UK Tribunal System

• Court gives Gazans right to settle in UK. A family of six seeking to flee Gaza have been allowed to join their brother in Britain, despite applying for UK residence under a scheme meant for Ukrainian refugees. Immigration judge Hugo Norton-Taylor – who, it transpires, is the son of a former Guardian journalist who campaigns against Israel online – ruled that the Home Office’s rejection of their application breached their human rights. The Palestinian family had seen their home destroyed by an air strike and were living in a Gaza refugee camp. The decision to accept their case, applied for through the Ukraine Family Scheme, came despite warnings by lawyers for the Home Office that it could open the floodgates to “the admission of all those in conflict zones with family in the UK”. TCW has termed it a ruling that declares, 'Hamas welcome here'.
• Farcical tribunal rulings. In the past few days alone, The Telegraph has exposed a series of cases where migrants have gained the right to remain or avoided deportation in controversial circumstances. A Pakistani father who was jailed for trying to get three “barely pubescent” girls to engage in sex has escaped deportation because it would be “unduly harsh” on his children, even though he had been banned from living with them because of his sexual offences. An immigration tribunal ruled that an Albanian criminal could stay in Britain because it would also be “unduly harsh” for the 10-year-old boy to be forced to move to Albania with his father owing to his sensitivity around food, the sole example given being his distaste for the “type of chicken nuggets that are available abroad”. Meanwhile, a Nigerian woman who tried and failed eight times to secure asylum in Britain was finally granted the right to stay after joining a terrorist organisation banned in her home country just to boost her claim. And a Ghanaian tourist has been granted the right to live in Britain under Brexit marriage rules – even though neither she nor her ‘husband’ attended their own wedding. Read also here. 

Israel / Hamas War

• Many Palestinians want to leave Gaza. A poll by the top Palestinian polling agency, the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, conducted just prior to the outbreak of war, found that nearly a third (31%) of the entire population considered emigrating (44% of those aged 18-29). Their most preferred destination for immigration was Turkey, followed by Germany, Canada, the United States, and Qatar, the poll found. The largest percentage said they want to leave for economic reasons; second and third reasons were “political” or educational opportunities; the fourth reason was security, and the fifth, corruption. Since this was the case in the absence of war and destruction, the numbers would presumably be significantly higher today.
• Many released Palestinian terrorists are 'millionaires'. Many terrorists released by Israel are millionaires, flush with cash from years of receiving monthly Palestinian Authority "pay for slay" stipends, an analysis by a Jerusalem-based watchdog group has recently revealed. Palestinian Media Watch posted a list of all 734 terrorists scheduled for release from Israeli prisons in the first phase of the hostages-for-ceasefire agreement with Hamas, together with their "salaries" – the dollar amounts each terrorist received from the Palestinian Authority's so-called Martyrs' Fund while incarcerated. In total, the terrorists received $141,837,087, or more than half a billion shekels. Of those, 316, or nearly half, received more than a million shekels (£224,000).
• London Pro-Palestinian march was planned on Oct 7th. Pro-Palestinian activists were planning a demonstration through London even as the Oct 7 massacre was taking place. At 12.50pm on the day of the 2023 terror attack, and while the assault was still ongoing, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign notified the Metropolitan Police that they intended to hold a protest. The brother of pro-Palestinian MP Shockat Adam, an independent MP for Leicester South, was one who helped organise the London march. The PSC has defended the timing of its decision to plan the march, citing Israel’s retaliation to the terror attack, when also that day, Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Israel was at war.

Society and Politics

• Christian school worker wins 6-year battle over expressing beliefs. In what appears to be a seminal judgment for Christian freedom and free speech, the Court of Appeal has reversed a ruling which defended the dismissal of school pastoral assistant Kristie Higgs from a school in Gloucestershire for raising concerns on Facebook about extreme sex education and transgender ideology being taught in her son's Church of England primary school. The ruling confirms that the Equality Act protects traditional Christian beliefs on social issues, such as opposition to the ideas of transgenderism and ‘gender fluidity’ and opposition to same-sex marriage. For the first time in employment law, the judgment has effectively established a legal presumption that any dismissal for an expression or manifestation of Christian faith is illegal.
• ‘Britain’s silent rape explosion’. A new documentary from the New Culture Forum reveals that rapes in England & Wales have quadrupled in just 10 years; from 16,000 incidents in 2013; to over 69,000 by 2022. Other European countries – such as Demark, Sweden and Germany − have experienced similar explosions since around 2015. Europe has become unsafe for women and girls. The documentary asks what is causing this; revealing that such unprecedented rise in sex-based crimes has occurred alongside another unprecedented rise: mass immigration. It also asks why, unlike other European countries, the British state is so unwilling to provide the full data on who is committing these crimes. Read more and watch here.

