"Saturday Night Live" opened its latest show with election coverage from CNN's "election center," where "bona fide hunk" host Jake Tapper, played by cast member Beck Bennett, looked back at the "crazy week in politics."

Highlights included the Super Tuesday press conference of GOP front-runner Donald Trump, played by Darrell Hammond.

"What a great, great night. I really am running the best campaign, aren't I? The media is saying they haven't seen anything like this, not since Germany in the 1930s," Hammond says.

"I mean everyone loves me: racists, ugly racists, people who didn't know they were racists."

Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who awkwardly stood behind Trump during the news conference, is not spared.

“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. Please, sir, may I have another,” Bobby Moynihan, portraying Christie, says after being insulted.

Jason Sudeikis also reprised his role as former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who blasted Trump last week.

“For the last nine months, I’ve sat down and watched Donald Trump say something every day that was either racist or sexist,” said Sudeikis. “We in the GOP — the party of the great Ronald Reagan — we do not say racist or sexist things. We imply them.”

Sudeikis’s Romney ultimately pitches himself as Trump’s vice president.

You can watch the entire sketch in the video player above.

Officials from Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and Asia have complained in recent private conversations, mostly about the xenophobic nature of Trump's statements, said three U.S. officials, who all declined to be identified.

"As the (Trump) rhetoric has continued, and in some cases amped up, so, too, have concerns by certain leaders around the world," said one of the officials.

The three officials declined to disclose a full list of countries whose diplomats have complained, but two said they included at least India, South Korea, Japan and Mexico.

U.S. officials said it was highly unusual for foreign diplomats to express concern, even privately, about candidates in the midst of a presidential campaign. U.S. allies in particular usually don't want to be seen as meddling in domestic politics, mindful that they will have to work with whoever wins.

Senior leaders in several countries -- including Britain, Mexico, France, and Canada -- have already made public comments criticizing Trump's positions. German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel branded him a threat to peace and prosperity in an interview published on Sunday.

Trump's campaign did not respond to requests for comment on the private diplomatic complaints.

Japan's embassy declined to comment. The Indian and South Korean embassies did not respond to requests for comment.

A spokesperson for the Mexican government would not confirm any private complaints but noted that its top diplomat, Claudia Ruiz Massieu, said last week that Trump's policies and comments were "ignorant and racist" and that his plan to build a border wall to stop illegal immigration was "absurd."

The foreign officials have been particularly disturbed by the anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim themes that the billionaire real estate mogul has pushed, according to the U.S. officials.

European and Middle Eastern government representatives have expressed dismay to U.S. officials about anti-Muslim declarations by Trump that they say are being used in recruiting pitches by the Islamic State and other violent jihadist groups.

On Dec. 7, Trump’s campaign issued a written statement saying that he was “calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on.”

Trump subsequently said in television interviews that American Muslims traveling abroad would be allowed to return to the country, as would Muslim members of the U.S. military or Muslim athletes coming to compete in the United States.

There are also concerns abroad that the United States would become more insular under Trump, who has pledged to tear up international trade agreements and push allies to take a bigger role in tackling Middle East conflicts.

“European diplomats are constantly asking about Trump's rise with disbelief and, now, growing panic," said a senior NATO official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"With the EU facing an existential crisis, there's more than the usual anxiety about the U.S. turning inward when Europe needs U.S. support more than ever."

Another of the senior U.S. officials said the complaints are coming mostly from mid-to-low ranking diplomats – described as “working level” - rather than from the most senior officials.

"The responses have ranged from amusement to befuddlement to curiosity," the official said. "In some cases, we've heard expressions of alarm, but those have been more in response to the anti-immigrant and anti-refugee sentiment as well as the general sense of xenophobia.”

More than a hundred Republican foreign policy veterans pledged this week to oppose Trump, saying in an open letter that his proposals would undermine U.S. security.

"A LOT OF QUESTIONS"

On Tuesday, General Philip Breedlove, the United States' top military commander in Europe, said that the U.S. elections were stirring concerns among America's allies.

“I get a lot of questions from our European counterparts on our election process this time in general," said Breedlove, who did not mention Trump by name. "And I think they see a very different sort of public discussion than they have in the past.”

While not confirming the content of private diplomatic contacts, some foreign officials acknowledged their governments' concerns about Trump.

A British official noted that in January, Prime Minister David Cameron said: "What Donald Trump says is, in my view, not only wrong, but actually it makes the work we need to do to confront and defeat the extremists more difficult."

A Chinese official referred to a statement last week from China's foreign ministry spokeswoman. Asked whether China was concerned about Trump's proposal to place high tariffs on Chinese goods, Hua Chunyin declined to comment on specific candidates. But she said "I want to stress" that China and the United States have "major responsibilities" in maintaining international political and economic stability.

Representatives of other countries publicly attacked by Trump, including Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia, and Vietnam either had no comment or did not respond to requests for comments.

Several American foreign policy experts said foreign diplomats have complained to them as well.

"All foreign diplomats I’ve talked to are amazed at the Trump phenomenon and worried about it, especially in the Middle East and Europe,” said Elliott Abrams, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations think tank who handled Middle East affairs at the National Security Council from 2001 to 2009 under then-President George W. Bush.

