News and Views 22nd April 2026

War in Sudan

• The humanitarian crisis in Sudan - a spiralling human catastrophe. After three years of bloody war in Sudan, figures reveal that not only is it by far the deadliest and most destructive conflict in the world, but it is getting worse. It has been marked by massacres visible from space, forced displacement, famine and attacks on healthcare - yet the world’s media far prefers to focus on the conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza, and Iran – presumably because the Sudan war is largely confined to Islam and the media hates blaming that religion. Aid groups, put the death toll in the hundreds of thousands – with the former US envoy to Sudan saying 6 months ago that he believed it had already passed 400,000, a figure compiled before the massacre of tens of thousands in El Fasher late last year – violence which a UN fact-finding mission concluded bore the “hallmarks of genocide”.
• Famine, sexual violence and mass exodus. Alongside aerial warfare, widespread allegations of sexual violence against women and children have defined the conflict - sexual violence being found to be “part of everyday life” in large areas of Sudan. An estimated 62% of the population, around 29 million people, are now acutely ​food insecure – many being close to death. A further 20 areas are at imminent risk of tipping into famine before the peak of the lean season in June. At least 130 aid workers have been killed in Sudan since 2023. More than 4.3 million people have fled across Sudan’s borders in the last three years – many crossing into increasingly fragile neighbouring states that are unable to support them. Refugees from Sudan are also coming to Britain in greater numbers - since April 2023, there have been 10,651 visa applications, with a peak in the third quarter of 2025.
• Conflict shaped by external powers. In 2025 alone, at least 1,620 people were killed in attacks on Sudanese hospitals. Infectious diseases are spreading unchecked, with simultaneous outbreaks of malaria, dengue, measles, polio, hepatitis E and diphtheria. Cholera killed over 3,300 Sudanese last year alone. Attempts to end the fighting at the negotiating table have ended in failure, partly because the conflict is increasingly being shaped by external powers – notably The United Arab Emirates and Ethiopia on the one side, and Russia, Egypt, Turkey and China on the other. Britain has been criticised for failing to do enough to end the entirely man-made crisis

Broken Society

• A Green Party council candidate in Bournemouth has claimed, without context or evidence, that “the Zionists killed 20 million Christians” and are “trying to control the world.”
• An RAF cadet has been suspended after he said Islam poses the greatest security threat to the UK while taking part in a training exercise. Read also here and here.
• Reform students across Britain are increasingly being subjected to bullying and harassment – and even death threats, in a vicious campaign ironically organised by BeKind undergraduates.
• Anger has erupted in Italy after a Nigerian immigrant was caught cooking a freshly-killed cat on a makeshift barbecue next to a children’s playground in a public park.
• A Morrisons store manager was sacked after 29 years’ service for tackling a prolific shoplifter who was also abusive and aggressive, and spat at him.
• Britain’s top private schools in the Middle East are teaching pupils to beat their “rebellious” wives as part of “remediation”.
• A 13-month-old baby was routinely physically and sexually abused by his proposed adoptive gay parents before being murdered by one of them less than four months after being adopted.
• NHS Doctors and nurses in Lancashire have been ordered not to say ‘the early bird catches the worm’ and ‘it’s raining cats and dogs’, to avoid offending foreign patients.

