- [Announcer] This is CBN Newswatch.

- And thank you so much forjoining us on this Thursday,

May 6, 2021, I'm Efrem Graham.

Ahead today, the blowback in the latest chapter

in the ongoing battle between big tech

and former President Donald Trump

as Facebook extends its banagainst the former president

and conservatives call it another example

of Facebook's bias.

China's crackdown onChristians in cyberspace,

blocking Christian accountson a popular Chinese app

and removing Bible apps.

From Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker,

taking on a new challengefighting cancel culture

and working to make sure young Americans

can hear conservative views.

And famous actor Chuck Norris delivering

a special Mother's Daymessage and a happy birthday

to his very own mom, whoturned 100 this week.

All those stories and more are ahead

in this edition of CBN Newswatch.

Want to begin this halfhour with the latest chapter

in the ongoing battle between big tech

and former PresidentTrump after Facebook's

new Oversight Board says the tech giant

can continue its ban ofhis accounts for now,

but it must decide in six months

whether the ban will be permanent.

Critics say thehighly-anticipated decision

highlights Facebook's tremendous power

and the need for big tech reform.

Senior National AffairsCorrespondent Heather Sells

brings us this story.

- [Heather] Facebook'sannouncement means that for now

the former president cannotreturn to the platform

where he enjoyed along withInstagram 59 million followers.

The paid Oversight Boardupheld the suspension

because of two posts thatviolated content standards.

One with Trump tellingrioters on January 6th-

- We love you, you're very special.

- [Heather] The othercalling them great patriots.

Trump fired back in astatement on his new website,

"What Facebook, Twitter,and Google have done

is a total disgrace and anembarrassment to our country."

- It's far past time that we address

what big tech has become.

It's the robber baronsof the 21st century.

- [Heather] Conservatives say the move

makes clear Facebook's bias.

- Look, they are picking sides.

They are putting their thumb

on the scale of freedom of speech.

- And I can tell you thatit's two different standards.

One for Donald Trump and onefor a number of other people

that are on there site.

- [Heather] Around the globe,world leaders are taking note.

Earlier this year, both Germany and France

attacked Facebook andTwitter for banning Trump.

Germany's Angela Merkelbelieves lawmakers,

not big tech, should set therules around free speech.

There's a similar debate in the U.S.,

but also growing bipartisan support

to go after modern day monopolies.

- What I think is importantis that we continue

to break down the power ofthese dominant digital platforms

and provide greater accountability

and transparency around their rules.

- [Heather] Facebook'sOversight Board said Wednesday

that it is not fair toindefinitely suspend users.

It says that in sixmonths the tech giant must

either restore Trump's account,permanently suspend it,

or suspend it for a set amount of time.

Heather Sells, CBN News.

- Turning now to Israel.

For the past 12 years, PrimeMinister Benjamin Netanyahu

has dominated the nation's politics,

but now he may soon findhimself in a different position,

no longer leader of the government,

and instead, a member of the opposition.

Israeli President ReuvenRivlin has chosen Yair Lapid

to try to form the nextcoalition government

after Netanyahu could not do so.

Lapid is the head of the Yesh Atid Party

that won 17 seats in the last election.

He faces a daunting politicalchallenge to form a coalition

of natural adversaries fromthe right, left, and center.

They disagree on many issues but agree

on stopping Benjamin Netanyahu

from continuing as prime minister.

If Lapid succeeds, itcould mark the beginning

of the end of the Netanyahu era.

- After more than 12consecutive years of Netanyahu

as prime minister, aftertwo years of paralysis,

it looks like perhaps withina few days or a few weeks

we might have a functioning coalition

that will not include Mr. Netanyahu.

This will be a groundbreaking change

in Israeli recent history,and in this respect,

we might be entering a newera in Israeli politics.

- Lapid has 28 days to form a government.

If he fails, Rivlin couldallow a three week period

when any Knesset member could try

to cobble a coalition together.

If that does not work,Israelis will head to the polls

for the fifth time in just alittle more than two years.

The COVID pandemic devastatedthe global tourism industry,

and that hurt Israel,because the tourism sector

is a key part of its economy.

So now Israel is trying to bring it back.

Chris Mitchell brings usthe story now from Tel-Aviv.

- In 2019, Israel set a record for tourism

when four-and-a-half millionvisitors came to the Holy Land.

Then the 2020 pandemic slammed the door,

causing the number of touriststo plummet more than 80%,

resulting in a loss of $8 billion.

For more than a year, theCOVID pandemic kept tourists

from coming to visit Israel,

like the City of Tel Aviv behind me.

Now Israel's Tourism Ministry has a plan

to reopen Israel to the world.

