WorthyNewsBot

(Worthy News) - Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said on Tuesday that Iran's supply of rockets to militias in Yemen is an act of "direct military aggression," Saudi state news agency SPA reported. The supply of rockets to the Iran-allied rebel Houthi movement could "constitute an act of war against the Kingdom," SPA quoted the crown prince as saying in a telephone call with the British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson. Saudi air defense forces intercepted a ballistic missile they said was fired towards Riyadh on Saturday by the Houthi militia which controls large parts of neighboring Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, in the country's civil war. [ Source: Jerusalem Post (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - The killing of America’s archenemy, Osama bin Laden, by a Navy SEAL team in 2011 was a campaign coup for Barack Obama, who hailed it during his reelection bid as proof that the U.S. had al-Qaida “on the run.” But the 470,000 files recovered from the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound – released only this month by the CIA – tell a much different story, documenting al-Qaida’s global strength as well as its relationship with Iran prior to the Obama administration’s nuclear pact with the mullah-led regime. The editors of the Weekly Standard, noting they don’t use the much-abused word “lie” lightly, declared “the administration of Barack Obama lied repeatedly and lied flagrantly.” The editors said Obama rightly hailed the mission as a success, not only because U.S. forces killed the man responsible the 9/11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 Americans, but also because of the acquisition of the “single largest collection of senior terrorist materials ever.” [ Source: WND (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - The German army has war-gamed the break up of the European Union in study of security crises that could face the country by 2040. Military planners in Berlin played out a scenario in which a growing number of countries follow Britain in leaving the EU, resulting in an "increasingly disorderly" world, Der Spiegel reported. "The EU enlargement has been largely abandoned, more states have left the bloc," strategists wrote in a study cited by the magazine. [ Source: UK Telegraph (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - A campaign of mass arrests of Saudi Arabian royals, ministers and businessmen expanded on Monday after a top entrepreneur was reportedly detained in the biggest anti-corruption purge of the kingdom’s affluent elite in its modern history. The reported arrest of Nasser bin Aqeel al-Tayyar followed the detention of dozens of top Saudis including billionaire investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal in a crackdown that the attorney general described as “phase one”. The purge is the latest in a series of dramatic steps by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to assert Saudi influence internationally and amass more power for himself at home. [ Source: Reuters (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - Saudi Arabia intercepted and destroyed a “ballistic missile” north-east of the capital, Riyadh, on Saturday after it was launched from Yemen, Saudi state media reported. “Saudi air defence intercepts ballistic missile northeast of Riyadh,” it said. State-run news channel Al-Ekhbariya said the missile “was of limited size (and) no injuries or damage” was reported. The missile was destroyed near Riyadh’s King Khaled international airport, which was functioning normally, it added. Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels claimed they had fired the missile, targeting the airport, the Houthi Al-Masirah television said. [ Source: UK Guardian (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - The man who police say shot and killed 26 people in a Texas church was able to purchase firearms because the Air Force failed to enter his assault conviction into a federal database. Devin Patrick Kelley was given a bad conduct discharge from the Air Force after he was court-martialed in 2012 for assaulting his wife and fracturing his infant stepson's skull. Kelley's case was enough to prohibit him from possessing a firearm under federal law, but due to a bureaucratic error neither his arrest nor conviction were listed in the national background check database. Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek confirmed the mistake in a statement. "Federal law prohibited him from buying or possessing firearms after this conviction," Stefanek said. "Initial information indicates that Kelley’s domestic violence offense was not entered into the National Criminal Information Center database by the Holloman Air Force Base Office of Special Investigations." [ Source: Washington Examiner (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - The United Nations has earmarked some $1.3 billion to fund Palestinian legal campaigns against Israel and to support the creation of an independent Palestinian state, in what experts are calling an unprecedented act singling out the Jewish state at the world body. A document that was recently signed between the U.N. and the Palestinians outlines a “strategic programming framework” in the disputed territories from 2018-2022, and states that the U.N. will work to advise the Palestinian Authority on how to exploit “international accountability mechanisms” in order to hold Israel accountable for alleged violations of international law. The