Globe Trot: A German rebuke for the 'politics of fear'

UNITED STATES: German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in a speech in Washington rebuked the “politics of fear” in the United States and Europe and took a swipe at Republican frontrunner Donald Trump: “If you ask me, building walls is a very bad idea—no matter who pays for them.”

IRAN: Reformist candidates did better than expected in Friday’s election, but reform will remain stalled, writes Azadeh Moaveni, as long as government structure tilts to hard-liners: “If the past 15 years have made anything clear, it is that meaningful, legislated change does not emerge out of grass-roots evolution.”

TECHNOLOGY: A new kind of software to streamline Bible translation for oral cultures, Render, is expected to be put to use later this year. The technology breakthrough could affect as many as 1,800 oral cultures, representing perhaps 1 billion people.

IRAQ: A U.S. Special Operations force has captured “a significant Islamic State operative” in Iraq and is holding him—without naming him or saying where he is being held—in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.

ISIS has again used chemical weapons in an attack on Sinjar, the Yazidi city retaken by Kurdish forces from ISIS late last year. The Feb. 25 attack, according to aid workers in the city, sickened 110 people, most peshmerga soldiers. A Feb. 11 attack, according to Free Burma Rangers, left 175 people injured.

This month I did an interview with Tyndale House publishers about the behind-the-scenes process to writing my book, They Say We Are Infidels, which is due to go on sale next month:

“Every time a fresh hardship arose for the [Iraqi] Christians, in particular, they found (and continue to find) ways to draw closer to one another, closer to God. That’s a story you never get tired of telling.”

When I asked Iraqis if I could write about them, and name them, each one said yes. Their fearlessness still amazes me.

NOTE: Globe Trot will be on break as I travel, returning March 9.