Google has banned all ads relating to the Republic of Ireland’s upcoming referendum on abortion, which takes place on 25th May.

It comes after Facebook blocked all foreign ads relating to the vote on Tuesday.

Google has gone a step further after announcing all ads linked it would be blocked.

Dawn Mcavoy is a Christian and co-founder of Both Lives Matter – a movement of individuals and organisations that want to re-frame the abortion debate in Northern Ireland and beyond from a pro-life perspective.

She told Premier the bans are concerning.

“It does affect pro-life voices more and pro-life campaigners – ourselves included – do rely on digital media and social media because elements within the print and broadcast media are committed to a pro-choice agenda,” she said during Premier’s News Hour.

Voters will decide whether to repeal the Eighth Amendment to the Republic of Ireland’s constitution, which states “the right to life of the unborn”.

While Ireland’s electoral laws ban foreign organisations from funding campaign groups in the country, social media sites and search engines like Google are not prohibited from carrying foreign-funded -s.

Explaining why the ban is particularly problematic, Mcavoy added: “Information is the currency of democracy and the public need to be able to rely on the information they’re…

ADF International said the UN will not be able to strengthen, promote and protect human rights if it doesn’t take a stronger stance against religious freedom violations.

The 73-page report, entitled Anti-Conversion Laws and the International Response said “some UN entities have highlighted the problems with anti-conversion laws, but other UN entities have failed to condemn them”. That report said that such failure is “emblematic of the UN’s overall failure to protect religious freedom”.

Anti-conversation laws have been passed in India, Nepal, Myanmar, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Pakistan as an example. Nepal and Pakistan are members of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

“The mere existence of an anti-conversion law in a state or country usually gives licence to nationalist religious extremists to persecute members of minority religions,” the report stated.

It added that it is unrealistic to expect Council resolutions to tackle “anti-conversion, blasphemy, apostasy” if Member States refuse to ban such laws from their own legislative systems and try to persuade other States on the Council to not vote for strong religious freedom protections.

ADF International has advised the UN to urge countries to abolish their anti-conversion laws and to prioritise making countries enforce fundamental human rights.

The report was presented on 8th May at a briefing in…

The attack happened when the child went to show the priest a picture she had drawn of a chapel, the hearing was told.

The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI) sitting in Edinburgh is currently examining children’s homes, no longer operating, which were run by the Catholic congregation the Sisters of Nazareth in Scotland.

A woman, who cannot be named, told the inquiry the incident happened shortly before she left Nazareth House in Cardonald, Glasgow, in the 1970s. She described an occasion when she attended confession at a church in the area and afterwards presented the priest with a picture she had drawn of a small chapel next to Nazareth House.

By this time, the priest was in the section of the confessional that she was in, the inquiry heard.

“I was showing him the picture, he was saying it was lovely and praising me,” the witness said. “He was behind me and I think he still had the picture in his hand. I could remember him lifting up my skirt and putting his hands inside my underwear and rubbing himself against me.

“I could feel something sticky on my bare legs. I felt sore. I seem to recall I was bleeding a bit as well.

“That’s what the priest done.”

The woman, who could not remember the priest’s name, said she did not report the assault to the nuns at the home, believing “they would have said it was my fault”.

“I actually liked the interest I was getting,” she…

Catholic, Baptist, Methodist and Pentecostal churches have all joined the Thy Kingdom Come initiative which Justin Welby has spearheaded.

Writing on Twitter on Thursday, he said: “Today, Thy Kingdom Come begins. Join me in praying for people we know to come to faith in Jesus Christ. Come Holy Spirit!”

Believers from every continent are being encouraged to ask God to move in the lives of friends, family members, neighbours and colleagues who do not yet know Christ.

Rev Canon Chris Russell, an evangelism advisor at Lambeth Palace told Premier: “We’ve all got friends who long would know the transforming love of Christ.

Today Thy Kingdom Come begins. Join me in praying for people we know to come to faith in Jesus Christ. Come Holy Spirit! pic.twitter.com/Ssy7YVRZmi

— Archbishop of Canterbury (@JustinWelby) May 10, 2018

“All of us know people whose lives would be completely different if they knew of Jesus and so this is an opportunity in these ten days to say ‘pray in this concentrated manner…'”

“The five friends that I’m praying for in these next ten days, God absolutely [and] passionately loves and so, when I bring these people to Him and ask him to impact their lives, then He answers those prayers.”

Click here to listen to Premier’s John Pantry and Rosie Wright speaking with Rev Canon Chris Russell:

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The prince was led to a room full of paintings of former archbishops of Athens and was welcomed by other Greek bishops.

The Archbishop said: “Welcome to the land of half of your ancestors.”

Charles received a gift of an icon of the Virgin Mary from the Archbishop. Replying to the Archbishop’s greeting, the prince said: “I’m most grateful for your extremely generous welcome. I’m enormously touched that you should receive me here on this visit to Athens.”

He added: “I’m afraid my gift is very inadequate in return.”

Charles then handed the Archbishop a family photo of himself and the Duchess of Cornwall before signing the visitors’ book.

After visiting the 11th century Church of St Eirini and the stalls of St Eirini Square, they tried traditional Greek coffee in a local cafe.

The Prince of Wales kisses the icon of the Resurrection of Christ in the Byzantine Church in Kapnikarea, during a walking tour of the Kapnikarea area in Athens, Greece, as part of his visit to the country.

Afterwards they visited stalls with local delicacies including loukoumades, traditional Greek doughnuts, and koulouri, traditional Greek pretzels, before heading to the final stop on the tour – the Byzantine Church of Kapnikarea.

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