New Group.

 Plans afoot for new pro-life group at the UN.

 (Photo: Getty/iStock)

Politicians, diplomats and pro-lifers have gathered in New York in an effort to set up a counter-balance to the influence of LGBT forces within the United Nations and across the globe.

The Global Forum for Life, Family and Freedoms took place from 17 to 18 September. Organisers said that the UN’s LGBTI Core group consists of 40 countries and funnels millions in funding to pro-LGBT groups around the world, as well as being a source for new pro-LGBT initiatives.

Forum organisers said they wished to create a mirror image of the LGBTI Core Group called the Pro-Life Core Group at the United Nations. The aim is to act as a diplomatic instrument that would allow pro-life and pro-family governments to coordinate and promote their views on a global scale, Evangelical Focus reports.

The event was attended by a number of pro-family groups and also had an appearance from US Under-Secretary of State, Christopher Landau.

During the meeting there was a certain level of rallying around the Geneva Consensus Declaration (GCD) as a potential basis for international agreement. The GCD states that there is no international right to abortion, declares the family to be the basic unit of society, and affirms the right of states to determine their own health policy. 

Over 40 countries are in alignment with the GCD, including the US, which holds the secretariat role.

The New York meeting was aimed at turning what is effectively a declaration of principles into active international coordination and collaboration in favour of the pro-life, pro-family cause.

Plans are now afoot to establish a convening committee and to seek official recognition from the United Nations.

The faith-based nature of the event was clear to all, with organisers at various times describing the event as “an adventure of faith” and with participants expressing the hope that God would bless their efforts. CT.

Mustard Seeds.

I Have Occasional Visits From These Fellas in My Garden.

 

Something I Have Noticed

 It is bizarre to me that there are around a quarter of a million abortions in our nation in a year. Experience has taught me that a great many of these fine ladies are opposed to the death penalty being used against truly evil people.

It makes you think deep thoughts, does it not?

        Consistency in attitudes to evil?

The Beginning of The End?

 https://www.christiantoday.com/news/edinburgh-university-ends-divinity-programmes-as-theology-faces-a-changing-future

Black Death in Siberia?

 https://www.aol.com/articles/us-monitoring-suspected-fatal-pneumonic-000559000.html

Songs of Praise.

 Songs of Praise celebrates 65 years with special anniversary episode - and finds a new generation online.

Pam Rhodes and Aled Jones celebrate the past, present and future of Songs of Praise with favourite hymns old and new, and a special duet featuring the late great Sir Harry Secombe. (Photo: BBC)

The BBC’s long-running religious programme ‘Songs of Praise’ is marking its 65th anniversary with a special episode celebrating its history and changing place in British broadcasting.

First aired on October 1, 1961, the programme has since produced over 3,240 episodes, recording hymns and worship songs in more than 2,000 churches, chapels and cathedrals across the UK, as well as in locations ranging from beaches and stadiums to concert halls and cruise ships.

The anniversary programme, presented by Aled Jones and Pam Rhodes, will air on BBC One and iPlayer on Sunday.

It was filmed at St Martin-in-the-Fields in Trafalgar Square, which is itself marking 300 years since its founding. 

The church also has a long association with broadcasting, having hosted the BBC’s first live church service in 1924. CT.

Collapse of French Catholicism?

 Catholicism in France has 'collapsed'.

The French village of Saint Emilion. (Photo: Getty/iStock)

France, once known as the “eldest daughter of the Church” due to its high standing in Catholic Europe, is now a place of “injustices” and “discrimination” against Christians, a new report has stated.

The report, called "The Church’s Suffering and Hope in France", was released by the European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ) as Pope Leo XIV prepares to make the first papal visit to the country in almost two decades.

Grégor Puppinck, Director of the ECLJ, noted that while hundreds of thousands of people have signed up to attend the various papal events, others in France have opposed the visit, citing France’s secular history and the cost of the trip.

Puppinck said this was typical of the “persistent tension towards Christianity in France”.

The report states that “Catholicism in France has collapsed” and that the people of France are increasingly “despondent” and “sinking into despair”.

The report examines “the ideological pressures, injustices and ‘legal’ forms of discrimination experienced by the Church and Christians in France".

According to the report Christmas nativity scenes have been removed from town halls following court rulings, and crosses and wayside calvaries have been dismantled by administrative decisions.

