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By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News CAIRO/JERUSALEM (Worthy News) – Arab countries will unveil a plan to reconstruct Gaza within three to five years without displacing the Palestinian population and without Hamas control over the territory, sources said Sunday. The reported plan is an alternative to U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s proposal for an American takeover of the territory and turning Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East.” Trump’s Gaza plan would also involve the expulsion of at least some 1.8 million displaced Palestinians to nearby nations. Yet the latest Arab initiative to be unveiled in Cairo, Egypt, on February 27, foresees a future of Palestinians within a reconstructed Gaza Strip. Sources familiar with the discussions said the plan, developed by Palestinians, was given to Egypt and is due to be presented to the leaders of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar. The hundreds of millions of dollars necessary to rebuild Gaza following the Israel-Hamas war will come from Gulf countries. The work will be carried out by Egyptian companies, representing a significant source of income for Egypt, which is vehemently opposed to any migration of Palestinians out of Gaza. Sources said that the workforce will consist mainly of local Palestinians. MUCH DESTROYED Reconstruction would take three to five years because 65 percent of the property in Gaza has been destroyed, Israeli and Arab sources said. Ahead of the February 27 meeting, Saudi Arabia hosts the leaders of several Arab nations on February 20 to discuss Trump’s Gaza vision, Worthy News reported earlier. European diplomats admit the issue of providing security guarantees to Israel in exchange for leaving Gaza remains unresolved. No Arab country wants to offer troops in the absence of Israel, which would provide “a clear political horizon to a Palestinian state,” observers said. Supporters of the plan hope it will help end the Israel-Hamas war, which broke out after Hamas fighters attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and abducting about 250 others. More than 48,000 Palestinians were killed in Gaza, according to local Hamas-ruled authorities. Those figures are difficult to verify, but Israel says about half of those killed are Hamas fighters. The post Arab Nations Seek Rebuilding Gaza In 5 Years appeared first on Worthy Christian News. View the full article

Friend, you're His masterpiece! Ephesians 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Millions of dollars are spent worldwide on priceless works of art. I'm always amazed at how much people will pay for one painting—some are considered virtually priceless. But what makes a masterpiece? It's not a what—it's a "who." A master makes a masterpiece! There's a Master at work on you. Your life is a priceless work of art in the Lord’s hand. God's masterful artistry, His perfect "touch," is painting, sculpting your life day by day to create the masterpiece He envisions you to be. Every stroke of the brush, every strike of the chisel, places color, renders shape to your individual identity in Him. You can trust His craftsmanship and rely on His artistry because not only is He the consummate Master Artist, but He loves His works. "We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works." So it seems the Master Artist has created you to be an artist, too, to walk in good works that reflect His work in you. You are a beautiful masterpiece in the making, designed to portray a beautiful Master in all you do. Friend, the Lord's work is beautiful, it's the best, highest quality available, three dimensional, living and breathing...and it's truly "priceless" in terms of this world's reckoning– but wait until you see just how He values you and your good works where it really counts -- in the World to Come. So realize that you are a work of God -- created for good works to be valued, highly valued, in Eternity. Your family in the Lord with much agape love, George, Baht Rivka, Elianna and Obadiah (Irvine, California) Editor's Note: Latest Video: Worthy Wrap-Up: Trump's Gaza Saga Editor's Note: Feel free to share any of our content from Worthy, including Devotions, News articles, and more, on your social platforms. You have full permission to copy and repost anything we produce. Editor's Note: During this war, we have been live blogging throughout the day -- sometimes minute by minute on our Telegram channel. Be sure to check it out! Around the World Munich Security Conference Mourns 2 Killed In Attack Germany’s annual Munich Security Conference (MSC) plunged into mourning Sunday as news emerged that two people were killed in a car-ramming attack on a labor union protest in nearby Munich, which also injured nearly 40 people. 18 Killed In Stampede At India’s New Delhi Train Station India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Sunday he was “distressed by the stampede” at a train station in India’s capital of New Delhi that killed at least 18 people, including 14 women. Hungary’s Orbán Warns Of End EU And Expects Peace In Ukraine Soon (Worthy News In-Depth) Hungary’s powerful prime minister has warned that the European Union will collapse by 2029 unless it reinvents itself and said he expects a “permanent” peace solution for wartorn Ukraine within six months “or even earlier.” Ukraine Calls For Europe Army Ahead Of Putin-Trump Talks In Saudi Arabia Ukraine's president calls for the creation of an "army of Europe" amid fears the United States and Russia will decide on his nation’s future at a meeting between the U.S. and Russian leaders in Saudi Arabia. Alice in Orbánland: Germany’s AfD Leader Visits Hungary Amid Controversy This week, it was “Alice in Orbánland” as the leader of Germany’s far-right AfD party, Alice Weidel, visited Hungary, led by Viktor Orbán, the prime minister who critics say turned his nation into a thiefdom. Dozens Injured As ‘Islamic Extremist’ Drives Car In German Crowd (Worthy News Focus) Investigators say an Afghan migrant who pushed his car into a workers protest in the German city of Munich, injuring nearly 40 people, was a bodybuilding “Islamic extremist” shouting “Allahu Akbar” or “Allah is the Greatest.” Israel-Palestinian Conflict Arab Nations Seek Rebuilding Gaza In 5 Years Arab countries will unveil a plan to reconstruct Gaza within three to five years without displacing the Palestinian population and without Hamas control over the territory, sources said Sunday. Saudi Arabia To Host Summit On Trump’s Gaza Plan Saudi Arabia will host an Arab summit to offer an alternative to American President Donald J. Trump’s U.S. ‘takeover’ plan for the Gaza Strip, several sources confirmed Saturday. Three Hostages Released by Hamas in Gaza Hamas, designated as a terrorist organization by Israel and most of its allies, has released three hostages, including Alexander Troufanov, Argentine-Israeli Yair Horn, and American-Israeli Sagui Dekel-Chen, officials say. Inside the United States Trump Dismisses Federal Employees on Probationary Status President Donald Trump dismissed federal workers who have been on the job for less than a year as the president continues to reshape the federal workforce during his second term. $100 Million in COVID-Era Unemployment Fraud Targeted by Republicans Legislation that would give the U.S. Department of Justice more time to track down and punish pandemic-era unemployment insurance (UI) fraud is on its way to the U.S. House floor US Energy Department Rushing To Bring Back Nuclear Energy Specialists The U.S. Energy Department is rushing to bring back nuclear energy specialists after abruptly terminating hundreds of jobs as part of a broader government overhaul, several American sources say. Trump’s Border Csar Condemns Pope’s Migration Views The border czar in the administration of U.S. President Donald J. Trump has accused Pope Francis of hypocrisy for condemning mass deportations of illegal immigrants in the United States while living at the Vatican, which is surrounded by a wall. Elon Musk Calls For Deletion of Some Federal Agencies (Video) Elon Musk urged the US to eliminate entire federal agencies to cut spending and reorganize priorities, criticizing the current government as a "rule of bureaucracy" rather than a democracy. Christian News Ai Backed Global ‘Pentecost’ Event Mobilizes Church Preparations are underway for what organizers view as the world’s most expansive global church gathering since the Biblical Pentecost when people from many nations heard the Gospel. Body of Slain Christian Doctor Discovered in Pakistan The body of a young missing Christian medical doctor who was “murdered” in southeastern Pakistan amid rising Islamic extremism has been found, Christians confirmed Sunday. Pakistani Pastor Shot By Two Assailants (Worthy News Investigation) A Presbyterian church pastor was recovering from his injuries Friday after being shot in Pakistan’s Punjab province, church sources told Worthy News. Worthy Insights ‘They Want God’: 8,000 Students Seek Jesus in Huge Kentucky Revival, 2,000 Give Lives to Christ A supernatural Christian revival is stirring up once again on American college campuses through Unite US – an evangelistic movement marked by salvations, water baptisms, and worship. Last night at the University of Kentucky, more than 2,000 students responded to the gospel message of Jesus Christ and many took part in spontaneous baptisms. Survey: A third of US Jews have experienced antisemitism, 3/4 feel less safe One-third of American Jews said they were a target of an antisemitic incident in 2024, and 77 percent said they feel less safe as Jews in the United States, according to a survey released Wednesday by the American Jewish Committee (AJC). Credit card debt hit a record $1.21 trillion Collectively, Americans now owe a record $1.21 trillion on their credit cards, according to a new quarterly report on household debt from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. View the full article

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News MUNICH, GERMANY (Worthy News) – Germany’s annual Munich Security Conference (MSC) plunged into mourning Sunday as news emerged that two people were killed in a car-ramming attack on a labor union protest in nearby Munich, which also injured nearly 40 people. Christoph Heusgen, the outgoing MSC chairman, spoke to delegates as authorities confirmed that a 2-year-old girl and her mother, a 37-year-old woman from Munich, died two days after they were injured in the tragedy. “We began this conference on Friday when the information came that there were victims of an attack here in Munich. We end this with the news that we have received that two people were actually killed,” Heusgen said. “And as the Munich Security Conference is very close to the attack, we mourn together today these victims, and our thoughts are with the families and the loved ones of the victims, and we wish the wounded a speedy recovery,” he added. A 24-year-old Afghan man who came to Germany as an asylum-seeker was arrested immediately after the attack on Thursday, according to officials. Prosecutors announced Friday that the attacker appeared to have had “an Islamic extremist” motive. There was no immediate evidence that he was involved with any radical network. Some 39 people were hurt in the attack, and police said Friday that two of those were very seriously injured. Bavaria’s state criminal police office said the two seriously wounded patients, the young girl and her mother, passed on Saturday. It was the fifth in a series of attacks involving immigrants over the past nine months. The violence has pushed migration to the forefront of the campaign for Germany’s election on 23 February, with the anti-migration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party expected to gain many votes. The post Munich Security Conference Mourns 2 Killed In Attack appeared first on Worthy Christian News. View the full article

