Sudan

Sudan facing world’s deadliest famine in 40 years. Famine has been confirmed in more than ten locations in Sudan, according to the World Food Program, in what is seen as an entirely man-made famine. Another 17 locations are said to be “on the brink”, as the UN body launches an appeal for US $6 billion to avert a “humanitarian catastrophe” in the war-ravaged nation. Sudan's ruinous civil war, now approaching its third year, has left a legacy of malnutrition, massive population displacement and chronic insecurity. The statistics are staggering:

• Some 30.4 million people - over two thirds of Sudan’s population - are in need of assistance, from health to food and other forms of humanitarian support.
• The fighting has led to an economic collapse, sending the prices of food, fuel and other basic goods soaring.
• Humanitarian efforts are severely hampered by the lack of security.
• The country's health system is on its knees, with health facilities attacked and many health workers forced to flee.
• Huge numbers of people have been forced to flee their homes for areas of relative safety. Over three million people are classified as refugees, and almost nine million are internally displaced.
• Over 18,800 civilians have been reported killed since the beginning of the conflict, and the levels of violence are getting worse. At the beginning of February, at least 275 people were killed in just one week.
• 4 million at risk in the rebel-controlled Nuba Mountains. Some four million people are now sheltering in the c/o www.refugeesinternational.orgNuba mountains, a remote area of Sudan controlled by an indigenous rebel group. They are attended to by just 3 permanent doctors. Evidence of suffering is everywhere – one doctor said almost every child he sees is suffering from acute malnutrition. Dr Tom Catena said, “We don’t have big organisations coming to help. Everyone knows about Ukraine, everyone knows about Gaza – this place is unknown. It’s a very quiet famine.” The famine is expected to get even worse in coming months, as food harvested last year runs out, and as virtually no aid comes in from outside.

Trump / Zelensky Debacle

• Ukrainian Christians plead with Trump not to let them down. Ukrainian evangelicals have expressed that they do not trust that an agreement with Russia will bring peace. “A fair plan is when Russia withdraws its troops from all occupied territories of Ukraine”, said one Ukrainian pastor. Ruslan Kukharchuk, a journalist and leader of ‘United Together for the Family’, called Ukraine “the Bible Belt of Europe”, being home to the largest and fastest-growing church communities in Europe (for example, Baptists and Greek Catholics). Ukraine has over 2,000 Baptist churches alone. There are also said to be as many Orthodox Christians in Ukraine as in Russia. More than 600 religious buildings have been damaged in Ukraine since the Russian invasion. Earlier this month, Ukraine sent a delegation of nearly 200 Ukrainian pastors, priests, politicians, and wounded soldiers to Washington, to rally support for more military defence and plead with Trump not to pull the plug and make a deal that favours Russia.
• US evangelical pastors call Trump out. In America, some evangelical leaders said it was outrageous for Trump to declare that Ukraine began the war or that Ukraine ought to accede to Putin. Former Vice President and political evangelical Mike Pence wrote to Trump, telling him that the idea that Ukraine ‘started’ this war is a dangerous lie. Ed Stetzer, dean at Talbot School of Theology, stated: “Ukraine was invaded by Russia. I was there last summer and stood on the destroyed bridges, saw the cars shot up on highways, and heard the stories from the Christians in Kyiv.” But read also here. Meanwhile, some of Trump’s close Christian friends - Franklin Graham, Paula White, Robert Jeffress - remained silent on the issue.

Israel and the Middle East

• Over 6,300 terror attacks against Jews in Judea and Samaria in 2024. Palestinian terrorists targeted Israeli Jews in Judea and Samaria at least 6,343 times in 2024, according to figures published by the Rescuers Without Borders NGO. 27 Israelis were murdered in Judea and Samaria in 2024, and more than 300 others were wounded, the group said. The figures, which were cross-checked against official data from Israel’s security services, included 364 cases of arson, 179 terrorist shootings and 526 explosive charges. Additionally, there were 37 attempted or successful stabbings and 19 Arab car-ramming attacks, including 12 that caused injuries to Israeli victims. 1,040 major attacks in the area were foiled. The figures do not include the hundreds of attacks on Israeli security personnel occurring during ongoing counter-terrorism operations in Arab towns under the control of the Palestinian Authority.

