Persecuted Christians abroad will have their protection bolstered by the British government, following a landmark pledge to implement in full all the recommendations of the Truro report.
The announcement was made last week during a foreign affairs debate in the House of Lords, by Baroness Goldie, Minister of State at the Ministry of Defence.
The report by the Bishop of Truro said that the UK government should “name the phenomenon of Christian discrimination and persecution and undertake work to identify its particular character alongside similar definitions for other religions”. Recommendations included rolling out mandatory training to help staff at home and abroad better identify persecution in all its forms as well as adopting a definition of anti-Christian discrimination and persecution, similar to those applied to Islamophobia and antisemitism.
Baroness Goldie also revealed that the government will also “show global leadership” by imposing Magnitsky-style sanctions on nations which violate human rights. Such sanctions target individual perpetrators of human rights abuse in the offending countries.
The incidence of sexually transmitted diseases (STIs) continued to rise in 2019 with provisional figures indicating a 17% rise in diagnoses of gonorrhoea to 2,823 new cases and a 16% increase in chlamydia to 9,180 new cases.
The Health Protection Surveillance Centre’s provisional figures also show a 6% increase in new diagnoses of herpes and a 3% increase in HIV, to 537, last year. The highest number of diagnoses was for chlamydia. There were 787 new cases of syphilis.
The HSE said: “We expect when figures are finalised that approximately half of chlamydia [diagnoses] will have occurred in young people of 15-24 years, and that gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men will have been disproportionately affected by syphilis and gonorrhoea, with approximately four out of five cases of syphilis and two in three cases of gonorrhoea occurring in this population.”
Three Belgian doctors are going on trial in Ghent accused of unlawfully poisoning a patient who had requested euthanasia.
The sisters of the woman, Tine Nys, who was 38 when she died on 27 April 2010, argue that her reason for seeking to end her life was because of a failed relationship, far short of the “serious and incurable disorder” as required under Belgian law.
The three doctors from East Flanders who are going on trial have not been named, but they include the doctor who carried out the lethal injection and Nys’s former doctor and a psychiatrist. If found guilty they could face long jail terms.
The 38-year-old had suffered a childhood of severe psychiatric problems but had not had psychiatric treatment for 15 years. She was given a diagnosis of autism two months before her death but had not yet received treatment for it, the sisters say.
A man who legally married his long-time male friend for tax purposes two years ago, has died aged 84.
The legal union of Matt Murphy and Michael O’Sullivan (60) made headlines after Mr Murphy told RTÉ Radio’s Liveline that he planned to marry his heterosexual friend of 30 years to help him avoid paying inheritance tax on his home.
Mr O’Sullivan moved in with Mr Murphy during the recession after his apartment was repossessed and he acted as his carer in recent years.
The two married in the Dublin registry office on December 22nd, 2017 and lived in Mr Murphy’s home in Stoneybatter.
In the run-up to the same-sex marriage referendum of 2014, campaigners for a No vote predicted that a redefinition of marriage would lead to this very outcome.
Gardaí are investigating after St Brigid’s Church in Milltown was ransacked in the early hours of Saturday morning last.
The alarm was raised by a man visiting his mother’s grave at 8am on Saturday morning.
Several sacred items taken from the Church have since been recovered in the Newbridge area by Gardaí but their condition is not known at this stage.
The raiders took the tabernacle containing Communion hosts from the altar area.
They also threw the priests’ vestments on the floor and removed a safe and a candle stand.
A stained glass window at the side of the Church was broken and the back door was kicked in.
It’s understood parish priest Fr Willie Byrne and curate For Brian Kavanagh were very shocked and upset by the incident.
At Sunday morning Mass, Fr Kavanagh asked for prayers to be said for the perpetrators.
Simon Harris, the Minister for Health, has asked HSE officials on a steering committee developing transgender services to examine the requirement for people with gender dysphoria to have a psychiatric assessment before embarking on transgender surgery or hormonal interventions.
