A New Perspective on Constantine

(Worthy News) – US President Donald Trump said Monday that a bomb attack by a 27-year-old from Bangladesh on New York’s subway system underscored the “urgent need” for Congress to enact immigration reform.

Three people were slightly injured after the attacker’s pipe bomb exploded only partially, while the suspect was sent to a hospital with apparently severe burns and wounds on his torso and hands.

“First and foremost, as I have been saying since I first announced my candidacy for president, America must fix its lax immigration system, which allows far too many dangerous, inadequately vetted people to access our country,” Trump said in a statement. [ Source: Times of Israel (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Israeli forces attacked Hamas targets in the northern Gaza Strip early Tuesday after Palestinians fired a rocket toward the southern city of Ashkelon, the army said. The rocket was intercepted by an Iron Dome anti-missile battery.

After the rocket fire, Israeli aircraft and a tank attacked Hamas sites in the Strip, the army said, noting that it holds the terror group, which runs Gaza, responsible for all rocket attacks.

This was the second round of Palestinian rocket fire and Israeli responses in the day. [ Source: Times of Israel (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital will hasten the country’s destruction, Iran’s defense minister said Monday.

Leaders of Iran, where opposition to Israel and support for the Palestinian cause has been central to foreign policy since the 1979 Islamic revolution, have denounced last week’s announcement by the US president, including a plan to move the US embassy to the city.

The Palestinians want east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.

“(Trump’s) step will hasten the destruction of the Zionist regime and will double the unity of Muslims,” Iran’s defense minister, Brigadier General Amir Hatami, said on Monday, according to state media. [ Source: Jerusalem Post (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday intensified efforts to rally Middle Eastern countries against US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, setting up talks with Arab leaders beginning in Cairo.

Abbas will meet President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt, which has been a key broker in past peace talks with Israel and between fighting Palestinian factions, before heading for Istanbul to give a speech, his office said.

Arab states condemned US President Donald Trump’s Jerusalem decision last week, and vowed to press international bodies to take action against it, without announcing any concrete measures. [ Source: Jerusalem Post (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Egypt on Monday, where he signed a deal to advance plans for a nuclear reactor but disappointed his hosts by delaying the resumption of direct flights that were suspended after the 2015 bombing of a Russian passenger plane.

During Putin’s second visit to Egypt in as many years, he and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi appeared keen to cement their countries’ ties, which have deepened in recent years as Moscow has expanded its reach across the region.

“Russia always paid a special attention to expanding friendly and mutually beneficial ties with Egypt, our longtime reliable partner in the Middle East and North Africa,” Putin said. [ Source: Washington Times (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – House Republicans on Monday urged congressional leaders to include the repeal of Obamacare’s individual mandate penalty in the final version of the tax bill.

“Including language to repeal this harmful policy will return personal decisions about healthcare choices to patients, fulfilling a key promise we have made to the American people,” nearly 70 House Republicans wrote in a letter to leading negotiators of the tax bill, called the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. They called the individual mandate the “worst example of the federal government violating individual freedom and liberty.”

The Senate version of the bill includes the repeal of the individual mandate penalties, which require Americans to buy insurance or pay a fine. The House did not include the repeal it its version because House leaders were concerned at the time that the Senate wouldn’t be able to pass it, citing failed attempts by the upper chamber this summer. [ Source: Washington Examiner (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Evangelist Franklin Graham said that multitudes responded to Jesus Christ during his two-day evangelistic crusade in Vietnam, and argued that the Communist government there is starting to warm up to Christianity.

“I just concluded a Crusade in Hanoi. This is the first time an evangelistic event like this has been held in the northern part of Vietnam. A tremendous crowd came on Saturday night, and in addition to the full sports complex, people watched outside on giant screens,” Graham said on his Facebook page Saturday.

“Some 400 buses brought loads of people to hear the Gospel message. We rejoice that so many responded to God’s offer of salvation and new life through repentance and faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.” [ Source: Christian Post (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – A Christian student group that requires its leaders to pledge to uphold core values like avoiding “sexual immorality” sued the University of Iowa Monday after the school kicked it off campus.

Business Leaders in Christ (BLinC) makes all of its student leaders vow to uphold the group’s faith statement, which says they “should conduct their careers without the greed, racism, sexual immorality, and selfishness that all too often arise in business, political, and cultural institutions.”

The University of Iowa pulled their group registration after one student said he wasn’t selected for a leadership position because he is openly gay. The group, though, said the man was rejected because he opposed the group’s core ideals. [ Source: Washington Times (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Berating and slapping two pastors into signing an apology letter before police, Hindu extremists stopped a planned three-day gospel meeting in Chhattisgarh state, India minutes before it was to begin, sources said.

Hindu nationalists beat pastor Vijay Jogi and pastor Santosh Rao minutes before the start of the first meeting, where about 1,000 people had gathered at the Railway Grounds in Charoda, Durg District on Nov. 16, pastor Amos James told Morning Star News.

“Pastor Vijay Jogi and Pastor Santosh Rao were receiving the people at the entrance,” Pastor James said. “Suddenly a mob of 70 Hindu Dharm Sena and Bajrang Dal activists gheraoed [encircled] the entrance, and Pastor Jogi and Pastor Rao were beaten and summoned to the police station.” [ Source: Morningstar News (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Congress is about to miss what was widely seen as a deadline to deal with President Trump’s demands for a harder line on the Iran nuclear deal, failing to agree on new sanctions against Tehran and punting the future of the deal back to Mr. Trump.

A Republican legislative push to establish new “triggers” that could reimpose harsh sanctions on Iran lifted under the Obama-era deal has gone nowhere ahead of Tuesday — the end of a 60-day unofficial deadline set by the administration for Capitol Hill to weigh in on the situation after Mr. Trump declared he could no longer certify that the accord was in the U.S. national interest.

Congressional aides say lawmakers still have time to propose something before Mr. Trump is mandated to decide again whether to weigh in on the deal, but White House aides say the president is rankled by the lack of progress on Capitol Hill and likely will pull the United States out of the deal entirely when it comes up for review on Jan. 13. [ Source: Washington Times (Read More…) ]