Genetics
Chinese researchers announce designer baby breakthrough foxnews
Chinese researchers used a genome editing technique called CRISPR to rid normal embryos of hereditary diseases that cause blood disorders and other ailments, according to New Scientist. Experts who reviewed the project told the publication that, even though it involved just six embryos, it carries promise.
Holocaust
Trump fails to mention Jews in Holocaust remembrance statement usatoday
In a departure from predecessors on both sides of the political aisle, President Trump’s statement Friday marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day ushmm.org did not mention the deaths of six million Jews — a lapse the head of the Anti-Defamation League adl.org called “puzzling and troubling.”
Also see Statement by the President on International Holocaust Remembrance Day whitehouse.gov
Abortion
Ohio Gov. Kasich Signs 20-Week Abortion Limit, Rejects 'Heartbeat Bill' npr.org
The so-called heartbeat bill, which Kasich rejected, was considered more vulnerable to legal challenge. Provisions of the measure would have essentially limited the period during which women could get an abortion to about six weeks, when many women don't even realize they're pregnant, reports the Associated Press.
Apostasy
German Protestants officially renounce converting Jews to Christianity religionnews
“All efforts to convert Jews contradict our commitment to the faithfulness of God and the election of Israel,” the resolution read. That Christians see Jesus as their savior and Jews don’t is “a fact we leave up to God,” it said.
Actually, Paul was quite clear in Romans that there is one salvation for both Jews and Gentiles (ex: Romans 10:12), that none are saved outside of Christ, and he specifically discussed this issue of "what about the Jews" in multiple locations (including looking forward to a time when, through Christ, the future Jewish nation will be saved - ex: Romans 11:11-32). Additionally, in letters like Galatians, he went to great pains to warn believers from being deceived by "Judaizers" who were trying to add obeying the law as part of salvation and that attempts at obeying the law was actually a false gospel and really no gospel at all (ex: Galatians 1:6). He even recounts a rebuke he had for Peter for seperating from the Gentiles as if there was a special status for Jews in Christ (Galatians 2:11-21). There's far too much to cover in a quick mention like this, but suffice it to say that Jesus (a Jew speaking to Jews) said that He is the Way and no one gets to the Father but through Him (John 14:6). To say that Jews aren't to be evangelized is to not understand the Gospel.
Israel
Sanhedrin Asks Putin and Trump to Build Third Temple in Jerusalem breakingisraelnews
Rabbi Hillel Weiss, spokesman for the Sanhedrin jewishvirtuallibrary.org, contacted Breaking Israel News to announce that the election of Trump, who has promised to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, coupled with Putin’s expressed desire for the Temple to be rebuilt, prompted the Jewish court to send a letter offering the two the opportunity to act as modern-day Cyrus figures: non-Jewish kings who recognize the importance of Israel and the Temple.
Israel
PM: World silent as Palestinians seek ‘ethnic cleansing’ of Jews in West Bank timesofisrael v
Speaking in English in a video message posted on his Facebook page, Netanyahu asked whether people in other parts of the world would accept such demands in their own countries.
See also Netanyahu 'ethnic cleansing' comment against Palestinians draws U.S. rebuke reuters
Religious Liberty
We Have Been Warned theamericanconservative
Last year, the Baptist ethicist David Gushee david-gushee.squarespace was quoted by gay New York Times columnist Frank Bruni as saying that “Conservative Christian religion is the last bulwark against full acceptance of L.G.B.T. people.” Gushee has fully embraced gay rights, and doesn’t simply tolerate gay relationships, but affirms their goodness. Now he has written an extraordinarily important column laying out the future for Christians who reject the Sexual Revolution in its latest form.
False Unity
Pope to young on Poland trip: Believe ‘in a new humanity’ washingtonpost
Pope Francis told young people who flocked by the hundreds of thousands to his words Sunday that they need to “believe in a new humanity” stronger than evil, and cautioned against concluding that one religion is more violent than others.
If you remember, Imagine was played quite a bit last year by various so-called 'globalists'. Sounds like P.J., himself, took a page from Lennon this week:
“People may judge you to be dreamers, because you believe in a new humanity, one that rejects hatred between peoples, one that refuses to see borders as barriers and can cherish its own traditions without being self-centered or small-minded,” Francis told his flock.
Isreal
Famous Holocaust escape tunnel located in Lithuania using hi-tech jpost
For the first time since the end of World War II, the famous tunnel dug by Jewish prisoners of Ponar, near Vilnius in Lithuania, to escape from the Nazis, has been located using new state-of-the-art technology for underground predictive scanning.
War
Nervous Baltics on war footing as NATO tries to deter Russia reuters
Leaders in the Baltic countries and Poland fear the force NATO plans to deploy on their territory is too small and symbolic to deter an attack by Russia, whose 2014 annexation of Crimea is fresh in the memories of the former Soviet-bloc states.
They will this week press other ministers of the western military alliance to help them build an air defense system against Russian aircraft and missiles. But that would be a highly sensitive step, likely to be condemned by Moscow as yet more evidence of a NATO strategy threatening its borders.
French Jews
Marseille Synagogue Becomes Mosque, French Muslims Want Churches Converted As Well jewishpress
Zvi Ammar, President of the Marseille Israelite Consistory, said the move was positive. “For the past 20 years or so we have seen the shift of the Jewish community to other neighborhoods,” he said, adding, “We all have the same God, the main thing is for this to proceed in harmony.”
Genetics
Breakthrough method means CRISPR just got a lot more relevant to human health theverge
The new method, described today in Nature, is called the "base-editing technique." It relies on the same basic mechanism as the standard CRISPR method, but unlike its predecessor, it doesn’t need to cut both strands of the DNA double-helix to alter the genetic code. Instead, the technique can directly convert a single letter of DNA to another, without deleting and inserting a bunch of random letters in the process. Because of this, the researchers were able to genetically alter human cells and mouse cells to reverse single-letter mutations that are associated with late-onset Alzheimer’s and breast cancer.
Another, somewhat related article: New Genetically Modified CRISPR-Mushroom Bypasses USDA Regulations
Space
Stephen Hawking announces $100M ‘Breakthrough Starshot’ project to find alien life nydailynews v
The Breakthrough Starshot Project was unveiled Tuesday on the 102nd floor of One World Observatory, where Hawking was joined by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner in announcing the ambitious plan.
