Singing in Hong Kong

HONG KONG: They are still singing in the streets, but the Chinese territory is on edge as protests swell leading up to Tuesday, the 70th anniversary of communist China’s founding. In a scene dominated by youth, one of the pro-democracy protest leaders is 80-year-old pastor Kwok Nai-wang.

SOMALIA: Al-Shabaab militants used twin car bombs to attack a base used by U.S. Special Forces—indicating “a high intelligence and a degree of capability just to get close to that place,” one expert said. A separate bombing in Mogadishu targeted Italian forces.

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: The central figure behind Russia’s intense involvement in one of Africa’s most brutal civil wars is a confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin who was indicted in the United States last year and accused of efforts to disrupt the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

UKRAINE: Some reports (and here) are going to great lengths to assert no wrongdoing amid the Bidens’ work in Ukraine, but back in the day, a number of those same news outlets and some leading fact-checkers were critical of the overlap. A separate investigation into Ukrainians’ work with the Democratic National Committee leading up to the 2016 presidential election is likely to further complicate the Democrats’ impeachment proceedings.

GLOBAL: Christians have a word of hope for the “doomsters and extremists” driving climate-change protests.

When the chief of the World Meteorological Organization, Petteri Taalas, used that terminology last month, I got some questions about the source (a Falun Gong–owned paper, the only one back then reporting his interview outside Finnish sources). Multiple outlets later reported his comments. Taalas then issued a statement to clarify his position. “Our best science shows that the climate is changing,” he reiterated. “The science-based approach is undermined when facts are taken out of context to justify extreme measures in the name of climate action.”

AUSTRIA: Conservatives pulled through with a strong showing in snap elections, with Sebastian Kurz returned to power despite scandal that had brought down his coalition government.

HUNGARY: The Secretariat for Persecuted Christians is the first such government ministry dedicated to helping suffering believers, with direct aid to Christians in Syria, Iraq, and Nigeria—and all earning pushback from the European Union.

UNITED STATES: The State Department last week announced a cap of 18,000 refugees permitted into the United States next year, the lowest ceiling in the 50-year history of the current program. For persecuted Christians who seek entry instead through the asylum process at the border, acting U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Ken Cuccinelli told reporters, “We’ll turn them back.”

GERMANY: American Sara Hall finished fifth in the Berlin Marathon among the world’s top women marathoners, with a personal best that puts her in contention for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics less than a year away. The 36-year-old Arizonan adopted four sisters from Ethiopia with her husband, now-retired Olympic marathon runner Ryan Hall.

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