(SRN NEWS) – Conservators have uncovered eight angels in a historic Boston church that played a pivotal role in the Revolutionary War.  The angels were painted in the early 1700’s but covered over in 1912 as part of a renovation of the Old North Church.  Inspired by research showing the existence of at least 20 angels, conservators for the past four months have been removing the white paint that covered eight of them on the balcony’s arches in the church sanctuary.  Old North Church is best known for helping warn of the British army’s approach in 1775.

 Christmas was celebrated quite differently in two troubled areas of the Middle East.  Bethlehem marked another somber Christmas in the wake of last October’s attack by Hamas on Israel, which has triggered more than a year of war.  In Syria, however, Christians celebrated the holiday openly in their churches for the first time since the ouster of dictator Bashar Assad.  De facto ruler Ahmed al-Sharaa has told Christians and other minority religious groups that they will be safe in a Syria run by his Islamic group, which drove Assad from power this month.

 A report on campus anti-Semitism by the House of Representatives recommends cutting government funding to universities that boycott Israel.  The report details the findings of seven congressional committees and paints a dire picture of anti-Semitism in the United States.  In the wake of the Hamas attack on Israel last fall, pro-Palestinian protesters began harassing and intimidating Jewish students at schools all across the country.  Amongst the most prominent were Harvard, MIT, Columbia, the University of Pennsylvania and UCLA.

 With only weeks left in his term, President Biden is quietly abandoning his efforts to enforce transgenderism in the nation’s schools.  The Department of Education says it will no longer seek to override state laws that bar males from competing against females in sports.  Administration officials point to ongoing litigation over how Title Nine, the landmark law preventing sex discrimination, should handle issues of gender identity.  A growing number of states are moving to ban boys and men from joining sports teams for females.