Society's ChildS


Bulb

Children to no longer be prescribed puberty blockers, NHS England confirms

Tavistock Centre
© PAThe Tavistock Centre runs the Gender Identity Development Service.
Children will no longer be prescribed puberty blockers at gender identity clinics, NHS England has confirmed.

Puberty blockers, which pause the physical changes of puberty such as breast development or facial hair, will now only be available to children as part of clinical research trials.

The government said it welcomed the "landmark decision", adding it would help ensure care is based on evidence and is in the "best interests of the child".

It follows a public consultation on the issue and an interim policy, and comes after NHS England commissioned an independent review of gender identity services for children under 18 in 2020.

The review followed a sharp rise in referrals to the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) - a specialised service for young people who experience difficulties in the development of their gender identity - run by the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, which is closing at the end of March following repeated scrutiny.

In 2021/22, there were more than 5,000 referrals to GIDS, compared to just under 250 a decade earlier.

Passport

Voting fodder: Migrants who serve in US military can expedite path to citizenship, new bill proposes

new york migrants
© Photo by Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty ISingle migrant men, mostly from West Africa, congregate in Tompkins Square Park as volunteers give away food and clothing, January 27, 2024, in the East Village neighborhood of New York City, New York.
A new bill introduced by Reps. Pat Ryan, D-N.Y. and John James, R-Mich., would offer qualified and vetted migrants an expedited path to citizenship if they serve in the military.

The bill, called the Courage to Serve Act, would create a pilot program that would apply to people with no lawful permanent status, like asylum seekers and migrants waiting for work authorization. Qualified migrants could apply for lawful permanent residency within 180 days of enlisting in the military, the text said.

"There is no higher honor than serving your country in uniform," Ryan said.

Bullseye

Will the North Face be the next victim of 'Go Woke, Go broke'?

northface
© unknown
The North Face has become the latest company to deploy woke nonsense on its unsuspecting customers by insisting they complete a 'racial inclusion course' if they want to benefit from a 20% discount. The pricey brand is loved by outdoors types: 69% of outdoor fashion users in the U.K. use The North Face and it is listed in the top brands for outdoor clothing.

Here is what you read when you enter the course:
At The North Face, we believe in the power of exploration... We also have a responsibility to support spaces where everyone feels like they belong. This one-hour digital course is designed to foster a deeper understanding of the unique challenges that people of colour face when accessing the outdoors. The course focuses on the perspective of race and racism in Europe, and we acknowledge that the experiences of people of colour around the globe differs.
The 'racial inclusion and allyship' course is created by the clothing company itself and named 'Allyship in The Outdoors'. It lasts one long, tedious hour, and comprises four modules.

Comment: Author is a critical thinker at age 15.


Footprints

Harvard tramples the truth

gateway
© unknownGateway to Harvard's Soldier's Field in Allston, Massachusetts
When it came to debating Covid lockdowns, Veritas wasn't the university's guiding principle.

I am no longer a professor of medicine at Harvard. The Harvard motto is Veritas, Latin for truth. But, as I discovered, truth can get you fired. This is my story — a story of a Harvard biostatistician and infectious-disease epidemiologist, clinging to the truth as the world lost its way during the Covid pandemic.

On March 10, 2020, before any government prompting, Harvard declared that it would "suspend in-person classes and shift to online learning." Across the country, universities, schools, and state governments followed Harvard's lead.

Yet it was clear, from early 2020, that the virus would eventually spread across the globe, and that it would be futile to try to suppress it with lockdowns. It was also clear that lockdowns would inflict enormous collateral damage, not only on education but also on public health, including treatment for cancer, cardiovascular disease, and mental health. We will be dealing with the harm done for decades. Our children, the elderly, the middle class, the working class, and the poor around the world — all will suffer.

Arrow Down

Arizona judge rules election vendor Runbeck not subject to public records law, ignores precedent set in Cyber Ninjas case

boxes
© Unknown'Stepping over the lines' • Ballot boxes in Maricopa County, Arizona
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Bradley Astrowsky issued a ruling Friday dismissing a complaint filed by We the People AZ Alliance (WPAA) that requested video surveillance from Runbeck Election Services. Although another judge ruled previously that the private company Cyber Ninjas was subject to public records requests due to conducting a partial audit for the Arizona Senate of the 2020 election, Astrowsky refused to apply the same reasoning to Runbeck, the vendor that processed all of Maricopa County's mail-in ballots prior to signature verification.

The judge, appointed by Gov. Jan Brewer in 2012, has served on the bench for a little more than a decade. A court insider familiar with Judge Astrowsky's decisions told The Arizona Sun Times he is well-known as a moderate in legal circles.

Abe Hamadeh War Room account posted their disappointment on X. Hamadeh is still appealing his election loss by 280 votes in the attorney general's race, citing evidence of votes that were not counted which emerged after his trial.

Sherlock

Family of five killed in apparent Hawaii murder-suicide, 'state's worst mass killing in over 2 decades'

Hawaii
© GettyThe incident took place in Manoa, a residential area of Honolulu.
Authorities in Hawaii are investigating the apparent murder-suicide of a family of five, including three children in a Honolulu home.

The father, who has not been identified, is believed to have stabbed to death his wife and three children - aged 10, 12 and 17 - before taking his own life, police said.

Witnesses reported an argument at the home on early Sunday morning.

The deaths mark Hawaii's worst mass killing in over two decades.

