Hi, everyone, welcome back to my channel. I hope you're all good. Today, very excitingly, we're gonna be chatting about my most anticipated releases of 2020 of the first half of the year.  Worried, me, never. I have a lot of books I'm excited for. On my list in total at the moment, there's 48 new releases, 48, 48. You gotta do me a favor, anything. You can't say a word. And so I asked on Twitter, the majority voted for, let's do the first half of the year now, and then later on we'll do the second half of the year because the further in the year something is, the more susceptible it is to change. So I still do have 35 on my list from January to June. Am I gonna read all of these books when they come out or this year even? No, but if you watched my goals video, you know that one of my goals is to read a lot more new releases this year. And so we're just gonna try our best. Let's just get into it because I'm really excited to talk about these. There's a lot of great books coming out this year. And hopefully you'll find some that you're excited about too. First, I think this will be coming out on the day this video comes out actually. We've got The Burning Girls by CJ Tudor. CJ Tudor wrote The Chalkman, which is like a pretty popular thriller, I would say, like on Booktube and stuff. This is about a vicar moving to this small village in the English countryside which has a really dark secret. There's been a lot of death throughout history and it seems that it's haunting the village a bit. There's a lot of secrecy. Maybe ghosts, maybe ghosts, we're not sure. There's like a hint of ghosts. I would like to see it. I love religious villages for some reason now. Like villages where there's like toxic religion, like secrecy, back stabbing. Like for some reason that's the current vibe. So very excited for this one. Next is If I Disappear by Eliza Jane Brasier. Listen, okay, we need to accept right now. I'm very bad with pronunciations, even of things that like the English language, not names, like just words, I'm very bad. So apologies if I pronounced any of these wrong. This is another thriller and there's a lot of thrillers on this list that are like debuts or that I've heard just a few good things about because I think like mysteries and thrillers are a bit more difficult to find like before they get released. Firstly, can I just say, can I just say the US cover? Perfection. The UK cover? Not a fan, not a fan. There's nothing wrong with my views or beliefs because I have freedom of speech and everything I'm saying is true. This is about a girl who's obsessed with this podcast. Her favorite podcast host goes missing. So she ends up in the podcast host hometown, which like is a bit weird and is trying to figure out what has happened and finds out that other girls seem to have gone missing in this hometown. I think there may be a bit of like obsession going on here but we've got that like true crime podcast element as well which reminds me of things like Sadie and I know The Night Swim, I haven't read it but that has a podcast, true crime podcast element to it as well. So this sounds like if you enjoyed those a great one that's coming out soon. Then we get into February. Now February is a nightmare.  Because I've got 10 releases on this list. 10 releases, 10. Honey, you've got a big storm coming. It's the shortest month. How is that even possible? First is one of my most anticipated releases of this year. I just spoke about Sadie by Courtney Summers. Now we've got The Project by Courtney Summers and let me just say Colts. It's about this girl whose sister joined this cult and like the girl has never trusted it and then she gets an opportunity to kind of like investigate the cult and it's leader and it's very mysterious, suspenseful, family plays a big role in this and I'm scared but like I love Colts. I just wanna read about Colts all the time. Something about them draws me in. Like it could be like a new niche for me I feel like. So I'm so excited for this. I loved Sadie by Courtney Summers and I'm just so excited. I love the cover. This is one of my most anticipated releases. Next is What Big Teeth by Rose Zabo. This is pitched as Miss Peregrine's home meets the Adams family which is very exciting. It seems a bit unhinged which I enjoy. Like in the description it speaks about this girl not having seen her family for years. They sent her to a boarding house and she says only knows them as vague memories. Her grandfather's tremendous fanged snout. The barrel full of water her mother always soaked in and strange hunting trips in the dark wood with her sisters and cousins. It's very strange. And I think she reunites with her family but it doesn't go as she planned and she like recruits her other grandmother and it all like chaos and it's weird and it's like crazy. I don't know. The cover for this is a bit crazy as well and I'm just hoping for a bit of like unhinged surrealism craziness. I feel like that's what we're gonna get from that. Next I think this is the