Abdullah al-Howaiti was 14 years old when he was arrested in 2017 on charges of murder and armed robbery. The Supreme Court had overturned his original conviction last year. He was first sentenced to death in 2019, after he was convicted by a court in Tabuk province of shooting dead a policeman while robbing a jewellery shop. Five other defendants were handed 15-year prison terms for allegedly aiding and abetting the crimes. All six had pleaded not guilty, telling the judge that interrogators coerced their ‘confessions’ through torture or the threat of it. The judge also ignored CCTV footage showing that Howaiti was not near the jewellers’ shop at the time of the crime. The court of appeal in Tabuk upheld the conviction in January 2021, but the Supreme Court threw it out in November and ordered a retrial.
USA: Biden’s State of the Union speech
03 Mar 2022
Joe Biden's first formal State of the Union speech came as only 40.6% of Americans are happy with his job performance. After describing his foreign policies on the invasion of Ukraine, Mr Biden confronted a host of domestic troubles dogging his presidency, from the enduring pandemic to soaring consumer prices, a wave of violent crime, and inflation hitting a 40-year high even though the jobless rate has sunk to 4%. The president sought to empathise with hard-pressed working families, saying ‘I get it.’ He promised a plan for ‘building a better America’ by boosting domestic production of cars and semiconductors, as well as rebuilding the nation’s roads and bridges. Republican response to the speech portrayed a presidency reflecting the late '70s ‘when runaway inflation hammered families, a violent crime wave crushed cities, and the Soviet army was trying to redraw the world map’.
‘We’ve seen the Holy Spirit working’
24 Feb 2022
The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) reported some truly stunning numbers surrounding its international mission’s efforts, noting impressive increases in baptisms and sharing the Gospel throughout 2020. ‘We’ve seen the Holy Spirit working across the globe in mighty ways,’ said Wilson Geisler of its International Mission Board. There was a 62% increase in new believers between 2019 and 2020, rising from 89,000 to over 144,000. During the same period, baptisms swelled 81% - from 47,929 to 86,587. That is not all: 769,494 people heard the Gospel in 2020, up from 535,325 in 2019, with 18,380 churches planted across the globe in 2020. Most evangelism increases took place in South Asia, where 89% of the baptisms unfolded, and 97% of new churches were planted. These statistics are particularly fascinating amid the backdrop of a pandemic that left many domestic and global churches shuttered, restricted, or otherwise quieted.
A miraculous healing
24 Feb 2022
June Perez slipped and fell hard on his right shoulder. After months of excruciating pain he was found to have a torn rotator cuff, and a nurse advised surgery,. June stubbornly refused even though the throbbing would not go away. ‘I’ve never suffered such agonising pain before in my life, like something or someone pulling continuously on a muscle and stretching without relief’, he said. Then while he was watching Christian TV the host announced prophetically that someone had a torn rotator cuff and that God was going to heal it. ‘As soon as she said, “God is healing you”, I felt heat hit my shoulder, I couldn’t help but cry, tears were coming out of my eyes. I didn’t feel the pain any more.’ Suddenly he could raise his arm, comb his hair, pull on T-shirts. He was instantly, miraculously healed by Jesus.
UK’s Ukrainian Christians
24 Feb 2022
Peterborough’s St Olga Church is a Ukrainian church. Members of the community have been collecting supplies to be sent to help anyone displaced by fighting in Ukraine. They are also gathering basic supplies like first aid boxes and toiletries for Ukraine's army. Irina Pitka left Ukraine 23 years ago. She said, ‘What is going through my head is fear and anger over this evil occupation. We trust the Ukrainian army and the west which is now showing tremendous support.’ Oleksii Burov worships at St Olga and studies at the University of East Anglia. His father, a surgeon, and his mother (an economist ) live in Kyiv. He said, ‘We've been living in a state of war for eight years.’ Since 2014 London’s Newman Catholic College has been helping refugee children to succeed by running summer camps, weekend classes and liaising with subject teachers and pastoral staff for many students scarred by a traumatic journey. See
A British prayer for Ukraine from Psalm 82
24 Feb 2022
You are a God of justice,
the one who rules in righteousness.
You sweep away oppression,
by a high and mighty politician.
Lord, remove abuse of power,
let the cunning plan turn sour.
May Your angel armies win the day
as your people faithfully watch and pray.
Ways the UK could shake Putin
24 Feb 2022
For Global Britain to be credible it is time for its architect, Boris Johnson, to intervene with retribution tactics not deterrence. Closing Russia’s embassy and removing their diplomats while removing ours from Moscow would indicate a fundamental shift in the understanding of Russia as not a partner in diplomacy, but a threat to other nations. Russian state outlets in the UK, like Russia Today, spouting propaganda masquerading as journalism, should be shut down immediately to prevent misinformation. Those operating in politics, law, and media while representing Russian state interests should be forced to declare who is paying their bills. Visas should be cancelled and assets of everyone linked to Putin’s regime frozen. Of all the economic sanctions, cutting Putin’s regime off from SWIFT international payment system would remove Russia’s ability to make international transactions, trigger capital outflows and currency instability, and hit buyers of Russian oil and gas.
PM: Russian attack is catastrophe
24 Feb 2022
Russia's invasion of Ukraine is a ‘catastrophe for our continent’, said Boris Johnson. He chaired an emergency Cobra meeting on 24 February and gave a televised statement after Russian forces launched an assault on Ukraine, crossing its borders and bombing military targets near big cities. He outlined new sanctions against Russia in the Commons and said on Twitter that he would also speak to his fellow G7 leaders. He called for an urgent meeting of all NATO leaders as soon as possible. In a phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, Mr Johnson vowed the West ‘would not stand by as Putin waged his campaign against the Ukrainian people’ and tweeted earlier, ‘Putin has chosen a path of bloodshed and destruction by launching this unprovoked attack on Ukraine.’ Foreign secretary Liz Truss has demanded that the Russian ambassador explain Russia's ‘illegal, unprovoked invasion of Ukraine’.