A New Perspective on Constantine

(Worthy News) – A convert from Islam in Iran said he and 11 other Christians were sentenced to a year in prison for “inclination to the land of Christianity” among other charges, according to Mohabat News.

“Interrogations were obviously indicating that they were looking for confession to communications with [those] abroad, especially America, Britain and Israel,” the Christian, identified as Payam Kharaman, told Mohabat, which focuses on human rights abuses in Iran.

Mohabat reported last week that Kharaman and 11 other members of a church in Bushehr, a port city in southwestern Iran, were sentenced to one year in prison on charges of “propaganda activities against the system and in favor of Zionist Christianity through holding house meetings, evangelism, and invitation to Christianity and inclination to the land of Christianity.” [ Source: Morningstar News (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – The Trump administration has created an “elite team” at the US State Department on Iran policy hoping to streamline execution of its newly aggressive strategy toward the Islamic Republic.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the team will be responsible with “directing, reviewing and coordinating all aspects of the State Department’s Iran-related activity,” reporting directly to him.

“Our hope is that one day soon we can make a new agreement with Iran, but we must see major changes,” Pompeo said. US President Donald Trump pulled out of an international nuclear deal with Iran in May and has directed his administration to apply “maximum economic pressure” on the country to change its behavior. [ Source: Jerusalem Post (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – A massive and deadly California wildfire that sent choking smoke into Yosemite National Park, causing a temporary closure of large parts of the tourist destination, is completely contained, fire officials said on Sunday.

More than 3,000 personnel have battled the Ferguson Fire, which ignited on July 13 and has burned through nearly 97,000 acres (39,250 hectares) of steep slopes and bone-dry terrain southwest of the park, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, said.

Two firefighters were killed while tackling the blaze and 19 others injured, it said. [ Source: Reuters (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – Iran’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs are at “the top of the list,” U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton said Sunday after arriving in Israel, where he plans to holds talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The two held a working dinner Sunday and will continue their talks Monday.

“We’ve got great challenges for Israel, for the United States, and for the whole world. The Iranian nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs are right at the top of the list,” Bolton said. [ Source: VOA News (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – In a meeting with several settler leaders Wednesday, US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman said that he saw “no reason to evacuate settlements” in a peace deal, a Likud lawmaker said.

MK Yehudah Glick, who organized the sit-down with Har Hebron Regional Council chairman Yochai Damari, recounted the statement to the Times of Israel and said that the ambassador was “very explicit” in his remark regarding Israeli communities in the West Bank.

Damari said the purpose of the meeting at the US embassy in Jerusalem was to present a number of Israeli-Palestinian economic ventures in the West Bank, ahead of the anticipated unveiling of the US’s peace initiative. [ Source: Times of Israel (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – Global dividends jumped 12.9 percent year-on-year in the second quarter to $497.4 billion, hitting a new record, according to a report on the Janus Henderson Global Dividend Index.

Payments rose in almost every region of the world in headline terms and records were broken in 12 countries including France, Japan, and the U.S. This comes amid warnings from analysts that the looming trade war and punitive tariffs from the U.S. and China could pose a risk for equities across the globe.

The index, which analyses the dividends paid by the 1,200 largest firms by market capitalization, ended the quarter at a new record 182.0, meaning that global dividends have risen by more than four-fifths since 2009. [ Source: CNBC (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – Some 800,000 people have been displaced and over 350 have died in the worst flooding in a century in southern India’s Kerala state, as authorities rushed to bring drinking water to the most affected areas, officials said Sunday.

At least two trains carrying about 1.5 million liters (400,000 gallons) of water were moving to the flooded areas from the neighboring states of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, Indian railway official Milind Deouskar said, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.

Officials have called it the worst flooding in Kerala in a century, with rainfall in some areas well over double that of a typical monsoon season. [ Source: CBN News (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas warned ‎Saturday that he will not allow for two separate ‎entities to rule Palestinian lands, effectively ‎admitting that Ramallah was actively trying to ‎torpedo the Egyptian-brokered cease-fire talks ‎between Israel and Hamas.‎

Over the past few weeks, Egypt has been heading the indirect negotiations ‎‎between Israel and the terrorist group ruling the ‎Gaza Strip, in an ‎attempt to ‎prevent recent flare-ups on the Gaza ‎border from ‎escalating into war. ‎ ‎

Hamas ousted ‎Abbas’ Western-backed government from ‎the Gaza Strip ‎in a military coup in 2007. Since then, the ‎‎various efforts to reconcile the rival Palestinian ‎factions – the latest ‎brokered by Egypt in late 2017 ‎‎– have failed. ‎[ Source: Israel Hayom (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – Democrats are on the verge of winning 222 seats in the House of Representatives in the 2018 midterm elections, according to a new poll that increased their odds of flipping power in the lower chamber.

The CBS News and YouGov poll, released Sunday, shows an uptick from its prediction of 219 seats when the survey was last conducted in June, signaling that Democratic candidates could be creating momentum before the Nov. 6 contests.

But the results have a range of plus or minus 11 seats, which means Republicans could still control the House after the midterm cycle if they can secure majority support in 218 congressional districts.

There are 435 total seats, and Democrats winning 222 of them would give them a nine-seat advantage over Republicans. [ Source: Washington Examiner (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – Britain’s vote to leave the European Union could “in theory” be reversed although there is a still a strong probability it will go ahead, said the European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs Pierre Moscovici on Monday.

Moscovici was replying on French radio to a question related to a move by the co-founder of fashion brand Superdry to donate a million pounds ($1.28 million) to the campaign for a referendum on the final Brexit agreement.

Asked whether the Brexit vote could be reversed, Moscovici told France Inter radio: “It is, in theory…it is up to the British themselves who have made the decision to leave, to decide ultimately if they will or not, and how they will do it.” [ Source: Jerusalem Post (Read More…) ]

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