The Loudoun County school board in Virginia voted Wednesday to require staff to refer to transgender students by their preferred pronouns and to allow trans students to participate in sports and use facilities based on their gender identity, the Washington Times reports. The Rights of Transgender and Gender-Expansive Students policy was approved 7-2 after an extensive public comment session.
The militant Taliban group was closing Thursday in on Afghanistan’s capital Kabul after the US already urged citizens to leave “immediately.”
Wycliffe Associates, an international organization that empowers mother-tongue Bible translators and partners with local churches in the advancement of Bible translation, is helping spoken-only language groups gain access to the Scriptures by strategically equipping and training national Bible translators.
Apocalyptic scenes ranging from droughts to massive fires and floods are making life difficult for millions of people worldwide. For example, thousands have fled wildfires in Greece where, after a small break, another heatwave with temperatures of over 40 degrees (104 Fahrenheit) was on its way — with the potential to worsen the situation.
U.S. consumer prices increases slowed in July even as they remained at a 13-year high on a yearly basis and there were tentative signs inflation has peaked as supply-chain disruptions caused by the pandemic work their way through the economy. The data could provide some support to Fed officials who have repeatedly said that the current burst in inflation is temporary and likely to fade as the handful of categories that have caused inflation to surge in recent months get back on an even keel.
Taliban fighters could isolate Afghanistan’s capital in 30 days and possibly take it over in 90, a U.S. defense official cited U.S. intelligence as saying, as the resurgent militants made more advances across the country.
Tennessee’s largest public school district has been given a $1.8 million gift as reimbursement for teaching elective Bible history classes to over 4,500 students in the 2020-21 academic year, Christian Headlines (CH) reports. The gift was given by the Bible in the Schools non-profit organization to Hamilton County Schools in Chattanooga last month.
Taliban insurgents tightened their grip on captured Afghan territory on Tuesday as civilians hid in their homes, and a European Union official said the militants now control 65% of the country after a string of gains as foreign forces pull out.
Amid a backlash against COVID-19 vaccine “health passes” elsewhere in Europe, Germany on Tuesday announced new restrictions on the unvaccinated, including ending free coronavirus testing.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday told the UN Security Council that Iran must be held accountable for the July 29 drone attack on the Mercer Street ship, an Israeli-managed oil tanker, Israel National News (INN) reports. Blinken described the strike as “part of a pattern of attacks and other provocative behavior” by Iran.
Billions of people are facing the prospect of more government control over their lives, with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) saying Monday that human activities “unequivocally” caused climate change with the world “likely” to hit the “1.5 Celsius (34.7 Fahrenheit) limit within 20 years”.
As U.S. troops complete their pullout, the Islamic militant Taliban group rapidly expanded its control in Afghanistan Sunday, increasingly isolating the Western-backed government.
Iran is ready to resume talks reviving the nuclear deal with world powers under new President Ebrahim Raisi, and meetings could take place in Vienna from early September, an EU official said on Saturday.
Hungary’s nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has condemned U.S. President Joe Biden for calling him an “authoritarian tug.”
Greece is among the worst affected countries by deadly wildfires raging through the Balkans, Italy, and the southeastern Mediterranean. Fires rampaged through some of Greece’s last remaining forests for yet another day Saturday, after thousands fled by land and by sea.
Suspected Islamic kidnappers in northern Nigeria have released dozens of Christian school students, but parents remain concerned about scores of others still missing, Christian officials say.
A Belarusian athlete who refused orders to fly home early from the Olympics in Tokyo has arrived in Poland and is “happy to be in safety.”
The World Health Organization is calling for a halt on COVID-19 vaccine boosters until at least the end of September, its head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday, as the gap between vaccinations in wealthy and poor countries widens.
People vaccinated before late February are twice as likely to catch the coronavirus than other inoculated Israelis, according to new research.
The Biden administration is developing a plan to require nearly all foreign visitors to the United States to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as part of eventually lifting travel restrictions that bar much of the world from entering the United States, a White House official told Reuters on Wednesday.