Facebook has removed four videos of military chaplains encouraging prayer and referring to God during the COVID-19 pandemic, Fox News reported on Thursday. The posts were taken down after the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRRF) complained the videos constituted ‘illicit proselytizing’ of Christianity.
The Liberty Counsel (LC) Christian non-profit organization has launched the ReOpen Church Sunday campaign, calling on US churches to resume congregating in person on May 3, the Christian Post reports. As the campaign follows weeks of on-line worship services due to the coronavirus pandemic, LC advises that congregations should continue to observe social-distancing and sanitation measures at in-person services. However, LC says: ‘Now is the time to act.’
Israel and the Islamic militant Hezbollah group have reportedly agreed on informal rules of engagement as they prepare for possible war while trying to avoid setting it off. The New York Times newspaper reports that Israel has mostly refrained from killing members of Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and committed to destroying the Jewish state.
U.S. unemployment is nearing levels of the Great Depression of the 1930s, with one in 6 Americans of working age out of a job as the coronavirus pandemic essentially shut down the economy. About 4.4 million Americans filed for unemployment insurance last week alone, reported the U.S. Labor Department on Thursday.
Iran threatens a ‘crushing response’ to any American military attacks in the Persian Gulf after United States President Donald Trump threatened to ‘shoot down and destroy’ Iranian vessels. The leader of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warned that the security of the Gulf is among Iran’s strategic priorities.
Constitutional scholars in Israel are crying foul about the new unity agreement signed by alternating Prime Ministers Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz, saying it destroys the separation of powers necessary to democratic governance.
The foreign ministers of Russia, Turkey, and Iran will hold a video conference on April 22 to discuss Syria and a de-escalation deal in the last rebel-held enclave in Idlib.
Four Christians were killed last week in an attack by Muslim Fulani herdsmen in Kaduna state, Nigeria, Morningstar News reports. This attack is the latest in a string of murders committed by herdsmen targeting Christians: Nigeria ranks second after Pakistan on the Open Doors’ 2020 World Watch List for countries where Christians are killed for their faith.
A California federal judge determined Wednesday that churches in the state are prohibited from holding in-person services during the coronavirus pandemic, the Los Angeles Times reports. The case was brought by three Southern California churches who argued that the state’s lockdown rules were a violation of the First Amendment and the right to freedom of religion and assembly.
Concerning Israel’s annexation of parts of the West Bank, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said: ‘The Israelis will ultimately make those decisions. That’s an Israeli decision,’ the Times of Israel reports. Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Pompeo added that the US would share its views on the issue in a private setting.
European Union leaders are set to weigh Thursday the damage the coronavirus has inflicted on health care systems and the lives of around half a billion citizens across the bloc as they struggle to devise a more robust plan to resuscitate their ravaged economies.
Sales of new U.S. single-family homes dropped by the most in more than 6-1/2 years in March and further declines are likely as the novel coronavirus outbreak batters the economy and throws millions of Americans out of work.
President Trump threatened Iran with severe retaliation Wednesday after the U.S. military claimed Iranian ships had made ‘dangerous and threatening approaches’ toward American navy vessels in the Persian Gulf last week.
President Trump said he directed the Navy to destroy Iranian military vessels that conduct provocative maneuvers near U.S. ships in the Persian Gulf.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard launched its first satellite into space Wednesday, dramatically revealing what experts described as a secret military space program that could advance its ballistic missile development amid wider tensions between the Islamic Republic and the US.
Iran successfully launched its first military satellite into space on Wednesday, authorities in Tehran said, spurring warnings from Washington and heightening tensions between the two countries.
The daughter of a murdered pastor in India was shot last week, five years after the death of her father and in the same house.
Christian rights activist Mary (Fatemeh) Mohammadi says she has been sentenced to three months and one-day imprisonment and 10 lashes for publicly protesting Iran’s downing of a Ukrainian passenger plane.
Prophecies from rabbis about the coming of the Messiah and a third World War are coalescing with the timing of the implementation of the ‘Deal of the Century’ peace plan this summer under a new Israeli unity government.
Tens of thousands of Christians joined an online ceremony marking Yom Hashoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day, amid concerns that antisemitism will spread as fast as the coronavirus. While a memorial siren sounded across Israel, the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) had viewers stand to honor 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust, also known as Shoah.