Category Archives: News to use

Useful news for all to advance knowledge of the world and how it works

The Real Threat to Women’s Sports Isn’t Trans Athletes. It’s Sexually Predatory Coaches.

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On February 26, 2021 the passage of the Equality Act in the US House of Representatives piqued conservatives into a moral panic.

The bill, which would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, had a terrifying potential for Republicans: the presence of trans girls in high school sports.

There was House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s statement that, “This really seems like an onslaught against freedom of religion [and] for girls’ sports as well.” There was Rep. Tom McClintock’s (R-Calif.) assertion that the legislation “destroys women’s sports and renders parents powerless to protect their own children.” And there was Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-Ga.) tweet—in response to Rep. Marie Newman (D-Ill.), who has a transgender daughter—saying, “Your biological son does NOT belong in my daughters’ bathrooms, locker rooms, and sports teams.”

All this language of the need to “protect,” the need to root out other children from “bathrooms” and “locker rooms,” is hard to square with reality. As with the introduction of “bathroom bills,” the anti-trans argument is a red herring. It is another example of conservatives standing athwart progressive social change in the name of protecting children—long a hallmark of right-wing reactionary politics.

But it is also particularly infuriating because all this effort has been summoned on a day when actual women in sports were in the news for being harmed.

While legislators on the House floor were pontificating about the demise of women’s sports, another story was unfolding. Yesterday, John Geddert, head coach of the 2012 gold-medal women’s Olympic gymnastics team, committed suicide in Michigan. He had just been charged with human trafficking and sex crimes against girls as young as 13. (None of the members of Congress have commented on that, from what I’ve seen.)

Geddert was a longtime friend of Larry Nassar, the convicted rapist who was accused of assaulting 265 girls as young as six. His victims included Olympic gold-medal gymnasts McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman, and Simone Biles. Nassar admitted to sexually abusing girls at the Twistars Gymnastics Club owned by Geddert.

Abusive coaches are nothing new, and it’s not only sexual abuse. In 2019, Mary Cain, the youngest American runner to make a World Championships team, accused Nike coach Alberto Salazar of physical and psychological abuse that ruined her career. A Business Insider story from last year details the psychological abuse female college athletes from a variety of sports say they experienced at the hands of their coaches. And last August, Texas Tech fired two of its women basketball coaches after accusations surfaced of physical, mental, and verbal abuse.

This abuse, of course, is not limited to women either. Among the most notorious abusers in the sports world is Jerry Sandusky, the Penn State assistant football coach who in 2012 was found guilty of sexually assaulting 10 boys. Joe Paterno, the head coach who ignored reports of Sandusky’s abuse, was fired and died of cancer months later.

As scandal after scandal emerges about the pervasive abuse of young athletes, it’s time we reevaluate our priorities. Trans athletes aren’t the problem.

UPDATE 1-World Bank halts payment requests on Myanmar projects made after Feb 1 coup | Reuters

The World Bank has halted payments to projects in Myanmar on withdrawal requests that were made after a Feb. 1 coup by the country’s military, the bank said in a letter to Myanmar’s finance ministry seen by Reuters on Thursday.

A World Bank spokesman verified the letter, from World Bank Myanmar country director Mariam Sherman to the Myanmar Ministry of Planning, Finance and Industry. It said the bank would make payments to Myanmar project suppliers, contractors and consultants for withdrawal applications made prior to that date.

Source: UPDATE 1-World Bank halts payment requests on Myanmar projects made after Feb 1 coup | Reuters

Myanmar: police open fire on protesters in Yangon as law students march to denounce judiciary in Mandalay – JURIST – News – Legal News & Commentary

Police in a district of Yangon, the old capital of Myanmar, opened fire on peaceful protesters Thursday in the second instance of armed violence by agents of the ruling military junta against unarmed protesters in less than a week. Last Saturday, police and soldiers opened fire on a crowd in Mandalay, killing several. Video from Yangon showed riot police moving on protesters in formation down a street, repeatedly discharging their weapons as the crowd fled. The crowd had gathered to oppose a newly appointed ward administrator. Local reports circulating on the Internet before connectivity was cut off by the military early in the morning Myanmar time for the twelfth night in a row claimed that multiple people were injured in the attack. Other reports indicated that house raids and multiple arrests followed the shootings.  Earlier in the evening in Yangon, protesters had faced massed police in a temporary standoff as one protester kneeled in front of the police line. Source: Myanmar: police open fire on protesters in Yangon as law students march to denounce judiciary in Mandalay – JURIST – News – Legal News & Commentary

Containers pile up at Myanmar ports as coup protests slow trade, Transport – THE BUSINESS TIMES

THOUSANDS of striking truck drivers in Myanmar protesting the military coup have slowed the delivery of imports, trapping cargo containers at ports and prompting at least one international shipping line to halt new orders. About 100 containers a day are moving out of Yangon’s four main ports, said Myo Htut Aung, joint secretary of the Myanmar Container Trucking Association, down from an average of 800 boxes before the coup. About 90 per cent of the city’s 4,000 container-truck drivers have halted work, he said.

