A Christian school worker in the UK who was dismissed after sharing social media posts questioning the wisdom of teaching gender theory has won a Court of Appeal battle.

Kristie Higgs lost her role as a pastoral administrator and work experience manager at Farmor’s School in Fairford, Gloucestershire, in 2019 after sharing Facebook posts criticising plans to teach about gender ideology and same-sex marriage in primary schools.

In a judgment on Wednesday – the latest stage of her years-long legal battle – three judges ruled in her favour.

Lord Justice Underhill said: “In the present case the claimant, who was employed in a secondary school, had posted messages, mostly quoted from other sources, objecting to Government policy on sex education in primary schools because of its promotion of ‘gender fluidity’ and its equation of same-sex marriage with marriage between a man and a woman.

He added that her beliefs are protected by the Equality Act.

A pro-life volunteer has been arrested by UK police for silently standing in a public area near an abortion clinic. It is not the first time this has happened to Isabel Vaughan-Spruce under draconian measures against any form of pro-life activity, even silent vigils, that takes place near abortion facilities. The same kind of law exists in Ireland.

Video footage shows a West Midlands Police officer demand that Ms Vaughan-Spruce leave a public area because of what she is known to believe – despite her simply standing alone, praying silently, without undertaking any actions.

The footage shows the police officer explain that he believes Isabel’s “mere presence” may constitute “harassment, alarm and distress”, given that she is known to have pro-life beliefs and belong to a pro-life organisation. He thus concluded that she was breaching the rules of the “buffer zone” – an area within 150m of an abortion facility.

The incident took place despite West Midlands Police previously issuing an apology and a payout of £13,000 for breaching Vaughan-Spruce’s human rights on two prior occasions where they arrested her for praying silently in the same “buffer zone”.

A lawsuit to stop immigration raids on places of worship has been filed by a coalition of 27 churches and faith groups.

Previously, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) policy prevented enforcement actions in “sensitive” places like churches, schools, daycare centres and hospitals, but the new Trump administration claims they are being used to “hide criminals” and reversed the policy.

The lawsuit alleges an infringement of religious freedom as enforcement actions threaten ministry to vulnerable immigrant congregations.

The plaintiffs point to a recent case in Georgia, where an asylum-seeker was listening to a sermon in a Pentecostal church when ICE agents entered and arrested him.

Such arrests during worship and ministry would be “devastating” to plaintiffs’ religious practice, according to the lawsuit.

“It would shatter the consecrated space of sanctuary, thwart communal worship, and undermine the social service outreach that is central to religious expression and spiritual practice for Plaintiffs’ congregations and members,” the lawsuit states.

A leading Irish priest has warned that so-called ‘polite persecution’ is forcing many religious believers to keep their views to themselves because they are considered “culturally impolite” in contemporary Ireland.

Belfast-based priest Fr Tim Bartlett, who was responsible for organising the 2018 visit to Ireland by Pope Francis, was celebrating Mass for persecuted Christians on RTÉ One on Sunday morning organised by Aid to the Church in Need Ireland.

Fr Bartlett warned that “respect for the right to religious freedom” is “the cornerstone of a genuinely diverse, pluralist and free society.

“Sadly, despite the welcome progress in respect for so many other areas of human rights in the world today, research shows that respect for the right to religious freedom is under increasing threat, even in countries which pride themselves as being exemplars of respect for tolerance and diversity,” he said.

Fr Bartlett warned that many Irish believers experience “so-called ‘polite persecution’, where any public display or conversation about religious conviction is considered politically and culturally impolite.

Almost two thirds of the UK’s young adults believe that marriage is still an important institution, as Generation Z takes a more conservative view of sex and relationships than that of their parents.

The London Times’ Generation Z study revealed that only a fifth of 18 to 27-year-olds believed that marriage was “irrelevant”, while a third thought it better for a couple to be married before having children.

The research showed that young adults today were more in favour of marriage than young adults 20 years ago, when almost twice the proportion — 39 per cent — thought marriage to be irrelevant.

The survey found a similar swing regarding ‘one-night-stands’.

