Robert Trump, the younger brother to President Donald Trump, passed away over the weekend at 71 years old. The cause of death has yet to be released.

According to the Associated Press, Trump, who had previously been hospitalized for several days in June, died on Saturday in a New York hospital just one day after the President paid his ailing brother a visit.

“It is with [a] heavy heart I share that my wonderful brother, Robert, peacefully passed away tonight. He was not just my brother, he was my best friend,” President Trump said in a statement on Saturday regarding his brother’s passing.

“He will be greatly missed, but we will meet again. His memory will live on in my heart forever. Robert, I love you. Rest in peace,” the President concluded.

From President @realDonaldTrump on the passing of his brother and best friend, Robert – “We will meet again”: pic.twitter.com/1mBgx1td26

— Kayleigh McEnany (@PressSec) August 16, 2020

Evangelist and vocal supporter of President Trump, Franklin Graham, offered his condolences to the president on Twitter.

“My prayers are with President Donald Trump and the family as his brother, Robert, passed away today. The President shared that Robert was not only his brother, but his best friend. I know they would appreciate your prayers as well during this time,” Graham wrote.

My prayers are with @POTUS @realDonaldTrump and the family as his brother, Robert,…

Pastor Said Deeb of Life Center Church in Beirut said he had a feeling he needed to send staff home on the day a massive explosion rocked the city.

“I don’t know why, I was so rude, I told everyone, ‘Go home, go home, just close the Center’,” Pastor Deeb explained, according to CBN News. “But people said, ‘How come? We came a long way, we have commitments, we have meetings.’ I said I don’t know why but please go home and come back on Sunday and it was a Tuesday afternoon,” he said.

Deeb said he sent home 34 staff members and canceled children’s Bible classes.

“It was as if the Holy Spirit is saying, Go! Go! Go! Go! So I was saying everybody go home, turn off the computers, forcing them to leave, I was forcing them and they said, ‘We are cooking, cooking food for the refugees and for the poor,’ and I said, ‘Today cancel everything, put it in the fridge’.”

“They were thinking I lost my mind but they didn’t know and I didn’t know it was the Holy Spirit’s prompting.”

Then on Aug. 4, the roof of a warehouse near the Port of Beirut caught fire, sparking several blasts and then finally, an explosion.

Life Center Church in Beirut is only about a mile from the explosion’s epicenter. Church windows and doors were blown out in the explosion.

Nearly 200 people were killed in the city and thousands were injured, according to reports.

“The…

A pastor in Beirut, Lebanon says a headmaster at a Syrian school may be executed after the school official was arrested by an Islamist group.

According to The Christian Post, Radwan Muhammad teaches English in Afrin in northern Syria. The Kurdish Christian was accused of apostasy and is being held at the Failaq Al-Sham headquarters in Afrin. Failaq Al-Sham is an Islamist group associated with the Muslim Brotherhood.

“We are extremely worried about Radwan’s life and wellbeing,” Pastor Nihad Hassan, who leads a Kurdish church in Beirut, Lebanon, said. “[T]hey may execute him.”

Failaq Al-Sham had ordered Muhammad to give up his Afrin school so it could be converted to an Islamic educational building, but Muhammad refused.

“I will hand you the building in one case only: if Jesus Christ comes down to earth again,” Muhammad reportedly told them.

Muhammad was arrested on July 30.

“Those Islamist groups and their Turkish masters are walking in the footsteps of IS (Islamic State),” Hassan said. “In fact, many of their fighters are former IS and al Qaeda members.”

Christian Solidarity Worldwide Chief Executive Mervyn Thomas is asking for Muhammad’s release.

“We also urge the Turkish authorities to intervene by restraining the various Islamist militia groups functioning under its command, and to immediately bring to an end all forms of violence and human rights abuses in the areas…

Disney continues to make headlines over its inclusion of LGBTQ+ characters in movies and TV shows. Most recently Disney included its first bisexual lead character on the supernatural animated series, The Owl House.

According to Breitbart, The Owl House, which premiered on the Disney Channel in January, follows a 14-year-old Dominican-American girl named Luz Noceda who travels to another world and hopes to become a witch.

While Luz shows interest in male characters throughout the show, she recently started to develop a relationship with a recurring female character, Amity, Variety reports.

In a recent episode, Amity and Luz share a dance and Amity desires to ask Luz to Grom, the show’s version of the prom.

Dana Terrace, the show’s creator, revealed that Luz is bisexual in a series of tweets following the episode. She explained that her creation of the character is reflective of her own sexual orientation.

“In dev I was very open about my intention to put queer kids in the main cast. I’m a horrible liar so sneaking it in would’ve been hard haha.” Terrace wrote. “When we were greenlit I was told by certain Disney leadership that I could NOT represent any form of bi or gay relationship on the Channel.”

