Opposition Leader Yair Lapid on Tuesday cheered Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s decision to throw his Blue and White party’s support behind a preliminary reading of a bill to dissolve the Knesset and call early elections.
At least 110 farmworkers were slaughtered in a single attack in Nigeria’s Borno state Saturday by terrorists believed to be members of Boko Haram, the Christian Post reports. Armed men on some 60 motorbikes gunned down the rice field workers in what a UN official described as “the most violent direct attack against innocent civilians this year.”
Following major protests across France, President Emmanuel Macron’s governing party announced Monday that it will “totally rewrite” a controversial new law that would have made it an offense to film and identify police officers online if there is intent to harm their “physical or psychological integrity,” Euro News reports.
A new wave of coronavirus infections is overshadowing the 35th anniversary of Europe’s border-free Schengen Area. France and Germany are among European Union member states facing significant challenges amid rising coronavirus infection in Europe ahead of Christmas.
A federal appeals court in Kentucky has upheld a state COVID-19 order issued by Gov. Andy Beshear to close religious and private schools in seeking to contain the spread of the virus, the Washington Examiner reports. In making its ruling, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a restraining order issued previously by the District Court against the closing of religious schools. The lawsuit was originally filed by Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron and the Danville Christian Academy, who argued that the closure of religious schools is unconstitutional.
Hungary’s government says landmarks in Budapest lit up in red to remember persecuted Christians who it claims to form the world’s most suffering faith community. “The initiative “Red Wednesday” was about commemorating persecuted Christians around the world,” said Tristan Azbej, Hungary’s state secretary for assisting persecuted Christians.
The US Supreme voted 5-4 to prohibit New York State from re-imposing COVID-19 restrictions on religious gatherings, Politico reports. The court’s emergency ruling issued late on Wednesday night represents a significant shift away from the decisions it made in May and July, when it upheld restrictions on churches in California and Nevada.
After Pope Francis urged “solidarity”, German Chancellor Angela Merkel demands the distribution of controversial coronavirus vaccines among poorer nations. Her appeal comes as countries rush to start with coronavirus vaccinations before Christmas, despite fresh concerns they impact people’s behavior and DNA.
Writing for CBN News, Michael Cherenkov has highlighted the crucial front-line role the Evangelical church has in Armenia where, although hostilities have currently ended in a ceasefire, an ongoing humanitarian crisis is worsening. “The churches have become the beacons of hope for scared and suffering people,” Cherenkov said following his recent visit to the tiny remote country under Russian control.
The Treasury Department is looking to extend a handful of the Federal Reserve programs used to get markets through the early days of the coronavirus crisis but is going to end several others that expire at the end of the year.
Hungary’s anti-migration government has warned that surging Christian persecution must end worldwide, including in Europe, which faced several Islamic terror attacks.
Hungary and Poland blocked approval of the European Union’s 1.8 trillion-euro ($2.1 trillion) budget and coronavirus rescue package after accusing the bloc of interfering in their domestic affairs.
Rights group Amnesty International said Thursday that “scores and probably hundreds” of civilians have been massacred in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region. Witnesses blamed forces of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which rules Tigray, for the bloodshed. They said the TPLF carried out the massacre after Ethiopia’s federal government troops defeated them in the Lugdi area.
From nondescript buildings in the industrial nucleus of Wuhan, across wavy seas to dusty tented super laboratories in the heart of Mexico, and then across the jagged southwest border and dispersing like a wild bomb ripping through every crevice of the United States, the growing presence of Chinese drug lords and cartels below the southern border is one that is killing an unprecedented amount of Americans.
Although exact figures are disputed locally, more than 100 predominately Christian villages in Nigeria’s Kaduna are reported to now be occupied by Fulani Islamic militants, persecution watchdog International Christian Concern (ICC) reported last week. Thousands of residents from the occupied villages have reportedly been displaced by the terrorists. Nevertheless, ICC said, “disagreements over attacks and incidents have led to the confusion and furthered the problems that have plagued the Middle Belt Crisis.”
Anger over an election moved far beyond U.S. borders Sunday with police in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia, firing tear gas and water cannon at crowds protesting the results of last week’s parliamentary vote.
Israel’s unemployment figures have soared since the country enters its second nationwide lockdown, with joblessness rate climbing above 20 percent.
The Chinese government sent fighter jets from the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) to fly threateningly close to Taiwan’s airspace on eight separate occasions Monday, CNS News reports. Taiwan’s foreign ministry has said Beijing may be taking advantage of the US election to place further pressure on the island it says is a rebel province.
Three people visiting a famed church in the French city of Nice have been killed in a suspected Islamic terrorist attack, authorities said Thursday.
French President Emmanuel Macron has recalled France’s ambassador to Turkey in response to public statements by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Sunday that Mr. Macron needs treatment for a mental health problem, Fox News reported Monday.