For almost two years US-backed Iraqi government forces, with Kurdish Peshmerga forces and other allies, fought to remove IS fighters. 63 factions make up Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) - groups united by ethnic and tribal leaders, whose fighters are either loyal to religious scholars, Iraqi political leaders, or Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps. The diversity of PMF's forty divisions of 60,000+ fighters sheds light on many of Iraq's sectarian tensions and its ambiguous political future. Although formed via a religious decree to fight IS, many fighters are empowered by Iran and other non-state commands. Others are represented in Iraq’s parliament. A Middle East Forum analyst said that various larger PMF factions have been fighting to expand their political influence to gain ground for next year’s parliamentary elections while smaller, weaker PMF factions also have political ambitions and cannot be ruled out.

Conservative MPs in Iran are proposing that Iranians should only be allowed to vote for members of their own religious group, making it impossible for members of religious minorities to be elected to any position of authority (90-95% of the population is Shia Muslim). Recently a Zoroastrian was suspended from the city council of Yazid, a historic city with many ancient Zoroastrian sites. The ruling clerics are becoming increasingly unpopular for taking harsher measures to block members of religious minorities from higher office. The proposal to force voters to vote for candidates from their own religious background would violate everyone’s democratic right to elect and be elected. Journalists, lawyers and some MPs have pointed to the presence of three Christians, a Jew and a Zoroastrian in Iran’s national parliament. The constitution currently allows each of the three minority groups a representative in parliament.

In 2012, International Justice Mission (IJM) began a project in Uganda to improve the legal response when criminals attempt to steal from widows. An IJM study showed that nearly one in three widows had their property stolen from them after their husbands died. When they narrated their personal experiences, widows commonly described perpetrators threatening and physically assaulting them. 18.3% of victims reported that attempts were made on their lives, and 31.6% had threats made against their children by perpetrators. In the study’s review of police case files, more than half of property grabbing cases included physical violence. IJM are now evaluating the successes, failures and overall impact of their project so that they can develop a strong national programme to protect women and children in Uganda from violence.

The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) is the UN’s authoritative voice on the behaviour of the Earth's atmosphere, its interaction with land and oceans, and the weather it produces. On 6 November WMO predicted 2017 to be among the hottest years recorded. A few days earlier NASA revealed maps of Greenland's coastal seafloor and bedrock beneath its ice sheet having up to four times as many coastal glaciers at risk of accelerated melting as previously thought. We are in a long-term warming trend with the highest ever recorded CO2 in the atmosphere and many unusual meteorological events this year, seemingly due to climate change. These issues were discussed at the COP 23 climate talks (6 to 17 November) in Bonn. Justin Welby wrote to the delegates to say that the Anglican community supports their work and recognises addressing climate change as an urgent priority requiring immediate attention. See

Escaping scandal in Washington after indictments of his campaign associates, President Trump is on a 13-day tour through five Asian capitals. Trump’s first stop was Japan, where the priorities were a Japan-US military alliance and trade. While visiting South Korea, China, Vietnam, and the Philippines, he hopes to encourage other regional powers to step up their efforts to pressurise North Korea into abandoning its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes. The continent is gripped with tension over the nuclear standoff on its eastern edge. Trump told South Korean lawmakers that Kim Jong-un would face disaster if he continued to lead his nation down the dark path towards nuclear weapons. ‘Do not underestimate us. Do not try us’ was a direct warning to Pyongyang. Trump is trying to persuade Chinese leaders to put even more pressure on North Korea. At the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vietnam (9 to 10 November), he hopes to enlist President Putin’s help in changing North Korea's behaviour. See next article.

Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump may bring different expectations to the table at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Vietnam (their last meeting, at Germany’s G20 summit, produced a de-escalation plan for the Syria/Israel border). They are reluctant to comment on whether they will make a thorough review of some equally challenging issues to Russia and the US, but the latest messages from Moscow suggest that the two men are considering a discussion of the Syrian settlement. The Russian ambassador to the USA said that the agenda for their meeting included 1) war on international terrorism; 2) Syrian peace settlement (Jordan and Russia want to end fighting in southwestern Syria as part of border deals between Amman, Washington and Moscow); and 3) North Korea’s nuclear plans. See previous article.

On his third day of high school, the parents of 17-year-old Sharoon Masih learned that he had been in a fight and had been taken to hospital. They rushed to the hospital but found he was dead. His school friends said he died in the classroom. Police said that another student at the Punjab school kicked Sharoon in the stomach and that he died of internal injuries. The student charged in his death now awaits trial, but police are not calling the attack a hate crime. Many suspect the teenager was targeted because he was a Christian. Christians are regularly discriminated against in education, employment and housing. Sharoon’s parents want to know what happened and why no-one saved him. He wanted to be a lawyer, and was to start as an apprentice at a lawyer’s office after completing high school. Sharoon’s father has stopped sending his six other children to school because he does not feel they will be safe.

On 5 November Devin Kelley killed 26 worshippers in a Texas church. Pray for the Sutherland Springs community trying to cope with the tragedy. Pastor Frank Pomeroy knew Kelley as ‘not a good person’ but said, 'How do I turn him away?' Kelley had a violent history that was left out of a gun background check system. Pray for the such checking systems to be fit for purpose. Kelley left the air force in 2014 with a bad conduct discharge and the air force has previously requested a broader review of criminal record reporting across the defence department. The FBI said that there were missing records, bad procedures, and faulty reporting in the air force’s dishonourable discharge records. See https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/nov/06/texas-shooting-suspect-devin-kelley-domestic-abuse-background-check

Jason and Nisae Williamson are planting a church among the Iski people group in Papua New Guinea. Anka, an elderly man, was sent to their village so that he could hear the good news, as the believers in his family were concerned about his age and declining health. Anka is at least 80 with a palpable fear of death. Local religious leaders said he had to earn his way to heaven, and he needed to worship and appease the spirits. The Williamsons prayed that Anka would receive Jesus before he died. After four months of morning Bible study, Anka was overflowing with joy: ‘Now I know that Jesus paid for my sins and I’m a child of God. I do not fear death any more, I will die and be with God!’ He had been born again and was filled with the Spirit.

Paul, a convert from Islam, now works distributing food to newly-arriving Syrian refugee families. Recently, he gave out the last food package he had for the entire month. The lady next in line started crying when she realised there was none left for her family. She told Paul that she and her children were desperate. Paul said they were out of food packages, but offered to pray for her. He also told her how he came to Jesus. As they finished praying, Paul’s phone rang with the unexpected news that another 35 food portions were available. The mother, full of wonder and gratefulness, praised God for how Jesus had answered their prayer. A few weeks later, her husband (who had been fighting with IS) came to meet Paul. He said, ‘I heard what you had done for my family. I thought about how I was in Syria killing people in the name of religion, but you love in the name of Jesus. I left the other fighters to come and meet the man who loved my family, and to learn about Jesus from you.’