7 out of 10 Western Europeans call themselves Christians. However, the majority are non-practising (defined as attending church less than once a month). Across the 15 countries studied, 79% of self-identifying Christians believe in God, ranging from 93% in Portugal to 59% in Sweden. No national Christian population in Western Europe puts a high premium on evangelism; only 8% of believers say they try to persuade others to adopt their Christian convictions. Fasting during holy times and wearing religious symbols are also uncommon practices. About 24% say they tithe, ranging from 43% in Portugal to 18% in the UK. Among non-practising Christians less than half believe God is all-knowing (34%), all-powerful (26%), or all-loving (47%). Most practising Christians assert God’s omniscience and His all-loving nature, but barely half agree that God is all-powerful.

A new government has to be formed after the anti-immigrant Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) won 25% of the vote in the general election. The centre-left, anti-establishment party, Marjan Sarec List (LMS) came second with 12.7%. SDS is led by former PM Janez Janša, a vocal supporter of Hungary's nationalist prime minister Viktor Orban. The SDS said the door for talks and coalitions is open to all other parties. It would need to join at least two other parties to gain a majority. Most other parties have ruled out a coalition with Mr Janša because of his extremist views. They could form a centrist coalition. SDS believes money spent on migrants would be better used for Slovenia’s security forces. Mr Janša wants Slovenia to ‘become a country that puts wellbeing and security first’. The banking system, the health sector, and pensions will become key issues on the next government's agenda. Post-election negotiations are expected to be difficult.

Demonstrations against President Ortega’s corruption, his autocratic style, and his control over congress, the courts, the military, and the electoral board started on 19 April and are being met with violence. The church tried to intervene, but called off peace talks after police killed 16+ people on a peaceful march led by victims' mothers. There are now 113 dead. The Pope said, ‘I am united with my brother bishops in Nicaragua and their grief over violence committed by armed groups. The Church is always in favour of dialogue, but for that it requires an active commitment to respect freedom and, above all, life.’ On 2 June residents hid indoors as pro-government snipers shot people in the street. A local church later opened its doors to offer refuge and medical care to 21 individuals who had been detained and reportedly abused by police. Ortega accuses ‘right-wing groups’ of terrorising the country. Seven weeks of violence have made daily life dangerous for a population increasingly in open rebellion against the government. See

On 7 June, president Ashraf Ghani announced a ceasefire with Taliban insurgents until 20 June, coinciding with the end of Ramadan, but said fighting against IS will continue. He added that the ceasefire is an opportunity for the Taliban to realise that their violent campaign is not winning hearts and minds but further alienating people. He recently offered to recognise the Taliban as a legitimate political group, in a proposed political process that he said could lead to ending more than sixteen years of war. At that time he proposed a ceasefire, releasing prisoners, new elections involving the militants, and a constitutional review in a pact with the Taliban, to end a conflict that last year alone killed or wounded over 10,000 Afghan civilians.

Cardinal Dieudonné Nzapalainga, Imam Oumar Kobine Layama and Rev Nicolas Guérékoyamé-Gbangou have international recognition for their peacekeeping efforts, and have blamed foreign mercenaries for an upsurge in violence. The so-called 'Christian rebels', the Anti-balaka, wear occult charms around their necks and fight with knives, clubs, rifles and machetes to rid the south of Muslims. The Bambari cathedral was looted, as were the bases of nine NGOs including the National Commission for Refugees. The clerics called all armed groups to lay down weapons, stop illegal exploitation of natural resources, and have ‘frank and inclusive dialogue’. The UN reported that 37,000 people, displaced by recent violence, are living in nine camps. The Red Cross said Muslim and Christian communities in Bambari want to live peaceably but are driven apart by violence and revenge attacks that trigger more assaults, making it harder to persuade people to live side-by-side again. See

Nestled in the Himalayas in north-eastern India, Sikkim has been leading a green revolution. Despite being small and isolated, with its people living in extremely tough mountainous terrain, it became the first Indian state to ban disposable plastic bags (1998) and is among the first to target single-use plastic bottles. In 2016 Sikkim banned packaged drinking water in government offices and events, and banned the use of disposable plates and cutlery to cut down toxic plastic and refuse problems. Pray for more governments to be active in promoting environmental programmes that end the global use of single-use plastic. Pray for more research and development into alternative materials to be used to manufacture food packaging, carrier bags, plastic pipes, electrical cable insulation, and artificial limbs. Pray for more innovative recycling and composting programmes, and thank God for the work of Christian environmental organisations such as A Rocha.

The Myanmar army is waging a ‘genocidal campaign’ against Kachin Christians, using the same tactics that forced nearly a million Rohingya to flee the country. ‘What we found in this forgotten part of the world was worrying evidence of a second genocidal campaign, this time against the Kachin’, stated a Sky News correspondent on 4 June. Attacks on Kachin areas have increased substantially since January. The forces that spent months driving the Rohingya Muslim ethnic minority out of western Myanmar are now deployed in the north and applying similar tactics, including helicopters, heavy artillery, and burning villages to the ground. The most recent attacks have displaced 10,000 from the mainly-Christian Kachin ethnic minority. One mother of four told journalists, ‘The Burmese government is trying to carry out ethnic cleansing of the Kachin people. Whenever they see Kachin civilians they kill them. If they see a Kachin woman they will rape her, even a pregnant woman.'

There are over 75 people dead, 200 still missing and 3,319 in shelters, many of them with dead or missing loved ones, unable to return to homes and land destroyed by Guatemala’s most active volcano. Firefighters said the chance of finding anyone alive was now practically non-existent. The thick grey ash covering the region has been hardened by rainfall, making it even more difficult to dig through the piles of rocks and debris. Pray for the exhausted rescue workers still searching for survivors. Pray for those who have lost loved ones. Pray for the rural communities who have lost everything - land, livestock and livelihood - in a once-fertile collection of canyons, hillsides and farms now reduced to a moonscape of ash and debris. ‘In a matter of three or four minutes the village disappeared as a sea of muck came crashing into homes, inundating people, pets and wildlife’, said one survivor.

The WHO has launched a global action plan on physical activity and health. Worldwide, one in five adults and four out of five adolescents do not do enough physical activity. Girls, women, older adults, poorer people, people with disabilities and chronic diseases, marginalised populations, and indigenous people have fewer opportunities to be active. Regular physical activity is key to preventing and treating non-communicable diseases (NCDs) - such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes and breast and colon cancer - which are responsible for 71% of all deaths globally. The action plan calls for training health-care workers and other professionals, stronger data systems, and the use of digital technologies. On 27 September world leaders will meet to take action on physical inactivity and mental disorders at the third UN General Assembly high-level meeting on NCDs in New York.

The G7 leaders will discuss many things, including trade tariffs. France says tariffs are illegal. Macron will not shy away from telling Trump what he thinks. Merkel may try to calm down her EU counterparts to avoid a full-scale trade war. Italy’s new prime minister is a political novice who said Italy is ‘second to no-one,’ and shares some of Trump’s views about ‘putting national needs ahead of global ones’. Japan is not expected to support Trump's tariff decisions. Some believe Theresa May could look for concessions to calm the waters ahead of Trump’s UK visit in mid-July. On 3 June US treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin faced sharp criticism from the angry finance ministers of all the G7 nations over America's imposition of steel and aluminium tariffs. See