We praise God for a glorious autumn, a welcome respite for farmers from the difficult weather conditions of recent months. As with many of our industries, farmers are frequently frustrated by regulations, many of which are sensible and beneficial, but some less so. The recent removal of access to certain seed dressings and spray chemicals has seriously reduced the armoury of crop protection available to the agronomist, resulting in reduced yields or fields having to be re-sown. The chemical alternatives to the banned products might actually prove to be more harmful to the environment.

This winter cathedrals, churches, schools and community projects around the country are hosting choir concerts and carol services and raising their voices for the voiceless. There will be a huge number of amazing events, everything from sing-along spectaculars to classical choral concerts to bucket-bearing buskers, to help transform lives and communities. They will be raising money for the Church Urban Fund; a social action charity working in local communities throughout England to tackle injustice and poverty including modern slavery, the voiceless and powerless, in need of help and support. Gifts will aid work with asylum-seekers, homeless people, families facing food poverty and financial exclusion, and those feeling they are on the edge, isolated and lonely. Recruiting for and organising these events is going on now.

The Sailors' Society, an international charity based in Southampton, started a crisis response network (CRN) in South Africa in 2015, providing trauma care and counselling wherever necessary. This network provided support to its 100th case this week, with piracy, death at sea and abandonment accounting for 59% of those supported. 26% of those seeking crisis response were affected by piracy. The CRN now has 52 chaplains trained to offer crisis support to seafarers around the world. The International Maritime Bureau saw 107 actual or attempted attacks in the past six months, up from 87 in the same period of last year, with Nigeria and Indonesia the main piracy hotspots. On 31 October, eleven seafarers were seized by pirates off the Nigerian coast. Piracy, and the fear of piracy, is a massive issue for seafarers.

Tracey Crouch, the sports minister, resigned on 1 November as a protest over the delay in cutting the maximum stakes from £100 in fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs). The Government had announced this plan in May 2018 (see ), and Philip Hammond announced in his Budget Day speech it would come into force in October 2019. Ms Crouch said pushing back the date was ‘unjustifiable’, and could cost the lives of problem gamblers. She tweeted: ’Politicians come and go, but principles stay with us forever.’ Culture secretary Jeremy Wright denied Labour claims that MPs had been led to believe the cut would come into force in April 2019. But in her resignation letter, Ms Crouch said: ‘Unfortunately, implementation of these changes are now being delayed until October 2019 due to commitments made by others to those with registered interests.’

Children from richer families used to benefit much more from public spending on education than those from poorer backgrounds. However, a report from the Institute of Fiscal Studies, based on research in state-funded schools between 2003 and 2010, notes a substantial shift in this pattern. Due to new policies such as ‘pupil premium’, which aims to help disadvantaged pupils of all abilities in publicly-funded schools to perform better, education spending is now more likely to be skewed towards poorer pupils. Also, the socio-economic gaps in higher education have narrowed. The report concludes, ‘The realistic evidence suggests that focusing more education spending on poorer pupils should lead to substantial improvements in their life chances’.

As the security minister, Ben Wallace, launched a new strategy to tackle organised criminal activity that costs the UK economy £37bn a year, the National Crime Agency (NCA) revealed the impact on British citizens. ‘The threat from serious and organised crime has changed rapidly, increasing in both volume and complexity. We know that it now affects more UK citizens, more often, than any other national security threat. It kills more of our citizens than terrorism, war and natural disasters combined.’ The Home Office said there are around 4,600 serious and organised crime groups in the UK, using violence and intimidation in communities to operate and prey on the most vulnerable, including victims of modern slavery and human trafficking. Mr Wallace, said, ‘Many serious criminals think they are above the law. They believe they can defy the British state and act with impunity against our businesses and our way of life. They are wrong.’

Parliamentary papers revealed that Boris Johnson had a £14,000 all-expenses-paid trip to Saudi Arabia, two weeks before the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in its Istanbul consulate. Mr Johnson flew to Jeddah for a three-day visit, where reportedly all expenses were paid by the ministry of foreign affairs. His goal was to meet regional figures to promote education for women and girls. When he was foreign secretary, he refused to back halting arms sales to Saudi Arabia, and was accused by human rights groups of blocking a UN investigation into Saudi war crimes committed in Yemen. The UK government’s support of the country has not wavered. Although the USA calls for a Yemen ceasefire (see the World article ‘Yemen: vision of ceasefire), Theresa May does not support this move, telling MPs that it would only work if there is a political deal between parties. See

Campaigners in Ireland celebrated the end of a ‘medieval’ ban on blasphemy after voters backed removing the offence from the constitution in a referendum. The decision is the latest in a ‘quiet revolution’ of seismic social and political changes in the country. Until recently, Ireland was conservative and dominated by the Catholic Church. Recently Ireland has legalised gay marriage and abortion in popular votes, and is now led by an openly gay Taoiseach. Reflecting the speed of changes, four in five voters under 35 backed the change, while over-65s only approved it by a narrow margin.

Six years after the first episode of ‘Reading the Bible with Ulrich Parzany’ went on air, the Christian TV station Bibel TV will broadcast a new devotional section, starting on Sunday 4 November. In it, Pastor Ulrich Parzany deals with Matthew's Gospel in 164 episodes. Viewers will get to know the clarity of the Bible and the relevance of the biblical word for us today. The programme’s content and language is carefully chosen to reflect the fact that it is watched both by Christians and non-Christians. Other books available on Bibel TV’s website are Luke, Acts, and Romans.

Violent storms battered Italy, killing at least 11 people. Venice’s St Mark’s Square was inundated and the adjacent basilica had its baptistry totally flooded and its mosaic floors covered by 35 inches (89 cm) of water. ‘The basilica has aged twenty years in just one day, and perhaps I am being overly optimistic about that,’ said the church’s chief administrator. ‘It is becoming ever more difficult for us, and indeed could become impossible for us to repair the damage, especially in an age of climate change.’ Meanwhile, heavy snow in parts of Spain left two mountain hikers missing, and a tornado ravaged Menorca,leaving 38,000 people without power. See