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In the News

  • Reuters: Americans oppose bathroom laws limiting transgender rights: poll
    March 10th, 2017

    The majority of respondents to a new U.S. poll opposed laws barring transgender people from using bathrooms consistent with their gender identities and indicated growing acceptance for gay rights, a nonpartisan research group said on Friday.

    Fifty-three percent of the Americans surveyed oppose laws requiring transgender people to use bathrooms that correspond to their sex at birth, according to the national poll by the Public Religion Research Institute.

    The survey showed that 39 percent of respondents favored such laws, and almost one in 10 of the 2,031 adults surveyed in February by telephone had no opinion.

    Read more. 

  • BBC: Met police 'failed' in Tower Hamlets election fraud probe
    March 10th, 2017

    Police made "major failings" while investigating electoral fraud in Tower Hamlets, a London Assembly committee chairman has said.

    Steve O'Connell said there was concern the Met Police had not charged former Tower Hamlets mayor Lutfur Rahman.

    Mr Rahman was forced to step down after an Election Court found him guilty of corrupt and illegal practices.

    Read more.

  • Guardian: We need to rethink adoption in the social media age, says senior judge
    March 9th, 2017

    Too many children are being forcibly adopted against the wishes of their families and prevented from having any contact with their natural parents, a senior judge has suggested.

    In the era of social media and with children being removed from problem homes at ever older ages, Lord Justice McFarlane argued, it may no longer be practicable or beneficial to create an "impermeable seal" around an adoptive home.

    Read more.

  • Mail: Separate hospital kitchen to be built for Islamic patients
    March 9th, 2017

    A cash-strapped hospital is planning to introduce a separate Halal kitchen to cater for Islamic patients and staff.

    Bosses at Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust proposed the move after coming under fire for not ensuring Halal meals were up to standard in one of their hospitals.

    Chief executive Toby Lewis said a 'lot of work' had been done at Sandwell Hospital with local suppliers to improve meals.

    Read more.

  • New Scientist: Five designer chromosomes bring synthetic life a step closer
    March 9th, 2017

    The goal of creating a complex organism with a genome designed and built from scratch in the laboratory has come a giant step closer.

    The team that built the first synthetic yeast chromosome three years ago has now added five more chromosomes, totalling roughly a third of the yeast's genome. It's a dramatic scaling-up of our capabilities, and opens the door to large-scale genomic engineering.

    The world has already seen one synthetic genome, that of the bacterium nicknamed Synthia. However, bacteria have much smaller and simpler genomes than higher organisms such as yeast and humans, known as eukaryotes. Synthesising a eukaryotic genome is thus a much more complex challenge.

    Read more.

  • Mail: Italy court recognizes non-biological overseas gay adoption
    March 9th, 2017

    A court in Florence has recognized the overseas adoptions of children by two same-sex couples in rulings hailed by the gay rights community as a new step for Italy.

    The Tribunal for Minors recognized the British and U.S. adoptions as legal here, allowing the Italian citizenship of the parents to be passed onto the children.

    The cases published Wednesday marked the first time an Italian court recognized the adoption of non-biological children by gay parents, the Arcobaleno rights group said.

    Read more.

  • Mail: Eurocrats attack Britain's bid to root out terrorists because it 'jeopardizes' efforts to integrate Muslims
    March 9th, 2017

    Eurocrats have blasted Britain's flagship counter-extremism programmes – despite a string of deadly Islamist terror attacks on the Continent.

    Schemes in the UK have been credited with stopping dozens of British fundamentalists travelling abroad to join Islamic State.

    However a report by the Council of Europe warned the UK's anti-radicalisation programmes were 'fomenting resentment' within Muslim communities.

    The Strasbourg-based body, which is separate from the EU, said the Prevent and Channel strategies were 'jeopardising' efforts to integrate Muslims, leading some communities to become extremism incubators.

    Read more.

  • Lapido Media: Outlaw street preachers says Archdeacon Martin
    March 9th, 2017

    A TOP clergyman has said street preaching should be outlawed.

    Archdeacon of Oxford, the Venerable Martin Gorick, said: 'Street preaching can incite to religious hatred. I think it should be outlawed.'

    His remarks arose after two 'American-style' street preachers in Bristol were convicted last week of a 'religiously aggravated public order offence' under the Public Order Act 1998.

    Read more. 

  • BuzzFeed News: "The time has come": Thousands march to legalise abortion in Ireland
    March 8th, 2017

    Thousands of people marched through Ireland's capital on Wednesday evening to demand the government repeals its highly restrictive abortion laws.

    The "March4Repeal" was the culmination of a series of actions planned for International Women's Day to protest against the eighth amendment of the Irish constitution, which states that abortion is prohibited except for when a pregnant woman's life is seen to be at immediate risk.

    Earlier in the day, students across Ireland walked out of lectures as part of a "Strike4Repeal" in protest against the country's abortion laws, completely blocking the O'Connell Bridge in Dublin's city centre.

    Read more.

  • Irish Times: No action on abortion before assembly report, says Harris
    March 8th, 2017

    Minister for Health Simon Harris has agreed that banning abortion does not lessen its occurrence but has insisted that "we must wait for the Citizens’ Assembly to report" before action is taken.

    He told Anti-Austerity Alliance-People Before Profit TD Ruth Coppinger a referendum was needed on the issue but it was not for him to dictate what the assembly discussed.

    The 99-member assembly is debating a range of abortion-related issues, and will report by mid-year on their deliberations. A decision will then be made about whether a referendum should be held.

    Read more.