Despite initial denials from Disney leadership over Terrace’s proposal featuring a bi character, it eventually was approved.

“I’m bi! I want to write a bi character, dammit!…

Throughout the pandemic, churches across the nation have been defying government restrictions on houses of worship as many believe religious freedom is being suppressed.

According to the Associated Press, on Thursday, three churches from Minnesota filed a lawsuit against Minnesota governor Tim Walz for his executive orders requiring people to wear masks and adhere to social distancing guidelines while attending religious gatherings.

The churches are being represented by the conservative law firm, Thomas More Society.

“Gov. Walz, a former teacher, gets an F in religious liberties,” said Erick Kaardal, special counsel for the Thomas More Society. “Other states, including Texas, Illinois and Ohio, have excluded churches from COVID-19 mask mandates.”

 “Unlike Walz,” he added, “those states have recognized that you cannot criminalize religious attendance at houses of worship for any reason. Governor Walz wants to prosecute Minnesotans for religious attendance. We are going to do our best not to see that happen.”

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison came to Walz’s defense, stating that the order was legally and constitutionally sound.

According to spokesperson Teddy Teschann, Gov. Walz stayed within his power in executing the order to ensure the public safety of the state’s citizens.

In early August, in Palmetto, Florida, Rev. Joel Tillis of Suncoast Baptist Church also took issue with…

Former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders acknowledged on Sunday he is more liberal than Joe Biden but nevertheless expressed belief that Biden could be the “most progressive president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt.”

Sanders, a self-described “Democratic Socialist” and the former frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, made the comments on NBC’s Meet the Press after being asked if he was disappointed the party platform barely mentioned Medicare For All – something Sanders champions.

“I am not the candidate, so my views are not the dominant views,” said Sanders, a senator from Vermont.

But Sanders pointed to “Unity Task Force” recommendations that were made in July by allies of Biden and Sanders. The document was posted on Biden’s official campaign website and lists areas of agreement. The document addresses climate change, the economy, criminal justice, education, immigration and health care.

“The people on those task forces worked very, very hard,” Sanders said. “And I’m not here to tell you, as a strong advocate for Medicare For All, that we got everything we wanted. We surely did not. But I think if people look at the outcome of those task forces, they’ll find the reality that if those task force proposals are implemented – you know what? – Joe Biden will become the most progressive president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt….

John MacArthur’s California church gathered Sunday morning for worship in spite of a last-minute court order that upheld government restrictions on indoor worship due to the pandemic.

“We’re not meeting … because we want to be rebellious. We’re meeting because our Lord has commanded us to come together and worship Him,” MacArthur, the pastor of Grace Community Church in Los Angeles County, said at the beginning of Sunday’s worship service.

Under current rules in Los Angeles County, churches are limited to outdoor gatherings, provided they social distance.

The service capped a busy legal weekend that initially saw the congregation win in court before Los Angeles County appealed to an appellate court.

On Friday, California Superior Court Judge James Chalfant ruled the church could meet indoors but ordered the congregation to social distance and to wear masks. MacArthur on Friday said he was “very grateful” that the judge vindicated “our desire to stay open and serve our people.”

But on Saturday, Los Angeles County filed an appeal with the California Court of Appeals, which late in the day blocked the judge’s ruling and upheld the county’s right to “enforce the Health Order’s ban on ‘indoor religious activity.’” The county had “demonstrated a likelihood” it would win the lawsuit, the appeals court said in its unanimous 3-0 decision, citing…

LAHORE, Pakistan, August 14, 2020 (Morning Star News) – A court decision to return custody of a 14-year-old Christian girl to the Muslim who allegedly kidnapped her and forced her to convert to Islam and marry him will make more Christian girls vulnerable to such trauma, sources said.

Lala Robin Daniel, a rights activist based in Faisalabad assisting the family of Maira Shahbaz, said the Lahore High Court’s refusal to take into account the documented age of the girl and the falsification of documents, including a fake marriage certificate, was unprecedented and would lead to more such cases.

“If the courts of this country start validating underage marriages of girls belonging to the minority communities, it will encourage people from the majority faith to target them with even more impunity,” he said. “A minor child can easily be influenced or coerced into renouncing their faith and marrying someone. This practice needs to be stopped.”

Daniel and the family’s attorney correctly refer to the girl as Maira in court documents, but the court mistakenly called her Maria in its verdict. A Catholic from Medina Town, Faisalabad, Maira contracted false marriage with the already married Muslim, Nakash Tariq, on Oct. 25, 2019 – six months before he allegedly abducted her on April 28, according to her mother, Nighat Shahbaz, a single parent and domestic worker.

According…