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News WASHINGTON/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Preparations are underway for what organizers view as the world’s most expansive global church gathering since the Biblical Pentecost when people from many nations heard the Gospel. On February 28, Christians from over 10,000 locations in 183 countries will gather online for Gather25, a 25-hour global broadcast focused on prayer and worship, backed by Artificial Intelligence (AI), Worthy News learned. In the United States, Gather25 will launch at 8 Eastern local time that day and broadcast online through the Gather25.com website, the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), and the YouVersion Bible application. After a few hours of broadcasting in the U.S., “we are passing the baton live to New Zealand. They will be passing the baton live to Malaysia, India, Peru, Rwanda, London,” organizers said. “It’s going to take a solid 25 hours live from all of these places. And it’s just such a moment for the global church. This has never been possible in history since Pentecost because of languages and language barriers. But because of [Attifical Intelligence] AI we are able to live translate into 80 languages.” The event is the realization of a dream by American author and speaker Jennie Allen. She recalled dreaming that Jesus would return but that the world wasn’t ready. DREAMING ABOUT GATHERING In 2022, she began to wrestle with the question, “What if Jesus came back in 10 years?” And, in remarks seen by Worthy News, she said she assembled a team with “renewed urgency.” Throughout 2023, “this group began to dream about what a gathering of the global Church – every man, woman, and child who follows Jesus – could look like, and Gather25 was born,” Gather25 announced. “It wasn’t just Jennie’s vision; it was the shared vision of many Jesus followers. It was clear that God was speaking to leaders across different streams about the next 10 years of the Church,” organizers added. The Gather25 broadcast will also include authors and speakers Priscilla Shirer, John Mark Comer, Kari Jobe and Cody Carnes, Lui Ponifasio, Christine Caine, Sadie Robertson, Tim Godfrey, Louie Giglio, Matt Redman, and Darlene Zschech, among others. Ahead of the event, organizers visited each continent to build relationships and explore possibilities. “Then, in February of 2024, the first invitation went out to the 100,000+ women” for a similar gathering. Fast-forward, Gather25 hopes to reach both believers and those searching for the Christian faith. “Right now, there are 5.5 billion people on earth who don’t know Jesus. If we truly believed He was coming and coming soon, what would we do to reach them? What would the global Church be willing to do? Could 2.5 billion Christians on earth be mobilized to share the Gospel?” organizers wondered. The post Ai Backed Global ‘Pentecost’ Event Mobilizes Church appeared first on Worthy Christian News. View the full article

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News NEW DELHI, INDIA (Worthy News) – India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Sunday he was “distressed by the stampede” at a train station in India’s capital of New Delhi that killed at least 18 people, including 14 women. Many victims were Hindu pilgrims traveling to the Maha Kumbh festival in Prayagraj in northern India, according to Delhi’s caretaker chief minister, Atishi, who uses only one name. The stampede happened late Saturday as thousands of people gathered at the New Delhi railway station to wait to board a train. Witnesses said the incident occurred after some passengers slipped and fell on others while coming down from a footbridge that connects train platforms. Sheela Devi, who was at Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narain Hospital in New Delhi to collect her daughter-in-law’s body, told reporters that an announcement about changing train platforms created confusion among the passengers, leading to the stampede. The Delhi Police confirmed that assessment, saying in a statement that “the announcement of the Prayagraj Special arriving at platform 16 led to confusion because the Prayagraj Express was already at platform 14.” According to police investigators, people who couldn’t reach their train at platform 14 thought their train was arriving at platform 16, leading to the stampede. MORE TRAINS “Additionally, there were four trains heading to Prayagraj, out of which three were delayed, causing unexpected overcrowding,” a police official said. “The crowd went out of control, and no one could control it,” recalled Nikhil Kumar, a shopkeeper who witnessed the crowd surge. Prime Minister Modi said that his “thoughts are with all those who have lost their loved ones. I pray that the injured have a speedy recovery. The authorities are assisting all those who have been affected by this stampede.” Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw pledged that an investigation had been ordered to determine what caused the latest stampede. The incident was due to raise more questions about crowd control in India, the world’s most populated nation of nearly 1.5 billion people. At least 30 people were killed in a stampede at the six-week festival last month after tens of millions of Hindus gathered to take a dip in sacred river waters, Worthy News reported at the time. The festival is one of the most important religious events in India, a mainly Hindu country. While the investigation into the latest tragedy was underway, reporters noticed scattered slippers, torn bags, and abandoned belongings strewn across the staircase, the bridge, and platforms 14 and 15. Regular train services resumed Sunday, but the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency noticed that “the scars of the night” remained. The post 18 Killed In Stampede At India’s New Delhi Train Station appeared first on Worthy Christian News. View the full article

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News NEW DELHI, INDIA (Worthy News) – India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Sunday he was “distressed by the stampede” at a train station in India’s capital of New Delhi that killed at least 18 people, including 14 women. Many victims were Hindu pilgrims traveling to the Maha Kumbh festival in Prayagraj in northern India, according to Delhi’s caretaker chief minister, Atishi, who uses only one name. The stampede happened late Saturday as thousands of people gathered at the New Delhi railway station to wait to board a train. Witnesses said the incident occurred after some passengers slipped and fell on others while coming down from a footbridge that connects train platforms. Sheela Devi, who was at Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narain Hospital in New Delhi to collect her daughter-in-law’s body, told reporters that an announcement about changing train platforms created confusion among the passengers, leading to the stampede. The Delhi Police confirmed that assessment, saying in a statement that “the announcement of the Prayagraj Special arriving at platform 16 led to confusion because the Prayagraj Express was already at platform 14.” According to police investigators, people who couldn’t reach their train at platform 14 thought their train was arriving at platform 16, leading to the stampede. MORE TRAINS “Additionally, there were four trains heading to Prayagraj, out of which three were delayed, causing unexpected overcrowding,” a police official said. “The crowd went out of control, and no one could control it,” recalled Nikhil Kumar, a shopkeeper who witnessed the crowd surge. Prime Minister Modi said that his “thoughts are with all those who have lost their loved ones. I pray that the injured have a speedy recovery. The authorities are assisting all those who have been affected by this stampede.” Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw pledged that an investigation had been ordered to determine what caused the latest stampede. The incident was due to raise more questions about crowd control in India, the world’s most populated nation of nearly 1.5 billion people. At least 30 people were killed in a stampede at the six-week festival last month after tens of millions of Hindus gathered to take a dip in sacred river waters, Worthy News reported at the time. The festival is one of the most important religious events in India, a mainly Hindu country. While the investigation into the latest tragedy was underway, reporters noticed scattered slippers, torn bags, and abandoned belongings strewn across the staircase, the bridge, and platforms 14 and 15. Regular train services resumed Sunday, but the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency noticed that “the scars of the night” remained. The post 18 Killed In Stampede At India’s New Delhi Train Station appeared first on Worthy Christian News. View the full article