only middle grade on this list. I don't tend to read a ton of middle grade but this is Me, My Dad and the End of the Rainbow by Benjamin Dean. This comes out on the 4th of February and this is basically about a boy whose parents have recently split up. He's like really struggling with that and then he sees this rainbow pamphlet for I think it's an LGBT march fall out of his dad's pocket. The plot is that his dad has come out as gay. I think the boy and his friends traveling I think to this march and discovering the LGBT movement and getting closer to his dad through that. Gavin spoke about this recently and it just sounds so pure and wonderful and amazing and like heartwarming, but also tackling difficult topics. So I'm so excited for this one. If you like middle grade, I think this is definitely one to keep your eye on. Then another one, another one. I'm gonna be reading this as soon as it comes out. It's so exciting. Another one of my most anticipated releases is Love is a Revolution by Renee Watson also coming out on the fourth of Feb. We've got a lot of like early Feb releases. So I love Renee Watson. I love Renee Watson. I wanna make my way through her back list. I've read Watch Us Rise but she co-write and I've read Piecing Me Together. But this sounds so amazing and I love the cover. Like just the design of the cover is what I wanna see. This is about a plus size girl who basically falls in love with this guy. She starts falling in love with him but he's like an activist. He's an activist and so she lies to him. It's like about being interested in activism and listen, we can all relate. I lied a lot to Tom when we were first talking. Like I said, I liked songs I had never heard just to get any good books. It happens. We all do it and then look where we are now. Four years later it worked. Anyway. It's about self-loving revolutionary and falling in love and like the difficulty of keeping up with those lies and activism I really like when Renee Watson writes about social issues. So I'm just so excited. Next is Across the Green Grassfields by Shawna McGuire. So this is the sixth in the Wayward Children series. I still need to read the fifth but it is very short so hopefully I will get round to this ASAP. Wayward Children series, I'm sure you've heard people talk about it but it's this portal fantasy, very similar to Narnia where these kids find these magical worlds that are perfect for them. Often there's some you need to read before others but it's not like a chronological series. Like we follow different characters in all the different books and I believe this is a new one that you can start with. So you can read this one without any prior knowledge of the other books. A magical world of centaurs, magical equines. Queen equines. I don't need to know like the plot for this. It's not required. I don't need to know the plot or I need to know. It's the next book in the Wayward Children series. Shawna McGuire is one of my favorite authors. I'm really excited for this. I need to read that one but after that we'll get into this one. Oh, okay, really really excited for this one. This has been on my anticipated for so long. The next one is Fat Chance Charlie Vega by Crystal Maldonado. I love the cover. The author recently posted on Twitter like the stack of Finnish books and they're like the spine and everything. Oh my God. Oh my God. You look stunning darling. So stunning, absolutely stunning. Stunning African, stunning earrings. Stunning, stunning, stunning. Okay, so this is just like a fun but serious which is like my favorite combination for YA Contemporaries. YA Contemporary where we follow Charlie Vega and what it's like growing up fat. Like her parents, her mom always tries to like give her weight loss shakes. But her best friend has always been the person that's in her corner. And then this boy like asked her out for the first time. She's like, oh my God. Yes, but then she finds out that he asked her best friend out first. She's like, am I just the second choice? I'm the main character. I am not the second choice. As someone who has struggled with their weight a lot especially when like growing up in like childhood and early teenage years.  And I think plus size characters on the chat are so important to read about. So I'm really excited for this one. Like I said, it's been on my wants to read for so, so long. Next just quickly is where Hope comes from by Nikita Gill. Nikita Gill is a poet. This poetry focuses on loneliness and mental health which I think I can relate to. Many of us can also relate to too. Next is a sanatorium by Sarah Pierce. This comes out on the 18th of February. I'm so excited. I own an arc. I cannot wait to get around to this. So this is like set in a luxury hotel which has been converted from an old sanatorium which is basically like a mental hospital I believe like an old mental hospital, which no thank you. Why would you do that? It's getting weird. Set in like the Alps I think. Our main character is a detective on there