A man was shot dead on Tuesday during looting and food riots proliferating round crisis-hit Venezuela, bringing to at least four the number of fatalities from this month's wave of unrest. As well as the fatality, another 27 people had been injured during a day of chaos and violence in the eastern Caribbean coastal town of Cumana. There was simultaneous looting in more than 100 establishments. Videos and photos on social media from the town showed National Guard troops confronting crowds swarming round damaged shops, with crowds baying ‘We want food!’ Security forces struggled to keep order. Protests and melees at shops have been spreading around the recession-hit South American oil-producing nation in recent weeks, fuelled by shortages of basic foods. Over ten incidents of looting are occurring every day across the nation of 30 million people.

A wave of kidnappings, forced conversions and forced marriages of young Christian girls in Egypt has Christian families living in fear. The missing girls were ‘probably taken to be forcefully married and converted to Islam.’ Among those missing is Amal Shaky, 19, kidnapped on her way to Cairo University. When she did not come home or answer her phone they searched the campus. No one had seen her. Shaky's family went to the police, who suggested her father had killed his daughter and thrown away the body. After harassing the father, the officer refused to file a report and asked for a few hours to investigate the matter. More than forty days have passed since she was kidnapped, and ‘the matter is ‘under investigation’. The most recent figures available reveal that from 2011 to 2014 there were 72 cases of kidnappings, extortion and related violence against Coptic Christians.

Republicans in negotiations on delayed funding to combat the Zika virus are promising an agreement, as they focus on a $1.1 billion deal. Negotiators met on Wednesday, but only made opening speeches to satisfy the requirements for at least one public negotiating session. President Barack Obama requested $1.9 billion four months ago, but Congress did nothing for weeks, so he borrowed from unspent funds from the Ebola crisis to provide mosquito control, research into a vaccine, better tests to detect the virus, and help for foreign countries in their battles against Zika. The World Health Organisation said on Tuesday that the Rio Olympics may help spread the Zika virus around the world, but no faster than it's already spreading. Brazil already has many international travellers, and Zika is now active in 40 countries, including much of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Nigeria is going to do the painful thing everyone said it has to do: the currency will be allowed to float freely. The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, said that the bank will intervene ‘as the need arises’. A weaker currency will help Nigeria's economy by encouraging import substitution and attracting foreign investors, who have shunned the country for fear of a devaluation. The move will be painful over the short term: inflation was 15.6% in April. The authorities will probably be forced to tighten monetary policy. Nigeria is Africa’s largest economy but it has soaring inflation. This latest action will not magically fix all of Nigeria’s problems - for example, lower oil prices and ongoing oil-production disruptions by the Niger Delta Avengers.

A church leader in Lahore was beaten up during his Sunday service by a policeman, during a dispute over the music being played over his church loudspeaker. Lahore has the largest concentration of the Christian community in Pakistan. The situation in Fazlia Colony, where about 400 households are Christian, deteriorated when a Muslim neighbour of the Pentecostal United Church called the police, saying that the loudspeaker ‘violated a Punjab Sound System Act’. When other churches nearby heard about the beating, hundreds poured in, blocking the road and demanding action against the policeman who had beaten the leader. In a separate incident a Christian was beaten by a mob for selling ice cream to Muslim customers who said it was ‘ritually unclean’ because it had been touched by a Christian. Most Pakistani Christians trace their origins via Hinduism to the Dalit caste - ‘untouchable’ and ritually impure.

Two years ago a family moved to Ibiza to pray for an ostracised group of Roma gypsies. The Ibiza Roma are considered substandard and not deserving respect. A big part of the family’s journey was challenging those stereotypes, daily prayer walking, researching Romani culture, history and values and learning how God really feels about the Roma and themselves. Then, suddenly God opened everything up. Where doors had been slowly opening, He blew them off their hinges - and He did it in one night! ‘One night, my husband bumped into a Roma friend who introduced him to an important man in the Roma community. God opened up deep conversation and immediate friendship. From two years of being on the outside, that night God drew us into the heart of the Roma.’ Click the ‘More’ button to read how this family shared the gospel, spoke truth into situations, and aligned themselves with the outcast as Jesus did.

One of the world’s most respected scientists said that there is scientific proof that points to the existence of God. Michio Kaku (one of the developers of the revolutionary String Theory) said, ‘I have concluded that we are in a world made by rules created by an intelligence.’ In a video Kaku uses physics and mathematics, and references String Theory, to explain how science points to the existence of God. He said the very purpose of physics is to find an equation which will allow us to unify all the forces of nature and allow us to read the mind of God. Kaku has proposed a theory to that end, stating, ‘To me it is clear that we exist in a plan which is governed by rules that were created, shaped by a universal intelligence and not by chance.’

Every vote counts. Many are confused about the issues, what to believe, what to think and ultimately how to vote. The starting point is prayer and fasting, to understand God's will. Political and economic issues are important and so is God's call on these Islands and His spiritual purpose for the nations. We are in fast-changing times; God is stirring us to pray for spiritual awakening. Pray for the organisations called to take the gospel across Europe with boldness and confidence to share Jesus with others (Acts 4:29-30). Declare Jesus is Lord over all dominions, powers and authorities (Col. 1:16). Pray for the fear of God to replace fear of man (Rev.14:7). Pray that in all this economic uncertainty, we put our trust in God (Jer.17:7). Pray for campaign leaders to display honesty and integrity (Is. 62:10). Pray also for Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Monaco, Macedonia, Malta and Moldova. See also:

Refugees who converted to Christianity are denied asylum if they can’t prove the authenticity of their Christian faith by answering questions when they attend an interview on arrival. Applications are turned down if the Home Office believes their conversion was a ploy to claim asylum. However, if a refugee has come to faith in an underground house church, where they’ve been able to borrow a New Testament for a week and have encountered the risen Lord Jesus, they are not going to know when the date of Pentecost is or the Catholic rule of abstinence on Fridays. An Iranian convert to Christianity told the BBC that he applied for asylum after fleeing persecution back home, but his application was denied following a failed interview. He was asked to name the last book of the Bible, Revelation, but his correct answer in the Farsi language was misunderstood by the interpreter.

According to PrivateHealthcareReports.com, the United Methodist Church (UMC) has voted 425-268 to reverse their pro-choice stance and to withdraw from the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, which is a lobby group that advocates for abortion rights. Until the reversal, the UMC had been an outspoken pro-choice advocate, supporting on-demand abortion, and even partial birth abortion.