Source: Containers pile up at Myanmar ports as coup protests slow trade, Transport – THE BUSINESS TIMES

Thailand PM denies endorsing coup d’etat in Myanmar

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said on Thursday his meeting with Myanmar’s foreign minister on Wednesday was not an endorsement of the military coup in the neighbouring country.

He did not use the term military coup, but was apparently responding to criticism about the meeting.

Source: PM denies endorsing coup d’etat in Myanmar

Made In India COVID 19 Vaccines Dispatched To Cote d Ivoire-ANI – BW Businessworld

More than twenty-five nations across the world have already received Made-in-India vaccines and Forty-nine more countries will be supplied in the coming days, ranging from Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean to Africa, South-East Asia and the Pacific Islands.  Source: Made In India COVID 19 Vaccines Dispatched To Cote d Ivoire-ANI – BW Businessworld

After protest charges dropped, Detroit Will Breathe co-founder says, ‘We won’t go silently’ | News Hits

Then last week, Wallace’s persistence paid off. A 36th District Court judge dismissed charges against her and seven other protesters for their roles in the summer demonstrations.

“They want, to the best of their ability, to make an example out of Detroit Will Breathe and anybody else involved in the lawsuit,” Wallace tells Metro Times. “That is the price for standing up against the city of Detroit.”

The city of Detroit has waged an unusual and controversial campaign against protesters, filing a counter lawsuit against them in pursuit of damages from predominantly peaceful demonstrations. On Jan. 26, the Detroit City Council voted 5-4 to authorize $200,000 to pursue the counter suit, which critics say amounts to a tax-subsidized assault on free speech.

“We’re being hunted,” Wallace says. “To use tax dollars to come after us is disturbing.”

The cases against the protesters were weak. Police failed to provide basic discovery information, including the identities of arresting officers and body cam footage, that could be used at trial.

“The charges were dismissed because the city hasn’t met their burden of proof,” Wallace says. “They couldn’t produce evidence that people were committing crimes, and the arrests were sloppy.” Source: After protest charges dropped, Detroit Will Breathe co-founder says, ‘We won’t go silently’ | News Hits

COVID-19 Outbreak Among Attendees of an Exercise Facility — Chicago, Illinois, August–September 2020 | MMWR

The figure describes the percentage of fitness class attendees who developed COVID-19 during 1 week.  In August 2020, 55 COVID-19 cases were identified among 81 attendees of indoor high-intensity classes at a Chicago exercise facility. Twenty-two (40%) persons with COVID-19 attended on or after the day symptoms began. Most attendees (76%) wore masks infrequently, including persons with (84%) and without COVID-19 (60%).

What are the implications for public health practice?

To reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission in fitness facilities, attendees should wear a mask, including during high-intensity activities when ≥6 ft apart. In addition, facilities should enforce physical distancing, improve ventilation, and encourage attendees to isolate after symptom onset or receiving a positive SARS-CoV-2 test result and to quarantine after a potential exposure to SARS-CoV-2 and while awaiting test results. Exercising outdoors or virtually could further reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission risk.

Source: COVID-19 Outbreak Among Attendees of an Exercise Facility — Chicago, Illinois, August–September 2020 | MMWR

Adapting COVID-19 vaccines to SARS-CoV-2 variants: guidance for vaccine manufacturers | European Medicines Agency

EMA’s human medicines committee (CHMP) has adopted a reflection paper which details the laboratory (non-clinical), clinical, quality and manufacturing data needed to support the approval of such ‘variant’ vaccines.

The assumption behind the CHMP’s guidance is that a new variant vaccine would largely rely on the same technology and platform as the ‘parent’ vaccine – a vaccine already approved in the EU for the prevention of COVID-19. The difference would be in the specific structure (antigen) selected to trigger the immune response in the body.

Source: Adapting COVID-19 vaccines to SARS-CoV-2 variants: guidance for vaccine manufacturers | European Medicines Agency

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update: FDA Allows More Flexible Storage, Transportation Conditions for Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine | FDA

Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that it is allowing undiluted frozen vials of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine to be transported and stored at conventional temperatures commonly found in pharmaceutical freezers for a period of up to two weeks. This reflects an alternative to the preferred storage of the undiluted vials in an ultra-low temperature freezer between -80ºC to -60ºC (-112ºF to -76ºF). The change is being reflected in updates to the Fact Sheet for Healthcare Providers Administering Vaccine (Vaccination Providers). Source: Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update: FDA Allows More Flexible Storage, Transportation Conditions for Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine | FDA