WorthyNewsBot

(Worthy News) - Congress is heading toward a budget showdown next month after the two chambers agreed to a defense authorization plan for fiscal year 2018 that exceeds federal spending caps by roughly $85 billion. Lawmakers in coming weeks will have to reconcile the cost of the $700 billion National Defense Authorization Act with current spending limits, but members have yet to come to an understanding on how to deal with the issue. The spending compromise, unveiled last week by the House and Senate Armed Services committees, still needs final approval by the full House and Senate, but the caps imposed by the 2011 Budget Control Act must be lifted before the legislation can be passed into law. [ Source: Washington Free Beacon (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - Iran is building a new military facility in Syria, the BBC has reported based on a Western intelligence source. Located at Al-Kiswah, south of Damascus, the facility is one of many alleged Iranian bases in Syria and illustrates how Iran is establishing a permanent presence in the country. Israel has repeatedly warned against Iran’s plans to put down roots close to its northern border. “We will not allow it [Syria] to be used as a forward operating base of a Shi’a axis,” Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman’s office said on Saturday after Israel shot down a drone near the Golan Heights. [ Source: Jerusalem Post (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - House and Senate Republicans will take up separate tax reform proposals next week as they race to complete legislation by the end of the year. The Senate kicks off its tax reform effort on Monday when it begins marking up the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which would provide $1.5 trillion in tax savings by cutting individual, small business and corporate tax rates. Senate Republicans unveiled their proposal on Thursday to generally positive reviews from GOP lawmakers, although many complained that the plan delayed the corporate tax rate until 2019. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, suggested the legislation may change in his committee next week as lawmaker mark up the bill. [ Source: Washington Examiner (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - For many evangelicals, fiery Alabama politician and judge Roy Moore has been a longtime hero. Others have sometimes cringed at his heated rhetoric and bellicose style. Now, as Moore's Republican U.S. Senate campaign is imperiled by allegations of sexual overtures to a 14-year-old girl when he was in his 30s, there's an outpouring of impassioned and soul-searching discussion in evangelical ranks. "This is one of those excruciating decision moments for evangelicals," Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said in a telephone interview. "These allegations, if true, are devastating. If true, this is a very big deal." [ Source: Fox News (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - Hundreds of mourners crowded into the tiny town of Sutherland Springs for the first Sunday service since a gunman stormed the First Baptist Church a week earlier, killing more than two dozen people in the worst mass shooting in Texas history. In a service that was emotional and painful but also uplifting, Pastor Frank Pomeroy shared his personal heartache and a message that the community bound together by faith can move past the evil that attacked the church seven days earlier. "Rather than choose darkness as that young man did that day, we choose life," said Pomeroy, whose 14-year-old daughter, Annabelle, was among those killed in the Nov. 5 rampage. His voice cracked as he spoke about losing his child. [ Source: Fox News (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - President Trump clarified Sunday that he believes the assessment of U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia meddled in last year’s presidential election, but also said he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin is “sincere” in his denials of interference. “I believe that he feels that he and Russia did not meddle in the election,” Mr. Trump said of Mr. Putin at a news conference in Hanoi with Vietnam’s president. “As to whether I believe it, I’m with our agencies. As currently led by fine people, I believe very much in our intelligence agencies.” On Saturday, Mr. Trump said the former heads of the FBI, the CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence were “hacks” whose judgment he questioned on the matter of Russian meddling. The president, who now has new people heading all three agencies, said Sunday that he has worked “very strongly” with the new leadership in U.S. intelligence. [ Source: Washington Times (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - If the two-state solution fails, Palestinians will back a one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with full rights for all citizens, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday. In a pre-recorded speech broadcast on large screens in Gaza City as tens of thousands gathered to mark the death of PLO leader Yasser Arafat, Abbas, who has not visited Gaza since his allies were thrown out by Hamas in 2007, hailed his predecessor’s legacy. “Our Palestinian people, who have always loved you as a great leader, still have that love, respect and loyalty,” he said. Abbas said the Palestinians were pushing ahead to seal reconciliation and to achieve Arafat’s “dream… for freedom, sovereignty and independence on our Palestinian national soil.” [ Source: Times of Israel (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - Saudi Arabia last week ordered Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to either accept an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal being put together by the Trump administration, or resign, according to an Israeli report Sunday. The Trump administration has begun drafting an Israeli-Palestinian peace proposal based on a two-state solution, officials and analysts quoted by The New York Times said on Saturday. A senior White House adviser said the plan would attempt to tackle controversial issues such as