Senate comes together to fight opioid crisis

(Worthy News) – The Senate will vote this week on a massive bipartisan bill that combines 70 different measures aimed at reducing addiction and drug overdose deaths from opioids such as heroin and prescription painkillers.

The vote on the bill, the Opioid Crisis Response Act, is a culmination of months of hearings and negotiations across five committees. Supporters hope that the legislation will help reduce death tolls from opioid overdoses, which early data show surpassed 40,000 people in 2017.

The legislation provides more access to medical treatment for addiction, additional funding for states to carry out their programs, and gives the National Institutes of Health more power to carry out research on treatment for pain and addiction. It allows the Food and Drug Administration to limit how many prescription opioids, such as OxyContin, doctors are allowed to give patients and to set guidelines for how they can be packaged so that they are harder for children to get. [ Source: Washington Examiner (Read More…) ]

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Congress ready to call Trump’s bluff on shutdown threat

(Worthy News) – President Trump this week threatened to partially shut down the federal government unless it approves funding for his border wall, but lawmakers from both parties say that isn’t going to happen.

Publicly, Trump is keeping people guessing, as he made a few threats late in the week to reject spending bills for fiscal 2019 that don’t include border wall money.

But Republican leaders are desperate to avoid the last-minute spending fights that have plagued Congress for years. The GOP has worked with Democrats to move 2019 funding bills faster than any time in decades, and they are reasonably sure they have a deal with Trump to fund the government without a big fight over the border. [ Source: (Read More…) ]

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Chinese Authorities Tear Down Crosses and Close Down Churches in Henan

(Worthy News) – According to ChinaAid, Henan authorities have continued to tear down crosses across China.

Crosses have been taken down in Zhengzhou, Nanyang, and Yuzhou. ChinaAid reports that Christians sang hymns to encourage each other as a cross was ripped down at Gospel Fellowship Tongxin Church in Anpeng, Nanyang.

So far, in the Jinshui District of Zhengzhou, eight house churches have been shut down, but altogether locals have reported that it is difficult to estimate how many churches have been closed. [ Source: Christian Headlines (Read More…) ]

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Bloodbath Expected as Russia, Iran, Syria, Turkey Unite for Final Showdown in Idlib

(Worthy News) – The United Nations is warning of catastrophic consequences facing civilians trapped in Syria’s Idlib province.

“The conflict in Syria has already caused unspeakable suffering to millions of people forced to live under siege or to leave their country,” warned Olaf Skoog, the permanent representative of Sweden to the United Nations. “We are deeply concerned about the escalating military action by the Syrian regime and Russia in northwest Syria with potentially catastrophic humanitarian consequences for civilians.”

Residents of Syria’s Idlib province took to the streets Friday protesting against what many there believe is an impending assault in the region.

For weeks, Syrian forces, backed by Russian, Iranian and Turkish fighters, have encircled the province which is now the rebels’ last stronghold position. [ Source: CBN News (Read More…) ]

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Strengthening Hurricane Florence Takes Aim at US Southeast

(Worthy News) – A rapidly strengthening Hurricane Florence churned across the Atlantic on Sunday toward a possible direct hit on the U.S. Southeast late this week, triggering warnings to people up and down the coast to get their emergency kits ready, map out escape routes and fill sandbags.

Red flags flying on beaches warned swimmers to stay out of waters already roiled by the distant storm, and cruise ships and Navy vessels were set to be steered out of harm’s way. People rushed to buy bottled water, plywood, and other supplies.

Florence crossed the 74 mph threshold from tropical storm to hurricane Sunday morning, and by evening its winds were up to 85 mph (140 kph) as the National Hurricane Center warned it was expected to become an extremely dangerous major hurricane by Monday and remain that way for days. [ Source: CBN News (Read More…) ]

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IDF to investigate death of 2 Palestinian teens in Gaza border riot

(Worthy News) – The military on Saturday said it would launch an ‎inquest into claims of a fatal shooting of two ‎Palestinian teens by Israeli forces during a Gaza ‎border riot on Friday.‎

The Palestinians identified one of the teens as ‎Ahmad Abu Tayoor, 16, saying only that the other ‎victim was 17 years old. They said 200 protesters ‎were wounded Friday at a border riot organized by ‎Hamas.‎

The terrorist group that controls the Gaza Strip ‎launched its border riot campaign on March 30. Since ‎then, some 150 protesters have been killed.‎ The IDF said some 6,000 Palestinian demonstrated ‎near the fence. Rioters rolled burning tires at the ‎border fence and hurled stones and explosives at the ‎troops patrolling the fence. ‎[ Source: Israel Hayom (Read More…) ]

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US ambassador sees Golan remaining in Israeli hands ‘forever’

(Worthy News) – US ambassador to Israel David Friedman expects the annexed Golan Heights to remain under Israeli control “forever”, according to an excerpt released Thursday of an interview he gave to an Israeli newspaper.

Israel seized most of the Golan Heights from Syria in the Six-Day War of 1967 and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community.

“I cannot honestly imagine a situation in which the Golan Heights is not part of Israel forever,” Friedman told Israel Hayom, which is set to publish the full interview on Friday. [ Source:i24 News (Read More…) ]

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Iran nuclear chief announces completion of new facility to produce centrifuges

(Worthy News) – Iran’s nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi on Sunday announced to state media that the Islamic Republic had completed construction of a facility capable of producing advanced centrifuges at its nuclear plant Natanz, fulfilling threats that it would continue nuclear production in the event that the US withdraw from the 2014 nuclear deal and slap heavy sanctions on the country.

“Khamenei ordered us to set up and complete a very advanced hall for the construction of modern centrifuges, and this hall has now been fully equipped and set up,” said the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization to IRNA news agency, according to Reuters.

In recent months, Iran has made known its plans to increase its uranium enrichment capacity. In May, following the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal, a letter was submitted to the Atomic Energy Agency “regarding the start of certain activities,” according to Salehi, indicating work had begun on the infrastructure for building advanced centrifuges at the Natanz facility. [ Source: i24 News (Read More…) ]

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Knife-wielding attacker wounds 7 in Paris

(Worthy News) – At least seven people were injured in an attack by a knife-wielding man in Paris on Sunday, officials said.

Four of the people were critically injured in the attack, which occurred at around 11 p.m. local time in the city’s 19th arrondissement. Two of the the victims were British tourists, the BBC reported.

Police arrested the suspect, who is reportedly an Afghan national. Police have not said if terrorism was a motive in the attack.

The Islamic State claimed responsibility for that attack, but police said the suspect had no known links to the terror group. [ Source: UPI (Read More…) ]

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Syria’s Assad approves gas attack in Idlib despite warning, report says

(Worthy News) – President Bashar al-Assad has approved a gas attack in the Idlib province, which is the country’s last rebel stronghold, a report on Sunday said.

Reports of Assad’s approval comes about a week after President Trump warned the strongman and his allies not to “recklessly attack” the province. Trump called any gas attack a potential “grave humanitarian mistake.”

The Wall Street Journal, citing U.S. officials, was first to report on Assad. [ Source: Fox News (Read More…) ]

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