It’s Monday, February 19th, A.D. 2024. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard at www.TheWorldview.com. I’m Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com)
By Adam McManus
Nigerian Muslims killed 8,222 Christians last year
Over 8,000 Christians were reportedly killed in Nigeria, Africa in 2023 amid a rise in attacks, abductions and killings in recent years, reports The Christian Post.
The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law reports that at least 8,222 Christians were killed across Nigeria from January 2023 to January 2024.
It attributes the deaths to various Muslim extremist groups, including radicalized Fulani herdsmen, Boko Haram, and Nigerian security forces.
Nigerian States like Benue, Plateau, Kaduna, and Niger bore the brunt of these attacks, with thousands of Christians abducted and hundreds of churches destroyed or attacked.
Revelation 6:9-10 says, “When Jesus opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until You judge the inhabitants of the Earth and avenge our blood?”
Putin critic Alexei Navalny dies in Arctic Circle Russian jail
Russia’s most significant opposition leader for the past decade, Alexei Navalny, has died in an Arctic Circle jail, reports the BBC.
Navalny was moved to one of Russia’s toughest penal colonies late last year. According to the Daily Mail, the prison is located in a region where the temperatures are a bone-chilling 25-degrees below 0. Plus, the 1,085 of Russia’s worst criminals are tortured with electric shocks, beatings, and confined to tiny cells with just a hole for a toilet.
Navalny was President Vladimir Putin‘s most vociferous critic and had been serving 19 years on extremism charges that were widely seen as politically motivated. His wife Yulia has appealed to the international community “to help punish this regime.”
One of Navalny’s closest allies, Ivan Zhdanov, the Anti-Corruption Foundation chief, said it was “highly likely” that Navalny had been killed and that a “murder had actually happened.”
Trump fined $354 million for fraud and deceptive business practices
Last Friday, the judge overseeing Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial issued him a $354.8 million penalty and barred him from running a business in New York for three years, reports Politico.com. The judge found that for roughly a decade Trump orchestrated massive business fraud by falsely inflating his net worth to obtain favorable rates from banks and insurers.
The verdict, laid out in a 92-page ruling, strikes at the heart of an aspect of Trump’s identity that he harnessed in his 2016 presidential run: his personal wealth and his success as a businessman.
Justice Arthur Engoron wrote that Trump, and the other defendants in the case, showed a “complete lack of contrition and remorse” that “borders on pathological.”
The penalty caps a three-month trial in a lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James who campaigned on a “get Trump” platform.
Listen to the comment of James after the verdict.
JAMES: “Donald Trump engaged in deceptive business practices and tremendous fraud. Donald Trump falsely, knowingly inflated his net worth by billions of dollars to unjustly enrich himself, his family, and to cheat the system. Donald Trump may have authored the Art of the Deal, but he perfected ‘the art of the steal.’
“This long running fraud was intentional, egregious, illegal, he did all of this with the help of the other defendants his two adult sons and senior executives at the Trump Organization.
“After 11 weeks of trial, we showed the staggering extent of his fraud and exactly how Donald Trump and the other defendants deceived banks, insurance companies, and other financial institutions for their own personal gain. We proved just how much Donald Trump, his family, and his company unjustly benefited from his fraud.”
Trump reacts to New York verdict
Speaking from Mar-A-Lago, former President Donald Trump reacted to the New York verdict.
TRUMP: “A crooked New York state judge just ruled that I have to pay a fine of $355 million for having built a perfect company. Great cash, great buildings, great everything.
“It’s mostly talking about New York where we have a totally corrupt Attorney General. She campaigned on the fact that ‘I will get Trump. I will get Trump.’ Everybody’s seen it. Letitia James. It all comes out of Biden. It’s a witch hunt against his political opponent, the likes of which our country has never seen before. You see it in third world countries, banana republics.
“You build a great company. There was no fraud. The banks all got their money, 100%. They love Trump. They testified that Trump is great. Great customer.”
Senator Joe Manchin will not run for president as independent
Democrat Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia announced on February 16th that he will not run for the White House as an independent.
MANCHIN: “I will not be seeking a third-party run. I will not be involved in a presidential run.
“I will be involved in making sure that we secure a president that has the knowledge and has the passion and has the ability to bring this country together.”
Kids Online Safety Act likely to pass Senate
And finally, Senators Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut and Marsha Blackburn, a Republican from Tennessee, reintroduced the 64-page Kids Online Safety Act with the support of 62 senators, including Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, meaning that the bill will be filibuster-proof when it comes to the floor, reports Fox News.
It will restrict content for minors that promotes substance abuse, the promotion of suicide, sexual exploitation, and alcohol abuse. It would also mandate that social media companies implement certain controls to limit screen time and limit access to potentially harmful user profiles.
In Matthew 18:6, Jesus said, “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in Me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.”
Close
And that’s The Worldview in 5 Minutes on this Monday, February 19th in the year of our Lord 2024. Subscribe by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com. Or get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I’m Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.