A North Dakota construction company has received a massive $1.3 billion contract to build a section of President Trump’s US-Mexico border wall, the Arizona Daily Star first reported. The award to Fisher Sand and Gravel Co. is the largest border wall contract to date.
The Pentagon is spending billions of dollars on developing two main types of ultra-fast hypersonic missiles in order to “dominate future battlefields,” the Times of Israel reports. Referring to Russia and China in an explanation for the move, President Trump told reporters on Friday: “We have no choice, we have to do it, with the adversaries we have out there.”
According to the records of a Nigerian civil liberties organization, Islamic militants have killed at least 620 Christians in the country since the beginning of 2020, CBN News reports. The International Society for Civil Liberties & Rule of Law (ISCLRL) published the number murders in a report which said militant Fulani herdsmen and Boko Haram have stepped up violence against Christians in the old Middle Belt and Northeast regions of Nigeria.
Thirty-seven Planned Parenthood affiliates received a total of $80 million in loans from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) intended to help small businesses in the COVID-19 pandemic, Fox News has reported exclusively. The federal government now says the abortion provider must pay back the money it received. Explaining its position, the government said Planned Parenthood is a federation of affiliates with over 500 employees and should have known it does not qualify for small business aid.
Millions of people have fled to shelters in India and neighboring Bangladesh as the fiercest cyclone in decades hit the region, which also faces a coronavirus pandemic.
Authorities in India and neighboring Bangladesh ordered millions of people to leave their homes in coastal areas ahead of a super cyclone, the most significant storm in a decade.
The United States has a message for ships in the Persian Gulf: Don’t come too close to Navy vessels.
An administrative court in France has overturned a government ban on meetings in churches and other places of worship. The case underscored broader tensions in coronavirus-hit Europe over religious freedom amid an ongoing pandemic.
Weather forecasters are concerned this year’s hurricane season may be among the worst ever as the first-named tropical storm of 2020 brushed past North Carolina yesterday. Forecasters are seeing climate conditions similar to those of 2005, when Hurricane Katrina killed 1,800 people in New Orleans, Bloomberg Green reported.
The European Union’s head of foreign policy stated Monday that the bloc would not recognize any annexation changes Israel made to “1967 borders” unless these had been agreed by the Palestinians, the Times of Israel reports. In his statement, Josep Borrell added: “We strongly urge Israel to refrain from any unilateral decision that would lead to the annexation of any occupied Palestinian territory and would be, as such, contrary to international law.”
A Royal Saudi Arabian Air Forces cadet training at Naval Air Station (NAS) Pensacola was acting on behalf of al-Qaida on Dec. 6 when he murdered three U.S. Navy sailors and wounded eight, according to information uncovered from his cellphones.
US President Donald Trump says he has been taking a malaria drug to protect against the new coronavirus COVID-19, despite warnings from his health officials. “What do you have to lose?” he told reporters on Monday.
While several nations began to reopen after months of lockdowns, China put a whopping 108 million people under a stay-at-home order.
Evangelical leaders have asked Congress to grant religious organizations immunity from potential negligence suits arising from decisions to reopen during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Christian Post reports. Evangelicals joined some 300 interfaith leaders in signing a letter to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary last week, in which they suggested immunity granted could be similar to that given health-care workers.
The Defense Department took pains Friday to emphasize that President Trump’s promise to produce 300 million coronavirus vaccines by January 2021 is a “goal,” while a spokesman also told the Washington Examiner that a shake-up of the Pentagon team acquiring medical equipment did not signify a change in direction.
Iranian officials have admitted that fire broke out at an ancient shrine viewed by Iran’s Jewish community as the resting place of the Biblical Queen Esther and her cousin Mordechai. The announcement published by the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) came after activists reported an overnight arson attack at the site.
A former U.S. Army medic who received the Medal of Honor in 2018 for his heroic efforts to save the lives of fellow soldiers in Afghanistan has died, his wife and officials confirmed. Staff Sgt. Ronald Shurer II was 41.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a massive $3 trillion virus aid package after batting back a last-minute Republican effort that threatened the measure.
A Christian woman was among many fearfully hiding Friday as parts of the Philippines were devastated by winds and rain from Typhoon Vongfong. “It is always scary,” Virgie Overdevest told Worthy News. “We already had a minor earthquake here.”
U.S. stocks sank Friday after figures showed retail sales in the country plunged by a record 16.4 percent last month, the worst decline in decades.