God is sovereignly in control of all things. That fact alone ought to dispel much of our anxiety. And when we consider the Lord’s fatherly care for His people, we see just how foolish, unnecessary, and impotent our worry truly is.

Much of our anxiety is born out of concerns and uncertainty regarding our future. We get caught up in our plans and programs, overlooking the blessings of today and obsessing over uncontrollable details on the horizon...

God’s Word is clear—believers are not to be given over to anxiety. But it’s not simply a cold, abrupt command to stop worrying. Scripture is clear that we shouldn’t focus on the plans, needs, and uncertainties of tomorrow, but it’s also clear about where our focus should be instead.

President Donald Trump laid into some of his close Senate allies for siding with Democrats on an Iran war powers bill even as Congress failed to override his veto.

Kylie Moore-Gilbert is among the many foreigners held in Iran's notorious Evin prison on espionage charges.

The country's Interior Ministry also announced a new round of hefty fines for quarantine violators.

The operation comes at a time of recent IS attacks in Syria and Iraq.

Ankara’s haste to reopen shopping malls may be an effort to revive sagging consumption, but it also has to do with a tight nexus between politicians and businesses in the country.

An exclusive report, citing sources on the ground in Syria and Libya, says Syrian teenagers are being sent to Libya to take part in the civil war there.

The US commander of Operation Inherent Resolve hopes allied forces will return to Iraq once the COVID-19 crisis subsides.

The economy would improve once businesses reopen and employ people, and tourism resumes, with measures in place to give visitors confidence in their safety, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said on Friday.

The nation must be ready to cope with a possible resurgence in Covid-19 cases if lockdown measures are eased, as expected, starting on May 17, the government's pandemic advisory committee warned on Friday.

TOBA TEK SINGH: Four more persons, including three policemen, tested corona positive here on Friday.Health Department Deputy District Officer and Focal Person for DHQ Hospital Dr Kashif Bajwa told that three policemen were deputed outside the DHQ Hospital’s isolation ward.Their swabs were...

NANKANA SAHIB: Punjab Governor Chudhary Muhammad Sarwar has said that the world has seen the RSS agenda of Modi government and its atrocities on innocent Kashmiris in the Indian Occupied Kashmir.He said this during his visit to the Gurdwara Janamasthan where he distributed ration bags among the...

PESHAWAR: Eleven journalists working with different media organisations in the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after testing positive for the coronavirus are undergoing treatment.They have been quarantined at their homes. All are members of the Peshawar Press Club. They are working for...

MARDAN: The number of coronavirus positive cases reached 208 in Mardan district while the test reports of 684 people came back negative, health sources said.So far, 11 people have died of coronavirus in the district. The sources added that 1,149 tests were conducted in the district so far while...

PESHAWAR: Speaker Provincial Assembly Mushtaq Ahmed Ghani visited Khyber Teaching Hospital to take of situation with regard to coronavirus on Friday.He was received by Medical Director Prof Dr Aamir Azhar and the hospital’s media manager. The speaker was briefed by medical director on the...

MANSEHRA: The Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl leader Mufti Kifayatullah, who received a warm welcome by his party workers on his release, has reiterated his earlier stance of a ‘respectable’ burial of patients died of Covid-19.“I am not afraid of jails and would never allow police and...

TIMERGARA: Equipment has been delivered to set up a coronavirus testing laboratory in Lower Dir district, officials said.“We have received PCR machine and its safety units and a team of the KMU would reach soon to set up Dir Public Health Laboratory at DHQ Hospital Timergara. They would also...

NOWSHERA: The Prime Minister’s Corona Relief Tiger Force was made operational in the Nowshera district on Friday like other parts of the country.A total of 6,670 members of the force have been registered in the district who would work under the administration and other government...

PESHAWAR: The media workers of the Jang Group on Friday continued the protest against the arrest of their Editor-in- chief Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman as representatives of the teachers organization visited the camp to express solidarity with journalists.Carrying banners and placards inscribed with...

China’s exports returned to growth in April, beating forecasts and suggesting that an expected demand shock from coronavirus containment efforts around the world will come further down the line.April exports rose by 3.5 per cent from a year earlier, reversing the 6.6 per cent fall in March and much better than the combined minus 17.2 per cent collapse in January and February. April’s return was much better than the expectations of a Bloomberg poll of analysts, which had predicted an 11 per cent…

Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing’s core business has been profitable, president Jean Liu Qing said for the first time, as ride orders in its domestic market recover from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.In a rare interview, Liu told the CNBC that Didi’s core business has been profitable, without providing specific figures or explaining how or when the company had measured its profitability. The company has no plans for job cuts or raising capital, Liu said in the interview that…

China’s officials must stay “sober-minded” to handle the variety of coronavirus-related challenges that lie ahead, as mistakes could undermine relations with major developed nations and harm the country’s economic outlook, according to outspoken former Chongqing mayor Huang Qifan.Issues over the origin of the virus, compensation claims by the United States and decoupling worries have all appeared in the wake of the outbreak, but for Huang, the government should focus on domestic recovery after…

