As Europe’s winter sets in, Pope Francis urged prayers for migrants fleeing war, persecution, and poverty as the European Union braced for a new influx of desperate people through Belarus and other routes. The Belarusian President, Alexander Lukashenko, offered humanitarian aid to refugees who opted to stay at the Belarusian-Polish border.
Christians in Afghanistan have reportedly turned off their phones and moved to undisclosed locations amid an ongoing crackdown by the ruling Islamist Taliban group.
Israel was on edge late Sunday after a suspected Palestinian militant opened fire in Jerusalem’s Old City, killing one Israeli man and injuring at least four others, including a rabbi.
Two people of 17 foreign missionaries kidnapped last month by a feared gang in Haiti have been released, Worthy News learned.
U.S. teenager Kyle Rittenhouse who shot and killed two men during racial justice protests has been acquitted on all counts.
Death row inmate Julius Jones faces execution today unless Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt follows parole board recommendations to grant clemency and commute his sentence to life imprisonment, AP reports. The Oklahoma Pardons and Parole board has twice voted for clemency, saying there are doubts about the evidence that led to Jones’ conviction for the 1999 shooting of Oklahoma businessman Paul Howell.
Pro-life organizations in America have called for a National Day of Repentance over abortion on December 1, the day on which the US Supreme Court hears opening arguments in a legal challenge to Mississippi’s ban on abortions after 15 weeks, CNS reports.
Boko Haram terrorists on Wednesday murdered at least four civilians in the far north of Cameroon, a region where Christians are frequently attacked by Islamic militants who want to rid the nation of “infidels,” International Christian Concern (ICC) reports. Cameroon ranks 42 on the US Open Doors Watch List 2021 of top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.
Christians appealed for prayers as 60 Christians remained missing Friday after suspected Islamist gunmen killed one worshiper during a raid on a church in northern Nigeria.
The U.S. State Department has urged Americans to “depart Haiti now” after kidnappers threatened to kill 17 missionaries, including 16 Americans unless they receive $17 million while the child of an evangelical pastor was shot dead.
The wife of incarcerated Chinese pastor Wang Yi has been able to visit him for the first time since 2018, when China’s ruling Communist Party sentenced him to nine years in jail for leading the underground Early Rain Church, China Aid reports. Jiang Rong was allowed to see her husband while she herself continues to be placed in de facto house arrest by the government.
A senior government official saw proof that at least some of the 17 Christian Aid Ministries missionaries who were kidnapped in Haiti last month are still alive, Reuters reported on November 5. Christian Aid Ministries is calling for continued prayer for the safe release of 16 Americans and one Canadian, including five children, who were abducted by the 400 Mawozo gang on October 16.
Hindu militants “detained” Christians gathering for a worship service in India’s Karnataka state and accused the pastor of carrying out “forced conversions,” Christians confirmed Wednesday.
As persecution of Christians in India continues, Hindu radicals violently assaulted and threatened to kill two pastors in Chhattisgarh state earlier this month, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports. Chhattisgarh state has seen a spike in attacks on Christians following inciting hate speeches against believers made by Hindu nationalists at public rallies.
The Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) non-profit organization has been told that 147 Christians, including children, elderly and pregnant women, fled from two villages on the Niger border in Burkina Faso last month, as Islamic extremists were seeking to kill them, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.
Three Iranian men who abandoned Islam to embrace faith in Christ were summoned by Iranian authorities to serve three-year jail sentences, Christians told Worthy News.
As persecution of Christians in India continues, Hindu radicals violently assaulted and threatened to kill two pastors in Chhattisgarh state earlier this month, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports. Chhattisgarh state has seen a spike in attacks on Christians following inciting hate speeches against believers made by Hindu nationalists at public rallies.
Amid Nigeria’s intensifying extremist violence against Christians, Islamic militants carried out yet another atrocity on October 31, murdering a congregant and abducting over 100 others from a church in Kaduna state, the Catholic Herald reports. Islamists have murdered over 15,000 Christians in Nigeria since 2015: rights groups are warning of genocide.
Cuba’s communist authorities refuse to allow a large “house church” to reopen for worship despite easing COVID pandemic restrictions for approved churches, activists say.
International Day of Prayer (IDOP) 2021 falls on Sunday, November 7, and is a day for the international church to pray for believers around the world who have been harassed, silenced, tortured, displaced, wounded, maimed, and imprisoned because of their faith in Christ, CBN News reports.