Italy’s Five Star Movement is plotting with similar groups in Poland, Croatia, and Finland to shake up the EU and end Brussels control. Luigi di Maio, leader of the anti-establishment party, is meeting with a number of emerging movements across Europe to create a ‘group of direct democracy’ to challenge the ‘current crop of elitist EU parties’. He will also call on the so-called ‘yellow vest’ movement, which has threatened to sink Emmanuel Macron’s reign as French president, to help spearhead the people’s revolution in Brussels, according to Laura Agea, Five Star’s most senior figure in the Belgian capital. She said, ‘Our goal is to be decisive for the next European Parliament. We will focus on direct democracy, the health of citizens, fighting poverty, and defending the excellence of Made in Europe.’

‘Lift up your heads, you gates; lift them up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in’ (Psalm 24:9). The Uprising is a global gathering of ordinary people daring to believe that prayer changes things, their voices matter, and that ‘God is more than able to change the course of history’. People from every nation will speak the heart of God in prayer, declaration, and worship, expecting to see Him change things in our regions and nations. It is a gathering of people who are willing to fight and make a sacrifice together, seeking the face of God to bring justice and peace among the nations. Old and young will honour each other and bring healing between generations. Pray that every delegate that is meant to be there will arrive safely and be used powerfully. For short videos, see

British charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, jailed in Iran since 2016, says that guards have cancelled her weekly phone calls with her husband and reduced her food rations just days after she announced she would start a hunger strike on 14 January in protest at being barred access to doctors for a breast cancer scare and a painful neurological condition. The food rations reduction affects the whole ward, and is described as a ‘cost-saving measure’. Fellow-prisoner and hunger striker Narges Mohammadi, one of Iran’s most prominent activists, was also not permitted to call her husband and children in France. Nazanin’s husband Richard, who fears she is not strong or well enough to survive a hunger strike, has called for an urgent meeting with the Iranian ambassador to London to discuss her case.

In December around a hundred Chinese Christians from a church in Chengdu, including the pastor and his wife, were imprisoned on allegations of ‘inciting subversion of state power’ (see). In a public letter, Pastor Wang makes clear that he does not seek to overthrow the state but to worship freely. He writes, ‘Separate me from my wife and children, ruin my reputation, destroy my life and my family - the authorities are capable of doing all of these things. However, no one in this world can force me to renounce my faith.’ Barnabas Fund is urging Christians to pray for the imprisoned pastor through their new webpage ‘Christian Prisoners of Conscience’.