on holiday with her brother. And then his brother's fiance goes missing and another woman goes missing. And it's just like this mystery of uncovering what is happening. I'm so excited. I'm so excited. I feel so lucky to have gotten on this. I cannot wait. I feel like it's gonna be fire. Like I'm, I cannot wait. Like I'm, can you see? I'm so excited. I'm so excited. Next is Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers. This comes out on the 23rd of February. This was like sometimes pictures of romance but I think it's more of like a finding oneself story. It's a story of a character who goes to Vegas, gets drunk and marries someone. Her and her wife like I think go and try and get to know each other. The characters just uncovers a lot about themselves and their past like what they've buried. So I've had a lot of good early reviews about this one. And I think it's just gonna be very hard hitting whilst also having this romance element to it. And the last of our February releases is Quiet in Her Bones by Nalini Singh. This comes out on the 25th of February. So this is another thriller where this character's mother vanished 10 years ago along with a lot of money and they always assumed that she ran away with the money. And then her body is found 10 years later on the grounds of the housing estate, like this rich housing estate they live on. So it's clear that the money was a cover up and this whole thing was a cover up. Again, this is like another thriller I haven't heard a lot about that description just intrigued me. It just sounds like a very interesting mystery set in this elite neighborhood. And yeah, I'm super excited for it. Okay, then onto March, we've got five releases coming out that I'm really excited for. So first is The Conductors by Nicole Glover. So this is a debut historical fantasy. So our main character used to be a conductor on the underground railroad. And now she solves mysteries with her husband that like the white authorities won't touch. But then one of their friends is murdered and so that's what spurs the story on. I don't really know how this is fantastical. I'm very intrigued to find that out. I love books that merge fantasy and use speculative fiction to explore like historical and social issues. So very excited for this. I feel like that's exactly at my street. Like my favorite amalgamation of genres is fantasy, historical and mystery all in one. And that's exactly what this is.  You're gonna do amazing today.  Next is a history of what comes next by Sylvain Nouvelle. This comes out on the 4th of March. This is another one I'm so excited for. I'm currently obsessed with the Themis files by Sylvain Nouvelle. I've only read the first one. But this is like a crazy historical with these people trying to stop the Nazis and like different forces working together to adjust and change time. It sounds very crazy. If you read the test by Sylvain Nouvelle, you'll know that his stuff can be like super mind bending and confusing and like just disjointed. So I'm so excited for this one. Like I think this could be so, so good. I like when I read the test, I just wanted it to be longer and this feels like a longer version of the test. So super excited for this. Next is The Mirror Season by Anna-Marie Mackamor. This comes out on the 16th of March. I still haven't read any Anna-Marie Mackamor. Are you not ashamed of yourself? Well, beauty I think is the one I wanna start with. And this has been like on every, I have to read this list for forever, but I just struggled to fit it into my themed reading blogs. The Mirror Season is magical realism that follows two teens who were sexually assaulted at the same party by the same person. And one of them starts to lose their magic because of it. One can't actually remember the events at all. I'm so intrigued by Anna-Marie Mackamor's writing that I can't wait. Next is Every Value Break by Peter Swanson. This comes out on the 18th of March. So this is another thriller and it's about this girl who's marrying this millionaire, billionaire, rich guy and she has a one night stand a couple of nights before the wedding and she's like, listen, it's behind me. I'm gonna go get married. Everything's gonna be fine.  I think they get isolated on this island and stuck with each other. I'm just really intrigued. Like, as you know, I love the guest list where all these characters are stuck on this island and murder starts occurring. So this very much reminds me of that. Last week, quickly is Roar of Walls by Lee Bardugo. Now I haven't read Six of Crows, Crikey Kingdom or King of Scars. I haven't read any of them. I'm gonna be reading the first two at the start of March. So maybe I'll read King of Scars that month as well, though I very much doubt it. But I love the cover so much. And I can't even read the description. I know we're following Nikolai, Zoya and Nina in this series who are characters from the Grishaverse. But I can't even look at the description of this book because I don't want to spoil