At the same time there have been calls for the abolition of Christian public holidays. In addition, Catholic associations have been targeted by dissolution proceedings.

The report states that while 46 per cent of the French population identifies as Catholic, only 40 per cent actually believe in God. The number of Catholic priests in the country has plummeted from 65,000 in 1960 to just 12,000 in 2023.

Marriage rates have also almost halved in the same period, while divorces and abortions have surged.

Despite the apparently bleak picture, the report said there were “signs of hope”. This year there were 21,000 catechumens baptised at Easter - a 20-year record. At the same time 60 per cent of 18 to 24 year olds report a favourable opinion of the Catholic Church.

Commenting on the report, Puppinck said, “As society collapses before our eyes and France declines further with each passing year, the Church is, miraculously, regaining a new vitality amid the ruins.

"It is not these ruins that attract the thousands of young people who are converting, but the desire to restore all things in Christ.”DT.

How To Achieve Rest.

Birdies.

 

Odd. You Don't Suppose That They Have Been Reading Their Bibles, Do You?

 Church in Wales pauses plans to allow gay marriage.

The Church in Wales has pulled back from plans to allow homosexual weddings to take place in churches.

                                   

Could The Americans Actually Be Winning?

Jake Wallis Simons.

Whisper it, but America might be winning the Iran war

It is my pleasure to inform you that developments are tentatively beginning to favour the good guys

Jake Wallis SimonsShow biography

Published 03 October 2026 2:53pm BST

Recent weeks have seen a quiet yet steady buildup of American forces in the region Credit: Jose Luis Magana/AP

It is an iron rule of journalism that wars blaze into the global headlines, remain there for a while, then fade into the background once readers get used to them…

Think of it as the “new normal” principle; when the shock has passed, audiences adjust to a bleaker backdrop and return to their lives. From then on, only significant jolts regain their interest. (The only exception is anything involving Israel, which is a pathological obsession.)

Readers are thus often left with an impression of a conflict that is held in aspic, unaware that the deadlock is shifting on the ground. Which brings us to the Strait of Hormuz, where for months Donald Trump’s armada has been locked in an economic-military confrontation with Iran. It is my pleasure to inform you that developments are – tentatively – beginning to favour the good guys.

Speaking to reporters at the White House on Thursday, Trump was asked whether the foiled hijacking of the Flydubai aircraft on Wednesday had any connection to Iran. “I would say the answer, based on what I’m hearing, is ‘yes’, but we’re working on it right now,” he said.

What if suspicions were confirmed? “Oh, they’ll be hit very hard, don’t worry,” Trump said. “You just ask them. They know what happened. They’ll be hit very hard.” Of course, we have grown used to such bluster from the president – his recent claim that he was considering “wiping them out” made barely a ripple in the news – but this time, he might actually mean it.

Recent weeks have seen a quiet yet steady buildup of American forces in the region. A third aircraft carrier, the USS Theodore Roosevelt, departed from San Diego last week with Carrier Strike Group 9, steaming over to join US Centcom in the Middle East.

Together with the USS George HW Bush and the USS George Washington, which are already in theatre, that is a fearsome volume of force. In addition, the USS Makin Island amphibious group – which includes the USS John P Murtha and USS Anchorage landing ships – is deploying alongside it, carrying more than 2,000 marines of the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit. In total, 9,000 additional servicemen are on their way.

The USS George Washington in the Arabian Sea, Sept 12 Credit: Ed Ou/REUTERS

It is true that Washington’s problem has long been one that force alone cannot solve. America’s overwhelming military superiority has never been in doubt, yet Tehran remains willing to endure punishment, and has the cunning to target the soft underbelly of the global economy. Seven months into this conflict, the crucial question remains one of translating American firepower into results.

The difference is that Trump’s eventual response to Ayatollah’s closure of Hormuz – to prise away the tyrant’s grip while imposing a stranglehold of his own – is slowly bearing fruit. As the US navy has become more adept at fending off Iranian attacks, more international tankers have been traversing the Strait. According to the tracker Kpoler, shipments via Hormuz and bypass routes have been delivering almost 80 per cent of pre-war flows.

Last month, Middle Eastern crude exports bounced back to their highest level since hostilities commenced, with almost 13 million barrels daily from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq and others making it to market, compared to 19 million in February.

