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Xia Baolong, a former deputy and ally of President Xi Jinping, has been appointed by the Chinese government as the new director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office. It’s a move seen by some political analysts that Beijing intends to tighten its control over the city.

The Guardian reports Xia’s reputation comes from his 2014 campaign to tear down thousands of Christian crosses and many underground churches in the Zhejiang province. Xia, 67, later took command of the province, serving as party secretary until 2017. 

Hong Kong saw months of anti-government protests drawing thousands of people over an extradition bill that would have required suspects to be sent to the mainland for trial. The city later withdrew the bill that sparked the protests – the most flagrant challenge to Beijing’s authority since the United Kingdom turned over its former colony to mainland rule in 1997. 

Willy Lam, an adjunct professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, told The Guardian Xia’s appointment is “bad news for Hong Kong”. 

“It signals that China will bring Hong Kong under closer scrutiny and tighten control over all aspects of the city,” he said.

Professor Ying Fuk Tsang, the director of the divinity school at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said the appointment of a close ally of Xi might also attempt to intensify ideological control in Hong Kong.

“He has a track record as a hardliner. If the central authorities want a crackdown, he would not spare any efforts,” he said. “This would definitely have an impact on Hong Kong’s civil society.”

After a key Chinese Communist Party meeting known as the Fourth Plenum last November, the party released a statement saying “National interest should take priority over the “two systems” policy that has allowed Hong Kong extensive autonomy since the handover from British colonial rule, and warned that it would not tolerate “any actions that split the country.”

As CBN News reported in November, Hong Kong’s pro-democracy opposition won a landslide victory in the district council elections, winning the majority of the vote for 452 district council seats. It was seen as a clear rebuke to city leader Carrie Lam over her handling of recent violent protests in the city.

Speculation has also swirled that Beijing may be preparing to replace Lam when matters settle down.

Meanwhile, oppression in the communist country continues on many levels. On Wednesday, China said it had revoked the press credentials of three The Wall Street Journal reporters over a headline for an opinion column deemed racist by the government.

The expulsions come after the Trump administration on Tuesday designated five state-run Chinese news outlets that operate in the United States as “foreign missions,” requiring them to register their properties and employees in the US. China said it reserves the right to respond to what it called a mistaken policy.

The headline on the Journal’s opinion column referred to the current virus outbreak in China and called the country the “Real Sick Man of Asia.”

Like most foreign media companies, The Journal is unavailable within China and its website and stories are blocked by online censors.

China has in recent years refused to issue or renew credentials for foreign journalists, but this is the first time in decades that it has actually revoked their documents, effectively expelling them from the country.

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Donald Trump named one of his closest loyalists, ambassador to Germany Rick Grenell, as acting director of national intelligence Wednesday.

‘I am pleased to announce that our highly respected Ambassador to Germany, @RichardGrenell, will become the Acting Director of National Intelligence. Rick has represented our Country exceedingly well and I look forward to working with him,’ Trump tweeted just before he started a rally in Phoenix, Arizona.

The appointment will make history with Grenell, 53, becoming the first openly gay cabinet secretary.

It puts a hawkish pro-Trump figure in charge of the intelligence community but may not be a permanent move – Grenell replaces an acting director, Joseph Maguire, and there was no clarity on whether the ambassador would be formally nominated for the role.

Maguire had until March 12 to remain as acting DNI, a role he took when Dan Coats quit as the last permanent leader of the intelligence community.

Trump tweeted that Maguire could have another role in the administration; he had previously been director of the National Counterterrorism Center after a career in the Navy as a SEAL and chief of special operations.

Maguire and the wider intelligence community was thrust to the center of the news agenda by the whistleblower letter which accused Trump of wrongdoing in his relations with Ukraine.

Grenell is eligible to become acting director because he is already on a Senate-confirmed role, having been voted through 56-42, and was sworn in by Mike Pence with his partner Matt Lashey at his side, becoming the highest-ranking gay official in a Republican administration.

Grenell has not worked in the intelligence community before but was also floated as a possible director of national security at the White House, a job which went to Robert O’Brien after the sudden departure of John Bolton.

He has already been outspoken on one intelligence issue, saying there is a need to prevent Huawei having access to 5G cell phone networks in the West.

He used Twitter to issue a direct warning to the UK this week that it faces losing access to U.S. intelligence – which he will now control – after prime minister Boris Johnson allowed Huawei to be part of building the country’s 5G network

The move will add a seasoned foreign policy veteran with sharp elbows to Trump´s inner circle.

While Grenell has a reputation for sometimes being abrasive, he has been adamantly loyal to Trump at a time when the president remains skeptical about the intelligence community.

Trump had a strained relationship with Coats, who had endorsed the U.S. intelligence community’s assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election with the objective of promoting Trump over his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.

Trump also has objected to U.S. intelligence community analyses of major issues – from Iran’s nuclear program to North Korea – that have clashed with his own assessments, tweeting to intelligence chiefs in January 2019 that they should ‘go back to school’ and were ‘naive’ for underestimating the danger from Iran.

