UK & Ireland in Brief

Journalist Matthew Parris (see photo) was ‘curiously moved’ after a young Deliveroo cyclist stopped alongside him and asked if he believed in the Lord Jesus.

In his regular The Times column, Parris, a former Conservative MP, wrote: ‘I replied that I’m sure Jesus existed, and love and respect the character whose description has come down to us through the ages, but that I do not believe he was the Son of God, and do not believe in God at all. ‘“But He said He was,” said the young man. I replied that Jesus probably was under a misapprehension. The cyclist paused to think. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘Jesus loves you even if you won’t acknowledge him. I will pray for you.’ And with that, he cycled off. I walked on, curiously moved.’

More than half of British men under the age of 40 admit to watching porn at least once a month, a YouGov survey revealed; and almost 60% of them watched porn before they reached 18.

Vanessa Morse, chief executive of the Centre to End All Sexual Exploitation, said: ‘These shocking statistics show the prevalence of children watching harmful pornography at a young age.’ Under the Online Safety Bill, websites risk large fines and could be blocked if they do not implement suitable age-verification systems to prevent children accessing pornographic material. However, the new legislation is not expected to be in force until 2024.

Nearly 3,500 people responded to the gospel at a free Christian mission event in Manchester at the start of July.

After 18 months of outreach in the city, Festival Manchester was visited by around 65,000 across three days. One festival goer said to a volunteer: ‘Tell me about Jesus, I need to know Him.’ The volunteer was able to share about Jesus – just one of hundreds of similar conversations over the weekend. ‘This was mission on a scale not seen in a generation,’ said Andy Hawthorne of The Message Trust. The mission was hosted by churches in partnership with The Message Trust and the Luis Palau Association.

A tax specialist was discriminated against after being dismissed for her gender-critical beliefs, an Employment Tribunal (ET) has ruled.

The decision followed a rehearing after Maya Forstater successfully appealed an earlier tribunal ruling rejecting her claim. The Employment Appeal Tribunal concluded that her beliefs were protected under equality law. The ET has now ruled that the decision by Forstater’s employer not to offer a full contract of employment or renew her Visiting Fellowship was at least partly because of her belief and was therefore direct discrimination.

A Tory MP says we should not be ‘lecturing’ the US on abortion rights after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade last month.

Speaking in the Commons, Danny Kruger – an evangelical Christian – criticised a suggestion from a Labour MP that the Foreign Secretary should make representations to the US in support of ‘reproductive healthcare’. He also said: ‘[Some MPs] think that women have an absolute right to bodily autonomy in this matter. However, in the case of abortion, that right is qualified by the fact that another body is involved.’