U.S. unemployment is nearing levels of the Great Depression of the 1930s, with one in 6 Americans of working age out of a job as the coronavirus pandemic essentially shut down the economy. About 4.4 million Americans filed for unemployment insurance last week alone, reported the U.S. Labor Department on Thursday.
Iran threatens a ‘crushing response’ to any American military attacks in the Persian Gulf after United States President Donald Trump threatened to ‘shoot down and destroy’ Iranian vessels. The leader of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warned that the security of the Gulf is among Iran’s strategic priorities.
Four Christians were killed last week in an attack by Muslim Fulani herdsmen in Kaduna state, Nigeria, Morningstar News reports. This attack is the latest in a string of murders committed by herdsmen targeting Christians: Nigeria ranks second after Pakistan on the Open Doors’ 2020 World Watch List for countries where Christians are killed for their faith.
President Trump threatened Iran with severe retaliation Wednesday after the U.S. military claimed Iranian ships had made ‘dangerous and threatening approaches’ toward American navy vessels in the Persian Gulf last week.
President Trump said he directed the Navy to destroy Iranian military vessels that conduct provocative maneuvers near U.S. ships in the Persian Gulf.
Iran successfully launched its first military satellite into space on Wednesday, authorities in Tehran said, spurring warnings from Washington and heightening tensions between the two countries.
Christian rights activist Mary (Fatemeh) Mohammadi says she has been sentenced to three months and one-day imprisonment and 10 lashes for publicly protesting Iran’s downing of a Ukrainian passenger plane.
Prophecies from rabbis about the coming of the Messiah and a third World War are coalescing with the timing of the implementation of the ‘Deal of the Century’ peace plan this summer under a new Israeli unity government.
Tens of thousands of Christians joined an online ceremony marking Yom Hashoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day, amid concerns that antisemitism will spread as fast as the coronavirus. While a memorial siren sounded across Israel, the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) had viewers stand to honor 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust, also known as Shoah.
A church in Harlem has lost 11 members to the coronavirus pandemic in 30 days. Rev. Johnnie Green of the 1200-member Mount Neboh Baptist Church told the Christian Post: ‘It is simply unfathomable and unfortunate that so many people in our congregation [have died].’
A United Nations agency has warned that the world risks widespread famines ‘of Biblical proportions’ due to the coronavirus pandemic.
A week ago, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies agreed to slash production by 9.7 million barrels, a deal that brought an end to a price war between two of the biggest exporters, Russia and Saudi Arabia.
A scientific study recommended by White House medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci pointing to the origin of coronavirus pandemic as a jump from animals to humans also concludes it cannot be ruled out that the virus may have escaped from a laboratory.
The online Easter meeting of an unregistered house church in China was disrupted and six of its members arrested, with the government warning the church of severer measures if it continued to meet.
Indonesia’s hardline Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) group broke up a house church meeting in the country’s West Java province, prompting an angry response from the governor. Video footage obtained by Worthy News showed two men bursting into a home Sunday in Cikarang, 48 kilometers (30 miles) southwest of Jakarta, the nation’s capital.
Several European Union member states are slowly reopening their doors in lockdowns that have impacted millions of people, many of them children. The lockdowns were introduced by authorities citing concerns about the spread of the new coronavirus disease COVID-19.
European countries hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic as well as New York, the epicenter of the outbreak in the US, have reported progress in fighting the coronavirus. There have been reports of lower daily death counts, slowing rates of infection and reductions in the numbers of patients admitted to intensive care units.
A South Carolina federal judge has awarded an atheist group over $450,000 in attorney’s fees and expenses after it filed a lawsuit to block public prayer at high school graduations, Christian Headlines reports. The award follows a finding last year that there should be limits to student-led prayers at graduation ceremonies. Given on April 14, the award is in respect of legal action initiated by the American Humanist Association (AHA) against Greenville County Schools in 2013. The suit was on behalf of the parents of a pupil who objected to students leading prayer at a graduation ceremony.
With the deadline to call new elections inching closer, Blue and White leader Benny Gantz is weighing carefully his demands of, and threats against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as the two jockey over forming a unity government.
Orthodox believers in the ex-Soviet republic of Georgia held church services, despite warnings that they complicated efforts to halt the new coronavirus pandemic. Worldwide, millions of Orthodox Christians celebrated Easter – the most important festival in their calendar, amid a series of restrictions and bans to prevent more infections.