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Amnesty International UK Caves To JK Rowling
Topic: Political Correctness
Source: Erin in the Morning
Issues Apology For Calling Anti-Trans Groups "Anti-Rights". The organization has stood up to dictators and death squads, but Rowling and the UK's anti-speech laws were apparently too much. In liberal democracies, advocacy groups are often free to criticize what they see as groups opposing the rights of those they advocate for. In the United States, for instance, the Southern Poverty Law Center designates groups opposing the rights of minorities as “hate groups,” an effective moniker that helps organizations and people avoid association with such movements. One of the most effective organizations at opposing hate and violence worldwide is Amnesty International, which has stood up to dictators and death squads to report accurately and advocate for globally marginalized people. Now, though, Amnesty appears to have met its greatest threat—not a government or a military junta, but the anti-trans activist and writer J.K. Rowling, and the anti-trans “gender-critical” movement she finances, who has successfully forced the organization as of this morning to issue an apology for calling anti-trans groups “anti-rights.”

This photojournalist was sentenced to 15 years in an Iranian prison.
Topic: Violence Against Women
Source: CNN
“Don’t forget me.” This is the desperate plea of Iranian photojournalist Yalda Moaiery, who has spent more than two decades documenting life under the Iranian regime, including most recently the bloody crackdown on protests in January, the war with the United States, and a new campaign of repression currently underway. Moaiery, whose stories and photographs have appeared around the world, has now herself become a target and was sentenced to 15 years in prison earlier this month by an Iranian court with “activities in furtherance of the interest of the Zionist regime against national security.” She hopes to appeal the decision.

Home Office hands illegal migrants alarming guide on how ‘not to rape women’
Topic: Women's Health
Source: GBN Great Britain
The guidance highlights child rape is illegal 'even if they look older' or if 'it is allowed in another country'. The Home Office has today published a guide for illegal migrants on how "not to rape women" in Britain. It is just one of the resources available in a collection titled: "Understanding behaviours and expectations in the UK: a guide for asylum seekers". Posters and information on rape, the age of consent and child abuse are among the guides to help asylum seekers "understand what is expected when living in the UK". [Ed: they have to be told not to rape women and children? Why were they let in?]

NJ Gov. Sherrill just signed a new NJ law on abortion.
Topic: Abortion
Source: North Jersey
Protesters interfering with those seeking abortions or transgender procedures will be subject to new criminal penalties in New Jersey under a law signed by Gov. Mikie Sherrill on Thursday, Aug. 20. The measure also will block attempts by other states that ban those procedures from taking any criminal or civil action against New Jersey providers treating out-of-state patients. “We won’t be intimidated,” Sherrill said at a signing ceremony at Planned Parenthood of Montclair. “We won’t back down. And we will get it done.” The new law was celebrated Thursday by abortion-rights supporters

The many questions surrounding Harry and Meghan's surprise return to U.K.
Topic: Children and Family
Source: The National Post
It is understood from Buckingham Palace that there will be no change in their status — the couple will still not be working royals. Dozens of questions swirled Thursday as Prince Harry prepares to move back to the U.K. with his wife and children, six years after his departure sparked a bitter rift with the royal family. In a surprise move, Harry and Meghan “plan to leave the United States by the end of the month to settle in a private, non-royal residence, which is said to be located outside London,” The Daily Telegraph reported late on Wednesday.

Gavin Newsom dodges SAT question
Topic: Political Correctness
Source: New York Post
...as 1000+ UC professors warn college students can’t do basic math. Gov. Gavin Newsom refused to take a position on a raging debate over standardized testing in University of California admissions — dismissing as “anecdotes” the alarming reports from college professors about students who can’t do basic math. The governor was asked at a Wednesday press conference in Hayward about an open letter from more than 1,200 UC professors, including Nobel prize winners and leading scientists, who warned of a “severe” crisis of incoming freshman who are unable to even do fractions, forcing educators to dumb down Calculus and other advanced courses. “Show me the data,” Newsom said.