document is set to come into effect Jan. 1, 2018. The document makes no references to Palestinian violations of international law and human rights, nor does it specify that the $1.3 billion in funding should be applied to humanitarian assistance. Rather, the U.N. document states that the money should be used for developing programs that support “Palestine’s path to independence.” [ Source: JNS (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - The United Nations has earmarked some $1.3 billion to fund Palestinian legal campaigns against Israel and to support the creation of an independent Palestinian state, in what experts are calling an unprecedented act singling out the Jewish state at the world body. A document that was recently signed between the U.N. and the Palestinians outlines a “strategic programming framework” in the disputed territories from 2018-2022, and states that the U.N. will work to advise the Palestinian Authority on how to exploit “international accountability mechanisms” in order to hold Israel accountable for alleged violations of international law. The document is set to come into effect Jan. 1, 2018. The document makes no references to Palestinian violations of international law and human rights, nor does it specify that the $1.3 billion in funding should be applied to humanitarian assistance. Rather, the U.N. document states that the money should be used for developing programs that support “Palestine’s path to independence.” [ Source: JNS (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - The role of reporters is taking on added importance in federal court battles over the infamous Russia dossier that leveled unverified charges of collusion against the Donald Trump campaign. In U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Fusion GPS, the dossier’s financier via the Democratic Party and the Hillary Clinton campaign money, is fighting a House committee chairman’s bid to find out if the opposition research firm paid journalists. In U.S. District Court in Florida, a self-described dossier victim wants a judge to order the news website BuzzFeed, which published the dossier in full, to disclose who gave it to them. The cases underscore how a Moscow-sourced memorandum created as opposition research against Donald Trump in the presidential campaign last year often dictates the debate about politics and reporters’ rights in Washington. [ Source: Washington Times (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - A senior Israeli minister on Thursday declined to comment on reports that Israeli aircraft had struck a target in Syria the night before but repeated a threat to hit arms shipments to Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas. The air strike targeted a factory south of the Syrian city of Homs on Wednesday night and the Syrian army responded by firing a surface-to-air missile at the aircraft, a commander in a military alliance fighting in support of Damascus said. An Israeli military spokeswoman declined to comment, but Israel’s Channel 10 said the aircraft were not hit and returned safely to base. “I can‘t, of course, relate to reports about the Israel Defence Forces’ attack in Syria, but regardless, Israel’s position is clear: Smuggling arms to Hezbollah is a red line in our eyes,” Intelligence Minister Israel Katz told Army Radio. [ Source: Reuters (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - Fifty years since the Six-Day War, 100 years since the Balfour Declaration, 150 years since Mark Twain first visited Palestine. This has been a year of big Israel-related anniversaries. To the Jewish state’s most diehard Christian supporters, the barrage of milestones is not mere coincidence but rather a harbinger of prophecies being fulfilled. Every half century, many Christian Zionists believe, history makes a concerted push toward its endpoint: the return of the Messiah to Jerusalem. According to this pattern, something momentous should happen to Israel before the end of 2017. “Reading Israel’s modern history, there seems to be something unusual in 50-year cycles,” said David Parsons, the vice president of the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem. “It means we should expect something incredible to happen this year to further propel Jerusalem and Israel into its prophetic destiny.” [ Source: Times of Israel (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - The head of the Anti-Defamation League declared his organization was “astonished and horrified” by a recent steep rise in antisemitic incidents in the US, as the ADL released new data on Thursday that compared 2017 with the previous year. ADL’s Audit of Antisemitic Incidents — which covers the period from January through September of this year — recorded almost 1,300 antisemitic outrages across the country, including physical assaults, vandalism and attacks on Jewish institutions. According to the ADL, that total “represents a 67 percent increase over the same period in 2016 and already exceeds the 1,266 incidents reported all of last year.” The organization emphasized what it said were a “disturbingly high number of antisemitic bullying and vandalism incidents in K-12 schools and college campuses across the US.” [ Source: Algemeiner (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - US President Donald Trump’s national security adviser says North Korea could be returned to the list of countries the US believes sponsor terrorism, as part of Trump’s strategy to counter the North’s growing nuclear threat. “You’ll hear more about that soon, I