Source: Daily Mail

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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – Yonhap news agency says South Korea has reported its first death from a new coronavirus.
  
The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did not immediately provide details.
  
The report came as South Korea is struggling to cope with the outbreak and its economic fallout.
  
Earlier Thursday, South Korea said it has confirmed a total of 82 cases of the virus.
  
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below
  
The mayor of the South Korean city of Daegu urged its 2.5 million people on Thursday to refrain from going outside as cases of a new virus, linked to a church congregation, spiked and he pleaded for help from the central government.
  
Mayor Kwon Young-jin made the appeal in a nationally televised news conference after the southeastern city and its nearby towns reported 35 additional cases of infection with the new coronavirus on Thursday. 
  
Kwon also asked Daegu citizens to wear masks even indoors if possible. He expressed fears that the rising infections in the region will soon overwhelm the city’s health infrastructure and called for urgent help from the central government in Seoul.
  
“National quarantine efforts that are currently focused on blocking the inflow of the virus (from China) and stemming its spread are inadequate for preventing the illness from circulating in local communities,” Kwon said.
  
The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 28 of those 35 new patients went to church services attended by a previously confirmed virus patient or contacted her at other places inside a Daegu church. That patient is a South Korean woman in her early 60s who has no recent record of overseas travel, according to center officials. She tested positive for the virus on Tuesday, becoming the 31st case in South Korea. 
  
On Wednesday morning, Daegu confirmed 13 cases and 11 of them either went to the same church with the woman patient or contacted her at a hospital, according to the disease control center. 
  
The Shincheonji Church of Jesus, which claims it has about 200,000 followers in the country, said it has closed all of its 74 churches around the nation and told followers to instead watch its online worship services on YouTube. It said in a statement that health officials were disinfecting its church in Daegu, which the woman patient went to, while tracing her contacts. That Daegu church has about 8,000 followers. 
  
According to the church statement, church officials had been advising followers since late January to stay at home if they had recently traveled overseas or were experiencing even mild cold-like symptoms. But the 31st patient assumed she was having a common cold and kept coming to her Daegu church because she didn’t travel overseas, church officials said.
  
“We think it’s deeply regrettable … for causing concerns to the local community,” the statement said.
  
The explosion of infections in Daegu and the neighboring southeast region, as well as some new cases in the Seoul metropolitan area where the sources of infections were unclear, have raised concern that health authorities are losing track of the virus as it spreads more broadly in the country. 
  
Kwon spoke shortly before South Korea’s government for the first time acknowledged that the country was beginning to see a “community transmission” of the illness, albeit at a “limited range.” 
  
“We are seeing infections in some areas like Seoul and Daegu where it’s difficult to confirm the cause or routes of the infections,” Kim Gang-lip, South Korea’s vice health minister, said in a briefing.
  
“Our judgment is that (COVID-19) which has been introduced from abroad is beginning to spread through community transmissions in limited ranges,” he said, adding that the government would need to change its quarantine strategy that has been focused on tracing contacts.
  
South Korea has reported a total of 82 cases of COVID-19, a disease first detected in Wuhan, China, in December. 
  
In a telephone conversation with Kwon later Thursday, President Moon Jae-in said the central government will make all available assistance to help Daegu fight against the virus’ further spread, according to the presidential Blue House.

(Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.)

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TEXT: Hebrews 4:14-16

14 Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.

15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

——–

J.C. Ryle said, “Fear not because your prayer is stammering, your words feeble, and your language poor. Jesus can understand you.”

Douglas Moo said, “The faith exercised in prayer is faith in the God who sovereignly accomplishes His will. When we pray, our faith recognizes, explicitly or implicitly, the overruling providential purposes of God.”

Warren Wiersbe said, “Something else makes Him great: He is ministering mercy and grace to those who come for help. Mercy means that God does not give us what we do deserve; grace means that He gives us what we do not deserve. No Old Testament high priest could minister mercy and grace in quite the same way. When an Israelite was tempted, he could not easily run to the high priest for help; and he certainly could not enter the holy of holies for God’s help. But as believers in Jesus Christ, we can run to our High Priest at any time, in any circumstance, and find the help that we need. Now because of the superiority of Jesus Christ, the Great High Priest, over Aaron, two important conclusions can be drawn. First, there is no need in giving up our profession just because we are going through testing and trial. The word translated “profession” means “confession.” These Hebrew Christians were tempted to give up their confession of faith in Christ and their confidence in Him. It was not a matter of giving up their salvation, since salvation through Christ is eternal. It was a matter of their public confession of faith. By returning to the Old Testament system, they would be telling everyone that they had no faith in Christ. This kind of unbelief would only bring reproach to Christ’s name. After all, the great purpose of salvation is the glory of God. It was the glory of God that so concerned Moses when Israel broke God’s Law and made the golden calf. God offered to destroy the nation and to begin a new one from Moses, but Moses refused the offer. Instead Moses interceded for Israel on the basis of God’s glory and God’s promise; and God spared the people, even though He disciplined them for their sin. The second conclusion is this: there is no need to go back because we can come boldly into the presence of God and get the help we need. No trial is too great, no temptation is too strong, but that Jesus Christ can give us the mercy and grace that we need, when we need it. “But He is so far away!” we may argue. “And He is the perfect Son of God! What can He know about the problems of weak sinners like us?” But that is a part of His greatness! When He was ministering on earth in a human body, He experienced all that we experience, and even more. After all, a sinless person would feel temptations and trials in a much greater way than you and I could ever feel them. Christ was tempted, yet He did not sin; and He is able to help us when we are tempted. If we fail to hold fast our confession, we are not proving that Jesus Christ has failed. We are only telling the world that we failed to draw on His grace and mercy when it was freely available to us.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Now, if you are with us today, and you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour, your first prayer needs to be what we call the Sinner’s Prayer. First, please understand that you are a sinner, just as I am, and that you have broken God’s laws. The Bible says in Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”