Only 23 per cent of 18 to 27-year-olds said their friends commonly had sex on a one-night stand — a steep fall from the 78 per cent of Millennials who said yes to that question 20 years ago.

On the issue of internet pornography, less than half (40 per cent) said that they thought their friends commonly looked at it, compared with 58 per cent 20 years ago.

Labour has mothballed plans to make it easier to change the legal designation of one’s sex, the Times has reported.

They are now unlikely to adopt a self-id law, which has been in operation in Ireland since 2015.

It is believed that the step is partly meant to counter Reform UK’s surge in the polls.

During the election last summer Labour promised to change the process of requiring a panel of doctors and lawyers to approve gender recognition certificates. They alleged the process was “undignified”.

However, multiple sources said that the reforms were not a priority for ministers. They expect the plans to quietly “go away”.

Gender recognition and women’s rights have been a point of tension for Labour, but Sir Keir Starmer has strengthened his position on biological sex after previous struggles to define a woman.

On Sunday, Wes Streeting, the health secretary, bemoaned decisions taken by the NHS to remove the word “woman” from medical documents. He has also placed an indefinite ban on puberty blockers for children.

Marriages in China dropped by a massive 20pc last year despite big efforts by authorities to encourage young couples to wed and have children to boost the country’s declining population.

More than 6.1 million couples registered for marriage last year, down from 7.68 million the year before, figures from the Ministry of Civil Affairs showed.

The figure marks the fewest marriages since public records began in 1986 and is less than half the peak reached in 2013 when 12 million weddings took place.

The number of registered divorces increased by 1.1 percent year-on-year to 2.62 million in 2024.

While the roots of the crisis are complex, Chinese authorities are attempting to boost interest in marriage and baby-making.

Measures taken last year by authorities to tackle the problem included urging China’s colleges and universities to provide “love education” to emphasize positive views on marriage, love, fertility and family.

And in November, China’s state council or cabinet, told local governments to direct resources towards fixing China’s population crisis and spread respect for childbearing and marriages “at the right age.”

Upholding the dignity and rights of each person from conception to natural death is essential to healthcare, according to Irish bishop, Michael Router.

The auxiliary Bishop of Armagh is chairman of the Council for Healthcare of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference and was commenting on Pope Francis’ message for the 2025 World Day of the Sick.

This view of healthcare has however, “been eroded in Ireland over the past decade with the introduction of a liberal abortion regime that has led to the deaths of over 30,000 children in the womb”, he said.

Likewise, introducing assisted suicide in Ireland would “fly in the face of the underlying principle of medical intervention – ‘Do no harm’”.

Instead, he said, “Increasing funding and capacity in the delivery of palliative care is the only compassionate and ethical way to approach end-of-life issues”.

https://www.catholicbishops.ie/2025/02/09/bishop-michael-router-healthcare-should-never-loose-sight-of-human-dignity-from-conception-to-natural-death/

The US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy will prioritise families by giving preference to communities with higher marriage and birth rates when awarding infrastructure grants.

The move is part of a broader “family-friendly” agenda, most recently articulated by Vice President JD Vance who declared it “the task of our government to make it easier for young moms and dads to afford to have kids” and to “raise thriving and healthy families in our country.”

Family groups praised the initiative saying transportation spending has often been directed toward large, urban projects that end up favouring denser communities which are associated with lower family formation — less marriage and fewer children.

Brad Wilcox of the Institute for Family Studies said the new policy will likely “reorient transportation dollars to lower-density communities where there are more single-family homes, family life is often more affordable, and family formation is higher”.

They say errors by doctors at the Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust led to them terminating their pregnancies.

Another family say a last-minute scan on the day they were due to have an abortion changed their minds and they are now the parents of a healthy nine-year-old boy.

One couples was offered a test, known as chorionic villus sampling (CVS), to check if their baby had any genetic or chromosomal conditions.

Two days later, the foetal care team at City Hospital in Nottingham told them the initial results indicated their daughter had a rare genetic condition called Patau’s Syndrome, which often results in miscarriage, stillbirth, or the baby dying shortly after birth.

The couple decided to have an abortion.

However, a second test, revealed to them six weeks later, showed their daughter had no chromosomal abnormality.