HYDERABAD, India, May 15, 2020 (Morning Star News) – A pastor arrested in Nepal in March on charges of giving false information for saying prayer could heal COVID-19 was released last month – and then immediately re-arrested on new charges, sources said.

Moments after releasing pastor Keshab Raj Acharya on bail on April 8, police re-arrested him on charges of “outraging religious feelings” and “proselytizing,” according to court documents. Christian leaders in the Himalayan country and rights advocates said the charges violate a freedom of religion agreement to which Nepal is a signatory.

His wife, Junu Acharya, told Morning Star News that police had told her the bail amount would be 70,000 Nepalese rupees (US$571), an amount she gathered from church members and was counting and re-counting at the district jail when an officer told her the bond was only 5,000 Nepalese rupees (US$41).

Overjoyed, she quickly thanked him and rushed into the main office, where she paid the amount and received a receipt, she said.

“I was happy that my husband was finally returning home. But the moment we both stepped out of the district jail gate, a police officer came running after us,” Acharya told Morning Star News. “He told me that I cannot take my husband home.”

Another police officer followed, seizing her husband’s hands and handcuffing him, she said. When she…

Americans stuck inside their homes during the coronavirus pandemic are watching television at a rate three times the norm, according to new data from a company that operates a streaming guide app.

Netflix traffic has increased 332 percent since March 17, but it’s not the only streaming platform that has seen a massive increase in traffic, according to JustWatch, which owns a popular streaming guide app. Disney Plus (290 percent), Amazon Prime Video (266 percent) and Hulu (259 percent) all have seen major upticks in traffic, according to JustWatch.

“It’s not just Netflix that profits from the epidemic,” a JustWatch press release said. 

The data did not originate from the major streaming companies but from JustWatch. Its app allows users to search and view the schedule of every major streaming platform in one place. Users also can receive notifications about new shows and personal recommendations.

Netflix said in April it attracted nearly 16 million new subscribers the first three months of this year – almost twice the amount it gained in the first three months of 2019. All total, it has 182.9 million subscribers. 

“Netflix is and will continue to be the media company least impacted by Covid-19,” eMarketer analyst Eric Haggstrom told the BBC. “Their business is a near perfect fit to a population that is suddenly housebound.”

Still, Netflix warned its future growth could be…

It’s a laid-back Friday afternoon and as soon as author and speaker Philip Yancey says, ‘hello,’ I can tell he has dedicated all of his focus on our conversation. 

For many who know of the works of Yancey, his intentionality is not surprising. Yancey is regarded by many as a counselor who knows how to guide people through their situation, while simultaneously pointing them to Christ. 

Best known for his work on listening to God through pain and suffering, Yancey is no strangers to what deep pain feels like. 

Yancey was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, and can remember feeling the agony of living a life without a father as well as the emotional turmoil he experienced as a part of a specific legalistic church. 

Yancey’s father died when he was just one year old, and the church his family belonged to at the time showed anything but grace. 

“I had a lot of ups and downs growing up as a child and young adult,” Yancey shared.

“I grew up in an unhealthy church environment that made me question God and Faith based on how they treated people of color,” he added.

Fortunately, it was in his years of wondering that God placed some important and influential people in Yancey’s life and his faith began to blossom.

“I found my own path spiritually when I left to go to college,” he shared.

During this time, Yancey would be introduced to Paul Brand, someone Yancey would later come to…

White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Thursday the administration is keeping President Trump and Vice President Pence healthy and is not “addressing” the prospect of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rising to power if Trump and Pence become incapacitated due to the coronavirus.

Pelosi is second in line to the presidency according to the Presidential Succession Act of 1947.

A reporter asked McEnany if the White House has “a procedure in place in case Speaker Pelosi needs to come in if the president and the vice president are incapacitated.”

“That’s not even something that we’re addressing,” McEnany said. “We’re keeping the president healthy. We’re keeping the vice president healthy. … They’re healthy at this moment, and they’ll continue to be.”

The same reporter then followed up: “But is it something they should be considering?”

“The president’s healthy, the vice president’s healthy, and I think that’s something all reporters should be celebrating and the American people as well,” McEnany answered.

Trump told Fox Business Pelosi “would be a disaster” as president.

“Never going to happen. We’ll keep our vice president very healthy, and I’ll stay healthy. Never going to happen,” he said, according to Politico.

The line of succession has been discussed in Washington, D.C., as the coronavirus has gotten closer to Trump. Pence’s press…

The person at the center of the Supreme Court case working to define how transgender people are recognized in the workplace has died.

Anthony Stephens, 59, who changed his name to Aimee Stephens and chose to self-identify as female, died this week at home hospice due to complications from kidney disease, the Christian Post reports.

Stephens’ case, R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes v. Aimee Stephens & EEOC, was the first transgender rights-related civil matter to reach the Supreme Court.

The court heard arguments in October and a ruling is expected by the end of June.

The case came after Stephens was fired from his job at a Christian-owned funeral home in Michigan after he chose to self-identify as a woman and begin wearing women’s clothing to work.

Thomas Rost, Stephens’ boss at the time and funeral home owner, said “coming to work dressed as a woman was not going to be acceptable.” 

Stephens filed a lawsuit against the funeral home on the grounds of discrimination. The American Civil Liberties Union represented Stephens.

The ACLU has argued that the funeral home violated the core premise of Title VII, where employees should be judged on their merit and not discriminated against on the basis of sex. The ACLU said that firing Stephens was unlawful sex discrimination.

Previously, a lower court ruled in favor of Stephens, saying in the ruling that it is…

JOS, Nigeria, May 14, 2020 (Morning Star News) – Muslim Fulani herdsmen slaughtered families in Christian areas of Nigeria on Monday (May 11), killing 17 men, women and children in Kaduna state days after a pastor and missionary were abducted, sources said.

“Armed Fulani militia” struck predominantly Christian Gonan Rogo village, Kajuru County, less than 40 miles from the city of Kaduna in the southern part of the state, at 11:30 p.m., said Luka Binniyat, spokesman for the Southern Kaduna People’s Union (SOKAPU), in a press statement. Muslim Fulani residents of the village had slipped away the night before, he said.

“They broke into the home of Jonathan Yakubu, 40, and slaughtered him,” Binniyat said. “They also killed his wife, Sheba Yakubu, 32, and hacked to death their only three children, Patience, 13; Revelation, 6; and Rejoice, 4, thus wiping out the entire Yakubu household. We met relations of the Yakubu’s who were sobbing beyond consolation in front of the house Yakubu had built.”

Six others were injured in the overnight attack, and the Fulani also stole seven head of cattle, he said.

“From this compound, trails of blood led to another gory scene, where Kauna Magaji was killed along with her daughter, Faith Magaji, who died of grisly cutlass cuts to their heads,” Binniyat said. “Still not done, the killers went to another compound, where they met Saraunia Lucky,…