A member of the NFL’s New Orleans Saints is causing a bit of a stir in the wake of the Ferguson riots by saying the situation is not a problem of race.
Benjamin Watson, a tight end for the Saints, says the problem is sin.
Watson said he was sympathetic to the family and friends of Michael Brown and since he wasn’t there he can’t say exactly what happened but that ultimately the problem is our fallen world.
“I’M ENCOURAGED, because ultimately the problem is not a SKIN problem, it is a SIN problem. SIN is the reason we rebel against authority. SIN is the reason we abuse our authority. SIN is the reason we are racist, prejudiced and lie to cover for our own. SIN is the reason we riot, loot and burn,” wrote Watson.
“BUT I’M ENCOURAGED because God has provided a solution for sin through his son Jesus and with it, a transformed heart and mind. One that’s capable of looking past the outward and seeing what’s truly important in every human being. The cure for the Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice and Eric Garner tragedies is not education or exposure. It’s the Gospel. So, finally, I’M ENCOURAGED because the Gospel gives mankind hope.”
Watson has repeated his stance on various networks including CNN, which cut him off when he began talking about Jesus. The moment Watson said Jesus died for our sins, the CNN feed from Watson cut off and the network claimed they lost the feed.
A woman who had been “duped” into joining the Islamic State terrorist group is speaking out in an attempt to keep other women from being deceived into joining the murderous organization.
The woman, a 25-year-old who had been an ISIS patrol officer and whose name has been kept secret by CNN to protect her, said she fled the group just before U.S. airstrikes in September.
“I don’t want anyone else to be duped by [ISIS],” the woman speaking under the alias of “khadija” told CNN. “Too many girls think they are the right Islam.”
Khadija said a Tunisian man that she met through an online dating service influenced her. He spoke glowingly about the terrorist group, saying they were not terrorists and that the media was slandering their group. He said they were just trying to “implement true Islam.”
She joined the man in Raqqa and was part of a women’s patrol unit that would beat any woman not wearing the correct Sharia clothing. She said that once she saw ISIS’ brutality first hand, she could no longer support the group.
She now is living in fear in Turkey that ISIS has her marked for death.
“A girl who is merry, who loves life and laughter… who loves to travel, to draw, to walk in the street with her headphones listening to music without caring what anyone thinks,” she said. “I want to be like that again.”
The Liberian man who fell ill with Ebola while in the Dallas area is dead.
Thomas Eric Duncan died Wednesday morning at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. He had been in critical condition for days and rumors had been rampant for days that Duncan was on the verge of death.
Duncan’s family is still in isolation and is being monitored by health officials for any Ebola symptoms. Several others who had close contact with Duncan have been taken to a secret secured location. The Centers for Disease Control says no one has shown signs of Ebola.
The family confirmed that they had received confirmation of Duncan’s death.
CNN is reporting that airports within the United States are now going to take temperatures of passengers arriving from countries with Ebola infections.
The director of the CDC says that new travel guidelines are being developed for Americans.
The deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) could be more dangerous than scientists had been lead to believe after air samples showed airborne evidence of the virus.
Researchers with King Fahd Medical Research Center in Saudi Arabia released a paper about air samples taken from the barn of a camel that had been infected with the virus. The owner of the camel contracted MERS and died.
The scientists say that a second camel tested positive for the virus after the man’s death and that air samples within the barn showed one strain of MERS RNA.
The virus in the same was identical to the virus in the first camel and the virus in the human victim.
American researchers were quick to say that just because they found the virus in the air it doesn’t mean that it’s automatically transmitted via airborne particle.
“What they say is that virus particles can be airborne, but it’s premature to conclude that MERS is transmitted through aerosols,” Dr. Mark Denison, a professor of pathology, microbiology and immunology at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine told CNN. “I could take billions of particles of dead viruses and could still find the RNA. That doesn’t mean that there are infectious aerosols,” Denison said.
Venezuelan’s government is trying to keep the world from finding out about the degrading conditions in the country.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is threatening to throw CNN out of the country if they don’t stop providing truthful coverage of the protests and civil unrest in the nation.
“I’ve asked minister Delcy Rodríguez to tell CNN we have started the administrative process to remove them from Venezuela if they don’t rectify (their coverage),” Maduro said on state TV. “Enough! I won’t accept war propaganda against Venezuela. If they don’t rectify this, they’re out of the country.”
The government has been trying to hide the level of protests in the country since the arrest of opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez on terrorism charges. Human rights groups around the world have condemned the arrest as purely political.
The government has kept Venezuelan media from reporting on the protests.
Iranian officials continue to speak out against the impressions given to media and the public by American officials regarding the recently implemented nuclear deal.
In an exclusive interview with CNN, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that their country has not dismantled a single piece of nuclear equipment. He admitted that they have stopped enriching uranium beyond 5% but said that they could increase that percentage at any time.
“The White House tries to portray it as basically a dismantling of Iran’s nuclear program. That is the word they use time and again,” Zarif told CNN. “If you find a single, a single word, that even closely resembles dismantling or could be defined as dismantling in the entire text, then I would take back my comment.”
International observers have stated that if Iran chose to cancel the deal and return to enrichment, they have enough centrifuges to create weapons grade nuclear material for a nuclear bomb within weeks.