King of Scars for myself. So just deny the cover. It's fashion meets... It's fashion. It's, excuse me. It's fashion. It's fashion? Is it fashion? Wait, what is it fashion? It's one of my favorite covers and everyone hates it. Like everyone hates it. And I don't understand why. Like something about it just appeals to the core of me, like the colors. Oh my God, I love it. Next is April and there's only actually three releases on my list for April. Again, a bit more required month. We get crazier in a second. First is Pride and Premeditation by Tizah Price. This comes out on the 6th of April. So this, bear with me. This is a Jane Austen murder mystery retelling. So this is a retelling of Pride and Prejudice but it's like a murder mystery and Lizzie Bennett is trying to solve a murder. Tell me you're not gagged. Pretty legendary if you ask me. I love it. Like tell me that doesn't excite you. Tell me that doesn't just appeal to the core of you. I am so excited for this. You listen, that's all I need to know. That's all I need to know going into it. I'm sold. Next is Manus by Heather Walter. This comes out on the 13th of April and this is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty. I believe the princess and the villain fall in love. So she falls for like the sorceress. I love fairytale retellings. Like I'm a bit, that's like a bit of a weakness for me. I'm just so intrigued. Like I love villain stories and the idea of Sleeping Beauty Aurora falling in love with the villain. And it's sapphic as well. Oh my God. Oh, I'm super excited for Witches of Sleepton Gold coming out on the 20th of April. So this is just like this Jamaican inspired fantasy with Witches. That's all I really know. Like I don't really know the plot. I think we've got like sisters in this but all I need to know is Witches. I love Witches at the moment. I'm just so excited. I'm so excited. We have nine in May. So May's another heavy month. And the thing is May is gonna be busy for me with uni. Like I've got a lot of, like that's gonna be crunch time for uni. I'm not gonna get to read many of these at that time. First is Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. This comes out on the 4th of May. So this is by the author of The Martian which is basically all that I needed to sell it to me. I really love The Martian when I read it like six years ago. I love the film. I feel like I need to reread the book. But like when you've read the book and then watch the film multiple times, like do you need to? Like that's the thing that's holding me back. So this is again like very, a story about someone who's isolated. Our main characters are sole survivor of this mission but they don't remember what their mission is. They've got memory loss but they can see like their crewmates corpses behind them. And so it's just again that like stuck in space, isolated in space trope that is very prevalent in The Martian but done again. Next is the ones we're meant to find by Joan Hee coming out the 4th of May.  Part of the reason that this is on this list is the cover. This is one of my favorite covers. Like it's stunning. So we've got this girl who's abandoned on this island and then I think it's her sister who's in like this eco, planet, city thing. Don't really understand it. I know a lot of things but I don't know about that. I'm not sure why. I'm intrigued or the same. I'm intrigued or the same. I feel like this is one that's gonna be very popular this year. Then we have She's Too Pretty to Burn by Wendy Had. So this, oh my God, this is inspired by the picture of Dorian Gray. Can I just say, it's about time. Now I didn't actually like the picture of Dorian Gray but I liked the premise. So in this we have a Dorian Gray character who makes people fall in love with her and then at the end of the summer, there is one fire, two murders, three drowning bodies, one suspect, one stalker. I just feel like this could be like a YA mystery that is also hardcore. And I want someone to do the picture of Dorian Gray idea in a way that I enjoy. So hopefully that will be that. Oh, okay, what I'm super excited for next is Sorrowland by River Solomon coming out 6th of May. Oh my God, I'm so excited for this. I'm so excited for this. So this is a bit difficult to explain. This woman leaves this super religious compound and gives birth to twins in the woods and becomes hunted by the community in the woods but then her body starts changing and it's like kind of like a metamorphosis situation that we've got here. It sounds crazy. I'm super intrigued. Another one I'm very excited by is Switch by AS King. AS King is one of my favorite, favorite, favorite, favorite authors. She's incredible. She's a beautiful person. Her talent and brilliance is beyond. She surprises me all the time. And this sounds absolutely crazy. It's in a place where time has stopped and people use this like website clock to mark time. There's like a switch in this girl's house and her dad keeps building boxes around the switch to prevent