Democrats Block Bill to Bar Transgender Girls From Female Sports Teams.
We've barely heard a whisper from leading Democrats as Trump, in a single week, has destroyed the US position as leader of the free world, and now sets about ruining the economy with his tariffs. But one thing that they will stand up for – the hill they're prepared to die on: the rights of men to compete in women's sport.
Kuwaiti Islamic scholar Othman Al-Khamees said in a February 28, 2025 episode of Insan_Podcast that it is the duty of the Muslims to pray on behalf of the people Gaza. He said: “May Allah annihilate those damned Jews,” and he added that it is not difficult for Allah to annihilate them. Al-Khamees said that although Hamas is a “deviant” political group, it should not be conflated with the people of Palestine and Gaza. He stated that Hamas has flung itself on the lap of Iran, but the people of Gaza have done nothing wrong, and Hamas are still Muslims, “despite their deviations.” Al-Khamees emphasized that now is not the time to oppose or criticize Hamas and that after the war certain groups can be destroyed. He said that he can hate Hamas but still support the group against the Jews.
Interesting. From MEMRI TV:
Egyptian journalist Emad Adeeb stated on Sky News Arabia TV (UAE) on February 26, 2025, that Hamas, with its weapons, is unacceptable and has become a burden on the Palestinian cause. He argued that if Hamas wants Egypt to block Trump’s plan to turn Gaza into a riviera, it must surrender its weapons. Adeeb suggested that, as "absurd" as it may seem, the relocation plan is the only one on the table, and Gaza will proceed with it unless Hamas changes its approach. He further emphasized that Egypt should not be expected to cover the costs of Hamas’ actions, stating that Hamas had “ordered the most expensive” dish for lunch at the Iranians' invitation, and thus, the Iranians should pay the bill.
Nice metaphor. Yes indeed: Iran should pay the bill.
I wonder how widespread this view is in Egypt – and in other Arab countries.
the threat to our democratic faith.
As President of the United States, I call for that national effort. I call for it in the name of this nation which we love and honor and which we are privileged and proud to serve. I call upon our people with absolute confidence that our common cause will greatly succeed.
his acceptance speech. The problem was, it was couched within so many generic references to “lingering traumas and… systematic oppression…. othering and racism” that it lacked any real force or meaning. But still, under the circumstances, I'll award him a B+ for effort, because it really could have been so much worse.
Next, to Kieran Culkin, who scooped the best supporting actor award for his role in Jesse Eisenberg's A Real Pain, which follows two American cousins as they retrace their family history in Poland. If Brody's acceptance speech glossed over the Jewish question, Culkin's ignored it altogether. In fact, his speech was mostly a sappy monologue to his wife about his desire to have more kids, which I think everyone in the room could have done without. But once again, it really could have been worse.
For an example of worse, you need only look so far as Guy Pearce – who starred alongside Brody in The Brutalist and was up against Culkin for the best supporting actor award. The Australian actor, who has been one of Hollywood's most vocal anti-Israel voices since October 7th, sported a pin in the shape of a white dove emblazoned with the words “Free Palestine”. Commenting on Instagram, Jewish activist Elizabeth Savestsky wrote: “Guy Pearce, nominated for playing a man who assaults a Holocaust survivor, wears a “Free Palestine” pin – because irony is dead.”…
Then we have the winner of the best documentary feature film which, unsurprisingly, went to No Other Land, a film about the lives of Palestinians in the West Bank. Perhaps the most rapturous applause of the night went to the documentary’s co-director, writer and protagonist, Basel Adra, when he called on the world to “stop the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people”. This was quickly followed by the night’s only mention of the hostages, as one of the film’s two Israeli directors, Yuval Abraham, took to the mic, briefly mentioning “the Israeli hostages brutally taken in the crime of October 7 which must be freed”. That the first speech spoke only of the pain and oppression experienced by one people, while the second spoke of unity, brotherhood and a joint future for both Israelis and Palestinians, was probably just a coincidence, right?
If there was one ultimate winner on the night, it was undoubtedly author Dara Horn. She wasn't nominated for any awards, or even in attendance (as far as I know), but her proclamation – people love dead Jews – once again proved to be more prescient than ever. The fact that our stories are told so frequently and poignantly used to feel like an honour. But now? It feels exploitative at best and perverse at worst.
