The Church of England has demanded that the British government offers sanctuary to thousands of Christians fleeing jihadists in northern Iraq, warning that ignoring their plight would constitute a ‘betrayal of Britain's moral and historical obligations’. A number of bishops have revealed their frustration over David Cameron's intransigence on the issue, arguing that the UK has a responsibility to grant immediate asylum to Iraqi Christian communities recently forced to flee the northern city of Mosul after militants from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isis) threatened them with execution, a religious tax or forced conversion. On Monday, France responded to the so-called religious cleansing by publicly granting asylum to Christians driven from Mosul. The Anglican Church argues the UK has an even greater responsibility to intervene, citing its central role in the 2003 allied invasion, which experts say triggered the destabilisation and sectarian violence that shaped the context for Isis to seize control of much of northern Iraq.

Figures released on 31 July by the Ministry of Justice paint a complex picture of a prison service making heroic strides in some areas while struggling to cope with the impact of rising prison numbers and dramatic cuts to prison staff and budgets, says the Prison Reform Trust. Most worryingly, the figures show a significant increase in the numbers of self-inflicted deaths in custody, the number of incidents of recorded assaults (including fights) in prison and the number of assaults on staff. Commenting, Juliet Lyon, Director of the Prison Reform Trust, said: (these figures are).. ‘warning signs of a prison service placed under unprecedented strain. Ministers must heed and not dismiss what the facts and figures are telling them. Slashing prison budgets while warehousing ever greater numbers in larger prisons overseen by fewer and less experienced staff is no way to transform rehabilitation.’

The Ebola virus, which has killed more than 670 people in West Africa, poses a threat to the UK, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has told the BBC. He said he would chair an emergency Cobra meeting on the issue later. Mr Hammond said no Britons had been affected so far and there were no cases in the UK, but the government was viewing the outbreak very seriously. Earlier this month Public Health England issued an alert to UK doctors to be aware of Ebola's symptoms. Several West African airlines have now stopped flying to Liberia and Sierra Leone amid concerns about the spread of the disease to those countries from Guinea. The move by airlines comes after an infected American man of Liberian descent was found to have flown from Liberia to Nigeria last week. He developed symptoms during the flight.

As we remember the bravery of men and women during D Day 1944, let us not forget those who at this present time are putting their lives on the line for our continuing, current freedom. A senior military source said that a Nato-led force was likely to have to provide close air support, casualty evacuation and logistics to the Afghan National Army beyond the official draw-down in December 2014. The source suggested Britain’s military involvement after the draw-down was likely to be far more significant than previously thought. Ministers have previously only announced the involvement of about 100 British soldiers in training Afghan officers at a military academy known as ‘Sandhurst in the sands’. Mr Cameron acknowledged on Saturday that Britain was committed to supporting the Afghan army financially ‘long after’ 2014 and he did not rule out offering other forms of support.

New broadband customers in the UK are overwhelmingly rejecting porn filters when prompted to install them by internet service providers, the industry watchdog Ofcom has found. The filters were proposed by Prime Minister David Cameron last year as part of a Government-backed scheme to protect children from explicit content online. Ofcom found that fewer than one in seven households use the filters, which are offered automatically to new subscribers at the point of registration. The findings showed that most customers have been choosing to actively disable the filters. The four main broadband providers, BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media, offer an automatic porn filter at registration but only TalkTalk was able to persuade more than ten per cent of its users to keep it. Of the providers Ofcom noted that Virgin Media has ‘recognised that this is a failure in process and indicated it is taking steps to address this gap’.

Leading scientists have accused the Government of misleading the public after it quietly changed its definition of ‘genetic modification’ to push forward with proposals to allow 3-parent babies. Last week, the Government announced its intention to place regulations before Parliament as it released its response to a 12-week consultation recently undertaken by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA). The proposed IVF technique, known as ‘mitochondrial replacement therapy’, will allow permanent changes to the genetic make-up of future generations for the first time and is widely recognised by experts as a form of genetic modification. However, in a move buried in a Department of Health document, the Government quietly redefined ‘genetic modification’ in a way that would exclude 'mitochondrial replacement therapy'. Leading scientists say that the Government is acting dishonestly and misleading the public over the true implications of the procedure.

The pro-life movement is sometimes scoffed at by abortion activists when it points out that abortion is mostly used for birth control reasons. A British schoolgirl had her fourth abortion in 2012, figures today revealed. She is one of 200 teenage girls who have had repeat abortions before the age of 16. The figures show five girls had three abortions by the time of their 16th birthday, which is the legal age of consent in England. That means abortion practitioners are doing abortions on girls who are victims of statutory rape and, as is the case in the United States, they may not be reporting those rapes to authorities.  In 2011, a total of 84 under-16s had abortions for a second time or more, according to the Department of Health figures. Norman Wells, of the Family Education Trust, said too many teenagers were having sex without thinking about the consequences.

Park View School in Birmingham, one of three schools inspected as part of the ‘Trojan Horse’ investigations, has been placed in special measures. The role of faith in state-funded education is coming under closer scrutiny following publication of two government reports into the so-called ‘Trojan Horse’ affair. A report by former head teacher Ian Kershaw failed to spot concerns about some schools at the centre of the controversy and also failed to take action in order to avoid being seen as ‘racist or Islamophobic’. Students at one school had to teach themselves Christian RE for GCSE. The finding is among a number of startling episodes laid out in a report from Peter Clarke – former head of counterterrorism at the Metropolitan Police. Children were encouraged to express vocal support for anti-Christian remarks, Christmas was banned and some teachers claimed serviceman Lee Rigby’s murder was actually a hoax.

An increased international focus on protection of religious freedom is required to combat the worldwide persecution, torture and killing of Christians, says Cross-bench Peer, Lord Alton. The Peer made the statement whilst leading a debate calling on the House of Lords to note that Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was ‘under threat in almost every corner of the world’. Lord Alton asked the House to take note of international compliance with Article 18 and said greater devotion to the protection of religious freedom was required. Article 18 of the UDHR stipulates that, ‘Everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.’ Lord Alton drew on many international examples of the persecution of Christians around the world. Lord Bach supported the cross-bench member saying Lord Alton’s motion was ‘right and action is necessary’. He said the House looked forward to hearing what the Government proposed to do about the situation.

This week, a High Court judge considered whether fresh evidence from the Mayor of London’s office shows that Boris Johnson personally ordered Transport for London to ban a bus advert by Christian charity Core Issues Trust (CIT), and whether he did so for an improper purpose during his re-election campaign in 2012. Mrs Justice Lang upheld the ban on the CIT slogan, ‘Not Gay! Ex-Gay, Post-Gay and Proud. Get over it!’ at the original High Court hearing. (See also Prayer Alert 05-2014) Following the decision, CIT submitted a Freedom of Information request which revealed emails suggesting the Mayor had personally instructed TFL to ban the adverts. One email from the Mayor’s Director of Communications at the time, Guto Harri, states that the Mayor personally ordered the Christian advertisement to be pulled. CIT took the case to the Court of Appeal which sent it back to Mrs Justice Lang to consider the new email evidence which she had not seen at the first hearing.