A New Perspective on Constantine

(Worthy News) – President Trump on Tuesday threatened to shut down the federal government if Congress doesn’t present him with a spending bill for the next fiscal year that includes funding for a wall on the southern border.

“The obstructionist Democrats would like us not to do it, but believe me, if we have to close down our government, we’re building that wall,” Trump said at a rally in Phoenix.

Trump reiterated his message that he was elected to help boost national security and keep illegal immigrants out of the country, many of whom he said are dangerous. He noted that he’s met with several families who have lost loved ones due to violence by illegal immigrants.

“I promised these families the deaths of their loved ones will not have been in vain,” he said. [ Source (Read More…) ]

Trump visits Arizona in push for wall funding, more border agents

Turning to immigration made sense for the administration, which has already notched significant gains. Apprehensions of illegal immigrants on the border — a rough yardstick for the overall illegal flow — are down dramatically across the Southwest, while deportations from the interior of the U.S. are up 32 percent.

Those gains were achieved by policy changes. But officials said if they are to be improved, it will take more resources, including another round of wall-building, and agents.

“The president’s message is we need a strong border and we need strong interior enforcement. What he’s done so far has worked, so we need the funding to make it permanent. We need funding to build a wall,” Thomas Homan, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told reporters traveling with Mr. Trump. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Al-Shabaab fighters reportedly killed four Christian men in Kenya’s Lamu County last week, beheading three and burning alive another.

“Late in the night on August 17, al-Shabaab militants entered Maleli village of Witu and killed the four men; three were hacked to death with machetes and one was burned inside his home,” International Christian Concern reported on Monday.

“The four men who were killed are Stephen Hizano Ponda, Charo Karisa Ngoa, Naphtali Katana Kadenge, and Joseph Gasena Ngoa.”

A police source told Reuters that three of the men’s “heads were cut off from the rest of their bodies.” [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Police in a southern Pakistan city have detained a Christian minor on blasphemy charges for allegedly burning pages of the Quran, the Muslim holy book.

Asif Massih was arrested shortly after a complaint was issued Sunday, a police official told VOA.

The 16-year-old Christian was reportedly charged under section 295-B of Pakistan’s penal code, referring to a part of the country’s constitution that makes the death sentence or life imprisonment mandatory for anyone who damages or desecrates the Quran.

Police had to intervene as an angry mob attacked Massih in Wazirabad’s Jamkay Chattha village in Punjab province before he was arrested. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – The high costs of illegal immigrants filing deportation appeals in federal courts are paid by U.S. taxpayers, a little-known fact but a major driver in the escalation of cases that are clogging the legal docket, according to experts.

“Aliens should not be given more rights and better conditions than U.S. citizens,” said Hans von Spakovsky, an expert on immigration and a former member of the Federal Election Commission.

Decrying the special treatment courts provide to illegals, he told a Center for Immigration Studies panel on Tuesday that unlike American citizens, undocumented immigrants don’t have to pay most court costs, such as for records and transcripts, and the $110 filing fee is typically waived.

“American taxpayers are subsidizing the appeals of all these cases,” said von Spakovsky. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Following through on his recommendation for communities to harness the power of prayer, Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin joined residents in Louisville on Friday for a prayer walk.

Facing rising murder rates in the city’s west end, Bevin spoke out at a community meeting in June about the devolving situation on the ground in Louisville. At the time, CBS News reported Louisville Metro Police had investigated a historic 118 criminal homicides in 2016, but, as of May, the 2017 murder rate was on pace to surpass the previous record-setting year.

In an effort to deal with the crisis, Bevin encouraged the people of Kentucky to embrace the “power of prayer” by organizing prayer groups that would regularly take to the streets of high-crime neighborhoods. He urged volunteers to choose a block in their communities and form teams of three to 10 people that could then walk up and down the streets several times a week for the next year. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – The IRS must name the specific employees it blames for targeting tea party groups for extra scrutiny and must prove it has halted the targeting of the groups, a federal judge ordered last week.

Judge Reggie B. Walton also said the IRS must explain why the IRS delayed extending non-profit status to 38 groups that are part of a lawsuit in the District of Columbia, The Washington Times reported on Aug. 17.

Walton said it was time for the IRS to “Lay it on the line. Put it out there.”

“Why hide the ball?” the judge asked the tax agency. “If there’s nothing there, there’s nothing there.” [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – A defiant President Trump rallied with his base for more than an hour Tuesday in Arizona, trashing the media over its coverage of his response to the recent violence in Charlottesville, Va., while criticizing the state’s Republican senators for not getting behind him.

The president also signaled during the Phoenix rally that he could soon pardon Joe Arpaio, the former sheriff in Maricopa County famous for his tough stance against illegal immigration.

But Trump was most animated when defending himself against accusations he wasn’t forceful enough in condemning the white supremacists and racists who were protesting in Charlottesville earlier this month. He blamed the media for distorting his comments. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he doubts the United States can reach a deal to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.

“Personally, I don’t think we can make a deal … I think we’ll end up probably terminating NAFTA at some point,” he said at a rally in Arizona of the efforts to tweak the three-nation deal with Mexico and Canada.

“I personally don’t think you can make a deal without a termination but we’re going to see what happens, OK? You’re in good hands, I can tell you,” he added. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – President Trump is pictured looking out over a Guam graveyard cluttered with crosses in a photoshopped image from the newest propaganda film — and grim warning — from North Korea.

The regime followed the video with a statement posted through its KCNA news agency, saying Trump “spouted rubbish” and frequently tweeted about “weird articles of his ego-driven thoughts” and attacking South Korea’s “puppy-like” Defense Minister Song Young-moo for “pinning hope on that mad guy.”

But the picture of a graveyard believed to be in Guam may be the most rattling in the video, given dictator Kim Jong Un’s repeated threats to strike the U.S. territory with a missile. The video also features Vice President Pence engulfed in flames. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to discuss the Iranian presence in Syria when he meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin, he said Tuesday.

The head of Mossad, Israel’s national intelligence agency, and the chief of the country’s National Security Council are to join Netanyahu Wednesday in discussing “Iran’s accelerated attempt to establish military bases in Syria” with Putin, said the Israeli leader.”

There is evidence, of course, of Iran’s aggression that has not diminished after the nuclear agreement, but it also poses a problem for Israel, but for all the countries of the Middle East and the entire world,” Netanyahu said in a statement. [ Source (Read More…) ]