Three US citizens have been set free from prison by North Korea, according to a tweet on 9 May from US president Donald Trump. This is viewed as a goodwill gesture before a historic summit between Mr Trump and Kim Jong-un. Mr Trump greeted the men when they returned with secretary of state Mike Pompeo, who was in Pyongyang to arrange a date and location for the planned talks. Missionary Kim Hak-song, humanitarian worker Tony Kim, and pastor Kim Dong-chul boarded the plane ‘without assistance’, the White House said. They had been jailed for alleged anti-state activities and placed in labour camps.

Thy Kingdom Come is a global prayer movement which invites Christians around the world to pray between Ascension and Pentecost for more people to come to know Jesus Christ. What started in 2016 as a call from the archbishops of Canterbury and York to the Church of England has grown into an international and ecumenical call to prayer, with many events planned between 10 and 20 May. Have confidence in the Gospel and choose five people to commit to pray for during Thy Kingdom Come, for them to come to know Christ: see Those with smartphones may like to download an app from iTunes or Google Play, containing inspirational daily prayers, reflections, readings and videos to equip you to take part in this global wave of prayer.

As reported last week, five Northern Ireland supreme court judges are currently considering the Ashers Bakery case - see Gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell backs Ashers even though he disagrees with their views because he said it’s wrong to compel people to say things they don’t agree with. It is not merely a ‘gay cake case’; what is on trial is society’s attitude to tolerance and the freedom to disagree. Will Muslim bakers be compelled to bake a Charlie Hebdo cake ridiculing their faith? Will lesbian T-shirt makers have to produce T-shirts saying ‘Gay marriage is an abomination’? Will Catholic printers have to print leaflets denouncing the Pope? If Ashers Bakery loses, then everyone loses. The case shows how ‘equality’ is being used to silence anyone who disagrees - with devastating consequences for free speech.

Guernsey wants to introduce a law which will allow terminally ill people to end their life. The island is due to debate a ‘requête’ and vote (equivalent to a Westminster private member’s bill), which if approved could pave the way to assisted dying. The British Medical Association opposes assisted dying and supports current legal frameworks allowing compassionate and ethical care for the dying to die with dignity. Guernsey doctors must be registered with the General Medical Council in the UK in order to practise medicine on the island. The GMC states it is a criminal offence for anyone to encourage or assist a person to commit suicide. As doctors need to remain GMC members to work in Guernsey, it is difficult to know how they could do so if there was a unilateral change in legislation there.

The House of Lords, by 245 votes to 218, has voted for the UK effectively to remain in the EU's single market after Brexit, even though neither the government nor the Labour leadership backed the move. Ministers warned that staying in the European Economic Area (EEA) would not give the UK ‘control of our borders or our laws’. The issue will now return to the Commons, where pro-EU MPs said they were hopeful of getting the support needed to prevent the changes being overturned. Under what is known as the ‘Norway model’ (Norway is one of three countries outside the EU which belong to the EEA) free movement laws would also apply, so that EU citizens could move to all EEA countries to work and live. The government's Brexit bill also suffered a series of other defeats in the Lords.

Between 8 May and 12 June those attending parliament’s weekly chapel services will be looking at the gospel of John and the different stories of ‘Encounters with Jesus’. Please pray for the speakers as they prepare. Pray for increasing numbers of parliamentarians and staff to attend regularly, be inspired to invite others and be strengthened in their faith. There are several Bible study groups meeting every week; pray that the members of all these groups will continue to grow in their love for Jesus and be better equipped to live out their faith in Parliament. Pray and thank God for the new Wednesday Bible study group, now firmly established with a committed core group attending regularly. Also please pray for the preparations for the national parliamentary prayer breakfast on 19 June, with the topic ‘What can Christianity offer our society in the 21st century?’

Sally, now 20, believes her mental distress should have been spotted years before she received treatment that helped her. She says she became ill when she first started secondary school. Teachers noticed, describing her as ‘an odd child’, but in the end Sally had to ask her doctor for help herself. She was 16 and on the edge of suicide before she got any effective treatment. The charity Young Minds says it is not uncommon for families to have to wait 18 months even to get an assessment for their child, let alone treatment. In December, the government announced plans to overhaul children's mental health care in England, with proposals limiting waiting time to four weeks and allowing children to access mental health support in schools. Now a report from MPs has branded the strategy ‘unambitious’, providing no help to most of the children who need it. But ministers reject this suggestion, saying their proposals will transform the system.

Two days before President Putin’s fourth inauguration, over a thousand people were detained after protests against his extended rule turned violent. Riot police barricaded protesters who then ran into adjoining streets, chanting, ‘Putin is a thief!’ and ‘He’s not my Tsar’. After lighting smoke bombs and throwing bricks, many were beaten bloody with batons in scenes reminiscent of 2012’s opposition movement. Many protesters held yellow duck symbols of ‘anti-corruption’. Pray for honest politics. See Over 2,500 Greeks protested against 2016’s EU/Turkey deal that left thousands of asylum-seekers stranded on Lesbos. When prime minister Alexis Tsipras arrived at Lesbos, protesters used loudspeakers to promote dissent and violence, and riot police fired teargas. See France’s May Day turned nasty when 1000+ ‘Black Bloc’ anarchists burnt cars and vandalised businesses, chanted anti-fascist slogans, threw firecrackers, and built barricades against police water cannons.

Spain acted on 9 May to stop pro-independence politicians in Catalonia voting in ex-leader Carles Puigdemont, now in Germany, as their regional head, with an important deadline looming. The constitutional court accepted a government appeal against a new Catalan law that would allow Puigdemont to be elected at a distance while he waits for German courts to rule on a Spanish request to extradite him. This means the law will be blocked until the court makes a final decision, which could take months. Catalan lawmakers must pick a leader to form a government by 22 May, to avert more elections and plot a path out of a seven-month standoff which has given Spain, the euro zone’s fourth-largest economy, its worst dose of instability in decades.

A day after Donald Trump said he was withdrawing from the Iran weapons deal, he created further anxiety by threatening Iran with ‘severe consequences’ if it restarted its nuclear programme. He is also preparing to impose new sanctions, perhaps as early as next week. His comments came as officials in Iran and leaders across Europe scrambled to see if they could continue to operate the 2015 deal negotiated by Barack Obama. France’s foreign minister claimed that the deal could yet continue, but Iranian president Hassan Rouhani told Emmanuel Macron that Europe had only a ‘limited opportunity’ to preserve it.