Antisemitism

• Australian nurses’ vile antisemitic outburst There has been widespread outrage at the video clip of two Australian nurses caught on camera saying to Jewish TikTok user Max Veifer they wouldn’t treat Israeli patients and instead would ‘kill them’. One of the nurses stated: 'You have no idea how many Israeli dogs came to this hospital and I (motions slitting throat).' The nurses have been suspended, unable to practice nursing anywhere in Australia. It transpires that a fiery clash over Veifer’s military past was cut from the original version of the video. A Sydney midwife has claimed she nearly lost her job after raising concerns about antisemitism among nurses in New South Wales over a year before the latest story.
• Australian Muslims come to nurses’ defence. What many see as even more disturbing than the nurses’ antisemitism is that a coalition of 50 Muslim leaders and organisations in Australia – including The Muslim Vote – has come out in defence of the duo, stating only that their comments were ‘regrettable’. They accused critics of engaging in “selective outrage” and erringly claimed that the nurses’ frustration and anger was directed against Israel, and not the Jewish people. Spiked’s Brendan O’Neil commented, “the fact that so many ‘Muslim leaders’ are willing to stand up for them is outright terrifying.”
• Ongoing BBC anti-Israel bias. The BBC has been accused of a series of incidences showing anti-Israel bias in the past couple of weeks. A documentary, Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone, aired on Monday, about the lives of ‘ordinary Palestinians’, was narrated by the son of a Hamas government minister, with the BBC neglecting to disclose the connection (the BBC's smoking gun moment?). It has been forced to apologise for the 'error'. Earlier this month, the Beeb was forced to make an on-air correction after Jeremy Bowenreferring to Palestinian convicts as “hostages”, and to Israeli hostages as “prisoners”. And the corporation’s international editor Jeremy Bowen has been accused of a series of anti-Israel gaffes of late. Somewhat ironically, Pro-Palestinian protesters chucked “blood-red paint” at the BBC’s headquarters in London this week, also smashing windows, in a demonstration against the broadcaster's “ongoing complicity in the genocide of Palestinians through its entrenched pro-Israel bias”. With the corporation also persistently refusing to refer to Hamas as a terrorist group, The Telegraph's Michael Deacon asks bluntly, “What sort of idiot thinks the BBC is biased towards Israel?”

Society and Politics

• Declining Christian influence in Whitehall. ‘Christians’ in the civil service have been outnumbered by non-believers for the first time ever. As of March 2024 there were 166,140 civil servants declaring they were ‘Christian’, an increase of 3,600 from a year earlier. But the number actively stating they were not affiliated to any religion or belief went up from 155,655 to 168,870. 21,660 declared they were Muslim, compared to 7,265 Hindus, 4,790 Sikhs and 1,250 who stated they were Jewish. The findings reflect a wider national change in religious views, and come as a number of MPs have made a formal call to abolish daily prayers in the House of Commons, saying prayers are “not compatible with a society which respects the principle of freedom of and from religion.” Parliament has opened with Christian prayers since around 1558.
• Voodooism is a protected religious belief, a UK employment tribunal has ruled for the first time, meaning its followers cannot be discriminated against. Voodoo is practised mainly in the Caribbean and the southern US, and is based on African traditions involving magic and communication with spirits and dead people. The tribunal found that whilst there is no clear definition of what is good or evil in voodooism, “there is clear teaching that adherents should live their lives in conformity with the iwa” (spirits) and “each person is connected to a specific iwa, who informs their personality.”

Assisted Dying Bill

• MPs may withdraw support from Assisted Dying Bill. The Independent has suggested that as many as 140Kim Leadbeater MPs could withdraw their support from the Assisted Dying Bill in the wake of the amendments being made to it before MPs vote again in April. Only 28 withdrawals would be needed for the bill to be defeated. Four Labour MPs have written to their Party colleagues to share their concerns at how the proposals are being handled. Meanwhile, psychiatrists have warned there may not be enough doctors in their profession to meet the needs of the Bill, while the Social work sector is also said to be “at capacity” and will need more funding to meet the needs of the Bill. Read also here.
• Concerns about the Bill mount. The latest concern is the news that the oft-promised High Court oversight of assisted suicide has been downgraded to a mere review body, a panel of experts, stripped of the legal powers and authority of a court of law. Kim Leadbeater has also refused to rule out the prospect of terminally ill people seeking help to kill themselves for fear of being a financial burden under her assisted suicide Bill. Despite the growing concerns, or perhaps oblivious to them, a study of 1,500 British adults aged 50 or over has revealed that 68% of respondents support the proposed Assisted Dying Bill. Read also here and here.

Bite Size News

• Female actress Cynthia Erivo will star as Jesus in a new production of Jesus Christ Superstar this summer in LA – with some lambasting the casting as ‘blasphemous’.
• A new Scottish tartan has been created to commemorate the thousands of mainly women who were executed for witchcraft in Scotland between the 16th and 18th centuries, in what campaigners describe as the greatest miscarriage of justice in Scotland’s history.
• At least half of all murders over the last five years in England and Wales were drug related, new figures have shown.