A Christian watchdog group has published a report describing the widespread trafficking and abduction of Coptic Christian women and girls in Egypt as a “bane”, CBN News reports. Coptic Solidarity released its report “Jihad of the Womb: Trafficking of Coptic Women & Girls in Egypt” last Thursday. The report will be submitted to United Nations agencies and the US Office for Trafficking in Persons.
The United States has imposed sanctions on more than two dozen people and entities involved in Iran’s atomic activities or its missile and conventional weapons programs, as Washington unilaterally seeks to enforce a UN arms embargo against the Middle East country.
Leaked documents suggest that one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest friends used a prominent British bank to launder millions of dollars and evade Western sanctions. Separately the company of U.S. President Donald Trump allegedly benefited from laundered money, but officials denied those charges.
A Bulgarian court sentenced two Islamic militants to life imprisonment without parole over a 2012 bus bombing that killed five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian driver in an attack blamed on Lebanon’s Shi’ite Muslim group Hezbollah.
In a reflection of the COVID-19 crisis and ensuing governmental measures, Global debt/GDP skyrocketed to an all-time high in the first quarter of 2020, Zero Hedge reports. Overall debt for the non-financial sector has jumped from 241% of global GDP at the end of 2019 to 252% of global GDP now. This is the biggest jump ever recorded by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).
Europe is racing to contain rising coronavirus infections and prevent more hospitalizations and deaths. Authorities in several countries announced new restrictions, sparking protests in Spain, which saw one of the lockdowns.
President Trump announced plans to bolster pharmaceutical manufacturing in Puerto Rico from China, touting the help he has given the island and pointing to Democratic nominee Joe Biden for its economic woes.
The USS Nimitz aircraft carrier safely transited on Friday through the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important chokepoint for oil shipments, the U.S. Navy said, as tensions with Iran continue to simmer.
Belarus opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya has spoken to the United Nations Human Rights Council despite Belarussian efforts to prevent her and other critics from giving speeches. During Friday’s turbulent session of the Geneva-based U.N. body, she demanded that the country’s authorities end violence against protestors and organize a free and fair presidential election.
As the US believes Iran has continued to develop nuclear weapons, and as the United Nations arms embargo on Iran expires next month, the State Department announced Wednesday that it is pressing forward with “snap back” sanctions that are provided for under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) Iran Nuclear deal, Fox News reports. Under the terms of the JCPoA, snapback sanctions can be re-imposed if Iran is perceived to be violating the terms of the agreement. However, as the Trump administration withdrew from the JCPoA in 2018, UNSC members Britain, China, France, Germany, and Russia have unequivocally stated the US has no authority to unilaterally enforce snapback sanctions once the current embargo is lifted on October 18.
Hungary’s fiercely anti-migration Prime Minister Viktor Orbán says his nation is facing “a second wave of coronavirus infections” and will keep its borders closed to most foreigners, despite European Union concerns about that decision.
Political and social unrest is rising in Belarus after a protest organizer was charged with undermining national security. Authorities in have linked Maria Kolesnikova to what they view as attempts to destabilize the former Soviet nation.
European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen has given her first State of the Union speech with angry words about Britain’s plans to renegotiate its divorce deal with the EU.
U.S. intelligence agencies recently increased their knowledge of China’s covert biological weapons program with the help of a defector from the People’s Liberation Army, according to people familiar with the incident.
Federal authorities on Wednesday announced three indictments charging five Chinese nationals and two Malaysians with conducting criminal and political hacking operations tacitly approved by the Chinese government and linked to the Ministry of State Security intelligence service.
Writing history, U.S. President Donald Trump presided over a signing ceremony at the White House establishing formal ties between Israel and two Arab nations, the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) and Bahrain.
More than four years since Brits voted to leave the European Union, the United Kingdom is once again engulfed in another Brexit crisis — with a dramatic move by Prime Minister Boris Johnson to potentially rewrite parts of the initial divorce deal, sparking outrage and threats of legal action from E.U. leaders.
The U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution Tuesday welcoming the start of negotiations between Afghan representatives and the Taliban, encouraging the warring parties to engage in good faith and aim for a permanent cease-fire and political settlement to their 19-year conflict.
As talks were underway between the Vatican and Belarus, reports emerged that Belarusian authorities detained dozens of pro-democracy protesters.
Hungary’s government-controlled media authority has ordered one of the country’s last independent talk radio stations to cease broadcasting in February next year. The Media Council said Budapest-based Klubrádió was responsible for “multiple breaches of media law” after earlier fining the network as a pretext for discontinuing the frequency license. In a statement obtained by Worthy News, Klubrádió said it would “fight with every possible legal and other means” to preserve it’s right to broadcast.