- We are starting the firstpilot on the 23rd of May.

It will take place for a few weeks,

by which we will bring in no more

than 20 or more groups of tourists,

fully vaccinated, with travel agents,

so that it can be monitored on one hand

and we can also learn from the lessons

and improve the rules and seeif things need to be improved.

- [Chris] Then, hopefullyabout a month later,

an unlimited number ofgroups may be allowed in.

By July, it's possible Israel

will open its doors to individuals.

Still, this timetable could change,

since the Health Ministryrecommended the May 23rd date

be delayed until the end of June.

Israel's reopening comes

after an aggressive vaccination campaign

that's seen most of thepopulation vaccinated,

with COVID rates dropping dramatically.

- [Orit] Israel is now fully open.

The attractions, therestaurants, the hotels.

Our numbers of COVID-19cases are getting fewer

and fewer every day.

We're waiting for you to come.

- [Chris] Incoming tourists, however,

will have to jump through some hoops.

The plan requires allto be fully vaccinated.

They must have a negative COVID test

before boarding the flight

and then take an antibodiestest upon arrival.

Nearly half of all touristscoming here are Christian,

because for many comingto Israel is like a dream.

- [Orit] I want to say toChristian around the world

that Israel is missingyou and is looking forward

to you coming and seeingall the sacred place

and the history.

- [Chris] Yet, some Christians in the U.S.

remain reluctant to get the vaccine.

- Unfortunately, I don't have

very optimistic messages for them.

Israel is now in a very, verygood condition health wise.

It's a very healthy destination.

And we cannot put that in danger

- [Chris] While it's a small start,

Israel hopes once againmillions of visitors

will return to the Holy Land.

Chris Mitchell, CBS News, Tel Aviv, Jaffa.

- Here at home, todaymarks the 70th annual

National Day of Prayer, and Christians

across the country are joining together

to call on God for thesake of our country.

The event will be held inseveral locations nationwide.

The theme of this year'sevent is Love, Life

and Liberty, drawing fromSecond Corinthians 3:17,

which declares, "Wherethe spirit of the Lord is,

there is liberty."

Evangelist Andrew Palauis co-hosting the national

live day event with Kathy Branzell.

You can find out moreabout today's day of prayer

and why Dr. James Dobson says if there was

ever a time Americaneeded prayer, it's now.

All of that is at CBNNews.com.

Coming up, China's Communist Party

carrying out an onlinecrackdown against Christians.

We'll tell you what's happening

and how it could have implications

for believers in othercountries when we come back.

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- China's Communist Partyis expanding its crackdown

against Christians in cyberspace.

International Christian Concern reports

Christian accounts have been blocked

on the popular online program WeChat

and Bible apps have been removedfrom the China app store.

On this week's episodeof "The Global Lane,"

ChinaAid President Bob Fusays that action proves

the party is determined to erase

and destroy the Chinese church.

- With the so-calledpandemic, of course, excuses,

now the Christian churches,including both the official

government sanctions churches

and the independent house churches,

they were all not allowed to operate

even in the virtual setting.

- That's amazing.

It's not just shuttingthe doors of buildings,

but also shutting doors online.

So let's go a little broader now, Bob.

What did ChinaAid find after examining

Chinese governmentactions against Christians

and other people of faith during 2020?

- ChinaAid has found withour in-depth research

that in 2020 the persecutionagainst the Christian churches,

against human rights lawyers,

both in the government sanctions church

and the house churches have reached really

to the worst level that we have not seen

since the cultural revolution in 1960s.

I mean, this is the third year

of the Communist Party'sso-called "sinicization campaign,"

which means anything thatis found not compatible

with the President Xi's ideology,

communism, socialism,is going to be regarded

as a enemy of the state ideology.

And we have seen even the church members

who are organizing prayer meetings online

have been targeted with criminal

and administrative detentionjust in the past few days.

The largest house church in Beijing,

the Beijing Zion Church,have two of their pastors

being kidnapped and even sentenced

to 10 days administrative detention.

And we have seen, of course,

under this sinicization campaign,

pastors receive four-and-a-halfyears imprisonment

for refusing to put theCommunist Party's posters,

propaganda in their church building,

for refusing to put CommunistParty's national flag

at their parking lot.

Of course, we have seen Pastor Wang Yi,

who was sentenced tonine years imprisonment

for preaching a sermon pleading

for President Xi to suspend his crackdown,

asking him to repent, sothat he can get salvation.

That is 10 years, I mean,nine years imprisonment.

- And part of that,Bob, I know we've talked

in the past about facialrecognition software,

social credit scoring,people being denied jobs,

promotions if they have low scores.

