President Trump signed a landmark bill into law Tuesday that permanently funds the Land and Water Conservation Fund and provides billions of dollars to restore national park infrastructure.

The Great American Outdoors Act, supported by a bipartisan coalition in the House and Senate, allocates $9.5 billion over five years to restore facilities and infrastructure in national parks and public lands. It also provides $900 million a year in permanent funding to the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF).

“The legislation I’m signing today builds on my administration’s unwavering commitment to conserving … the grandeur and the splendor of God’s creation,” Trump said. “This is truly God’s creation.”

It was sponsored in the House by the late Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) and in the Senate by Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.).

The new law, Trump said, will create more than 100,000 additional infrastructure-related jobs.

“For more than 50 years, Congress has struggled to adequately fund land and water conservation, leading to a never-ending backlog of maintenance and other critical needs in our parks and public lands,” Trump said. “… Today, more than 5,500 miles of road, 17,000 miles of trails, and 24,000 buildings are in critical need of repair; they have been for a long time.”

Trump called it “the most significant investment in our parks since the administration of…

On Tuesday afternoon, a deadly explosion in Beirut, Lebanon took the lives of at least 100 people, left around 4,000 injured and hundreds of others missing.

Lebanon has since declared a two-week “state of emergency” in an effort to recover from the explosion.

According to the Associated Press, fireworks and 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, a chemical commonly used in fertilizer and explosives, are what caused a massive explosion in Lebanon’s capital after a fire broke out around 18:00 (15:00 GMT) on Tuesday. The exact cause of the fire is still being investigated.

The AP reports that the explosion, which caused a massive mushroom cloud to materialize in the sky and sent a shock as powerful as a magnitude 3.5 earthquake through the city, flattened many, if not most of the businesses and homes in Beirut. The explosion, which shattered glass in nearby cars and buildings and created a crater some 200 meters in size, was reported to have been felt as far away as Cyprus which is 180 miles from Beirut. This is the worst explosion the city has ever seen, the AP reports.

According to Lebanon’s Interior Minister Mohammed Fahmi, the ammonium nitrate, which is believed to have been stored improperly, had been kept in the exploded warehouse since it was confiscated in 2014.

As of Wednesday morning, amid speculation that negligence played a part in the devastating blast, the Lebanese government…

Joel Osteen and Lakewood Church have partnered with World Vision U.S. to boxes of food to those who are in need during the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Chron, World Vision’s Fresh Food Box Program provides enough food to feed a family of five for a week. The boxes often contain meat, dairy, and produce, which is provided by farmers who would not have been able to sell the goods because of the COVID-driven economic downturn.

Dr. Paul Osteen, who serves as an associate pastor at Lakewood, said, “We are truly grateful to partner with World Vision U.S. to get fresh food to the most vulnerable in Houston and the surrounding areas. We’ve seen first-hand the smiles and gratitude on the faces of hundreds of parents, children, elderly and medically fragile when they are handed a box of food. Through this valuable partnership, Lakewood will continue to offer help and hope to those in need in our community.”

World Vision has been actively serving communities during the pandemic. The Fresh Food Box Program has fed 860,000 people through 70 “hubs” like Lakewood Church. One of the biggest problems for the program has been finding distributors who have enough refrigerating and cooling capacity for the boxes.

Reed Slattery, the national director of World Vision U.S. Programs, told The Christian Post that the ministry had grown in their desire to serve the city of Houston in recent…

CNN and other media outlets were panned over the weekend for avoiding the word “women” in reports about new cervical cancer screening guidelines.

The stories focused on new guidelines from the American Cancer Society, which now recommends that women have their first cervical cancer screening at age 25 (instead of 21) with an HPV test instead of a pap test, and that the HPV test be completed every five years through the age of 65.

A press release from the American Cancer Society used the term “individuals with a cervix” but also included the word “women” four times, interchangeably.

The CNN online story avoided the word “women” altogether and used phrases such as “individuals with a cervix” and “those with a hysterectomy,” reflecting terminology preferred by LGBT groups.

A story on the website of NBC’s Today Show referenced “people with a cervix” in the first paragraph, although it did use the word “women” several times in the story.

ABC’s story used the word “women” throughout and avoided references to “individuals” or “people.”

Most of the controversy, though, focused on CNN, based partially on a network tweet that went viral.

“‘Individuals with a cervix.’ I’m pretty sure there’s a word for these individuals but I can’t be certain,” conservative commentator Matt Walsh wrote, sarcastically.

“Individuals with a cervix.”…

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Albert Mohler Jr. denounced The New York Times and other media outlets that seem to blame churches for the spread of COVID-19.

In an episode of Mohler’s podcast “The Briefing” on Monday, the Southern Baptist leader critically analyzed an article published by The New York Times last month that accused churches of being the epicenter of infections nationwide.

Mohler noted that the piece, published on July 8 and updated on July 10, listed 650 confirmed novel coronavirus cases linked to 40 churches — 365 of those infections cited by the Times were in Union County, Oregon, many of which were reportedly…