UK Home Secretary pledges to improve response to antisemitism
Priti Patel, the UK’s new home secretary, has pledged support for Jewish communities as UK anti-Semitism hits a six-month high. She has committed to, ‘work closely with the Jewish community’ after Community Security Trust (CST), which monitors anti-Semitism in the UK, published its half-yearly report showing a 10% rise in reported anti-Jewish incidents. That adds up to 892 incidents between January and June with abusive behaviour - including verbal abuse, anti-Semitic graffiti, anti-Semitic abuse via social media and hate mail accounting for 710 of the total number. Social media accounted for 36% of incidents; indicating the internet is a convenient channel to harass, abuse and threaten Jewish individuals and institutions’.She said that anti-semitism has no place in our society and the Hate Crime Action Plan will improve response to all forms of hate crime. ‘We work closely with the Jewish community, and this year increased funding to the Community Security Trust for protective security to £14 million.’
Salvation Army and TV soap
The Salvation Army assisted the writers of ITV's Coronation Street in making the story of Alina, a victim of modern slavery, realistic and sensitive. The storyline aims to help the British public spot the signs of a potential victim while it highlights the practice of human trafficking in the UK. The Salvation Army has held the UK government contract to support adult victims of modern slavery in England and Wales since 2011. As experts in the field of human exploitation, it has helped the show to display accurately how victims might find themselves in these situations and the realities facing them. The Salvation Army said that Coronation Street is very good at taking up issues that people are living through. This is one of those issues that is relevant and happening in our society.
Missionaries in London
London City Mission said they love London and are privileged to be working among the rich mixture of ages, cultures and languages sharing the good news of Jesus and the love of God with Londoners. The realities and needs of London are - 34% of people are born outside the UK. 112 homeless people died in 2017. 51% of children live in households below 'Minimum Income Standard’. Across the UK most church outreach events are based around friendship evangelism, so if people have Christian friends they are more likely to have opportunities to hear the gospel than those without Christian friends. People recently arrived in the UK from a country that is closed to the gospel or those with few educational qualifications are much less likely ever to set foot inside a church or even the home of a believer.
Cannabis farm, human trafficking, Tesco delivery vans
More than 15,000 cannabis plants with a street value of £4million were found at an industrial unit in North Lincolnshire. The operation was so big that four former Tesco home delivery vans were used to distribute drugs to cannabis dealers across Scunthorpe, Grimsby, Doncaster and large parts of Lincolnshire and from the factory in Scunthorpe. Five Vietnamese men, who are the suspected growers, were found inside. It is believed they were illegally trafficked to look after the farm. Three of the men were caught. Another two fled the scene and are being hunted by police. The estate where the farm was found was being used by a mixture of major distribution and manufacturing companies and small car repair and business units.
