A New Perspective on Constantine

(Worthy News) – Israel handed a replica of a frieze from the Arch of Titus to the head of UNESCO, using the monument commemorating Rome’s victory over Jerusalem for a not-so-subtle critique of the organization’s resolutions that ignore Jewish links to the holy city.

The idea originally came from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, after the United Nations Educational and Scientific Organization passed a resolution last year that used only Muslim names for the Jerusalem Old City holy sites.

The replica will be exhibited in UNESCO’s Paris headquarters as a “greeting from the historical truth about the existence of two Temples on the Temple Mount,” said Carmel Shama-Hacohen, Israel’s ambassador to the agency. [ Source: Times of Israel (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani said on Tuesday that Kurds had voted “yes” to independence in a referendum held in defiance of the government in Baghdad and which had angered their neighbors and their U.S. allies.

The Kurds, who have ruled over an autonomous region within Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, consider Monday’s referendum to be an historic step in a generations-old quest for a state of their own.

Iraq considers the vote unconstitutional, especially as it was held not only within the Kurdish region itself but also on disputed territory held by Kurds elsewhere in northern Iraq. [ Source: Reuters (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday said Israel should “review” its support for Iraqi Kurdish independence, warning the Jewish state’s support for the bid could negatively affect diplomatic ties between Ankara and Jerusalem.

“If they do not review, we cannot take a lot of steps that we were about to take with Israel,” Erdogan was quoted by the official Anadolu news agency as saying.

“It is not possible for us to take steps with those who do not see Turkey as a playmaker in the region. Turkey is a playmaker in the region,” he said. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – A month after seven church leaders were arrested, interrogated and released on bail, police in Sudan detained and questioned another church leader in Omdurman on Friday (Sept. 22), sources said.

Elder Mahjoub Abotrin of the Sudanese Church of Christ (SCOC) was arrested from his home in Omdurman, across the Nile River from Khartoum, and was interrogated before he was released. It was not clear if he was charged with any offense, but sources said that he was arrested because of his refusal to hand over SCOC leadership to government-appointed leadership.

The current leadership expires on March 2018. The SCOC constitution calls for a general assembly every three years to appoint church leaders. [ Source: Morning Star News (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – President Donald Trump warned North Korea on Tuesday that any U.S. military option would be “devastating” for Pyongyang, but said the use of force was not Washington’s first option to deal with the country’s ballistic and nuclear weapons program.

“We are totally prepared for the second option, not a preferred option,” Trump said at a White House news conference, referring to military force. “But if we take that option, it will be devastating, I can tell you that, devastating for North Korea. That’s called the military option. If we have to take it, we will.”

Bellicose statements by Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in recent weeks have created fears that a miscalculation could lead to action with untold ramifications, particularly since Pyongyang conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on Sept. 3. [ Source: Reuters (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Emmanuel Macron has signaled Britain could be part of a reformed European Union after Brexit.

Setting out his vision for Europe in a major speech in Paris, the French President said: “In a few years, if they want, the United Kingdom could find its place…in this reformed and simplified EU that I’m proposing.

“I can’t imagine that the United Kingdom could not find its place.”

In an address lasting almost two hours, Mr Macron called for the EU to work more closely on areas including defence, security, immigration and corporation tax and for the eurozone to have its own budget. [ Source: Sky News (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Insurers face a key deadline Wednesday to finalize contracts with states about how much they will charge customers who buy Obamacare plans.

Many of the largest insurers have decided not to sell plans on Obamacare’s exchanges at all, and many of those that are staying have filed rate increase proposals in the double digits. Those increases could go higher without payments the insurers expect to receive from the federal government, called cost-sharing reduction subsidies. Insurers say the pullouts and premium hikes are a result of uncertainty about the future of the healthcare law and financial losses.

The Trump administration has the authority to move the Sept. 27 deadline back, but it has not changed, according to a spokesman from the Department of Health and Human Services. [ Source (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Senate leaders on Tuesday canceled plans to vote on an Obamacare repeal this week, marking a third straight failure for Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and fellow Republicans who have been unable to fulfill their campaign promise.

Facing too many defections, Mr. McConnell concluded it didn’t make sense to move forward, and said the chamber will now turn to other business such as a massive tax code overhaul.

The failure leaves Obamacare intact, and Democrats begged the GOP to try for bipartisan fixes to prop up the struggling law. The Republican chairman of the health committee said he’ll try to restart negotiations. [ Source: Washington Times (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – In a speech Tuesday marked by large doses of both statistics and humility, Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet L. Yellen said that the economic outlook is highly uncertain, suggesting that the central bank will proceed slowly in raising interest rates and scaling back easy-money policies.

The Fed has been moving to reduce monetary support for the economy based on an assessment that the labor market is strengthening and that inflation, which has been unusually low, will soon stabilize.

Last week, the Fed announced it would begin unwinding the massive bond-buying effort it began after the financial crisis of 2007-08 and signaled that another interest rate hike, after two small increases this year, would come by December’s end. Policymakers foresee three rate hikes for next year. [ Source: L.A. Times (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Police will be deployed at polling stations to prevent people from voting in the Catalan independence referendum, the Spanish government has confirmed.

Although the Catalonia regional government has insisted the unilateral poll will go ahead on Sunday, the Spanish government has vowed to stop the vote, which it says is a clear violation of the constitution. Spain’s constitutional court has suspended the legislation underpinning the referendum while it rules on its legality.

A spokesman for the Spanish government’s Catalan delegation said on Tuesday that the region’s prosecutor had ordered the Mossos d’Esquadra, Catalonia’s police force, to take control of polling booths and identify those in charge. [ Source: UK Guardian (Read More…) ]