U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced plans to begin offering booster shots for all Americans beginning the week of September 20 and starting eight months after an individual’s second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna mRNA vaccines.
Afghanistan’s Islamist militant Taliban group pledged Monday that it would “respect the rights of women” if they respect its strict interpretation of Islam. “They can work and have education within Islamic law,” said Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid during his group’s first press conference since taking control over Afghanistan.
The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) on Friday reinstated Timothy Christian Schools’ recognition status after having revoked it for non-compliance with the state’s universal indoor mask mandate, the Daily Herald reports. Updating its health policy to comply with the mandate, Timothy Christian said it had not outrightly rejected Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s school mask order, but had been conducting “due diligence” to assess its legality.
Continuing its policy of “Sinicizing” the church and country, China’s ruling Communist Party (CCP) arrested four house church school teachers in Wuhu, Anhui Province earlier this month, and charged them with conducting “illegal business operations,” International Christian Concern (ICC) reports. China now ranks 17 on the US Open Doors 2021 Watch List of top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.
As the death toll of western Haiti’s 7.2 magnitude earthquake rose to 1,300, churches struggled to provide hope and relief to a wounded nation.
Tennessee’s largest public school district has been given a $1.8 million gift as reimbursement for teaching elective Bible history classes to over 4,500 students in the 2020-21 academic year, Christian Headlines (CH) reports. The gift was given by the Bible in the Schools non-profit organization to Hamilton County Schools in Chattanooga last month.
Although US spending on construction has increased steadily to a near-record annualized rate of $1.55 trillion this year, the construction of houses of worship such as churches, mosques, synagogues, and temples has decreased sharply over the last 20 years, Axios reports.
Pro-Life doctors and Christian groups are under pressure after the European Parliament passed a resolution saying that abortion is a “human right” and condemned opponents.
A prominent Chinese billionaire who was outspoken on issues such as human rights has been sentenced to 18 years imprisonment in China.
Thousands of Hungarians, many armed with rainbow flags and rainbow umbrellas, have demonstrated against a law that bans teaching about homosexuality and transgender issues in schools. Saturday’s Budapest Pride march came after the self-declared conservative Prime Minister Viktor Orbán confirmed a referendum on what he called the “child protection” legislation.
Christian rights activists say Uzbekistan’s new Religion Law maintains restrictions despite state media claims that it extend freedoms.
Amid a catastrophic situation of relentless kidnappings in Nigeria’s Kaduna state, the local Schools Quality Assurance Authority (SQAA) has ordered the closure of 13, mostly Christian, schools which it identified as being “vulnerable” to attacks by Islamic militants who abduct students, Christian Solidarity Worldwide reports. Following the kidnapping of 140 pupils from Bethel Baptist High School on July 5th, CSW said Kaduna has become an “epicenter for kidnapping.”
A former Muslim who embraced faith in Christ has been ordered to begin a ten-month prison sentence for “propaganda against the Islamic Republic,” Worthy News learned Wednesday.
A group of 21 state attorneys general has written to President Joe Biden, warning him that policies recently enacted by his administration on sexual orientation and gender identity will violate federally protected religious liberty and free speech rights, Christian Headlines reports.
Three former Muslims in Iran are the first Christians to be given prison sentences under Article 500, a new amendment to Iran’s penal code that aims to block the spread of the Gospel in the country, Morning Star News reports. Iran ranks 8 on the US Open Doors Watch List of countries that persecute Christians.
A rights group that focuses on China has reported that, in the run-up to the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on July 1, the CCP intensified its nation-wide censorship of religious books and materials, Assist News reports. ChinaAid said in its report that a number of schools received notifications forbidding students to read religious books or use other faith-based materials.
The economy rebounded and added 850,000 new jobs in June, a welcome result after two months of disappointing growth.
Virginia’s Department of Education has published a document titled Model Policies for the Treatment of Transgender Students, in which it instructs local school boards to end sex-segregated activities that may cause transgender students to feel marginalized or excluded, Just the News reports. School boards have until the start of the 2021-2022 school year in September to adopt policies in line with the Model Policies document.
Having declined substantially between 1960-2012, the proportion of US children being raised by both birth parents has continued a gradual upward trend and reached 70% last year, the Institute for Family Studies (IFS) reports.
Iranian Christians have urged prayers for a Christian convert after an appeals court upheld his 10-month prison sentence for “propaganda against the regime,” Worthy News learned.