Meanwhile, a study published in the journal “Science” in December 2014, which alleged that homosexual activists can change the minds of those who oppose redefining marriage in a twenty-minute conversation, has been retracted as fraudulent. It turned out that the data had multiple statistical irregularities, and the three organisations who were credited with funding the study have denied doing so.
Recent persecution of Christians in China has taken a new turn, with Christians becoming bolder about speaking up for their rights. In Zhejiang province, much of the persecution has focussed on authorities insisting crosses are removed from church buildings, and sometimes carrying out the work themselves (often at night, which is illegal) and severely damaging the church buildings. The order applies equally to the government-linked Three Self Patriotic Church and to other denominations. However, churches have started re-installing the crosses after the authorities leave; one church has had its cross removed three times this month. Also, in the remote Xinjiang province, two Christians who were arrested and held for a week because they were singing Christian songs in a private house have sued the local Public Security Bureau for wrongful arrest.
In Ethiopia, a Christian man reported a sequence of severe persecution to a local Christian ministry representative. Aman Kuni was arrested in a church on April 25th, about 100 miles south of Addis Ababa, by 15 police officers who surrounded the church. He and his friends were charged with “holding illegal meetings in secret locations”, although their real offence appears to have been to hold a baptism service at which ex-Muslims professed faith in Christ. They were released on bail after two weeks in a hugely overcrowded jail and two court appearances – but five days later, Kuni was forced to kneel with a pistol pressed between his teeth, and told that either he had to kill two pastor friends within 3 months, or his children would die. Kuni’s wife and children have already been taken away by his wife’s Muslim family. Kuni, who is still in Ethiopia waiting to see if the charges against him will be dropped (the judge promised to do so if his accusers could not produce any evidence), said, “For the past five and a half years, I was struggling to care for these three kids. Now, I am just praying for God to provide them a safe place.”
In Ukraine, the conflict in the east of the country is heating up after Russian soldiers, who the Kremlin have long denied are fighting in the country, were captured by Ukrainian forces and shown on TV. The Kremlin claimed that the two captured soldiers had previously retired from the armed forces, but few people believe that; and there is growing resentment within Russia itself from the families of soldiers who have gone “missing in action” or whose bodies have been returned for burial after “training accidents”.
The US State Department is being heavily criticised for denying visas to Assyrian Christians from Iraq, because it will not accept them as refugees on the basis of their faith, even though there is clear evidence of ISIS specifically attempting to wipe out Christians. This is despite all costs having been paid for through donations. In contrast, over 4,000 Somalis have been accepted into the US this year, supported by Government funding.
In sports news, there has been criticism of the government of Qatar, and of the international footballing federation FIFA, for refusing Nepalis working on the construction of stadia for the 2022 World Cup permission to fly home after the devastating earthquake in their country. This criticism has come from the Nepali government, but others are also criticising the event: the International TUC has criticised the high death rate amongst migrant workers (around 40 per month), and the BBC have criticised the arrest of one of their cameramen who recently tried to film the conditions that the workers have to endure.
In technology news, a new Android app has been released in South Korea called FakeTalk, that is designed to allow phone users to hold text conversations with celebrities or dead people. It uses artificial intelligence (a mixture of language generation and selecting from ready-made responses) to mimic the language and texting style of a particular person. Clearly users know they are talking to a program, but the goal is to help depressed teens (South Korea has one of the highest teen suicide rates in the world). One woman customised the app so that it resembled her deceased boyfriend; "at first, the app was a little clueless,” she said, “but now, it texts like him with the same syntax and idiosyncrasies. Now I text what I didn’t tell him then, and what I wanted to tell him when he was alive.”
And finally, the head of a software gaming company in Fuzhou, China, has had a new company headquarters built – in the shape of the Starship Enterprise. Liu DeJian, the head of NetDragon Websoft, studied in America for a few years, and became obsessed by Star Trek. He even obtained permission from the CBS broadcasting network to build the ₤100 million replica, which features automatic sliding doors and 30ft metal slides to allow quick access from the third floor to ground level.
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