A New Perspective on Constantine

(Worthy News) – The United States and Mexico struck a deal on Friday to avert a tariff war, with Mexico agreeing to rapidly expand a controversial asylum program and deploy security forces to stem the flow of illegal Central American migrants.

U.S. President Donald Trump had threatened to impose 5% import tariffs on all Mexican goods starting on Monday if Mexico did not commit to do more to tighten its borders.

In a joint declaration after three days of talks in Washington, both countries said Mexico agreed to immediately expand along the entire border a program that sends migrants seeking asylum in the United States to Mexico while they await adjudication of their cases. [ Source: Reuters (Read More…) ]

The post Trump calls off tariffs after Mexico vows to tighten borders appeared first on Worthy Christian News.

by Jordan Hilger, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – A Christian man in Odisha State, India, who built a school for orphaned children 8 years ago, had his life’s work devastated on May 13th when local officials demolished the school and its dormitories following sabotage of his application for a land lease.

Vijay Kumar Pusuru and the 12 fatherless children to whom he became a surrogate father were left homeless when Pusuru’s own home and the school’s dormitories, which housed 100 children bereft of fathers and parents from the wars between Naxalite Indian communists and the Indian government, were wrecked by 50 state personnel despite the tearful protestations of Pusuru and his parents.

“I wept and begged the officer-in-charge,” Pusuru told Morning Star News. “When we protested peacefully, they beat us.”

Pusuru, his family, and the 12 orphans spent over a week living under the trees, receiving meals from a local Indian army officer and practicing Hindu sympathetic to the Christian’s work, who said the school had been a blessing to the community.

“The entire village favors me and recognizes my work,” Pusuru said, citing grain donations from the village chief and a 35,000-rupee gift bequeathed to the school by the same army commandant.

Pusuru related to Morning Star News that things turned sour when the leader of the local chapter of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), an extremist militant group loosely associated with Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), petitioned the state to proscribe the school for its practice of Christian prayer in the morning assembly.

Militant Hindu forces have gained ground in India in recent weeks with the reelection of Narendra Modi to another five-year term last month, which ruling party many see as the engine behind India’s rise from 31st to 10th on Open Doors USA’s World Watch List for Christian persecution since 2013.

The post Indian Christian Man: ‘Everything Now Is Gone’ Following Government Demolition of His School for Orphans appeared first on Worthy Christian News.

by Jordan Hilger, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Bwera, a city on Uganda’s Western border with Democratic Republic of Congo, has banned open-air evangelistic preaching due to threats from Muslim clerics following the conversions of 35 Muslims.

The Anglican Church of Uganda, the Sound of Salvation Ministry, and the Church of Uganda of Bwera Custom Church held a tent revival on May 20th at which former Muslims proved the divinity of Jesus from the Koran, stirring the ire of local imams, who marshaled hundreds of Muslims to march on the local police station in a successful bid to have them shut down further meetings planned for May 25th and 26th.

“We cannot allow the Christians to use the Koran in their meetings or to allege that Jesus is the Son of God – this a serious blasphemy to Muslims,” said Muzamiru Aramanzani, head of the local Mosque, according to pastors who spoke with Morning Star News.

Despite a sizable Christian majority at 84% of the population, claims have surfaced in recent years that Uganda’s significant 14% Muslim minority has been gaining in strength due to the activities of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Sharia-law touting rebel group that seeks to replace the Ugandan government with an Islamic State.

According to an AP report, Muslims in Uganda are claiming to have bagged hundreds of thousands of conversions to Islam—forced or otherwise—from Christianity and Catholicism in recent years.

The post Ugandan Muslims Wield Influence Against Police to Shut Down Open-Air Evangelism appeared first on Worthy Christian News.

(Worthy News) – In a deal that has drawn the anger of mainland China, Taiwan has signed a multibillion-dollar weapons deal with the Trump administration for hundreds of new tanks, rockets and surface-to-air missiles, defense officials in Taipei confirmed this week.

The Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said the nation’s military will receive 100 M1A1 Abrams battle tanks, 1,240 BGM-71 TOW anti-tank missiles, 409 FGM-148 Javelin anti-tank missiles and 250 surface-to-air Stinger missiles in the estimated $2 billion arms package.

