The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) has published a report on its finding an ancient Christian settlement in northern Israel in 2007, CBN News reported. Located in the Galilee area, the rural settlement was likely destroyed during the Persian conquest in 613 AD, the IAA report says.
Russia has begun a week-long vote on constitutional reforms that could allow President Vladimir Putin to rule until 2036.
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) heard last week that President Donald Trump’s partial withdrawal of American troops from northeast Syria in 2019 created a vacuum in which Turkey and Turkish-backed militia have been able to threaten local vulnerable civilian populations including Christians and Yazidis. Condemning Turkey’s latest airstrikes and ground operations in the region, the USCIRF called for the US government to “utilize all diplomatic and economic leverage to protect vulnerable religious minorities in northern Iraq — as well as neighboring northeastern Syria — from Turkey’s indiscriminate military operations,” the Christian Post reported.
The governor of Tennessee has said he will sign a new bill that prohibits abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected, Christian Headlines reported Monday. Sponsored by Gov. Bill Lee earlier this year, the bill also bans abortion on the grounds of sex, race, or a diagnosis of Down’s syndrome.
As governments around the world battle the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has published a further grim forecast, predicting a 4.9% contraction in global GDP (gross domestic product) for 2020, a lower figure than the 3% forecast in April, CNBC reports. The IMF also downgraded its GDP prediction for 2021, lowering it to 5.4% from the 5.8% forecast in April.
U.S. and Russian negotiators have agreed to continue talks on how to prevent a new nuclear arms race. Still, concerns remain over China’s opposition to being included in the negotiations.
The United Nations, European Union countries, and the Arab League joined Wednesday in calling for Israel to abandon its plans to annex parts of the West Bank, as the Jewish state’s envoy to the international body insisted the step would not stand in the way of peace with the Palestinians.
The cabinet and the Knesset voted on Wednesday to advance legislation that would enable the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) to use its digital tools to track coronavirus patients. The bill passed a preliminary reading in the Knesset plenum by a vote of 44 to 33, but still must pass additional readings in a Knesset committee and the plenum next week in order to become law.
Amid declining polls, Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed a military parade on Wednesday, ahead of a vote that could pave the way for him to remain in office until 2036.
A massive cloud of Saharan dust darkened much of Cuba on Wednesday and began to affect air quality in Florida, sparking warnings to people with respiratory illnesses to stay home.
The former head of the IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate Maj. Gen. (res.) Amos Yadlin warned on Wednesday that Iran could respond to overnight airstrikes in Syria that the Syrian regime has attributed to Israel.
According to a survey conducted for the Shiloh Policy Forum, US President Trump’s Mideast peace plan would place hundreds of Jewish archaeological sites inside a future Palestinian state, CBN News reports. Among the sites concerned are Shiloh and an ancient synagogue discovered in Shomron, the Biblical capital of the northern Kingdom of Israel.
Legislators in the South Carolina state city of Charleston voted Tuesday unanimously to remove a statue of former vice president and slavery advocate John C. Calhoun from a downtown square, amid widening anti-racism protests.
In a display of power, the US Navy now has three aircraft carriers to the Taiwan Strait in the South China Sea, Fox News reported Monday. This is the first three-carrier mission to take place in several years and it reportedly sends a message of deterrence to China.
An infectious diseases specialist in Italy has said he believes the COVID-19 virus has weakened and may disappear by itself without a vaccine, Fox News reported Monday. Dr Matteo Bassetti, head of the infectious diseases clinic at San Martino hospital in Genoa, said the virus weakening may be caused by genetic mutations resulting from lockdown and social distancing measures.
Against a backdrop of nationwide protests and rioting over police brutality, the lower house of the General Assembly in Georgia approved legislation Friday that would allow voters to decide if county police departments should be dismantled, the Washington Examiner reports. The legislation must still be approved by the state Senate and then signed by the Governor.
A new survey of undergraduate college students found that 94% of Democrat responders support defunding of police (i.e. cutting police budgets to fund other community resources) while only 13% of Republican students do, The College Fix reported. The poll also found that a majority of Democrat responders believe rioting and looting are legitimate forms of protest against racial injustice and police brutality while almost all Republican responders believe they are not.
The coast of southern Mexico was rattled by a powerful earthquake on Tuesday morning that killed at least two people and triggered a tsunami alert for Pacific coastlines along Central America.
Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi on Sunday said Iran is now the most dangerous country in the Middle East, not just because of its nuclear program, but also through its conventional weapons and support for terror activities against Israel.
An Iranian Christian rights activist who was jailed for protesting against Iran’s Islamic government says more than a dozen Christians remain behind bars in the country’s overcrowded prisons.