"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths." Northwoods is a ministry dedicated to refreshing Christians and challenging them to search for the truth in Christianity, politics, sociology, and science
"I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life"
Father God, thank you for the love of the truth you have given me. Please bless me with the wisdom, knowledge and discernment needed to always present the truth in an attitude of grace and love. Use this blog and Northwoods Ministries for your glory. Help us all to read and to study Your Word without preconceived notions, but rather, let scripture interpret scripture in the presence of the Holy Spirit. All praise to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
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British police warned Monday that an arson attack that destroyed four Jewish community ambulances at a synagogue in north London could be upgraded from an "antisemitic hate crime" to a terrorist incident. Photo by Andy Rain/EPA
March 23 (UPI) --Police in London said Monday they were treating the torching of four ambulances belonging to a Jewish community charity overnight as an "anti-Semitic hate crime."
The London Fire Brigade, which deployed six engines and 40 firefighters to the incident in the Golders Green area of north London, said gas cylinders inside the Hatzola Trust ambulances exploded, shattering windows in nearby residential properties. No one was hurt, but at least 34 people were evacuated, the fire department said.
Footage circulating online showed three people, purported to be the suspects, approaching one of the ambulances before setting it alight.
Metropolitan Police Superintendent Luke Williams said the investigation was being led by counter-terrorism officers, but had not yet been declared a terrorist incident.
Williams said he believed CCTV that showed "three people in hoods pouring accelerant onto vehicles before igniting it" was of the suspects police were hunting.
He said the Met was investigating a claim of responsibility made online by a group as a priority.
Earlier, an Iran-aligned militant network calling itself the Islamic Movement of the People of the Right Hand said it carried out the attack.
CNN said the ambulances were parkedoutside a synagoguewhen they were attacked. Charlie Richards, a local resident, said she heard "multiple explosions," and shared video she took on her phone that CNN said was of a large, orange fireball and smoke billowing into the sky. Prime Minister Keir Starmer called it a "horrific anti-Semitic attack" and called for unity, while Health Secretary Wes Streeting promised the government would temporarily loan ambulances to Hatzola and pay for new ones to replace those destroyed. "The Jewish community should not be left footing the bill for this appalling attack on a brilliant ambulance service," said Streeting. The volunteer-run, non-profit, Hatzola received theKing's Award for Voluntary Servicein 2023. Golders Green is home to one of London's largest Jewish communities with many synagogues, schools and kosher restaurants. Attacks on British Jews have been on the rise since the war inGazasparked by the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel. Monday's incident comes just over two weeks after counter-terrorism police in London arrested four Iranian men on suspicion of conducting surveillance for Iranian intelligence of individuals and locations linked to the Jewish community in the capital. In October, two people were killed and three seriously injured in a terror attack on a synagogue in Manchester. The attacker, Jihad Al Shamie, was shot dead by police at the scene. At least one other person has been charged in connection with the attack and several others have been arrested.
In February, a court sentenced three British men to a total of 69 years in prison for planning a terrorist attack on the Jewish community in Greater Manchester. ==================================================
25 pct of N. Korean defectors from near Punggye-ri nuclear test site show chromosome mutations: data
By Park Boram, Yonhap News Agency
A quarter of North Korean defectors from regions near the Punggye-ri nuclear test site have shown chromosome mutations, data showed Monday. File Photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI | License Photo
A quarter of North Korean defectors from regions near the northeastern Punggye-ri nuclear test site have shown chromosome mutations possibly attributable to exposure to radioactivity, data showed Monday.
Radioactive exposure tests conducted in 2024 by the Korea Institute of Radiological & Medical Sciences (KIRAMS) on 35 North Korean defectors from eight regions near the Punggye-ri nuclear test site found that 12 of them, or 34 percent, showed chromosome mutations possibly linked to radiation exposure, according to the unification ministry.
The regions include Kilju, Kimchaek and Paekam. Since 2006, the North has conducted all of its six nuclear tests at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site, located in Kilju County.
In similar tests conducted last year, 15 of 59 defectors tested showed possible chromosome mutations, bringing the total number of North Korean defectors with such findings to 44 out of 174 individuals tested between 2023-25, or 25 percent.
The tests measure levels of chromosome aberration in individuals to assess their accumulated radiation exposure, with the minimum detectable range set at 0.25 gray of absorbed radiation dose from radionuclides such as cesium and iodine.
None of those tested have been diagnosed with a radiation exposure-related cancer, and it remains unproven yet that the possible mutations were results of radiation exposure.
The tests were conducted as part of the ministry's research targeting North Korean defectors launched in 2023. A total of 800 defectors from eight regions near the nuclear test site have arrived in South Korea so far.
Under the previous Yoon Suk Yeol government, the project was scaled back, while the test results were withheld from public disclosure.
A KIRAMS official called it a "reasonable suspicion" to attribute the high rate of chromosome abnormalities to possible radiation exposure among defects from the nuclear site region, emphasizing the need to continue the test project.
The mayor of China’s southwestern metropolis of Chongqing has been placed under investigation by the country’s top anti-corruption agency.
The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) issued a statement on Friday saying that Hu Henghua, mayor of Chongqing and deputy secretary of the city’s Communist Party municipal committee, was under investigation for “serious violations of discipline and law” – a term commonly used to refer to corruption.
Chongqing is among China’s four centrally administered municipalities – along with Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin – placing it on the same administrative tier as a province.