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News DUBAI/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Hungary’s powerful prime minister has warned that the European Union will collapse by 2029 unless it reinvents itself and said he expects a “permanent” peace solution for wartorn Ukraine within six months “or even earlier.” Viktor Orbán, who has ruled Hungary continuously since 2010, spoke this weekend with U.S. television host Tucker Carlson at the World Governments Summit (WGS) in Dubai. He accused the EU’s executive European Commission of taking power away from democratically elected European prime ministers and enforcing controversial policies ranging from the “Green Deal” on climate change to warmongering. “Unless the EU makes some drastic decisions within 3 to 4 years, due to high energy prices, businesses will not be able to remain competitive, capital will withdraw from the region, and the community will fall apart,” he warned in comments shared with Worthy News. He also clarified that EU member Hungary “will seek to conclude a good deal with Washington for itself, regardless of whether the European Union exists or not.” Orbán criticized the EU over its policies toward Russia and Ukraine, recalling that he was “the only one who said that the European Union mustn’t become drawn into this war.” Next, “the peace camp was joined by Slovakia and the Vatican, and most recently by U.S. President Donald Trump, and from here on this is a new chapter,” he stressed. SAME LOGIC The prime minister added that Trump follows the same logic Hungary proposed in the past three years by seeking peace. When asked if Ukraine and Russia can reach “a permanent [peace] resolution” within six months, Orbán answered: “Yes, yes, definitely, even earlier. Yeah, yeah, I think so. You know [there are] serious guys. So, strong men make peace; weak men make war. That is so simple. Now we have strong leaders.” Orbán, 61, dismissed claims he was “Russian President Vladimir Putin’s puppet” but said if he were to take critics seriously, he would say that rather “than pro-Putin,” he was “pro-Hungarian.” “First of all, my duty is to serve my nation. Secondly, we have experience with the Russians, it wasn’t a pleasant period,” he said. Orbán indirectly referred to decades of occupation by Russian troops and their allies and the 1956 Revolution for freedom, which Moscow crushed. “Hungary was always compelled to struggle among three major power centers: Berlin, Istanbul, and Moscow. Each one of them occupied Hungary at least once, the Russians three times. In the place where Hungary is, these are the options to choose from,” he added. “When I returned to government in 2010” after a previous stint as prime minister followed by years in the opposition, “I agreed with President Putin to leave what happened between the two countries in the past to historians.” He added that they agreed “to develop reasonable cooperation and economic relations from then on. As good relations as possible. And that’s how it was, it works, and the Russians kept their word. Whatever Putin promised, he delivered. And I did the same.” ‘NOT DESTRUCTIVE’ So, “my approach to the Russians is not as negative, as destructive as that of many Western leaders today,” Orbán told Tucker and the audience. He observed that he had always believed that the war in Ukraine, which broke out after Russia launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022, “was not about Ukraine, but about the enlargement” of the NATO military alliance. The war “broke out because Russia occupied a part of Ukraine to prevent Ukraine’s NATO membership,” he said. “Also back then, I told my colleagues that we must isolate this conflict as much and as swiftly as possible, or else this conflict will spread, will consume ever more money, and will claim ever more victims,” Orbán explained. “When two Slavic peoples are at war with one another, that is a serious affair because they are both militant. The war must be stopped because the number of casualties will only rise,” he exclaimed, adding concern “about widows of hundreds of thousands” of killed soldiers. “However, the Western strategy is that the killing should last as long as it takes,” Orbán complained. Although he remains “optimistic” about a peace deal, he cautioned that if “President Trump fails to find a solution to ending the war, Ukraine could easily become the Afghanistan of the European Union, and this could even destroy the EU itself.” CHALLENGES AHEAD He said Trump faces a formidable task to convince Russia to stop the war in a way that allows them to believe that they won. “As regards Ukraine and its president, first of all, what they have done and are doing is heroic; there is no question about that, despite the mistakes they have made. Secondly, I believe they misunderstood the West’s intentions,” Orbán claimed. “They [Ukraine] thought that the West would always support them. Following this, they don’t behave as they should in their position. If someone is in grave trouble, they need help, and if they ask for help, they should do so using the appropriate tone. But it was a mistake on their part to presume that the West would always support them,” Orbán pointed out. “I was sure that this support would come to an end, the war would come to an end sooner or later, and Ukraine would be left on its own. Whatever the losses are, now is the right time for peace. We cannot risk a World War III.” However, Orbán cautioned that “it is not enough” that Washington made clear Ukraine won’t join NATO” as “Europe there is still a Liberal opinion dictatorship. This has such a powerful impact on leaders that they now all think virtually the same way,” meaning that at whatever cost, “Europe must support Ukraine and Ukraine must join NATO.” Orbán said, however, that ” the time will come—once they realize that there are changes in the world—when they change their principles.“ Yet, “it’s difficult to achieve change with the incumbent European leadership,” Orbán complained. LIBERAL HEADWIND Orbán also noticed that “For 15 years Hungary has been working in the “Liberal headwind” to “stop migration, to defend traditional values, to respect religious communities and to keep taxes low.” He said his measures were regarded as “unorthodox” by the Liberals who Orbán claims run the EU and its institutions. Orbán, who claims to be a conservative Christian politician, also stressed that the “Western Liberal elite” had used the money of American taxpayers to promote its ideology in the world. In Hungary alone, they sponsored more than 60 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and funded media, “which was a conspiracy against our sovereignty and independence,” Orbán added. He accused Brussels of “doing the same, which was even more shocking, given that we ourselves contributed to the EU budget, and they supported our enemies from that money.” Orbán, whose government was criticized for closing or taking over independent media, said there was “the global liberal deep state, and now we see how it worked.” He accused the U.S. Democrats of wanting to replace “governments which insisted on preserving their sovereignty and stood up for themselves.” EUROPEAN LEFT At the same time, “the leaders of the Western European Left are genuinely convinced that if they let immigrants belonging to the Muslim faith in the majority into traditionally Christian societies, the result of this process of integration will be a better and happier society,” Orbán told the WGS in Dubai, a predominantly society. He said the Liberal globalized agenda was driven by Hungary-born U.S. billionaire George Soros, who promoted “letting in of a million immigrants a year into Europe. The Hungarian position has always been that the decision on this issue must remain within national competence.” Orbán said Hungary “never wanted to lecture anyone about how to build a better society. It is a key development that Donald Trump has changed political thinking in the West, including on the issues of migration and the Green Deal” as “economic competitiveness comes first, and green issues can only come second after competitiveness.” The Hungarian leader, who has a close relationship with Trump, said he feels encouraged that the new administration takes Christian faith and traditional values seriously. “Earlier, the message was that Christianity is something medieval, while today it is acknowledged that religious communities must be respected; earlier, the established view in the West regarding families was that the institution of the family had become dated and people should live together in different configurations, but now this has changed, too,” Orbán noticed. “Today, everyone openly says regarding the mad gender propaganda that it is not right, while in the context of the war in Ukraine, not so long ago, those who wanted peace were bad and those who wanted war were good, but today, the reverse is true.” The prime minister said, “The left-wing Liberal community looked upon its own civilization as something evil. Rather than wanting to make it stronger, they wanted to improve it by destroying it, which is a truly communist idea.” However, he observed that “this community did not love its nation; at times, they were even ashamed of belonging to a nation and regarded anyone who was proud of their nation and believed that they had to work for the nation as Nazi and far-right.” CHRISTIAN RADICAL In their view, “I’m a Fascist, a medieval, feudal, Christian radical, which is absurd,” Orbán said, adding that the elite is often not prepared to accept the clear will of the electorate. “Today, the majority rejects mass migration, but the elite is finding it difficult to change its position, and this is putting pressure on democracy.” Regarding the economy, he observed that 30 years ago, the EU had “been the world’s largest economy, while today it is only in third place.” There is “not a single European among the world’s five largest economies. The success of the EU has always been closely linked to the success of the German economy, and as they are struggling now, so are we,” he said. The reason for this is “that the German and European economies had a well-functioning structural model based on a combination of cheap Russian energy and advanced European technologies, and this resulted in competitiveness. Due to the war in Ukraine, we have isolated ourselves from cheap energy, and we have no new strategy about how to become competitive again.” However, “there are no ideas, there are no visions,” he explained. The new “U.S. leadership is thinking in terms of the triangle of Europe, China, and the United States. [Therefore] it would be important for Europe to stop sitting idly and to start coming up with ideas and proposals about how to change the present imbalance in trade. If we fail to do so, we will be compelled to deal with tariffs,” and a Europe without the EU, he observed. The post Hungary’s Orbán Warns Of End EU And Expects Peace In Ukraine Soon (Worthy News In-Depth) appeared first on Worthy Christian News. View the full article

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News SANGHAR, PAKISTAN (Worthy News) – The body of a young missing Christian medical doctor who was “murdered” in southeastern Pakistan amid rising Islamic extremism has been found, Christians confirmed Sunday. The late Dr. Sabar Masih, 24, was found in a canal near the Chak-36 Workshop area of the city of Sanghar in Pakistan’s Sindh province, according to footage obtained by Worthy News. Men carefully took the lifeless body of the doctor out of the water on Tuesday, February 10, not far from his private clinic, the video recording showed. “After a postmortem examination, it was confirmed that an unknown assailant had brutally murdered the young doctor. [There were] signs of severe beating evident on his body,” said Sardar Mushtaq Gill, the founder of LEAD Ministries Pakistan, an advocacy and aid group helping Christians in Pakistan. “Early indications suggest that the murder may have been fueled by religious hatred, as the victim belonged to the Christian faith,” he told Worthy News. Dr. Masih was the latest Christian known to have been killed in Pakistan, a mainly Muslim nation where numerous devoted Christian believers were attacked in recent weeks. In remarks shared with Worthy News, his uncle and fellow doctor, Izhaq, recalled that his nephew, “who wasn’t married,” went missing after going “to work as usual on Monday morning.” MUSLIM AREA He had been “visiting his clinic before heading to the Muslim Jogi residential area to attend to a patient,” the uncle added. “After failing to hear from him for an extended period,” the uncle “grew concerned” and started searching for his nephew. Doctor Izhaq, who used one name, said, “Sabar’s body was found submerged in water, with residents of the Jogi area confirming the location where it had been abandoned.” The local Workshop 36 Chak police station in Sanghar has launched a criminal investigation into the incident, Worthy News learned. Gill, a devoted Christian advocacy official who faced death threats, called for “the immediate arrest of the perpetrators” and “justice for the young doctor and his grieving family.” This “heinous act is a reminder of the growing intolerance and discrimination faced by religious minorities in Pakistan,” Gill told Worthy News. He suggested that Muslim extremists have targeted Christians for their faith in Christ. “We will continue to stand for the rights and protection of Christians and demand swift action from the authorities to ensure justice for Dr. Sabar Masih.” He added that the murder of the doctor “sparked outrage and deep concern within Pakistan’s Christian community, with calls for increased efforts to safeguard the lives of religious minorities in the country.” Pakistan currently ranks 8th on the annual World Watch List of 50 nations, where advocacy group Open Doors says Christians face the most persecution. The post Body of Slain Christian Doctor Discovered in Pakistan appeared first on Worthy Christian News. View the full article

