Israel’s first Ethiopian-born minister Pnina Tamano-Shata landed in Ethiopia on Saturday to prepare for the airlifting of 500 Ethiopian Jews to Israel on December 3.

Tamano-Shata, who serves as Israel’s Aliyah and Integration Minister, has been urging the Israeli government to bring home the thousands of Jews still waiting to make aliyah in her home country.

Tamano-Shata herself was brought to Israel from Ethiopia when she was a three-year-old during a top-secret Israeli mission called Operation Moses in 1984.

The minister hopes to bring all of the remaining members of the Ethiopian community to Israel.

The government approved the immigration of 2,000 members of the smaller Falash Mura community by February 2021.

They must receive special permission to return to Israel and are required to convert after immigrating.

Thousands of potential immigrants have been waiting at least 15 years to come to Israel. The Israeli government in 2015 passed a decision to airlift the last of the Ethiopian Jews within five years.

However, according to Jewish Agency figures, Israel has only evacuated 2,257 Ethiopians.

A US pastor is facing prosecution after launching balloons carrying Bibles into North Korea

CEO of Voice of the Martyrs Korea, Eric Foley, has been launching the balloons into the hermit communist country for the last 15 years.

Prosecutors in South Korea are pursuing charges against Foley for violating laws governing commerce with North Korea.

Foley said Anything you might be trying to sell from South Korea to North Korea would need to be pre-approved by the government.

He is also facing charges relating to breaching national security and the use of high-pressure gas.

It follows North Korea’s attack on balloon launches earlier this year when it threatened to end a no-hostility military pact and close the North-South liaison office if South Korea allowed them to continue.

Voice of the Martyrs Korea is one of dozens of organizations involved in human rights advocacy around North Korea that is being investigated by South Korea’s Ministry of Unification.

World Magazine reports that Foley has been prevented from accessing the balloon launch site, and that the homes and offices of Voice of the Martyrs Korea staff have been placed under surveillance.

Thames Valley Police have apologised after wrongly breaking up a legal church broadcast and pressing charges against the pastor.

Rev Daniel Mateolo said he was left feeling “deeply shocked and hurt” after nine officers disrupted an online broadcast taking place at Kingdom Faith Ministries International Church in Milton Keynes.

The broadcast, on 20 November, was part of a men’s conference to support male congregants struggling in the pandemic.

Police turned up at the Pentecostal church after receiving reports of “loud music”, and demanded that support staff working on the broadcast leave the building.

Although in-person services were banned during the second national lockdown, government guidance permitted church leaders to broadcast to their congregation online from their buildings.

Support staff deemed essential to the running of the service, like singers and sound engineers, were also permitted to be present, with no limit on this number.

Officers also claimed there were 30 people in the building at the time of the broadcast.  Pastor Mateola refuted this, saying there were only 15, each with a specific role and in separate rooms to ensure social distancing.

After breaking up the broadcast, police later turned up at the 49-year-old’s home and told him he would be prosecuted for breaking Covid-19 regulations.

Thames Valley Police have since apologised over the incident.

Melania Trump is welcoming the delivery of the official White House Christmas tree.

The first lady stepped out on the North Portico of the White House Monday to accept the tree, a 18.5-foot-high Fraser Fir from Dan and Bryan Trees in West Virginia.

For the holiday kick-off event, Trump wore a black-and-white houndstooth coat, black gloves and matching black boots.

In festive style, the tree was delivered in a green horse-drawn carriage, decorated with wreathes and a sign in red font that read “White House Christmas Tree 2020” while Christmas music played.

After approaching the carriage, Trump walked around the tree to inspect it before speaking to the carriage drivers. She then posed in front of the fir for photos before waving to photographers and walking back into the White House.

“Since 1966, the arrival of the White House Christmas Tree has become an iconic holiday tradition,” she added, sharing photos of herself accepting the tree in previous years.

Trump stirred controversy earlier this year over comments she made about Christmas during a secretly recorded conversation by Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, who wrote the book “Melania and Me.”