The new Abrams tanks, built by U.S. weapons maker General Dynamics, will replace Taiwan’s aging American-made M60A3 battle tanks and the Taiwanese-manufactured M48H CM11 tank, defense officials in Taipei said. The publication Jane’s Defence first reported details of the arms deal. [ Source: Washington Times (Read More…) ]

The post Defying China, U.S. to sell new tanks, anti-aircraft missiles to Taiwan in $2B deal appeared first on Worthy Christian News.

(Worthy News) – U.S. employers added the fewest workers in three months and wage gains cooled, suggesting broader economic weakness and boosting expectations for a Federal Reserve interest-rate cut as President Donald Trump’s trade policies weigh on growth.

Nonfarm payrolls rose 75,000 in May after a downwardly revised 224,000 advance the prior month, according to a Labor Department report Friday. The increase missed all estimates in Bloomberg’s survey calling for 175,000. The jobless rate held at a 49-year low of 3.6% while average hourly earnings climbed 3.1% from a year earlier, less than projected. [ Source: Bloomberg (Read More…) ]

The post U.S. Payrolls, Wages Cool as Trade War Weighs on Economy appeared first on Worthy Christian News.

(Worthy News) – House Democrats this week plan to begin making the case for an impeachment inquiry into President Trump.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., wants the caucus to stay away from impeachment, but to mollify her pro-impeachment faction, she has sanctioned hearings as well as votes citing two Trump administration officials with contempt of Congress.

The action starts Monday in the House Judiciary Committee where lawmakers plan to hold a series of hearings to examine the findings in the 448-page Mueller report, which Democrats believe show Trump broke the law. [ Source: Washington Examiner (Read More…) ]

The post House launches pre-impeachment agenda this week appeared first on Worthy Christian News.

(Worthy News) – Over a million people have joined a mass protest against the Hong Kong government’s controversial extradition bill, according to organizers.

Jimmy Sham, a spokesperson for organizers, said around 1.03 million people attended the march – a figure that was calculated by volunteers along Hennessy Road. Police estimated 270,000 people turned up at the rally’s peak.

The march was organized by the Civil Human Rights Front – a coalition of pro-democracy groups. [ Source: Hong Kong Free Press (Read More…) ]

The post Over a million attend Hong Kong demo against controversial extradition law, organizers say appeared first on Worthy Christian News.

(Worthy News) – One down, still others to go. President Donald Trump claimed a victory after Washington and Mexico agreed on measures to stem the flow of Central American migrants into the United States.

Trump called off plans to impose a 5% tax on Mexican exports, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, speaking to reporters Saturday in Fukuoka on the sidelines of a meeting of financial leaders of the Group of 20 major economies, urged China to follow suit and return to stalled negotiations.

Mnuchin said he planned to have a private conversation with the head of China’s central bank, Yi Gang. In a G-20 group meeting later in the day, the two were seen exchanging friendly remarks, but there were no fresh signs Beijing is ready to compromise in the dispute over trade and technology. [ Source: VOA News (Read More…) ]

The post With Mexico Deal Done, US Urges China to Resume Trade Talks appeared first on Worthy Christian News.

(Worthy News) – The United States on Friday raised the stakes in its standoff with Turkey over Ankara’s deal to acquire a Russian air defense system, laying out a plan to remove the NATO ally from the F-35 fighter jet program that includes halting any new training for Turkish pilots on the advanced aircraft.

Acting U.S. Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan sent a letter to his Turkish counterpart, seen by Reuters on Friday, that laid out the steps to “unwind” Turkey from the program.

Reuters on Thursday first reported the decision to stop accepting more Turkish pilots for training in the United States, in one of the most concrete signs that the dispute between Washington and Ankara is reaching a breaking point. [ Source: VOA News (Read More…) ]

The post US Starts 'Unwinding' Turkey from F-35 Fighter Jet Program appeared first on Worthy Christian News.

(Worthy News) – The case of a Washington state florist who was fined for refusing to make a floral arrangement for a gay wedding in 2013 could go back to the US Supreme Court.

On Thursday, the Washington state Supreme Court stood by its earlier ruling against Baronelle Stutzman, owner of Arlene’s Flowers.

As CBN News reported last year, the US Supreme Court had rejected Washington’s previous ruling, ordering the state justices to review their decision against Stutzman and consider whether they violated her religious rights. [ Source: CBN News (Read More…) ]

The post WA Supreme Court Doubles Down to Punish Christian Florist, Despite What US Supreme Court Ruled appeared first on Worthy Christian News.