A New Perspective on Constantine

by Jordan Hilger, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – On Sunday a Mexican city was deluged in hail and ice, leaving cars buried beneath 5 feet of the frozen substance and leading the state governor to exclaim he had never seen anything like it.

Temperatures had been upwards of 90 degrees for several days in Guadalajara when, seemingly out of nowhere, the storm swept in and completely covered the town in ice, washing away 50 vehicles and damaging 200 homes and businesses.

“Most important of all, there is no record of injured people or human losses so far,” said Jalisco state governor Enrique Alfaro, who added that the storm surpassed even the typically extreme weather Guadalajara residents were used to due to the western Mexican city’s position 5,100 feet above sea level.

The storm comes simultaneous to a heat wave in Europe that has caused wildfires in Spain and led France Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic to record their highest temperatures on record for June, though not so far rivaling 2003’s temperature spike on the continent that saw 70,000 mostly elderly Europeans perish in heat-related deaths.

Despite no casualties having been reported so far in Guadalajara, the state Civil Protection office said that two people were suffering from “early signs of hypothermia.”

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by Jordan Hilger, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – The Supreme Court will issue a ruling on the legality of Trump’s actions in trying to end the DACA program instituted under the Obama administration, slating a decision to be made during the Court’s next session between October and June of next year.

On Friday the highest court agreed to consider whether lower courts in California, New York, and Washington D.C. had been correct in assuming Trump could not undo the provision protecting illegal minors from deportation by executive action, seeing as it had been implemented by Obama in the same fashion.

As it exists, DACA, or the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program the Obama administration called “a temporary stop-gap measure” for loose ends in the immigration system, provides illegal minors with a renewable two-year permit to work, but not a path to citizenship.

Detractors say it constitutes an indefinite suspension of citizenship laws—more of a “permanent” stop-gap measure effectively abrogating the law of the land—while proponents say it prevents children from being punished by deportation for their parents’ decision to cross the border illegally.

Trump had originally given congress 6 months to forge a bipartisan effort toward resolving the situation of the 700,000 children protected by DACA, but moved ahead with legal action when Congress failed to pass a bill, presumably in the mold of the 2001 Dream Act presented by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) that included a path to citizenship but was also rejected by Congress.

With the Supreme Court’s next session ending in June of 2020, a decision could be rendered as the presidential election kicks into full gear, with DACA a hot button issue on the radar of both Trump and his Democratic opponents.

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by Jordan Hilger, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – The Supreme Court struck down an attempt by Alabama to reinstitute a 2016 law banning second-trimester abortions, citing the “undue burden” precedent from 1992’s Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision.

A lower court had earlier denied the request by Alabama lawmakers based on the provision from the 1992 decision that laws carrying “a state regulation [which] has the purpose or effect of placing a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion” are to be considered an infringement of Roe V. Wade.

Justice Clarence Thomas concurred with the decision under the constraints of the law as they exist, but said that the legal maze woven into federal law over the last few decades since Roe has had the net effect of establishing dismemberment of a child while it is still alive as a constitutional right, which, quoting a court of appeals decision, he called “an aberration of constitutional law.”

“Dismembering a child alive is—in respondents’ words — ‘the most commonly used second-trimester abortion method,” Thomas wrote, and “account[s] for 99% of abortions in [Alabama] from [15 weeks] onward.” Thomas noted that “in this type of abortion the unborn child dies the way anyone else would if dismembered alive. It bleeds to death as it is torn limb from limb.”

“The notion that anything in the Constitution prevents states from passing laws prohibiting the dismembering of a living child is implausible,” he concluded of the “undue burden” tie-on being used by the highest court to deny the Alabama appeal.

Alabama was one of 12 states in May that proposed “heartbeat” legislation banning abortion after 6 weeks of pregnancy, which lawmakers are hoping eventually snowballs into an overturning of the 1973 Supreme Court decision in Roe V. Wade that established abortion as a constitutional right.

The post Supreme Court Bends to 1992 Abortion Precedent in Denying Alabama Suit to Ban Dismemberment Abortions appeared first on Worthy Christian News.

by Jordan Hilger, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Reversing promises it made to European powers on Friday to abide by the terms of the 2015 nuclear accord, Iran has exceeded its uranium stockpile limit under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of the UN.

Under the deal, Iran was permitted to have no more than 661 pounds of low-enriched uranium, a nuclear bomb only being possible with about 2,315 pounds of high-enriched uranium. Nevertheless, nuclear experts say that the leap from the 3.76% enrichment allowed under the deal to the 90% enrichment that is considered weapons-grade is a very small one.

