Kim Jong Un’s small step

NORTH KOREA: In just one step, Kim Jong Un crossed the southern side of the Korean Peninsula’s Demilitarized Zone for a summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, the first time a North Korean leader has stepped into South Korea since 1953.

PAKISTAN’s chief justice said he will decide “soon” the case of Asia Bibi, the Christian mother whose 2009 conviction on blasphemy charges focused world attention on Pakistan’s treatment of religious minorities. Authorities sentenced Asia Bibi (whose real name is Aasiya Noreen) to death for blasphemy in 2010, and she has been imprisoned and waiting for the Supreme Court to hear an appeal filed in 2016.

UNITED STATES: Despite opposition from Democrats, the Senate on Thursday cleared former CIA Director Mike Pompeo on a 57-42 vote to become the 70th secretary of state—and President Trump’s second.

UNITED NATIONS: Counting Democrats and Republicans together, Nikki Haley may be the most popular politician in America.

EGYPT: President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi begins his second term—the autocrat no one is really talking about.

CHINA: Henan province in central China is facing the brunt of the Communist regime’s crackdown on Christians—reaching even into their living rooms. In Nanyang alone, authorities have closed 100 house churches.

BURUNDI: In one week the staff at this hospital will preside over a birth, a death, and hundreds of medical procedures in-between—with one American surgeon serving about 3 million people at its center. It’s all part of the remarkable legacy and ongoing work of medical missionaries in Africa—and the financiers who stand behind them.

Globally, the number of child deaths per year has dropped by half in the last 15 years—the fruit of medical mission work and vaccinations.

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