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A weightlifter from New Zealand is set to become the first openly transgender athlete to compete in the Olympics, Reuters reported Wednesday. Laurel Hubbard, 43, reportedly has been eligible to compete in the Olympics since 2015 after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) set new guidelines for transgender athletes. She qualified for this summer's coronavirus-delayed Summer Games in Tokyo after the IOC approved rule changes for qualifying events due to the pandemic. Hubbard hasn’t yet been named to the New Zealand women's weightlifting team, but her spot is essentially guaranteed, according to Reuters. USA Weightlifting spokesman Kevin Farley told Reuters that...

Yes, it is better that Liz Cheney stands up for the truth about Trump and the election than to oppose it, which puts her at odds with a political party in which truth is the enemy. But her present position does not expunge her past positions. The sword she's falling on is one she has spent her political career brandishing. If Cheney is punished by her own party, I will not applaud, but I also will not sob. I sit silently in acknowledgment, as one does, when karma swings low and performs its function.

Veteran GOP pollster Frank Luntz warned that former President Trump’s repeated assertions that the 2020 presidential election was rigged against him could hurt Republican efforts to take back the House in 2022. Luntz noted in an interview on the New York Times podcast “Sway” released Thursday that “more than two-thirds of Republicans believe that the election was stolen,” warning that a widespread and unproven belief that there was rampant fraud last November could turn Republicans off from voting in the midterm elections.

History and controversy is expected to be made at the Tokyo Olympics this summer after the transgender weightlifter Laurel Hubbard was effectively guaranteed a place in the women’s super heavyweight category. While the 43-year-old has not yet been named in the New Zealand team, an International Weightlifting Federation insider confirmed to the Guardian that she would automatically qualify because of amended rules approved by the International Olympic Committee. Sebastian Coe expects Tokyo Olympics to go ahead after test event in Japan The insider said that while teams did not have to be named until 5 July, under the new qualification...

New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that reported annual cases of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in the United States continued to rise in 2019, reaching an all-time high for the sixth year in a row. Gay and bisexual men, African-American people and young people had disproportionately high rates. And the latest figures don’t reflect the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the CDC’s Sexually Transmitted Disease Surveillance 2019, the federal agency received more than 2.5 million reports of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis, the three most common notifiable STIs (also know as sexually transmitted...

We usually assume that inbreeding is bad and should be avoided under all circumstances. But new research performed by researchers at Stockholm University, published in Nature Ecology and Evolution, shows that there is little support for this assumption. The idea that animals should avoid mating with relatives has been the starting point for hundreds of scientific studies performed among many species. But it turns out the picture is more complicated. “People assume that animals should avoid mating with a relative when given the chance,” says Raïssa de Boer, researcher in zoology at Stockholm University. “But evolutionary theory has been telling...

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is taking aim at No. 3 Republican in the House, Rep. Liz Cheney, publicly questioning her ability to play a leading role in the party’s messaging efforts and privately stating that he’s “had it with her.” The California Republican was caught on a hot mic on Tuesday stating “I think she’s got real problems. I’ve had it with … I’ve had it with her. You know, I’ve lost confidence. … Well, someone just has to bring a motion, but I assume that will probably take place,” while speaking with Fox News anchor Steve Doocey off...

School officials say they’re “aware” of a video of a teacher with his hand down his pants during a virtual classroom session of a Bowmanville high school last week. The nine-second clip, which has been viewed by the Toronto Sun, shows the screen of an Apple laptop logged into a virtual classroom for St. Stephen Catholic Secondary School in Bowmanville. One of the participants’ video boxes, labelled with the name of a current St. Stephen teacher, shows a man holding a smartphone and balancing an Xbox One controller on his leg, his hand in motion down the front of his...

Michael Kail, former veep of IT Operations at Netflix, was convicted on Friday on 28 counts of wire fraud, mail fraud, and money laundering after a federal jury found that he took advantage of his position to demand bribes from vendors. "As Netflix’s Vice President of IT Operations, Michael Kail wielded immense power to approve valuable Netflix contracts with small tech vendors, and he rigged that process to unlock a stream of cash and stock kickbacks to himself," said Acting United States Attorney Stephanie Hinds in a statement. "Netflix and other companies expect and deserve honest services from its employees."...