They're not consideredto be good communists.

They don't have favor.

So how is that scoringeffecting Christians or people

who are not part of thegovernment-approved,

government-controlled church?

- Yes, 2020 marked really the first year,

I think, it's the whole called national,

the digital authoritarianism rule

with literally 2.6 billionfacial recognition cameras

has been installed all over China,

which means every Chinese will have

two face recognitioncameras are following them.

The so-called "social credit score"

had been also instatedwith the big data plan.

If you are a Christian,if you are especially

a Christian pastor orthe house church leader,

or anyone who has a religiousfaith that is not compatible

with communism willguaranteed have a lower score,

which means you may be banned

from even buying a trainticket or air flight tickets.

Which means you couldn't get a promotion,

which means your family members cannot

join the civil servanttest or join the military.

So you are regarded absolutely as second

or third class citizen.

- A lot of Americans areafraid that may come here,

with vaccine passports and so forth.

So finally, Bob, on this program

and other CBN newsprograms, we've reported for

some time now about theChinese Communist Party's

persecution of the ethnic Uighurs.

Many of our viewers don't realize

that not all Uighurs are Muslim.

There are quite a few Uighur Christians.

Tell us about them, and do theysuffer the same oppression?

- Yes, you're right, Gary.

The Uighur Christians and Uighur Muslims

and even the other minorities like Kazakhs

have been suffering thegenocide as the Secretary,

former Secretary Pompeo designated.

I mean, between one tothree million of them

are still in the concentration camp.

ChinaAid just rescued a Kazakh family.

The mother suffered at least 16 months

in the concentration camp.

She herself was abused.

And also she was a witness, eyewitness,

seeing systematic governmentorganized forced prostitution.

I mean, how can we withgood conscience deal

with a government committingsuch a grave genocide

and a crime against humanity

and yet we're still treatingthis as business as usual,

like these Americancompanies are doing in China?

So it's time to have a wake up call.

- And for more stories likethis and important trends

in the day's headlines, be sureto catch "The Global Lane."

You can watch it this eveningat 8:30 Eastern Standard Time

and you can find it onthe CBN News Channel.

Still ahead, former WisconsinGovernor Scott Walker

now taking on a new challenge.

We'll hear why he'sfighting cancel culture

and censoring conservativespeech among young Americans.

That story is comingup next, stay with us.

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- [Efrem] I'm Efrem Graham,and this is Studio 5.

Cruise with me as I discoverthe good things happening

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- The fact that Ryan Cooglerwas gonna be directing the film

I knew that somethingspecial was gonna happen.

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- I asked my pastor, I said,

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- Scott Walker, the formerconservative governor

in progressive Wisconsin, isnow battling the current trend

of cancel culture through astrategy he calls the long game.

So what exactly is his game plan?

Our Paul Strand explains.

- Many in the left throughthis radical indoctrination try

to teach our young people to hate America.

- [Paul Scott WalkerWarns parents and others

in this Young America's Foundation video-

- America is under siege.

We see it on our campusesand in our culture.

- [Paul] That's why theformer governor was anxious

to lead this group, backed long ago

by the likes of William F.Buckley and Ronald Reagan.

- I felt now more thanever we needed to win

not just the battle ofthe day, but the war

for the heart and soulof this great republic.

- [Paul] With a dedicationto individual liberties,

free enterprise, and traditional values,

the Foundation has whatWalker calls a long game

to defeat attempts to turn America's young

against their country.

- You see this with the 1619 Project.

You see this with a lot of theMarxist attitudes and others.

They're pitting one group ofAmericans versus the other.

And they're telling ouryoung people that there's

something fundamentallywrong with America.

- How can people and organizationspushing Marxists ideas

be winning in the land of the free?

By controlling what people can hear,

and even what they can say.

- This total cancel culture,this lack of free speech

and the ability for speak outand express their opinions.

- [Paul] It even includes an element

of pushing vulnerable kids to question

and dislike themselves.

- You can't just disagreeand debate the issues,

that if someone doesn't fully agree

with their leftist dogma,that they're racist or sexist

or transphobic or whateverthe word might be,

that there's there's no respect for people

who have differing viewpoints.

- [Paul] Walker points tostudies showing how some 80%

of the students who don'tagree still feel compelled

to speak in favor of the far left.

- If they don't buy into the radical dogma,

they'll be written up, it'llbe in their permanent record.

You see this time and time and time again.

- [Paul] Numbers, however,show the young victims

of propaganda can be turned.

For instance, a Young America'sFoundation poll shows 69%

of students would back a $15 minimum wage.

After they learn it wouldkill 1.4 million jobs,

that support drops to 52%.

