Wonga, the pay day lender infamous for its high interest
rates, has agreed to write off ₤220million worth of debts, following
discussions with the Financial Conduct Authority. The Government regulator insisted
that Wonga changed its lending practices, and Wonga has agreed to cancel the
debts of those who would not have received loans under the new criteria. It has
also offered interest-free loans to anyone with a current loan who pays it back
within 30 days of taking it out.
Another major raid has taken place on a sex trafficking
gang, this time in Long Beach, California. After an 8 month investigation, a
raid saw 22 girls aged 12-17 released and 91 people arrested. Many of the girls
had been in foster care. A police spokesman said gangs were getting into sex
trafficking because it was more profitable than drugs as a woman could be sold
multiple times. Of those arrested, roughly half were booked for human
trafficking, pimping, or crimes relating to online trafficking; the rest were
arrested for soliciting for prostitution or assisting a prostitute.
The religious and humanitarian crisis in Iraq, which has
been replaced in the headlines recently by military news, is still critical. Canon
Andrew White in Baghdad said at one point that ISIS were “at the gates” of
Baghdad and that the Iraqi Christian community had shrunk by 80%. The air
strikes apparently helped the Iraqi army push ISIS back northwards; however,
White reports that “every single” Christian from the north of Iraq now wants to
leave the country. Meanwhile, Iraqi TV has started a campaign to prevent people
from joining ISIS by mocking them directly in a parody TV programme.
Martha Collison, former contestant in the Great British Bake
Off, is to judge a baking competition at Life Church (Central Baptist Church),
Southampton on 10 October. The event will also be used to promote the church’s
forthcoming Alpha course.
The owner of a banqueting hall in Pennsylvania who was sued
for refusing a same-sex wedding has won his case. However, the case was
somewhat different to recent cases in both the USA and the UK concerning Christian
bakeries refusing to make cakes to support gay marriage; while the bakeries
were taken to court by state agencies, the banqueting hall was sued by a
(heterosexual) bride-to-be who had booked the hall for her wedding reception
but wanted to pull out, and to get back her non-refundable deposit (and three
times the amount in damages!), when she learned of the earlier refusal of a
lesbian wedding. The judge told the bride-to-be that she had no case.
The latest Christian film to be released in the USA is a
remake of the book “Left Behind;” this version stars Nicholas Cage. The story
covers the story of the Rapture, following the most dramatic interpretation of
the Bible’s predictions of the end of the world (specifically “we who are alive
shall be caught up … in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” – 1 Thessalonians
4.17). Oddly, the film-makers have prioritised foreign releases of the film in
Russia and the Ukraine, but no UK release date is currently known.
Second in my series of Facebook tips is a way to stop
Facebook targeting adverts at you … some people may like their adverts targeted
to them, but not everyone does. A key tool Facebook uses is to keep track of
everything (sic!) that you have searched for on Facebook. To clear your search
history, click on the downward arrowhead just to the right of the globe in the
task bar; then click “Activity Log”; then go to the left of the screen, and
under “Photos, Likes, Comments” click ‘More’; then click ‘Search’ at the bottom
of the list. To clear your search history, click on ‘Clear Searches’ at the top
of this page.
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