A New Perspective on Constantine

(Worthy News) – Even if the wall debate is resolved, it’s not necessarily the end of the shutdown that has gone well into its fourth week.

Lawmakers said plenty of other lingering questions are tucked inside the spending bills, including abortion policy, immigration detention — even horse slaughter inspections — all of which will complicate the fight.

Indeed, the White House has already signaled a veto on the kinds of bills House Democrats powered through their chamber last week. He said they overspend the president’s targets and include provisions he would never accept, including reversing the Mexico City Policy that prevents taxpayers from funding international groups that deal in abortions. [ Source: Washington Times (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – One of the largest government employees unions says its members should not be forced to work without paychecks.

The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), which represents workers in the IRS and Customs and Border Protection among others, is suing the federal government alleging that its members should not be forced to work without pay. The labor group filed two suits alleging that the United States has violated both federal labor law and the Constitution by bringing the 800,000 federal employees deemed essential into work without their normal pay during the government shutdown, which is now entering its 23rd day as Democrats battle President Donald Trump over funding for a border wall with Mexico. The suit asks the Court to “pay members of the collective action liquidated damages in an amount equal to any minimum wage and overtime wages earned since December 22” in addition to their back wages. [ Source: Washington Free Beacon (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – Prime Minister Theresa May will say on Monday that lawmakers blocking Brexit is now a more likely outcome than Britain leaving the European Union without a deal.

Parliament is deadlocked over how to proceed with Brexit, Britain’s biggest shift in foreign and trade policy in more than 40 years, and is expected to vote against May’s deal on Tuesday, plunging the departure from the EU into deeper uncertainty.

May’s minority government, which is propped up by a small Northern Irish party, was last week defeated twice in parliament on Brexit, with lawmakers creating a new obstacle to a no deal Brexit and forcing May to promise she would come up with a ‘plan B’ within days if her deal is rejected. [ Source: Reuters (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – Islamic State militants are “living their final moments” in the last enclave they hold in Syria, near the Iraqi border, where the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces have stepped up their attacks in the last two days, an SDF official told Reuters on Sunday.

“They are living the final moments and realise that this battle is the battle to eliminate them,” said Mustafa Bali, SDF media office head. [ Source: Jerusalem Post (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – China’s trade surplus with the United States rose to $323.32 billion last year, the highest on record going back to 2006, Reuters calculations based on customs data showed on Monday.

That compared with about $275.81 billion in 2017.

China’s exports to the United States rose 11.3 percent last year, while imports from the US only increased 0.7 percent. [ Source: Jerusalem Post (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s loosened birth control rules from going into effect in 13 states and the District of Columbia on Monday as scheduled.

The Department of Health and Human Services created rules allowing employers to opt out of birth control coverage due to religious or moral objections. Employers otherwise have to offer health insurance that covers a range of birth control options, from the pill to intrauterine devices to emergency contraception, at no cost to patients.

The decision to block the rules from taking effect was issued Sunday by Judge Haywood Gilliam, who was nominated by former President Barack Obama and previously blocked an interim version of the exemptions. [ Source: Washington Examiner (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – President Trump on Sunday hit Democrats for their hesitance to include protections for beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in talks to end a prolonged government shutdown, despite his own administration’s insistence that the program be left out of negotiations.

Democrats are saying that DACA is not worth it and don’t want to include in talks. Many Hispanics will be coming over to the Republican side, watch!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 13, 2019

Republicans have floated compromises to end the ongoing partial government shutdown that would include funding for Trump’s desired border wall and protections for “Dreamers” who benefit from DACA, but Democrats have expressed skepticism and the White House has stymied such proposals.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said on “Fox News Sunday” that he believes the White House and Democrats may be amenable to such a deal, and urged Trump to reopen the government for a short period of time to allow lawmakers to negotiate. [ Source: The Hill (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – A new $2 million web project launched by King’s College London is offering users a new way to visually digest biblical Scripture through the analyses of classic and contemporary works of art.

In November, the United Kingdom-based public research university officially launched a website titled Visual Commentary on Scripture, thevcs.org, a project that has been over a year in the making and was made possible by a donation from billionaire U.S.-based philanthropists Roberta and Howard Ahmanson.

The project, which aims to cover every book in the Christian Bible, uses works of historic and modern visual art that reflect messages found within passages of Scripture. [ Source: Christian Post (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – Following a September mortar attack near the US embassy in Baghdad that Washington blamed on Iran, US National Security Adviser John Bolton and the National Security Council he leads requested that the Pentagon provide options for striking Iran, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.

The Pentagon did so, though the report said it was not clear what became of those plans and how close such a potential strike actually was, or if US President Donald Trump was even aware of the exchange.

Still, officials in the Pentagon and State Department were said to have been shocked by the offhand nature of the request — to provide plans for military action against a major regional power in response to a minor attack that caused no casualties. [ Source: Times of Israel (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – The head of Iran’s nuclear program said Sunday that the Islamic Republic has begun “preliminary activities for designing” a modern process for 20-percent uranium enrichment for its 50-year-old research reactor in Tehran, signaling new danger for the nuclear deal.

Restarting enrichment at that level would mean Iran had withdrawn from the 2015 nuclear deal it struck with world powers, an accord that US President Donald Trump already pulled America out of in May.

However, Ali Akbar Salehi’s comments to state television appeared aimed at telling the world Iran would slowly restart its program. If it chooses, it could resume mass enrichment at its main facility in the central Iranian town of Natanz. [ Source: Times of Israel (Read More…) ]

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