The Fight Begins Over Student Workers
Topic: Children and Family
Source: Migrant Insider
While ICE raids dominate headlines, the administration is quietly building a case to gut OPT — the visa program powering Silicon Valley's talent pipeline. On July 30, Michelle Hackman of the Wall Street Journal exclusively reported that the Trump Administration was considering a step that could, effectively, terminate merit-based legal immigration. The plan is to charge a $100,000 fee for international students to use the controversial Optional Practical Training (OPT) program to work in the country.

New Study Challenges Common Assumptions About Screen Time For Kids
Topic: Children and Family
Source: Science Daily
A Finnish study has found an unexpected association between screen use and cognitive performance. Children who accumulated more screen time as they grew up tended to show better cognitive processing during adolescence. One of the researchers cautions against viewing screen time as entirely harmful and says the goal should be to balance physical activity with screen use that encourages active thinking. [...] "The findings suggest that screen time can support children's and adolescents' cognitive processing. Presumably, the essential point here is what kind of things they do in their screen time. Teachers and parents should encourage children to use devices and screens in such ways that promote active thinking, problem-solving, creativity and learning," states Doctoral Researcher Petri Jalanko from the University of Jyvaskyla.

Sophie Cunningham: WNBA needs 'bold' commissioner who wants best for players
Topic: Political Correctness
Source: ESPN
Sophie Cunningham said the WNBA needs a "bold" commissioner "who wants the best for the players and not maybe for themselves," indicating Cathy Engelbert's current vision does not align "with where our league is trying to go." Cunningham discussed WNBA leadership and Engelbert's future as the league's commissioner as part of a wide-ranging profile published Wednesday by USA Today. Engelbert's current contract is set to expire after the 2026 season, her seventh as the WNBA's commissioner. Despite the league's exponential growth in recent years, Engelbert's future is uncertain partly because of how she has handled various situations, including a contentious labor negotiation earlier this year. [Ed: and the trans issue.]

BURQA LAW
Topic: Political Correctness
Source: Euronews
Portugal Begins To Enforce Ban on Face Coverings in Public Spaces. In Portugal, violators face fines ranging from €150 to €3,000, with exemptions for health, professional, artistic or weather-related reasons, as well as in places of worship, diplomatic missions and on aircraft. Portugal's President António Jose Seguro has enacted a law banning face coverings in public spaces, a measure widely seen as targeting Muslim women who wear full-face veils.

Ceuta migrant girls to transfer to Spain after sexual assaults
Topic: Violence Against Women
Source: Telegraph
Spain is planning to move 500 migrant girls from Ceuta to its mainland after reports of sexual assault in the north African exclave. Between 5,000 and 8,000 people remain in the Spanish territory more than two weeks after about 72,000 migrants swam or burst through the border from Morocco into Ceuta. Authorities have said at least 2,168 minors have been registered, but after 15 reports of alleged sexual assault on females, mostly young girls, social services are struggling to cope.

Woke 2.0 Will Be Worse
Topic: Unspecified
Source: The American Mind
It’s not what AOC wants you to think it is. Readers familiar with Dr. Seuss’s classic, The Cat in the Hat, will remember the twin chaos agents Thing 1 and Thing 2. “‘These Things are good Things,’” the Cat reassures the children whose mother has inexplicably left them under the supervision of a fish. “‘They are tame. Oh, so tame! / They have come here to play.’” The Things briefly feign innocence, then quickly reveal themselves to be marauding imps, knocking over nightstands and ruining the linens. “I do not like the way that they play!” says the son of the house. Now here comes Woke 1 and Woke 2.

