Displaying items by tag: Europe

The 2019 G7 summit in Biarritz will focus on fighting inequality. The following five objectives will be discussed, and we can pray that they will be acted on: a) inequality of opportunity, promoting in particular gender equality, access to education, and high quality health services; b) reducing environmental inequality by protecting our planet through climate finance and a fair ecological transition, preserving biodiversity and the oceans; c) strengthening social dimensions of globalisation through more equitable trade, tax and development policies; d) action for peace against security threats and terrorism; e) tapping into the opportunities created by digital technology and artificial intelligence. Pray for all those participating in the summit: may God rule and reign in every discussion and decision made. See also the article on African wildlife and timber in the world section.

Amid growing alarm over accelerating extinctions, a major two-week international conference opened in Geneva on 17 August. 183 member states aim to tighten rules on trade in elephant ivory and other endangered animal and plant species. One million species are now at risk of extinction due to human activities. One of the 56 proposals on the agenda aims to prevent traffickers from passing off illegal elephant ivory as coming from mammoths, by listing the long-extinct mammals as a threatened species and thus subject to regulated trade. White rhinos, the American crocodile, and a range of shark and ray species are also on the agenda, as is the giraffe. The future of biodiversity is at stake, and we have a unique opportunity to change its course. WWF reported that Earth’s animal population has plummeted 60% in 44 years.

President Putin’s heavy-handed politics ahead of September elections have caused street protests for weeks. Russians are airing an array of grievances over economic stagnation and the Kremlin’s geopolitical isolation. Putin has turned Russia into a powerhouse to be reckoned with for foreign policy makers, but living standards have fallen five years in a row. The 50,000 protesters who converged a mile from the Kremlin recently proved that a movement that started with protests over candidates being refused to register for municipal elections has turned into a platform for a wide swathe of political concerns - local and national. Average Russians are experiencing poverty, consumer borrowing has increased almost 50%, and food chains have introduced consumer loans for shoppers, allowing families to put food on the table. Putin’s popularity is low, and social media have shown images of police beating generally peaceful protesters and detaining 2,000+ demonstrators. See

In seven months over 500 congregations have left the Russian-affiliated church to join a newly created Orthodox Church of Ukraine. As a result, the Russian church has lost almost 5% of its congregations, a relatively small fraction of the total but significant given how much resistance the Moscow patriarchate has sought to orchestrate against this movement. The map of the changes is also significant, with most recent changes in the centre and south of the country, not just in the west as was the case at first. Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, seen as ‘first among equals’ in the Orthodox Church, agreed to allow the creation of an independent church in Ukraine, which many had requested in response to Russia’s 2014 annexation of the Crimea from Ukraine. President Trump’s administration supports the new Ukrainian church.

92-year-old Bruno Dey will be tried in Germany for complicity in mass murder of 5,230 people in the Stutthof Nazi death camp during World War Two. The former guard admitted knowledge of atrocities of murder in gas chambers, where over 65,000 died before Stutthof was liberated on 9 May 1945. This trial is likely to be one of the last against a former Nazi guard. Dr Efraim Zuroff who campaigns for the rights of Holocaust survivors, welcomed the decision to bring Mr Dey to trial. ‘The passage of time in no way diminishes the criminal responsibility of those guilty of aiding and abetting the implementation of the Final Solution,’ he said. There have been two more recent trials of Stutthof guards after 20+ survivors of the camp were located, most of whom are currently residing in Israel.

The Republic of Cyprus is in the EU, but the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is recognised only by Turkey, and is internationally isolated. Ankara's latest move to increase drilling for oil off the coast of Cyprus by sending a third ship to the eastern Mediterranean, despite EU warnings, comes on the eve of talks between the president of Cyprus and the Turkish Cypriot leader. At the time of writing, Cyprus president Nicos Anastasiades and Mustafa Akinci are expected to discuss ways of resuming negotiations aimed at reuniting the divided island after talks failed two years ago. In 1974 Cyprus split, 165,000 Greek Cypriots fled or were expelled from the north, and 45,000 Turkish Cypriots from the south took their place. In the years since then there have been failed talks to re-unite the island of Cyprus as Greek- and Turkish-Cypriot communities stand by their right to take their old homes back, or be compensated.

Deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini has banned the Alan Kurdi, carrying forty migrants, from entering Italian waters. The boat, run by a German charity, had hoped to dock at Lampedusa. This rescue mission comes shortly after over one hundred migrants disembarked from a different boat in Sicily, but only after a new deal was reached with the EU to distribute those on board between five nations - Germany, France, Portugal, Luxembourg, and Ireland. A Sea-Eye spokesperson said migrant rescue boats had to respond immediately to situations, as soon as there is an emergency at sea, and political calculations should not play any role whatsoever. It is critical that all migrants be allowed to dock at Lampedusa to receive future treatment. In July authorities arrested the captain of another rescue ship after it docked there without prior permission.

Kevin Meagher, a former special advisor to Northern Ireland’s Labour party, has said that Boris Johnson is trying to ‘look down the barrel of the European Commission to see if there is any wiggle room for him’ as he tries to negotiate a backstop which only applies to Northern Ireland and avoids a hard border between the UK and EU. Let us pray for an answer that only God can bring about. May there be a frictionless open border agreed upon by every British, Irish and European politician.

The Arctic region’s hottest June ever has brought its worst wildfire season on record. Huge blazes in Greenland, Siberia and Alaska are producing plumes of black carbon smoke that can harm humans and other animals by entering the lungs and bloodstream. Wildfires also play a role in global warming as underlying peat catches fire emitting as much CO2 in June as Sweden emits in a year. Russia's forestry agency reported black noxious fumes covering entire cities. The fire areas in Siberia are larger than Massachusetts, as eleven of forty-nine Russian regions burn. Greenland’s blaze came as the vast ice sheet melt started a month early. Alaska stated that 400 fires have been reported. Such fires can last months. Currently blazes are only controlled when they threaten settlements. On 1 August the BBC reported that Russia is sending soldiers to fight Siberia’s 7.4 million acres of fires.

WHAT'S UP IN EUROPE? - God is doing extraordinary things through ordinary people like us. We can see that during events and camps or through everyday friendships, the Body of Christ in Europe is alive! UnitedHive is an app where you can find testimonies of what God is doing in Europe and in your region. Check it out HERE, it’s a fun way to share and read about lives being changed.