The anti-abortion protests outside the new abortion clinic in Blackfriars have taken on an increasingly high profile, with both the Guardian and the Independent covering the issue. The newspapers covered different incidents, but in neither case did they talk to the protesters directly. The Guardian published the views of Ann Furedi, the head of abortion providers BPAS, ahead of a planned debate between herself and the protesters, but gave no space to the protesters’ views. The Independent covered a conversation between a pregnant woman and a pro-life protester which, in their view, showed clearly why the protesters were wrong. The Independent claimed they left an answerphone message asking the protesters to comment, but the message gave no named contact and the telephone number provided went to the Independent’s IT department.
A Christian couple in Washington State have had their newborn twins and toddler taken away by social services after one of the babies developed eczema. The couple are somewhat unusual in that they trust God so completely that they seem to want no State involvement in their family at all: they married ‘in the sight of God’ but not legally; they refused all ante-natal scans so did not know they were having twins until the moment of birth; and they refused to take the children to hospital for check-ups after the home birth. The parents badly want their children to be returned to them.
An unmarried heterosexual couple in the UK have started legal proceedings to force the Government to introduce civil partnerships for opposite-sex couples. The Government has previously rejected this idea in the grounds of cost – the cost in pension rights alone is estimated at ₤3-₤4 billion. It also proved unpopular with the public in the Government’s consultation on the issue.
A church in a suburb of New Delhi was burned down this week, and Christians are lobbying for a police investigation. There are reports that remains gathered from the 13 year old building smell of fuel, but police have so far made no comment. Delhi’s Archbishop has asked the Indian government to order an investigation.
The Catholic Church in Northern Ireland has “regretfully” ended its association with a church-founded adoption service, after a judge ruled that they had to accept applications from unmarried and same-sex couples. The Democratic Unionist Party has said that this case shows the need for legislation to include a conscience clause for religious groups.
A church in Houston, Texas has been heavily criticised for refusing to bury a former parishioner, on the grounds that she had not paid her tithe to the church for several years, and so her membership had lapsed. Olivia Blair joined the church 50 years ago, but fell ill 10 years ago; spent the last 2 years in nursing homes and hospitals; and was in a coma for her last few months. When the pastor was contacted by a Christian watchdog group, he apparently said “If the family cared so much, why didn’t they at least send a dollar a week to maintain her membership?” He also refused to conduct the funeral even if the watchdog group paid for it.
In sport, some new statistical records have been set recently. Lionel Messi broke the record for the most goals ever in the UEFA Champions League, with his 74th. Queens Park Rangers and Leicester City created a new record for the most goal attempts in a single Premier League match – 51 – but perhaps the fact that fewer than 10% of them were scored (QPR won 3-2) explains why both teams are near the bottom of the league table. And in the NFL, the San Francisco 49ers set an unwanted record when losing 16-3 to the Seattle Seahawks; the player who caught the most passes from the 49ers’ quarterback was on the other team (cornerback Richard Sherman, who caught two interceptions). The 49ers owner apologised to fans after the game.
In technology news, a sign of the rapid growth of technology comes from YouTube and its view counter. In the year 2000, many computers had to be reprogrammed because they were using two digits to represent the year instead of four. When YouTube designed its system, it decided to use a 32 bit number to count the number of times a video was viewed, as it couldn’t imagine that any video would ever be viewed more than 2,147 million times. But recently the original “Gangnam Style” video by Psy passed that total, and has now reached 2,155 million views. YouTube had to reprogram their system to use a 64-bit number for the counter, with a new limit of roughly 9 quintillion.
And finally, the Guardian has reported on an ingenious anti-human trafficking initiative in operation in London – the police take a nun with them. The Congregation of Adoratrices, set up in 1856 to minister amongst prostitutes, supplies nuns to go with the police on brothel raids. Because trafficked women have often been taught to distrust the police, the nuns are more easily able to extract information about their captors within the “golden hour” which might lead to their arrest. The nuns also organise safe house accommodation for the women; treat them with tender loving care; and are sometimes able to use their church contacts to resettle the women in their home countries.
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