Prophecy News Watch - August 16, 2017

Around the World
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani: We could restart 'advanced' nuke program 'within hours'
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told President Trump not to impose sanctions on the regime, warning the Iranians could restart their nuclear program 'within hours' in retaliation.
US decries Islamic State ‘genocide’ of Christians, others
The Trump administration denounced the Islamic State terror group on Tuesday for carrying out “genocide” against Christians and other religious minorities in areas under its control.

Israel-Palestinian Conflict
Israel Exposes Hamas Terrorist Payment Network in Eastern Jerusalem
Israel’s Shin Bet security agency on Tuesday unveiled the discovery of a complex money-transferring scheme run by the Gaza-ruling Palestinian terror group Hamas.
Abbas congratulates North Korea’s Kim amid nuclear tensions
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday congratulated North Korean Leader Kim Jong-Un on the occasion of his country’s 'Liberation day,' amid a high-stakes nuclear standoff between Pyongyang and Washington.

Inside the United States
Trump says ‘alt-left’ also to blame for Charlottesville violence, warns against eradicating statues
A defiant President Trump doubled down Tuesday on his initial claim that activists on both the left and the right were responsible for violence at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and he warned that eradicating public monuments linked to slavery could diminish the legacies of Founders such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.
CBO: Premiums would jump 20 percent next year if Trump cuts off Obamacare funds
Obamacare's gross premiums would rise by an average of 20 percent next year and 25 percent by 2020 if President Trump cuts off payments to insurers, according to an analysis released Tuesday by the Congressional Budget Office.
Ghost Voters
Some 3.5 million more people are registered to vote in the U.S. than are alive among America’s adult citizens. Such staggering inaccuracy is an engraved invitation to voter fraud.
Dreamers face showdown over amnesty with Trump, courts
President Obama had insisted for years that he didn’t have the power to grant a broad tentative deportation amnesty for Dreamers — then just ahead of the 2012 election, and facing severe criticism from Hispanic leaders, Mr. Obama discovered he did in fact have the power.
Feds Collect Record Income and Payroll Taxes Through July
The federal government collected record amounts of both individual income taxes and payroll taxes through the first ten months of fiscal 2017 (Oct. 1, 2016 through the end of July), according to the Monthly Treasury Statement.
Op-Ed: Antifa and the Alt-Right, Growing in Opposition to One Another
There is a cancer in the body politic. We must cut it out, or be destroyed.

Christian News
Christian Persecution in India Hits Record High in First Half of 2017
As reported earlier this year, the first quarter of 2017 saw 248 persecution incidents wherein Christians were harassed, threatened or attacked for their faith in India. More recent records indicate the number of incidents in first six months of 2017 is now up to 410 incidents. This represents an enormous increase in persecution as there were only 441 incidents reported in 2016 for the entire year.
North Korea is executing, torturing and enslaving those who practice religion, US says in new report
The North Korean regime has continued to position itself as one of the world's worst persecutors of the religious, torturing and killing people who practice their faith, according to a State Department report released Tuesday.