Iranian pastor goes on hunger strike

IRAN: Yousef Nadarkhani, an Iranian pastor serving a 10-year sentence in Tehran’s Evin Prison, has gone on a hunger strike after officials barred his son from attending school. Fifteen-year-old Youeil has refused to take Islamic education classes.

Nadarkhani is part of a lengthy list of Iranian clergy jailed for their Christian faith.

NORTH KOREA test-fired a ballistic missile, its 11th missile test—and its most provocative—this year.

IRAQ: At least 18 Iraqis have died as a third day of round-the-clock protests in Baghdad widens national unrest. Police used live ammunition against demonstrators and appeared to shut down internet services intermittently, including in Mosul, the city once occupied by ISIS.

HONG KONG: Tuesday’s protests left a swath of destruction across Hong Kong as organizers grapple with what digging in against the government means long term.

UKRAINE: Just weeks after the U.S. State Department approved a $47 million sale of Javelin missiles to Kiev, the Ukrainian government in April 2018 halted investigations into President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman. Paul Manafort, who worked for a decade for a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine, is in prison in New York after federal and state prosecutions for tax and bank fraud and other charges. A July 2019 phone conversation between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is at the center of the impeachment inquiry—with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo admitting he also was on the phone call in question.

An in-depth timeline of Hunter Biden’s lobbying efforts shows the extent to which the vice president’s son was leveraging his father’s name.

UNITED STATES: Americans now eat nearly half of their meals alone.

WEEKEND READ: The incredible story of 26-year-old American John Chau, shot and killed last year trying to reach India’s remote Sentinelese people, is a testimony in total dedication: “My life becomes an incredible adventure when I follow the call of God.”

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