I never thought I'd find myself advocating for Jewish stories to not be told, but I think we need a moratorium on Holocaust films until we work out how to reconcile depictions of our past with the realities of our present. Of course, as Hollywood is run by Jews, I'm sure this won't be too hard to arrange.
e: 11pt”>The revelations prompted the Department of Health to slap down the NHS, saying the language would confuse patients and was a “waste of time”.
“The NHS needs to be laser-focused on the things that matter to patients,” a spokesman said.
“Women should not look forward to childbirth in fear and look back on it with trauma.
“That is the urgent problem in maternity services the NHS ought to be solving.
“Unnecessarily erasing the word ‘mothers’ from NHS documents is a waste of time and confusing for patients.”
At least, encouragingly, the Department of Health is on the right side here.
Helen Joyce, director of advocacy of human rights charity Sex Matters, said the term “birthing people” was “dehumanising”.
“It’s not just ludicrous to see jobs for midwives referring to ‘birthing people’ instead of ‘mothers’: it’s disgusting,” she said.
ecessary to define “male” and “female” at all, let alone in terms of “reproductive cells”? “Male” and “female” are common words in everyday speech. The same goes for “woman” and “man,” which are ubiquitous. And where did the EO’s defining phrase “adult human female” come from?
The answers lie across the Atlantic, in that drizzly sceptered isle, known affectionally to its gender-critical inhabitants as TERF Island. “British feminists,” Susanna Rustin writes in her fine history of British feminism, Sexed, “are at the heart of the movement to resist the philosophy or ideology that says every human being has an inner gender.” Some of these feminists may not wish to admit it, but Trump’s Executive Order owes much to them.
But read it all.
eeze on US foreign aid.
And in part – in the main – because finally it's become obvious what a disaster their turn to so-called trans rights and support of gender ideology has been – notably for the LGBs that they betrayed.
Jailed for… singing?! The Iranian regime is beyond parody. Every woman has the right to sing, speak, and be free.
Bita Sadeghian faces charges of "violating public morality" and "disseminating inappropriate content online."Summoning a woman for singing is not about… pic.twitter.com/gjSBSdtPP7
— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) March 1, 2025
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Jailed for… singing?! The Iranian regime is beyond parody. Every woman has the right to sing, speak, and be free. Bita Sadeghian faces charges of "violating public morality" and "disseminating inappropriate content online."
Summoning a woman for singing is not about “morality”—it’s about oppression. Imagine being so insecure that you fear a woman’s voice. Pathetic.
To the regime in Iran: You can try to silence one voice, but you cannot silence millions. Women in Iran will continue to sing, speak, and fight until they are free.
I stand with Bita Sadeghian. Do you?
asn’t done basic checks. The father’s job was on LinkedIn, the translation was misleading — this is journalism 101! It just shows you can’t subcontract BBC journalism. This is a total systems failure by the BBC.”
A current BBC correspondent added: “The serious problem is that we have editors who haven’t got good editorial judgment. Since all the cuts [to the news budget], the problem has become more stark because they’ve lost many of the good editors who knew how to ask questions, be robust and triple-check facts and sourcing. Now we’ve just got mountain climbers — people who want the title not the responsibility, the credit but never the criticism.”…
Inside the BBC, there is a feeling that heads should roll. “The problem is the BBC never sacks managers, however big the disaster,” said the former BBC journalist who reported from Gaza. “Recent days have shown once again that no one can mishandle a crisis quite like the BBC.”
One aspect of this business that never seems to get mentioned is the Islamic practice of taqqiya – the doctrine that allows dissimulation and secrecy to protect one's religious beliefs. In contemporary usage this appears, unsurprisingly, to have mutated into the idea that Muslims have a religious duty to deceive non-Muslims if it "furthers the cause" of Islam. And it works – not least because the Beeb, along with virtually all western media, are determined to downplay or ignore entirely the all-important Islamic element in the conflict.
Witness the case of BBC reporter Lucy Williamson's interview back in December 2023 with a teenager released from an Israeli jail, who claimed that he'd been regularly beaten and abused by Israeli guards, with the bones in his hands all smashed up. As I noted at the time, the Israeli prison service made public a film of the lad on his release, with hands – and everything else – absolutely fine. But our nice reporter sat with the family, boy with bandaged hands, and was clearly moved by the deep sincerity of these lovely down-trodden people. The claim was that the cruel Israeli guards not only beat the poor prisoners, but set dogs on them, threatened to rape the women, and tear-gassed inmates inside cells. All breathlessly reported, with only the minor caveat that the Israelis denied all this….and that film.
It happens all the time.