think,” the adviser, H.R. McMaster, said at a briefing on the eve of Trump’s five-nation tour of Asia, which starts Friday. North Korea’s nuclear and missile weapons threat will be a key focus of Trump’s meetings with the leaders of Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines during the 12-day trip, the president’s first official visit to the region. McMaster cited the killing in a Malaysian airport earlier this year of the estranged half-brother of North Korea’s leader as an act of terrorism that could lead to the North’s being added back to a list that currently includes only Iran, Sudan and Syria. [ Source: Times of Israel (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - The United Nations has "failed miserably" when it comes to protecting Christians from genocide, a charity has said, noting that a mere 1.5 percent of Syrian refugees accepted by Western nations in 2016 were followers of Christ. "This is shocking behavior by the U.N. and U.K. officials," said Barnabas Fund's Martin Parsons in an interview with Express published Tuesday. "In 2005 the U.N. adopted the responsibility of states to protect citizens from genocide and crimes against humanity. These statistics show that it has failed miserably in this. Christians and other minorities have been treated shamefully by the U.N. And the U.K. has outsourced its own responsibilities in spite of repeated representations." [ Source: Christian Post (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - Former Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Donna Brazile says President Obama decimated the party’s finances to win re-election in 2012 and that Hillary Clinton’s campaign took control of the DNC long before she defeated Sen. Bernard Sanders for the party’s presidential nomination last year. In revelations from her upcoming book that are roiling an increasingly divided Democratic Party, Ms. Brazile said she was shocked at the sorry condition of the DNC’s finances when she took over in July 2016 for embattled Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who she said was “not a good manager.” Ms. Brazile described a phone call she had with Gary Gensler, the chief financial officer of Mrs. Clinton’s campaign, on the morning after the Democratic National Convention ended in late July 2016. [ Source: Washington Times (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - For the first time ever, a delegation of evangelical leaders from the United States met with Egypt's President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi for nearly three hours at the presidential palace in Cairo on Wednesday to talk about a series of issues including the persecution of Egyptian Christians by Islamic extremists. "I appreciate the opportunity to meet with President el-Sisi to discuss the concerns we have, as American evangelicals, for the plight of religious minorities in Egypt, especially those who are our brothers and sisters in Christ," Family Research Council President and Baptist Pastor Tony Perkins said in a statement shared with The Christian Post. Perkins was joined by other prominent evangelical activists and authors such as religious freedom advocate and informal Trump administration advisor Johnnie Moore, evangelical writer Joel Rosenberg, Egyptian-born Christian pastor and author Michael Youssef, and former Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. Congresswoman Michele Bachmann. [ Source: Christian Post (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - An evangelical coalition that lobbies for immigration reform has asked the Trump administration to extend the "Temporary Protected Status" program for four nations. Signatories for the EIT's letter included Leith Anderson, president of the National Association of Evangelicals; Shirley V. Hoogstra, president of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities; Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention; and the Reverend Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference. The TPS program allows for nationals from certain designated countries to remain in the United States due to temporary conditions that would make it dangerous to return them, such an armed conflict or a major natural disaster. [ Source: Christian Post (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - President Donald Trump on Thursday agreed to expand the use of disaster aid to rebuild Puerto Rico’s power grid and other infrastructure wrecked by Hurricane Maria, a senior White House official told Reuters. Under the plan, the federal government will pick up 90 percent of the costs – up from the typical level of 75 percent – and allow for funds to be released in a faster, more flexible way, an approach that recognizes the massive devastation on the island and its dire financial problems, the official said. The plan, agreed with Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello, provides for third-party advisers to estimate how much money is required for projects and how it is spent – a provision aimed at protecting taxpayer dollars in what is expected to be a massive, long-term effort to rebuild the island. [ Source: Reuters (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - The ozone hole over Antarctica shrank to its smallest peak since 1988, NASA said Thursday. The huge hole in Earth’s protective ozone layer reached its maximum this year in September, and this year NASA said it was 7.6 million square miles wide (19.6 million square kilometers). The hole size shrinks after mid-September. This year’s maximum hole