Twelve people, including a police officer, were killed on 7 November at a bar in Thousand Oaks, California. When the shooting began at 23:20 local time, at least 200 people were enjoying a country music night at the Borderline Bar and Grill. David Long, an ex-Marine suffering from PTSD, entered the bar and opened fire. He may have also used smoke grenades. People reportedly escaped by using chairs to break windows, while others sheltered inside the toilets. The local sheriff described the scene inside the bar as ‘horrific’ and said there was ‘blood everywhere’. Long ended the bloodbath by turning his gun on himself. His motive for the attack is currently unknown.

Prime minister Narendra Modi says the first successful voyage by India’s home-built nuclear submarine is a ‘warning for the country's enemies’. The INS Arihant recently completed a month-long ‘deterrence patrol’, meaning India now has the capability to fire nuclear weapons from land, air and sea. Mr Modi, a Hindu nationalist, tweeted it was a ‘fitting response to those who indulge in nuclear blackmail’. In a speech televised nationwide, he told the submarine’s crew, ‘Amid an increase in the number of nuclear weapons in our surroundings, a credible nuclear deterrence is extremely important for our country's security’. His words are a thinly-veiled reference to India's neighbours, China to its north and its traditional enemy, Pakistan, to the west. The often volatile relationship with Pakistan has cooled even more noticeably since Mr Modi took office in 2017 and adopted a more assertive strategy towards its arch-rival.

Last week we prayed again for Aasia Bibi, after she asked for Christians in the UK to intercede for her release from death row in Pakistan. In an extraordinary answer to those prayers, the supreme court has overturned her eight-year death sentence for allegedly blasphemous comments, and she is free. Christians are Pakistan's 'forgotten minority'. The laws are often used to get revenge after personal disputes, and convictions are based on thin evidence. Christians make up just 1.6% of the population. They have been targeted by numerous attacks in recent years, leaving many feeling vulnerable to a climate of intolerance. There are fears that there could be a violent response to her acquittal, and her family fear for their safety. She has been offered asylum by several countries, and will leave Pakistan. Prime minister Imran Khan has called for calm - see

On 28 October a Catholic couple launched a children’s faith-filled video adventure series called The Opus Joyous Show, featuring 3D animation, puppets, music, rockets, ships, pirates, and a time-travelling Bible. There are four 23-minute episodes featuring ‘characters with character - children, their family, their friends, a priest and a nun - who work together with the grace of God to try and stop the evil villain Captain Barnacle and his shady plan for utter darkness upon the world’. Opus is the little boy hero, and Joyous is his dog. Parents have concerns about the time children spend on electronic media, and the show intends to create an authentically Catholic video series for children to enjoy.

‘They are the most precious gifts for us. Now my Sunday School children will see them with their own eyes - praise the Lord!’ said Rachel. Barnabas Fund helped supply 23,930 Bibles with hymnals to Christians from an isolated persecuted people group in South-East Asia. Some had never seen a Bible. A few villages had a single, treasured copy in their mother tongue, while some had memorised verses. They had experienced years of persecution from military and government authorities who confiscated and burnt Bibles. For nearly twenty years, they had been praying for these Bibles: now God has answered their prayers.

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’.