The Southern Baptist Convention on Wednesday approved a motion to clarify its stance that only men can be pastors in its churches.
Driving the news: The move came after the convention overwhelmingly voted a day earlier to expel two churches, including the massive Saddleback Church congregation in California and Fern Creek Baptist in Kentucky, over their inclusion of women pastors, per The Baptist Press.
A long-awaited ministerial meeting of the Negev Forum is now expected to take place next month after the Moroccan government postponed it for the fourth time, three U.S. and Israeli officials told Axios.
State of play: The meeting was originally scheduled for March, but Arab members have expressed concerns about publicly engaging with the right-wing Israeli government.
Israel told the Russian government it is highly concerned about its growing military cooperation with Iran in the war in Ukraine and the possibility it will provide Tehran with advanced weapon systems, Netanyahu told Israeli lawmakers in a closed-door hearing on Tuesday, according to three lawmakers who attended the meeting.
Why it matters: Israel’s relations with Moscow have become a very sensitive issue since Russia's invasion began. Netanyahu’s comments to the lawmakers were a rare window into the Israeli-Russian dialogue.
Driving the news: Modelo Especial sales surpassed Bud Light this May, knocking the beer brand from the top spot it has held for over two decades, according to Nielsen data analyzed by Bump Williams Consulting.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbasarrived in Beijing this week tomeet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, becoming the first Arab leader to visit China this year.
Why it matters: The three-day visit appears to be an attempt by the Chinese government to build on its successful mediation between Saudi Arabia and Iran and increase its public posture on Middle East issues that have traditionally been dominated by the United States. Beijing earlier this year offered to mediate between the Palestinians and Israelis.
In one of the most dramatic days for Israel's parliament this year, the Israeli opposition won a crucial vote when its lawmaker was elected as one of the two Knesset representatives on the committee that appoints judges.
Why it matters: The results of the vote dealt an embarrassing defeat to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition and the supporters of the government's plan to weaken the Supreme Court and other democratic institutions.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin will meet with his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant Thursday on the sidelines of the NATO defense ministers meeting in Brussels to discuss Iran, two Israeli officials told Axios.
Why it matters: The Biden administration is holding indirect talks with Iran about what Netanyahu called a possible “mini-agreement” or an “understanding” regarding Tehran's nuclear program. Israel is opposed to any new deal with Iran.
Why it matters: Blinken will be the first secretary of state to visit China in five years, and the most senior Biden administration official to make the trip. While U.S. officials say Blinken's trip is part of an effort to stabilize ties and restore normal channels of communication, all signs point to a difficult visit.
The European Union hit Google with a formal antitrust complaint Wednesday, two years after regulators first opened an investigation into whether Google abused its market dominance to favor its own ad tech.
Why it matters: The complaint puts even more pressure on Google parent Alphabet to possibly divest parts of its lucrative ad business.
This century has known a stunning decrease in global income inequality, bringing it down to levels not seen in well over a century. That's the conclusion that Branko Milanovic, one of the world's foremost inequality researchers, comes to in an important essay for Foreign Affairs.
Why it matters: The U.S. has only about 4% of the world's population. Increasing equality is good for the planet as a whole, but it foreshadows an end to U.S. hegemony.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine, other conflicts like those in Syria and Sudan, and climate-fueled crises have pushed the number of people displaced by war, persecution, violence, human rights abuses and other events to a record 110 million, the UN refugee agency said in a new report Tuesday.
The big picture: The upward trend of forced displacement comes as humanitarian response plans and budgets remain severely underfunded. The right to asylum is also "under threat" in some places, and a rising number of compounding factors have made it even harder to provide protection to those most in need, according to UNHCR.
