Some evangelical Christians believe that recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel will bring on the end of the world.

On Wednesday President Donald Trump announced that the US will recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and the US embassy - which is currently based in Tel Aviv - will move there.

When the UN partitioned Palestine in 1947 the city of Jerusalem was given a special status, distinct from either a state of Palestine or a state of Israel, to be administered by an international council of the UN.

The US and many other nations currently have their embassies in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv.

Jerusalem came under the control of Israel in 1967, yet Israeli sovereignty has never been truly recognised internationally.

In April 2017 Russia's Foreign Ministry released a statement saying it considered western Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel - and eastern Jerusalem the capital of a ('future') Palestine, yet Russia's embassy to Israel is also located in Tel Aviv.

David Ermold will return to the Rowan County courthouse Wednesday, nearly two years after Clerk Kim Davis refused to give him a marriage license because he was gay.

Only this time, he does not want a license. He wants Davis' job.

Ermold filed to run for county clerk on Wednesday, hoping to challenge the woman who two years ago told him "God's authority" prohibited her from complying with a U.S. Supreme Court decision that effectively legalized gay marriage nationwide. Ermold and others sued her, and Davis would spend five days in jail for disobeying a federal judge's order. She emerged to a rapturous rally on the jailhouse lawn, arm-in-arm with a Republican presidential candidate as a newly crowned martyr for conservatives.

In the two years since then, things have quieted down in this Appalachian town previously known for a college basketball team at Morehead State University that occasionally qualifies for the NCAA tournament. But last month, Davis announced she would run for re-election and face voters for the first time since refusing to issue marriage licenses. Three other people have also filed to run against her, including Elwood Caudill, who lost to Davis by just 23 votes in the 2014 Democratic primary.

Researchers in South Africa have unveiled what they call "by far the most complete skeleton of a human ancestor older than 1.5 million years ever found."
The University of the Witwatersrand displayed the virtually complete Australopithecus fossil on Wednesday.
The skeleton dates back 3.6 million years. Its discovery is expected to help researchers better understand the human ancestor's appearance and movement.
The researchers say it has taken 20 years to excavate, clean, reconstruct and analyze the fragile skeleton.
The skeleton, dubbed Little Foot, was discovered in the Sterkfontein caves, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest of Johannesburg when small foot bones were found in rock blasted by miners.

Obama moved from that to talking about a nativist mistrust and unease that has swept around the world. He argued that such things as the speed of technical change and the uneven impact of globalization have come too quickly to be absorbed in many cultures, bringing strange new things and people to areas in which "people didn't (used to) challenge your assumptions." As a result, "nothing feels solid," he said. "Sadly, there's something in us that looks for simple answers when we're agitated."

Still, the U.S. has survived tough times before and will again, he noted, particularly mentioning the days of communist fighter Joseph McCarthy and former President Richard Nixon. But one reason the country survived is because it had a free press to ask questions, Obama added. Though he has problems with the media just like Trump has had, "what I understood was the principle that the free press was vital."

The danger is "grow(ing) complacent," Obama said. "We have to tend to this garden of democracy or else things could fall apart quickly."

That's what happened in Germany in the 1930s, which despite the democracy of the Weimar Republic and centuries of high-level cultural and scientific achievements, Adolph Hitler rose to dominate, Obama noted. "Sixty million people died. . . .So, you've got to pay attention. And vote."

The Hill reports:

James O’Keefe, the conservative activist who attempted to plant a false story in The Washington Post this month about GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore, was presented Wednesday with an Impact Award handed to him by Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. O’Keefe accepted the award on behalf of his organization, Project Veritas, at an event hosted by the conservative group United for Purpose at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.

Thomas is a Tea Party activist and president of Liberty Consulting. Project Veritas came under fire in November after The Post revealed that one of the organization’s operatives attempted to plant a false story about Moore, with the intent of undermining the paper’s credibility. The Post had previously published accusations that Moore pursued sexual relationships with girls as young as 14 when he was a district attorney.

After an avalanche of Democratic senators calling for their colleague Al Franken to resign due to a series of sexual harassment allegations, it sure seems like his days are numbered. As a conservative, there was a time, not at all long ago, when I would have rejoiced at the demise of such far-left zealot.

However, based on what we currently know, I believe this situation is the most unfair and dangerous takedown of a prominent politician in recent memory. In my view, Democrats should be humiliated for engaging in what is clearly a strategic knifing of Franken in an effort to better position themselves to attack Donald Trump and Roy Moore, two people against whom have been leveled far more serious and credible allegations of sexual abuse.

Not content with taking the US to the brink of nuclear conflict with North Korea, Donald Trump is now set to apply his strategy of international vandalism to perhaps the most sensitive geopolitical hotspot in the world. With a speech scheduled for later today that’s expected to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and reaffirm a pledge to move the US embassy to the city, he is walking into a bone-dry forest with a naked flame.

For the status of Jerusalem is the most intractable issue in what is often described as the world’s most intractable conflict. It is the issue that has foiled multiple efforts at peacemaking over several decades. Both Israelis and Palestinians insist that Jerusalem must be the capital of their states, present and future, and that that status is non-negotiable.

But it’s not just important to them. The Old City of Jerusalem contains the holiest site in Judaism and the third holiest mosque in Islam, to say nothing of its enormous significance to Christians, meaning that even the slightest move there is felt by billions. It is a place where diplomats have learned to tread with extreme care. There is a reason why no US administration, no matter how pro-Israel, has changed its policy toward the city in the nearly 70 years since Israel’s founding.

Fox News personality and radio host Sean Hannity told former White House strategist and Breitbart executive Steve Bannon that he thought that both of them “may end up in jail” for defending President Trump against a supposed “deep state” impeachment effort.

Last night Bannon hosted a special edition of “Breitbart News Tonight.” Hannity joined Bannon and Fox News political analyst Pat Goodell to discuss, among other things, the federal investigation into suspected Russian ties to Trump campaign officials during the 2016 election. It wasn’t long before the panel began to speculate about a secret plan orchestrated by “deep state” officials to remove Trump from the White House.

“I think they’re coming after Trump because they understand they have to destroy Trump, because to destroy Trump is not to destroy Trump, it’s to destroy this movement. They want to take that voice away from the forgotten man,” Bannon said.

Hannity added, “This is not about General Flynn. This isn’t about Paul Manafort. They’re just pawns.”

“Amen,” Bannon said.

“The ultimate goal—Andy McCarthy had a great piece. This is about the impeachment of the president. This is not about Trump-Russia collusion,” Hannity said.

Goodell brought up the idea that the government is carrying out a “slow-motion, steady effort to basically have a coup d’etat.” He said that he believes America is experiencing a “post-constitutional society” and that secret government forces are “willing to destroy this country to keep control.”

Hannity then speculated that “people like us” who have supported Trump and attempted to discredit the Russia probe will eventually end up in jail.

“By the way, people like us may end up in jail. Let me tell you. They will stop at nothing. This is what I’m trying to get across to people. This is serious. This is the rule of law in this country now,” Hannity said.

“Amen, Amen,” Bannon said.