A New Perspective on Constantine

(Worthy News) – US special counsel Robert Mueller’s team is investigating senior White House adviser Jared Kushner over contacts with Israeli officials, according to a Wall Street Journal report Tuesday.

Mueller, investigating Russian ties to the US President Donald Trump’s campaign, is looking at overtures Israeli figures made to Kushner and other senior Trump transition team staff surrounding a United Nations Security Council vote in December 2016 condemning West Bank settlements, the newspaper reported. [ Source: Times of Israel (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke Tuesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone about a ceasefire deal in the Syrian civil war and Iranian presence near Israel’s borders with the war-torn country, the Prime Minister’s Office said.

The conversation was the latest in a series of high-level contacts between Israel and Russia, amid a dispute between the countries over allowing Iran and Shiite militias backed by Tehran to maintain a foothold near in Syria near the Israeli border.

“The conversation lasted about half an hour and dealt with Syria, and Iran’s attempt to entrench itself in Syria,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement. “Netanyahu insisted on Israeli security and reiterated his opposition to Iran’s entrenchment in Syria.” [ Source: Times of Israel (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – A second round of reconciliation talks between Fatah and Hamas, attended by representatives of other Palestinian Arab organizations, began in Cairo on Tuesday.

The talks are based on the general understandings reached in October between the two organizations, in the wake of which Hamas dismantled the Gaza Executive Committee and allowed the Palestinian Authority (PA) government in Ramallah to receive authority over Gaza.

The PA has since assumed control of Gaza’s border crossings but there are still disagreements, particularly over the fate of Hamas’s armed wing. [ Source: Arutz Sheva (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – The US Deputy Secretary of State has called on Sudan to “immediately suspend” its demolition of churches and to hold a roundtable discussion with Christian leaders to resolve disputes.

John J. Sullivan, speaking at the Al-Neelain Mosque in Omdurman on Friday (17 November), said “the treatment of members of religious minorities is often the ultimate indicator of a government’s commitment” to religious freedom.

He added that the US State Department’s recent International Religious Freedom report “noted instances of the arrest, detention, and intimidation of religious leaders, and the denial of permits for the construction of new churches; restrictions on non-Muslim religious groups from entering the country; and the censorship of religious material”. [ Source: World Watch Monitor (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – A church in Algeria’s north-western town of Aïn Turk (15km from Oran city) has been closed down by local authorities.

The church, affiliated to the Protestant Church of Algeria (known as EPA, its French acronym), was sealed off by police on 9 November.

Authorities in Oran claimed the church had been used to “illegally print Gospels and publications intended for evangelism”.

The police notification also stated that the church didn’t have state approval. But the president of the EPA, Rev Mahmoud Haddad, denied any wrongdoing, saying the justifications for closing the church were “unfounded”. [ Source: World Watch Monitor (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Five Christians were killed and five others are missing after attacks by Muslim Fulani herdsmen in Nigeria’s Plateau and Benue states in the past two weeks.

Two members of the Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN) were killed on Sunday (Nov. 12) in Plateau state’s Wereng village, Riyom Local Government Area (LGA), as they were returning to their village at about 9:30 p.m., area resident Gyang Dahoro, a COCIN elder, told Morning Star News.

Christopher Musa Chong, 28, and Bulus Dantoro, 35, were ambushed and shot death, and their corpses cut with machetes, according to Dahoro. [ Source: Morningstar News (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Stunning political developments in Saudi Arabia have some wondering if the strict Muslim-ruled Kingdom could become more tolerant of Christianity.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman has said he intends to return Saudi Arabia to “moderate Islam” and open the country to all faiths.

As part of his reform drive, dozens of officials – including 11 princes – have been arrested on corruption charges. The kingdom also says it has dismissed several thousand imams from mosques for spreading extremism.

The percentage of Saudi Arabian citizens who are Christians today is officially zero, because conversion from Islam to Christianity has long been punishable by death. [ Source: CBN News (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Saad Hariri returned to Lebanon late Tuesday for the first time since he stunned his country by announcing from Saudi Arabia that he was quitting as prime minister more than two weeks ago.

His resignation, made in an uncomfortable televised statement from Riyadh, set off an international political crisis involving Paris and Washington, who were left without one of their chief partners in a region swirling in conflict.

Hariri left Saudi Arabia for Paris on Saturday by invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron, before traveling on to Beirut by way of Egypt and Cyprus on Tuesday. [ Source: UK Telegraph (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – The FBI has reason to believe U.S. Rep. Bob Brady unlawfully concealed a $90,000 payment made by his campaign to get an opponent to quit a 2012 primary race, according to court documents that confirm the Philadelphia Democrat is under investigation in a widening campaign finance probe.

In unsealed court documents made public Monday, the FBI requested a search warrant and has obtained data from an email account belonging to Brady. The FBI agent who filed the warrant wrote that there is probable cause Brady violated contribution limits and produced false documents, and there is evidence that he and others knowingly circumvented campaign finance rules.

Brady has not been charged with a crime. His attorney, James Eisenhower, said that the congressman already has given the emails to authorities and that Brady has done nothing wrong.

(Worthy News) – Newly filed court documents confirm that Fusion GPS, the company mostly responsible for the controversial “Trump dossier” on presidential candidate Donald Trump, made payments to three journalists between June 2016 until February 2017.

The revelation could be a breakthrough for House Republicans, who are exploring whether Fusion GPS used the dossier, which was later criticized for having inaccurate information on Trump, to feed anti-Trump stories to the press during and after the presidential campaign. The three journalists who were paid by Fusion GPS are known to have reported on “Russia issues relevant to [the committee’s] investigation,” the House Intelligence Committee said in a court filing.

But the recipients’ names, the amounts, and purposes of those payments were either redacted from the documents that Fusion GPS filed to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia or were not disclosed. [ Source: Washington Examiner (Read More…) ]