A New Perspective on Constantine

(Worthy News) – A Coptic Orthodox priest has been stabbed to death in Cairo, Egypt. The head of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the UK has decried what he said was the injustice surrounding the crime.

Father Samaan from Beni Suef in Upper Egypt was attacked and stabbed to death yesterday while walking down a street in Cairo. He had been in the area to collect humanitarian aid for his parishioners.

‘Another day in Egypt with another Coptic Christian murdered’, said His Grace Bishop Angaelos, the head of the UK Coptic Orthodox Church, in a statement yesterday detailing the attack.

‘Fr Samaan was paying a pastoral visit to a family in Cairo and returned to the church where he was earlier to collect his mobile phone. On the way, he was attacked by a knife-wielding assailant who chased him, stabbed him repeatedly, and then brutally killed him.’ [ Source: Christian Today (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – The burning question in many Puerto Rican residents’ minds remains: Where’s help from the government?

The Post spent three days traveling along the destructive path the eye of the storm took across the island, and only witnessed one instance of federal aid distribution.

Eighty-four percent of the island remains without power, and only 63 percent of residents have clean drinking water.

While thousands of containers of supplies have been brought to San Juan’s port, transporting those goods to Puerto Ricans in remote and mountainous areas has proven difficult — initially because roads and bridges were entirely destroyed by the storm. [ Source: NY Post (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Hours after the US’s dramatic decision to withdraw from UNESCO, citing anti-Israel bias, Israel stated that it also planned to leave the education, scientific and cultural body.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday night directed the Foreign Ministry to “prepare Israel’s withdrawal from the organization in parallel with the US.”

Netanyahu, in a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office, called the American move a “brave and moral decision, because UNESCO has become the theater of the absurd and because instead of preserving history, it distorts it.”

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said, “This decision was not taken lightly, and reflects US concerns with mounting arrears at UNESCO, the need for fundamental reform in the organization, and continuing anti-Israel bias at UNESCO. [ Source: Jerusalem Post (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Jordan on Thursday condemned the influx of Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount over the week-long festival of Sukkot, describing it as “the storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque by settlers and Jewish extremists,” and slamming “irresponsible” Israel for permitting them entry to the compound.

Likud MK Yehudah Glick, a former Temple Mount activist, tweeted on Thursday that 2,265 Jews visited the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism, over the festival — a 40 percent increase over the 1,611 visitors the year before.

There were no reports of disturbances during any of the visits. [ Source: Times of Israel (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – US President Donald Trump will unveil a more aggressive strategy to check Iran’s growing power Friday, but will stop short of withdrawing from a landmark nuclear deal, or declaring the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization.

During a White House speech at 12:45 pm (1645 GMT), Trump is expected to declare the landmark 2015 agreement — which curbed Iran’s nuclear program in return for massive sanctions relief — is no longer in the US national interest.

Officials say he will not kill the international accord outright, instead “decertifying” the agreement and leaving US lawmakers to decide its fate. [ Source: Times of Israel (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – The following letter was written by retired LTC Robert M. Heffington as an open letter. Heffington was an assistant professor at West Point for several years, until this past August.

The letter has been circulating for a few days in private among the military.

Heffington confirmed to American Military News on Wednesday that he did write the letter, and he sent a signed copy.

He wrote the letter in light of recent media coverage of 2nd Lt. Spenser Rapone, a West Point graduate and infantry officer who recently came under fire for his public advocacy and support of socialism and communism, and being an “official socialist organizer” of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). [ Source: American Military News (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Hurricane Ophelia is the latest weather system to whip up winds and rain in the Atlantic. But the storm is heading east toward the northwest coast of Spain and then up to Ireland instead of crossing the Atlantic toward the hurricane-ravaged Caribbean.

Ophelia officially gained hurricane status on Wednesday evening, according to the National Hurricane Center.

As of Thursday afternoon, Ophelia was meandering and expected to move slowly east and northeast. The storm has picked up strength and become a Category 2 hurricane with sustained winds of 100 mph and higher gusts.

This is the 10th consecutive storm to reach hurricane strength in the Atlantic this season, tying the record also met in 1878, 1886 and 1893. [ Source: Business Insider (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – A small earthquake has been detected early Friday near North Korea’s nuclear test site, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The 2.9 magnitude temblor was detected about 23 kilometers (14 miles) from Sungibaegam, “in the area of previous North Korean nuclear tests,” USGS said.

“The event has earthquake like characteristics, however, we cannot conclusively confirm at this time the nature (natural or man-made) of the event,” it said. [ Source: VOA News (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – The House on Thursday passed a $36.5 billion disaster aid bill to help states, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands recover from a string of natural disasters.

The bill was brought up under rules allowing for a quicker debate, but which also required a two-thirds majority vote. It passed 353-69, and all of the “no” votes were Republicans.

Many Republicans have continued to argue that disaster aid needs to be paid for with offsetting cuts. The final tally for aid to hurricane-stricken areas of Texas and Florida, as well as Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, expected to be in the hundreds of billions of dollars.

Some Republicans were also expected to oppose language in the bill bailing out the National Flood Insurance Program. [ Source: Washington Examiner (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Russia and Saudi Arabia are on track to sign a contract on supplies of Russia’s advanced S-400 air defense missiles to Riyadh, the Interfax news agency cited an aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin as saying on Friday.

“The talks are ongoing now, the terms are being agreed,” the agency cited Vladimir Kozhin as saying. He said the contract could be signed “in the nearest time,” giving no further detail. [ Source (Read More…) ]