A New Perspective on Constantine

(Worthy News) – A Chinese house church pastor, her daughter, and her young grandson have been arrested, weeks after being accused of overstepping the country’s newly tightened religious restrictions.

Chinese officials warned Xu Shizhen in August that publicly sharing her faith puts her in violation of the government policy. It wasn’t her first run-in with authorities; five years before, her previous church was forcibly seized by officials and given to China’s official Three-Self Patriotic Movement church, according to ChinaAid.

After that, she started Zion Church. By singing, dancing, and preaching in the parks and public spaces of Xianning, Hubei province, Xu’s ministry broke the new law, which confines most faith activities to the walls of registered churches. [ Source: Christianity Today (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Back in 1925, the American Legion erected a memorial in Bladensburg, Md., to honor the memory of 49 men who perished during World War I.

The 40-foot tall memorial became known as the “Peace Cross.”

In 2014, the American Humanist Association — a group that believes in “being good without a god” — filed a lawsuit alleging the cross-shaped memorial is unconstitutional and demanding it be demolished, altered, or removed.

They alleged the cross carries “an inherently religious message and creates the unmistakable appearance of honoring only Christian servicemen.” [ Source: Fox News (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – A bipartisan deal to fund Obamacare payments stalled in the Senate Wednesday after President Trump derided the payments as “bailouts,” but Republicans behind the package are trying to keep the deal alive.

In addition to Trump, who tweeted that he opposes the agreement Wednesday morning, members of Senate leadership on Wednesday cast skepticism about the deal brokered by Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., to fund the insurer payments for two years in exchange for changes to the law.

“We are kind of in a holding pattern right now until there is some kind of a breakthrough between the president and Sen. Alexander,” said Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., the third-ranking Republican senator. “That could happen sooner, but it also could be a December issue.” [ Source: Washington Examiner (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – The FBI rescued 84 children from the grips of a multi-state human trafficking ring and arrested 120 traffickers Wednesday, announcing the successful sting in a statement.

Operation Cross Country XI focused the attention of law enforcement agencies on a single goal: taking out “pimps” who run human trafficking rings.

“We at the FBI have no greater mission than to protect our nation’s children from harm. Unfortunately, the number of traffickers arrested — and the number of children recovered — reinforces why we need to continue to do this important work,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said. [ Source:NBC News (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Russian President Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the Iran nuclear program, the Kremlin said on Wednesday.

In the call, held on the initiative of the Israeli side, the two leaders also discussed the situation in Syria and the referendum in Iraq’s Kurdistan, the Kremlin said in a statement. 

Earlier on Wednesday, Iran’s military chief Mohammad Baqeri discussed ways to deepen cooperation with the Syrian military during a visit to Damascus, pledging to fight Israel and Sunni insurgents. [ Source: Ha’aretz (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Eight European Union member states are demanding that Israel pay them back for the demolition and confiscation of buildings and other installations constructed for the benefit of Bedouin encampments in Area C of the West Bank by the EU’s mission in Israel.

A letter from the EU member states, led by Belgium, setting out the demand will be handed to the Israeli Foreign Ministry in the coming days, according to the Haaretz newspaper, citing an initial report in France’s Le Monde daily.

In August, Israel dismantled a structure in West Bank Bedouin Arab village of Jabal al-Baba adjacent to al-Azariya, that was slated to open as a kindergarten for 25 children and a structure being used to house a small primary school in the southern West Bank. In addition, it confiscated solar panels on another structure being used as a school in the southern West Bank. [ Source: Times of Israel (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Islamic State and other terrorist groups are planning to target aircraft as they aim to carry out another major attack on the scale of 9/11, a top US security official has said.

Elaine Duke, acting US Homeland Security Secretary, said the groups were using smaller attacks to raise money and “keep their members engaged”.

“The threat is still severe,” she said in London after meeting Home Secretary Amber Rudd.

“The terrorist organisations, be it Isis or al-Qaeda or others, want to have the big explosion like they did on 9/11. They want to take down aircraft, the intelligence is clear on that.” [ Source: UK Telegraph (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – The Spanish government is to suspend Catalonia’s autonomy and impose direct rule after the region’s president refused to abandon the push for independence that has led to Spain’s biggest political crisis for 40 years.

The announcement of the unprecedented measure came after Carles Puigdemont threatened a unilateral declaration of independence if the Spanish government did not agree to talks on the issue.

In a letter sent on Thursday morning to the Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, Puigdemont said talks were the only way to avert the crisis, as the deadline set by Madrid for the region to abandon its independence plans passed.

The Catalan president also accused Spanish authorities of seeking to repress the independence movement after two of its leaders were denied bail by a national court judge earlier this week, and he said using article 155 of the constitution to impose direct rule from Madrid would force his hand. [ Source: Guardian (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – U.S. regulators approved on Wednesday a new therapy for a type of lymphoma, which was developed by Gilead Science Inc’s Kite Pharma, marking the second approval for this potentially revolutionary approach to fighting cancer.

The Food and Drug Administration approved the gene therapy, to be sold under the name Yescarta, to treat adults with large B-cell lymphoma, a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, who have failed to respond to other treatments.

The treatments are made from a patient’s own infection-fighting cells. They are extracted, genetically engineered to recognize cancer cells, and infused back into the patient, where they form an army to attack and destroy malignant cells, potentially for years. [ Source: Reuters (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – San Diego’s hepatitis A outbreak added another death Tuesday, pushing the total to 19 as the number of confirmed cases passed 500.

Updated numbers released by the county Health and Human Services Agency come as a massive effort around vaccination, sanitation and public education continues to try and stop the largest surge of the viral disease since the vaccine for hepatitis A was approved in the late 1990s.

With last week’s total number of cases at 490, the latest reported increase to 507 may make it seem as if the outbreak continues to grow, but, because of the way that the public health department is tallying the outbreak, it is difficult to say whether that’s the case. [ Source: L.A. Times (Read More…) ]