambled and air defense systems put on alert in Poland in response to Russia’s latest overnight drone and missile strikes in Ukraine

NATO fighter jets roared into the midnight sky over Poland last night as Russia unleashed hundreds of drones and missiles into Ukraine, this is more than just another headline in the endless drumbeat of war. The birth pangs are becoming impossible to ignore. What we are watching unfold in Eastern Europe is yet another reminder that the global stage is being prepared for the time of Jacob’s trouble, the rise of Antichrist, and the reshaping of world powers exactly as foretold in the King James Bible.

And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.” Matthew 24:6-8 (KJB)

The prophet Daniel saw a final form of world government, a revived Roman system — strong in places, weak in others, but unified under one global ruler (Daniel 2:41–43). What is NATO if not the lingering iron of the old Roman Empire stretching across Europe? And soon a man will arise who will promise peace, stability, and safety — and the world will hand him everything. All of this points in one unmistakable direction: The Age of Grace is closing, and the time of Jacob’s trouble is approaching. The world cannot sustain this level of geopolitical tension without breaking. The Bible says it will break — spectacularly, after the Rapture when God turns His focus back to Israel and pours judgment on a Christ-rejecting world. If you’re saved, this should stir your soul and remind you that the ‘voice like a trumpet’ is close to sounding. If you’re lost, the window of mercy is still open — but not for long.

NATO fighters scrambled in Poland as Russia bombards Ukraine

FROM ABC NEWS: “Fighter jets have been scrambled and ground-based air defense systems as well as radar reconnaissance systems have reached a state of readiness,” the command said in a post to X. “These actions are of a preventive nature and are aimed at securing the airspace and its protection, especially in areas adjacent to the threatened regions,” it added. The alert lasted for just under four hours, after which the command said the fighters and air defense systems had “returned to standard operational activities.” No violations of Polish airspace were observed, a follow-up post to X said.

The Spanish and Czech air forces were involved in the response, the command said, as were German and Dutch air defense systems. Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 653 drones and 51 missiles — 17 of them ballistic missiles — into the country overnight. The air force said 585 drones and 30 missiles were shot down or suppressed.

Drone and missile impacts were reported across 29 locations, the air force said.

The attack — which consisted of 704 air attack weapons — was Russia’s largest overnight bombardment since it launched 705 munitions on the night of Oct. 29, according to Ukrainian air force data analyzed by ABC News. The largest attack of the war to date took place on the night of Sept. 6 and involved 823 air attack vehicles. The latest overnight attack is only the fourth of Russia’s full-scale invasion to date in which the number of air attack vehicles used surpassed 700.

Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs Iho Klymenko said in a post to Telegram that 10 regions of the country came under attack, with direct hits to residential buildings, railways and energy infrastructure. More than two dozen houses in the Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zhytomyr and Lviv regions were damaged, according to Klymenko. At least three people were injured in the Kyiv region, another three people were injured in the Dnipropetrovsk region and two people were injured in the Lviv region, Klymenko said.

In the Black Sea port city of Odesa, regional Gov. Oleh Kiper said an energy facility was damaged, resulting in disruptions to the supply of power and heating. Some 9,500 customers were without heating and 34,000 without water as of 9:30 a.m. local time. There was also damage to energy infrastructure in the Chernihiv, Zaporizhzhia, Lviv and Dnipropetrovsk regions, according to authorities there.

The International Atomic Energy Agency — the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog — said in a post to X that Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant also temporarily lost all off-site power during the Russian strikes.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi “reiterates call for military restraint to avoid a nuclear accident,” the post said. Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said she had “convened an emergency coordination meeting” with the ministers of internal affairs and energy as well as the leadership of the state-run energy companies and all services responsible for recovery operations. READ MORE

Now The End Begins is your front line defense against the rising tide of darkness in the last Days before the Rapture of the Church

When you contribute to this fundraising effort, you are helping us to do what the Lord called us to do. The money you send in goes primarily to the overall daily operations of this site. When people ask for Bibles, we send them out at no charge. When people write in and say how much they would like gospel tracts but cannot afford them, we send them a box at no cost to them for either the tracts or the shipping, no matter where they are in the world. We have a Gospel Billboard program. We are now broadcasting Bible studies, Podcasts and a Sunday Service 5 times a week, thanks to your generous donations. All this is possible because YOU pray for us, YOU support us, and YOU give so we can continue growing.

nteb-free-king-james-bible-program-750-550

But whatever you do, don’t do nothing. Time is short and we need your help right now. The Lord has given us an open door with a tremendous ‘course’ for us to fulfill that will create an excellent experience at the Judgement Seat of Christ. Please pray for our efforts, and if the Lord leads you to donate, be as generous as possible. The war is REAL, the battle HOT and the time is SHORTTO THE FIGHT!!!

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJB)

“Thank you very much!” – Geoffrey, editor-in-chief, NTEB

Continue Reading

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