A New Perspective on Constantine

(Worthy News) – The US Navy said it is helping the crew of two oil tankers after a “reported attack” in the Gulf of Oman, just weeks after the US accused Iran of attacking other oil vessels in the same area.

Two tankers were reportedly damaged by explosions early on Thursday morning but shipping sources said their crews were safe.

Details were scarce but Tradewinds, a shipping magazine, reported that one of the ships had been hit by a torpedo. [ Source: UK Telegraph (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – A new study confirms that deaths from drugs, alcohol, and/or suicide have reached record numbers.

According to the 2019 Scorecard on State Health System Performance, a study released by the Commonwealth Fund on Wednesday, the opioid epidemic and drug-related deaths continue to rise throughout the United States at alarming rates. West Virginia and Ohio notably out-pace the rest of the country.

Nationally, the rate of death from drug overdose more than doubled between 2005 and 2017. A 10% increase between 2016 and 2017 is also among the highest that the nation has ever seen within such a time frame. [ Source (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – For the first time in the history of the United States, the federal government has spent more than $3 trillion in the first eight months of the fiscal year, according to the Monthly Treasury Statement released today.

The record $3,013,541,000,000 that the federal government spent in October through May of fiscal 2019 was $181,157,920,000 more than the previous record of $2,832,383,080,000 (in constant May 2019 dollars) that the federal government spent in October through May of fiscal 2009.

Total federal tax revenues in the first eight months of fiscal 2019 hit $2,274,902,000,000, which fell $5,612,990,000 short of the record $2,280,514,990,000 (in constant May 2019 dollars) that the Treasury collected in total tax revenues in the first eight months of fiscal 2016. [ Source: CNS News (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – Israeli aircraft hit a Hamas underground facility in the Gaza Strip early Thursday after a rocket fired at southern Israel was shot down in the first such attack since Israel and terror groups in the coastal enclave fought a vicious two-day battle last month.

The Israel Defense Forces said its fighter jets bombed “underground terror infrastructure on a base belonging to the Hamas terror group in the southern Gaza Strip.”

The army said the strikes came in response to the rocket that was fired at Israel earlier in the night, noting that Israel holds the Gaza-ruling Hamas responsible for all violence emanating from the Strip. [ Source: Times of Israel (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – Pastor Andrew Brunson and his wife Norine have spoken about the hardship of persecution they endured at the hands of the Turkish government for two years.

Speaking before thousands gathered in Birmingham, Alabama for the Pastors’ Conference of the Southern Baptist Convention Monday, the North Carolina couple explained in a panel moderated by Timothy George, how testing the process was. In his remarks prior to the panel, the evangelical pastor said there were times where he was suicidal.

George, who is the outgoing dean of nearby Beeson Divinity School, noted that not since Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller, who was vocally critical of the Nazi regime, became Adolf Hitler’s prisoner had a jailed pastor inspired so much prayer around the world than Andrew Brunson. Interviewed together, Norine said a major focus of her life was keeping prayer going on her husband and to encourage him in faith during his time in jail. [ Source: Christian Today (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – “The Israel Defense Force will continue and intensify its covert and overt efforts to thwart Hezbollah’s desire to undermine Israel’s security,” GOC Northern Command Maj. Gen. Amir Baram said Tuesday.

Speaking at a ceremony marking the 13th anniversary of the 2006 Second Lebanon War, Baram noted that “the stable security reality that we have established in the sector in the 13 years since the war is proof of our deterrence. … If we are forced into war, we will exact a heavy price from Hezbollah and its patrons, wherever necessary.”

Still, he warned that “Hezbollah continues to grow stronger and establish its forces over the [Israel-Lebanon] border, but Operation Defensive Shield has dealt it a significant blow,” he said, referring to the IDF’s successful destruction of a grid of cross-border terror tunnels dug by the Shiite terrorist group. [ Source: Israel Hayom (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – More than half of the Democrats in the US House of Representatives say a peace plan that does not expressly have as its outcome two states would endanger the prospects of peace.

The resolution, a dig at the Trump administration’s peace policies, was backed by J Street, the liberal Middle East policy group. It says not mentioning two states in a deal would “put a peaceful end to the conflict further out of reach.”

The non-binding resolution, which so far has garnered 123 co-sponsors out of 235 in the Democratic caucus, alludes to the as-yet- unveiled peace plan drafted by President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner. Kushner has not counted out Palestinian statehood as an outcome, but he also says that the phrase is not a useful one. [ Source: Times of Israel (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – President Vladimir Putin said in an interview published on Thursday that relations between Moscow and Washington were getting worse and worse, noting that the current U.S. administration had imposed dozens of sanctions on Russia.

“They (relations) are deteriorating, getting worse and worse,” Putin told the Mir TV channel.

Putin made his comments ahead of a G20 summit in Japan later this month at which he might meet U.S. President Donald Trump. [ Source: Reuters (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – Saudi Arabia has said it will carry out urgent reprisals as it accused Iran of being behind a late-night cruise missile attack by Houthi rebel fighters on a Saudi international airport that injured 26 people.

The Saudi foreign ministry said the Command of Joint Forces of the Coalition promised it “will take urgent and timely measures to deter these Iranian-backed terrorist Houthi militias”.

The attack on Abha airport was condemned across the Middle East and by the US defence department. [ Source: UK Guardian (Read More…) ]

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