Not The BBC News: 15 July 2015

Pro-life campaigners in the UK are celebrating a victory after an abortion clinic in Blackfriars, London, announced that it was closing down due to regular anti-abortion protests outside. This clinic was particularly controversial with pro-lifers because it was in the same building as a doctor’s surgery, and protesters argued that healing and killing should not be co-located.  Ann Furedi, president of BPAS who ran the clinic, announced that she planned to lobby MPS for US-style “buffer zones” to keep protesters away from abortion clinics.

In the USA, an undercover investigation video revealed that some parts of US abortion organisation Planned Parenthood sell baby body parts after performing “partial birth” abortions, for between $30 and $100 each.  Both “partial birth” abortions and trafficking in body parts are felony crimes in the USA.

An Iraqi lawyer has revealed that he and a network of informants have rescued over 500 women and girls who had been captured by Islamic State.  Around 3,000 women and girls were captured during the siege of Mount Sinjar last August, and the town is now divided with a new border running through it. The lawyer said that ISIL is not the impenetrable force it once was, and he has many contacts inside ISIL territory, who smuggle phones to women; guide the women to safe houses and give them false IDs; wait up to 10 days for the local fighting to die down; and then spend up to 48 hours walking across the border. Asked about his own situation, the lawyer said, “Of course my life is in danger. But I’m not afraid because I’m no better than all my people who were killed by ISIL.” (Three of his men have died so far). “But I try to protect myself because I have many of my people in ISIL jails waiting to rescue me.”

A gay man in Michigan has filed a $70million lawsuit against two Bible publishers, claiming that the Bible versions that they publish, which refer to homosexuality as a sin, violate his constitutional rights and cause him emotional distress. He is representing himself because the first judge to see the case refused to appoint a lawyer for him, because of doubts over “the nature and efficacy” of these claims. [Update: I have been informed that this story is true, but seven years old; it was recently re-circulated. The case was thrown out by the courts]. 

In South Africa, a Christian student has been ejected from her position as acting president of the University of Cape Town’s Student Representative Council because she wrote a post criticising gay marriage on her personal Facebook page. She was also personally threatened; had homosexual porn posted on her Facebook page; and had her office vandalised, with Scriptures that she had hung on the walls being replaced with signs that said, “get out of here”.  She said, “Being an SRC member in my view does not mean that you need to abandon your Christian convictions and faith”; but the University’s Vice-Chancellor said it was right for the SRC to decide “the extent to which an elected SRC office bearer should balance the expression of personal beliefs with the constitutional rights of students who are elected by the SRC.”

The shooting of nine members of a black church at a Bible study in South Carolina last month has triggered strong feelings and actions on both sides of the racial divide. Lawmakers have moved to ban the sale and display of the Confederate flag, which was pictured in the home of killer Dylan Roof, and is increasingly seen (by some) as being linked to white supremacist movements. And a large number of black churches in the southern USA have been burned recently; of eight churches to burn in ten days, three have been ruled as arson, one as due to an electrical fault, and four more are still under investigation because lightning has not yet been ruled out as a cause.

The UK government has relaxed laws that restricted retail trading on Sundays, despite a written assurance just three months ago that it had “no current plans” to do so. Local authorities and mayors will now be able to decide how long shops can open for on Sundays. The move was opposed by the Church of England and by the shop workers’ union, but praised by the (female) Small Business minister who said that Sunday used to be “the most miserable day of the week.”

In sports news, Wimbledon has finished with Serena Williams winning the women’s title, Novak Djokovic winning the men’s title, and Lewis Hamilton being banned from attending after refusing to wear a tie. And football’s Champions League qualifiers have already started, with all Welsh and Irish teams expected to be eliminated by the end of the second round, and one Scottish team (St Johnstone) surprisingly losing in the first round.

In technology news, Russia has often been accused of releasing official reports containing doctored photos, and forensic image specialists have now proved this is true in Russia’s report of the downing of the Malaysian Airlines flight MH-17. Most countries blamed the incident on Russian-backed rebels but Russia blamed Ukrainians and released photos that supposedly proved their case.  But careful analysis of some, and a simple reverse image search on Google of others, has revealed that the photos were either taken at least a month before the incident, or have had military vehicles added to them. Russia has so far declined to comment on this analysis.

And finally, a New Zealand man has built a church entirely out of trees. Brian Cox, who owns a company that does exterior design by re-planting whole trees, said he selected trees with stone-coloured trunks for the sides, and used trees with sparse foliage elsewhere to allow sunlight in.