Another Gender Medicine Whistleblower Steps Forward and More
Topic: Political Correctness
Source: Manhattan Institute
Writing for the Free Press, Dr. Karla Solheim— formerly the chair of the Iowa Section of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG)—explains how she was forced to resign from the ACOG because of her public criticism of the association’s endorsement of WPATH guidelines. Dr. Solheim performed hysterectomies at an LGBTQ clinic before an encounter with one young, “non-binary” patient requesting a hysterectomy, with no other plans to pursue medical transition, made her uneasy, prompting her to look more into the foundations of youth gender medicine. “I was floored to discover the research basis into gender medicine both for adolescents and adults was not just poor; it was fraudulent. I couldn’t understand how my medical association, let alone others in my field, could endorse it,”

They're Getting Revenge, Starting Today
Topic: Political Correctness
Source: Lew Rockwell
Author: by Tom Woods
For Exposing Jason Arday. You know the story: a Cambridge academic, Jason Arday, was found to have plagiarized his dissertation, borrowed heavily from others in his published articles, produced essentially worthless research, called the police on a reporter and on a professor who asked questions about his resume, invented wild tales of athletic and academic achievement as well as philanthropic work, and (of course) accused his critics of “racism.” And then, late last week, he was found dead at his home in an apparent suicide. That would have been it, but the left — instead of the embarrassment it should feel at having promoted the greatest academic charlatan of the past ten years (and that’s saying something) — is trying to play the victim here

The Art of the Smear
Topic: Political Correctness
Source: Andrew Doyle Substack
How to make a defamatory accusation without ever quite saying it. It’s a form of libel by sleight-of-hand. Perhaps we should call it prestidefamation. Here’s how it works. You take a series of unremarkable facts, out-of-context quotations and tenuous associations, arrange them in a suggestive manner, omit any contrary evidence, invite the reader to draw the worst possible conclusion and then congratulate them for drawing it. Edge has done precisely this. I have a long and well-documented record of opposing fascism and the far right. I’ve written books and articles about it, spoken about it endlessly on television, radio and podcasts. My latest book The End of Woke makes the case against all forms of authoritarianism, and opens with an epigraph explicitly attacking Nazi ideology. Yet Edge has managed to write an article insinuating that I support Nazis. It would be like writing a piece about Oscar Wilde’s robust and unwavering heterosexuality.

Does Using AI to Edit an Op-Ed on Students' Math Skills Undermine the Argument?
Topic: Political Correctness
Source: The Guardian
A math professor at the University of California, Berkeley, criticizing a "severe" math deficiency among students in an op-ed for the San Francisco Standard, admitted to using artificial intelligence to help edit the piece. The Standard published a 2,000-word piece by Zvezdelina Stankova last week, in which the professor said some of her math students were "five to eight years" behind and lacked a "middle school" education on fractions and basic algebra. Stankova said the UC system's test-blind admissions were to blame, suggesting that students who weren't sufficiently prepared for the rigor of Berkeley's mathematics program were admitted because a longstanding benchmark like the SAT had disappeared.

Media’s Obsession With Natalie Harp Shames Us All
Topic: Violence Against Women
Source: Kathy Gannon
Where does the story of Natalie add value to our understanding of the news, of the events that shape our world? No, instead we get an obsession with a young woman who is infatuated with Donald Trump. And shame on the New York Times for your demeaning description of Harp as a “platinum blonde geyser of positivity”. Was that supposed to be clever? It wasn’t. It made you sound like a cheap tabloid stuck in an era where attacks on a woman’s person were fodder for male sleaze- filled jokes that demean and humiliate women __ oh that’s right it appears that era is still with us

Today In Dystopia: Burning Books For Israel, Burning Books For AI
Topic: Political Correctness
Source: Caitlin Johnstone
….Today in dystopia they’re really going after books. A library in Sydney has removed the book “How to Sell a Genocide” by Adam Johnson from its shelves after Zionists complained about its criticisms of Israeli mass atrocities in Gaza.
The Guardian reports: “A Sydney library has removed a book critical of Israel called How to Sell a Genocide, following a complaint reportedly from a survivor of the Bondi beach terror attack

The Cruelty Of DEI We should stop these absurd games...
Topic: Political Correctness
Source: The Epoch Times
Author: by Jeff Tucker
This past week ended with shock and sadness at the news that Jason Arday ended his own life in the midst of an investigation over his intellectual credibility. He was the vaunted education sociologist at Cambridge University, media darling and beneficiary of a big book contract, the toast of the town, and the subject of countless hagiographic profiles in media venues.