In The Media

The Bethel Christian Assembly, an independent church, had been based at Shalford Village Hall near Guildford in Surrey, south England.

Pink News

Warwickshire County Council is set to pay out more than £1m to ensure that a troubled Catholic school in Leamington can become part of an academy run by the Birmingham Archdiocese.

The Courier

Armed police have foiled an lslamist lockdown terror plot after carrying out raids on addresses in east London and Leicester.

The Telegraph

The Forum, which is still gathering representation from civil-society organisations, NGOs, academic organisations, and the Government, will be launched in September.

Church Times

The United States has imposed sanctions on three senior officials of the Chinese Communist party, including a member of the ruling politburo, for alleged human rights abuses targeting ethnic and religious minorities in the western part of the country.

The Guardian

Reproductive rights advocates fear the ruling will disproportionately impact marginalized students who already have trouble obtaining contraceptive care.

NBC News

The Supreme Court's recent decision that Montana cannot exclude donations that go to religious schools from a small tax credit program could have consequences felt far beyond the state.

The Conversation

Instagram will block the promotion of "conversion therapy", which tries to change a person's sexuality or gender identity.

BBC

Thailand's cabinet approved a civil partnership bill on Wednesday that would recognise same-sex unions with almost the same legal rights as married couples.

Reuters

An editorial in the Scottish Daily Mail says the proposed Hate Crime Bill risks endangering the fundamental principles of free speech.

Scottish Daily Mail (via PressReader)

Law lords have ruled a 2010 nikah (Islamic 'marriage') ceremony between parties at Oldham Register Office did not qualify under English law.

The Oldham Times

Research by the Commission for Countering Extremism said groups of all kinds had been seeking to "breed hate" and spread conspiracy theories feeding into their worldview.

The Independent

A funding package worth £24 million has been announced by the Church of England to help spread Christianity in urban and deprived areas.

Episcopal News Service

Religious leaders have written to the equalities minister calling for the government to deliver its promised ban on so-called gay 'conversion therapy'.

ITV

People seeking asylum in the UK and Europe on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity are routinely seeing their claims rejected because of a widespread "culture of disbelief" and an "impossible burden of proof", researchers have said.

The Guardian

The Supreme Court on Wednesday barred teachers who work at church-run schools from filing discrimination lawsuits against their employers, ruling that the Constitution's protection for religious liberty exempts church schools from state and federal anti-discrimination laws.

Los Angeles Times

Christian anti-abortion lobbying organisations received millions in taxpayer-backed forgivable loans from the US government's coronavirus aid program, even as lawmakers demanded the nation's largest abortion provider return federal loans.

The Guardian

More than 650 cases have been linked to reopened religious facilities.

The New York Times (£)

The controversial construction of the first Hindu temple in Pakistan's capital has been halted after it was challenged in the courts.

The Guardian

An evangelical Christian fostering service must allow gay parents to sign up as carers, a judge has ruled.

BBC

A new study has found that only one in five Christian parents believe churches have a major responsibility to protect the mental health and wellbeing of their children.

Premier Christian News

Senior Jewish and Muslim leaders this week issued a joint plea ahead of a European Court of Justice hearing into the legality of a Belgian ban on religious slaughter.

Jewish News

The Archdiocese of Dublin recently announced that church donations have fallen by up to 80 per cent during the coronavirus pandemic and that priests have had to agree a 25 per cent cut in their personal allowance.

Catholic Herald (£)

A representative from the Caribbean Reparations Commission said it is time for the Church of England to join the discussion on reparations.

Tribune 242

A new petition calling for an end to religious instruction in primary schools is part of a renewed campaign to make state schooling truly secular.

The Spinoff

India's Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has "completely deleted" a chapter on secularism from the political science curriculum of Class 11 for the academic year 2020-21.

The Indian Express

'A small army of pro-terrorism accounts has polluted Facebook with dangerous propaganda'.

Wired

While other filmmakers may have been tempted to approach Pastafarianism through a quirkier lens, Michael Arthur offers a more serious look.

Yahoo! Movies

Banning religious services may have been illegal but other restrictions imposed by the government in England during the coronavirus lockdown were legitimate, a high court judge has ruled.

The Guardian

An emergency relaxation of abortion rules to allow women to take pills at home during the coronavirus pandemic could be made permanent, according to the Government.

Evening Standard

A former senior Police Service of Northern Ireland officer is to lead a Stormont-ordered investigation into clerical child abuse and mother and baby homes.

Belfast Telegraph

The Reverend Alwyn Pereira, vicar of Aldershot Parish Church, Hampshire, found comments by the former Bishop of Bristol Mike Hill in a church file.

BBC

"I personally know dozens of Muslims who exist in this in-between space, but don't publicly acknowledge it for fear of reprisal from their family or community."

iNews

Christian, Jewish and Muslim representatives have criticised the European Union's decision to drop its special envoy for religious freedom.

Deutsche Welle

The complaint at the International Criminal Court is the first of its kind to challenge Beijing on its crackdown on Muslims, but China does not accept the court's jurisdiction.

The New York Times (£)

The Philippine president on Friday signed a widely opposed anti-terror law which critics fear could be used against human rights defenders and to muzzle dissent.

AP News

The mats sold were labelled as "frilled Greek carpets" and had pictures of the Kabaa on them.

BBC

"Helping grieving relatives reach a difficult decision without hectoring or judging is a fine art".

The Guardian

The school at Hampton Water was given the go ahead by the city council in January despite vocal opposition from local residents who described it as "discriminatory" for being able to prioritise pupils on faith over location.

Peterborough Telegraph

"The right to express dissent from religion, including criticising, ridiculing, or parodying religious beliefs, is a central tenet of both the right to freedom of religion or belief and the right to freedom of expression."

The Herald

A university publisher has been criticised for printing book edited by a leading member of Cage, a group said to be 'apologists for terror'.

The Telegraph

Human rights lawyers have launched a scathing attack on the Home Office for failing to grant asylum to an 11-year-old girl found by judges to be at high risk of female genital mutilation if removed from Britain.

The Guardian

A female extremist who was determined to "kill as many as possible" in a suicide bomb attack on St Paul's Cathedral has been jailed for life.

The Independent

Incurably ill individuals should be free to discuss openly their wishes about dying, writes Rabbi Danny Rich.

The JC

Nations that claim to be defenders of the faith offer no protest to the concentration camps, says Nick Cohen.

The Guardian

Polish president Andrzej Duda has proposed a constitutional ban on same-sex couples adopting children and plans to introduce this in an amendment today.

Gay Times

School systems will be forced to disclose more information about how they allocate public funding to their students amid ongoing sensitivity over the way Catholic authorities distribute their resources.

The Sydney Morning Herald

It can be hard to determine the role these women played in Isis. To some they are active members, to others it is less clear and a presumption of guilt is a human rights abuse, writes Louisa Loveluck.

The Independent