One of America's leading evangelicals, James Dobson, claims to know the person who ‘fairly recently’ led presidential candidate Donald Trump to accept a relationship with Jesus Christ. This week Dobson called Trump a ‘baby Christian’ and said, ‘We all need to be praying for him.’ Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family and one of the most prominent social conservatives in the United States, gave his account at a meeting Trump had in New York on Tuesday with hundreds of evangelicals. Dobson was part of a small group that met privately with Trump later on Tuesday and said that if he has had a religious rebirth he is still learning the ropes: ‘He refers a lot to religion, and not much to faith and belief.’ This claim has been compared to how former US President George W Bush captured vigorous support from evangelical voters by his claim of having been born again.

On Wednesday, Europe’s third busiest airport, Ataturk, was attacked by three suicide bombers, leaving 41 dead and 239 wounded. They were in the arrivals hall when Turkish security officials stopped them. When they began shooting AK-47 rifles, the officers returned fire. A police officer wrestled one to the ground before he blew himself up in a bombing coordinated with two other suspects. The gunmen appeared to be trying to reach the area where the planes are. Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama was due to land there when the attack occurred. Rama is overseeing a crackdown on a small but devoted group following IS. A hundred or so Albanians have travelled to the Middle East to join IS. Airports are tantalising targets as they are designed to allow international access, with open planning that has many people in a confined space. An attack creates headlines and fear into people globally. President Erdogan proclaimed the attack ‘will not divide or split our country.’

On 4 December we highlighted the plight of Maryam Naghash Zargaran, a Christian believer from a Muslim background who had been in Evin prison for three years and urgently needed medical treatment which the prosecutor refused to grant. However, following a hunger strike to protest against the lack of medical care, Maryam left prison on 6 June to receive treatment on a bond of 350 million toman. On 19 June the court ordered Maryam to return to prison. She was still not well enough and her family applied for an extension. However, the prosecutor’s office refused to extend her leave and threatened to retain the money submitted as a bond. Last Tuesday she was back in Evin Prison. She’s suffering from many health issues, to the concern of family members and fellow-prisoners. Pray for the continuation of her medical treatment by the prison authorities and a speedy return to health. Pray also for the spiritual and political climate inside Iran.

Taliban bombers attacked a police convoy of buses outside Kabul, killing more than thirty and wounding fifty. The convoy was carrying graduates from a ceremony on the city's western outskirts. All but two of the dead were police cadets. The cadets were returning to Kabul from a training centre and were about to go on leave. According to the district’s governor, a suicide bomber struck first, followed by a second car bomb explosion detonated between two buses in the convoy. At the time of writing, officials are still trying to confirm the precise number of dead, but witness and sources describe a scene of carnage. In a similar attack last week, fourteen were killed, including some Nepali security guards working for the Canadian embassy.