people from getting it and she lives in the seventh box. It sounds crazy. AS King does craziness so well. Very excited. Next, I see May, I told you May. The thing is with May, I have so many books I'm so excited for. Another one, one of my most anticipated, reading it the day it comes out is Hearts to Pervolume 4 by Alice Oseman. So in this we follow Nick and Charlie as they fall in love. My favorite graphic novel series in the history of the world. I love it so much. And this is about them, like I think they're kind of like getting ready to say I love you, which is a, it's so amazing. And I would play it again and again and again and again. But they're also going to deal with Charlie has developed an eating disorder and so it's them trying to deal with that together. Hearts to Pervolume 4 just like kills me. It kills me every time. So I'm very excited for that to come out. Then we have Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins-Reed coming out on the 27th of May. This is going to be another one that is like so hyped. People are so excited for it. It's a story of four siblings. I think they're the children of one of the husbands from Evelyn Hugo, I think. Because all of Taylor Jenkins-Reed's newer books are all linked. So like there is characters from Evelyn Hugo in Daisy Jones. So this is just like further playing up on that and it's at this party that goes completely out of control with these siblings. The next is The Baby is Mine by Oyan Can-Breathway also coming out on the 27th of May. This is the author of My Sister the Serial Killer and it's set during the pandemic which like, how? Our main character's girlfriend kicks him out and he goes to his uncle's house and when he arrives there he sees his aunt but also with another woman there and they both claim that the baby in the crib is theirs. That's suspicious. That's weird. One that I have not heard a lot of people talk about I'm Very Excited For is The Dinner Guest by BP Walter. Four people walked into the dining room that night. One would never leave. Matthew, the perfect husband. Titus, the perfect son. Charlie, the perfect illusion. Rachel, the perfect stranger. Charlie didn't want her at the book club. Matthew wouldn't listen. And that's how Charlie finds himself slumped behind beside his husband's body. Their son sitting silently at the dinner table where Rachel calls 999.  Too much drama for me. And this is it for fans of Agatha Christie and Donna Tartt. Oh my God. I'm so excited for this. It sounds crazy. It sounds intriguing. I love like rich people secrets. Like I hate rich people but I love reading about them getting murdered. Like rich London people. Oh my God. Nothing brings me more joy than reading about them getting murdered. Yeah, this isn't one that's been super hyped up but I think I'm gonna love it. And then finally we have June where we have six releases that I am very much anticipating. The first is the Tea Dragon Tapestry by Katie O'Neill coming out the 1st of June. So this is the sequel to the Tea Dragon Society. Basically Tea Dragons are like these little animals that like, this is a graphic novel series by the way that grow tea leaves and it's all about brewing them. It's like one of the most gorgeous, wholesome, sweet graphic novels I've ever read. And this is the last one and I don't want it to be the last one. Oh my God. It's so beautiful. I cannot wait for this to come out. One of the most beautiful books ever. I'm so obsessed. Then we have The Chosen Beautiful by Nevo coming out the 1st of June. I think this is also one of my favorite covers. I love this cover so much. Nevo, I love Nevo's writing so, so much. But this is her first full length novel. So this has been dubbed a great Gatsby retelling but I don't know to what extent that's actually true. It's set in the 1920s and it's about this like queer, Asian, adopted character discovering their magic and who they are and their powers. I am just so excited for anything that Nevo writes. Then we have One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston. I know Red, White and Royal Blue was one of my worst books last year. Why bring it up now? Why bring it up now? But I have hope. I have so much hope that I can love Casey McQuiston's writing and this has like a magical hint to it. So basically, we have this girl who's traveling on the train every day in New York and there's this other girl that she's like really crushing on but then she finds out that that girl is from the 1970s and is like somehow bending time. So that element, like I feel like that's something I would really enjoy and really love. So I have a lot of hope for this and if I don't like it then we're done but like I have a lot of hope. Then we have another one of my most anticipated releases is Darling by Kay Ankrem coming out the 22nd of June. This is a Peter Pan retelling. Kay Ankrem's writing paired with a Peter Pan retelling. My mind like can't wrap around it. I am so excited for this. Kay Ankrem's writing is so disjointed and