News and Views 

Israel v Iran; Ballymena riots; Antisemitism update; Met Office manipulations; extreme abortion bill, and more

Middle East

• Iran strikes Israel. Iran has launched several waves of ballistic missiles at Israel in revenge for Israel having attacked a number of military positions, ballistic missile, attack drone capabilities, and air defences in a wave of air strikes across Iran, killing the chief of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards and other senior military figures. While most Iranian missiles were intercepted by Israel, some got through, and several Israelis are reported killed, and many wounded. A number of flights from Israel have been cancelled, and many Israelis are resorting to bomb shelters. Iran's UN ambassador said 78 people have been killed and more than 320 injured in Israel's attacks. Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that 'more is on the way'. Months, if not years of planning went into what is the most devastating attack on Iranian soil for nearly half a century - a fusion of high-grade conventional capabilities, human ingenuity and the latest advances in military technologies - all of which has seriously set back Iran’s nuclear-enrichment programme and seen dozens of air-defence systems wiped out.

Society and Politics

• Selected media coverage of N. Ireland riots. Commentators have decried the media’s muted reporting on the cause of this week’s riots in Northern Ireland, most outlets omitting that they reportedly began after a teenage girl was sexually assaulted by two Romanian boys (subsequently charged with attempted rape), most stating only that “a Romanian interpreter read the boys the charges.” It has also been little reported that tensions between native N. Irish and Roma immigrants have been bubbling for some time. While in no way condoning the violence, Tom Harris of The Telegraph writes that “to dismiss local anger as racism … is simply storing up greater trouble for the future.” Many have also observed the two-tier media reporting, with simultaneous street disturbances in Los Angeles (also over immigration) being politely termed ‘protests’ which were “mostly peaceful” (in reality they were backed by pro-Hamas activists who called for city to burn), while those in Northern Ireland were universally denounced as racist riots. Read also here and here.
• UK may soon pass Europe’s most extreme abortion law. Next week, the Commons will vote on two amendments, proposed by Labour MPs Stella Creasy and Tonia Antoniazzi, to decriminalise abortion up to the moment of birth. In Britain, abortion can be carried out until 24 weeks of pregnancy. Polls suggest that just 1% of British people support abortion up to birth. And leading pro-choice charity The British Pregnancy Advisory Service has said that the amendments are not supported by “any of the abortion providers in the country”. Abortion is illegal in England and Wales, but can be carried out in certain controlled circumstances; the new proposals will mean that women would no longer be prosecuted for terminating a pregnancy. Read also here and here.

Israel 

• Hamas operative behind Greta Thunberg’s Gaza flotilla. Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg was deported by plane to France on Tuesday, a day after the Gaza-bound aid boat she and 11 other people were on was intercepted by Israeli forces in the Mediterranean. Sweden rejected Thunberg's plea for help on board the 'freedom flotilla'.  Israeli authorities sought to make Greta and her crew watch video footage of Hamas’s 7th October atrocities, but they refused. Meanwhile, Greta’s voyage was arranged by the Freedom Flotilla International Coalition, of which Zaher Birawi, who is considered to be a Hamas operative, has called himself a “founding member”. Read also here.
• Where have all the Jews gone? Spiked columnist Joel Kotkin reports that whereas Jews were once widely dispersed around the world, their havens throughout the West have sometimes been turned “into an anti-Zionist, Jew-hating hellscape”. Kotkin says Jews are now predominantly concentrated in the US and Israel, which two countries alone are home to 13.5 million Jews out of a global total of only 15.7 million. Israel is already home to a near majority of the world’s Jewish children. By 2030, Kotkin predicts, Israel could become, for the first time since early antiquity, the home to a majority of all Jews.

Church Issues

• Whole youth groups commit to Jesus. A series of Pursuit of Worship nights, organised by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, took place on twelve nights across England and Wales recently, gathering mainly young people to hear the message of the gospel. Testimonies from youth leaders include the following:
•       “In Colchester, we witnessed all our youth commit their lives to the Lord and step forward to be ‘all in for Jesus’!
•       “We took our youth group of 14 young people and booked a minibus for the event. Seven of our young people gave their lives to Jesus!”
•       “150 young people gathered in Newent, Gloucester. Our expectation was for 30. I have been a born-again believer for 31 years and this is the most profound and powerful response to the presence of God I have ever witnessed. Quite possibly - and even probably - each and every young person accepted the invitation to follow the king.”

