Syria: drone attack kills over 100
06 Oct 2023
Over a hundred people, including ten civilians, were killed and another 125 were injured when drones carrying explosives targeted a graduation ceremony at a military academy in Homs. The army blamed ‘terrorist groups backed by known international forces’, and said it would respond with full force and determination against these terrorist groups ‘wherever they are’. There was no immediate claim from the rebels and jihadists battling the government in the country's civil war. The attack is believed to have been launched from opposition-held areas north-west of Homs. An eye-witness said, ‘After the ceremony, people went down to the courtyard and the explosives hit. We don't know where it came from, and corpses littered the ground.’ Syria's defence minister attended the graduation ceremony, but left minutes before the attack.
Left-leaning Luisa González and centrist Daniel Noboa have faced each other in the last debate before the run-off election on 15 October. The debate gave both candidates a platform to address long-simmering issues in the country. The economy remains Ecuador’s Achilles heel: at the end of 2022, debt alone accounted for 57 percent of the GDP. The other major issue facing the candidates is crime. Ecuador, once one of the most peaceful countries in Latin America, is now on track to become the third-most violent country in the region. In August, that violence spilled over with the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio in Quito. Since then, candidates have been wearing bullet-proof vests. Noboa is ahead in the polls, but many Ecuadorians have not yet made up their minds about who to vote for.
Badminton England recently launched a strategy aimed at making the game the most inclusive and accessible in the country. As part of the plan, it intends to open up 200 new spaces for playing badminton, including faith spaces like church halls. Lisa Elliott, a former professional badminton player now affiliated with Christians in Sport (CIS), commended the strategy while cautioning against pressuring players to attend church events. She suggested that this initiative could be a wonderful chance for churches to foster friendships, build relationships, and pray, with the hope that it may lead to meaningful connections in the future. Christians in Sport, an organisation that assists athletes in living out and sharing their faith, collaborates with sportspeople like Elliott to integrate their beliefs with their sporting endeavours.
A family has been allowed to name their late 19-year-old daughter, Sudiksha Thirumalesh, after being denied the opportunity to seek specialist treatment abroad due to restrictive reporting regulations. Sudiksha, who suffered from a rare genetic mitochondrial disease, was engaged in a legal battle with the NHS for over six months to seek experimental treatment that could potentially have saved her life. Although she was fully conscious and able to communicate, a court order prevented her and her family from raising funds to travel to Canada for a clinical trial. Sudiksha's situation gained significant media attention, especially after her tragic death. The family, who are committed Christians, have expressed their distress at the treatment they received from the hospital trust and the courts. They felt silenced, intimidated, and prevented from accessing potential life-saving treatment for Sudiksha. Now they hope to seek justice for her and raise awareness of how critical care decisions are made in the NHS and the courts. There are calls for a more transparent and open system to prevent similar ordeals for other patients and families.
8@80: Ian Cole’s walk of blessing
28 Sep 2023
Ian Cole, founder of World Prayer Centre, will be celebrating his 80th birthday by embarking on an eight-mile sponsored "Walk of Blessing" across parts of South Birmingham. The walk, taking place on 30 September, aims to pray blessings on every church and school along the route. Ian has set a sponsorship target of £80,000 (£1,000 for each year of his life) and is asking for support based on the number 8 (£8, £18, £80, £800, £8,000...). So far, £22,773 has been raised. He was recently given the ‘all clear’ after being diagnosed with prostate and bladder cancer in 2020. The money raised from the challenge will benefit three charities: World Prayer Centre, Love Your Neighbour (based in inner-city Birmingham), and Advantage Africa (working among the poorest in Kenya and Uganda). World Prayer Centre operates locally, nationally, and globally. The WPC team and Ian's family will join him on the walk, and they are thrilled for any sponsorship support as Ian celebrates his milestone birthday and his service for God and the body of Christ.
Biggest untapped UK oil field approved
28 Sep 2023
The UK's largest untapped oil field has been approved for development by regulators. It is estimated that Rosebank, 80 miles west of Shetland, could produce 300 million barrels of oil - but opponents say those could account for 200 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. The lead company Equinor puts the capacity at about 70,000 barrels per day, which the BBC calculates would be about 10% of the UK’s current daily production. At that rate it would take about twelve years to extract the recoverable oil, although other groups have made higher estimates of the amount that could be found. The Government has welcomed the decision, saying it will raise billions of pounds and ‘make us more secure against tyrants like Putin’. Rishi Sunak said, ‘As we make the transition to renewables, we will still need oil and gas: it makes sense to use our own’. But Scotland's first minister Humza Yousaf said he was ‘disappointed’, while the Green Party called the decision ‘morally obscene’.
Several organisations, including councils, solicitors, an NHS trust, and the police, have faced reprimands for breaching the personal data of domestic abuse victims in the UK. The Information Commissioner has warned that such data breaches put the lives of victims at risk, with many cases involving the disclosure of the victim's home address to their alleged abuser. The breaches have included accidental messages revealing new addresses, and the posting of court bundles containing addresses to the wrong recipient, necessitating urgent relocation of victims. The commissioner has issued reprimands to seven organisations involved in data violations impacting domestic abuse survivors since June 2022. He has called for proper training and systems to prevent such incidents in the future. Domestic abuse charities emphasise the importance of protecting personal information, as abusers often escalate their control after separation. The data violations, which are seen as severely undermining women's safety, highlight the urgent need for improved responses to domestic abuse by public services.
University students in the UK are facing unprecedented rent increases as the value of maintenance loans fails to keep pace. Rents have risen by over 8% since 2022, with some cases seeing increases of up to 27%. The demand for accommodation has soared, with nearly 390,000 more students needing housing in the past decade. Rising operational and development costs, high inflation, and a decline in new bed space delivery have contributed to the increases. The average private sector rent outside London now exceeds £7,600 per year, consuming 77% of the maximum student maintenance loan allowance. Fewer than 10% of beds in major university cities are affordable to students receiving maintenance loans and grants. Rental growth in purpose-built student accommodation has reached 9.4%, exacerbating the affordability challenge. Students are increasingly taking on part-time work to cover expenses, negatively impacting their studies. To address the crisis, there have been calls for increased maintenance loans, rent freezes, and rent controls.