A New Perspective on Constantine

(Worthy News) – Until the summer of 2016, South Sudan’s Yei region was a leafy oasis in the midst of the country’s civil war. But when a national peace deal broke down and government soldiers ransacked the area, a handful of U.N. and U.S. officials begged their leaders for help.

The United Nations must send peacekeepers to Yei to protect civilians from President Salva Kiir’s forces, who are burning villages and slaughtering men, women and children, they argued. And the U.S. needs to change its approach in the face of a potential genocide, they warned.

The pleas of officials and residents fell on deaf ears. The U.N. did not send peacekeeping troops to stay in Yei, and the U.S. continued to support South Sudan’s military, possibly in violation of U.S. law, an AP investigation found. The investigation is based on more than 30 internal or confidential documents from the U.N., White House or State Department, and dozens of interviews with current or former officials and civilians. [ Source: Fox News (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – About 50 Spanish and Catalan party lawmakers have held up posters in Spain’s parliament demanding the release of two pro-Catalonia independence movement leaders, describing them as political prisoners.

Wednesday’s protest in Madrid lasted around 15 seconds before the lawmakers heeded warnings that they were out of order and sat down.

The demonstration was over Monday’s jailing of Jordi Sanchez and Jordi Cuixart, leaders of the Catalan grassroots organizations Catalan National Assembly and Omnium Cultural, in a sedition investigation. Tens of thousands of people demonstrated Tuesday in Catalonia, demanding their release. [ Source: Fox News (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – A federal judge in Hawaii has blocked President Trump’s revised travel ban – just hours before it was expected to go into effect across the United States.

Tuesday’s decision from U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson in Honolulu stops the administration’s third attempt to indefinitely ban entry into the country by most nationals of Libya, Syria, Iran, Yemen, Somalia, Chad and North Korea. The ban would also prevent some Venezuelan government officials and their families.

“Today’s dangerously flawed district court order undercuts the President’s efforts to keep the American people safe and enforce minimum security standards for entry into the United States,” the White House said in a statement. “The Department of Justice will vigorously defend the President’s lawful action.” [ Source: Fox News (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – At least seven people were killed after suspected Islamic State terror group radicals attacked a bank and the Church of Saint George in El-Arish, Egypt. The militants were seen waving their black flags through the streets in celebration.

The Associated Press reported on Monday that the dozen or so terrorists robbed a bank and traded fire with security forces guarding the unused church. The militants fired rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles at the guards, security officials said.

“They looted the entire bank and left explosive devices inside,” said one official, who wasn’t named. [ Source: Christian Post (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – For the first time, a majority of Americans — 56 percent — say it is possible to be a good person without a religious belief.

So says new Pew Research Center data drawn from two polls conducted among about 5,000 American adults in June and July.

“God is not a prerequisite for good values and morality,” Greg Smith, Pew’s associate director of research, said in a post about the findings. ” … [T]he public’s increased rejection of the idea that belief in God is necessary for morality is due, in large part, to the spike in the share of Americans who are religious ‘nones.’”

Nones now account for about one-quarter — 23 percent — of American adults, up from 16 percent in 2007. But their growth is not the whole story behind the numbers. [ Source: Christian Headlines (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – US-backed militias have completely taken Syria’s Raqqa from ISIS, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Tuesday.

The fall of Raqqa city, where ISIS staged euphoric parades after its string of lightning victories in 2014, is a potent symbol of the jihadist movement’s collapsing fortunes. From the city, the group planned attacks abroad.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias backed by a US-led international alliance, has been fighting ISIS inside Raqqa since June. [ Source: Jerusalem Post (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – 118 law enforcement officers died in the line of duty last year in the United States, the FBI reported on Monday.

That was up 37 percent from the 86 law enforcement officers who died in the line of duty in 2015.

In 2016, 66 of the 118 deaths of law enforcement officers were felonious and 52 were accidental. In 2015, 41 of the 86 deaths of law enforcement officers were felonious and 45 were accidental.

Another 57,180 officers were assaulted in the line of duty in 2016, and 16,535 (or about 29 percent) sustained injuries from that assault. [ Source: CNS News (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has told Israel that Moscow has agreed to expand a buffer zone along the Israeli-Syrian border, where Iranian and Hezbollah forces will not be allowed to enter.

The statement attributed to an Israeli diplomatic official by London-based Asharq Al-Awsat, said Russia had refused the Israeli request for a 40 kilometers (25 miles) buffer zone, but expressed willingness to extend a 10-15 kilometer off-limits zone. He also reportedly said that Iranian and Hezbollah units have not approached the border since Russian troops entered Syria. [ Source: Jerusalem Post (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Israel will not allow a permanent Iranian military presence in Syria, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told visiting Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Tuesday, a day after Israel destroyed an SA-5 anti-aircraft battery in Syria that fired on IAF planes over Lebanon.

Both Russia and Iran are key backers of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

According to the Prime Minister’s Office, most of the meeting dealt with Iranian efforts to set up a permanent military presence in Syria. “Iran needs to understand that Israel will not allow that,” Netanyahu told Shoigu. [ Source: Jerusalem Post (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Hours after Israel’s rare strike in Syria, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that, “If anyone tries to hurt us, we’ll hurt them.” What was defined by the Israeli army as a Syrian provocation in the morning had become a chance to reinforce Israel’s red lines by the afternoon.

Monday’s unusual incident between Syria and Israel says something about the modern Middle East. Within hours, a routine Israeli surveillance flight over Lebanon had turned into a bombing run 50 kilometers east of Damascus. [ Source: Ha’aretz (Read More…) ]