A New Perspective on Constantine

(Worthy News) – A new report released by a prominent religious liberty advocacy organization claims that there has been a 133 percent increase in domestic “attacks on religious liberty” in the last five years and about a 15 percent increase in attacks on religious liberty in the last year.

The First Liberty Institute, a conservative legal group dedicated to defending people and organizations whose First Amendment rights have been violated, released its annual report, “Undeniable: The Survey of Hostility to Religion in America,” on Tuesday.

The report highlights cases reported in the last few years in which Americans have had their religious liberty rights infringed or “attacked” in one way or another — either in the public arena, in the military, in schools or even within church walls.

“In this edition, the total number of documented incidents in this report increased by over 15 percent over the past year and now includes more than 1,400 religious liberty incidents,” the report states.

Compared to 2011, when there were 600 reported cases, the number of religious liberty incidents has increased by 133 percent. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – North Korea displayed trademark defiance on Wednesday over new United Nations sanctions imposed after its sixth and largest-ever nuclear test, vowing to redouble efforts to fight off what it said was the threat of a US invasion.

US President Donald Trump said the sanctions, unanimously agreed on Monday by the 15-member UN Security Council, were just a small step toward what is ultimately needed to rein in Pyongyang over its nuclear and missile programs.

North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said the resolutions were an infringement on its legitimate right to self-defense and aimed at “completely suffocating its state and people through full-scale economic blockade.” [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Neutral Sweden has launched its biggest war games in two decades with support from NATO countries, drilling 19,000 troops after years of spending cuts that have left the country fearful of Russia’s growing military strength.

On the eve of Russia’s biggest manoeuvres since 2013, which NATO says will be greater than the 13,000 troops Moscow says are involved, Sweden will simulate an attack from the east on the Baltic island of Gotland, near the Swedish mainland.

“The security situation has taken a turn for the worse,” Micael Byden, the commander of the Swedish Armed Forces, said during a presentation of the three-week-long exercise. [ Source: Reuters (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – The Trump administration is poised to extend sanctions relief to Iran, avoiding imminent action that could implode the landmark 2015 nuclear deal.

But the move expected Thursday comes as the White House seeks ways to find that Tehran is not complying with the agreement. President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized the deal, but has yet to pull out of it.

Trump is working against a Thursday deadline to decide whether to extend the sanctions waivers, which were first issued by the Obama administration.

Administration officials say Trump is ready to extend the waivers and that no serious alternatives have been presented. But they cautioned that Trump could still change his mind, and they said he remains determined to “decertify” Iranian compliance with the nuclear deal by a separate, mid-October deadline — a finding that would jeopardize further sanctions relief. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Two additional F-35 stealth fighter jets lifted off from the US on Wednesday morning on their way to Israel, the sixth and seventh planes to be delivered out of the 50 Israel has purchased from the US to upgrade the capabilities of its air force.

The planes, called “Adir” in Hebrew, are expected to land in Israel on Thursday, a week and a half later than originally scheduled.

Late last month, the IDF announced the planes’ arrival would be delayed after a technical issue was found in another version of the aircraft. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Nearly one in three Britons holds at least one anti-Semitic attitude and more than half endorse at least one hard-line anti-Israel statement, finds a major new study published today.

It also establishes an “unambiguous” link between anti-Semitism and hostility towards Israel – suggesting that the stronger the level of anti-Israel feeling, the more likely it is to be accompanied by anti-Semitic attitudes – and probes the attitudes of those who support the far-left and the far-right, as well as British Muslims.

But the report – the largest and most detailed survey of attitudes towards Jews and Israel ever conducted in Britain – also concludes that the proportion of what it terms “hardcore anti-Semites” in the population is small, while most Britons hold a favorable opinion of Jews and the vast majority do not harbor any anti-Semitic views. Moreover, it found that only 6% of Britons believe Israel has no right to exist, and less than 10% back the BDS movement. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Conservative pundit Ben Shapiro is likely to escape unscathed from antifa protesters planning to wreak havoc during his speech Thursday at the University of California, Berkeley, but the left may not be so lucky.

The black-clad activists have driven a wedge between Democrats such as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi who condemned antifa by name in the wake of a violent protest last month in Berkeley, and leftists who have rushed to the defense of the self-styled “anti-fascists.”

Refuse Fascism denounced the “shameful, dangerous, wrong attacks on Antifa,” taking aim at Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin, who said the activists should be classified as a “gang,” and left-wing icon Noam Chomsky, who described them as a “major gift to the right.” [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – President Trump’s decision to hold White House meetings with Democrats on key agenda items has sent a clear message to the GOP that it needs to get moving or he’ll make deals with the minority party.

“I think the failure on repeal and replace of Obamacare in the Senate certainly wasn’t a presidential failure, it was a congressional failure,” Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla. told the Washington Examiner. “Reminding Republicans that there is more than one party to negotiate with around here, in case you can’t come to an agreement, is a good thing, not a bad thing.”

Trump sent a signal on how far he might be willing to go to bring Democrats in on tax reform, the next big agenda item on the GOP’s list. He met with a bipartisan group of lawmakers, mostly Democrats, to begin discussing tax reform and seemed to agree with a demand made by Schumer in August that new tax cuts won’t benefit the wealthy. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – The federal government collected record total tax revenues through the first eleven months of fiscal 2017 (Oct. 1, 2016 through the end of August), according to the Monthly Treasury Statement.

Through August, the federal government collected approximately $2,966,172,000,000 in total tax revenues.

That was $8,450,680,000 more (in constant 2017 dollars) than the previous record of $2,957,721,320,000 in total tax revenues (in 2017 dollars) that the federal government collected in the first eleven months of fiscal 2016. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – The U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State dropped 5,075 bombs during operations in August, the highest total of any month since the three-year campaign against the terrorist group began.

U.S. Air Force Central Command released data detailing military action that the coalition took against ISIS last month, noting that it used a record number of weapons during close-air-support, escort, or interdiction operations, Business Insider reported Wednesday. The previous highest month was June, when the coalition dropped 4,848 bombs.

Already in 2017, the coalition has “released” 32,801 weapons on ISIS, while in all of 2016, it only dropped 30,743 bombs. These numbers do not include the number of bombs dropped by aircraft not under Air Force Central Command’s control in Iraq and Syria.

The major uptick in strikes occurred after President Donald Trump took office. Trump had promised on the campaign trail to “bomb the hell out of ISIS,” criticizing the Obama administration for not doing more to fight the jihadist group. Trump’s secretary of defense, James Mattis, earlier this year requested $3.5 billion more for “preferred munitions” to bomb ISIS. [ Source (Read More…) ]