Trump’s Executive Orders

• Faith groups sue Trump administration. More than two dozen religious groups representing thousands of congregations are suing Donald Trump’s administration to protect houses of worship from being targets for immigration arrests. The 27 religious groups – which include Baptist, Episcopalian, Evangelical, Methodist, Pentecostal, Jewish and Unitarian congregations, among many others – argue that the Trump administration is infringing on their religious freedoms by threatening their ministry to vulnerable immigrant congregations. The plaintiffs have pointed to a recent arrest in Georgia, where an asylum seeker was listening to a sermon in a Pentecostal church when ICE agents entered and arrested him.
• Some evangelicals oppose Trump over immigration. While a great many evangelicals applaud Trump's tough stance on immigration, some church leaders are speaking out against the policy. In particular, Latino evangelical churches across the United States are taking unprecedented measures to protect their congregations and leaders. A Bishop in The Church of God of Prophecy denomination has ordered congregations with endangered pastors to livestream their services and to “keep recording even if something happens.” In some cases, churches have resorted to locking their doors during services. Pope Francis has also openly rebuked the U.S. administration’s immigration policies.

US Agency for International Development (USAID)

• Allegations of ‘vast’ USAID funds for Hamas. The White House has taken the dramatic decision to cut US Agency for International Development (USAID) funded programs and offices worldwide, initially for a 90-day review period, publishing a list of USAID projects which it said were evidence of "waste and abuse". One such project has been highlighted by Republican US Senator Ted CruzTed Cruz, who claims that USAID has been secretly funding Hamas and other terrorist-affiliated entities and that the agency has a record of hostile lobbying against the Jewish state. “Before and after Oct 7, 2023, USAID flowed uncountable hundreds of millions of dollars toward Hamas that enabled it to launch the attack and keep battling Israel afterwards. They lied about the nature of that aid in public databases (and) refused to disclose what groups were getting the money.” Internally, Cruz added, USAID “admitted the aid would benefit Hamas, and even exempted themselves from anti-terrorism laws, but in public issued denials.”
• Christian leaders slam Trump's aid cuts. Yet the USAID freeze has proved unpopular with many. Christian humanitarian organisations are raising alarms over the plans. The Catholic charity Caritas has denounced the aid cuts as "reckless" and "inhuman," warning that millions of lives are at stake. "Food security programs in regions like East Africa, where millions face famine due to prolonged droughts, are being severely affected," according to the General Secretary of one humanitarian aid charity. In fact, emergency food aid and other “life-saving humanitarian assistance” are reportedly being allowed to continue - read more here.
• USAID freeze leaves Ukraine & Uganda in the cold. Ukraine was by far the top recipient of USAID funding – receiving a massive $16 billion in 2023. Funding went to humanitarian aid for elderly residents holding out in the rubble of ruined frontline cities, and also to economic development – supporting small and medium-size businesses, promoting exports, restoring infrastructure, and creating jobs. Ministry leaders working in Ukraine warn that the funding freeze will severely affect the most vulnerable living in the war-torn country. Read also here. Meanwhile, the health ministry in Uganda has announced its intention to shut all dedicated HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis (TB) clinics in the country, as a necessary response as the country grapples with the loss of funding from USAID. Stand-alone pharmacies supplying antiretroviral drugs will also be closed. Read also here.

Church Issues

• Trump appoints Paula White to lead Faith Office. President Trump has appointed televangelist Paula White to lead his newly established White House Faith Office. White – known for her multiple marriages and past controversies – previously served as Trump’s spiritual advisor during his first term in office and chaired his Evangelical Advisory Board. The recent move has sparked controversy within the Christian community, with White, a megachurch pastor from Florida, being seen as holding to theologically spurious views, including a long association with the prosperity gospel. Christian speaker Scott Ross described the move as “an abomination”, while Orthodox Christian leader John Mason described White as a known heretic who has no regard for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Read also here.

• Communion wine cannot be alcohol-free, CofE rules. Following a request for the C of E General Synod to allow the use of gluten-free and alcohol-free bread and wine in the Eucharist, it was held that this would go against Church law, which determines that wheat flour and alcohol must be contained within them. Newspapers reported that the C of E had fully refused such adaptations; one commentator applauding the Church’s determination “to resist the forces of trendy progressivism.” The Church of England has since clarified that it does not fully ban such items, but that there needs to be at least a tiny trace of gluten and alcohol in the bread and wine.

Archaeology

• Archaeologists discover 1,500-year-old lost Bible chapter in Vatican. A nearly 1,500-year-old section of the Bible has been unearthed during a recent study, according to scientists. The team used ultraviolet photography to reveal the hidden chapter, which was concealed beneath an astonishing three layers of text in an ancient manuscript housed at the Vatican. Published in the journal New Testament Studies, the research suggests that this chapter is one of the earliest translations of the Gospels. This discovery provides fresh insight into a new interpretation of Matthew chapter 12 in the New Testament and is hailed as offering a "unique gateway" into the early phase of copying, preserving and spreading the written word of the Gospels across generations. The researchers also suspect that this fragment is the sole surviving piece of a fourth manuscript that testifies to the old Syriac version of the Bible.