Globe Trot: Iraqi Christians await a right to return home

IRAQ: Some Iraqis are less concerned about U.S. President Donald Trump’s order on immigration, which temporarily bars them from entry into the United States, than getting back to their homes. “Liberation has not liberated us from ISIS,” one church leader told me, adding that “the indicators are not good” Christians will be allowed to return to many of their villages in Nineveh Plain and perhaps to the city of Mosul itself.

In Iraqi Kurdistan, where many displaced Christians remain, Mar Shmony was standing room only this evening (see photo above). The Syriac Catholic church in Erbil held a joint service with Chaldeans, including Patriarch Louis Sako. ISIS forced nearly all of the 1,000 or more attending out of Nineveh and Mosul more than two years ago.

ISIS is using encrypted messaging and remote-control technology to conceive and guide attacks behind a wall of anonymity, a form of virtual enabling that adds new concern over ISIS-claimed attacks like those in San Bernardino, Calif., and Orlando, Fla.

INDIA: Health officials who have spent years searching for the cause of a mysterious deadly affliction in children think they’ve found the culprit hiding in plain sight: lychee fruit.

ZIMBABWE: A young pastor and father of two has been charged with subverting the state, a crime that could carry 20 years in prison. Evan Mawarire is the new face of renewed opposition to the aged reign of President Robert Mugabe.

UNITED STATES: The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals left in place on Sunday a federal judge’s suspension of President Trump’s executive order on immigration and refugees. According to the State Department, some visa holders will have to reapply for new visas.

Starting with the earliest Biblical texts, God said to love the sojourner. He never said it would be easy—my take on the immigration confusion.