A New Perspective on Constantine

(Worthy News) – Hundreds of asylum seekers from the Middle East, including from Iran and Iraq, have converted to Christianity in Finland, according to officials in the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran community.

A report in Finnish media Yle Uutiset says the conversions are estimated to be several hundred in recent years within the country’s Evangelical Lutheran Church.

The converts are from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and other countries, and the denomination’s parishes have established special confirmation classes for the Muslim immigrants seeking to become Christian. [ Source:Christian Post (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard said Saturday a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier fired a warning shot in an “unprofessional” confrontation with Iranian vessels, the official IRNA news agency reported.

IRNA quoted a statement from the Guard as saying that the USS Nimitz and an accompanying ship came near an Iranian oil offshore platform in the Persian Gulf and a helicopter from the ship hovered near vessels manned by Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard.

The U.S. Navy’s Bahrain-based 5th Fleet said the incident happened while one of its helicopters was on a routine patrol in international airspace. The aircraft saw several Guard vessels approaching American ships “at a high rate of speed” and sent out flares after receiving no response when it tried to establish communications, the Navy said. That prompted the Iranian boats to halt their approach. [ Source:Washington Times (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – The United States flew two supersonic bombers over the Korean Peninsula on Sunday in a show of force against North Korea following the country’s latest intercontinental ballistic missile test. The U.S. also said it conducted a successful test of a missile defense system located in Alaska.

The B-1 bombers were escorted by South Korean fighter jets as they performed a low-pass over an air base near the South Korean capital of Seoul before returning to Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, the U.S. Pacific Air Forces said in a statement.

It said the mission was a response to North Korea’s two ICBM tests this month. Analysts say flight data from the North’s second test, conducted Friday night, showed that a broader part of the mainland United States, including Los Angeles and Chicago, is now in range of Pyongyang’s weapons. [ Source:Washington Times (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – The establishment media have gone from virtual 24/7 coverage of the narrative that President Trump colluded with Russia to crickets, and they did it overnight.

At the end of Thursday’s daily press briefing, a visibly bemused White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders chided reporters, “You guys love to talk about Russia, and there’s been nonstop coverage. And the one day that there might have been a question on Russia, there wasn’t.”

So she raised the topic herself, noting, “[T]here was public testimony that further discredited the phony dossier that’s been the source of so much of the fake news and conspiracy theories. And we learned that the firm that produced it was also being paid by the Russians.” [ Source:WND (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – The Trump White House is adamant that Moscow will change course on its public threats of diplomatic punishment over the president’s decision to approve stronger U.S. sanctions against Russia.

“As we make our intentions clear, we expect Russian behavior to change. The president and I remain very hopeful that we’ll see different behavior by the Russian government,” Vice President Mike Pence said on his way to Eastern Europe for a trip this week.

“We continue to believe that if Russia will change its behavior, our relationship can change for the good and improve for the interests in both of our countries and the interest of peace and stability in this region and around the world,” Mr. Pence told reporters while traveling on a diplomatic visit in Estonia.

But some hours after his comments, Russian President Vladimir Putin called for the expulsion of over 700 American diplomats attached to the U.S. mission in Russia. [ Source:Washington Times (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – The majority of Venezuelans on Sunday apparently refused to select members of a legislative body on whose purpose — to rewrite the country’s constitution — they never got to vote.

With the opposition declining to field candidates in an election it deemed yet another power grab by President Nicolas Maduro, turnout was seen as the most viable measure to gauge the support his embattled government was still able to muster.

Hours before voting had ended, Vice President Tareck El Aissami claimed that Venezuelans had “massively” heeded the government’s call to fill the Constituent Assembly’s 545 seats, but images and footage of deserted polling places told a different story. [ Source: Washington Times (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – A new undercover video shows an abortionist at Planned Parenthood admitting to feigning compliance with the federal ban on partial-birth abortion.

At a Planned Parenthood conference evening reception, Dr. Suzie Prabhakaran, vice president of medical affairs for Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida, says she routinely documents her “intent” to perform dismemberment abortions, where the fetus is pulled apart by forceps rather than extracted from the womb alive, but leaves open the possibility of actually performing partial-birth abortions.

“To comply with the partial-birth abortion ban, you basically have to say, ‘I intend to utilize dismemberment techniques for this procedure,’ ” Ms. Prabhakaran tells undercover pro-life activists posing as fetal tissue buyers. “So every time you do a procedure, that’s how you document. So, like, there’s like a checkbox, so it would be before the procedure, you do your evaluation, you write, ‘I intend to utilize dismemberment techniques for this procedure.’ “ [ Source:Washington Times (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Nigerian hospital officials say the death toll from an ambush in northeastern Nigeria has risen to 48 people.

The officials say the bodies of 18 soldiers and 30 others have been brought to Maiduguri from the area near Lake Chad where extremists Boko Haram fighters attacked geological surveyors who were prospecting for oil Tuesday.

The military has put the toll at 10 dead, and the government has suspended oil prospecting in the area. [ Source:Times of Israel (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – The top EU and UK negotiators appear to be at odds over whether the next phase of Brexit talks could begin in the autumn.

Michel Barnier, who leads the EU side of the talks, has warned of a possible delay to discussions aimed at defining future ties between London and Brussels because of lack of progress in the current phase, focusing on the divorce.

Brussels wants sufficient progress on key issues surrounding the separation, such as a financial settlement and citizens’ rights, before discussing future trade. [ Source:Sky News (Read More…) ]