A New Perspective on Constantine

(Worthy News) – International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that on September 6, 2017, four Christians were killed in Hindi by al-Shabaab, Christians’ main persecution threat in Kenya.

The militants went from house to house, calling out the victims, and then dragging them into the street. This terror started yesterday when Hillary Njuguna, a carpenter, was kidnapped by the Somalia-based terror group and later killed approximately a kilometer from Bobo village. After Hillary’s death, 30 armed militants entered the two villages and captured Joseph Kinuthia, a teacher at Bobo Primary school, Jared Maiko, a businessman, and Gushi Peter. Militants dragged the Christians into the streets before shooting and beheading them.

One of village residents, Joseph Muchemi, told ICC what happened, “Hillary was a carpenter; he was cutting timber with his friends in the forest near Malamande village when al-Shabaab ambushed and kidnapped him. The others managed to escape, but due to the loud [noise] from the power saw, they trapped him.”

He continued, “The reason many people weren’t killed like in 2014, when 15 people were killed and houses torched, is because we are always alert at night. This, however, doesn’t mean that four people deserved to die. We will continue to ask the government to set up at least one police post in every three villages.”

People of Mpeketoni and Hindi held peaceful demonstrations to protest the slow response by security agents in Lamu County. Civilians continue to live in fear because of al-Shabaab’s ever-present threat in the region. In the past three months, al-Shabaab has killed more than 49 Christians.

While the protests have been peaceful, some protesters are growing increasingly frustrated with the Kenyan government’s apathetic response to the attacks. “Since morning, the people here have been protesting the state of insecurity where only Christians are [being] killed. Roads have been blocked and tires are being burned everywhere as the police try to calm the residents. I have heard some protesters say that they would break into the mosques and burn them down because the Muslims have been killing their friends like chicken,” Pastor Bernard Baya told ICC earlier today.

The militants, linked to Al-Qaeda, became notorious in Kenya after claiming credit for the deadly attacks on Westgate Mall in September 2013 and on Garissa University College in 2015. Al-Shabaab killed 67 people at Westgate Mall and another 148 in Garissa. In a string of attacks, al-Shabaab has targeted churches, passenger buses, police stations, shopping centers, communication masts, and Christian aid workers. In many of these attacks, the group has separated Christians from Muslims, before executing the Christians and sparing the Muslims.

This recent attack comes in the wake of a multi-agency operation to flush al-Shabaab out of the Boni Forest. Some precautions established in this operation are a dusk-to-dawn curfew and calls for residents to be cautious around suspicious people. As this operation continues, families that have been displaced from the villages near the Boni Forest are living in camps, some for as long as two months.

ICC’s Regional Manager for Africa, Nathan Johnson, said, “The Kenyan government needs to show a much greater desire to protect its people. This is the third such attack in less than two months, and all in the same area. If the government isn’t willing to protect its people from al-Shabaab’s reign of terror, then they will lose the fight to terrorism. We pray for the families of the deceased and for peace to come to this region.”

(Worthy News) – President Trump again insisted Wednesday that the U.S. and its allies will not tolerate North Korea’s nuclear weapons tests and missile launches, discussing the crisis on the Korean peninsula with Chinese President Xi Jinping in a 45-minute phone call.

Mr. Trump has been trying for months to persuade Beijing to exert more economic and diplomatic pressure on North Korea to scale back its aggressive military posture. China is Pyongyang’s main trading partner and shares a border with North Korea.

The president said he had a “very frank and very strong” phone call with Mr. Xi, although no breakthroughs were announced. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Israel launched an aerial attack on Assad posts in Syria overnight, hit a scientific research center where chemical weapons are manufactured and killed two Syrian soldiers, Arab media reported Thursday morning.

In a statement, the Syrian army warned Israel of “dangerous repercussions of this aggressive action to the security and stability of the region” following the alleged attack.

According to the reports, the attack was allegedly launched at 2:30 a.m. on targets located in central Syria, in the area of Hama, and also targeted several weapons convoys that were en route to Hezbollah strongholds in the area. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Syrian reports said early Thursday that Israeli warplanes struck overnight a facility in northern Syria where the regime has allegedly been stockpiling chemical weapons.

According to the reports, the target was a Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Center (CERS) facility near Masyaf in the Hama region. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

CERS is a Syrian government agency that Western officials have long associated with the production of chemical weapons.

A senior member of the Syrian opposition, citing security officials still working for the regime at the time, told The Times of Israel in 2014 that Assad’s forces were stockpiling chemical substances and missiles carrying chemical warheads at the site, which was not made available to international inspectors tasked with ensuring the destruction of the weapons. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Progressives say a poll showing white Christians in the minority is evidence that President Trump’s voter base is dwindling, but veterans of the religious right say rumors of the movement’s demise are greatly exaggerated.

The Public Religion Research Institute survey released Wednesday found that 43 percent of Americans identify as white and Christian, down from 81 percent as recently as 1976.

