The Duchess of Cambridge was speaking at a Royal College for Obstetricians and Gynaecologists reception to launch a project about mental health in early parenthood. The educational films promote understanding of mental health for parents struggling with their infants. She spoke of the ‘pressure of being a perfect parent’ and admits experiencing lack of confidence and feelings of ignorance after becoming a mother. Even she, with all the benefits of having help at home, had found parenthood a ‘huge challenge’. She said, ‘Nothing can really prepare you for the sheer overwhelming experience of what it means to become a mother. Personally, becoming a mother has also been a rewarding and wonderful experience.’

A Christian in Romania writes, ‘We need prayer for President Klaus Iohannis to be strong in this time of battle against corruption. The left wing want to remove his right to nominate the general prosecutor and the director of the National Direction against Corruption. Until this time the justice representatives did their job and thousands are in prisons or attending court. The coalition majority is very corrupted. Many have committed felonies and should be in prison, but they have parliamentary immunity. Pray for those who are honest to dissociate from those corrupted and for this coalition to be dissolved. In this way we can hope for the election of a new government.’ The current law pardons politicians who commit felonies, receive bribes or offer favourable contracts for families and friends. This parliament wants to decriminalise these actions and set prisoners free. The people are demonstrating in the streets against this proposals.

Shaykh Dr Umar Al-Qadri, head imam of an educational and cultural centre in Eire, said there would be ‘a backlash’ against a new European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling allowing employers to ban staff from wearing hijabs and other religious symbols in the workplace. He was responding to the ruling on the EU directive on equal treatment in employment and occupation. A Muslim woman in Belgium had challenged a company policy prohibiting the wearing of a hijab, on grounds of discrimination. However, the ECJ ruled that an internal rule prohibiting the visible wearing of any political, philosophical or religious sign does not constitute direct discrimination. Dr Al-Qadri said the ruling was ‘a very serious threat to the principles of tolerance, equality and religious freedom in Europe’. He warned that Islamophobia is increasing, especially in Belgium, France, and the Netherlands.

Many refugee children are abandoned, abused, or lost to trafficking because of neglect or being orphaned. They are forced to work or beg for money on the streets where refugees currently live. One child said: ‘Because my father died in the war, I was forced to work selling things on the streets. One day, some people visited my mother, sisters and me. They helped me go to a school for refugees and learn about Jesus.’ The compassion expressed in the story of the prodigal son gives us insight into the heart of God. He is the compassionate God who weeps over those who are lost and despairing. His desire is that those who have lost their way will return to Him and know the great love He has for them. Pray for refugee street children in the Middle East and Europe.

Ecuadorians have suffered from poverty and the instability of political turmoil for a long time. Even now, the people are waiting anxiously to see who will win the presidential run-off on 2 April. Many have searched for hope and stability in something greater than politics.As a result, many have turned to Jesus for answers. Once home to the smallest percentage of evangelicals in Latin America, Ecuador now boasts over 1.2 million believers! This growth has been miraculous - particularly among groups like the Quichua and the Waorani. But even amidst these miraculous movements, the Church battles division and widespread false teachings, and the nation continues to suffer from political instability, corruption, and poverty. Ecuador stands at a pivotal moment, both politically and spiritually. Prayer can change the outcome.

The fighting in Syria grows more complex as Turkey aims to interrupt the line of territory held by Kurdish forces along its border and the US works with the Kurds to prevent battle escalation and focus on IS. Pray for this tense situation where Turkish and US goals are in disagreement. Pray also for the third round of peace talks sponsored by Russia and Turkey that began on 14 March. In Iraq, the campaign to retake Mosul from IS progresses despite fierce resistance. Iraqi commanders are hopeful they can overcome IS within six months. Many civilians have been prevented from fleeing by IS, and horrific sites of mass burials have been uncovered in captured areas. Pray for the future for Mosul, for peace-building and reconstruction to be given as much thought as the current military campaign. The two-year conflict in Yemen has killed 7,700 people, including 1,500 children. The fallout is that over 18 million people need food aid.

The USA says its ‘strategic patience’ with North Korea is over, and suggests it might decide to take preemptive military action: the option was ‘on the table’ if the threat from North Korea’s weapons programme reached a level requiring it. The USA is now exploring a range of new diplomatic and economic measures, and continues to defend the deployment of its missile systems in South Korea. This angers China, but South Korea and the USA say the defence system is needed against North Korea's aggression (twenty years of persuading it to abandon its nuclear ambitions have failed). On Sunday North Korea had a powerful rocket engine test of ‘historic significance’, which could lead to the rebirth of the country's indigenous rocket industry. This came hours before US secretary of state Rex Tillerson met with President Xi Jinping of China - North Korea's only major global ally. Tillerson was thought to have raised the prospect of financial penalties on Chinese companies and banks that do business with North Korea. See

At a G20 meeting this week, financial leaders from the world's biggest economies failed to agree on trade, highlighting a global shift towards protectionism (for ten years, the finance ministers and central bankers of the world's top twenty economies have rejected protectionism and endorsed free trade). Failure to agree on a commitment to keep global trade free and open will have negative consequences. Watered-down free trade commitments reflect the mood of anti-globalisation that Donald Trump endorses. Another Trump ‘win’ is that the G20 dropped a reference, used last year, to its readiness to finance climate change, as agreed in Paris in 2015, because of opposition from the United States and Saudi Arabia. Trump has called global warming a ‘hoax’ concocted by China to hurt US industry, and has vowed to scrap the Paris climate accord aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions. Pray for his administration to reconsider its proposed 31% cut to the Environmental Protection Agency's budget. See also

At a time when Google, Facebook and Twitter newsfeeds are crowded with negativity, Frankly Faraci is an inspirational new Dove Channel show that can be found across the web on tablets, TVs, smart phones, and laptops. It premiered on 21 March, and promises to uplift and entertain audiences of all ages. They want to encourage viewers that good does still exist - and remind them that God can use anyone who is willing to be part of His plan. There is a perception that Christians are judgmental, angry, holier than thou, and finger-wagging, but non-Christian viewers will see that Christians are amazing and fun and cool and the kind of people that they would want to hang out with. The show has an unhidden agenda, to push back against all the negativity. It is hoped that families will tune in and children learn that the sky's the limit, as the programme gives them great role models to look up to. That's really the heart of what they want to do.

As the death toll climbs to 72 from floods and mudslides in Peru, experts say the rainy season could last another two weeks. To date, over half a million people in and around the country's capital, Lima, have been affected by the storms and flooding. Pray for the thousands forced to evacuate hundreds of thousands of homes. Pray for those attempting to repair the seriously damaged infrastructure, with hundreds of bridges destroyed. These have been Peru’s worst floods in recent memory. ‘We are confronting a serious climatic problem,’ said President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski. The disaster came after a period of severe drought and is blamed on abnormally high Pacific Ocean temperatures. The country is ill-prepared for the growing challenges of climate change. The disaster affects more than half the nation. See also