Roughly half of the world’s known languages are still without God’s Word. Bible Translation Acceleration Kits, or BTAKs, are helping believers in hard-to-reach areas translate God’s Word. Wycliffe’s CEO says, ‘We receive great expressions of thanksgiving from those who are making use of them. One of the pastors we trained in Zambia taught three other language groups how to do Bible translation. Those groups completed their New Testaments and have already started working on OT translations.’ Most translators live in isolated regions with no Internet. BTAK has built-in internet connection and provides access to all the Bible translation software a language group needs.

Over 60% of Africa’s population is under the age of 25; over half of them are under 16. Christ for all Nations (CfaN) is committed to reaching the children and youth of Africa. In the last few decades, CfaN has built a very strong follow-up system with local churches. During the last 18 months their Bootcamp and CfaN team members have conducted an astonishing number of children’s campaigns. They have now produced a special booklet just for children, with the same powerful Gospel message in language that they can understand, read and reread, building the same first steps in faith that adults do. The What’s Next? booklet is already in English, Xhosa, Zulu, Congolese French, German, Afrikaans, Haitian Creole and Kirundi. CFaN is moving as fast as possible to translate it into the local language in each place where there will be an evangelistic campaign in 2022. They plan to reach a million children.

A British trawler was seized by France and another fined, in fishing rights arguments. The French checks on UK trawlers overnight are not part of the range of retaliatory actions announced in the post-Brexit row. But there is no doubt it is a message of what is to come. From 2 November British and Channel Islands fishing boats will not be allowed to offload fish at French ports. There will be intensified controls at Calais and other entry points for UK trade by ferry and tunnel. The French authorities will conduct a ‘grève de zèle’ (punctiliously looking for violations) on fish and other imports which will create long tail-backs to remind British subjects of the costs of go-it-alone. The UK government said the threat of sanctions was ‘not what we would expect from a close ally and partner’. The boat owner said his fishing activity for scallops was ‘entirely legal’.

France is threatening to block any UK-EU deal over the Northern Ireland Protocol unless the row over post-Brexit fishing licences is resolved in Paris’s favour. With presidential elections next year, he cannot afford to sell out his fishermen, as many hail from a stronghold of his rival Marine Le Pen. Macron has trodden this path before. In 2019, he blocked extending Brexit negotiations, risking a no deal to Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement. In 2020 he threatened to veto any Brexit trade deal that did not satisfy French fishermen, ratcheting up pressure on London. Judging by the negative reactions of the British fishing industry to the trade deal, the tactic worked. Now he is threatening extremely delicate negotiations over the NI Protocol. There is a greater risk now of the UK triggering Article 16 of the protocol than any time before. France also threatened to block the UK from joining the EU’s research programme. See