Russia Says S-400 Defense System Will Be Delivered to NATO-member Turkey in July

(Worthy News) – Russia plans to deliver its S-400 missile defense systems to Turkey in July, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters on Tuesday.

NATO member Turkey’s S-400 deal with Moscow has angered the United States, which has threatened to remove Ankara from its F-35 fighter jet program unless Turkey pulls out of the deal.

“The agreements reached between Russia and Turkey are being fulfilled on time in the given context. There are no bilateral problems,” Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov told reporters on Tuesday. Asked if the missiles would be delivered in July, he said: “Yes, that’s what we plan somehow.” [ Source: Ha’aretz (Read More…) ]

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US House to debate bill to purchase 2 Iron Dome anti-missile batteries

(Worthy News) – A US lawmaker has submitted a House bill to purchase two Israeli-developed Iron Dome batteries and deploy them to protect American soldiers.

The proposal lodged by Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill (New Jersey) on Monday came four months after the Israeli Defense Ministry and US Department of Defense confirmed the upcoming purchase.

In January, reports said the US Army plans to buy two Israeli-developed Iron Dome batteries and deploy them next year as a first step in a new $1.7 billion project to both provide American troops an interim defense against cruise missiles and also explore long-term adoption of Iron Dome components for use in a major US air and missile defense system. [ Source: Times of Israel (Read More…) ]

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Thousands brave rain in fresh protests against Hong Kong extradition bill

(Worthy News) – Thousands braved thunderstorms in Hong Kong on Tuesday for a fresh wave of protests against a proposed extradition bill that would allow people to be sent to mainland China for trial, but the Chinese-ruled city’s leader said she would not back down.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam said she would press ahead with the bill despite deep concerns across vast swathes of the Asian financial hub that on Sunday triggered its biggest political demonstration since its handover from British to Chinese rule in 1997.

“When the fugitive extradition bill is passed, Hong Kong will become a ‘useless Hong Kong’,” said Jimmy Sham, convenor of Civil Human Rights Front, the main organizer of Sunday’s demonstration. [ Source: Reuters (Read More…) ]

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Supreme Court Rejects Second Amendment Challenge in Silencer Case

by Jordan Hilger, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – The Supreme Court is rejecting appeals in the convictions of two Kansas men that “silencers and other firearms accessories” ought to be included in the 2nd amendment right to bear arms.

Shane Cox and Jeremy Kettler were brought up on charges in 2014 for failing to register a silencer Cox purchased from Kettler, which falls under a list of gun-related items requiring registration under the National Firearms Act.

In an interview June 5th, President Trump said he “doesn’t like” gun silencers and would consider a ban on the item in light of their use in the Virginia Beach shooting on May 31st that left 12 people dead.

Gun rights groups protested a similar ban by the Trump administration in March that delimited the “bump stock” attachment for semi-automatic rifles, which effectively allows a semi-automatic to be converted into a rapid-fire machine gun—the method used by the Las Vegas shooter in 2017.

A Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) memo obtained by the Washington Free Beacon argued for deregulation of silencers based on reports that crimes related to the apparatus accounted for only .003% of registered silencer owners per year.

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Arrests of Non-Denominational Christians Continue in ‘North Korea of Africa’

by Jordan Hilger, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Thirty Pentecostal Christians were arrested in the Eritrea Capital of Asmara recently, continuing a trend of government crackdowns on non-organized religion in the East African country that saw 141 more Christians arrested on May 10th.

The Christians had gathered to pray in an unofficial capacity in three different locations in the capital, and likely face beating, torture, and forced labor for deviating from Eritrea’s four state-approved religions—Orthodox Christianity, Sunni Islam, Roman Catholicism, and the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Eritrea.

“In Eritrea almost every Christian faces imprisonment,” an Eritrean Christian refugee living in an Ethiopian refugee camp told Release International recently. “It is like North Korea, but in Africa,” said another.

Eritrea is ranked 7th on Open Doors USA’s 2019 World Watch List for Christian persecution, with the “dictatorial paranoia” of President Isaias Afewerki cited as the main cause.

Recently 100 prominent African writers wrote an open letter to Eritrea’s leader asking the country to come out of its shell as “the most closed society on our continent,” an atmosphere that has caused tens of thousands of Eritreans to flee across the Mediterranean to Italy or into ramshackle refugee camps in Ethiopia.

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Wycliffe Associates Seeks to Begin 10 Bible Translation Projects in Nation Where Evangelism Is Not Allowed

(Worthy News) – Wycliffe Associates, an international organization involving people in the advancement of Bible translation, is ready to begin Scripture translation for 10 languages in an undisclosed nation where the government fiercely opposes Christianity and evangelism is illegal.

