Prophecy News Watch - August 18, 2016

Today's Breaking News
Around the World
Russian Military Forces Staging Near Ukraine
The Pentagon has identified eight staging areas in Russia where large numbers of military forces appear to be preparing for incursions into Ukraine, according to U.S. defense officials.
Russia Defends Using Iran Bases for Syria Strikes
Russia took a scornful swipe at the United States on Wednesday, defending its use of Iranian air bases to launch air strikes on Syria and suggesting State Department officials should "check their logic and knowledge" over the issue.
U.S. assessing if Russian use of Iran base violates U.N. resolution
The United States is looking at whether Russia has violated a U.N. Security Council resolution on military dealings with Tehran by using an Iranian air base to carry out strikes inside Syria, the State Department said on Wednesday.
Pastor poses threat to Robert Mugabe's authoritarian rule in Zimbabwe
The national flag draped around his shoulders, Zimbabwe's most unlikely dissident said Wednesday that his popular protest movement has already triumphed over the government of authoritarian President Robert Mugabe and outlined plans to turn up the heat against the government in the run-up to elections in 2018.
Five years on, Obama's push to oust Syria's Assad proves uniquely futile
Exactly five years ago, President Obama first called for Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down, a demand that has proved uniquely futile in a brutal civil war that this week expanded to include Russian warplanes using a base in Iran to launch bombing runs in support of Mr. Assad's regime.
Scientists may have found 'fifth force of nature'
Scientists at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), believe they have identified a 'fifth force of nature.'
Weeks After U.S. Sent Iran $400M, Obama Admin Gave Tehran Another $1.3B
The Obama administration transferred an additional $1.3 billion in cash to Iran just weeks after completing a $400 million cash payment to the Islamic Republic earlier this year.

Israel-Palestinian Conflict
Israeli air force takes part in Red Flag exercise with Pakistan, UAE, US officials confirm
The Israel Air Force is taking part in the ongoing Red Flag aerial exercise alongside UAE, Pakistan and Spain, a US military spokesperson told i24news, the first official confirmation of Pakistan and the UAE's heavily rumored participation.
IDF seizes weapons, terror funds overnight in the West Bank
In an operation to confiscate terrorist funds and illegal weapons in the West Bank overnight Wednesday, IDF forces, in cooperation with the Israel Civil Administration and police, arrested five wanted Palestinians.
Israeli MK demands urgent meeting after Barak's scathing attack on Netanyahu
An Israeli lawmaker on Thursday demanded that the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee hold an urgent meeting to discuss former prime minister Ehud Barak's critical rhetoric against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Inside the United States
Nearly half of refugees entering the U.S. this year are Muslim
The U.S. has received 28,957 Muslim refugees so far in fiscal year 2016, or nearly half (46%) of the more than 63,000 refugees who have entered the country since the fiscal year began Oct. 1, 2015, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of data from the State Department’s Refugee Processing Center. That means that already this year the U.S. has admitted the highest number of Muslim refugees of any year since 2002.
Louisiana's mammoth flooding: 6,900,000,000,000: Gallons of rainfall in one week
Catastrophic flooding has swallowed swaths of Louisiana in a deluge that the governor calls 'unprecedented.' But the breadth of the destruction can be hard to imagine.
NSA's use of software flaws to hack foreign targets posed risks to cybersecurity
To penetrate the computers of foreign targets, the National Security Agency relies on software flaws that have gone undetected in the pipes of the Internet. For years, security experts have pressed the agency to disclose these bugs so they can be fixed, but the agency hackers have often been reluctant.
Southern California Fire 2016 Map: Over 82,000 People Evacuated; Wildfire 'Raging Unchecked'
As many as 82,000 people have been told to evacuate from the mountain communities in Southern California as a massive wildfire continues 'raging unchecked,' according to state officials.
US Federal Reserve Board Split Over Interest Rate Rise
Rate setters at the Federal Reserve are divided over when the next interest rate rise should be, according to minutes from the US central bank's policy meeting.
Hacked Soros Memo: $650,000 to Black Lives Matter
George Soros's Open Society Institute viewed the 2015 Baltimore unrest following the death of Freddie Gray as opening a 'unique opportunity' to create 'accountability' for the Baltimore police while aiding activists in reforming the city, according to hacked documents reviewed by Breitbart Jerusalem.

U.S. Politics
Donald Trump retools campaign team, retains hard-charging style
Donald Trump retooled his campaign Wednesday with new hires and plans to finally launch a TV ad blitz, but the rambunctious real estate mogul signaled that he isn't changing the hard-charging style that got him this far in the presidential race.
Clinton Foundation hired cyber firm after suspected hacking: sources
Bill and Hillary Clinton's charitable foundation hired the security firm FireEye to examine its data systems after seeing indications they might have been hacked, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Christian News
Media Ignores Ongoing Genocide of Christians in The Middle East
On March 17, 2016, Secretary of State John Kerry officially declared the extermination of Christians and other minority religious groups in the Middle East a genocide. The move came after years of pressure from a number of human rights groups including the The Philos Project, The American Mesopotamian Organization, Open Doors, Knights of Columbus, In Defense of Christians, The Assyrian Aid Society of America, The Iraqi Christian Relief Council and others, whose activists presented evidence to the State Department proving genocide and ethnic cleansing.
Pastor defies threats from Muslim radicals in Indonesia: 'Our identity in Christ makes us more than conquerors'
A group of about 20 Muslim radicals recently broke up a gathering of Christians inside a home in Central Java, Indonesia, ordering them to disperse and never meet again or else face violent death.
'Over 100 Vietnam Pastors Jailed In Crackdown'
Christian rights activists say more than 100 Vietnamese pastors of house churches in Vietnam remain jailed in Vietnam for refusing to join the central church in the communist nation.