A New Perspective on Constantine

(Worthy News) – Hurricanes Harvey and Irma may have wiped as many as 125,000 jobs from the September employment report, resulting in job growth below 100,000.

With the historic double shocks of two Category 4 storms, the 8:30 a.m. ET Friday report is going to be fluky. The forecast for new payrolls falls in an unusually wide range — with expectations between 45,000 jobs lost to a gain of 150,000 or more.

The divergence shows just how difficult it has been to measure the economic impact of the two back-to-back storms that hit the mainland U.S. in late August and early September. Economists say the Fed will look past this report when considering monetary policy, and the employment picture be much more clear by the time it is expected to consider raising interest rates in December. [ Source: CNBC (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed on Tuesday that Israel would not deal with a Palestinian government that included Hamas if it maintained its anti-Israel stance and remained committed to terrorism.

Touring Maaleh Adumim, a Jerusalem suburb beyond the Green Line, Netanyahu said: “We expect everyone who talks about a peace process to recognize the State of Israel and, of course, to recognize a Jewish state. We are not prepared to accept bogus reconciliations in which the Palestinian factions apparently reconcile at the expense of our existence.

“Whoever wants to make such a reconciliation must know our terms are clear: recognizing the State of Israel, disbanding Hamas’ military arm, severing ties with Iran, which calls for our destruction, and so on and so forth. Even these very clear things must be clearly stated” by the Palestinians. [ Source: Israel Hayom (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – A 16-year-old Coptic Christian girl kidnapped on 28 June to be “converted to Islam, then married off or sold”, was released and returned to her family on 30 September after police found her and arrested her kidnappers in a city just outside Cairo.

Marilyn was recovered from a city named 10th of Ramadan, but she is from a village several hundred kilometres south, in the governorate of Minya.

Her village priest, Father Boutros Khalaf, told World Watch Monitor: “Recently we found out that Marilyn was held in a place in 10th of Ramadan city…. We went to the local police station and they really did their best to reach her and managed to arrest her kidnapper, Taha, and his brother, Gaber, and release Marilyn. She returned back to her family on Saturday, 30 September, after 92 days”. [ Source: World Watch Monitor (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Provoked by the mission work of a local house church, officials detained a pastor and her daughter on Sept. 22, taking the daughter’s three-year-old son into custody as well.

On the night of Sept. 22, police and religious affairs bureau personnel seized Pastor Xu Shizhen, her daughter, Xu Yuqing, and Xu Yuqing’s three-year-old son, Xu Shouwang, after the two women took part in Zion Church’s efforts to spread the Gospel in local public parks and squares. During these evangelistic efforts, the women sang, danced, performed with bamboo instruments, and preached, even though the local religious affairs, public security, and national security bureaus frequently interrupted them.

When their family members went to the police station on Sept. 24, the police told them that they had separated the women from the child, keeping him at the station while transferring his grandmother and mother to other facilities. It is unknown whether they are under criminal or administrative detention. [ Source: Chinan Aid (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Abortion is widespread in China, due to the country’s One Child Policy, and now the updated, but hardly less restrictive, Two Child Policy. Reports have emerged of Chinese women being forced to undergo abortions or face harsh consequences, but to make matters worse, a study has now been released that shows a link between abortions and breast cancer in women, according to LifeNews.com.

Dr. Joel Brind, professor of biology and endocrinology at Baruch College of the City University of New York and co-founder of the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute, notes that abortion has escalated in China and South Asia over the last few decades. Breast cancer in these regions of the world is also increasing. Brind also notes that breast cancer often takes 20 years to show up after an event that my trigger it: i.e. abortion.

In 2008 a group of scientists wrote in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, “China is on the cusp of a breast cancer epidemic.”

Brind posits that this increase in cancer is linked to the increased abortion rate. He cites a study conducted by Dr. Yubei Huang which documented a 44 percent increase in breast cancer risk among women who had one or more abortions. If a woman had three abortions, the risk for breast cancer was increased up to 89 percent. [ Source: Christian Headlines (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a ‘sanctuary state’ bill on Thursday that prevents law enforcement officers from ‘asking about immigration status during routine interactions.’

“It also bans unconstitutional detainer requests and prohibits the commandeering of local officials to do the work of immigration agents,” Brown wrote in a statement about the California Values Act.

But Brown, who reassumed office in 2011, said the legislation does not stop Immigration and Customs Enforcement or the Homeland Security Department from complying with federal immigration law in the Golden State. [ Source: Washington Examiner (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – President Donald Trump made a series of cryptic remarks during a pre-dinner photo session with his top military advisers and their spouses Thursday night in the State Dining Room of the White House.

As photographers snapped pictures and recorded video, Trump asked reporters: “You guys know what this represents?”

“Maybe it’s the calm before the storm,” he said, answering his own question.

“What storm, Mr. President?” NBC News’ Kristen Welker asked again.

“You’ll find out,” Trump replied, before reporters were ushered out of the room. [ Source: NBC News (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, has called on Europe to defy US sanctions if the Trump administration torpedoes the international nuclear agreement with Tehran.

Zarif warned that if Europe followed Washington’s lead, the deal would collapse and Iran would emerge with more advanced nuclear technology than before the agreement was reached in Vienna in 2015. However, he insisted that technology would not be used to make weapons, in line with Tehran’s obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Speaking to the Guardian and the Financial Times, Zarif said the only way Iran would be persuaded to continue to observe the limits on its civil nuclear programme would be if the other signatories – the UK, France Germany, Russia, China – all remained committed to its terms and defy any subsequent US sanctions. [ Source: UK Guardian (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – President Trump and the National Rifle Association got behind the push for outlawing ‘bump stocks’ Thursday, giving rare momentum to gun control legislation in response to the Las Vegas massacre.

The NRA, which for decades has opposed any new restrictions on firearms even after mass shootings, made a sharp pivot minutes before the White House gave the green light to debating a ban on bump stocks.

The Las Vegas shooter used the device to turn his semi-automatic rifles into rapid-fire weapons similar to machine guns, producing a hail of gunfire that in 10 minutes killed at least 58 people and wounded nearly 500.

“Despite the fact that the Obama administration approved the sale of bump fire stocks on at least two occasions, the National Rifle Association is calling on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to immediately review whether these devices comply with federal law,” the NRA and its lobbying arm, the NRA Institute for Legislative Action, said in a joint statement. [ Source: Washington Times (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Even before its feud over the national anthem with President Trump, the NFL Players Association wasn’t on the same political team as many of its fans, judging from its contributions to leftist advocacy groups.

Tax documents released by 2ndVote show the NFLPA donated $5,000 in 2015 to the Center for Community Change Action, a group active in the anti-Trump resistance and bankrolled by a host of liberal foundations, including top Democratic donor George Soros’s Foundation for Open Society.

A member of the AFL-CIO, the NFLPA also contributed in 2013 and 2015 to Working America, the AFL-CIO’s community affiliate, which Open Secrets said spent $1 million in 2016 to defeat Trump. [ Source (Read More…) ]