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News RYADH/JERUSALEM (Worthy News) – Saudi Arabia will host an Arab summit to offer an alternative to American President Donald J. Trump’s U.S. ‘takeover’ plan for the Gaza Strip, several sources confirmed Saturday. Officials familiar with the talks said the February 20 gathering of the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates comes ahead of an Arab League meeting in Cairo one week later on the same issue. Palestinian Authority (PA) president Mahmud Abbas was also due to attend the talks amid concerns that the fragile Gaza truce deal could collapse. Trump’s statements on turning Gaza into the “Riviera of the Mediterranean” and removing Palestinians living there added to tensions, though at least some Palestinians have privately welcomed the idea after years of mismanagement by Hamas and its allies. Proposals to be considered at the summit could involve a Gulf-led reconstruction fund, as well as a political deal for Hamas’ exit from power, according to several officials. Trump has pressured Egypt and Jordan in particular, threatening to cut off crucial foreign and defense aid if they don’t come on board his plan. He wants these neighboring states to absorb over 1.2 displaced Palestinians. Yet the UAE envoy to Washington reportedly signaled the possibility of removing all Palestinians from Gaza, in line with Trump’s controversial Gaza plan. UAE Ambassador to the U.S. Yousef Al Otaiba called the plan “difficult but inevitable” and said he sees “no alternative” to restoring prosperity and peace to the troubled region. The post Saudi Arabia To Host Summit On Trump’s Gaza Plan appeared first on Worthy Christian News. View the full article

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News BUDAPEST/MUNICH/RIYADH (Worthy News) – Ukraine’s president calls for the creation of an “army of Europe” amid fears the United States and Russia will decide on his nation’s future at a meeting between the U.S. and Russian leaders in Saudi Arabia. Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the annual Munich Security Conference in Germany on Saturday that U.S. Vice-President JD Vance suggested this week that the old relationship between Europe and America was “ending” and that Europeans need “to adjust to that.” However, Zelenskyy warned that Ukraine would “never accept deals made behind our backs without our involvement” after Donald J. Trump and Vladimir Putin agreed to start peace talks. Saudi Arabia confirmed Friday that it welcomed the idea of them meeting in the Kingdom. “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia commends the phone call that took place between President Donald J. Trump, President of the United States of America, and President Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation, on 12 February 2025. [Riyadh welcomes] the announcement regarding the possibility of holding a summit attended by their excellencies the two Presidents in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” the Foreign Ministry stressed in a statement. “The Kingdom expresses its welcome to hosting a summit in Saudi Arabia,” the ministry added, stressing “its ongoing efforts to achieve lasting peace between Russia and Ukraine.” Trump on Wednesday, after speaking to Putin, said they agreed to “immediately” start negotiations to end the three-year-long war in Ukraine that is believed to have killed and injured more than 1 million people. He also spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenksyy. OVAL OFFICE Separately talking to reporters at the Oval Office in the White House, Trump said he could meet Putin in the “not too distant future” to end the “bloody horrible war.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov cautioned that arranging a meeting between the two leaders could take several months. Yet on Saturday, Worthy News learned that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio held a phone call with Russia’s foreign minister “building on” Wednesday’s call between Trump and Putin. However, Zelenskyy expressed his opposition to being left out of the talks and added that Europe should also have a seat at the table. Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine said Europe would be consulted but would not participate in talks between the United States and Russia if and when they happen. In remarks likely to raise concern in Ukraine and among European allies, Keith Kellogg complained that previous negotiations “had failed” because too many parties had been involved. “It may be like chalk on the blackboard; it may grate a little bit, but I am telling you something that is really quite honest,” he stressed on Saturday. TENSIONS GROWING The Trump approach to Russia’s full scale of Ukraine has led to tensions with Kyiv. Zelenskyy blocked a Trump-led deal that would give the U.S. access to vast amounts of Ukrainian natural resources because it lacked “security guarantees” for Kyiv and “does not protect us.” Trump pushed for access to rare minerals in Ukraine in return for aid or compensation for the support Washington had already provided. Earlier, the recently appointed U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine was a “factory reset” for the NATO military alliance, showing the alliance needed to be “robust,” “strong,” and “real.” However, Zelenskyy said: “Let’s be honest. Now we can’t rule out the possibility that America might say ‘no’ to Europe on an issue that threatens it.” The Ukrainian leader recalled that a “few days ago, President Trump told me about his conversation with Putin. Not once did he mention that America needs Europe at the table – that says a lot.” Zelenskyy warned his audience that “the old days are over when America supported Europe just because it always had.” He added “Many, many leaders have talked about Europe that needs its own military—an army of Europe.” IDEA REJECTED The EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, quickly rebuffed the idea. Yet, several EU leaders initially proposed the concept of a European army, including France’s Emmanuel Macron, who long backed the 27-nation bloc’s own military to reduce its reliance on the United States. As Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine nears its third anniversary, Trump and Hegseth have both said it is unlikely that Ukraine will join the NATO military alliance. The US defense secretary also said a return to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders was unrealistic, referring to lands annexed by Russia. Zelensky said, however, that he would “not take NATO membership for Ukraine off the table.” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also spoke out against a “dictated peace” in the Ukraine conflict. Talking on the Berlin Playbook Podcast on news outlet Politico, Scholz said: “The next task is to ensure that there is no dictated peace here.” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk shares those sentiments. “Europe urgently needs its own plan of action concerning Ukraine and our security, or else other global players will decide about our future. Not necessarily in line with our own interest,” Donald Tusk wrote on social media platform X. “This plan must be prepared now. There’s no time to lose”, he urged The post Ukraine Calls For Europe Army Ahead Of Putin-Trump Talks In Saudi Arabia appeared first on Worthy Christian News. View the full article

By Brett Rowland | The Center Square (Worthy News) – President Donald Trump dismissed federal workers who have been on the job for less than a year as the president continues to reshape the federal workforce during his second term. The move could affect up to 200,000 workers, but some portion were exempt from the move, including about more than 40,000 probationary employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs. It wasn’t immediately clear how many probationary workers were fired on Thursday. More than 200,000 employees – almost 10% of the civilian workforce – have been on the job for a year or less, according to Office of Personnel Management data. The Department of Veterans Affairs announced it dismissed more than 1,000 of its 43,000 probationary employees in a move expected to save $98 million a year. The agency said those let go included non-union probationary employees who have served less than a year in a competitive service appointment or who have served less than two years in an excepted service appointment. “VA will redirect all of those resources back toward health care, benefits and services for VA beneficiaries,” the agency noted. VA has more than 43,000 probationary employees across the department, the vast majority were exempt from termination “because they serve in mission-critical positions – primarily those supporting benefits and services for VA beneficiaries – or are covered under a collective bargaining agreement,” according to the agency. VA employees who signed up for the Office of Personnel Management’s deferred resignation program were also exempt from termination. “The dismissals announced today are part of a government-wide Trump Administration effort to make agencies more efficient, effective and responsive to the American People,” the agency said. “To that end, VA is refocusing on its core mission: providing the best possible care and benefits to Veterans, their families, caregivers and survivors.” Reports from across the federal government indicated mass layoffs. The U.S. Forest Service will fire about 3,400 employees, Politico reported. ABC News reported the dismissal of 1,300 probationary employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Wall Street Journal reported 2,000 Energy Department staffers were fired. The American Federation of Government Employees, a federal employee union that represents 800,000 workers, said the mass layoffs could affect government operations for years to come. “Despite OPM’s guidance earlier this week advising agencies not to engage in sweeping terminations, the administration has plowed forward,” AFGE National President Everett Kelley said. “Agencies have spent years recruiting and developing the next generation of public servants. By firing them en masse, this administration is throwing away the very talent that agencies need to function effectively in the years ahead.” AFGE and other unions have vowed to fight back against the cuts. The National Federation of Federal Employees said it joined other unions in a lawsuit alleging the executive actions violate federal law. “The Trump Administration’s executive actions to gut the federal workforce are not only illegal, but will also have damaging consequences for federal employees and the public services they provide,” NFFE National President Randy Erwin said. “The courts must intervene and hold this Administration accountable for violating federal laws before it is too late.” The dismissal of probationary employees comes after the Trump administration offered deferred resignations to millions of federal employees. Trump’s Office of Personnel Management sent an email Jan. 28 to nearly all federal employees in the executive branch offering them a deferred resignation package – similar to a buyout – called the Fork in the Road directive. It gave federal workers a choice: continue working or leave with eight months of pay. Trump accepted deferred resignations from about 75,000 federal employees, according to the White House. The number of federal employees who accepted the offer amounts to less than 5% of the federal workforce. The administration set a higher goal, expecting 5% to 10% of the federal workforce to take the deal. The administration estimated it could lead to $100 billion in yearly savings, but did not provide information about how it reached that estimate. OPM stopped accepting deferred resignations at 7 p.m. Wednesday. The U.S. government employs about 2.4 million federal workers, excluding the military (about 1.3 million active-duty military personnel) and U.S. Postal Service (about 600,000 employees), according to 2024 Pew Research report. That report noted that the federal government employed 1.87% of the entire civilian workforce. That percentage includes postal employees, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. The Trump administration said that even government employees who stay on could lose their jobs as the president reshapes the federal government and its workforce. A document that went out with the email noted “the federal workforce is expected to undergo significant near-term changes.” The Fork email also noted that “the majority of federal agencies are likely to be downsized through restructurings, realignments, and reductions in force. These actions are likely to include the use of furloughs and the reclassification to at-will status for a substantial number of federal employees.” Reprinted with permission from The Center Square. The post Trump Dismisses Federal Employees on Probationary Status appeared first on Worthy Christian News. View the full article

