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Assane Diallo, a migrant who is preparing to travel by boat from Senegal to the Canary Islands, poses for photograph in Dakar, Senegal, on November 28, 2018.Edward McAllister/Reuters Blog Post by John Campbell December 14, 2018 The European Commission announced that that migrant and refugee arrivals in Europe via the Mediterranean Sea number 134,004 as of December 5, 2018, down from 179,536 during the same period in 2017. The year that saw the highest number of arrivals, 1,015,078, was 2015. While Italy experienced the biggest drop, arrivals actually increased in Spain and Greece. Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan have remained the largest countries of origin since 2014; since then, almost one million Syrians have sought asylum in the Europe Sub-Saharan Africans make up an large portion of those living outside their country of origin globally, and remain a significant and growing part of the migrant and refugee flow, especially those arriving in Italy and Spain. In Ital

THE BRIEFING Thursday, Dec. 13, 2018 Audio Download MP3 Play16:32 World News Group (J.C. Derrick) Boards back SOGI compromise New York Times (Laurie Goodstein) Utah Passes Antidiscrimination Bill Backed by Mormon Leaders TRANSCRIPT The Briefing December 13, 2018 This is a rush transcript. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated. It's Thursday, December 13, 2018. I'm Albert Mohler and this is The Briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview. Why a compromise on gender identity, however well-intended, is a disaster for religious liberty A big issue has been brewing within evangelical circles. It has been waiting for the moment to public disclosure, and that moment has come. Yesterday, World Magazine ran an article by J. C. Derrick entitled Boards Back: SOGI Compromise. That is sexual orientation and gender identity compromise. The subhead, Major Christian Groups Endures Framework to Expand LGBT Rights in Exchange for Religious Protect

For years there has been a growing tendency for men placed in positions of responsibility to lord it over God's heritage, thus removing from church members their keen sense of the need of divine instruction and an appreciation of the privilege to counsel with God regarding their duty. This order of things must be changed. There must be a reform. Men who have not a rich measure of that wisdom which cometh from above should not be called to serve in positions where their influence means so much to church members. In my earlier experiences in the message, I was called to meet this evil. During my labors in Europe and Australia, and more recently at the San Jose camp meeting in 1905, I had to bear my testimony of warning against it, because souls were being led to look to man for wisdom, instead of looking to God, who is our wisdom, our sanctification, and our righteousness. And now the same message has again been given me, more definite and decisive, because there has been a deeper of

  Protesters march outside the venue of the UN climate change conference in Katowice, Poland.  CNS photo/Kacper Pempel, Reuters By Michael Swan, The Catholic Register December 14, 2018 Standing on the outside looking in as the world’s environment ministers and their armies of technocrats hammered out the rulebook for Paris Agreement on climate change, Canadian Josianne Gauthier wished there was an injection of urgency onto the agenda. Top Stories Israel's foreign workers visit pop-up Christmas market to help cure homesickness Covenant Health revises assisted suicide policy Catholics ask for more 'heart and soul' at UN environmental conference Postwar orphans were sex abuse victims of German clergy, investigation finds Proposal would increase power of archbishops in dealing with sex abuse “We need more emotion in all of this, more heart and soul,” she told The Catholic Register on a call from Poland. “Get out of your head, get out of your numbers and do what’s right. Th

Ben Carson: We won’t allow forgotten Americans to be left behind. Here’s how. By Ben Carson December 14, 2018 at 7:06 PM A derelict building stanin the East Harlem neighborhood of New York. (Allison Joyce/Bloomberg) Ben Carson is the U.S. secretary of housing and urban development. The nation’s unemployment rate is at a 49-year low , wages are on the rise , and last year, the official poverty rate fell from 12.7 percent to 12.3 percent , with even larger decreases and record lows for Hispanic Americans and African Americans. While all these indicators are great news, not everyone is benefiting from the improved economy. Investment in many places in this country has lagged for generations. A mere 20 counties accounted for half the national increase in businesses from 2010 to 2014. Meanwhile, small counties (fewer than 100,000 residents) accounted for only 9 percent of all job growth between 2010 and 2014. Small wonder that frustration is running high among those who feel they have bee

Nataliya Vasilyeva Dec 14, 2018 ASSOCIATED PRESS In this file photo from Nov. 4, 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill, left, walk to lay flowers at the monument of Minin and Pozharsky at Red Square in Moscow, during National Unity Day. The Russian Church said on Friday, Dec. 14, 2018, that Patriarch Kirill has sent a letter to the U.N. secretary-general, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, Pope Francis, the Archbishop of Canterbury and other spiritual leaders, urging them to help protect the clerics, believers and their faith in Ukraine. (Credit: Alexander Nemenov/Pool Photo via AP.) MOSCOW, Russia - The Russian Orthodox church on Friday called on Pope Francis, the United Nations, the leaders of Germany and France, and other spiritual leaders to protect believers in Ukraine in the face of pressure on Moscow-affiliated clerics. Ukraine’s Orthodox clerics will gather for a meeting Saturday that is expected to f