On Sunday, an Iranian nuclear spokesperson added that Iran would also increase its enrichment to 20%, ahead of breaking the stockpile limit Monday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Musavi having said on June 10th that “so far, we have not seen practical and tangible steps from the Europeans to guarantee Iran’s interests.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif echoed his displeasure with the European INSTEX system designed to circumvent Trump’s economic sanctions on the Islamic regime, saying it was insufficient to meet Iranian interests, despite having gone operational on Saturday.

In 2018 Trump withdrew the United States from the 2015 nuclear accord, citing its failure to address Iranian terror proxies in the Middle East and the Iranian ballistic missile program. With Iran having broken the deal, now any of its European signatories can reinstate the UN sanctions that were lifted under Security Council resolution 2231 when the deal was signed, and that within 30 days.

The post Iran Breaches First Term of 2015 Nuclear Accord appeared first on Worthy Christian News.

(Worthy News) – President Trump made history by crossing the border that divides North and South Korea on Sunday.

Less than two days after Trump extended an invitation over Twitter, the president shared a handshake with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the Korean demilitarized zone in what was an unprecedented display of goodwill between the United States and North Korea.

“Stepping across that line was a great honor,” Trump said after crossing back into South Korea. [ Source: Washington Examiner (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – Russia has completed the deployment of its S-300 air defense system in Masyaf in northwestern Syria, not far from the cities of Homs and Hama, both of which have been targeted by airstrikes attributed to Israel.

An image published Sunday by ImageSat International shows four S-300 missile batteries alongside two advanced radar systems designed to be used in conjunction with anti-aircraft weaponry.

On Sunday, the IDF announced that new satellite imagery revealed Syria’s S-300 air defense system was fully operational. [ Source: Israel Hayom (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – Individuals who once identified as gay are speaking out against a resolution in the California Assembly that calls upon pastors and other civic leaders to affirm homosexuality and transgenderism, and condemn “conversion therapy.”

The resolution, ACR-99, Civil Rights: Lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people urges counselors, pastors, churches, educators, and others to avoid supporting the historic Christian view of sexual ethics. The measure says such support can result in “disproportionately high” rates of suicide, attempted suicide, and depression among persons who identify as LGBT. The resolution makes a point to condemn in broad terms what is often referred to as conversion therapy, calling the practice, also known as sexual orientation change efforts, “harmful.” [ Source: Christian Post (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – In 2004, a sewage pipe burst in the middle of the neighborhood of Silwan in southeast Jerusalem. The municipality sent in a crew of construction workers to fix the leak, and as is the case in Jerusalem and especially in neighborhoods adjacent to the Old City, they were accompanied by a team of archeologists.

As the repairs progressed, the construction workers stumbled upon some long and wide stairs a few dozen meters from where the Shiloah – the ancient pool Jewish pilgrims would dip in before beginning the religious ascent to the Temple, until its destruction in 70 CE – was believed to have once stood. The steps were just like the ones that lead to the Hulda Gates, a set of now blocked entrances along the Temple Mount’s Southern Wall.

Discovery of the Shiloah Pool led to another monumental find – the central water drainage channel that had served ancient Jerusalem. This channel is the tunnel that visitors to the City of David – known as Ir David – get to walk through today, starting at the bottom of the Shiloah and emerging about 45 minutes later next to the Western Wall. [ Source: Jerusalem Post (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – Oregon’s largest city was calm and quiet Sunday after a day of chaotic, competing protests that clogged Portland streets, crippled public transit and left at least eight people injured.

Police in riot gear broke up the demonstrations as clashes developed among law enforcers, anti-fascist “antifa” protesters and right-wing groups. Three people were charged with crimes ranging from assault on a police officer to harassment, police said.

As the violence increased, police declared a civil disturbance and ordered the protests dispersed. Pepper spray was used by demonstrators and police, Assistant Chief Chris Davis said. [ Source: USA Today (Read More…) ]

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(Worthy News) – A California federal judge issued a ruling blocking President Trump from using $2.5 billion in military funds to build a wall along the southern border.

The ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Haywood Gilliam, who is an appointee of former President Barack Obama, ruled to permanently block the $2.5 billion after issuing a temporary injunction in May to stop the administration’s use of the funds. The ruling stymies several construction projects in California, Arizona, and New Mexico.

Gilliam ruled in two lawsuits on Friday. The first, brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the Sierra Club and the Southern Border Communities Coalition, came in response to Trump’s national emergency declaration transferring $6.7 billion in military funds to border wall construction. Gilliam’s decision halted the use of funds meant for Defense Department counter-drug activities. [ Source: Washington Examiner (Read More…) ]

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