Prime minister Serzh Sargsyan was forced to step down after weeks of mass demonstrations. Many hoped he would be replaced by a more honest and honourable man, Nikol Pashinyan. On 2 May 96% of Armenia’s capital, Yerevan, came to a standstill as thousands blocked roads when parliament refused to elect Mr Pashinyan as the new prime minister. They blocked roads to the airport, and roads to government buildings. Protests are expected to continue; even government employees have joined the protest movement called the ‘velvet revolution’.

In Ontario Paul is in the civic centre and his wife is on a dialysis machine in a small motel room. They have been separated from their First Nations community since sewers froze two months ago. He said, ‘We’re forgotten people.’ Anti-indigenous racism is still widespread in Canada. Last month Ontario’s chief human rights commissioner said racism against indigenous people in Timmins is pervasive and normalised. People are scrutinised in stores, hassled when using status cards, called ‘dirty Indians’ and yelled at by motorists to go back to their reserves. If their name sounds First Nations or they look like one, it impacts their ability to get housing. In British Columbia First Nations officials have spoken out for years against a trans-mountain pipeline that will cross their territory without their even being consulted. On 16 April President Trudeau said work will go ahead, regardless of their objections. See:

Many lives are being lost in car crimes and road accidents. Road deaths are a national crisis, with 134,000+ killed over 10 years. Vehicle crime hotspots are Johannesburg, Tshwane, Cape Town, and Durban. Cars are hijacked to commit another crime, or exported into neighbouring countries. In spite of 18,900+ police deployed countrywide over Easter to keep road users safe and a road safety campaign, 510 people died between 29 March and 9 April. A motoring magazine reported: ‘South Africans have bad attitudes towards safe road use; education and enforcement will not stop them playing by their own rules. Without a change of attitude among road users and respect for the law, efforts to decrease fatalities and crashes by a noticeable margin will fall flat.’ See

In India, a dust storm affecting three districts in Rajasthan state and Uttar Pradesh has killed 111 and injured hundreds more, with numbers still rising and more storms forecast. Electricity is disrupted, hundreds of trees uprooted, hundreds of houses damaged or destroyed, and livestock killed. Many of the dead were sleeping when their houses collapsed after being struck by intense bursts of lightning. Dust storms are common in this part of India during summer, but loss of life on this scale is rare. Pray for hospitals and emergency services without electricity. In Kenya, over 100 people died and 200,000+ have been displaced by four weeks of floods, landslides and heavy rains. The Red Cross described it as a humanitarian disaster. Severe weather hit central USA on 2 and 3 May, with unusually violent thunderstorms, tornadoes and tennis-ball-sized hailstones taking down trees and power lines. See