A New Perspective on Constantine

(Worthy News) – Saudi Arabia’s government has arranged to seize more than $100-billion (U.S.) through financial settlements with businessmen and officials detained in its crackdown on corruption, the attorney-general said on Tuesday.

The announcement appeared to represent a political victory for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who launched the purge last November and predicted at the time that it would net about $100-billion in settlements.

Dozens of top officials and businessmen were detained in the crackdown, many of them confined and interrogated at Riyadh’s opulent Ritz-Carlton Hotel. [ Source: Globe and Mail (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Southern Yemeni separatists took control of the port city of Aden after two days of fighting, residents said on Tuesday, confining the internationally recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to the presidential palace.

Fighting between southern separatists, backed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), against forces loyal to Saudi-based president Hadi, risk crippling their once united campaign against the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in Yemen’s north.

The UAE is a major component of a Saudi-led military coalition of Arab states that has supported Hadi’s government since the Houthis seized much of the country, including the capital Sanaa, three years ago. Hadi’s government operates out of Aden, while he lives in Saudi Arabia. [ Source: Globe and Mail(Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Branding North Korea’s leadership “depraved,” President Donald Trump told Americans on Tuesday that Pyongyang’s pursuit of nuclear missiles could “very soon threaten our homeland” and vowed a continued campaign of maximum pressure to keep that from happening.

In his first State of the Union speech to the U.S. Congress, Trump’s tough rhetoric underscored persistent tensions despite recent talks between North and South Korea that led to Pyongyang’s agreement to participate in next month’s Winter Olympic games hosted by Seoul.“North Korea’s reckless pursuit of nuclear missiles could very soon threaten our homeland,” Trump said. “We are waging a campaign of maximum pressure to prevent that from ever happening.” [ Source: Reuters (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Plans by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to halt hurricane relief supplies to Puerto Rico drew criticism Tuesday from members of Congress and the mayor of the island’s largest city.

San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz said many people in the U.S. territory need the water and food they have been getting from FEMA more than four months after Hurricane Maria devastated the island.

The mayor said that in recent days officials have had to deliver powered milk and water to some parts of the island, where still about 35 percent of population still has no power. [ Source: Fox News (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – A senior member of the Hamas terrorist organization has died, a Hamas spokesman said Tuesday, three weeks after he suffered what the terror organization claimed was an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound in the head.

On January 9th, Fawzy Barhoum, spokesman for the Gaza-based Islamist terror group, said that Imad al-Alami, one of the movement’s most senior officials, was critically wounded when his personal firearm accidentally discharged.

Al-Alami, 61, was “inspecting his personal weapon in his home and is in critical condition,” Barhoum said at the time. [ Source: Arutz Sheva (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – Gaza is beyond a “humanitarian crisis” and “on the verge of a total systems failure,” UN Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov said on Tuesday.

Speaking at the Institute for National Security Studies annual conference in Tel Aviv, Mladenov defined a total systems failure as the “full collapse of the economy and social services,” with all the “political, humanitarian and security implications stemming from that.”

The situation in Gaza needs to be high on the agenda for the Palestinian Authority’s donor countries which is meeting in Brussels on Wednesday for an emergency session of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee to address the Palestinian funding crisis, Gaza and the stalled Israeli-Palestinian diplomatic process, Mladenov said. [ Source: Jerusalem Post (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – President Trump used his State of the Union speech Tuesday to urge Congress to end caps on defense spending so the U.S. can modernize its nuclear arsenal.

The increased spending and improved nuclear weapons are needed to counter rogue regimes, terror groups and countries such as China and Russia, Trump said in his address to a joint session of Congress.

“In confronting these horrible dangers, we know that weakness is the surest path to conflict, and unmatched power is the surest means of our true and great defense,” he said. [ Source: Washington Examiner (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – President Trump asked Congress on Tuesday to pass an infrastructure package that would ultimately be worth $1.5 trillion, increasing the amount of investment in infrastructure over what he requested of lawmakers the last time he appeared before a joint session of Congress.

“Tonight, I am calling on the Congress to produce a bill that generates at least $1.5 trillion for the new infrastructure investment we need,” Trump said during his first State of the Union address on Tuesday.

“Every federal dollar should be leveraged by partnering with state and local governments and, where appropriate, tapping into private sector investment — to permanently fix the infrastructure deficit,” Trump said. “Any bill must also streamline the permitting and approval process — getting it down to no more than two years, and perhaps even one.” [ Source: Washington Examiner (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – President Trump marked his first State of the Union address Tuesday with a call for concrete bipartisan achievements in the year ahead, using the momentous occasion to unveil an expansive infrastructure plan aimed at improving rural landscapes and major U.S. cities, while also emphasizing his desire for the swift enactment of immigration reform.