In 2015, the Govt adopted one of the most radical gender-changing laws in the world that enabled people to change their legal sex simply on foot of a self-declaration. However, medical practice in the country required psychiatric assessment prior to effecting any transgender treatments. This may now change.
Meanwhile, doctors at the National Gender Service at St Columcille’s Hospital have warned that the steering committee is basing its work on an “unsafe” model of care.
In May, Harris appointed to the steering committee Noah Halpin, an activist campaigning against psychiatric assessment and in favour of the recommendations of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (Wpath), which places a strong emphasis on patients’ self-declaration as the basis for treatment. In an email from June released under freedom of information law, the health department said Harris “wishes to ensure the concerns which Noah Halpin brought to his attention are examined”. In particular, the minister’s “expectation” was that the committee would review implementation of the transgender model of care to “ensure compliance with Wpath is happening in practice”.
Same-sex marriage is now legally recognised in Northern Ireland.
From Monday, same-sex couples will be able to register to marry, meaning the first ceremonies will take place in February.
For couples who are already married in other jurisdictions, their marriage will now be legally recognised in Northern Ireland.
However, those who are already in a civil partnership will not be able to convert it to a marriage at this stage.
The Northern Ireland Office is set to begin a consultation later this year about converting civil partnerships and the role of churches in same-sex marriages.
Heterosexual couples will also be able to enter into civil partnerships from today.
A mediator is to be appointed in a last-ditch effort to resolve disagreements that have delayed by seven months the investigation of an abortion carried out at the National Maternity Hospital last year.
The abortion was conducted on the basis of a diagnosis that the child was likely to die before or shortly after birth, but a subsequent test showed the baby had been perfectly healthy.
The couple have objected to the composition of the review panel proposed by the hospital and have argued the investigating team should comprise experts who have no previous professional links to hospital staff, such as consultants from continental Europe.
The hospital has rejected this proposal, though it has agreed that the couple be allowed to nominate additional experts to the review panel. There have also been disagreements over the provision of medical records in their entirety which have been complicated by difficulties providing printed and complete copies of the woman’s electronic health file.
The mediator, expected to be a prominent senior barrister, will begin work on the case shortly.
Terminally ill patients do not have a constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide, a court for the US State of Massachusetts has ruled, but their doctors may provide them advice and information about it.
The ruling comes in a civil case brought by Dr. Roger Kligler, a retired Cape Cod physician who has advanced prostate cancer, and Dr. Alan Steinbach, who treats terminally ill patients.
The court rejected arguments that the euphemistically called ‘medical aid in dying’ should not be considered manslaughter, while also concluding that sharing advice and information about it is permissible. States that allow assisted suicide include Oregon, California and Vermont. When Massachusetts voted on such an end-of-life measure in 2012, it narrowly lost, with 51% of voters against it and 49% in favour.
A pro-life MP has used her maiden speech in the House of Commons this week to defend the right to life of unborn babies and called for the Government to step back from implementing an extreme pro-abortion law on Northern Ireland.
DUP MP Carla Lockhart said she wished to highlight the anger, disappointment and frustration stemming from the law having been foisted upon the people.
“These changes came in the most roughshod way, with complete contempt for the devolved Administration and the views of the people of Northern Ireland. I want today to make the point to this House, on behalf of the many thousands of people across Northern Ireland who take a pro-life stance, that we want to repeal section 9 with immediate effect and allow for the Northern Ireland Assembly to debate, discuss and evidence-gather on this emotive issue.”
She said that under the new law, abortion on request for any reason will be legalised up to the point at which a baby is “capable of being born alive”.
She concluded: “I want a society in Northern Ireland that values life, and I want to see services that will help women choose life. We want to see a perinatal palliative care centre, a maternal mental health unit and better childcare services, and that is my ask of this Government. Help us create a culture of choosing life, as opposed to killing an innocent little baby that does not have the voice to say, ‘No, mummy!’”
