A New Perspective on Constantine

(Worthy News) – Cyclone Mekunu is intensifying to hurricane-level strength in the Arabian Sea and is expected to hit Oman and Yemen later this week, forecasters said Wednesday.

The storm is classified as a cyclonic storm, but is predicted to become the equivalent of a Category 2 or Category 3 hurricane. Wednesday, it hit the archipelago of Socotra in the Guardafui Channel, an oceanic strait off the tip of the Horn of Africa, with severe wind gusts.

The storm is expected to hits wind speeds of 74 mph late Wednesday and get stronger as it arrives in southern Oman and southeastern Yemen. [ Source: UPI (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – Republicans rejected Democrats’ efforts Wednesday to increase money for job training or child care for those on welfare, keeping their massive reform bill on track for approval in a key committee.

The bill would tighten eligibility requirements for federal assistance and ask states to pressure recipients to find and keep jobs.

Kevin Brady, Texas Republican and House Ways and Means chairman, hopes to approve the legislation in committee Thursday.

Passing the bill is a major goal of outgoing House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, Wisconsin Republican. He counts it as part of his legacy-building anti-poverty agenda. [ Source: Washington Times (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday set conditions for Europe for Tehran to remain in the 2015 nuclear accord, following the US withdrawal from the deal earlier this month.

Khamenei, addressing government officials on the occasion of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, said European powers must vow not to seek new limitations on Iran’s ballistic missile program or its activities in the Middle East, as demanded by the Trump administration.

They must also “fully guarantee Iran’s oil sales,” he said, adding that if the US “damages” oil sales through renewed economic sanctions, “Europeans should make up for that and buy Iranian oil.” [ Source: Times of Israel (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – Israel is pressing the Trump administration to recognize its sovereignty over the Golan Heights, an Israeli cabinet minister said on Wednesday, predicting US assent could come within months.

Interviewed by Reuters, Intelligence Minister Israel Katz described endorsement of Israel’s 51-year-old hold on the Golan as the proposal now “topping the agenda” in bilateral diplomatic talks with the United States.

Any such move would be seen as a follow-up on the US exit from the international nuclear deal with Iran, and President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the opening of a new US embassy there this month. [ Source: Jerusalem Post (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – A federal judge in Manhattan ruled Wednesday it is a violation of the First Amendment for President Trump to block critics from viewing his Twitter account.

“This case requires us to consider whether a public official may, consistent with the First Amendment, ‘block’ a person from his Twitter account in response to the political views that person has expressed, and whether the analysis differs because that public official is the President of the United States,” U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald said in her ruling. “The answer to both questions is no.”

The lawsuit was filed in July by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University on behalf of seven people who were blocked by @realDonaldTrump on Twitter after criticizing the president. [ Source: Washington Examiner (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – Iranian officials on Wednesday dismissed a series of demands from US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, saying the US was afraid to face Iran in battle and vowed to push ahead with its military programs.

On Monday, Pompeo said the Trump administration was preparing to impose “the strongest sanctions in history” on Tehran after withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal earlier this month, as he laid out a list of demands for a new treaty.

“Iranian armed forces are now, thank God, more prepared than ever and will not wait for the permission or approval of any foreign power to develop defense capabilities,” Mohammad Bagheri, the chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, said according to Iran’s Mehr news agency, an apparent reference to their missile program. [ Source: Times of Israel (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – The White House is considering action against Palestinian diplomats in Washington after Ramallah asked the International Criminal Court on Tuesday to investigate alleged Israeli crimes, The Times of Israel has learned.

According to a US law passed in December 2015, the Palestinian Authority is subject to penalties if it pursues the prosecution of Israelis at the Hague-based ICC. One of those ramifications includes the closing of their diplomatic mission to the United States, run by the Palestine Liberation Organization.

“We are reviewing this latest development to determine if it requires changes to the operating status of the PLO office in Washington, D.C., which has been limited to activities related to achieving a lasting, comprehensive peace between the Israelis and Palestinians since November 2017,” a National Security Council spokesperson said. [ Source: Times of Israel (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday credited the Trump administration with pushing the NFL to require players to stand for the national anthem.

“#Winning,” Pence wrote on Twitter, along with an American flag emoji, attaching a picture of the CNN headline: “NFL requires players on field to stand for anthem.”

CNN called the new league rule a “stunning victory” for President Donald Trump, who famously said during his 2016 campaign that “winning” would differentiate his administration from others. [ Source: Washington Free Beacon (Read More…) ]

#Winning ?? pic.twitter.com/aEJOCmB5lW

— Vice President Mike Pence (@VP) May 23, 2018

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(Worthy News) – A team of California-based weapons researchers has uncovered evidence suggesting Iran is developing long-range missile technology at a secret facility in the Iranian desert.

Recent Iranian state television programs memorialized the late Gen. Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam, a military scientist who was killed in a massive explosion at Iran’s major missile base near Tehran in November 2011. Researchers at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, California, reviewed the footage and came across what they say is evidence of a second missile facility operating to this day, the New York Times reported Wednesday.

The researchers also examined satellite photos of the facility and believe work at the site is currently focused on advanced rocket engines and rocket fuel. [ Source: Washington Free Beacon (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – President Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani in a reversal on Wednesday said that he now believes that Trump should interview with special counsel Robert Mueller.

“I guess I’d rather do the interview. It gets it over with it, it makes my client happy,” Giuliani told The Washington Post. “The safe course you hear every lawyer say is ‘don’t do the interview,’ and that’s easy to say in the abstract. That’s much harder when you have a client who is the president of the United States and wants to be interviewed.”

Giuliani has cast doubt on Trump interviewing with Mueller in the past. He told The Wall Street Journal in an interview published Tuesday that if he were to make a decision on the interview at that time, he would decide against it. [ Source: The Hill (Read More…) ]

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