Hu was born in the province of Hunan and spent most of his career there, including serving as mayor of the provincial capital, Changsha, from 2014 to 2016 and as secretary of Changsha’s municipal party committee from 2017 to 2020.
From October 2020 to December 2021, Hu served as deputy secretary of the provincial party committee in Shaanxi province. He became mayor of Chongqing in January 2022, following a one-month stint as acting mayor.
During his tenure as Chongqing mayor, Hu received one disciplinary sanction from the party. This related to a 2022 residential block collapse in Changsha that killed 54 people.
In May 2023, the CCDI found that Hu had failed to lead effective inspections for housing safety hazards during his tenure and issued a severe warning.
Former Changsha party chief Yi Lianhong, who was Hu’s superior during his time as city mayor, was announced to be under investigation in February. Yi also served as party chief of the provinces of Jiangxi and Zhejiang.
Before Friday’s CCDI announcement, Hu had already missed several scheduled official appearances, sparking speculation about his political standing.
Chongqing’s top official, party secretary Yuan Jiajun, is also a member of the Politburo, the party’s elite body. Hu, the second-ranking official, is a member of the Central Committee, the party’s decision-making inner circle with over 200 full members.
Hu is the highest-ranking Chongqing official to have fallen from grace since the 2017 downfall of Sun Zhengcai, the former municipal party secretary and a Politburo member. Sun’s fall was followed by investigations into five officials who had served as vice-mayors of Chongqing.
The number of senior officials under investigation annually has risen steadily in recent years. These officials are typically at the level of vice-minister or vice-governor or above.
Starting from 18 in 2020, the figure nearly doubled to 32 by 2022 before surging to 45 in 2023 and hitting a record 65 last year.
Including Hu, four full-ministerial-level officials have been placed under investigation this year – half the total from all of last year.
Top leaders, including President Xi Jinping, have repeatedly emphasised that China’s anti-corruption campaign would continue to intensify.
Statue of crescent, Jordan, by Mona Maher, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0
It’s the Islamic holy month, when it’s a terrible insult to Muslims who are praying and fasting to bomb a rogue state that threatens the U.S. and its allies, right? Ilhan Omar said that. Yet as Ramadan draws to a close this year, the jihad death toll worldwide is 499 infidels murdered in 133 jihad attacks. No adherents of any other religion, or even any “right-wing extremists,” committed any terror attacks during this period.
Those who are confused as to how all this killing could take place during what is supposed to be a holy month should remember a key fact that the political and media establishment routinely ignores: because Ramadan is the month in which Muslims redouble their efforts to obey Allah, Ramadan is also quintessentially the month of jihad. That doesn’t just mean the month in which Muslims engage in a spiritual struggle to improve their fidelity to Allah’s commands. It means jihad violence.
This is because fighting against and killing infidels is commanded in the Qur’an (cf. 2:191. 4:89, 9:5, 9:289, 47:4, etc.). As a result, killing infidels during Ramadan is, for the killers, a holy and sacred act. A jihad group explained it back in 2012: “The month of Ramadan is a month of holy war and death for Allah. It is a month for fighting the enemies of Allah and Allah’s messenger, the Jews and their American facilitators.”
This is not the prevailing view among non-Muslims in the West. Even President Donald Trump, in his 2026 Ramadan message, stated:
Every Ramadan stands as a reverent season of spiritual renewal, reflective meditation, and appreciation for God’s countless blessings. This sacred time for many Americans emphasizes prayer and fasting, strengthens familial and community ties, and affirms our shared values of compassion, charity, mercy, and humility.
Trump was right. Ramadan is indeed “a reverent season of spiritual renewal, reflective meditation, and appreciation for God’s countless blessings.” Yet for that very reason, given the contents of the Qur’an and Sunnah, Ramadan is also “is a month of holy war and death for Allah.”
During Ramadan, Muslims are exhorted to renew and deepen their devotion to Allah. Hence it is a time when they read commands such as this one, and many look for ways to put them into practice: “Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. Those who follow him are ruthless to unbelievers, and merciful to one another.” (48:29) The imperative during Ramadan is to grow more devout. The Muslim who applies himself diligently to the observance of Ramadan will thus become both more merciful to his fellow Muslims and more ruthless toward non-Muslims.
An Iraqi-born man who was arrested after entering a Texas elementary school clad in tactical gear and carrying a gun has been released back onto the streets.
Kyle Najm Chris, also known as Muhi Mohanad Najm, showed up at Zwink Elementary School in Spring, Texas, last Tuesday and walked into the front office with a load-bearing vest, a taser, and a holstered firearm, according to court records. Chris, who became a naturalized United States citizen in 2022, was arrested Wednesday and charged with possession of a prohibited weapon, a third-degree felony.
The 39-year-old has since posted his $75,000 bond and was released from custody Sunday, according to court records.
Chris allegedly walked into the school’s front office in tactical gear with a holstered firearm after another visitor failed to close the door behind them. A school employee asked Chris how he got in, and he told her the door was unlatched.
Chris also asked if there was armed security on school property, according to court documents.
He was asked to provide an ID, but didn’t give one, nor did he identify himself. Chris soon left the school and drove away.
Chris had a private investigator license and a Texas concealed handgun license, but did not have any ties to the school, according to local news outlet KHOU.
Chris is required to be under 24-hour house arrest with a GPS monitor and is banned from going near any Klein ISD property, according to Fox 26….
