Firefighters battling historic blazes in Northern California made progress towards getting the massive fires under control after temperatures cooled in the region. Lightning strikes, many of which sparked the fires, have decreased, and fire officials said they have had successes battling three blazes burning around the San Francisco Bay area as they prepare for a ‘marathon’ in the coming weeks to suppress the rest of the wildfires.

The nations have been devastated to see the destruction in Beirut, but also inspired by the response of the help and support from church, communities, charities and media broadcasts from SAT-7. Presenter Marianne Awaraji Daou said, ‘Thank you for your prayers and support. We feel the unity of the body of Christ during these hard times, and this lifts us and blesses our hearts.’ One survivor speaking on a SAT-7 programme said, ‘The Lord is merciful and compassionate. Jesus protected me, my family, and the people I love. I thank Him every moment. I want to say that evil is increasing, but I believe that the Lord will use everyone who went through this disaster to be His witness. I believe that God works through our prayers and through those who help. My hope is in You, Lord.’

Jim answered the phone, ‘Hello’. The caller responded, ‘Are you a pastor?’ ‘Yes, can I help you?’ ‘My name is Jacob, we delivered an appliance to your home and you shared about missions. I was interested in going on a short-term mission.’ Jim said, ‘Yes, I remember you.’ ‘We wanted to go to the Philippines but the virus shut down the mission trip. My wife flew to Ohio to visit family and was killed in an accident. I had her phone that day and I placed your number in it, my pastor told me to call everyone that she had talked to.’ ‘I was overwhelmed, I said to Jacob, ‘Let’s pray’.People are hurting everywhere and we have the answer, Jesus Christ. So the question is, will we share our faith more aggressively? This is what we need to do during this virus fear. Be bold, pray and speak up to everyone, now is the time.’

The National Farmers Union (NFU) says Britons would run out of food in five days if the nation was solely reliant on home-grown produce. New research shows the proportion of the food that we consume that is produced in the UK has plummeted from 80% per cent in 1980 to just 64% now. Experts say the alarming statistics should be a wake-up call for the Government to prioritise food supply and for the public to buy more British produce. City University's Centre for Food Policy said that a country with low self-sufficiency is at risk of negative geopolitics and we are in exactly that sort of uncertainty now. The world is facing extreme pressures from people, food, climate and landmass. Britain is still acting as though we have an empire. It doesn't and Britain is assuming others will feed us.' NFU research states that Britain now imports 93% of its fruit and 47% of its vegetables.

On 17 August the Assyrian Church of the East Relief Organisation (ACERO) applied to Westminster magistrates court to have its funds released, so that it can send money to victims of the Beirut explosion and a Covid-19 relief project in Armenia. ACERO’s accounts were frozen in 2019 after a judge ruled that the police should be allowed to look into allegations that it funded Islamic terrorism by paying ransom money for the release of 223 Christian hostages held by IS. The charity claims money was sent to help rehabilitate Christian Assyrian hostages following their release. Lawyers argued that there is no longer reason to suspect funds were or will be used for terrorist financing, and it is unconscionable to prevent them any longer from being put to humanitarian use.’

On 18 August, 48 hours of Brexit talks resumed in Brussels. A source close to British negotiators said it would not accept any deal that ‘constrains’ the UK to the EU’s rules and infringes sovereignty. They reiterated that the UK was still seeking a free trade deal with the EU, similar to its agreement with Canada. The source said, ‘We remain committed to working hard to find the outlines of a balanced agreement. Our priority throughout the process has always been the return of our sovereignty.’ Former Brexit secretary David Davis said that fifty civil servants going to Brussels to negotiate was not enough. It ought to be a couple of hundred because there are so many things going on in parallel. We are also negotiating trade with America, Japan, New Zealand and Australia. The Americans and the New Zealanders are complaining we’re not moving fast enough.

The Bishop of Dover has expressed her deep sadness over the death of a 16-year-old migrant who drowned after attempting to reach the UK in a small boat (see Europe article below). Rt Rev Rose Hudson-Wilkin said, ‘People who try to cross the Channel seeking safety and security are not criminals, they are like you and I. Human beings who should be afforded the dignity and respect and rights that so many of us take for granted. It is a travesty that this young man will never see his hoped-for future, that his family has been deprived of seeing him grow up.’ She said she ‘would like our government to take the initiative’ in solving the root causes of the migrant crisis. ‘I'd like them to sit down with other governments, not just when someone dies but in the long term.’ She also urged the Church to continue to help with the resettling of refugee families and stop joining in with negative rhetoric.

Thousands of clinically vulnerable people have been shielding for health reasons. This guidance was gradually relaxed, and now the government has told them that they no longer needed to shield. They now face returning to work in the autumn. One of them, Kate, lives in Leicester and is currently locally locked down, but expects to return to work in September. This is daunting for her, especially as trips which used to be mundane now seem very risky. She has gone out twice since March. ‘It's quite nerve-wracking,’ she said. ‘I've been to the dentist and it's absolutely fraught with danger.’ Many are like her - nervous about how to go about daily life, unsure about the reality of wearing masks in shops and using customer one-way systems while their immune system is still severely depressed. Eleven charities have called for the Government to introduce furloughing for high-risk workers in this situation to avoid job losses.

The concert version of the 2016 production made a virtue of distancing on stage. ‘Could we start again please?’ asks Mary Magdalene in the lustrous 1970 rock opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. Theatres have waited months for the same question to be answered since they closed in March amid the coronavirus outbreak. So it’s tempting to sing out your own ‘hosanna’ when a company of performers assemble on stage, two metres apart, and triumphantly rip off their masks at the top of this rainswept open-air revival to be performed until 27 September. Seating capacity was reduced by 2/3rds for a 90-minute concert-style version of the musical, leaving audiences to luxuriate in extra space, while requiring the strictly socially distanced actors to still convey intimacy on stage.

Currently, under the rules in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, face coverings are not mandatory at worship services. The heads of the Church of Ireland, Methodist Church, Catholic and Presbyterian Churches said it was their responsibility ‘to ensure that our services of worship are safe places’, so they have asked parishioners to wear face coverings during services. The move comes following consultations with health authorities. The face coverings should be used alongside two-metre social distancing. Earlier in lockdown drive-in services were used to facilitate parishioners. Although shops, restaurants and businesses are restricted to six people, religious services are allowed to have up to fifty attendees.