A New Perspective on Constantine

(Worthy News) – Three US aircraft carriers will stage joint drills in the western Pacific for the first time in a decade, the US Navy said Thursday (Nov 9), as tensions in the region over North Korea reach fever pitch.

The USS Ronald Reagan, USS Nimitz and USS Theodore Roosevelt will conduct “coordinated operations in international waters”, the navy said, as US President Donald Trump’s high-stakes trip through Asia takes him to China.

The operation shows Washington’s “ironclad commitment to the continued security and stability of the region,” said Scott Swift, commander of the US Pacific Fleet, in a statement. [ Source: Channel News Asia (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Even for a country often used as a battleground by regional powers and their proxies, the sudden resignation of Prime Minister Saad Hariri has opened a new period of political uncertainty and fear in Lebanon.

The tiny nation has often been caught between the political agendas of more-powerful countries. But it now appears more vulnerable to conflict as Israel and Saudi Arabia try to isolate their shared enemy, the Iran-backed movement Hezbollah.

Hariri, a Sunni politician backed by the Saudis, cited Iranian meddling in Lebanese politics as the reason for his decision to step down. [ Source: Washington Post (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – The Saudi-led military coalition’s blockade of Yemen could lead to “the largest famine the world has seen for many decades with millions of victims,” Mark Lowcock, the UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, warned on Wednesday.

Lowcock’s warning came as the UN Security Council met behind closed doors to discuss the most recent escalation in the Yemen conflict after the Saudi Arabia closed off all land, sea and air borders to the Arab peninsula.

The blockade has also grounded all UN humanitarian flights into Yemen and prevented ships carrying urgent supplies, such as medicine and food, from docking. [ Source: Deutche Welle (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Germany’s constitutional court has given the country’s parliament until Dec. 31, 2018, to pass legislation authorizing “intersex” birth certificates, the BBC reported Wednesday.

The ruling comes after an intersex individual marked as female on their birth certificate brought a lawsuit over the matter. A DNA test conducted on the individual established that they were neither genetically male nor female.

“Humans are born with 46 chromosomes in 23 pairs. The X and Y chromosomes determine a person’s sex. Most women are 46XX and most men are 46XY,” according to the website for the World Health Organization Genomic Resource Centre.

“Research suggests, however, that in a few births per thousand some individuals will be born with a single sex chromosome (45X or 45Y) (sex monosomies) and some with three or more sex chromosomes (47XXX, 47XYY or 47XXY, etc.) (sex polysomies),” the WHO explained, adding that other intersex cases involve 46XY individuals being born female due to a mutation on the Y-chromosome. [ Source: Washington Times (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – The FBI is investigating how a school website in New Jersey was hacked. It’s one of hundreds nationwide that was plastered with messages supporting ISIS.

The district said for about two hours, a hacker sent visitors to an ISIS sponsored YouTube video with Arabic audio and Saddam Hussein’s picture. There was also text reading ‘I love Islamic State.’

The district’s website is hosted by schooldesk.net. The owner said some 800 school districts nationwide, including Newtown, Connecticut, were also hacked.

The host site, School Desk, said they’re handing over copies of their servers to the FBI to help in the investigation. [ Source: CBS News (Read More…) ]