Second, accept the fact that there is a penalty for sin. The Bible states in Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death…”

Third, accept the fact that you are on the road to hell. Jesus Christ said in Matthew 10:28: “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Also, the Bible states in Revelation 21:8: “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”

Now this is bad news, but here’s the good news. Jesus Christ said in John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Just believe in your heart that Jesus Christ died for your sins, was buried, and rose from the dead by the power of God for you so that you can live eternally with Him. Pray and ask Him to come into your heart today, and He will.

Romans 10:9 & 13 says, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved… For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

If you believe that Jesus Christ died on the Cross for your sins, was buried, and rose from the dead, and you want to trust Him for your Salvation today, please pray with me this simple prayer: Holy Father God, I realize that I am a sinner and that I have done some bad things in my life. For Jesus Christ sake, please forgive me of my sins. I now believe with all of my heart that Jesus Christ died for me, was buried, and rose again. Lord Jesus, please come into my heart and save my soul and change my life today. Amen.

If you just trusted Jesus Christ as your Saviour, and you prayed that prayer and meant it from your heart, I declare to you that based upon the Word of God, you are now saved from Hell and you are on your way to Heaven. Welcome to the family of God! Congratulations on trusting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour. You have done the most important thing in life. For more information to help you grow in your newfound faith in Christ, go to Gospel Light Society.com and read “What To Do After You Enter Through the Door”. Jesus Christ said in John 10:9, “I am the door, by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.”

God loves you. We love you. And may God bless you.

Daniel Whyte III has spoken in meetings across the United States and in over twenty-five foreign countries. He is the author of over forty books including the Essence Magazine, Dallas Morning News, and Amazon.com national bestseller, Letters to Young Black Men. He is also the president of Gospel Light Society International, a worldwide evangelistic ministry that reaches thousands with the Gospel each week, as well as president of Torch Ministries International, a Christian literature ministry.

He is heard by thousands each week on his radio broadcasts/podcasts, which include: The Prayer Motivator Devotional, The Prayer Motivator Minute, as well as Gospel Light Minute X, the Gospel Light Minute, the Sunday Evening Evangelistic Message, the Prophet Daniel’s Report, the Second Coming Watch Update and the Soul-Winning Motivator, among others.

He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Theology from Bethany Divinity College, a Bachelor’s degree in Religion from Texas Wesleyan University, a Master’s degree in Religion, a Master of Divinity degree, and a Master of Theology degree from Liberty University’s Rawlings School of Divinity (formerly Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary). He is currently a candidate for the Doctor of Ministry degree.

He has been married to the former Meriqua Althea Dixon, of Christiana, Jamaica since 1987. God has blessed their union with seven children.

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HANAU, Germany (AP) — Eight people were killed in shootings in the German city of Hanau late Wednesday, authorities said. Two hookah lounges reportedly were targeted.

Authorities were searching for the perpetrators early Thursday, three hours after the shootings at about 10 p.m. (2100 GMT), which police said also left five people wounded.

A heavy police presence was in place in central Hanau, with officers cordoning off the scene of one of the shootings as a helicopter hovered overhead. A car covered in thermal foil also could be seen with shattered glass.

Forensic experts in white overalls collected evidence from the scene.

A short police statement gave no information on the victims. It said the motive is not immediately clear.

Police said a dark vehicle was seen leaving the scene of the first shooting, and another shooting was reported at a second site.

Regional public broadcaster Hessischer Rundfunk said, without citing sources, that an attack took place in a hookah lounge in the center of the city. It said witnesses reported hearing eight or nine shots and seeing at least one person lying on the ground.

The perpetrator or perpetrators then apparently went to another part of the city, where shots were fired in another hookah lounge, the broadcaster said.

Hanau is in southwestern Germany, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) east of Frankfurt. It has about 100,000 inhabitants.

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