A New Perspective on Constantine

(Worthy News) – Christian leaders in the West Bank called on the Palestinian Authority to launch an investigation into two recent attacks on churches near Ramallah and Bethlehem.

On May 16, assailants broke into the Church of God in the village of Aboud, west of Ramallah, the Holy Land Church organization said in a statement. The perpetrators stole some of the contents of the church, it said, without providing further details.

“We pray in solidarity with this church and for the repentance of the aggressors,” the organization said in its statement. “We also call on the responsible authorities to lay their hands on the perpetrators and bring them to justice as soon as possible.” [ Source: Jerusalem Post (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – Saudi Arabia said on Monday that it had intercepted two missiles in Mecca province fired by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis, who earlier denied having targeted Islam’s holiest site.

The foiled strike comes at a time of heightened tensions between Tehran and Gulf Arab states and a roughly four-year conflict in Yemen largely seen as a proxy war between the two sides.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are leading a Western-backed coalition of Sunni Muslim states that intervened in Yemen in 2015 to try to restore the internationally recognized government ousted from power in Sanaa by the Houthis in late 2014. [ Source: Reuters (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – Israel and Hamas have denied reports that a Gaza ceasefire understanding had been reached that would ensure six-months of calm.

Channel 12 news on Monday night reported that a truce had been reached, sparking a chain of Israeli political reactions and diplomatic denials.

According to the report, Hamas agreed to end clashes with IDF forces along the Gaza border, with Palestinian rioters keeping to a 300 meter distance from the border. [ Source: Jerusalem Post (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – A U.S. judge on Monday ruled in favor of a U.S. House of Representatives committee seeking President Donald Trump’s financial records from his accounting firm, dealing an early setback to the Trump administration in its legal battle with Congress.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington also denied a request by Trump to stay his decision pending an appeal.

Last Tuesday, Mehta heard oral arguments on whether Mazars LLP must comply with a House of Representatives Oversight Committee subpoena. [ Source: VOA News (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – The Jerusalem studio of Daystar, one of the largest Christian networks in the world, was firebombed over the weekend. The attack destroyed Daystar’s new studio but the network plans to rebuild.

The fire began early Saturday morning when an arsonist threw a firebomb into the facility.

Daystar was in the midst of a major renovation and upgrade of its studio here in Jerusalem overlooking Mount Zion and the Mount of Olives. The fire destroyed the new work and much of the existing facility. [ Source: CBN News (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – Semi-official news agencies in Iran reported on Monday that the country has quadrupled its production of low-enriched uranium amid tensions with the US over an unraveling atomic accord.

The Fars and Tasnim news agencies both reported that the production is of uranium enriched only to the 3.67 percent limit set by the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, far below the 20% to which Iran was enriching before the deal or the 90% required to produce nuclear weapons.

However, a quadrupling of production would mean that Iran likely will soon go beyond the stockpile limitation of 300 kilograms set by the deal. [ Source: Times of Israel (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – California’s Obria Medical Clinics, a chain of anti-abortion pregnancy centers that bills itself as an alternative to Planned Parenthood, sued the Trump administration Monday because it says it will be forced to refer patients for abortions in exchange for accepting federal family planning funds.

At the heart of the challenge is a stayed rule from the Department of Health and Human Services that would have barred doctors who work for facilities receiving the funds, known as Title X grants, from directly referring their patients for abortions. The rule was aimed at ending some federal funding of Planned Parenthood. Obria agreed with the rule, but in April, a federal judge blocked it from taking effect, and Obria says that means it will be forced to follow old rules that require grant recipients to offer counseling for abortions and directly refer patients somewhere they can get one.

The Christian organization filed suit Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, saying it faced discrimination over its sincere, faith-based objection to abortion and that the Title X issue was unlikely to be resolved for years. The organization says the rules violate its First Amendment right to free speech, as well as the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and is requesting declaratory and injunctive relief. [ Source: Washington Examiner (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – Saudi Arabia has called for two urgent meetings of its Arab allies later this month to discuss recent attacks on shipping and oil-production sites amid rising tensions with bitter regional rival Iran.

Saudi King Salman on May 18 called for leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council and the Arab League to meet for the emergency summits in Mecca on May 30.

Saudi and other officials said the discussions would focus on an attack on four commercial vessels off the coast of the United Arab Emirates and a series of armed drone attacks on oil-production sites near Riyadh. [ Source: Radio Free Europe (Read More…) ]

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by Jordan Hilger, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – The U.S. has gotten rid of its steel and aluminum tariffs on Mexican and Canadian exports, signaling a rebirth of negotiations for a new free trade deal between the three countries to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

On Friday the US and Canada announced that a 25% tariff on steel imports and 10% tax on aluminum would be lifted within 48 hours, with American tariffs on Mexican products set to be undone as well.

“I’m pleased to announce we’ve just reached an agreement with Canada and Mexico to sell product without the imposition of major tariffs,” Trump said at the announcement.

Canada has seen American tariffs on Canadian aluminum and steel as the main obstacles to ratification of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) crafted by the Trump administration and signed by the three countries last year.

“This is pure good news for Canadians,” said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Friday.

The USMCA updates crucial provisions of what Trump has deemed “the catastrophe known as NAFTA,” such as regulations governing e-commerce, which had not yet taken flight when the original deal was signed in 1993.

Aside from opening Canada’s dairy sector to American companies—long a point of contention for Trump—it also requires a greater proportion of car manufacturing to be done across borders and allows member parties to sanction one another for workers’ rights abuses.

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by Jordan Hilger, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – “If Iran wants to fight, that will be the official end of Iran,” warned US President Donald Trump on Monday following rocket attacks near the US embassy in Baghdad Sunday night suggestive of Iranian Shi’ite proxy activity.

The President’s change of tone is a departure from what seemed to be a more diplomatic posture last week, with Trump having reportedly told Iranian officials to “call me” amidst increasing economic strictures from the US on Iranian oil exports worldwide.

Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, compared his country’s current standoff with the US to past incursions by great world powers Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan, saying “Iranians have stood tall for millennia while aggressors [are] all gone” in a twitter response to Trump.

Last week, US investigators determined that explosions blown in the hulls of four ships near a UAE port were the work of Iranian combat divers, heightening tensions between the US-supported Sunni axis and the Iranian regime, and confirming a warning the previous Thursday by the US Maritime administration that Iran intended to attack Saudi oil exports.

The US issued an order to withdraw all non-necessary personnel from its embassy in Iraq last Wednesday amidst fears that US military in the Middle East would be Iran’s next target after Saudi petroleum assets.

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