UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has accused China of “gross and egregious” human rights abuses against its Uighurs and said sanctions against those responsible cannot be ruled out. Reports of forced sterilisation and wider persecution of the Muslim group were “reminiscent of something not seen for a long time”, he told the BBC. The UK Read more
Posts Tagged ‘UK’
Massive increase in UK arms sales to Saudis
Thursday, November 21st, 2019Statistics show that the UK Government licensed £5,335,852,492 worth of arms to the Saudi Arabian regime in the first four years of its ongoing bombardment of Yemen (26 March 2015 – 25 March 2019). This is an increase of almost 50% on the value of arms licensed in the four years preceding the war, which Read more
Britons swapping pints for prayers
Thursday, May 30th, 2019
Every village in the United Kingdom used to have a pub, a church, and a general store. Today, pubs (short for “public houses”) have become iconic, a popular destination for visitors to try drinks, traditional pub meals, and the cultural ambiance. But these local landmarks are closing quickly; only 39,000 are left in England, down Read more
UK government’s pledge to end homelessness
Thursday, August 23rd, 2018
The UK government’s pledge to end homelessness by 2027 has been welcomed by English bishops. They hope the £100 million plan to help end rough sleeping on England’s streets will be put into place urgently. Around 4,750 people are estimated to sleep rough on any given night in England. The scheme, which was launched on Read more
UK government abandoning duty to protect child refugees
Thursday, February 16th, 2017The UK Government is “abandoning its statutory and moral duty to take effective action for the protection of vulnerable, unaccompanied child refugees,” said Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster Nichols, who is the president of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales has asked the British government to review its decision to limit the number of Read more
UK Catholics welcome Syrian refugees
Tuesday, July 26th, 2016
UK Catholics have joined a government project to resettle an estimated 20,000 refugees from the Syrian war. Although there is some obvious concern in the UK that the refugees may include terrorists, organizers say they are confident the refugees, who are drawn from predominantly Muslim camps, will not include members of the Islamic State terror Read more
UK to create IVF babies with three people’s DNA
Tuesday, July 2nd, 2013The United Kingdom looks set to become the first country in the world to allow the creation of IVF babies using DNA from three people. The government said it would draft regulations to allow human embryos to be created in this way to avoid mitochondrial diseases. But the director of Human Genetics Alert, called the Read more
Social workers reject 88% of potential UK parents
Friday, November 30th, 2012
Only one in eight of the couples and individuals who try to adopt children are approved by social workers, official figures revealed yesterday. The shocking statistics mean that more than 22,000 would-be adoptive parents vanish from the system every year. The figures were made public for the first time by the schools and children inspectorate Read more
Lay people to preside at funerals in England
Tuesday, September 18th, 2012
Liverpool is the first diocese in England and Wales to commission lay people to preside at Catholic funerals. The commissioning of 22 lay people is an effort to relieve pressure on priests. “In some of our parishes in the diocese priests are being asked to celebrate over 120 funerals each year,” Archbishop Kelly wrote in Read more
UK nuclear weapons labelled “Shameful”
Friday, April 22nd, 2011
Addressing a rally outside the Faslane naval base on Gare Loch, Scotland’s Cardinal Keith O’Brien labelled the UK Government’s nuclear weapons “shameful.” He urges the govenment to “do the right thing” and give up the weapons. Quoting the words of Pope Benedict XVI, he said: “In a nuclear war there would be no victors, only Read more