American officials have claimed it was hit over international airspace by an Iranian surface-to-air missile in an “unprovoked attack”.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said it shot the drone down when it entered Iranian airspace near the Kouhmobarak district in southern Iran’s Hormozgan province.

This comes after the Trump administration accused Iran of being behind attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman last week.

The US President responded to the incident in a tweet on Thursday, saying: “Iran made a very big mistake”.

Iran made a very big mistake!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 20, 2019

Reverend Lazarus Yeghnazar, President of 222 Ministries – a charity that supports Christians in Iran – told Premier he was concerned the situation will continue to escalate.

He said: “Trump is as stubborn and as determined to pursue his own ambitions as the Iranians Ayatollah, so they have met each other’s match.”

Reverend Yeghnazar believes there is a strong possiblity of war and has urged the Christian community to pray.

He said: “I don’t think anyone will blink and that will be causing millions of other deaths.

“If a war happens it will be so catastrophic, it will bring destruction to Iran and all around countries – I think we’re descending towards that, so can we pray for peace.”

He added: “When the governance of God comes and the authority of God comes,…

Emily Holden from the Welcome Churches initiative, a network of churches who work to intergrate refugees into their church family, told Premier the figures were shocking and that Christian should remember that the large numbers represent just as many personal and tragic stories of fleeing from home.

When asked how Christians should respond to these figures, she said: “I always think that best response should be do we know those people ourselves? Do we know people who have fled conflict? And do we have those people in our lives?

“I mean, the reality is, in the UK now that no matter where the church is, there is something that they can do to welcome refugees and to know people who have fled conflict, fled persecution in our towns and in our cities and so we will be saying to churches ‘do you know these people and are they welcome in your church?'”

Speaking about the concerns some might have about squeezed resources and policies to limit refugees, Emily Holden commented: “When we look at it, the tragedy is that people’s lives have been caught up in the middle of the politics and those people who are just trying to live their lives have a future for themselves and their families.

“When we look at the Bible and what the Bible says about welcoming refugees it’s rich full of reasons why we should be welcoming the stranger why we should have all the nations represented…

The need for food banks was also highlighted by the Bishop of Leeds, the Rt Rev Nick Baines, as he tackled ministers at Westminster.

His intervention came as the Government stepped up its attack on the UN poverty expert behind a critical report of the UK slamming the “inflammatory and overtly political tone”.

Works and Pensions Minister Baroness Buscombe told peers during a recent visit to the UN, people had moved to “distance themselves from it” and preferred instead to praise the Government’s “groundbreaking, exemplary and world-leading policies in the area of work and pensions”.

In his report, UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights Philip Alston claimed the UK had violated its human rights obligations through sustained and widespread cuts to social support.

He also said that although the UK is the world’s fifth largest economy, one-fifth of its population (14 million people) live in poverty, and 1.5 million experienced destitution in 2017.

The Department for Work and Pensions has already branded the report a “barely believable documentation of Britain” and said it painted a “completely inaccurate picture” of its approach to tackling poverty.

But pressed on the findings in the Lords, Lady Buscombe appeared to go further, telling peers: “Nobody wants to see poverty rising and we treat the issues raised by the special rapporteur…

The woman, who is in her 20s and cannot be identified for legal reasons, has been diagnosed with a “moderately severe” learning disorder and a mood disorder. 

Specialists caring for her say a termination is in her best interests.

But the woman’s mother, a member of the Nigerian Igbo community, disagrees.

She says she could care for the baby and says abortion is against her Roman Catholic religious beliefs and her cultural beliefs.

Bosses at the NHS trust responsible for the woman’s care have asked Mrs Justice Lieven to decide what is in the woman’s best interests.

The judge began analysing evidence at a hearing in the Court of Protection, where issues relating to people who lack the mental capacity to make decisions are considered, at the Royal Courts of Justice complex in London on Thursday.

Mrs Justice Lieven is considering the case at a public hearing but she has ruled that the woman, who lives in the London area, cannot be identified in reports of the case.

She also says the NHS trust which has begun litigation cannot be named because publication of that name might create an information jigsaw which could lead to the woman’s identity being revealed.

Barrister Fiona Paterson, who is leading the trust’s legal team, told Mrs Justice Lieven that specialists thought a termination would be in the woman’s best interests.

She said the baby might be taken into council…

The Scottish Bible Society and the Gaelic Books Council have released a modernised Gaelic version of the New Testament and Gaelic audio versions of the four Gospels.

The Church of Scotland’s Gaelic group is working with a Gaelic development officer to progress the work of the Kirk’s Gaelic Language Plan over the next year.

The Gaelic group announced during this year’s General Assembly that they had secured funding from Bòrd na Gàidhlig, an internal Church of Scotland grant, and from Action of Churches Together in Scotland (ACTS).

They were also able to publish a Gaelic version of the Thy Kingdom Come prayer diary.

Rev John Urquhart, a Church of Scotland minister who is part of the Kirk’s Gaelic Group, said: “It has been a decade since the Scottish Bible Society brought the translation team together to begin the New Testament project.

“Though we were drawn from different places and different churches, we all shared the same aim: that the Scriptures of the New Testament should be made available to Gaelic speakers in modern Gaelic, faithfully translated.

“Throughout our work, we kept our focus on fidelity to the Greek and the clarity of the Gaelic.

“The translators hope that putting the word of God into contemporary Gaelic will enable every person who reads it to hear God’s voice speaking to them, and that through this they will come to know the…

American book publishers have called Trump’s plan for the 25 per cent tariff a “Bible tax”.

“We believe the administration was unaware of the potential negative impact these proposed tariffs would have on Bibles and that it never intended to impose ‘a Bible tax’ on consumers and religious organisations,” Mark Schoenwald, chief executive officer of HarperCollins Christian Publishing told a panel of officials at the U.S. International Trade Commission.

Despite China being known for its intense persecution against Christians, Bibles are widely produced in the country due to the special paper, printing technology and skills available there.

Schoenwald explained at the hearing that the tax hike would lead to difficulties printing in a specific format and in turn cause an increase in prices. He said the Christian bookseller market, as well as other Christians resource organisations who cannot afford more expensive Bibles, will be hit hard.

Stan Jantz, head of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association, said he hopes that Trump will make sure Bible numbers are not impacted if the tax hike goes through.

“I know there’s a great interest in the area of religious freedom and access to religious goods on the part of the administration,” Jantz said in an interview after his testimony.

“We do hope that there would be an openness and strong consideration for Bibles in…