- When we start to tell thema conservative point of view

that makes them understandthe things they're hearing

in many cases aren'tfair, they're not right,

they're not just, theytend to gravitate more

towards our point ofview, which is exactly

why the left wants to cancelout any conservative thought

and discussion in the first place.

- Here's the Foundation'slong game strategy.

Get their group active on all

of America's 4,000 plus college campuses,

expand their conservativeinfluence into middle schools

as well as high schools,sponsor a million students

to attend YAF programs,and create a network

for conservative professors and teachers.

Walker's group is also fighting schools

that attempt to censor conservatives,

as it recently took UC Berkeley to court.

- They claim they're for free speech.

but we had conservative students there

we were working with trying to bring in

some conservative speakers.

They put up a barrier that said

you couldn't have the event after 3:00,

you couldn't advertise.

The security costs were three times

what they charged left-leaning groups

to bring in a U.S. Supreme Court justice.

- [Paul] YAF won in court.

- If we can win at UC Berkeley,

we can win anywhere inAmerica, and we will.

The Constitution's on ourside and we're gonna invoke it

every state, every campus,every place we need to.

- Walker knows it's oftenhard to get conservatives

deeply involved with battlesover politics and power.

- We're not consumed with government.

We're not consumed with power.

We live our own lives.

- [Paul] But they needto be fighting back.

- Present arms!

- [Scott] If we want to be able to support

and pass onto our children and our family

the kind of America weinherited from our parents

and grandparents, we have to do more.

- [Paul] Paul Strand,CBN News, Washington.

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- And coming up, actor ChuckNorris honors his mother

as she turns 100 thisMother's Day weekend.

We'll tell you what he hadto say when we come back.

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- I think as a father it's my job to lead,

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- [Announcer] Watch "Goingthe Distance with Shawn Brown"

Saturday night at 7:30on the CBN News Channel.

- Orphan's Promise is committed to loving

and serving at-risk children,

to helping keep families together,

and to creating opportunities for strong

and sustainable communitiesaround the world.

We're working in over 60countries around the world,

and with your help, we can do even more.

There's an old Africanproverb I love that says,

if you want to run fast, run alone.

But if you want to run far, run together.

At Orphan's Promise, we want to run far

so we can touch thelives of as many orphaned

and vulnerable children as possible.

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We're out to change the world one child,

one family, one community at a time.

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- [Announcer] From Washington, D.C.

- Good evening, andwelcome to Faith Nation.

- [Announcer] Uncompromisingstories, interviews,

and analysis from veteranjournalists David Brody,

John Jessup, JennaBrowder, and Eric Philips.

Bringing you the politicalnews that matters.

- Regulation on the energy industry

are going to have dramatic ripple affects

throughout the economy.

- [Announcer] News you can trust.

- We're people who arecommitted to protecting

the most weakest and the most vulnerable.

- [Announcer] Watch FaithNation, weeknights at 6:00.

- Movie and television starChuck Norris pays tribute

to his mother, who turns100 years old this week.

In an exclusive article for WND.com,

Norris wrote about how hismom, Wilma Norris Knight,

was born into poverty in Wilson, Oklahoma.

The actor said his fatherabandoned their family

and his mother had toraise three boys all alone.

But she was able to seta great example for them,

losing two husbands and more,plus having cancer repeatedly.

And he pointed to heractive prayer life saying,

"My mother has prayed for me all my life,

through thick and thin," Norris wrote.

"When I was born, I almostdied from complications.

When nearly losing my soul toHollywood a few decades ago,

she was back home prayingfor my success and salvation.

She even prayed for me to find a woman

to change my life, and it worked.

I equally celebrate my wife, Gena,

during this Mother's Day week."

Norris called his wifethe love of his life

and his best friend.

You can find out moreabout what Walker wrote

about his mother and hear his advice

for raising children at CBNNews.com.

Time now for your Thursday Thankful,

and today I hope you'll joinme in this prayer of gratitude.

Father, thank you formultiplying your grace

and peace in my life.

Knowing you gives me all I need

to live a life that pleases you.

With that word, makethis a thankful Thursday.

That is gonna do it for thisedition of CBN Newswatch.

You can always find more of our programs

on the CBN News Channel.

You can find them thereanytime as well as online

at CBNNews.com.

Please take a moment tolet us know what you think

about the stories you'veseen here today or any day.

You can write us, the address right there

at the bottom of yourscreen, newswatch@cbn.com.

And of course, we'reavailable on Facebook,

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We would love to hear from you.

Hope you'll join us againright here next time.

Make it a thankful Thursday.

I'll see you right backhere same time tomorrow.

Goodbye and God bless.(dramatic music)