The Nigerian town of Dikwa has been recaptured from Boko Haram by the army from Chad. In contrast to the Nigerian army which is allegedly under-equipped, the Chadian troops were able to begin with an air attack and follow up with a ground assault. The fighting was intense but in the end Boko Haram were driven out, and are now being pursued to the village where they keep all the livestock they have stolen, in specially dug holes in the ground. A coalition of four nations is now fighting Boko Haram, whose main operations are in an area that borders three countries.
In the USA, President Obama came under fire for condemning the murder of the 21 Egyptian workers by ISIS but without referring to the workers as ‘Christian’, despite this being the reason why they were selected for kidnap. Obama has also given a speech in which he argues that “Islam has been woven into the fabric of our nation from the very beginning”; this is despite the first mosque in the USA not being built until 1929, with much of America’s previous involvement with Islam coming from Barbary pirates.
The Jewish Standard online newspaper has published pictures of Muslims standing outside synagogues, holding signs saying that they are there to protect the synagogues from attack. The hashtag for this campaign is#IGoToSynagogue. On Friday night, a group of Muslims in Oslo formed a “ring of peace” around a local synagogue to protect it, following the attacks in Denmark.
The Labour party have called for their MPs to vote against the banning of sex-selective abortion. Yvette Cooper, the shadow Home Secretary, has asked Labour MPs to oppose the amendment on the grounds that she believes sex-selective abortion is already illegal; because it might lead to the banning of abortion for gender-specific abnormalities; and because the amendment uses the phrase “unborn child”, which she fears might undermine other abortion legislation because “a wide range of protections are available to children.” She has asked MPs to vote instead for her own amendment which asks for a “strategic plan to promote cultural change” and to support vulnerable women. One Labour MP called Ms Cooper’s intervention “scaremongering” and said “there has been far too much intervention from the front benches on what should have been a free vote.”
The Government have passed a bill to grant married couples an extra tax allowance if one partner’s wage is below the tax threshold (in practice, this usually means one spouse doesn’t work). David Cameron said it was being done because “stable families are the bedrock of society.” The scheme is the first time marriage has been recognised by the tax system since 1999. Some have criticised it as a pre-election stunt – and it is true that will only start to apply a month before the General Election, and will be worth much less than the old marriage tax allowance was – and Labour have already promised to rescind it if they are elected. However, pro-family groups have given it a cautious welcome.
There are rumours in Pakistan that Asia Bibi, the mother who has been in jail for five years awaiting trial on a blasphemy charge, may soon be freed. Her family are making plans to escape from Pakistan.
A grandmother in Washington state, USA, who refused to make floral arrangements for a gay wedding has been found guilty of discrimination by a court. She has already lost her business and may now lose her house and life savings.
A Christian paediatrician in Michigan who refused to care for a baby girl who was adopted by a lesbian couple has been criticised by the couple. The couple had chosen him out of the available paediatricians because of his good reputation. “As far as we know, our 6 day old baby does not yet have a sexual orientation,” they said. “And we are not his patients, our baby is”. Unlike Washington state, Michigan does not have a law that criminalises refusal to serve LGBT couples.
In film news, this year’s Oscars have been awarded. The biggest shock was probably that Best Picture (and several other Oscars) went to “Birdman”, a tale of a redemption-seeking actor who once played an iconic superhero, rather than to one of several worthy real life stories. As far as films with a Christian theme go, the award for Best Original Song went to “Glory” from the film “Selma” – which is mildly ironic given the controversy over the Christian song nominated and then excluded from last year’s awards. The best foreign language film, “Ida”, also has a loosely religious theme; a young novitiate nun discovers a family link to the Holocaust and questions what she believes in. However, the biggest Christian award ‘winner’ of the weekend, on the night before the Oscars, was Kirk Cameron’s “Saving Christmas”, which ‘won’ the most Golden Raspberry awards given for the worst films of the year.
And finally, a politician in Iowa has come up with an ingenious idea to leverage some of the restrictions on renewable energy with providing aid to the poor and needy. Solar panels produce much more electricity at some times than others, and every house with solar panels will be subject to similar peaks and troughs. If the excess electricity can’t be used on site, the local utility company buys it, often for very little money (because supply is much higher than demand). Iowa already has a scheme to subsidise energy costs for poor households, which always runs out of money before the end of the winter; so when state representative Mary Mascher was enquiring about getting solar panels on her own house, she had the idea of proposing a bill to make utility companies donate the cheap electricity to households who were in arrears on their energy bills. Mascher said, “The legislation doesn’t contain too many specifics; we’ll be talking to stakeholders about that. But If I overproduce, I’d like it to go to the people I want it to.”
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