Today, violence is the most urgent threat for millions of the poorest people. According to the United Nations, four billion people live outside the protection of the law. That means that their public justice systems (their police, courts, and laws) are so broken, corrupt and dysfunctional, that there is nothing to shield them from violence. What if you called the police and no one came to help you? Or if there was no way to get justice if someone harmed you or your children? For poor people throughout the developing world there is no defence, no protection, nothing to hold back violence. Over 45 million women, children and men are held as slaves; two million children are exploited in the commercial sex industry. Every day, global justice missions and movements are working together to push back the advance of violence, rescuing individuals and in many cases stopping violence before it starts.

Making a modern Bible is difficult. Adam Greene, creator of Bibliotheca, learned the intricacies of the process through two years of production delays. His project to create a four-volume, single-column Bible cost $1.4 million. But to transform the Bible from its familiar reference-packed pages to a format more like a novel was far more complicated than removing chapter and verse numbers and footnotes. He sorted design elements and materials, and had to present a text that had remained the same for generations into a new format. With the help of copy editors, Bible scholars, and proofreaders, Greene used a revised American Standard Version, changing archaic words and updating verses whose translations have improved. Then came the typesetting and spacing. Adam said, ‘What I did not expect was that, through this process, my admiration and reverence for the text deepened tenfold. This literature is so complex and interwoven. The deeper I dig, the more I discover.’

Many people have become discouraged for America’s future during this election season. Many have struggled to be optimistic amidst the divisiveness seeming to plague the country. Pastor Rick Warren sees solid reason for hope, and specifically lists five reasons he believes are grounds to hope for a ‘spiritual rebirth for America’. First, faith often grows the most in dark times: people realise they need God when times are hard. Second, the ‘millennial’ generation is spiritually hungry and seeking real purpose and community. Third, there are millions of God-fearing people living in America, living devoutly for God every day without fanfare - not out of guilt or fear or duty, but in gratitude and love to God for their transformed lives. Fourth, contrary to popular opinion, more people are turning to faith rather than to secularism. Lastly, God’s promise to hear prayer still applies.

The government has approved a new test (NIPT) to make it easier to detect babies with Down’s syndrome in pregnant women. The NHS intend to make NIPT available next year. This has led to a campaign ‘Don’t screen us out’. 90% of Down’s babies are aborted. NIPT will increase the number of children with Down’s screened out and terminated. A British Medical Journal report said annual screening of 698,500 offering NIPT will result in 195 more Down’s babies being detected. Recently 279 medical professionals accused the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of advocating that pregnant women with a prenatal diagnosis of Down’s syndrome should have an abortion. The move to introduce NIPT is also backed by powerful commercial interests, notably two of the companies which supply the tests. The real victims are babies with a common genetic abnormality whose eradication will lift a perceived burden from some and make others very rich indeed.