A New Perspective on Constantine

(Worthy News) – The scale of Turkey’s crackdown on alleged government opponents following last year’s attempted coup was confirmed by a top official, as the nation prepares to mark the anniversary of the failed putsch amid deepening concern over the rule of law, Bloomberg reported.

Authorities have fired 103,824 state employees and suspended 33,483 more since the July 15 bid to seize power by a section of the military, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said in an interview. The purge of suspected followers of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, accused by the government of orchestrating the coup attempt, is necessary to ensure national security, he said.

Judicial bodies have processed the cases of 168,206 people linked to the takeover attempt, the Justice Ministry said. About 48,000 have been released from custody but remain under court monitoring, it added. [ Source: Bloomberg ]

(Worthy News) – Another 38 probable mass graves have been found in central Congo, where violence between troops and militia members has killed thousands of people since August, the United Nations announced Wednesday.

This means at least 80 mass graves have been identified so far, the U.N. peacekeeping mission in the vast Central African nation said.

The U.N. says more than a million people have been displaced, making Congo the African country with the most internally displaced people – 3.8 million. [ Source: Washington Times ]

(Worthy News) – Republican House leaders on Tuesday earmarked $1.6 billion to begin building President Trump’s border wall next year, including the money in their homeland security spending bill, setting up a fight with Democrats who have vowed to fight any funding for the wall, even if it means sending the federal government into a partial shutdown.

The spending bill also calls for 500 more Border Patrol agents, 1,000 more agents and officers to handle deportations from the interior of the U.S. and enough money to maintain an average of 44,000 detention beds to hold illegal immigrants.

The Republican bill also calls for adding more than two dozen jurisdictions to the 287(g) program, which allows local police and sheriff’s deputies to be trained to enforce immigration laws. [ Source ]

(Worthy News) – Palestinian officials and US President Donald Trump’s peace envoy Jason Greenblatt will meet in Jerusalem on Tuesday because the Palestinians do not want US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman to come to Ramallah, Fatah Central Committee Member Azzam al-Ahmad said in a television interview.

“Tomorrow there will be a new round of talks with the Palestinian delegation in West Jerusalem because we do not want one of the members of the [American] delegation to come to us…Why? Because he is the ambassador of America in Israel and the purview of his work is in Israel,” Ahmad said in an interview with the official Palestinian Authority television station on Monday.

A senior Palestinian official told The Jerusalem Post on Monday that the meeting between Greenblatt and Palestinian officials will take place at the King David Hotel. [ Source: Jerusalem Post ]

(Worthy News) – A new UN report released on Tuesday highlighted the negative impact of a decade of Hamas rule in Gaza, ending with the grim prediction that living conditions in the coastal enclave will worsen significantly over the next three years.

The report, “Gaza – 1o Years On”, published by UNSCO — the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process — examines the progressive deterioration of Gaza’s public services and infrastructure in the decade that has elapsed since the civil war of 2007. After months of internecine fighting, Hamas seized absolute power Gaza in a coup in June of that year, driving out the rival Fatah faction and launching fresh rocket attacks against Israel. Both Israel –which has the longest land border with Gaza — and Egypt imposed a blockade on the territory within months of the coup that remains in place.

“Upon seizing control of Gaza, Hamas has increasingly tightened its grip on power, including by executing, maiming and jailing opponents and suppressing dissent,” the report’s introduction stated. “For years, Hamas was able to sustain its de facto authority and build up its military strength primarily through controlling the movement of goods smuggled through tunnels between Gaza and Egypt and taxing this trade, while the Palestinian Authority paid for essential services to Gaza residents, including some civil service salaries, electricity, water and medical care.” [ Source: Algemeiner ]

(Worthy News) – International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that a new bipartisan letter from the US House of Representatives was sent today to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, requesting that he raise the issue of Christian churches being targeted in Sudan with the Sudanese government.

The letter follows extensive efforts by ICC to raise awareness about the destruction of churches in Sudan on Capitol Hill and was sent to Secretary Tillerson just 24 hours ahead of a possible State Department decision to continue the lifting of sanctions against the country. The letter also follows a June 30 letter from 53 members of Congress urging the Secretary to delay the permanent lifting of sanctions.