The Saudi East-West pipeline, which was damaged in a drone attack last month, is hobbling back into action, with reduced volumes making it to the Red Sea, where it is loaded onto tankers and exported.

In sharp contrast, Tehran has been unable to move any crude through Hormuz since the US imposed its maritime blockade in July. Estimates by Kpler suggest that Iranian stockpiles may run out within a fortnight, castrating an economy that is already buckling under sanctions and the toll of war.

History will damn Trump for failing to conceive of a Hormuz strategy sooner. Prior to the US blockade, Tehran was earning more daily oil revenue during the war than it had been before it. This, together with Trump’s devastatingly poor decision – under pressure from Turkey’s Islamist leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan – to cancel a Kurdish ground invasion at the last minute, deprived him of his own victory.

More from Jake Wallis Simons

Don't mess with Israeli airline passengers

Read more

Yet once the November midterms have been and gone, with Iran’s economy on its uppers and American might redoubled, Trump may have manoeuvred himself into a more commanding position in this geo-political arm-wrestle.

Stocks of regional interceptors are low. Tehran, with its back to the wall, may escalate in unexpected ways, including via terrorism on Western soil; the Houthis remain untamed on the shores of the Bab al-Mandab Strait, another chokepoint; and without ground forces, and with the opposition movement still reeling from tens of thousands of deaths, the picture of an American victory remains vague. Whatever it might look like, however, it is closer than it was before. DT.

Frankly, I Doubt If He Can Remove All The Leftist Bigotry That Has To Go First.

Britain’s most popular daily newsletter, read by more than 850,000

Sunday, 4 October 2026 Issue No. 581

Good morning. Andy Burnham has made reindustrialisation the central pillar of his plan to revitalise Britain. It would mean the reversal of a trend that has been going on for decades, as the service sector now generates most of our economic output. Are the Prime Minister’s plans feasible? Are they responsible? Matt Oliver, our Industry Editor, investigates below. Elsewhere, in this week’s Music of the Decades instalment, Neil McCormick, our Chief Music Critic, counts down the best songs of the 1990s. From Oasis to Blur and Britney Spears to Madonna, read on to see who made Neil’s list of top artists, and you can read his rankings of previous musical decades, too. Allister Heath, Sunday Telegraph Editor P.S. We’re giving you a whole year of The Telegraph for just £29. If you’re already a subscriber, make sure you’re logged in to read today’s stories.   In today’s edition Flydubai hijacker’s hateful rants while studying at British university — The remarkable stories behind 11 of the Royal family’s favourite jewels — Plus, ‘I’m a breast cancer surgeon, this is what I want every woman to know about the disease’

Welcome to From the Editor, Britain’s most popular daily newsletter. You are receiving this email because you recently signed up to The Telegraph. Every morning, we’ll bring you the biggest stories and expert analysis from across our newsroom, hand-picked by the Editor. To make sure you don’t miss our newsletters, we recommend moving this email to your primary tab – our guide to email preferences explains how. If you have technical questions, please contact us here or visit our newsletters help page. For assistance with your subscription, please visit our help page.   Try one year for just £29 Unlock this newsletter, plus full access to our website and app for less than £2.50 a month. Claim your offer   Burnham wants to revive British industry. This is why he’ll fail Matt Oliver Industry Editor   Speaking at Labour’s annual conference last week, Andy Burnham pledged to usher in a “new age of industrialisation” for Britain. It’s a policy that’s gone down well with the party’s membership and union backers, particularly as the Prime Minister has vowed a bigger role for the state. Even so, what does more industrialisation really mean? That part, experts say, remains far from clear, and achieving it is far from easy. As a share of Britain’s economic output, manufacturing has been in decline for decades, having gone from accounting for 30 per cent of all jobs in the 1970s to less than 8 per cent today. There are powerful structural forces behind this change, not least growing competition from countries such as China and soaring energy costs. While Burnham and John Healey, the Chancellor, are pledging to reboot British industry, critics say the rest of their economic agenda seems almost perfectly designed to achieve the opposite. Increases to national insurance contributions, more onerous employment laws and carbon taxes on energy consumption are just a few of the things that have pushed up costs for businesses. This is why Make UK, the manufacturers’ body, has warned that factories face an “existential threat”. With my colleagues Szu Ping Chan and Emma Taggart, I asked economists, businesses and experts what they thought about Labour’s plan to reindustrialise Britain. Continue reading ➤