ors estimates that there are 260 million Christians facing high levels of persecution, an increase of 6% from 2019.
The report indicates 2,983 Christians were killed for faith-related reasons in the last year – an average of 8 Christians killed per day. Further, 3,711 Christians were detained without trial, arrested, sentenced and imprisoned.
In addition, the report claims 9,488 churches or Christian buildings were attacked in 2019.
The biggest cause for concern is the immense increase in persecution and surveillance of Christians in China.
“China is also rolling out a country-wide Social Credit System (SCS) by which authorities plan to reward “good” citizenship and punish ‘bad.’ Already, one community has reportedly decided to add penalties for those who ‘illegally spread Christianity,’” said the report.
Persecution of Christians has increased in China as Premier Xi Jinping seeks to reclaim Communism’s “militant atheist” character. In China, the bible has been rewritten and Christian literature has been suppressed.
In terms of extreme persecution – those where many Christians risk death on a daily basis — North Korea, Afghanistan, and Somalia were ranked at the top.
Open Doors also raised alarms at the rapid increase in persecutions in Africa.
Countries such as Nigeria have seen hundreds of Christian die as a result of Islamist violence in recent years. Burkina Faso in West Africa rose 33 spots to 28th in 2020 as Islamism has led to increased attacks and dozens of clergymen murdered.
Another country of concern is Sri Lanka, which rose 16 spots to 30th. In 2019, a series of attacks on Christians on Easter Sunday claimed 359 lives. The attacks were committed by an ISIS-affiliated group.The LA You May Not Know: Restaurant Chains
If you are familiar with the phrase “my eyes were bigger than my stomach”, you’ll understand how we feel about this subject. We never dreamed there were so many well-known restaurant chains that got their start right here in Southern California
The LA You May Not Know: Los Angeles' Street Lights
Look up and really take note of the variety of lights lining our streets. Have you ever noticed the dragons helping to hold up the lamps on Olympic Boulevard?
The LA You May Not Know LA Street Lights
LA’s variety of lights reflects the diversity of our population. You’ll find unique lights in unique neighborhoods such as Chinatown, Angelino Heights and Westwood..
86-Year-Old Woman Pleading for Return of Stolen Wedding Ring
An Angelino Heights woman is pleading for the return of her stolen wedding ring. The ring was taken Friday by two men who came to her home and posed as utility workers.
86-Year-Old Woman Pleading for Return of Stolen Wedding Ring
An Angelino Heights woman is pleading for the return of her stolen wedding ring as the LAPD searches for two utility worker impostors who stole it from her. Christine Kim reports for the NBC4 News at 11 on Sunday, March 12, 2017.
LAPD Searching for Utility Worker Impostors
The Los Angeles Police Department is now looking for two men who posed as utility workers and then stolen jewelry in the Angelino Heights area near Echo Park. Christine Kim reports for the NBC4 News at 6 on Sunday, March 12, 2017.
Neato Viral Map: Nearly Every LA Building's Age
When was your building constructed? A nifty new site has the answer.When I went to hang out our laundry early last week I was greeted by a large spider’s web. This isn’t particularly unusual, with the exception of the size of the web and the fact that the spider was currently hanging around in the centre of it. The other shocking fact about the new web was the size of the spider who made it. I had a small heart attack moment when I spotted her. She is about 3+ cm from back toe-tip to front toe-tip, with a body roughly 1.5 cm long. That makes her the biggest spider we have come across since our move. We won’t count all the large Daddy-Longlegs spiders, who may be large and gangly but cut a considerably less imposing figure.
Here she is on that first day, caught in the middle of web-making, I suspect.
We left her alone, as I had no idea of what sort of spider she was. I took a photograph and went online to try to identify her. My usual Landcare site and Te Papa both let me down, as I couldn’t make a fair match to any of their photographs. I then asked my home educating colleagues for suggestions on alternative places to get an identification and was directed to a wonderful Facebook group called NZ Bug identification – Spiders, Insects etc where I posted this photograph. In a twinkling of an eye, I was informed that it is a garden orb web, and we’ve been watching ‘Charlotte’ ever since.
On the first day we were cruel and heartless homeowners and knocked down her web. I really wanted to be able to hang out my laundry without finding her in my undies! But just as swiftly as we knocked it down, she had built it back up. After trying one more time, I decided it was rather like Cnut trying to hold back the waves, and that for now my undies would be drying indoors on racks! Instead we would turn in to nature observers and watch our new lodger.
The garden orbweb spider will construct or repair its snare by night, then sit in the centre.
Charlotte most certainly constructs, repairs and does her housework overnight. Not only did she rebuild her web after our destruction, she also cleaned off a vast array of plant bits that the kids had flung on to the web in an attempt to pretend to be her dinner. The trickery failed miserably, but the next morning we awoke to a beautifully clean and restored web. She’s a pretty house-proud member of her species.
We have also noticed that this observation on the MPI site is also very true, even though Charlotte’s choice of hiding place may be slightly unorthodox.
During the day, garden orbweb spiders usually hides outside the web, but will rest a leg on a thread that runs to the centre.
She’s also pretty tidy at wrapping up her dinner, when it is foolish enough to become home delivery. Here’s a shot of her handiwork which, by the way, was gone the next morning. Midnight snack anyone?
The newest development in the past couple of days has been the arrival of what look like two or three baby spiders on the actual web. They started out with large silvery half-shell-like things (presumably they were shells) on their back ends and are now graduating to small, unshelled spiders. Unfortunately they are too tiny for my camera to focus on without something held behind the web. Between the gentle breeze blowing the web back and forth and my kids being slightly worried that they’ll be webbed or spidered if they get too close, it’s been impossible for me to get them to help me take a photograph.
With the imminent arrival home of Mr Oh Waily, from his gallivanting overseas, I may only have to combat the camera’s ability to focus on insects so small. I will update the post if I manage to get a clear image of her children.
Here are a couple of final photographs for you. She ventured out on to the web a couple of days ago and we were able to see her speedy retreat from mid-web back to the peg basket. She paused briefly, still attached to the web that enters the basket and I was able to move around behind her and get a shot of her undercarriage. Most indelicate of me, I know, but totally fascinating nonetheless.
The final image is of me looking straight down at her, which is something of a change, as I’m usually forced to look at her side or her backside.
An interesting development has occurred at the Patch since we’ve begun watching Charlotte — the Oh Waily kids have been noticing far more insects. They’ve been coming to me and saying, ‘You’ve got to come see this Mum’, and ‘You’ve got to take a photo of this’, and ‘Can I borrow your phone to take a photograph of…, please.’ As this has been the case, I have more interesting insect images to share with you. Fleeting glimpses in to a smaller world, with lots of learning potential.
Oh, and more Charlotte updates as they come to hand.
Today I take a look at Chillingo’s latest game, Storm in a Teacup for the iPhone, which goes for 99 cents on the App Store.
99 CENTS MAN!!
While it was fun while it lasted, physics platformers are getting a little stale as of late. Chillingo seems to be experimenting here, just releasing small games with undeveloped (almost alpha-level) art styles in a search for the next Angry Birds.
The Rotting Cartridge gives Storm in a Teacup a THREE…. out of five.
Are you a fan of the Halo series? Are you curious as to what people think about the newest addition? Are you frustrated with Halo Reach and can’t figure out why, or wondering if anybody else is as flustered as you? Are you bored and want to read a well thought out post about a game that sold millions of copies on the Xbox 360? I can tell you that I considered Halo Reach to be a disappointment and it’s not because I had high expectations. If you answered yes to any of the opening questions, or even if you didn’t but you would still like to know why I wasn’t entirely