like surreal and completely bonkers to read. So I'm just so excited, I'm so excited. That's one of my most anticipated releases. Then we have Blackout which is actually an anthology, a collaboration between authors. It's by Donnel Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Nick Stone, Andy Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk and Nicola Yoon. So this is set in New York when there is a power cut and it's the story of six different couples in this power cut. Six different stories kind of like coming together and going on these different paths. And I'm so excited. That's so many brilliant, brilliant authors. And then my last anticipated release. Oh my God, we're there. Of 2021 of the first half is Survive the Night by Riley Sagar coming out the 29th of June. This is set in the 1990s and our main character is in the car with the person who she thinks is like the current serial killer that everyone's afraid of. And it's the story of being stuck in this car with this person and just trying to survive the night. I'm really intrigued to see how this works. Like how is Riley Sagar gonna pull that off? Like you're literally in the car, I think for the whole book. It reminds me of No Exit where you're like in that stopping station for the whole book. But this time you're in a car. So I'm really intrigued to see how the story is gonna work in terms of suspense and pace. It just sounds so scary to me, but I'm so, so excited. So there we have it. Oh my God, I'm about to lose my voice. There is all my most anticipated releases for the first half of 2021. Let me know if you're interested in any of these and also let me know which ones you want me to prioritize because I'm kind of letting myself by maybe like two or three a month. Let me know which of these you're most interested in and they're definitely the ones that I will prioritize. If you've got until the end, comment one of the star emojis. For good luck. Hopefully we'll love all these books. Thank you so much for watching. I will see you very soon in another video. Bye.


As most of us realize, this is one of the most widely recognized symbols in all of Jewish culture. And what I want to look at tonight is the origins of such a symbol and where it might come from. Unfortunately, there isn't any real direct reference to the Jewish star, the Magin David, in any of our biblical literature or Talmudic literature, even in our Kabbalistic and Midrashic literature. And one of the things that I've noticed in the work that I do is that many people who have an unhealthy disdain for anything they can't see explicitly taught in the Bible insist that this symbol, the star of David, is rooted either in pagan idolatry or in Satanism. That's unfortunate. And even the famous Jewish philosopher and academic Gershom Sholom, who passed away in 1982, was a scholar who insisted that the Magin David was not a Jewish symbol at all. And he refused to accept the idea that there was any connection between the star of David, the Magin David, and Judaism to speak of. And so tonight we're going to try to, at least in a cursory way, look at some of the history of this symbol. Rabbi Trugman has an excellent work called the Magin David, which deals with, on many levels, the symbolism of the star of David. And what he suggests is that this is a symbol that evolved over a long period of time. Now the earliest reference that will be helpful to us tonight really goes back to the story of Abraham. In the beginning of the story of Abraham in Genesis chapter 15 verse 1, God promises Abraham that I am your shield. Now the word shield again in Hebrew is Magin. I am your Magin. I am your shield. And what Hashem is basically saying, what God is saying to Abraham, is that I am going to act as your protector, both in terms of physical and spiritual harm. There are many kinds of things that we need to be concerned about. And God is promising Abraham that he will be Abraham's shield. The rabbis have actually instituted or at least codified this idea of God being the shield of Abraham in our daily prayer of 19 blessings that we say three times a day, the Amida, the standing prayer, sometimes it's called the Shimonah Esrae. But the first of these 19 blessings concludes with the words Magin Abraham, that God is the shield of Abraham. Blessed are you God, the shield of Abraham. So we have at least in the beginning of our national story established this connection between God and our people, at least Abraham, that God is our shield, God is our protector. What happened at some point in Jewish history, and we're not really clear about this, is that an eight-pointed star became associated with Abraham. This is a star that was formed by two overlapping squares, one square sitting flat and one square sitting at a 45-degree angle. And if you look at those overlapping squares, they form a star with eight points. And this became known throughout history as the shield of Abraham. The eight-pointed star of Abraham, or shield of Abraham, obviously the number eight, and Abraham is easy to establish that connection because of the covenant of circumcision, which takes place on the eighth day in the career of a young boy. The next important place for us to reference is in the second book of Samuel, chapter 22, almost repeated verbatim word for word in Psalm 18. And there David refers to God in three different verses as his shield and as a protector for those who would trust in him. So I'll go through these three references with you. In verse 3 of chapter 22, David writes, The God of my rock in him I will trust. