A New Perspective on Constantine

(Worthy News) – Tony Podesta and The Podesta Group are now being investigated as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into collusion claims between the Trump campaign and Russia, NBC News reported.

The group became part of the probe after Mr. Mueller’s team looked into former Trump campaign head Paul Manafort’s finances. Mr. Podesta is the brother to John Podesta, the chairman of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, although he is not part of Mr. Mueller’s investigation at this time.

According to the report, the group was connected to a public relations campaign for a nonprofit in Ukraine called European Centre for a Modern Ukraine. Tony Podesta’s group worked on the campaign, but now Mr. Mueller’s team is looking at possible criminal activity through violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, NBC News said. The Podesta Group apparently did not filed the necessary paperwork disclosing its work in Ukraine until after it was reported in the media. [ Source: Washington Times (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Tony Podesta and The Podesta Group are now being investigated as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into collusion claims between the Trump campaign and Russia, NBC News reported.

The group became part of the probe after Mr. Mueller’s team looked into former Trump campaign head Paul Manafort’s finances. Mr. Podesta is the brother to John Podesta, the chairman of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, although he is not part of Mr. Mueller’s investigation at this time.

According to the report, the group was connected to a public relations campaign for a nonprofit in Ukraine called European Centre for a Modern Ukraine. Tony Podesta’s group worked on the campaign, but now Mr. Mueller’s team is looking at possible criminal activity through violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, NBC News said. The Podesta Group apparently did not filed the necessary paperwork disclosing its work in Ukraine until after it was reported in the media. [ Source: Washington Times (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – The American Civil Liberties Union told the Supreme Court on Monday the First Amendment doesn’t give a Christian baker the right to discriminate against a same-sex couple by refusing to bake them a wedding cake.

The ACLU is representing Charlie Craig and Dave Mullins, a same-sex couple, who brought a civil rights complaint against Jack Phillips, a Christian baker, who refused to bake them a wedding cake due to his religious beliefs.

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on the case Dec. 5, and the ACLU has requested argument time along with the baker and the Colorado Civil Rights Commission. [ Source: Washington Times (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Robert Epstein tried a simple experiment in the run-up to the presidential election: running searches on Google and Yahoo for political topics.

The results were stunning. Google searches returned twice as many pro-Hillary Clinton news articles as Yahoo searches.

Perhaps even more stunning was that men and blue-state residents saw more than double the number of pro-Clinton articles than women and people living in red states, Mr. Epstein, of the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology, and Robert E. Robertson, a professor at Northeastern University, argued in a report this year.

“The social media companies are the gatekeepers,” said Frank Foer, a writer at The Atlantic and former editor of the New Republic who has authored a book on social media’s power. “Whatever choices these companies make to elevate or bury information is very powerful and will have a big impact on what people read.” [ Source: Washington Times (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – More than a month after Hurricane Maria ravaged this island with 155-mph winds, three-quarters of the residents are still without power, lining up at banks for cash and gathering at shopping malls, hotels or government buildings just to charge their cellphones.

Police are directing traffic at major intersections without working traffic lights. Water plants are still out of commission, forcing people to gather water from roadside streams and then boil it to be safe from bacteria. Those without home generators are living without refrigeration, air conditioning and anything but natural light. Those with generators need to pay for gasoline or diesel fuel, and haul those volatile liquids in their cars, along with water and daily groceries. [ Source: USA Today (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford said Monday that about two hours passed before fixed-wing and rotary French air support arrived in the Oct. 4 ambush in Niger that killed four U.S. soldiers.

Dunford also said that the military still had no explanation for how Army Sgt. La David Johnson came to be separated from others in the joint patrol with Nigerien forces in western Niger near the border with Mali.

Johnson’s body was found two days later by Nigerien troops. The New York Times, citing U.S. defense officials, reported Monday that the truck Johnson was driving became stuck in the mud during the firefight. [ Source: Military.Com (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi defended the role of an Iranian-backed paramilitary force at a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Monday in Baghdad.

Tillerson arrived on Monday hours after the Iraqi government rejected his call to send home the Popular Mobilisation, an Iran-backed force that helped defeat Islamic State and capture the Kurdish-held city of Kirkuk.

In his opening remarks at the meeting with Tillerson, Abadi said Popular Mobilisation “is part of the Iraqi institutions,” rejecting accusations that it is acting as an Iranian proxy. [ Source: Reuters (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – U.S. President Donald Trump will urge President Xi Jinping to make good on his commitments to pressure North Korea when he visits China next month, a senior White House official said on Monday, stepping up a strategy to have Beijing help rein in Pyongyang.

Isolating North Korea further over its nuclear and ballistic missile tests is a key goal for Trump on what will be his longest foreign trip to date.

Trump will call on Xi to fully implement U.N. Security Council resolutions against Pyongyang and take other steps to pressure North Korea.

China, North Korea’s sole major ally, accounts for more than 90 percent of trade with the isolated country. [ Source: Reuters (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Students at an East Texas high school have responded to an atheist group’s demands that the school remove a Christian flag by bringing their own Christian flags to fly on school grounds.

Many in the community of Larue, Texas, are speaking out against the nation’s leading secularist legal organization, Freedom From Religion Foundation, after it sent a letter to the Superintendent James Young of LaPoynor Independent School District on Oct. 11 to demand that LaPoynor High School stop flying a Christian flag alongside the United States and Texas flags in front of the school.

FFRF attorney Sam Grover wrote in the letter that FFRF was contacted by a former student following the school’s participation in the annual “See You at the Pole” event on Sept. 27. [ Source: Christian Post (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – The President of Nepal Bidhya Devi Bhandari has signed into law legislation that makes religious conversion a crime, the international human rights group Christian Solidarity Worldwide has reported.

In a press release issued Friday, CSW, a human rights group accredited with United Nations consultative status, reports that Bhandari signed into law on Oct. 16 criminal code legislation that contains clauses that criminalize religious conversion and the “hurting of religious sentiment.”

Bhandari’s reported signing of the criminal code bill comes after lawmakers passed the legislation in August. At the time, it was reported that religious conversion would be punishable by up to five years in prison while hurting religious sentiments would be punishable up to two years in prison. The president was urged by religious freedom activists not to sign the law. [ Source: Christian Post (Read More…) ]