Displaying items by tag: Politics

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US president Donald Trump are to meet in person by May, it has been announced, an extraordinary overture after months of mutual hostility. This news came after South Korean officials had held talks with Mr Trump at the White House. They passed a verbal message from Mr Kim, saying the North Korean leader was ‘committed to denuclearisation’. Mr Trump hailed ‘great progress’ but said sanctions would remain in place. South Korea's President Moon Jae-in said the news was like a miracle. ‘If President Trump and Chairman Kim meet following an inter-Korean summit, complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula will be put on the right track in earnest’, he said. China welcomed the development, saying the Korean peninsula issue was ‘heading in the right direction’. However, correspondents say the North has halted missile and nuclear tests during previous talks, only to resume them when it felt it was not getting what it demanded. The dramatic announcement came days after a high-ranking South Korean delegation had met Mr Kim in Pyongyang. See

Oh Ei Sun, of the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute, has said that scrapping the two-term limit on the Chinese presidency will have profound ramifications for the region. But it looks likely to happen, and Asia may have to accept that a more assertive China is here to stay. On 5 March China’s biggest two-week political meeting, Two Seasons, began. Thousands of advisors and legislative deputies will consider the election of state leaders, revising the constitution, and structural reforms. China’s elite members of the National People’s Congress will be there to rubber-stamp the end of two-term-limit of presidents. President Xi Jinping will soon be president for life - which brings cautious optimism regarding the tense situation surrounding North Korea. For when dealing with the most protracted issue - Pyongyang’s repeated attempts at developing nuclear weapons - China has, under Xi, demonstrated flexibility in its foreign policy by taking concrete actions to enforce some of the UN Security Council resolutions sanctioning the Kim regime.

During a three-day visit to the UK Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, has vowed to promote religious freedom. He said this at an hour-long private meeting with the Archbishop of Canterbury on 8 March. Justin Welby described the crown prince as 'cordial and honest' and a statement from Lambeth Palace said the prince had 'made a strong commitment to promote the flourishing of those of different faith traditions and to interfaith dialogue within the kingdom and beyond'. 32-year-old Mohammed bin Salman, considered the presumptive heir to 82-year-old King Salman, is seeking to promote new reforms for Saudi Arabia. During the discussion the Archbishop pressed concerns over restrictions on Christian worship in Saudi Arabia, where converting away from Islam is punishable by death and non-Islamic places of worship are banned.

Scotland’s Catholic Church was savaged by children's rights campaigners for opposing a ban on smacking. A top church official said plans to outlaw the physical punishment of children would ‘criminalise parents’, and it is not the role of the state to interfere in parenting. Scotland's children and young people's commissioner, Bruce Adamson, said that many nations with Catholic majorities - such as Ireland, Spain and Portugal - had already outlawed hitting children. Green MSP John Finnie, who introduced the ‘ban smacking’ bill, said the church is out of step with international opinion, adding, ‘Smacking is banned in the Pope’s home country Argentina’. The SNP government confirmed that the bill will become law.

Ken Livingstone's suspension from the Labour party over anti-Semitism claims has been extended indefinitely pending the outcome of an internal investigation. The former London mayor's suspension had been due to expire on 27 April, but in his last official act as Labour general secretary, Iain McNicol signed off on an indefinite extension, the Huffington Post UK has revealed. Mr McNicol employed a rarely-used procedure to impose an ‘administrative suspension’ on Mr Livingstone. Mr Livingstone said he had been ‘suspended for stating the truth’.

The Brexit secretary, David Davis, has hit back at negative suggestions that Brexit will lead to an Anglo-Saxon race to the bottom, saying that fears are based on neither history, intention, nor interest. International trade secretary Liam Fox has warned EU leaders that imposing new tariff barriers with the UK would make their economies less competitive, and stressed the benefits of the high UK standards of goods. Meanwhile a letter to Theresa May signed by sixty Tory MPs insisted that the UK should make a clean break with the EU, stating that the UK must be able to negotiate trade deals with other countries as soon as it leaves the EU, and must gain full ‘regulatory autonomy’. Both speeches and the letter set out key Brexit issues ahead of the MPs’ ‘away day’ at Chequers on 22 February. Pray that all decisions made there will lead to a new, fresh positive team of British MPs standing strong behind Theresa May for frictionless change.

Simon Coveney, Tánaiste (Irish deputy leader), has said that through the Brexit negotiations Ireland wished to see the creation of the closest possible future connection between the EU and the UK. He said, ‘A key strategic objective is to ensure that the outcome of Brexit does not undermine the hard-won gains of the peace process, as exemplified by the Good Friday Agreement. Despite the efforts of both governments in recent months, and especially in recent weeks, it is deeply regrettable that there is at present no power-sharing executive in place. However, we will not give up - we cannot give up. We urgently need to see the restoration of the Northern Ireland executive and assembly, to harness greater and broader input into how to make the best of Brexit.’

At midnight on 21 February Serbian Dalibor Jaukovic, formerly of the Yugoslav People's Army, threw a grenade into the US embassy compound and then blew himself up. According to Facebook publications he was against Montenegro's accession to NATO. Montenegro, the youngest member of NATO, has for a long time been politically torn between her historic friend Russia and the USA. Historically, on the eve of the 2016 election, long-serving prime minister Duško Marković stepped down after suggesting that Russia had a role in an election plot. He said that there was a ‘strong connection of a foreign factor’ in a conspiracy to take over the Montenegrin parliament on election day. Those arrested by the police for planning this coup included more Russians and Serbians than Montenegrins. See

During an altar of public worship last year about 1,200 Bolivians interceded for spiritual change in the nation. On 21 February a local Christian wrote, ‘Across our beloved Bolivia women, men and children took to the streets today, defending our faith and democracy. A majority of the population voted NO to the re-election of Evo Morales who is attempting to become president indefinitely by bribery, propaganda, brute force and using the resources of Bolivia to do so. The church and people of Bolivia continue to say NO to his leftist regime. We say YES to Jesus! Bolivia will NOT be Venezuela, or follow the path of Cuba. Please pray that all violence, revenge, lies, deaths, injustices in every political and social sphere, covenants to the occult, and pacts with nations that misuse our resources to their benefit, but to our economic detriment, are all uncovered.’

Foreign secretary Boris Johnson delivered the first of a series of planned speeches by cabinet ministers on Brexit. He called upon pro-Leave figures to understand the concerns of those who wanted to remain in the EU. Johnson said he wanted to ‘reach out to those who still have anxieties’, and urges Remainers to recognise the benefits of leaving EU. Many believe that his call for unity in Westminster largely fell on deaf ears as Remain supporters accused Johnson of hypocrisy, labelling him one of the most divisive figures of the Brexit campaign. Business leaders and trade unionists also reacted coolly to Johnson’s speech. Pray for the media as they digest and comment on this and the coming wave of Brexit speeches by ministers. Pray for honest and wise communicating and reporting of their views. Pray for logical comments based on facts, and for any temptation to exaggerate to be moderated by integrity.