A New Perspective on Constantine

(Worthy News) – Hezbollah’s missile arsenal has been static for ‎years and the organization lacks the industrial ‎ability to convert, upgrade or produce precision ‎weapons, Director of Military Intelligence Maj. Gen. ‎Tamir Heyman said Tuesday.‎

Briefing the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense ‎Committee on the tensions in the northern sector, ‎Heyman said Operation Northern Shield to neutralize ‎Hezbollah tunnels snaking under the Israel-Lebanon ‎border, as well as other measures exercised by the ‎IDF, were part of “an era of disruption and shaping ‎new reality on the ground” the Israeli military is ‎pursuing as part of the “campaign between the wars.” ‎

He was referring to a strategic concept that ‎encompasses a host of covert and low-intensity ‎military and intelligence efforts to prevent enemy ‎states and terrorist organizations from becoming ‎stronger and thwart their offensive activity.‎ [ Source: Israel Hayom (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – Top House Republicans are at a standstill on exactly how to keep the government open next week amid mounting fears of a Christmastime shutdown on Capitol Hill.

House GOP leaders couldn’t agree on a funding strategy — which involves billions of dollars for President Donald Trump’s border wall — in multiple rounds of talks Wednesday.

The House is now poised to leave town Thursday for five days without offering a clue to how it would avoid a crippling funding lapse for roughly a dozen agencies. [ Source: Politco (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – The Church of England has encouraged its clergy to create baptism-style ceremonies for transgender people to welcome them into the Anglican faith.

New pastoral guidance, published on Tuesday, advises clergy to refer to transgender people by their new name, though it stops short of being a baptism.

The guidance, which was approved by the House of Bishops on Monday night, also details how elements including water and oil can be incorporated into the service. [ Source: UK Telegraph (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – The European Union “stands ready to examine whether any further assurance can be provided” to Britain over the Irish backstop and their tentative divorce agreement, a draft seen by Reuters showed on Thursday.

The draft, a six-point document the EU is preparing for British Prime Minister Theresa May on Thursday to help convince the divided UK parliament to approve their Brexit deal, said any such assurances would not “change or contradict” the agreement. [ Source: Reuters (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – In a rare break with President Donald Trump, the Senate voted on Wednesday to move ahead with a resolution to end U.S. military support for the Saudi Arabian-led coalition in the war in Yemen and lawmakers vowed to push for sanctions against the kingdom in the new year.

Eleven of Trump’s fellow Republicans joined Democrats to provide the 60 votes needed to advance the war powers resolution in the Republican-led chamber. The vote paved the way for debate and a vote on U.S. involvement in a conflict that has led to the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians, many of them young children and left millions more at risk of starvation and death by disease. [ Source: Reuters (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – The EU is not preparing a legal document on the backstop, as requested by British prime minister Theresa May, for the EU summit starting on Thursday (13 December) – as EU officials are calling the political crisis unfolding in London a mess.

EU diplomats on Wednesday said that there has been not enough time, and it was unnecessary, to come up with a legally-binding text that could clarify positions on the so-called backstop on the Irish border that irks Brexiteers who have mounted a confidence vote against May in London. [ Source: EU Observer (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – The House passed a new farm bill Wednesday sending the legislation, which passed the Senate earlier in the week, to the White House for President Donald Trump’s signature.

The lower chamber passed the bill by a 369-47 vote after agreement on a procedural element that would prevent the House from voting on U.S. involvement on the war in Yemen for the rest of the year.

The Senate voted in favor of the $867 billion bill 87-13 on Tuesday after lawmakers reached a compromise on the language of the legislation. [ Source: UPI (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – The Pentagon’s decision to draw down 10 percent of its counterterrorism operations in Africa comes as Russia and China are aggressively ramping up efforts to expand their influence on the continent.

The decision has left the sizable contingent of American troops, a majority consisting of U.S. special operations forces, stationed in Africa with the unenviable task of balancing the traditional fight against regional terrorist and jihadist group and fitting into the a rapidly reorienting overall U.S. strategy.

“China and Russia are in Djibouti in a big way … defying the sovereign powers there [and] they are competing pretty aggressively on the continent,” he said, referring to the east African country that is home to Camp Lemonnier, the U.S. military’s largest outpost in the region. [ Source: Washington Times (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – Israel is moving quickly to fill a security vacuum in Africa as the United States reassigns forces from the terror-plagued continent to focus on rivals such as China and Russia.

President Idriss Deby of the central African nation of Chad paid a visit late last month to Jerusalem, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made clear Israel’s eagerness to join the fierce wars against al Qaeda and the Islamic State.

Arab nations are watching nervously as Israel expands its influence and military footprint, and jihadi groups in the region are pointing to Israel’s involvement as a recruiting tool and reason to escalate the struggle. [ Source: Washington Times (Read More…) ]

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