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation. And then in verse 31, David writes, As for God, his way is perfect. The word of God is tried. He is a shield to all those who would trust in him. So God is not just a shield to me, to David. David is saying that God is a shield to all who would trust in him. And then finally, a few verses later in verse 36, David says, You have given me the shield of your salvation. So right here in this one passage, you've got three times where David associates God as being his shield and again the shield of all those who would trust in him. Now about a thousand years after King David lived, the sages of the Talmud composed a blessing that we recite every Shabbat, every Sabbath after we conclude the reading of the Haftorah. The Haftorah is the portion from the prophetic books of the Bible that we read after the reading of the Torah itself. And one of the blessings that we recite after the recitation of the Haftorah ends with the words that God is the shield of David. So not only do we have this association as God being the shield of Abraham, but we have here this idea that's developed among the rabbis, obviously again based upon these verses in the Bible, that God is the shield of David. And this is the first time we see this phrase, Maghain David, the shield of David. Now there was a long standing association of God and David's shield. This idea of God and the shield of David goes all the way back again to the Bible. And there were various legends that sprung up because of this association about David going out into battle either with a shield that was shaped like a six-pointed star or he had a shield upon which was engraved a six-pointed star. But this is a very, very old legend and an old idea that goes way back associating again David having for himself God as his shield and David using the shield symbolizing the idea that God is his shield. And this became associated again with the six-pointed shield or a six-pointed star. And the idea of course is that this shield of David symbolizes God's protection. One of the things that we have and this is very clear is archaeological evidence dating back to the 6th century BCE. So this idea of the star of David, the shield of David, is not a recent vintage. Going back already to the 6th century BCE, we have six-pointed stars as a symbol associated with Judaism, with Jewish kings, with the Jewish people. And the first explicit reference to this six-pointed star as a Maghain David. So again, we have the idea of Maghain David, the idea of the shield of David going back to the formulation of the rabbinic blessing about a thousand years after David. We have this six-pointed star as a symbol going back already to the 6th century BCE. But the first time we have an explicit reference connecting the six-pointed star and referring to it as the shield of David is the Maghain David is in the middle of the 13th century. So around 1250 of the common era. We have this association with David, the shield of David, Maghain David and the six-pointed star. And what happened as you all know is in the following centuries this symbol became increasingly popular on Jewish books, tombstones and cemeteries, on synagogues, on banners in the Middle Ages. Many communities, Jewish communities would fly a banner or a flag symbolizing in the non-Jewish world where they were living, that this is part of the Jewish community and would use a Jewish star, the star of David as a symbol of the Jewish people. And it became increasingly as we got more towards modern times this star of David, the six-pointed star of David has become increasingly simply associated with Judaism and the Jewish people. Any Jewish organization that has a logo designed will often throw in a Jewish star. It's basically rampant. It's all over the place. It's ubiquitous. The association of the six-pointed star with the Jewish people and Judaism. And what might the meaning of such a symbol be? So our Moshe Feinstein wrote that King David obviously did not place his trust in his armies or in his weapons, but he places trust only in Hashem, only in God. David, as we know, was not just a psalmist, was not just a great teacher. David was also a man of war and fought many wars. That's why we're told that David was not allowed to build the holy temple that had to wait for his son Solomon, because David had fought so many wars and there was blood on his hands. But David in