Taiwan will gradually ease restrictions on travel and sporting activities, with the island’s health minister saying efforts to control the coronavirus were paying off.The island – home to 23 million people – had reported just 440 cases and six deaths from Covid-19 as of Thursday, with no local transmission for close to a month.Health Minister Chen Shih-chung said that with very few new cases among people returning to the island from elsewhere, the authorities would allow Taiwanese stranded in…

China says it supports World Health Organisation efforts to investigate the origin of the Covid-19 pandemic, but rejects any “presumption of guilt”, after the global body said it was talking to Beijing about sending another delegation to the country.The remarks came as Beijing is under mounting international pressure – particularly from the United States – to allow an inquiry into how the pandemic started, and if it was linked to a laboratory in Wuhan, the city where the new virus strain was…

A surprise jump in Chinese exports in April will be short-lived, analysts said, with the world’s second largest economy unable to stay sheltered from the demand shock to come from the global economic downturn.A 3.5 per cent rise in shipments last month caught economists by surprise and left them scrambling for explanations as the consensus forecast was for an 11 per cent contraction.The rise was, in part, due to factories coming back online in China in March and April to fulfil orders that had…

Criminal investigators in the United States have stepped up their pursuit of Covid-19 fraudsters selling unproven treatments and equipment online.The Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) has partnered with major health care and e-commerce companies to fight back against a deluge of fake goods being sold during the pandemic.There has been a rise in opportunists seeking to “capitalise and profit from the fear and anxiety” surrounding the Covid-19 disease, increasing sales of counterfeit…

The European Union remains central to the global fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, but the rivalry between China and the United States is doing little to help, the EU’s envoy to China said on Thursday.“We are seeing high levels of tensions – strategic, economic, political – growing day after day. It is our opinion that these tensions are not conducive to the cooperative spirit we need today,” ambassador Nicolas Chapuis told an online press briefing.“I am convinced that the EU voice is today…

Chinese researchers have found Covid-19 in the sperm of a small number of men, raising the possibility that the virus could be spread via sex.The study by physicians at China’s Shangqiu Municipal Hospital looked at only 38 men at the hospital who had tested positive with disease, and of that already small group found that a minority – only six – were found to have SARS-CoV-2 in their semen.Eyes are ‘important route’ for coronavirus into body, Hong Kong experts find“The virus responsible for…

In response to the global financial crisis in 2008, China rolled out a massive 4 trillion yuan (US$564 billion) stimulus package.With the coronavirus posing an even greater threat to the economy, the outbreak left the top leadership with a decision to make, as the efforts in 2008 also left the nation with a mountain of debt.Before the outbreak, China had already cut the top tier of the value-added tax (VAT) rate to 13 per cent from 16 per cent in April 2019, after a one percentage point cut in…

As many as 44 million people in Africa could be infected with Covid-19 in the first year of the pandemic if containment measures fail – causing 83,000 to 190,000 deaths – according to modelling by the World Health Organisation, reflecting fears of a potential widening crisis on the continent.The study, released on Thursday by WHO Africa, looked at 47 countries with a combined population of 1 billion people and suggested smaller countries alongside Algeria, South Africa and Cameroon were at a…

China’s will face an increasingly hostile world over the next five years, meaning its policy plan should be focused on its vast domestic market, home-grown technological innovation and improving its citizens’ welfare, according to recommendations in a new paper.The report by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), a think tank affiliated with the State Council, foresees the next five years presenting “major changes unseen in a century” for China, as “the strategic game between…

Chinese scientists say they have identified two antibodies that could be candidates for a cocktail treatment for patients with different strains of the coronavirus.The antibodies were found to work together as a team to prevent the virus from latching onto a host cell, in a study led by Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention director George Fu Gao with collaborators from across the country.They said that even a mutant strain was likely to be neutralised because the antibodies…

For years, Western companies have struggled to profit from a Chinese consumer market that thrives on cheap knock-offs of iconic brands. But that frustration is now turning into optimism, as local courts begin to stamp out thieves and cheats, lawyers say.More companies are filing intellectual property (IP) lawsuits amid a shift in attitude towards protecting original ideas, trademarks and patents, according to official data. The rush has accelerated after the phase-one trade deal in the US-China…

China’s military may have been spared any coronavirus infections, but the global health crisis has slowed the progress of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s plan to transform the People’s Liberation Army into a modern fighting force capable of long-range power-projecting operations, experts say.According to China’s defence ministry, the world’s largest armed force – with about 2.3 million personnel – has had zero confirmed cases of Covid-19. In contrast, the US and Russian militaries, ranked second…

Help is at hand for parents struggling to explain the coronavirus pandemic and ease their children’s anxieties, with a number of books available for a range of age groups.The latest in the genre is The Big Thing , by Americans Angela Meng and Alexander Friedman, a former chief financial officer at the Gates Foundation. The book is available in English, Chinese and Spanish – with translators working on more language editions – and proceeds of e-book and print sales will go to Covid-19 charities…