By Thérèse Boudreaux | The Center Square (Worthy News) – Legislation that would give the U.S. Department of Justice more time to track down and punish pandemic-era unemployment insurance (UI) fraud is on its way to the U.S. House floor. The Pandemic Unemployment Fraud Enforcement Act, introduced by U.S. Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., provides a five-year extension on the statute of limitations for criminally prosecuting those who committed CARES Act related UI fraud. According to the DOJ, there are still 157,000 open UI fraud complaints and 1,648 open investigations. If no congressional action is taken, the current statute will expire on March 27, leaving thousands of Americans unreimbursed for stolen benefits and potentially hundreds of fraudsters would be let off the hook. “Given the volume of existing cases currently under investigation, there is no reason that Congress should not act to ensure law enforcement stays on this beat and goes after these criminals,” Smith told lawmakers. “If we don’t extend the statute of limitations, every one of these investigations will end and those that perpetrated the greatest theft of taxpayer dollars in American history will not be brought to justice.” While the Government Accountability Office estimates that upwards of $100 billion in unemployment benefits were lost to fraud during the pandemic, only $5 billion have been recovered. “Fraudsters ran rampant during COVID, taking advantage of states like California that had weak fraud protections in their unemployment insurance systems,” U.S. Rep. Rudy Yakym, R-Ind., a member of the Ways and Means Committee, said. “We can’t let them off the hook by letting the statute of limitations expire.” Currently, more than 2,000 individuals have been charged with, and over 1,400 convicted of, unemployment insurance fraud since the COVID-19 pandemic began, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The bill has 25 cosponsors, all Republican, and is part of the GOP’s efforts to address waste, fraud, and abuse connected to the federal government. Reprinted with permission from The Center Square. The post $100 Million in COVID-Era Unemployment Fraud Targeted by Republicans appeared first on Worthy Christian News. View the full article

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News reporting from Budapest, Hungary BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – This week, it was “Alice in Orbánland” as the leader of Germany’s far-right AfD party, Alice Weidel, visited Hungary, led by Viktor Orbán, the prime minister who critics say turned his nation into a thiefdom. Opponents claim that the increasingly authoritarian but conservative Orbán, the darling of the political right and one of U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s favored European politicians, took over several previously independent institutions, ranging from the media to the judiciary. Additionally, multiple investigations have revealed that family and friends were awarded billions in dubious tenders, often paid for by European Union funding and Hungarian taxpayers. A documentary film about the issue by investigative journalism outlet Direkt36, 35 “A Dinasztia” (”The Dynasty”), was just released and viewed at least 2.6 million times on video sharing site YouTube alone. Yet, Alice Weidel hailed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán as a “great role model” during her first official meeting with a European leader this week in Budapest, Hungary’s capital and political center. Her party, Alternative for Germany or AfD, “Will follow the path of Hungary, our great role model, if we are part of the government,” said Weidel ahead of the German election on February 23. AFD FUTURE? “It’s completely clear that the AfD is the future,” Orbán argued, adding that all of the far-right party’s platform, from immigration to the economy, would be “beneficial for Hungary” if it were implemented in Germany. Orbán’s decision to meet with Weidel broke the right-wing nationalist’s earlier policy of keeping the AfD at arm’s length. There had been concern about the AfD’s links to neo-Nazi voices within its ranks, and Hungary’s government has close ties with Israel’s current leadership. However, Weidel has denied being an antisemite and says that only her AfD party is capable of protecting the country’s Jews. She told the podcast of Elon Musk, President Trump’s efficiency csar who endorsed the AfD, that “To be very frank, the AfD is the only protector … of the Jewish people in Germany. “Jewish people were “not safe here anymore,” she told Musk from her Berlin office last month. “Hitler was a Socialist, Communist guy,” who wanted to nationalize and control industry, whereas the AfD is a “Conservative, Libertarian” party that wants to empower citizens, Weidel claimed. “We are the opposite.” EU POLICIES That was music to the ears of Orbán. Both leaders condemned the European Union’s immigration and climate policies, arguing they destroyed the European economy. Orbán stressed that both should be “thrown out.” Inviting Weidel was also a way to distract attention from ongoing reports about corruption and dubious business by Orbán’s inner circle. The Dynasty released this month highlights the enrichment of István Tiborcz, Orbán’s son-in-law, and the role that government contracts—considered seriously irregular by EU inspectors—allegedly played in his financial success. The documentary also reveals the state support Tiborcz received for his empire, which includes luxury real estate, financial, and logistics companies, now partly managed by his wife, the prime minister’s eldest daughter, Ráhel Orbán. It traces the origins of this economic structure back to the 1990s and explores the long-standing alliance between Viktor Orbán and Lajos Simicska, a former political ally. Building on years of investigative work by journalists, the film provides an unprecedented insight into the luxurious world that István Tiborcz and Ráhel Orbán have built. ELITE CLUB It uses hidden camera footage to show the elite Botaniq Budai Klub in Budapest, opened by Tiborcz in 2023. In one recording, seen by Worthy News, a club employee discusses alleged illegal gambling taking place at the venue Tiborcz’s company, BDPST Group, which operates the club, vehemently denied the allegations, stating that “no illegal gambling has taken place at the BOTANIQ Buda Club.” They claimed the club’s themed evenings involved “no real stakes, only chips and play money, purely for recreational purposes.” István Tiborcz and Ráhel Orbán declined to be interviewed for the documentary. However, in a written response, Tiborcz claimed his success is due to working with a “good team and excellent managers who make smart business decisions.” Tiborcz acknowledged that his companies had received loans from state-backed banks but argued that “few other market players have carried out developments of this scale without state support.” Regarding tax benefits, he disputed reports that his businesses received tax advantages worth tens of billions of forints, claiming that the total was 2.6 billion forints ($6.9 million), a figure doubted by International investigators. BUSINESS WORLD He added, “I sincerely hope I would be in the same position in the business world even if the prime minister weren’t my father-in-law, though my name would probably be much less well-known.” He added that he does not discuss business matters with Orbán. The prime minister, who has ruled uninterrupted since 2010, told reporters that he does “not deal with business” but focuses on governing the nation. And Magyar Nemzet, a government-aligned newspaper, accused Direkt36 of making the documentary as part of a “Ukrainian secret service operation” aimed at discrediting the prime minister. Direkt36 responded by calling the claim “a lie,” adding that the project—launched nearly a year ago—was “not influenced by any domestic or foreign entity and was not funded by Ukraine.” With questions mounting, the center-right Respect and Freedom Party (Tisza), led by Orbán’s former ally-turned-adversary Péter Magyar, is leading in the polls ahead of next year’s parliamentary election. It doesn’t help that the country suffers from inflation, the government’s promised economic growth doesn’t materialize for millions of Hungarians, and childbirth is the lowest in years despite a pledged pro-family policy. Orbán hopes that showing his strength in a broader right-wing movement that includes the AfD will encourage voters to see him as the strongman who can make Hungary and Europe “great again.” The post Alice in Orbánland: Germany’s AfD Leader Visits Hungary Amid Controversy appeared first on Worthy Christian News. View the full article

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News GAZA CITY/JERUSALEM (Worthy News) – Hamas, designated as a terrorist organization by Israel and most of its allies, has released three hostages, including Alexander Troufanov, Argentine-Israeli Yair Horn, and American-Israeli Sagui Dekel-Chen, officials say. It came shortly before a noon (Israel Time) deadline passed for Hamas to free hostages on Saturday. Israeli Government Spokesman David Mencer declared, “If those three are not released, if Hamas does not return our hostages by Saturday noon, the ceasefire will end, and the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) will resume fighting until the final defeat of Hamas.” After seeing three nearly-starved hostages coming out in the last exchange, U.S. President Donald J. Trump even demanded that Hamas let “all” of the remaining hostages go this weekend. “Saturday at 12 o’clock, and after that, I would say all hell is going to break out,” Trump cautioned. Yet, he also left the final decision up to Israel. Hamas held two of the hostages released Saturday, while Islamic Jihad held the third. Those freed had been held since October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led fighters attacked Israel, killing about 1,200 people and abducting some 250 others in what the Israeli government viewed as the worst atrocity against Jews since the Holocaust, also known as the Shoah. Hamas transported the hostages to Khan Younis in southern Gaza, where they were handed over to the Red Cross. From there, they were taken to an Israeli military zone, witnesses said. The release had been uncertain for days, with Israel warning it would resume military operations if Hamas failed to comply with the cease-fire accord, including the correct release of hostages in line with agreements. Last week, Hamas briefly suspended hostage releases, accusing Israel of violating the terms, but after international mediation, the process resumed. The post Three Hostages Released by Hamas in Gaza appeared first on Worthy Christian News. View the full article

