News and Views - 17th April 2026 

Persecution of Christians

• Channel 4 doubts anti-Christian slaughter in Nigeria. This past Tuesday Channel 4 News aired a special report on “claims that Christians in Nigeria are being targeted in deadly attacks.” They warned that their report contained images of graphic injuries and extremely harrowing descriptions of violence – especially from one Christian community, described as a “village of widows”, where almost every woman had lost her husband – accounts almost unbearable to hear. Yet the report - with no supporting evidence; rather, despite the overwhelming evidence facing them - questioned whether the horrendous violence against Christians was truly about religious persecution, suggesting it was really about “something more complex” – noting that ongoing murderous attacks by Fulani Islamic militiamen, which continue unabated, slaughtering thousands in indescribable acts, was in part simply a feud “driven by land and resources” - implying Christians were equally to blame.
• The truth of Islamist slaughter of Nigerian Christians. In fact, currently, more Christians are being systematically murdered in Nigeria than in all other countries of concern combined. In 2025, over 7,000 Nigerian Christians were murdered by Islamic militants, not just Fulani 'herdsmen' as Channel 4 stated, but also Boko Haram, Islamic State, JNIM (an Al-Qaeda affiliate), Lakurawa (an Islamic State–affiliated group), and Koyam militias. In the first 7 months of 2025 alone, 7,800 Christians were kidnapped in Nigeria, approximately 35 per day. Violence in 2026 is already outpacing previous years. Attacks continue on an almost daily basis across the North, East, and Middle Belt regions – with scores killed over the recent Easter period alone. With most of these stories never reported in mainstream media, it is shocking and utterly indefensible that Channel 4, The BBC, The Washington Post, and numerous other media outlets can continue their false narrative.

North Sea Oil

• Dozens of North Sea oil and gas fields blocked by Net Zero. A new survey has revealed that dozens of North Sea oil and gas fields are being blocked from development by Labour’s Net Zero policies, with 51 known new fields and 60 extensions to existing fields in British waters rendered “unviable” by Government policy. Analysis has already found that North Sea natural gas saved Britain billions last year and savings will be even higher this year amid sky-high prices. An analysis in The Daily Sceptic shows how seven of the most commonly-used arguments against drilling are all flawed. (Read also the responses to these 6 arguments often quoted by the Green Party and Labour MPs.) The Conservatives, Reform, the SNP, along with the Heads of Octopus Energy, British Gas and even RenewablesUK, are among the many supporters saying that maximising the North Sea’s output would generate tax revenues, preserve jobs and result in lower carbon emissions than oil and gas from abroad. Read also here.
• Miliband’s war of attrition against the British public. However, Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, has consistently pushed back against the calls - which some call a war of attrition against the British public – with the energy crisis sparked by the Iran war not appearing to have changed his mind, nor even the IMF’s latest forecasts suggesting that Britain will see the sharpest slowdown in growth in the G7 as a result of the Iran war and the unfolding global energy shock, coupled with the highest inflation. The majority, clearly, is in agreement with Trump in saying that Britain is ‘crazy’ not to exploit North Sea oil – especially given it has just allowed a major Falklands oil field to go ahead. Read also 'The suicidal madness of refusing to drill for North Sea gas and oil'.

Fuel Protests

• Farmers, hauliers and small contractors bring parts of Ireland to a standstill. The Irish republic was brought close to a halt by working people last weekend, as truckers, farmers and others whose lives depend on access to fuel hit the roads to protest against soaring petrol and diesel prices – significantly higher than in the UK – and with over a third of Ireland’s fuel stations reported to be empty. Thousands of working-class people – neither farmers, nor truckers – also flooded Dublin’s streets to offer solidarity to their compatriots. The truckers organised themselves, not through trade unions, but via online forums and WhatsApp groups.
• The Establishment’s crackdown on the workers. The reaction of the Irish establishment was strong and determined, similar to that displayed by Canada when it invoked the wartime Emergencies Act against truckers who agitated against Covid-19 vaccine mandates some years ago. In Ireland, riot police were sent to break up the blockades in Galway and Cork, while the army was put on standby, displaying a visceral contempt for the protesters. Yet the government was forced to make concessions, the cabinet meeting on a Sunday (unheard of) and announcing a €505 million package to support those ‘most impacted’ by fuel-price rises. 
• TV media fails to report. The culture minister said he is ordering a review into Irish media output, who, he insisted, were not including protesters who were against the blockades; The Spectator calling this "an outrageous, sinister attack by the government on the media." Outwith Ireland, mainstream media, disturbingly, has given little coverage to these significant events. What began as a fuel protest has since escalated into an attempt to remove the present government, with an opinion poll confirming that a majority of the public supported the protesters. A vote of no confidence in the Irish parliament was defeated, but the protests have not stopped. 