all of his fighting, all of his wars never put his trust in his armies or in his soldiers or in his weapons, only in God. And he felt protected by God on all six sides. And so therefore the Jewish star, the star of David having the six points referring to the six directions is the true shield of David, the true shield of David, the protection of David was from God. Another symbol that is hinted at in the star of David is that you have the core of the star and around this core are the six points. So some have suggested that this represents the idea of the Shabbat, which is the core of the Jewish spiritual life surrounded by the six days of the week. Another symbolism of the star of David. Another way of looking at this star, this star of David, is that they are formed usually by two triangles and they form a reciprocal relationship between God and Israel. So for example, one of these triangles points up and one of them points down. The one pointing up refers to our relationship to God. It's our energy going up towards God, our prayers, our mitzvot, our good deeds. And there's another star, the top triangle points down, which is the influence to Shefa that God sends down to this world in response to what we do down here. And finally one last meaning that I found was that if you look carefully at the star of David, it doesn't only have six points, it has 12 sides to it. And these 12 sides again all center around, all revolve around the core, the core of the center being God and the 12 sides around that symbolizing the 12 tribes of Israel.


On Tuesday 29 June 2021, when St. Lucia welcomes its first cruise call since the pandemic, passengers of the Celebrity Millenia vessel will be subject to varied experiences based on their COVID-19 vaccination status. A distinction between fully vaccinated and non-fully vaccinated passengers will be made and this will determine the extent of liberties they may enjoy during their visit. And Margaret Adams is the Director of Product Development in the Ministry of Tourism. So the fully vaccinated passengers are those who actually have completed the COVID-19 vaccination regimen which is approved by the Ministry of Health. So they would have had to arrive in St Lucia at least two weeks prior to their arrival in St Lucia. So these are your fully vaccinated visitors and these persons will be allowed to free room as we say, just like your land-based visitors. They can enjoy the services, they can participate in your tours, they can go to the supermarket, they can go to the beaches as well. And these persons will be identified by a wristband and what we have, we have allowed them to utilize a wide wristband which will differentiate them from your non-fully vaccinated visitors. Non-fully vaccinated passengers are defined as a visitor who has either taken one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine or no dose at all. These passengers will be allowed to enjoy excursions in a controlled and supervised manner and will not be allowed to roam public spaces like the city centre. They are non-fully vaccinated, they are not allowed to be taken pictures and roam in the city, they will be operating within a bubble of predetermined experiences. They would have to book through your cruise agents or through the cruise desk. Adams assures that despite this and other controls in the sub-sector, as it is gradually reintroduced, locals will be able to immensely benefit. She says fully vaccinated passengers will be allowed to patronize shops in the city centre as was the norm pre-COVID and the vendors arcade will be open to receive passengers. So your locals will be able to participate. I can say that the ministry has been working assiduously in preparing them for providing services.  In fact, as of yesterday we had a meeting with our vendors to prepare them in terms of what are the expectations, what are the guidelines surrounding cruise passengers when they do come in. So your locals will be able to participate. I must say that they will be able to benefit from the services that they will be able to provide to your fully vaccinated as well as those who are non-vaccinated but within a bubble. The inaugural return of cruise tourism on June 29 with the Celebrity Millennium jumps at the season that will see most of the 30 schedule calls between August and October of this year.


Polanka is the main entry point to Moldova for the refugees that come from Ukraine. Above all women, children, elderly people, particularly vulnerable and traumatized. And IOM is here, together with the other UN agencies, to support them, not just in terms of humanitarian assistance, but also to give them the necessary psychosocial support in these dramatic circumstances. I want to emphasize the very good cooperation with the government and the authorities, with the border guard that is fundamental for the flow to keep going, and also the generosity of the donors that allows us all to support these people in dire conditions and desperately in need of help.