The Prophetic Movement

• Bill Johnson says fake prophecies were ‘worth it’. Following the scandal involving false prophet Shawn Bolz and Bethel Church in Redding, California, senior pastor of Bethel, Bill Johnson, has urged his congregation not to dismiss fake prophecy just because it’s fake - saying that a made-up revelation, with information taken from Facebook and manipulated to sound like a divine “download” could, in fact, be from God. Johnson went further, stating that in spite of all the false prophecies that had been exposed in recent months, all the failures, the blemishes, the wrong decisions;  “I think, if I can be totally frank, it’s worth it", adding that he was deeply concerned charismatics will grow too suspicious of prophetic words.  Johnson also admitted he sometimes says things that are untrue in the hope his words will have a positive impact. For example,  when he went on Christian TV and praised Shawn Bolz in full knowledge of his moral failings, he was trying to speak something into existence - he knew it wasn’t true but thought it might become true Read also here and here.
• False prophecies used for fundraising purpose. There have also been growing concerns about false prophecies from Bethel Church in Cleveland, Ohio. Bill Johnson praised a prophecy given by Cleveland Senior Leader Steve Witt, regarding outstanding ‘growth’ in Redding, despite the word being proven quite false. There are further claims that false revival prophecies are being used to fundraise 3.2 million dollars to expand the Bethel Cleveland campus and get people to join the church. Witt is accused of promoting a prophecy from false Kansas City prophet Bob Jones, declaring the 'third great awakening' will not just begin in Cleveland, but start at Bethel Church in that city. Jones also apparently prophesied that a revival would start there by the end of 2019 - but this failed to transpire. Watch also here and here.

Exorcism

• World needs more exorcists amid rise in satanism, Pope warned. Pope Leo XIV met with representatives of the International Association of Exorcists (AIE) last month, who warned him of the growing prevalence of cases related to occultism, esotericism, and Satanism worldwide, and asking him to ensure that every diocese in the world (over 300 total) has at least one priest adequately trained in exorcism. One of the AIE’s founders was Father Gabriele Amorth of Rome, who claimed to have performed more than 160,000 exorcisms before his death in 2016. The AIE says it is critical that exorcists focus on the work of Christ, rather than place undue attention on the devil.
• Exorcisms within the Church of England. Meanwhile, within the Church of England, there are some 40 ‘deliverance ministers’  in the UK, employed to “rid a person or place of an evil spirit by which they are possessed”, though exorcisms in the C of E are traditionally frowned upon. One deliverance minister said he regularly confronts hauntings and paranormal activity but confessed he had “no idea why poltergeists keep throwing shoes.” Requests for exorcisms from diabolical possession apparently soared during the COVID-19 pandemic, lockdowns and economic hardships being blamed.
• Exorcism boom, especially in Russia and the Philippines. Uncertainty, volatility and the war with Ukraine are all seen as factors helping explain a flourishing ‘exorcism economy’ in Russia, with thousands of people actively discussing exorcisms on social media, while people regularly pay between 10,000 and 20,000 roubles (£196) just for an initial consultation to determine whether they are truly possessed. Father Gusev, who also fronts a rock band called ‘The Exorcist’, has performed more than 15,000 exorcisms in 26 years. Meanwhile, in the predominantly Catholic nation of the Philippines, the demand for exorcisms is booming, though health professionals warn exorcisms can be dangerous, with the risk of mental and physical health issues being misdiagnosed as spiritual problems.

Islam

• Former Muslim insists Islam does not ‘honour’ Christ. Former Islamist – now Christian - Kasim Hafeez has challenged the growing narrative that ‘Muslims love Jesus’. It is a “complete ruse” to further create the impression that there can be [theological] harmony between Christians and Muslims (but not with Jews), he explained. The narrative is being promoted among Christian communities that Islam ‘honours’ Christ. “It does not, Hafeez insists. “The Jesus of Islam is not the Jesus of the Bible.” US political commentator Tucker Carlson is one who has claimed that ‘Muslims love Jesus’, while, like the Pope, he also downplays Christian persecution by Muslims.
• Allah will seek to destroy Christianity. According to the Qu’ran, Hafeez said, those who claim Jesus to be the divine Son of God who was crucified (i.e. Christians) are unbelievers destined for hellfire; the Islamic holy book claims Jesus is a prophet who is subservient to Mohammed and who – far from approving of Christianity – will return to destroy it. “I am truly sickened by this propaganda essentially saying that we are one and the same,” Hafeez added. “Muslims do not believe in the same Jesus that Christians do. It’s as simple as that.”