Robert P. Jones, CEO of the research institute and author of “The End of White Christian America,” said the data suggest that Mr. Trump’s “unlikely victory is better understood as the death rattle of White Christian America” rather than its resuscitation.

“Twenty years from now, there is little chance that 2016 will be celebrated as the revival of White Christian America, no matter how many Christian right leaders are installed in positions of power over the next four years,” Mr. Jones wrote in an article in The Atlantic a few days before the survey was published. “Rather, this election will most likely be remembered as the one in which white evangelicals traded away their integrity and influence in a gambit to resurrect their past.” [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – President Trump and Democratic leaders on Wednesday did what Washington does best: striking a bipartisan deal to boost borrowing and spending, keeping the government running into the next fiscal year and speeding disaster relief to Texas and Florida.

Mr. Trump accepted the deal offered by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer at a White House meeting, seeing it as a chance to get ahead of a series of pressing fiscal problems that needed to be fixed this month.

But the agreement blindsided Republican leaders, including House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, who just hours earlier called Democrats’ proposal “ridiculous and disgraceful.”

Under terms of the deal, the government will operate on stopgap funding through Dec. 15, avoiding a shutdown showdown at the end of the month. The Treasury Department will gain more room to borrow through mid-December, averting a potential default on obligations. And relief efforts for Hurricane Harvey will receive an immediate infusion of cash. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Hurricane Irma achieved 40 hours as a Category 5 storm Wednesday evening as it swung through the Caribbean and heads towards Florida.

The National Hurricane Center issued an update Wednesday evening at 11 p.m. Eastern to say that Irma’s maximum sustained winds remains at 185 miles per hour. No new advisory had been issued as of midnight. [ Source (Read More…) ]

#Irma has now had winds of 185 mph for 33 hrs – no other TC around the globe has been this strong for so long in satellite era (since 1966). http://pic.twitter.com/RKorceW6nS

— Philip Klotzbach (@philklotzbach) September 7, 2017

Hurricane Irma ‘getting even better organized’ says National Hurricane Center scientist

Hurricane Irma appears to be “getting even better organized,” warned a National Hurricane Center scientist, suggesting that the Category 5 storm isn’t losing steam as it barrels through the Caribbean on Wednesday.

“Hard to believe but #Irma is getting even better organized on satellite during the last few hours- very disturbing,” tweeted Eric Blake said on his personal Twitter account in the early evening hours on Wednesday. [ Source (Read More…) ]

Most powerful Atlantic hurricane leaves trail of destruction

The tiny island of Barbuda, which has a population of 1,800, and was devastated.

Its Prime Minister Gaston Browne said: “Barbuda is literally rubble. The entire housing stock was damaged. It is just a total devastation.”

His government estimated destruction on Barbuda was “upwards of 90 per cent”. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Hurricane Irma is threatening to wreak havoc on Florida farmlands, threatening $1.2 billion worth of production in the top U.S. grower of fresh tomatoes, oranges, green beans, cucumbers, squash, and sugarcane.

Though its economy long ago diversified from its rural roots, Florida still has a huge influence on American grocery stores as the No. 2 U.S. produce grower, trailing only California. The state accounts for almost 10 percent of the nation’s land dedicated to fresh fruits and vegetables, according to government data. The storm threat has pushed orange-juice futures and domestic-sugar prices higher this week.

For farmers such as Andy McDonald, who grows strawberries near Plant City, Florida, there’s only so much that can be done to prepare for the damage. His fields are ready for planting his winter crop next week. But if punishing rains and overpowering winds tear away the sheeting already laid down over 500 acres that protects the plants from pests in the fall and keeps them warm in the winter, “we won’t have a crop,” he said. The custom-made cover takes months to manufacture, ship, and lay down. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – South Korean commandos will work with the US Navy Seals who killed Osama bin Laden to create a special unit to assassinate Kim Jong-un in the event of war.

The announcement coincides with a decision by the US to waive restrictions on the size and range of South Korean ballistic missiles, allowing it to develop its own independent capacity to drop bunker-busting bombs on the underground headquarters of the North Korean leadership in Pyongyang.

The South Korean government was formerly committed to engagement and negotiation with Kim. The decision to strengthen its military options testifies to an atmosphere of crisis on the peninsula after the North’s sixth, and biggest, nuclear test on Sunday in defiance of United Nations resolutions. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to visit three Latin American countries next week, as a part of his ongoing effort to boldly go where none of his predecessors has gone before.

While Israeli presidents have previously visited the continent — most recently Shimon Peres in 2009 — Netanyahu’s four-day trip to Argentina, Colombia and Mexico marks the first time a sitting Israeli prime minister goes to South America. After his journey through Latin America, he is headed to New York, where he will address the United Nations General Assembly and is expected to meet with US President Donald Trump.

Latin America has had a complicated relationship with the Jewish state, but Israeli officials this week spoke of a “historic friendship” that has significantly intensified in recent years due to the ascent of “like-minded” governments. [ Source (Read More…) ]