Turkey’s top administrative court decided Friday that the Byzantine Empire’s main cathedral, which eventually became a museum, can be converted back into a mosque. Christian leaders condemned Friday’s ruling.
People in Poland went to the polls Sunday in what commentators called a razor-blade-close presidential election runoff amid a coronavirus pandemic. Voters were deciding whether to give another chance to the current conservative President Andrzej Duda, or to make the liberal mayor of Warsaw the next head-of-state.
Bosnia-Herzegovina commemorated over the weekend the 25th anniversary of Europe’s worst atrocity since World War Two. Some 8,000 Muslim men and boys were shot end killed by invading Serb forces in and around the Bosnian town of Srebrenica in one of the darkest episodes of the 1992-1995 Bosnian war.
A UK Appeals Court has ruled that, while it is working with government authorities, a Christian adoption and foster care agency cannot refuse to place children with same-sex couples, the Christian Post reports. The Court ruled Tuesday that the Cornerstone Adoption and Fostering Service can recruit carers who identify as evangelical, provided it does not legally require them to be heterosexual.
Dozens of Christians have been detained in Eritrea in the latest government crackdown on devoted believers, advocacy representatives said Friday.
Turkey is expelling foreign Christians as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan seeks to increase support from conservative Islamic leaders, rights investigators told Worthy News.
At least 12 Christians are understood to have been arrested by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard (IRG) in what is believed to have been a coordinated round-up last week, the Christian Post reports. Announced by Article 18, a UK-based human rights non-profit organization, the arrests were said to have taken place in the cities of Tehran, Karaj and Malayer on June 30 and July 1.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday the Trump administration is considering restricting United States’ users’ access to the Chinese social media application TikTok over concerns it is potentially being used by the Beijing government as a means to surveil and propagandize people.
After finding 40 churches connected to around 650 cases of the coronavirus, The New York Times is calling Sunday worship services “a major source” of COVID-19 cases.
The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that “no citizen, not even the President, is categorically above the common duty to produce evidence when called upon in a criminal proceeding.
Nearly half of Oklahoma remains a Native American reservation, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday, in a case that could have major consequences for how some crimes are prosecuted in the state.
New details emerged Thursday of a young Christian man who was reportedly murdered in eastern India for refusing to abandon his faith in Christ.
Any changes to Israel’s eastern border would impact relations between Israel and Egypt, Jordan, France and Germany, the countries’ foreign ministers said on Tuesday.
Syria’s dictator Bashar Assad has signed a military cooperation agreement with Iran’s Islamic extremist regime, Algemeiner reports. The deal was concluded Wednesday, reportedly as part of an effort to increase Syria’s air defenses against “pressures by America.”
Churches and Christian non-profits were among religious organizations that received at least $6 billion in COVID relief loans under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) run by the Small Business Administration (SBA), Ministry Watch reports. In order to receive PPP funds, applicants must claim: “Current economic uncertainty makes this loan request necessary to support the ongoing operations of the Applicant.” PPP beneficiaries in the religious organization category also included mosques, synagogues and other houses of worship.
The US Supreme Court reaffirmed Wednesday that religious schools and institutions have a First Amendment right to choose their own staff.
The EYN Church of the Brethren, the largest Christian denomination in northeast Nigeria, has reported that over 8,370 of its members have been killed and more than 700,000 displaced by Boko Haram terrorists in the country, CSW News reports. In a statement made on July 2, EYN National President Reverend Joel Billi said that from the end of 2019 to June 2020 alone there had been fifty attacks on different communities – and that these were largely “unreported or under-reported by both the print and electronic media.”
The head of the FBI has made a speech affirming that it is now the Chinese Government and Communist Party which pose the greatest threat to the US. In remarks delivered at the Hudson Institute in Washington DC Tuesday, Christopher Wray said: “The greatest long-term threat to our nation’s information and intellectual property, and to our economic vitality, is the counterintelligence and economic espionage threat from China. It’s a threat to our economic security—and by extension, to our national security.”
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has expressed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he is concerned about Israel’s plan to annex parts of the West Bank, the Jerusalem Post reports. In a phone call Tuesday, Johnson said annexation would hinder the prospect of peace in the region and asked the Israeli PM to return to negotiations with the Palestinians.
The White House peace team is expected to further discuss how to implement its Middle East vision on Wednesday, a person familiar with the discussions told The Jerusalem Post.