(Reporting by Mark Hosenball; additional reporting by Jonathan Landay, Phil Stewart, David Brunnstrom, and Emily Flitter; editing by Stuart Grudgings.)

This article was funded in part by SAP. It was independently created by the Reuters editorial staff. SAP had no editorial involvement in its creation or production.

(REUTERS)

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — In a move that is unprecedented nationwide, an Oklahoma Senator has introduced a bill that would criminalize abortion as first-degree murder.

Sen. Joe Silk, R-Broken Bow, recently introduced S.B. 1118 which adds killing an unborn child to existing murder statutes.

“No person shall perform or induce or attempt to perform or induce an abortion after conception,” it reads. “A person commits murder in the first degree when that person performs an abortion as defined by Section 1-745.5 of Title 63 of the Oklahoma Statutes.”

The bill defines abortion as “the use or prescription of any instrument, medicine, drug or any other substance or device to intentionally kill an unborn human being” and provides the unborn with protection from the moment of conception.

The bill is stated to come as the result of a petition signed by over 30,000 Oklahoma residents, calling for lawmakers to immediately present legislation that would result in a complete end to abortion in the state.

“[W]e hereby respectfully demand that our state government stop protecting the murder of children by abortion within its jurisdiction and establish justice for all pre-born human beings in our state,” the petition reads in part. “We demand that our legislators stop passing laws to regulate abortion and instead outlaw all abortion as murder. ”

“We demand that these changes be made now—not five, ten or fifteen years down the road,” it continues. “In short, we the people of the state of Oklahoma demand the total and immediate abolition of human abortion as the legal, constitutional and moral duty of our elected and appointed officials.”

The petition had been circulated by the Abolitionist Society of Norman and hundreds of supporters across the country who traveled to Oklahoma to help obtain signatures.

“This bill aims to protect all children from destruction in Oklahoma, and bring Oklahoma law into compliance with the United States Constitution,” the group said in a press release. “This bill unabashedly defies the Supreme Court’s perversion and denunciation of the constitutional right to life, and seeks to establish justice for those being deprived of life without due process of law.”

A similar bill was also recently presented by Sen. Nathan Dahm, R-Broken Arrow, that would revoke the medical license of any physician who performs an abortion.

“Any physician participating in the performance of an abortion shall be prohibited from obtaining or renewing a license to practice medicine in this state,” S.B. 1552 reads. “No person shall perform or induce an abortion upon a pregnant woman. Any person violating this section shall be guilty of a felony punishable by imprisonment for not less than one year nor more than three years in the state penitentiary.”

Both bills are scheduled for a hearing on Tuesday before the Oklahoma Senate.

As previously reported, nearly 60 million children have been murdered in the womb since the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision of Roe v. Wade. Abortion was likewise the subject of several legal battles in early America as many lawmakers, lawyers and doctors adamantly fought against it.

In an introductory lecture to his course on obstetrics in 1854, Philadelphia obstetrician Hugh Lennox Hodge stated that an abortionist is a “charlatan, who sustains his existence by the price of blood.” He explained that if a woman were to come to a medical doctor in pursuit of an abortion, “he must, as it were, grasp the conscience of his weak and erring patient and let her know in language not to be misunderstood that she is responsible to her Creator for the life of the being within her.”

“We blush, while we record the fact that in this country, in our cities and towns, in this city, where literature, science, morality and Christianity are supposed to have so much influence; where all the domestic and social virtues are reported as being in full and delightful exercise; even here, individuals, male and female, exist, who are continually imbruing their hands and consciences in the blood of unborn infants,” Hodge said.

“So low, gentleman, is the moral sense of community on this subject,” he continued. “So ignorant are even the greater number of individuals, that even mothers in many instances shrink not at the commission of this crime, but will voluntarily destroy their own progeny, in violation of every natural sentiment, and in opposition to the laws of God and man.”

Editor’s Note: Those wishing to encourage the Oklahoma Senate to abolish abortion may contact the state senators here.

(christiannews.net)

After the mysterious overnight disappearance of a river near Veracruz, Mexico, it’s now a lagoon that has unexpectedly turned color from green to red.

Scientists believe the color is a result of a red tide, a phenomenon in which estuarine, marine, or fresh water algae accumulate rapidly in the water column, which changes the color of the surface water.

The production of natural toxins and depletion of dissolved oxygen could be responsible for wildlife mortalities of marine and coastal species of fish, birds, marine mammals, and other organisms around the lagoon.

Although red tides appear to be natural in some locations, residents believe that this algae blloom is the result of increased nutrient loading from human activities and low precipitation. Indeed, the ‘La Salina’ lagoon is known for being highly polluted and the sewage plant is not working properly.

And there is the biblical explanation… Is the apocalypse near?

Agroquìmicos y falta de lluvia tiñen de rojo laguna de Huatulco, Se tine de rojo una laguna de Huatalco y provoca muerte de fauna, Se presenta fenómeno extraño en laguna de Huatulco

(strangesounds.org/)