There are 150 language groups in the country, and Christians from 10 language groups there want to begin translations using a Wycliffe Associates strategy called MAST, or Mobilized Assistance Supporting Translation.

“Many Christians in this part of the world had resigned themselves to never seeing a Bible in their own heart language,” said Bruce Smith, President, and CEO of Wycliffe Associates. “But then they heard about the MAST strategy—a way for them to be equipped to translate the Scriptures themselves.”

MAST is a collaborative translation method that Wycliffe Associates teaches to mother-tongue translators in a workshop setting. Teams from local churches staff the language projects, which consist of four drafting steps and four checking steps. The translators and local church leaders engage in an ongoing checking process to ensure accuracy of the final translation.

In the nation where Wycliffe Associates hopes to launch at least 10 new MAST workshops, the government tracks every move of people believed to be Christians.

“There are thousands of secret house churches in this country,” said Smith, “and we have reports of more and more people coming to Christ. Yet millions of the people attending these churches don’t have a Bible in their own heart language.”

In addition to MAST training, Wycliffe Associates provides the translators with technology such as computer tablets loaded with Bible translation apps, open source Bible translation technology, and portable Print On Demand systems.

Wycliffe Associates has received word of Christians in small villages who have made attempts to begin translating the Bible into their own language in small portions. But some were discovered by the authorities, who confiscated their work. The translators were punished, and some have been barred from traveling because they’re considered a threat to the state.

“This is so important to them—more important than anything in their lives,” said Smith. “They are willing to lay everything on the line.”

Each language project will cost $19,500, and Wycliffe Associates is currently raising funds for all 10 language projects.

There are 1,058 MAST translation projects currently underway around the world.

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DOJ reveals scope of Trump campaign surveillance probe

(Worthy News) – The Justice Department on Monday gave more details about the review Attorney General William P. Barr has ordered into the government’s surveillance of President Trump’s 2016 campaign, saying there are still too many “open questions” about why it was done.

Assistant Attorney General Stephen E. Boyd avoided saying Mr. Trump was spied upon — forgoing the language Mr. Barr has used — but did say the “U.S. government and others undertook certain intelligence-gathering and investigative steps” toward Mr. Trump’s campaign.

“The purpose of the review is to more fully understand the efficacy and propriety of those steps,” Mr. Boyd said in a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler. [ Source: Washington Times (Read More…) ]

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Netanyahu: Iran’s foreign minister is lying

(Worthy News) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the Iranian foreign minister of ‘lying’ on Monday and said he would never ‘allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons that threaten our existence and endanger the entire world.’

“Iran is the one that openly threatens, every day, to destroy the State of Israel. Iran continues to entrench itself militarily in Syria. And today, the IAEA reports that Iran is accelerating its nuclear program,” Netanyahu added.

Recent weeks have seen U.S.-Iranian tension sharply increase, a year after Washington ended its participation in the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, saying it paved the way for Iran acquiring nuclear weapons. [ Source: Israel Hayom (Read More…) ]

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Iran-linked terrorists caught stockpiling explosives in London

(Worthy News) – Just months after signing on to the Iran nuclear deal, authorities in London reportedly discovered that an Iran-linked group was stockpiling tons of the same explosive used in the Oklahoma City bombing.

In 2015, police in London raided four properties associated with the Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah and discovered thousands of disposable ice packs filled ammonium nitrate, a chemical used in rudimentary bombs. During the raids, a man in his 40s was arrested, according to the Telegraph.

Despite the gravity of the discovery, the public and lawmakers were kept in the dark about the matter for years as the U.K. continued to support the nuclear deal. During that time there was also a debate whether to label the entirety of Hezbollah, which has support and funding from Iran, as a terrorist group. [ Source: Washington Examiner (Read More…) ]

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Iran has accelerated production of enriched uranium, IAEA says

(Worthy News) – Iran has followed through on a threat to accelerate its production of enriched uranium, the head of the UN atomic watchdog said on Monday, departing from his usual guarded language to say he was worried about increasing tension.

Recent weeks have seen the US-Iranian confrontation sharply increase, a year after the United States withdrew from an agreement between Iran and world powers to curb Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of international financial sanctions. Washington tightened sanctions at the beginning of May, ordering all countries and companies to halt all imports of Iranian oil or be banished from the global financial system.

The US has also begun discussing military confrontation, dispatching extra troops to the region to counter what it describes as Iranian threats. Iran has also responded with a threat to increase its enrichment of uranium, saying it was up to Europeans who still support the nuclear deal to save it by finding ways to ensure Tehran receives the economic benefits it was promised. [ Source: Jerusalem Post (Read More…) ]

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