A New Perspective on Constantine

by Jordan Hilger, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Brian Hook, U.S. special envoy for Iran, is in Paris discussing the looming crisis in the Persian Gulf with Britain, France, and Germany, ahead of talks Friday that will see the European allies seek to implement the “INSTEX” currency system with Iran to circumvent Trump’s sanctions.

French President Emmanuel Macron took a conciliatory attitude toward the escalating US-Iran crisis Thursday by warning of the costliness of any military conflict, even while a UN security council meeting Wednesday saw Majid Takht Ravanchi, Iran’s UN Ambassador, conclude that the 2015 nuclear Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with European powers was in “critical condition.”

“There is no brief war,” Macron told reporters during his trip to Japan, echoing comments by Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on twitter the same day that “’Short war’ with Iran is an illusion,” both in response to President Trump’s assurances that war with Iran “wouldn’t last long.”

Iran was set to breach its 661-pound uranium limit as stipulated by the 2015 deal Thursday, though reports had not surfaced to the effect that it had done so, Iranian officials having claimed this week, in any case, that their rate of uranium enrichment had “quadrupled” since the imposition of sanctions.

European allies, and even Russia, continue to call on Iran to abide by the terms of the 2015 nuclear accord, but the Islamic Republic is looking less and less likely to do so as its spokesmen become increasingly irate in response to Trump’s dialectical negotiating style.

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by Jordan Hilger, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Massachusetts is looking to join Rhode Island, Maine, Vermont, Illinois, Nevada, and New York as the next state to reduce restrictions on abortions, even as other states pass “heartbeat” bills seeking to prevent it.

The “Removing Obstacles and Expanding Access to Women’s Reproductive Health” Act, first presented on the Massachusetts House Floor by Democratic Representatives in January, removes the prohibition on minors seeking an abortion without parental consent, and allows for abortions to take place after a fetus is considered to be viable outside the womb in certain cases.

Massachusetts State Republican Party Chairman Jim Lyons lambasted the proposal as an “extreme infanticide act,” even while polls conducted by pro-life groups found Massachusetts to be one of the most abortion-friendly states, with 83% of Bay State residents supporting legal abortion, and 76% supporting late-term abortions in certain extreme cases.

The bill currently enjoys the support of 24 of 34 Senate Democrats, but could be debated until 2020, according to an aide for the state senator who presented it.

Republic governor Governor Charlie Baker, who repealed a 173-year-old Massachusetts state prohibition on abortion in 2018, has nevertheless said that he is not a supporter of late-term abortions and prefers Massachusetts state law on abortion as it exists currently.

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by Jordan Hilger, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Ohio will devote $5 billion to crisis pregnancy centers if a new bill passes in the Ohio House of Representatives, having almost completely withdrawn the $1.5 million in annual funds it formerly allocated to Planned Parenthood through a federal appeals courts decision earlier this year.

The crisis pregnancy centers, according to Republican Ohio Senate President Larry Obhof, will offer pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, baby items, prenatal care, and financial aid, in hopes of disproving the longstanding notion that the pro-life position hurts society’s most vulnerable women.

“They’re providing pretty valuable services to women in need, and that’s true for rural communities, suburban and urban alike,” Obhof said of the 200 crisis pregnancy centers currently operating in Ohio, whose mission will be bolstered by the new bill.

Ohio, under the leadership of Republican governor Mike DeWine, became one of seven other states this Spring to pass a “heartbeat bill” banning abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected, or around 6 weeks into a pregnancy.

The bill allocating $5 billion dollars in state budget funds to crisis pregnancy centers was passed in the Ohio state senate, but awaits ratification by the House of Representatives—an outcome Obhof fully expects due to its pro-life majority.

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by Jordan Hilger, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – 95 people, all of them Christian, in a traditionally Dogon village in Mali were slaughtered by a band of Muslim Fulani Herdsmen June 9th.

According to witnesses, 50 of the nomadic pastoralists, who have been a significantly radicalized segment of the Muslim population in West Africa, surrounded the village in trucks and razed it to the ground, killing men, women, and children.

“Anyone who tried to escape was killed,” a witness named Amadou Togo told AFP.

The government of Mali resigned in April of this year, leaving its Christian inhabitants at the mercy of the roving bands of Islamic militants that have swarmed West Africa in recent years, making it one of the most violent places in the world and contributing to a situation that the Nigerian House of Representatives called “genocide” in July 2018.

Despite the obvious religious dimension of the conflict, with Open Doors having reported that all of the Malian villagers killed in Sobame Da at the beginning of June were Christian, the BBC attributed the massacre to “clashes between Dogon hunters and semi-nomadic Fulani herders”–a mere fight for resources.

In a newsletter on the attack, Open Doors on June 22nd asked partners to pray for the country ranked 24th on its World Watch List 2019, as well as the rest of the countries in the African Sahel region (Burkina Faso, Chad and Niger) beset by instability and genocidal Islamism.

“As we see the magnitude of these attacks and previous ones, pray that God would end this movement,” the newsletter read.