World Events

• Worldwide majority believes in God. “Unprecedented” new research from the Patmos Initiative into attitudes into faith, belief and God indicates that for most people worldwide, God is a reality. 90,000 people in 85 countries were questioned in depth about their views on the Bible and faith as part of the research conducted on behalf of the British and Foreign Bible Society and United Bible Societies.
• Islam growing faster than Christianity. Meanwhile, a major new study by the Pew Research Center reveals that Islam has seen the fastest growth of any religion worldwide over the past decade. The global Muslim population now stands at 25.6%, while Christians make up 28.8% — a decline of 1.8% for Christianity since the previous report.
• Most Americans reject absolute moral truth. Sticking with polls, a new survey reveals that most Americans reject the idea of an absolute moral truth. And the 2024 Census of American Religion, which has just been published, found that “about four in ten Americans ages 18–29 identify as religiously unaffiliated”, an increase of 6% from 32% in 2013.

Antisemitism

• UK Attorney General Lord Hermer said this week that he found the work of the Abdullah Quilliam Society “inspiring”, less than a year after it was named in a list of Islamic charities accused of harbouring “hateful rhetoric”, including a preacher urging Muslims to spit on Israel.
• A Muslim lecturer at Middlesex University has said he is “proud” to support Hamas, and insists that “all Zionists” must be “removed from our institutions.”
• A Sydney Muslim cleric being sued in the federal court for alleged racial discrimination of Jewish people has described his case as an existential battle “between Islam and unbelievers”.
• A pro-Palestine Muslim refugee, granted asylum in the UK, has avoided prosecution after he chanted “I love the 7th of October”.
• A French rabbi was attacked twice in a week, reflecting a broad rise in hate crimes across France that has included high-profile antisemitic assaults.
• A Grade 10 review sheet in a New York school defined Zionism as “extreme nationalism” focused on “taking land from Palestinians”, to the horror of several parents.
• Meanwhile, Civil servants in the Foreign Office have been told to resign if they disagree with the Government’s policy on Gaza.

Climate Change

• Met Office manipulations. Substantial evidence has emerged to suggest that the UK Met Office is promoting the political cause of Net Zero by using recently introduced sensitive thermometers to collect 60-second unnatural heat spikes, which exaggerate atmospheric warming. There are concerns that almost 8 in 10 of the Met Office’s nationwide temperature measuring stations offer ‘extreme’ temperature highs with possible error readings up to 2°C and 5°C. As an example, on May 1st, the Met Office claimed a station at Kew Gardens recorded a temperature at 2.59pm of 29.3°C. Promoted by the BBC, this was said to be the highest temperature ever recorded on this day in the UK. But the temperature was a massive 2.6°C higher than that recorded at 2pm and no less than 0.76°C above the figure recorded a minute later on the hour. Dr Eric Huxter said the use of such data reinforces the climate change narrative and “is undoubtedly of use to those wedded to alarmism”.

Science

• Universe ‘bounced’ out of a massive black hole, scientists claim. Ever since the 1930s when the Big Bang theory was proposed, researchers have believed that everything in our universe exploded from a single point of infinite density, or singularity. But scientists now believe that the current Big Bang theory is problematic as the laws of physics “broke down” when used to explain it. A new explanation, proposed by Professor Enrique Gaztanaga, from the University of Portsmouth, suggests instead that the universe was formed as a result of a gravitational collapse in a larger universe which generated a massive black hole leading to a rebound or “bounce”, causing our universe to emerge.

Covid and the Vaccines

• Singapore’s mandatory vaccination policy. Under the guise of public health, the Singaporean government has granted itself unchecked power to mandate medical procedures — including forced vaccination — while stripping citizens of legal recourse. The amendments, enacted in 2023 and 2024, criminalise refusal of state-ordered medical interventions, punishable by a fine of up to $10,000 or up to six months’ imprisonment, or both. Such measures are believed to constitute a gross violation of medical ethics, international human rights law, and the Nuremberg Code’s foundational principle of voluntary consent. Goh Meng Seng, leader of the People's Power Party, called for medical freedoms, stating “We should not be treated as pigs or chicken”.