US Energy Department Rushing To Bring Back Nuclear Energy Specialists By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News WASHINGTON (Worthy News) – The U.S. Energy Department is rushing to bring back nuclear energy specialists after abruptly terminating hundreds of jobs as part of a broader government overhaul, several American sources say. The fired employees were responsible for designing and maintaining the nation’s cache of nuclear weapons at the National Nuclear Safety Administration at a time when the United States faces nuclear threats from countries ranging from North Korea and potentially Iran to Russia and China. They were part of a larger wave of workers dismissed from the Energy Department, drawing alarm from national security experts, Worthy News learned. Between 300 and 400 NNSA workers were terminated, reported the Bloomberg News service, citing a person familiar with the matter. The agency’s quick reversal was announced Friday in an all-staff meeting, with officials saying the NNSA is seeking to recall the workers because they handle sensitive national security secrets. The agency reportedly also plays a role a key role in counter-terrorism, transporting nuclear weapons around the country and responding to nuclear incidents around the world. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE Recent focuses have included investigating how artificial intelligence (Al) can be used to make it potentially easier for people to make nuclear bombs, said Jill Hruby, who served as the NNSA administrator during the Biden administration. “These people are likely never going to come back and work for the government,” Hruby warned. “We’ve had a very active program requiring an increase to our staff, so the indiscriminate layoffs of people will be really difficult for the coming years,” he told Bloomberg News. Among the deepest cuts was to the Energy Department’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations, where roughly 25 percent of its staff was eliminated, according to a breakdown of the cuts seen by Bloomberg News. That office reportedly received some $27 billion in funding from the Inflation Reduction Act and bipartisan infrastructure law to finance carbon capture, hydrogen, and advanced nuclear projects. Among its priorities is managing an $8 billion plan to establish a network of hydrogen hubs throughout the U.S. Other cuts included dismissing about 50 people from the Energy Department’s Loan Programs Office, according to well-informed officials. The Office, dubbed the “green bank,” reportedly swelled to $400 billion in lending authority under previous U.S. President Joe Biden. It funded loans to companies including Rivian Automotive Inc. and California utility PG&E Corp. for a host of clean-energy projects, Bloomberg News said. GENERAL COUNCIL That wasn’t all. Cuts also included roughly a dozen people from the Energy Department’s General Council office and about 20 individuals in its Grid Deployment Office, which oversees some $22 billion in federal funding for power grid projects. Additionally, about 15 people were fired in the Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains and about half a dozen from the Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response, which guards against threats to the power grid and other energy infrastructure Sources said that roughly 10 percent of the Energy Department’s information technology team was eliminated elsewhere. Yet, with hundreds of nuclear specialists being dismissed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and taking state secrets with them, security concerns were raised late Friday. “We’ve had a very active program requiring an increase to our staff so the indiscriminate layoffs of people will be really difficult for the coming years,” Hruby noticed. There has been confusion among bureaucrats about the Trump policy: At the Small Business Administration, some workers who were to pack their bags received a second message telling them that they weren’t being terminated and that their jobs were safe. Yet later, they reportedly received a third message telling them they were, in fact, “out of a job.” The post US Energy Department Rushing To Bring Back Nuclear Energy Specialists appeared first on Worthy Christian News. View the full article

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News ISLAMABAD (Worthy News) – A Presbyterian church pastor was recovering from his injuries Friday after being shot in Pakistan’s Punjab province, church sources told Worthy News. The suspects were likely Islamic gunmen amid growing extremism toward devoted Christians in the Muslim-majority nation, according to an assessment by Worthy News, which documented numerous attacks against the Christian minority. https://worthynews-1fe3e.kxcdn.com/wordpressimages/2025/02/pakistan-pastor-158x360.jpeg“Pastor Barakat was rushed to Civil Hospital Gujranwala, where he underwent emergency surgery to remove the bullet, and a chest tube was inserted,” confirmed Sardar Mushtaq Gill, founder of aid group LEAD Ministries Pakistan. Footage obtained from the hospital by Worthy News showed wounds on his arm and the pastor breathing through an oxygen mask. “Despite the efforts of the medical team, his condition remains critical due to the significant blood loss caused by the gunshot wound. He is currently receiving treatment in the hospital,” Gill explained to Worthy News. POLICE REPORT A police report, or First Information Report (FIR) seen by Worthy News, confirmed that a criminal investigation had begun. The local Police Station Ghakhar Mandi said in the report that the accused, “acting in concert, allegedly attacked the victim with the intention of causing fatal injuries. Despite the severity of the attack, the victim survived, and the authorities are investigating the case. The accused will face joint liability for the crime under these legal provisions.” Yet, on Friday, there were no reports of arrests. Pastor Imran Amanat, the leader of LEAD Ministries Pakistan, told Worthy News that he demands the immediate arrest of the perpetrators as “such violent acts against religious leaders must not go unpunished.” He recalled that Pastor Barakat “devoted his life to serving the community, spreading peace, and promoting love. This violent attack is an attack on the values that bind our society together. We demand justice for Pastor Barakat and call on authorities to act swiftly and arrest those responsible.” https://worthynews-1fe3e.kxcdn.com/wordpressimages/2025/02/pakistan-pastor-shot-270x360.jpegGill called the attack “an attempt to harass and discourage the Christian community, as well as its leaders.” He stressed that such acts of violence were “to intimidate and silence the voices of Christians who are working for peace, justice, and the well-being of all citizens.” These attacks are not just against one individual, but against the Christian community as a whole,” he added. “We must stand united against these efforts to create fear and division. The authorities must act decisively to ensure the safety of religious leaders and the Christian community.” BROADER CONCERNS The incident has raised concerns about the safety of Christian leaders and other believers in the region. Christians told Worthy News they rallied “together in prayer for Pastor Barakat’s swift recovery and the safety of all believers in the area.” In remarks shared with Worthy News, Reverend Saleem Gill, the District Superintendent of the area’s All Saints Church, says he “sympathies and assured the family of the continuous prayers and support from the wider Christian community.” LEAD Ministries Pakistan urged all Christians to “continue praying for the victim’s family and to remain united in the face of this tragedy.” It comes amid broader concerns about Pakistani Christians, who comprise nearly two percent of the country’s more than 250 million people, according to Christian researchers. Pakistan ranks 8th on the annual World Watch List of 50 nations where advocacy group Open Doors claims Christians face the most persecution. It says Christian believers in Pakistan are “disproportionately affected” by threats and violence partly due to Pakistan’s notorious blasphemy laws and Islamic extremism, killing and injuring numerous Christians throughout the years. The post Pakistani Pastor Shot By Two Assailants (Worthy News Investigation) appeared first on Worthy Christian News. View the full article

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News WASHINGTON/VATICAN CITY (Worthy News) – The border czar in the administration of U.S. President Donald J. Trump has accused Pope Francis of hypocrisy for condemning mass deportations of illegal immigrants in the United States while living at the Vatican, which is surrounded by a wall. Tom Homan reacted to Pope Francis’ letter criticizing the Trump administration’s policies as unbiblical. Francis recalled that Jesus, Mary, and Joseph were “emigrants” and “refugees” to escape “the wrath of an ungodly king.” Yet Homan, who identified as a baptized and confirmed Catholic, said he “got harsh words for the pope.” He urged the pontiff of over 1 billion Calling to first “fix the Catholic Church” and not “attack us for securing our border.” Also, “He’s got a wall around the Vatican, does he not? So, he’s got a wall around to protect his people and himself but we can’t have a wall around the United States?”, the official added. “I wish he’d stick to the Catholic Church and fix that and leave border enforcement to us,” Homan concluded. MORE CONTROVERSIES It wasn’t the first time that Francis’ actions raised eyebrows. In 2016, three Syrian refugee families flew to the Vatican with Pope Francis following his brief but provocative visit to a Greek island at the center of the European migrant crisis. “The Pope has desired to make a gesture of welcome regarding refugees, accompanying on his plane to Rome three families of refugees from Syria, 12 people in all, including six children,” the Vatican said at the time after the pope’s plane took off from Lesbos, Greece. Fast forward, Francis suggested in his letter to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on Tuesday that the United States should embrace migrants fleeing war, persecution, and poverty. He noted the “major crisis that is taking place in the United States with the initiation of a program of mass deportations.” Francis acknowledged that “one must recognize the right of a nation to defend itself and keep communities safe from those who have committed violent or serious crimes while in the country or prior to arrival. However, he added that “the act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness.” The post Trump’s Border Csar Condemns Pope’s Migration Views appeared first on Worthy Christian News. View the full article

