Globe Trot: The ISIS propaganda video franchise

IRAQ: ISIS is making a franchise of atrocious (and edited) propaganda videos, and the latest shows 21 captured Kurdish peshmerga soldiers paraded, alive, inside cages, likely somewhere near Mosul

Despite atrocities in Iraq, one Christian mother whose family was forced from Mosul by ISIS said, “These sufferings have increased our faith in God.” Author Ellen Vaughn recounts for WORLD the slow genocide underway in the area.

SYRIA: Christian Aid gave cameras to Syrian refugee children in Lebanon and asked them to take photographs and tell their stories. A young girl from Aleppo describes the miraculous wartime birth of her sister, named Peace, and the amazing survival of her mom.

CHINA: A heat map shows the traditional trek of city dwellers to make it home for last week’s Chinese New Year celebrations, and WORLD’s own Angela Lu reports on the festivities in Taiwan.

RUSSIA: Former ambassador to the Soviet Union Jack Matlock gave a provocative talk at the National Press Club this month on current U.S. foreign policy, which he calls “autistic.” Matlock blames Congress and President Barack Obama for escalating tension with Russia and forgetting how to deal with the other side. Drawing a page from a memo issued by President Ronald Reagan at the height of the Cold War—a memo that lead to the war’s end—Matlock recalls The Gipper saying, “Whatever we achieve, we must not consider it victory, because that will simply make the next achievement more difficult.”

CZECH REPUBLIC: In Central Europe I’m learning about Josiah Venture, a ministry working in 14 post-Communist nations that’s partnering with local churches to bring young people to Christ. Pretty exciting stuff, in countries where Christianity has a rich past but evangelicals now number less than 1 or 2 percent of the population.