(Worthy News) – A group of Asian Jews from the lost “Bnei Menashe” tribe got the chance to pray at Judaism’s holiest sites this week.
This tribe claims to descend from Menasseh, and were exiled from Israel 2,700 years ago before being forced to seek refuge in Asia.
The group retraced the footsteps of their ancestors. First, they started at the tomb of Joseph, then visited the burial place of Menasseh, and later visited Rachel’s tomb. [ Source: CBN News (Read More…) ]
(Worthy News) – President Donald Trump’s budget proposal to be unveiled on Monday will include a request for $3 billion as a down payment on building a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico, a senior administration official said on Thursday.
The official, who briefed a small group of reporters on condition of anonymity, said the money would go toward purchasing private land in the Rio Grande Valley in south Texas and advance purchases of steel.
The administration hopes to build 60 miles (96 km) of new steel bollard fencing along the border with 2018 funding and an additional 64 miles (103 km) with 2019 funding. [ Source: Reuters (Read More…) ]
(Worthy News) – Bipartisan negotiators are looking at a plan that would pay for as little as 10 percent of President Trump’s border wall in exchange for legalizing 1.8 million illegal immigrant “Dreamers,” one of the senators involved in the talks said Thursday night.
Sen. Thom Tillis, North Carolina Republican, said there appears to be consensus on the 1.8 million number, and said they are willing to authorize up to $25 billion for fencing — though they’ll only allocate $2.5 billion to $5 billion in real money.
His numbers tracked with what another Senate source described as the outlines of the deal, which is being floated among a bipartisan group of 20 to 30 senators who call themselves the Common Sense Caucus. [ Source: Washington Times (Read More…) ]
(Worthy News) – The US has set a record for the number of guided bombs dropped from a single bomber in a series of strikes against the Taliban.
A B-52 dropped 24 “precision guided munitions” on Taliban fighting positions in northern Afghanistan as part of a four-day campaign, according to US forces in the country.
The operations, conducted near the border with China and Tajikistan, hit Taliban training facilities which the militant group used to plan and rehearse terrorist acts. [ Source: Sky News (Read More…) ]
(Worthy News) – The Dow Jones industrial average plunged 1,033 points Thursday, its second-worst drop in history, extending its losses in the recent selloff to more than 10% and putting it officially into correction territory.
The blue-chip stock average’s recent drubbing, which follows its record 1,175-point drop Monday, has been fueled by fears that a long period of low interest rates and tame inflation that have boosted the economy and fueled a rapid rise in stock prices may be nearing an end as economic conditions improve.
“The Dow has been hit by a tsunami of volatility,” says Paul Schatz, president of Woodbridge, Conn.-based investment management firm Heritage Capital. “The market is repricing in a lot of factors at once. And rates have run up fast. The market always has a tough time when things happen in a linear fashion.” [ Source: USA Today (Read More…) ]
(Worthy News) – U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and China’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi reaffirmed their countries’ commitment to exert pressure in Pyongyang over its nuclear weapons on Thursday, the U.S. State Department said.
Yang was on a two-day visit to Washington that began on Thursday. His talks were also expected to cover the sensitive U.S.-China economic relationship after recent tit-for-tat actions that have raised fears of a trade war between the world’s two largest economies.
“Both sides reaffirmed President Trump’s and President Xi’s commitment to keep up pressure on North Korea’s illegal weapons and nuclear programs,” State Department Spokeswoman Heather Nauert told a news briefing. [ Source: Reuters (Read More…) ]
(Worthy News) – Congressional leaders were racing another government shutdown clock Thursday night, searching for votes to approve a budget deal that could set the stage for the biggest spending increase in U.S. history.
At least a short shutdown — the second in less than a month — was likely, with Sen. Rand Paul vowing to force the debate into the early hours of Friday morning, past the midnight deadline when funding would expire.
Mr. Paul, Kentucky Republican, acknowledged he was fighting an uphill battle, but he said the public needed more time to process the massive bill, which clocked in at 652 pages and was dumped onto lawmakers’ desks late Wednesday night. [ Source: Washington Times (Read More…) ]
(Worthy News) – Atheists are calling foul after President Trump only referenced Christianity, and specifically Jesus Christ, in his remarks Thursday at the 66th annual National Prayer Breakfast.
Roy Speckhardt, executive director of the American Humanist Association, said the president excluded Americans who practice other faiths or no faith at all.
“Trump has taken these government-endorsed prayer breakfasts to a new low, demonstrating his ignorance and disdain for the growing diversity of faiths and philosophies found in the country he’s supposed to be leading,” Mr. Speckhardt said in a statement. [ Source: Washington Times (Read More…) ]
(Worthy News) – Atheists are calling foul after President Trump only referenced Christianity, and specifically Jesus Christ, in his remarks Thursday at the 66th annual National Prayer Breakfast.
Roy Speckhardt, executive director of the American Humanist Association, said the president excluded Americans who practice other faiths or no faith at all.
“Trump has taken these government-endorsed prayer breakfasts to a new low, demonstrating his ignorance and disdain for the growing diversity of faiths and philosophies found in the country he’s supposed to be leading,” Mr. Speckhardt said in a statement. [ Source: Washington Times (Read More…) ]
(Worthy News) – Unemployment numbers in the United States continue to drop, with new figures Thursday showing the lowest number of claims filed in 45 years.
Last week, the 221,000 claims filed decreased from the previous week by 9,000, according to information released Thursday by the Department of Labor — a larger drop than experts predicted.
The four-week average was at 224,500, decreasing by 10,000 from the previous week, which is the lowest level for this average since March 1973, when it was 222,000, the labor report said. [ Source: UPI (Read More…) ]