A sperm donor has won parental rights to his biological son over the claims of the child’s lesbian birth mother, who is not the biological mother, in a landmark case in Australia.

The boy was conceived via IVF and the female couple chose donor eggs and donor sperm.

All parties were known to each other and the sperm donor, the child’s father, regularly spent time with the boy, including overnight stays.

The man said he agreed to the arrangement only on condition that he would be involved in the child’s life.

When the two mothers broke up, it triggered the messy 3-way custody battle.

The trial judge ruled that the father was not merely ‘a sperm donor’ as he had provided support and care to the boy, now 9, since the time of his birth.

‘(The mothers) do not enjoy any superiority over any other person keenly interested in (the boy’s) welfare, namely (the sperm donor).’

The birth mother, who lost her parental rights, had wanted sole responsibility of the child.

But the birth mother’s ex-partner, who had turned her life around following the breakup, fought for shared responsibility with the sperm donor father

The judge ruled the nine-year-old’s best interests meant giving shared responsibility to the birth mother’s ex-partner and the sperm donor father, leaving the birth mother out entirely.

A scene from the opening ceremony of the Olympic games in Paris, based on the painting of the Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci, has sparked widespread condemnation including from the France bishops, after drag queens were used to depict Christ and the apostles.

The French Bishops criticised the “scenes of derision and mockery of Christianity, which we deeply deplore.”

In the US, Bishop Robert Barron, called it a “gross mockery of the Last Supper.”

He said the ‘blasphemous’ act was emblematic of a “deeply secularist postmodern society” that identifies Christianity as its enemy.

German Bishop Stefan Oster called the “queer Last Supper” scene “a low point and completely superfluous in the staging”.

While the ceremony’s director Thomas Jolly, claimed that the scene is an “interpretation of the Greek God Dionysus” a statement from ceremony’s producers, said that it was in fact inspired by Da Vinci’s famous painting.

“For the ‘Festivities’ segment, Thomas Jolly took inspiration from Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting to create the setting,” the producers said in the statement. “… [Jolly] is not the first artist to make a reference to what is a world-famous work of art. From Andy Warhol to ‘The Simpsons,’ many have done it before him.”

Almost half of childless Americans between the ages of 18 and 49 say they are unlikely to ever have kids, with many saying they just don’t want any. The share giving this answer has risen from 37pc to 47pc in just five years, according to a Pew Research Center survey. America’s fertility rate is now below replacement level.

The study interviewed 2,542 adults ages 50 and older who don’t have children and 770 adults ages 18 to 49 who say they are not too, or not at all, likely to have them.

What is notable is that many did not cite affordability as their main reason for not wanting children but mentioned lifestyle reasons instead.

About four-in-ten of those in the older group (38%) say there was a time when they wanted to have children. A smaller but sizable share (32%) say they never wanted children, and 25% say they weren’t sure one way or the other. Few say they frequently felt pressure to have children from family, friends or society in general.

Reasons for not having children – or being unlikely to ever have them – differ between the older and younger groups. The top response for those ages 50 and older is that it just didn’t happen. Meanwhile, those in the younger group are most likely to say they just don’t want to have kids. Women younger than 50 are especially likely to say they just don’t want to have children (64% vs. 50% of men in this group).

An assisted suicide Bill was presented in the House of Lords yesterday as sponsor Lord Falconer attempts to change the current ban on the practice for the seventh time.

While the Bill’s details have not yet been released, it is likely to be similar to one of Lord Falconer’s previous assisted suicide bills.

Private Members’ Bills rarely become law and are even less likely to become law when they have started in the House of Lords.

They are, however, an opportunity to raise the profile of a particular issue and can therefore indirectly influence Government-backed legislation.

Three Christians have been killed and several others kidnapped in an attack on a village near Movmove in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Militants from the Islamist Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) launched an assault on the community on the night of July 16, according to Christian persecution watchdog International Christian Concern (ICC).

“We did not realize that they had invaded our village until they landed on us in the house and started slaughtering people while speaking some Islamic words,” a survivor recalled. “That is the moment I realized there was danger. I ran passing through the behind door of our house to the bush, and this is how I managed to survive these killings.”

The attackers also reportedly set fire to several homes.