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News MUNICH, GERMANY (Worthy News) – Investigators say an Afghan migrant who pushed his car into a workers protest in the German city of Munich, injuring nearly 40 people, was a bodybuilding “Islamic extremist” shouting “Allahu Akbar” or “Allah is the Greatest.” At least 36 people — including a mother and her 2-year-old child — were reportedly injured. Additionally, a 12-year-old child who was severely injured was still in intensive care, officials explained. Farhad Noori, a 24-year-old who had just been turned down for asylum, admitted to intentionally driving his mini-cooper car into the 1,500-strong crowd in Munich in an apparent “Islamic extremist attack,” according to German law enforcement. Witnesses said they heard the car as it drove into the crowd on Thursday. The police reportedly fired a single shot as they went to arrest the driver. Ambulances and a helicopter rushed to the scene, according to witnesses. Local police then set up a temporary post in a nearby restaurant, officials said, asking witnesses to come forward. Officers also used dogs to search the car, which was lifted onto a flatbed tow truck and impounded, Worthy News learned. FBI INVOLVED The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is assisting German police in the investigation, according to sources familiar with the case. Munich Mayor Dieter Reiter said he was “deeply shocked” by the apparent Islamic attack. The violence interrupted a demonstration after Verdi, one of Germany’s biggest trade unions, called a one-day strike demanding higher wages for some public sector workers, including those employed in daycare, garbage collection, and city administration. Police officers were accompanying the roughly 1,500 marchers as they walked down a public street where the car attack happened, witnesses said. The alleged driver came to Germany as an unaccompanied minor in 2016, according to the authorities. During his asylum application, he allegedly said that his father “had been murdered in Afghanistan” and that the killers were looking for him. The authorities did not believe his testimony then or give him official asylum status. BUREAUCRATIC TURN In a standard bureaucratic turn, Munich gave the man a temporary residence permit in 2021, which allowed him access to education opportunities and to work. Officials said that the man attended school and eventually started working in retail security for two private firms before he decided to drive his car into a crowd. The came at a sensitive time as the capital of Germany’s southeastern state of Bavaria sees heavy security at the three-day Munich Security Conference, an annual gathering of international foreign and security policy officials. U.S. Vice President JD Vance was due to attend the conference to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy amid the ongoing full-scale Russian invasion of his country. Also on Thursday, prosecutors in the eastern German city of Dresden said a suspect was being held in a foiled plot to attack a shelter for asylum seekers. They explained that they had “received an anonymous tip-off that a 21-year-old German man from the Meissen area had armed himself with explosives to carry out an attack on a shelter for asylum seekers in Senftenberg.” No more details were immediately available, but it comes amid mounting anger over attacks by suspected Islamic extremists among migrants. Observers noted that Thursday’s incident comes less than two months after a man rammed a truck through a crowd at a Christmas market in the eastern city of Magdeburg, killing five people and wounding more than 200 others. The German government said the tragedy would have been hard to prevent and that the suspect appeared to be “mentally disturbed.” The post Dozens Injured As ‘Islamic Extremist’ Drives Car In German Crowd (Worthy News Focus) appeared first on Worthy Christian News. View the full article

by Emmitt Barry, Worthy News Correspondent (Worthy News) – Elon Musk urged the US to eliminate entire federal agencies to cut spending and reorganize priorities, criticizing the current government as a “rule of bureaucracy” rather than a democracy. https://www.worthynews.com/wordpressimages/2025/02/Musk-Delete-Agencies.mp4 In a video call during the World Governments Summit in Dubai, Elon Musk discussed the Trump administration’s objectives to minimize and ultimately eradicate waste within the federal government. He advocated for the elimination of certain federal agencies, though he did not specify which ones. “We really have here rule of the bureaucracy as opposed to rule of the people — democracy,” Musk said. Musk advocated his call to eliminate certain federal agencies, stating, “I think we do need to delete entire agencies as opposed to leave a lot of them behind,” Musk said. “If we don’t remove the roots of the weed, then it’s easy for the weed to grow back.” Elon Musk criticized the effectiveness of U.S. agencies like USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy, questioning their recent achievements in promoting democracy. He noted that under Trump’s leadership, the U.S. has shown less interest in intervening in other countries’ affairs. The post Elon Musk Calls For Deletion of Some Federal Agencies (Video) appeared first on Worthy Christian News. View the full article

Friend, continue to lift your brother up! Exodus 17:9-12 And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek: tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand. So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek: and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. We've received numerous emails from readers globally who are praying for us and specifically for the ministry in Israel. This outpouring of support has been incredibly encouraging to us. When Israel was fighting Amalek, Moses stood on top of the hill overlooking the battle with his hands lifted high, and as long as they were lifted, Israel prevailed. When his arms became weary and dropped down, the battle went to Amalek, so Aaron and Hur drew up alongside Moses, and they lifted up his hands, keeping them raised until sundown because Moses didn't have the strength to fight the battle alone. Friend, do you know a brother or sister going through a rough time? Someone you know who really needs prayer? I'm sure we all do. So be an encouragement this weekend – lift your brother or sister in prayer, stand beside them, and help them through the battle. You never know how your help might affect a far greater spiritual battle they're involved in. And with so much work to be done, remember that he who refreshes will also be refreshed! Your family in the Lord with much agape love, George, Baht Rivka, Elianna and Obadiah (Irvine, California) Editor's Note: Latest Video: Worthy Wrap-Up: Trump's Gaza Saga Editor's Note: Feel free to share any of our content from Worthy, including Devotions, News articles, and more, on your social platforms. You have full permission to copy and repost anything we produce. Editor's Note: During this war, we have been live blogging throughout the day -- sometimes minute by minute on our Telegram channel. Be sure to check it out! Around the World Pope Condemns Trump’s Migration Policies Pope Francis has condemned U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s attempt to deport illegal migrants, saying the “family of Nazareth in exile, Jesus, Mary and Joseph, emigrants in Egypt and refugees there” are “the example” why the policy fails. U.S. Aircraft Carrier Collides with Merchant Ship in Mediterranean Sea The USS Harry Truman collided with a merchant ship in the Mediterranean Sea near Port Said, Egypt, on Wednesday evening. EU Concerned Over Role US In Ukraine War European powers, including Britain, France, and Germany, say they must participate in any future negotiations on war-torn Ukraine’s fate amid growing tensions about the U.S. role in those talks. US: AI Limitations Could Lead To Global Censorship United States Vice President JD Vance has told the European Union that its "massive" regulations on artificial intelligence (AI) could strangle the technology and rejected content moderation as "authoritarian censorship.” META CEO Zuckerberg Faced ‘Death In Pakistan’; Christians Not Surprised (Worthy News Focus) Pakistani Christians say they are not surprised that social media platform Facebook-parent Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed that he was “almost sentenced to death for blasphemy in Pakistan." Israel-Palestinian Conflict Israel to Maintain a ‘Buffer Zone’ In Syria The Trump administration will back Israel's efforts to maintain a buffer zone in Syria for the foreseeable future, the Jerusalm Post reported. Israel May Strike Iranian Nuclear Sites in 2025, Report Says U.S. intelligence agencies determined that Israel might be planning major attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities this year, seeking to capitalize on Iran's vulnerabilities, the Wall Street Journal reported. Inside the United States President Trump Signs Memo to Study Reciprocal Tariffs on Trade Partners President Trump signed a presidential memorandum on reciprocal trade on Thursday, instructing federal agencies to explore adjusting U.S. tariffs to mirror the duties and economic barriers imposed by other nations on U.S. products. Judge Clears Path for Trump to Buy Out 75,000 Federal Employees A federal judge has cleared the way for President Donald Trump to move forward with plans to trim the federal workforce through a deferred resignation program. Confirmed: RFK Jr. to Focus on Chronic Disease, Healthcare Costs as HHS Head The U.S. Senate has voted 52-48 Thursday to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services, where he will oversee the nation's largest healthcare programs including Medicare and Medicaid. US Central Bank Boss Against Digital Currency In a victory for opponents of the project, the boss of the U.S. Federal Reserve has said the central bank won’t develop its own digital currency as long as he is in charge. Christian News House Church Leaders Once Pardoned, Re-Arrested in Iran Two Christians in their 60s, who were "pardoned" and released after serving a combined six years in prison for leading house churches in Iran, have been re-arrested, a non-profit organization advocating for persecuted Christians reported. Worthy Insights IDF successfully tests ‘world’s most advanced naval strike system’ (Video) The Israeli Navy, the Directorate of Defense Research & Development (DDR&D) in the Defense Ministry and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) successfully conducted an operational test of the Gabriel 5 sea-to-sea missile, the military reported on Thursday. Secret Pact Between 22 Democratic AGs Discovered, Plot to Defy Trump Exposed: Op-Ed After the 2024 election, leftist politicians could have tackled pressing issues like inflation, crime, the border crisis, opioid deaths, and retail theft to rebuild trust in the Democratic brand after a major electoral defeat. Instead, officials in 22 states and the District of Columbia, including several Trump-won swing states, concentrated on preparing a defense for birthright citizenship against potential challenges from the Trump administration. Veterans Chaplain Censored for Biblical Sermon, Asks New VA Secretary to Intervene A U.S. Army Reserve chaplain is asking for the newly appointed Secretary of Veterans Affairs under the Trump administration to revoke the censorship of sermons–a policy adopted by the V.A.– after the chaplain shared a text from Romans 1, where the Apostle Paul addresses homosexuality. Faithful to the End: Powerful New Film Marks Ten Years after 21 Christians Martyred by ISIS Ten years ago, ISIS terrorists marched 21 Christian men to their deaths on a Libyan beach. Their story of faith, sacrifice, and eternal hope is now being memorialized in a new animated film. Pastor Gears Up for Potentially Historic Nationwide Baptism Event: ‘God Can Do Anything’ Mark Francey of Oceans Church in San Juan Capistrano, California, is gearing up for Baptize America, a one-day event on June 8 that he hopes will become the “world’s largest synchronized water baptism.” ‘Reverse flow’: Illegal immigrants streaming back home after being blocked by Trump’s border President Trump’s border buildup has been so successful that America’s southern neighbors are dealing with a startling new problem: migrants streaming south, trying to return home after realizing they wouldn’t make it to the U.S. View the full article

