Two and a half years after being arrested, eight Christians accused of kidnapping and the forced conversion of 60 children were acquitted in Madhya Pradesh. The two men and six women were arrested while travelling with the children to a Bible camp in Nagpur. Even though the parents, from a tribal background, had given consent for their children to go, the group’s leaders were detained and charged with illegal religious conversion of the children. The ‘anti-conversion law’ in Madhya Pradesh requires a person to obtain government permission before changing religion.

A Bible college hit the headlines this week for sacking a Christian lecturer over tweets defending a Christian view of sexuality. Dr Aaron Edwards, a father of five, was even threatened with a counter-terrorism referral for writing the tweet that went viral. Aaron was told that ‘sharing a Christian understanding of sexuality’ had brought the Methodist college into disrepute. The tweet sought to bring clarity to the same-sex 'marriage' debate; he argued that ‘if sin is no longer sin, we no longer need a Saviour.’ Aaron said, ‘The reaction to my tweet and unjust treatment by Cliff College and the British Methodist Church completely illustrates the problem my tweet addressed.’ In a wide-ranging interview with CBN, the father of five defended his tweet and said the Biblical views on sexuality were being ‘silenced and stamped out’ by the Methodist Church.

Asylum-seekers will be housed in disused military bases in Essex and Lincolnshire and a prison in East Sussex, under plans to cut the £6 million a day spent on hotel accommodation for people landing in the UK in small boats. Housing them in barges and other floating accommodation has also been mentioned. Rishi Sunak has also brought forward proposals to use barracks at Catterick, in his constituency. The Refugee Council is deeply concerned, calling the suggested accommodation ‘entirely unsuitable’ for the needs of vulnerable men, women, and children who have come to our country in search of safety; it will add yet more cost and chaos to the system. The Home Office said that healthcare will be available along with catering facilities and 24/7 security, and ‘accommodation for illegal migrants should meet their essential living needs and nothing more’.

A survey by the Nuffield Trust and the King’s Fund found that only one person in seven is satisfied with social care services. Social care efficiency has been falling, but this record low reflects the failure of successive governments to prioritise this service and an unwillingness to tackle deep-rooted problems in our social care system. The public are seeing a large number of people whose care and support needs are not being met, and there is a perceived lack of appropriate reward, recognition, and support for social care staff. Against this background, it is disappointing that the Government’s planned social care reforms have been watered down or delayed. This will result in dissatisfaction rising further if social care provision continues to decline. People who draw on care and support, their carers, and those working in the sector will feel the pain of this.