News and Views – 9th January 2026

Christian Persecution: Venezuela

• Christians in Venezuela long for change. While the world debates the international legality and wisdom behind Trump’s decision to invade Venezuela and capture its authoritarian president, Nicolás Maduro, many Latino evangelical Christians outside the country have been celebrating what they see as Trump’s liberation of Venezuela from the 27-year-old chains of oppression. In Venezuela itself, while some Christian leaders have responded with caution, calling for steadiness and prayer, others have apparently responded with joy, celebrating and worshipping in the streets. Authorities intend to release a 'significant number' of prisoners as a gesture to 'seek peace', including numerous imprisoned church leaders.
• Churches in Venezuela have existed in a state of fear. All North American missionaries were removed from Venezuela in 2005. To this day, the only missionaries allowed are native Venezuelans. Evangelicals in Venezuela face significant harassment, intimidation, and pressure from the state and government-aligned groups, with reports indicating a pattern of repression, including surveillance, threats and arbitrary detentions. Churches and Christian initiatives not aligned with the ruling party are viewed with suspicion and can become targets for criminal attacks by paramilitary groups or local gangs working closely with the regime. For example, a Christian rehabilitation centre for drug addicts was attacked because its work challenged the local drug business.

Immigration

• The British activists stopping the illegal boats. Around 20,000 British people have so far rallied to volunteer with the group Raise the Colours (RTC), by offering to travel to northern France in a bid to deter migrants from crossing the English Channel. The number of volunteers is rising daily. Many activists have already crossed to Normandy, in what they describe as “civilian border control” – with videos showing them wading into the sea and allegedly slashing small boats and their engines. As a result, RTC claims that “there have been absolutely zero small boat arrivals in the past 14 days.” The group says that they have been forced to take matters into their own hands because the French and British authorities are failing to take the tough action needed to stop the boats.
• These scenes have not come without backlash: there have been allegations of the activists encouraging violence and xenophobia, with some shouting that suspected undocumented migrants on boats are “potential rapists” and “murderers”.  Claims of sexual harassment against migrants appear to be unsupported.
• Furious France threatens to arrest the UK activists. France is threatening to arrest the British activists, with senior French politicians said to be furious at the unauthorised and potentially illegal actions. French President Emmanuel Macron has pledged to introduce a new strategy involving elite police units intercepting people smugglers’ dinghies at sea, but this has yet to be implemented due to police union concerns. 41,472 migrants arrived in the UK in 2025 after crossing the Channel, making last year the second-highest annual small boat total on record.

Abortion

• Leading charity says it's not illegal for women to abort babies because they are girls. Britain's leading abortion charity The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), which carries out 110,000 terminations a year, states on its website that aborting a baby on the basis of sex is not illegal - despite Government advice explicitly stating it is against the law. Pregnant British-Indian women in particular are under huge pressure to have boys – a recent study finding a “statistically significant imbalance” in the ratio of boys and girls born to Indian parents in Britain. Health professionals are known to turn a blind eye because of cultural sensitivities or the fear of being accused of racism. Many campaigners, charities and MPs have condemned the BPAS stance as irresponsible and dangerous. Read also here and here.

Antisemitism

• West Midlands Police’s lied about Israeli football fans. West Midlands Police “lied and lied again” to justify a ban on Israeli fans attending a Europa League football match at Aston Villa in November, an MP has claimed. Craig Guildford, the force’s chief constable, faces accusations that the decision was politically motivated rather than based on genuine safety concerns, and that he misled Parliament with his version of events during appearances before a committee of MPs. It has also emerged that the police sought guidance from 3 Birmingham mosques with track records of hosting antisemitic preachers before deciding to ban Israeli fans. Polling by YouGov revealed that the public had also become convinced by the ‘collaboration’ between police and local Islamic activists, with 42% supporting the ban. The police watchdog is assessing evidence, while Jewish groups call for Guildford’s sacking. Read also here, and this pertinent article.