Like the substance of his speech, Trump maintained a measured and optimistic tone. He mentioned some of the problems that arose during his first year in office, like the GOP’s failure to repeal Obamacare, promised to avoid repeating “the same mistakes” of previous administrations when it comes to comes to countering North Korea’s aggression, and promised to check more items off his agenda over the next several months and ensure Americans’ safety.

“Tonight, I call upon all of us to set aside our differences, to seek out common ground, and to summon the unity we need to deliver for the people — this is really the key — who we elected to serve,” Trump said, eliciting applause from those gathered in the House chamber. [ Source: Washington Examiner (Read More…) ]

(Worthy News) – On January 29, 2018, a federal judge told participants in a lawsuit forcing pro-life sidewalk counselors to defend themselves against harassment charges, that leafletting is a “form of really protected speech,” and that sidewalks are recognized as the “quintessential public forum.” The words from the bench underscored the arguments of Thomas More Society Special Counsel Martin Cannon. Cannon is defending a group of pro-life advocates who are being charged by New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman in a federal lawsuit that accuses them of threats and violence against abortion clinic patients.

A group of pro-life advocates with Church @ the Rock in Brooklyn, New York, has been targeted for their ongoing sidewalk counseling, prayer and protest activities outside of a Jamaica, New York, abortion clinic. Yesterday’s hearing was a request by the Thomas More Society for the court todismiss the lawsuit against those who have been gathering outside of the Choices Women’s Medical Center abortion facility.

U.S. District Judge Carol Bagley Amon’s questioning of Assistant Attorney General Sandra Pullman in yesterday’s United States District Court – Eastern District of New York hearing in People v. Griepp et al focused on the definition of harassment. The state’s interpretation seemed to focus on the reaction of a person to another’s actions, something that neither lined up with New York City’s city council harassment statue or according to Cannon, common sense. “The idea that harassment should be defined by someone’s reaction has no basis in any law or in any logic.”

“We expect to be vindicated,” stated Rev. Kenneth Griepp, a defendant in the lawsuit and the senior pastor at Church @ the Rock. “As a voice for the unborn, we are committed to raising awareness about the over 3,500 children that are being murdered every day here in America. We do so as peaceful people of God. Because the Thomas More Society attorneys understand that, they are able to ably defend us and protect the rights we are guaranteed under the US Constitution and First Amendment, including the freedom to speak out against what we believe to be the grave error of abortion and to offer lifesaving alternatives to women and their children.”

The judge took issue with the prosecution’s reference to what they labelled as “annoying behavior.” Amon commented that if harassment charges could be brought for being annoying, “I could sue all of you here today.”

Canon commented on the January 29, 2018, hearing, “These harassment charges are unconstitutionally vague. The prosecution’s very loose handling of a serious charge serves to highlight the baseless claims in a case solely intended to discourage any opposition to abortion.” He added that there are no documented or verified instances of the force, threat of force, physical obstruction, following and harassing, which Schneiderman claims has occurred.

Schneiderman claimed his lawsuit, filed in June 2017, was intended to end to what he charged is “a weekly pattern of threatening, obstructive and violent activity by a network of anti-abortion protestors.” He claimed to have received “complaints of the protesters’ extremely aggressive behavior.” He called the church members’ efforts to counsel women considering abortion and to advocate for the rights of the unborn, “horrifying” and “illegal.”

Schneiderman’s support of the abortion industry is well publicized. In April 2017, he openly opposed any defunding of Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers, proclaiming, “I was proud to lead a coalition of attorneys general in filing an amicus brief against the Ohio state law that would defund Planned Parenthood.”

“These pro-life advocates are life-affirming Christians who peacefully counsel women considering abortion. They conduct themselves reasonably and compassionately and offer information about alternatives to those willing to listen,” stated Cannon. The Thomas More Society is representing ten members of Church @ the Rock in Brooklyn, who are among the fourteen defendants named in the suit. The congregation has been witnessing for life outside of the abortion facility, weekly, since 2012.

The next major court hearing in this case will take place the week of February 12, 2018.

Read background on the Thomas More Society involvement with People v. Griepp et al here [http://ift.tt/2lkf8w2].

About the Thomas More Society

The Thomas More Society is a national not-for-profit law firm dedicated to restoring respect in law for life, family, and religious liberty. Headquartered in Chicago and Omaha, the Thomas More Society fosters support for these causes by providing high quality pro bono legal services from local trial courts all the way up to the United States Supreme Court. For more information, visit thomasmoresociety.org.