A city in China’s northeastern province of Jilin has upgraded its Covid-19 risk level from low to medium following a new case of the disease, the provincial authorities announced on Saturday morning.It came just two days after China’s government declared the whole country was low-risk after the number of new cases dropped to almost zero and no deaths were recorded for more than three weeks.On Friday the State Council issued a notice allowing shopping malls, supermarkets, hotels and restaurants…

China and Russia must fulfil their duties as recognised world leaders and work together to defeat Covid-19, Chinese President Xi Jinping told Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Friday, in the latest show of solidarity between the long-term allies.Likening the global health crisis to the second world war, which in China is often referred to as a war against fascism, Xi said that Beijing would continue to provide support to Moscow as it battled the deadly disease.“Being among the main victor powers…

China has told North Korea it is willing to help contain the spread of Covid-19 in a note from President Xi Jinping to his counterpart Kim Jong-un.Xi’s message follows recent rumours about Kim’s health after he failed to appear at a major political event and speculation about the possible spread of the disease in the North, even though it has not reported any cases.Xi said he was very concerned about the situation in North Korea and the health of its people, and said he was pleased that its…

British consumers have spent their six weeks of coronavirus lockdown sewing, drinking cocktails, carrying out home beauty treatments and eating large quantities of kimchi.That is according to a report from John Lewis Partnership Plc on the nation’s shopping behaviour since March 23, when Prime Minister Boris Johnson told everyone to stay at home unless absolutely necessary.The partnership, which owns the John Lewis department store and Waitrose grocery chains beloved by the British middle…

Top Chinese and US trade negotiators will speak as soon as next week on progress in implementing a phase one deal after US President Donald Trump threatened to “terminate” the agreement if Beijing was not adhering to the terms.Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He will be on the call, according to people familiar with the matter. The US will be represented by US Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer, one of the people said.The planned phone call will be the first time Liu and Lighthizer speak…

WeChat, the Chinese messaging app, is systematically monitoring the content sent by international users to build up its censorship algorithms applied against accounts registered in China, a new study has found.Researchers at Citizen Lab, an academic research lab at the University of Toronto, determined that WeChat screens images and documents shared by accounts registered outside China after they are sent, then adds the digital signature – or “hash” – of any files deemed sensitive to a…

There is a long way to go before the Covid-19 crisis ends. Hong Kong and a few other places seem to have suppressed community transmission. But in much of the world, the virus still claims new victims every day.Some experts believe the global pandemic could continue for another two years before it is brought under control with testing, contact tracing, therapy and perhaps a vaccine.It is hard to see international travel and trade returning to normal anytime this year. Worldwide, unemployment…

Tourism is a key component in the European economy, accounting for 10 per cent of all activity, but it now faces its greatest challenge – how to survive the coronavirus pandemic?International tourist arrivals could plunge by 60 to 80 per cent in 2020 owing to the coronavirus, the World Tourism Organisation warned on Thursday, meaning the local business is going to be essential.France is the world’s leading destination for holiday travel but President Emmanuel Macron warned earlier this week it…

The daily death toll from Covid-19 in the United States could have been more than halved if authorities had acted more swiftly in recommending self-isolation and the wearing of face masks, according to a new study.Several US states began issuing stay-at-home orders in late March, while federal health authorities began recommending the use of face masks for all in early April. However, had such measures been implemented just four days earlier, the roughly 2,000 Covid-19 deaths currently being…

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Friday said the coronavirus pandemic keeps unleashing “a tsunami of hate and xenophobia, scapegoating and scaremongering” and appealed for “an all-out effort to end hate speech globally”.The UN chief said “anti-foreigner sentiment has surged online and in the streets, anti-Semitic conspiracy theories have spread, and Covid-19-related anti-Muslim attacks have occurred”. Migrants and refugees “have been vilified as a source of the virus – and then denied…

These days, as Wilson Mak drifts off to sleep after another 14-hour day at a New York funeral home, images of Covid-19 victims flash through his mind.“When I close my eyes, I still see those ugly sights,” says Mak, manager of Ng Fook Funeral Services in New York City. “It’s unbearable.”Ng Fook’s four funeral homes in the city’s various Chinese communities are a microcosm of an overwhelmed industry as corpses pile up in hallways, trucks and makeshift morgues across hotspots of the disease in the…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formally received the support of a majority of lawmakers to lead a new government on Thursday, paving the way for a controversial power-sharing deal with rival-turned-partner Benny Gantz.Later in the day, Israel’s figurehead president, Reuven Rivlin, assigned Netanyahu the task of forming a government within two weeks, after he received the signatures of 72 lawmakers endorsing the Likud party leader as prime minister.Israel’s parliament, the Knesset,…

After the National People’s Congress removed presidential term limits in 2018, there was much speculation that Xi Jinping would remain in power past the end of his second term in 2023.Then 2019 happened. China’s trade war with the United States dragged on, with no end in sight. Hongkongers took to the streets to protest against Beijing’s backtracking on Hong Kong’s “one country, two systems” form of governance. Relations with Taipei worsened. And finally, Covid-19, a disease outbreak that began…