A New Perspective on Constantine

(Worthy News) – A report on Channel 2 on August 15 provided images of a military construction site from an Israeli satellite near Qalaat Marqab. The report said this is likely a factory to build long-range missiles. The area the factory is constructed in near the border of the Tartus and Latakia governorates is one that is closely linked to other military facilities of the Syrian regime and its allies. These include a Russian naval base at Tartus and Khmeimim air force base to the north, which is also allegedly used by Russia and the Iranians.

The report of the Iranian missile factory in Syria comes in the context of Israel’s recent warnings in June and July that Iran was attempting to establish bases in Lebanon and Syria.

Iran’s parliament also approved a bill on August 13 to increase spending on ballistic missiles by $260 million. In May, US lawmakers Peter Roskam and Ted Deutch expressed concern about “a permanent Iranian military base in Syria” in a May 25 letter to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Defense James Mattis.

“The Islamic Republic seeks to solidify its access to the Mediterranean Sea by building a permanent seaport and constructing numerous military installations throughout the country.” [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Turkish and Iranian military leaders held talks on Wednesday over cooperation in the Syrian conflict and counter-terrorism, officials said, during a rare visit to NATO-member Turkey by the Islamic Republic’s military chief of staff.

Turkey’s ties with Washington have been strained by US support for Kurdish fighters in Syria, and the visit by Iranian General Mohammad Baqeri is the latest sign that Ankara is increasing cooperation with other powers such as Iran and Russia.

Baqeri met his Turkish counterpart on Tuesday and Turkey’s Defence Minister Nurettin Canikli on Wednesday in what Turkish media said was the first visit by an Iranian chief of staff since Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – A Pentecostal church in Ethiopia has been ordered to stop meeting in a residential area, in the wake of a mob attack on the church, after which a church member was arrested for “illegal activities” that “incited religious clashes”.

The Full Gospel Church in Tikil Dingaye, 20km from the historic city of Gondar in Amhara State, previously applied for land on which to build a church, but its application was refused, leading the church to purchase a house in which to meet.

Although Ethiopia guarantees religious freedom on paper, Pentecostal churches in rural areas often face restrictions in a society dominated by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (EOC). [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – The annual Ulchi-Freedom Guardian exercise is scheduled for 10 days beginning Aug. 21, and will include about 25,000 U.S. troops along with tens of thousands of South Koreans. The exercise focuses on defending South Korea against an attack from the north, and each year triggers threats and rebukes from North Korea. But it comes at an especially sensitive time now, following the exchange of a series of threats between President Trump and North Korea.

U.S. Forces Korea, the command that oversees some 28,500 American military personnel on the Korean Peninsula, has no current plans to change the size, format or messaging for this year’s exercise, said Army Col. Chad G. Carroll, a military spokesman in South Korea. The mission is planned well in advance, considered defensive in nature and allows both military forces and civilian officials to strengthen their readiness for a crisis, he said. [ Source (Read More…) ]

First Total Solar Eclipse in 99 Years to Sweep US: Key Facts

The first total solar eclipse to sweep North America in nearly a century will march across the continent on August 21, casting a shadow over millions of people from coast to coast.

This is the first eclipse to pass over the United States in the 21st century.

It is the first total eclipse on American soil since 1991, when one was visible from the Big Island of Hawaii.

But it has been 38 years since the mainland United States glimpsed a total eclipse. The last one was in 1979, and that swept only a handful of northwestern states.

Having a total solar eclipse move across entire the United States is quite rare. The last time it happened was in 1918. [ Source (Read More…) ]

The year that our nation declared its independence, in 1776, was the last time a total solar eclipse occurred only over the United States and in no other country.

Total eclipse events — when the moon completely passes in front of the sun — may come infrequently (in fact, about two occur somewhere on our vast planet every three years), but the United States has experienced other types of solar eclipses more recently. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – The number of U.S. government personnel targeted by a mysterious illness in Cuba last year is greater than the Trump administration has publicly acknowledged, according to multiple U.S. officials who told the Washington Free Beacon the Obama administration may have misled Congress about the full scope and nature of the attack.

U.S. officials disclosed earlier this month that six Americans were struck by a mystery illness believed to be caused by a covert sonic device in what many think was a clandestine operation targeting U.S. personnel stationed in the communist country.

The number of Americans impacted is greater than previously disclosed, according to multiple U.S. officials who told the Free Beacon that those suffering from symptoms of sonic damage appears to be more than 10. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – The Palestinian Authority expects the Trump administration to commit to a peace deal endgame before the close of this month and prefers it would be the two-state solution.

“We need them to tell us where the hell they are going,” Husam Zomlot, the Palestine Liberation Organization envoy to Washington, said Thursday at a meeting in his office with reporters. “It’s about time we hear it.”

“A two-state solution has international equilibrium, it has regional backing and it has a global consensus,” Zomlot said. “We are saying to them, we have a starting point, and letting go of this starting point is the worst thing they can do.” [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) –
Brad Dacus was thousands of miles away in California last weekend when the Charlottesville protest erupted, so he was flabbergasted when CNN labeled his Pacific Justice Institute a hate group.

“Here are all the active hate groups where you live,” said the CNN wire story headline on Chicago’s WGN-TV website.

The article listed the 917 organizations on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s much-disputed “hate map,” which names racist groups like the Aryan Nation alongside mainstream conservative organizations such as the Alliance Defending Freedom and the Family Research Council.

Mr. Dacus’ conservative Sacramento-based institute, which specializes in religious-liberty cases, was featured on the CNN list right below the Pacific Coast Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – A white van mowed down dozens of people eating ice cream, window-shopping and enjoying the summer sunshine on one of Barcelona’s busiest streets Thursday afternoon, the latest vehicle turned weapon terrorist attack in Europe but the first in Spain.

The attack killed 13 people and wounded more than 100, at least 15 seriously, the Interior Ministry confirmed. Authorities believed the van’s driver was still at large and said the death toll would likely rise.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack via the group’s propaganda site, known as Amaq, saying “the perpetrators of the Barcelona attack are soldiers of Islamic State and carried out the operation in response to calls for targeting coalition states,” referring to the U.S.-backed mission in Iraq. That claim of responsibility could not be verified. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Major media outlets this week encouraged people to speculate on whether President Trump is a racist and even commissioned artists to convey the idea that he is, but still fell short of generating a consensus that Trump is prejudiced against non-whites.

The effort is nearly a week old now. It began Saturday when Trump was criticized for not immediately singling out neo-Nazis and white supremacists for their role in the violence in Charlottesville, Va.

When Trump finally did identify the groups on Monday, the press said he was too slow. Then a day later, Trump again condemned white supremacists, but also said at a press conference that both the white supremacist protesters and counter-protesters were violent, and that there is blame on “both sides.”

By Thursday, major magazines were declaring Trump a racist. Or at least, they were suggesting it with the art on their new covers. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – President Donald Trump has stepped up his attacks on Republican senators, an approach he may regret if he is someday impeached and the Senate has to weigh charges against him stemming from an investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election.

More than half of the 11 Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which would be central to any proceeding to remove Trump from office, have tangled with the Republican president, including on Thursday when he fired off early-morning tweets.

In one Twitter series, Trump called Senator Lindsey Graham “publicity seeking” and said he “just can’t forget his election trouncing” in the 2016 presidential race. Trump also assailed Senator Jeff Flake, another Republican critic, as “a non-factor in the Senate,” adding, “He’s toxic.”

Flake and Graham are members of the Judiciary Committee, whose Chairman Chuck Grassley has urged Trump to tone it down. [ Source (Read More…) ]