The World Health Organisation has declared a global health emergency over coronavirus. This comes as the virus has spread across every region of China and continues to spread to other nations.
“The main reason for this declaration is not what is happening in China but what is happening in other countries,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The virus has claimed 170 lives in China. The WHO has said there are 98 confirmed cases across 18 other countries outside of China.
Read More: BBC
Daniel Dietrich, the worship pastor at South Bend City Church, Indiana, has penned a “hymn” rebuking the 81% of white evangelical Christians who voted for Trump.
The lyrics of the song accuse the evangelicals of “putting kids in cages, ripping mothers from their babies” and “weaponiz[ing] religion.”
“There’s so much work to do to combat white supremacy, homophobia, transphobia, sexism — all the ways in which people are treated as less than the children of God that they are,” Dietrich told Religion News Service.
Despite being praised by many evangelicals from the left the hymn has not been embraced by all: “Deitrich’s words are not elevating or edifying; they are divisive,” Goins-Phillips, of Faithwire, writes. “Our worship and discipleship should be challenging, but it should be challenging in ways that call us back to Scripture, not to our anger at one another.”
Read More: FoxNews
The tech website EFF has investigated the popular door bell app Ring. They found that the android version of the app is packed with third-party trackers. Ring sends out an array of customers’ personally identifiable information (PII). Ring has avoided a lot of scrutiny as it has successfully marketed itself as a company that helps customers with their personal security.
However, this investigation has drawn attention to the company for passing information, which is then used for marketing purposes, to branch.io, mixpanel.com, appsflyer.com and facebook.com.
It has also been found that Ring and the companies who have access to the users information have at times mismanaged this information. Also when data has been used lawfully it is not always clear to customers that their data has been passed onto third party, or how it is used.
Read More: EFF
Rapper Kanye West continues his crusade to tell how his faith in Jesus has transformed him. West began a year ago to host pop-up services. Last weekend he spoke to over12,000 college students in Tennessee, over 1,000 students came to Christ according to organisers. He told them how he overcame alcoholism:
“Jesus saves,” West testified. “No matter how long you think you’ve been away. No matter how long you’ve been in the dark, the light is right there ready to save. To give you the confidence where they don’t want us to be brave. So you tell the devil today that we’ll no longer be his slave.”
The day before West held a 10 hour prayer rally in Arizona, Awaken 2020.
Read More: Fox News
Thousands gathered today to protest against new laws that the democrats in Virginia are seeking to pass. The protests took place amid high security. However the protests were peaceful and many of those attending were wearing hunting jackets.
Protesters were checked for firearms, before entering the Richmond’s Capitol Square.
Virginia has long been a conservative state, but the democrats took control last year. The new laws they want to pass would restrict the magazine size, limit gun purchases to one per month, and would give judges power to seize weapons from a person deemed a risk.
Read More: France 24
In a meeting today at the Queesn’s Sandringham estate it was agreed their will be a transitional period for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to become more independent.
In a statement the Queen said:
“My family and I are entirely supportive of Harry and Meghan’s desire to create a new life as a young family,”
“Although we would have preferred them to remain full-time working members of the Royal Family, we respect and understand their wish to live a more independent life as a family while remaining a valued part of my family.”
It is believed the young couple will split their time between North America and the UK; possibly settling in Canada.
Read More: BBC
As the crippling transport strike entered its 39th day the Prime Minister of France Macron called on the unions to take responsibility. The strike is centred on pension reforms. This came after the government removed the most contentious part of the legislation: raising the State Pension age from 62 to 64.
France has one of the lowest pension ages in the West, and some the most generous pensions in Europe. The government wants to introduce a uniform points based pension scheme. However unions say this will see pension payments reduced.
Unions are still calling for the reforms to be scraped completely. Saturday saw protesters smashing windows, setting things on fire and throwing projectiles. The police responded by using tear gas.
Read More: France 24