is more than twice as big as the United States, but it’s 1.3 million square miles less than last year and 3.3 million square miles smaller than 2015. [ Source: Washington Times (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - After the Obama administration approved the sale of a Canadian mining company with significant U.S. uranium reserves to a firm owned by Russia’s government, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission assured Congress and the public the new owners couldn’t export any raw nuclear fuel from America’s shores. “No uranium produced at either facility may be exported,” the NRC declared in a November 2010 press release that announced that ARMZ, a subsidiary of the Russian state-owned Rosatom, had been approved to take ownership of the Uranium One mining firm and its American assets. A year later, the nuclear regulator repeated the assurance in a letter to Sen. John Barrasso, a Wyoming Republican in whose state Uranium One operated mines. [ Source: The Hill (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - Economists expect job growth of 310,000 in October, a rebound after the impact of hurricanes Harvey and Irma resulted in a 33,000 decline in September. The weak September employment report was the biggest shocker in U.S. economic data, after hurricanes ripped through Texas, Florida and other parts of the South in late August and early September. Other data has mostly come in strong, including GDP, which has now grown at 3 percent for two quarters in a row. "Our forecast is for 325,000. It's going to be a big number," said Seth Carpenter, chief U.S. economist at UBS. "You're going to get a kind of soft average for those two months." [ Source: CNBC (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - The House on Thursday passed a bill to repeal a panel created by Obamacare to cut Medicare if it spends too much. The House voted 307-111 to repeal the Independent Payment Advisory Board, a subject of ire from Republicans and some Democrats. Lawmakers say the board takes away congressional authority over entitlement spending. The bill that got hefty support from Democrats faces an uncertain fate in the Senate, but top sponsor Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tenn., is optimistic. [ Source: Washington Examiner (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - House Republicans’ long-awaited tax overhaul bill will keep the top individual rate at 39.6 percent for high-income earners and will immediately and permanently cut the corporate rate to 20 percent. The legislation seeks to revamp the tax code in a major way for the first time since 1986, incorporating long-sought goals of congressional Republicans to keep more money in the pockets of individuals and families and boost incentives for businesses by closing loopholes. The bill would collapse seven tax brackets for individuals to four brackets with rates of 12, 25, 35 and 39.6 percent. The bill would also increase the standard deduction so single filers earning up to $12,000 and joint filers earning up to $24,000 would pay no income tax. [ Source: Roll Call (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - Before I called Bernie Sanders, I lit a candle in my living room and put on some gospel music. I wanted to center myself for what I knew would be an emotional phone call. I had promised Bernie when I took the helm of the Democratic National Committee after the convention that I would get to the bottom of whether Hillary Clinton’s team had rigged the nomination process, as a cache of emails stolen by Russian hackers and posted online had suggested. I’d had my suspicions from the moment I walked in the door of the DNC a month or so earlier, based on the leaked emails. But who knew if some of them might have been forged? I needed to have solid proof, and so did Bernie. So I followed the money. My predecessor, Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, had not been the most active chair in fundraising at a time when President Barack Obama’s neglect had left the party in significant debt. As Hillary’s campaign gained momentum, she resolved the party’s debt and put it on a starvation diet. It had become dependent on her campaign for survival, for which she expected to wield control of its operations. [ Source: Politico (Read More...) ] View the full article

(Worthy News) - Former surrogates of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., from the 2016 campaign are fuming about the Democratic National Committee in response to Donna Brazile's disclosure of "proof" that the Hillary Clinton campaign took over the DNC's finances and operations in an effort to tip the scales in Clinton's favor for the party's presidential nomination in 2016. With many noting they have been crying foul since the primary, multiple liberal figures in the Democratic Party took the opportunity issue a fresh cadre of demands to change the DNC, which earlier this year picked an Establishment-favorite, Tom Perez, to lead over the liberals' preferred candidate, Rep. Keith Ellison. "Today we heard from Donna Brazile that what many suspected for a long time, is actually true: the DNC secretly chose their nominee over a year before the primary elections even occurred, turning over DNC control to the Clinton campaign," said Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, a former DNC vice chairman. Gabbard, declared the 2016 primary "rigged," resigned from the DNC in February 2016 in order to endorse Sanders. [ Source: Washington Examiner (Read More...) ] View the full article