Britain has pledged 200 million pounds ($248 million) to charities and the World Health Organization (WHO), which has come under U.S. pressure over its handling of the new coronavirus pandemic. Its Easter present came while British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has been suffering from the virus COVID-19, said he “owed” his life to British medics.
Rabbis in Israel are calling for the reinstitution of the temple service as a means of averting plagues, pointing to the Passover sacrifice that saved the Israelites in Egypt as a model for understanding current events.
President Trump issued a major disaster declaration for Wyoming on Saturday, meaning that there is now such a declaration within all 50 states due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
OPEC and its oil producing allies on Sunday finalized a historic agreement to cut production by 9.7 million barrels per day, following multiple days of discussions and back-and-forth between the world’s largest energy producers. The cut is the single largest output cut in history.
The Syrian military is continuing to support Hezbollah and allowing the terrorist group to gain a foothold in the Syrian Golan Heights, claimed IDF Arabic language spokesperson Avichay Adraee on Twitter.
Israel’s president on Sunday turned down a request from Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz for a two-week extension to form a new coalition government.
China’s Communist government has halted online church services despite the coronavirus pandemic forcing many Christians to stay at home this Easter, Worthy News learned Saturday. The online religious rights watchdog Bitter Winter and local Christians said only groups holding state-issued licenses could stream religious services online in China. “We can’t get together because of the pandemic,” an underground house church pastor in the province of Jiangxi told Bitter Winter.
U.S. governors appealed Saturday for $500 billion in federal aid, saying states face a budget crisis due to the new coronavirus pandemic that threatens essential services. They urged Congress to “meet the states’ budgetary shortfalls that have resulted from this unprecedented public health crisis.”
Police in the U.S. State of Texas have been praying for a fellow officer who was rushed to an intensive care unit with the new coronavirus COVID-19.
Israeli officials say the government wants to gradually reopen the country’s economy hit hard by a coronavirus pandemic that overshadowed the Passover holiday. But in a setback for the tourism industry, regular flights will only resume in September, Israeli media reported Saturday.
U.S. tech giants Apple and Google have unveiled a plan to track down people who may have been infected by the new coronavirus, despite concerns among rights activists. Their software allows governments to roll out apps for “contact tracing” that will run on smartphones such as iPhones and Android.
A Cuban journalist reporting on abuses against Christianity in Cuba was recently taken in for questioning by authorities, who accused him of being a CIA agent and threatened his mother and two-year-old son.
France’s competition regulator has ordered online search giant Google to pay French publishing companies and news agencies for re-using their content under Europe’s new digital copyright legislation.
The Democratic governor of Kansas has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. state’s Republican-controlled council after it revoked her executive order limiting church meetings ahead of Easter. Governor Laura Kelly wants the court to resurrect her ban on religious gatherings of more than ten people. She says the measure is necessary to limit infections amid a new coronavirus pandemic.
Major Christian publishing companies have reported increased sales of the Bible during the coronavirus pandemic. The increase is reportedly similar to that observed after the September 11 terror attacks in 2001.
The US State Department announced Monday that it is classifying a Russian white supremacist group as a terrorist organization. This is the first time an American government has categorized white supremacists as terrorists – the classification is normally assigned to Islamic extremist groups.
Islamic State–Khorasan (ISIS-K) claims it carried out Thursday’s rocket attack on Bagram airfield, the largest US base in Afghanistan. There were no casualties or injuries. Bagram’s NATO-led US military mission, Operation Resolute Support, confirmed in a tweet that five rockets were fired at the base early in the morning on Thursday.
The federal government debt of the United States has reached a record $24 trillion despite warnings by the nation’s leading watchdog that it is unsustainable for the world’s largest economy.
American and British cybersecurity officials are warning that state-backed hackers and online criminals are taking advantage of the coronavirus outbreak to further their operations, echoing concerns from digital safety experts.
World powers scrambled on Thursday to build a global response to the human tragedy and once-in-a-century economic collapse caused by the coronavirus epidemic, as death tolls in the US and Europe soared higher.