US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Monday that Sudan has been officially removed from a list of countries that the US considers being state sponsors of terrorism, the Jerusalem Post reports. The 1993 US designation of Sudan as a terror sponsor was made during the brutal dictatorship of former president Omar al-Bashir, who was believed to be protecting terrorist groups, and who was finally ousted last year.
Iran on Saturday executed a journalist who inspired nationwide economic protests for freedom in 2017 after luring him out of exile in Paris and kidnapping him.
In a surprising move, the Pentagon has told the Central Intelligence Agency that it is weighing an end to the majority of the military support it provides to the agency’s counterterrorism missions, according to a former senior administration intelligence official.
The United States added Nigeria to a blacklist of countries that violate religious liberties Monday, DW reports. Joining Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and China, Nigeria is now listed as a country “of concern” “under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998.”
French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday that France will continue to make economic and defense deals with Egypt, despite Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi’s heaviest crackdown on dissent in the Arab country’s modern history, the Washington Times reports. While he gave this assurance during the Egyptian leader’s two-day state visit to France, Macron emphasized that he and el-Sissi have “disagreements” on human rights issues.
The Republican mayor of Lancaster City, California said last week that people who do not wear a mask in public should be arrested on the grounds they are committing domestic terrorism, Los Angeles Daily News reports. A sharp critic of LA County’s COVID-19 lockdown measures, Lancaster Mayor Rex Parris made his remarks at a Supervisors Board meeting amid leaders’ growing frustration about blanket shutdown orders they believe are harming local economies and violating civil liberties.
Hungary, where believers suffered under communism, has praised “the Trump administration” for raising the issue of persecuted Christians amid concerns about terror attacks.
At a congressional hearing Tuesday, Republican Senator Josh Hawley questioned Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg about information received from a whistle-blower that suggests the social media giant coordinates content moderation, including censorship policies, with Google and Twitter, Politico reports.
Wycliffe Associates, an international organization that empowers mother-tongue Bible translators and partners with local churches in the advancement of Bible translation, reports that Nigerian Bible translators are asking for help after suspending Bible translation projects in 30 languages.
The United States and Israel could have some potential surprises waiting in store for Iran, the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, in the final weeks of the Trump administration, including the possibility of launching strikes against a nuclear facility.
The United States and Israel worked together to track and kill a senior Al Qaeda operative in Iran earlier this year, a bold intelligence operation by the two allied nations that came as the Trump administration was ramping up pressure on Tehran.
France said Friday its forces had killed the top leader of the al-Qaida terror group in Mali known for killing civilians, including many Christians.
Russia and Sudan have drafted a bilateral agreement that would allow for a Russian naval logistics base in Sudan, Radio Free Europe reported Thursday. The Sudanese are top importers of Russian arms in Africa, and Russia has economic and geopolitical interests in oil and minerals-rich Sudan.
Austrian police detained 14 people in several raids Tuesday after an Islamist gunman shot and killed four people in Vienna.
Church members prayed Sunday after police in the French city of Lyon released an initial suspect in the shooting of a Greek Orthodox priest.
The United States says it has seized a variety of missiles that the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ (IRGC) Quds Force shipped to Yemen and announced the sale of Iranian oil it seized in August before it reached Venezuela, saying the proceeds will benefit victims of terrorism.
A Greek Orthodox priest was shot and badly wounded in the French city of Lyon, two da after an Islamist killed three people in a cathedral in Nice, police said.
The Justice Department announced that it was filing a forfeiture complaint related to two large shipments of Iranian missiles the U.S. Navy seized that were bound for Iranian-backed militants in Yemen sent by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which has been designated a foreign terrorist group by the United States.
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.
The Trump administration imposed fresh sanctions on Iran’s oil sector Monday, also making it more difficult for a subsequent administration to reverse the measures, the Times of Israel reports. Affecting the National Iranian Oil Company, Iran’s oil ministry, and the National Iranian Tanker Company, the new measures were taken under counterterrorism authority, such that a new administration would have to take legal action to change course.