Former neo-Nazi Conservative candidate withdraws after backlash
A former neo-Nazi selected by the Conservatives to fight the Somerset Council seat in Crewkerne South, has withdrawn after a backlash from the Board of Deputies of British Jews, and from the Jewish peer, Baroness Luciana Berger. In 2015, when he was 23, Joshua Bonehill-Paine was convicted of inciting racial hatred against Jews and was sentenced to three years and four months in jail. In 2016 he was further convicted of racially harassing the Jewish former Labour MP Luciana Berger, who has since gone to the House of Lords. The Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch defended the decision to select him as a candidate, saying he was contrite and was now working with Prevent officers to stop radicalisation. She was sad he had withdrawn, and he has been offered a role as an anti-extremism adviser to the Conservative party.
Antisemitic incidents rise by a fifth compared to last year
The Community Security Trust has recorded 1,926 incidents of anti-Jewish hate across the UK in the first six months of 2026, up by 21 per cent on the first half of 2025. This is the second highest total of antisemitic hate incidents ever recorded by CST in the first half of any year since the organisation began collecting data in 1984. The incidents includes a series of arson attacks against Jewish organisations and synagogues in London when four volunteer ambulances were set alight in Golders Green in March, and two visibly Jewish men were stabbed nearby in April. The CST said there were noticeable surges in antisemitic incidents following these events, with the highest daily total following the double stabbing on 29 April. CST report is here.
Man in court suspected of murdering Christian refugee worker
A 26 year old man has appeared in an Athens court, suspected of killing Elisabeth-Jane Ross, a Christian from Edinburgh who was working with refugees in Greece. Her body was discovered in a suitcase in a derelict building. Sharif Ahmadzai, who fled as a teenager from Afghanistan to Greece, where he became a champion boxer and a convert to Christianity, faces charges of murder, robbery and weapon offences. The court hearing was held in private and a lawyer was appointed to the case. Ahmadzai is expected to appear again for a further hearing today (Thursday).
MP urges CofE to reconsider Project Spire fund for slavery legacy
The Conservative MP Nick Timothy has urged the Archbishop of Canterbury to reconsider the Church of England’s £100 million Project Spire fund, set up to address the legacy of historic links to transatlantic slavery. In a letter to Archbishop Sarah Mullally, he said the money should instead support struggling parish churches, many facing costly repairs. His intervention follows the Archbishop’s visit to Ghana, where she reaffirmed her commitment to the fund at Cape Coast Castle, a former centre of the slave trade. Mr Timothy questioned the historical and theological basis for the project, saying today’s Britons should not bear responsibility for past injustices. Responding, the Church of England said his characterisation of Project Spire was “misleading and over-simplistic”, stressing the money comes from Church Commissioners’ investment assets rather than parish collections.
Methodist minister wins Kansas Democrat primary for US Senate seat
The Rev Adam Hamilton, pastor of one of the largest United Methodist churches in the United States, has won the Democratic primary for a seat representing Kansas in the US Senate. He will now face the sitting Republican senator, Roger Marshall, in November’s mid-terms election. Marshall was elected in 2020 with 53 per cent of the vote and Kansas has not elected a Democratic US senator since 1932, but the governor is a Democrat. Hamilton has campaigned on the cost of living, healthcare and rural affairs, but the key element has been how his Christian faith motivates him to care for vulnerable people, create communities, unify people over their differences, pursue justice and show compassion. He has criticised the Trump administration’s immigration policies and cuts to food assistance. He is the founding and senior pastor of Church of the Resurrection, in Leawood, a suburb of Kansas City, which has a membership of 24,000.
Methodists thanked for helping bombed Palestinian children
The Jerusalem Princess Basma Centre, which works with children who have life-changing injuries due to the ongoing bombing in Gaza, has thanked the Methodist church for their part in a donation of almost £5,000 from the Middle East Justice Appeal. The appeal is an initiative between All We Can, the Methodist Church in Britain and the United Reformed Church. The original appeal was launched in November 2024 to help meet the humanitarian need resulting from the crisis in Gaza and Lebanon specifically. The appeal was relaunched earlier this year to support Palestinians targeted by Israeli settler violence in the West Bank. The Centre, based on the Mount of Olives, offers Palestinian children with disabilities access to quality health and rehabilitation services and inclusive education.
Charity Commission probes funding for Israeli settlements
The Charity Commission has launched an inquiry into concerns about multiple charities working in illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine. It says: “The investigation will seek to establish the extent of the use of charitable funds in illegal Israeli settlements, the purpose of that spending, and, if so, whether this was in furtherance of the charities’ purposes. It will also enable the Commission to assess whether charity assets or beneficiaries are at risk, and what regulatory action, if any, is required to resolve the concerns. The inquiry is focused on fact-finding and will initially involve eight charities that are amongst those which were identified in concerns recently raised with the Commission…. The charities are not being publicly named at this time”. Stephen Roake, Assistant Director, High Risk Compliance at the Charity Commission said: “Serious allegations have been made about UK charities operating in illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine, so our first step is to establish the facts. Only then can we determine if regulatory action is required, based on our findings and the evidence we see.”
Pope Leo to visit Latin America in November
Pope Leo will make an Apostolic Journey to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru from 6 to 17 November, visiting ten cities over 11 days. He will be in Montevideo, Paysandú and Florida from 6 to 8 November; Buenos Aires, Córdoba and Luján from 8 to 11 November; and Lima, Chiclayo, Cusco and Pucallpa from 11 to 17 November. Vatican News explains that Pope Leo knows Peru well, arriving as a missionary in the 1980s, later serving as a bishop there and acquiring citizenship. Uruguay, where Catholics make up 36 per cent of the population, is the country with the lowest number of Catholics in all of Latin America. Argentina was the homeland of his predecessor Pope Francis, although he never visited during his pontificate.