by Emmitt Barry, Worthy News Correspondent (Worthy News) – President Trump signed a presidential memorandum on reciprocal trade on Thursday, instructing federal agencies to explore adjusting U.S. tariffs to mirror the duties and economic barriers imposed by other nations on U.S. products. “They charge us a tax or tariff and we charge them,” Trump said during a press event at the White House. “We want a level playing field,” Trump said. Contrary to international concerns, the memo does not immediately enact tariffs. Instead, it tasks the Commerce Department with collecting data on trading partners’ tariffs and non-tariff barriers. These findings are to be reported to the president, and the Commerce Department is required to deliver a report on achieving reciprocal trade status by April 1, as stated by Commerce Secretary nominee Howard Lutnick. In a post on Truth Social following the event, Trump outlined his plan, which includes measures for “subsidies” and “Nonmonetary Tariffs and Trade Barriers” used by other nations. He emphasized, “America has helped many Countries throughout the years, at great financial cost. It is now time that these Countries remember this, and treat us fairly.” Implementing reciprocal tariffs would fulfill a Trump campaign promise and tackle a major trade issue for the president and his economic advisors. Trade experts noted this week that the reciprocal-trade action could undermine the World Trade Organization’s “most favored nation” status, which mandates equal tariff and regulatory treatment among member countries. The post President Trump Signs Memo to Study Reciprocal Tariffs on Trade Partners appeared first on Worthy Christian News. View the full article

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News WASHINGTON/VATICAN CITY/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Pope Francis has condemned U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s attempt to deport illegal migrants, saying the “family of Nazareth in exile, Jesus, Mary and Joseph, emigrants in Egypt and refugees there” are “the example” why the policy fails. In a letter seen by Worthy News on Thursday, Francis urged American bishops not to buy into Trump’s criticism of migrants arriving in the United States without proper documents but instead advocate for their rights and protections. “I exhort all the faithful of the Catholic Church, and all men and women of goodwill, not to give in to narratives that discriminate against and cause unnecessary suffering to our migrant and refugee brothers and sisters,” he wrote. He also wrote to the American bishops, “What is built on the basis of force, and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being, begins badly and will end badly.” The pontiff of over 1 billion Catholics has been sharply critical of the president’s immigration push since his first term. Before Trump’s inauguration, Pope Francis called his pledge to deport millions of undocumented immigrants a “disgrace.” ‘NOT CHRISTIAN’ However, the two apparently worked out their differences during Trump’s visit to the Vatican in 2017, which Trump called him “fantastic.” Fast forward, Pope Francis wrote, “Mary and Joseph, emigrants in Egypt and refugees there to escape the wrath of an ungodly king, are the model, the example, and the consolation of emigrants and pilgrims of every age and country.” He stressed that “all refugees of every condition” beset by “persecution or necessity” are forced to leave their homeland, beloved family, and dear friends for foreign lands.” “Likewise, Jesus Christ, loving everyone with a universal love, educates us in the permanent recognition of the dignity of every human being, without exception,” the pope added. “In fact, when we speak of ‘infinite and transcendent dignity’ we wish to emphasize that the most decisive value possessed by the human person surpasses and sustains every other juridical consideration that can be made to regulate life in society.” Therefore, “all the Christian faithful and people of goodwill are called upon to consider the legitimacy of norms and public policies in the light of the dignity of the person and his or her fundamental rights, not vice versa,” he said. MAJOR CRISIS “I have followed closely the major crisis that is taking place in the United States with the initiation of a program of mass deportations,” Francis added. He acknowledged that “one must recognize the right of a nation to defend itself and keep communities safe from those who have committed violent or serious crimes while in the country or prior to arrival.” However, “That said, the act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness,” Pope Francis stressed. There was no immediate comment from the White House. Yet President Trump has said he is not against and will even welcome migrants entering the United States legally. The post Pope Condemns Trump’s Migration Policies appeared first on Worthy Christian News. View the full article

by Emmitt Barry, Worthy News Correspondent (Worthy News) – Two Christians in their 60s, who were “pardoned” and released after serving a combined six years in prison for leading house churches in Iran, have been re-arrested, a non-profit organization advocating for persecuted Christians reported. Nasser Navard Gol-Tapeh and Joseph Shahbazian were re-arrested at their homes in the Tehran region by intelligence agents on the morning of February 6, Article18 reported. They were taken back to the notorious Evin Prison in the city. Nasser is reportedly on a hunger strike to protest his unlawful re-arrest. Article18 sources also reported that several other Tehran Christians were arrested at the same time and remain in custody. Joseph, an Iranian-Armenian, and Nasser, a Christian convert, were re-arrested and remain prominent examples of targeted Christian detentions in Iran. Both received 10-year sentences for “actions against national security” due to their involvement in house churches, underscoring the ongoing risks for such groups. Despite centuries of persecution, the number of Iranian Christians has surged over the last 20 years, surpassing the growth seen in the previous 13 centuries since Islam arrived in Iran. From an estimated 500 in 1979, today, hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of Iranians are embracing Christianity and acknowledging Jesus as their Lord and Savior. In 2023, George Whitten, the founder of Worthy News, interviewed a leading house church pastor in Iran, inquiring about the rapid growth of the revival there. The pastor explained, “We do not baptize anyone unless they are willing to post their baptism on YouTube,” highlighting their commitment by adding, “We are all in for the gospel’s sake.” In 2023, a senior Iranian cleric revealed that about 50,000 of Iran’s 75,000 mosques are closed, highlighting the rapid growth of Christianity and disillusionment with “the regime’s use of Islam to justify its authoritarian rule.” In 2025, Open Doors lists Iran as the ninth worst country for Christian persecution, highlighting the severe risks and ongoing challenges Christians face there due to the Iranian regime’s control of the country. The post House Church Leaders Once Pardoned, Re-Arrested in Iran appeared first on Worthy Christian News. View the full article

By Sarah Roderick-Fitch | The Center Square (Worthy News) – The USS Harry Truman collided with a merchant ship in the Mediterranean Sea near Port Said, Egypt, on Wednesday evening. No injuries or ship flooding have been reported by Navy officials. The U.S. Sixth Fleet Public Affairs released a statement confirming the collision involved the merchant vessel Besiktas-M. According to the Sixth Fleet’s statement, “The collision did not endanger the Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) as there are no reports of flooding or injuries. The propulsion plants are unaffected and in a safe and stable condition. The incident is under investigation.” Port Said is located at the entrance to the Suez Canal on the Mediterranean. Navy officials have not disclosed if the 100,000-ton nuclear-powered carrier was transiting the canal at the time of the collision, which occurred at around 11:45 p.m. local time. The Truman, homeported in Norfolk, Va., deployed in September 2024 and, according to the ship’s social media, most recently held a port visit in Greece. The ship has a crew of approximately 5,000 sailors and Marines. In the summer of 2017, the Navy experienced two ship collisions between two merchant ships, both occurring in the Seventh Fleet’s area of responsibility. In June 2017, the USS Fitzgerald (DDG 62), a destroyer, collided with the ACX Crystal, a Philippine-flagged container ship just over 60 miles southwest of Yokosuka, Japan, home of the U.S. Navy’s Seventh Fleet. The collision resulted in the deaths of seven sailors. Several factors were blamed for the collision, including lack of communication and crew fatigue. In August 2017, the USS John S. McCain (DDG 56), a destroyer, collided with the Alnic MC, a Liberian-flagged tanker, off the coast of Singapore. The collision resulted in the deaths of 10 sailors. The primary cause for that collision was blamed on “insufficient training, inadequate bridge operating procedures,” and lack of operational oversight, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. Reprinted with permission from The Center Square. The post U.S. Aircraft Carrier Collides with Merchant Ship in Mediterranean Sea appeared first on Worthy Christian News. View the full article

by Emmitt Barry, Worthy News Correspondent (Worthy News) – The Trump administration will back Israel’s efforts to maintain a buffer zone in Syria for the foreseeable future, the Jerusalm Post reported. Despite the EU and UN making strides in normalizing relations with Syria’s new regime, led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, at a Paris summit, Israel remains wary. The state views the new regime as a potential “wolf in sheep’s clothing,” confident in the Trump administration’s understanding of their concerns. Even if the Europeans and the UN pressure Israel to withdraw in the coming months, with support from the Trump administration to maintain the buffer zone, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is expected to stay there for an extended period. Pressure on Israel to leave the Syria buffer zone has been rising due to Sharaa’s pledge to honor the 1974 armistice and his efforts to reconnect with the West. Meanwhile, earlier statements by Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Katz about maintaining their presence in Syria through 2025 or beyond were seen as strategies to emphasize Israeli security concerns in Syria. The post Israel to Maintain a ‘Buffer Zone’ In Syria appeared first on Worthy Christian News. View the full article