Other notable instances of antisemitism or overt anti-Israel expression in recent days include:

• The words “RAT JEW” were scrawled in large writing on a border road in Northern Ireland, accompanied by drawings of swastikas painted alongside Stars of David.
• Australian children’s author Matt Chun is facing sharp criticism after publishing a newsletter attacking the victims of last month’s Bondi Beach terror rampage under the headline “We don’t mourn fascists.”
• A medical tribunal has heard that an NHS doctor posted antisemitic conspiracy theories on social media claiming Jews were behind America’s 9/11 attacks. 
• Sadiq Khan's New Year fireworks event in London was accused of removing the Star of David from the Israeli flag - though organisers blamed a technical fault.
• Members of Spain’s Jewish community have lodged a formal complaint with a major French online platform after an interactive mapping project publicly identified and categorised Jewish-linked businesses across the Catalonia region.
• A prominent antisemitism researcher and US permanent resident is seeking court protection after the Trump administration signalled possible action against him over his work on social media platforms.
• A suspected arson attack targeted property belonging to the antisemitism commissioner in the German federal state of Brandenberg, prompting a police investigation and condemnation from state leaders.

Climate Change

• 2025 saw fewest deaths from extreme weather ever. There is evidence to suggest that 2025 was the year of the fewest deaths from climate-related natural disasters in recorded history. On his ‘The Honest Broker’ Substack, Dr Roger Pielke estimates that there were 0.8 deaths per 100,000 people across the globe in 2025. “Despite media reports that climate change is bringing death and destruction at every turn, deaths from extreme weather per 100,000 people have been falling rapidly for decades… There have been six years since 2000, Pielke notes, in which deaths per 100,000 population were less than 1, and they all have happened since 2014.” 
• Global warming may cause an Ice Age! As reported by ScienceDaily, scientists at the University of California: Riverside have sensationally claimed that “Global warming could trigger the next ice age” – a seeming attempt to cover every possible outcome. The New American likens this to saying “Malignant cancer could trigger robust health” or “Impoverishment could trigger material abundance.” The predicted ice age won’t save us from man-caused global warming, though, for the cooling effect will likely occur too far in the future, according to the claims.

World Issues

• Christ 'moved' before 2.5 million people in Rio de Janeiro. Drones appeared to make the statue of Christ the Redeemer – the massive emblematic monument that overlooks the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro – emerge from the Atlantic Ocean before an estimated 2.5 million people gathered along Copacabana Beach on New Year’s Eve. The moment drew cheers from the massive crowd as fireworks illuminated the shoreline. The scale of the event was formally recognised by Guinness World Records as the “Biggest New Year’s Eve Celebration in the World.” 
• Growing trend of child-preachers in Brazil. Evangelicals now account for more than a quarter of Brazil’s population, and researchers expect them to become the majority by 2050. In one rural church in Brazil’s São Paulo state, 8-year-old Ester Souza, who dramatically survived a severe kidney failure in 2020, being told she only had a 1% chance of survival, now regularly preaches from the pulpit, captivating millions online. Apparently, she is part of a growing trend of child preachers across the country.

Broken Britain

• A double killer who took a prison officer hostage has won a court case on human rights grounds because he was depressed after being put in solitary confinement. View the shocking details here.
• It has been disclosed that at least 30 dangerous mental health patients secretly freed from high security hospitals have gone on to kill in recent years.
• A restaurant in Southampton has claimed it has been forced to close down after 20 years of operation due to 'ongoing issues' with an asylum seeker hotel next door. 
• Grok, the chatbot developed by Elon Musk, has the ability to generate nude or obscene images if users ask it to digitally alter pictures of real people. (But read also)
• Despite the Electoral Commission making it clear that elections should only be postponed in exceptional circumstances, Labour is poised to postpone elections in 22 areas as Reform UK continues to ride high in the polls. 
• Scotland Yard failed to properly vet thousands of officers – allowing rapists, racists and violent offenders to join the force.