A New Perspective on Constantine

(Worthy News) – Frustrated that China has not done more to rein in North Korea, the Trump administration could impose new sanctions on small Chinese banks and other firms doing business with Pyongyang within weeks, two senior U.S. officials said.

The U.S. measures would initially hit Chinese entities considered “low-hanging fruit,” including smaller financial institutions and “shell” companies linked to North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs, said one of the officials, while declining to name the targets.

The timing and scope of the U.S. action will depend heavily on how China responds to pressure for tougher steps against North Korea when U.S. and Chinese officials meet for a high-level economic dialogue in Washington on Wednesday, the administration sources told Reuters. [ Source ]

(Worthy News) – Envoys from the US, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations — the so-called Middle East Quartet — met in Jerusalem on Thursday for the first time since the election of US President Donald Trump.

In a statement released by the Quartet, they “expressed serious concern over the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza and discussed current efforts to resolve the crisis.”

The four also agreed to “meet again and to continue their regular engagement with Israelis and Palestinians, and key regional stakeholders.” [ Source: Times of Israel ]

(Worthy News) – Speaking at a joint news conference, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she is open to French President Emmanuel Macron’s calls to create a Eurozone finance minister and a European Union budget, two reforms the new French leader campaigned to create.

The announcement came after joint cabinet meetings between French and German ministers in Paris on Thursday.

Macron campaigned on promises to overhaul the EU and create tighter bonds between the member countries on the issues of finance, immigration and defense. [ Source ]

(Worthy News) – Theresa May unveiled a landmark draft law to take Britain out of the European Union, sparking a furious backlash from Scotland and Wales and fueling political opposition that could derail her plans for Brexit.

The 66-page bill will transfer EU laws onto the British statute book for when the U.K. leaves the bloc in March 2019. But the leaders of the semi-autonomous Scottish and Welsh governments attacked May’s plan for failing to give them sufficient powers and threatened to block the bill in votes in the national legislatures in Edinburgh and Cardiff.

The bill takes powers back from the EU in Brussels and gives them to the central U.K. government in London, instead of devolving decision-making to Wales and Scotland, Jones and Sturgeon said. “On that basis, the Scottish and Welsh governments cannot recommend that legislative consent is given to the bill as it currently stands.” [ Source: Bloomberg ]

(Worthy News) – Planned Parenthood Federation of America President Cecile Richards says the Trump administration has already done more to set back the nation’s largest abortion provider than any other in the last half-century.

“This White House has been worse for women than any administration in my lifetime,” Ms. Richards said in an interview with PEOPLE.

Mr. Trump and Republicans in Congress have promised to divest Planned Parenthood’s more than $500-million annual taxpayer allowance to women’s health clinics that do not perform abortions. [ Source: Washington Times ]

(Worthy News) – Egyptian churches on Thursday suspended pilgrimages, holidays and conferences for the remainder of July and August after authorities warned them about possible attacks by Islamic militants.

Ishak Ibrahim, an activist and a top researcher on the Egyptian church, reported the suspension by the majority Coptic Orthodox and the smaller Anglican and Catholic churches. Security officials, pastors and other activists confirmed the suspension.

They said the warning was delivered to church representatives during a meeting this week with top army and security commanders in the southern city of Assiut. They have also been told that army troops backed by armored vehicles and snipers would be deployed outside monasteries hosting major religious festivals in coming weeks. At least two of these festivals will take place in Assiut, home to a sizable Christian community. [ Source ]

(Worthy News) – Senate Republican leaders released a revised Obamacare replacement bill Thursday that retains some of the 2010 law’s taxes to blunt premium costs but rolls the dice with Sen. Ted Cruz’s plan to let insurers offer skimpier health plans to Americans who want them.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has little to no margin of error in rallying his 52-seat majority around the bill ahead of votes planned for next week, after Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky slammed the effort from the right and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine signaled she is unlikely to support the redrafted plan because it retains deep cuts to the Medicaid insurance program for the poor.

Democrats unanimously oppose the repeal effort, leaving Vice President Mike Pence to serve as a tie-breaker if the chamber splits 50-50. [ Source ]

(Worthy News) – The Russian lawyer who penetrated Donald Trump’s inner circle was initially cleared into the United States by the Justice Department under “extraordinary circumstances” before she embarked on a lobbying campaign last year that ensnared the president’s eldest son, members of Congress, journalists and State Department officials, according to court and Justice Department documents and interviews.

This revelation means it was the Obama Justice Department that enabled the newest and most intriguing figure in the Russia-Trump investigation to enter the country without a visa. [ Source: The Hill ]

(Worthy News) – Israel and the Palestinian Authority on Thursday announced an agreement that will provide millions of cubic meters of drinking water to the Palestinians from a desalination process.

While the Palestinians made plain that the deal, brokered by US President Donald Trump’s envoy Jason Greenblatt, has no impact on final-status issues in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, Greenblatt hailed it as a “harbinger of things to come.” At a joint press conference in Jerusalem, however, Greenblatt refused to take any questions regarding his bid to relaunch peace negotiations

The agreement announced Thursday is part of a larger trilateral agreement for the construction of a 220-kilometer (137-mile) pipeline transferring water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea — the lowest body of water on earth — to benefit Israelis, Jordanians and Palestinians, and replenish the dwindling Dead Sea. As the water runs down the gradient it will be used to generate electricity that will also power a desalination plant to produce drinking water. [ Source: Times of Israel ]

(Worthy News) – President Donald Trump’s proposed budget for 2018 would reduce the deficit over the next decade by $160 billion and increase GDP at the same time, according to an analysis from the Congressional Budget Office.

Trump’s budget proposes a cut back in mandatory and discretionary spending that would not only reduce the deficit, but the debt as well.

Relative to the size of the economy, federal budget deficits are projected to decline by 2.6 percent to 3.3 percent of gross domestic product over the next 10 years. This would mean that the deficit would be roughly one-third smaller than it was originally projected to be. [ Source ]