The flights come as both Russia and Venezuela are embroiled in major crises that have drawn fierce international rebukes. By Joseph Trevithick December 13, 2018 Russian MoD Russia says a pair of its Tu-160 Blackjacks flew a 10-hour patrol over the Caribbean Sea from a base in Venezuela. The Kremlin had recently sent the strategic bombers, along with other aircraft and supporting personnel, to the Latin American country, which is in the grips of a protracted political and economic crisis . The deployment also came in the wake of renewed criticism of Russia's intervention in Ukraine following a skirmish in the Kerch Strait in November 2018. The Russian Ministry of Defense announced that the sorties over the Caribbean had taken place on Dec. 12, 2018. Venezuelan Air Force F-16A/B Viper and Su-30MKV Flanker-C fighter jets also flew with the bombers during certain points of the mission, according to Russia. The two Tu-160s, along with an An-124 cargo plane and an Il-62 passenger t

Reuters December 13, 2018 Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko poses with NATO's Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg ahead of a meeting at the Alliance's headquarters in Brussels, Belgium December 13, 2018. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO will supply Ukraine's military with secure communication equipment this month, its head Jens Stoltenberg told President Petro Poroshenko at a meeting on Thursday called to discuss an escalation of Kiev's conflict with Moscow. Stoltenberg praised Ukraine's "calm and restraint" after Russia seized of three its naval vessels and their crew off Crimea last month. Part of a 40 million euros ($46 million) pledge by the Western military alliance to strengthen Ukraine's armed forces, Stoltenberg said the secure communications equipment would be delivered by the end of the year. The NATO chief reiterated support for the former Soviet nations' aspirations to join the alliance - a plan which Moscow vehementl

Cardinal George Pell, who faces prosecution for child sexual offenses, walks to a car in Melbourne on Dec. 11, 2018 (William West/AFP/Getty Images) By Paul Farhi December 13 at 6:59 PM An Australian court’s gag order and the forces of the Information Age collided on Thursday in a largely futile effort to keep news about the conviction of a high-ranking Vatican official from reaching readers. While some U.S. and British news organizations, including the New York Times, did not report on the conviction of Australian Cardinal George Pell on the judge’s order, social media and other news outlets defied it. Pell, 77, was convicted Tuesday on five counts of child sexual abuse in Melbourne, becoming the most senior official ever found guilty in the Catholic Church’s long-running child sexual-abuse scandals. The judge in the case, Peter Kidd, immediately subjected news of Pell’s conviction to a suppression order, the Australian equivalent of a gag order on press coverage. Australian cour

Thomas Franck | @tomwfranck Published 55 Mins Ago CNBC.com The Office of Governor Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday reaffirms its goal of creating a program for regulated marijuana use. As part of a well-telegraphed initiative, the governor's office hosted the listening sessions throughout September and October to gauge community appetite for legal cannabis. A May study by New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer projected marijuana use could foster a $3.1 billion market in the state. In Colorado, marijuana retailers made $1.5 billion last year and accrued $247 million in taxes and fees, according to state records. Drew Angerer | Getty Images New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. The Office of Governor Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday reaffirmed its commitment to creating a model program for controlled recreational marijuana use in New York State. "As we have said since August, the goal of this administration is to create a model program for regulated adult-use cannabis — and the best way to do that i

Christopher Furlong/Getty THOMAS D. WILLIAMS, PH.D.   11 Dec 2018 In the Vatican’s first intervention in the U.N. conference on migration in Marrakesh, Morocco, Cardinal Pietro Parolin reiterated the Vatican position that international migration must be governed globally rather than by individual nations. “The Global Compact on Migration attempts to assist the international community to prevent crises and tragedies,” said the Vatican Secretary of State, and “seeks to improve the governance of migration, which is bound to increase as the international community grows more economically, socially and politically interconnected.” Implementation of the U.N. global compact “will help all Governments, as well as non-governmental entities, including faith-based organizations, collectively to manage migration in a more safe, orderly and regular manner, something no State can achieve alone,” Cardinal Parolin said. In his address, the cardinal said that all migrants share the same human rights,

(Buda Mendes/Getty Images) CHRIS ENLOE The Lord's Prayer, found in Matthew 6  and Luke 11 , is the most famous Christian prayer, recited by hundreds of millions of Christians around the world each day. In fact, it is the only prayer Jesus provided his followers. He gave the prayer to distinguish his followers from the Jewish leaders, whom Jesus referred to as "hypocrites." But now, Pope Francis, the leader of the Catholic Church, may approve an edit of the prayer over what some experts believe is a theological error. What are the details? Researchers "from a theological, pastoral and stylistic viewpoint" concluded after 16 years of research that a line from the prayer referring to "temptation" is incorrectly translated in English, according to Express UK . The line "lead us not into temptation" should be edited to "abandon us not when in temptation," the alleged experts say. The altered version has been submitted to the Vatican and

Why is a relatively straightforward multilateral agreement that has no legal standing causing such controversy? EMILY SCHULTHEIS KRISHNADEV CALAMUR 6:08 AM ET Angela Merkel has supported a UN migration compact, but not everyone is happy with it. ABDERRAHMANE MOKHTARI / REUTERS An international migration pact adopted by the vast majority of the world’s nations aims to better handle rising flows of migrants worldwide, explicitly upholds national sovereignty, and is not legally binding. Why, then, is much of Europe freaking out over it? The United Nations Global Migration Compact, signed this week by 164 countries, has been years in the making, and includes relatively uncontroversial goals such as improving data collection. In a sign of its import, German Chancellor Angela Merkel—whose legacy will likely be defined by her decision to allow more than 1 million refugees into her country in 2015 and 2016—flew in to Marrakech, Morocco, for the signing ceremony, arguing that it was “worth it t