Tucker Carlson explained on his show that he received a tip from someone he considered 'reliable' that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was living with pollster Frank Luntz. [cut] TUCKER: Over the weekend, we got a call from a source who said that, in fact, Frank Luntz and Kevin McCarthy are not simply friends, they're roommates. Kevin McCarthy lives in Luntz’s apartment in downtown Washington. That's what we were told, and honestly, we did not believe it. The top Republican in the House lives with a Google lobbyist? Come on. Even by the sleazy and corrupt standards of politics in...

Last week, a pastor was arrested in London after he delivered a public sermon on the biblical definition of marriage out of Genesis 1.John Sherwood, who is 71 and the pastor of a north London church, was arrested April 23 in the center of Uxbridge, London, under the Public Order Act for making "allegedly homophobic comments," according to The Daily Mail.A video shows him standing on top of a step stool before being handcuffed and led away by police as a crowd watched. One person can be heard gasping in shock."For a man preaching about Christianity!" a woman says in...

Authorities in Germany managed to take down one of the world's biggest child sex abuse platforms following a large-scale investigation which led to several arrests in mid-April, a police statement confirmed on Monday. The platform "Boystown" was active since at least June 2019 and had a membership of over 400,000. It was only accessible via the so-called darknet. Four German citizens between the ages of 40 and 64 were detained in relation to the case, three on suspicion of working as administrators for the platform — one of whom was arrested in Paraguay. Another man was taken in under suspicion...

link only: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2021/05/03/tucker-carlson-bullying-covid-masks-dangerous-fox-news-column/7406131002/

Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is taking a small bit of flak from Team Reality for extending the state’s state of emergency order another 60 days on the same day last week that Tennessee’s Bill Lee lifted his and overtly required local mask mandates to end in the few remaining counties where they still existed, but those critics are missing the bigger picture. It’s not that Florida did everything perfectly according to what most of us would have done. They didn’t, not by a long shot. While a handful of states never shut down at all at the onset of...

Republican candidate Caitlyn Jenner was attacked over the weekend by left-wing personalities regarding Jenner’s statement about transgender athletes and gender fairness in sports.Many suggested Jenner betrayed the transgender movement, calling Jenner “anti-trans” and “self-loathing,” due to Jenner’s remarks opposing transgender biological boys competing in girls’ sports.“It just isn’t fair,” Jenner said Saturday.

In a case little heralded outside North Texas and outside Episcopal Church insiders, the United States Supreme Court in February opened the door for more litigation nationwide over disputed church property as churches split over social issues such as women in ministry and LGBTQ inclusion. The U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 22 declined to take on any part of the issue — leaving in place a patchwork of state-by-state regulations that likely will continue to produce uneven outcomes. And by refusing the case, the high court left in place a ruling by the Texas Supreme Court that awarded $100 million...

J. K. Rowling has again fallen victim to ‘cancel culture’ after a literary festival in New Zealand scrapped plans for a Harry Potter-themed event over her comments on gender issues. Peter Biggs, chairman of the Wairarapa book festival, reportedly decided to drop the annual children’s quiz that is usually held on the boy wizard following consultations with the LGBTQ community. It is not the first time that Ms Rowling has been ‘cancelled’ as a result of expressing her views on whether men who identify as women are the same as biological females.

BREAKING NEWS: Archdiocese of Toronto calls police on rosary praying Catholic faithful! On Friday, April 23, a small group of Catholics sent an email to Msgr. Gregory Ace, Pastor of St. Padre Pio parish in Woodbridge, a suburb north of Toronto. The email was a courtesy to the Pastor to let him know that they would be gathering to pray the rosary, "against the Church Lockdowns, offering up Prayers and Penances to the Blessed Mother, to intercede on our behalf with Her Son, to bring an end to the 'Pandemic', which, as St Charles Borromeo would say, our Sins...

Several states are considering legislation that would prohibit trans girls from participating in girls sports, and Caitlyn Jenner supports the move. Jenner — who has plans to run for California governor — recently told TMZ that it’s a “question of fairness” that prevents her from supporting trans girls competing against their cisgender peers. “That’s why I oppose biological boys who are trans competing in girls sports in school,” the 71-year-old gubernatorial hopeful said. “It just isn’t fair, and we have to protect girls’ sports in our schools.”

Should all clinicians be trained in how to talk to patients about HIV, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and just sex in general in a community-specific way? Yes, according to a group of HIV clinicians, sexual health experts and advocates. The Center for HIV Law and Policy convened the experts, ... who came together specifically to urge the passage of New York State Bill A3864. The bill would require health care providers to receive sexual health training in order to keep their licenses current. The hope is that it will help providers address patients’ distrust of the medical system. [emphasis added]