Donald Trump

• Evangelicals blast Trump’s ‘blasphemous’ post. A growing number of Republican Christians in America are denouncing their former hero Donald Trump after he posted an AI-generated image of himself seemingly as Jesus Christ, laying his healing hand on a hospitalised patient (since deleted). Trump, as ever, failed to apologise for the portrayal, claiming, implausibly, that he was portraying himself as a doctor working with the Red Cross. But many evangelicals are calling the act ‘blasphemous’ – and not for the first time. After attending the funeral of Pope Francis last year, a picture of Trump in white papal regalia appeared on his Truth Social account, though he later insisted he had ‘nothing to do with it’. And during one of his fraud trials in 2023, Trump reposted a fake court drawing of himself sitting in the dock next to our Lord and Saviour.
• Trump the opposite of Christ-like. Trump’s spiritual advisor, Paula White-Cain has continued the Trump-Jesus theme in stating; ‘Mr President, you were betrayed and arrested and falsely accused,’ while US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth compared the media to Jewish adversaries of Jesus plotting "how to destroy him". Erratic rants such as the President’s expletive-ridden Easter Sunday message didn't help, nor his blasé warning two days later that ‘a whole civilisation will die tonight, never to be brought back.’ While many say it shows Trump is simply human and therefore fallible, others are claiming it proves he has always been a narcissist, while some are going as far as saying he has become the opposite of Christ-like – that he’s virtually become an anti-Christian force. Some Trump supporters have defended Trump, however - Franklin Graham saying he did not believe the president intended to portray himself as Jesus.
• Meanwhile, the President’s recent criticisms of the Pope – himself an American - have caused great offence to many Catholics, not least the 53 million living in the United States, many of them heretofore Trump supporters. “Not even Hitler or Mussolini attacked the pope so directly and publicly,” said one Italian historian and expert on the Vatican.

Israel

• Israeli settlers vowing to take over Gaza. A once fairly small movement of ‘religious settler Zionists’ has grown in recent years to the point that it is now said to be sweeping Israeli society, dedicated to the creation of a greater Israel, which will encompass not just Gaza and the West Bank, but the Golan Heights and parts of southern Lebanon too. Fuelled by a political system that has given the finance minister and the national security minister untold power and influence, an incredible 20% of the Jewish population of Israel is said to identify with the movement and support its settlement ambitions. “As handy with guns as they are with the Torah”, their men are now said to dominate large parts of the Israeli army.  “We have to teach the Gazans that they have lost. How do you do that? You must take this land from them,” said one local leader of the movement.  “We just want to make Gaza Jewish again” said another. Gazans “do not deserve Hamas but nor can we live together.” Read also.

New World Order

• Billionaire prophet who says the Antichrist is among us. Peter Thiel, a co-founder of PayPal and a major former Republican donor, has an estimated net worth of $30 billion. Raised an evangelical, he attends a conservative Protestant church and describes his faith as "pretty fairly orthodox" Christian. Since 2023, Thiel has been touring the globe delivering a four-lecture series to highly selective audiences, warning of the looming threat of the Antichrist, which he insists will take the form of an oppressive world government – perhaps brought about through societal fears about other forms of Armageddon, such as environmental collapse, nuclear war or AI-related catastrophe.
• Thiel brings Antichrist lectures to Vatican's doorstep. Thiel denounces environmental activists, international agencies, Bill Gates and anyone working to impede the progress of technology. In one talk he described the Antichrist as an “evil king or tyrant or anti-messiah who appears in the end times”. Thiel, in turn, is roundly scorned and ridiculed by the liberal media. His recent series of sell-out talks in Rome were roundly condemned by the Vatican, a prominent advisor to the Pope publishing an essay entitled: ‘American heresy: should Peter Thiel be burned at the stake?’ It is unclear what Thiel’s long-term plan for the lectures is; whether he will ever publish them or make them publicly available, or if he will continue to tour them in semi-secrecy.

Freedom of Speech

• Fired for sharing Christian views after being asked. A storm has arisen in Kentucky, USA about faith, free speech, and what is acceptable in the workplace. Paige Rogers, a student working at a coffee shop, claims she was fired for answering questions about her Christian beliefs. Co-workers began asking her about her views on marriage, sexuality and faith. She responded honestly and respectfully, but only after being prompted. Less than two weeks later, she was fired by a text message, for expressing religious beliefs that co-workers found offensive. Some claim that the facts are far more nuanced, that Rogers shared her Christian testimony without being asked, and that she was sacked for multiple reasons. Nevertheless, a legal complaint has been filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, arguing that she was wrongfully terminated for her faith.