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In the News

  • Telegraph: Watchdogs release damning reports on Marie Stopes abortion clinics
    December 21st, 2016

    Staff at Britain’s biggest abortion provider tried to give a vulnerable woman a termination even though she did not understand what was going on, a damning report has found.

    Inspectors were forced to intervene as the patient with learning disabilities became distressed, amid a catalogue of failings uncovered at Marie Stopes clinics across the country.

    Watchdogs described horrific scenes which left patients at risk of infection, with foetal tissue from a succession of terminations left in open waste bins, in one clinic.

    Read more. 

  • Times (£): 'Anti-gay' archbishop removed from college
    December 21st, 2016

    University leaders have been accused of giving in to “gay-stapo” student campaigners by removing a picture of a former Archbishop of Canterbury from the front of a campus building.

    An image of Lord Carey of Clifton has been taken down from the “wall of fame” of King’s College London alumni at the entrance to its campus in The Strand, central London. The action comes after a five-year campaign by a small group of students who objected to his opposition to gay marriage and his views on homosexuality.

    Read more. 

  • BBC: Troubled families turnaround claim misleading, say MPs
    December 20th, 2016

    The government's claim that a project had "turned around" the lives of 99% of England's most troubled families was misleading, MPs have said.

    Ministers had not taken into account costs when saying the Troubled Families programme had saved taxpayers £1.2bn, the Public Accounts Committee added.

    It also criticised the payment-by-results system for councils.

    Read more. 

  • USA Today: Trans girl, 9, makes history on National Geographic cover
    December 20th, 2016

    In 1985, an Afghan girl with piercing green eyes stared into the world’s soul from the cover of National Geographic in an iconic and mesmerizing photo.

    Thirty-one years later, another young girl peers out from the magazine’s glossy front in an equally compelling portrait. A girl with tangles of pink-streaked hair, comfy pink leggings and a resolute gaze — a girl who until 2012 lived as a boy.

    Meet Avery Jackson, 9, the first transgender individual to grace the cover of the 128-year-old magazine, which is rolling out to subscribers this week in a special edition devoted solely to gender issues around the globe.

    Read more. 

  • Guardian: Church of England appoints first black bishop in 20 years
    December 20th, 2016

    The Church of England has appointed its first black bishop for 20 years in a move that significantly increases its handful of minority ethnic clergy in senior leadership positions.

    Downing Street announced that Woyin Karowei Dorgu is to be the 13th bishop of Woolwich, and will be consecrated at Southwark Cathedral on 17 March.

    Dorgu was born and brought up in Nigeria, and ordained in the UK. Woolwich, in south-east London, has a significant Nigerian population, many of whom worship in black-majority Pentecostal churches rather than the C of E.

    Read more. 

  • Guardian: Pregnant women's stem cells could treat osteoporosis, say scientists
    December 20th, 2016

    People with fragile bones could have their skeletons beefed up with infusions of stem cells harvested from pregnant women, researchers say.

    Scientists proposed the unusual therapy after studies showed that the treatment led to 78% fewer fractures in animals that were bred to have a brittle bone disorder.

    The finding has raised hopes for treating rare bone conditions that affect some babies from birth, but the same procedure has the potential to help older people with osteoporosis, and even astronauts who lose bone mass in orbit, the researchers said.

    Read more. 

  • Christian Today: Queen Steps Down As Patron From Christian Charities
    December 20th, 2016

    The Queen will step down as patron of 25 national organisations, including a number of Christian charities, at the end of the year.

    The roles at bodies such as the NSPCC, Save the Children and Barnardo's will be given to other members of the royal family in a sign of the Queen's scaling back her workload.

    Read more. 

     

  • BBC: Premature quadruplets home for Christmas in Birmingham
    December 20th, 2016

    A set of quadruplets born 10 weeks premature have been reunited at home in time for Christmas.

    Ginger, Brodie, Trixie and Keiko were born by Caesarean section to parents Kirsty and Richard Jackson Fuller.

    Weighing between 2lb 1oz and 2lb 12oz at birth, all four girls had illnesses, with one becoming so poorly her parents were warned to prepare for the worst.

    But at three months old, the last two have just been given the all-clear from Birmingham Women's Hospital.

    Read more. 

  • BBC: Russian ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov shot dead in Ankara
    December 20th, 2016

    A Turkish policeman has shot dead Russia's ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov, apparently in protest at Russia's involvement in Aleppo.

    The killer has been identified as Mevlut Mert Aydintas, 22, a member of the Ankara riot police. It was not clear if he had links to any group.

    The incident happened a day after protests in Turkey over Russian support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

    Turkey's president said the attack was aimed at hurting ties with Russia.

    Read more. 

  • Times (£): Allowing abortion in rape cases 'won't work'
    December 20th, 2016

    Legislation forcing rape victims to prove that a crime had occurred before they could have an abortion would be unworkable, Rape Crisis Network Ireland has warned.

    The victim's support group said that women should not be forced to endure a judgmental process to prove they have been raped to access a safe and legal termination if the Eighth Amendment was repealed.

    The government set up a citizens' assembly to consider potential changes to Ireland's strict anti-abortion laws, particularly in cases of rape.

    Almost a quarter of victims who became pregnant after being raped terminated the pregnancy, new research has shown.

    Read more.