In response to the attack, the Bishop of the Anglican Church of Beni urged the Congolese Armed Forces to protect the vulnerable community by strengthening the military units based in the area.

Russia has exported the worst practices of religious intolerance to the territories it occupies in Ukraine, according to the US based Helsinki Commission.

In hearings in Washington DC this week on “Russia’s persecution of Ukrainian Christians”, the Commission said Russia has engaged in routine kidnapping, hostage-taking, violence against civilians, and suppression of Ukrainian culture and language.

“Occupying authorities under orders from the Kremlin have been particularly harsh toward Protestant Christians and institutions, often painting them as agents of the United States,” a press release said.

Mark Sergeev, a Ukrainian evangelical pastor who escaped from occupied Melitopol testified that conditions in Russian-occupied Ukraine are worse now than they were during Soviet times.

Penn State professor Catherine Wanner told the commission there is “no place for Protestants in the Russian world.” According to Wanner, who previously worked for the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University, evangelicals in Russia are considered “apostates,” “traitors,” and “spies.”

Kamala Harris, who is very likely to the Democratic nominee in the US presidential election, “will put abortion rights…right at at the centre of this campaign”, according to Congressman Jamie Raskin, a fellow Democrat.

Jessica Mackler of the pro-abortion ‘Emily’s List, has said: “There’s a real electric energy right now in the party”, adding “people are fired up and they are excited about her. And a lot of that is about the leadership that she provides on reproductive rights.”

However, pro-life groups have hit back. “Harris is so committed to abortion that she can’t see anything else — including the developmental stages of children before birth or the real needs of women,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, of SBA Pro-Life America.

She added: “While Joe Biden has trouble saying the word abortion, Kamala Harris shouts it.”

Four Christians, including a pastor, have been arrested for allegedly converting people with illicit promises of material rewards.

The incident occurred in India’s most populous state of nearly 200 million people where Christians make up a miniscule 0.18 percent of the population.

Uttar Pradesh, like the national government, is run by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), with strong links to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a militant Hindu nationalist organization.

Two Hindu activists intervened in a prayer meeting and informed the police, alleging forced religious conversion through allurement.

They claimed a Christian pastor and three local villagers had converted as many as 60 people of 15 Hindu families to Christianity and were trying to do the same with other villagers.

He alleged they give people money as well as fridges, televisions, bicycles, motorcycles and sewing machines for converting.

He said free evangelical churches gather people for prayer and pastors pray over the people for healing, adding, “miracles do occur.”

“These prayer meetings are alleged to be conversion meetings. The truth is that the pastors do not baptise people after the enactment of the new ordinance”.

A new law in Pakistan to tackle Christian girls being abducted, forcibly converted to Islam and married off to older men has been welcomed by the country’s Catholic leadership.

Pakistan’s National Assembly unanimously approved the raising of the minimum legal age of Christians for marriage to 18, amending an 1872 British rule allowing marriage at 13 for girls and 16 for boys.

About 19 million Pakistani women are victims of child marriage, according to 2018 data, with religious minorities being particularly vulnerable.

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Pakistan hailed the act saying it “will play a crucial role in protecting our young and minor girls from forced conversions and child marriages”.

They expressed hope that the Government would take “further steps to criminalise forced religious conversions”.

This act is not the first legislation of its kind in response to rampant child marriages, but courts do not always enforce these laws.

Eight months after more than 300 Christians were massacred on Christmas Eve and three months after another string of attacks over the Easter period, the Nigerian government has failed to keep people safe, according to a priest caring for displaced people.

Father Andrew Dewan, director of communications in Pankshin Diocese, said survivors of violence by extremists in Nigeria’s Middle Belt “have no trust” in their leaders as they face continued attacks and an increasing food shortage,

He told Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) that “elected officials are just not interested in the welfare of the people”, offering no protection or other practical support to Christian communities whose homes and livelihoods have been destroyed.

The priest added that he regularly receives reports of fresh killings and other atrocities. He highlighted that last Saturday (13 July) terrorists kidnapped a Christian woman and her daughter, and on Sunday (14 July) armed Fulani herdsmen stormed a Christian community in Bokkos once again and “killed the village head”.

Fr Dewan said there is a clear religious dimension to the attacks, even though conflict over land is also a factor, with Muslim-majority herdsmen targeting overwhelmingly Christian farming communities.