the status of Jerusalem and West Bank settlements. [ Source: Times of Israel (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - Authorities traced the origins of a mysterious radioactive cloud that passed over some 28 countries in Europe recently. First discovered over Italy in early October, the cloud was found to have originated sometime in September near the border of Russia and Kazakhstan. A report issued by France’s Radioprotection and Nuclear Safety Institute (IRSN) detailed the findings. The radioactivity was discovered after monitors in Italy picked up on the ruthenium-106 isotope in the air. “It’s somewhere in South Russia,” health director for the IRSN Jean-Christophe Gariel told NPR of the origins, noting that it was likely from between the Volga River and the Ural Mountains. [ SourceL IBT (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - Three U.S. Navy aircraft carriers joined South Korea forces on Saturday to begin joint naval exercises in the waters off the Korean Peninsula in a show of force against North Korea as President Donald Trump ends his five-country Asia tour. The USS Ronald Reagan, USS Nimitz and USS Theodore Roosevelt strike groups operated together, marking the first time three American aircraft carriers have trained together since 2007, according to the U.S. Pacific Fleet which released a video of the training on Sunday. The carriers will conduct several training activities, including air defense drills, sea surveillance and defense air combat, until Tuesday. The four-day exercises also will involve 11 U.S. Aegis ships and seven South Korean naval vessels, including two Aegis ships. The Aegis technology refers to missile tracking and guidance. [ Source: Fox News (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - Saad Hariri, who resigned as Lebanon's Prime Minister on November 4, said on Sunday that he is free to leave Saudi Arabia, refuting claims that Riyadh had put him under house arrest. "I am free here [in Saudi Arabia]. If I want to travel tomorrow, I will," Hariri told Future Television, a broadcaster close to his political party. "I'll return to Lebanon very soon." It was his first television appearance since his shock resignation announcement last week during a visit to Saudi Arabia. [ Source: Deutche Welle (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - US President Donald Trump and his advisors have begun formulating a new peace plan that is set to surpass in scale prior Israeli-Palestinian peace-making initiatives, the New York Times reported Saturday. The report says Trump's main advisors currently working on the plan are special advisors Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, deputy national security adviser Dina H. Powell, US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and others from the State Department and National Security Council. The team is said to consult with the consul general in Jerusalem, Donald Bloom. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu complimented Trump and his advisors last week for “taking a fresh approach” and “thinking out of the box.” [ Source: Jerusalem Post (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - A Houston federal judge has given FEMA three weeks to decide if its going to change its policy of denying disaster relief to religious institutions, rejecting FEMA's attempt to delay a challenge by three Texas churches. Since the devastation by Hurricane Harvey in late August, FEMA has denied houses of worship access to federal disaster aid grants due to their religious status while allowing other nonprofits and businesses to apply, but Judge Keith Ellison has given the agency until Dec. 1 to change that policy. If FEMA fails to change the policy within the deadline, the judge said he would issue a ruling. [ Source: Christian Post (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - Tens of thousands of people joined a nationalist march in Warsaw on Saturday, organised to coincide with Poland's independence day. Marchers chanted religious slogans such as "God, honour, country" and some called out racist chants including "Pure Poland, white Poland". An "anti-fascist" counter-protest attracted about 2,000 people. [ Source (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - A once-empty parking lot at Northrop Grumman Corp.’s top secret aircraft plant in Palmdale is now jammed with cars that pour in during the predawn hours. More than a thousand new employees are working for the time being in rows of temporary trailers, a dozen tan-colored tents and a vast assembly hangar at the desert site near the edge of urban Los Angeles County. It is here that Northrop is building the Air Force’s new B-21 bomber, a stealthy bat-winged jet that is being designed to slip behind any adversary’s air defense system and deliver devastating airstrikes for decades to come. The Pentagon is aiming to buy 100 of the bombers by the mid-2030s for at least $80 billion, though the exact amount is classified. [ Source: LA Times (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - A powerful earthquake that rocked northeastern Iraq on Sunday (Nov 12) killed at least six people and injured 150 others in the country, officials said. "Four people were killed by the earthquake" in Darbandikhan, the town's mayor Nasseh Moulla Hassan told AFP. Another two people were killed in Kalar, according to the director of the hospital in the town about 70 kilometres south of Darbandikhan. The US Geological Survey said on its website that the 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck 30 kilometres southwest of Halabjah at 9.18pm (2.18am Singapore time Monday). [ Source: Channel News Asia (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - The Arab League will hold an extraordinary meeting next Sunday at the request of Saudi Arabia to discuss "violations" committed by Iran in the region, according to a memorandum. Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates supported the Saudi request, which was also approved by Djibouti, the current chair of the pan-Arab bloc, said the document shown to AFP by diplomats on Sunday (Nov 12). Tensions have been rising between Saudi Arabia and Iran, including over League members Qatar and Lebanon. [ Source (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - The Arab League will hold an extraordinary meeting next Sunday at the request of Saudi Arabia to discuss "violations" committed by Iran in the region, according to a memorandum. Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates supported the Saudi request, which was also approved by Djibouti, the current chair of the pan-Arab bloc, said the document shown to AFP by diplomats on Sunday (Nov 12). Tensions have been rising between Saudi Arabia and Iran, including over League members Qatar and Lebanon. [ Source (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - Javier Gonzalez has joined a human tide of more than 130,000 U.S. citizens arriving in Florida since Hurricane Maria wrecked Puerto Rico, grateful for a place to start over but resenting how their island has been treated since the disaster. More than a million Puerto Ricans — about 5 percent of Florida's population — already call the state home, and given the outrage many feel over President Donald Trump's handling of the storm, political observers say this voting bloc could loosen the Republican Party's hold on this battleground state. Puerto Ricans are not the gift to the Republican Party that the anti-Castro Cuban diaspora has been historically. They've tended to favor Democrats, given their support for public education and social services. Around 70 percent of Florida's non-Cuban Latinos voted for Hillary Clinton. Both parties are courting the new arrivals to Florida, which Trump won last year by just 112,000 votes out of 9.6 million cast. [ Source (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - A Hamas spokesman on Thursday expressed disapproval of a Palestinian Authority official’s announcement that the PA has resumed full security coordination with Israel. On Wednesday, Police chief Hazem Atallah told foreign journalists that all branches of the PA security forces fully restored security cooperation with Israel two weeks ago. In July, PA President Mahmoud Abbas announced that security coordination was halted in response to Israel’s placement of metal detectors near the entrances to the Temple Mount. [ Source (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) -Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was unexpectedly summoned this week to Saudi Arabia for impromptu meetings with King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed. The Palestinian leader received the call while in Egypt, where he discussed with his counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi efforts to jump-start peace negotiations with Israel as well as the unity deal recently forged between Abbas’ Fatah faction and Hamas, which was brokered by Cairo. Last week, the PA took control of the Palestinian side of Gaza’s borders with Egypt and Israel, the first concrete step towards implementing the reconciliation agreement. Abbas is slated to assume full responsibility over the Strip by December 1. During the PA leader’s visit to Riyadh, the Saudi King reaffirmed his government’s long-standing support for the Palestinians in international forums and its commitment to providing “all that is required to bring about the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital.” [ Source: Media Line (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - The United States and Russia are nearing an agreement on Syria for how they hope to resolve the Arab country’s civil war once the Islamic State group is defeated, officials said Thursday. If clinched, the deal was expected to be announced by US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Vietnam on Friday, four US officials said. The United States has been reluctant to schedule a formal meeting for the leaders unless they have a substantive agreement to announce. But White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Friday that they won’t hold a formal meeting due to scheduling conflicts on “both sides.” Still, Sanders said it was possible Trump and Putin could have a less formal encounter while in Vietnam. [ Source: Times of Israel (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - The Texas church where more than two dozen people were killed by a gunman during Sunday services will be demolished, the pastor said. Pastor Frank Pomeroy told leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention earlier this week that it would be too painful to continue using First Baptist Church as a place of worship. A national Southern Baptist spokesman said Pomeroy discussed the plan with the denomination's top executives, who traveled to the rural community in a show of support. [ Source: CBN News (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - The largest seen aerial exercise in Israel began on Thursday and is to continue for the next two weeks. 1,000 highly-trained fighter pilots from eight different countries opened the "Blue Flag" exercise, which includes roughly 100 of fighter jets, helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). It is the most immense military drill to take place so far this year. This is the third time Israel has hosted the exercise, which takes place once every two years. In addition to Israel, this year it included teams from Greece, India, the US, Germany, Poland, France and Italy. During the drill, Israeli F-15 and F-16 jets will come up against German Eurofighters and French Mirage jets. [ Source: Ynet News (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - Washington Republicans moved quickly Thursday to try to oust their candidate in the Alabama Senate race, former state Chief Justice Roy Moore, after a newspaper reported he had enticed an underage girl into a sexual encounter decades ago. The Washington Post reported that a woman says Mr. Moore initiated the encounter in 1979, when she was 14 and he was 32. Three other women told the newspaper Mr. Moore pursued them when they were 16 to 18 years of age. That was the last straw for Republicans who’d already been at odds with Mr. Moore, their nominee, on a host of other issues. [ Source: Washington Times (Read More...) ] View the full article