Comment: See also: At least 55 killed with 1,000 people still missing as fire devastates Lahaina town in Hawaii (UPDATE)


Handcuffs

Andrew Tate and brother Tristan arrested in Romania on UK warrant

tate brothers
© Credit: lcv/Alamy Stock Photo
Andrew Tate has been detained in Romania after an arrest warrant was issued by UK authorities following an investigation by Bedfordshire police, the Guardian understands.

The social media influencer, 37, and his brother Tristan Tate, 35, face charges including "sexual aggression" dating to 2012-15, according to a statement by his representative.

The representative said the pair were due before the Bucharest court of appeal on Tuesday for a decision on whether the European arrest warrant should be executed.

The Tate brothers were charged with rape, human trafficking and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women in a separate case in Romania after being arrested in the country's capital in December 2022 alongside two Romanian women. All four deny the allegations.

Comment: Unfortunately, it's not illegal to be manipulative sleazeballs. But maybe there's some justice yet to come for these "men". See also:


Cross

Ukrainian secret police raids Christian church-aligned journalists

Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) agents
© SBUFile photo: Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) agents
Several employees of the Union of Orthodox Journalists (UOJ) have been subjected to raids by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), the group said on Tuesday.

The UOJ has reported on the ongoing persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) by Kiev, which favors the government-backed Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU).

"UOJ employees were approached by the SBU agents, who seized their computer equipment and phones," the group said on its Telegram channel, adding that no one had been charged with any offenses.

SBU agents have also visited participants in prayer vigils, the UOJ added. The union could not comment any further, but said it would offer more information as it becomes available.

The SBU has yet to comment on the raids. It has previously tried to have the UOJ's website blocked inside Ukraine.

Comment: Previous cases of Ukrainian thugs bullying the UOC:


Megaphone

Russia's top MP calls out Western hypocrisy on Assange

Volodin
Russian State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin Sputnik / Vladimir Fedorenko
Nations that support the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the US will no longer be states based on the rule of law if the handover eventually happens, Russian State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin argued in a Telegram post on Monday.

The situation around the detained whistleblower is an example of the lies, double standards, and spite on display from Washington, London, and Brussels, Volodin added.

Assange, now in his fifth year in the high-security Belmarsh prison in London despite having been convicted of no crime, faces 175 years in prison in the US for publishing documents via WikiLeaks that detailed alleged illegal US actions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantanamo Bay, and elsewhere. The files were leaked to him by former US soldier Chelsea Manning.

The published records and documents prove Washington's involvement in coups and the instigation of wars, Volodin pointed out in his post. The leaked documents also purported to show that the US National Security Agency (NSA) wiretapped several European heads of state, including former French President Nicolas Sarkozy and former German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Fire

US airlifts embassy staff out of Haiti as gangs besiege political area

Police Port-au-Prince Haiti
© Ralph Tedy Erol/ReutersPolice on patrol in Port-au-Prince on Friday.
Officials say marines deployed for night-time evacuation amid intense fighting in Port-au-Prince, while German and EU representatives also leave.

The US military has carried out an operation in Haiti to airlift non-essential embassy personnel from the country and added US forces to bolster embassy security, after dozens of heavily armed gang fighters tried to seize the political quarter of its capital, Port-au-Prince.

The German foreign ministry meanwhile said its ambassador joined other EU representatives in leaving for the Dominican Republic on Sunday.

Comment: More from Newsweek:
Earlier this month, armed gangs orchestrated jailbreaks from Haiti's two largest prisons and demanded the resignation of the Caribbean nation's prime minister, Ariel Henry. The Haitian leader is not currently in the country, and is petitioning the international community for a United Nations-backed security force to step in.

More than 4,500 inmates have escaped, including senior gang leaders, the United Nations said last week, adding that the jailbreak was the result of "coordinated gang action against national institutions."


Haitian authorities extended a state of emergency and a curfew on Thursday as fierce battles for power continued to grip Port-au-Prince. The capital's international airport and main port are closed, and the country's national police — along with other state apparatus — have teetered on the edge of collapse.

Gangs have targeted and torched police stations, and in late January, Reuters reported that Haiti's national police had lost nearly 3,300 officers in around three years, citing trade union figures.

Estimates suggest armed gangs control upwards of 80 percent of the capital city.

Since the start of 2024, just under 1,200 people have been killed and nearly 700 others injured in the gang violence, according to the UN. In 2023, almost 4,000 people were killed and another 3,000 kidnapped in the fighting.

Haiti is "on the cusp of even greater chaos and violence," campaign group Human Rights Watch said on Friday. "The situation on the ground remains dire," added CARICOM, a regional bloc that includes Haiti.

The political and economic crisis is powering a looming humanitarian emergency. "The health system is on the brink of collapse," the UN said in a statement. "Hospitals often do not have the capacity to treat those arriving with gunshots wounds. Schools and business are closed, and children are increasingly used by gangs."

Drinkable water is running out, and more than 313,000 people have been internally displaced, the UN said.

"If Ariel Henry doesn't resign, if the international community continues to support him, we'll be heading straight for a civil war that will lead to genocide," influential Haitian gang leader Jimmy Chérizier — also known as Barbecue — said early last week.

"In the past week, the political crisis in Haiti, combined with escalating violence and civil unrest, has created an untenable situation which threatens the country's citizens and security," U.S. State Department spokesperson, Matthew Miller, said on Friday.
See also: