The founder of Soul Survivor, Canon Mike Pilavachi, exhibited “coercive and controlling behaviour” that led to inappropriate relationships, the physical wrestling of youths, and the massaging of young male interns, the Church of England’s safeguarding investigation has concluded.

First announced in April (News, 6 April), the investigation was conducted by the National Safeguarding Team (NST) and the diocese of St Albans. It has concluded that the safeguarding concerns reported to it are “substantiated”. They relate to Canon Pilavachi’s conduct in leadership and ministry, both before and after his ordination in 2012, and span 40 years, from his time as a youth leader at St Andrew’s, Chorleywood, to the current day.

The NST has been granted permission to bring a complaint under the Clergy Discipline Measure against Canon Pilavachi, “relating to a safeguarding concern post ordination”.

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Our report up now: https://t.co/Akznr00GUB

— Madeleine Davies (@MadsDavies) September 7, 2023

Yet French Muslims often feel that such rules unfairly target Islam. The new abaya ban, says Muslim Rights Action, a French anti-discrimination group that is trying to overturn the decision, risks stigmatising Muslim pupils and introducing ethnic profiling. The new rule has won approval on the right and far-right, although it has divided the left, parts of which also remain firmly attached to the defence of laïcité.

The government argues that it is trying to minimise discrimination in the classroom by keeping religious faith out. It is not a question of casual clothing choices, it says, but a response to an attempt to spread hardline political Islamism in France. Gilles Kepel, a scholar of Islamism, says the wearing of the abaya in schools is part of an Islamist strategy “to test the limits” in France. In the face of new pressures, the government says, headteachers need to have more powers to enforce secular rules. Liberals outside France will, as ever, find the rule a baffling distraction. The French consider that their country’s secular character is at stake.

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To liberal multiculturalists, France's ban on the abaya in state schools looks like an infringement of the right to religious expression. To its defenders, the safeguarding of France's secular tradition is at stake@TheEconomisthttps://t.co/Kywo2RO0LV

— Sophie Pedder (@PedderSophie) September 7, 2023

Car insurance is a growing burden for Kalisa Hobbs.

Hobbs, who lives near the northern shore of Louisiana’s Lake Pontchartrain, said the cost of her auto coverage jumped almost 30 percent this year when State Farm added hundreds of dollars to her annual premium, raising it to $1,806. “I’m not going to go hungry or homeless, but like everybody else I live on a budget, and when that budget gets interrupted, it’s difficult,” said Hobbs, 56, who works as a communications manager at a paper mill. “It’s just on my credit card, and I’ll pay it off when I can.”

Hobbs has been swept up in a larger trend affecting hundreds of thousands of American drivers: soaring car insurance rates, with some states seeing increases above 50 percent in the past year.

Premiums have kept climbing even as other types of inflation have cooled. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, car insurance for U.S. drivers in July was 16 percent more expensive than in July 2022, and 70 percent more expensive than in 2013.

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The value of claims submitted has risen because repairs and replacements have become more expensive, companies say.

And natural disasters make things worse. https://t.co/8QJ6slriE6

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) September 6, 2023

Two years of high inflation has many Americans shopping in places they wouldn’t normally, scouring for coupons and discounts and learning to do without.

The hit to the average budget is huge: The typical household spent $202 more in July than they did a year ago to buy the same goods and services, tweeted Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi. “And they spent $709 more (in July) than they did two years ago.”

People, especially those with annual earnings less than $100,000, are trying multiple strategies to stretch their dollars, according to the Dallas Fed – from delaying major purchases and medical treatment to decreasing the use of utilities and tapping charities.

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Two years of high inflation have ravaged most American households. Here's what resilient Americans have to do to get by, https://t.co/15QLDLp0Rd

— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) September 6, 2023

Blessed God, whose Son Jesus knelt to serve his disciples: We honor thee for the witness of thy servant Elie Naud; and pray that we, with him, may proclaim Christ in service to those deemed by the world to be littlest and least, following Jesus, who came not to be ministered to but to minister; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, to whom be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Died #OTD in 1722: Elias Neau, commemorated as a Huguenot Witness to the Faith by the Episcopal Church

A French Protestant who went to sea at a young age, he became an English denizen while a Boston merchant, before moving to New York

Élie Neau icon in https://t.co/GcBGDy033A pic.twitter.com/yac8PwwIFz

— The Anglican Church in St Petersburg (@anglicanspb) September 7, 2022

O Almighty God, who hast revealed thyself in him who veiled his Godhead that he might unveil thy glory, and hast made him the eternal sacrifice and only priest of men: Grant that by the power of thy Holy Spirit the veil on our hearts may be taken away, and we may look on him who loved us and gave himself for us, and so be changed into the same image from glory to glory, until at last we shall see him with unveiled face, for evermore.

Morning everyone hope you are well. The bracken is starting to change to a rustic colour with the first hints of autumn here in Borrowdale towards Castle Crag. Have a great day. #LakeDistrict @keswickbootco pic.twitter.com/A9tUIYS94V

— Rod Hutchinson (@lakesrhino) September 7, 2023

Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him;
fret not yourself over him who prospers in his way,
over the man who carries out evil devices!

Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath!
Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.

–Psalm 37:7-8

Who doesn’t love a misty sunrise? @theroyalparks #BushyPark #sunrisephotography #sunrise #mistymorning #mist #thursdaythrowback pic.twitter.com/cjylxzXL97

— Ruth Wadey (@ruths_gallery) September 7, 2023