A New Perspective on Constantine

(Worthy News) – Senate Republicans on Thursday morning are expected to release an adjusted healthcare bill that would repeal and replace portions of Obamacare, even as factions of the party remain deeply divided over its rumored contents.

The latest draft is expected to include an amendment proposed by conservative Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah that would allow health insurance companies to offer less-expensive plans that do not include Obamacare’s essential health benefits as long as they provide at least one plan that includes them.

It is also expected to include a $45 billion fund for states to use in the battle against the opioid epidemic and would maintain Obamacare’s 3.8 percent investment tax and 0.9 percent Medicare surtax on upper-income earners. [ Source: Washington Examiner ]

(Worthy News) – The Oregon legislature recently passed a bill that would force insurers to provide free abortions, with no religious exemptions. It would also increase the amount of national taxpayer funds that sponsor abortions for all Medicaid recipients, including noncitizens.

House Bill 3391 would require insurers to provide abortions at no cost to the patient, regardless of her citizenship status, gender, or income, without any religious exemptions. It would also require the state to pay an additional $500,000 in taxpayer-sponsored contraception and abortions for noncitizens under the state’s Medicaid program. [ Source: Federalist ]

(Worthy News) – Al Shabaab militia over the weekend killed 13 non-Muslims, mostly Christians, in coastal Kenya, sources said.

Village Muslims in the Pandanguo settlement of Lamu County helped Islamic extremists from the Somalia-based Al Shabaab identify locations where the Christians resided, a survivor of the attack told Morning Star News from a hospital in Mpeketoni. Several of the victims were beheaded.

The assailants killed four non-Muslims in Kipini (sometimes called Kadundu) on Sunday (July 9), not far from the Boni forest, a reputed hiding place of Al Shabaab rebels battling the government in Somalia. Early Saturday morning in Jima they killed nine non-Muslims in attacks that began at around 11 p.m. the previous night, shooting some and hacking others to death with machetes, including beheadings, area sources said. [ Source: Morningstar News ]

(Worthy News) – Christians made up the majority of refugees admitted to the U.S. in the first five full months of the Trump administration, reversing a trend that saw Muslims entering the country at higher numbers under President Obama, a new Pew Research report shows.

Out of all the refugees who arrived between President Trump’s inauguration and June 30, about half were Christians and 38 percent were Muslims, according to data released Wednesday (July 12).

But when monthly figures are viewed, the data (originally from the U.S. State Department) reveals a steady decline for Muslims, from about 50 percent of refugees in February to 31 percent in June. [ Source: Religion News Service ]

(Worthy News) – The White House went on offense Wednesday amid the firestorm over Donald Trump Jr.’s campaign-season meeting with a Russian lawyer, trying to turn the tables by alleging the Democratic National Committee and the Clintons are the ones caught up in “collusion.”

“If we’re looking at Russia relationships with anybody, it would be directly with the Clintons,” she said, citing examples of a speech former President Bill Clinton gave in Russia for which he reportedly earned over $500,000 and reports of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton selling what Deputy White House Press Secretary Huckabee Sanders described as “a third of the world’s uranium” to Russia.

“If there’s been any evidence of collusion in 2016 actually happening, it would have been between the DNC and the Ukrainian government,” Sanders said.

Sanders was referring to a Politico report published in January. The report cited a meeting between Ukrainian government officials who allegedly tried to help Clinton undermine Trump by publicly questioning his fitness for office and shared research and damaging information on Trump and his advisers with Clinton allies. [ Source: Fox News ]

(Worthy News) – The United States notified South Korea on Wednesday that it plans to renegotiate its free-trade agreement with Seoul and called for a meeting to be held next month.

US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said that Washington wants to meet to discuss “possible amendments and modifications” to the deal in a letter to South Korean Trade Minister Joo Hyung-hwan.

The terms of the US-Korea Trade Agreement (KORUS) – which went into effect five years ago under President Barack Obama – call for the talks to begin within 30 days, although no date has been set yet. [ Source: Deutsche Welle ]

(Worthy News) – President Donald Trump said “I am sitting in the Oval Office with a pen in hand” waiting to repeal Obamacare in an interview Wednesday with CBN’s Pat Robertson.

Trump noted that Republican senators have been promising to repeal Obamacare for years, voting to do so over dozens of times when it “didn’t mean anything,” as Barack Obama was never going to repeal his signature domestic achievement.

“Now we have a president that’s waiting to sign it,” Trump said. “I have [a] pen in hand so now it means something. You know, those other times, those many, many times that they passed it, it didn’t mean anything.”

Robertson asked what would happen if they didn’t repeal the law.

“I will be very angry about it, and a lot of people will be very upset,” he said. “I hope that they do it. They’ve been promising it for years.”

(Worthy News) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday met with US President Donald Trump’s peace envoy to the Middle East Jason Greenblatt, following reports earlier in the day that the US would soon announce a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

Also present at the meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office were US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and Israel’s Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer, the PMO said in a statement.

Earlier Wednesday, the pan-Arabic Al-Hayat daily reported that the US intends to facilitate talks between Israel and the Palestinians, which Trump will “soon” be calling for. [ Source: Times of Israel ]

(Worthy News) – A United Nations official stationed in Jerusalem warned Israel that the current energy crisis afflicting the Hamas-run Gaza Strip is having a devastating effect on the local population, and will eventually negatively impact Israelis too.

Nickolay Mladenov, the UN’s special coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, said Israel has no immediate, direct role to play in solving the crisis, but that once it has been resolved by the conflicting Palestinian factions, Israel should do its utmost to improve conditions for the citizens of the coastal strip.

Since the Palestinian Authority decided to ask Israel to reduce the amount of fuel it delivers to Gaza, the local sewage system has shut down, causing 100,000 tons of unprocessed waste water to get dumped into the Mediterranean every day, he said.

Some residents of Gaza have no drinking water, and prices for vegetables have gone up by 50 percent, Mladenov added.

“The effects of the crisis are devastating,” he said. “And all of this, at the end of the day, will come back to Israel’s doorstep.” [ Source: Times of Israel ]

(Worthy News) – A federal judge halted the deportation of hundreds of illegal immigrants from Iraq, dealing at least a tentative blow to the Trump administration in a case that could signal even greater judicial intrusion into immigration policy.

In a case resounding with major implications for big separation-of-powers questions, District Judge Mark A. Goldsmith said federal courts have the power to provide a final appeal in immigration cases, even though Congress had tried to limit their powers and give the executive branch full control of deportations.

Judge Goldsmith overruled Congress and said he had to step in to save the Iraqis from immediate deportation, saying otherwise they risked “death, torture or other grave persecution” back home. [ Source ]