A New Perspective on Constantine

Afghan Christians are calling for prayer and international advocacy as they are now targets for intense, violent persecution by the new Taliban rulers of Afghanistan, International Christian Concern (ICC) reported Monday. The most recent call for prayer came through Mission Network News.

A mob of Sikhs and Hindus armed with swords and wooden rods attacked a church meeting in India’s Punjab state last month, breaking the leg of a pastor’s wife and slashing the head of a teenaged congregant, Morning Star News (MSN) reports. India ranks 10 on the Open Doors USA World Watch List of top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.

Israeli health officials are considering new COVID-19 restrictions, including barring the non-vaccinated from supermarkets, in order to bring down the surging number of infections in the country, All Israel News (AIN) reports.

Israel confirmed Tuesday that it launched airstrikes against Gaza after incendiary balloons launched from the Palestinian strip started fires in the country’s south. Militants of the ruling Hamas Islamist movement reportedly fired on the Israeli aircraft carrying out the raids, which destroyed a weapons manufacturing site and other targets.

A group of Christians in the self-declared Republic of Somaliland have been released from detention after charges related to alleged crimes against the state religion of Islam were dismissed following prayers, Christians said Monday.

Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban group said Tuesday that Americans must leave by August 31 and warned Afghans not to go to the Kabul airport or try to leave the country.

A federal judge on Monday granted a reprieve to ICE, allowing it to revive its new deportation limits for the next week while the Biden administration asks appeals courts to step in and overturn the judge’s ruling from last week.

There is no value in returning to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal in light of advances in Iran’s nuclear program, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett plans to tell US President Joe Biden in their meeting at the White House on Thursday.

The Israel Defense Forces carried out airstrikes in the Gaza Strip late Monday night in response to the launching of arson balloons from the coastal enclave that set off at least nine fires in Israeli border communities earlier in the day, the army said.

The Caldor Fire grew to more than 100,000 acres on Monday as it has destroyed hundreds of structures and prompted evacuations in California.