These articles were first published in our July edition of the newspaper, click here for more.
Councillors voted against increasing Sunday trading in Belfast in May, following concerns that family life would suffer.
The proposal was rejected by 12 votes to three. DUP, Sinn Féin and the SDLP all opposed the measure in the council vote. Nearly 2,500 individuals and organisations had responded to the consultation. The proposal was to designate Belfast as a ‘holiday resort’ under the Northern Ireland’s Shops Order 1997 and to allow all-day opening on 18 days a year.
A worrying new app has been introduced that allows people who want to have a baby or help others have a baby to meet, it was reported in June.
Just A Baby works similarly to the dating app Tinder, and allows people to find a surrogate, partner, co-parent, sperm or egg donor, as well as legal and fertility services.
Representatives of churches and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from the UK and Ireland joined members of the Eritrean diaspora in a Protest Vigil outside the Eritrean Embassy in London on 18 May, to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the imposition of severe restrictions on Eritrea’s Christian community and the closure of churches affiliated to targeted denominations.
The Protest Vigil was moderated by David Turner, coordinator of Church in Chains, who travels from Ireland annually to attend the event in solidarity with prisoners detained indefinitely in Eritrea.
A study published in June has shown that more sex education is linked to higher rates of teenage pregnancy.
It found that teenage pregnancy rates declined in areas where the government cut spending on sex education and birth control pills. The decline was steepest in areas where councils slashed their teenage pregnancy budgets most aggressively. The research was conducted by David Paton, of the Nottingham University Business School, and Liam Wright, of the University of Sheffield.
The Church of England will debate whether to denounce therapy for unwanted same-sex attraction and the administration of ‘trans-gender baptisms’, at the upcoming General Synod in July.
Dr Mike Davidson, of Core Issues Trust, commented that this would not stop ‘the determination many individuals have to leave homosexual practices and desires, nor to dampen the ardour with which their supporters provide care to such persons’.