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(Worthy News) – Heading into what is likely his most consequential overseas trip of the year, President Trump will be forced to grapple with a flurry of international crises, tense negotiations and a growing global to-do list.

Trump goes first to Osaka, Japan, for the annual Group of 20 summit, then on to South Korea for consultations on North Korea’s nuclear program. The agenda for his four-day trip is as laden with hazards for the president as it is light on the ceremonial pomp that marked his recent state visits to Japan and the United Kingdom.

The showdown between the U.S. and Iran, a trade war with China and the threat of fresh election interference by Russia are just some of the issues confronting the American leader who has shown little patience for the subtleties of global interactions and whose administration has struggled to grapple with simultaneous challenges. [ Source: Washington Times (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – Both the Senate and House have now passed legislation delivering billions of dollars to address the growing humanitarian crisis at the southern border. But lawmakers have no agreement on how to reconcile those bills before a recess set to start on Friday.

The Senate passed a $4.6 billion emergency spending bill on Wednesday, one day after the Democratic House approved its own competing legislation. House and Senate Democrats immediately then began urging Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to enter into negotiations to craft compromise legislation.

But McConnell was noncommittal and may simply leave Speaker Nancy Pelosi with a take-it-or-leave-it decision heading into the July Fourth recess. McConnell would only say Congress “is going to try to get it finished this week” when asked if he’d enter into talks with House Democrats. [ Source: Politico (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that a trade deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping was possible this weekend but he is prepared to impose U.S. tariffs on virtually all remaining Chinese imports if the two countries continue to disagree.

Trump, who departed for the G20 leaders summit in Osaka, Japan, on Wednesday, also raised the possibility that he may impose a lower, 10% duty on a $300 billion list of Chinese imports, instead of the proposed 25% rate.

Trump is expected to meet with Xi on Saturday in Osaka, a conversation that could revive stalled negotiations between the world’s two biggest economies or launch a much deeper, costlier trade war that would drag down global growth and roil financial markets. [ Source: Reuters (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – F-35 fighter jets from Israel, the United States and United Kingdom conducted training flights over the Mediterranean Sea Tuesday in the Israeli aircraft’s first-ever international exercise, the military said.

This marked a significant show of military cooperation between the three countries.

The Israel Defense Forces received the fifth-generation stealth fighter from the United States’ Lockheed Martin defense contractor in late 2016 and declared it operational roughly a year later. In 2018, the Israeli Air Force revealed it had used the F-35 operationally — including at least once over Lebanon — making it the first military in the world to do so. [ Source: Times of Israel (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – Defending the land, sea and airspace of NATO members may soon no longer suffice. At the organization’s Brussels summit this week, NATO defense ministers have for the first time ever discussed branching out into space defense.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has previously insisted that “we do not want to militarize space.” Instead, NATO now says it merely wants to get an “overview” of the current situation.

The alliance says that today, conflicts are being fought on unconventional battlefields, such as the internet — or one day, even outer space. That’s why it is now looking into what space defense could entail. The alliance says that there is the danger that nations may station weapons in the Earth’s orbit, or directly attack satellites. Indeed, diplomats say satellites play an important role not just for military purposes but also in civilian life. Moreover, NATO is concerned it could lose its technological advantage over China or Russia. [ Source:Deutsche Welle (Read More…) ]

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by Jordan Hilger, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Christian leaders met with Kurdish military officials in northern Iraq recently, who sought to position themselves as a natural ally of the US against Iranian aggression, should a conflict develop, and hoped the US would begin to see the cause of Kurdistan as part and parcel of its opposition to Iran.

A delegation from the White House Faith Advisory Board that included Dalton Thomas, founder of Frontiers Alliance Internation (FAI), Ralph Reed from the Faith and Freedom Foundation, and former US congresswoman Michele Bachmann heard testimonies from Kurdish generals and militiamen that pointed to Iran’s sweeping presence in the region.

“They [Iran] have a huge voice here in Iraq and we were told by the general of the military in this region and Iran that Baghdad, the capital of Iraq is essentially controlled by Iran,” explained Bachmann to CBN news.

“He virtually said to us, it’s not Iraq here, it’s Iran here.”

Kurdish fighters expressed hope that the US would take up the cause of the 40-million-strong Kurdish diaspora, which stretches across Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria and regularly butts up against Iran’s wide-ranging influence via its proxy fronts.

“The Shiite militias are a very serious danger because they are run by Iran and they are against any kind of freedom and human rights so they are not a lot of difference between them and ISIS,” Kurdish General Musa Gardi told the delegation.

“I want the Americans to know that the only allies of the Americans here in the Middle East are Israel and the Kurds. And I would like them to support the Kurds.”

The Kurdish people voted overwhelmingly for independence in 2017, but were unable to achieve a sovereign state because of opposition from Turkey, Iran and other countries which feared a loss of territory from a rival ethnic group.

The delegation came to northern Iraq in an unofficial capacity, but will report its findings to the White House nevertheless.

The post 'We Wait For Your Help' Says Kurdish General to America, Hoping to See Greater American Support for Kurdistan in Light of Iran Crisis appeared first on Worthy Christian News.