Signed by 12 congressmen of both parties[1], the letter urges the State Department to “contact the Sudanese government about their continued demolition and threatened destruction of Christian churches and their human rights violations.” The letter continues, “The Sudanese government should rescind its unfounded demolition orders for Christian places of worship and recognize their right to exist in peace. The United States has long been a champion of religious freedom around the world, and we should hold Sudan accountable for its unacceptable targeting of Christian churches and religious minorities.”

On September 29, 2016, 27 churches in the Khartoum area of Sudan received notices that their buildings were set to be demolished. Several of the churches have been demolished already with the remaining number subject to destruction soon if their legal appeals are rejected. Sudan has a long history of abusing the human rights of its citizens and practicing religious persecution. In 2012, 2014, and 2015, authorities in Sudan demolished or closed down churches without providing justification. Additionally, in April of this year, a Christian leader and father of two was stabbed to death in a Sudanese Christian school as he tried to protect school personnel who were being attacked by a mob trying to seize the property.

Isaac Six, ICC’s Advocacy Director, stated, “Sudan has demonstrated an almost complete lack of respect for the human rights of many of its citizens. This recent assault on the right of Christians to gather together in houses of worship shows that President Omar al-Bashir has not changed his practice of blatant discrimination and abuse of his own people. With the looming deadline on the expiration of US sanctions against Sudan, Bashir must demonstrate that he will protect basic human rights in his nation. If he fails to meet these minimal demands of human decency, then the US must not reward him with economic relief. The Sudanese government should immediately rescind its demolition orders for these places of worship and recognize their right to exist.”

(Worthy News) – The Russian industry is ready to build a 100-ton ballistic missile, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said. According to him, the same can be said about the Barguzin railway-based missile system. The projects are “on the level of absolute readiness of the industry for their implementation, should the relevant decision be made to include the projects in the state armament program,” Rogozin said when answering a question about the stage of readiness of the Bargain railway-based missile system and the 100-ton heavy ballistic missile.

Missile tests for the Barguzin systems took place in November of last year. Noteworthy, it became known this week that the Ministry of Defense decided to delay the tests of RS-28 Sarmat ballistic missile. The Sarmat missile is to replace RS-18 Voevoda missile complex (NATO reporting name – SS-18 “Satan”). Originally, it was planned that the liquid-fuel rocket RS-28 Sarmat will be passed into service in 2019-2020. The missile is said to be a carrier of hypersonic blocks, which will be capable of breaking through any existing missile defenses. [ Source: Pravda ]

(Worthy News) – DARPA, the research arm of the U.S. military, has awarded contracts to five organizations for the development of neural implants that could enable brains to communicate with computer interfaces to restore sensory performance — primarily speech, hearing and sight, DARPA representatives announced today (July 10) in a statement.

Scientists will investigate the role of neural networks operating within specific brain regions — down to the level of individual neurons — in order to understand how brains process sensory input. The researchers will also develop technologies and algorithms capable of both interpreting and generating signals in the brain, according to DARPA. [ Source ]

(Worthy News) – President Trump may cancel Congress‘ summer recess and demand that lawmakers stick around through August to force Democrats to confirm more of his nominees, the White House said Monday, throwing down a challenge to senators who have tried to obstruct him at nearly every turn.

Democrats have mounted filibusters on 90 percent of the president’s picks that have reached the Senate floor — much higher than the 10 percent rate that Republicans mounted for President Obama’s, the White House said.

Mr. Trump has announced 216 nominations for civilian positions. The Senate has confirmed fewer than 50. [ Source: Washington Times ]

(Worthy News) – While the liberal news media hunts for evidence of Trump-Russia collusion, the public record shows that Democrats have willfully used Moscow disinformation to influence the presidential election against Donald Trump and attack his administration.

The disinformation came in the form of a Russian-fed dossier written by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele. It contains a series of unverified criminal charges against Mr. Trump’s campaign aides, such as coordinating Moscow’s hacking of Democratic Party computers.

Some Democrats have widely circulated the discredited information. Mr. Steele was paid by the Democrat-funded opposition research firm Fusion GPS with money from a Hillary Clinton backer. Fusion GPS distributed the dossier among Democrats and journalists. The information fell into the hands of the FBI, which used it in part to investigate Mr. Trump’s campaign aides. [ Source: Washington Times ]