The Government intends to ban smoking in all prisons in England and Wales to reduce health risks. It is currently allowed in prison cells and exercise yards. The move follows a series of legal challenges by prison officers and inmates who have complained about passive smoking. Ministers are drawing up plans to convert the first jails to be smoke-free next year. Prison Governors’ Association president Andrea Albutt cautiously welcomed the move but said it must be done in a safe and staged way as 80% of prisoners smoked. An ex-prisoner said, ‘There is a black market in any banned goods. Tobacco will be a currency. Tobacco is a way of dealing with stress. If you take away tobacco it’ll become a war of attrition within the prison system and there will be violence. They tried it in Australia recently and there was an immediate riot.’
Sixteen potential human trafficking victims were rescued in south Armagh. Officers searched premises in Newtownhamilton last Friday and spent a number of days working with colleagues in partner agencies to identify the individuals who may have been trafficked. The operation focused on eastern Europeans working in the agricultural sector. Detectives from the PSNI Human Trafficking Unit are working with colleagues in HM Revenue and Customs, the Gangmasters’ Licensing Authority, the Health and Safety Executive and local police. The potential victims, men and women aged between 18 and 45, are being cared for by Migrant Help and Women's Aid as part of the Department of Justice's human trafficking support network. They will be assessed for referral to the UK Human Trafficking Centre, which is run by the National Crime Agency. In a separate investigation, in Belfast, five potential victims of trafficking were identified and are being looked after by police and partner agencies.
Government to crush home-grown extremism
29 Jul 2015
David Cameron has set out the Government's strategy to defeat the ‘poison’ of Islamist extremism in the UK. He pledged to tackle conditions that lead to hundreds of Britons joining IS militants. Mr Cameron said the four areas needing attention are: countering warped extremist ideology, the process of radicalisation, the drowning out of moderate Muslim voices, and addressing the ‘identity crisis’ among young British-born Muslims. The BBC assistant political editor noted, ‘Tackling the ideology of IS in the UK involves confronting people over intolerance, prejudice and hostility to British values, and Mr Cameron’s speech offered relatively few specific policies’. The Muslim Council of Britain urged the Prime Minister to ‘put his words into action’ and engage with ‘all sections of the community including mainstream Muslim organisations and those who have differing views’. See also article below.
Wheelchair services 'are failing'
29 Jul 2015
One of Great Britain's Paralympians has said that wheelchair services across England are failing on every level. There are 1.2 million wheelchair users across the UK. Some wait years for the right wheelchair (an ill-fitting chair causes hip dislocations and pressure sores, and may worsen disabilities). There are stories of people with life-limiting conditions, such as Motor Neurone Disease, dying before they get their wheelchair. Krystyn Jarvis, of the National Wheelchair Managers' Forum, said wheelchair services were not seen as an important part of the NHS. ‘We have been asking for change for 20+ years. We know the situation isn’t acceptable.’ NHS England agreed the whole system needed change. Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson has launched a national charter to improve wheelchair services across Britain. Pray that services, clinical commissioning groups and NHS trusts will sign up to it.
Ministry of Defence
29 Jul 2015
In recent years, defence has fallen low on the list of national priorities. While other government departments have ring-fenced budgets, that of the MoD is completely unprotected. On Monday Lord Richards, a former chief of the Armed Forces, said, ‘Britain must accept that sooner or later ground troops and tanks will have to be sent into combat to overcome IS.’ He said that David Cameron needed to put the country on a ‘war footing’ and rethink its military strategy to extinguish the threat posed by Islamic State militants. See also: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/general-election-2015/politics-blog/11722780/By-not-spending-enough-on-defence-Britain-puts-the-West-at-risk.html
World Special Olympics begin
29 Jul 2015
On 25 July, the World Summer Games in Los Angeles kick off with 6,500 Special Olympians competing. Across the world people working with adults with special needs recognise the power of sport to inspire hope, build confidence and courage and change the lives of athletes with intellectual disabilities. On 19 June Pope Francis held an audience for Italy's 150 Special Olympics athletes who are travelling to Los Angeles to compete. Pope Francis reflected, ‘It is beautiful and meaningful that young people and adults of every ability find in sport and participation in competitions, including at an international level, an incentive to live their life fully.’ Chancellor Angela Merkel met with the German Special Olympics athletes and coaches at the Federal Chancellery before they left for Los Angeles and wished them good luck for their participation. Special Olympics Great Britain is sending 115 athletes to the games.
Yemen: First UN aid ship in four months in Aden
29 Jul 2015
Last week Prayer-Alert readers prayed for an end to the situation where Yemen was being blockaded by a Saudi-led military coalition that was preventing 21 million Yemenis receiving urgent humanitarian assistance in a deteriorating war situation. This week local fighters and army units took control of the last district of Aden still held by the Iran-allied Houthi militia and its allies. Assisted by Saudi-led air strikes, the local forces have now broken months of stalemate in Aden by seizing the airport and advancing into parts of the port city held by Houthis and forces loyal to the ex-president. On 21 July the first UN aid ship in four months docked in Yemen's devastated city of Aden, bringing desperately needed relief supplies. See also: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/20/us-yemen-security-idUSKCN0PU0M220150720
Christian leaders, including an 89-year-old bishop, took to the streets of eastern China protesting against an ‘evil’ campaign to remove crosses. They see it as a coordinated Communist party attack on their faith. Activists say more than 1,200 crosses have been stripped from churches in Zhejiang province since the government initiative began in late 2013. There has been a spike in such actions in recent weeks. Last Friday twenty Catholic clergy staged a rare public demonstration in Wenzhou (a city known as ‘the Jerusalem of the East’). A banner unfurled outside government offices by the group read, ‘Maintaining religious dignity and opposing the forced removal of crosses’. Chinese police monitored the two-hour protest but did not break it up. Authorities say they are attacking illegal building practices not religion. Meanwhile Christian Today reports, ‘Occult beliefs are on the rise among China's communist leaders.’ See: http://www.christiantoday.com/article/occult.beliefs.on.the.rise.among.chinas.communist.leaders/60412.htm